Yet let him not affect pompous or dazling Expressions, for such belong
to _Epicks_, or _Tragedians_. Let his words sometimes tast of the
Country, not that I mean, of which _Volusius's_ Annals, upon which
_Catullus_ hath made that biting _Epigram_, are full; for though the
Thought ought to be rustick, and such as is suitable to a Shepherd,
yet it ought not to be Clownish, as is evident in _Corydon_, when he
makes mention of his Goats.
Young sportive Creatures, and of spotted hue,
Which suckled twice a day, I keep for you:
These_ Thestilis _hath beg'd, and beg'd in vain,
But now they're Hers, since You my Gifts disdain.
For what can be more Rustical, than to design those _Goats_ for
_Alexis_, at that very time when {59} he believes _Thestylis's_
winning importunity will be able to prevail? yet there is nothing
Clownish in the words. In short, _Bucolicks_ should deserve that
commendation which _Tully_ gives _Crassus_, of whose Orations he would
say, _that nothing could be more free from childish painting, and
affected finery_. So let the Expression in _Pastoral_ be without gawdy
trappings, and all those little fineries of Art, which are us'd to set
off and varnish a discourse: But let an ingenuous Simplicity. and
unaffected pleasing Neatness appear in every part; which yet will be
flat, if 'tis drawn out to any length, if not close, short, and
broken, as that in _Virgil_,
He that loves _Bavius_ Verses, hates not Thine:
And in the same _Eclogue_,
--It is not safe to drive too nigh,
The Bank may fail, the Ram is hardly dry:
And in _Corydon_,
To learn this Art what won't _Amyntas_ do?
And in _Theocritus_ much of the same nature may be seen; as in his
other _Pastoral Idylliums_, so chiefly in his fifth.
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