An instance of this we have in
_Virgil's_ _Meliboeus_,
_Phyllis_ the Hazel loves; whilst _Phyllis_ loves that Tree,
{67} Myrtles than Hazels of less fame shall be.
As for the _Manners_ of your _Shepherds_, they must be such as theirs
who liv'd in the Islands of the Happy or Golden Age: They must be
candid, simple, and ingenuous; lovers of Goodness, and Justice,
affable, and kind; strangers to all fraud, contrivance, and deceit; in
their Love modest, and chast, not one suspitious word, no loose
expression to be allowed: and in this part _Theocritus_ is faulty,
_Virgil_ never; and this difference perhaps is to be ascrib'd to
their Ages, the times in which the latter liv'd being more polite,
civil, and gentile. And therefore those who make wanton Love-stories
the subject of Pastorals, are in my opinion very unadvis'd; for all
sort of lewdness or debauchery are directly contrary to the
_Innocence_ of the _golden_ Age. There is another thing in which
_Theocritus_ is faulty, and that is making his Shepherds too sharp,
and abusive to one another; _Comatas_ and _Lacon_ are ready to fight,
and the railing between those two is as bitter as _Billingsgate_: Now
certainly such Raillery cannot be suitable to those sedate times of
the Happy Age.
As for _Sentences_, if weighty, and Philosophical, common Sense tells
us they are not fit for a _Shepherd's_ mouth. Here _Theocritus_ cannot
be altogether excus'd, but _Virgil_ deserves no reprehension.
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