The Works of Alexander Pope Part 46

This is the general exordium and opening of the Pastorals, in imitation of the sixth of Virgil, which some have therefore not improbably thought to have been the first originally. In the beginnings of the other three Pastorals, he imitates expressly those which now stand first of the three chief poets in this kind, Spenser, Virgil, Theocritus.

A shepherd's boy (he seeks no better name)-- Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,-- Thyrsis, the Music of that murm'ring Spring,--

are manifestly imitations of

"--A shepherd's boy (no better do him call)."

"--t.i.tyre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine f.a.gi."

"--[Greek: Hadu ti to psithyrisma kai ha pitys, aitole, tena.]"--POPE.]

[Footnote 3: Pope not only imitated the lines he quotes from Virgil, but, as Wakefield points out, was also indebted to Dryden's translation of them.

I first transferred to Rome Sicilian strains: Nor blushed the Doric muse to dwell on Mantuan plains.

Originally Pope had written,

First in these fields I sing the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport in Windsor's peaceful plains.

Upon this he says to Walsh, "Objection that the letter is hunted too much--_sing the sylvan_--_peaceful plains_--and that the word _sing_ is used two lines afterwards, _Sicilian muses sing_." He proposed to read "try" in the place of "sing;" "happy" instead of "peaceful," and adds, "Quaere. If _try_ be not properer in relation to _first_, as we first attempt a thing; and more modest? and if _happy_ be not more than _peaceful_?" Walsh replies, "_Try_ is better than _sing_. _Happy_ does not sound right, the first syllable being short. Perhaps you may find a better word than _peaceful_ as _flow'ry_." Pope rejected all three epithets, and subst.i.tuted "blissful."]

[Footnote 4: Evidently imitated from Spenser's Prothalamion:

Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 5: Because Theocritus, the father of Pastoral Poetry, was a Sicilian.--PROFESSOR MARTYN.]

[Footnote 6: Paradise Regained, ii. 27:

Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play.

Dryden, Theodore and Honoria:

The winds within the quiv'ring branches played.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 7: Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse:

And Albion's rocks repeat his rural song.--WAKEFIELD.

The term "Albion's cliffs," which is usually appropriated to the steeps that bound the sea-sh.o.r.e, is applied by Pope to the hills about Windsor.]

[Footnote 8: The expression in this verse is philosophically just. True wisdom is the knowledge of ourselves, which terminates in a conviction of our absolute insignificancy with respect to G.o.d, and our relative inferiority in many instances to the accomplishments of our own species: and power is encompa.s.sed with such a multiplicity of dangerous temptations as to be almost incompatible with virtue. A pa.s.sage in Lucan, viii. 493, is very apposite:

exeat aula Qui vult esse pius. Virtus et summa potestas Non coeunt.

He who would spotless live from courts must go: No union power supreme and virtue know.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 9: Waller, The Maid's Tragedy Altered:

Happy is she that from the world retires, And carries with her what the world admires.--WILKES.]

[Footnote 10: Sir W. Trumbull was born in Windsor-forest, to which he retreated after he had resigned the post of secretary of state of King William III.--POPE.

The address to Trumbull was not in the original ma.n.u.script which pa.s.sed through his hands, and the lines were probably added when the Pastorals were prepared for the press. "Little Pope," wrote Sir William to the Rev. Ralph Bridges on May 2, 1709, "was here two days ago, always full of poetry and services to Mr. Bridges. I saw in the advertis.e.m.e.nt, after he was gone, the Miscellany is published, or publis.h.i.+ng, by Jacob Tonson, wherein are his Pastorals, and which is worse, I am told one of them is inscribed to my wors.h.i.+p." A more inappropriate panegyric could not have been devised than to pretend that Trumbull was among poets what the nightingale was among birds. The retired statesman had a true taste for literature, but his efforts as a versifier had been limited to a dozen lines translated from Martial.]

[Footnote 11: Warton observes that the nightingale does not sing till the other birds are at rest. This is a mistake; the nightingale sings by day as well as at night, but the expressions "to rest removes" and "forsaken groves" give an idea of evening, in which case there would be certainly an error in making the thrush "chant" after the nightingale.

As to the thrush being "charmed to silence" at any time by the nightingale, and the "aerial audience" applauding, it is allowable as a fanciful allusion, perhaps, though the circ.u.mstance is contrary to nature and fact.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 12: Concanen, in a pamphlet called A Supplement to the Profound, objected to the use of an image borrowed from the theatre, and Pope, in vindication of his line, has written "Dryden" in the margin, alluding doubtless to a couplet in Dryden's verses to the d.u.c.h.ess of York:

Each poet of the air her glory sings And round him the pleased audience clap their wings.

Every one must feel the image to be burlesque, and even Dryden's authority cannot recommend it.]

[Footnote 13: The scene of this Pastoral a valley, the time the morning.

It stood originally thus,

Daphnis and Strephon to the shades retired, Both warmed by love, and by the muse inspired, Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair, In flow'ry vales they fed their fleecy care; And while Aurora gilds the mountain's side, Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus replied.--POPE.

There was in the ma.n.u.script a still earlier, and perhaps better, version of the first two lines:

Daphnis and Strephon led their flocks along, Both famed for love and both renowned in song.

They were however borrowed from Lycon, an Eclogue, in the fifth part of Tonson's Miscellany:

Strephon and Damon's flocks together fed, Both famed for wit, and famed for beauty both.

Wakefield points out that the opening verse of the couplet, as it stands in the text, was indebted to Congreve's Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas:

When woolly flocks their bleating cries renew, And from their fleecy sides first shake the silver dew.]

[Footnote 14: The epithet "whitening" most happily describes the progressive effect of the light.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 15: Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:

Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 16: From Virgil, Ecl. vii. 20:

Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrsis.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 17: Milton's first sonnet:

O! nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve!--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 18: Congreve's Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas:

When grateful birds prepare their thanks to pay, And warble hymns to hail the dawning day.--WAKEFIELD.]