90 Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, ftreams and groves, REMARKS. VER. 89, &c.] Thefe four laft lines allude to the feveral fubjects of the four paftorals, and to the feveral scenes of them, particularized before in each. P. The Sycophancy of A. Phillips, who had prejudiced Mr. Addifon against Pope, occafioned thofe papers in the Guardian, written by the latter, in which there is an ironical preference given to the Paftorals of Phillips, above his own; in order to fupport the profound judgment of thofe who could not distinguish between the rural and the ruftic; and on that account, condemned the Pastorals of Pope for wanting fimplicity. These papers were fent by an unknown hand to Steele, and the irony efcaping him, he communicated them to Mr. Pope, declaring he would never publish any paper, where one of the Club was complimented at the expence of another. Pope told him he was too delicate, and infifted that the papers fhould be published in the Guardian. They were fo. And the pleafantry efcaped all but Addifon : who, taking Pope afide, faid to him in his agreeable manner; You have put your friends here in a very ridiculous light, as will be feen when it is understood, as it must foon be, that you was only laughing at the admirers of Phillips. But this ill conduct of Phillips occafioned a more open ridicule of his Paftorals, in the mock poem called the Shepherd's Week, written by Gay. But tho' more open, the object of it was ill understood by those who were ftrangers to the quarrel. Thefe mistook the Shepherd's Week for a Burlefque of Virgils Paftorals. How far this goes towards a vindication of Phillips's fimple painting, let others judge. W. Upon the whole, the principal merit of thefe paftorals confifts, in their mufical and correct verfification; mufical, to a degree of which rhyme could hardly be thought capable; and in giving the trueft fpecimen of that harmony in English verfe, which is now become indifpenfably neceffary; and which has fo forcibly and univerfally univerfally influenced the public ear, as to have obliged every moderate rhymer to be at least melodious. Ten paftorals written by Dr. Evans, the friend of Pope, are inferted in the Eighth Volume of Nichols's Poems, never before printed, and as early as our Author's. Some of them in the ruftic ftyle and manner of Gay. In the fame volume, page 208, are fourteen Pifcatory Eclogues, entitled Nereides, by Diaper, who was patronized by Swift, and who dedicates them to Congreve. ADVERTISEMENT. IN reading feveral paffages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretel the coming of Chrift and the felicities attending it, I could not but obferve a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and thofe in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not feem furprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the fame fubject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but felected fuch ideas as beft agreed with the nature of paftoral poetry, and difpofed them in that manner which ferved moft to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the fame in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; fince it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the feveral thoughts, might fee how far the images and defcriptions of the Prophet are fuperior to thofe of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I fhall fubjoin the paffages of Ifaiah, and thofe of Virgil, under the fame difadvantage of a literal translation *. P. * As Pope made ufe of the old tranflation of Ifaiah in the paffages which he fubjoined, it was thought proper to use the fame, and not have recourfe to the more accurate and more animated version of Bishop Lowth. The fpurioufnefs of thofe Sibylline verfes which have been applied to our Saviour, has been fo fully demonftrated by many able and judicious critics, that, I imagine, they will not be again. adduced |