Part 7 (1/2)

Com.) _I milk two Goats; a Maid in yonder Plain Lookt on, and Sigh'd_, Dost milk thy self poor Swain!

And what follows soon after.

Com.) _The fair Calistria, as my Goats I drove, With Apples pelts me, and still murmurs Love_.

Idyll. 5.

Tho' these Thoughts are so exceeding Beautiful thro' their Simplicity, I rather take 'em to be Agreeable Thoughts; and Simplicity to be only an Adjunct or Addition to 'em; as Pa.s.sion is an Addition and Embellishment to the Sublime Thoughts.

The Mournful Thought, with the Addition of Simplicity, is as pleasing, I think, as the Agreeable with Simplicity. The finest of this kind that I remember in _THEOCRITUS_, are in his 22 _Idyll_. A Shepherd resolves to Hang himself, being scorn'd by the Fair he ador'd. For the more he was frown'd upon the more he loved.

_But when o'recome, he could endure no more, He came and wept before the hated Dora; He wept and pin'd, he hung the sickly Head, The Threshold kist, and thus at last he said_.

Many Thoughts In the Complaint are as fine as this. As, of the following Lines, the 3d and 4th.

_Unworthy of my Love, this Rope receive.

The last, most welcome Present I can give.

I'll never vex thee more. I'll cease to woe.

And whether you condemned, freely go; Where dismal Shades and dark_ Oblivion _dwell_.

Of the same Nature also is what soon after follows.

_Yet grant one Kindness and I ask no more; When you shall see me hanging at the Door.

Do not go proudly by, forbear to smile.

But stay,_ Sweet Fair, _and gaze, and weep a while; Then take me down, and whilst some Tears are shed, Thine own soft Garment o're my Body spread.

And grant One Kiss,--One Kiss when I am dead.

Then dig a Grave, there let my Love be laid; And when you part, say thrice,_ My friend is Dead.

All these Thoughts contain Simplicity as an Addition to the Mournful.

And 'tis impossible for any Thoughts to be more Natural.

'Twere endless to enumerate all the several kinds of Beautiful Pastoral Thoughts, but from these any one may discover the rest; and the general Rule we gave at the beginning of the Chapter will be a Direction for his ranging them into distinct Cla.s.ses.

Yet give me leave to mention one Kind, which I think we may term the finest. 'Tis where the Agreeable Thought, and the Tender, meet together, and have besides, the Addition of Simplicity. I would explain my Meaning by a Quotation out of some Pastoral Writer, but I am at a loss how to do it; give me leave therefore to bring a Pa.s.sage out of the Orphan. A Thought may contain the Tender, either with regard to some Person spoken of, or the Person speaking. The first is common, this Play is full of it. I will therefore Instance in the latter. And first where 'tis chiefly occasion'd by the turn that is given to it in the Expression.

Chamont presses his Sister to tell him who has abused her.

Mon.) _But when I've told you, will you keep your Fury Within it's bound? Will you not do some rash And horrid Mischief? for indeed_, Shamont, _You would not think how hardly I've been used From a near Friend_.

Cham.) _I will be calm; but has_ Castalio _wrong'd thee?_

Mon.) _Oh! could you think it!_ (Cham.) _What?_

Mon.) _I fear he'll kill me_. (Cham.) _Hah!_

Mon.) _Indeed I do; he's strangely cruel too me.

Which if it lasts, I'm sure must break my Heart_.