The Strings obey his Touch, and various move, Now, lightly fkimming, o'er the Strings they pafs, Mr. Pope's Paftorals, being but four, afford not fo much Room for Criticifm as the others do, Guarini's Paftoral being near Seven Thousand Lines; but we venture to say, that those four of Mr. Pope's are without any Fault almoft, and were efteemed by the Author as the most perfect of his Works. In few Words, they were wrote in his first Manner, a N 4 fmooth, fmooth, foft Harmony in the Numbers, and a la bour'd Correctness in the Stile. That this is true, we appeal to the following Lines spoken by the defpairing Shepherd Egon, in the third Paftoral: Refound, ye Hills, refound my mournful Strains! I'll fly from Shepherd's Flocks to flow'ry Plains. From Shepherds Flocks and Plains I may remove, Forfake Mankind, and all the World-but Love! I know thee, Love! wild as the raging Main, More fell than Tygers on the Lybian Plain : Thou wert from Etna's burning Entrails torn, Got by fierce Whirlwinds, and in Thunder born! Refound, ye Hills, refound my mournful Lay! Farewell ye Woods, adieu the Light of Day! All Mr. Pope's Paftoral Verfes are very serious and folemn, whereas Mr. Gay (with whom this Difcourse of Pastoral began, and with whom it shall end) has a great Deal of Comic Defcription in his; he has many very pretty quick Turns, that are fure to make the Reader fmile, which was his natural Genius. The laft Day of his Shepherd's Week he calls THE FLIGHTS; where Bowzybee, drunk and afleep under a Hedge, being wak'd by the Crowd of Lads and Laffes, begins to fing, they making a Circle round him : Of Nature's Laws his Carrols first begun, Why the grave Owl can never face the Sun. For Owls, as Swains obferve, deteft the Light, And only fing and feek their Prey by Night. How Turnips hide their fwelling Heads below, And how the clofing Colworts upwards grow; fiow Will-a-wifp ifleads night-faring Clowns, O'er Hills, and finking Bogs, and pathlefs Downs. Of > Of Stars he told that shoot with fhining Trail, Now he goes on, and fings of Fairs and Shows, Of Lott'ries next with tuneful Note he told, And all the Fair is crouded in his Song. His Carrols ceas'd: The lift'ning Maids and Swains Seem ftill to hear fome foft imperfect Strains. Sudden he rofe; and as he reels along Swears Kiffes fweet should well reward his Song. The Pow'r that guards the drunk, his Sleep attends, 'Till, ruddy, like his Face, the Sun defcends. Thus have we (till under the Correction of abler Pens) by Examples from fix very great Writers of Paftorals, fhown that Sort of poetical Compofition to to confift of the finest Descriptions of the Paffions, of Landikape, Actions of the moft graceful and mòving Kind, and inferior to no other Kind of Poetry whatever. This Digreffion was made on the Mention of Mr. Gay in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, which, though it mentions Mr. Gay with Praife, is not very full of that Sort of Addrefs: It was indeed defign'd a Satyr, and Sporus, who in the first Edition was call'd Paris, and is in real Life the fame as Lord Fanny, lies under a most unmerciful Lafh; Mr. Pope, whenever he takes this Gentleman in Hand, feems to have a particular Delight in touching him to the very Quick; nay, he has turn'd the Fineness of his Perfon to what Disadvantage he could, for my Lord had a very par tiular Softness, and a Clearness of Complexion ufual to few Men, infomuch that when he was married, it occafioned a Ballad, Part of which was: For Venus had never feen bedded So perfect a Beau and a Belle, As when H--r--y the handsome was married But the first Bloom of his Youth was worn off; before Mr. Pope had any Thing fatirical to fay of him, the Occafion he took, was from my Lord's Behaviour after he became a Courtier, when it was imagin'd he said fomething of Difadvantage to Mr. Pope to the late Queen, and to a certain Duke, of whom we have before fpoke, befides his Epiftle to a Doctor of Divinity, where he dropt an Allufion to fcandalous Reports made of Mr. Pope, farther intimating, that he was a Mechanick, fome faid a Hatter, fome a Farmer, nay, a Bankrupt, which latter falfe Character this Nobleman (if fuch a Reflection could be thought to come from a Nobleman) gave into. Mr. Pope never wrote Replies to Curl's, to his, or other Pamphlets, but in a few Lines, occafionally as he wrote, generally anfwered the fame End: He begins this cutting Piece of Satire with a Threat: Let Sporus tremble What? that Thing of Silk,' In mumbling of the Game they dare not bite. As fhallow Streams run dimpling all the Way. And, as the Prompter breathes, the Puppet fqueaks, Half Froth, half Venom, fpits himself abroad, Or Spite, or Smut, or Rhymes, or Blafphemies. Beauty that fhocks you, Parts that none will trust, } After |