And bids him clayme with rigorous rage his right: So now his blustring blast eche coast doth scoure. Hallam, in writing of the Shepherd's Calendar, says: "Spenser has been censured for intermingling, in his pastorals, allusions to the political history and religious differences of his own times; and an ingenious critic has asserted that the description of the grand and beautiful objects of nature, with well-selected scenes of rural life, real, but not coarse, constitute the only proper materials of pastoral poetry. These limitations, however, seem little conformable to the practice of poets or the taste of mankind; and if Spenser has erred in the allegorical part of his pastorals, he has done so in company with most of those who have tuned the shepherd's pipe. . . In fact, mere pastoral must soon become insipid, unless it borrows something from active life or elevated philosophy. The most interesting parts of the Shepherd's Calendar are of this description; for Spenser has not displayed the powers of his own imagination so strongly as we might expect in pictures of natural scenery. This poem has spirit and beauty in many passages; but it is not much read in the present day, nor does it seem to be approved by modern critics." Michael Drayton, who said of Spenser, "He had done enough for the immortality of his name had he only given us his Shepherd's Calendar, a masterpiece, if any," published, in 1593, an imitation of Spenser's work, which he called The Shepherd's Garland, "fashioned in nine eclogues." He wrote also The Muses' Elysium, consisting of a series of nine idyls or Nymphals, as he preferred to call them, which abound in graceful, delicate, and quaint expressions, and which in language and conception are unsurpassed even by Spenser. Britannia's Pastorals, by William Browne, although there is no reason to believe that the story which threads the parts together had any foundation in fact, is sometimes classed with the historical poems of Daniel and Drayton. The poem consists of three books, the first having been published in 1613, the second in 1616, and the third, from long-neglected manuscripts, in 1852. Each book contains five cantos or songs, and the entire mechanical structure of the work has been modeled strictly after that of Spenser's Faerie Queene. Browne was a native of Devonshire, and the finest passages in his work relate to the local scenery and the natural beauties of that county. His poetry is chiefly interesting from the influence which it had upon succeeding writers. His Shepherd's Pipe, a pastoral poem in seven eclogues, was published in 1614, and it is from the fourth of these eclogues, wherein the poet laments the death of his friend Thomas Manwood, that Milton is said to have derived his, idea of Lycidas. Warton has also pointed out a strong resemblance between a little song of Browne's and a certain passage in Milton's Comus. We copy the song entire; the passage in Comus has already been quoted. (See page 243.) The Charm. Son of Erebus and night Hie away; and aim thy flight ment. "While it is right to think of Milton as a friendly reader of our poet," says an English critic, "it would be a mistake to ascribe to Browne any great share in his poetic developWhat is certain is, that both poets felt and showed, in their different ways, the combined and contending influences of classical and Puritan feeling. Browne is at once a Pagan and a Protestant." Some other poets of note are are also said to have drawn inspiration and aid from Browne's manner of writing. "And in our days," says Southey, "his peculiarities have been caught, and his beauties imitated, by men who will themselves find admirers and imitators hereafter." Hallam says: "Browne is truly a poet, full of imagination, grace, and sweetness, though not very nervous or rapid. He is an early model of ease and variety in the regular couplet. Many passages in his unequal poem are hardly excelled by the fables of Dryden." Campbell says: "His poetry is not without beauty; but it is the beauty of mere landscape and allegory, without the manners and passions that constitute human interest." And this last is probably the most correct estimate of his work. At this point we may merely recall to mind the two pastoral dramas, elsewhere described, the Sad Shepherd, by Ben Jonson," the best testimony to the poetical imagination of its author," and the Faithful Shepherdess, by John Fletcher," rivaling in beauty of language and imagery some of Shakspeare's best efforts." The student should also read again the two pastoral lyrics, Come, Live with me and be my Love, and the Nymph's Reply, in the chapter on Lyrical Poetry. Milton's Arcades is the title applied to the poetical part of a masque performed before the Countess Dowager of Derby, at Harefield, near Horton. The entire masque was much longer, consisting, besides the three songs which compose the Arcades, of some quite lengthy prose parts, and full stage directions. It was performed by members of Lady Derby's family, probably in 1633, certainly not later than 1636. Stopford Brooke says: "The poem itself is slight, the introduction not very worthy. The eighty lines of rhymed verse seem to be hampered in thought and movement by the needs of rhyme. One is driven to feel how much better Milton would have made them in the vehicle of blank verse. But they contain one splendid passage on his favorite subject of the spheral music that the nine Sirens sing: "And the low world in measured motion draw After the heavenly tune.' "The songs which close it are pretty, but below Milton's power. The whole piece, in fact, bears the stamp of the occasional." The following is the closing Song : Nymphs and shepherds dance no more Bring your flocks, and live with us; To serve the lady of this place. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. Such a rural queen All Arcadia hath not seen. Milton's Comus, already noticed in the chapter on Dramatic Poetry, might also be called a pastoral. Pope's Pastorals, published in 1709, but written in 1704, when the author was but sixteen years of age, possess considerable merit. The student will be highly interested, as well as benefited, by a careful perusal of the prose discourse with which these poems are introduced. The first pastoral, Spring, or Damon, is dedicated to Sir William Trumbull, and, like the eighth eclogue of the Shepherd's Calendar, represents a poetical contest between two swains, here called Daphnis and Strephon. Summer, or Alexis, is dedicated to Dr. Garth, and relates the mournful complaints of a love-sick youth, who has received, as a legacy from Colin Clout, a flute, the same. That taught the groves my Rosalinda's name. Compare the following lines with a passage in Milton's Lycidas: * And yet my numbers please the rural throng, Rough satyrs dance, and Pan applauds the song; The nymphs, forsaking every cave and spring, Their early fruit and milk-white turtles bring! The third pastoral, Autumn, or Hylas and Ægon, is dedicated to Mr. Wycherley, and represents two shepherdsthe one sighing for an absent love, the other mourning for a faithless one. This contains many beautiful and highly poetic passages, and is decidedly the finest of the series. The fourth pastoral, Winter, or Daphne, is inscribed to the memory of Mrs. Tempest, who died on the night of the great storm in 1708. It is in the form of a colloquy between Lycidas and Thyrsis, and laments the death of fair Daphne, “Daphne, our grief! our glory now no more!" A parallel to the following passage may be found in Spenser's Astrophel, as well as in Milton's Lycidas: But see! where Daphne, wondering mounts on high * See page 371 of this volume. |
