fuch it behoveth a Paftoral to be, as nature in the country affordeth; and the manners also meetly copied from the ruftical folk therein. In this alfo my love to my native country Britain much pricketh me forward, to defcribe aright the manners of our own honest and laborious plough-men, in no wife fure more unworthy a British Poet's imitation, than thofe of Sicily or Arcadie; albeit, not ignorant I am, what a rout and rabblement of critical gallimawfry bath been made of late days by certain young men of infipid delicacy, concerning, I wist not what, Golden Age, and other outrageous conceits, to which they would confine Paftoral. Whereof, I avow, I account nought at all, knowing no age fo justly to be inftiled Golden as this of our Sovereign Lady Queen ANNE.

This idle trumpery (only fit for schools and Schoolboys) unto that ancient Dorick Shepherd Theocritus, or his mates, was never known; be rightly, throughout his fifth Idyl, maketh bis louts give foul language, and behold their goats at rut in all fimplicity.

ΩπόλΘ ὅκκ ̓ ἐσορῇ τὰς μηκάδας οἷα βατεύντι Τακες ὀφθαλμῶς ὅτι ἐτράγΘ αὐτὸς ἔχυετο. Theoc. Verily, as little pleafance receiveth a true bomebred tafte, from all the fine finical new

fangled

fangled fooleries of this gay Gothic garniture, wherewith they fo nicely bedeck their court.clowns, or clown courtiers, (for, which to call them rightly, I wot not) as would a prudent citizen journeying to bis country farms, fhould be find them occupied by people of this motley make, inftead of plain downright bearty cleanly folk, fuch as be now tenants to the Burgesses of this realme..

Furthermore, it is my purpose, gentle reader, to fet before thee, as it were a picture, or rather lively landschape of thy own country, just as thou mighteft fee it, dideft thou take a walk into the fields at the proper feason: even as maifter Milton hath elegantly fet forth the fame.

As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and fewers annoy the air,
Forth iffuing on a fummer's morn to breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight;
The fmell of grain or tedded grafs or kine
Or dairie, each rural fight, each rural found.

Thou wilt not find my shepherdesses idly piping on oaten reeds, but milking the kine, tying up the Sheaves, or if the bogs are aftray driving them to their ftyes. My Shepherd gathereth none other nofegays but what are the growth of our own

fields,

1

fields, be fleepeth not under myrtle fhades, but
under a hedge, nor doth be vigilantly defend his
flocks from wolves, because there are none, as
maifter Spencer well obferveth.

Well is known that fince the Saxon King
Never was wolf feen, many or some
Nor in all Kent nor in chriftendom.

For as much, as I have mentioned maister Spencer, foothly I must acknowledge him a bard of fweetest memorial. Yet bath his fhepherd's boy at fome times raised his ruftick reed to rhimes more rumbling than rural. Diverfe grave points alfo bath be handled of churchly matter and doubts in religion daily arifing, to great clerks only appertaining. What liketh me beft are bis names, indeed right fimple and meet for the country, fuch as Lobbin, Cuddy, Hobbinol, Diggon, and others, fome of which I have made bold to borrow. Moreover, as he called bis Eclogues, the fhepherd's calendar, and divided the fame into the twelve months, I have chofen (peradventure not over-rafhly) to name mine by the days of the week, omitting Sunday or the Sabbath, ours being fuppofed to be chriftian Shepherds, and to be then at church worship. Yet further of many

of

of maister Spencer's eclogues it may be ob Served; though months they be called, of the faid months therein, nothing is specified; wherein I have alfo esteemed him worthy mine imi

tation.

That principally, courteous reader, whereof I would have thee to be advertised, (feeing I depart from the vulgar ufage) is touching the language of my fhepherds; which is, foothly to fay, fuch as is neither spoken by the country maiden or the courtly dame; nay not only fuch as in the prefent times is not uttered, but was never uttered in times paft; and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future. It having too much of the country to be fit for the court, too much of the court to be fit for the country; too much of the language of old times to be fit for the prefent, too much of the preSent to have been fit for the old, and too much of both to be fit for any time to come. Granted alfo it is, that in this my language, I feem unto myself, as a London mafon, who calculateth bis work for a term of years, when he buildeth with old materials upon a ground-rent that is not his own, which foon turneth to rubbish and ruins. For this point, no reason can I alledge, only deep learned enfamples having led me there

unto.

But

But here again, much comfort arifeth in me, from the hopes, in that I conceive, when these words in the course of tranfitory things fhall de cay, it may fo bap, in meet time that fome lover of Simplicity hall arife, who shall have the hardiness to render thefe mine eclogues into fuch more modern dialect as shall be then un derstood, to which end, gloffes and explications of uncouth paftoral terms are annexed.

Gentle reader, turn over the leaf, and entertain thyself with the prospect of thine own country, limned by the painful band of

thy loving Countryman,

JOHN GAY.

PRO