Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/102

 one sterling Line, Drawn to French Wire, would thro' whole Pages shine. Another Rule is, that the Characters should represent that Ancient Innocence, and unpractis'd Plainness, which was then in the World. P. Rapine has gather'd many Instances of this out of Theocritus, and Virgil; ''and the Reader can do it as well himself. But Mr. F. transgress'd this Rule, when he hid himself in the Thicket, to listen to the private discourse of the two Shepherdesses. This is not only ill Breeding at Versailles; the Arcadian Shepherdesses themselves would have set their Dogs upon one for such an unpardonable piece of Rudeness.''

A Third Rule is, That there should be some Ordonnance, some Design, or little Plot, which may deserve the Title of a Pastoral Scene. This is every where observ'd by Virgil, and particularly remarkable in the first Eclogue; the standard of all Pastorals; a Beautiful Landscape'' presents it self to your view, a Shepherd with his Flock around him, resting securely under a spreading Beech, which furnish'd the first Food to our Ancestors. Another in quite different Situation of Mind and Circumstances, the Sun setting, the Hospitality of the more fortunate Shepherd, &c. And here Mr. F. seems not a little wanting.''