Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/229

Rh it is not so bad with the Sheep, because they have a thick Coat of Wooll about 'em. The Old Men too are bitterly pincht with the Weather, but the young Girls feel nothing of it, who sit at home with their Mothers by a warm Fire-side. Thus does the Old Gentleman give himself up to a loose kind of Tattle, rather than endeavour after a just Poetical Description. Nor has he shewn more of Art or Judgment in the Precepts he has given us, which are sown so very thick, that they clog the Poem too much, and are often so minute and full of Circumstances, that they weaken and un-nerve his Verse. But after all, we are beholding to him for the first rough sketch of a Georgic: where we may still discover something venerable in the Antickness of the Work; but if we wou'd see the Design enlarg'd, the Figures reform'd, the Colouring laid on, and the whole Piece finish'd, we must expect it from a greater Master's hand.

Virgil has drawn out the Rules for Tillage and Planting into Two Books, which Hesiod has dispatcht in half a one; but has so rais'd the natural rudeness and simplicity of his Subject with such a significancy of Expression, such a Pomp of Verse, such variety of Transitions, and such a solemn Air in his