When his Thalia rais’d her bolder voice And Kings and Battles were her lofty choice, Phoebus did twitch his Ear, mean thoughts infuse, And with this whisper check’t th’ inspiring Muse.  A Sheapard, Tityrus, his Sheep should feed, And choose a subject suited to his reed,

This certainly was a serious admonition, implyed by the twitching of his Ear, and I believe if he had continued in this former humor and not obey’d the smarting admonition.  He had still felt it:  so far was he from thinking Kings and Battels fit Themes for a Sheapards song:  and this evidently shows that in Virgils opinion, contrary to Nanniu’s fancy, great things cannot in the least be comprehended within the subject matter of Pastorals; no, it must be low and humble, which Theocritus very happily expresseth by this word Boukoliasden i.e. as the interpreters explain it, sing humble Strains.

Theefore let Pastoral never venture upon a {25} lofty subject, let it not recede one jot from its proper matter, but be employ’d about Rustick affairs:  such as are mean and humble in themselves; and such are the affairs of Shepherds, especially their Loves, but those must be pure and innocent; not disturb’d by vain suspitious jealousy, nor polluted by Rapes; The Rivals must not fight, and their emulations must be without quarrellings:  such as Vida meant.

  Whilst on his Reed he Shepherd’s stifes conveys,
  And soft complaints in smooth Sicilian lays.

To these may be added sports, Jests, Gifts, and Presents; but not costly, such are yellow Apples, young stock-Doves, Milk, Flowers, and the like; all things must appear delightful and easy, nothing vitious and rough:  A perfidious Pimp, a designing Jilt, a gripeing Usurer, a crafty factious Servant must have no room there, but every part must be full of the simplicity of the Golden-Age, and of that Candor which was then eminent:  for as Juvenal affirms

  Baseness was a great wonder in that Age;

Sometimes Funeral-Rites are the subject of an Eclogue, where the Shepherds scatter flowers on the Tomb, and sing Rustick Songs in honor of the Dead:  Examples of this kind are left us by Virgil in his Daphnis, and Bion in his Adonis, and this hath nothing disagreeable to a Shepherd:  In {26} short whatever, the decorum being still preserv’d, can be done by a Sheapard, may be the Subject of a Pastoral.