Now I shall explain what sort of Fable; Manners, Thought, Expression, which four are necessary to constitute every kind of Poetry, are proper to this sort.

Concerning the Fable which Aristotle calls, synthesin ton pragmaton, I have but one thing to say:  this, as the Philosopher hints, as of all other sorts of Poetry, so of Pastoral is the very Soul. and therfore Socrates in Plato says, that in those Verses which he had made there was nothing wanting but the Fable:  therefore Pastorals as other kinds of Poetry must have their Fable, if they will be Poetry:  Thus in Virgil’s Silenus which contains the Stories of allmost the whole Fabulous Age, two Shepherds whom Silenus had often promis’d a Song, and as often deceived, seize upon him being drunk and asleep, and bind him with wreath’d Flowers; AEgle comes in and incourages the timorous youths, and stains his jolly red Face with Blackberries, Silenus laughs at their innocent contrivance, and desires to be unbound, and then with a premeditated Song satisfies the Nymph’s and Boys Curiosity; The incomparable Poet sings wonders, the Rocks rejoyce, the Vales eccho, and happy Eurotas as if Phoebus himself sang, hears all, and bids the Laurels that grow upon his Banks listen to, and learn the Song.

  {31} Happy Eurotas as he flow’d along
  Heard all, and bad the Laurels learn the Song.

Thus every Eclogue or Idyllium must have its Fable, which must be the groundwork of the whole design, but it must not be perplext with sudden and unlookt for changes, as in Marinus’s Adonis:  for that, tho the Fable be of a Shepherd, yet by reason of the strange Bombast under Plots, and wonderful occurences, cannot be accounted Pastoral; for that it might be agreeable to the Person it treats of, it must be plain and simple, such as Sophocles’s Ajax, in which there is not so much as one change of Fortune.  As for the Manners, let that precept, which Horace lays down in his Epistle to the Pisones, be principally observed.

  Let each be grac’t with that which suits him best.

For this, as ’tis a rule relateing to Poetry in general, so it respects this kind also of which we are treating; and against this Tasso in his Amyntas, Bonarellus in his Phyllis, Guarinus in his Pastor Fido, Marinus in his Idylliums, and most of the Italians grievously offend, for they make their Shepherds too polite, and elegant, and cloth them with all the neatness of the Town, and Complement of the Court, which tho it may seem very pretty, yet amongst good Critics, let Veratus {32} say what he will in their excuse, it cannot be allowed:  For ’tis against Minturnus’s Opinion, who in his second Book de Poeta says thus: