Let all things change, let Pears the Firs adorn
    Now Daphnis dyes.

And in the third Eclogue.

  But when she saw, how great was the surprize! &c.

And any one may find a great many of the like in Theocritus and Virgil, if with a leisurely delight he nicely examines their delicate Composures:  And this I account the greatest grace in Pastorals, which in my opinion those that write Pastorals do not sufficiently observe:  ’Tis true Ours (the French) and the Italian language is to babling to endure it; This is the Rock on which those that write Pastorals in their Mother tongue are usually split, But the Italians are inevitably lost; who having store of Wit, a very subtle invention and flowing fancy, cannot contain; everything that comes into their mind must be poured out, nor are they able to endure the least restraint:  as is evident from Marinus’s Idylliums, and a great many of that nation who have ventur’d on such composures; For unless there are many {41} stops and breakings off in the series of a Pastoral, it can neither be pleasing nor artificial:  And in my Opinion Virgil excells Theocritus in this, for Virgil is neither so continued, nor so long as Theocritus; who indulges too much the garrulity of his Greek; nay even in those things which he expresseth he is more close, and more cautiously conceals that part which ought to be dissembled:  And this I am sure is a most admirable part of Eloquence; as Tully in his Epistle to Atticus says, ’Tis rare to speak Eloquently, but more rare to be eloquently silent:  And this unskillful Criticks are not acquainted with, and therefore are wont oftner to find fault with that which is not fitly exprest, than commend that which is prudently conceal’d:  I could heap up a great many more things to this purpose, but I see no need of such a trouble, since no man can rationally doubt of the goodness of my Observation.  Therefore, in short, let him that writes Pastorals think brevity, if it doth not obscure his sense, to be the greatest grace which he can attain.

Now why Bucolicks should require such Brevity, and be so essentially sparing in Expression, I see no other reason but this:  It loves Simplicity so much that it must be averse to that Pomp and Ostentation which Epick Poetry must show, for that must be copious and flowing, in every part smooth, and equal to it self:  But Pastoral must dissemble, and hide even that which it would {42} show, like Damon’s Galatea, who flies then when she most desires to be discovered.

  And to the Bushes flys, yet would be seen.

And this doth not proceed from any malitious ill-natur’d Coyness, as some imagine, but from an ingenuous modesty and bashfulness, which usually accompanies, and is a proof of Simplicity:  Tis very rare, says Pliny, to find a man so exquisitely skillful, as to be able to show those Features in a Picture which he hides, and I think it to be so difficult a task, that none but the most excellent Wits can attempt it with success:  For small Wits usually abound with a multitude of words.