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 Theocritus in English literature. 
 
 3 1924 013 347 657 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
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THEOCRITUS 
 
 IN 
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT THOMAS ICERLIN 
 
THEOCRITUS 
 
 IN 
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT THOMAS KERLIN, A. M, Ph. D. 
 
 Professor of English in the Virginia Military Institute 
 
 A THESIS 
 
 Presented to the Graduate Faculty of Yale University 
 in Candidacy for the Degree of -^'■■■ 
 
 Dodlor of Philosophy 
 May 1, 1906 
 
 LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA: 
 J. P. Bell Company (Inc.). Printers and Binders 
 
 1910 /' i \s \ ) 
 
 /^- 
 
Copyright 1910 ^(y^ 
 ROBERT THOMAS KERLIN 
 
 
TO THE MEMORY 
 OF 
 
 MY FATHER 
 
THEOCRITUS 
 
 The soul of the Sicilian lives in song. 
 
 — Francis Turner Palgrave. 
 
 Singer of the field and fold, 
 Theocritus! Pan's pipe was thine, — 
 Thine was the happier Age of Grold. 
 
 — Austin Dobson. 
 
 Great bard, whose liquid lines did first awaken 
 Within my heart a deathless love of song. 
 
 — Clinton Scollard. 
 
 First, then, Theocritus, 
 Whose song for us 
 Still yields 
 The fragrance of the fields. 
 
 — Frank Dempster Sherman. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Aim. — To aflSnn that the influence of Greek or Latin literature 
 upon English literature has been great, requires no vast erudition 
 and implies no originality; and the statement is so general as to 
 be valueless. Only a large number of special and well-defined 
 investigations, dealing with particular periods and tjrpes, authors 
 and works, or definite species of subject matter, can avail to satisfy 
 the mind and give worth to generalizations. By thus dividing the 
 field and Advancing on different lines many students may cooperate 
 in a conquest that shall greatly enlarge our knowledge of the history 
 of literature in the broadest aspects of the subject. 
 
 But it is evident that in such an investigation as the present one, 
 the start may be made in either English literature or some foreign 
 literature. The student may select an English poet and trace his 
 allusions, imitations, locutions, ideas and imagesi to their sources 
 in the Classics ; or he may choose a Greek or Koman poet and trace 
 his influence through all its channels in our literature. It is the 
 latter kind of work I have undertaken with Theocritus. In either 
 case the study assumes large proportions and the results are such 
 as not only to increase in every way our knowledge of the particular 
 author but also to illuminate the whole field of literature, more 
 especially English literature. 
 
 For the kind of investigation undertaken by me, the advantages 
 of my choice of author are conspicuous. His literary art is of the 
 most definite and singular type. Theocritus was the creator and 
 unrivalled exemplar of a distinct species of poetry: the Pastoral 
 Idyll. His sentiments, his modes of expression, his attitude toward 
 nature and toward humanity, his materials, and his architechtonics 
 possess a distinction and a general appropriateness that make his 
 iafluence quite definite and unmistakable. No ancient author has 
 
VI PEEPACE 
 
 such a group of recognizable characteristics. He was therefore a 
 peculiarly excellent author with -whom to make a beginning in this 
 sort of study. 
 
 During my work upon this thesis the conviction deepened in my 
 mind, that, whether my particular undertaking proved successful 
 or not, yet this was a work which should be done, and in time 
 would be done, for every notable classic author. The significance 
 and value of such iavestigations — I speak not of my own modest 
 achievement, but of the intention of the work — will be more evident 
 as more and more attention is given to the comparative study of 
 literatures. To the advancement of such fruitful study I venture 
 to hope this essay will be a contribution. In suggestiveness may 
 consist its chief value. That quality of the work even its 
 deficiencies cannot destroy, or diminish. And respecting whatever 
 deficiencies there may be the writer hopes that most of them are in 
 consequence of the pioneer dharacter of the work. He had no model 
 in any literature. Therefore, that it is either complete and ex- 
 haustive, as regards materials, or that it is faultless in method and 
 arrangement, should be entirely beyond expectation. But, such as 
 the work is, I cherish the hope that students both of the Classics 
 and of English literature will find it instructive. 
 
 Method. — An explanation of the method, arrangement, mode of 
 citation, and like matters can be briefly given in this place. The 
 order of time has been generally though not invariably followed, 
 and the commonly accepted periods of English literature have been 
 observed as affording a convenient division into chapters, and 
 giving an opportunity for summaries by the way. Typographical 
 distinction is given the English author by placing his name at the 
 left of the page while the production cited with its date is placed 
 opposite at the right. Then, without introduction or comment, 
 quotations of the various kinds, showing how the author in question 
 has mentioned, alluded to, or imitated Theocritus, are adduced. 
 Such quotations are indicated by smaller type. In the left margin, 
 reference is given to the page, or the part, stanza, or line of the 
 English production, where such reference seems required; in the 
 right margin reference is given to the Idylls of Theocritus ; as, on 
 page 19, the reference is to lines 137-32 of Astrophel, and to lines 
 
PREFACE Vll 
 
 66-9 of the first Idyll. All bibliographical information is relegated 
 to the appendix, where classified bibliographies are given. 
 
 Titles and Numbering oe the Idylls. — As for reference to the 
 Idylls, I had some fear at first lest confusion might arise from the 
 different arrangement and numbering both of lines in the Idylls 
 as edited by different scholars, and of the Idylls themselves in a 
 few instances. But the danger of such confusion disappeared on 
 close attention to the condition. Every re-arrangement of lines in 
 any text has been indicated, I believe, by a marginal numbering 
 which shows the order found in the MSS. and the order proposed. 
 Ahrens, for example, gives the manuscript order in the right 
 margin and his own numbering in the left. Fritzsche, with a 
 different arrangement of lines, is still as explicit in the numbering 
 of them; and, so, generally, of other editors. But some have made 
 a re-arrangement, as Cholmeley, for example, without marginal 
 indication. In Idyll 8. 41-48, to cite an instance, Ahrens's ar- 
 rangement is given but not Ahrens's numbering. But even this 
 editorial neglect will not often hinder a ready finding of a cited 
 passage. As for the lines, then, any text can be used without 
 perplexity when the reader desires to examine for himself a given 
 
 As for the order of the Idylls themselves, there has been a general 
 agreement among English translators. No difficulty is likely to 
 present itself. What slight variation there is pertains to but two 
 Idylls. The first twenty-nine Idylls are arranged in the same order 
 by all modem editors, with one or two exceptions, and in these 
 cases the traditional numbering also is given. Following this fixed 
 number and arrangement, however, there is sometimes given 
 another Idyll, The Death of Adonis, which, though formerly 
 credited to Theocritus, is now quite generally rejected by scholars. 
 In some of the older editions, therefore, and, in consequence, in 
 some of the older translations, not all, it stands as Idyll 30. But 
 in 1864 Ziegler discovered another genuine Idyll, to which the title 
 JlaiSiKa— the same title which Id. 29 already bore — is given. 
 Hence, in some editions, this Idyll is numbered 30, while in others 
 (Wordsworth, for example) The Death of Adonis has this number. 
 In the translations the same confusion exists. Chapman (1836) 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 and Lang (1880) render The DeatK of Adonis as Idyll 30; Hallard, 
 omitting the Adonis, renders the iTaiSiKa as Idyll 30 under the 
 title The Lover's Complmnt, while Calverley numbered it 31, under 
 the title Loves, and Lang omits it. It is noteworthy that in the 
 Sixe Idillia (1588), as also in Lord Sherburne's rendering (1651), 
 and in Arnold's (1737), the Adonis is given as number 31. There- 
 fore I have referred to it as Idyll 31. 
 
 To facilitate the identification of the Idylls when they are 
 referred to, whether by number or by title, I will here present a 
 table of them, giving the numbering indicated above and the titles 
 as rendered by Calverley, with an occasional alternative where it 
 seems expedient. 
 
 Idyll 
 
 1. — The Death of Daphnis. 
 2. — The Sorceress. 
 
 (The Incantation.) 
 3. — The Serenade. 
 
 (The Desperate Lover.) 
 4. — The Herdsman. 
 5. — The Battle of the Bards. 
 6.— The Drawn Battle. 
 
 (Daphnis and Damoetas.) 
 7. — Harvest-Home. 
 
 (Thalysia.) 
 8. — The Triumph of Daphnis. 
 9. — Pastorals. 
 
 (Daphnis and Menalcas. ) 
 10. — The Two Workmen. 
 (The Two Reapers.) 
 11.— The Giant's Wooing. 
 
 (The Cyclops.) 
 12. — The Comrades. 
 
 (The Passionate Friend.) 
 13.— Hylas. 
 
 14. — The Love of .^schines. 
 (The Slighted Lover.) 
 15. — The Festival of Adonis. 
 
 (The Syracusan Gossips.) 
 16.— The Value of Song. 
 
 (The Graces, or Hiero.) 
 
 Idyll 
 17. — ^The Praise of Ptolemy. 
 
 (Encomium of Ptolemy.) 
 18. — The Bridal of Helen. 
 
 Epithalamium of Helen. 
 19. — Love Stealing Honey. 
 
 (Eros and the Bee.) 
 20. — Town and Country. 
 
 (The Yokel and the Light-o'Love. ) 
 21. — The Fishermen. 
 22.— The Sons of Leda. 
 
 (Castor and Pollux.) 
 23. — Love Avenged. 
 24. — The Infant Heracles. 
 25. — Heracles the Lion Slayer. 
 26. — The Bacchanals. 
 
 (Pentheus and the Msenids.) 
 27. — A Countryman's Wooing. 
 
 (The Lover and his Lass.) 
 28.— The Distaff. 
 29. — Loves. 
 
 (The Lover's Complaint.) 
 30. — The Lover's Lament ( Hallard ) . 
 
 (31, in Calverley, and entitled Loves.) 
 31.— The Death of Adonis. 
 (30, in Calverley.) 
 
PREFACE IX 
 
 Derivative Sources. — One of the difficulties that beset me con- 
 stantly in this study, complicating it and heightening its interest, I 
 must give distinction to by noting it in this preface. Everywhere 
 and always I was obliged to give careful and minute attention to the 
 indirect as well as to the direct channels of influence. Account had 
 to be taken of early Greek and Latin imitators of Theocritus, and 
 not only these, but, in the ease of any given poet, of earlier pastor- 
 alists in our own literature. Virgil has called for special study in 
 the investigation. His Eclogues, or Bucolics, are so closely modeled 
 upon the Idylls of Theocritus as at times to amount to translations. 
 More than one translator and editor, whether it was Virgil or Theoc- 
 ritus he had in hand, has noted the parallel passages. I have given 
 in Appendix III. a special limited bibliography of essays dealing with 
 the subject of this indebtedness. Here it may be sufficient to quote 
 an eighteenth-century scholar who was learned in both poets, that 
 we may have briefly the widest and soundest generalization possible. 
 Says, then, Dr. Joseph Warton : 'There are few images and senti- 
 ments in the Eclogues of Virgil but what are drawn from the 
 Idylliums of Theocritus.' (Dedication of the Translation of 
 Virgil.) By these accumulated results of the labors of many 
 scholars, then, my work was greatly facilitated. But much still 
 remained to do. I had, wherever possible, to determine whether 
 any given pastoralist, when exhibiting a passage like something in 
 Virgil, had copied Virgil or Virgil's master. This was no easy task, 
 and sometimes impossible of doing, and therefore left undecided. 
 In sudh eases it was enough to say that the passage was 'Theocritean' 
 in its ultimate source. 
 
 As to the original source of pastoral imagery and pastoral senti- 
 ment and pastoral forms of locution and turns of expression, there 
 ceases to be much difficulty in settling that matter after one has 
 perused a few hundred of the countless pastorals in which our 
 literature abounds. 'Theocritus,' again to quote Dr. Warton's 
 Dedication, 'is indeed the great storehouse of pastoral description; 
 and every succeeding painter of rural beauty (except Thomson in 
 his Seasons) hath copied his images from him, without ever look- 
 ing abroad on the face of nature themselves. And thus a set of 
 hereditary objects have been continued from one poet to another, 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 which have often been made use of without any propriety either as 
 to age or climate.' 
 
 Let me conclude this lengthy preface by remarking that since 
 the inception of this work, in October, 1905, three significant 
 Theoeritean books have appeared: the Bibliophile's edition (see 
 within, pp. 163-4 and 192) ; The Riverside Press edition of Cal- 
 verley's translation (see p. 183) ; and the Oxford text-edition (see 
 p. 192). 
 
 The time limit of my investigation is May 1, 1906, but reference 
 has been made to a few books published since that date. 
 
 E. T. K. 
 
 Farmville, Va., 
 
 February 22, 1910. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PBEFAOE V 
 
 Aim, Method, and Plan v, vi 
 
 Titles and Numbering of the Idylls vii 
 
 I. Intkodtjction 1 
 
 1. Nature and Scope of the Work 1 
 
 2. Pastoral Poetry and Theocritus 6 
 
 3. Place of Theocritus in the World's Literature 10 
 
 II. The Elizabethan Era 13 
 
 1. Earliest Notices of Theocritus by English Writers 13 
 
 2. Theocritus in English Essays on Poetry 14 
 
 3. Earliest Imitation 16 
 
 4. Pastoral Romance 25 
 
 5. First English Translation 27 
 
 6. First English Paraphrase 30' 
 
 7. Pastoral Drama 31 
 
 8. Piscatory Eclogues 34 
 
 9. Miscellaneous 36 
 
 III. The Pubitan Era 39 
 
 1. Pastoral Elegy 39 
 
 2. Miscellaneous 41 
 
 IV. The Eestobation Period 44 
 
 v. Era op Classicism 48 
 
 1. The Taste of the Eighteenth Century 48 
 
 2. The Philips-Pope Controversy 50 
 
 3. Town Eclogues 59 
 
 4. Miscellaneous 61 
 
 VI. The Era of Romanticism 81 
 
 VII. The Victorian Era 104 
 
 VIII. Theocritus in America 141 
 
 IX. Summaries 166 
 
 1. Translations: 
 
 1. Entire 166 
 
 2. Partial 166 
 
 A. British 166 
 
 B. American 168 
 
 2. Paraphrases: 
 
 1. British 168 
 
 2. American 168 
 
XU TABLE OP CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3. Occurrence of Theocritus's Name in English Literature : 
 
 1. British 169 
 
 2. American 169 
 
 3. Definite Allusions in Verse 169 
 
 4. Name in Prose Prior to 1700 170 
 
 4. Poems to or on Theocritus: 
 
 1. British 170 
 
 2. American 170 
 
 X. Conclusion 171 
 
 The Meaning of the Materials 171 
 
 Appendixes 180 
 
 1. Life of Theocritus 180 
 
 2. Note on Idyll, Pastoral, and Eclogue 181 
 
 3. Classified Bibliographies 182 
 
 Index of Persons 199 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
 
 1. NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE WORK 
 
 It will be appropriate first to indicate the scope and character 
 of the influence I am to describe before we engage ourselves with 
 the miniitiEe of allusions, imitations, parallels, translations, and the 
 like matters. These first paragraphs, then, will consist of general 
 statements, of condensed results, which will at once give meaning 
 to and derive support from the mass of details in the pages 
 following. 
 
 A multitude of questions will here be answered in a general way, 
 and later in a specific way, which, in the case of any great poet in 
 whom we are interested, must satisfy a certain intellectual desire, 
 a curiosity, if you will, and, more than this, throw no small amount 
 of light upon important matters of literary history. When, and 
 how often, and by whom has Theocritus been translated into 
 English ? By whom and to what extent has he been imitated ? By 
 whom, in what way, and in what relations has he been mentioned ? 
 To what uses has his name been put — what has it stood for ? With 
 what writers has he been associated, with whom has he been com- 
 pared? With what literary forces has he been identified? 
 
 The answers to these and similar questions [have their instruetive- 
 ness ; for, answered in regard to a single poet, they lead to the like 
 inquiries and answers respecting other and still other poets, until 
 finally we shall know fully and accurately what has been the in- 
 fluence upon English literature of every Greek and Eoman author. 
 Even the least of our questions is not trivial. It is instructive to 
 know in what manner, in what connections, and by what writers a 
 given poet has been even named. The omission of the same poet's 
 name in certain connections, by this or that writer, is almost equally 
 significant. 
 
 Theocritus, then, will be found to have been translated, in whole 
 or in part, in every period of English literature from the Eliza- 
 
i THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 bethan onward. The earliest version was the Sixe Idillia (1588),* 
 made almost contemporaneously with Abraham Fleming's transla- 
 tion of Virgil's Eclogues, and at about the time Shakespeare was 
 writing his Venus and Adonis. In recent years scarcely any other 
 poet has been so frequently honored with versions, partial or 
 complete. Imitation of him began still earlier, and is found 
 throughout the course of English literature down to our own time, 
 when it culminates in Tennyson. 
 
 His name from Skelton onward occurs, with comparative in- 
 frequency to be sure, in the verses of our poets and in essays upon 
 poetry. He has happily escaped the lot of those whose names are 
 only names, mere ornaments of verse, well-sounding words La 
 orations, stock examples in schoolboy themes. Pindar, Sappho, 
 Anacreon, Horace, Virgil, Homer, — these have not so escaped. 
 These are names always upon the tongue, often mere rhetorical 
 devices. The mere mention of them may or may not have special 
 significance, and no inference from this alone can be made as to 
 the writer's knowledge or admiration of the poets in question. 
 This is not commonly so of Theocritus. His name is decidedly not 
 a common-place. Many intelligent, and even many educated, people, 
 as education goes in America, have never read a line of his Idylls 
 — they hardly know of his existence. And yet, as these pages will 
 show, his name occurs not infrequently throughout English litera- 
 ture, both in America and in England, in poetry, in books of nature, 
 ia criticisms, iu biographies, in the histories of literature. He finds 
 a place in anthologies, in books of quotations, and va. special collec- 
 tions of poetry, such as elegies, love-songs, and the like. In col- 
 lections of the 'Best Poems' and lists of the 'Best Books' he finds a 
 place among the select few of all ages. In the Congressional 
 Library at "Washington his name with Pindar's, Sappho's, and 
 Anacreon's is inscribed on the vault of the corridor given to Lyric 
 Poetry. 
 
 He was not unknown to our elder poets of America — to Lowell, 
 and Stoddard, and Bayard Taylor, and Stedman ; and our younger 
 poets have indited sonnets and dedicated books to him, and have 
 
 *For books and peraons mentioned in the text, see bibliographies and 
 index at the end. The nature of the book or essay will be a suflSoient 
 guide to the right bibliography. If in any case this be not so, the number 
 of the bibliography will be found after the author's name in the index. 
 
NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE WORK 3 
 
 written odes and sonnets, ballads, and villanelles in praise of him. 
 They have imitated, paraphrased, and translated him. Our 
 naturalist-poets — such as Maurice Thompson, and John Burroughs 
 — ^have written essays upon him and interspersed criticisms and 
 praises with versions of their own from the Idylls. 
 
 He has captivated nature-lovers everywhere and in all periods: 
 'Ik Marvel' at Bdgewood, and 'Melanter' at Teddington. He has 
 cast his spell upon all lovers of exquisite art, of enchanting 
 melodies — such as Shelley, and Oscar Wilde, and Stedman, and 
 Scollard— to name but a few of the many. The old school of re- 
 viewers — represented by 'Oliver Yorke' and 'Christopher North' — 
 praised no other poet so highly, and continually referred to him as 
 a standard in his domain. He has been praised by painters for his 
 landscape pictures, which are so charmingly set amid the hills of 
 Sicily. He has been translated and edited by clergymen and good 
 bishops; he has been quoted by philosophers, and historians of 
 Greek literature have relieved pages of perfunctory criticism with 
 an outburst of genuine enthusiasm when they came to speak of his 
 fresh and original genius. Around his brow has been woven a 
 garland of matchless praise. 
 
 Of Theocritus it may be said, with emphasis rarely in place, 
 that he has picked his readers and admirers, and they have been 
 among the choice spirits of the earth. While to the few only, 
 comparatively speaking, he has been and is still known, that few 
 are distinguished by an admiration of what is beautiful in nature 
 and what is masterful ia art. And they have interfused his spirit 
 into poetry, and transferred his charming simplicities, his beautiful 
 word-pictures — at least the spirit of them — into poems not called 
 pastorals. 
 
 Indeed his name, in England at least, has almost been made 
 common like that of Homer and of Horace. In a few instances it 
 has appeared in strange connections, and has often appeared in the 
 weekly papers, and is not unknown to the dailies. As a curious 
 instance of the citation of Theocritus to illustrate a modern custom 
 or occurrence, such as a prize fight. The Times has been known to 
 print a contribution calling attention to the resemblance between 
 the account in Bell's Life and the description of the combat of 
 Pollux and Amycus in the twenty-second Idyll — concluding with 
 
4 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEB 
 
 an extract therefrom of fifty or more lines. If spring shows an 
 unwonted coyness in appearing, and the English poets do not 
 rightly represent the facts, our Sicilian poet receives the blame: 
 he has forced the sudden Sicilian spring, so sweet to the goats of 
 Enna, upon the poets of the chill island of the north. 
 
 Pertaining to the place of Theocritus in college instruction, an 
 historical note will here have its interest and value. Until within 
 recent years, says Stedman, writing in 1867, Theocritus has not 
 been offered in American colleges.* I have endeavored to gather 
 data on this topic, but they are difiBcult to obtain, and uncertain. 
 Professor North of Hamilton College, New York, offered our poet 
 as a separate course as early as 1855, using Didot's text, with the 
 French on the opposite page. This is doubtless the first instance 
 of this kind in America. At Yale his Idylls were placed in the 
 course as early as 1866. He was read at Harvard in 1876-78, 
 and at Princeton about the same time. But these statistics may be 
 misleading. In all of these institutions, and very likely in many 
 others in America, Theocritus may well have been read in part 
 by all the students of Greek, opportunity being offered in the Grceca 
 Majora (published 1797; edited by Andreas Dalzel), which con- 
 tains Idylls 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 15, 18, 19, 20, and 24. This collection 
 was used throughout America from the close of the eighteenth 
 century until the middle of the nineteenth, when separate texts 
 began to supplant it. But teachers of Greek yet living read from 
 this in their undergraduate days. There was abimdant opportunity, 
 therefore, in American colleges from 1797 for classical students to 
 become acquainted with our poet. 
 
 The matter stands very differently in England, because of their 
 different traditions of education. The elective system at Oxford 
 and Cambridge has left it open to students from the earliest times 
 to choose classic authors for their reading according to their tastes. 
 Spenser and Edward Kirke and Sidney and all that group of poets 
 who show an acquaintance with Theocritus, and from whose number 
 
 * Victorian Poets, p. 204. Compare also the following from Stedman: 
 The Sicilian Idylls were very familiar to the dramatists and songsters 
 of Shakespeare's time, and a knowledge of them was affected, at least, by 
 the artificial jinglers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nowa- 
 days, we have Homer and Horace by heart; but Theocritus, to most of 
 us, is but the echo of a melodious name (I. c). 
 
 But this has been greatly changed in the last generation. 
 
NATURE AND SCOPE OE THE WORK 5 
 
 the Sixe Idillm came, may have thus elected the chief poet in that 
 species which had such attraction for the scholars of that age. The 
 earliest definite knowledge which I have on the subject, however, is 
 afforded in the Guardian, No. 38, where the writer — Addison, 
 Steele, Tickell? — speaks of 'having had a design of turning 
 shepherd myself, when I read Virgil or Theocritus at Oxford.' 
 But where did Gay learn to know Theocritus? He had only a 
 grammar school education, and yet he quotes the text — although 
 he does seem to be in error as to the location of the passage. 
 Coleridge, we know, read Theocritus at Christ's Hospital. And 
 the head-master of the grammar school at Hawkshead (Words- 
 worth's preparatory school), D. B. Hickie, in 1839, edited a selec- 
 tion of sixteen Idylls 'for the use of schools.' Shakespeare — there 
 is nothing improbable in the supposition — may have read our poet 
 in the grammar school at Stratford, and still had 'less G-reek' — 
 than Ben Jonson. This supposition would help to account for his 
 being the most Theocritean of English pastoralists . 
 
 Finally, to resume the topic of influence, he has cooperated with 
 some of the supreme forces in life and literature, strengtheniiig, 
 through the representatives of them, their tendencies toward a more 
 vigorous and beautiful and vital art. With realism, or, as some 
 will have it, 'naturalism,' he has manifest relations. His book of 
 'Little Pictures' is the scholar's companion in the island of Sicily 
 even to-day, two thousand years after their author listened to his 
 Lacon and Comatas bantering one another on the hillsides and 
 singing their loves and the charms of nature by the cool streams 
 and amid the pleasant tamarisk groves where they sheltered from 
 tftie noontide heat. Artist of the first order, a genius who created a 
 new species of poetry, a maker — as our old Elizabethans would 
 say — who transmuted the crude materials found everywhere, among 
 herdsmen, and fishermen, and reapers, and gossiping cityites, into 
 poetry not born to be forgotten, he yet was a realist who has 
 depicted scenes of life that can be identified everywhere, producing 
 faithful transcripts of the universal embodied in the particular. 
 
 With romanticism, especially some aspects of it, such as nature- 
 love, and the expression of genuine emotions towards whatsoever 
 may excite them, his connection is equally demonstrable. Words- 
 worth, for example, knew him early and gives him a place in the 
 
b THEOOEITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 history of his mind and poetic development. And, still earlier 
 William Lisle Bowles, a poet whose sonnets descriptive of natural 
 scenes — the precursors of Sonnets to the River Duddon — awoke the 
 enthusiasm of the young Coleridge — was a disciple and translator 
 of Theocritus; and he has been called 'the father of modern 
 poetry.' As for Coleridge himself, he learned to admire our poet 
 while yet a boy, and in later years speaks in praise of him in his 
 discussions of Wordsworth's poetic theory and practice. 
 
 And a third great force, a force which so powerfidly displayed 
 itself in many English writers of the nineteenth century, the spirit 
 of the Greeks, called Hellenism, was appreciably furthered by the 
 influence of Theocritus. Theocritus, a true child of Hellas, a 
 Greek, if ever there was one, certainly contributed toward defining 
 and making effective this spirit in poetry. His admirers have been 
 Hellenists, and Hellenists, in general, have been his admirers, 
 whether in England or in America. His name has indeed been 
 directly associated, as we shall see, with each of these forces of 
 literature. This fact points to the large significance of his poetry, 
 and, consequently, to that of the study in which we are engaged. 
 
 2. PASTORAL POETRY AND THEOCRITUS* 
 
 But is not the whole species of poetry with which Theocritus's 
 name is identified, the poetry of which he was the father, now 
 thoroughly discredited ? Is it not an insipid thing at best, and dis- 
 gusting at worst? Did not grufE old Dr. Johnson, with utter good 
 sense, say of a certain poem, 'It is pastoral, and that is sufiicient 
 blame'? Then why should we concern ourselves with Theocritus, 
 who must be in this the chief of sinners, the Adam of his tribe? 
 It is true that the pastoral poetry which only cants of flocks and 
 sheep-crooks, and is pastoral in no other sense, is deservedly in 
 disrepute. Pastoral poetry the third or the fifth remove from 
 nature and Theocritus — two names that have no hostility toward 
 each other — is disgusting. We have had enough of Strephon and 
 Damon, Phyllis and Chloe. But we have also had enough of every 
 
 *For literature, see Bibliography III. 
 
PASTORAL POETET AND THEOCRITUS 7 
 
 spurious and artificial species of poetry, epic, dramatic, and lyric. 
 Yet the world still reads Homer, and Shakespeare, Wordsworth 
 and Tennyson. And there is no name, after Virgil's, that has been 
 so frequently linked with the 'Ionian father of the rest/ as that 
 of Theocritus. And Theocritus has this advantage, that the 
 greatest of the Roman poets, also, has probably never had an essay 
 of any note written upon him without his indebtedness to our poet 
 having been remarked, if not estimated. With the greatest of the 
 Greek and Eoman poets, therefore, his name has been linked, and 
 it has been set, not infrequently, by the side of Shakespeare's, and 
 Chaucer's. As their highest praise some who have written genuinely 
 of rustic life — from Drayton to Bloomfield — ^have been called 
 Theocritus. And to say that a thing is 'Theocritean' implies a 
 tribute of the highest kind; as when, for example, some of Bret 
 Harte's best work is described by Professor Woodberry as 
 Theocritean.* 
 
 A truth that it is well at the outset to recognize is that much of 
 the most truly pastoral of English poetry — ^^and especially is this 
 true of later times — does not go under the name of pastoral at all. 
 But it breathes country air, it is redolent of fields and pastures, 
 orchards and garners; it 'tastes of Flora and the country-green'; 
 it smells of full- fruited summer, and of harvest-tide; it is full of 
 natural color, and of rural sights and sounds. The spirit of 
 Theocritus is there, though the piping Daphnis or the complaining 
 Corydon be wanting, and the bleat of lambs may be heard, though 
 no sheep-crook be mentioned. Our younger school of poets in 
 America are writers of this kind of pastorals, and they own 
 Theocritus as master. This sort of poetry vdll always be pleasing; 
 this sort of painting will always have its vogue, its devotees. 
 
 The fact is interesting, and surely not without relation to the 
 present study, that the Idylls of Theocritus have been thought to 
 resemble, in essential ways, the landscape pictures of several 
 artists. He has indeed had his influence here also.f Solomon 
 
 *Ameriea in Literature, p. 169. 
 
 tAnd also in music. In Grove's Dictionary of Music, II., 670, we read: 
 'Pastorals had their origen in Italy, where . . the study of the Eclogues 
 of Theocritus and Virgil led to the stage representation of pastoral dramas.' 
 Pastorale is defined as 'an instrumental composition in pastoral or rustic 
 style, or in which pastoral sounds and scenes are represented.' 
 
8 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEE 
 
 Gessner (1730-88), the German poet-painter, whose idylls have 
 been called pictures and his pictures idylls, and who acknowledged 
 Theocritus as his master, surely brought our poet, by means of both 
 arts, even to the homes and firesides of the common people, not 
 only of Germany, but of England also. 
 
 What are the special traits and qualities of Theocritus? What 
 are we to look for as Theocritean in English literature ? A literary 
 form, analogous to the Pindaric ode or the Sapphic verse, or a 
 type, such as Anacreontics ? No, not this ; our task is not so easy ; 
 it is something more even than the searching out of verbal imita- 
 tions. Not everything Theocritean can be placed in quotation 
 marks. The intangible spirit, the intellectual or emotional atti- 
 tude, the motive, the tone, the structure and arrangement of the 
 poem may be Theocritean when not a parallel can be adduced. If 
 one undertakes to declare what are the chief distinguishing traits 
 of Theocritus and says that, first of all, he is the poet of natural 
 charm, of rustic beauty and simplicity — 'the singer of Persephone' 
 — one must surely be self-checked by reflecting at once that rarely 
 if ever has such artistry been displayed, rarely if ever has such grace 
 been imparted to hurrying, beautiful, open-voweled words as he 
 has succeeded in doing. Here is the Greek sense for form in its 
 perfection, here is the Greek delicacy, Greek melody as almost no- 
 where else, Greek lightness of touch, Greek restraint, and withal a 
 love of simple things, a kindly, human sympathy with lowly life, a 
 gentle humor, which rank him above any Greek predecessor. And 
 then these are combined with a dramatic instinct that in itself 
 ranks him even with the greatest artists, though his poems be but 
 idylls, or 'little pictures.' 
 
 And yet another faculty he possesses, — namely, the epic, which, 
 in brief passages, seats him, if not beside Homer, yet close to his 
 feet. This suggests versatility, a wide range of art, a many-sided 
 genius. And such Theocritus was. Each Idyll has its own individ- 
 uality, its own simple elements of natural beauty, its own framing 
 in the hills of Sicily or by the bright Sicilian sea.* Theocritus 
 does not repeat himself; his little body of transmitted poetry is 
 
 *For references on 'Theocritus and Nature', see Bibliography VI. 
 
PASTORAL POETRY AND THEOCRITUS 9 
 
 wonderfully various. Therefore to him many poets have been com- 
 pared, and in turn by many he has been illustrated. This suggests 
 a poet who, if he has not touched life at many points — ^as Theoc- 
 ritus indeed has not — yet ha® touched it truly, has dealt with it 
 aptly and genuinely, has given a true picture and faithful account- 
 of it. Truth and beauty and variety must belong to such a poet. 
 
 Another quality tibat distinguishes this bard among the ancients 
 is his tone of modernness. The latest-bom poet of perishing 
 Hellas, and a true Greek, he possessed — ^whether from his simple 
 fidelity to life and nature, from the insight of genius and the true 
 touch of a born artist, or from the environment of a great cosmo- 
 politan city which is famous in history for its eclectic and S3mthetic 
 schools of philosojihy, religion, and literature — however it came 
 about, Theocritus had what we do not find to the same extent in 
 Pindar and Euripides, in Ovid and Horace, but which we do find 
 in Tennyson and Mathew Arnold. This something will best be 
 understood by calling it modernity. In view, therefore, of this 
 great diversity of talents and of this modern note, one must proceed 
 with all the more caution, when one is tempted to say that this or 
 that is Theocritean. It may be only nature, or native genius. 
 
 I should be loath to stop with pointing out only mannerisms as 
 his bequest to poetic heirs. But descending to matters which are 
 somewhat of this character, particular modes of expression and 
 traits of style can be distinguished as Theocritean. Every reader 
 of the Idylls will recognize certain species of repetition, as one of 
 these.* Another is what may be called the use of deictic adverbs, 
 usually with antithesis, often with repetition and antithesis to- 
 gether, f The amcebean form, as in the fourth and fifth Idylls, is 
 a more conspicuous trait. The traditional dramatic or dialogue 
 character of pastorals descends from his singing-matches. Other 
 traits vrill be noted as parallels are cited. 
 
 *Id. 1.64-5; 7.35, 143. 
 tid. 5.32ff: 8.41ff. 
 
10 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEHATUEE 
 
 3. THE PLACE OF THEOCRITUS IN THE WORLD'S 
 LITERATURE 
 
 My object being to disclose the influence of Theocritus upon 
 English literature, it is necessary at the outset to recognize the 
 fact that his influence may have been and often was indirect as well 
 as direct. Imitations of imitations can be traced; for he has 
 entered English through other Greek writers, through Latin, 
 through Italian, through Spanish, through French, and finally 
 through German writers. Among his own countrymen, shortly 
 after his own day, he had disciples and imitators, most notable of 
 whom were Bion of Smyrna and Moschus of Syracuse ; so that 
 through all the after times these names have been inseparably 
 associated in literature — Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. 
 
 Among later Greeks another form of the pastoral arose, which 
 is traceable back to the time of Theocritus and which exhibits his 
 influence. This is the Pastoral Eomance. The most noteworthy 
 Greek example of this is The Loves of Daphnis and Chloe, ascribed, 
 on uncertain grounds, to an unknown Longus, and supposed to 
 belong somewhere in the third or fourth century A. D. The Italian, 
 Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English pastoral romances all 
 trace their descent from the Greek pastoral romances.* 
 
 In Latin literature the influence of our poet manifests itself 
 in numerous authors : in Horace, in Catullus, in Ovid, and, most 
 abundantly, in Virgil. (See Preface and Bibliography II.) And 
 these are poets of whom it need not be said that they have been so 
 quoted, imitated, and paraphrased in English that scarcely a line 
 of theirs has escaped. Among later Latin poets, Nemesianus, a 
 fellow-countryman of Theocritus, and Calpumius are the most 
 noteworthy imitators of Theocritus. 
 
 In Spain and Portugal there appears to have been in the ballads 
 of the people a native growth of the pastoral, in touch with the 
 actual life of shepherds ; but from this elemental state it developed 
 under Italian influence, principally that of Sannazaro, who was 
 himself developed under the immediate influence of Theocritus. 
 Gareilaso de la Vega, called the founder of Spanish pastoral poetry, 
 
 *But see Greg's Pastoral Poetry, pp. 11-13, for minimization of the 
 influence of Daphnis and Ohloe. 
 
THEOCEITUS IK THE WOSLD's LITBKATUEB 11 
 
 imitated Theocritus; and Francisco de Sa de Miranda apparently 
 followed the footing of as many predecessors as did our own Spenser, 
 while, like htm, he had the life of shepherds immediately under 
 [his eyes, and the love of nature in his heart. 
 
 Among Italian writers of the Eenaissanee, Sannazaro exhibits the 
 influence of Theocritus in the largest measure. From his examples, 
 two species of pastorals — stretching the meaning of the word — 
 came into English literature, — namely, the Arcadian Eomance and 
 the Piscatorial Eclogue, both of them indebted largely, both in 
 form and in language, to the Idylls.* 
 
 Of the French little need be said. Marot, who was imitated by 
 Spenser in the Shephewrdes Calender, cannot he certainly affirmed 
 to have known Theocritus — at least directly. And so remote from 
 shepherd-life and rural manners are the other French pastoralists, 
 that if Theocritus was known to them — as he was to Fontenelle — 
 yet their artificial taste excluded his rusticity and natural graces. 
 French translations of the Idylls, which have been very numerous, 
 and whidh began early, are more important for our study than the 
 original pastorals of that country. They have extended a knowl- 
 edge of Theocritus in Germany, in England, and in America. 
 
 Lastly, our poet entered England through Germany. Solomon 
 Gessner, called the German Theocritus, has already been mentioned 
 (pp. 7 and 8) . Just after the middle of the eighteenth' century he did 
 much to revive interest in pastoral poetry and give it new life and 
 iafluenee, in England as well as upon the continent. And this he 
 did by recurring to tihe first pastoral poet as a master and model. 
 
 How vastly this multitude of imitators, in various countries, 
 whose literatures have been the common possession of scholars and 
 authors everywhere, complicates the whole matter, will readily be 
 surmised. And imitations, as ever happens, have been so frequently 
 imitated, that, it is evident, Theocritus may be found where Theoc- 
 ritus himself was not known. StUl, however, if it is shown to be 
 Theocritus, and if its way tlhither be explained, all is done that can 
 be done. 
 
 But there is another side to this matter of imitation — a disturb- 
 
 *The writer reserves for a separate monograph a presentation and 
 discussion of the extent of Sannazaro's obligations to Theocritus. For the 
 rest, as always, see bibliography. 
 
12 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEAT0EE 
 
 ing factor in such a study as this : our poet was himself an adept at 
 appropriation. It is easy to show that he appropriated from Homer, 
 from Pindar, from Sappho, from Anacreon, from Euripides; and 
 that contemporaries, particularly Callimachus, Leonidas, and 
 Aratus, offer numerous parallels. Indeed it is possible to go much 
 further. That poetry which more than any other has passed into 
 the possession of the common mind of Europe and America, the 
 sweet and simple poetry of the Bible, seems to have lent itself to 
 the skilful use of this fine artist. It is not our task here to sift 
 this matter, or to determine the reality and extent of his borrowing 
 in any of the cases named.* The literature of my classified 
 bibliographies will guide the reader who may desire to make an 
 investigation. I wish here only to signalize the fact that I have, I 
 trust, given due consideration to the passages which are said to 
 evince imitation, be it of whom it will. From these prolegomena, 
 therefore, I will pass to the subject in hand. 
 
 *The question of a biblical influence, through the Septuagint on Theoc- 
 ritus and of the descent of this influence in matters of form, imagery, 
 and ideas, to Virgil has been discussed by the writer in the American 
 Journal of Philology xxxix.4, 449-60, since these pages were written. For 
 references on the subject, see Bibliography VIII. 
 
II. THE ELIZABETHAN ERA 
 
 1. THE EARLIEST NOTICES OF THEOCRITUS BY 
 ENGLISH WRITERS 
 
 Preceding the Age of Elizabeth I find but a single mention of 
 our poet. It occurs in John Skelton's Garlande of Laurelle, of un- 
 determined date but first published in 1533. The passage, liaes 
 321-9, runs thus : 
 
 [Apollo loquitur.] 
 
 'AH famous poetis eosuynge after me 
 Shall were a garlande of the laurell tre'. 
 
 This sayd, a great nowmber followed by and by 
 Of poetis laureat of many dyverse naeyons; 
 Parte of there names 1 thynke to specefye: 
 Fyrste, olde Quintiliane with his Declamaeyons ; 
 Theocritus with his bueolyeall relacyons, 
 ' Hesiodus, the ieonomicar, 
 
 And Homerus the fresshe historiar. 
 
 First after this honorable mention his name occurs in Eoger 
 Ascham's Scholemasier (1570). The passage, while betraying no 
 acquaintance with Theocritus, is still interesting, inasmuch as the 
 writer is commenting on the merits and methods of the very kind 
 of work that is here undertaken. Under Imitaiio (Bk. 3) he thus 
 writes: 
 
 Erasmus, the ornament of learning in our tyme, doth wish that some 
 man of learning and diligence would take the like paines in Demosthenes 
 and Tullie, that Macrobius hath done in Homer and Virgill, that is to 
 write out and joyne together, where the one doth imitate the other. 
 Erasmus' wishe is good, but surelie it is not good enough: for Macrobius 
 gatherings for Mneis out of Homer and Eobanus Hessus more diligent 
 gatherings for the Bucolicks out of Theocritus, etc. 
 
 Ascham goes on to say that the manner of imitation should be 
 explained. 
 
14 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEE 
 
 2. THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH ESSAYS ON POETRY 
 
 The Elizabethan writers concerning the poetic art all give Theoc- 
 ritus the first place and chief aiithority in the pastoral. It is true 
 that there were classical precedents for this, and these may have 
 sometimes been simply accepted without investigation or actual 
 knowledge. Not only Greek and Eoman writers, but Eenaissance 
 Italian and French poets and critics, ranked Theocritus first and 
 foremost in his peculiar province. Some of these judgments may 
 be set down here. — 
 
 Longinus: 'ev toIs /BovkoXlkol^, ttX^v o\iy<uv tS>v 'eitaOev, 6 ©toKpiTos 
 
 €7riTU^OTTaT0S (33.4). 
 
 Quintilian: Admirabilis in suo genere Theocritus sed musa ilia 
 rustica et pastoralis non forum modo, verum etiam urbem reform- 
 idat (Inst. Orat. 10.1.55). 
 
 Manilius: Astronomicon (2.38-41) spoke of Theocritus in a 
 passage which Creech thus rendered: 
 
 The sweet Theocritus with softest strains 
 Makes piping Pan delight his swains; 
 Thro' his smooth reed no rustic numbers move, 
 But all is tenderness, and all is love. 
 
 Vida thus refers to Theocritus : 
 
 — Pastorum de more querelas 
 Et lites Siculi vatis modularis avena. 
 
 {De Arte Poetioa, 1.46-7.) 
 Du Bellay desires of the muse 
 
 — ces plaisantes Eclogues 
 Rustiques a 1' example de Theocrite et de Virgile. 
 
 (La Defence, etc., 2.49.) 
 
 Scaliger throughout his chapter on 'Pastoral Poetry' cites Theoc- 
 ritus, quotes him, and calls him 'the most graceful and exquisite 
 Theocritus.' 
 
 Undoubtedly this form of reference to Theocritus by their 
 predecessors must at least induce caution against making too much 
 of the praise bestowed upon him by our Elizabethan writers. Still, 
 
THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH ESSAYS ON POETET 15 
 
 these tributes will be found to have significance as not being entirely 
 perfunctory and according to imported fashion. It is not in the 
 least probable that the Elizabethans, with their highly developed 
 faculty of many-phased curiosity, should have remained ignorant 
 of a poet whose praises they must have occasionally come upon ia 
 the highest authorities, — Greek, Latin, Italian, and French. That 
 the poets, philosophers, and romancers of that era were not thus 
 ignorant of Mm we know, and it is reasonable to conclude that the 
 critics also were not. I shall therefore present what they have to 
 say, taking them in chronological order. 
 
 Sir Philip Sidney. An Apologie for Poetrie. 1583.* 
 
 [Of Spenser's 8hep. Cal.] 
 
 That same framing of his stile, to an old rustick language, I dare not 
 alowe, sith neyther Theocritus in Greeke, Virgill in Latin, nor Sanazar 
 In Italian, did affect it (I. 132). 
 
 William Webbe. A Discourse of English Poetrie. 1586. 
 
 [Of Spenser.] 
 
 Whose fine poetical witt, and most exquisite learning, as he shewed 
 abundantly in that peece of worke, in my iudgement inferior to the workes 
 neither of Theocritus in Greek, nor Virgill in Latin©, whom hee narrowly 
 immitatefth (p. 23). 
 
 Nowe concerning the Poets which wrote in homely manner, as they pre- 
 tended, but indeede, with great pythe and learned iudgement, such as 
 were the writers of Sheepeheards talke and of husbandly precepts, who 
 were among the Grecians that excelled, besides Theocritus and Hesiodus 
 I know not, of whom the first, what profitable workes he left to posterity, 
 besdes hys Idillia or contentions of Goteheards, tending most to delight, 
 and pretty inuentions, I can not tell (p. 28 ) . 
 
 And as he [Virgil] immitateth Homer in that worke, so dooth he like- 
 wyse folio we the very steps of Theocritus, in his most pythy inuentions 
 of his JEglogues: and likewyse Hesiodus in his Georgicks or bookes of 
 Husbandry, but yet more grauely, and in a more decent style (pp. 28-9). 
 
 The cheefest of these is Theocritus in Greek, next him, and almost the 
 very same, is Virgill in Latin . . . None of equall iudgment can 
 yeelde him [Spenser] lesse praise for hys excellent skyll, and skylfuU 
 excellency shewed foorth in the same [the Shep. OoJ.], them they would 
 to eyther Theocritus or Virgill (p. 52). 
 
 *For method and arrangement see Preface. 
 
16 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 George Puttenham. The Arte of English Poesie. 1589. 
 
 And since Alexander the great how Theocritus the Greeke poet was 
 fauored by Tholomee king of Egipt (p. 32 ) . 
 
 There were yet others who mounted nothing so high as any of them 
 both, but in base and humble stile by maner of Dialogue, vttered the 
 priuate and familiar talks of the meanest sort of men, as shepheardes, 
 heywards and such like, such was among the Greekes Theocritus: and 
 Virgin among the Latines, their poems were named Eglogues or shepheard- 
 ly talke (p. 41). 
 
 Francis Meres. Palladia Tamia: Wits Treasury. 1598. 
 
 As Theocritus is famoused for his Idyllia in Greek and Virgill for his 
 Eologs in Latin: so Spenser, their imitator in his Shepheardes Calender, 
 is renowned for the like argument (p. 150). 
 
 As Theocritus in Greek, Virgill and Mantuan in Latin, Sonazar in 
 Italian, etc. (p. 155). 
 
 The treatises on poetry in later times continue this tradition. 
 Gildon and Newberry in the eighteenth, and Shelley and Hunt in 
 the nineteenth, century may here be mentioned ; they will be quoted 
 in their proper places. 
 
 3. THE EARLIEST IMITATION 
 
 Edmund Spenser. The Shepheards Calender. 1579. 
 
 In the commendatory Epistle prefixed to the Shepheards Calender, 
 E. K. — concluded to be Edward Kirke — writes : 
 
 So flew Theocritus, as you may perceive he was already full fledged. 
 So flew Virgile, as not yet well feeling his wings. So flew Mantuane, as 
 not being full somd. So Petrarque. So Boecace. So Marot, Sanazanis, 
 and also divers other excellent both Italian and French Poets, whose 
 footing this author every where followeth. 
 
 The same preeminence which is here ascribed to Theocritus, is 
 re-a£Brmed in the General Argument: 'Theocritus, in whom is more 
 ground of authoritie than in Virgile'. 
 
THE EARLIEST IMITATION 17 
 
 E. K.'s references to Theocritus are as follows : 
 
 Pebruarie. — 
 
 Gjrosse: Phyllis . . . the name is usual in Theocritus, Virgile and 
 Mantuane. 
 
 March. — 
 
 Glosse: This ^glogue seemeth somewhat to resemble that same of 
 Theocritus, wherein, etc. 
 
 April. — 
 
 Glosse: [Of the poet's conferring immortality on Rosalind by his 
 praise of her, she] Specially deserving it no lesse, than eyther Myrto the 
 most excellent Poete Theocritus his dearling [Id. 7.96ff]. 
 
 Julye. — 
 
 Glosse: Melampode and Terebinth ... of thone speaketh Man- 
 tuane, and of thother Theocritus. [Ep. 1.6 is quoted.] 
 
 August. — 
 
 Argument: In this .^Egloguie is set forth a delectable controveraie, made 
 in imitation of that in Theocritus: whereto also Virgile fashioned his 
 third and seventh jEglogue. 
 
 Glosse: A mazer: So also do Theocritus and Virgile Mgne pledges 
 of their strife. 
 
 Glosse: Enchased, engraved. Such pretie descriptions every where 
 useth Theocritus to bring in his Idyllia. 
 
 October. — 
 
 Glosse: This ^glogue is made in imitation of Theocritus his xvi. 
 Idylion, wherein he reproved the Tyranne Hiero of Syracuse for his 
 nigardise towards Poetes, in whom is the power to make men immortal 
 for theyr good dedes or shameful for their naughty lyfe . . . The style 
 hereof, as also that in Theocritus, is more loftye then the rest. 
 
 It is worth while to remark that notwithstanding the attention 
 Spenser's pastorals have received from scholars, yet few and in- 
 significant obligations beyond those indicated by E. K. have been 
 pointed out. Certain other correspondences between them and the 
 Idylls, however, may be noted. The rudiments of a cycle of 
 pastorals can be perceived in Idylls 1, 6, 8, and 9, the nexus being 
 Daphnis. In the Calender the cycle is scarcely more complete, the 
 connection with the seasons not being vital and in some instances 
 hardly discernible, and the several pastorals displaying little 
 continuity and progress. Colin appears, or is sung of, as Daphnis 
 
18 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEE 
 
 in Theocritus, in Jilglogues 1, 6, 8, 10, and 11. The dramatic 
 character of Spenser's pastorals in general corresponds closely 
 with that of the Idylls. In March and September, for example, 
 there are two interlocutors, but the second speaker only serves to 
 bring out dramatically what is said by the first. The prototype is 
 the Idyll of the Fisherman. Lastly, in August and Idyll 9 (never 
 in Virgil) the judge of the contest, after his decision, displays his 
 own skill in singing. And in November and Idyll 1 the minstrels 
 are induced by gifts to sing a special song. Compare Idyll 8. TIhe 
 first pastoral of Spenser inevitably suggests the Cyclops of Theoc- 
 ritus, though the resemblance is but general — a sad shepherd, 
 wasting with love, neglecting his flock, and singing his plaint alone. 
 In length and divisions the poems agree. And Colin has gifts like 
 those of Polyphemus for his disdainful love — 
 
 His kiddes, his cracknelles, and his early fruit. 
 
 E. K. in his glosse on 'mazer' {August) alludes to Theocritus 
 and Virgil for authority in feigning such, pledges, but says no more. 
 The description of the mazer follows Theocritus, more briefly in 
 part and in part more elaborately. Of the enchased figures 
 (11.39-30) the description thus runs: 
 
 And over them spred a goodly wild vine, 
 Entrailed with a wanton Yvie twine. 
 
 This might as well be taken from Virgil as from Theocritus ; but 
 not so what follows (11.31-5) : 
 
 Thereby is a, Lambe in the Wolves jawes: 
 But see, how fast renneth the shepheard swayne 
 To save the innocent from the beastes pawea. 
 And here with his shepe-hooke hath him slayne. 
 Tell me, such a cup hast thou ever sene? 
 
 The point, of course, consists in a glyptic representation of two 
 stages of action in one and the same scene. For what is possibly 
 the most curious passage of this oharacter in literature, see Sanna- 
 zaro's Arcadia, Prosa Terza. 
 
 The scene in June is so described as to suggest Idyll 1 : 'the 
 gentle warbling wynde,' the flowers, the cool shade, the birds that 
 
 To the waters fall their tunes attemper right, — 
 
THE EARLIEST IMITATION 19 
 
 these are the simple Theoeritean elements of 'delyte.' Fiaally, the 
 'adieus' in the conclusion of December are in the manner of Idyll 
 1, fin. : 
 
 Adieu, delightes, that lulled me asleepe; 
 
 Adieu, my deare, whoae love I bought so deare; 
 
 Adieu, my little Lambes and loved sheepe; 
 
 Adieu, ye Woodes, that oft my witnesse were; 
 
 Adieu, good HobbinoU, that was so true. 
 
 Tell Rosalind, her Colin bids her adieu. 
 
 Astrophel. 1587. 
 
 LI. 31-2. For he could pipe, and daunee, and caroll sweet, 
 
 Emongst the shepheards in their shearing feast. 1.66-9.* 
 
 LI. 127-32. Ah! where were ye this while his shepheard peares. 
 To whom alive was nought so deare as hee: 
 And ye fayre Mayds, the matches of his years, 
 Which in his grace did boast you most to be! 
 Ah! where were ye, when he of you had need. 
 To stop his wound that wondrously did bleed? 1.66-9. 
 
 The coming of the sheplh,erds 'to see what they did heare' 
 (11.199S.) corresponds to ll.SOfE. of the Idyll. 
 
 Spenser's sub-title for Astrophel is 'A Pastoral Blegie,' etc. It 
 is the first pastoral elegy in our literature and it has for its model 
 Thyrsis's Lament for Daphnis in the first Idyll of Theocritus. — 
 A discussion of this species of pastoral and of Theocritus as the 
 author of it is reserved for the section on Milton, under Lycidas. 
 Here I will only remark further that a number of other pastoral 
 elegies were written by different autihors upon the same occasion as 
 Spenser's, that is, the death of Sidney. Of these, the Doleful Lay of 
 Corinda, the Mourning Muse of Thestylis, A Pastoral ^glogue, 
 and An Elegie are sometimes included in Spenser's works, as in the 
 Globe edition. They are all characterized, in different degrees, by 
 similar Theoeritean elements. In the Pastoral JEglogue, by Brys- 
 kett, the Nymphs and Oreads, sitting round about sorrowing Pales, 
 utter their lament 
 
 With wailful tunes, while wolves do howl and barke 
 
 And seem to beare a bourdon to their plaint. 1.71-2. 
 
 'References to the English text quoted are placed in the left margin, 
 to the Greek text in the right, the number of the Idyll and the lines being 
 given. 
 
20 THEOCHITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 In An Elegie similar lines occur : 
 
 There might you see the burly Beare, 
 The Lion King, the Elephant, etc. 
 
 The passage concludes with saying tlhat 
 
 The forrest beasts made ruthfull mone. 
 
 Epigram IV. 
 
 This is a paraphrase of Cupid and the Bee (Id. 19). 
 
 The Ruines of Time. 1590. 
 
 Spenser in this poem has a lofty passage which closely resembles 
 that sublime passage in The Graces, alluded to by E. K. (in the 
 Oct. glosse) : 
 
 358-64. How manie great ones may remembered be. 
 
 Which in their dales most famouslie did florish. 
 
 Of whom no word we heare, nor signe now see. 
 
 But as things wipt out with a sponge to perishe. 
 
 Because they living cared not to cherishe 
 
 No gentle wits, through pride or covetize. 
 
 Which might their names for ever memorize. 16.34 ff. 
 
 379 ff. So whilome raised they the puissant brood 
 
 Of golden girt Alcmena, for great merite. 
 Out of the dust, etc. 
 
 It was Heracles, golden-girt Alcmena's puissant son, whom Theoc- 
 ritus chose for the hero of the epic Idylls. And it was in the 
 Dioscuri that he accomplished what Spenser alludes to in the 
 following passage : 
 
 386 ff. So raisde they eke faire Ledaes warlick twinnes, etc. 
 
 429-32. For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake, 16.51-4, 74-7. 
 
 Could save the Sonne of Thetis from to die; 
 But that blinde bard did him immortal make 
 With verses, dipt in deaw of Castalie. 16.44-6, 57. 
 
 The Tears of the Muses. 1590. 
 
 217-8. But that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen 
 
 Large streams of honnie and sweete Nectar flowe. 20.26-7. 
 
 The Fairie Queene. 1589-94. 
 Spitt thrice upon me, thrice upon me spitt. 6.39. 
 
THE EARLIEST IMITATION 31 
 
 'Spenser', says Dryden, 'has followed both Virgil and Theocritus in the 
 charms which he employs for curing Britomartis of her love.' His 
 enchantress, 'taking thrice three heares from off her head', binds them 
 around the mouth of the pot, as in Id. 2.1. In Virgil's imitation 
 {Ecl.8.6i.) there is no pot, but only an altar. In Virgil, it is a fillet, 
 in Theocritus the finest wool, that is used for binding. 
 
 3.12.7 And every wood and every valley wyde 
 
 He filled with Hylas name: the Nymphes eke Hylas eryde. 13.58. 
 
 Virgil (Eel. 6.43-4) says the sailors shouted 'Hylas.' 
 Butler in his Hudihras (1.183— i) 'ridiculed the imitators of 
 Theocritus' : 
 
 He rag'd, and kept as heavy a coil as 
 
 Stout Hercules for loss of Hylas. 
 
 4.1.5. Sweet-smiling Venus. 1.96. 
 
 Testimont. — 
 
 Detden : — 
 
 Aftier all, I must confess that the boorish dialect of Theocritus has a 
 secret charm in it which the Roman language can not imitate. But Spenser, 
 being master of our northern dialect, and skilled in Chaucer's English, 
 has so exactly imitated the Doric of Theocritus, etc. — Dedication of Virgil's 
 Pastorals (Works XIII. 323-5). 
 
 Sidney's opiaion of the rusticity of Spenser and the dialect of 
 "Bheocritus, it will be recalled, was quite different from Dryden's 
 (supra, p. 15). To the same effect as Sidney writes Henry Hallam: 
 
 The dialect of Theocritus is musical to our ears, and free from vulgarity; 
 praises which we can not bestow on the uncouth provincial rusticity of 
 Spenser. — Intro, to the Lit. of Eur. II. 5, 4. 
 
 Cheistophee Koeth: — 
 
 We demur to his [Dryden's] decision that in the Shepherdes Calender 
 Spenser has exactly imitated the Dorick of Theocritus. — Blackw. 34.825. 
 
 Pope : — 
 
 In manners, thoughts and characters, he comes close to Theocritus him- 
 self. — Discov/rse on Pastoral. 
 
 GOSSE : — 
 
 This famous work {Shep. Oal.) is remarkable because of the constancy 
 with which Spenser turns in it from the artificial Latin style of pastoral 
 
22 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATUEE 
 
 then popular in Italy, and takes his inspiration direct from Theocritus. — 
 Em. Brit. 18.345. s. v. 'Pastoral'. 
 
 Leigh Hunt: — 
 
 He was deeply intimate with both Greek and Latin poets. — A Jar of 
 Honey, p. 85. 
 
 Geosart : — 
 
 I will not claim for the Shepheards Calender any such delicacies of 
 Watteau-like picturings of pastoral scenery and movement as in the Eylaa 
 of Theocritus (13th Idyll), or such charm of vivid painting as the 7th Idyll 
 (at close), or in the 25th (11.34-50). The description of the capture of 
 the youth by the love-thrilled Naiads is incomparable. — Works of Spenser, 
 I. 111. 
 
 Herford : — 
 
 Pastoral realism is in short not foreign to Spenser, though, like all the 
 other literary methods which emerge in the chaos of the Calender, . . . 
 it is due less to any special interest felt by Spenser in the English rustic 
 than to his delight in the noble realism of Theocritus. — Introduction to 
 8hep. Cal., p. xlvi. 
 
 Thomas Watson. The 'EKaTOfii,ira&ta. 1681. 
 
 Sonnet liii. 
 Aegumbnt. — 
 
 The two first parts of this sonnet, are an imitation of certain Greek 
 verses of Theocritus [Id. 19.] : which verses as they are translated by 
 many good Poets of later dayes, so moste aptlye and plainly by C. Vrcinus 
 Velius in his Epigrammes: [The Latin of Velius is then quoted]. 
 
 Where tender Love had laide him downe to sleepe, 
 
 A little Bee so stong his fingers end, 
 
 That burning ache enforced him to weepe 
 
 And call for Phebus Sonne to stand his frend. 
 
 Why, so, sweet boy, quoth Venus sitting by? 
 
 Thy selfe is yong, thy arrows are but small 
 
 And yet thy shotte makes hardest hartes to cry. 
 
 The Shepherd's Solace. 1600. 
 
 This little god so great a cause of woe. 19.8. 
 
 Phoebus delights to view his laurel tree, 
 
 The poplar pleaseth Hercules alone. Ep. 1,1-3. 
 
THE EARLIEST IMITATION S3 
 
 Michael Dbayton. Eglogs. 1593. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The subjects of pastorals, as the language of it, ought to be poor, silly, 
 and of the coarsest woof in appearance. The Greek pastorals of Theocritus 
 have the chief praise. — To the reader of his Pastorals. 
 
 Egl. 3. Shepheard, & when my milke white eaws have yeaned 
 Beta shall have the firstling of the fould 
 yiea though the homes were of the purest goulde 
 & the fine fleece . . . 5.98-9. 
 
 Egl. 4. Now by my sheep-hook, heer's a tale alone. 
 
 Learn me the same, and I will give thee hyer. 8.85-6. 
 
 Ibid. Her skin as soft as Lempter wool. 
 
 As white as snow on Peakish hull. 11.19-20. 
 
 [tail'. 
 
 Egl. 10. He called his dog . . . Whitefoote . . . 8.65 : 'Bright- 
 
 That many a wolfe had worried . . . 5.106. 
 
 Testimony. — 
 
 Ben Jonson : — 
 
 By thy bright Ideas standing by, 
 
 I found it pure and perfect poesy! 
 
 There read I, straight, thy learned legends three. 
 
 Heard the soft airs between our swains and thee. 
 
 Which made me think thee old Theocritus, 
 
 Or rural Virgil, come to pipe to us! 
 
 Vision, etc. 
 
 Ai^^ON : — 
 
 His little sprinkling of antiquated words gives his pastorals that 
 natural rudeness, that pleasing rusticity, which makes the Doric dialect 
 so charming in the works of Theocritus, and is indeed essentially necessary 
 to Pastoral. — An Historical Essay on the Life and Writings of Michael 
 Drayton, esq. (Prefixed to his works, 1748). 
 
 Richard Garnett: — 
 
 Comparisons between modern and ancient poets must necessarily be 
 very imperfect; yet our Drayton might not inaptly be termed the English 
 Theocritus. If not so distinctly superior to every other English pastoral 
 poet as Theocritus was to every other Greek, he yet stands in the front 
 rank . . . Paradoxical as it may appear, Drayton was partly enabled 
 to approach Theocritus so nearly by knowing him so imperfectly. Had he 
 known him otherwise than through Virgil, he would probably have been 
 
24 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 imable to refrain from direct imitation: but as matters stand, instead 
 of a poet striving to write as Theocritus wrote in Greek, we have one 
 actually writing as Theocritus would have written in English. 
 
 The Battmle of Agincourt, p. xxii. 
 
 KiCHAED Baeneield. The Affectionate Shepheard. 1594. 
 
 [Arber's Eng. Schol. Lib.'] 
 
 Barnfield affords an excellent Instance of the appropriation of 
 Theocritean material and forms of expression at second hand. Of 
 his Affectionate Shepheard he says it is 'nothing else but an imita- 
 tion of VirgUl, in the second Eclogue of Alexis.' But it was tihus, 
 through imitations of imitations, that the influence, the models, and 
 the characteristic pastoral features of the first pastoralist were 
 transmitted. A few examples will be produced, to show what they 
 are capable of showing; but detached passages, it is well to 
 remember, can by no means show everylihing. 
 
 p. 10. I have a Pidgeon-house, in it a Dove, 
 
 etc. Id. 5.96; Ee. 3.68-9. 
 
 Ibid. I have fine orchards full of mellow fruite, Id. 3.10-11 ; Ec. 3.70-1. 
 etc. 
 
 The hiat for the following gifts, however, was taken directly out 
 of Theocritus, I believe : 
 
 p. 14. And I will give thee two fine pretie Cubs, 
 
 With two yoimg Whelps, to make thee sport withall. 11.41. 
 
 The following may have come from Theocritus, though it is too 
 maximatic for personal ownership: 
 
 p. 20. Vertue is onely the ritch gift of God. 17.137. 
 
 The following is more certainly derived from the passage 
 indicated in the margin : 
 
 p. 31. And in the winter nights (his chiefe desire) 
 
 He turns a Crabbe or Cracknell in the fire. 9.19-20. 
 
 Nicholas Beeton. A Sweet Pastoral. 1600. 
 
 See how my little flock, 
 
 That loved to feed on high 
 Do headlong tumble down the rock, 
 
 And in the valley die. 9.10-11. 
 
PASTORAIi EOMANOE 25 
 
 The Passionate Shepheard. 1604. 
 Third Pastor's Song. — 
 
 Or to see the subtle fox, 
 
 How the villain plies the box. 1.48-51. 
 
 Second Sonnet. — 
 
 At shearing tim^ she shall command 
 
 The finest fleece of all my wool. 5.98-9. 
 
 Thomas Lodge. The Barginet of Antimachus. c. 1600. 
 
 This is another imitation of the Honey-Thief, told with much 
 addition of dramatic detail. With this compare Watson's closer 
 paraphrase, quoted above, and Herrick's paraphrase of Anaereon's 
 poem on the same subject. There is little danger, on a critical 
 examination, of confusing an imitation of the one poem with am 
 imitation of the other. The following is an extract out of the 
 middle of Lodge's Barginet : 
 
 A Bee that harbour'd hard thereby, 
 Did sting his hand, and made him crye 
 Oh Mother, I am wounded: 
 
 Faire Venus that beheld her Sonne, 
 Cryde out alas, I am undone, 
 
 and there upon she swounded. 
 
 My little lad, the Goddesse sayd, 
 Who hath my Cupid so dismayd? 
 
 he aunswered: Gentle Mother 
 The honey-worker in the Hive, 
 etc. 
 
 4. PASTORAL ROMANCE 
 
 The English productions in this species of literature followed 
 Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese models ; but these not only go back 
 for their prototype to the Greek romances, particularly the pastoral 
 one of Daphnis and Ghlae, and thus indirectly arrive at Theocritus, 
 but they come to him at first hand and make appropriations in 
 varying degrees, — Sannazaro extensively, Montemayor inconsider- 
 ably. Thus indirectly the influence of our poet is found here also. 
 
26 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 remote as this literary form is from the pastoral poems of ITieoe- 
 ritus. Eclogues and pastoral songs are, however, a customary 
 feature of these romances, and it is in these that the influence of 
 the first pastoralist is to be especially looked for. 
 
 The chief Elizabethan pastoral romances are Sidney's ArcMdia 
 (1580), Greene's Dorastus and Fawnia (1588), and Menaphon, 
 or the Report of the Shepherds (1589), and Lodge's Rosalynde 
 (1590). External evidence that these writers knew Theocritus is 
 not wanting. ( See Greene and Lodge following. ) In the romances 
 of the last two, however, I have not noted any passages that may 
 with certainty be called parallels; but with Sidney I think it is 
 different. 
 
 Sir Philip Sidney. The An-adkt* 1580. 
 
 88 ff . Kala, at length conclude my lingring lotte : 
 Disdain me not, although I be not faire. 
 
 Who is an heire of many himdred sheep 11.19,34. 
 
 Doth many beauties keep, which never Sunne can burne. 
 
 — My sheep your foode shall breed. 
 Their wool your weiede, I will you Musique yeeld. 11.42. 
 
 The singing-match of Nico and Pas (pp. 237-10) is modeled 
 upon that of Id. 5. The opening banter, mutual accusations of 
 theft, the reminders of beatings, the allusions to their love escapades, 
 the settlement of the wagers, the sharp personalities, the giving of 
 presents to their sweethearts, — these are some of the common 
 features, besides the general and more important one of form and 
 spirit. Most of these features, it is true, are in Virgil (Eel. 3) 
 with another feature present here but not found in Theocritus, — 
 namely, riddles. Sannazaro (Egl. Nona), however, while, like Sid- 
 ney, in general imitating the Idyll, in this particular follows the 
 Eclogue. 
 
 But there are unmistakable evidences that Sidney in this 
 amoebean contest imitated Theocritus directly. A few instances 
 will suffice to establish this : 
 
 I spied a thrush where she did make her nest. 
 That will I take, and to my Leuca give. 
 
 *M. Jusserand's A Literary History of the English People, vol. 2, pt. 1., 
 pp. 531-8, gives a clear exposition of the historical place of the Arcadia 
 and of its character as a pastoral romance. 
 
THE riEST ENGLISH TRANSLATION > 37 
 
 Disregarding the substitution of thrush for wood-pigeon, this is a 
 close translation of Id. 5.96-7, but contains no hint of Eel. 3.68-9, 
 the Virgilian imitation. The following passages will yield similar 
 results on comparison with the Idyll and the Eclogue: 
 
 My gray-hood is mine own, all be it be but gray, 
 
 Not like the scrippe thou stol'ste, while Dorcas sleeping lay. 5.3-4. 
 
 But who did lively skippe 
 When for a treen-dish stolne, thy father did thee whippe? 5.H8-9. 
 
 Could'st thou make Lalus flie? So nightingales avoide. 
 
 When with the kawing crowes their musique is annoide. 5.136. 
 
 Sidney in this 'Eclogue' approaches, indeed, the rusticity which he 
 disapproved in the Shepheards Calender, — approaches it at least 
 much nearer than Virgil does. 
 
 5. THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION 
 
 Anonymous. Sixe Idillia. 1588. 
 
 The full title-page of this the most interesting of all English 
 Theocritean documents is as follows : 
 
 Stse Idillia 
 
 That Is, 
 
 SIXE SMALL, OE PETTY 
 
 Poems or JSglogues, Chosen out of 
 
 the right famous Sicilian 
 POET THEOCRITUS, and trans- 
 lated into English verse. 
 
 Dum defluat amnis. 
 
 Printed 
 
 At Oxford, by Joseph Barnes. 
 
 1588. 
 
38 theocrit0s in english literature 
 
 History. — 
 
 The following are all the references to this translation that I 
 have been able to find. The Gentleman's Magazine of Feb., 1817 
 (p. 157), contained the following item: 
 
 W. F. says, he has lately met with a book which he considers a great 
 literary rarity, and supposes to be the first English translation from 
 Theocritus. There is no account of it in Kitson, Dibdin, the Theatrum 
 Poetarum, or Wood's AtherUB. He wishes for information respecting the 
 Author. 
 
 The full title-page is then given. I know of no response to this 
 iaquiry. 
 
 J. Payne Collier: — 
 
 This work, though unquestionably by Sir Edward Dyer, has never been 
 mentioned by any bibliographer, nor does it appear to have been known 
 to any poetical antiquary. — A Bib. and Grit. Account, etc., 1.292. 
 
 ElCHAED GtAKNETT: — 
 
 The attribution of a translation of six idylls of Theocritus to Dyer 
 seems extremely uncertain. — Eng. Lit.; an III. Rec. II. 148. 
 
 Edmund Gosse: — 
 
 The Sixe Idillia of 1588, paraphrases of Theocritus, are anonymous, 
 but conjecture has attributed them to Sir Edward Dyer. — Enc. Brit. 
 XVIII. 346. 
 
 A. H. Bullen: — 
 
 When Dr. Grosart collected Dyer's works in 1872 he could find no trace 
 of this book; and Collier had forgotten where he had seen it. 'The 
 authorship of Sir Edward Dyer', says Collier, 'is ascertained by his initials 
 and motto at the back of the title-page.' But this is an error, for the 
 inscription at the back of the title plainly shows that the book was 
 dedicated to, not written by, 'E. D.' Diet. Nat. Biog. s. v. 'Dyer'. 
 
 Description. — 
 
 The translated Idylls are the 8th, 11th, 16th, 18th, 31st, and 
 31st ; or, by the titles given : Bucoliastce, Cyclops, Charites, Helen's 
 Epithalamion, Neatherd, and Adonis. 
 
THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION 39 
 
 The metres employed are as follows : 
 
 Id. 8 — Narrative and dialogue parts: iamb, hexam., rhyming 
 in pairs ; the amoebean stanzas : iamb, pentam., rhyming alternately. 
 
 Idd. 11, 16, 18, and 21 : iamb, heptam., rhyming in. pairs. 
 
 Id. 31 : iamb, trim., rhyming in pairs. 
 
 Original arguments axe prefixed and emblems are supplied, after 
 the manner of the Shepheards Calender. The translation is close, 
 quaint, and rather felicitous. It possesses considerable spirit and 
 resembles the old English ballads in manner. In Ward's English 
 Poets (vol. 1. p. 376), where extracts are given from Idd. 16 and 
 18, the "fluency and sweetness" of the translations are remarked.* 
 
 Sir Edward Dyer (1550P-1607), to whom the translation appears 
 to be dedicated, was a scholar and poet of the Sidney and Fulk 
 Greville group, which industriously sought to introduce classic 
 metres into English verse. He was also the author of several 
 pastorals, one of which remotely resembles the Cyclops of Theoc- 
 ritus. "With that Idyll compare the following lines from Dyer's 
 Cynthia : 
 
 Amidst the fairest mountain tops . . . 
 A shepherd lived that dearly loved . . . 
 A forest nymph, who was as fair 
 As ever woman was . . . 
 
 He from his sheep-eot led his sheep 
 To pastures in the leas, 
 And there to feed while he, the while 
 Might dream of his disease . . 
 
 I that for her my wandering sheep 
 
 Forsook, forgot, forwent, 
 
 Nor of myself, nor them took keep. — 
 
 *The Sixe IdilUa are reprinted, with modernized spelling, in Arber's 
 English Garner, vol. 8. I had the booklet photographed for my use from 
 the unique copy in the Bodleian Library. 
 
30 THEOCEITDS IN ENGLISH LITERATUEE 
 
 6. THE FIRST ENGLISH PARAPHRASE 
 
 T. Beadshaw. a Paraphrase of the Third Idyl. 1591. 
 
 The Theocritean document next in point of interest to the Size 
 Idillia in this period is this paraphrase, which has the following 
 title-page : 
 
 The Shepherds Starre, 
 
 NOW OF LATE SEEN E, and 
 
 at this hower to be observed merveilous orient 
 
 in the East : which bringth glad tidings to all 
 
 that may behold her brightness, having 
 
 the foure elements with the foure Capitall 
 
 Vertues in her, which makes her 
 
 Elementall and a vanquishor of all 
 
 Earthly humors 
 
 DESCRIBED by a GENTLEMAN, etc. 
 
 Tu si hsec esses aliter senties. Terent. 
 
 '"Ek ttovov kXcos 
 
 Amor fa molto : Argento fa tanto. 
 
 Printed by Robert Robinson, for William 
 
 Jones, and are to be sold at his shop neere 
 
 Holborne Conduit, 1591. 
 
 The paraphrase is by T. Bradshaw, and is part prose, part verse. 
 It is headed, 'A Paraphrase upon the third of the Canticles of 
 Theocritus.' The verse portion begins thus : 
 
 In a time of merry sporte, 
 Amaryllis did resorte, 
 With her gratious loving lookes 
 To the Chrystal running brookes: 
 Where I Corydon did dwel, 
 Corydon the shepheardes spell: 
 For to shepheardes doth belong, 
 All the pride of wanton song. 
 Then to Amaryllis viewe, 
 Shepheard sent his homage dewe: 
 Such a sei-vice as, of right, 
 Came to short of such a sight. 
 
PASTORAL DRAMA 31 
 
 It will be perceived that with much amplification, and with a 
 crudeness as remote as is conceivable from the exquisite art of 
 Theocritus, the author attempts to express the two fundamental" 
 themes of the beginning of the Idyll, that is, the goatherd lover's 
 woe and the coquetry of Amaryllis. 
 
 The prose part is even more remote from the original — so remote, 
 indeed, as hardly to be recognizable as having any dependence upon 
 it. It would seem to be a sufficient comment on the entire per- 
 formance, if any comment be necessary after the title-page, to say 
 that the Idyll contains 54 lines and the Paraphrase 30 pages, or 
 the Idyll about 430 words and the Paraphrase nearly 10,300. 
 
 Eeference. — Diet. Nat. Biog. s. v. T. Bradshaw : 'The book is of 
 great rarity.'* 
 
 7. PASTORAL DRAMA 
 
 The dramatic character of the pastoral Idylls is not less evident 
 than their lyrical character. Several of them indeed might be 
 called miniature or one-scene lyrical dramas. It seems inevitable 
 that as the Pastoral Eomance arose from the loose addition of 
 scene to scene and of event to event, the same persons — ^as in some 
 of the Idylls — giving a kind of unity to them, so, by a similar 
 process, it was natural for the Pastoral Drama to be developed. 
 The Elizabethan age alone contains thirty or forty of these, f It is 
 needless to say that the majority of them are extremely remote from 
 true pastoralism; that few of them have anything genuinely 
 pastoral at all. Shakespeare here as elsewhere is supreme. His 
 pastoral scenes in As You Like It and The Winter's Tale are the 
 most Theocritean in our literature. Did Shakespeare know 
 Theocritus? He may have done so — either in the original Greek, 
 which is hardly probable, or through a Latin version, as many of 
 
 *To Dr. Fredierick M. Padelford, who kindly examined this rare book 
 for me in the British Museum, I am indebted for these and other data, 
 which have given me a basis for judging of it. 
 
 tSee Marks and Greg. Bibliography III. 
 
33 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 his contemporaries kaew him, or through the Sixe Idillia of 1588. 
 However this may be, the fact remains that Shakespeare and 
 Theocritus are kindred spirits. 
 
 It is in the excess of the lyrical element that the Pastoral Drama 
 retains the mark of its origin. It may also be remarked that the 'sad 
 shepherd' — a stock figure in both the Pastoral Eomance and the 
 Pastoral Drama — ^has his prototype in the Idylls of Theocritus. 
 Daphnis of Id. 1, Battus of Id. 10, and, greatest of all, Polyphemus 
 of Id. 11, — these are all sad shepherds. And there are still others : 
 the serenader of the third Idyll, who threatens at one time to leap 
 into the sea, and at another to let his body be devoured by the 
 wolves ; the suitor of Bunioa in Id. 20 ; and finally, the rollicking 
 Battus of Id. 4, who but for one moment gives way to sorrow for 
 his lost but unforgotten Amaryllis. This is the 'sad shepherd' 
 often enough in the poet of gladness ! But love and sorrow go 
 together, and love and sorrow are primitive and primary themes of 
 the Pastoral Muse. 
 
 John Fletcher. The Faithful Shepherdess. 1611. 
 
 I. 1. — Humbly leave I take. 
 
 Lest the great Pan do wake. 
 That sleeping lies in a deep glade, 
 Under a broad beech's shade. 1.16-18. 
 
 I. 3. My face has foile enough . . . 6.34-8. 
 
 My flocks are many, and the downs as large 
 They feed upon. 11.34. 
 
 Ibid. Here be woods as green 
 
 As any, air likewise as fresh and sweet, etc. 5.45-9. 
 
 The allusions here to Endymion and Adonis seem to have been 
 suggested by Id. 3.46-50; and a hint for the following may be 
 found in Id. 5.49 : 
 
 — the lofty fruit 
 Pulled from the fair head of the straight-grown pine. 
 
 The following passage is Theocritean: 
 
 I love thee better than the careful ewe 
 
 The new-yean'd lamb that is of her own hue; 
 
 I dote upon thee more than the young lamb, etc. 8.33-5. 
 
PASTORAL DRAMA 33 
 
 Bm JoNSON. The Poetaster. 1601. 
 
 ^- ^- ... Use to read 
 
 (But not without a Tutor) the best Greeks, 
 Orpheus, Muswus, Pindarus, 
 Hesiod, CalUmaohus, and Theocrite. 
 
 The Masque of Queens. 1609. 
 Imitation. — 
 
 LI. 29-130. The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play. 
 The spindle is now a-turning. 
 
 In a note to this passage Jonson mentions Theocritus and alludes 
 to the second Idyll, line 12 of which is imitated in the first line 
 above. In a note to a passage further on in the Masque he quotes 
 line 14 of the Idyll to justify his invocation of Hecate. 
 
 A Vision on the Muses of his Friend M. Drayton, a. 1631. 
 
 [Of Drayton's Pastorals] : 
 
 Which made me think thee old Theocritus, 
 Or rural Virgil, come to pipe to us. 
 
 Timber. 1641. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 It was the ancient poverty that founded common weals, built cities, 
 invented arts, etc. 21.1-2. 
 
 The Sad Shepherd. 1641. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 — ^A fleece 
 To match or those of Sicily or Greece. 
 
 — Prologue. 
 
 The reference is understood to be to Theocritus and Bion. The 
 character and speeches of Lorel (2.1) are modeled upon Poly- 
 phemus and his song to Galatea, Id. 11. Compare the following : 
 
 Deft Mistress ! whiter than the cheese new prest. 
 
 Smoother than cream, and softer than curds! 
 
 Why start ye from me? 11.19-20. 
 
 — Large herds and pastures! swine and kie mine own! 11.31-3. 
 And though my nose be camusied, my lips thick, and 
 
 And my chin bristled, etc. 3.8-9. 
 
34 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 An hundred udders for the pail I have; 
 
 They give me milk and curds, that make me cheese 
 
 To cloy the markets! 11.36-7. 
 
 Twa trilland brooks, each from his spring, doth meet. 
 And make a river to refresh my feet; 
 
 In which each morning, ere the sun doth rise, 
 I look myself, and clear my pleasant eyes, 6.35-6. 
 
 Before I pipe; for therein I have skill 11.38. 
 
 'Bove other swineherds. 
 
 Lord's gifts to his mistress were also suggested by those of Poly- 
 phenms : 
 
 — This fine 
 Smooth bawson cub, the young griee of a gray, 11.41. 
 
 Twa tyny urshins, and this ferret gay. 
 
 And like Polyphemus, he tells of his trees, and of his solacing 
 shade, which may be taken as corresponding to the Cyclops' cave. 
 His 'Why scorn you me?' is also a common translation of Poly- 
 pheme' S ti t6v (juXiovr' airo/SaXXri ; 
 
 The next passage derives its suggestion from Id. 8.13-3, where 
 the context is also similar : 
 
 — Wlien our dame Hecate 
 Made it heir gaing night over the kirk-yard, 
 With all the barkand parish-tikes set at her. 
 
 Fletcher and Jonson are the only two dramatists of the Eliza- 
 bethan Age in whom I find direct verbal traces of Theocritus. 
 
 8. PISCATORY ECLOGUES 
 
 An interesting departure from the over-worked but proper 
 domain of pastoral poetry — that is, in special, shepherd-life, and in 
 general, rustic life — is afforded by the Piscatory Eclogues of 
 Phineas Fletcher. One need but turn to England's Helicon, pub- 
 lished in 1600, to see how greatly the pastoral species was in vogue 
 in Elizabethan times. The years following 1600 saw no diminution 
 in their number. William Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, and the 
 collaborated Shepherd's Pipe, and numerous pastoral plays are in 
 
PISCATORY ECLOGUES 35 
 
 evidence. Rviral imagery, therefore, as it existed in the pastoral 
 poetry of the time, had lost much of its freshness. Variety, and 
 power to delight, became impossible to any but the first order of 
 genius. It was natural, therefore, that some one, retaining the 
 type, should turn with its form and apparatus to a new field. It 
 was Phineas Fletcher who did this in England, following the 
 example of Sannazaro in Italy. 
 
 Of course, they had for this the authority of Theocritus. For 
 does he not have a 'piscatory eclogue' — ^the Idyll of the Fishermen? 
 Nay, more: he has a" seaside pastoral — he has a shepherd, none 
 other than Polypheme, staging love-lorn ditties to the white sea- 
 nymph Galatea — as no other shepherd ever sang, before or since. 
 Here is warrant enough, as literary departures go, for the Italian 
 and the English innovators. 
 
 Both imitated, in a large way, and in details, the Sicilian Idylls : 
 Sannazaro far more than Fletcher, though the English poet will 
 not seldom remind his reader of the same original. In the seventh 
 Eclogue, for example, we have the classical amoebean singing-match, 
 between Daphnis the shepherd youth and Thomalin the fisher. 
 The names of persons in the Eclogues, too, are Theocritean — 
 Chromis, Nicias, Daphnis, etc. As parallels I will cite the follow- 
 ing passages : 
 1.21. 'I'll to some rock' — [whence he will leap into the sea]. 3.25. 
 
 2.3. — His songs more please my ravisht eare, 
 
 Than rumbling brooks that with the pebbles play. 1.12-14. 
 
 2.24. Farewell, ye streams, which once I loved deare: 
 
 Farewell, ye boyes, which on your Chame do float; 
 
 Muses, farewell, if there be Muses here; 
 
 Farewell, etc. 1. fin. 
 
 3.5. Tryphon, that know'st a thousand herbs in vain 
 
 But know'st not one to cure a love-sick heart. 11.1-3. 
 
 3.14. Poore master of a poorer boat. 21.12. 
 
 3.17. See, see, faire Cffilia, seas are calmly laid. 
 
 The waves their drummes, the winds their trumpets cease; 
 
 But my sick love (ah love full ill apayd) 
 
 Never can hope his storms to be allay'd. 2.38-41. 
 
 81 6 — My flaming breast 
 
 Like thundering Mtna, bums both night and day. 2.131-2. 
 
 7.10. So soon I saw my Love, so soon I lov'd and di'd. 
 
36 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 The Theocritean original (Id. 3.81-2) was imitated by several 
 Latin poets. It is just to remark that Fletcher has nothing 
 Theocritean, so far as I have discovered, which may not be 
 paralleled in his Italian predecessor, who was not slack in his ap- 
 propriations. 
 
 A century after Fletcher, — that is, in 1729 — Moses Browne again 
 made an experiment in this species of poetry, not without display- 
 ing some genuine touches of the Idylls in the relish for country 
 life, especially such relish as characterizes the Thalysia. He 
 wrote six Piscatory Eclogues. 
 
 Walton's Complete Angler will also be recalled in this connection, 
 and Hazlitt's comment on it as 'the best pastoral in our language.' 
 (On John Buncle.) 
 
 9. MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Egbert Greene. Ewphues his Censure of Philantus. 1587. 
 
 267. Theocritus, an auncient Poet of ours, calletli liberality the theefe 
 
 that most secretly stealeth away the mindes of men. 
 
 Penelope's Web. 1587. 
 
 164. For sayeth Theocritus, a good wife should use the custome in 
 
 her house that the Persians did in the warres: etc. 
 
 These are doubtless but feigned quotations, siuce no basis for 
 them appears in the Idylls. 
 
 Thomas Nash. To the Gentleman Students. 1589. 
 
 [Introd. to Greene's Menaphon.~\ 
 
 I will not say but wee had a Haddon whose pen would have challenged 
 the Lawrell from Homer, together with Carre, that came as nere him, 
 as Virgil to Theocritus. (Arber's Reprint.) 
 
 Joseph Hall. A Defiance of Envy. 1597. 
 
 Allttsion. — 
 
 — As did whilere the homely Carmelite, 
 Following Virgil, and he Theocrite. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 37 
 
 Egbert Burton. The Anatomy of Melancholy. 1621. 
 
 Helena is highly commended by Theocritus* the Poet, for her sweet-voice 
 and musick; none could play so well as shee, and Daphnis in the same 
 Edyllion. [Should be Id. 8.82-3] : 
 
 Quam tibi os dulce, et vox amabilis, O Daphni, 
 Jueundius est audire te canentem, quam mel lingere! 
 
 How sweet a face hath Daphnis, how lovely a voice ! 
 Hony it self is not so pleasant in my choice. 
 
 (—Ed. of 1638, p. 479.) 
 
 Theocritus Edyl. 2. makes a fair maid of Delphos in love with a young 
 man of Minda, confesse as much: 
 
 Ut vidi, ut insanii, ut animus mihi male affeetus est, 
 [etc. Six and a half Latin lines]. — 
 
 No sooner seen I had, but mad I was. 
 
 My beauty fail'd, and I no more did care 
 
 For any pomp, I knew not where I was, 
 
 But sick I was, and evil I did fare, 
 
 I lay upon my bed ten days and nights, 
 
 A Seeleton I was in all mens sights. 
 
 (—Ibid., p. 499.) 
 
 Burton also quotes or alludes to Theocritus on the following 
 pages of the edition cited: 484, 513, 559 and 578. 
 
 Henry Peacham. The GompUat Gentleman. 1633. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Every child knoweth how deare the works of Homer were unto Alesc- 
 ander, Euripides to Amyntas, king of Macedon, Virgil to Augustus, Theoc- 
 ritus to Ptolemy, etc. (Chap. 10: Of Poetrie) . 
 
 Francis Bacon. De Augmentis Scientiwrum. 1623. 
 
 Quotation. — 
 
 Lib. 6.10. Ita pronuneiant Epieurei de Fffilieitate Stoicorum in Virtute 
 ooUocata, quod similis sit ftelicitate histrionis in scena. . . . 
 Itidem in voluptate, 
 
 — grata sub imo 
 
 Gtaudia corde premens, vultu simulante pudorem. 27.69. 
 
 *Edyl. 18 [35] : Neque sane ulla sic citharam pulsare novit. — Author's 
 note. 
 
38 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 The fact that Burton and Bacon quote Latin versions, of which 
 at least four were made in the sixteenth century, suggests a query 
 as to the number of Elizabethan writers who may have thus gained 
 a knowledge of Theocritus. No doubt many Greek authors were 
 known to our early writers only through the Latin. 
 
 To make a brief summary of this period, it can be said that 
 several of the chief writers, in verse and in prose, of the Elizabethan 
 Age knew Theocritus and were directly indebted to him. The iirst 
 great poet of that era, Spenser, imitated him in numerous passages 
 and largely modeled his style, particularly his diction, in the 
 Shepheards Calender after the Sicilian pastorals. And Ben Jonson, 
 the last great writer of that era, imitated him in his pastoral play 
 and his Masqxve of Queens, and mentions him in his poems. 
 Between these two the following writers show an acquaintance with 
 him or reveal his influence: Essayists: Sidney, Webbe, Putten- 
 ham, Meres, Greene, Nash, Burton, and Bacon; Poets: Watson, 
 Drayton, Barnfield, Breton, Lodge, Sidney, and the Fletchers. And 
 within the period comes a superior translation of six Idylls and a 
 paraphrase of another. Theocritus, directly, therefore, and not 
 merely through Virgil and other imitators, was an appreciable in- 
 fluence in Elizabethan poetry. 
 
III. THE PURITAN ERA 
 
 1. PASTORAL ELEGY 
 
 John Milton. Lycidas. 1637. 
 
 In essays on the elegy the view is sometimes met with that, in 
 the classic type, which is the pastoral, Bion's Dirge for Adonis has 
 served as a model to all successors. See Braekett : Jour. Spec. Phil., 
 5:360; Eoherts: New Prin. Rev., May, 1888; Fullerton: Nin. 
 Cent., 28 :410. The weight of authority, however, is quite against 
 this view. See Todd : Milton's Works, vol. V, Lye. 1.189 ; Alford : 
 Chapters on Poetry, p. 309 ; Lang : Theocritus, p. xxiv, and others 
 noted in my bibliography. Mary Lloyd is right in denominating 
 Theocritus the author of the Pastoral Elegy; Baldwin is right in 
 placing the Song of Thyrsis first in his Book of Elegies.* From 
 this view I do not see how there can be dissent. That melodious 
 song of sorrow in the first Idyll is indisputably the first pastoral 
 elegy in literature, the model of Bion's Lament for Adonis, and of 
 Moschus's Lament for Bion. These disciples of the Sicilian master 
 took over, the one into his mythological theme, the other into his 
 threnody for his friend, all that they found in the song of Daphnis's 
 woes capable of being put to the use of art in a purely literary 
 fashion. Bion's elegy, it is first to be noted, is not pastoral at all; 
 while that of Moschus, therefore, begins what has been called the 
 literary pastoral elegy, as distinguished from the appropriately 
 pastoral song of Theocritus. 
 
 Milton, therefore, in his Lycidas cries out '0 fountain Arethuse,' 
 and bids the 'Sicilian Muse' return, and calls his lament a 'Doric 
 lny : all this he does because throughout his poem it is not Bion, 
 nor yet Moschus, but Theocritus whom he has in mind. As surely 
 as the 'Teian muse' means Anacreon, and the 'Chian' Simonides, 
 and the 'Lesbian' Sappho, so surely does the 'Sicilian' mean 
 Theocritus. So, too, the 'Doric reed' means Theocritus as the 
 
 *For references on Elegy and for the relation of Bion and Moschus 
 to TheoeritTis, see Bibliography IV. 
 
40 THEOCRITUS IN" ENGLISH LITERATUEE 
 
 'Theban lyre' meajis Pindar. The 'fountain Arethuse' also as dis- 
 tinctly designates Theocritus as the 'smooth-sliding Mincius' desig- 
 nates Virgil. 
 
 But Milton has specific imitations of our poet in Lycidas, in the 
 EpitapMwm Damonis, in Comus, and in Paradise Lost. These will 
 now be considered. — The name 'Lycidas' Virgil got with a dozen 
 more out of Theocritus; the choice of it by Milton, therefore, 
 means nothing. But its repetition, in lines 8, 9, and 10, is 
 thoroughly in the manner of Theocritus. 'Begin' is likewise re- 
 peated in the same way as apx^re (Id. 1.64 et foL), which it trans- 
 lates. 
 
 50-5. Where were ye, Nymphs, etc. 
 
 'This passage,' says Masson, 'is an express imitation of Theocritus, 
 Idyll 1.66-69.' 
 
 67-8. / Were it not better done, as others use, 
 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade? 
 
 K(i)/u.acrS(o TTori rav 'A/iapyXXiSa (Id. 3.1) may well have suggested 
 this. 
 
 The coming of 'the Herald of the Sea' (89), of Camus (103), 
 and of 'the Pilot of the Galilean Lake' (108), and their making 
 enquiry concerning Lyeidas's death are related as the like incidents 
 are by Theocritus. 
 
 136-7. Where the mild whispers use 
 
 Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks. 1.1, 7-8. 
 
 165. Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more. 1.127. 
 
 Finally, the last line of Lycidas is apparently a reminiscence of 
 the last line of Idyll 5. But the last eight lines, as an epilogue, 
 resemble in effect the epilogue — last seven lines — of Idyll 1. The 
 two poems are nearly of the same length. 
 
 Epitaphium Damonis. 1639. 
 
 Though written in Latin this poem may be regarded as belonging 
 to English literature, especially as it has been several times trans- 
 lated into English. No less than L/ycidas it contains evident remi- 
 niscences of the Lament of Thyrsis, but its immediate model no 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 41 
 
 doubt was Moschus's — 'E7riTa<^ios Bt<uj/os. Virgil's influence, as in 
 Lycidas, is also apparent. 
 
 The invocation to the !N'3rmphs of Himera points with sufficient 
 definiteness to the dirge for Daphnis, for it was with the river 
 Himera that he was associated (Id. 7.73-5) ; and in Heinsius's 
 text (1604), which not unlikely was the text of Milton, in Id. 1.71 
 we have the reading tov i<l> 'l/jtcpa vixvov. Daphnis's name in MUton's 
 first line, as well as that of Hylas, both from Theocritus, confirms 
 the inference. Thyrsis,too, the singer of the ode in the first Idyll, 
 is the singer here also. Without attempting a full exploitation I 
 will point out but one or two other allusions, or imitations : 
 
 51-2. Aut sestate, dies medio dum vertitur axe. 
 
 Cum Pan sesculea somnum capit abditus umbra. 1.15-7. 
 
 88.90. Venit . . . Venit . . 77.80. 
 
 2. MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 John Milton (Cont'd.). Paradise Lost. 1658-65. 
 
 4.325-6. Under a tuft of shade that on a green 
 
 Stood whispering soft, by a fresh fountain-side. 1.1-2 
 
 4.641-56. Sweet is the breath of Mom . . . 
 
 Several Theocritean passages are inevitably suggested. Warton 
 cites Id. 8, fin. and is followed by Todd; but the comparison in 
 Milton's form— so important a feature — is there absent; for this 
 one must look back to lines 41-8 of the same Idyll, where the con- 
 trasting appearances of natural objects, as affected by the presence 
 and absence of the loved one, find an expression which countless 
 poets have imitated. 
 
 4.692-5. The roof 
 
 Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, 
 Laurel and myrtle, etc. 7.8-9. 
 
 For his enumeration of the sensuous delights of his garden of 
 Eden Milton drew further from the same Idyll. 
 
 5.165. Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. 17.3-4. 
 
 9.445 flf. As one long in populous city pent . . . 
 
42 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEE 
 
 This passage has been cited as an illustration of Id. 7 ; but there 
 is no verbal reminiscence. It is only in the feeling for nature that 
 the passages are at all alike. 
 
 Com2is. 1634. 
 
 316-8. I shall know 
 
 Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark 
 From her thatched pallet rouse. 10.50. 
 
 To many critics the spirit of Milton's delight in nature has sug- 
 gested Theocritus. It must have been so to Macaulay when he 
 wrote : 
 
 Neither Theocritus nor Ariosto had a finer or a more healthful sense 
 of the pleasantness of external objects, or loved better to luxuriate amidst 
 sun-beams and flowers, the songs of nightingales, the juice of sumnwor 
 fruits, and the coolness of shady fountains. — Essay on Milton. Id.7. 
 
 That Milton highly esteemed Theocritus may be inferred from 
 his manner of mentioning him in his Tractate on Education (1644) : 
 
 Then also [after the institution of physic] those poets which are now 
 counted most hard, will be both facile and pleasant, Orpheus, Hesiod, 
 Theocritus, Aratus, etc. 
 
 Osgood names Theocritus among the poets to whom Milton is 
 indebted for mythological and poetic suggestions {Clas Myth, in 
 Milton, etc., pp. xli and xliv) . 
 
 SiE Edwaed Sheebukne. Poems and Translations. 1651. 
 
 Translations. — 
 
 Id. 20 (numbered 21 by the translator), The Shepherd, and Id. 
 31, The Penitent Murderer. The heroic couplet is used in the first, 
 and the octosyllabic couplet in the last. This is the second English 
 version of any part of Theocritus. They are devoid of merit. — 
 Eeminiscences of Idd. 1 and 8 occur in the same writer's poem 
 entitled "A Shepherd Inviting a Nymph to his Cottage." 
 
 Abeaham Cowley. Essay: Of Agriculture, c. 1660. 
 
 And Theocritus (a very ancient poet, but he was one of our own tribe, 
 for he wrote nothing but pastorals) gave the same epithet which Homer 
 gave to the swineherd Eumseus to an husbandman, djuet/SeTO oios dypcuTn? 
 (Idyll XXV. 51.) 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 43 
 
 It is interesting to note that while Cowley says Theocritus wrote 
 nothing hut 'pastorals', yet it is an epic Idyll that he quotes from. 
 
 SiK Thomas Beowne. Garden of Cyrus, c. 1650. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Pt. 2., p. 396. The rushy labyrinths of Theocritus. 21.11. 
 
 SiE John Denham. The Progress of Learning, c. 1660. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Nor old Anacreon, Hesiod, Theocrite, 
 Must we forget, nor Pindar's lofty flight. 
 
 In this period of our literature one is disappointed in not finding 
 Theocritus where he might well have been expected ; ia such poets, 
 for example, as Marvel and Herrick. But his 'Doric rusticity,' 
 perhaps, hardly seemed to them consistent with their ideal of lyri- 
 cism, in which courtly conceits, turned with the utmost grace and 
 refinement, were obliged to predominate. We frequently enough 
 find the name of Thyrsis and Damon, Phyllis and Chloe, and the 
 rest, and the mention of flocks, fountains, and pastures, and we 
 have the dialogue form, but we do not have Theocritus — rarely 
 indeed even his name. He seems to have been little known by the 
 poets, except Milton. 
 
IV. THE RESTORATION PERIOD 
 
 Edmund Waller. To the King on His Navy. 
 
 An imitation of the Encomium of Ptolemy, lines 88-105. 
 William Soame. Translation of Boileau's L'Art Poetique. 1680. 
 
 2.25-6. Twixt these extremes 'tis hard to keep the right; 
 
 For guides, take Virgil and read Theocrite. 
 
 Thomas Creech. The Idylliums of Theocritus. 1684.* 
 
 This is the first complete, or practically complete, version of 
 Theocritus. It contains but 27 of the 30 or 31 Idylls, and none 
 of the Epigrams. It is done in heroic couplets, and is not without 
 merit. It generally goes smoothly and euphoniously, according to 
 the fashion ia verse at that time. It is chiefly subsequent trans- 
 lators — whom Creech has sometimes surpassed, particularly in the 
 point of brevity — who have disparaged his version. Dryden, how- 
 ever, who is said to have beguiled him into the undertalring, in 
 order that he himself might shine by comparison — foreseeiiig 
 failure for the victim of his flattery — did not disdain to borrow 
 from him. For the faults of Creech's version, see Pawkes and 
 Polwhele in the prefaces to their versions. 
 
 Anonymous. Daphnis. 1709. 
 
 This is a pastoral elegy written upon the occasion of Creech's 
 death. It contains several reminiscences of the first Idyll. The 
 repetition in the following will be remarked as Theocritean : 
 
 Daphnis, who from the earth has lately fled: 
 
 Daphnis (be living), lov'd and mourn'd for Daphnis dead. 
 
 Allusion to his translations of Lucretius and Theocritus follows : 
 
 Of chaos first he sung . 
 
 Then changed his Subject, and in softer Strains 
 
 Discovered Grecian Loves, to British Swains. 
 
 *For the different issues and editions of translations, see Bibliography I. 
 
THE RESTORATION PERIOD 45 
 
 The conclusion imitates that of the Lament of Thyrsis : 
 Farewell ye streams, and conscious Groves, etc. 
 
 Another pastoral, entitled the Despairing Shepherd, by the same 
 author, also imitates the first Idyll : 
 
 The Nymphs and Shepherds round him came, 
 
 His grief some pity, others blame, 
 
 The fatal Cause all kindly seek; 
 
 He mingled his Concern with theirs. 
 
 He gave 'em back their friendly Tears, 
 
 He sigh'd but wou'd not speak. 
 
 Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Eoscommon. 
 
 An Essay on Translated Verse. 1684. 
 
 Theocritus does now to us belong. 
 And Albion's rocks repeat his song. 
 
 The allusion is to Creech's translation, of that year. 
 
 John Drtden, Wm. Bowles, E. Duke. 
 
 Dryden's Miscellany. 1684-5. 
 
 In Dryden's Miscellany of 1684 and 1685 appeared a series of the 
 Idylls translated by several hands, as follows : 
 
 Drtden : — 
 
 Id. 3. — Amaryllis; Id. 18. — Epithalamium of Helen; Id. 33. — 
 The Dvspai/ring Lover; and Id. 37. — DapJinis and Ghloe. 
 
 Bowles : — 
 
 Id. 3. — The Enchantress; Id. 10. — The Reapers; Id. 14. — Cynds- 
 ca; and Id. 30. — The Herdsman. 
 
 Duke : — 
 
 Id. 11.— The Cyclops. 
 
 Anonymous : — 
 Id. 1. — Thyrsis; Id. 13. — ^-AITHS, and Id. 19.— KHPiOKAEnTHS. 
 
 There are thus twelve in all, making about two-fifths of the 
 poet's little book. They are done most diffusely, in heroic couplets. 
 Dryden's Ama/ryllis (Id. 3) consists of 137 lines for 54 in the 
 original. Theocritus least of all writers can stand this prolixity. 
 
46 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 the heaping up of epithets, and the declamatory style. What seem 
 the artless productions of a divine rustic — an Apollo keeping the 
 flocks of Admetus — ^have become the ornamented essays of cold 
 rhetoricians, who delight in their own dexterity. To be sure, 
 smoothness, fluency, and euphony characterize the couplets, but 
 simplicity is gone, and the charm of naturalness. 
 
 Dryden's Estimate of Theocritus : — 
 
 That which distinguishes Theocritus from all other poets, both Greek 
 and Latin, and which raises him even above Virgil in his Eclogues is the 
 inimitable tenderness of his passions and the natural expression of them 
 in words so becoming of a pastoral . . Even his Doric dialect has 
 
 an incomparable sweetness in its clownishness, like a fair shepherdess in 
 her country russet, talking in a Yorkshire tone. — Preface on Translation 
 (2d Miscel.). 
 
 Mrs. Aphra Behn. The Honey-Stealer of Theocritus. 1685. 
 
 I do not know by whom this version of Id. 19 is made. It is 
 included in a 'Miscellany: A Collection of Poems by Several 
 Hands,' Jlrs. Behn apparently being the collector. 
 
 Wm. Congreve. The Mourning Muse of Alexis. 1694. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 could I sing in verse of equal strain 
 With the Sicilian bard, or Mantuan swain! 
 
 George Granville (Lord Landsdowne). 
 
 The Enchantment, c. 1700. 
 
 'In imitation of Theocritus' — so inscribed by the author. In 
 general the 'imitation' is a paraphrase of varying closeness. It 
 possesses some spirit. 
 
 Basil Kennet. 
 
 Lives and Characters of the Ancient Grecian Poets.* 1697. 
 
 Pages 142-151 of this little book of less than 300 pages are given 
 to Theocritus. It is the first Life of our poet in English. The 
 high praise which the writer bestowed upon the genius of Theocritus 
 
 *For liistciiies that contain anything important about Theocritus, see 
 Bibliography X. 
 
THE RESTORATION PERIOD 47 
 
 received the endorsement of Fawkes by his unacknowledged appro- 
 priation. A part of it runs as follows: 
 
 Tho' Theocritus passes in common Esteem for no more than a Pastoral 
 Poet, yet he is manifestly robb'd of great part of his Fame if his other 
 Pieces have not their proper Laurels ... At the same time he ought, 
 no doubt, to lay his Pastorals as the Foundation of his Credit. And upon 
 the Claim he will be admitted for the happy Finisher, as well as for the 
 Inventor of his Art; and will be acknowledg'd to have excell'd all his 
 following Rivals as much as Originals usually do their Copies. He has 
 the same advantage in the Rural as Homer has in the Epick Poesy; 
 and that was to make the Critics turn His Practice into Eternal Rules, 
 and to measure Nature Herself by his aceomplish'd Model. And therefore, 
 as to enumerate the Glories of Heroick Numbers is the same thing as to 
 east up the Summ of Homer's Praises, so to set down all the Beauties 
 of Pastoral Verse is no more than an indirect way of making so many 
 short Panegyricks on Theocritus. 
 
 Comparing the last two periods, it may be said that the chief 
 poet in each, Milton in the first and Dryden in the second, the one 
 by numerous imitations and reminiscences, the other by translation, 
 show their knowledge and testify to their admiration of our poet. 
 Poets in the second period as in the first whom one might have 
 expected to reveal his influence fail to do so : even the translators 
 of the Idylls, when they come to write pastorals, reveal nothing of 
 Theocritus's spirit. The pastoral forms, imagery and sentiments, 
 however, such as Virgil, following Theocritus, made common, are 
 here in general use among a multitude of pastoralists. In the first 
 period there were but two Idylls translated, but in the latter come 
 one entire version and several partial versions. 
 
V. ERA OF CLASSICISM 
 
 1. THE TASTE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The literary taste and ideals of this era were opposed to a true 
 valuation of Theocritus. The pastorals have nothing of original 
 observation of rural scenery and rustic life. Drawing-room poetry 
 was in vogue, and an artificial style, the farthest removed from the 
 direct, vivid, and fresh utterance of rustics who have a poetic touch 
 in their natures, was alone thought worthy of cultivation. The re- 
 fined and polished graces of Virgil's Eclogues were therefore vastly 
 preferred to the more genuine poetry, though more homely senti- 
 ments, of the Sicilian Idylls. The character of the prevalent taste 
 in this era can be shown by a quotation or two which reveal the 
 common judgment upon Theocritus and Virgil. 
 
 The first is taken from The Critical Review, July 1763 (vol. 14, 
 pp. 21-33), and is offered as representing English taste throughout 
 the eighteenth century. With much else of like purport the fol- 
 lowing sentences are sufficiently indicative : 
 
 Could any writer combine the propriety of Virgil with that irresistible 
 charm found in the Doric dialect of Theocritus, he would then produce a 
 perfect pastoral . . It is with pleasure we observe M. Gessner has 
 
 avoided the faults of his model [Theocritus] without seeming to observe 
 them. He introduces no reapers and fishermen among his shepherds, like 
 Theocritus. He never suffers his swains to break out into abuse or 
 immodesty, as is observable in the characters of the fourth and fifth idyllia. 
 
 That way of thinking and that standard for pastoral poetry, as 
 other quotations given later herein will show, was exhibited from 
 Pope to Polwhele. To emphasize this somewhat further and to 
 mark the change of taste at the beginning of a new era I will make 
 two extracts that are connected by the name of John Aiken. In 
 "Letters from a Father to his Son" (1792-3) he writes: 
 
 I have no doubt, however, that the true secret of the pleasure derived 
 form pastoral, and consequently, of the genuine plan on which it should be 
 written, is an universal longing after a certain imagined state of society, 
 
THE TASTE OF THE EIGHTEENTH OBNTUET 49 
 
 which never did exist, but which may readily be conceived, and by its 
 innocence, tranquillity, and simple delights, sweetly contrasts with the 
 turbulence and evils of the real world . Vol. I., pp. 77-78. 
 
 The extract which is to be set against this is taten from an en- 
 cyclopedic work entitled "General Biography," by John Aiken and 
 Wm. Johnson (London, 1814). The article on Theocritus is 
 signed by "A" and contains the following judgment: 
 
 The purely pastoral may still be placed at the head of that species of 
 composition, from the truth and simplicity of the manners, sometimes, 
 indeed, deviating to coarseness, and the pleasing descriptions of natural 
 objects, evidently drawn from the life. In these respects Theocritus 
 greatly excels his imitators; and his poetry in general is highly agreeable 
 to all who have a taste for genuine simplicity and the beauties of nature. 
 I Vol. IX., p. 367). 
 
 But, as in the other periods of our literature, the interested 
 student shall have the opportunity of seeing Just how Theocritus 
 was spoken of, how he was imitated, and how he was translated. 
 All the facts, so far as they are tangible and expressible, are pre- 
 sented according to the method which will best enable the student 
 to judge for himself. 
 
 William Walsh. Eclogues. 1709. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The design ought to be the representing the life of a shepherd, not only 
 by talking of sheep and fields, but by showing us the truth, sincerity, and 
 innocence, that accompanies that sort of life: for though I know our 
 masters, Theocritus and Virgil, have not always conformed in this point of 
 innocence; Theocritus, in his Daphnis having made his love too wanton, 
 etc. — Pref<we to Poems. 
 
 Eel. 1. Sicilian Muse, my humble voice inspire. 
 
 To sing of Daphne's charms and Damon's fire. 
 
 Eel. 2. Oh, could'st thou, fair one, but contented be 
 
 To tend the sheep and chase the hares with me, 
 
 etc. 11.65-6. 
 
 Eel. 2. Forbear, fond youth, to chase the heedless fair, 
 
 Seek out some other nymph. 11.75-6. 
 
 Eel. 2. Of the best cheese my well-stor'd dairy's full, 
 
 And my soft sheep produce the finest wool. 11.35-7. 
 
50 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Finally, after the manner of Polyphemus, he turns upon himself 
 with these words : 
 
 Take, shepherd, take thy hook, thy flocks pursue, 
 
 And, when one nymph proves cruel, find a new. 11.72-6. 
 
 Eel. 3. [Refrain] : 
 
 Begin, my Muse, begin th' Arcadian strains. 1.64. 
 
 Walsh is a good example of the class of eclogue-writers who have 
 taken Theocritus at second hand. The passages quoted above wiU 
 all be recognized as having their ultimate source in Theocritus; 
 but they may have been, and probably were, impressed upon the 
 writer's memory by Ovid and Virgil. Eclogues 3 and 4 were 
 avowedly written in imitation of Virgil's Eclogues 8 and 7 : but the 
 former contains this adapted Theocritean self-description. 
 
 While you despise my humble songs, my herd, 
 My shaggy brows, my rugged beard, 
 
 etc. 11.31-4. 
 
 And the latter has this — which closely follows Virgil's close imi- 
 tation : 
 
 Strephon and Damon's flocks together fed. 
 
 Two charming swains as e'er Arcadia bred. 
 
 Both fam'd for wit, and fam'd for beauty both. 
 
 Both in the lustre of their blooming youth. 8, init. 
 
 These comments and illustrations have been offered because they 
 apply with equal force to scores — I might within the limits of mod- 
 eration say hundreds — of authors of eclogues in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries. They have a special relevancy to Pope 
 and his contemporaries. 
 
 2. THE PHILIPS. POPE CONTROVERSY 
 
 Ambrose Philips. Eclogues. 1709. 
 
 One of the notable literary wars of the eighteenth century was 
 that which arose between Philips and Pope in regard to the relative 
 merits of their pastorals. The poems of both had appeared in the 
 same number of Tonson's Miscellany in 1709, Philips's at the be- 
 
THE PHILIPS-POPE CONTHOVERRY 51 
 
 ginning and Pope's at the end. Then followed the Guardian papers 
 on Pastorals, ISTos. 22, 23, 28, 30, and 32 (in 1713), with special 
 reference to those of Philips, which were highly praised, and with 
 bare mention of Pope's. Thereupon Pope sent in his anonymous 
 paper (No. 40), in which the ostensible design of the writer was, 
 by adducing corresponding passages from the two sets of pastorals, 
 to reveal the superiority of Philips over Pope, while the real design 
 was to turn Philips to ridicule by selecting passages in which his 
 inferiority rather was manifest. The ruse succeeded, and Philips 
 and Pope thereafter lived, as Dr. Johnson characteristically ex- 
 presses it, 'in a perpetual reciprocation of malevolence.' At this 
 distance of time we may safely place them again side by side, and 
 let them be judged by the common standard of the Sicilian 
 pastoralist. 
 
 Turning, therefore, first to Philips let us see what he knew of 
 Theocritus : 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser are the only poets who seem to have 
 hit upon the true nature of pastoral composition. — Preface. 
 
 Imitations. — 
 
 The first pastoral is a monologue by the shepherd Lobbin, and is 
 a general imitation of the Cyclops. The first lines, however, suggest 
 the beginning of the Thalysia : 
 
 If we, O Dorset, quit the city-throng, 
 To meditate in shades the rural song, 7. Iff. 
 
 etc. 
 
 This conjecture of a Theocritean influence here is confirmed by the 
 allusion immediately following: 
 
 [Of the Muse.] 
 
 Her influence . . . let me there obtain 
 And I forgive the fam'd Sicilian swain. 
 
 Eeminiscences of various Idylls follow: 
 
 Beneath a hoary poplar's whispering boughs. 1.1. 
 
 And now thie moon begins in clouds to rise; 
 The brightening stars increase within the skies ; 
 
52 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 The winds are hush; the dews distil; and sleep 
 
 Hath closed the eyelids of my weary sheep: 
 
 I only, with the prowling wolf, constrain'd 
 
 All night to wake, etc. 2.38-9. 
 
 think, unwitting maid, while yet is time, 
 
 How flying years impair thy youthful prime! 
 
 Thy virgin-bloom will not forever stay. 
 
 And flowers, though left ungather'd, will decay. 23.27-30. 
 
 From this to the end, Id. 11 is pretty closely followed : 
 
 Like frisking heifer, loose in flowery meads. 
 She gads where'er her roving fancy leads. 
 Yet still from me. 11.21-4. 
 
 Like Polyphemus, Lobbin says : 
 
 Two sportive kidlings, both fair-fleck'd, I rear; 
 
 Whose shooting horns like tender buds appear. 11.41. 
 
 He will also cull the flowers 'from early spring to autumn,' for 
 his love (Id. 11.56-8). The following combines 11.65-6, and 
 6.34ff : 
 
 Or if thou deign to live a shepherdess. 
 
 Thou Lobbin's flock and Lobbin shalt possess: 
 
 And fair my flocks, nor yet uncomely I, 
 
 If liquid fountains flatter not. 
 
 Then, returning to 11.65, he follows Polyphemus in inviting the 
 nymph to share his shepherd occupations with him : 
 
 0! come, my love; nor think th' employment mean, 
 The dams to milk, etc. 
 
 The third Pastoral contains an imitation of Theocritus's 
 Encomium of Ptolemy, though it is Virgil's example for 'the higher 
 strain' that he pleads : 
 
 Since, then, through Anna's cares at ease we live. 
 
 And see our cattle unmolested thrive. 
 
 White from our Albion her victorious arms 
 
 Drive wasteful warfare, loud in dire alarms, etc. 17.98-105. 
 
 The following also was probably suggested by VirgU's paraphrase 
 (Eel. 7, init.) rather than by the original (Id. 8, init.) : 
 
 Two valley swains, both musical, both young. 
 In friendship mutual, and united long. 
 Retire within a mossy cave, etc. 
 
THE PHILIPS-POPE CONTKOVBRSY 53 
 
 The death of Albino, which is the theme of this third Pastoral, 
 is treated distantly in the manner of Daphnis's death (Id. 1) : 
 
 Bleating around him lie his plaintive sheep, 1.74. 
 
 And mourning shepherds come in crowds to weep. 1.80. 
 
 Young Buckhurst comes — 1.77 S. 
 
 The tender virgins come — 
 The pious mother comes, — 
 
 The fourth Pastoral also contains reminiscences of Id. 1. 
 
 So close these elms inweave their lofty shade, 
 
 suggests Id. 7.8; but the following liaes suggest Id. 1.1-3: 
 
 Sweet breathe the fields, and now a gentle breeze 
 Moves every leaf, and trembles through the trees. 
 
 The refrains, one for the first part and another for the last part, 
 are also after the same model. And the singer, as in Id. 1, asks 
 for his promised reward: 
 
 And now that sheep-hook for my song I crave. 
 
 The hook bestowed is 'richly by the carver's skill adom'd,' like 
 the cup of Idyll 1.27ff. 
 
 The praise of the singing is after the manner of Id. 1, but it 
 combines the first and last lines of that Idyll : 
 O, Colinet, how sweet thy grief to hear! 
 
 Not half so sweet the midnight winds, which move 
 In drowsy murmurs o'er the waving grove. 
 Nor valley brook that, hid by alders, speeds 
 O'er pebbles warbling, and through whispering reeds. 
 Nor dropping waters, which from rocks distil, 
 And welly grots with tinkling echoes flU. 
 
 The sixth is the most Theoeritean of all of Philips's Pastorals. 
 It is a einging-match, in amcebean fashion, between a goatherd and 
 a cowherd, as in the niath Idyll. The singing itself is in stanzas 
 resembling those of Idylls 5 and 8. The singers in 'capping' lines 
 as in those Idylls tell of their amours and sing the beauties of 
 nature. Their invitations one to the other follow hints given by 
 Theocritus. As an instance : 
 
 Here are cool fountains, and here springing flowers. 
 
54 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 The decision of the judge corresponds to that of Id. 6 : 
 Here end your pleasing strife. Both victors are. 
 
 In the Idyll the judge gave the one singer a syrinx and the other 
 
 a flute. Here he says : 
 
 A boxen hautboy, loud, and sweet of sound, 
 
 All varnished and with brazen ringlets bound, 
 
 I give to each. 6. fin. 
 
 De. Johnson's Opinion: — 
 
 The pipe of the pastoral muse is transmitted by lawful inheritance 
 from Theocritus to Virgil, from Virgil to Spenser, and from Spenser 
 to Philips. — Life of Philips. 
 
 Alexander Pope. Pastorals. 1709. 
 
 It is impossible with certainty to separate Pope's immediate 
 imitations of Theocritusi from his imitations of imitations found 
 in Virgil, Spenser, and elsewhere. Doubtless he knew the Eoman 
 better than the Greek poet, and greatly preferred him, and more 
 often directly copied him. Still, it was especially the Theocritean 
 passages in the Eclogues that Pope chose to imitate and paraphrase. 
 Hence, we have in his Pastorals not a few lines that take us, some 
 directly, more indirectly, back to the Arethusan fountain. And 
 the Sicilian model of the whole still persists, despite all the 
 artificiality. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus excels all others in nature and simplicity. The subjects 
 of his Idyllia are purely pastoral; but he is not so exact in his persons, 
 having introduced reapers and fishermen as well as shepherds. He is 
 apt to be too long in his descriptions, of which that of the Cup in the 
 first pastoral is a remarkable instance. In the manners he seems a 
 little defective, for his swains are sometimes abusive and immodest, and 
 perhaps too much inclining to rusticity; for instance, in his fourth and 
 fifth Idyllia. But 'tis enough that all others learnt their excellencies 
 from him, and that his Dialect alone has a secret charm in it, which no 
 other could ever attain. — 4 Discourse on Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 Pope's own avowal of study and imitation of Theocritus stands 
 in his Discourse. His remarks on the 'Dorick dialecf are a 
 corroborating evidence of the study which he professes. To his 
 definition of a pastoral he adds this note: 'Heinsius in Theoer.' 
 
THE PHILIPS-POPE CONTROVERSY 55 
 
 He also refers to Idylls 10 and 31 by their Greek titles. In the 
 Pastorals themselves he invokes now the nmse of difEerent poets, 
 including Theocritus: in the beginning of Aukimn his address is 
 to the 'Mantuan Nymphs/ and in the beginning of Spring, the first 
 pastoral, it is to the 'Sicilian Muse.' But it is purely conventional 
 in both places. 
 
 Spring. — 
 
 31-2. Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow, 
 
 Here western winda on breathing roses blow. 5.45 ff. 
 
 33. I'll stake yon lamb. 8.14. 
 
 35. And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines. 
 
 And swelling clusters bend the curling vines. 1.27 ff. 
 
 Pope's comment 4u his Discourse on the original of this should 
 be noted: 'He [Theocritus] is apt to be too long in his descriptions, 
 of which that of the cup in the first pastoral is a remarkable 
 instance.' In this censure Pope followed Pontenelle. 
 
 61-2. O'er golden sands let rich Paotolus flow. 
 
 And trees weep amber on the banks of Po. 5.124-7. 
 
 The opposite effects of the absence and presence of the singing 
 shepherds' mistresses upon nature, as described in lines 69-76, 
 correspond to those mentioned by Menalcas and Daphnis in respect 
 to the objects of their passion, Id. 8.41-48. 
 93. [Damon (the judge)]. — 'Cease to contend'; etc. 5.138. 
 
 Summer. — 
 
 23-4. Where stray ye, Muses, in what lawn or grove? 
 
 Pope quotes Virgil 10.9-12, and adds, 'Virg. out of Theocr.' 
 27. As in the crystal spring I view my face — 
 
 Pope's note : 'Virgil again, from the Cyclops of Theocritus.' It 
 is not, however, from the Cyclops (Id. 11), but of the Cyclops, in 
 Id. 6.35. 
 45-6. O, were I made, by some transforming powier, 
 
 The captive bird that sings within thy bower! 3.12-3. 
 
 As Fontemelle had censured the original naive wish as an im- 
 probable conceit in a rustic. Pope doubtless thought he would re- 
 
56 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 move the objection by substituting a bird for a bee; and in so doing 
 he left the poetry all with Theocritus. 
 
 63-4. Come, lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours 
 
 When swains from shearing seek their nightly bowers. 11.42-4. 
 
 69. Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew. 5.46. 
 
 Again, ia lines 73-6, the description of the effect of the loved one's 
 presence on natural objects derives a suggestion from Id. 8.41ff. 
 Theocritus says that where the fair one walks there the bees are 
 filling their hives, the oaks become taller, and spring appears 
 everywhere. 
 
 Autumn. — 
 
 The idea of refrains, one for the first and another for the second 
 half of the poem, is borrowed from Theocritus, Idd. 1 and 2. Cf. 
 Walsh, Pastoral 4. 
 
 37. Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn. 
 
 And liquid amber drop from every thorn. 1.132-3. 
 
 45-6. Not showers to larks, nor sunshine to the bee 
 
 Are half so charming, etc. 9.34-5. 
 
 89-90. I know thee, Love! on foreign mountains bred, 
 
 Wolves gave thee suck, and savage tigers fed. 3.15-6. 
 
 In the last three passages Virgil doubtless stands between the 
 English and the Greek poet. 
 
 Winter. — 
 
 1-4. Thyrsis, the music of that murmuring spring 
 
 Is not so mournful as the strains you sing; 
 Nor rivers winding through the vales below, 
 So sweetly warble, or so smoothly flow. 1.1-2, 7-8. 
 
 8. Oh, sing of Daphne's fate. — 1.19. 
 
 27-8. Let nature change, let heaven and earth deplore. 
 
 Fair Daphne's dead, and love is now no more. 1.134-5. 
 
 89-92. Adieu ye vales, ye mountains, streams and groves. 
 
 Adieu ye Shepherds' rural lays and loves; 
 Adieu my flocks, etc. 1. fin. 
 
 Joseph Wakton's Opinion of Pope: — ■ 
 
 The ideas of Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser, are, indeed, here in the 
 Pastorals exhibited in language equally mellifluous and pure . . . 
 
THE PHILIPS-POPE CONTROVERSY 57 
 
 That Pope has not equalled Theocritus, will, indeed, appear less surprising, 
 if we reflect, that no original writer ever remained so unrivalled by 
 succeeding copyists as this Sicilian master. — Essay on the Genius and 
 Writings of Pope, pp. 2 and 9. 
 
 Thomas Tickell. Essajfs on Pastoral Poetry. 1713. 
 
 The series of papers that appeared in the Guardian in 1713 on 
 pastoral poetry are significant as expressing the prevalent taste 
 and judgment of the time as regards this species of literature. 
 They have been variously ascribed to Addison and to Steele as well 
 as to Tickell. The question of authorship still remains in doubt. 
 They are considered here because the writer, whoever he was, con- 
 stantly refers to the poet we are concerned with. Ko. 38 deals 
 particularly with Theocritus, and No. 33 contains the interesting 
 apologue of the descent of the Pan-pipe from the shepherd-god 
 himself to Menalcas first — who may be supposed to stand for some 
 half-mythical, half-historical pastoral singer, such as Daphnis of 
 Himera — ^thence to Theocritus, and from him to Virgil, and from 
 Virgil to Spenser, and from Spenser to Philips : but four descents 
 in all.* The omission of Pope was the casus belli. One of the 
 iateresting incidents of the war was Pope's enticement of Gay into 
 it on his side with the most telling of all weapons — burlesque. 
 
 John Gat. The Shepherd's Weeh. 1714. 
 
 Though the first intention of Gay was burlesque, yet, having a 
 genuine sense of reality, and a true feeling for nature, he produced 
 better pastorals than either Philips or Pope, whose quarrel was 
 their occasion. He himself, with mock seriousness, speaks thus of 
 his undertaking — suitably affecting the archaic style: 
 
 [On Theocritus's Language.] 
 
 Great marvel hath it been. . . that in this our island of Britain. . . no 
 poet. . . hath hit on the right simple eclogue after the true ancient guise 
 of Theocritus, before this mine attempt. . . This idle trumpery [of other 
 pastoralists] unto that ancient Dorick Shepherd Theocritus was never 
 known. — Proeme. 
 
 *Sir Wm. Jones, it will be seen later, paraphrased this in verse. As I 
 have shown elsewhere this paper derives its idea and outlines from 
 Saimazaro's Arcadia, Pros. Dec. 
 
58 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Following these words, Gay quotes the text of Id. 1.87-8, but he 
 apparently attributes the lines to Id. 5, with the spirit of which 
 they are in keeping. Gay undoubtedly knew Theocritus, but 
 probably for the most part in translation. 
 
 Passing by many forms of expression that have their ultimate 
 origin in the Idylls, I will select a few that seem to be directly 
 borrowed. 
 
 Monday. — 
 
 The entire description of Buxoma, concluding with 'my brown 
 Buxoma is the featest maid,' is an imitation of Battus's description 
 of Bombyca, 10.36ff. 
 
 Tuesday. — 
 
 'White as the curd.' 11.20. 
 
 Wednesday. — 
 
 I've often seen my visage in yon lake, 
 
 Nor are my features of the homeliest make; 6.35ff. 
 
 Thursday. — 
 
 This is a burlesque of The Enchantress and its imitations. 
 Ludicrous charms, signs, and superstitions are made to take the 
 place of those of solemn import in the Idyll. A refrain, twelve 
 times repeated, carries out the burlesque: 
 
 Friday. — 
 
 With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, 
 And turn me thrice around, around, around. 
 
 Albeit thy songs are sweeter to mine ear, 
 
 Than to the thirsty cattle rivers clear; 
 
 Or winter porridge to the laboring youth, 
 
 Or buns and sugar to the damsel's tooth. 8.82-3. 
 
 Dione: A Pastoral Tragedy. 1720. 
 Situations and particular lines are derived from Id. 2. 
 
 Act I. 8. 1. — ^Now have twelve mornings warmed the purple east. 2.4. 
 
 Ibid. — He saw, he sigh'd, he lov'd, was scorn'd and died. 2.82-3. 
 
 Araminta: An Elegy. 
 
 This also is an imitation of Id. 2. It is a jilted maiden's lament 
 for her unfaithful lover, containing a refrain like that of the Idyll. 
 Daphnis is also the lover's name in both poems. 
 
TOWN ECLOGUES 59 
 
 Acis and Oalatea. 1732. 
 Part 2. [Air, sung by Polyphemus]. — 
 
 ruddier than the cherry! 
 
 sweeter than the berry! 
 
 nymph, more bright 
 
 Than moon-shine night, 
 
 Like kidlings blithe and merry! 
 
 Ripe as the melting cluster! 
 
 No lilly has such luster! 
 
 Yet hard to tame 
 
 As raging flame. 
 
 Polyphenms then calls to Galatea, asking : 
 
 Whither, fairest, art thou running, 
 Still my warm embraces shunning? 
 
 He then invites her 
 
 To his palace in the rock. 
 To his dairy and his flock. 
 
 3. TOWN ECLOGUES 
 
 How remote a pastoral species may stray from pastoralism is 
 illustrated by the so-called Town Eclogues, in which the turns of 
 style, the mannerisms, the names, the descriptive traits, — in general, 
 the incidentals of pastoral poetry are imported into satires and 
 burlesques of town-life. The dramatic form, also, and amoebean 
 singing characterize it still. How does this come about? Precisely 
 on the same principle that we have Piscatory Eclogues. The desire 
 of novelty is one motive, and possibly the chief one. But the satiric 
 instinct also has part. The Town Eclogue is generally not very 
 serious. It turns the pastoral forms to ridicule by running into 
 burlesque. Its object also is to satirize in the spirit of light mimicry 
 the doings of towns-folk. 
 
 But have we not a Town Eclogue in Theocritus — the delightful 
 fifteenth Idyll? Milman speaks' of it as 'the inimitable Town 
 Eclogue.' In this Town Eclogue, however, the nomenclature and 
 machinery of the pastoral poems has no place. We do not find here 
 the amoebean singing-matches of shepherds and goatherds, or 
 imitations of these. 
 
60 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Still, here seems to be authority: for as eclogue and pastoral 
 came generally to have the same meaning, and as Theocritus the 
 supreme author of pastorals had written a poem with its scene laid 
 in a great city and dealing with towns-folk — the reasoning is the 
 same as that regarding the Piscatorial Eclogue — how, by an asso- 
 ciation of ideas, could it happen otherwise than that some of the 
 features of pastoral poetry should enter into these poems of city 
 life? No doubt the Theocritean traits were borrowed from imita- 
 tions, and even from imitations of imitations ; but their persistence 
 through such frequent transmission is itself interesting. 
 
 Disregarding here the chronological order, as elsewhere when it 
 suits my purpose to do so, I will group the authors of this species 
 of poetry together : but only to mention them, not to discuss them. 
 Dean Swift, like Dr. Johnson later, disgusted at the cant about 
 nymphs and swains, flocks and sheep-crooks, urged Gay, after the 
 latter's successful burlesque of Phili|)s, to write a Newgate or a 
 Quaker's pastoral. The result was the three Town Eclogues — The 
 Toilette, The TeohTable, and The Funeral. To these he adds The 
 Espousal, 'a, sober eclogue between two of the people called Quakers.' 
 Theocritus wrote nothing approaching this in uncleanness, though 
 he may have been thought by G-ay to have set the example in 
 Idyll 37. Swift himself, with his strong propensity to ridicule 
 by means of coarse burlesque, wrote A Town Eclogue (1710), the 
 scene of which is the Eoyal Exchange. The dialogue form, of 
 course, is used, and Corydon and Phillis, equally of course, are the 
 interlocutors. In a word, the stock features of the Virgilian 
 Eclogue are reproduced in caricature. Andrew Ersklne, having the 
 same sentiment, wrote with a like intention. In his Advertisement 
 he says: 
 
 What I chiefly aim at, is to expose the false taste for florid Description, 
 which prevails so universally in modern poetry. 
 
 His town eclogues are entitled The Hangman, The Harlequin, 
 The Street-walher, and The Undertaker. Richard Jago more 
 closely imitates the pastoral formulas in the amoebean 'strains' of 
 The Scavengers: A Town Eclogue. — Charles .Tenner wrote more 
 seriously in his Town Eclogues (1772), which are entitled The 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 61 
 
 Court-Chaplain, Time Was, The Modern Couple, The Poet, 
 Domestic Happiness, and The Victory. William Combe wrote The 
 Auction: A Town Eclogue (1778). 
 
 In this phenomenon of the Town Eclogue we can discern a 
 distinction in usage between eclogue and pastoral. The word 
 'Idyir was not yet in common English use.* 
 
 But of all the writers of town eclogues by much the most im- 
 portant is yet to be named. In point of time she immediately 
 succeeds Gay, but that I might exhibit the character of her 
 burlesques I have reserved her for the last position. Lady Montagu 
 was a Greek scholar and may be supposed to have read Theocritus. 
 In a letter to Pope, dated April 1, 1717 (Letters and Worhs, 
 11.138), she writes: 
 
 I no longer look upon Theocritus as a romantic writer; he has only given 
 a plain image of the way of life amongst the peasants of his country. . . 
 I don't doubt, had he been bom a Briton, but his Idylliums had been filled 
 with descriptions of thrashing and churning. 
 
 The Eclogues (1716-47) are entitled after the model of The 
 Shepherd's WeeTc of Gay. One specimen of the burlesque will 
 sufSee — passing by many parodies of Pope's imitations of Virgil. 
 
 Thursday. — 
 
 Behold this Equipage my Mathers wrought. 
 With fifty guineas (a great penn'orth) bought. 
 See on the tooth-pick, Mars and Cupid strive; 
 And both the struggling figures seem alive 
 Upon the bottom shines the queen's bright face; 
 A myrtle foliage round the thimble case. 
 Jove, Jove himself, does on the scissors shine; 
 The metal, and the workmanship divine! 1.27 flF. 
 
 4. MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Joseph Addison. The Spectator, No. 58. 1711. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 I will never be persuadied that so fine a writer as Theocritus could have 
 been the author of any such simple works [as the Wings, Altar, Ax, etc.]. 
 
 *See "Note on Idyll, Pastoral, and Eclogue," Appendix II. 
 
62 THEOCEITDS IN ENGLISH LITEEATDEE 
 
 The Spectator, No. 227. 1711. 
 
 The motto is taken from Idyll 3.24-7, Greek text. The subject 
 of the paper, as of ISTo. 223, is the Lover's Leap. Addison writes 
 in the second paragraph: 
 
 I must observe that Theocritus, in the motto prefixed to my paper, 
 describes one of his despairing shepherds addressing himself to his mistress 
 after the following manner: 
 
 'Alas! what will become of me! Wretch that I am! Will you not 
 Bear me? I'll throw off my clothes, and take a leap into that part of the 
 sea which is so much frequented by Olpis the fisherman. And though I 
 should escape with my life, I know you will be pleased with it.' 
 
 !N"o. 233 continues the subject by enumerating those who have 
 taken the leap, and by describing their fate. Among them are 
 Battus, the son of Menalcas the Sicilian, who leaped for Bombyca 
 the musician (Id. 6). Simsetha, who was in love with Daphnis 
 the Myndian (Id. 2). Olpis, the fisherman (Id. 3), who had 
 received a box on the ear from Thestylis (Id. 2). Eunica (Id. 20) 
 in love with Eurybates. Other Theocritean personages mentioned 
 are Praxinoe (Id. 15), and Cynisca and Lycus (Id. 14). 
 
 Here, then, seems to me to be suflBcient refutation of Macaulay's 
 view that Addison had but little acquaintance with our poet. 
 Macaulay makes his inference from an omission of Addison's, thus 
 described : 
 
 Ovid was indebted for that story [of Pentheus, Met. iii.] to Euripides and 
 Theocritus, both of whom he has sometimes followed minutely. But 
 neither to Euripides nor to Theocritus does Addison make the faintest 
 allusion; and we therefore believe that we do bim no wrong by supposing 
 that he had little or no knowledge of their works. — Essay on Addison. 
 
 Thomas Paknell. Health: An Eclogue, a. 1717. 
 
 Allusion. — Now to grave books I bid the mind retreat. 
 
 And such as make me rather good than great; 
 Or o'er the works of easy fancy rove, 
 Where flutes and innocence amus« the grove: 
 The native bard, that on Sicilian plains 
 First sung the lowly manners of the swains. 
 Or Maro's muse, that in the fairest light 
 Paints rural prospects aijd the charms of sight. 
 
 His description to Pope of his habitation in Ireland contains 
 parodies such as the following: 
 
 Here moss-grown trees expand the smallest leaf, 
 
 Here half an acre's corn is half a sheef. 
 
 Here hills with naked heads the tempest meet, 
 
 Eocks at their side and torrents at their feet. 5.45. ff. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 63 
 
 Chaeles Gildon. The Complete Art of Poetry. 1718. 
 
 Following Boileau, whom he quotes, G-ildon prescribes Theocritus 
 and Virgil as models in pastoral poetry, directing the unlearned 
 in Greek and Latin to resort to translations, which, he says, are 
 readily obtainable for both poets. An echo of the Philips-Pope 
 contention is in the following opinion: 'Philips is beyond Contro- 
 versy the third at least in this kind of Poesy' (vol. I., p. 157). 
 
 Allan Eamsat. The Gentle Shepherd. 1735. 
 
 Eeissert maintains that the pastoral poet must be imitative — 
 that is, wholly dependent upon fancy, and therefore artificial— in- 
 asmuch as the pastoral condition of life has ceased to exist. 
 
 Der Bukoliker [he writes] ist auf das studium seiner vorganger ange- 
 weisen. Woher soil er sonst jene hirtenwelt kennen lernen, die nirgenda als 
 in schafergedichten gefunden wird und fur dieselben als konventionelle 
 grundlage gilt? — AnffUa, IX., 205. 
 
 This is an astonishing view of the matter. Did Allan Kamsay, and 
 the Ettrick Shepherd, and Wordsworth, and Crabbe (and Gessner 
 in Switzerland) know nothing at first hand of shepherds, and sing- 
 ing, if not piping, shepherds too? Spenser, also, for that matter, 
 wrote in the north country with shepherds under his immediate 
 observation. And Allan Ramsay — the full errancy of the as- 
 sumption, appears when he is regarded. He is an original 
 pastoralist, who drew, like Theocritus, and doubtless not in imita- 
 tion of him, his idyllic pictures from the life. He had singing 
 shepherds about him when he wrote, says Campbell. True, he was 
 aided by the Italian pastoralists : 'I hope to tope with the authors 
 of Pastor Fido and Aminta,' he writes ; and he doubtless knew his 
 Sicilian predecessor, in translation at any rate. I wish, therefore, 
 only to remark that in the Gentle Shepherd we have a true Doric 
 pastoral of native growth; not indeed just such a pastoral as the 
 singing matches of Theocritus, but the nearest original approach 
 to them in our literature. Eamsay is not, therefore, inaptly called 
 'the Scottish Theocritus.' 
 Testimony. — 
 
 B. H. L. Watson : — 
 
 There has been no serious eflfort to revive the true bucolic poetry of 
 Theocritus, unless we accept [sic] the Gentle Shepherd of Allan Ramsay. — 
 Westm. Rev. 142:441. 
 
64 theockitds in english literature 
 
 Leigh Hunt : — 
 
 Theocritus and Allan Ramsay shake hands over a shepherd's pipe.— A 
 Jar of Honey, p. 109. 
 
 In the spirited verses attributed to Burns entitled Poem on 
 Pastoral Poetry, Eamsay and Theocritus are ranged together : 
 In this braw age o' wit and lear, 
 Will nane the Shepherd's whistle mair 
 Blaw sweetly in its native air 
 
 And rural grace, 
 And wi' the far-famed Grecian share 
 A rival place ? 
 Then exclaiming, 
 
 Yes! there is ane — a Scottish callan! 
 
 he pays this tribute to Tionest Allan' : 
 
 Thou paints auld Nature to the nines 
 
 In thy sweet Caledonian lines! 
 
 Nae gowden stream thro' myrtles twines. 
 
 Where Philomel, 
 While nightly breezes sweep the vines. 
 
 Her griefs will tell : 
 
 In gowany glens thy burnie strays, 
 Where bonie lasses bleach their claes, 
 Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes 
 
 Wi' hawthorns gray, 
 Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays 
 
 At close of day. 
 
 Thy rural loves are Nature's sel': 
 Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell, 
 Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell 
 
 0' witchin love. 
 That charm can the strongest quell, 
 
 The sternest move. 
 
 Eamsay's classical education was limited to Latin. If he knew 
 Theocritus, therefore, it was only in translation, Latin, or English, 
 or possibly French. Prom Ramsay's own words we may infer that, 
 in some way, he had an acquaintance with the poet whose spirit 
 he so largely possesses; for thus he writes in the preface to his 
 Poems in 1738: 
 
 The Scotticisms, which may offend some over-nice ear, give new life 
 and Grace to the Poetry, and become their Place as well as the Dorick 
 Dialect of Theocritus, so much admired by the best judges. 
 
miscellaneous 65 
 
 William Pattison. 
 
 The Bee and Cupid. 'From Theocritus.' 1731. 
 Tbanslation. — 
 
 Id. 19. Heroic couplets. 
 
 C. Carthat. a Pastoral Courtship: Daphnis. 1731. 
 
 [Eeference lost.] 
 Tbanslation. — 
 
 Id. 27. 1-38. 
 
 Anontmoxjs. a Nuptial Song. 'From Theocritus.' 1733. 
 
 [The Gent. Mag.] 
 Tbanslation. — 
 
 Id. 18. Heroic couplets. 
 Anonymous. Cupid Turn'd Thief. 1733. 
 
 Pabaphease. — 
 
 Id. 19. Octosyllabic couplets. The sub-title is: 'A Tale, In 
 Imitation of the 30th Idillion of Theocritus.' It appeared in the 
 Gentleman's Magazine, Dec. 1733. 
 
 Jabez Hughes. Theocritus, Idyll xx. 1737. 
 
 Tbanslation. — 
 
 The form is the heroic couplet. The rendering is free and spirited. 
 
 George [Baron] Ltttelton. The Progress of Love. 1732. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Eel. 2. — Nor Pan, nor Phoebus, tunes our artless reeds : 
 From love alone their melody proceeds. 
 From love, Theocritus, on Bnna's plains. 
 Learnt the wild sweetness of his Doric strains. 
 
 Begin, my pipe, begin the gladsome lay. 
 
 Why stays my Delia in her secret bower ? 
 
 So shall the whitest lamb these pastures feed, 
 Propitious Venus, on thy altars bleed. 
 
 Eel. 3. — Begin, my Muse, and Damon's woes rehearse. 
 
 On a romantic mountain's airy head. 
 
 While browsing goats at ease around him fed, 
 
 Anxious he lay. 3, init. 
 
 Eel. 4. — Thou too, bright goddess, once, in Ida's grove. 
 
 Didst not disdain to meet a shepherd's love. 1.105-6. 
 
 1.64. 
 
 3.6-7 
 
 Ep.4. 
 
 1.19, 64. 
 
66 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Here limpid fountains roll through flowery meads; 
 
 Here rising forests lift their verdant heads. 11.45-7. 
 
 To the Memory of, etc. : A Monody. 1747. 
 Imitation. — 
 
 St. 7. — Where were ye, Muses, when relentless Fate 1.65. 
 
 etc. 
 
 This passage in Theocritus has been imitated possibly oftener than 
 any other. 
 
 Anonymous. A Wapping Eclogue. 1739. 
 
 This interesting adaptation of the fourteenth Idyll appeared in 
 the Gentleman's Magazine, 9 :585-7. 'I have ventured/ writes the 
 author to the editor, 'to send you a Naval Kind of Eclogue, in 
 Imitation of the 14th Idyllium of Theocritus, called the love of 
 Cynisea, as her Amour is the subject of the Poem [etc.].' It is 
 signed 'P. Meanwell.' The interlocutors are Bowsprit and Cap- 
 stern. They begin very remotely from the fourteenth Idyll, but 
 some passages are clever adaptations. 
 
 A few extracts will show the closeness and spirit of this 
 humorous adaptation: 
 
 [Bowsprit loquitur.] 
 
 I'll tell you all— 
 
 The other day some mess-mates chane'd to call. 
 
 All jolly lads, intending all to spend, 
 
 In merriment, the evening with their friend. 14.12ff. 
 
 Then the description of the feast and drinking and singing follows, 
 all still in imitation of Theocritus: 
 
 Round went the chorus'd ballads, till our joys 
 Sue by her plaguy sullen dumps destroys: 
 
 When Sam of Redriflf cry'd in sneering chat. 
 What, dumb? Why, Sue, this melancholy air? 
 
 Then comes the disgraceful climax : 
 
 Full of wild rage, impatient of disgrace, 
 I drove my fist, clench'd double, in her face. 
 
 High tuck'd her hoop, she courses o'er the street. 
 Secured from Bridewell by her swift retreat: 
 So, from my rage, o'er tables, stools and chairs, 
 My madam flew, and hurry'd down the stairs. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 67 
 
 I have met with only a very few, not more than a half-dozen, 
 humorous paraphrases of the Idylls. Robert Lloyd's Chit-Chat 
 {infra, p. 75) belongs to this class of adaptations. 
 
 Henry Fielding. Joseph Andrews. 1743. 
 
 Allusion [Bk. 2, chap. 2]. — 
 
 He concluded with a verse out of Theocritus, which signifies no more 
 than that sometimes it rains, and sometimes the sun shines. 4.43. 
 
 Mark Akenside. Hymn to Ghearfulness. 1745. 
 
 But thine was Homer's ancient might. 
 And thine victorious Pindar's flight: 
 Thy myrtles crown'd the Lesbian meads; 
 Thy voice awak'd Sicilian reeds. 
 Thy breath perfumes the Teian rose, 
 etc. 
 
 'Lesbian,' 'Sicilian,' and 'Teian' are annotated respectively, Alcffius 
 and Sappho, Theocritus, and Anacreon. 
 
 Polwhele notes a general resemblance of Akenside's first three 
 Inscriptions to the first five Epigrams of Theocritus. The third 
 is indeed a paraphrase of Ep. 4 (A Vow to Priapus) . Oliver Yorke 
 (Fraser, 13:241) remarks that Akenside seems to have been fond 
 of Theocritus. For an imitation of this Inscription, see Coleridge, 
 infra, p. 90. 
 
 John Whalet. Translations. 1745. 
 
 Idyll 11 by Whaley, Idyll 1 'by a Gentleman,' and Idyll 31 Tiy a 
 friend.' Heroic couplets ; of no considerable merit. 
 
 Thomas Gray. Letter to Bichwrd West. May 8, 1743. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 I have drank and sung with Anacreon for the last fortnight, and am 
 now feeding sheep with Theocritus. 
 
 Letter to Thomas Warton. Sept. 11, 1746. 
 
 In a select list of seventy-three ancient authors Theocritus is 
 included. 
 
 The Progress of Poetry, 1.3, has frequently been cited as contain- 
 ing a Theocritean illustration, particularly in the phrase 'many- 
 twinkling feet' (Id. 18.7: TJoa-o-l rT£ptirA,eKTois) , but the expression is 
 Homeric. 
 
68 theocritus in english liteeature 
 
 "William Mason. 
 
 MuscEus: A Monody to the Memory of Mr. Pope. 1747. 
 
 Imitation. — 
 
 Whether Lycseus, or that mountain fair. 
 
 Trim Msenalus, etc. 1.66-9. 
 
 Then further, in the manner of the Lament for Daphnis, observ- 
 ing the very word-order, as so many other elegiasts have done, he 
 tells of the poets coming to express their grief : 
 
 'Came Tityrus slow' — , 'Came Chaucer' — , etc. 
 
 R. Greville, writing to Richard Polwhele, July 28, 1788 (Pol- 
 whele's Traditions^ etc., p. 334), thus refers to Mason's opinion of 
 that translator's version of the Idylls : 
 
 Praise from such a character as Mason, must be deemed sterling. 
 Receive it, therefore, with due respect, when I tell you, that he passed 
 the highest compliment on your Theocritus. He said that for smoothness, 
 and harmony of versification, you had considerably exceeded your originals. 
 
 Possibly Mason's ipsissima verla, if we had them, would give us 
 a better opinion of his ear. I quote the utterance only because it is 
 evidence that Mason was acquainted with Theocritus. 
 
 William Shenstone. A Pastoral Ballad. 1743. 
 
 Pt. 2. st.l. — My banks they are furnished with bees. 
 Whose murmur invites one to sleep; 
 My grottos are shaded with trees. 
 And my hills are white over with sheep. 
 
 These are the charmfe that Polyphemus thought Galatea might 
 fancy: groves, flowers, birds, and streams. Hence, like Poly- 
 phemus, he says, 
 
 Pt. 2, st. 2. — One would think she might like to retire, 
 To the bower I've labored to rear. 
 
 Pt. 2, St. 5. — I have found out a gift for my fair; 
 
 I have found where the wood-pigeons breed: 
 
 But let me that plunder forbear, 
 
 She will say 'twas a barbarous deed. 
 
 This is an imitation of Virgil, Eel. 3.68-9, after Theocritus, Id. 
 5.96-7. 
 
miscellaneous 69 
 
 Thomas Blacelock. 
 
 On the Death of Mr. Pope: An Elegy, c. 1745. 
 Allusion — 
 
 Not the Sicilian breathed a sweeter song, 
 While Arethuaa charmed and listening hung, 
 For whom each muse, from her dear seat retired. 
 His flocks protected and himself inspired. 
 
 On the Death of Stella: A Pastoral. 
 
 Sweet to the thirsty tongue the crystal stream. 
 To nightly wanderers sweet the morning beam; 
 Sweet to the withered grass the gentle shower; 
 To the fond lover sweet the nuptial hour; 
 Sweet fragrant gardens to the lab'ring bee, 
 etc. 9. 34-5 
 
 A Pastoral: Inscribed to Euanthe. 
 As in the first Idyll there are two refrains: 
 
 1. Awake, my muse! the soft Sicilian strain. 
 
 2. Forbear, my muse! the soft Sicilian strain. 
 
 Imitation. — 
 
 Mild gleams the purple evening o'©r the plain; 
 Mild fan the breezes, mild the waters flow. 
 
 And every grief but mine consents to rest, 2.38-9. 
 
 love! thy genius and thy force 1 know. 
 
 Nursed by fell harpies in some howling wood. 3.15-6. 
 
 Well I remember 
 
 When in the snare of fate I thoughtless fell. 
 
 1 saw, I loved, I perished at the sight. 2.82-3. 
 
 But see yon rock projected o'er the main, 
 
 etc. 3.25-7. 
 
 Then, like the Cyclops, he turns upon himself: 
 
 Fool! Wretched fool! What frenzy flres thy brain? 
 
 At length recalled, to toil thy hands inure. 
 
 Or weave the basket or the fold secure. 11.72.4. 
 
 Then Polyphemus's self-consolation: 
 
 Some nymph as fair a sprightlier note may gain. 11.76. 
 
 Thus the fond swain his Doric oate essay'd 
 
 Manhood's prime honors rising on his cheek. 6. 3. 
 
70 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Francis Hotland. The Cyclops. 1744. 
 
 Translation. — 
 
 Id. 11. Explanatory title: 'An Idyllium from Theocritus.' 
 Heroic couplets. 
 
 Thomas Wakton, Senior. Poems. 1748. 
 
 The "Wartons, father and two sons, all exhibited an admiration 
 for Theocritus. The three will be placed here together. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Ep. 2 : An offering to Pan; Ep. 3 : To Daphrds Sleeping. 
 
 A Fragment on Satire. 
 
 Allusion .- 
 
 No more I rove collecting classic Sweets, 
 
 Nor warlike Homer's well-fought Battles warm 
 
 Nor Fairy Forests of wild Spenser charm. 
 
 No more I weep while awful Tragedy 
 
 Like Sophocles array'd comes stalking by, 
 
 Nor in mild Maro's Groves and Grotts rejoice. 
 Nor Doric * Shepherd's sweetly-simple Voice. 
 No more convey'd by Pindar's rapid song, 
 I see great Theron's Car victorious whirl along, 
 Nor crown'd with Grapes with gay Anaereon laid 
 Beneath a Plantane praise some beauteous Maid. 
 
 Joseph Warton. A Dissertation on Pastoral Poetry. 1753. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 If I might now venture to speak of the merits of the several pastoral 
 writers, I would say, that in Theocritus we are charmed with a certain 
 sweetness, a romantic rusticity and wildness, heightened by the Doric 
 dialect, that are almost inimitable. . . Several of his pieces indicate a 
 genius of a higher class, far superior to Pastoral, and equal to the sub- 
 limest species of poetry. 
 
 Thomas "Warton, Junior. An Edition of the Idylls. 1770. 
 
 On this edition of Theocritus Warton spent ten years. It is 
 in two quarto volumes and is rendered valuable by its notes, with 
 additions by Toup, and its Dissertations. In that time it was 
 spoken of as 'magnificent.' 
 
 *Theocritu3. — Author's note. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 71 
 
 A translation of the Latin preface and dissertations was printed 
 in the Monthly Review, July and August, 1'<'70, and comments on 
 the notes in September. I wUl make a quotation from the conclu- 
 sion of the Dissertation on Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus is like some large and fertile pasture, abounding with salu- 
 brious herbs and beautiful flowers, and watered with rich streams: Virgil 
 is like a garden laid out in elegant beds, where there is great plenty of 
 flowers, disposed with more art; and cultivated with greater care, but 
 flowers which were originally transplanted from that larger pasture. 
 
 QtroTATioN. — Odes. 1777. 
 
 To the volume of his Odes Warton prefixed as a motto the first 
 three lines of Epigram 1. 
 
 For His Majesty's Birthday. 1786. 
 Alltjsion. — 
 
 And he, sweet master of the Doric Oat, 
 
 Theocritus, forsook awhile 
 
 The graces of his pastoral isle. 
 
 The lowing vale, the bleating cote, 
 
 The clusters on the sunny steep 
 
 And Pan's own umbrage, dark and deep, 
 
 The caverns hung with ivy-twine. 
 
 The cliffs that waved with oak and pine. 
 
 And Etna's hoar romantic pile: 
 
 And caught the bold Homeric note, 
 
 In stately sounds exalting high 
 
 The neign of bounteous Ptolemy. 
 
 Imitation. — A Pastoral in the Manner of Spenser. 'From 
 
 Theocritus.' Idyll XX. 
 
 This is a unique experiment. Pawkes relates (Preface, XII) 
 that he was advised to adopt for his version the antique style of 
 Spenser, but that he declined to do so after examining Spenser's 
 paraphrase of the first idyll of Moschus. 
 
 William Dodd. The Hymns of Gallimachus. 1755. 
 
 Tbanslation. — 
 
 Id. 17. — Blank verse. 
 
 Quotation (in the Dedication). — 
 Id. 17. 116-120. 
 
73 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 An Elegy on the Death of the Prince of Wales. 
 Imitation. — 
 
 In deep suspence, such solemn scenes around, 
 
 I stand, where first to touch the lyre of woe; 
 
 As leaning on his ax, where trees ahound. 
 
 The woodman doubts where first to fix the blow. 17.9-11. 
 
 Preface to Moral Pastorals. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Gessner seems to think, that, for pastoral scenes, we must necessarily 
 recur to the golden age: Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser, all excellent 
 in this kind of poetry, recurred not to the golden age. . . In a Theoc- 
 ritus or a Virgil they [pagan deities, etc.] do well. 
 
 MiCHADL WoDHULL. Ode to the Muses. 1759. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 St. 13. — If Syracusa's bard * with Dorick reed 
 Once sung of festal plains. 
 Of beauteous nymphs, and constant swains, 
 And lov'd his goats, and tender sheep to feed; 
 While in sweet melody he rolls along 
 The pure simplicity of song. 
 Well may he claim the poet's laurel meed: 
 Now we view his shepherds laid 
 Beneath the cool sequester'd shade 
 Where buds the fragrance of yon myrtle grove: 
 While wildly browse their bleating flocks 
 Wandering o'er the pathless rocks 
 Where mantling moss surrounds the lucid rills, 
 Or o'er the flow'r-enamell'd meads they rove, 
 While zephyrs whisper from the pine-topt hills. 
 
 St. 14. Like his were Thomson's rural lays, 
 
 etc. 
 
 James Scott. Ode Sent to Miss B. — 1761. 
 
 St. 8. What lively groups of herds, and flocks. 
 
 The various landscape fill! 
 Here shagged trees, and pendent rocks: 
 There swells the justly-sloping hill, 
 And murmurs many a limpid rill. 
 
 Ode. — On Pleasure. 
 St. 3. Part of that honey next she took. 
 
 Which t Cupid too advent'rous stole, 
 
 *Theocritus. — Author's note. 
 
 fTheocr. EiStiX. 16 ■ — Author's note. All of Id. 19 is paraphrased. 
 Compare Spenser, p. 20, Watson, p. 22, and Lodge, p. 25. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 73 
 
 When stung his throbbing hand he shook, 
 And felt the anguish to his soul: 
 etc. 
 
 Epithalamion. 
 St. 4. But ah in vain! — ^thro' * Ida's bow'rs 
 
 With dubious foot th' astonisht woodman strays: 
 Where shall his work begin? etc. 
 
 John Newbeeey. The Art of English Poetry. 1763. 
 
 Preeminence in the pastoral is accorded to Theocritus, who was 
 'the father or inventor of this kind of poetry." The third Idyll is 
 given as an example of pastoral, in 'Fawkes's elegant version' (vol. 
 I., p. 87). 
 
 SiE William Jones. Arcadia: A Pastoral Poem. 1762. 
 
 As the author explains, his Arcadia is a poetical paraphrase of 
 paper No. 33 of the Guardian, the corresponding passages of which 
 are placed in the margin. 
 
 ESTIMATB OF THEOCRITUS. — 
 
 Menaloas, king of the shepherds, means Theocritus, the most ancient, 
 and perhaps the best writer of pastorals: and by his two daughters, 
 Daphne and Hyla, must be imderstood the two sorts of pastoral poetry; 
 the one elegant and polished, the other simple and unadorned; in both 
 of which he excelled. Virgil, whom Pope chiefly followed, seems to have 
 borne away the palm in the higher sort; and Spenser, whom Gay 
 imitated with success, had equal merit in the more rustic style: these 
 two poets, therefore, may justly be supposed in this allegory to have 
 inherited his kingdom of Arcadia. — Advertisement. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 'Rich were his vales, and deathless was his fame.' 
 'A softer pipe no shepherd ever blew.' 
 
 Charles Chuechill. 
 
 The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Pastoral. 1763. 
 
 This is a rather vigorous satire on the brood of artificial pastor- 
 alists, with some clever burlesque of their oft recurring mannerisms. 
 
 *Theocr. Eyko/u,. n t o /C— Author's note. Compare Dodd, p. 71. 
 
74 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Beneath their care behold the work refine, 
 Pointed each sentence, polished ev'ry line. 
 Trifles are dignified, and taught to wear 
 The robes of Ancients with a Modern air. 
 Nonsense with Classic ornaments is grac'd, 
 And passes current with the stamp of Taste. 
 Then the rude Theocrite is ransacked o'er, 
 And courtly Maro called from Mincio's shore; 
 Sicilian muses on our mountains roam. 
 Easy and free as if they were at home. 
 
 William Thompson. Sonnet: On Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar. 
 
 1763. 
 
 ALLTTSIOIil AND IMITATION. 
 
 At large beneath this floating foliage laid 
 
 Of circling green, the crystal running by, 
 
 ( How soft the murmur, and how cool the shade ! ) 
 
 While gentle-whispering winds their breath apply 
 
 To swage the fever of the sultry sky; 
 
 Smit with the sweet Sicilian's simple strain, 
 
 I try the rural reed, but fondly try 
 
 To match his pastoral airs and happy vein; 
 
 Next I assay the quill of Mantua's swain 
 
 Of bolder note, and of more courtly grace: 
 
 Ah, foolish emulation! They disdain 
 
 My awkward skill, and push me from the place. 
 
 Yet boast not, thou of Greece, nor thou of Rome; 
 
 My sweeter Colin Clout out-pipes you both at home. 
 
 The effort in the first lines to reproduce the features of the scene 
 of the first Idyll will be remarked. 
 
 Egbert Llotd. The Tears and Triumph of Parnassus. 1760. 
 
 Imitation. — 
 
 Where were ye. Muses, when the fatal shears 
 
 The Fury raised, to close his reverenced years? 1.65-8. 
 
 The Poetry of Professors, c. 1764. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 And Venus, with her train of Loves, 
 Shall bring a thousand pair of doves 
 To bill, to coo, to whine, to squeak. 
 Through all the dialects of Greek. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 75 
 
 How many swains, of classic breed, 
 Shall deftly tune their oaten reed. 
 And bring their Doric nymphs to town, 
 To sing their measures up and down, 
 In notes alternate, etc. 
 
 To be sure no knowledge of Theocritus is betrayed here: only 
 the far-off imitations are alluded to. 
 
 cut-Chat c. 1764. 
 Imitation. — 
 
 The explanatory title says: 'an Imitation of Theocritus, Idyll 
 xv.'EvSoi Upo^ivoa ' . This, like Warton's imitation in the manner of 
 Spenser, is an altogether unique and a very interesting experiment 
 with Theocritus. The spirit of the little Syracusan drama has 
 been perfectly captured in an adaptation to a London scene on a 
 public occasion. In extended passages it is a close and felicitous 
 translation. It is further interesting because it contains in 
 one speech a modicum of Scottish dialect — the only bit of 
 Theocritus so rendered that I have met with. Compare 'A Wapping 
 Dialogue,' supra, p. 66. 
 
 Francis Pavtkes. The Idylliums of Theocritus. 1767. 
 
 This is the second complete version of the Idylls — the first of 
 both Idylls and Epigrams. It is no doubt superior to Creech's, 
 which was almost a century earlier; but it still misses the grace 
 and felicity of Theocritus. Its faults, like those of all the versions 
 from Creech to Polwhele, arise from the exigencies of rhyme and 
 metre, from artificial norms of expression, and from the custom, 
 then prevalent, of 'adorning' and padding the translation. 
 Bpithetish and bombastic are they all. The demand for euphony 
 according to the idea of euphony then obtaining, makes the style 
 generally stilted and declamatory. The prevalent heroic couplet, 
 with which are associated these and other vices, such as the 
 perpetual balance of phrases, the effort for antithesis and point, 
 and the almost constant limitation of rhythms to two lines, comes 
 in for a large share of the blame. 
 
 The Gentleman's Magazine for Dec, 1760, contained of this 
 version Idyll 3, which it announced as 'a specimen of a new 
 Translation of Theocritus, now preparing for the Press.' 
 
 The Monthly Review, Sept., 1767, selected the 24th Idyll and 
 
76 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 with comments printed it entire as a specimen of the work. The 
 review occupies pp. 206-315 of vol. 37. 
 
 Oliver Yorke in Preiser's Magazine. Oct., 1835, thus writes of it: 
 
 The translation Itself is often inelegant, and, though not destitute of 
 successful passages, can rarely boast of any higher honor than that of 
 vanquishing his predecessor Creech.* 
 
 William Wilkie. Fable VIII. The Fisherman. 1768. 
 
 The explanation follows the title that the fable is an imitation 
 of Theocritus. It begios thus: 
 
 By all the sages 'tis confest 
 That hope when moderate is best. 
 
 After this moralized introduction, in the spirit of the twenty- 
 first Idyll, the reproduction continues: 
 
 A tale an ancient bard has told 
 Of two poor fishermen of old, 
 etc. 
 
 The description of the cottage and its furniture follows, in a 
 humorous vein : 
 
 Upon a rock their cottage stood 
 On all sides bounded by the flood: 
 etc. 
 
 It is a clever adaptation, verging upon burlesque. 
 
 A Dream. In the Manner of Spenser. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The poet having been accused by Homer of borrowing from him 
 answers that others 
 
 Are equally your debtors, or much more, 
 Let Tityrus himself produce his store: 
 Take what is thine, but little will remain: 
 Little, I wot, and that indebted sore 
 To Ascra's bard, and Arethusa's swain. 
 
 It is a frequent comment on Virgil, throughout English litera- 
 ture, that in his three species of poetic works he was indebted 
 respectively to Homer, Hesiod, and Theocritus. For example, see 
 
 *For reviews of the various translations of Theocritus, see Bibliography 
 IX. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 77 
 
 'Eobert Heron' (pseudonym of John Pinkerton), Letters of Litera- 
 ture (London, 1785), p. 93: 
 
 Virgil in his Qeorgics was the imitator of Hesiod, as in his Pastorals 
 of Theocritus, and in his Mneid of Homer. 
 
 Anonymous. A Familiar Epistle to a Friend. 1769. 
 
 This explanation follows the title : 'With the Head of Harpoc- 
 rates (the God of SUence amongst the Egyptians) in a Eing.' It 
 was published in the Annual Register, 1769, p. 326. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The ancient poets' heads were bought 
 By men who would be poets thought. 
 First Fawks and Coleman made a fuss, 
 Bought Terence and Theocritus. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. The Beauties of English Poetry, c. 1765. 
 
 [Of Gay's Shepherd's Week.} 
 
 Gay has hit the true spirit of pastoral poetry. In fact he more re- 
 sembles Theocritus than any other English pastoral writer whatsoever. 
 
 Essay on Poetry. (Essay xx.) 
 
 Many beauties of the same kind [onomatopoeia] are scattered through 
 Homer, Pindar, and Theocritus, such as the Bo/i)8eD(ra jaeXio-tra [Id. 3.13] 
 susurrans apicula; the aSv tjndvpuTiJM [Id. 1.1.] duloem susurrum, and the 
 /icXurSerou [Id. 1.2.] for the sighing of the pine. 
 
 EiCHAHD Sheridan and N. B. Halhed. 
 
 Letter [of Halhed]. 1770. 
 
 Halhed in a letter to Sheridan speaks of some schoolboy transla- 
 tions of theirs, which seem never to have got into print. It is thus 
 he writes : 
 
 I think too that the old thing we did at Harrow out of Theocritus 
 concerning Ageanax and those small bucks [Idyll 7] might be pruned 
 up a little, and cut a figure; the rather because I am sure they are all 
 good verses, and breathe full as much of the spirit of the original as 
 Mr. Vawkes's new translation. — Sheridan, A Biography, 1.97. 
 
 The same writers, in their edition of The Love Epistles of 
 Aristcenetus, compare Epistle iii to the pastorals of Theocritus. 
 
78 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 John Scott. Moral Eclogues. 1778. 
 
 The influence of Gessner, which is also in a measure Theocritean, 
 18 manifest in these pastorals of Scott. 
 
 Eel. 2. There spread the wild rose, there the woodbine twin'd ; 
 There stood green fern; there, o'er the grassy ground, 
 Sweet Camomile and Alehoof crept around, 
 etc. 
 
 This is quoted for its Theocritean repetition of the deictic adverb 
 at the beginning of the clause and its enumeration, in his way, of 
 the simple charms of his landscapes. 
 
 Two young shepherds are stretched upon the greensward in the 
 upland shade. The aged minstrel Palemon comes along and in 
 response to their entreaty sings them a song. Larvon replied, 
 eoncludiag the Eclogue: 
 
 — Sweet is the sound of gales 
 Amid green osiers in the winding vales; 
 Sweet is the lark's loud note on sunny hills. 
 What time fair Morn the sky with fragrance fills; 
 Sweet is the nightingale's love-soothing strain, 
 Heard by still waters on the moonlight plain! 
 But not the gales that through green osiers play. 
 Nor lark's nor nightingale's melodious lay. 
 Please like smooth numbers by the Muse inspired! 
 
 The extended comparisons and frequent initial repetition of 'sweet' 
 — a favorite word with Theocritus — and the word-order, are in the 
 manner of the conclusion of Idylls 8 and 9. Compare the similar 
 passage from Byron's Don Juan, p. 97, and that from Bla^klock, 
 p. 69. 
 
 The rustic lover says to his mistrustful sweetheart : 
 
 Eel. 4. '0 no! said I, 'let oxen quit the mead, 
 
 With climbing goats on craggy cliffs to feed.' 
 
 Here Virgil stands between the English poet and Theocritus, as 
 Gessner elsewhere does. 
 
 Amwell: A Descriptive Poem. 1776. 
 
 The theme of the poem is 'the sweet pastoral landscapes of Eng- 
 land,' which, he says, are as fair as those 
 
MISCELLANEOUS 79 
 
 — ^the pride of Greece, 
 Temp6 or Arcady; or those that grac'd 
 The banks of clear Elorus, or the skirts 
 Of thymy Hybla, where Sicilia's isle 
 Smiles on the azure main; there once was heard 
 The Muse's lofty lay. 
 
 The allusion can be to none other than Theocritus. 
 
 Imitation. — 
 
 — And mingled sounds 
 Of falling waters and of whisp'ring winds. 1. init. 
 
 Amcebean Eclogues. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Eel. 2. Where fam'd Anapus' limpid waters stray, 
 
 Sicilia's poet tun'd his Doric lay; 
 While o'er his head the pines dark foliage hung, 
 And at his feet the bubbling fountain sprung. 
 
 Imitation. — 
 
 As dewy cherries to the taste in June, 
 
 As shady lanes to travelers at noon, 12.8-9 
 
 To me so welcome is the shepherd's strain. 8 and 9, fin. 
 
 Samuel Johnson. The Adventurer, No. 92. 1753. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus vmited elegance with simplicity; and taught his shepherds 
 to sing with so much ease and harmony, that his countrymen despairing 
 to excel, forebore to imitate him; and the Greeks, however vain or 
 ambitious, left him in quiet possession of the garlands which the wood- 
 nymphs had bestowed upon him. 
 
 — And, perhaps where he [Virgil] excels Theocritus, he sometimes obtains 
 his superiority by deviating from the pastoral character, and performing 
 what Theocritus never attempted. 
 
 Life. 1780. 
 
 According to Boswell (Hill's edition, iv. 2) Dr. Johnson spoke 
 very disparagingly of our poet. 'Theocritus,' he is quoted, at 
 second-hand, as saying, 'Theocritus is not deserving of very high 
 respect as a writer.' This utterance is in accord with the eighteenth 
 century standards of taste. Outside of that century such an opinion 
 can hardly be found. The superiority is assigned to Virgil, and is 
 
80 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 accounted for, in a characteristic manner, by 'the larger influx of 
 knowledge into the world than when Theocritus lived.' This other 
 opiaion is also interesting : 'Theocritus does not abound in descrip- 
 tion, though living in a beautiful country.' The fisty-cuff between 
 Pollux and Amycus is selected for special praise : 'Euripides could 
 not have done it better.' 
 
 Dr. Johnson also speaks of Theocritus in his Life of Ambrose 
 Philips, and elsewhere, apropos of pastorals. He also rendered Ep. 
 31 — Hipponax — into Latin. 
 
 In this period the direct influence of Theocritus was at least no 
 greater than iq the foregoing period. Artificial sentiments and a 
 fictitious pastoralism generally prevailed. Virgilian grace and re- 
 finement completely triumphed over Doric simplicity, fitness, and 
 truth to nature. Burlesque alone approached true pastoralism. 
 Eclogues, not pastorals, were in vogue; and the pastorals so-called 
 generally had nothing of pastoralism save the names of Corydon 
 and Phyllis and their billings and cooings. Hence arose a disgust 
 of pastoral poetry. Hence in the Heron Letters of Literature, we 
 have this curious table of periods that must pass over different 
 species of works before the stamp of lasting merit is placed upon 
 them: Epic poetry, 100 years; Dramatic, 50 years; Lyric, 100 
 years ; Pastoral, 5 minutes ! And the reason for this brief allow- 
 ance to the last is 'the putrescent quality of pastorals' (pp. 488-3). 
 
 Yet in this period one entire version falls — Fawkes's — and never 
 at any other time were there so many partial versions, though they 
 possess little merit. At its end also comes the elaborate edition of 
 Thomas Warton. 
 
VI. THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 
 
 Egbert Burns. Poem on Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 But thee, Theocritus, wha matches? 
 They're no herd's ballats, Maro's catches! 
 
 For another quotation from the same poem, see 'Allan Eamsay/ 
 p. 64. The poem is of doubtful authenticity. (See the Centenary- 
 edition of Bums, IV., 105-6.) 
 
 Bums knew Theocritus at the time of the publication of his first 
 book. In the opening sentence of his Preface (1786), he thus 
 alludes to the pastoral Idylls, indicating that his own poems be- 
 longed to the same species : 
 
 The following trifles are not the production of the Poet, who, with all 
 the advantages of learned art, and perhaps amid the elegancies and 
 idleness of upper life, looks down for a rural theme, with an eye to 
 Theoerites or Virgil. 
 
 I have nowhere else met with this spelling of the name of our 
 poet. 
 
 KiCHARD PoLWHBLE. The Idyllia, etc. of Theocritus. 1786. 
 
 This is the third complete version of Theocritus in English. 
 Like all its predecessors, except the 8ixe Idillia, it is in heroic 
 couplets. The translation is in no respect superior to that of 
 Fawkes. All of the faults of the Dryden-Pope school of rhymers 
 belong to his verses, with none of the graces, the brief and simple 
 modes of expression, of Theocritus. And yet this translation was 
 much commended for many years. It was reissued, in various 
 forms, in 1793, 1810, 1813, 1832, etc. The knowledge of Theocritus 
 was doubtless greatly extended by its repeated publication. Lead- 
 ing critical journals advanced the same end by their reviews, in 
 which the poet as well as the translator was extolled. See the 
 Critical Review, May, 1787; the Gentleman's Magazine, July, 
 1787, and the New Annual Register, 1786 (p. 375). 
 
 The Monthly Review, April, 1788, in commenting on Polwhele's 
 
82 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEAT0EE 
 
 success, thus speaks of the nature of the task of translating 
 Theocritus : 
 
 There are few authors of whom it is more difficult for a translator to 
 preserve the characteristic features than Theocritus. In the happy 
 union of simplicity and gaiety, he may be almost pronounced inimitable. 
 
 In the Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1787, was a poem addressed 
 'To the Translator of Theocritus,' of which the first quatrain is as 
 follows : 
 
 To thee, Polwhele, in friendship's grateful lays, 
 A rustic bard pours forth his artless praise; 
 Pleas'd in thy gentle, flowing verse to trace 
 Doric simplicity and pastoral grace. 
 
 The 'sonnet' is signed 'C. B.' and the writer is supposed to be J. 
 Basset Collins (Polwhele's Traditions, p. 197). Polwhele had many 
 acquaintances among scholars and writers of his time and from 
 their letters to him, preserved in his Traditions and Recollections, 
 much can be learned regarding contemporary interest in and knowl- 
 edge of Theocritus. From these I will make a few quotations, 
 which will be found instructive on many points. The requirement 
 of a translator of Theocritus is implied in a letter of 1785 from 
 H. Drewe, who had been a feUow-student of Polwhele's at Corpus 
 Christi College: 
 
 From the testimonies to your 'Art of Eloquence,' I long to see our 
 Sicilian rustic dressed in his Sunday's coat, by a gentleman we may call 
 our own ( Traditions, p. 182 ) . 
 
 Doubt as to the success of a translation is expressed in the follow- 
 ing. The reason for the doubt is the thing of interest. Anna 
 Seward to Polwhele, Dec. 37, 1785 : 
 
 — 'For, as I'm a sinner, 
 I as soon should expect a roast phenix for dinner,' 
 
 as that fifty people in this nation would willingly purchase a new transla- 
 tion of writers so little known as either Horace or Theocritus [Ibid. p. 173). 
 
 Other and doubtless more philosophical reasons for failure are 
 given by E. S. in a letter of Dec. 3, 1785 : 
 
 The pastorals of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, unless the elegance 
 of the translation recommend them, will never take in an English dress. 
 Pastoral Poetry is quite out of fashion. There is not a pert school-boy 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 83 
 
 of fourteen that has not been taught to run it down as unnatural, and to 
 laugh at the soft complainings of a Thyrsis, a Corydon, or a Daphne . . . 
 There certainly are many wonderfully fine passages dispersed up and 
 down through the works of Theocritus ... If you had oflfered to 
 publish a burlesque upon the Pastorals of Theocritus, etc., I sincerely 
 believe you would have had more admirers {Ibid. pp. 189-190). 
 
 Dr. Bathurst, bishop of Norwich, writes, Dec. 10, 1785 : 
 'Theocritus has long wanted a poetical translator" (Ibid. p. 190n.). 
 
 'J. T.,' writing Nov. 5, 1788, of a new and cheaper edition of 
 the translation, says: 
 
 The beautiful Pastorals of your favorite Poet have been long withheld 
 from many readers of refined taste, who are unacquainted with the 
 original language (Ibid. p. 205). 
 
 Polwhele was the author of a niiinber of works which showed him 
 to be sensible to the pleasing scenes of nature. The same taste 
 which led him to Theocritus prompted him to write Pictures from 
 Nature (1785), Shetches in Verse (1796), and the Inftuence of 
 Local Attachment (poem, 1796). 
 
 A motto for The Cottage Girl (poem, 1786), is chosen from Id. 
 8 (1. 60 of his own version. The original can hardly be said to 
 contain the line). In the English Orator (poem, c. 1785) occurs 
 the following allusion to his fondness for pastoral poetry; the 
 description is a reminiscence of Gray's elegy and the beginning of 
 the first Idyll: 
 
 Bk. 4. There, where the veteran umbrage of the beech 
 
 O'er-hangs the cressed brook, that gurgling laves 
 Its wreathed roots, or the long-waving limes 
 Have darkened their broad shadows, may I oft 
 Attune the pastoral song . . . 
 
 From his valuable Dissertation I will make two quotations, the 
 first showing how he regarded Theocritus's work as realistic, and 
 the second expressing his Judgment of the language of the Idylls : 
 
 The Pieces of Theocritus are the result of his own accurate Observation. 
 He described what he saw and felt. His Characters as well as hia 
 Scenes are the immediate Transcript of Nature. (p. 305, first ed.) 
 
 The Doric Dialect in which the Idyllia are for the most part written, 
 was, of all others, best adapted to the Subjects, the Characters, and 
 
84 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Bimplicity of the Sentiment. It possesses an inimitable charm, that can 
 never be transfused in the most happy translation. It hath a modulated 
 Sweetness which melts upon the Ear, at the same time that Wildness 
 and Rusticity often characterize the Personages who use it. (p. 307.) 
 
 Hugh Blair. Lectures on Bhetoric. 1783. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus is the original, of which Virgil is the imitator. For 
 most of Virgil's highest beauties in his ecologues are copied from Theocri- 
 tus ; in many places he has done nothing more than translate him. ( p. 393, 
 Lecture XXXIX.) 
 
 William Lisle Bowles. Sonnets. 1789. 
 
 Because of this author's position and influence in English poetry 
 and his admiration of Theocritus we must briefly note a few points 
 here in literary history. Bowles is called by Gilfillan, his editor, 
 'the father of modern poetry.' Whether the claim is made good or 
 not the reader must go to that writer's edition in order to learn. 
 In 1789, ten years before the Lyrical Ballads, Bowles published his 
 Fourtaen Sonnets, written chiefly on Picturesque Spots during a 
 Journey. 'Their success/ writes Marston {Diet. Nat. Biog., a. v. 
 Bowles), 'was extraordinary, the first small edition being speedily 
 exhausted, while Coleridge, then in his seventeenth year, expressed 
 his delight at the restoration of a natural school of poetry. . . . 
 The simplicity and earnestness of Bowles had all the charm of 
 novelty and contrast.' In his sonnet to Bowles, Coleridge lets us 
 perceive what it was that charmed him in the new poet : 
 
 Those soft strains, 
 Whose sadness soothes mie like the murmuring, 
 Of wild bees in the sunny showers of spring. 
 
 Young Bowles's master at Winchester was Dr. Joseph Warton, 
 whose admiration for Theocritus, we have noted, was very high. 
 On the death of his old master, Bowles wrote a Monody in which 
 occur these lines containing reminiscences of the first Idyll : 
 
 The oaten reed 
 Now from the mountain sounds; the sylvan Muse, 
 Reclined by the clear stream of Arethuse, 
 Wakes the Sicilian pipe; the sunny mead 
 Swarms with the bees, whose drowsy lullaby 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 85 
 
 Soothes the reclining ox with half -closed eye; 
 
 While in soft cadence to the madrigal, 
 
 From rock to rock the whispering waters fall! 
 
 Pictures from Theocritus, a. 1786. 
 
 The original sonnets and other poems of Bowles are important 
 work in our poetic literature. There is something comparatively 
 new, fresh, and genuine in much of his poetry; the same spirit 
 that was afterwards in Wordsworth was in the author of the sonnets 
 entitled Approach of Summer, At Oxford, At Dover, Evening, and 
 To the River Itchin — to name no more of many that are worthy 
 to be named. These were all written before 1786. Two other 
 poems that are Wordsworthian in spirit contain allusions to Theoc- 
 ritus, and I will make extracts from them: 
 
 The Visionary Boy. 
 
 That Sicilian plain 
 Which Arethusa's clearest waters lave, 
 By many a haunt of Pan, and wood-nymph's cave, 
 Lingering and listening to the Doric strain 
 Of him * the bard whose music might succeed 
 To the wild melodies of Pan's own need! 
 
 On a Landscape of Rubens. 
 
 So glows the scene; 
 And to the pensive thought refined displays 
 The richest rural poem. Oh, may views 
 So pictured animate thy classic mind, 
 Beaumont, to wander 'mid Sicilian scenes. 
 And catch the beauties of the pastoral bardf 
 
 Shadowing his wildest landscapes! Etna's fires, 1. 
 
 'Bebrycian rocks, 'Anapus' holy stream, (1.) 22 (2.) 1. 
 
 And woods of ancient Pan; the broken crag 
 And the old fisher here; the purple vines 
 
 There bending; and the smiling boy set down 1. 
 
 To guard, who, innocent and happy, weaves. 
 Intent, his rushy basket, to ensnare 
 
 •Theocritus. — ^Author's note. 
 
 fTheocritus. Alluding to a design of illustrating the picturesque char- 
 acter of the venerable Sicilian, by paintings of Sir George Beaumont from 
 new translations of Messrs. Sotheby, Howley, W. Spencer, and the 
 author. — Author's note. 
 
86 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 The chirping grasshoppers, nor sees the while 
 
 The lean fox meditate her morning meal, 
 
 Eyeing his scrip askance; whilst further on 
 
 Another treads the purple grapes — ^he sits. 
 
 Nor aught regards, but the green rush he weaves. 
 
 Beaiunont! let this pomp of light and shade 
 
 Wake thee, to paint the woods that the sweet Muse 
 
 Has consecrated: then the summer scenes 
 
 Of Phasidamus, clad in richer light, 7. 
 
 Shall glow, the glancing poplars, and clear fount; 
 
 While distant times admire (as now we trace 
 
 This summer-mantling view) hoar .Etna's pines. 
 
 The vine-hung grotts, and branching planes, that shade 
 
 The silver Arethusa's stealing wave. 
 
 I haye quoted this passage in full because of its allusions to the 
 Idylls, as indicated in the margin. As for the paintings and the 
 translations alluded to, I can find no trace of them. 
 
 Eeturning to the Pictures from Theocritus, written about the 
 time that Burns was making up hie first book, they become very 
 significant in -view of the new romantic spirit that was strong in 
 Bowles's original poems. It was Theocritus, more than any other 
 poet, who fructified in him the seeds of poetry. It was by Theocritus 
 that his inborn love of nature, which is his great distinction, was 
 deepened and brought to poetic expression. The Pictures from 
 Theocritus, six in number, are based upon the following passages: 
 
 Id. 1.1-23; 39-54; 66-9; 123-40; Id. 7.130-45; Id. 22.27-79. 
 
 Egbert Southey. Horror. 1791. 
 
 The motto of this poem is the text of Id. 2.11-13. The fifth 
 stanza contains a reminiscence of the same Idyll. In his Intro- 
 duction to his English Eclogues Southey bears witness to the 
 influence of Gessner upon English poetry at the end of the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 William Sotheby. On Physiognomy. 1794. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Can then the dull and perishable earth 
 Mould in their mass the intellectual birth, 
 O'er different talents stated forms preside, 
 And in the same to varying branches guide? 
 Hence did immortal Homer forceful roll 
 
THE ERA OP ROMANTICISM 87 
 
 The pearl of epic thunder on the soul, 
 
 A melting Sappho languish on the lyre, 
 
 Tyrtseus' warmth relume the Spartan fire; 
 
 Anacreon sing with wreaths of roses crowned, 
 
 And the sweet Dorian breathe the pastoral sound? 
 
 Anonymous. The Honey-Thief. 1791. 
 
 Translation. — 
 
 Idyll 19. Heroic couplets. 
 
 Edward Du Bois. The Wreath. 1799. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Idylls 19, 20, and 31 : The Honey-Thief, 'The Herdsman, and 
 The Dead Adonis. The versions are in prose. The book is re- 
 viewed in the British Critic, Aug., 1799. In the review Theocritus 
 is called 'the great pastoral poet, one of the immortal honors of 
 Syracuse.' 
 
 Charles Lamb. Letters: to Manning, Aug., 1800. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 We shall see him [Dyer] sweetly restored to the chair of Longi- 
 nus. . . to prove that Theocritus first introduced the Pastoral. 
 
 William "Wordsworth. The Prelude. 1805. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Child of the mountains, among shepherds reared. 
 
 Ere yet familiar with the classic page, 
 
 I learnt to dream of Sicily. . . . 
 
 And, Theocritus,* so far have some 
 
 Prevailed among the powers of heaven and earth. 
 
 By their endowments, good or great, that they 
 
 Have had, as thou reportest, miracles 
 
 Wrought for them in old time: yea, not unmoved, 
 
 When thinking on my own beloved friend, 
 
 I hear thee tell how bees with honey fed 
 
 Divine Comatas, by his impious lord 
 
 Within a chest imprisoned; how they came 
 
 Laden from blooming grove or flowery field, 
 
 And fed him there, alive, month after month. 
 
 Because the goatherd, blessed man! had lips 
 
 Wet with the Muses' nectar. — Book Eleventh, fin. 
 
 •Theocritus. Idyll, vii. 78. — Wordsworth's note. 
 
88 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Preface. 1815. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The Idyllium, — descriptive chiefly either of the processes and appear- 
 ances of external nature, as the Seasons of Thomson; or of characters, 
 manners, and sentiments, as are Shentone's Schoolmistress, The Cotter's 
 Saturday Night of Bums, The Twa Dogs of the same Author; or of these 
 in conjunction with the appearances of Nature, as most of the pieces of 
 Theocritus, the Allegro and Penseroso of Milton, Beattie's Minstrel, Gold- 
 smith's Deserted Village (p. 42). 
 
 It is worth while to note the poems with which "Wordsworth has 
 classed the Idylls. None of them are called pastorals by their 
 authors. 
 
 A Poefs Epitaph. 1799. 
 
 This poem is built upon the idea of the Epigram on Hipponax. 
 This was noted m the Spectator of Oct. 2, 1880, where the follow- 
 ing version of the Epigram was given : 
 
 The poet Hipponax lies here: 
 Dullards and knaves your distance keep; 
 True sons of worthy sires, draw near, 
 Fear not to sit, or safely sleep. 
 
 The last stanza of the Poefs Epitaph runs thus : 
 
 — Come hither in thy hour of strength; 
 Come weak as a breaking wave! 
 Here stretch thy body at full length; 
 Or build thy house upon his grave! 
 
 Scarcely less interesting is what I believe to be a reminiscence 
 of Id. 1.7-8 in the following well-known lines of the same poem: 
 
 He murmurs near the running brooks 
 A music sweeter than their own. 
 
 'Sweeter is thy music, shepherds,' sings Theocritus, 'than the 
 sound of falling waters, pouring from yon high rock.' 
 
 Pope, ia his fourth pastoral — which begins with an avowed imita- 
 tion of the first lines of Id. 1 — assuredly had in mind the same 
 comparison when he wrote, 
 
 No more the streams their murmurs shall forbear, 
 A music sweeter than their own to hear. 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 89 
 
 The exact coincidence of Wordsworth's last line so far as it goes, 
 with Pope's last, accounts for one of the most striking and beautiful 
 comparisons in all the poetry of nature. And it has its origin in 
 Theocritus. 
 
 Wordsworth toward the end of the seventh book of the Prelude 
 refers to Gessner in these words, 
 
 — ^And he who penned, the other day, 
 The death of Abel. 
 
 During the last half of the eighteenth century Gessner's influence 
 in English literature must have been considerable. He was fre- 
 quently translated, and often written about in the periodicals of 
 the time. Few English poets were more widely read or more gen- 
 erally spoken of with admiration. But Gessner had mastered his 
 art in the school of Theocritus. He himself has told us as much : 
 
 leh habe den Theokrit immer fur das beste Muster in diesser Art 
 Gediehte gehalten. Bei ihm findet man die Einfalt der Sitten und der 
 Empflndungen am beaten ausgedruckt, und das Landliehe und die schonste 
 Einfalt der Nature. — An den Leser. 1775. 
 
 An especially interesting fact about Gessner — and one that brings 
 him into another point of contact with Wordsworth — is that he an- 
 nounced, in reference to Theocritus, an explanation of his limited 
 appeal which bears a close kinship to Wordsworth's doctrine on the 
 matter of the popularity of poets. Gessner writes : 
 
 Mir deucht, das ist die Probe dariiber, dass Theokrit in seiner Art 
 vortrefiHieh sei, weil er nur wenigen gefallt. Works, 2ter B., S. 13. 
 
 Not in theory only but also in practice Gessner and Wordsworth 
 betray close kinship. In a description of Gessner's work in the 
 European Magazine, Aug., 1803, Wordsworth's name might be 
 substituted for that of the Swiss poet, and no person would think 
 to question its accuracy. It runs as follows : 
 
 But though he takes Theocritus as his model, unlike his other imitators, 
 he has chosen his subjects for himself and given to pastoral poetry, a range, 
 of which it was not before known to be susceptible. Whatever incidents, 
 sorrows, or affections, may be supposed to be within the rural sphere, 
 Gessner has considered as proper subjects of his muse. (pp. 100-101). 
 
 There can be no doubt that the reviews of Gessner, all of which, 
 of any importance, associated his name with that of his acknowl- 
 
90 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 edged model, contributed to an extension of the knowledge of 
 Theocritus; while the translations of his poems introduced a 
 measure of the spirit of the Sicilian master into the common poetry 
 of England, the poetry of humble life, of the farm and the fireside. 
 For an elaborate comparison of Gessner with Theocritus, see The 
 Monthly Review, Aug., 1763. 
 
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Biographia Literaria. 1817. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 At school I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though 
 at the same time, a very severe master. He early moulded my taste to 
 the preference of Demosthenes to Cicero, of Homer and Theocritus to 
 Virgil, and again of Virgil to Ovid. — Chap. 1. 
 
 In my defence of the lines running into each other, instead of closing at 
 each couplet; and of natural language, neither bookish nor vulgar, neither 
 redolent of the lamp or of the kennel. . . I had continually to ad- 
 duce the metre and diction of the Greek poets from Homer to Theocritus 
 inclusive. — Hid. 
 
 For further evidence that boys in the English preparatory schools 
 made an acquaintance with Theocritus, see Sheridan and Hickie. 
 The Quarterly Review of Jan., 1820, says : ^ in 
 
 One Greek play, half a book of Herodotus, one oration of Demosthenes, 
 a little Xenophon, and some Theocritus, constitute the usual course of 
 Greek reading for youths from 16 to 18 years of age. 
 
 In his note to the unfinished Kubla Ehan Coleridge wrote 
 AvputvaSiov acria. This was the promise of Thyrsis (Id. 1.145), 
 only Thyrsis said is va-repov instead of avpiov. Perhaps Milton's 'to- 
 morrow' in the last line of Lycidas intruded into Coleridge's mind 
 unconsciously. 
 
 Elegy. 
 
 "Imitated from one of Akenside's Blank Verse Inscriptions" (the Third). 
 This is interesting as still retaining the outlines of the original 
 epigram of Theocritus (Ep. 4). See Akenside, supra, p. 67. 
 
 Robert Bland. Collections from the Greek Anthology. 1813. 
 
 Translation. — 
 
 Ep. 19 : Epitaph on Hipponax. Heroic couplets. 
 
THE EKA OP ROMANTICISM 91 
 
 J. H. Meeivale. Hid. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Id. 11 : The Cyclops. Heroic couplets. Ep. 7 : Epitaph on 
 Eurymedon. Heroic couplets. 
 
 Charles Meeivale. Ibid., New Ed. 1833. 
 
 Tkanslations. — 
 
 Ep. 6 : To Thyrsis on the Loss of his Kid. Heroic couplets. 
 Bp. 26 : On a Friend Drowned at Sea. Heroic couplets. 
 
 Charles Abraham Elton. Specimens of the Classic Poets. 1814. 
 Translations. — 
 
 Id. 3 : The Goatherd. Heroic couplets. Id. 15 : The Syracusan, 
 Gossips. Blank verse; song, heroic couplets. 
 Id. 18 : Epithalamium on Helen. Incomplete. Heroic couplets. 
 Id. 23 : Hercules amd the Serpents. Blank verse. 
 Ep. 4 : A Vow to Priapus. Heroic couplets. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 The poetry of Theocritus is marked hy the strength and vivacity of 
 original genius. Everything is distinct and peculiar; everything is indi- 
 vidualized, and brought strongly and closely to the eye and understanding 
 of the reader, so as to stamp the impression of reality. . . His 
 humor is chiefly shown in the portraiture of middle-rank city life; where 
 it abounds with strokes of character that are not confined to ancient times 
 or national peculiarities, but suit all ages and all climates. — ^Vol. I. p. 242. 
 
 John Macgilwrat. 
 
 An Essay on the Greeh Pastoral Poets.* 1818. 
 
 Prom this exceedingly valuable essay {Clas. Jour., 1818, 1819) 
 I wish only to transcribe a sentence or two expressing the writer's 
 opinion of Theocritus. These two following utterances, both of 
 which are true, will be found interesting to those who understand 
 the modes of creative genius well enough to reconcile them: 
 
 It is more than probable that Theocritus improved to its utmost per- 
 fection a species of composition before known in diflferent parts of Greece. — 
 Clas. Journ. 17:78. 
 
 He is indeed, as far as we can know, one of the most peculiarly original 
 of all writers.— 76i(Z. 18.: 32. 
 
 *For the best English essays on Theocritus, see Bibliography V. 
 
92 THEOCEITDS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 The writer's admiration for Theocritus comes out in many ex- 
 pressions. 'Theocritus,' he says, 'is often pathetic and sometimes 
 sublime.' His 'Doric delicacy,' rather than his 'Doric rusticity,' 
 is such that 'the poetry of Theocritus is of all others the most un- 
 translatable.' 
 Estimate. — 
 
 In order to form a proper estimate of the genius of Theocritus, we 
 must remember that he did not confine himself entirely to Bucolic 
 poetry, but composed works of a different kind. Yet to judge by those 
 remains of him which have descended to us, we must acknowledge that 
 his principal glory is derived from pastoral poetry; in which he will 
 probably ever remain unrivalled, and wear his ivy crown with never-fading 
 verdure. . . The peculiar and distinguishing excellence of the genius 
 of Theocritus appears to me to be his enthusiastic, but delicate and dis- 
 criminating, taste for the charms of nature. Ibid. 18:35. 
 
 Leigh Hunt. Foliage. 1818. 
 
 Quotation. — 
 
 Id. 5, 46-9, translated, serves as motto to Epistle to Thomas 
 Moore. 
 
 The Epistle itself is crowded with reminiscences of Theocritus. 
 Translations. — 
 
 Id. 7 : The Rural Journey; in heroic couplets. 
 
 Id. 11 : The Cyclops; in blank verse. Id. 13 : The Lover; in 
 blank verse. Id. 15 : The Syracusan Gossips; the dialogue in blank 
 verse, the song in the verse of L' Allegro. Ep. 1 : Dedication of a 
 Rural Altar; in heroic couplets. Ep. 4 : The Prayer in the Bower; 
 in heroic couplets. Ep. 5 : The Rural Concert; in heroic couplets. 
 
 Poetical Works. 1833. 
 Translations. — 
 
 Id. 24. 1-83 : The Infant Hercules and the Serpents; in heroic 
 couplets. 
 
 A Jar of Honey. 1848. 
 Translations. — 
 
 Id. 22 : Castor and Pollux. [Incomplete.] 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Let me take this opportunity of saying that with all the praise occa- 
 sionally bestowed upon the serious powers of Theocritus, and his indica- 
 tions of a genius for epic poetry, I am not aware that justice has been done 
 to the wonderful evidences he has givep of a combination of faculties 
 for the light and the passionate, the social and the sequestered, tha 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 93 
 
 humorous and the pathetic, the minute and the grand. This delightful 
 poet courts a milk-maid or a sea-nymph with equal fitness of address; is 
 a countryman and a townsman; a clown, a courtier, and a satirist; fills 
 a house at midnight with ghastly phenomena; describes a piece of pugilism 
 in a style to make the bones of the Fancy crack under them; and makes 
 us at once shudder and pity the great monster Polyphemus, whom he 
 reconciles to humility by subduing with love. Then there is his Hylas, 
 disappearing under the water like a falling star; and his lion at noon- 
 day, with all the villagers indoors around him, and his infant Hercules, 
 the little jovial potency, the true infant demigod, tearless and sovereign, 
 of whose encounter with the serpents I have endeavored to give some idea. 
 If Theocritus had written an epic, the world would have had a poet 
 unknown to it, a romance-writer equally great for abundance and con- 
 centration, a Greek Ariosto. — Preface, pp. L-LI. 
 
 In A Jar of Honey two chapters treat interestingly of Theocritus. 
 Numerous fragments are translated to exemplify the poet's 
 qualities. Leigh Hunt was one of the earliest English writers to 
 appreciate the real qualities of Theocritus and to catch his spirit 
 both in translation and in original verse. Through Hunt it is 
 probable that Keats became acquainted with the Sicilian poet and 
 learned to love him in translation. Through these two poets and 
 Shelley, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the influence 
 of Theocritus becomes really significant in English literature. 
 
 John Keats. 
 
 From the intimacy which subsisted between Leigh Hunt and 
 Keats we might naturally expect the former, with his ardent ad- 
 miration of Theocritus and his understanding of the genius of 
 Keats, to place the Idylls in the hands of the future author of 
 En&ymion, and of the immortal odes, assured that their spell for 
 him would not be less than that of the Homeric Epics in the trans- 
 lation of Chapman. It was but shortly after the beginning of this 
 intimacy, 1818, that Hunt published his Foliage, which contained 
 the versions of several IdyUs ; and it was in this same year, Oct., 
 1818, that Keats wrote as follows to his brother George: 
 
 According to my state of mind I am with Achilles shouting in the 
 trenches, or with Theocritus in the vales of Sicily. 
 
 Keats may indeed be affirmed to be a kindred spirit of Theocritus. 
 Jeffrey undoubtedly was impressed by this fact when, in reviewing 
 Endymion. he thus spoke : 
 
94 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUKE 
 
 The models upon which he [Keats] has formed himself, in the Endymion, 
 the earliest and by much the most considerable of his poems, are 
 obviously the Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher and the Sad Sheplierd of 
 Ben Jonson; — ^the exquisite metres and inspired diction of which he 
 has copied with great boldness and fidelity — and, like his great originals, 
 has also contrived to impart to the whole piece that true rural and 
 poetical air which breathes only in them and in Theocritus — which is 
 at once homely and majestic, luxurious and rude, and sets before ua the 
 genuine sights and sounds and smells of the country, with all the magic 
 and grace of Elysium. — Works, vol. 3, p. 103. 
 
 Except the love-song of the Cyclops to his Sea Nymph in Theocritus — 
 the Lamentation of Venus for Adonis in Moschus — and the more recent 
 Legend of Apuleius, we scarcely recollect a passage in all the writings 
 of antiquity in which the passions of an immortal are fairly disclosed 
 to the scrutiny and observation of men. — Ihid. p. 106. 
 
 There is then a choral hymn addressed to the sylvan deity [Hymn to Pan] 
 which appears to us to be full of beauty; and reminds us, in many places, 
 of the finest strains of Sicilian — or of English poetry. — Ibid. p. 107. 
 
 For the ranging of Keats and Theocritus together, see Clinton 
 Scollard's poem entitled In the Lihrwry, infra, p. 153, and Ballade 
 of Dead Poets, infra, p. 152 ; also Frank Dempster Shermlan, Breath 
 of Song, infra, p. 156. The author of the Ode on the Grecian Urn, 
 and the author of the description of that dsedal cup in the first 
 Idyll may well be named together. 
 
 What little town, by river or seashore. 
 
 Or mountain-built with quiet citadel. 
 
 Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn? 
 
 'This,' says Matthew Arnold, 'is Greek, as Greek as a thing from 
 
 Homer or Theocritus' [Study of Celtic Literature, p. 135]. And, 
 
 earlier, Henry Alford: 'Keats has imbibed the very spirit . . . 
 of the idyll-writers of Greece.' 
 
 Percy Btsshe Shelley. 
 
 In her 'Note on the Early Poems' of her husband, Mrs. Shelley 
 says that his list of Greek authors read in 1814 and 1815 included 
 Homer, Hesiod, and Theocritus. Her note to the poems of 1816 
 makes the same statement. 
 
 In a letter to John Gisborne (Nov. 16, 1819), Shelley writes: 'I 
 envy you the first reading of Theocritus.' Earlier in that year 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 95 
 
 (April 6), he had concluded a letter to the same person by quoting 
 Id. 11.63-4 in the original. 
 
 Defense of Poetry. 1821. 
 [Of the creative faculty in Greece.] 
 
 The bucolic writers, who found patronage under the lettered tyrants 
 of Sicily and Egypt, were the latest representatives of its most glorious 
 reign. Their poetry is intently melodious, [etc. The passage concludes:] 
 It will readily be confessed that those among the luxurious citizens of 
 Syracuse and Alexandria who were delighted with the poems of Theocritus 
 were less cold, cruel, and sensual than the remnant of their tribe (pp. 21-3) . 
 
 Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue. 1818. 
 
 Imitation. — 
 
 The melody of an old air 
 
 Softer than sleep. 5. 51. 
 
 Compare Arethusa (1820) : 'murmurs as soft as sleep.' 
 
 The scene of Rosalind and Helen is a vi^oodland not unlike that 
 
 pictured ia the beginntag of the first Idyll ; and there are further 
 
 suggestions of the same Idyll in the dialogue : 
 
 EOSAMND. — 
 
 Helen.- 
 
 Let us sit on that gray stone, 
 Till our mournful talk be done. 
 
 Alas! not there; I cannot bear 
 The murmur of this lake to hear 
 
 In the dell of yon dark chestnut-wood 
 Is a stone seat, a solitude. 
 
 Adonads. 1831. 
 St. 2. — Where wert thou, mighty Mother, when he lay, 
 When thy son lay, pierced by the shaft which flies 
 In darkness? Where was lorn Urania 
 When Adonais died? 1.66-9. 
 
 The repetition, also, is Theocritean. 
 
 As in the Lament of Thyrsis (Id. 1) the herds come to mourn 
 for Daphnis, so here (St. 9) the quick dreams, who were his flocks, 
 mourn their lot around the cold heart. The coming of the various 
 deities in the Greek poem and of the poets in the English poem is a 
 
96 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 corresponding feature. The pastoral imagery begun in this stanza 
 is continued. 
 
 St. 30. — And the Mountain Shepherds came. 
 
 St. 31. 'Midst others of less note came one frail form. 
 
 Doubtless, however, Bion's Elegy on the Death of Adonis, and 
 Moschus's Elegy on Bion, from which latter he prefixes lines 116-19 
 as a motto for his own Elegy, share with the song of Thyrsis in 
 furnishing suggestions to Shelley for the Adonais. It will be 
 remembered also that Shelley translated portions of both the elegies 
 mentioned. 
 
 Testimony. — 
 
 How deeply the genius of .(Eschylus, Theocritus, and of Moschus, 
 stirred and moved the soul of Shelley cannot be easily overestimated.- - 
 John W. Hales: Folia Literaria, p. 302. 
 
 George Gordon, Lord Byron. 
 
 Reply to BlacTcwood's Magazine. 1820. 
 
 In this reply Byron does no more than name Theocritus, but in 
 doing so he classes hun among 'the great poets of antiquity.' — 
 Letters and Journals, iv.484. 
 
 Don Juan. 1819. 
 
 The beautiful passage in Canto I., stanzas 122-7, in which a 
 series of comparisons — nearly a score — begin each with the adjective 
 'sweet' is an illustrative parallel, if not an imitation, of several 
 passages in the Idylls. "ASus is an often occurring word in Theoc- 
 ritus, and it frequently stands at the beginning of a line and in com- 
 parisons, just as it does in this passage from Don Juan. Let us 
 note some of the more memorable lines in the Idylls where the 
 word occurs in the way indicated : 
 
 1.1-2: Sweet is yon pine-tree's whispering. . . and sweet is thy 
 piping O goatherd! 
 
 » 8.76-8: Sweet is the voice of the heifer and sweet is her breath. 
 
 Sweet is it in summer to lie in the open by cool running waters. 
 
 . 9.7-8 : Sweet is the low of the calf, sweet, too, is the low of its mother ; 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 97 
 
 Sweet is the syrinx and sweet is the voice of the keeper of 
 cattle. 
 
 1.7-7: Sweeter, O shepherd, thy singing than the sound of that water 
 downpouring. 
 
 12.2-3: By how much sweeter is spring than is winter, and pippins than 
 wildings, — 
 
 9.33-5 : For not even sleep, nor swift spring, is more sweet, — 
 nay, nor flowers to the bee-trihe. 
 
 With these compare the stanza from Don Juan (1.123) : 
 
 'Tis sweset to hear the watch-dog's honest bark 
 
 Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home; 
 
 'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark 
 Our coming, and look brighter when we come; 
 
 'Tis sweet to be awakened by the lark. 
 
 Or lull'd by falling waters; sweet the hum 
 
 Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds, 
 The lisp of children, and their earliest words. 
 
 BjTon is exuberant in his comparisons, extending them through 
 six stanzas. Theocritus is always brief. On p. 69 I have quoted 
 a portion of Blaeklock's imitation, which in point of exuberance 
 stands midway between Theocritus and Byron. 
 
 Bernard Barton On Robert Bloomfield. c. 1823. 
 
 — Our own more chaste Theocritus. 
 
 Thomas Moore. On Anacreon. 1804. 
 
 [Bp. 17.] 
 Moore's note and translation are as follows : 
 
 This [Le Fevre's lepigram] is unlike the language of Theocritus 
 to whom Anacreon is indebted for the following simple eulogium: 
 [Greek text.] 
 
 Stranger ! who near this statue chance to roam, 
 
 Let it awhile your studious eyes engage; 
 And you may say, returning to your home, 
 I've seen the image of the Teian sage, 
 Best of the bards who deck the Muse's page. 
 Then, if you add 'that striplings lov'd him well,' 
 You tell them all he was, and aptly tell. 
 The simplicity of this inscription has always delighted me; I have given 
 it, I believe, as literally as a verse translation will allow. 
 
98 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 On Anacreon's 35th ode, i. e., Cupid and the Bee, Moore has this 
 note: 
 
 Theocritus has imitated this beautiful ode in his nineteenth idyll, but 
 is very inferior, I think, to his original, in delicacy of point and naivete 
 of expression. 
 
 The very first of Moore's poetic effusions was A Pastoral Ballad 
 written in imitation of Shenstone's pastoral having the same title 
 (see p. 68). Moore's lines were first published in the Anthologia 
 Hibemica (Dublin), Oct., 1793. All in the Family Way: A New 
 Pastoral Ballad, is a parody of the same ballad. The interesting 
 thing about these light performances is the evidence they afford of 
 the persistence of Theoeritean turns of expression through endless 
 imitations. 
 
 Moore's Cambridge Ballad derives its motto from Theocritus, 
 Id. 6.46. 
 
 W. E. T. [?] Beauties of the Ancient Poets. 1827. 
 
 [Gent. Mag.; July.] 
 
 This partial translation of the First Idyll, with a prose intro- 
 duction, is interesting as showing what kind of appreciation the 
 chief beauties of our poet have not uncommonly met with. The 
 translator says he will omit 'those tedious repetitions which are 
 fatiguing to an English ear.' Consequently, not only the refrain, 
 but the entire song of Thyrsis is omitted. 
 
 Henry Hart Milman. The Agarmmnon, etc. 1865. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 The fragments of the Idylls included in this volume were trans- 
 lated into English for the author's Oxford Lectures on Poetry, 
 1821-31. They are as follows : Id. 1.67-8; 45-54; Id. 7.132-46; 
 Id. 11.42-8. The form is heroic couplets. Milman says: 'I have 
 not done justice to Theocritus in these few lines.' 
 
 George Croly. The Winter Evening. 1830. 
 
 As indicated by the author, this is a paraphrase, rather distant, 
 from the Greek. Line 16 of Id. 22 is prefixed as a motto. 
 
THE ERA OP ROMANTICISM 99 
 
 Anonymous. Eylas. 'Theocritus, Idylliiim xiii.' 1833. 
 
 This is a free and facetious paraphrase of the Idyll radicated in 
 the title. The following stanza contains nothing of Theocritus 
 but his name, for which reason I quote it : 
 
 I must confess, that the last epithet 
 
 Does not appear in the original Greek, 
 
 But the translator never should forget 
 
 To help the author when the phrase is weak; 
 
 Adjectives, buttress-like, are wisely set 
 
 To prop such substantives as tottering creak; 
 
 Therefore I use them, being very eager. 
 
 That to no ear Theocritus read meagre. 
 
 Duh. Univ. Bev. 1:32-5. 
 
 Christopher North (John Wilson). Nodes Ambrosiance. 
 
 Oct., 1838. 
 Allusions. — 
 
 Shepherd. — ^Noo, tell me, sir, and tell me truly, was Theocritus really 
 as gude a pastoral poet as me, or Eobert Burns, or 
 Allan Ramsay, or Allan Cunningham? 
 
 North. — He was, James, your equal in truth, sim.plicity, nature; more 
 than your equal in an occasional rustic grace without a 
 name — superior far in the power and magic of a language 
 light as air, dense as clouds, cheerful as the daedal earth, 
 magnificent as the much-and-many-sounding sea. 
 
 May, 1834. 
 
 Shepherd. — I hae completed a version o' Theocritus, and Bion, and Moa- 
 chus — ^not to mention Anacreon. 
 
 Shepherd. — ^Trevor's? Is he an Englisher? Then dinna let him compete — 
 nor that callant Price o' Hereford either — ^wi' the Ettrick Shep- 
 herd in Theocritus. 
 
 Dec. 1836. 
 
 Teanslation and Comments. — 
 
 'Fitzjames Tucker Price, Esq.' writes to Christopher North: 'It 
 has occurred to me several times lately . . . that you have a 
 latent hankering after Theocritus.' Christopher North answers: 
 'Yea, verily, thou sayest well that we have a hankering after 
 Theocritus. . . . Oh, dearly do we love the word EIAYAAION'. 
 The fictitious correspondent has sent 'the two-and-twenty legitimate 
 epigrams of the good old bard,' of which the first four then follow 
 in Latin and English versions together with the Greek text. Of 
 
100 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITBEATUEE 
 
 the fourth, the Latin versions of Grotius, Holden, and Price and 
 the English versions of Fawkes, Polvchele, Elton, Hunt, Chapman, 
 Drake, Hay, and Price — 'a round dozen' — are given. 
 
 It was, of course, in Blackwood's Magazine that all of these 
 matters were first published. In the number for Dec, 1833, ap- 
 peared versions of the two Epigrams on Eurymedon (7 and 15) by 
 'D. M. P.' In the November number, 1835, William Hay had 
 versions of the fourth and fifth Epigrams. 
 
 Our Two Vases. April, 1837. 
 
 This article, also, on the date given, appeared in Blackwood's. 
 
 Translations in Latin and English of Epigrams 5, 6, 7, and 8 are 
 
 introduced with the exclamation, 'Why, a batch of the Epigrams of 
 
 Theocritus !' 
 
 Oliver Yohke (F. S. Mahoney). 
 
 The Greeh Pastoral Poets. 1835. 
 
 This interesting and exceedingly valuable essay, as will be seen 
 from its full title given ia Bib. 5, was an attempt to illustrate 
 Theocritus by means of parallels chosen out of English poets. It 
 is the only essay of this character and scope in English. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 The muse of Theocritus is simple and unadorned, delighting the beholder 
 by the healthful spirit and freshness of her looks. Like the heroine 
 of one of Wordsworth's poems, her beauty makes us glad. — Fraser's 
 Mag., 12:222. 
 
 Theocritus, unlike many eminent poets of past and present times, was 
 free from mannerism, and could descend with equal facility from the 
 loftiest theme to the humblest circumstances of domestic and rural life; 
 and the same lute that vindicated the glory of the bard, and woke 
 such a strain of triumph for the illustrious Ptolemy, chimed with equal 
 melody to the feet of shepherds at a village festival, and called the tears 
 into the eyes for the little Eurymedon. — Ihid. p. 232. 
 
 — We might still dwell upon his pathetic earnestness, his strong good 
 sense, and the compact energy of his manner. — THd. 407-8. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Id. 15 :100-144 : Hymn to Adonis. Id. 18 : The EpHhalamium 
 o/ /feZew (Incomplete). Id. 19 : Cupid and the Bee. Id. 38: The 
 
THE ERA OF ROMANTICISM 101 
 
 Distaff. Id. 31 ; The Death of Adorm. Epp. 5 and 6; and numer- 
 ous brief passages of the Idylls. 
 
 Several metres are employed. The translator had a true appre- 
 ciation of the grace and simple beauty of Theocritus, and succeeds 
 in a measure in reproducing these in English. 
 
 M. J. Chapman. The Greek Pastoral Poets. 1836. 
 
 This version possesses very high merit, surpassing incomparably 
 all predecessors and not greatly if at all excelled by any 
 successor. The heroic couplet is the form generally employed; 
 but it is not the heroic couplet of Creech, Fawkes, and Polwhele. 
 It is an easy, melodious, fluent heroic couplet. In Idyll 19 and in 
 the singing-match of Idyll 8, quatrains with alternate rhymes are 
 used. Ptolemy, Castor and Pollux, The Infant Hercules, and 
 Hercules the Lion-Slayer are in the Spenserian stanza. 
 
 This version is praised by the Athenmum (March 26, 1836) for 
 its spirit and fidelity; by the Monthly Review (April, 1836) for 
 its power, ease, and grace, and by The Gentleman's Magazine 
 (7 n. s. : 75) for its freedom, variety, and successful imitation of 
 Theocritus's homeliness of expression. The Edinlurgh Review 
 (July, 1836) says, 'This book is sure to become a standard one.' 
 'Vigor' and 'fidelity' are the qualities which distinguish it. Oliver 
 Yorke ia Fraser's (13:600-7) extols the translation and makes 
 numerous extracts for commendation. And Leigh Hunt, in A Jar 
 of Honey, says Chapman is by far the best translator of Theocritus 
 that has yet appeared. Undoubtedly that opinion was true at the 
 time it was uttered, if it does not yet remain true. 
 
 The New Monthly Magazine (47:241) after praising the trans- 
 lation, comments as follows upon the merits of Theocritus and the 
 neglect which he has met with in England : 
 
 Theocritus hitherto has been far too little known in England, and 
 even scholars, deterred by the roughness of his Doric reed, when compared 
 with the more seductive and mellifluous flow of Ionic and Attic song, have 
 hitherto refrained from rendering him that degree of homage which his 
 truly powerful and original genius entitles him to claim. Yet quick percep- 
 tion and just appreciation of the beauties of the external world, the accurate 
 and exact marking of character which almost entitles him to rank as a 
 dramatic poet; the courtly dignity and energy of his graver Idylls, and 
 the delightful humor which runs like a golden thread through those of 
 lighter cast, might well render him popular wherever taste is sufficiently 
 
102 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 advanced to admire a genius drawing its strength from the most natural 
 sources, and which, from the simplicity with which it is invested, and 
 the absence of all affected ornament, affords one of the most attractive 
 specimens which could be instanced of that beauty which is 'when una- 
 dorned adorned the most.' 
 
 The Dublin University Magazine, July, 1837 : — 
 
 Much of the charm of Theocritus lies in the beautiful language in which 
 he wrote. Nothing can in him be low or vulgar, nothing wearisome or 
 uninteresting, for all is rendered graceful and pleasing by the musical 
 dactylic verse, and the inimitable dialect. 
 
 The Athenceum, March 26, 1836:— 
 
 The earliest pastoral poets were the sweetest, the purest, and the 
 best. . . The Idyls of Theocritus are, beyond question, perfect models 
 of tenderness and simplicity; and the poet, in the cultivation of his 
 divine art, might study them with as much advantage as the sculptor 
 gains from a devotion to the Elgin Marbles. Both the Idyls and the 
 Marbles, are the highest refinements of nature. 
 
 Various attempts to escape the beaten paths of pastorals have 
 already been noticed. Another departure is represented by the 
 numerous Oriental eclogues, pastorals, ajid idylls. William Collins 
 in the middle of the eighteenth century produced his Oriental 
 Eclogvtes; Eyles Irwin, in 1780, his Eastern Eclogues; and, after 
 several other adventurers in the same field, we come to Chapman's 
 Heirew Idyls (1835). The pastoral passages of the Bible, lyrical, 
 fresh, and beautiful as they are, doubtless suggested the Orient to 
 these writers as a suitable field. Langhorne, in his Observations on 
 the Oriental Eclogues of Collins (1765), comments at length upon 
 the supposed indebtedness of Theocritus to Solomon and Isaiah. 
 All that we are here concerned about is the latent suggestion in this 
 occasional resemblance of the Sicilian pastorals to biblical passages 
 that the manner of Theocritus might be brought to the treatment 
 of pastorals whose scene should be laid in Palestine, Arabia, and 
 India. Chapman has done exactly this thing. He produced his 
 Hebrew Idyls at the very time he was makiag his translation of 
 Theocritus. The epic Idylls served in general for his models, but 
 as in these Theocritus slips easily and frequently into pastoral 
 descriptions, so Chapman has chosen such themes as also permit 
 generally of the introduction of scenes which are essentially pastoral. 
 
THE BRA OF ROMANTICISM 103 
 
 The titles of his Hebrew Idyls will indicate as much. They are 
 as follows: 
 
 LEebeeca; ii.Deborah; iii.Ruth; iv. Sheep-Shearing at Carmel; 
 V.Susanna; vi.Heliodorus ; vii.The Bride, a dramatic Idyl [a para- 
 phrase of the Song of Songs] ; viii.A Song of Loves; ix.Ishmael, 
 the Outcast; x.Lament for Saul and Jonathan; xi. Tobias and the 
 Angel; xii. Judith. 
 
 'J. T. B.' [ ?] The Cyclops in Love. 
 
 [Duh. Uni/D. Mag.; April, 1837.] 
 
 On the whole this is a paraphrase of Ovid's paraphrase of Theoc- 
 ritus, but the last stanza takes us back to the original source. It 
 is all done in the spirit of burlesque. Theocritus treats the subject 
 seriously, hence with pathos. 
 
 In this period, Theocritus, by virtue of his closeness to nature, 
 his realism enters again as a real factor in English poetry. Through 
 Bowles, through Wordsworth, through Hunt, through Keats and 
 Shelley, through Macgilwray, and Christopher Korth, and Oliver 
 Yorke, and through the translators, Polwhele and Chapman, he 
 gains in English literature something like the recognition that was 
 his due, and exerts an influence which must be considered as one 
 of the important factors in English poetry, cooperating with its 
 tendency toward realism and verity. The first really appreciative 
 translators of the Idylls since Elizabethan times — Hunt and Chap- 
 man — come in this era, the latter at the point of division between 
 the era of Wordsworth and the era of Tennyson. 
 
 Thomas DeQotncet. 
 
 A Brief Appraisal of Greek Literature. 1838. 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus, a man of real genius in a limited way, ia a Grecian in that 
 sense according to which an Anglo-American is an Englishman. — 
 Works X. 242. 
 
 Elsewhere in the same essay DeQuincey speaks disparagingly of 
 Theocritus as 'an artificial blue-stocking, not a natural poet 
 indigenous to Sicily.' For a similar view of Theocritus, see Mahafly 
 infra, bibliography 10. 
 
VII. THE VICTORIAN ERA 
 
 D. B. HiCKiE. Sixteen Select Idylls of Theocritus. 1839. 
 
 This is the first edition of Theocritus prepared with English 
 introduction and notes for use in schools. The Literary Gazette, 
 March 9, 1839, in taking notice of the volume, questions the 
 propriety of English notes on Greek and Latin texts. The editor 
 expresses in his introductory essay a very high regard for the genius 
 of Theocritus. Respecting his langauge he thus writes (p. xiii.) : 
 
 From the new Doric, which was much softer and smoother than the 
 old dialect of the Dorians, his versification derives a melody, which no 
 one of the ancients hath equalled. 
 
 "William Howitt. 
 
 The Rural Life of England. (2nd Ed.). 1840. 
 
 Chapter I. of Part IV., particularly pp. 309-313, deals with the 
 landscapes of Theocritus. 'Of all the Greek writers,' says Howitt, 
 'Theocritus is the one that luxuriates most in natural beauty.' Of 
 the description of the scenes on the cup in IdyU 1 he says its only 
 rival is Keats's description of the Grecian Um. Of the twenty- 
 first Idyll he writes: 'His two fishermen remind us of Crabbe.' 
 Truly Crabbe does more nearly approach the realism of Theocritus 
 than any predecessor in English poetry. And Keats may have 
 derived suggestions for his Urn from that famous cup. Extended 
 passages are translated from Idd. 1, 5, 7, 21, and 23 in heroic 
 couplets. Euskin was prompted by this treatment of the landscapes 
 of Theocritus, as he says in a note to his chapter on 'Classical 
 Landscapes' ia Modern Painters, to add a discussion of the same 
 subject, but he never did so. Evidently he was unacquainted with 
 the Sicilian poet, which we may regret. 
 
 Alfred Percival Graves. Ringwood's Theocritus. May, 1846. 
 
 This article, which appeared in the Dublin University Magazine, 
 is a review of Ringwood's edition of Theocritus. It is also an 
 essay of very considerable value on the poet. I will make two 
 
THE VICTORIAN EKA 105 
 
 extracts, the one on Theoeritus's peculiar and unique distinction 
 as a pastoral poet, and the other on his genius for dramatic 
 imitation ; 
 
 His pastorals are not only the most perfect specimens of that kind of 
 writing, but almost the only true specimen of it to be found in the 
 whole circle of ancient or modern literature. He is the only poet so far 
 as our knowledge reaches — who has succeeded in throwing his own mind 
 completely into that peculiar state of society which it is the object of the 
 pastoral to depict; and thus in expressing its circumstances, thoughts, 
 and emotions, with that distinctness, individuality, and racy vigor, which 
 alone can make a reader sympathize in the description, and feel at home 
 in scenes and manners so different in their coloring from those of ordinary 
 experience. 
 
 While freely admitting that we should have wanted much of the 
 evidence we now possess of the marvelous flexibility of his mimic powers, 
 if his pastorals had not been preserved, we must still contend that his 
 name ought to rest upon the broad basis of his general dramatic powers — 
 exerting themselves, indeed, in the pastoral with unrivaled excellence, 
 Lut not in that exclusively. 
 
 Th& Honey Thief. 1869. 
 A translation of Id. 19. 
 
 Henet Alfoed. Chapters on the Poets of Ancient Greece. 1841. 
 
 Chapter XII. is on Theocritus and the pastoral poets. Alford 
 reveals a high admiration for Theocritus. His comments upon 
 the beauties of the Idylls are not in the traditional style. They 
 evince, like those of Keble and of Leigh Hunt, who were writing 
 of the poet at about this time, a fresh contact vrith Theocritus. 
 The translations, which are done in blank verse, are especially 
 noteworthy. They axe as follows : 
 
 Id. 1.37-61, 66-9; Id. 7.21-36, 130-47; Id. 15 (all but the 
 Song) ; Id. 21; Id. 24.1-63; Ep. 6 (in the original metre). 
 
 Special significance is given to these translations and this ad- 
 miration beca:u5e of the author's well-known early friendship with 
 Tennyson. The easy movement of the blank verse exhibited in the 
 translation is not without meaning in this connection, although it 
 comes far short — as what blank verse does not? — of Tennyson's. 
 The experiment in the regular use of the feminine ending, designed, 
 perhaps, to increase the fluency and produce something of the effect 
 of the hexameter, can hardly be pronounced successful. These 
 
106 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEB 
 
 were the very days — about 1840 — when Tennyson was making his 
 first experiments in blank verse in the 'English Idyls.' How largely 
 they reveal the influence of Theocritus', the reader may turn to 
 Stedman's chapter to discover, or, in lieu of that, he may read the 
 following extract from Alford's translation, and judge for himself 
 whether it does not remind him of the English idyllist : 
 
 We sung, and parted: he the left road taking, 
 
 We making for the grounds of Phrasidamus: 
 
 There Eueritus and I, and fair Amyntas, 
 
 Reclined on branches of the fragrant lentisk, 
 
 And vine-leaves newly cut, our pleasure taking. 
 
 Above our heads elms and tall poplars rustled: 
 
 And a pure fountain hard by of sacred water 
 
 Came trickling from its cave with soothing murmur. 
 
 Pbaise. — 
 
 This description [Id. 7.130-47] has never been surpassed in Pastoral 
 Poetry; in the original the lines are the most musical that can be 
 imagined, and add, by their music, to the beauty of the passage, in a 
 way which those cannot conceive who have not the luxury of knowing 
 that divine language (p. 210.) 
 
 This Idyll [15] will have furnished our readers with the most faithful 
 and amusing sketch on record of the domestic life of the lower order 
 of the Greeks (p. 214). 
 
 AValter Savage Landor. The Idylls of Theocritus. 1842. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 [Of Theocritus's style.] 
 
 In Theocritus it is not this usage [the bucolic caesura] which is so 
 remarkable; it is the abundance and exuberance of dactyls. They hurry 
 on one after another, like waves of a clear rapid brook in the sunshine, 
 reflecting all things the most beautiful in nature, but not resting on any. — 
 Works. X.178. 
 
 [Of Daphnis and Menalcas, Idyll 8.] 
 
 They carry on the contest in such sweet hexameters and pentameters as 
 never were heard before or since. — Ihid. p. 188. 
 
 [Of Idylls 16 and 17.] 
 
 The best of Pindar's odes is not more energetic throughout ; none of them 
 surpasses these two [the Oraces and Ptolemy'\ in the chief qualities of that 
 admirable poet; rejection of what is light and minute, disdain of what is 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 107 
 
 trivial and selection of those blocks from the quarry which will bear 
 strong strokes of the hammer and retain all the marks of the chisel. Of 
 what we understand by sublimity he has little; but he moves in the calm 
 majesty of an elevated mind. — Ibid. p. 191. 
 
 'Some of these verses,' says Lander, 'are as sonorous and elevated 
 as the best of Homer's' (ibid. p. 191). And this high praise he 
 also bestows : 'Of all the poetry in all languages that of Theocritus 
 is the most fluent and easy' (ibid. p. 179). 
 
 Lander's translations are remarkable for his own well-known 
 grace and fluency. The occasional rhythmical prose versions, not 
 less than Mr. Lang's and Matthew Arnold's, reveal the capacities of 
 prose for the poetry which defies verse. Yet the swift grace of 
 Lander's quatrains, as in his rendering of Id. 8.53-6, and the 
 fluent ease of his blank verse, as in the rendering of Id. 33.35-50, 
 show how admirably qualified he was to give the world a metrical 
 version of Theocritus that would approach the beauty of the 
 original, which so many critics and poets have called inimitable, 
 untranslatable. 
 
 A Friend to Theocritus in Egypt. 1863. 
 
 Bring back the hour, Theocritus, when we 
 Shall sit together on a thymy knoll, 
 With few about us, and with none too nigh, 
 And when the song of shepherds and their glee 
 We may repeat, perchance and gaily mock. 
 Until one bolder than the rest springs up 
 And slaps us on the shoulder for our pains. 
 
 Come, Theocritus, 
 Come, let us lend a shoulder to the wheel 
 And help to lift it from this depth of sand. 
 
 On Gesner's Idylls. 1863. 
 Allttsion. — 
 
 Gesner, to Sicily he does no wrong 
 Who listens fondly to thy pastoral song. 
 
 Homer's sole rival, Mincio's youthful swain 
 To catch Sicilian tones essay'd in vain. 
 
 John Keble. De Poeticm Vi Medica. 1844. 
 
 The lectures constituting Keble's two volumes on the Healing 
 Virtue of Poetry were delivered upon the Oxford foundation in 
 
108 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 1833-41, during his occupancy there of the chair of poetry. 
 Prcelectio xxxi. is for the most part on Theocritus. Although it 
 is in Latin, yet it can reasonably, as respects significance and in- 
 fluence, be regarded as a part of English literature. I have trans- 
 lated, or paraphrased with condensation, some of its utterances. 
 
 [Of Id. 6.6-17.] 
 
 A light trifle this, indeed: and yet, pictures of this stamp impress 
 themselves permanently upon the memory of all true lovers of the 
 country (p. 638). 
 
 [Of Id. 7.78-89.] 
 
 I know of no poet whatsoever who has expressed with greater felicity 
 that sense of pleasure in the rural delights of summer which is experienced 
 by a mind having a turn that way (pp. 638-9). 
 
 [Of the same, 131-57.] 
 
 From this Idyll one may see with what eyes Theocritus beheld Nature. — 
 And then, in the last lines, with what ease and grace he rises, in emu- 
 lation of the ancient epics, to the heights of heroic song (pp. 642-3). 
 
 [Of Id. 8.65-6.] 
 
 What could be more naive and simple! Theocritus is of those who 
 relate rustic matters in a rustic manner, and natural things sincerely 
 (p. 644). 
 
 [Of Id. 15.] 
 
 You would say that Virgil and his disciples clearly speak by certain 
 formulas and from a direct effort to imitate: Theocritus only gives 
 his genius full play in what it delights in (p. 641). 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. A Vision of Poets. 1844. 
 
 Theocritus, with glittering locks 
 Dropt sideways, as betwixt the rocks 
 He watched the visionary flocks. 
 
 Wine of Cyprus. 1844. 
 
 Our Euripides, the human. 
 With his droppings of warm tears. 
 And his touches of things common 
 Till they rose to touch the spheres! 
 Our Theocritus, our Bion, 
 And our Pindar's shining goals! — 
 These were cup-bearers undying. 
 Of the wine that's meant for souls. 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA. 109 
 
 Sonnets from the Portuguese. 1845. 
 
 Sonnet i. 
 I thought once how Theocritus had sung 
 
 Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, 15.102-5. 
 Who each one in a gracious hand appears 
 To bear a gift for mortals, old or young. 
 And, as I mused it in his antique tongue, 
 I saw in gradual vision, through my tears. 
 The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years. 
 Those of my own life, who by turns had flung 
 A shadow across me. 
 
 Letter to Browning, Aug. 30, 1845. 
 
 Did I not tell you that early in the summer I did some translations 
 for Miss Thomson's Classical Album; from Bion and Theocritus, etc. 
 Letters, etc. vol. 1, p. 167. 
 
 The translation from Theocritus referred to is the Cyclops (Id. 11). 
 It does not possess extraordinary merit. 
 
 Letter to Miss Thomson. 1845. 
 
 You are aware of the dresser of the vine in Homer's Hymn to Mercury 
 translated so exquisitely by Shelley, and of a very beautiful single 
 figure in Theocritus besides. Letters of Mrs. B., vol. 1, p. 263. 
 
 C. H. Langhorne. Theocritus. 1846. 
 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! ah! thou hadst pleasant dreams. 
 
 Of the crystal spring Burinna, and the Haleus' murm'ring streams; 
 
 Of Physcus, and Nesethus, and fair Arethusa's fount. 
 
 Of Lacinion's beetling crag, and Latymnus' woody mount; 
 
 Of the fretted rocks and antnes hoar that overhung the sea. 
 
 And the sapphire sky and thymy plains of thy own sweet Sicily; 
 
 And of the nymphs of Sicily, that dwelt in oak and pine — 
 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! what pleasant dreams were thine! 
 
 And of the merry rustics who tend the goats and sheep. 
 
 And the maids who trip to milk the cows at morning's dewy peep. 
 
 Of Clearista with her locks of brightest sunny hair. 
 
 And the saucy girl Eunica, and sweet Chloe, kind and fair; 
 
 And of those highly favored ones, Endymion and Adonis, 
 
 Loved by Selena the divine, and the beauteous Dionis; 
 
 Of the silky-haired caprella, and the gentle lowing kine — 
 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! what pleasant dreams were thine! 
 
 Of the spring time, and the summer, and the zephyr's balmy breeze; 
 Of the dainty flowers, and waving elms, and the yellow humming bees; 
 
110 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Of the rustling poplar and the oak, the tamarisk and the beech, 
 
 The dog-rose and anemone, — ^thou had'st a dream of each! 
 
 Of the galingale and hyacinth, and the lily's snowy hue. 
 
 The couch-grass, and green maiden-hair, and celandine pale blue, 
 
 The gold-bedropt cassidony, the fern, and sweet woodbine — 
 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! what pleasant dreams were thine! 
 
 Of the merry harvest-home, all beneath the good green trees, 
 The poppies and the spikes of corn, the shouting and the glee 
 Of the lads so blithe and healthy, and the girls so gay and neat. 
 And the dance they lead around the trees with ever twinkling feet; 
 And the bushy piles of lentisk to rest the aching brow. 
 And reach and pluck the damson down from the overladen bough. 
 And munch the roasted bean at ease, and quaflF the Ptelean wine — 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! what pleasant dreams were thine! 
 
 And higher dreams were thine to dream — of Hercules the brave. 
 And Polydeukes good at need, and Castor strong to save; 
 Of Dionysus and the woe he wrought the Theban king; 
 And of Zeus the mighty centre of Olympus' glittering ring; 
 Of Tiresias, the blind old man, the famed Aonian seer; 
 Of Hecate, and Chthonian Dis, whom all mankind revere: 
 And of Daphnis lying down to die beneath the leafy vine — 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! what pleasant dreams were thine! 
 
 But mostly sweet and soft thy dreams — of Cypris' loving kiss, 
 
 Of the dark-haired maids of Corinth, and the feasts of Sybaris; 
 
 Of alabaster vases of Assyrian perfume. 
 
 Of ebony, and gold, and pomp, and softly-curtained room; 
 
 Of Faunus piping in the woods to the Satyrs' noisy rout. 
 
 And the saucy Panisks mocking him with many a jeer and flout; 
 
 And of the tender-footed Hours, and Pieria's tuneful Nine — 
 
 Theocritus! Theocritus! what pleasant dreams were thine! 
 
 Here are allusions sown from the sack; — scarcely a line but con- 
 tains a reminiscence. The poem is found in Bentley Bcdlads, p. 251 
 (see 'Sheehan/ Bib. 15), and in Stedman's Vic. Anth., p. 49. 
 
 David Macbeth Moie. Thomsons Birth-Place. 1852. 
 
 Is Ednam, then, so near us? I must gaze 
 On Thomson's cradle-spot — as sweet a hard 
 (Theocritus and Maro blent in one) 
 As ever graced the name. 
 
 While Thomson wrote some true pastoral poetry in the Seasons, 
 very realistic descriptions of rural scenes and of shepherds' occu- 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 111 
 
 pations, yet I do not discover that he knew Theocritus. The ex- 
 pression nearest to an allusion occurs in the beginning of Autumn^ 
 but it is certainly only conventional : 
 
 — The Doric reed once more, 
 Well pleased, I tune. 
 
 J. Banks (afterwards Davies). The Idylls of Theocritus. 1853. 
 
 This is a literal prose version prepared for Bohn's Library. Be- 
 fore its appearance there had been only four published Idylls 
 rendered into English prose — the Epithalamium of Helen, which 
 Polwhele thus translated in order to disclose the correspondences 
 between it and the Song of Songs (pp. 336-8 of first ed.), and 
 three by Du Bois. 
 
 Possibly this version and the allusion which I shall next give 
 may not, strictly speaking, be said to belong to the realm of litera- 
 ture as one of the fine arts; nevertheless they indicate a popular 
 interest in Theocritus, and, besides, a long quotation from him in 
 a daily newspaper in order to illustrate a prize combat in the ring 
 is surely interesting as putting our pastoral poet to an extra- 
 ordinary use. In the London Times, April 23, 1860, appeared the 
 following communication : 
 
 Prize Fight in Ancient Times, or a Bell's Life in the Year 260, B. C. 
 
 Sib. — The contest between Pollux and Amycus, as described by Theoc- 
 ritus in his 22d Idyll, is so singularly like the late fight for the cham- 
 pionship that I think the following extract from Mr. Banks's literal 
 translation will amuse and interest those who are not already acquainted 
 with it. 
 
 The famous description then follows, beginning with line 44 and 
 ending with line 132 — 'then thou wast victor, boxer Pollux: thou 
 didst nothing madly violent. (Signed) Walter Severn, Council 
 Office, Whitehall.' 
 
 An interesting experiment of like nature, and entirely inde- 
 pendent of this, appeared in the Cambridge Review, Feb. 25, 1897, 
 entitled 'Classics for the Million,' signed 'Edgar Valdes,' pseudonym 
 for Mt. Vernon Kendall, editor of the Athenceum. It is a clever 
 reproduction of Theocritus's description of the battle of Polydeuces 
 vs. Amycus in the modem slang of the prize-ring 'by one who knew 
 both Greek and the gloves.' 
 
 On this aspect of Theocritus, — namely, his realism, a comment 
 
118 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 of the Edinburgh Review (July, 1836) is worth quoting. It per- 
 tains to this same Idyll. It runs as follows : 
 
 Could Theocritus be surpassed by the most scientific reporter that ever 
 started in chaise and four for Moulsey-Hurst ? . . And could Pierce 
 Egan himself desire a more graphic sketch [than this of the ftght on the 
 coast of Bebrycia] ? 
 
 To the same effect is this comment from the same pen on the 
 Syracusan Gossips: 
 
 Act these scenes as a fashionable charade, in any Christmas party at 
 the present day, and every spectator will spell 'womanhood.' 
 
 Charles Kingsley. Alexandria and Her Schools. 1854. 
 
 ESTIlVLiTE. — 
 
 One natural strain is heard amid all this artificial jingle, that of 
 Theocritus. It is not altogether Alexandrian. Its sweetest notes were learnt 
 amid the chestnut groves and orchards, the volcanic glens and sunny 
 pastures of Sicily. . . . One can well conceive the delight which his 
 Idylls musf have given to those dusty Alexandrians, pent up forever 
 between sea and sandhills, drinking the tank-water, and never hearing 
 the sound of a running stream — ^whirling, too, forever, in all the bustle and 
 intrigue of a great commercial and literary city. . I believe Theoc- 
 
 ritus is one of the poets who will never die. He sees men and things, 
 in his own light way, truly; and he describes them simply, honestly, with 
 little careless touches of pathos and humor, while he floods his whole 
 scene with that georgeous Sicilian air, like one of Titian's pictures. — 
 Lecture ii. 
 
 Doubt not that many a soul then, was the simpler, and purer, and 
 better, for reading the sweet singer of Syracuse. He has his immor- 
 alities; but they are the immoralities of his age; his naturalness, his 
 sunny calm and cheerfulness, are all his own. Ibid. 
 
 All this [wealth of beauty is] told in a language and mietre which 
 shapes itself almost unconsciously, wave after wave, into the most 
 luscious song. — Ibid. 
 
 Melanter [K. D. Blaokmore.] Sicilian Hours. 1885. 
 
 [Dub. Univ. Mag.] 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Perhaps no poet knew better than Theocritus those distinctions upon 
 which depend the attractive powers of a writer — the difference between 
 the familiarity which bespeaks a friendly feeling and that which breeds 
 contempt — between the ease of conscious beauty and that of listless 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 113 
 
 abandonment — ^between the play of thought which pleases and relieves, 
 and that which is ungainly and offensive. 
 
 The Smging Match. 
 Translation. — 
 
 This animated paraphrase is included in the article entitled 
 Sicilian Hours. Since in the freedom and spirit with which the 
 amoebean portions are rendered this experiment is unique, I will 
 give two specimen stanzas: 
 
 Men. — Glades and rivers, heaven's birth, 
 
 If Menalcas ever lent 
 Tune or song your listening worth, 
 
 Feed my lambs to heart's content 
 And if Daphnis pasture here. 
 Let him have no poorer cheer. 
 
 Daph. — Rills and meadows, herbage sweet 
 
 If your Daphnis hath a tune 
 Nightingales could never beat, 
 
 Give his cows a plumper soon: 
 And whate'er Menalcas feed. 
 Kindly welcome to the mead. 
 
 Melanter called Theocritus his 'favorite poet.^ My efforts to obtain 
 his Poems (London, 1854) proved unavailing. There may be other 
 Theocritean renderings in them. 
 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay. 
 
 Marginal Notes. (Date unknown.) 
 Page 10, Note on the 7th Id. — 
 
 This is a very good Idyll. Indeed it is more pleasing to me than almost 
 any other pastoral poem in any language. It was my favorite at College. 
 There is a rich profusion of rustic imagery about it which I find nowhere 
 else. It opens a scene of rural plenty and comfort which quite fills the 
 imagination, — ^flowers, fruits, leaves, fountains, soft goat-skins, old wine, 
 singing birds, joyous, friendly companions. The whole has an air of 
 reality which is more interesting than the conventional world which 
 Virgil has placed in Arcadia. 
 
 For other references to Theocritus by Macaulay, see pages 43 and 
 63, supra. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. Poems. 1843. 
 
 Eeaders of the Memoir will recall the fine tribute which Tenny- 
 son in an outburst of enthusiasm once paid to the poet of our study. 
 
114 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATUEE 
 
 Thus runs the memorable account as given by Francis Turner 
 Palgrave : 
 
 We were sitting (1857 or so) late at night in the Farringford attic- 
 room already mentioned: and Tennyson read over to me the little Theoc- 
 ritean Idyll Hylas; eminent for beauty in a treasure-house where all 
 are beautiful. He dwelt particularly on the tender loveliness of the 
 lines which describe how the fair youth, carried to the depths of a fountain 
 by the enamored Nymphs, faintly answered the call of his companion 
 Herakles [Id. 13. 58-60]. . . Tennyson, if I remember rightly, ended 
 
 with that voluntary half-sigh of delight which breaks forth when a 
 sympathetic spirit closes, or turns from, some masterpiece of perfect art, 
 in words or colors. 'I should be content to die,' said the author of the 
 "English Idyls," and of the "Idylls of the King," 'if 1 had written any- 
 thing equal to this' (vol. ii. p. 495). 
 
 Also Jowett in his 'Personal Recollections/ included in the same 
 Memoir, writes: 
 
 Yet I seem to remember that he had his favorite Classics, such as 
 Homer, and Pindar, and Theocritus ( Ihid. p. 463 ) . 
 
 I shall content myself here with presenting in statistical fashion, 
 as being the most condensed way, the result of others' investiga- 
 tion. Little, perhaps, could be added, and little should be taken 
 away. Many cases must indeed remain doubtful. In such judg- 
 ments Tennyson's own warning, uttered in a letter to Mr. S. E. 
 Dawson relevant to the parallels found by that editor in The 
 Princess, is not to be forgotten: 
 
 I do not object to your finding parallelisms. They must always recur. 
 A man (a Chinese scholar) some time ago wrote to me, saying that in 
 an unknown, untranslated Chinese poem there were two whole lines of 
 mine, almost word for word. Why not? Are not human eyes all over 
 the world looking at the same objects, and must there not consequently 
 be coincidences of thought and impressions and expressions? 
 
 The present writer trusts that he has not anywhere disregarded 
 this caution. 
 
 Mr. Stedman, in a notable chapter of the Victorian Poets, and in 
 a previous monograph on the subject, revealed accurately the 
 extent and nature of Tennyson's indebtedness to Theocritus; and 
 in doing so, it may well be added, he brought into relief, as pos- 
 sibly for classical scholars it could not otherwise have been so well 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 115 
 
 done, the artistic graces of the great English poet. After Stedman 
 little remained to be done — little has been done, though many, by 
 fresh study, have confirmed his results. Two kinds of obligation 
 were noted by this keen critic: (1) a suggestion of structure, 
 method, sentiment, and purpose; (3) an artistic imitation of 
 choice passages ; so that the modern is indebted to the ancient poet 
 'for the very form and language which render beautiful much of 
 his most widely celebrated verse.' Such influence may be appre- 
 ciated and described, but not set forth to the eye. 
 
 Before Stedman, some parallel passages had been noted, as he 
 says (Vict. Poets, p. 204). In Thackeray's Anthologia I have 
 observed but one citation : that of the noon-day heat and the lizard 
 lying in the wall {(Enone) ; and to this Snow added one or two 
 others. Before either of these writers, however, Henry Alford, one 
 of Tennyson's Cambridge friends, had written in Chapters on 
 Poetry (1841), p. 306: 
 
 Alfred Tennyson has almost out-done them [the idyllists of Greece], 
 in his (Enone, by far the most beautiful classical poem of the present day. 
 
 But it was John Addington Symonds who first indicated the 
 largeness of Tennyson's debt to Theocritus and suggested the task 
 which Stedman performed {The Greek Poets, 1867). The follow- 
 ing passage concludes his chapter on the Idyllists (Vol. II., pp. 
 299-300) : 
 
 Tennyson among the poets of the nineteenth century, owes much to 
 the Greek idyllists. . . Like Theocritus, he finds in nature and in 
 legends of past ages subjects congenial to his muse. (Bnone and Tithonus 
 are steeped in the golden beauty of Syracusan art. "Comie down, 
 maid," transfers, with perfect taste, the Greek idyllic feeling to Swiss 
 scenery; it is a fine instance of new wine being poured successfully into 
 old bottles, for nothing can be fresher, and not even the Thalysia is sweeter. 
 It would be easy enough to collect minor instances which prove that 
 the laureate's mind is impregnated with the thoughts and feelings of the 
 poems I have been discussing. For instance, both the fiigure "softer than 
 sleep," and the comparison of a strong man's muscles to the smooth rush 
 of running water over sunken stones, which we find in Enid, occur in 
 Theocritus. 
 
 I will present in a tabular view the references to the parallels 
 instanced in the three chief essays that have dealt with the subject. 
 This form of presentation of results must necessarily fail to show 
 
116 
 
 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 the full extent and nature of Tennyson's obligations to Theocritus, 
 or to give an adequate idea of the scope and quality of the criticisms 
 accompanying the parallels in the chapters from which I have taken 
 them. But where there is so much to be presented this condensed 
 foi-m seems a necessity. 
 
 Tennyson Theoeriiun Stedman Collins Mustard 
 
 Poem 
 
 Key-words 
 
 Id nnd tine 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 
 Page 
 
 Godiva 
 
 Structure; beginning 
 
 13 
 
 212-3 
 
 
 31 
 
 CEnone 
 
 Refrain 
 
 1&2 
 
 213-4 
 
 
 35-6 
 
 
 Lizard 
 
 7.21-3 
 
 213-4 
 
 41 
 
 35-6 
 
 
 Silence, wakefulness 
 
 2.38-41 
 
 213-4 
 
 
 
 
 Married-brows 
 
 8.72 
 
 226 
 
 42 
 
 36 
 
 
 Leaning — sang 
 
 3.38 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 Lotus-Eaters 
 
 Afternoon, galingale 
 
 13.30 ff 
 
 215-7 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 Here — mosses 
 
 5.31-4, 45, 51 
 
 215-7 
 
 
 36 
 
 
 Thin voice 
 
 13.59 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 Gardener's D. 
 
 Structure 
 
 
 217-9 
 
 
 
 
 Beginning 
 
 7.1 ff 
 
 230 
 
 
 
 
 Eulogy, scene 
 
 7.130-47 
 
 229-30 
 
 'N.S.' 
 
 
 
 Love at first sight 
 
 11.25-9 
 
 224-5 
 
 
 33 
 
 Audley Court 
 
 Orchard, cider 
 
 7.144ff 
 
 230-1 
 
 
 34 
 
 Walking to the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mail 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Edwin Morris 
 
 
 - Spirit, structure . . 
 
 
 217-8 
 
 
 
 Golden Year 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Princess 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Prologue 
 
 Laborious ivory 
 
 28.4 
 
 227 
 
 
 39 
 
 Bk. iv.— 
 
 Swallow Song 
 
 17.54-7 
 3.12-14 
 
 220-1 
 
 
 
 
 Cradle Song 
 
 24.7-9 
 
 223 
 
 81 
 
 
 Bk. iii.88 
 
 Crane 
 
 9.31-2 
 
 222 
 
 82 
 
 38-9 
 
 Bk. vii. 
 
 Come down 
 
 11.42-9 
 60-6 
 
 229 
 
 88 
 
 40-1 
 40-1 
 
 Bk. vii. 
 
 Sweeter thy voice 
 
 1.7-8 
 5.46ff 
 
 227 
 
 
 41-2 
 
 Idylls 
 
 Dorian-wise 
 
 
 220 
 
 
 
 Enid 
 
 Geraint's breast 
 
 22.46-50 
 
 221-2 
 
 135 
 
 39-40 
 
 
 Two birds 
 
 29.12 
 
 
 13« 
 
 
 Elaine 
 
 Gifts 
 
 28.24-5 
 
 224 
 
 
 
 Mer. and Viv. 
 
 Woven paces 
 
 18.8 
 
 
 1 
 
 39 
 
 The Islet 
 
 Apple-cheek'd 
 
 26.1 
 
 
 89 
 
 39 
 
 Love and Duty Hours 
 
 15.102-5 
 
 221 
 
 57 
 
 37 
 
 Talking Oak 
 
 Carve — names 
 
 18.47-8 
 
 221-2 
 
 
 
 Pal. of Art 
 
 S 
 
 ofter than Sleep 
 
 5.51 
 
 226 
 
 
 38 
 

 Tennyson 
 
 Tkeocritiis 
 
 Poem 
 
 Key-words 
 
 Id. and line 
 
 In Mem. 
 
 
 
 xl.1-2 
 
 Bride 
 
 8.90-1 
 
 ix. 
 
 Fair voyage 
 
 7.53 
 
 Maud 
 
 
 
 1.18.4 
 
 Mattock-harden'd 
 
 16-32 
 
 III.2 
 
 Cobweb — canon 
 
 16.96 
 
 THE VICTORIAN ERA 117 
 
 Stedman Collins Mustard 
 Page Page Page 
 
 224 
 
 39 
 
 lis 
 
 Comments op Critics.* 
 
 Stedman : — 
 
 The Idylls of the King are written Dorian-wise. — Victorian Poets, p. 220. 
 
 Collins : — 
 
 The plan of the work [Tennyson's Idylls of the King'] was suggested 
 partly by Spenser and partly, perhaps, by Theocritus. [Footnote:] What 
 Theocritus may have suggested was the idea of substituting a series ol 
 idylls for a continuous narrative. — III. of Ten. p. 7. 
 
 Lang : — 
 
 Tennyson followed the example of Theocritus in writing, not an epic, 
 but epic idylls. — Alfred Termyson, p. 34. Cf. p. 99. 
 
 Stedman : — 
 
 Let us look at another class of idylls, wherein the Theocritean method 
 is adapted to modem themes . . . The 'Gardener's Daughter,' 'Audley 
 Court,' "Walking to the Mail,' 'Edwin Morris,' or 'The Lake' and 'The 
 Golden Year' are modelled upon such patterns as "The Thalysia,' the 
 'Singers of Pastorals,' 'The Rival Singers,' and 'The Triumph of Daphnis.' 
 
 —V. P., 217-8. 
 
 Collins : — 
 
 His English Idyls are obviously modelled on Theocritus and Wordsworth. 
 
 — Vew Study, etc. Cornhill 42: 18. 
 
 Lang : — 
 
 He constantly reminds us of Homer, Virgil, Theocritus. — Alfred Tenny- 
 son, p. 218. 
 
 Egan : — 
 
 Theocritus, who was an ancestor of Virgil and of all later pastoral 
 poets, takes new life in Tennyson. — The Qhost in Hamlet, p. 246. 
 
 *For references on Tennyson's relation to Theocritus see Bibliography 
 VII. 
 
118 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 But Mr. Herbert W. Paul hints at the need of caution in this 
 trend of utterance : 
 
 To call Tennyson an English Theocritus is to my mind critically 
 unsound. — Men and Letters, p. 16. 
 
 Mr. John Morley had earlier written to the same effect: 
 
 Wie have this long while been so debilitated by pastorals, by graceful 
 presentation of the Arthurian legend for drawing-rooms, by Idyls, not 
 robust and Theocritean, etc. — Review of Browning's "The Ring and the 
 Book," Fort. Rev., March, 1869. 
 
 Francis Turner Palgrate. On Reading Theocritus. 1854. 
 
 AULUSION. — 
 
 Where are the hands that framed these golden lines, 
 
 Rich in the fragrance of o'erwhelming love; 
 
 The passionate sweetness of the tuberose bells, 
 
 Sweetness that song refines 
 
 Till earth-bom passion spreads her wings above . . . t 
 
 The soul of the Sicilian lives in song. 
 
 His name yet flits among the mouths of men. 
 
 Thyrsis: A Pastoral Elegy. 1854. 
 
 The motto is the refrain of the Dirge for Daphnis. Some Sicilian 
 echoes occur; as, 
 
 The mead no more the violet may rear. 1.134. 
 And weariness of life bore Thyrsis down. 1.140. 
 
 From Torquato Tasso. 1854. 
 
 The motto is from Idyll 3.15. 
 
 A Dorset Idyl. 1881. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 And those old minstrels who outlast 
 Our looser-textured webs of song, 
 
 Nursed in Hellenic dells, 
 Sicilian, or Italian, hither throng. 
 
 After verses characterizing the landscapes of Homer, Pindar, 
 and Sophocles, this passage occurs on Theocritus, with its para- 
 phrase of Id. 11.46 ff : 
 
 Another music then we hear, 
 A cry from the Sicilian dell. 
 Here 'mid sweet grapes and laurel dwell; 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 119 
 
 Slips by from wood-girt ^Etna's dome 
 Snow-cold the stream and clear: — 
 Hither to m», come, Galatea, come! 
 
 Landscape in Poetry. 1897. 
 
 This more modern chord we hear first and perhaps most exquisitely in 
 the bucolic Idylls of Theocritus. These little Epics are indeed primarily 
 concerned with man and woman, an aim which they unite with landscape 
 in its wider sense, including, that is, the life of country folk. Yet, though 
 his Idylls, in the phrase of the lovely festival song (Thalysia) , breathe of 
 summer, of fruit and flowers and other country sights, yet hardly any 
 pure descriptive passages appear. One such we find in the Idyll just 
 named, painting the scene where the rustic feast is held (p. 26 ) . 
 
 Teanslations. — 
 
 Id. 7.132-141 ; 20.37-43 ; 14.39-40. Prose. 
 
 Egbert Buchanan. Polypheme's Passion. 1864. 
 
 Suggestions for this burlesque treatment are derived from 
 Euripides and Theocritus. These lines are from the Theocritean 
 source : 
 
 Now tell me — am I fair? 20.19 
 
 — I sadly clomb the cliffs and made 
 
 A looking-glass of yonder ocean. 6.35. 
 
 As soft, as sweet, as fleecy-limbed as she. 
 
 As tiny and as tender and as white. 11.19-20 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 Pagan and Medieval Religious Sentiment. 1864. 
 
 This essay, which was first published in Comhill, April, 1864, 
 contains Arnold's spirited prose version of nearly all of the fifteenth 
 Idyll. In giving his reason for selecting this Idyll by which to 
 exemplify pagan religious sentiment, Arnold says : 
 
 I take a representative religious poem of paganism, — of the paganism 
 which all the world has in its mind when it speaks of paganism. To be 
 a representative poem, it must be one for popular use, one that the 
 multitude will listen to. Such a religious poem may be found at the end 
 of the best and happiest of Theocritus's Idylls, the fifteenth. 
 
 On the dialogue Arnold comments thus : 
 
 As it stands in the original, it can hardly be praised too highly. It is 
 a page torn fresh out of the book of human life. What freedom! What 
 naturalness ! 
 
I'JO THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Herbert "W. Paul, in Men and Letters (p. 17), speaking of 'those 
 wonderful Idylls which, unlike Tithonus, flourish not in immortal 
 age, but in immortal youth,' says : 
 
 I am sometimes tempted to wish that Matthew Arnold had let Theoc- 
 ritus alone. So many people seem to think that Gorgo and Praxinoe 
 are Theocritus. They might as well believe that Mrs. Quickly and Doll 
 Tearsheet are Shakespeare. 
 
 The Shakespearean quality of this little three-scene comedy has been 
 frequently noted. In the New Monthly Magazine, July, 1836, for 
 example, occurs a comparison which this of Mr. Paul's immediately 
 suggests. Speaking of this Idyll the writer says: 'The gossip of 
 Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page in the Merry Wives of Windsor is not 
 truer to the sex of the interlocutors.' 
 
 In his essay On the Study of Celtic Literature (p. 125), Arnold 
 allows us again to see that he sets a high value on the Idylls. To 
 exemplify the difference between the conventional and the Greek 
 way of handling nature he adduces Id. 13.34 and Propertius's imita- 
 tion of it, Carmina 1.20.20-1 : 
 
 . . . manus heroum . . . 
 Mollia composita litora fronde tegit. 
 
 In the Greek way of handling nature, which is examplified by 
 Theocritus, Arnold says, 'the eye is on the object, but lightness 
 and brightness are added.' 
 
 In Mr. Paul's Matthew Arnold, there are references to Theoc- 
 ritus, pp. 25, 16, 28, 85, 86, 100. Of the line in Mycerinus— 
 Sweep in the sounding stillness of the night — 
 
 he says it has an echo of Theocritus. But it is not an echo of any 
 single line; it rather puts into words the impression made by 
 Id. 2.35-9. Of the 'mist-wreathed flock' and the 'wet, flowered 
 grass,' in Resignation, he says they 'recall the Sicilian poet he 
 loved so well' (p. 28). On pages 85-6 the comment runs thus : 
 
 The Essay on Pagan and Mediwval Religious Sentiment is best known 
 by the charming translation from the fifteenth Idyll of Theocritus which 
 it contains. . . Gorgo and Praxinoe are indeed delightfully natural 
 characters. The Hymn to Adonis is a beautiful and highly finished piece 
 of composition. But Theocritus was preeminently the poet of passion 
 and of nature. This satirical sketch of town life is one of the least The- 
 ocritean things in him. 
 
THE VICTOBIAN EEA 121 
 
 Of Thyrsis Mr. Paul writes : 
 
 Mr. Arnold's model was not Milton, but Theocritus, and Thyrsis is 
 thoroughly Theocritean in sentiment. 
 
 But it is not line, phrase, or epithet that Arnold has imitated; 
 it is the Greek tone and spirit that he possesses. The subtle 
 repetitions in Thyrsis will be recognized as Theocritean. As 
 examples, the two last lines of the first stanza : 
 
 Here came I often, often in old days — 
 Thyrsis and I; we still had Thyrsis then. 
 
 And this: 
 
 For she herself had trod Sicilian fields, 
 She knew the Dorian water's gush divine, 
 She knew each lilly white which Enna yields. 
 
 Callieles's song in Empedocles on Etna (1.3), not only because 
 it is pastoral, and concerns Etna, but because of something fresh, 
 simple and genuine in the description, suggests Theocritus : 
 
 The track winds down to the clear stream. 
 To cross the sparkling shallows; there 
 The cattle lov« to gather, on their way 
 To the high mountain-pastures, and to stay, 
 Till the rough cow-herds drive them past. 
 Knee-deep in the cool ford; for 'tis the last 
 Of all the woody, high, well-watered dells 
 On Etna; and the beam 
 Of noon is broken there by chestnut-boughs 
 Down its steep verdant sides. 
 
 Anonymous. Review of Pcdey's Edition of Theocritus. 1863. 
 
 Estimate op Theoceitus. — 
 
 Theocritus was emphatically a learned poet, one of a brilliant circle of 
 minstrels, in a city famous for its literary treasures and associations, 
 at a period when, though the most glorious poets of Greece had long 
 departed, there was a keener zest for their immortal works than perhaps 
 at any time before or since. A study of some of the Alexandrian poets 
 reveals to us a trifle of pedantry; but Theocritus is an exception. His 
 learning is never thrust, head and shoulders, into his verses; and yet it 
 is evident that it underlies all his compositions. — The Sat. Rev. 16:497. 
 
122 THEOCKITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUKE 
 
 T. [homas] I. [ewin.] 
 
 Dreams during Reading Eamhles. Theocritus. 1865. 
 
 \Bub. Univ. Mag.] 
 Tbanslation (in the verse part, entitled Shepherd) . — 
 
 Here happy rest; for here dark cypress, here broad oak trees shadow round. 
 Here sweetly by their honey'd hives the bee-swarm's humming sound; 
 Here pulse two limpid fountains cool; here, under beeches spreading wide. 
 The birds pipe garrulous: such shade is nowhere in the land beside 
 As where this pine, from airy summit, drops its cones upon the ground. 
 
 5.45-9. 
 
 I have not examined this writer's Tictures and Songs' (Dublin, 
 1880), and 'Poems, Sketches, and Songs' (Dublin, 1899). I should 
 expect more of Theocritus in these volumes. 
 
 Sir Edmund Head. The Bridal Song of Helen. 1866. 
 
 This translation of Id. 18 originally appeared in Eraser's Mago 
 zine. It is in rhymed iambic heptameter couplets, without distin- 
 guished merit. I have not had opportunity to examine this author's 
 volume entitled 'Ballads and Other Poems,' which may contain 
 other translations from the Idylls, or imitations of them. 
 
 George Eliot. Life and Letters: Cross. 
 
 'I am reading. . . Theocritus still.' Journal, March 7, 1866. 
 We know that this means in the original, for this was George 
 Eliot's habit. At this time Felix Holt, begun the previous year, 
 was still iQ her hands. To the 10th chapter Id. 11.10, translated, 
 was prefixed as a motto. 
 
 I have just re-read the fifteenth Idyll of Theocritus, and have written 
 three more sonnets. — Ihid. July 19, 1869. 
 
 Read Theocritus, Id. 16.— Ihid. July 23, 1869. 
 
 I have finished eleven sonnets of "Brother and Sister," read. . . part 
 of 22nd Idyll of Theocritus. — lUd. Aug. 1, 1869. 
 
 It is interesting ia the light of this suggestion to re-read those 
 sonnets which convey such a vivid impression of their author's 
 delight in simple rural objects, flowers, brooks, birds, and trees. 
 These memory scenes were recorded under the immediate inspira- 
 tion of the Sicilian poet. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The sadness of your art is so inwrought with pure, elevating sensi- 
 bility to all that is sweet and beautiful in the story of man and in the face 
 
THE VICTORIAN EHA 133 
 
 of the earth, that it can no more be found fault with than the sadnesa 
 of mid-day, when Pan is touchy like the rest of us. — ^Letter to Burne-Jones, 
 Meh., 20, 1873. 1.14-17. 
 
 Theophrastus Such. a. 1880. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Apparently he was like the woodcutter entering the thick forest and 
 saying, "Where shall I begin?" 17.9-10. 
 
 Maurice Purcell Fitz-Gerald. 
 
 The Crowned Hippolytus, etc. 1867. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Idylls 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 13, 13, 15, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, and 39. 
 
 The form is blank verse, except in case of the last, which is 
 hendecasyllabic. Little notice seems to have been taken of these 
 translations, yet they are exceedingly good, being both scholarly 
 and, in general, poetic. 
 
 Herbert Snow (now Kynaston). 
 
 The Idylls of Theocritus. 1869. 
 [A school edition.] 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Id. 1.64-141. Heroic couplets. Id. 7.52-89. The stanza of In 
 Memoriam. Id. 7.130-157. Blank verse. Id. 10.36-58. Various 
 metres. Id. 19. Trochaic octosyllabic couplets. Id. 38. 'In imita- 
 tion of the original metre.' 
 
 In point of artistry these translations are very meritorious. As 
 experiments in different metres and stanza-forms they should have 
 a high degree of consideration. 
 
 Charles Stuart Calvehlbt. Theocritus. 1869. 
 
 This translation of Theocritus is justly ranked very high. The 
 English is idiomatic, free, and responsive to the spirit of the 
 original. A variety of metrical forms are employed, but blank 
 verse most frequently. The heptameter couplet, which was used in 
 four of the Sixe Idillia, is here employed in Idylls 7 and 8, with 
 an effect that reveals the adaptability of this metre to the service 
 of translating Greek hexameters. Of all the verse translations of 
 Theocritus this has done the most in our time to extend a knowl- 
 edge of the poet. 
 
124 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 James Davies, the first translator of Theocritus into English 
 prose (see supra, p. Ill), wrote of Calverley's translation as follows 
 in The Contemporary Review, Oct., 1869 : 
 
 Mr. Calverley combines in a singular degree accurate scholarship and 
 undeniable insight, as to true interpretation, with a bright and clear imi- 
 tation of his author's vein, and much of the unspeakable charm that 
 resides in the original. 
 
 The Saturday Review, June 13, 1869 : 
 
 By the wholesome interfusion of other metres, especially when inter- 
 locutors in the blank-verse idyls vary the narrative or dialogue with 
 song, the present translator successfully escapes monotony and presents to 
 English readers a delightful poet in a guisie almost as easy, changeful, and 
 graceful as his own. This is saying much, seeing that we rate very 
 highly the genius of Theocritus. 
 
 In praise of Theocritus rather than in disparagement of Cal- 
 verley, Mr. Frederic Harrison writes: 
 
 The excellent translation in verse by Mr. C. S. Calverley does not retain 
 the music at all. — The Choice of Books, p. 33 n. 
 
 Justin Huntly McCarthy Sonnet: C. S. C. [alverley]. 
 
 Ye shades of Syracusan shepherds, weep 
 
 For him who loved you. To that land of dreams. 
 
 Where Lacon entertains with rustic themies 5. 
 
 A rustic muse on some Sicilian steep, 
 
 He shall return no more. He lies asleep: 
 
 Nor may Menalcas whistling to his teams, 9. 
 
 Nor Battus piping by the haunted streams, 4. 
 
 Ever arouse him from his slumber deep. 
 
 'I too am in Arcadia,' even Death, 
 
 Who, while Comatas runs his lips along 5. 
 
 The reeds of Syrinx, modulates the stops 
 
 With icy fingers till the shepherd's breath 
 
 Falters, the praise of Pan is hushed, the song 
 
 Floats to a sigh among the mountain-tops. 
 
 John Sheehan. May-Day on Parnassus: Thalia's Lament. 1870. 
 
 This poem and the translations of Sheehan appeared in Temple 
 Bar, Vols. 29, 32, 33, and 41. The original is handled with 
 facetious freedom. 
 
THE VIOTOEIAN EEA 135 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Drinking sweetest pastoral sounds what rapture would be mine, 
 To hear the loved one's reed amongst the sheep and kine! 
 With Moschus or Theocritus I'd lovingly abide 
 By laurelled Grecian mountain or Sicilian river side. 
 
 Teanslations. — 
 
 Id. 10.24-37 : A Rose of Damascus. Id. 19 : The Homy Stealer. 
 "From ancient to modern Doric." Id. 2 : The Enchantress of Syra^ 
 cuse. 
 
 An Evening with Theocritus. 1874. 
 Teanslations. — 
 
 Id. 1.64-142 : Daphnis. Id. 3.6-46 : Amaryllis. 
 
 Edwin Arnold. The Secret of Death. 1868-84. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 Id. 1.1-63. Dactylic hexameter. Id. 2. A variety of meters. 
 Id. 27. Dactylic hexameter. Id. 23.28. Dactylic hexameter. 
 
 The fragment entitled Plants and Men, translated by Arnold and 
 ascribed by him to Theocritus, is from Moschus, Id. 3.106 ff. Some 
 of Arnold's translations were published (in Macmillan's Maga- 
 zine) in 1868. 
 
 These are the best renderings we have of any part of Theocritus. 
 Only Symonds's dactylic hexameter version of Id. 2 {infra, p. 134) 
 can be ranked with Arnold's versions in the same metre. The sur- 
 passing fitness of hexameters is by both these translators splendidly 
 evinced. 
 
 The Poets of Greece. 1869. 
 Estimate of Theoceitus. — 
 
 If the suspected flowers [the doubtful poems] be not from the asphodel 
 meadows of Theocritus, such fair blossoms of poetry were surely grown 
 from the same seed (p. 172). 
 
 Philip Gilbert Hamerton. The Sylvan Year. 1876. 
 
 [Theocritus, Chapter xxxiv.] 
 
 Passages from various Idylls are rendered into prose and the 
 text is here and there quoted. The morality of the Idylls is com- 
 mented upon with severe reprobation. The value of Hamerton's 
 study consists in his viewing the Idylls as pictures: a painter's 
 point of view. 
 
126 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATURE 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus writes like a man who is accustomed to walk in all sorts 
 of wild places, and who remembers his experiences in such walks (p. 188). 
 
 Writing like this [Id. 4.] takes us out of doors at once, and to the very 
 spot (p. 188). 
 
 Theocritus always had before his mind's eye the image of a tree, when he 
 thought of a tree at all, much too clearly for him to be ignorant of its 
 species (p. 190). 
 
 Edmund Gosse. The Gifts of the Muses. 1879. 
 
 Reminiscences. — 
 
 Against a platan's root. 
 
 Blowing a rustic flute, 
 
 Young Daphnis lay, the careless herdsman blithe; 8 and 9. 
 
 He piped an oaten strain 7. 
 
 Of math and loaded wain. 
 
 Of harvest triumphs drawn along the vales; 
 
 Of songs of wood and hill, 
 
 The frail cicala shrill 1.148. 
 
 And shepherds challenging the nightingales 1.136. 
 
 Of heifers straying among orchard fruits, 4.44-5. 
 
 And wanton kids that gnaw the fig-tree shoots. Ep. 1.5-6. 
 
 She rose bewildered and no more a child. 24.27. 
 
 And oft when noon was hot, 
 
 In some secluded spot, 
 
 The bard would turn and bid them all lie down. 
 
 And then, while in the pine-tops sighed the wind, 
 
 Some thrilling tale of passion he would find. 1. 
 
 Olive and poplar meet 
 
 And o'er the joyous folk their branches fret. 7.8-9. 
 
 The Sisters: A Dorian Idyl. 1879. 
 
 I stole up towards him when his flocks lay down 
 
 Prom stress of noontide on the pastures brown; 
 
 Before him flashed a distant streak of sea, 8.56. 
 
 Behind him rose a whispering tamarisk-tree. 1.1. 
 
 Paraphrase (of 18.38 flf).— 
 
 But when that day of days at last shall dawn 
 When underneath the platan on the lawn 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 127 
 
 Our hands suspend the wreath of dripping huds, 
 Your lotus-garland, starred with multitudes 
 Of nuptial blossoms steeped in rich perfume, 
 When all the maidens throng to view the room 
 Along whose walls the town's best art provides 
 Sweet amorous stories incident to brides, 
 When crowned with hyacinths, a chorus loud, 
 The virgins chant thy praises in a crowd. 
 And only hush when on the ground they pour 
 The fragrant oil, one last libation more. 
 
 May holy Cypris round thy body twine 
 The sacred girdle of the charm divine. 
 
 Theocritus. 1880. 
 
 For A. Lang's Translation. 
 
 The poplars and the ancient elms 
 
 Make murmurous noises high in air; 7. 7-9. 
 
 The noon-day sunlight overwhelms 
 
 The brown cicalas basking there; 7.138-9. 
 
 But here the shade is deep, and sweet 
 
 With new-mown grass and lentisk-shoots, 7.133-4. 
 
 And far away the shepherds meet 
 
 With noisy fifes and flutes. 
 
 Their clamor dies upon the ear; 
 
 So now bring forth the rolls of song, 
 Mouth the rich cadences, nor fear 
 
 Your voice may do the poet wrong; 
 Lift up the chalice to our lips. — 
 
 Yet see, before we venture thus, 
 A stream of red libation drips 
 
 To great Theocritus. 
 
 We are in Sicily to-day; 
 
 And, as the honied metre flows 
 Battos and Corydon, at play, 4. 
 
 Will lose the syrinx, gain the rose; 
 Soft Amaryllis, too, will bind 3.21-3. 
 
 Dark violets round her shining hair. 
 And in the fountain laugh to flnd 
 
 Her sun-browned face so fair. 
 
 We are in Sicily to-day; 
 
 Ah! foolish world, too sadly wise 
 Why did'st thou e'er let fade away 
 
128 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Those ancient, innocent ecstasies? 
 Along the glens, in chequered flight, 
 
 Hither to-day the nymphs shall flee. 
 And Pan forsake for our delight 
 
 The tomb of Helice. 1.123-5. 
 
 Andrew Lang. Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. 1880. 
 
 This second prose rendering of Theocritus into English possesses 
 such beauty, verbal, rhythmical, and stylistic generally, as to rank 
 it among English classics. It is an addition to English literature. 
 Though in a sense standard, yet I cannot think it final. The final 
 version, if there can be finality iu translations, will be metrical. 
 The dactylic rhythms in Mr. Lang's version suggest poetry in 
 the making, an embryonic, imperfect stage. This incompleteness, 
 with its suggestions of a beauty beyond what it possesses, compels 
 one to think that a more perfect artistry will come yet nearer to 
 the Greek regularity, symmetry, and melody. In speaking of this 
 version the Spectator (Oct. 2, 1880) said: 'Theocritus in many of 
 his poems is one of the most poetical of poets; but the charm is 
 subtle, and difiBcult to preserve in translation.' This, therefore, 
 follows : 'A poetical translation of Theocritus would be one of the 
 hardest tasks of its kind conceivable.' This also is said which is 
 equally true: 'Render it into prose, and the exquisite something 
 which transported the reader into a world of ideal grace and 
 beauty is gone.' Largely so, no doubt. To the same effect is the 
 opinion of the London Quarterly Review, Jan., 1887 : 
 
 The thraldom exercised upon our imagination by the style of Theoc- 
 ritus, the beauty of rhythm and language, tells so heavily, that, healthy, 
 delightful, picturesque, and inspiriting in a non-heroic sense, as is the 
 substance of his Idylls, we still miss an enormous proportion of our 
 delight in him when his golden periods are transmitted to the duller 
 periods of prose, however fit and characteristic. 
 
 Ylet the reviewer concludes with this admission : 
 
 With trifling exceptions. . . we find this version of the Greek pas- 
 toral poets wholly praiseworthy. 
 
 The British Quarterly, Oct., 1880, finds nothing in the perform- 
 ance to commend. The Westminster and the Contemporary both 
 speak of it as a significant achievement. James Davies, the author 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 129 
 
 of the article of the last-named review, pronounces it to be 'a 
 memorable work.' (See Davies's comment on Calverley's transla- 
 tion, supra, p. 124.) The writer in the Westminster declares it to 
 be 'a sign of the times.' Of what in the times it was a sign, I 
 shall have occasion to speak later (pp. 178 fE). The Saturday Re- 
 view, July 24, 1880, eulogizes the poet and the translation. 
 
 Frederic Harrison, in the Choice of Boohs (p. 32 n.), writes of 
 the translation as follows: 
 
 I am wont to look on Mr. Lang's translation of Theocritus, in particular, 
 as a tour-de-force in translation at present without a rival. He has 
 caught, although using prose, the music and lilt of the Greek verse (Cf. 
 the same critic's estimate of Calverley's version, supra, p. 123.) 
 
 W. E. Henley, in Views and Reviews (p. 95) writes thus: 
 
 Everyone should read this book, for it will bring him face to face with 
 a very prince among poets and with a very summer among centuries. 
 That Theocritus was a rare and beautiful master there is even in this 
 English transcript an abundance of evidence. Melancholy apart, he was 
 the Watteau of the old Greek world — an exqusite artist, a rare poet, 
 a true and kindly soul; and it is very good to be with him. 
 
 Lang's estimate of the character and genius of Theocritus is 
 found in the admirable essay which constitutes an introduction 
 to his translation. A sentence of it stands thus (pp. xli.-ii) : 
 
 But our impressions about the poet are more distinct [than those about 
 the society in which he lived]. In him we find the most genial character, 
 pious as Greece counted piety; tender as became the poet of love; glad 
 as the singer of a happy southern world should be; gifted, above all, 
 with humor, and with dramatic power. 
 
 To Theocritus in Winter: A Ballade. 1879. 
 
 i<TopS>v rav SiKc\av «s oXa. Id. viii. 56. 
 
 Ah! leave the smoke, the wealth, the roar 
 
 Of London, leave the bustling street, 
 
 For still, by the Sicilian shore, 
 
 The murmur of the Muse is sweet. 
 
 Still, still, the suns of summer greet 
 
 The mountain-grave of Helikfi, 
 
 And shepherds still their songs repeat 
 
 Where breaks the blue Sicilian sea. 
 
 What though they worship Pan no more 
 That guarded once the shepherd's seat. 
 
130 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 They chatter of their rustic lore, 
 They watch the wind among the wheat: 
 Cicalas chirp, the young lambs bleat. 
 Where whispers pine to cypress tree; 
 They count the waves that idly beat, 
 Where breaks the blue Sicilian sea. 
 
 Theocritus! thou canst restore 
 The pleasant years, and over-fleet; 
 With thee we live as men of yore. 
 We rest where running waters meet! 
 And then, we turn unwilling feet 
 And seek the world — so must it be — 
 We may not linger in the heat, 
 And gaze on the Sicilian sea! 
 
 Master, — when rain, and snow, and sleet 
 And northern winds are wild, to thee 
 We come, we rest in thy retreat. 
 And gaze on the Sicilian sea! 
 
 Letters to Dead Authors. 1886. 
 
 Letter No. xiii. is addressed to Theocritus. 
 
 Besides his complete prose version Lang has a verse rendering of 
 the Death of Adonis^ and a sonnet entitled Amaryllis, which is an 
 admirable translation of a part of the third Idyll. 
 
 Oscar Wilde. The Garden of Eros. 1881. 
 
 [Of Wm. Morris.] 
 
 The little laugh of water falling down 
 
 Is not so musical, the clammy gold 1.7-8. 
 
 Close-hoarded in the tiny waxen town. 
 
 Has less of sweetness in it, and the old 20.26-7. 
 
 Half-withered reeds that waved in Arcady, 
 
 Touched by his lips, break forth again to fresher harmony. 
 
 Humanitad: 
 Soon will the lazy shepherds drive their flock 
 
 Back to the pasture by the pool, and soon 5.46. 
 
 Through the green leaves will float the hum of 
 Murmuring bees at noon. 
 
THE VICTORIAN EGA 131 
 
 Charmides. 
 I was the Attic shepherd's trysting place, 
 
 Beneath my shadow Amaryllis lay, 3. 
 
 And round my trunk would laughing Daphnis chase 
 The timorous girl. 8 and 9. 
 
 The Burden of Itys. 
 
 Sweet is the swallow twittering on the eaves — cf. Byron. 
 
 And sweet the hops upon the leas. 
 
 And sweet the wind that lifts the new-mown hay, 
 
 And sweet the fretful swarms of grumbling bees 
 
 That round and round the linden blossoms play. 
 
 And swieet the heifer breathing in the stall, 
 
 And the green bursting figs that hang upon the red-brick wall. 
 
 And sweet to hear the cuckoo mock the spring 
 
 While the last violet loiters by the wall. 
 
 And sweet to hear the shepherd Daphnis sing 
 
 The song of Linus through a sunny dell 
 
 Of warm Arcadia where the corn is gold 
 
 And the slight lithe-limbed reapers dance about the wattled fold. 
 
 And sweet with young Lycorice to recline — etc. 
 
 But sweeter far, etc. 8.76-83. 
 
 Theocritus: A Villanelle. 
 
 O Singer of Persephone! Passim. 
 
 In the dim meadows desolate. 
 Dost thou remember Sicily? 
 Still through the ivy flits the bee 
 
 Where Amaryllis lies in state; 3.13-14. 
 
 O singer of Persephone! 
 
 Simsetha calls on Hecate, 
 
 And hears the wild dogs at the gate; 2.35-6. 
 
 Dost thou remember Sicily? 
 Still by the light and laughing sea 
 
 Poor Polypheme bemoans his fate; 6 and 9. 
 
 singer of Persephone! 
 And still in boyish rivalry 
 
 Young Daphnis challenges his mate; 8 and 9. 
 
 Dost thou remember Sicily? 
 
 Slim Lacon keeps a goat for thee; S. 
 
 For thee the jocund shepherds wait; 
 O Singer of Persephone! 
 Dost thou remember Sicily? 
 
133 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Austin Dobson. For a copy of Theocritus: A Villanelle. 1880. 
 O Singer of the field and fold, 
 Theocritus! Pan's pipe was thine, — 
 Thine was the happier Age of Gold. 
 
 For thee the scent of new-turned mould, 
 The bee-hives, and the murmuring pines, 
 O Singer of the field and fold! 
 
 Thou aang'st the simple feasts of old, — 
 The beechen bowl made glad with wine. 
 Thine was the happier Age of Gold. 
 
 Thou bad'st the rustic loves be told. 
 Thou bad'st the tuneful reeds combine, 
 O Singer of the field and fold! 
 
 And round thee, evfer-laughing, rolled 
 The blithe and blue Sicilian brine. 
 Thine was the happier Age of Gold. 
 
 Alas for us! Our songs are cold; 
 Our Northern suns too sadly shine: — 
 O Singer of the field and fold, 
 Thine was the happier Age of Gold! 
 
 An Autumn Idyll. 1889. 
 
 Jove, what a day! Black Care upon the crupper 
 Nods at his post, and slumbers in the sun; 
 
 Half of Theocritus, with a touch of Tupper, 
 Churns in my head. The frenzy has begun. 
 
 The singing-matches of Theocritus ailorded the model for several 
 witty amcebean poems by Dobson, including An Autumn Idyll. 
 Here the singers are Frank and Lawrence and the judge is Jack. 
 In starting out there is the banter and wrangle about the spot for 
 resting and singing in such as we find in Idyll 5, with imitation of 
 particular lines, as, 
 
 Here where the beech-nuts drop among the grasses. 5.49. 
 
 The lively banter, besides being directed at one another's singing, 
 as in Idyll 5, also finds an object in the sprouting beards of the 
 contestants, with allusion to Idyll 8: 
 
 Jack. — The beard of manhood still is 
 Faint on your cheeks. . . 
 
 Frank. — His budding beard is riper 
 Say — by a week. . . 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 133 
 
 Melanter's note on Id. 8.3-4 is pertinent : 'Theocritus abounds in 
 nice distinctions as to the stages of whiskerism' {Dub. Univ. Mag., 
 46:203). 
 
 Jack. — Hear then, my Shepherds. Lo, to him accounted 
 First in the song, a Pipe I will impart, — 
 This, my Beloved, marvellously mounted. 
 Amber and foam, — a miracle of art. 
 
 The descriptive phrases will be recognized as coming from Idyll 1. 
 Lawrence and Prank now begin the contest in true amoebean 
 fashion, after the model of Daphnis and Menalcas in Idyll 8 ; first 
 they sing in couplets, then in quatrains, then in broken forms. 
 The charms of 'the paragon of girls' and of 'her I honor' — ^the 
 Theocritean secrecy .of names will be noted — are their theme. 
 
 Lawrence. — Dark-haired is mine with splendid tresses plaited, 
 etc. 
 
 Frank. — ^Dark-haired is mine, with breezy ripples swinging, 
 etc. 
 
 And like the magical fair ones of the Idyll, 
 
 "She brings the summer and the sun." 
 
 A Tale of Polypheme. 
 
 Fox-glove, or broom, and yellow cytisus, 5.128, 
 
 Dear to all goats since Greek Theocritus. 10.30. 
 
 The love-lorn melancholy of a modern Cyclops, who 'for one night 
 forgot to milk his goat,' is described with subtle allusions to 'that 
 idyll of old mythology.' 
 
 An April Pastoral. 
 
 The influence of Theocritus is manifest also in the brisk one- 
 line speeches of this dialogue, which suggest Idyll 27. 
 
 To a Greeh Girl. 
 
 Where'er you go, — ^where'er you pass 
 
 There comes a gladness on the grass. 8.45. 
 
 Tu Quoque, An Idyll in the Conservatory; is done in the 
 dramatic spirit of Idyll xv. 
 
 Edward Ceaceoft Lefeot. Echoes from Theocritus. 1883. 
 
 The Echoes are a series of thirty sonnets based upon passages 
 in the Idylls and Epigrams. They cannot be called translations. 
 
134 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 They are developed from suggestions afforded by Theocritus in the 
 spirit of original work. Lloyd MifiSin in America has dealt with 
 Theocritean themes in the same form and with much of the same 
 spirit. This free handling of the ideas of the Idylls may be found 
 by some poet, who shall choose a freer form, to be the most efEective 
 way of translating the charm of Theocritus into English. 
 
 'It will be noticed,' says Lefroy in his Preface, 'that the first 
 five sonnets have no text in the Author [Titles : I. Battusj II. A 
 Shepherd Madden; III. Daphnis; TV. A Sicilian Night; V. A. 
 Summer Day in Old Sicily]. The rest are founded upon some one 
 passage in the Idylls or Epigrams. How slight the foundation 
 often is, may be ascertained by any one curious enough to follow 
 up the references.' 
 
 Nathan Haskell Dole selected these sonnets by which to represent 
 Theocritus in his Anthology of the Greek Poets (see p. 330). The 
 two following comments upon them will be found interesting: 
 
 Christina Rossetti : — 
 
 I have been enjoying your sonnets to-day. . . How rich in charm 
 Theocritus must be, say I, to whom his words are inaccessible, but not 
 yours. 
 
 John Addington Stmonds: — 
 
 They are exquisite cameos in miniature carved upon fragments broken 
 from the Idylls; nor do I disagree with a critic who said, when they 
 first appeared, that rarely has the great pastoral poet been so freely 
 transmuted without loss of his spell. 
 
 Sonnet Ixxvi. : A Philistine. 1885. 
 Allusion. — 
 
 See, here are cytisus and galingale — 5.128. 
 
 Blooms of Theocritus. 10.131. 
 
 Algernon Charles Sv^inburne. 
 
 Song for the Centenary of Walter Savage Landor. 1885. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 The names and shades adored of all of us 
 The nurslings of the brave world's earlier brood, 
 Grown gods for us themselves: Theocritus 
 First. . . . 
 
THE VICTORIAN ERA 135 
 
 Pan and Thalassms: A Lyrical Idyl. 
 
 Ay! 
 Such wrath on the nostril quivers 
 
 As once in Sicilian heat 
 Bade herdsmen quail. . . 1.15-18. 
 
 Thalassiu^. 
 
 And from his grave glad lips the hoy would gather 
 
 Pine honey of song-notes goldener than gold, 
 
 More sweet then bees make of the breathing heather. 20.26-7. 
 
 Lionel Johnson. The Classics. 1890. 
 
 St. 1. — Fain to know golden things, fain to grow wise. 
 
 Fain to achieve the secret of fair souls: 
 His thought, scarce other lore need solemnize, 
 Whom Virgil calms, whom Sophocles controls: 
 
 St. 10. — Pleasant, and elegant, and garrulous 
 
 Pliny: crowned Marcus, wistful and still strong: 
 Sicilian seas and their Theocritus, 
 Pastoral singer of the last Greek song. 
 
 J. W. Mackail. Love's Loohvng Glass. 1891. 
 
 Teawslation. — 
 
 Ep. 2 : Offering of Daphnis to Pan. Verse. 
 
 Theocritus. 1898. 
 
 [Lib. of World's Best Lit.] 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 The Greek purity of line is as dominant in him as in Homer or Sopho- 
 cles; and it is this quality which gives the Idyls poetical value even when 
 their subject is coarse or trivial. They keep amid the dust of a, decaying 
 world, in the words of a haunting line, the translucent freshness of a 
 cup washed in the wells of the Hours. 
 
 H. C. Beeching. Love's Looking Glass. 1891. 
 
 Teanslation. — 
 
 Ep. IX. On Going to Sea. 
 
 To My Totem. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Sweet Theocritus 
 The ilex loved. 
 
136 THEOCKIT0S IN ENGLISH LITEEATUKE 
 
 To Comatas. 
 The motto is taken from the ThcUysia, lines 88-9. 
 
 John Addington Symonds. 
 
 The Second Idyll of Theocritus: Inccmtations. 1891. 
 
 [Fort. Rev., 55 :545.] 
 
 This is a translation, in hexameters, of the second Idyll, accom- 
 panied by a prose introduction on the value of Theocritus for the 
 information he gives us about middle and lower Greek domestic 
 life. The translation represents the highest success attained in 
 rendering Theocritus. All the hexameter versions — Arnold's 
 (supra, p. 125), Symonds', Hallard's (mfra, p. 137), Stedman's 
 (infra, p. 147) — evince the superior fitness of this metre for render- 
 ing Theocritus ia English. 
 
 Studies of the Greeh Poets. 1867. 
 
 Chapter XX'I. has to do with the Idyllists. It contains one of 
 the very best essays ever written on Theocritus. Three qualities 
 of his poetry are dwelt upon in this writer's illuminating manner : 
 the grace and melody of the verse; the complete reflection of Sicilian 
 and southern Italian scenery, and the essential correspondence in 
 spirit, motive, and artistry between the Idylls and classic sculpture. 
 Only extended paragraphs could adequately give an impression of 
 the value of this essay to a lover of our poet, and the excerpting of 
 these would prove unsatisfactory, even if space permitted. 
 
 A blank verse translation of Id. 29 is given in the Appendix 
 of the Studies. 
 
 William Watson. Lachrymce Musarum. 1892. 
 
 [Of Tennyson.] 
 
 Eapt though he be from us, 
 Virgil salutes him, and Theocritus. 
 
 A. Mart F. Robinson. A Classic Landscape. 1897. 
 
 (Now Madame Duclaux.) 
 
 St. 5. — world, how worthy of a golden age! 
 
 How might Theocritus have sung and found 
 The Oreads here, the Naiads gathering round, 
 Their pallid locks still dripping to the ground! 
 
THE VICTOEIAN ERA 137 
 
 John Todhuntek. a Sicilian Idyll* 1891. 
 
 This is a pastoral play that was produced in London, June, 1891. 
 The Speaker, Jan. 9, 1892, calb it 'the latest of our many echoes 
 of Theocritus.' From the Prologue this review quotes the frag- 
 ment of a line as follows : 
 
 — ^The pale shade of old Theocritus. 
 
 Eefrains are employed 'after the manner of the first and second 
 Idylls. The following stanzas from a song of the pJay, entitled 
 Daphne's Complaint, closely paraphrase the incantations of Idyll 2 : 
 
 Hear me, Selene, for to thee I sing! 
 Calling on thee by the most dreadful name, 
 Hecate; thou who through the shuddering night 
 Paceat where black pools of fresh offered blood 
 Gleam cold beside the barrows of the dead; 
 Dread Goddess, draw him dying to my feet! 
 
 Hear me, Selene, for to thee I sing! 
 I cast this barley on the fire, and say: 
 'Even so I scatter strong Alcander's bones!' 
 I fling these laurel-leaves upon the fire, 
 And Bay: 'So let his flesh be shriveled up!' 
 Dread Mother, draw him dying to my feet. 
 
 James Hbnet Hajolaed. The Idylls of Theocritus. 1894. 
 
 This is a version of great merit. It is scholarly, it follows the 
 text closely, and by :a diversity of forms it seeks to give an im- 
 pression of Theocritus's infinite variety. Blank verse is often 
 used for dialogue and description, anapestic hexameters for lyrical 
 passages, and dactylic hexameters for narration. The translator's 
 estimate of his poet is given in his Preface (pp. xi-xii) : 
 
 Theocritus, in spite of all hia seeming naivete, was not (aa Burns on the 
 whole was) an inspired yeoman writing mainly for his own class. He was 
 a subtle-minded, cultured, aelf-conscious and delicate artist, living at re- 
 fined and voluptuous courts in a decadent age of literature and writing for 
 the pleasure of Kings. His style is the flower of a literary hot-house. It is 
 composite, many-coloured, and rich in reminiscence and archaism. 
 
 The AthencBum (July 37, 1901) bestows high praise upon this 
 translation. The Speaker (May 19, 1894) is mildly commend- 
 
 *I am acquainted with this poetic drama only through reviews and 
 Bxtraets: nor have I had access to the rest of Dr. Todhunter's poetry. 
 
138 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 atory. It characterizes the version as musical and very pleasant. 
 The Satwday Review (May 19, 1894) expresses mild disapproval. 
 The Outlooh (June 18, 1898) finds fault with the rhythms and 
 calls the translation 'wooden'; yet the writer concedes that it 
 Tieeps more closely to the original than most.' A review of the 
 second and revised edition (1900) in the Academy (March 2, 1901) 
 says: 
 
 It well deserves a reissue, for, on the whole, we take it to be the best 
 metrical version of Theocritus that there is. . . It has the prime merit 
 in a verse translation that it reads like good English verse. . . The 
 hexameters, in particular, are the best English hexameters we have 
 seen. . . Mr. Hallard's style is excellent, and recognizes the thoroughly 
 literary and artistic style of Theocritus himself. 
 
 This is my own estimate of Hallard's work. It merits more 
 attention than it has received, at least in America. Of Theocritus 
 the writer expresses his estimate in the following sentences: 
 
 He is a master of suggestion, and has never been excelled in the art 
 of miniature; his dramatic sense, too, is admirable. . . The peasants 
 of Theocritus, too, are thinkable beings, with passions single, primitive, and 
 unrestrained. . . And over all is the lovely grace of an artful sim- 
 plicity, the uneapturable something which is Theocritus. 
 
 ISKAEL Zangvfill. Blind Children. 1903. 
 
 In his initial poem — Sylva Poetarum — Mr. Zangwill names 
 Theocritus, and him only, as if he were the one poet whom his 
 ideal wood suggested. 
 
 Here mossy oaks in sunshine sleep. 
 There bright, cool, living waters leap. 
 
 Is not that a reminiscence of the landscapes of the Idylls? The 
 following lines in the poem indicate not only that it is, but that 
 the whole poem was written with Theocritus in mind: 
 
 Beneath that beech lies Tytirus, 
 And yonder flutes Theocritus. 
 
 Ernest Myers. Life Within Life (A Sonnet). 1904. 
 
 The shepherd lover of old Sicily, 
 
 Pouring melodious plaint in doubt's despite 
 
 Before the cave that hid his love from sight, 
 
 Would fain have been the tawny bee. 
 
 That, etc. 3. 12-14. 
 
THE VICTORIAN EHA 139 
 
 Lugano. 
 [Of Virgil.] 
 
 The graver grace wherewith he crowned 
 The wild and sweet Sicilian strain. 
 
 Arthur Christopher Benson. The Upton Letters. 1905. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 I was bicycling with Randall past the lodge, blaming the fair summer, 
 like the fishermen in Theocritus (p. 122). Id. 21.26. 
 
 Comment. — 
 
 "Be partner of my dreams as of my fishing," says the old fisherman to his 
 mate, in that delicious idyll of Theocritus — do read it again. It is one 
 of the little masterpieces that hang forever in one of the inner secret roojr s 
 of the great halls of poetry. The old men lie awake in their wattled cabin, 
 listening to the soft beating of the sea, and beguiling the dark hour before 
 the dawn, when they must fare forth, in simple talk about their dreams. 
 It is a genre picture, full of simple detail, but with a vein of high poetry 
 about it; all remote from history and civic life, in that eternal region of 
 perfect and quiet art, into which, thank God, one can always turn to rest 
 awhile (p. 285). Id. 21. 
 
 Walter Hbadlam. A Booh of Greek Verse. 1907. 
 
 Translations of the second and seventh Idylls. Id. 2 is in 
 irregular hexameters with alternate rhymes; Id. 7 is in heroic 
 couplets. These translations possess high merit. A valuable note 
 on the principles of translation and the metres suitable for these 
 two particular Idylls is found in the author's Preface, pp. xiii-xv. 
 On the motives of Idyll 7 an illuminating commient occurs on p. 
 298. 
 
 The frequency with which the name of Theocritus occurs in verse 
 during this period, the large number of poems addressed to him, the 
 two prose and the two verse translations, besides numerous partial 
 versions, and the traces of his modes of expression in much of the 
 best poetry of the time, together with the fresh and appreciative 
 essays on his genius, testify that Theocritus has come at last to be 
 a really considerable force in English literature. 
 
 The greatest of the Victorian poets, Landor, Tennyson, the 
 Arnolds, Mrs. Browning, held him in the highest esteem, followed 
 his method, and possessed a degree of his spirit. His influence is 
 felt us a fact by the reader of these poets often when one can say no 
 
140 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 more than that the -writuig is done in the spirit of Theocritus — 
 with his simple touches, his vivid brevity, his art that is so like 
 nature. The number of lesser poets who have paid their tributes 
 to his genius and who wrote under an inspiration more or less 
 kindled by the Idyll is very great. Among them are Kingsley, 
 Alford, Buchanan, Wilde, Gosse, Dobson, Lang, Lefroy, Johnson, 
 and as many more. Among eminent writers of prose, or prose and 
 verse, Greorge Eliot is the greatest of those who betray at once an 
 intimate knowledge of him and an influence from his Idylls. 
 While Macaulay comments on the Thalysia with genuine appre- 
 ciation, there is nothing in the manner or spirit of his writing 
 attributable in any degree to Theocritus. Not so with ZangwUl. 
 His mention of Theocritus, in the initial poem of his volume, but 
 confirms the impression already made, that in writing of rural 
 delights he has in mind the Sicilian master. And who can say but 
 that his realistic sketches of the ghetto were perfected with the 
 somewhat corresponding rural scenes and characters of Theocritus 
 haunting his consciousness ? At any rate, as in the case of George 
 Eliot's art, in, for example. The Mill on the Floss, we have in much 
 of Zangwill's work a kindred spirit exhibited. For this Hebrew 
 is Greek in mind, not less than Heine was, and more than Dis- 
 raeli was. And this is the period of Hellenism in the literature 
 of England and America. The following chapter on American 
 writers will greatly confirm the conclusions here announced, and 
 that, too, more and more as we approach the present day. 
 
VIII. THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 
 
 One of the younger poets of America in a letter to the present 
 writer has expressed the opinion that the name of no one of the 
 ancients occurs so frequently in our modern verse writers as that 
 of Theocritus. This, too, is my own impression. But however it 
 may be with this generation of American singers, he hardly seems 
 to have been known to our poets of the elder day. In their academic 
 studies Theocritus probably found only a very minor place, if any 
 place at all. He could easily be passed over, year after year, in 
 such a compendious book of selections as the Grwca Majora. Then 
 the strangeness and difficulty of his Doric would probably in after 
 years restrain most from attempting him, even though their in- 
 clinations led them in that direction. Even to such a reader as 
 Lowell no translation of him was known, or but vaguely remem- 
 bered from college days. Whittier once mentions him, but Bryant, 
 Longfellow, Emerson, Thoreau, knew him not; and he is Just the 
 poet they would have relished. 
 
 The second generation of American poets, if we may so call them, 
 that is, the generation of Stoddard, Taylor, and Stedman, knew 
 him well and reveal his influence in their poems. Earlier than 
 these, only here and there does an American writer name him. Now, 
 however, the matter is quite otherwise. Theocritus is to several of 
 our best writers of verse a chief inspiration. To illustrate the 
 change that has taken place, in American papers and magazines 
 the name of Theocritus is not to be found until within the last 
 decade — ^never a review or notice of any translation, never a com- 
 parison of any other writer with him, never an allusion to him 
 such as the English papers and magazines have contained all along. 
 But his name is now beginning to appear with some frequency in 
 our weeklies and our dailies. As an illustration of this The Nation, 
 June 20, 1907, in a review of 'The Golden Treasury of Irish Songs 
 and Lyrics,' speaking of the Aran ballad, 'The Grief of a Girl's 
 Heart,' says: 'Simsetha in Theocritus is not more passionate and 
 outspoken.' To the same effect is the following in The New York 
 Times Book-Review Supplement, Nov. 3, 1907, p. 701: 'Words- 
 worth on the other hand, whose tranquil life came to its uneventful 
 close half a century ago, is already almost as ghostly a figure as 
 
142 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATURE 
 
 Dante or Theocritus.'* Such an illusion could not be found in an 
 American newspaper or popular magazine till within very recent 
 years. Lang's translation (1880) was doubtless the chief means 
 of making our poet known in America; and it is interesting to 
 know that the suggestion of that translation, to be in prose, like 
 his version of Homer, came to Mr. Lang from this side of the 
 Atlantic. The earliest appearance of Theocritus in American litera- 
 ture is in the eighteenth century; but he is not again mentioned 
 until a full half-century later. 
 
 JosiAH Lyndon Arnold. The Death of Adonis. 1797. 
 
 This is a translation, in iambic tetrameter couplets, of the thirty- 
 first Idyll. The rendering is superior to any before Calverley. Its 
 chief interest, however, consists in its chronological priority. 
 
 William ISTevin. The Idylls of Theocritus. 1859. 
 
 [Mercershwrg Review, 11 :570-84.] 
 This is an essay embodying a translation of Idylls 1, 6, and 11. 
 It is the earliest American essay on our poet. While possessing but 
 little excellence and contributing nothing new regarding the poet, 
 it nevertheless evinces a true appreciation of his qualities. The 
 translations possess small merit save that of closeness to the 
 original, being, as the author asserts, a line for line, almost a word 
 for word rendering. The spirit of the Idylls, the simple pathos, the 
 quaint humor, the rich expression, he admits to have been beyond 
 his art. And yet not altogether so; his rendering is incomparably 
 superior in spirit and fidelity to any versions between the Sixe 
 Idillia and Leigh Hunt's. Of the productions of 'this rare old 
 artist,' 'who has been too much neglected of late years,' the writer 
 thus speaks: 
 
 *A skit by E.. K. Munkittrick beara significant witness to the new popu- 
 larity of Theocritus's name among our makers of verse. It is a mere string 
 of names and phrases, such as: 
 
 Ad astra, D© profundis, 
 Keats, Bacchus, Sophocles ; 
 
 etc., etc. 
 Waiting, Theocritus, 
 etc., etc., 
 concluding with this stanza : 
 
 These are part of the contents 
 
 Of "Violets of Song", 
 The first poetic volume 
 Of Susan Mary Strong. 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 143 
 
 Though exceedingly simple in their style and composition these poems 
 are yet master-pieces of art in their kind, being truer delineations of nature 
 than any pastorals that have ever since been written. 
 
 The translations are in unrhymed iambic fifteen-syllabled lines. 
 Richard Henry Stoddard. Arcadian Idyl. 1851. 
 
 This poem is written in imitation of Idyll 8. Structure and 
 circumstances are similar. Definite allusion is made to his model : 
 
 no, Theocritus, he said, with smiles. 7.20. 
 
 Sicilian Pastoral. 1856. 
 
 Here all the vales are full of dewy flowers. 
 The orchard plots are full of juicy fruits. 
 The endless purple woods are full of balm. 
 
 These lines describe a scene like that in the end of Idyll 7. The 
 stanza-form of three unrhyming lines suggests the isometric 
 structure of the singing-matches, Idylls 4 and 5. 
 
 The Search for Persephone. 1856. 
 Imitations and Allusions. — 
 
 Many-wooded .^Itna. 11.47. 
 
 Here Polyphemus fed his numerous iloek. 11.34. 
 O Galatea! divinest Galatea, 
 
 Well I remember when I saw thee first! 11.19 &, 25. 
 
 Cyclops! Cyclops! 11.71-2. 
 Had I been blest with fins like happy fish. 11.54. 
 
 1 gave her ten young fawns with each a collar. 11.40-1. 
 
 ['With collars deck'd,' Fawkes's translation of the original, following an 
 old Roman edition which has /iaiTO^d/jus •] 
 
 Thus Polyphemus told his tale of love. 11.80. 
 
 James Eussell Lowell. A Faile for Oriiics. 1848. 
 
 Had Theocritus written in English, not Greek, 
 
 I believe that his exquisite sense would scarce change a line 
 
 In that rare, tender, virgin-like pastoral Evangeline. 
 
 Essay on Swinburne's Tragedies. 1866. 
 
 Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically; it must be a 
 study from the life and not from the scholiasts. Theocritus lets us into the 
 secret of his good poetry, when he makes Daphnis tell us that he preferred 
 his rock with a view of the Sicilian Sea to the kingdom of Pelops. — 
 Prose Worhs, 11.128. 
 
144 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 The fifteenth Idyll is declared by Lowell to be interesting because 
 it 'describes real things.' — Ibid., p. 135. 
 
 Sir Philip Sidney's conoment on the language of Theocritus 
 (given p. 15, supra) is quoted Vol. IV., p. 301n. 
 
 Essay on Dryden. 1868. 
 
 In commending Dryden's prefaces as 'a mine of good writing 
 and Judicious criticism,' Lowell gives as an example Dryden's 
 preference of the pastorals of Theocritus to those of Virgil, and 
 cites his comments upon the two a-s an illustration. — Ibid., p. 180. 
 
 Harvard Anniversay Address. 1886. 
 
 The garners of Sicily are empty now, but the bees from all climes still 
 fetch honey from the tiny garden-plot of Theocritus. — Ibid. VI.p.l74. 
 
 The Biglow Papers. 1863. 
 
 No. II. : Homer Wilbur's Letter. 
 
 As touching the following literary effort of Esquire Biglow, how much 
 might be profitably said on the topick of Idyllick and Pastoral Poetry, and 
 concerning the proper distinctions to be made between them, from The- 
 ocritus, the inventor of the former, to Collins the latest authour I know 
 of who has emulated the classics in the latter style, etc. . . . 
 
 Though the learned are not agreed as to the particular dialect employed 
 by Theocritus, they are universanimous both as to its rusticity and its 
 capacity of rising now and then to the level of more elevated sentiments and 
 expressions. 
 
 Letter to E. C. Stedman. May 15, 1866. 
 
 How comes on Theocritus? I feel greatly interested in your success. I 
 know of no English Translation that is good for anything — indeed I have 
 only a faint recollection that I ever saw one. I seem to remember (as 
 we Yankees say) a version of Elizabeth's time from which I have some- 
 where read extracts. The work appears to me not only a thing eminently 
 fit to be done, but one by which a solid reputation may be made. It is a 
 rare opportunity, and particularly suited to a treatment in English hexam- 
 eters. — Letters. Vol.I.p.365. 
 
 Letter to E. C. Stedman. Nov. 26, 1866. 
 
 Don't neglect Theocritus. It is an excellent thing to do, and to be done in 
 hexameters. 
 
 Shakespea/re Once More. 1868. 
 
 What concern have we with the shades of dialect in Homer or Theocritus, 
 provided they speak the spiritual Imgua frcunca that abolishes all alienage 
 of race, and makes whatever shore of time we land on hospitable and home- 
 like? 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 145 
 
 In a note on word quibbles, p. 53 of the same essay, Lowell quotes 
 Euripides's Bacchm, 363, with this comment: 'Copied by Theoc- 
 ritusi Id. XXVII.' [Should be XXVI. 1. 36.] 
 
 The frequency and character of these references to Theocritus, 
 covering a long period of Lowell's life, and especially his urging 
 of Stedman to go on with his hexameter translation, indicate a 
 real and intelligent interest in our poet. It is altogether likely 
 that the example of Theocritus, particularly the charm of his 
 homely yet vivid and poetic Doric, helped to determine the style of 
 the Biglow Papers. Of Lowell's 'Under the Willows' (1868), Sted- 
 man writes as follows : 'The close recalls the feeling of the Thalysia 
 (Id. 7) of Theocritus, yet escapes the parallel displayed in certain 
 idyls of Tennyson' (Poets of America, p. 339). 
 
 John Greenleaf Whittier. The Tent on the Beach. 1867. 
 
 AliUSION. — 
 
 LI.894-5 Yet still the muse of pastoral walks with us, 
 
 While Hosea Biglow sings, our new Theocritus. 
 
 Donald G. Mitchell. Wet Days at Edge-wood. 1865. 
 
 Chapter : Theocritios and Lesser Poets. 
 Estimate. — 
 
 He is as brisk as the wind upon a breezy down. His cow-tenders are 
 swart and bare-legged, and love with a vengeance. It is no Boucher we 
 have here, nor Watteau: cosmetics and rosettes are far away; tunics are 
 short and cheeks are nut-brown. It is Teniers rather: — ^boors indeed 
 (p. 23). 
 
 Elton's translation of the Epithalamium of Helen is quoted : 
 In shape, in height, in stately presence fair, 
 Straight as a furrow gliding from the share : 
 A man must have had an eye for good ploughing and a lithe figure, as 
 well as a keen scent for the odor of fresh-turned earth, to make a com- 
 parison like that! (p. 22). 
 
 The resounding clatter of his falling water is too beautiful to be omitted : 
 OTTO Tw; wirpai (caraXet/SeTat i'^oOtv vSotp- 
 
 C. C. Felton. Greece, Ancient amd Modern. 1867. 
 
 In this collection of lectures, which were delivered in 1853-9, 
 before the Lowell Institute at Boston, Theocritus receives high 
 praise, and is quoted several times (see 1.350-1, 336, 341, 435; 
 IL384, 388). 
 
146 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Estimate of Theocritus. — 
 
 The best pictures of pastoral life are those — so fresh and radiant with 
 natural beauty — in the idyls of Theocritus, beside which all subsequent 
 pastoral poetry seems flat and foolish; and they are drawn from shepherd 
 life in Sicily. . . The shepherdesses in these pieces are bewitching in 
 hexameters, whatever they may have been in the fresh air of buxom life; 
 and they are not wanting in coquetry, if we are to believe Theocritus, who, 
 in a beautiful description of a scene wrought on a pastoral cup, writes : 
 And there, by ivy shaded, sits a maid, divinely wrought. 
 With veil and circlet on her brows, by two fond lovers sought, — 
 Both beautiful, with flowing hair, both suing to be heard. 
 On this side one, the other there, but neither is preferred; 
 For now on this, on that anon, she pours her witching smile. 
 Like sunshine on the buds of hope, in falsehood all and guile, 
 Though ceaselessly, with swelling eyes, they seek her heart to move 
 By every soft and touching art that wins a maiden's love. (1.326). 
 
 Edward North. A Memoir. 1905. 
 
 Dr. North's estimate of Theocritus was evinced by his placing 
 him in his Greek course as early as 1855. (See Memoir, p. 816.) 
 The following extract is quoted as a classroom comment : 
 
 The cradle song of the twenty-fourth Idyll is regarded by some as the 
 sweetest passage in all Greek literature. 
 
 Sleep, children mine, a light and joyous sleep. 
 Brother with brother, sleep, my boys, my life; 
 Blest in your slumber, in your waking blest. 
 
 The music of the Greek is sweetened by the irapiy^^T^o'ts, or internal echo, 
 that produces something like a ripple of melody in each line. — Ihid. p. 259. 
 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman. Tennyson and Theocritus. 1876. 
 
 This excellent chapter of Mr. Stedman's in the Victorian Poets 
 revealed his thorough familiarity with our poet and his high admir- 
 ation of him. Having used the results of his investigations in the 
 section on Tennyson, I have here but to note his translations and 
 a few allusions in his poems, and to set down a sentence or two 
 indicative of his estimate of Theocritus. 
 
 Pan in Wall Street. 1867. 
 Allusions. — 
 St. 2. — . . . Ancient, sweet, do-nothing days 
 
 Among the kirtle-robed Sicilians. 
 St. 4. — 'Twas Pan himself had wandered here, 
 
 From haunts of shepherd, nymph, and satyr, 
 And Syracusan times. — 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 147 
 
 St. 7. — The bulls and bears together drew 
 
 From Jauncey Court and New Street Alley, 
 As erst, if pastorals be true, 
 
 Cam« beasts from every wooded valley ; I . 
 
 The random passers stayed to list, — 
 
 A boxer -^gon, rough and merry, 4.33-7. 
 
 A Broadway Daphnis, on his tryst 
 
 With Nais at the Brooklyn Ferry. 8.92-3. 
 
 St. 8. — A one-eyed Cyclops halted long 
 
 In tattered clock of army pattern, 
 And Galatea joined the throng.— 11. 
 
 Tbanslations. — 
 
 In the chapter on Tennyson and Theocritus, Mr. Stedman rend- 
 ered into easy blanlc verse the following passages: 1.7-8; 3.38-41; 
 3.12-14; 5.31-4; 45-51; 7.1-2, 21-3, 130-47; 9.31-2; 11.25-9; 42-9, 
 54-7, 60-6; 13.1-7; 15.102-5; 18.47-8; 20.19-20, 30-1; 22.46-50; 
 24.7-9; 28.24-5. 
 
 We have other Theocritean translations from our poet-critic, — 
 versions of a, more studied and finished character. — Lowell, writing 
 to Stedman in 1866, as we have seen, urged him to finish his trans- 
 lation of Theocritus and to do it in hexameters. Forty years passed 
 and the world heard nothing more of this undertaking. At last 
 there appeared two specimens of hexameter renderings from him in 
 the Bibliophile Edition (see p. 163), which might have been 
 assumed to be specimens of his contemplated complete translation 
 of Theocritus in English hexameters. But, alas, these two speci- 
 mens — Id. 10.21-58 and Id. 13 — were all that we were to have, 
 though at the time of his death he had made a provisional prose 
 version.* 
 
 From the Victorian Poets I will transcribe a few sentences that 
 will express Mr. Stedman's Judgment upon the work and genius of 
 Theocritus : 
 
 As the creator of the fourth great order of poetry, the composite, or 
 idyllic, he bears to it the relation of Homer to epic, Pindar to lyric, 
 ^schylus to dramatic verse. ( p. 204 ) . 
 
 Although his subjects were entirely novel, he availed himself, in form, 
 of all his predecessors' arts; composing in new Doric, the most liquid, 
 
 *Since the writing of this thesis the death of Mr. Stedman has occurred, 
 and his literary executor has given out that we may expect no further 
 translations. 
 
148 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 colloquial, and flexible of the dialects ; and thus he fashioned his eidullia, — 
 little pictures of real life upon the hill-aide and in the town, among the 
 high and low, — portraying characters with a few distinct touches in lyric, 
 epic, or dramatic form, and often by a combination of the whole (p. 207) . 
 
 Theocritus created his own school, with no models except those attainable 
 from the popular mimes and catches of his own region; just as Burns, 
 availing himself of the simple Scottish ballads, lifted the poetry of Scotland 
 to an eminent and winsome individuality (p. 219). 
 
 Bayard Taylor. Home Pastorals. 1874. 
 
 Augtist, st. 3. — 
 
 Golden the hills of Cos, with pencilled cerulean shadows; 
 
 Once as I saw them sleeping, drugged by the poppy of summer. 
 
 There, indeed, was the air, as with floating stars of the thistle. 
 
 Filled with impalpable forms, regrets, possibilities, longings. 
 
 Beauty that was and was not, and life that was rhythmic and joyous. 
 
 So that the sun-baked clay the peasant took for his wine- jars 
 
 Brighter than gold I thought, and the red acidity nectar. 
 
 Here, at my feet, the clay is clay and a nuisance in the stubble. 
 
 Flaring St. John's-wort, milk- week, and coarse, xmpoetical mullein; 
 
 Yet, were it not for the poets, say, la the asphodel fairer? 
 
 Were not the mullein as dear, had Theocritus sung it, or Bion? 
 
 Yea, but they did not. 
 
 'The golden hills of Cos' seems to be a reminiscence of Idyll 7, 
 while the simile of 'the floating stars of the thistle' recalls the 
 simile of Idyll 6.15-16. It will also be remarked that the metre 
 of the Sicilian pastorals is employed. 
 
 November, st. 4. — 
 
 Nature? 'Tis well to sing of the glassy Bandusian fountain. 
 Shining Ortygian beaches, or flocks on the meadows of Enna, 
 Linking the careless life with the careless mood of the Mother. 
 
 The allusions are to Horace and Theocritus. 
 
 St. 10. — But now a golden mist was born, 
 
 With violet odors mingled : 
 I felt a brightness, as of morn, 
 
 And all my pulses tingled ; 
 And forms arose, — among them first 
 
 The old lonion lion. 
 And they, Sicilian nursed, — 
 
 Theocritus and Bion. 
 
 In My Vineyard. 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 149 
 
 Maurice F. Egan. Theocritus [Sonnet]. 1880. 
 
 Daphnis is mute, and hidden nymphs complain, 
 
 And mourning mingles with their fountains' song; 
 Shepherds contend no more, as, all day long, 
 
 They watch their sheep on the wide, silent plain; 
 
 The master voice is silent, songs are vain; 
 
 Blithe Pan is dead and tales of ancient wrong 
 Done by the gods when gods and men were strong. 
 
 Chanted to waxed pipes, no prize can gain: 
 
 O sweetest singer of the olden days. 
 
 In dusty books your idyls rare seem dead, 
 The gods are gone, but poets never die; 
 
 Though men may turn their ears to newer lays, 
 Sicilian nightingales enraptured 
 
 Caught all your songs, and nightly thrill the sky. 
 
 Maurice de Ouerin. 
 [Sonnet.] 
 Allusion. — 
 
 A pagan heart, a Christian soul had he, 
 
 He followed Christ, yet for dead Pan he sighed. 
 
 Till earth and heaven met within his breast: 
 
 As if Theocritus in Sicily 
 
 Had come upon the Figure crucified 
 
 And lost his gods in deep, Christ-given rest. 
 
 Hylas. 
 (From the Thirteenth Idyl of Theocritus.) 
 
 This is a paraphrase, in excellent blank verse. It is spontaneous 
 and beautiful, going like original composition, yet happily para- 
 phrasing and translating the Idyll. 
 
 The Sleeping Song. 
 (From the Twenty-fourth Idyl of Theocritus.) 
 
 This paraphrase of Alemena's lullaby, amplified into four times 
 as many lines, is exceedingly sweet. This the first stanza might 
 be compared with Dr. North's melodious rendering of it, p. 307 : 
 
 Sleep, my boys, in gentle, dewy sleep. 
 Until the dawn in glowing beauty peep 
 To call the Hours from out the night's dark deep 
 Into the light. 
 
 U 
 
150 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Cyclops to Galatea. 1880. 
 
 This is a happy paraphrase of the Eleventh Idyll. The spirit 
 of the original is well conveyed. 
 
 Freedom of movement and animation characterize these pleasing 
 paraphrases. I am informed by the author that his first acquaint- 
 ance with Theocritus was made through the prose version of Banks. 
 French paraphrases helped him to a further knowledge of the poet, 
 and Stedman's Tennyson and Theocritus added to his enthusiasm. 
 
 In Professor Egan's latest book, The Ghost in Hamlet and Other 
 Essays (Chicago, 1906), he pays his early love this high tribute, in 
 witness of a constant affection: 
 
 Even the English verse translations of this singer of the reed and the 
 cypress and of the contest of the shepherds in the green pastures cannot 
 wholly shut his beauty from view. . . In prose translations some of 
 the aroma escapes, but enough of it remains to cheer the soul with loveli- 
 ness. To read him in youth is never to forget him. For Theocritus was 
 the poet of nature, the inventor of the little idyl-pictures of town and 
 country, — that singer of idyls who, nearly three hundred years before 
 Christ, saw dimly Nature's God (pp. 246-7). 
 
 Caroline Wilder Paradise. Little Theocritus. 1880. 
 
 [In The Bibliophile Theocritus. See infra, p. 163.] 
 
 This is a very pretty poem of five quatrains addressed fancifully 
 to the babe Theocritus as he lies in the grass with flocks about 
 him. The first and last two stanzas are as follows : 
 
 Ye white Sicilian goats, who wander all 
 About the slopes of this wild mountain pass 
 Take heed your horny footsteps do not fall 
 Upon the baby dreamer in the grass. 
 
 Those little, clinging hands shall write one day, 
 Rare, golden words, to lift the hearts of men ; 
 Those curling, downy locks shall wear the bay, 
 A crown that they shall never lose again. 
 
 Little Theocritus! Look up and smile. 
 Immortal child, for there are coming years. 
 When the great, busy world shall pause awhile 
 To listen to your singing through its tears. 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 151 
 
 Annie Fields. Theocritus. 1880. 
 
 [in Under the Olive; also in The Bibelot, Vol. 3, 1897.] 
 
 Ay! Unto thee belong 
 
 The pipe and song, 
 
 Theocritus, — . . . 
 
 And unto thee, Theocritus, 
 
 To Thee, 
 
 The immortal childhood of the world, 
 
 The laughing waters of an inland sea, 
 
 And beckoning signal of a sail unfurled ! 
 
 The Singing Shepherd. 1895. 
 
 The Motto of the book is from Idyll 9.33-5 : 
 
 Of song may all my dwelling be full, for neither is sleep more sweet, nor 
 sudden spring, nor flowers more delicious to the bees — so dear to me are 
 the Muses [Lang's version]. 
 
 Kypris. 
 Motto. — 
 
 O Kypris, daughter of Dione, from mortal to immortal, so men tell, thou 
 hast changed Berenice, dropping softly into the woman's breast the stuff of 
 immortality. [Idyll 15.106-8.] 
 
 Comatas. 
 Motto. — 
 Id. 7.7S-82. [Lang's version.] 
 
 The first two stanzas are a paraphrase of the story of Comatas as 
 related in the passage cited. Compare Wordsworth, p. 87. 
 
 John Buekoughs. Locusts and Wild Honey. 1879. 
 
 Comment. — 
 
 The Idylls of Theocritus are native to the island of Sicily in this respect, 
 and abound in bees — flat-nosed bees, as he calls them in the Seventh Idyll — 
 and comparisons in which comb-honey is the standard of the world's most 
 delectable goods (p. 32). 
 
 Pepacton. 1887. 
 Comment. — 
 
 In the Idylls of Theocritus there are frequent allusions to springs. . . 
 The characteristic flavor and suggestion of these Idylls is like pure spring 
 water. This is, perhaps, why the modem reader is apt to be disappointed 
 in them when he takes them up for the first time (pp. 60-1). 
 
 With this compare Gessner's view, p. 89. 
 
152 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUBE 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner. A Roundabout Journey. 1884. 
 
 AixtrsioNs. — 
 
 It is the land where one understands Theocritus, and finds the sources of 
 inspiration of Ovid (p. 104). 
 
 Indeed Ovid and Theocritus no doubt wrote of a poetic age before their 
 time, as our poets write now of the golden days of the past (p. 114) . 
 
 It was to this theatre that Gorgo and Praxinoe came, two lively Syracusan 
 gossips whom Theocritus has immortalized (p. 126). 
 
 But Warner's memory, or else his guide, betrayed him. The 
 scene of the "Gossips" is Alexandria, not Syracuse. 
 
 Clinton Scollard. Theocritus. 1884. 
 
 Great bard, whose liquid lines did first awaken 
 Within my heart a deathless love of song, 
 
 O'er meads by thee for many a year forsaken 
 Once more I see thee blithely pass along. 
 
 Within thy hand the stout staff of a shepherd, 
 Across thy shoulders, like a mantle thrown, 
 
 The tawny skin of some light-footed leopard 
 That by a beech bole gave its dying moan. 
 
 There are ten other stanzas of this pretty poem of one of America's 
 truest singers. 
 
 Herrick. 1884. 
 As merry are thy laughing lays 
 As his who gained Hipparchus' praise, 
 
 And hymned the vine-god's glories ; 
 As his of glad Sicilian days. 
 Or his who won Augustan bays 
 By honey-sweet amores. 
 
 Ballade of Dead Poets. 1884. 
 Theocritus, who bore 
 The lyre where sleek herds graze 
 On the Sicilian shore. 
 
 In the next stanza Keats is commemorated. Cf. In the Library, 
 second following. 
 
 An August Moon. 1881. 
 
 Such simple pastoral days have fled 
 With phantoms of forgotten years. 
 
THEOCRITUS IK AMERICA 153 
 
 Though bards then crowned and garlanded 
 
 Sang songs that echo in our ears; 
 Bucolic strains, in measures meet, 
 
 Of thymy mead and asphodel, 
 And plaintive love-songs, softly sweet, 
 
 Of Cynthia and Philomel. 
 
 In the Library. 1886. 
 
 He who shepherded his sheep 
 On the wild Sicilian steep; 
 He above whose grave are set 
 Sprays of Roman violet. 
 
 A Greek Pastoral. 1893. 
 
 The bees are murmurous in the fragrant thyme, 
 
 Gathering honey for their winter store; 5.46. 
 
 Yon gentle slope is like a flowery floor. 
 
 With lavish cistus bloom as white as rime; S.131. 
 
 Among the boulders gray the spry goats climb. 
 
 It is the drowsy hour when Pan of old 1.15 S. 
 
 Dreamed in the shade, when shepherds strayed abroad 
 And wooed with song, nor watched the young lambs feed; 
 
 Sleep still enthralls the vision-haunted god, 
 While clear as ever lover piped, and bold, 
 
 Young Thyrsis pipes upon his oaten reed. 
 
 A Shepherd's GrooTc. 1893. 
 
 Not on hills of old. 
 
 In a shaggy-haired capote, 7.15-6. 
 
 Did he tend the sheep and goat, 
 
 And drive them into the fold 
 
 With the sturdy crook I hold. 
 
 On a Copy of Theocritus. 1895. 
 (Venice, 1493.) 
 Theocritus, we love thy song. 
 
 Where thyme is sweet and meads are sunny; 
 Where shepherd swains and maidens throng. 
 And bees Hyblean horde their honey. 
 
 Since ancient Syraeusan days 
 
 It year by year has grown the sweeter ; 
 For year by year life's opening ways 
 
 Run more in prose and less in meter. 
 
154 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUKE 
 
 Betwixt these covers there is bound 
 
 A charm that needeth no completion ; 
 A golden atmosphere is found 
 
 At once Sicilian and Venetian. 
 
 So, while our plausive song we raise, 
 
 And hail the bard whose name is famous, 
 Let us for once divide the bays. 
 
 And to the printer cry: Laudamus! 
 
 Joshua Kendall. On Receiving a Jar of Honey. 1885. 
 
 [Sonnet, printed in a local newspaper.] 
 
 Theocritus and yellow-coated bees 
 
 Are closely linked together in my mind. 
 
 For often mentioned in his songs I find 
 
 Them. In Sicilia, beneath the trees 
 
 At noon scarce swaying in the lazy breeze. 
 
 He sang of love and flocks, and every kind 
 
 Of bird, and flower, and fruit; nor was he blind 
 
 To beauty in the hills, the stars, and seas. 
 
 Theocritus: The Father of Pastoral Poetry. 1895. 
 
 In Sicily must be the place to study Theocritus, as you saunter along, 
 book in hand, over that sunny island. . . I, for one, feel grateful to this 
 Syracusan poet. His pictures of nature are simple, and will always be in- 
 teresting. 
 
 When Theocritus and Burns give us views of rural life, their genuineness 
 and their worth stand on a level, while they are the despair of all imitators. 
 
 William Morton Fullerton. 
 
 Estimate. — 
 
 Theocritus and the Septuagint. 1886. 
 [See B. viii, infra.] 
 
 It is not the least interesting fact in regard to Grecian Literature that 
 its earliest and its latest monuments served as models for succeeding times. 
 
 Theocritus is one of the few sweet singers of the world, who, in their 
 sweetest notes, inspire many to imitate them, but whom none can excel. 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 155 
 
 Lines to- Theocritus. 
 [In the above named article.] 
 I seem to see thee now, 
 Theocritus, as o'er 
 Those sloping, sunlit meads. 
 By bright Sicilian seas, 
 Thou wanderest on, beneath 
 The Southern skies: the seeds 
 Of all the flowers that wreathe 
 Thy brow were planted then. 
 
 James B. Kenton. A Memory of Theocritus. 1887. 
 
 A poem of four six-line stanzas, of which this is the last : 
 
 singer who, in honeyed Sicily, 
 
 Long years ago upon some morning height, 
 Did'st hear the droning of the vagrant bee, 
 And saw fair Enna smiling in the light, 
 
 I'd half believe thou hadst come back again, 
 Should goat-hoofed Pan but pipe a sudden strain. 
 
 She Game amd Ward. 1887. 
 
 Her coming made the dawn more bright, 
 
 Her going brought the somber night; 
 
 Her coming made the blossoms shine. 
 
 Her going made them droop and pine, 
 
 Where'er her twinkling feet did pass, 
 
 Beneath them greener grew the grass. 8.41-7. 
 
 Echo's Lament. 1887. 
 
 And when, at noon, on murmurous summer days. 
 O'er ithymy meadows drone the yellow bees — 5.45-6. 
 
 Sufficient is this from Mr. Kenyon's first book of song to show 
 what a hold our poet has upon him. His poetry is redolent of the 
 fields and woodlands, and everywhere suggestions of Theocritus 
 abound. His later books, which I Judge from their titles to be 
 equally pastoral and Theocritean, I have not examined. 
 
 Maurice Thompson. Written on a Fly-Leaf of Theocritus. 1893. 
 
 Those were good times, in olden days. 
 Of which the poet has his dreams, 
 
156 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 When gods beset the woodland ways, 
 And lay in wait by all the streams. 
 
 A Poet of the Poor. 1900. 
 [Theocritus.] 
 
 The power of his poetry — and it is wonderful — lies in the universal sweep 
 it makes over the human heart (p. 103). 
 
 How perfect was his vision of the original human simplicities! (p. 104) . 
 
 In Theocritus there is elemental human nature revealed, or rather the 
 elemental human passions speak, and voice themselves in music. The 
 universal, the imperishable, is there, the eternal human. 
 
 In this essay on Theocritus as a poet of the poor, numerous 
 passages from the Idylls are rendered into good verse or prose. It 
 was inevitable that Theocritus should find such a poet and nature- 
 lover as Maurice Thompson. In his charming essays of out-door 
 life, and in his critical essays as well, he frequently alludes to the 
 poet whose 'perfect' songs he took with him on his rambles, or 
 dreamed over in his Palace of Reeds and his Winter Garden. The 
 following extract associating Emerson with Theocritus is inter- 
 esting : 
 
 They will look back to him [Emerson] , as some few of us now look back to 
 Theocritus, with a consciousness of his close approach to the well-spring 
 of absolute poetical expression. — The Independent, Nov. 1, 1888. 
 
 Frank Dempster Sherman. In the Clover. 1890. 
 
 Pan shall cheer me with his reed. 
 Fauns shall dance across the mead, 
 Daphnis tend his snowy herds. 
 And Theocritus make words 
 Mingle in soft melody 
 In my slumber — Sicily 
 Set the clover sea amid 
 As in olden days he did! 
 
 Breath of Song. 1890. 
 
 So the Poet dreams, nor heeds 
 Who may listen, who may hear; 
 Following where Fancy leads, 
 She alone to him is dear : 
 Omar, Keats, Theocritus, 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 157 
 
 In his voice may speak us 
 From the realm of ages dim — 
 These are In the heart of him ! 
 
 A Garland. 1904. 
 Let me a Garland twine 
 
 For poets nine, 
 Whose verse 
 I love best to rehearse, 
 
 For each a laurel leaf. 
 
 One stanza brief, 
 I make 
 For memory's sweet sake. 
 
 First, then, Theocritus, 
 
 Whose song for us 
 Still yields 
 The fragrance of the fields. 
 
 William Wetmore Story. 
 
 Excursions in Art and Letters. 1891. 
 
 After quotations from Pindar, Euripides, jSlschylus, and 
 Sophocles, pertaining to the unity and universality of God, this 
 follows : 
 
 And Theocritus in his Idylls echoes the same sentiment (p. 206.) 
 
 Elizabeth Duput. Polypheme to the Nymph Galatea: 
 
 After Theocritus. 1892. 
 
 This is a beautiful paraphrase of the Cyclops' song. A part of it 
 runs as follows: 
 
 Come, Galatea, from thy sea-blue caves. 
 Forsake the sobbing billow, leave the waves 
 That wash forever round their shell-built walls 
 And beat with restless surge thy coral halls : 
 For these, sweet nymph, in nothing can compare 
 With the domains that thou with me shalt share. 
 
 Arabesques. 1892. 
 Imitation. — 
 
 Outside, the summer noon upon the wheat lies hot. 
 
 White sunbeams shimmer on the rosy garden plot. 
 
 The ringdoves croon in cool, close coverts by the stream; 
 
 But here the green light lies subdued as in a dream. T.fin. 
 
158 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUKE 
 
 Robert Underwood Johnson. 2'he Winter Hour. 1892. 
 
 Allusion. — 
 
 Pt. 5. All these perchance shall faintly yield 
 
 Odors from some Sicilian field 
 Where young Theocritus deep-strayed 
 In blooms celestial — ^where his shade, 
 Haunting his storied Syracuse 
 Finds balm for his neglected muse. 
 
 Mr. Johnson has written some of our truest latter-day poetry. 
 A genuine feeling for nature, simplicity of expression, and an 
 admiration for things Greek characterize it. This admiration, or 
 enthusiasm, expresses itself most directly in "Apostrophe to Greece : 
 Inscribed to the Greek People on the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of 
 their Independence," and in the "Song of the Modern Greeks." As 
 a Hellenist he has found out Theocritus and has written of rural 
 things under his influence. 
 
 James Baldwin. The Song of Thyrsis. 1893. 
 
 This is a prose version of the dirge for Daphnis in the first Idyll. 
 By placing it first in his Booh of Elegies Dr. Baldwin shows that he 
 regards it as historically the first elegy in our sense of the word. 
 The translation was made 'by a friend' of Dr. Baldwin's for his 
 collection. 
 
 William Cranston Lawton. 
 
 IntrodiLction to Classical Greek Literature. 1903. 
 
 — Theocritus's poems also are elaborated works of art. These are not 
 mere rude fishermen, rustic pipers, clowns of any sort, but idealized 
 figures, carven in noble and lasting material. Even the background, 
 though full of real golden sunshine, is touched in with the hand of an 
 exquisite artist (p. 353). 
 
 In Vacation. 1873. 
 
 The same poetic elements are in these verses which this admirer 
 of Theocritus found in the first and seventh Idylls: the cricket's 
 measured tune, the circling groves of pine, the wild bee, and birds, 
 the hurrying rill, and above all the human element — lazy indulgence 
 in the golden summer hours. 
 
theocritus in amekica 159 
 
 John Vance Cheney. 
 
 Nature Love Among the Poets of Ancient Greece. 
 [New Eng. Mag., April, 1893.] 
 
 His is wholesome country fare, served under the trees and to the music 
 of the waterfall. . . Wood, water, sky, trees, grass, flowers are sung 
 for no other reason than that they are in themselves beautiful, inherently 
 interesting. The Idylls of Theocritus are the most luscious country trolling 
 since the time of the Sonif of Sonffs, to which they may be indebted. 
 
 Basil Lanneau Gildeesleeve. Theocritus. 1895. 
 
 [Johnson's Univ. Cyc] 
 
 No one has so blended in his verse the artistic and the popular, and all 
 who have attempted to emulate him have failed to reproduce his wonderful 
 charm. 
 
 His peasants are peasants, his shepherds smell of the sheepcote, his 
 reapers of the harvest-field, his fishermen of fins and scales; their jests 
 are as broad as the sky under which they live. 
 
 He is a conscious artist to the minutest points of workmanship. . . 
 a poet for all time. 
 
 Hamilton Wright Mabib. Literary Worthies: Theocritus. 1896. 
 
 [Outlook (N. Y.), 55:458^61.] 
 
 Theocritus — 'the last of the great line which began with Homer.' 
 
 The Idylls have a freshness which makes us think of Chaucer, an 
 out-of-door directness and vigor which remind us of Bums, an idyllic 
 beauty which recalls Tennyson. . . These finished lines, so strong, simple, 
 and beautiful, etc. 
 
 Gilbert Murray. 
 
 The History of Ancient Greeh Literature. 1897. 
 
 Theocritus is perhaps the most universally attractive of all Greek poets. 
 It is common to find young students who prefer him to Homer, and most 
 people are conscious of a certain delighted surprise when they first make 
 his acquaintance. In his own sweet and lowly domain he is absolute 
 monarch; one might almost say that there is hardly anything beautiful 
 in the pastoral poetry of the world that does not come from Theocritus. 
 
 His first Idyll, the Dirge on Daphms, has perhaps had a greater number 
 of celebrated imitations than any poem of its length in existence — ^from 
 Bion's Adonis, Moschus's Bion, Virgil's Daphnis, to our own Lycidas, 
 Adonwis, and Thyrsis (pp. 383-5). 
 
160 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 Heney Jeeome Stockaed. Theocritus. 1897. 
 
 Upon the arm of Time his hand he laid, 
 And claimed with all-compelling power his eyes. 
 The gray, unsleeping spirit with dumb surprise 
 In his destroying course a moment stayed. 
 'Grant me this guerdon, ravening Time,' he prayed, 
 'That through the future's dateless centuries 
 The light from off these valleys, fields, and skies. 
 Until thy reign be past, may never fade.' 
 
 Years have not scathed those immemorial springs ; 
 On swaths of thymy grass and calamus-shoots, 
 By wimpling streams, Theocritus pipes to-day; 
 Unhurt down vales of amaranth Thyrsis sings. 
 And Pan's clear syrinx calls, and far away 
 O'er sweet Sicilian fields the shepherd's fiutes! 
 
 Eichaed Bueton. The Bural Pipe. 1897. 
 
 St. 1. Nay, chide me not because my pipe oft sings 
 
 Of country doings and of common things: 
 
 [In nine succeeding stanzas the poet tells of these 'common 
 things/ which are such things as Theocritus sang of. Hence the 
 concluding stanza comes in fulfillment of expectation as follows :] 
 
 So did Theocritus, and still we hear 
 His airs Sicilian and his message clear. 
 
 Mr. Burton, one of our truest singers, has indeed tuned his pipe 
 to the Pan-pipe of the Sicilian shepherd. 
 
 William P. Teent. The Greel: Elegy. 1898. 
 
 The genius of Theocritus brought this fusion of elegiac, idyllic, and 
 epic purposes to a successful issue in this divine First Idyll. — Sewwnee 
 Rev. 6:15. 
 
 As Symonds points out, it is Crabbe and Wordsworth, Goethe and 
 Tennyson that have been the true successors of Theocritus as a naturalistic 
 poet.— /6id. 17. 
 
 William Agnew Paton. Picturesque Sicily. 1898. 
 
 When in old Greece the Muses became silent. . . in new Greece, 
 Theocritus, the master of all pastoral poets, sang clearly and sweetly by 
 the pleasant waters of Anapus, awakening strains that entranced the spirit 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 161 
 
 of Virgil, and even after the lapse of twenty-two centuries found an echo 
 in the songs of Robert Burns. 
 
 Jane Minot Sedgwick. Sicilian Idyls and Other Verses. 1898. 
 
 Seven of the Idylls of Theocritus, 'translated from the Greek/ 
 are included in this volume as follows : Idylls 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 
 15. Some passages of these renderings are as beautiful as the 
 best; for example, the conclusion of Idyll 7. The hexameters of 
 Idyll 3 go swiftly also. In Idyll 15 the iambic heptameter couplet 
 is used. The version, however, is very unequal in merit. Epithets 
 and phrases foreign to the text are put in to fill out the metre — 
 not to the extent of the eighteenth-century translators, but still too 
 often. The same writer has a beautiful paraphrase of Epigram 3, 
 the Sleep of Daphnis, in her book entitled Love Songs from the 
 Greek (1903). In the way of translating Theocritus this work is 
 the most significant and meritorious yet done in America. 
 
 Lloyd Mifflin. Echoes of Greeh Idyls. 1899. 
 
 Dedication: 'To the Memory of Theocritus.' 
 
 [Sonnet] On, Presenting a Sonnet. 1900. 
 
 Thou who with rare Theocritus communed 
 
 In sweet Sicilian dales, far off and dim, 
 
 Deign to accept this all unworthy lay 
 
 From one — least of the train whose harps are tuned 
 
 To Poesy — ^this page of Song, from him 
 
 Who loves like thee the Dorians passed away. 
 
 [Sonnet] Unavailing Grief. 1903. 
 A paraphrase from Theocritus: Epigram 6, To Thyrsis on the 
 Loss of a Kid. 
 
 [Sonnet] For a Statue. 
 
 A paraphrase from Theocritus: Epigram 19, on Archilochus. 
 Compare Wordsworth's A Poet's Epitaph (p. 88 supra). 
 
 [Sonnet] Sicilian Idyl. 1903. 
 Paraphrase from Theocritus : Epigram 3, on Daphnis Asleep. 
 
 The Pupil of Philetas. 1903. 
 This is a sonnet addressed to Theocritus. 
 
162 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 This method of treating a theme taken out of Theocritus was 
 adopted, as we have se^n, by Edward Cracroft Lefroy, who likewise 
 employed the sonnet for his purpose. Evidently no ancient singer 
 has a stronger hold upon Mr. Mifflin than has Theocritus. 
 
 Marion Mills Miller. The Sicilian Idyls. 1900. 
 
 The first thirteen Idylls are included in this metrical version, 
 with a rendering of Love and the Bee (Id. 19), 'in the rondeau 
 form,' in the author's introductory essay. Mr. Miller has shown 
 a genuine appreciation of some of the qualities of Theocritus — a 
 truer appreciation than almost any of his predecessors. Certain 
 eifects of the melodies of the original, and especially its flavor of 
 actual life, he has caught. This is a great deal to say ; but much 
 more has to be said before we have Theocritus. It is not enough to 
 reproduce his Doric rusticity, not even in echoing rhymes. Not the 
 least of this poet's distinctions is that eminently Greek quality — 
 a sense of completeness, a severe simplicity, an almost perfect 
 symmetry of parts. It is in this that Mr. Miller, with his Whit- 
 manesque dash and freedom, has failed. Not that I would have 
 an attempt to reproduce the Greek hexameter; I would have only 
 the effect of that and of the regular structure. Tennyson surely 
 loses nothing by his consummate artistry. And it is his highest 
 praise to be said to approach his Sicilian master. 
 
 The review of Mr. Miller's translation in the (New York) 
 Independent (58:397) by no means does justice to the work. 
 Maurice Thompson, who is evidently the writer, avowedly took the 
 duty assigned him as an occasion for giving a drubbing to the 
 decriers of classical training — with what appropriateness we are 
 left to conjecture. The consequence was that a really meritorious 
 performance suffered an injustice. 
 
 Anonymous. OeoKpiTov EtSvXXux. Theocritus' Idyls. 1901. 
 
 This is an edition of Theocritus containing the Greek text and 
 select translations as follows: Idd. 3, 6, 11, 13, 15, 16, 30, and 39 
 by Fawkes ; Idd. 18, 23, and 37 by Dryden ; Idd. 1 and 36 by Pol- 
 whele; Idd. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 34, 35, and 
 38 by Calverley; Id. 30 by Lang. 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 163 
 
 This is a beautiful volume, adorned with a gem for each Idyll bj; 
 M. Meaulle. Japanese vellumi paper is used. It was printed for 
 subscribers only. The issue consisted of 1,000 volumes. Biblio- 
 graphies of Greek editions and of English, French, German, and 
 Italian translations enhance the value of this publication. The 
 publishers are George Barrie & Son, Philadelphia. It is to be 
 regretted that the compiler preferred the pompous, padding trans- 
 lators of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — Fawkes, Dryden, 
 and Polwhele — ^none of whom had the spirit of Theocritus, to such 
 translators as Hunt, Chapman, Hallard, and Sedgwick. For a 
 compilation, too, Calverley is too largely drawn upon, even if he 
 were — which he is not — always the best. 
 
 Kathan Haskell Dole. Epitaph on a Little Oirl. 1905. 
 
 A translation of Epigram 16. 
 
 In his anthology entitled The Greeh Poets (1904) Mr. Dole has 
 allotted to Theocritus pages 398-323. On page xvii. of his Intro- 
 duction he writes : 
 
 Indeed the Idylls of Theocritus and their feebler echoes in Bion and 
 Moschus have had a more powerful influence on modern poetry than any 
 others of the works of the Greek poets. 
 
 Henry Aiken Metcalf. The Idylls and Epigrams of 
 
 Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. 1905. 
 
 This sumptuous polyglot edition of our poet is a very noteworthy 
 tribute to his genius. True, it does not represent the long years 
 of toil which such scholars as St. Amand, and Warton, among the 
 English, and Ahrens and Meineke, among the Germans, spent upon 
 the text and its elucidation ; but not concerning itself with matters 
 of textual criticism, it is a fitting monument to the enduring merit 
 of Theocritus such as no other ancient singer has ever been honored 
 with in America. The English versions accompanying the text are 
 as follows: 
 
 Arnold, E. : Idyll 1. Arnold, M. : 15. Browning, Mrs.: 11. 
 Calverley: 1, 3, 9, 14, 17, 30, 24. Fitz-Gerald: 31. Hallard: 
 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 31, 23, 33, 35, 36, 27, 28, 30. Hunt: 11. 
 Kynaston (Snow) 7.130-157; 38. Lang: 31 (verse). Lawton: 
 10.42-55. Lefroy : 8 sonnets, various passages. Metcalf : 5. Sedg- 
 wick: 3, 7, 11. Stedman: 10.21-58; 13. Symonds: 2, 29. 
 
164 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 From the Preface by Mr. Metcalf and from the Introduction by 
 Mr. Lawton I will make an extract or two regarding the poet whose 
 worth they have borne witness to in these three beautiful volumes : 
 
 We feel the enthralling spell of the sweet magic of woven words, the 
 exquisite singing sense born of country sights and sounds, in these little 
 picture-poems of the creator and master of the idyll, the 'Pastoral singer 
 of the last Greek song.' — Pref. p. vii. 
 
 William Cranston Lawton : — 
 
 So at a single stroke Theocritus set himself among the creators of typical 
 and lasting art-forms: but of this new type he remains after twenty cen- 
 turies the master still. — Introd., p. xxvii. 
 
 Nearly every verse of the first fifteen idylls has the tang of genius, the 
 fresh charm of a note not struck before. — nid., p. xxi. 
 
 It will be observed in the list of contributing translators above 
 that Mr. Metcalf has rendered Id. 5, and Mr. Lawton a portion of 
 Id. 10. 
 
 Karl Eugene Murchet. 
 
 The Syrcvcusan Gossips at the Festival of Adonis. 
 
 [The Yale Courant, Dec., 1906.] 
 
 This is a close and spirited translation of the fifteenth Idyll, in 
 
 blank verse. It was the prize-translation at Yale, 1905, when this 
 
 Idyll was named as the subject of the contest in translating from 
 
 the Classics. 
 
 LuDwiG Lewissohn. In Sicily. 
 
 [The Pathfinder, Aug., 1906.] 
 
 Since those kind years it is not long, 
 
 When for a sweetly laughing day, 
 
 1 from all care could fly away 
 Into a land of summer-song; 
 And lie on lawns more soft than sleep 5.57. 
 
 Beneath some green arbutus tree, 
 Beside the azure midland deep. 
 
 In Sicily, in Sicily! 
 For there it was where woodlands list, 
 
 The resonant woods and echo song. 
 
 That I, the flowery meads along. 
 With Amaryllis kept my tryst. 
 I gave her dewy apples, gave 2.10. 
 
 Her dewier roses — oh, to be 
 Forever by the midland wave. 
 
 In Sicily, in Sicily! 
 
THEOCRITUS IN AMERICA 165 
 
 Sicilian lyrics languorous 
 
 She sang me, ditties dreamy-old, 
 
 Heard through deep summer noons of gold 
 By Vergil and Theocritus. 
 That voice, I may not hear it more; 
 
 Those eyes, those lips, I may not see; 
 Lost unto me that midland shore, 
 
 And all my dreams of Sicily. 
 
 Thomas Nelson Page. Theocritus on Agradina. 1906. 
 
 The spacious cities hummed with toil; 
 The monarch reared his towers to the skies; 
 Men delved the fruitful soil 
 And studied to he wise. 
 Along the highway's rocky coil 
 The mailed legions rang; 
 Smiling unheeded mid the moil 
 The Poet sang. 
 
 The glittering cities long are heaps; 
 The starry towers lie level with the plain ; 
 The desert serpent sleeps 
 Where soared the marble fane. 
 The stealthy, bead-eyed lizard creeps 
 Where gleamed the Tyrant's throne; 
 That grandeur dark oblivion steeps, 
 The song sings on. 
 
 Little needs to be said by way of summary upon this chapter 
 beyond what I say elsewhere. The younger Am^erican singers, 
 whatever their merits, have paid more tributes to Theocritus than 
 to any other ancient poet. They also sing of nature with a real 
 delight in her various moods and her changing seasons. There 
 is in much of their verse the lilt of true song, the throb of joy, the 
 melody of self -prompted singing. Simplicity and exquisite artistry 
 too are sometimes found together in their songs of nature. In a 
 word, though we may not have any great poet, any poet whose genius 
 is creative in a large way, yet we have many melodists who are 
 capable of giving delight. The best of these have dedicated verses 
 to Theocritus. The best of them have tried to imitate his realism 
 and to catch his simple graces. 
 
 The recent versions by American poets are comparatively 
 numerous and meritorious. Miller, Sedgwick, Stedman, and Bgan 
 have given us versions that are the equal at least of any done in 
 England. 
 
IX. SUMMARIES 
 
 The following tables will present sununaries as indicated. 
 
 1. TRANSLATIONS 
 
 I. ENTIRE 
 
 Avihor Dale Form Page 
 
 1. Creech 1684 . .Heroic couplet 44 
 
 2. Fawkes 1767 Heroic couplet 75 
 
 3. Polwhele 1786 Heroic couplet 81 
 
 4. Chapman 1836 Chieflf heroic couplet and Spenserian stanza 101 
 
 5. Banks 1853 Prose Ill 
 
 6. Calverley 1869 Various metres 123-4 
 
 7. Lang 1880 Prose 128 
 
 8. Hallard 1894 Various metres, chiefly hexameters 137 
 
 Here are eight entire versions, sis in verse and two in prose. 
 Five fall within the Victorian Era; two come just before the Era 
 of Eomanticism, and the first takes us back to the Eestoration 
 Period. 
 
 2. PARTIAL 
 A. British. 
 
 Author Date Idyll Page 
 
 1. Anon 1588. ...8, 11, 16, 18, 21, 31 27 
 
 2. Sherburne 1651. .. .21, 31 42 
 
 3. Dryden 1684-5. .. .3, 18, 23, 27 46 
 
 4. Wm. Bowles 1684-5.... 2, 10, 14, 20 45 
 
 5. Duke 1684-5 .... 11 45 
 
 6. Anon. ..'. 1684-5. .. .1, 12, 19 45 
 
 7. Behn 1685. ...19 46 
 
 8. Pattison 1727. . . .19 65 
 
 9. Carthay 1731 .... 27 65 
 
 10. Anon 1733. ...19 65 
 
 11. Anon 1733. ...19 65 
 
 12. Hughes 1737. . . .20 65 
 
 13. Hoyland 1744. . . .11 70 
 
 14. Whaley 1 745 .... 11 67 
 
 15. Anon 1745. ...1 67 
 
 16. Anon 1745. ... 21 67 
 
 17. Dodd 1755. ...17 71 
 
SUMMARIES 167 
 
 2. PARTIAL— Continued 
 A. British. 
 
 AwtJior Date Idyll Page 
 
 18. Anon 1791 .... 19 87 
 
 19. DuBois 1799. . . .19, 20, 31 (Prose) 87 
 
 20. Bowles 1800 Passages 84-6 
 
 21. Merivale 1813. ...11 91 
 
 22. Elton 1814.... 8, 15, 18, 23 91 
 
 23. Hunt 1818. ...7, 11, 12, 15, 24 and passages 92 
 
 24. Mahoney 1835 18, 19, 28, 31 and passages 100 
 
 25. Milman 1835 Passages 98 
 
 26. Altord 1841 15, 21 and passages 105 
 
 27. Browning 1845 . . .11 108-9 
 
 28. Blackmore 1855 8 112-3 
 
 29. M.Arnold 1864. .. .15 (Prose) 119 
 
 30. Head 1866. ...18 122 
 
 31. Fitz-Gerald 1867. . . .1-4, 7, 11, 13, 15, 20-22, 24, 25, 29 123 
 
 32. E. Arnold 1868. . . .1, 2, 27 125 
 
 33. Snow (Kynaston) . .1869 19, 28 and passages 123 
 
 34. Graves 1869. . . .19 105 
 
 35. Sheehan 1870-74 2, 3, 19, 1, 10 and passages 124-5 
 
 36. Lefroy 1883 Passages 133-4 
 
 37. Symondg 1892... 2,29 136 
 
 38. Headlam 1907 2, 7 139 
 
 The following scheme will show how often each Idyll was 
 translated : 
 
 Idylls 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 
 
 Versions... 4, 6, 4, 1, 0, 0, 3, 2, 0, 1, 8, 3, 1, 1, 5 
 
 Idylls 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 
 
 Versions... 1, 1, 4, 11,4, 5, 1, 2, 2, 1, 0, 4, 2, 1, 0, 4 
 
 Here are 82 versions by 38 authors, not inclndiag in the count 
 some highly important translated passages, such as those of Bowles 
 and Lefroy and the greater part of Snow's, Alf ord's, and Mahoney's, 
 and smaller fragments of Hunf s and Milman's. 
 
 Summary by Centuries. — Sixteenth : 1 author, 6 versions. Seven- 
 teenth: 6 authors, 15 versions. Eighteenth: 13 authors, 14 ver- 
 sions. Nineteenth : 19 authors, 49 versions. The numerous trans- 
 lations of passages into sonnets, pictures, etc., occur in the last 
 century. The truly pastoral Idylls were preferred in this period, 
 while in the eighteenth century of the 14 different renderings 5 
 were of Id. 19, which perhaps does not belong to Theocritus and is 
 certainly not pastoral. Looking at the table it will be seen that in 
 
168 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH IITBEATDRB 
 
 reference to frequency of translation^ the Idylls stand thus: Id. 
 19, eleven times; Id. 11, eight times; Id. 2, six times; Idd. 15 
 and 21, five times; Idd. 1, 3, 18, 20, 27, and 31, four times; Idd. 
 7 and 12, three times; Idd. 8, 23, 24, and 28, twice; Idd. 4, 10, 13, 
 14, 16, 17, 22, 25, and 29, onoe; Idd. 5, 6, 9, 26, and 30 never. 
 
 I have made no summary of the translations of the Epigrams, 
 several of which are both truly pastoral and idyllic, — ^that is, they 
 are miniature picture-poems, bringing rural subjects before the 
 imagination. 
 
 B. Amebioan. 
 
 Author Date Idyll Page 
 
 1. Arnold 1797. . . .31 142 
 
 2. Nevin 1859.... 1, 6, 11 142 
 
 3. Sedgwick 1898.... 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 15 161 
 
 4. Miller. 1900. ...1-13 162 
 
 6. Metcalf. 1905 .... 5 163 
 
 6. Stedman 1905 .... 13 i 146-7 
 
 7. Murchey 1906. ...15 164 
 
 Here are 7 authors and 27 versions. Again important transla- 
 tions of portions of Idylls are omitted. Combining this enumera- 
 tion with the one preceding we have: authors, 38-|-7=45; 
 versions, 82+27=109. 
 
 2. PARAPHRASES 
 
 1. British. 
 Author Date Idyll Page 
 
 1. Wataon 1581. . . . 19 22 
 
 2. Lodge 1600 19 25 
 
 3. Bradshaw. . . . 1591. . . .3 30 
 
 4. Granville 1700. . . .2 46 
 
 6. Anon 1739.... 14 66 
 
 6. Warton 1786 ...20 70 
 
 7. James Scott. .1761 19 72 
 
 8. Lloyd 1764. ...15 74 
 
 9. Wilkie 1768. ...21 76 
 
 10. Anon 1833. ...13 99 
 
 11. J. T. B 1837. ...11 103 
 
 2. Amebioan. 
 
 Author Date Idyll Page 
 
 1. Egan 1880.... 11, 13, 24 149 
 
 2. Dupuy. 1892. . . .11 157 
 
 These 15 paraphrases might be added to the 109 versions 
 enumerated above, making altogether 124 renderings. The Nine- 
 teenth Idyll is again the favorite one and the Eleventh next. 
 
SUMMAEIES 
 
 169 
 
 THE OCCURRENCE OF THEOCRITUS'S NAME 
 IN VERSE 
 
 1. British. 
 
 Author Date 
 
 1. Skelton 1523. 
 
 2. Hall 1597.. 
 
 9. 
 10, 
 11, 
 
 Page 
 
 13 13. 
 
 .... 36 14. 
 
 3. Jonson....{1601| 33 15. 
 
 4. Denham 1660 43 17. 
 
 5. Soame 1680 44 18. 
 
 6. Dillon 1684 '.. 45 19. 
 
 7. Lyttleton 1732 65 20. 
 
 8. ChurchiU. . . . 1763 ......' 73 21. 
 
 Anon 1769 77 22. 
 
 T. Warton, Jr. 1786 70-1 23. 
 
 Burns (?).... (7) 81 24. 
 
 12. Wordsworth.. 1805 ; 87 25. 
 
 Author Date Page 
 
 Barton 1823 97 
 
 Anon 1833 99 
 
 Mrs. Browning.1844 108 
 
 Moir 1852 110 
 
 Sheehan 1870 124 
 
 Dobson 1880 132 
 
 Lefroy 1885 133-4 
 
 Swinburne. . . . 1885 134 
 
 Johnson 1890 135 
 
 Beeching. ...1891 135 
 
 Robinson 1897 136 
 
 Todhunter 1892 137 
 
 Zangwill 1903 138 
 
 2. American. 
 
 Author Date 
 
 1. LoweU.... 1848. 
 
 2. Stoddard 1851. 
 
 3. Whittier 1867. 
 
 Page 
 ..143 
 ..143 
 ..145 
 
 Author Date 
 
 7. Johnson 1892. 
 
 8. Burton 1897 . 
 
 9. Mifflin 1900. 
 
 Page 
 ..158 
 ..160 
 ..161 
 
 4. Taylor 1874 148 10. Sherman 1890 156-7 
 
 5. Egan 1880 149 11. Lewissohn 1906 164 
 
 6. ScoUard 1884 152 
 
 Excluding the mention of his name in poems addressed to him, 
 which are counted elsewhere, Theocritus has been mentioned in 
 verse by 25 British and 11 American poets, and by several of them 
 more than once. This is nothing like the frequency with which the 
 names of Pindar, Sappho, and Anaereon occur. But the name of 
 Theocritus is not commonly used as a verse ornament, or as a mere 
 symbol, as the others are. 
 
 3. DEFINITE ALLUSION TO THEOCRITUS IN VERSE 
 
 Author Date Page Author Date Page 
 
 1. Congreve 1694 46 8. Wm. Thompson.. 1763 74 
 
 2. Philips 1709 50-4 9. Wilkie 1763 76 
 
 3. Parnell 1717 62 10. John Scott 1776 78 
 
 4. T. Warton, 8r.. 1744 70 11. Wm. L. Bowles. 1786 84 
 
 5. Akenside 1745 67 12. Sotheby 1794 86-7 
 
 6. Blacklock 1745 69 13. Palgrave 1854 118 
 
 7. WodhuU 1769 72 14. Wilde 1880 130 
 
170 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEHATURE 
 
 In this account no note is taken of such allusions as 'songs on 
 the plains of Enna/ 'the muse by Arethusa's water/ and the like, 
 which, however, certainly refer to Theocritus, but too indefinitely. 
 The references here cited are to 'the Sicilian swain,' 'the Sicilian 
 bard,' 'the Sweet Sicilian,' 'Syracusa's poet,' 'Sicilia's poet,' and the 
 like. 
 
 Combining lists 1, 2 and 3, we have 25+12+14=51. 
 
 4. THEOCRITUS'S NAME IN PROSE PRIOR TO 1700 
 
 AtUhor Date Page Author Date Po^e 
 
 1. Ascham 1580 13 11. Drayton 1593 23 
 
 2. Kirke 1579 16 12. Meres 1598 16 
 
 3. Watson 1581 22 13. Burton 1621 37 
 
 4. Sidney 1683 15 14. Peacham 1622 37 
 
 5. Webbe 1586 15 15. Milton 1644 42 
 
 6. Anon 1588 27 16. Browne 1650 43 
 
 7. Greene 1587 36 17. Cowley 1660 42 
 
 8. Puttenham....l589 16 18. Creech 1684 44 
 
 9. Nash 1589 36 19. Dryden 1684 45-6 
 
 10. Bradshaw 1591 30 20. Kennet 1697 46-7 
 
 4. POEMS TO OR ON THEOCRITUS 
 
 1. British. 
 Author Date Page Author Date Page 
 
 1. Langhome 1848 109 4. Gosse 1880 127 
 
 2. Landor 1863 107 5. Dobson 1880 132 
 
 3. Lang 1879 129-30 6. Wilde 1887 131 
 
 2. Amebioait. 
 
 Author Dale Page Author Date Page 
 
 1. Bgan 1879 149 6. Kenyon 1887 156 
 
 2. Paradise 1880 150 7. Thompson 1892 155 
 
 3. Fields 1880 151 8. Stockard 1897 160 
 
 4. ScoUard 1884 152 9. Mifflin 1903 161 
 
 5. Fullerton 1886 154 10. Page 1906 165 
 
 Here the American poets lead, there being 10 of them and but 
 6 of the British : 16 in all. It may be doubted, until an actual 
 count is made, whether any other poet, ancient or modern, but 
 certainly ancient, has had so many poems — and such beautiful 
 poems — ^addressed to him vrithin the last half-century. Such a 
 fact is incomparably more significant than the mere occurrence 
 of a poet's name in verse: this may be only an ornament, but a 
 poem means a feeliag, an ardor for the poet. 
 
X. CONCLUSION 
 
 THE MEANING OF THE MATERIALS 
 
 A review of the condensed materials presented in the foregoing 
 pages in order to discover their meaning is the task that remains 
 to do. I have no wish to exaggerate their importance; conceiving 
 my work to be one of simple exposition, not advocacy, I shall not 
 strive to make the facts tell a different story from that which is 
 truly latent in them. What, then, is the value and significance of 
 these translations, imitations, allusions, quotations, and estimates? 
 
 In a general preliminary way the nature and extent of the 
 materials, and even their meaning, were indicated at the beginning 
 of this exposition. We can now enter more fully into the merits 
 of those generalizations, we can add new force to them, we can 
 increase their number and their scope ; and each general affirmation, 
 each conclusion, will now have a new force and a new meaning; 
 for the particulars from which it springs will be present to the 
 mind. The Summaries and Bibliographies will save me the trouble, 
 however, of noting many details here which otherwise would call 
 for attention. 
 
 Undoubtedly Theocritus is one of the less familiar classic names 
 in BngHsh literature. It does not occur with anything like the 
 frequency of those of Pindar, Sappho, Anaereon, Horace, and Ovid, 
 not to mention Homer and Virgil. The translations of him also, 
 until within recent years, are comparatively few, not at all approach- 
 ing in number those of the poets just named. But within the last 
 half-century — say, beginning with Banks (1853) — only a very few 
 poets have been more frequently turned into English. And the 
 number of poems addressed to him is so great as to induce the 
 belief that no other classic poet has been thus honored so often in 
 recent years. Many of these poems I have quoted in full, partly 
 because of their beauty, since lovers of our bard will delight to 
 read them, but mainly because of their allusions to the Idylls. 
 
 Estimates of Theocritus, tributes to his genius, expressions of 
 admiration, testimonies to his influence, descriptions of his style, 
 and utterances of like import have been quoted freely, because these 
 
172 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEE 
 
 too, as well as the poems, show the enthusiasm he has elicited and 
 they lead to inferences regarding his possible influence. The brows 
 of few poets wear a comparable wreath woven of leaves plucked by 
 so many hands. And yet, as Gessner says, he is not and can never 
 be a popular poet. The Arcadian poetry vitiates the popular taste 
 and takes away the relish for realism, however artistic. John 
 Burroughs pays our poet a similar tribute when he accounts for 
 the disappointment experienced by many on first taking up a 
 translation of the Idylls by comparing them to pure spring water, 
 so unlike the hydrant fluid of cities to which their lips are 
 accustomed. 
 
 But Theocritus has been quite as much the despair of translators 
 as Homer has been. Not until the nineteenth century do we have 
 even a tolerable version of any part of him. All of the eighteenth 
 century translations, and we may go back and include Creech and 
 Dryden, do but travesty the Idylls. We have anything but the 
 simple graces of the Doric. One great fault of diction in them all — 
 to make a single selection out of general errancy— is the epithet- 
 ishness of the renderings. A friend of Polwhele's, Dr. John Wol- 
 cot, writing to that translator prior to his work upon Theocritus, 
 said: 
 
 I have told you again and again that you were too epithetish. . . . 
 You will acquire nerve every hour, if you get rid entirely of those 
 damned epithets (Traditions, p. 49). 
 
 But Polwhele did not get rid of them, despite the clergyman's 
 vigorous language. Now, Theocritus is the least epithetish of poets. 
 He has a few favorite adjectives, such as dSus and KaXos , which are 
 to him what 'sweet' and Tjonnie' are to Bums ; but to most of his 
 translators — alas, that his genuine merit was no better appreciated ! 
 — his style did indeed seem "meagre" (p. 99). 
 
 The regnant taste in poetry during the period from Dryden to 
 Polwhele made impossible a genuine appreciation of Theocritus and 
 an equivalent translation of the Idylls. The anonymous writer 
 of the article entitled 'Theocritus in Sicily' {Macm. Mag. (1887), 
 56:213-217), says: 
 
 Through each renewed travesty his simplicity emerges sweeter and more 
 wholesome; among the din of Pastorals and Amoebean odes. Bucolics and 
 so-called iEglogues, the woodnotes are audible as true as ever. 
 
CONCLUSION 173 
 
 If this could be said with any degree of truth after the trans- 
 lations of Chapman, Calverley, and Lang, with how much greater 
 truth before! 
 
 The whole theory of translation, as well as the actual problem of 
 translating him, has been kept to the fore by Theocritus. The 
 matter of hexameters and other metrical forms has been discussed 
 by the translators and by their reviewers. But the diction of the 
 Idylls — ^the kind of words that should be chosen for reproducing 
 the effect of the Doric and the rusticity of the herdsmen — ^has been 
 the subject of perpetual observation and comment by writers of 
 pastorals and by Theocritean translators. 
 
 Spenser adopted an archaic and rustic diction, broader in some 
 of his pastorals than in others, ia the attempt to follow Theocritus. 
 Philips brought the matter again to the front by his rusticities, 
 and Gay diverted himself and others with burlesques that succeeded 
 better, perhaps, than had been foreseen. John Stuart Blackie, 
 vmting on the question of the appropriate diction for translation, 
 says: 'There are whole Idylls in Theocritus which would sound 
 ridiculous in any other language than that of 'Tam 0' Shanter' 
 (Homer and the Iliad, vol. 1. p. 384) Calverley assents, Hallard 
 emphatically dissents. Lander's view is expressed in the following 
 sentence: 'Beautiful thoughts are seldom disdainful of sonorous 
 epithets : we find them continually in the Pastorals of Theocritus.' 
 
 This doubtless is true; but the sonorousness of Dryden's and 
 Polwhele's couplets is one thing and the mournful music of the 
 song of Thyrsis and the chant of Po|phemus is another thiag. 
 Theocritus, such is his perfection of style and the absolute fitness 
 of his sentiments and their expression, may indeed be set up as a 
 standard for the Judgment of the varying taste and style that pre- 
 vailed in the different periods of English poetry. The first trans- 
 lator, the unknown author of the 8ixe Idillia, had something like 
 a true sense of an English equivalent for the folk-song character of 
 the Idylls, both the pastoral and the heroic, and he therefore chose 
 the ballad measure of an elder day. But after him' down to 
 Chapman no translator who attempted Theocritus had any just 
 sense of a proper rendering of the liquid sweetness and the rapid 
 flow of his Greek hexameters. They lost all the native and naive 
 charm. They sacrificed the consummate simplicity of the rustic 
 
174 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEAT0RB 
 
 songs for the purchase of fullness of sound and balance of phrase, 
 according to the canons of the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 Chapman has a genuine flavor of the old Elizabethans. While 
 employing the heroic couplet in the main yet it is not Dryden's 
 
 Two oouraes of ethereal race, 
 
 With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding pace. 
 
 It is nearer the rhythm of Endymion, with something of the same 
 archaic diction. But it is in his versions of the Epic Idylls that 
 Chapman best succeeds, and here scarcely anyone has succeeded 
 better. Choosing Spenser's stanza for them, he has combined a 
 suitable elevation of style with an epic simplicity that characterizes 
 the original. Only the even flow, without any involution, the 
 narrative directness, and the dramatic spirit of the Heracles cycle 
 were not to be expressed by the elaborate Spenserian stanza. Still 
 Chapman's translation is on the whole about as nearly satisfying 
 as any we possess. 
 
 Calverley's does indeed exhibit that freedom of movement, that 
 variety and spirit which we seek in a translation of Theocritus. 
 But one cannot say that he is always happy in his renderings. For 
 example, we have this rendering of Id. 1.7-8 : 
 
 Shepherd, thy lay is as the noise of streams 
 Falling and falling aye from yon tall crag. 
 
 Here the comparison expressed by the original is omitted and the 
 arrangement which in the original corresponds exactly to that of 
 the preceding speech is destroyed. The rendering of the second 
 form of the refrain in the same Idyll is unaccountably erratic, for 
 thus he renders it: 
 
 Forget, sweet Maids, forget your woodland song. 
 
 This also is scarcely so graceful as the rustics of Theocritus were 
 wont to speak (1.143-4) : 
 
 Now give me goat and cup; that I may milk 
 The one, and pour the other to the Muse. 
 
 But Calverley is more felicitous in most of his Idylls than in the 
 first. In his fourteen-syllabled lines he has succeeded specially 
 well, they seeming to be especially suitable for the short quips and 
 the snappy repartees of the "battling bards" (Idylls 4, 5, and 8). 
 
CONCLUSION 175 
 
 His blank verse also is admirable, and likewise, generally, his 
 heroic couplets. It will be seen that Calverley employs a great 
 variety of metres, as also does Hallard. 
 
 But Hallard,a far greater variety. Altogether he has employed 
 nearly a score of metres, as he himself informs us. The intention 
 of these two translators in thus varying the metre was to give an 
 impression of Theocritus's variety. But Theocritus makes 
 practically all his music within the compass of one metre — ^the 
 dactylic hexameter. Theocritus, therefore, as his translators do 
 not, preserves the priaeiple, so precious to all art, of unity with 
 diversity. 
 
 But in coming from Pawkes's or Polwhele's uniform and high- 
 sounding couplets to Hallard's racing anapestic and dactylic hexam- 
 eters, varied with numerous lyrical measures and arra^agements 
 of rhym^, we are coming a long way indeed. Hallard by his 
 employment of such varied lyrical forms has as truly represented 
 the taste of the present time as Lang did in choosing prose as his 
 medium. 
 
 Between the translations of Calverley and Hallard one's choice 
 will be determined largely by one's taste. For they are about equally 
 close to the original and scholarly, and about equally felicitous ia 
 diction and melody. Both translators have a talent for poetry and 
 easy command of its forms. And they above all reveal a true 
 appreciation of the peculiar merits of the poet whom they under- 
 took to render. 
 
 Theocritus exhibits two kindly and gentle sympathies which, 
 if not absolutely new in literature, as certainly they were not, were 
 yet new in their force and their intention as they appear in his 
 pastoral songs. These were a passion for nature and a passion 
 for humanity. Not such a passion for nature as expressed itself in 
 the poetry of Wordsworth, nor such passion for humanity as ex- 
 pressed itself in the rhapsodies of Shelley. He had not the depth 
 of reflection of the one nor the vision of the other. His passions, 
 therefore, were far simpler than theirs. In Theocritus the one 
 passion is Chaucerian rather than Wordsworthian ; it is a sweet 
 delight ia natural objects, in trees and birds and flowers, brooks, 
 hUls, and the beasts that haunt them. The other is, I may say, 
 Shakespearean : a broad, a universal sympathy with humanity, but 
 particularly with peasants, in whom the native elements, the in- 
 
176 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 dividual flavor, the mother wit, the natural bent of the sentiments, 
 were yet to be found virile, healthy, and definite. It is largely 
 because of these two marked and preemiaent qualities of his genius 
 — ^besides his consummate art, which is always to be considered — 
 that he has so greatly appealed to our poets since Wordsworth. It 
 is here that he has been allied with English realism and romanti- 
 cism. Bosanquet, in his History of Esthetic, notes his relation to 
 romanticism in these words: 
 
 Nothing could be more profoundly suggestive than this [the birth of 
 pastoral poetry] of the change which was coming over the world. That 
 conscious self-assertion of individual feeling which has been called senti- 
 mental or romantic finds expression, still simple and healthy, in the 
 Theocritean Idyll. When poetic fancy is colored at once by the yearning of 
 passion, the charms of the country, the sense of a beauty in art and song, 
 and the humors of a busy and splendid town, we shall not be far wrong in 
 inferring that man is seeking nature because he already feels that he is 
 parted from it. A contrast of this kind is implied in all distinctions be- 
 tween the ancient and the modern spirit. Theocritus, indeed, is but at the 
 starting point of the long and eventful course which romanticism had before 
 it. In him there is no sense of unattainable depths and inexpressible mean- 
 ings; there is merely the trace of a new sensitiveness in the imagination 
 which indicates the germ of a new longing in the heart. . . Within a, 
 hundred years after Theocritus the first true love romance of known 
 literature was written in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius ( pp. 87-8 ) . 
 
 Mahaffy — strangely characterizing the author of the Sicilian 
 Idylls, the singer of the Song of Thyrsis and of Thalysia, 'a. pedant 
 of Alexandria' — MahafEy makes a true note of this romantic feeling 
 in Theocritus: 
 
 The reproduction in art of the simplest nature is, when successful, an 
 outcome of the moat deliberate study. So it is that the poems in all Greek 
 literature which approach nearest to romanticism are those of Theocritus, 
 a pedant of Alexandria, a courtier at the most artificial court in the world 
 {Greek Life and Thought, p. 244). 
 
 Eemembering that true saying of Leigh Hunt's, that our best 
 pastoral poems are not commonly named so by their authors, we 
 must look for the influence of Theocritus in general poetry, not 
 merely nor mataly in the pastoral species so-called. Recent nature- 
 poetry, both in England and in America, but especially in America, 
 seems to derive its chief inspiration from him. And the wildwood 
 notes are approaching nearer and nearer to the simple beauty of 
 the Idylls. 
 
CONCLUSION ly? 
 
 For the other element in the Idylls, the human, we find that its 
 appeal to the spirit of the age has not been less than that of the 
 nature-love. In the quotations from Maurice Thompson, in his 
 essay on the Poet of the Poor, this quality is taken full account of. 
 From a similar essay, entitled The Last Peasant in Oreeh Poetry 
 (by E. M. Cesaresco, Contemp. Rev., 1898, 74:576-80), a sentence 
 will indicate the writer's point of view to be the same as Thomp- 
 son's: 'He [Theocritus] was the iirst to treat the countryman as 
 a poetical personage who possesses inherent charm and interest.' 
 The writer successfully maintains the thesis that the Idylls repre- 
 sent 'an entirely new literary treatment of the peasant.' 
 
 It is these two traits in Theocritus that unite with a third, 
 presently to be mentioned, to give his poems that element of 
 modernity which so many writers have noted in them. And it is 
 by virtue of them that he can and does exert an influence upon 
 those poets who are the truest exponents of the present age. 
 
 But it is because of Theocritus's attitude toward the world, his 
 bright, cheery, optimistic outlook upon things, his turning from 
 the artificial, pampered, over-civilized life of cities and palaces to 
 the native ways and walks of primitive men, it is, in a word because 
 of his Hellenism, or, if you will, his paganism, which is naturalism, 
 that he has such an attraction for the spirits most finely touched 
 of the last one hundred years. Prom the time of Wordsworth, he 
 has been one of the most admired and most attractive of the Greek 
 poets to all Hellenists. It was a true insight that led Matthew 
 Arnold to select from him a song that should represent the pagan 
 spirit of worship. — I do not forget that Theocritus was, in a sense, 
 an Alexandrian, a resident in a great city of cosmopolitan tastes, 
 the assembly-place of all races, the university of the world. He 
 was probably never in Attica: but it was that staunchly Greek 
 colony of Corinth at Syracuse which gave him his birth and nur- 
 tured his youth. It was in the Grecian isle of Cos, in the school of 
 pastoral PhUetas, that his poetic powers were brought to maturity. 
 He came from the wooded hills and bright-flowered valleys of 
 Sicily with piping songs in his heart to Alexandria, the city of the 
 desert, and sang them there to the pedants and courtiers; but 
 pedant and courtier is not what we can imagine him as being: 
 among them but not of them: something more, however, in that 
 society than a Robert Burns in Edinburgh, for Theocritus was as 
 
178 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 learned as they. True, we may discern somewhat oriental in his 
 Idylls, somewhat non- Athenian : but a Greek of the G-reeks, a con- 
 summate Hellenist, he ever remaias. 
 
 The Westminster Review spoke of Lang's selection of Theocritus 
 for translation as a sign of the times; and this added by way of 
 explanation : 'No writer, as Mr. Matthew Arnold observes, has the 
 note of paganism more strongly than Theocritus' (see p. 119). I 
 believe both statements to be true, that the selection of Theocritus 
 for translation was a sign of the times and that in no Greek poet 
 is the note of paganism stronger. That Lang's choice of Theocritus 
 after Homer for an English version was a sign of the turning to 
 this poet is evinced by the number of essays and poems written on 
 him at about that time. They were not all in consequence of that 
 translation; several of the poems, both American and English, 
 anticipated that. Since the middle of the nineteenth century 
 particularly there was a turning to Theocritus by the most Hellen- 
 istic poets of England and America. In the first half of that 
 century we have such admirers of him as Wordsworth, Coleridge, 
 Shelley, Leigh Hunt, Milman, Alford, Landor, and Tennyson. 
 Then later we have, ia England, Matthew Arnold, Palgrave, Cal- 
 verley, Edwia Arnold, Oscar Wilde, Gosse, Dobson, Lang, Henley, 
 Symonds, Lefroy, Johnson, Zangwill, and William Morris; in 
 America, Stoddard, Stedman, Taylor, Mitchell, Egan, Thompson, 
 Burroughs, ScoUard, Sherman, Mifflin, Mrs. Fields, Mabie, Miller, 
 and Jane Minot Sedgwick. These are writers for whom things 
 Greek have an attraction. They are Hellenists, in different degrees. 
 And this is true notwithstanding the Christian mind that may also 
 be ia them. Lefroy and Egan, the one a clergyman in the Church 
 of England, the other a professor of literature in a Catholic uni- 
 versity; Milman and Alford, both deans in the Anglican church; 
 Kenyon, a minister in the Methodist church — these indicate the 
 reconcilability of an admiration for the most pagan of poets and a 
 devotion to the religion of Christ. What I have in mind in speaking 
 of the spirit of Hellenism, as it exists in these poets, is adequately 
 expressed, possibly, in a poem by one of the least known in the list 
 above given. It is entitled 'Plato in London,' and the author is 
 Lionel Johnson. After three stanzas descriptive of the scene of 
 noise and cold in the city below and the starry calm of Plato's 
 city above, the last two stanzas run thus : 
 
CONCLUSION 179 
 
 Lean from the window to the air: 
 Hear London's voice upon the night! 
 Thou hast bold converse with things rare: 
 Liook now upon another sight! 
 The calm stars, in their living skies: 
 
 And then, these surging cries, 
 
 This restless glare! 
 
 That starry music, starry fire, 
 
 High above all our noise and glare: 
 
 The image of our long desire. 
 
 The beauty, and the strength, are there. 
 
 And Plato's thought lives, true and clear, 
 
 In as august a sphere: 
 
 Perchance, far higher. 
 
 The spirit of such lines I call Hellenistic. And this is the spirit 
 which is most mighty in the sweetest singers and the most ardent 
 souls of the present day. To name these is to name, with some 
 inevitable exceptions, the lovers of 'the Siager of Persephone.' 
 
 The Saturday Review, speakiag of Lang's translation, remarks 
 that 'Theocritus is a poet who is strangely neglected now-a-days.' 
 That may have been true in 1880 : it can hardly be called true in 
 the year of the Bibliophile Edition. The same writer proceeds to 
 give a reason why he should not be neglected — a reason that will 
 help to justify this present work. It runs as follows : 
 
 He has, both directly and through his many imitators, exercised an in- 
 fluence upon modern poetry and painting the importance of which it is 
 difficult to overrate. {Sat. Bev., July, 1880.) 
 
 The Academy, March 3, 1901, speaks thus of his influence: 
 
 Theocritus is not merely a great poet, he is a source, an ancestor; a 
 whole species of poetry descends from him — ^the pastoral. His is a beloved 
 figure — perhaps the sweetest name and fame in the stern literature of 
 antiquity. 
 
 And finally, the Spectator, Oct. 2, 1880, says: 
 
 Every student of literature must wish to know something of the poet 
 whose inspiration has descended to Virgil, Clfiment Marot, Spenser, Milton, 
 Shelley, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold. ... A host of passages in 
 poetry gain added value, if recognized as allusions to Theocritus or 
 reminiscences of him. 
 
 It is because of the unquestionable truth in this last quotation, 
 in both sentences of it, that I have undertaken and performed the 
 present task. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 THE LIFE OF THEOCRITUS 
 
 The sources for the life of Theocritiis are few, meager, and unauthentic. 
 None can strictly be called original, for the brief notices that we have ap- 
 pear to be inferences from his Idylls. The following list seems to be 
 exhaustive : 
 
 1. An ancient Life, prefixed to the Idylls in some MSS. 
 
 2. Ancient Arguments to Idylls 4, 7, 11, 16 and 17. 
 
 3. Scholia on 7. 21 and 40. 
 
 4. An Epigram on His Ovm Book (probably not by Theocritus). 
 
 5. A notice in Suidaa. 
 
 C. The mention of him or allusions to him by Bion, Quintilian, Longinus, 
 Julian, and others. 
 
 The first four notices are anonymous and give but doubtful information. 
 From all these sources, and from the Idylls themselves, the following 
 may be oflfered as a convenient and approximately correct biography. 
 
 Theocritus, the son of Praxagoras and Philina, was bom in Sicily, about 
 310 B. C. His boyhood was spent in his native island where shepherd-life 
 and such scenes as he afterwards pictured in his pastorals were under his 
 observation. At about twenty years of age he is in the school of poetry 
 and criticism of Philetas, in the island of Cos. Here he remains possibly 
 about ten years, meanwhile beginning his career as an author. Idyll 7, the 
 ever charming Song of the Swrvest-Home, doubtless gives us a glimpse of 
 this period, in which he and his piping comrades sometimes masked as 
 shepherds and sang their pastorals. As for Philetas, his master, his extant 
 fragments show him to have been a pastoral poet; and Cos was, because 
 of him, a haunt of the Muses. 
 
 The years from 280 to 275, or thereabouts, — of our poet's years from 30 
 to 35 — ^were spent in his native Sicily. But, disappointed by the want of 
 recognition from Hiero (See Id. 16), he abandoned Syracuse for Alexandria 
 and the court of Ptolemy (See Id. 17), who also had been a pupil in the 
 school of Philetas. In this city, then at the height of its literary activity, 
 Theocritus remained until 270, when he returned to Cos, of pleasant 
 memories. After a period of residence there, perhaps he came back to the 
 island of his birth, there to spend his last years. But of this we have no 
 certain knowledge. 
 
 It was therefore under Hiero II. of Sicily and Ptolemy II. of Egypt — of 
 so much we are certain — that our poet, the last Greek of original and 
 creative genius, flourished. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 NOTE ON IDYLL, PASTORAL, AND ECLOGUE 
 
 A generally indiscriminate use of these terms as synonyms throughout 
 our literature, has been of such consequences as to call for a note. For to 
 this want of discrimination may largely be attributed the various per- 
 verted forms met with under these different designations. These perver- 
 sions seem to have originated from some such misconceptions and reasoning 
 as the following: — Theocritus was preeminently a pastoral poet; his poems 
 are called idylls; therefore "pastoral" and "idyll" are synonyms. The 
 fallacy is an imdistributed middle, for half of the Idylls are not pastorals. 
 Again, to his imitations of the Idylls Virgil gave the title Eclogues. 
 Hence, it was supposed that "Eclogue" meant "Mlogae" — i. e., by a fanciful 
 etymology, "song of goatherds", hence a pastoral. The non-pastoral Idylls 
 of Theocritus and the non-pastoral Eclogues of Virgil were imitated as 
 pastorals and the imitations were designated pastorals. 
 
 Because of this confusion it was common, particularly in the eighteenth 
 century, to designate any dialogue between two lovers as an eclogue or a 
 pastoral — the term idyll was less frequently used in that time. This cus- 
 tom arose from the fact that dialogue and responsive singing occur in 
 several of the pastoral Idylls of Theocritus. The present-day use of the 
 word "idyll," as meaning a poem or a poetic prose sketch dealing with 
 rural life, and "idyllic" as a synonym of "rural," is a like error to that 
 in the case of using pastoral for idyll. Half of the Idylls of Theocritus are 
 not poems of rural life. 
 
 From these misconceptions and this confusion of terms we have all the 
 incongruous types of pastorals, and eclogues, and idylls, so-called, such as, 
 the pastoral elegy, the pastoral encomium, the allegorical eclogue or 
 pastoral, the bucolic masquerade, the pastoral satire, the pastoral drama, 
 the piscatory eclogue, etc. Authority for each of these species can be found, 
 by the erroneous reasoning above noted, in the Idylls. 
 
 English dictionaries bear witness to this synonymity in the use of the 
 three words. Edward Phillips {New World of Words, 1658) thus defines 
 them: "Idyl is a kind of Eclogue, or Pastoral Poem, such as were written 
 by Theocritus, Moschus and others". "Eclogue, or Eglogue, a Pastoral 
 Poem, or speech between two shepherds". In the Gentv/ry Dictionary the 
 definitions are as follows: Idyll, "primarily a. poem descriptive of rural 
 scenes and events; a pastoral or rural poem." Eclogue, "a pastoral com- 
 position in which shepherds are introduced conversing with one another". 
 Pastoral, "a poem describing the life and manners of shepherds." 
 
 For a valuable discussion of these words, see "A Definition of the Pastoral 
 Idyll", by Martha Hale Shackford, in Publications of the Mod. Lang. Assoc, 
 of A., vol. XIX (n. s. XII), pp. 583-92. 
 
 13 
 
APPENDIX III 
 
 CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHIES 
 
 1. Complete Versions. 
 
 2. Theocritus and Virgil. 
 
 3. Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 4. Pastoral Elegy: Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion. 
 
 5. General Essays on Theocritus. 
 
 6. Theocritus and Nature. 
 
 7. Theocritus and Tennyson. 
 
 8. Theocritus and the Septuagint. 
 
 9. Reviews of Editions and Translations. 
 
 10. Histories of Greek Literature. 
 
 11. Encyclopaedias. 
 
 12. Anthologies. 
 
 13. French Essays on Theocritus. 
 
 14. Editions of Theocritus Published in England. 
 
 15. Miscellaneous. 
 
 Note. — The following work is the only attempt I know of to make any- 
 thing like an extensive bibliography of the translations of Theocritus in the 
 various languages: 
 
 GU IdilU di Teocrito Siracusano. Parte Prima: Studio critioo-bibliografico. 
 Parte Seconda: he Versioni dal greco in esametri italiani. 
 By Antonio Cippolini, Milano, Ulrico Hoepli, 1887. 
 In its bibliographical part this is an extremely unsatisfactory work. The 
 English section, meager as it is — and it does not contain u twentieth part of 
 the versions — is inaccurate in several matters, and altogether uncritical. 
 The French and Latin sections are much fuller, but are far from satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The Barrie edition (see p. 162 supra) contains a valuable, though far 
 from complete, bibliography of translations in several languages, including 
 English. 
 
 As for the following attempted classification of Theocritean literature, 
 I am quite aware of its imperfections. But, imperfect as it is, it seems to 
 me better thus than an unclassified list. It will serve two purposes, I 
 think; namely, to suggest ithe scope of topics and to facilitate the finding 
 of all the literature bearing upon any particular matter. 
 
APPENDIX 183 
 
 I. COMPLETE VERSIONS. 
 
 Note. — Abbreviations: B. for Boston, C. for Cambridge, E, for Edin- 
 burg, L. for London, 0. for Oxford, P. for Philadelphia. 
 Cbeeoh, Thomas: The Idylliums of Theocritus, with Eapin's Discourse of 
 
 Pastorals, done into English. 27 Idylls. Epigrams not translated. 
 
 O., 1684; 3rd ed. 1721. 
 
 Fawkes, Feancis: The Idylliums of Theocritus. Translated from the 
 Greek with Notes Critical and Expleunatory. 30 Idylls and 22 Epi- 
 grams. Dedication to the Honorable Charles Yorke, 'an intelligent 
 reader and admirer of Theocritus.' Preface pp. vii-xxi. Some Account 
 of the Life and Writings of Theocritus, pp. xxiii-xlii. An Essay on 
 Pastoral Poetry, by Edward Bumaby G-reene, pp. xliii-lvi. L., 1767. 
 Reprinted 1793 in Anderson's Poets of Great Britain, and 1870 in 
 Chalmers' English Poets. 
 
 PoLWHELE, Richakd: The Idyllia, Epigrams, and Fragments of Theocritus, 
 Bion, and Moschus, with the Elegies of Tyrtseus, translated from the 
 Greek into English verse. To which are added Dissertations and Notes. 
 30 Idylls and 22 Epigrams. Exeter, 1786. Other editions and re- 
 prints: 1792, 1810, 1811, 1813, 1822. 
 
 Chapman, M. J.: The Greek Pastoral Poets, Theocritus, Bion, and 
 Moschus. Done into English. 30 Idylls, 23 Epigrams, and Fragment 
 of Bernice, L., 1836. 3rd Ed. 1866. Reprinted, with the following, 
 in Bohn's Library. 
 
 Banks, J.: The Idylls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, and the War- 
 songs of Tyrtseus. Literally translated into English prose. With 
 metrical versions by M. J. Chapman. L., 1853. (Bohn's Library.) 
 
 Oalvebley, CHARtES Stoabt: Theocritus. Translated into English Verse. 
 Second edition 1883, and various re-publications. 31 Idylls, 22 Epi- 
 grams, and Fragment of Bernioe. L., 1869. An edition of 330 num- 
 bered copies, octavo, Boston, 1906. 
 
 Lang, Andrew: Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. Rendered into English 
 Prose with an Introductory Efesay. 30 Idylls, and 23 Epigrams. 
 The Dead Adonis is also rendered into metre imitating the original. 
 Mr. Lang's Essay on Theooritiis ami his Age is one of the most valuable 
 criticisms of the poet that we possess. This version has doubtless had 
 a larger influence in awakening an interest in Theocritus and in 
 spreading a knowledge of him than all other versions together. See the 
 numerous poems addressed to the poet around the date of its publi- 
 cation. L., 1880; second edition, 1889. 
 
 Hallaed, Jambs Heney: The Idylls of Theocritus. This translation 
 seems to be almost entirely unknown in America — except to the editor 
 of the Bibliophile Theocritus, who showed an appreciation of its 
 worth by adopting 17 Idylls from it — 10 more than from Oalverley, 
 who is next. E., 1894; second edition, L., 1901. 
 For reviews of these translations, see Bibliography IX. 
 
184 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 II. THEOCRITUS AND VIEGIL. 
 
 Dbtden, John: Dedication of his Translation of Virgil's Pastorals. 
 Works, vol. xii, p. 323: Virgil's method of appropriating from Theoc- 
 ritus is aptly stated. 
 
 Maktyn, John: Edition and Translation of Virgil's Eclogues. L., 1749. 
 True to eighteenth century taste, this editor gives the Roman poet 
 precedence in merit. Compare the beginning of QuardAan No. 28. 
 
 Waeton, Joseph : Dedication of his Translation of Virgil. See also Essay 
 on the Genius of Pope. 
 
 Temple Bab, Dec. 1863 (10:71-85); Feb. 1864 (10:342-53): Eorce 
 Tirgiliance (Pastoral Poetry). Valuable for its review of English 
 pastoralism adjudged by the standards of Theocritus and Virgil. 
 
 Sellab, W. Y. ; The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. 0., 1876. Vol. 1, 
 chap. 4, see. 2. Of great value. 
 
 Grosabt, Alexandeb B. i The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of 
 Edmund Spenser. Valuable for comparison of Theocritus, Virgil, and 
 Spenser: 1:102-17. 
 
 BowEN, Sib Chables: Virgil in English Verse. L. (2nd ed. ), 1889. 
 Argument to the Eclogues: Association of Theocritus with Milton, 
 Keats, and Homer. 
 
 CoNiNGTOX, John: The Works of Virgil, with a Commentary. L., 1896, 
 Vol. I, Eclogues and Georgics. Introduction, pp. 1-21. Extent of Vir- 
 gil's indebtedness, pp. 5-7. The Notes probably indicate every imitation 
 in Virgil, and are therefore exceedingly valuable in a study of Theoc- 
 ritus. 
 
 SiDQWiCK, A.; P. Vergili Maronis Opera. 2 vols. Camb. Univ. Press, 
 1890. This is the most valuable edition of Virgil for the student of 
 Theocritus. A full list of parallel passages is given vol. 1, pp. 16-19. 
 
 III. PASTORAL POETRY. 
 
 Blaib, Hugh: Lectures, No. 39. The rules which he prescribes for pas- 
 torals reveal the Virgilian taste of the time. He follows Tiekell. 
 Blair quotes the text of Theocritus. 
 
 Chambers, Edmund K. : English Pastorals, with an Introduction. L., 
 1895. This Introduction is an admirable essay on Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 Dryden, John : Preface on Translation, prefixed tO' Dryden's Second Mis- 
 cellany. 1685. ^Vorks, xii, 281-302. On Theocritus, pp. 297-8. 
 
 Dublin University Magazine, July, 1837: Greek Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 Gbeg, \V. Wilson: The Pastoral Drama on the English Stage. Comhill, 
 
 80:202 (1899). 
 - Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama. A Literary Inqury with /(^ Special 
 Reference to the Pre-Restoration Stage mi England. L., 1906. This 
 volume grew out of the foregoing essay. "The real subject of my 
 work," says the author, "remains the pastoral drama in Elizabethan 
 literature." It is the only treatise dealing at length and elaborately 
 with all aspects and topics of the subject historically. As such it is 
 of supreme value. Full justice is done to Theocritus. 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 Gr., E. B. (?). — The Works of Anacreon and Sappho, etc. L., 1768. An 
 
 Essay on Pastoral Poetry (pp. 205-224). 
 Hebfobd, C. H.: Spenser's Shepheards Calender. L. & N. Y., 1897. The 
 
 Introduction is an excellent historical essay on Pastoral Poetry. The 
 
 Notes show the full extent of Spenser's borrowings in this poem. 
 Johnson, Samuel: The Adventurer, No. 92. On Theocritus and Virgil, 
 
 BoswelVs Life, Hill's Edition, IV, 2. 
 MooBMAN, Fbedebic W. : William Browne : His Britannia's Pastorals and 
 
 the Pastoral Poetry of the Elizebetham. Age. In Quellen wnd Forsehun- 
 
 gen, Heft 81. Theocritus, pp. 115, 130, 159. 
 Reed, Beetha: The Influence of Solomon Oessner upon English Literature. 
 
 American Germanica, new series. No. 4. P., 1905. Theocritus, pp. 7, 
 
 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36, 68. 
 Reisseet, O. : Bemerhungen itber Spenser's Shepheards Calender, und die 
 
 Friihere Buholih. Anglia ix. 205-24. 
 Marks, Jeannette: English Pastoral Drama. From the Restoration to 
 
 the date of the publication of the "Lyrical Ballads'' (1660-1798). L. 
 
 (Methuen), 1908. — "The definite formation of the pastoral is found in 
 
 the work of Theocritus, in those exquisite idyls, the beauty, the fresh- 
 ness, the simplicity of which have never been excelled" (pp. 1-2). 
 Renneet, H. a.: The Spanish Pastoral Romance. (Mod. Lang. Assoc. 
 
 of Am., 1892, 7:1-119.) 
 Smith, Homee: Pastoral Influence in the English Drama. (Mod. Lang. 
 
 Assoc, of Am., 1897, 12:355-460). 
 SoMMEE, H. OsKAE : Erstcr Versuch iiber die Englische Hirtendichtung. 
 
 Marburg. Verlag von Oscar Ehrhardt's Univ-Buchhandlung, 1888. 
 
 Theocritus, pp. 13, 14, 15, 50, 52, 71. 
 Stedman, E. C. : The Nature and Elements of Poetry. B., 1900. Theoc- 
 ritus, pp. 90, 91, 179, 193. 
 
 Poets of America. B., 1885. Theocritus, pp. 89, 210, 339, 386, 423. 
 Thoendike, Ashlet H. : The Pastoral Element in the English Drama 
 
 before 1605. (Mod. Lang. Notes, April, 1899, 14:228-246). 
 TiCKELL, Thomas: The Guardian, Nos. 22, 23, 28, 30, 32. Theocritus, 
 
 28 & 32 particularly. These papers were subsequently often quoted 
 
 without acknowledgment. For example, by Blair. 
 Waeton, Joseph: A Dissertation upon Pastoral Poetry. Prefixed to 
 
 the Works of Virgil in Latin and English, in four vols. 
 Waeton, Thomas, Jb. See p. 70. 
 Windscheid, Kathaeina: Die Englische Hirtendichtung von 15119-1625. 
 
 Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Englischen Hirtendichtung. Halle. 
 
 Max Niemeyer. 1895. Theocritus, pp. 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 12, 58, 162. 
 
 IV. PASTORAL ELEGY. 
 
 Baldwin, James: The Book of Elegies. B., 1893. 
 
 Beackett, Anna C. Bion's Threnody on Adonis. Journ. Spec Phil., 
 
 5:360. In this article the honor belonging to the master is given 
 
 to the disciple. 
 
186 THEOCKITUS IN ENGLISH LITEKATUEB 
 
 Davibs, James: Bion amd Moschus. Cont. Rev. 17:349 (June, 1871). 
 
 Egan, Maukice F.: The Ohost in Hamlet and Other Essays. Chicago, 
 1906. (On Theocritus and Tennyson, pp. 246-9 & 282). Of Elegy: 
 "The Elegy of Theocritus for Daphuis has echoed ever since he called 
 on the Sicilian muses to weep with him. . . . The pedigree of the 
 English elegy is as easily traced as that of the English ode" ( p. 262 ) . 
 
 FiSHEB, C: A Triad of Elegies: Lycidas, Adonais, and Thyrsis. Temp. 
 Bar 108:388 (July, 1896). Model and origin accredited to Thieoe- 
 ritus, p. 398. 
 
 Ftjllebton, W. M. : Bion of SmA/rna. {Nin. Gen., Sep., 1890, 28:410- 
 424). A valuable essay, discussing the relation between the dis- 
 ciple and the master. 
 
 Lloyd, Maet: Elegies; Ancient and Modern. With an Introductory 
 Study of the History of Elegiac Poetry from the earliest days down 
 to the present time. Two volumes, Trenton, N. J., 1903. Theoc- 
 ritus, vol. I., pp. 32, 33, 34, 55, 121. 
 
 Roberts, Charles, G. D.: Pastoral Elegies. New Prin. Rev., May, 1880. 
 
 Trent, W. P.: Note on Elegiac Poetry. Sewanee Rev., 1:410-18 (Aug., 
 1893); Theocritus 412-3. The Greek Elegy. Sewanee Rev., 6:1-28. 
 The Roman Elegy, ibid. pp. 257-75. 
 
 Watson, E. H. Lacon: Pastorals. Westm. Rev. 142:440 (1894). 
 
 V. GENERAL ESSAYS ON THEOCRITUS. 
 
 Cesakesco, Evelyn Martinengo: The Last Peasant in Greek Poetry. 
 Gont. Rev. 74:576-80 (1898). Theocritus gives "an entirely new 
 treatment of the peasant." Compare with Thompson's Poet of the 
 Poor. Also with Greg: Theocritus had "an almost passionate sym- 
 pathy with human nature." — Pastoral Poetry, etc., p. 10. 
 
 Henley, W. E.; Views and Reviews: Essays in Appreciation. N. Y., 
 1890. 
 
 KIeble, John: De Poeticw Vi Medica. Prwlectiones Academicw. Annis 
 1832-41. Theocritus: Prael. xxi. O., 1845. 
 
 Kendall, Joshua: Father of Pastoral Poetry. Poet-Lore, 7:307-327. 
 
 Landoe, Walter Savage: Theocritus. — See Bib. 15, "Landor." This 
 essay is a masterly piece of criticism, with much discriminating 
 praise. 
 
 Lang, Andrew: See Bib. 1, "Lang." 
 
 Mabie, H. W. ; Literary Workers: Theocritus. Outlook, 55:458-461. 
 
 Macgilwbay, John; An Essay on the Greek Pastoral Poets. In the 
 Classical Journal, 1818-19, Vol. 17:74-84; 18:30-47, 280-98; 20:134-41. 
 This is one of the most thorough-going studies of the work of Theoc- 
 ritus in all its relations. Full analyses of contents precede the parts. 
 
 Nevin, W. M. : The Idylls of Theocritus. In Mercers. Rev., 11:570. 
 Earliest American Essay oo Theocritus, and second earliest transla- 
 tions. 
 
APPENDIX 187 
 
 Oltveb Yoeke (F. S. Mahonet) : The Greek Pastoral Poets — Theocritus, 
 Bion, and Moschus. With original Translations. Interspersed with 
 numerous imitations and parallel passages, Irom various poets; 
 including Chaucer, Lydgate, Tasso, Spenser, Marino, Crashaw, Dryden, 
 Akenside, Collins, and many others. Fraser's Magazine, 1835. The- 
 ocritus 12:222-241; 394-408; Bion, 12:541-550; Moschus, 13:92-104. 
 
 Thompson, Maurice: My Winter Garden. N. Y. 1900. Chapter: A 
 Poet of the Poor (Theocritus). 
 The half-dozen best essays on Theocritus are those of Landor, Lang, 
 
 Stedman, Oliver Yorke, Macgilwray, and Symonds. 
 
 VI. THEOCRITUS AND NATURE. 
 
 ~Blaekwood's Edinburgh Magazine, April, 1839 (50:536). 
 Chs^bt, John Vance: 'Nature-Love Among the Poets of Ancient Greece. 
 
 New Eng. Mag., Apr. 1903, (28^15-7). 
 Cope, E. M. ; The Taste for the Picturesque Among the Greeks. Cambridge 
 
 Essays, 1856. Theocritus, p. 141. 
 Dupp, M. E. Geant: Sicily. Oxford Essays, 1857. Theocritus, p. 81. 
 
 Allusion to the foregoing essay. 
 Haee, Augtjsttjs J. C. Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily. L., 1883. 
 
 Theocritus, p. 382. 
 Hakeison, Feedeeic: The New Calendar of Great Men. L., & N. Y. 
 
 Theocritus: Previous Greek poets, with the exception of Hesiod, had 
 
 been interested chiefly in action and character; the beauties of 
 
 Nature appear but seldom in their poems: Theocritus completely 
 
 changed this point of view, and made the rustic frame-work the chief 
 
 attraction in his pictures. — Francis 8. Marvin. 
 Iewin, Thomas: Dreams During Reading Rambles : Theocritus. Dub. 
 
 Univ. Mag. (1865) 66: 224. 
 Knox, A. A.; The Italy of Thucydides and Theocritus. Ninteenth Cent. 
 
 (1882) 11:56. 
 LoEiMEE, NoEMA: By the Waters of Sicily. N. Y., 1891. On /Etna. 
 
 New York, 1904. In both books Theocritus enters frequently. They 
 
 are valuable as giving illustrations of the Idylls from preaent-day 
 
 scenes. See especially pages 9, 41, 128-9, & 151. 
 Macmillan's Magazine: Theocritus in Sicily. 56:213-17 (1887). 
 Melantee (R. D. Blackmoee) : Sicilian Hours {Dub. Univ. Mag., Aug., 
 
 1855). 
 Palgeave, Francis Ttjenee: Landscape in Poetry from Homer to Ten- 
 nyson. L., & N. Y., 1897. Theocritus, pp. 26-8. 
 Raymond, Alfred E. P. : A Summer in Sicily. Am. Oath. Quart. Rev. 
 
 July, 1900 (25:477-96). Theocritus, p. 480. 
 Shaibp, J. C: The Poetic Interpretation of Nature. New York, 1877. 
 
 Theocritus, pp. 119, 159, 160. 
 Shaep, William: The Land of Theocritus. Harp. Mag. Apr., 1903 (106; 
 
 802-10). 
 
188 THEOCEITtrS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEE 
 
 Sladen, Douglas: Sicily the New Winter Resort. L., 1905. "The Gar- 
 den of Theocritus," p. 48. 
 Veitch, John: The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry. 2 vols. B. 
 
 6 L., 1887. Theocritus, vol. 1. pp. 27, 29. 
 
 VII. THEOCRITUS AND TENNYSON. 
 
 Anthologia Qrwca. Francis St. John Thackeray. 1867. 
 
 The Idylls and Epigrams of Theocritus. Herbert Snow. 1869. 
 
 Victorian Poets. E. C. Stedman. 1876. 
 
 A New Study of Tennyson. Cornhill, Jan., and July, 1880. J. C. Collins. 
 
 Illustrations of Tennyson. Collins. 1891. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. Andrew Lang. 1901. 
 
 Classical Echoes in Tennyson. Wilfried P. Mustard. 1904. 
 
 VIII. THEOCRITUS AND THE SEPTUAGINT. 
 
 FtTLLEBTON, WiLUAM MoETON : Theocritus with Special Reference to 
 his Supposed Obligation to the Septuagint. Unit. Rev., 26:28-42. 
 (July, 1886). 
 
 Mahabtt, J. P.: Oreelc Life and Thought, vol. I. p. 417, n.: 'a question 
 of great literary importance.' 
 
 MOTTLTON, R. G. : The Literary Study of the Bible, Boston, 1895: Chapp. 
 
 7 & 8. Theocritus, p. 195. 
 
 For full lists of parallels between Theocritus and the Song of Songs, see 
 Macgilwray, and Oliver Yorke, in Bibliography V., and Fullerton above. 
 See also J. Langhorne, Bibliography XV., and Polwhele's Dissertations. 
 Polwhele renders the Epithalamvum of Helen literally in prose to reveal 
 its oriental characters. 
 
 IX. REVIEWS. 
 
 The appearance of an English edition or translation of Theocritus was 
 commonly the occasion of essays on the poet himself in the leading 
 journals of criticism. These, in the main, exhibit on the part of the 
 writer a knowledge of the text and an appreciation of the poetry of the 
 Idylls. They therefore constitute a not unimportant department of Theoc- 
 ritean literature. The references following are in chronological order. 
 On Fawkes's Translation: Mon. Rev., Sep., 1767 (27:206-17). 
 On Polwhele's Tbanslation: Grit. Rev., May, 1787 (63:355-62). 
 On Elton's Tbanslation: Gent. Mag., May, 1815 (85:417-20). 
 On Chapman's Translation: Athenceum, March, 26, 1836. Gent. Mag., 
 
 7 n.8. 75. Dui. Urviv. Mag., July, 1837. Mont. Rev., April, 1836 
 
 (1 n.s.:696-7). New. Mont. Mag., 48:241-2. Edin. Rev, July, 1836; 
 
 Eraser's Mag., 13:600-7. 
 On Ringvi^ood's Edition: Dub. XJrdv. Mag, May, 1846 (27:627) — (By 
 
 A. P. Gbaves). 
 On Palet's Edition: The Sat. Rev., Oct. 10, 1863. 
 
APPENDIX 189 
 
 On Calveelet's Teanslation: Gontem. Rev., Oct., 1869 — (By James 
 Davies.) Sat. Rev., June 12, 1869. 
 
 On Lang's Tbanslation: Brit. Quart. Rev., Oct., 1880 (72:512-3). Lon. 
 Quart. Rev., Jan., 1881 (55:490-02). Sat. Rev., July 24, 1880. Spec- 
 tator, Oct. 2, 1880. West. Rev., Oct., 1880 (58:587). Contem. Rev., 
 Nov., 1880 — (By James Davies). 
 
 On Hallaed's Translation: Academy, March 2, 1901 (Sec. Ed.). 
 
 AtherUBum, July 27, 1901. Outlook (London), June 18, 1898. Sat. Rev., 
 
 May 19, 1894. Speaker, May 19, 1894. 
 On Cholmelet's Edition: AtJienwum,, Oct. 5, 1901. 
 On Wilamowitz-Moellendoeff's Edition: Am. Journ. of Phil., 27:336. 
 
 X. HISTORIES OF GREEK LITERATURE. 
 
 Aenold, Edwin: The Poets of Greece. L., 1869. Theocritus: pp. 171 flF. 
 A high tribute to Theocritus by an excellent translator of his Idylls. 
 
 Blackwell, Anthony: Introduction to the Classics. 1718. 6th Ed. 
 L., 1746. 
 
 Capps, Edwaed: From Homer to Theocritus. N. Y., 1901. Theocritus 
 and his Age, Chap. 18. The entire first Idyll in Calverley's trans- 
 lation and the dialogue portion of the fifteenth in Lang's are quoted. 
 'Theocritus represents a revolt from art to nature' (p. 446). 
 
 Kennbt, Basil: The Lives and Characters of the Ancient Grecian Poets. 
 L., 1697. Theocritus: 142-157. The earliest life of Theocritus in 
 English. 
 
 Lawton, William Ceanston: Introduction to Classical Greek Literature. 
 N. Y., 1903. Theocritus always an artist, p. 358. 
 
 Mahafft, J. P.: Greek Life and Thought. L. & N. Y., 1887. Theocri- 
 tus a life-long court-poet and an AleKaildrian pedant (pp. 224, 281) 
 yet possesses a universality and truth to nature — a realism — such 
 as belongs to no other poet. Romanticism in the Idylls. Romantic 
 novel (p. 279). 
 
 History of Classical Greek Literature. 2 vols. N. Y., 1880. Theoc- 
 ritus.— 1, 5, 7, 15, 119, 152, 185, 202, 306, 375, 378, 401, 407, 411-20. 
 
 Mt'LLEB, K. 0. : A History of the Literature of Anicent Greece. Trans- 
 lated by Sir George Cornewall Lewis and Dr. Jolin William Donald- 
 son. 3 vols. L., 1840. Theocritus: Vol. II, pp. 449-462. 
 
 Mxjbbat, Gilbebt: a History of Ancient Greek Literature. N. Y., 1897. 
 Theocritus, pp. 883-5. Valuable. 
 
 Symonds, John Addington: Studies of the Greek Poets. N. Y. and L. 
 Vol. II., chap. 20: The Idyllists. pp. 260-300. An Essay of great 
 value. 
 
 14 
 
190 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 XI. ENCYCLOPEDIAS. 
 
 Chambers' Bnoyclopwdia. — Art. 'Theocritus.' By John Maaaon. Com- 
 parison with Keats and Burns. The power of Theocritus is seen in 
 his influence over other poets. 
 
 Encyclopwdia Britannioa. — Art. 'Pastoral.' By Edmund Gosse. 
 
 Johnson's Universal Cyolopmdia. — Art. 'Theocritus.' By Basil L. Gilder- 
 sleeve. A brief Essay ©very word of which carries great weight. 
 Theocritus's Art, realism, dialect. 
 
 The New International Encyolopcedia. — Art. 'Theocritus.' Anon.: Mar- 
 velous power of Theocritus in uniting popular and artistic elements. 
 
 XII. ANTHOLOGIES. 
 
 Appleton, William Hyde: Greek Poets in English Verse. By various 
 translators. B., 1893. Theocritus, pp. 272-286, Idd. 1.29-63; (Edwin 
 Arnold) 11.7-64 (Mrs. Browning); 15 (Hunt); 28 (Creech). 
 
 Bibelot, The, vol. 3 (1897): Three Greek Idyllists. Contains of Theoc- 
 ritus Id. 1, Calverley; Idd. 2 and 19, Lang; Id. 11, Hunt; Id. 15, M. 
 Arnold. 
 
 Bland, Robebt: Collections from the Greek Anthology. London, 1813. 
 (See p. 129 and Merivale following.) 
 
 Dole, Nathan Haskell: The Greek Poets. An Anthology. Theocritus: 
 pp. 298-322. N. Y., 1904. Contains 25 of Lefroy's Sonnets; Id. 11, 
 by Mrs. Browning; Id. 2, by Edwin Arnold; and some Epigrams. 
 
 Elton, Charles Abraham: Specimens of the Classic Poets, in a chrono- 
 logical series from Homer to Tryphiodorus, translated into English 
 verse, and illustrated with biographical and critical notices. 3 vols. 
 L., 1814. Theocritus; v. I. pp. 241-267. Idd. 3, 15, 18, and 23 and 
 Ep. 4. (See pp. 129-30). 
 
 Habbottle, T. B.: Dictionary of Quotations (Classical). Theocritus 35 
 quotations. N. Y. & L., 1897. 
 
 Jennings, G. H., and Johnsone, W. S. : Ealf-Bours with Greek amd 
 Latin Authors. N. Y., 1882. Theocritus, pp. 18-25. Idd. 15 and 21, 
 in Chapman's translation. 
 
 Mackail, J. W. : Theocritus; in Library of the World's Best Literature 
 (Same in Macm. Mag. 76:108). Besides the Essay, there are Idylls 
 1, 2, 7, 10, & 15, by Lang. Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology. 
 Four from Theocritus, i. e., 1, 5, 9, 13, in prose, by Mackail. 
 
 Merivale, J. H. . Collections from the Greek Anthology. By the late 
 Eev. Robert Bland, and Others. A New Edition, by J. H. Merivale. 
 L., 1833. 
 
 Mills, Abraham: The Poets and the Poetry of the Ancient Greeks; with 
 an historical introduction, etc. B., 1854. Theocritus: pp. 164-179. 
 
 Peter, William: Specimens of the Poets of Greece and Rome. P., 1847. 
 Theocritus, pp. 210-29. Idd. 1, 2, 13, 14 (partial), 15 ft 17, by 
 Fawkes; 3 and 18, by Dryden; 16 (partial), by Polwhele; 11, by J. 
 H. Merivale; 22 & 25, by Chapman; 24 (partial), by Hunt; Epp. 1, 2, 
 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16 & 21. 
 
APPENDIX 191 
 
 Ramaqe, C. T. ; Beautiful Thoughts from Greek Authors, with English 
 translations. N. Y., 1905. Theocritus, pp. 487-99. 
 
 Wbiqht, J. H. : Masterpieces of Greek Literature. B., 1902. Idd. 1 and 
 7 by Calverley; Id. 15 by Arnold. 
 
 XIII. FRENCH ESSAYS. 
 
 Some French essays have been so often alluded to, quoted, and accepted 
 
 as authority by English writers, that it is appropriate to include them 
 
 in this bibliography. 
 
 Rapin: Discourse on Pastoral Poetry. Translated by Creech, 1684, and 
 prefixed to his version of the Idylls. 
 
 FoNTENELLE: Discours sur la Nature de L'Eglogue. Paris, 1688. Au- 
 thority to Pope and to 18th century pastoralists generally. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve : Portraits Literaires. Nouvelle Edition, Paris, 1864. 
 Theocritus (1844) vol. iii. pp. 3-44. This is one of the best essays 
 that have been written on Theocritus. It ranks with Landor's, Lang's 
 and Symonds's in English. 
 
 CouAT, AuQTJSTE: La Poesie Alexandrine. Paris, 1882. Theocritus, pp. 
 391-444. This essay is scarcely less valuable than Sainte-Beuve's. 
 
 Legband, Philippe E. ; Mude sur Thiocrite. Fontemoing. Paris, 1898. 
 This is the most comprehensive and thorough essay on Theocritus in 
 any language. 
 
 XIV. EDITIONS OF THEOCRITUS PULISHED IN ENGLAND. 
 (In chronological order) 
 
 WlNTEETON, R. ; Greek and Latin. C, 1635. 
 
 Fell, John: Greek. O., 1676. 
 
 Stlvancs, G.: Greek and Latin. L. 1683. 
 
 West, R.: Greek. O. 1699. 
 
 Anontmotjs. ; Greek and Latin. L. 1729. 
 
 Wood, T.: Greek and Latin. L. 1743. 
 
 FouLis, R. & A. Greek and Latin. Glasgow. 1746. 
 
 Waeton, Thomas: Greek. 0. 1770. 
 
 Gaisfobd, T.: Greek. 0. 1814. 
 
 Beiggs, Thomas: Greek and Latin. C. 1821. 
 
 Valpey, a. J. : Greek and Latin. L. 1826. 
 
 HicKlE, D. B. : Sixteen Select Idyls of Theocritus. With English Explana- 
 tory Notes. For the use of Schools. L. 1839. 
 
 Woedswobth, C: Greek. C. 1844. 
 
 RiNGWOOD, F. H.: Greek (Idd. 2, 14, 15, 21) Dublin, 1846. 
 
 Snow, (KYNAaTOW) Hebbeet.: The Idylls and Epigrams commonly at- 
 tributed to Theocritus. With English Notes. 0. 1886. 3rd Edition, 
 1877; 5th 1892. 
 
 Palet, F. a.: Greek. C. 1869. 
 
192 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Cholmeley, R. J.: Greek with English notes and introduction. L., 1901. 
 
 WiLAMOwiTz-MoELLENDOBFP, Udalricus de: Bucolici Graeci. Oxonii e 
 Typographeo Clarendoniano. (In this edition the arrangement of 
 the Idylls that has been traditional since the time of Stephanus is set 
 aside and an arrangement based upon the groupings in the earliest 
 collections is made to take the place of it. The following work by 
 the same scholar is a. companion volume. Both are reviewed in The 
 Amer. Jour, of Phil., 27:336-41). 
 
 Die Textgesohichte der Oriechischen Bukoliker. Berlin, Weidmannsche 
 Buchhandlung, 1906. 
 
 ( American. ) 
 
 Metcalf, Henet Aiken : The Idylls and Epigrams of Theocritus, Bion and 
 Moschus. 3 vols. Edited by Henry Aiken Metcalf, with an introduc- 
 tion by William Lawton. B., 1905. Issued by the Bibliophile Society 
 for members only. Greek and English on opposite pages. Supple- 
 mentary versions of various idylls in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, 
 Italian, and German. The edition is limited to 477 copies. Contents: 
 I. Theocritus: Idylls 1 — ^xiv. II. Theocritus: Idylls xv — xxx and 
 epigrams. III. Bion. Moschus. Supplementary versions of Theoc- 
 ritus. 
 
 XV. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 To keep from swelling this list unnecessarily, I have omitted from it 
 many books and single poems mentioned in the text — books when the ques- 
 tion of edition was immaterial, and poems when they might readily be 
 found in the general works of their authors or in collections. There are 
 included here many books that might have been placed in the special 
 lists; I have generally been determined by the importance of the work. 
 A considerable number of authors are cited here also whose references 
 to Theocritus were not deemed of sufficient importance to warrant their 
 being quoted in their place in the text. 
 AiNGEB, Alfeed: Crahhe [English Men of Letters Series]. L., 1903. 
 
 Theocritus, p. 51. 
 Akenside, Maek: Odes on Several Subjects. L., 1745. 
 Alfoed, Henbt: Chapters on the Poets of Ancient Greece. L., 1841. 
 Aenold, Josiah Lyndon: Poems. Providence, 1797. 
 AscHAM, Roger: The Scholemaster. Edited with notes by John E. B. 
 
 Major. L., 1863. 
 Beebs, Henet A.: A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth 
 
 Century. 1899. Theocritus, pp. 85-6. 
 Behn, Mbs. Aphea: Miscellany : Being a Collection of Poems iy Several 
 
 Hands. L., 1685. 
 Bethune, Db. : Preface to Walton's Complete Angler. L., 1847. Quotes 
 
 from Idyll 21, p. xiii. 
 BiGELow, Andeew: Travels in Malta and Sicily in 1821. B., 1831. 
 
 Theocritus, pp. 196, 332. 
 
APPENDIX 193 
 
 Blackie, John Stuaet: Homer and the Iliad. On the fltiiess of Scots 
 
 for translating the Doric Idylls, vol. I, p. 384. 
 BoDENHEiM, J.: England's Helicon (1600). This is a treasure-house of 
 
 pastoral lyrics and ballads in Elizabeith's time. 
 Bosanqtjet, Bernard: A History of Esthetic. Theocritus, pp. 87-8. 
 Bowles, William Lisle: Poetical Worhs. By George GilftUan. 2 vols. 
 
 E., 1855. 
 Bhadshaw,. T. : A Paraphrase of the Third Idyll; see p. 44. 
 Browne, Moses : Piscatory Eclogues: An essay to introduce new rules 
 
 and new characters into pastoral. To which is prefixed a discourse 
 
 in defence of this undertaking. With practical and philosophical 
 
 notes. L., 1729. 
 Browning, Mrs. E. B. : Letters. By Frederick G. Kenyon. 2 vols. N. 
 
 Y. & L., 1897. 
 Buchanan Robert: Complete Poetical Works. 2 vols. L., 1901. Poly- 
 
 pheme's Passion, v. I. p. 43. 
 Burns, Eobert: Centenary Edition. By Henley and Henderson. Poem on 
 
 Pastoral Poetry, v. iv. p. 50. Note, pp. 105-6. 
 Burroughs, John: Pepacton. B., 1881. 
 
 Locusts and Wild Honey. B., 1879. 
 Burton, Richard: Memorial Day and Other Poems. B., 1897. 
 Burton, Robert: The Anatomy of Melamcholy. By Democritus Junior. 
 
 O., 1638. 
 Byron, George GtOEdon: Works. Ed. Prothero. L., 1899. Reply to 
 
 Blackwood's, vol. 4 of Letters and Journals. 
 Churchill, Charles: The Prophecy of Famine. A Scots Pastoral. L., 
 
 1763. 
 Clough, Arthur Hugh, A Monograph. By Samuel Waddmgton. L., 1883. 
 
 The Theocritean character of The Bothie of Tahernavuolic : A Long 
 
 Vacation Pastoral. See also Kingsley'a Review in Eraser's, Jan., 1849, 
 
 pp. 107-8. 
 Coleridge. E.; Memovr and Letters of (Mrs.) Sara Coleridge. Edited by 
 
 Daughter (E. Coleridge) 2 vols. 3rd Ed. L., 1873. Theocritus 
 
 mentioned II. 353. 
 Coleridge, H. N. : Introductions to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets. 
 
 L., 1830. B., 1842. Theocritus's method of handling mythology — 
 
 like Homer's, p. 21. 
 Collier, J. Payne: A Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest 
 
 Books in the English Language. Alphabetically arranged. 4 vols. 
 
 N. Y., 1866. 
 Cook, Albert S. : The Art of Poetry. B., 1892 ; see index under 'Pastoral' 
 
 and 'Theocritus.' 
 Coukthope, William J.: Life in Poetry: Law in Taste. Theocritus, 
 
 pp. 97, 358. 
 Ceoley, George: Poetical Works. 2 vols., L., 1930. Theocritus, vol. I. 
 
 p. 343. 
 
194 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Dalzel, Andrew: 'AvaXexTa "EAAijnKa fiU^ova, si«« Collectance Orceca Ma- 
 jom, 1st ed., E., 1797, 4th. American ed., C, Mass., 1824. 
 
 DiBDiN, Thomas F. : The Library Companion; or, the Young Man's Guide 
 and the Old Man's Comfort, in th» Choice of a Library. L., 1824. 
 First after Homer and Hesiod, Didbin names Theocritus. 'Theocritus 
 [he writes] claims an early, and should receive a lasting attention.' 
 The values of the different editions for the bibliophile are then dis- 
 cussed (p. 620). An troduction to the knowledge of Rare a/itd Valu- 
 able Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, etc. L., 1803. Theoc- 
 ritus, vol. II. pp. 481-96. 
 
 DoBSON, Austin : Poems. 2 vols. L., 1889. 
 
 DoDD, William: Poems. L., 1767. 
 
 Hymns of Callimachus. L., 1755. 
 
 Dtj Bois, Edwaed: The Wreath; Composed of Selections from Sappho, 
 Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. Accompanied by prose translation, 
 with notes. L., 1799. 
 
 DupuT, Elizabeth: The Queen's Quire: Being a Book of Songs, Sonnets, 
 and Ballads. Dedicate to Cytherea. St. Louis, 1892. 
 
 Egan, Maueioe F. : Preludes. P., 1880. 
 
 Erasmus, Desidebius; Adagia. For list of Theocritean quotations, see 
 Jacobs' Theocritus, pp. LXI-II. 
 
 Fields, Annie: Under the Olive. B., 1880. 
 
 The Singing Shepherd. B., 1895. 
 
 Fitz-Geeald, M. p.: The Crowned Hippolytus of Euripides, together with 
 a, Selection from the Pastoral and Lyric Poets of Greece. Translated 
 into English Verse. L., 1867. Translations from Theocritus, pp. 
 77-170. 
 
 Fletchee, Phineas: Poems. By A. B. Grosart. 4 vols. 1869. 
 
 Gabcilaso de la Vega, see Ticknor: History Span. Lit. Vol. 1, p. 490. 
 
 Gaenett, Richabd: The Battaile of Agincourt ly Michael Drayton: with 
 Introduction and Notes. L., 1893. 
 
 Gay, John: Poetical Works. With a Life and Notes by John Underbill. 
 2 vols. L., & N. Y., 1893. 
 
 Gessner, Solomon: Schriften. Drei Bunden. Reutlingen, 1775. 
 
 Gildon, Chables: The Complete Art of Poetry. 2 vols. L., 1718. Vol. 
 1., Pt. iii. of the Manner, Rules, and Art of Composing Epigrams, 
 Pastorals, Odes, etc. 
 
 Gladstone, William Ewabt: The Time and Place of Homer. N. Y., 
 1876. Theocritus's personification of places, p. 105. 
 
 Gray, Thomas : Works. Ed. Edmund Gosse. 4 vols. N. Y., 1885. Theoc- 
 ritus, IL 112 <fc 147. 
 
 Gbebne, Robert: Life and Complete Works in Prose and Verse. 15 
 vols. Huth Library. 1881-86. 
 
 Gummeee, F. B.: Handbook of Poetics. B., 1892. Theocritus, p. 80. 
 Beginnings of Poetry. Theocritus, pp. 406, 418. 
 
 Hallam, Heney: Introduction to the Literature of Europe. L., 1839. 
 
 Theocritus, vol. ii, 5.4. 
 Hameeton, p. G. : The Sylvan Year. B., 1876. 
 
APPENDIX 195 
 
 Headlam, Walter: A Book of Greek Verse. Cambridge Univ. Press 
 
 and Putnam's, N. Y., 1907. 
 Henley, W. E.; Views and Reviews. N. Y., 1890. 
 HoTLAND, Francis: Poems. In Park's Poets, vol. 5. 
 Hughes, Jabez: Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. L., 1737. Theocritus: 
 
 Idyllium xx. p. 55. 
 Hunt, Leigh: Foliage, or Poems original and translated. L. & P., 1818. 
 
 Poetical Works. L., 1832. A Jar of Honey. L., 1848. 
 Jeffrey, Francis: Essays. 4 vols. L., 1844. Iheooritus, v. iii. 103, 106. 
 Jenneb, Charles: Totvn Eclogues. L., 1772. 
 
 Johnson, Lionel: Poems. L. and B., 1895. 'The Classics,' p. 105. 
 Johnson, EoBEaiT Undeewood: The Winter Hour and Other Poems, 1892. 
 
 Poems, 2nd Ed., 1908. N. Y. 
 JONSON, Ben: Tvrnber; or Discoveries Made upon Men & Matter. Ed. 
 
 Felix E. Sehelling. B., 1892. 
 Kenton, James B.; In Realms of Gold. N. Y., 1887. 
 Kinqslet, Charles: Aleccandria and Her Schools. Four Lectures 
 
 delivered at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburg, Feb., 1854. 
 
 Theocritus Lect. II. 
 Landob, Walter Savage: The Idyls of Theocritus. In For. Qua/rt. Rev. 
 
 Oct. 1842 (30:161). Works, vol. x. 173-196. 'To Theocritus in 
 
 Egypt,' in Heroic Idylls, 1863. 'On Gtesner's Idyls,' Ibid. 
 Lang, Andrew: The Mimes of Herondas. (Contemp. Rev., Dec. 1891.) 
 
 Herondas' indebtedness to Theocritus is especially noted. 
 Letters to Dead Authors. N. Y., 1886. 
 Langhorne, J.: Poetical Works of William Collins. L., 1765. In The 
 
 Observations by Langhorne on the Oriental Eclogues it is argued that 
 
 Theocritus borrowed from the Septuagint. 
 Lawton, William Cranston: Folia Dispersa. N. Y., 1895. 
 Lefbot, Edward Cracroft: Echoes from Theocritus and Other Sonnets. 
 
 L., 1885. Most of the Theoeritean sonnets are reprinted in Dole's 
 
 Greek Poets, and all of them in The Bibelot, vol. 4. 
 Lloyd, Egbert: Poetical Works. Ed. W. Kenrick. 2 vols. L., 1774, 
 
 'Chit-Chat,' 1:182-95. 
 Lodge, Thomas: Complete Works. Hunterian Club, 1883. 
 McCarthy, Justin Huntly: Harlequinde. L., 1890. 
 Maokail, J. W. : Lov^s Looking Glass; A Volume of Poems. L., 1891. 
 
 Mackail, J. W.: H. C. Beeching, & J. B. B. Nichols. 
 Mifflin, Lloyd: At the Gates of Song. B., 1897. Echoes of Greek Idyls. 
 
 B., 1899. The Fields of Dawn and Later Sonnets. B., 1900. Cas- 
 
 talian Days. L. and N. Y., 1903. 
 Milnes, Richard Monckton : Memorials of a Tour in some parts of Greece. 
 
 L., 1834. Theocritus, p. 140, n. 
 MnxEB, Maeion Mills: The 8icilia/n Idyls of Theocritus. (Idd. i-xiii.) 
 
 B., 1900. 
 Milton, John: Poetical Works. Ed. David Masson. Editor's notes on 
 
 'Lycidas' and 'Epitaphium Damonis,' vol. 1. 
 
196 THEOCRITUS IN" ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Mitchell, D. G.: Wet Days at Edgewood. N. Y., 1865. 
 
 Montagu, Lady Mart Woetlet: Works including her Correspondence, 
 Poems and Essays. Published, by permission, from her genuine 
 papers. 5 vols. L., 1803. Theocritus: Letter to Mr. Pope. Vol. 
 2. p. 138. 
 
 Mtebs, Ebnest: Gathered Poems, 1904. 
 
 Naibn, J. ABBBtlTHNOT: The Mimes of Herodas, Edited with introduction, 
 critical notes, etc. O., 1904. Illuminating comments on Idylls 2, 14, 
 and 15 as mimes are found pp. XXIV-XXV of Introduction. The 
 artistic and poetic advance of Theocritus is remarked. In him is real- 
 ism still, but realism seen through the medium of an exquisitely 
 idealizing art. "These three pieces thus show the same return to 
 nature as the bucolic poems; but in neither class of them is Theoc- 
 ritus wholly true to nature. He has added to each a delicacy and re- 
 finement of treatment and a beauty of expression all his own. We 
 forget the sensuality of Simaitha, the brutality of Aischines, the hot 
 temper of Praxinoa in the pleasures which the poetry gives us." Fur- 
 ther comparisons between the two poets are made pp. XXXVI-XXXIX. 
 For an earlier comparison, see "The Mimes of Herondas," by Andrew 
 Lang. Cant. Rev., Dec, 1891, supra. "His first Mime," writes Mr. 
 Lang, "is, in parts, almost a plagiarism from the opening of the 
 Adoniazousce. — For parallels between the Mimes and the Idylls, see 
 Kynaston, Clas Rev., vol. 6, pp. 85fl^. — Herodas and Theocritus were con- 
 temporaries, and the former resided in Cos, as the latter also did 
 for a time. 
 
 Newbeeby, John : The Art of English Poetry on a Neto Plan. Illustrated 
 with a great variety of examples from the best English poets and of 
 translations from the Ancients, with Reflections, etc. 2 vols. L., 
 1762. V. I. c. xi; Of the Pastoral. 
 
 NoBTH, S. N. D. ; "Old Oreek": A Memoir of Edward North. New York, 
 1905. 
 
 Osgood, Charles Gbosvenoe: The Classical Mythology of Milton's 
 English Poems. (Yale Studies in English, viii). N. Y., 1890. Theoc- 
 ritus, pp. xlii & xliv. 
 
 Page, Thomas Nelson: The Coast of Bohemia. N. Y., 1906. 
 
 Palgeave, Francis Turner: Idyls and Songs. (1848-54). L., 1854. 
 Visions of England [containing A Dorset Idyl]. L., 1881. 
 
 Paton, W. A.; Picturesque Sicily. N. Y., 1898. 
 
 Paul, Herbert W.: Matthew Arnold. N. Y. & L., 1902. 
 Men and Letters. N. Y. & L., 1902. 
 
 Pinkehton, John (Pseud. Robert Heron) : Letters of Literature. L., 1785. 
 
 Pope, Alexander; Works, with Notes and Illustrations by himself and 
 others. Ed. William Roscoe. 10 vols. L., 1824. Pastorals and Dis- 
 course in vol 11. 
 
 PuTTENiiAM, George: The Arte of English Poesie (1589). Arber's 
 Reprint. L., 1895. 
 
APPENDIX 197 
 
 Robinson, A. Mabt F.: An Italian Garden: A Book of Songs. Port- 
 land, (Me.) 1897. 
 
 Si. DE Miranda: see Bouterwek: Hist. Span. Lit. (Trans, by Eoss) 
 p. 148. 
 
 ScoLLARD, Clinton: Pictures in Song, N. Y., 1884. With Reed and 
 Lyre. B., 1886. Songs of Sunrise. B., 1892. Eills of Song. B., 
 1895. 
 
 Sedgwick, Jane Minot: Sicilian Idyls and other Verses. B., 1898. Love 
 Songs of the Qreeh. L., 1903: The Sleep of Daphnis, p. 103. 
 
 Sheehan, John: Bently Ballads (1846). L., 1869. Langhorne's 'Theo- 
 critus,' p. 251. 
 
 Sheehan, John: Translations in Temple Ba/r, 32:256; 33:312; 41:401-9. 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe: Defense of Poetry. Cook's edition. N. Y., 
 1891. Theocritus, pp. 21-3. 
 
 Sheridan, A Biography. By W. Fraaer Rae. N. Y., 1896. 
 
 Sherman, Frank Dempster: Lyrics for a Lute. B., 1890. Lyrics of 
 Joy. B., 1904. 
 
 Shebbubne, Sib Edward: Poems and Tramslations. 1651. Chalmers' 
 Poets. 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip: An Apologie for Poetrie (1583). Ed. E. Rhys, in 
 Lit. Pamphlets, 1897, vol. 1. Arcadia. Ed. H. O. Sommer. L., 1891. 
 
 Sicce Idillia, see p. 40. 
 
 Smith, R. B. : Bird Life and Bird Love. L., 1905. Theocritus quoted, 
 p. 400. 
 
 Stedman, Edmund Clarence: Poetical Works. B., 1874. See also Bib. 7. 
 
 Stockard, Henry Jerome: Sonnet: 'Theocritus,' The Independent (New 
 York) Deo. 9, 1897. 
 
 Stoddard, R. H. : Poems, Complete Edition. N. Y. 1880. 
 
 Story, William Wetmobe: Excursions in Art and Letters. B., 1891. 
 Theocritus's Theology, monotheistic, p. 206. 
 
 SuTPHEN, Morris C. : Magic in Theocritus and Virgil. (In "Studies in 
 Honor of Basil L. Gildersleeve;" Johns Hopkins Press, 1902). A val- 
 uable essay for its reference to Egyptian literature. 
 
 Swinburne, Algernon Charles: Poems. 6 vols. On Lander's Anniver- 
 sa/ry v. iii. p. 7. 
 
 Tayloe, Bayard: Home Pastorals. B., 1875. 
 
 Thompson, Maurice: Poems. B., 1892. See also Bib. 5. 
 
 Thompson, William: Poems. In Anderson's Poets and Park's Poets. 
 
 Warner, Charles Dudley: A Boundahout Journey. B., 1884. 
 
 Warton, Thomas Jr.: Odes. L., 1777. 
 
 WabtOn, Thomas, Sr. : Poems on Several Occasions. L., 1748. 
 
 Warton, Joseph: Essay on tlie Genius and Writings of Pope. Theocri- 
 tus, pp. 1-18. 
 
198 THEOOEITUS IN ENGLISH LITEEATUEE 
 
 Watson, Thomas: The 'EKaTo/Ajraflia, or Passionate Centurie of Love (e. 
 1581). Reprinted from the orig. ed. for the Spenser Society. L., 
 1869. 
 
 Webbe, William: A Discourse of English Poetrie (1586). Arbor's Re- 
 print. L., 1895. 
 
 Whalet, John: A Collection of Original Poems and Translations. L., 
 1745. 
 
 Wilde, Oscae: Poems. B., 1881. 'Theocritus.' [A Villanelle] p. 146. 
 
 Zangwill, Israel: Blind Children. 1903. 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS 
 
 Note. — The letter b with a number 
 
 in which an author is to be found. 
 
 Addison, Joseph. 61-2. 
 
 ^schylus, 96, 147. 
 
 Ahrens, H. L. VII. 
 
 Aiken, John. 48-9. 
 
 Ainger, Alfred. bl5. 
 
 Akenside, Mark. 67, 90, bl.i. 
 
 Aleaeus. 67. 
 
 Alford, Henry. 39, 94, 105-6, bl5, 
 115. 
 
 Anacreon, 2, 12, 25, 39, 43, 67, 70, 
 97, 98, et freq. 
 
 ApoUonius Ehodius. 176. 
 
 Appleton, W. H. bl2. 
 
 Aratus. 12, 42. 
 
 Ariosto. 42, 93. 
 
 Arnold, Edwin. 125, 163, blO. 
 
 Arnold, Josiah Lyndon, 142, bl5. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew. 9, 94, 107, 177, 
 178, 179, 119-21, 159, 103. 
 
 Ascham, Roger. 13. 
 
 Bacon, Francis. 37-8. 
 
 Baldwin, James. 39, 158, b4. 
 
 Banks, J. 111-2, 150, bl. (Sec Da- 
 vies, James ) . 
 
 Barnfield, Richard. 24. 
 
 Barrie, George, 162, 182. 
 
 Barton, Bernard. 97. 
 
 Seattle, James. 88. 
 
 Beaumont, Sir George. 85n. 
 
 Beeching, H. C. 135. 
 
 Beers, Henry A. bl5. 
 
 Behn, Aphra. 46, bl5. 
 
 Benson, A. C. 139. 
 
 Bethume, . bl5. 
 
 Bigelow, Andrew. bl5. 
 
 Bion. 10, 33, 39, 82, 96, 108, 148, 
 159, 163. 
 
 Blackie, John Stuart. 173, bl5. 
 
 Blacklock, Thomas. 69, 78, 97. 
 
 Blackmore, R. D. 3, 112-3, 133, b6. 
 
 Blackwell, Anthony. blO. 
 
 Blair, Hugh. 84, b3. 
 
 Bland, Robert. bl2, 90. 
 
 following indicates the bibliography 
 
 Bloomfield, Robert. 7, 97. 
 
 Boccaccio. 16. 
 
 Bodenheim, J. bl5. 
 
 Boileau. 63. 
 
 Bosanquet, Bernard. 176, bl5. 
 
 Boucher. 145. 
 
 Bowen, Sir Charles. b2. 
 
 Bowles, William. 45. 
 
 Bowles, William Lisle. 6, 84-6, bl5. 
 
 Brackett, Anna C. 39, b4. 
 
 Bradshaw, T. 30-1, bl5. 
 
 Breton, Nicholas. 24. 
 
 Briggs, Thomas. bl4. 
 
 Browne, Moses. 36, bl5. 
 
 Browne, Sir Thomas. 43. 
 
 Browne, William. 34. 
 
 Browning, Elizabeth B. 108-9, 163, 
 
 bl5. 
 Bryskett, Lodowick. 19-20. 
 Buchanan, Robert. 119, bl5. 
 BuUen, A. H. 28. 
 Burns, Robert. 64, 81, 86, 88, 99, 
 
 137, 154, 159, 161, 172, 177, bl5. 
 Burroughs, John. 3, 151, 172, bl5. 
 Burton, Richard. 160, bl5. 
 Burton, Robert. 37, 38, bl5. 
 Butler, Samuel. 21. 
 Byron, G«orge Gordon. 78, 96-7, 
 
 bl5. 
 Callimachus. 12, 71. 
 Calpurnius. 10. 
 Calverley, Charles Stuart. 123-4, 
 
 162, 163, 173, 174, bl. 
 Campbell, Thomas. 63. 
 Capps, Edward. blO. 
 Carthay, C. 65. 
 Catullus. 10. 
 Cesaresco, E. M. 177, b5. 
 Chambers, E. K. b3. 
 Chapman, M. J. 100, 101-3, 174, bl. 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey. 7, 21, 159. 
 Cheney, John Vance. 159, b6. 
 Cholmeley, R. J. bl4. 
 
200 
 
 THEOCRITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Churchill, Charles. 73-4, bl5. 
 Cippolini, Antonio. 182. 
 Clough, Arthur H. bl5. 
 Coleridge, H. N. bl5. 
 Coleridge, S. T. 5, 6, 67, 84, 90. 
 Coleridge, Sara. bl5. 
 Collier, J. Payne. 28, bl5. 
 Collins, John Ohurton. 116-7, b7. 
 Collins, William. 102, 144. 
 Combe, WilUam. 61. 
 Congreve, William. 46. 
 Conington, John. b2. 
 Cook, Albert S. bl5. 
 Cope, E. M. b6. 
 Courthope, W. J. bl5. 
 Couat, Auguste. bl3. 
 Cowley, Abraham. 42-3. 
 Crabbe, George. 63, 104, 160. 
 Creech, Thomas. 14, 44, 45, 75, 172, 
 
 bl. 
 Croley, George. 98, bl5. 
 Cunningham, Allan. 99. 
 Dalzel, Andrew. 4, bl5. 
 Dante. 142. 
 Davies, James. 123-4, 128-9, b4. 
 
 (See also Banks, J.) 
 Denham, Sir John. 43. 
 DeQuinoey, Thomas. 103. 
 Dibdin, Thomas F. bl5. 
 Didot. 4. 
 
 Dillon, Wentworth (Eoscoe). 45. 
 Dobson, Austin. 132-3, bl5. 
 Dodd, William. 71, bl5. 
 Dole, Nathan Haskell. 134, 163, 
 
 bl2. 
 
 Drake, . 100. 
 
 Drayton, Michael. 7, 23, 33. 
 Dryden, John. 21, 45-6, 144, 16H, 
 
 172. 
 Du Bellay. 14. 
 
 Du Bois, Edward. 87, 111, bl5. 
 Duff, M. E. Grant. b6. 
 Duke, E. 45. 
 
 Dupuy, Elizabeth. 157, bl5. 
 Dyer, Sir Edmund. 28-9. 
 Egan, Maurice F. 117, 149-50, bb4. 
 Eliot, George. 122-3, 140. 
 
 Elton, Charles Abraham. 91, 100, 
 
 145, bl2. 
 Emerson, E,. W. 156. 
 Eobanus, Hessus. 13. 
 Erasmus. 13, bl5. 
 Erskine, Andrew. 60. 
 Euripides. 9, 12, 37, 108, 145. 
 Fawkes, Francis. 44, 47, 71, 73, 
 
 75-6, 77, 81, 100, 143, 162, bl. 
 Fell, John. bl4. 
 Felton, C. C. 145-6. 
 Fielding, Henry. 67. 
 Fields, Annie. 151, bl5. 
 Fisher, C. b4. 
 Fitz-Gerald, Maurice P. 123, 163, 
 
 bl5. 
 Fleming, Abraham. 2. 
 Fletcher, John. 32, 94. 
 Fletcher, Phineas. 34-6. 
 Fontenelle. 11, 55, bl3. 
 Foulis, E. & A. bl4. 
 Fullerton, W. M. 39, 154-5, bb4, 8. 
 Gaisford, I. bl4. 
 Garcilaso de la Vega. 10, bl5. 
 Garnett, Eichard. 23-4, 28, bl5. 
 Gay, John. 5, 57-9, 60, 73, 77, 173, 
 
 bl5. 
 Gessner, Solomon. 8, 11, 48, 63, 72, 
 
 78, 89, 151, 172, bl5. 
 Gildersleeve, Basil L. 159, bll. 
 Gildon, Charles. 16, 63, bl5. 
 Gilfillan, George. 84. 
 Gladstone, W. E. bl5. 
 Goethe. 160. 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver. 77, 88. 
 Gosse, Edmund. 21-2, 28, 126-8, 
 
 bll. 
 Granville, George (Lord Lands- 
 do wne ) 46. 
 Graves, Alfred P. 104. 
 Gray, Thomas. 67, 83, bl5. 
 Greene, Robert. 26, 36, bl5. 
 Greg, W. W. lOn, 31n, b3. 
 Greville, E. 68. 
 Grosart, A. B. 22, 28, b2. 
 Grotius. 100. 
 Gu6rin, Maurice de. 149. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 201 
 
 Hales, John W. 96. 
 
 Halhed, N. B. 77, bl5. 
 
 Hall, Joseph. 36. 
 
 Hallam, Henry. 21, bl5. 
 
 Hallard, J. H. 136, 137-8, 163, 173, 
 
 175, bl. 
 Hamerton, P. G. 125-6, bl5. 
 Harbottle, T. B. bl2. 
 Hare, A. J. C. b6. 
 Harrison, Frederic. 124, 129, b6. 
 Harte, Bret. 7. 
 Hay, William. 100. 
 Head, Sir Edmund. 122. 
 Headlam, Walter. 139, bl5. 
 Henley, W. E. 129, bl5. 
 Herford, C. H. 22, b3. 
 Herodas. (See Nairn.) 
 Herrick, Robert. 25, 43, 152. 
 Hesiod. 13, 15, 42, 43, 76. 
 Hickie, D. B. 5, 104. 
 Hogg, James. 63. 
 
 Holden, . 100. • 
 
 Homer. 2, 8, 12, 15, 76, 118, 144, 
 
 147, et freq. 
 Horace. 2, 9, 10, 148, et freq. 
 Howitt, William. 104. 
 Hoyland, Francis. 70. 
 Hughes, Jabez. 65, bl5. 
 Hunt, Leigh. 16, 22, 64, 92-3, 100, 
 
 163, 176, bl5. 
 Ik Marvel. (See Mitchell, D. G.) 
 Irwin, Eyles. 102. 
 Irwin, Thomas. 121-2, b6. 
 Isaiah. 102. 
 Jago, Richard. 60. 
 JeflFrey, Francis. 93-4, bl5. 
 Jenner, Charles. 60, bl5. 
 Jennings, G. H. bl2. 
 Johnson, Lionel. 135, 178-9, bl5. 
 Johnson, R. U. 158, bl5. 
 Johnson, Samuel. 6, 51, 79-80, b3. 
 Jones, Sir William. 73. 
 Jonson, Ben. 5, 23, 33-4, 94, bl5. 
 Jowett, Benjamin. 114. 
 'J. T. B.' 103. 
 Jusserand. 26n. 
 Keats, John. 93-4, 104, 152, 153, 156. 
 
 Keble, John. 107-8, b5. 
 Kendall, Joshua. 154, b5. 
 Kennett, Basil. 46-7, b5. 
 Kenyon, James B. 155, bl5. 
 Kingsley, Charles. 112, bl5. 
 Kirke, Edward. 4, 16-22. 
 ICnox, A. A. b6. 
 Lamb, Charles. 87. 
 Landor, Walter Savage. 106-7, 134, 
 
 173, bb5, 15. 
 Lang, Andrew. 39, 107, 117, 128- 
 
 30, 142, 151, 162, 163, 178, bb5, 
 
 7 & 15. 
 Langhorne, C. H. 109-10. 
 Langhorne, J. 102, bl5. 
 Lawton, W. C. 158, 163, 164, bbl4, 
 
 15. 
 Lefroy, Edward Cracroft. 133-4, 
 
 162, 163, bl5. 
 Legrand, Philippe E. bl3. 
 Leonidas. 120. 
 Lewissohn, Ludwig. 164-5. 
 Lloyd, Mary. 39, b4. 
 Lloyd, Robert. 67, 74-5, bl5. 
 Lodge, Thomas. 25, 26, 72, bl5. 
 Longinus. 14. 
 Longus. 10. 
 Lorimer, Norma. b6. 
 Lowell, James Russell. 2, 141, 
 
 143-5. 
 Lyttelton, George ( Baron ) . 65-6. 
 Mabie, H. W. 159, b5. 
 McCarthy, Justin H. 124, bl5. 
 Macaulay, T. B. 42, 62, 113. 
 Macgilwray, John. 91, 103, b5. 
 Mackail, J. W. 135, bl2. 
 Maerobius. 13. 
 
 MahaflFey, J. P. 103, 176, blO. 
 Mahoney, F. S. 3, 67, 76, 100, 103. 
 
 b5. 
 Manilius. 14. 
 
 Mantuan. 16, 17, 36, 46, 55, 74. 
 Marks, Jeanette. 31n, b3. 
 Marot, Clement. 11, 16, 179, 256. 
 Marston, Westland. 84. 
 Martyn, John. b2. 
 Marvin, Frances F. b6. 
 
202 
 
 THEOCEITUS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 Mason, William. 68. 
 Masson, John. 40, bll. 
 Meaulle. 163. 
 
 Melanter. (See Blaokmore.) 
 Meres, Francis. 16. 
 Merivate, J. H. 91, bl2. 
 Merivale, Charles. 91. 
 Metcalf, Henry A. 163-4, bl4. 
 Mifflin, Loyd. 134, 161-2, bl5. 
 Miller, Marion Mills. 162, bl5. 
 Mills, Abraham. bl2. 
 Milman, H. H. 59, 98, 255. 
 Milnes, Richard Monokton. bl5. 
 Milton, John. 19, 39-42, 88, 159, 
 
 179, bl5. 
 Mitchell, D. G. 3, 145, bl5. 
 Moir, David Macbeth. 110-11. 
 Montagu, Mary Wortley. 61, bl5. 
 Montemayor. 25. 
 Moore, Thomas. 97-8. 
 Moorman, F. W. b3. 
 Morley, John. 118. 
 Morris, William. 130. 
 Moschus. 1, 10, 39, 41, 71, 82, 94, 
 
 96, 125, 159, 163. 
 Moulton, R. 6. b8. 
 Muller, K. 0. blO. 
 Munkittrick, R. K. 142n. 
 Murchey, Karl Eugene. 164. 
 Murray, Gilbert. 159, blO. 
 Mustard, W. P. 116-7, b7. 
 Myers, Ernest. 138-9. 
 Nairn, J. Arbuthnot. bl5. 
 Nash, Thomas. 36. 
 Nemesianus. 10. 
 Nevin, W. M. 142-3, b5. 
 Newberry, John. 16, 73, bl5. 
 North, Christopher (See Wilson, 
 
 John) . 
 North, Edward. 4, 146, bl5. 
 Omar. 156. 
 
 Osgood, Charles Grosvenor. 42, bl5. 
 Ovid. 9, 10, 103, 152. 
 Padleford, Frederick M. 3 In. 
 Page, Thomas Nelson. 165, bl5. 
 Paley, F. A. 121, bl4. 
 Palgrave, Francis Turner. 114, 118, 
 
 bb6, 15. 
 
 Paradise, Caroline Wilder, 150. 
 
 Parnell, Thomas. 62. 
 
 Paton, William, Agnew. 160-1, bl5. 
 
 Pattison, William. 65. 
 
 Paul, Herbert W. 118, 120-1, bl5. 
 
 Peacham, Henry. 37. 
 
 Peter, William. bl2. 
 
 Petrarch. 16. 
 
 Philetas. 161, 177. 
 
 Philips, Ambrose. 50-4, 60, 63, 80, 
 
 173. 
 Phillips, Edward. 181. 
 Pindar. 2, 9, 12, 40, 43, 70, 106, 
 
 108, 118, 147. 
 Pinkerton, John. 76-7, bl5. 
 Plato. 178. 
 Polwhele, Richard. 44, 67, 68, 75, 
 
 81-4, 100, 111, 162, 172, bl. 
 Pope, Alexander. 50, 51-6, 61, 62, 
 
 73, 88-9, bl5. 
 Puttenham, George. 16, bl5. 
 Quintilian. 13, 14. 
 Ramage, C. T. bl2. 
 Ramsay, Allan. 63-4, 99. 
 Rapin. bl3. 
 Raymond, A. E. P. b6. 
 Reed, Bertha. b3. 
 Reissert, 0. 63, b3. 
 Randall, Mt. Vernon. 111. 
 Rennert, H. A. b3. 
 Ringwood, F. H. 104, bl4. 
 Roberts, Charles G. D. 39, b4. 
 Robinson, A. Mary F. 136, bl5. 
 Rossetti, Christina. 134. 
 Ruskin, John. 104. 
 Sfl de Miranda, Francisco. 11. 
 Sainte-Beuve. bl3. 
 Sannazaro. 10, 11, 15, 16, 18, 25, 
 
 35. 
 Sappho. 2, 12, 39, 67, 171. 
 Sealiger. 14. 
 
 Scollard, Clinton. 3, 94, 152-4, bl5. 
 Scott, James. 72-3. 
 Scott, John. 78. 
 
 Sedgwick, Jane Minot. 161, 163, bl5. 
 Sellar, W. Y. b2. 
 Severn, Walter. 111. 
 Shairp, J. C. b6. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 303 
 
 Shackford, M. H. 181. 
 Shakespeare, William. 2, 5, 7, 31-2, 
 
 144. 
 Sharp, William. h6. 
 Sheehan, John. 110, 124-5, bl5. 
 Shelley, P. B. 3, 16, 94-6, 109, 159, 
 
 175, 179, bl5. 
 Shenstone, William. 68, 98. 
 Sherburne, Sir Edward. 42, bl5. 
 Sheridan, E. B. 77, bl5. 
 Sherman, Frank Dempster. 94, 156, 
 
 bl5. 
 Sidgwick, A. b2. 
 Sidney, Sir Philip. 4, 15, 19, 26-7, 
 
 144, bl5. 
 Simonides. 39. 
 Skelton, John. 2, 13. 
 Sladen, Douglas. b6. 
 Smith, Homer. b3. 
 Smith, E. B. bl5. 
 
 Snow (Kynaston), Herbert. 115, 
 
 123, 163, bbl, 14. 
 Soame, William. 44. 
 Solomon. . 102. 
 Sommer, H. 0. b3. 
 Sophocles. 118, 135, 157. 
 Sotheby, William. 85n, 86-7. 
 Southey, Robert. 86. 
 Spencer, William. 85n. 
 Spenser, Edmund. 4, 11, 15, 16, 16- 
 
 22, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 173, 174, 179. 
 Stedman, E. C. 2, 3, 4n, 110, 114-7, 
 
 136, 144-5, 146-7, 163, bb5, 7, and 
 
 15. 
 Stockard, H. J. 160, bl5. 
 Stoddard, E. H. 2, 143, bl5. 
 Story, W. W. 157, bl5. 
 Sutphen, Morris C. bl5. 
 Swift, Jonathan. 60. 
 Swinburne, A. C. 134-5, 143, bl5. 
 Sylvanus, G. bl4. 
 Symonds, J. A. 115, 125, 134, 136, 
 
 160, 163, b5. 
 Taylor, Bayard. 2, 148, bl5. 
 Teniers. 145. 
 Tennyson, Alfred. 2, 9, 105-6, 113-8, 
 
 145, 159, 160, 179, b7. 
 
 Terence. 77. 
 
 Thackeray, Francis St. John. 115, b7. 
 
 Theocritus, passim. 
 
 Thompson, Maurice. 3, 155-6, 162, 
 
 177, bb5, 15. 
 Thompson, William. 74, bl5. 
 Thomson, James, ix, 88, 110-11. 
 Thorndike, Ashley E. b3. 
 Tickell, Thomas. 57, b3. 
 Titian. 112. 
 Todhunter, John. 137. 
 Trent. W. P. 160, b4. 
 Valpy, A. J. bl4. 
 Veitch, John. b6. 
 Vida. 14. 
 Virgil, passim. 
 Waller, Edmund. 44. 
 Walsh, William. 49-50, 56. 
 Walton, Izaak. 36. 
 Warner, C. D. 152, bl5. 
 Warton, Joseph, ix, 56-7, 70, 84, 
 
 bb2, 3, 15. 
 Warton, Thomas, Jr. 70-1, bb3, 14, 15. 
 Warton, Thomas, Sr. 70. 
 Watson, E. H. L. 63, b4. 
 Wataon, Thomas. 22, 25, 72, bl5. 
 Watson, William. 136. 
 Watteau. 129, 145. 
 Webbe, William. 15, bl5. 
 W. E. T. {?). 98. 
 Whaley, John. 67, bl5. 
 Whittier, J. G. 141, 145. 
 Wilamowitz - Mijllendorif, U 1 r i c h 
 
 von. bl4. 
 Wilde, Oscar. 3, 130-1, bl5. 
 Wilkie, William. 76-7. 
 Wilson, John. 3, 21, 99-100. 
 Winterton, E. bl4. 
 Windscheid, Katharina. bl5. 
 Wodhull, Michael. 72. 
 Wood, T. bl4. 
 Woodberry, George E. 7. 
 Wordsworth, C. bl4. 
 Wordsworth, William. 5, 6, 63, 85, 
 
 87-90, 100, 117, 151, 160, 175, 176, 
 
 177. 
 Yorke, Oliver. (See Mahoney). 
 Zangwill, Israel. 138, 197, bl5. 
 

 
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