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PREFATORY ESSAY ON ELEGY.

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Tis obfervable, that discourses prefixed to poetry are contrived very frequently to inculcate fuch tenets as may exhibit the performance to the greateft advantage. The fabric is very commonly raised in the first place, and the meatures, by which we are to judge of its merit, are afterwards adjusted.

There have been few rules given us by the critics concerning the ftructure of elegiar poetry; and far be it from the author of the following trifles to dignify his own opinions with that denomination. He would only intimate the great variety of fubje&s, and the different ftyles in which the writers of elegy have hitherto indulged themselves, and en-, deavour to fhield the following ones by the latitude of their example.

*

If we confider the etymology of the word, the epithet which † Horace gives it, or the confeffion which‡ Ovid makes concerning it, 1 think we may conclude thus much however; that elegy, inits true and genuine acceptation, includes a tender and querulous idea: that it looks upon this as its peculiar characteristic, and fo long as this is thoroughly fuftained, admits of a variety of fubjects; which, by its manner of treating them, it renders its own. It throws its melancholy ftole over pretty different objects; which, like the dreffes at a funeral proceflion, gives them all a kind of folemn and uniform

appearance.

-Ay, particulam dolendi.

"Miferabiles elegos."

"Heu nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit."

Hor.

OVID. de Morte Tibulli

It is probable that elegies were written at firft upon the death of intimate friends and near relations; celebrated beauties, or favourite miftreffes; beneficent governors and illuftrious men one may add perhaps, of all thofe, who are placed by Virgil in the laurel-grove of his Elyfium. (See Hurd's Differtation on Horace's Epiftle.)

Quique fui memores alios fecere merendo."

After thefe fubjects were fufficiently exhaufted, and the feverity of fate displayed in the moft affecting inftances, the poets fought occafion to vary their complaints; and the next tender fpecies of forrow that prefented itself, was the grief of abfent or neglected lovers. And this indulgence might be indeed allowed them; but with this they were not contented. They had obtained a small corner in the province of love, and they took advantage, from thence, to over-run the whole territory. They fung its fpoils, triumphs, ovations, and rejoicings*, as well as the captivity and exequies that attended it. They gave the name of elegy to their pleasantries as well as lamentations; till at laft, through their abundant fondness for the myrtle, they forgot that the cypress was their peculiar garland.

In this it is probable they deviated from the original defign of elegy; and it should feem, that any kind of fubjects, treated in such a manner as to diffufe a pleafing melancholy, might far better deferve the name, than the facetious mirth and libertine feftivity of the fuccefsful votaries of love.

But not to dwell too long upon an opinion which may feem perhaps introduced to favour the following performance, it may not be improper to examine into the use and end of elegy. The most important end of all poetry is to encourage virtue. Epic and tragedy chiefly recommend the public virtues; elegy is of a fpecies which illuftrates and endears the private. There is a truly virtuous pleasure connected with many penfive contemplations, which it is the province and excellency of elegy to enforce. This, by prefenting fuitable ideas, has difcovered fweets in melancholy which we could not find in wirth; and has led us with fuccefs to the dufty urn, when we could draw no pleasure from the fparkling bowl; as paftoral conveys an idea of fimplicity and innocence, it is in particular the tafk and merit of elegy to fhew the innocence and fimplicity of rural life to advantage: and that, in a way diftinct from paftoral, as much as the plain but judicious landlord may be imagined to furpass his tenant both in dignity and underflanding. It fhould alfo tend to elevate the more tranquil virtues of humility, difinterestedness, Simplicity, and innocence: but then there is a degree of elegance and refinement, no way inconfiftent with thefe rural virtues; and that raises elegy above that merum rus, that unpolifbed rufticity, which has given our pafloral writers their higheft reputation.

Wealth and splendor will never want their proper weight: the danger is, left they fhould too much preponderate. A kind of poetry therefore which throws its chief influence into the other fcale, that magnifies the fweets of liberty and independence, that endears the honeft delights of love and friendship, that celebrates the glory of a good name after death, that ridicules the futile arrogance of birth, that recommends the innocent amufement of letters, and infenfibly prepares the mind for that humanity it inculcates, fuch a kind of poetry may chance to pleafe; and if it pleafe, fhould feem to be of fervice.

As to the flyle of elegy, it may be well enough determined from what has gone before. It fhould imitate the voice and language of grief, or if a metaphor of drefs be more agreeable, it should be fimple and diffufe, and flowing as a mourner's veil. A verfi-y fication therefore is defirable, which, by indulging a free and unconstrained expreffion, may admit of that fimplicity which elegy requires.

Heroic metre, with alternate rhyme, feems well enough adapted to this fpecies of poetry; and, however exceptionable upon other occafions, its inconveniencies appear to lofe their weight in fhorter elegies: and its advantages feem to acquire an additional im

portance. The world has an admirable example of its beauty in a collection of elegies not long fince published; the product of a gentleman of the most exact tafte, and whofe untimely death merits all the tears that elegy can fhed.

It is not impoffible that fome may think this metre too lax and profaic: others, that even a more diffolute variety of numbers may have fuperior advantages. And, in favour of thefe laft, might be produced the example of Milton in his Lycidas, together with one or two recent and beautiful imitations of his verfification in that monody. But this kind of argument, I am apt to think, muft prove too much; fince the writers I have in view feem capable enough of recommending any metre they fhall chufe; though it must be owned alfo, that the choice they make of any, is at the fame time the ftrongeft prefumption in its favour.

Perhaps it may be no great difficulty to compromife the difpute. There is no one kind of metre that is diftinguished by rhymes, but is liable to fome objection or other. Heroic verfe, where every fecond line is terminated by a rhyme, (with which the judgment requires that the fenfe fhould in fome measure alfo terminate) is apt to render the expreffion either fcanty or conftrained. And this is fometimes obfervable in the writings of a poet lately deceased; though I believe no one ever threw fo much fenfe togéther with fo much eafe into a couplet as Mr. Pope. But, as an air of constraint too often accompanies this metre, it feems by no means proper for a writer of elegy.

The previous rhyme in Milton's Lycidas is very frequently placed at fuch a distance from the following, that it is often dropt by the memory (much better employed in attending to the fentiment) before it be brought to join its partner: and this feems to be the greatest objection to that kind of verfification. But then the peculiar ease and variety it admits of, are no doubt fufficient to overbalance the objection, and to give it the preference to any other, in an elegy of length.

The chief exception to which fltanza of all kinds is liable, is, that it breaks the fenfe too regularly, when it is continued through a long poem. And this may be perhaps the fault of Mr. Waller's excellent panegyric. But if this fault be lefs difcernible in imaller compofitions, as I fuppofe it is, I flatter myself, that the advantages I have before mentioned refulting from alternate rhyme (with which ftanza is, I think, connected) may, at leaft in horter elegies, be allowed to outweigh its imperfections.

I fhall fay but little of the different kinds of elegy. The melancholy of a lover is different, no doubt, from what we feel on other mixed occafions. The mind in which love and grief at once predominate, is foftened to an excefs. Love-elegy therefore is more negligent of order and defign, and being addreffed chiefly to the ladies, requires little more than tenderness and perfpicuity. Elegies, that are formed upon promifcuous incidents, and addreffed to the world in general, inculcate fome fort of moral, and admit a different degree of reafoning, thought, and ardour.

The author of the following elegies entered on his subjects occafionally, as particular incidents in life fuggefled, or difpofitions of mind recommended them to his choice. If he defcribes a rural landskip, or unfolds the train of fentiments it infpired, he fairly drew his picture from the fpot; and felt very fenfibly the affection he communicates. If he fpeaks of his humble fhed, his flocks and his fleeces, he does not counterfeit the scene; who having (whether through choice or neceffity, is not material) retired betimes to country-folitudes, and fought his happiness in rural employments, has a right to confider himself as a real fhepherd. The flocks, the meadows, and the grottos, are his wn, and the embellishment of his farm his fole amusement. As the fentiments therefore were infpired by nature, and that in the earlier part of his life, he hopes they will retain a natural appearance: diffufing at least fome part of that amusement, which he freely acknowledges he received from the compofition of them.

There will appear perhaps a real inconfiftency in the moral tenor of the feveral elegies; and the fubfequent ones may fometimes feem a recantation of the preceding. The reader will scarcely impute this to overfight; but will allow, that men's opinions as well as tempers vary; that, neither public nor private, active nor fpeculative life, are unexceptionably happy, and confequently that any change of opinion concerning them may afford an additional beauty to poetry, as it gives us a more striking reprefentation of life.

If the author has hazarded, throughout, the use of English or modern allufions, he hopes it will not be imputed to an entire ignorance, or to the leaft difefteem, of the ancient learning. He has kept the ancient plan and method in his eye, though he builds his edifice with the materials of his own nation. In other words, through a fondness for his native country, he has made ufe of the flowers it produced, though, in order to exhibit them to the greater advantage, he has endeavoured to weave his garland by the best model he could find: with what fuccefs, beyond his own amusement, must be left to judges lefs partial to him than either his acquaintance or his friends.-If any of thofe fhould be fo candid, as to approve the variety of fubjects he has chofen, and the tenderness of fentiment he has endeavoured to imprefs, he begs the metre alfo may not be too fuddenly condemned. The public ear, habituated of late to a quicker measure, may perhaps confider this as heavy and languid; but an objection of that kind may gradually lofe its force, if this measure should be allowed to fuit the nature of elegy.

If it should happen to be confidered as an object with others, that there is too much of a moral caft diffused through the whole; it is replied, that he endeavoured to animate the poetry fo far as not to render this objection too obvious; or to rifque excluding the fashionable reader: at the fame time never deviating from a fixed principle, that poetry without morality is but the bloom of a fruit-tree. Poetry is indeed like that fpecies of plants, which may bear at once both fruits and bloffoms; and the tree is by no means in perfection without the former, however it may be embellished by the flowers which furround it.

E LEGI E S,

EL EGY I

He arrives at his retirement in the country, and takes occafion to expatiate in praise of fimplicity. Toa FRIEND.

OR rural virtues, and for native skies,
I bade Augufta's venal fons farewell;
Now 'mid the trees, I fee my smoke arise;
Now hear the fountains bubbling round my cell.

O may that genius, which fecures my reft,

Preferve this villa for a friend that's dear!
Ne'er may my vintage glad the fordid breaft;

Ne'er tinge the lip that dares be unfincere!
Far from these paths, ye faithlefs friends, depart!
Fly my plain board, abhor my hostile name!
Hence the faint verse that flows not from the heart,
But mourns in labour'd strains, the price of fame!

O lov'd fimplicity, be thine the prize!
Affiduous art correct her page in vain!
His be the palm who, guiltlefs of difguife,
Contemns the power, the dull refource to feign!

Still may the mourner, lavish of his tears

For lucre's venal meed, invite my scorn!
Still may the bard dissembling doubts and fears,
For praife, for flattery fighing, figh forlorn!
Soft as the line of love-fick Hammond flows,
'Twas his fond heart effus'd the melting theme;
Ah! never could Aonia's hill disclose

So fair a fountain, or so lov'd a stream.
Ye lovelefs bards intent with artful pains
To form a figh, or to contrive a tear!
Forego your Pindus, and on - plains
Survey Camilla's charms, and grow fincero.