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.
Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines upon his original: and in all
points where judgment is principally concerned, he is much superior to
his master.
Though some of his subjects are not pastoral in themselves, but only
seem to be such, they have a wonderful variety in them, which the Greek
was a stranger to. He exceeds him in regularity and brevity, and falls
short of him in nothing but simplicity and propriety of style; the first
of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the last of his language.
Among the moderns, their success has been greatest who have most
endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The most considerable
genius appears in the famous Tasso, and our Spenser. Tasso in his
'Aminta' has as far excelled all the pastoral writers, as in his
'Gierusalemme' he has outdone the epic poets of his country. But as this
piece seems to have been the original of a new sort of poem--the
pastoral comedy--in Italy, it cannot so well be considered as a copy of
the ancients.
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