There saw I St. John, sweet of mien.
Full steadfast both to Church and Queen.
With whose fair name I'll deck my strain,
St. John, right courteous to the swain.

For thus he told me on a day,
Trim are thy sonnets, gentle Gay,
And certes, mirth it were to see
Thy joyous madrigals twice three,
With preface meet and notes profound.
Imprinted fair, and well y-bound.
All suddenly then home I sped,
And did ev'n as my Lord had said.

It was not Bolingbroke who inspired the pastorals, though he accepted
the dedication. The true history of the origin of "The Shepherd's Week"
is well set out by Mr. Underhill. "These pastorals, it should be
explained, were written at the instigation of Pope," he has written.
"The sixth volume of Tonson's 'Miscellany' had concluded with Pope's
Pastorals and begun with those of Ambrose Philips. A few years after its
publication a writer in the _Guardian_[1] (probably Tickell[2])
discussed the Pastoral in a series of papers, and gave the most
extravagant praise to Philips. 'Theocritus,' he remarked, 'left his
dominions to Virgil; Virgil left his to his son Spenser; and Spenser was
succeeded by his eldest born, Philips.' Pope was not mentioned, and he
set himself to redress the injustice by a device of characteristic
subtlety. He wrote a sixth paper, in which he continued to illustrate
the true principles of pastoral poetry from Philips' practice, but in
such a way as to show the judicious reader by the examples given either