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De Carmine Pastorali (1684) by René Rapin
page 40 of 69 (57%)
Another qualification and excellence of _Pastoral_ is to imitate
_Timanthes's_ Art, of whom _Pliny_ writes thus; _Timanthes was very
Ingenious, in all his peices more was to be understood than the
Colours express'd, and tho his Art was very extraordinary yet his
Fancy exceeded it_: In this _Virgil_ is peculiarly happy, but others,
especially raw unexperienced Writers, if they are to describe a
Rainbow, or a River, pour out their whole stock, and are unable to
contain: Now 'tis properly requisite to a Pastoral that there should
be a great deal coucht in a few words, and every thing it says should
be so short, and so close, as if its chiefest excellence was to be
spareing in Expression: such is that of _Virgil_;

These Fields and Corn shall a Barbarian share?
See the Effects of all our Civil War.

How short is that? how concise? and yet how full of sense in the same
_Eclogue_.

I wonder'd why all thy complaints were made,
Absent was _Tityrus_:

And the like you may every where meet with, as

_Mopsus_ weds _Nisa_, what may'nt Lovers hope?

and in the second _Eclogue_,

{40} Whom dost thou fly ah frantick! oft the Woods
Hold Gods, and _Paris_ equal to the Gods.

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