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De Carmine Pastorali (1684) by René Rapin
page 43 of 69 (62%)
words.

The third Grace of _Bucolicks_ is _Neatness_, which contains all the
taking prettiness and sweetness of Expression, and whatsoever is
call'd the Delicacies of the more delightful and pleasing _Muses_:
This the Rural _Muses_ bestow'd on _Virgil_, as _Horace_ in the tenth
_Satyr_ of his first Book says,

And _Virgils_ happy Muse in Eclogues plays,
soft and facetious;

Which _Fabius_ takes to signify the most taking neatness and most
exquisite Elegance imaginable: For thus he explains this place, in
which he agrees with _Tully_, who in his _Third Book de Oratore_,
says, the _Atticks_ are Facetious _i.e._ elegant: Tho the common
Interpreters of these words are not of the same mind: But if by
_Facetious Horace_ had meant _jesting_, and such as is design'd to
make men laugh, and apply'd that to _Virgil_, nothing {43} could have
been more ridiculous; 'tis the design of _Comedy_ to raise laughter,
but _Eclogue_ should only delight, and charm by its takeing
_prettiness_: All ravishing _Delicacies_ of Thought, all sweetness of
Expression, all that Salt from which _Venus_, as the Poets Fable,
rose; are so essential to this kind of _Poetry_, that it cannot endure
any thing that is scurillous, malitiously biteing, or ridiculous:
There must be nothing in it but _Hony, Milk, Roses, Violets_, and the
like sweetness, so that when you read you might think that you are in
_Adonis's_ Gardens, as the _Greeks_ speak, _i.e._ in the most pleasant
place imaginable: For since the subject of _Eclogue_ must be mean and
unsurprizing, unless it maintains purity and neatness of Expression,
it cannot please.
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