SECT. 2.
Whether the Pastoral Fable should be simple or complex; and how it must differ from the Epick Fable.
The Implex Fables are to me, in all Poetry, the finest. And even Pastoral may receive an additional Beauty from a Change of Fortune in the chief Character, if manag'd with Discretion. 'Tis not easy to give direct Proofs for things of this Nature. But what little I have to offer for Pastoral's requiring an Implex Fable, is as follows.
Pastoral, like all Poetry, should aim at Pleasure and Profit. Pleasure is best produc'd, if the Poem raises Pity, or Joy, or both; and Profit by its having a Moral. Now the Implex Fable attain's it's End the easiest. For we pity Misfortunes no where so much as in one we saw but lately happy: Nor do we joy to see a Man flourish; but to see him rise from Ills to a flourishing Condition, rejoyces the Mind. And as for the other End of Poetry, which is Profit, every one may see that Implex Fables are greatly best for producing a Moral.
But great Care must be taken in this Way. Whereas the Catastrophe in
Epick Poetry, is work'd up by violent Means, as Machines, and the like;
In Pastoral it must be produced so easy and natural, as to seem to
proceed from it self.
Nor must the Change of Fortune be produced by any sudden Contrast, as in most Tragedies it is; since Surprize (unless very weak) is a Fault in Pastoral, tho' a Beauty in other Poetry.
'Tis also evident that the Ills which a Shepherd falls into, from some slight, and almost inevitable Slip (from which the Moral is form'd) must be infinitely less than those which embarrass a Hero; because Ills must be proportion'd to the Fault; and 'tis plain, the Faults of a Swain are suppos'd to be very minute.
A hundred Observations, like this last, might be made, too inconsiderable to enumerate; but the Poet, when he form's his Fable, cannot avoid observing 'em. Otherwise, 'tis best he keep to the Simple Fable; which, tho' a better may, by Industry, be form'd, is far enough from being faulty.