So he invocates Arethusa, when Cornelius Gallus Proconsul of Ægypt and his Amours, matters above the common reach of Pastoral, are his Subject.
One Labor more O Arethusa yield.
Why he makes his application to Aretheusa is easy to conjecture, for she was a Nymph of Sicily, and so he might hope that she could inspire him with a Genius fit for Pastorals which first began in that Island, Thus in the seventh and eighth Eclogue, as the matter would bear, he invocates the Nymphs and Muses: And Theocritus does the same,
Tell Goddess, you can tell.
From whence ’tis evident that in Pastoral, tho it never pretends to any greatness, Invocations may be allow’d: But whatever Subject it chooseth, it must take care to accommodate it to the Genius and Circumstances of a Shepherd. Concerning the Form, or mode of Imitation, I shall not repeat what I have already said, viz. that this is in it self mixt; for Pastoral is either Alternate, or hath but one Person, or is mixt of both: yet ’tis properly and chiefly Alternate. as is evident from that of Theocritus.
Sing Rural strains, for as we march along
We may delight each other with a Song.
In which the Poet shows that alternate singing is proper to a Pastoral: But as for the Fable, ’tis requisite that it should be simple, lest in stead of Pastoral it put on the form of a Comedy, or Tragedy if the Fable be great, or intricate: It must be One; this Aristotle thinks necessary in every Poem, and Horace lays down this general Rule,
Be every Fable simple, and but one:
For every Poem, that is not One, is imperfect, and this Unity is to be taken from the Action: for if that is One, the Poem will be so too. Such is the Passion of Corydon in Virgil’s second Eclogue, Melibœus’s Expostulation with Tityrus about his Fortune; Theocritus’s Thyrsis, Cyclops, and Amaryllis, of which perhaps in its proper place I may treat more largely. Let the third Rule be concerning the Expression, which cannot be in this kind excellent unless borrow’d from Theocritus’s Idylliums, or Virgil’s Eclogues, let it be chiefly simple, and ingenuous: such is that of Theocritus,
A Kid belongs to thee, and Kids are good,