Com.) The fair Calistria, as my Goats I drove,
With Apples pelts me, and still murmurs Love.
Idyll. 5.
Tho' these Thoughts are so exceeding Beautiful thro' their Simplicity,
I rather take 'em to be Agreeable Thoughts; and Simplicity to be only an
Adjunct or Addition to 'em; as Passion is an Addition and Embellishment
to the Sublime Thoughts.
The Mournful Thought, with the Addition of Simplicity, is as pleasing, I think, as the Agreeable with Simplicity. The finest of this kind that I remember in THEOCRITUS, are in his 22 Idyll. A Shepherd resolves to Hang himself, being scorn'd by the Fair he ador'd. For the more he was frown'd upon the more he loved.
But when o'recome, he could endure no more,
He came and wept before the hated Dora;
He wept and pin'd, he hung the sickly Head,
The Threshold kist, and thus at last he said.
Many Thoughts In the Complaint are as fine as this. As, of the following
Lines, the 3d and 4th.
Unworthy of my Love, this Rope receive.
The last, most welcome Present I can give.
I'll never vex thee more. I'll cease to woe.
And whether you condemned, freely go;
Where dismal Shades and dark Oblivion dwell.
Of the same Nature also is what soon after follows.
Yet grant one Kindness and I ask no more;
When you shall see me hanging at the Door.
Do not go proudly by, forbear to smile.
But stay, Sweet Fair, and gaze, and weep a while;
Then take me down, and whilst some Tears are shed,
Thine own soft Garment o're my Body spread.
And grant One Kiss,—One Kiss when I am dead.
Then dig a Grave, there let my Love be laid;
And when you part, say thrice, My friend is Dead.
All these Thoughts contain Simplicity as an Addition to the Mournful.
And 'tis impossible for any Thoughts to be more Natural.