étoit rempli l'affoiblissant encore, il sembloit que l'on ne jouissoit en plein jour que d'un clair de lune . . . . C'ést ce qui fist naître a Orphée la pensée de donner à l'Elisée un Soleil et des astres particuliers : "

Solemque suum sua sidera norunt.

Æn. vi. 641.

Terrasson, however, declares, that the allegories of the Egyptians" sont peu de chose en comparaison des mysteres de Cérès institués a Eleusine sur le modèle de ceux d'Isis." Now Warburton, in the second book of his Divine Legation, while inculcating that all legislators have confirmed the belief in a future state of rewards and punishments by the establishment of mysteries, contends that the allegorical descent of Æneas into hell was no other than an enigmatical representation of his initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries," which came originally from Egypt, the fountain head of legislation." On this system he attempts to show that the whole progress through Tartarus and Elysium is symbolically conformable to what has been ascertained concerning the mysteries. This appropriation of Warburton was first remarked by Cooper in his Life of Socrates, where he says, "Warburton supposes the whole sixth book of the Eneid to be a description of the Eleusinian mysteries, which, though he lets it pass for his own, was borrowed, or more properly stolen, from a French romance, entitled the Life of Sethos." Gibbon, in his Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Eneid, where he completely refutes Warburton's hypothesis, remarks, that "Some have sought for the Poetic Hell in the mines of Epirus, and others in the mysteries of Egypt. As this last notion was published in French six years before it was invented in English, the learned author of the Divine Legation has been severely treated by some ungenerous adversaries. Appearances, it must be confessed, wear a very suspicious aspect; but what are appearances," he sarcastically subjoins, "when weighed against his lordship's declaration, that this is a point of honour in which he is particularly delicate, and that he may venture to boast that no author was ever more averse to take to himself what belonged to another (Letters to a late Professor of

Oxford.)? Besides, he has enriched this mysterious discovery with many collateral arguments which would for ever have escaped all inferior critics. In the case of

Hercules, for instance, he demonstrates that the initiation and the descent to the shades were the same thing, because an ancient has affirmed that they were different." 1

In the copy of Terrasson's work, preserved in the Berlin Royal Library, is the following note by the librarian, Dr. Siebel: "In this romance, which was a favourite book of Frederick the Great's, may be found the origin of the Inscription over the Royal Library, 'Nutrimentum Spiritus, see p. 70 [Ed. Amsterdam, 1732], where the inscription over the Library at Memphis is given as 'La Nourriture de l'Ame". LIEB.

PASTORAL ROMANCE.

MAYOR'S DIANA.

CHAPTER XI.

SIDNEY'S ARCADIA.

WE

E have seen in a former volume that Pastoral Romance occupied a place among the comparatively few and uninteresting prose fictions of the ancients, and that one very perfect specimen of this sort of composition, the Daphnis and Chloe of Longus, was presented to the world in the earliest ages of romance. It was to be expected, accordingly, that when the taste for prose fiction became more prevalent than formerly, this easy and agreeable species of composition should not have been neglected. The very circumstance of so many works having appeared, of which the chief subject was turmoil and slaughter, led the mind, by a natural association, to wish to repose amid pastoral delights; and the beautiful descriptions of rural nature, which occasionally occurred in chivalrous romance, would suggest the idea of compositions devoted to the description of rustic manners and pastoral enjoyments. Another circumstance contributed perhaps to the formation of this taste. Virgil was one of the poets whose names had been venerated even amid the thickest shades of ignorance, and his works, at the first revival of literature, became the highest subject of wonder and imitation. Of his divine productions, the Eclogues form a distinguished part, and when books and manuscripts were scarcely to be procured, were probably the portion of his writings most generally known. This, perhaps, contributed in no inconsiderable degree to form a taste for pastoral compositions, while the comparative easiness of the task induced the authors to write the whole, or the greater part, of them in prose, and frequently to combine with ruder materials the

descriptions and images of that bard, who was the object of universal admiration.

During the middle ages, indeed, pastoral compositions had been frequent, but they partook more of the nature of the eclogue, or drama, than of romance. The vapid productions of the Troubadours contained, not the adventures of rural characters, but insipid or affected descriptions of nature. Among the works of the Trouveurs, there are some pastorals on the loves and adventures of shepherds and shepherdesses. In these there is often a good deal of nature and naïveté in the dialogue, but they differ little from each other. A poet goes out to walk, it is always in spring, and meets a beautiful shepherdess. Sometimes she calls in to her assistance the surrounding shepherds, who come up with all expedition, and put the lover to flight; but she more commonly accepts his propositions, of which the fulfilment is often very circumstantially described.

The

AMETO

of Boccaccio, which is a prose idyllium with poetical sprinklings, bears a strong resemblance to the pastorals of the Troubadours but is more rich in rural description. The scene is laid in ancient Etruria: seven nymphs recount the story of their loves, and each story concludes with eclogues, which were the first in the Italian language. Ameto, a young hunter, presides over this amorous assembly, whose adventures, like those in all subsequent pastoral romances, refer to real characters, as has been explained in a long letter by Sansovino [the editor of the Ameto, Venice, 1545]; but his discoveries and elucidations are little interesting, except those which relate to Fiammetta and her loves with Caleone, by whom Boccaccio himself is designated.

Boccaccio's Idyllium may be justly regarded as the prototype of the

ARCADIA1

of Sannazzaro (1458-1530), which was written towards the end of the fifteenth century, and which, though it cannot

The first edition was published at Venice in 1502.

itself be considered as a pastoral romance, yet appears to have first opened the field to that species of composition. Like the Ameto, it consists partly of verse and partly of prose,' a mode of writing which was adopted in all subsequent pastoral romances. Of these, indeed, the prose generally constitutes the largest proportion, and sonnets or eclogues are only occasionally introduced for the sake of variety, or as a species of interlude. The Arcadia, however, is about equally divided between prose and verse, the principal intention of the author, as appears from his own words, being to write a series of eclogues; and he seems to have intermixed the prose relations merely in order to connect them. Nor does the Arcadia properly comprehend any story with a commencement and conclusion, which has always been considered essential to a romance. It entirely consists of a description of the employments and amusements of shepherds, whose actions and sentiments are generally well adapted to the simplicity of pastoral life. The author, who, under the names of Ergasto and Sincero, is a principal character in the work, retires from Italy, on account of some love disappointment [Prosa 7], to a plain on the summit of Mount Partenio, a beautiful region in Arcadia [Pr. 1], possessed solely by shepherds. The pastoral inhabitants of this district meet together, and complain in alternate strains of the cruelty of their respective mistresses [Egloga 1, 4, 8]. They celebrate the festival of their goddess Pales [Pr. 3], or assemble round the tomb of some deceased shepherd, and rehearse his praise [Pr. 5]. Under the name of Massilia, whom the author feigns to have been the most respectable Sibyl of Arcadia, he laments the death of his mother. Funeral games are performed at her sepulchre, and Ergasto distributes prizes to those who excel in the various contests [Pr. 10, 11.] The work also contains many disguised incidents, which allude to the misfortunes of the author's patrons, the exiled princes of Naples. He also recounts his amours with the beautiful Carmosina, celebrates her charms under the name of Amaranta [Pr. 4], and laments her death under that of Phyllis [Eg. 12]. At

1 Each being respectively headed, in some editions, at least, "Prose" and "Egloghe."