The _Scene_ lys amongst Sheapards, the _Swains_ are brought in, the _Herdsmen_ come to see his misery, and the fiction is suited to the real condition of a _Sheapard_; the same is to be said for his _Silenus_, who tho he seems lofty, and to sound to loud for an oaten reed, yet since what he sings he sings to _Sheapards_, and suits his Subject to their apprehensions, his is to be acknowledged _Pastoral_. This rule we must stick to, that we might infallibly discern what is stricktly _Pastoral_ in _Virgil_ and _Theocritus_, and what not: for in _Theocritus_ there are some more lofty thoughts which not having any thing belonging to Sheapards for their Subject, must by no means be accounted _Pastoral_, But of this more in its proper place. My present inquiry must be what is the _Subject Matter_ of a _Pastoral_, about which it is not easy to resolve; since neither from _Aristotle_, nor any of the _Greeks_ who have written _Pastorals_, we can receive certain direction. For sometimes they treat of high and sublime things, like _Epick Poets_; what can be loftier than the whole _Seaventh Idyllium of Bias_ in which _Myrsan_ urges _Lycidas_ the Sheapard to sing the Loves of _Deidamia_ and _Achilles_. For he begins from _Helen's_ rape, and goes on to the revengful fury of the _Atrides_, and shuts up in one _Pastoral_, all that is great and sounding in _Homers Iliad_. {21} Sparta was fir'd with Rage And gather'd Greece to prosecute Revenge. And _Theocritus_ his verses are sometimes as sounding and his thoughts as high: for upon serious consideration I cannot mind what part of all the _Heroicks_ is so strong and sounding as that _Idyllium_ on _Hercules_ *leontophonô* in which _Hercules_ himself tells _Phyleus_ how he kill'd the Lyon whose Skin he wore: for, not to mention many, what can be greater than this expression. And gaping Hell received his mighty Soul: Why should I instance in the *dioskouroi*, which hath not one line below Heroick; the greatness of this is almost inexpressible. *anêr hyperoplos enêmeros, endiaaske deinos idein* And some other pieces are as strong as these, such is the _Panegyrick on Ptolemy_, _Helen's Epithalamium_, and the Fight of young _Hercules_ and the Snakes: now how is it likely that such Subjects should be fit for _Pastorals_, of which in my opinion, the same may be said which _Ovid_ doth of his _Cydippe_. Cydippe, Homer, doth not fit thy Muse. For certainly _Pastorals_ ought not to rise to the Majesty of _Heroicks_: but who on the other side {22} dares reprehend such great and judicious Authors, whose very doing it is Authority enough? What shall I say of _Virgil_? who in his Sixth _Eclogue_ hath put together allmost all the particulars of the fabulous Age; what is so high to which _Silenus_ that Master of Mysterys doth not soar?