For lo! he sung the Worlds stupendious birth, How scatter'd seeds of sea, of Air, and Earth, And purer Fire thro universal night And empty space did fruitfully unite: From whence th' innumerable race of things By circular successive order springs: And afterward How Pyrra's Stony race rose from the ground, And Saturn reign'd with Golden plenty crown'd, How bold _Prometheus_ (whose untam'd desire, Rival'd the Sun with his own Heavenly Fire) Now doom'd the _Scythian_ Vulturs endless prey Severely pays for Animating Clay: So true, so certain 'tis, that nothing is so high and lofty to which _Bucolicks_ may not successfully aspire. But if this be so, what will become of _Macrobius, Georgius Valla, Julius Scaliger, Vossius,_ and the whole company of Grammarians? who all affirm that simplicity and meanness is so essential to _Pastorals_, that it ought to be confin'd to the State, Manners, Apprehension and even common phrases of Sheapards: for nothing can {23} be said to be _Pastoral_, which is not accommodated to their condition; and for this Reason _Nannius Alcmaritanus_ in my opinion is a trifler, who, in his comments on _Virgils Eclogues_, thinks that those sorts of Composures may now and then be lofty, and treat of great subjects: where he likewise divides the matter of _Bucolicks_, into _Low_, _Middle_, and _High_: and makes _Virgil_ the Author of this Division, who in his Fourth _Eclogue_, (as he imagines) divides the matter of _Bucolicks_ into Three sorts, and intimates this division by these three words: _Bushes_, _Shrubs_ and _Woods_. Sicilian Muse begin a loftier strain, The Bushes and the Shrubs that shade the Plain Delight not all; if I to Woods repair My Song shall make them worth a Consuls Care. By Woods, as he fancys, as _Virgil_ means high and stately Trees, so He would have a great and lofty Subject to to be implyed, such as he designed for the _Consul_: by Bushes, which are almost even with the ground, the meanest and lowest argument; and by Shrubs a Subject not so high as the one, nor so low as the other, as the thing it-self is, And therefore these lines If I to Woods repair My Song shall make them worth a _Consuls_ care. {24} are thus to be understood, That if we choose high and sublime arguments, our work will be fit for the Patronage of a _Consul_, This is _Nanniu's_ interpretation of that place; too pedantial and subtle I'me affraid, for tis not credible that ever _Virgil_ thought of reckoning great and lofty things amongst the Subjects of _Bucolicks_ especially since When his _Thalia_ rais'd her bolder voice And Kings and Battles were her lofty choice, _Phoebus_ did twitch his Ear, mean thoughts infuse, And with this whisper check't th' inspiring Muse. A Sheapard, Tityrus, his Sheep should feed, And choose a subject suited to his reed,