Now as too much neatness in _Pastoral_ is not to be allow'd, so rusticity (I do not mean that which _Plato_, in his Third Book of a Commonwealth, mentions which is but a part of a down right honesty) but Clownish stupidity, such as _Theophrastus_, in his Character of a _Rustick_, describes; or that disagreeable unfashionable roughness which _Horace_ mentions in his Epistle to _Lollius_, must not in my opinion be endur'd: On this side _Mantuan_ errs extreamly, and is intolerably absur'd, who makes Shepherds blockishly sottish, and insufferably rude: And a certain Interpreter blames _Theocritus_ for the same thing, who in some mens opinion sometimes keeps too close to the _Clown_, and is rustick and uncouth; But this may be very well excus'd because the Age in which he sang was not as polite as now. But that every Part may be suitable to a Shepherd, we must consult unstain'd, uncorrupted Nature; so that the manners might not be too Clownish nor too Caurtly: And this mean may be easily observed if the manners of our Shepherds be represented according to the _Genius_ of the _golden Age_, in which, if _Guarinus_ may be believ'd {34}, every man follow'd that employment: And _Nannius_ in the Preface to his Comments on _Virgil's_ _Bucolicks_ is of the same opinion, for he requires that the manners might represent the Golden Age: and this was the reason that _Virgil_ himself in his _Pollio_ describes that Age, which he knew very well was proper to _Bucolicks_: For in the whole course of a Shepherds life there can be no form more excellent than that which was the practise of the Golden Age; And this may serve to moderate and temper the affections that must be exprest in this sort of Poetry, and sufficiently declare the whole Essence of it, which in short must be taken from the nature of a Shepherds life to which a Courtly dress is not agreeable. That the Thought may be commendable, it must be suitable to the _manners_; as those must be plain and pure that must be so too: nor must contain any, deep, exquisite, or elaborate fancies: And against this the _Italians_ offend, who continually hunt after smart witty sayings, very foolishly in my opinion; for in the Country, where all things should be full of plainess and simplicity who would paint or endeavor to be gawdy when such appearances would be very disagreeable and offend? _Pontanus_ in this matter hath said very well, _The Thought must not be to exquisite and witty, the Comparisons obvious and common, such as the State of Persons and Things require_: Yet tho too scrupulous a Curiosity in Ornament ought to be rejected, {35} yet lest the Thought be cold and flat, it must have some quickness of Passion, as in these. Cruel _Alexis_ can't my Verses move? Hast thou no Pitty? I must dye for Love_. And again, He neither Gods, nor yet my Verse regards.