{8} First weary at his Plough the labouring Hind In certain feet his rustick words did bind: His dry reed first he tun'd at sacred feasts To thanks the bounteous Gods, and cheer his Guests. _In certain feet_ according to _Bern Cylenius_ of _Verona_ his interpretation _in set measures_: for _Censorinus_ tells us, that the antient Songs were loose and not ty'd up to any strict numbers, and afterwards by certain laws and acknowledged rules were confin'd to such and such measures: for this is the method of Nature in all her works, from imperfect and rude beginnings things take their first rise, and afterwards by fit and apposite additions are polish't, and brought to perfection: such were the Verses which heretofore the _Italian_ Sheapards and Plough-men, as _Virgil_ says, sported amongst themselves. Italian Plough-men sprung from antient _Troy_ Did sport unpolish't Rhymes-- _Lucretius_ in his Fifth Book _de Natura Rerum_, says, that Sheapards were first taught by the rushing of soft Breezes amongst the Canes to blow their Reeds, and so by degrees to put their Songs in tune. For Whilst soft Evening Gales blew or'e the Plains And shook the sounding Reeds, they taught the Swains, And thus the Pipe was fram'd, and tuneful Reed, And whilst the Flocks did then securely feed, The harmless Sheapards tun'd their Pipes to Love, {9} And Amaryllis name fill'd every Grove. From all which tis very plain that _Poetry_ began in those days, when Sheapards took up their employment: to this agrees _Donatus_ in his Life of _Virgil_, and _Pontanus_ in his Fifth Book of Stars, as appears by these Verses. Here underneath a shade by purling Springs The Sheapards Dance, whilst sweet _Amyntas_ sings; Thus first the new found Pipe was tun'd to Love, And Plough-men taught their Sweet hearts to the Grove, Thus the _Fescennine_ jests when they sang harvest-home, and then too the Grape gatherers and Reapers Songs began, an elegant example of which we have in the Tenth _Idyllium_ of _Theocritus_. From this birth, as it were, of _Poetry_, Verse began to grow up to greater matters; For from the common discourse of _Plough-men_ and _Sheapards_, first _Comedy_, that Mistress of a private Life, next _Tragedy_, and then _Epick Poetry_ which is lofty and _Heroical_ arrose, This _Maximus Tyrius_ confirms in his Twenty first dissetation, where he tells us that Plough-men just comeing from their work, and scarce cleansed from the filth of their employment, did use to flurt out some sudden and _extempore_ Catches; and from this beginning Plays were produc'd and the Stage erected: Thus {10} much concerning the _Antiquity_, next of the _Original_ of this sort.