A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral | Page 3

and, borrowing a suggestion that he probably found in
Dennis (_Critical Works_, ed. Edward N. Hooker, Baltimore, 1919, I,

47), developed a profitable distinction between the sublime image and
the sublime thought by examining their different psychological effects.
But, because they run counter to the accepted opinions of his age, it is
Purney's comments on matters of style that are especially striking,
although it must be remembered that most of them have to do with the
pastoral alone and do not constitute a general theory of poetics. Perhaps
his most original contribution is his attack upon the cautious
contemporary styles of poetry: "strong lines," a term that originally
defined the style of the metaphysical poets, but that now described the
compact and pregnant manner of Dryden's satires, for example, and the
"fine and agreeable," exemplified, let us say, by Pope's Pastorals or
Prior's _vers de société_. To these Purney preferred the bolder though
less popular styles, the sublime and the tender, corresponding to the
two pure artistic manners that Addison had distinguished. How widely
Purney intended to diverge from current poetry can be judged by his
definition of the sublime image as one that puts the mind "upon the
Stretch" as in Lady Macbeth's apostrophe to night; and by his praise of
the simplicity of Desdemona's "Mine eyes do itch." Both passages were
usually ridiculed by Purney's contemporaries as indecorous.
Equally original is Purney's concept of simplicity, which he insisted
should appear in the style and the nature of the characters, not in
denuding the fable and in divesting the poem of the ornaments of
poetry, as Pope had argued in the preface of his Pastorals. It was this
concept that also led Purney to his unusual theory of enervated diction.
How unusual it was can be judged by comparing with the then-current
practices and theories of poetic diction his recommendation of
monosyllables, expletives, the archaic language of Chaucer and
Spenser, and current provincialisms--devices that Gay had used for
burlesque--as means of producing the soft and the tender.
But it is hardly true that Purney's "true kinship is with the romantics,"
as Mr. White claims, for there is a wide chasm between a romantic and
a daring and extravagant neoclassicist. Rather, Purney's search for a
subjective psychological basis for criticism is one of the elements out
of which the romantic aesthetics was eventually evolved, and it
frequently led him to conclusions that reappear later in the eighteenth
century.
* * * * *

In addition to editing Purney's pastorals, Mr. H.O. White has published
an exhaustive study of "Thomas Purney, a Forgotten Poet and Critic of
the Eighteenth Century" in _Essays and Studies by Members of the
English Association_, XV (1929), 67-97. University of Illinois.
Earl. R. Wasserman

A FULL ENQUIRY INTO THE TRUE NATURE OF PASTORAL.
The PROEME or first
Chapter of
which contains a SUMMARY of all that the CRITICKS, ancient or
modern, have hitherto deliver'd on that SUBJECT. After which follows
what the Author has farther to advance, in order to carry the POEM on
to its utmost Perfection.
* * * * *
Written by Mr. PURNEY.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
* * * * *
LONDON Printed by _H.P._ for JONAS BROWN, at the Black Swan
without _Temple-Bar_. 1717.

PROEME.
Cubbin (ye know the Kentish Swain) was basking in the Sun one
Summer-Morn: His Limbs were stretch'd all soft upon the Sands, and
his Eye on the Lasses feeding in the Shade. The gentle Paplet peep'd at
Colly thro' a Hedge, and this he try'd to put in Rhime, when he saw a
Person of unusual Air come tow'rd him. Yet neither the Novelty of his
Dress, nor the fairness of his Mien could win the Mind of the Swain
from his rural Amusement, till he accosted the thoughtful Shepherd
thus.
If you are the _Cubbin_, said he, I enquire for, as by the Peculiarity of
your Countenance, and the Firmness of your Look, you seem, young
Boy, to be; I would hold some Discourse with you. The Pastorals of

your Performance I have seen; and tho' I will not call 'em Perfect, I
think they show a Genius not wholly to be overlookt. My Name,
continued he, is Sophy, nor is it unknown in the World. In this Book
(and here he pluckt it out of his Pocket) I have pen'd some Rules for
your future Guidance.
Cubbin was strangely taken with the mild Address and Sweetness of
Sophy. A thousand times he thanked him, as often smil'd upon him, and
spread his Coat for him to set more soft upon the Sands.
Sophy was a true-born _Britton_, and admir'd a forward Spirit. The
French he little loved; Their Poets dare not (said he) think without the
Ancients, and their Criticks make use