oem in
question, with that on the _Marriage of the Earl of Wemyss_, can neither
be ranked as conventional pastoral nor as pure pastoral, according to
Ramsay's later style. We note the 'Colins' and 'Ringans,' the
'shepherd's reeds' and 'shepherd's weeds,' and the picture of

----'the singing shepherd on the green
Armyas hight, wha used wi' tunefu' lay
To please the ear when he began to play,'

--an imitation of Milton's immortal lines in _Comus_, which are too well
known to need quotation. All of a piece this with the 'golden-age
pastoral.' In the same poems, however, occur intimations that the
incongruity was perceived by the author, but that, as yet, he did not
see any means of remedying the uniform monotony of the conventional
form. The leaven was at work in Ramsay's mind, but so far it only
succeeded in influencing but the smallest moiety of the lump.

In the _Masque_, written in celebration of the marriage of the Duke of
Hamilton, the sentiments expressed are wholly different. Written
subsequently to _The Gentle Shepherd_, Ramsay exhibited in it his
increased technical deftness, and how much he had profitted by the
experience gained in producing his great pastoral. The _Masque_, albeit
professedly a dramatic pastoral, entirely abjures the lackadaisical
shepherds and shepherdesses of conventional pastoral, and, as a poem of
pure imagination, reverts to the ancient mythology for the _dramatis
personae_.

All these pieces, however, though they exhibit a facility in
composition, a fecundity of imagination, a skilful adaptation of theme
to specific metrical form, a rare human sympathy, and a depth of pathos
as natural in expression as it was genuine in its essence, are only, so
to speak, the preludes to _The Gentle Shepherd_. In the latter, Ramsay's
matured principles of pastoral composition are to be viewed where best
their relative importance can be estimated, namely, when put into
practice.

By competent critics, _The Gentle Shepherd_ is generally conceded to be
the noblest pastoral in the English language. Dr. Hugh Blair, in his
lectures on _Rhetoric and Belles Lettres_, styled it 'a pastoral drama
which will bear being brought into comparison with any composition of
this kind in any language.... It is full of so much natural description
and tender sentiment as would do honour to any poet. The characters are
well drawn, the incidents affecting, the scenery and manners lively and
just.' And one of D