ent that the muses love
the country:
And to speak from the very bottome of my heart... methinks he
is much more happy in a Wood, that at ease contemplates this
universe, as his own, and in it, the Sun and Stars, the
pleasing Meadows, shady Groves, green Banks, stately Trees,
flowing Springs, and the wanton windings of a River, fit
objects for quiet innocence, than he that with Fire and Sword
disturbs the World, and measures his possessions by the wast
that lys about him (p. 4).

Rene Rapin (1621-1687), in spite of his duties as a Jesuit priest and
disputes with the Jansenists, became one of the most widely read men
of his time and carried on the celebrated discussions about the
Ancients with Maimbourg and Vavasseur. His _chef-d'oeuvre_ without
contradiction is _Hortorum libri IV_. Like Virgil, Spenser, Pope, and
many aspiring lesser poets, he began his literary career by writing
pastorals, _Eclogae Sacrae_ (1659), to which is prefixed in Latin the
original of "A Treatise de Carmine Pastorali."

J.E. Congleton
University of Florida

Reprinted here from the copy owned by the Boston Athenaeum by
permission.

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* * * * *

A

TREATISE

de CARMINE PASTORALI

Written by RAPIN.

_The First Part_.

To be as short as possible in my discourse upon the present Subject,
I shall not touch upon the Excellency of _Poetry_ in general; nor
repeat those high _Encomiums_, (as that tis the most divine of all
human Arts, and the like) which _Plato_ in his _Jone_, _Aristotele_ in
his _Poetica_, and other Learned men have copiously insisted on: And
this I do that I might more closely and briefly pursue my present
design, which, no doubt will not please every man; for since I treat
of that part of _Poetry_, which (to use _Quintilian's_ words,) by
reason of its Clownishness, is affraid of the Court and City; some may
imagine that I follow _Nichocaris_ his humor, who would paint only the
most ugly and deform'd, and those too in the meanest and most
frightful dress, that real, or fancy'd Poverty could put them in.

{2} For some think that to be a Sheapard is in it self mean, base, and
sordid; And this I think is the first thing that the graver and
soberer sort will be ready to object.

But if we consider how honorable that employment is, our Obje