The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-28

come white as sunny day snakes on
a shower. The very cyniciSm OF Jaques
has no sting: it serves to enhance by
contrast the bright peacefulness of our
chosen home:
Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live / the sun.
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleased with what he gets.
Come hither. come hither, come hither;
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather"
But Arden charms us chiefly because
we do not believe in its existence. 1t
is dream forest only. no rough eoun-
try of experience, and the actors are
playing merely at forester life, at shep
herding. at the practice of the joys of
homely freedom. Soon the pretty mas
querade will be over; the duke and his
followers will dress no longer in hunt
ea.'s green. But when they return to
the court our interest in them will flag.
and Rosalind and Orlando, keeping
their state as princes, will be less WIN
ming to us than when they followed the
gay WITNESSES of the woods.
Shakespeare in ''As You Like IT. pro-
duced the Qualification of the artificial
pastoral. He did not invent this de-
lightfuI idea, which shows US the priv
LEGGED ones Of the earth, the witty, the
courtly, the beautiful, escaping the re-
with the pleasures of rustic life; all
around him he found this same concep-
ton, expressed in manifold literary
forms, in drama, in romance, in lyric.
This very play of '.As You Like IT. is
founded on a pastoral romance by
Lodge, called 'sRosalynde.it An abun-
dant pastoral literature began to flour
ish in the sixteenth century, when the
instinct for frolic was strong in the
young nation and the joy of life was
keen; it continued till the century of
Pope. when 1t died out in pure insipid-
:ty, subdued to tediousnesS by a formal
period which forced code of narrow
proprieties even on shepherds pranks.
Many a reader still loves to exchange
quips with Rosalind or to watch ex-
quisite Perdita of the Winters Tale"
among her flowers and her sheep; few.
know this wider world of pastoral-a
world less wonderful, perhaps, than
that of the great Master. yet full or
fragrant charm and of melodious
laughter. This ignorance seems a pity;
for we have in the serious literature of
the Anglo-Saxon race little enough
which expresses, like these pastorals,
pure ecstacy of joyous grace. We do
not write pastorals any longer; perhaps
we shall never write them again. We
point out, with Hardy or Hamlin Car
land, the grim reality of the lives of the
toiling poor; we study agricultural con-
ditions. The singing shepherd of old
Greece and Merrie England. with his
gay garments, is replaced by Millet'
Man With the Hoe" from whose soul
no music rises. All the more reason,
perhaps, why we should not forget this
walled garden of delights which our
poet fathers planted for our joy.
Perhaps the most beautiful pastoral
dramas in English, out of Shakespeare.
are Peele's "Arraignment of Paris"
acted at court by the children of the
queens chapel, probably in 1881; Ben
Johnsonis Sad Shepherd left unfin-
ished at the poets death. and Fletch-
er's enchanting lyrical drama, THE
Faithful Shepherdess," written about
1908. The most memorable pastoral
romance is Sir Philip Sidney's Area
dia," a wonderful piece of poetic prose,
full of heroic ideals and lovely pictures.
AS for the lyrics. they bubble up all
through the Elizabethan country.
clearest little founts Of sparkling beau
Phillida. ''Corydon. arise, my Corydon,
Titan silineth clear"
Corydon. Who is it that calleth Corydon,
Who is it that hear?"
Phinida- ''Philiida, thy true love. calleth
Arise then. arise then,
Arise and keep thy flock with me-"
Corydon- ''Pnillida, my true love, is it she?
l come then. / come then.
| come and keep my flock with thee"
Phiilida, Here are cherries ripe. my
Corydon;
Eat them for my sake
Corydon. Here's my oaten pipe, my love-
~ one,
Snort for thee to make
Phillida. Here are threads. my true love,
fine as silk,
To knit thee. TO knit thee.
pair of stockings white as milk.
fire and neat,
To make thee. to make thee.
A bonnet to Withstand the heat"
Phillida. "YoHder comes my mother,
Corydon.
Whittier shall l fly?''
Corydon. Under yonder beech, my lovely
Till She passes by"
Philnda. SAY to her thy true love was
not here:
Remember, remember,
Tomorrow is another day..
Corydon, Doubt me not, my true. love;
do not fear
Farewell then farewell then:
Heaven keep our cloves Always"
Corydion has q Greek maine, and he
and Phillida recall the origin of the
pastoral in the ancient days when The
ocritus watched his shepherds by the
blue Sicilian seas. Traces Of classic
tradition. of brighter skies and fairer
landscapes than those of the north
lands, peI'vade our pastorlals from first
to last. Through France, through Italy,
through Spain, moreover, the dainty
pastoral spirit had passed before he
came to England. and distinctive melo-