Theocritus

"Theocritus excels all others in nature and simplicity. The subjects of his Idyllia are purely pastoral... But it is enough that all others [pastoral writers] learned their excellence from him, and that his dialect alone has a secret charm in it, which no other could ever attain."

"There are few images and sentiments in the Eclogues of Virgil, but what are drawn from the Idylliums of Theocritus: in whom there is a rural, romantic wildness of thought, heightened by the Doric dialect; with such lively pictures of the passions, and of simple unadorned nature, as are infinitely pleasing to such lovers and judges of true poetry as yourself. Theocritus is indeed the great store-house of pastoral description, and every succeeding painter of rural beauty (except Thomson in his Seasons) hath copied his images from him, without ever looking abroad upon the face of nature themselves."

"If I might now venture to speak of the merits of the several pastoral writers, I would say, that in Theocritus we are charmed with a certain sweetness, a romantic rusticity and wildness, heightened by the Doric dialect, that are almost inimitable... Several of his pieces indicate a genius of a higher class, far superior to pastoral, and equal to the sublimest species of poetry."

"Milk the ewe that thou hast, why pursue the thing that shuns thee?"

"ἐς Τροίαν πειρώμενοι ἦνθον ᾿Αχαιοί, καλλίστα παίδων: πείρᾳ θην πάντα τελεῖται."

"The godly seed fares well: the wicked's is accurst."

"Men shall look on thee and murmur to each other, "Lo! how small Was the gift, and yet how precious! Friendship's gifts are priceless all.""

"ἠνίδε σιγῇ μὲν πόντος, σιγῶντι δ᾽ ἀῆται ἁ δ᾽ ἐμὰ οὐ σιγῇ στέρνων ἔντοσθεν ἀνία"

"Theocritus [is] another bright instance of the happy abilities and various accomplishments of the ancients. He has written in several sorts of poetry, and succeeded in them all. It seems unnecessary to praise the native simplicity and easy freedom of his pastorals, when Virgil himself sometimes invokes the muse of Syracuse; when he imitates him through all his own poems of that kind, and in several passages translates him... In several of his other poems he shows such strength of reason and politeness, that would qualify him to plead among the orators, and make him acceptable in the courts of princes."

"That which distinguishes Theocritus from all other Poets, both Greek and Latin, and which raises him even above Virgil in his Eclogues, is the inimitable tenderness of his passions, and the natural expression of them in words so becoming of a Pastoral."

"The Idylliums of Theocritus have something so inimitably sweet in the verse and thoughts, such a native simplicity, and are so genuine, so natural a result of the rural life, that I must, in my poor judgment, allow him the honour of the pastoral."

"Quin etiam ritus pastorum et Pana sonantem In calamos Sicula memorat tellure creatus, Nec silvis silvestre canit perque horrida motus Rura serit dulcis Musamque inducit in aulas."

"Reflect, ere you spurn me, that youth at his sides Wears wings; and once gone, all pursuit he derides."

"τάχ᾽ αὔριον ἔσσετ᾽ ἄμεινον ἐλπίδες ἐν ζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοι δὲ θανόντες"

"Faults are beauties, when survey'd by love."