Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

ALLAN RAMSAY 123
Wood or of Patie Birnie. But, as he has termed them
elegies^ under that heading let them be considered,
though a humorous or mock elegy is somewhat of a
contradiction in terms.
Roughly classified, Ramsay's pastorals may be stated
as follows :—the dialogues between Richy (Sir Rich.
Steele) and Sandy (Alex. Pope), on the death of Mr.
Addison; between Robert^ Richy, and Sandy, on the
death of Matthew Prior ; Keitha, on the death of the
Countess of Wigton ; an Ode with a Pastoral Recitative,
on the marriage of James Earl of Wemyss to Miss Janet
Charteris; A Masque, performed at the celebration of
the nuptials of James Duke of Hamilton and Lady Ann
Cochrane; A Pastoral Epithalamium, on the marriage
of George Lord Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule ; Betty
and Kate, a pastoral farewell to Mr. Aikman ; and finally,
The Gentle Shepherd.
Of Ramsay's less important pastorals, the distinguish-
ing characteristics are their simplicity, their tenderness,
and their freedom from aught didactic. In conforming
to the conventional idea of pastoral,—the idea, that is,
of the shepherd state being a condition of perfect peace
and Arcadian felicity and propriety,— in place of copying
direct from nature, they one and all differ from The
Gentle Shepherd. The picture of burly Sir Richard
Steele and of crooked little Alexander Pope, clad in
shepherd's weeds, and masquerading with dogs and
pipes and what not, savours somewhat of the ludicrous.
Then, in Richy and Sandy, he makes Pope bewail the
death of Addison, with whom he had been on anything
but friendly terms for years previous ; while the following
picture of the deceased grave-visaged Secretary of State,