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

128 FAMOUS SCOTS
on the other, that throws both sets of characters into
rehef so strong : so, in The Gentle Shepherd, it is the
subtle force of the contrast between Patie's well-balanced
manliness and justifiable pride, and Roger's gauche
bashfulness and depression in the face of Jenny's
coldness ; between Peggy's piquant lovableness and
maidenly joy in the knowledge of Patie's love, and
Jenny's affected dislike to the opposite sex to conceal
the real state of her feelings towards Roger in particular,
that impart to the poem the vivid interest wherewith its
scenes are perused. Minor contrasts are present too,
in the faithfulness of Patie to Peggy, as compared with
the faithlessness of Bauldy to Neps. The whole drama,
in fact, might be styled a beautiful panegyric on fidelity
in love. Such passages as the following are frequent
' I'd hate my rising fortune, should it move
The fair foundation of our faithfu' love.
If at my feet were crowns and sceptres laid
To bribe my soul frae thee, delightful maid,
For thee I'd soon leave these inferior things
To sic as have the patience to be kings.'
As a pastoral poet, Ramsay excels in painting all those
homely virtues that befit the station to which most of his
characters belonged. A fault, and a serious one, it was
among the writers of conventional pastoral, to make their
shepherds and shepherdesses talk like philosophers, and
reason upon all the mysteries of life, death, and futurity.
What reader of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, but m^ust
have smiled over the shepherds in that delicious romance
discussing love, and treating of its metaphysical causes
and effects, as profoundly as any
' clerke of Oxenforde also
Who unto logik hadde long y-go.'
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