so; but they could have been produced by many a
writer of the age with equal, perhaps superior, felicity, and they shine
only in the reflected light of _The Gentle Shepherd_; even as Scott's
_Lord of the Isles_ and _Harold the Dauntless_ were saved from being
'damned as mediocrity' only by the excellence of the _Lay of the Last
Minstrel_ and _Marmion_.

The great charm of _The Gentle Shepherd_ lies in the skilfully-balanced
antithesis of its contrasts, in the reflected interest each type casts
on its opposite. As in Moliere's _Tartuffe_, it is the vivid contrast
created between the hypocrisy of the title-character and the easy
good-nature of Orgon, that begets a reciprocal interest in the fortunes
of both; as in Balzac's _Pere Goriot_, it is the pitiless selfishness of
his three daughters on the one hand, and the doting self-denial of the
poor old father on the other, that throws both sets of characters into
relief 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 must have
smiled over the shepherds in that delicious romance discussing love, and