It is not doubted that the good Shepherd is the symbol of the beneficent Christ; whether the female figure represent the Virgin-mother, or is to be regarded merely as a general symbol of female beneficence, placed on a par with that of Christ (in His human character), I will not pretend to decide.

The shepherds, I say, whose names were Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere, took them by the hand, and had them to their tents, and made them partake of what was ready at present.

It was just at the instant when the latter, who had thrown his mind into his song with such a will that he scarcely heeded the interruption, silenced all whispers and inquiries by bursting into his third verse: "To-morrow is my working day, Simple shepherds all To-morrow is a working day for me: For the farmer's sheep is slain, and the lad who did it ta'en, And

The shepherds of the poem are typical characters made to pass through the typical experiences of times of distress.

A shepherd is a king whose throne Is a mossy mountain, on Whose top we sit, our crook in hand, Like a sceptre of command, Our subjects, sheep grazing below, Wanton, frisking to and fro.

The shepherd of the sheep became the shepherd of men.

(The Ettrick shepherd was James Hogg, the Scotch poet.)Noctes Ambrosianae (No. xlviii., April, 1830).

Why, shepherds are men, and kings are no more.

A shepherd is a king whose throne Is a mossy mountain, on Whose top we sit, our crook in hand, Like a sceptre of command, Our subjects, sheep grazing below, Wanton, frisking to and fro.

That "shepherd" at least is an actual person, a friend of Cinna, and a member of the neoteric group; that indeed it is Cornificius is exceedingly probable.

"JONES," was the gruff response; and the shepherd and the sheep went their several ways in mutual disgust.

The fact, then, is this: So far from resenting the existence in art and literature of an ideal shepherd, I genuinely regret that the shepherd is the only democratic calling that has ever been raised to the level of the heroic callings conceived by an aristocratic age.

A shepherd was the discoverer of the Australian diggings, by having taken up a piece of what he considered quartz to throw at his dog called Goldy.

III A Spirit of noon-day is he; Yet seems a form of flesh and blood; Nor piping shepherd shall he be, 25 Nor herd-boy of the wood.

If this pastoral is more realistic in texture than either Spenser's or Milton's efforts in the same direction, the result is due, partly to the character of the writer, partly to the circumstance that Jonson's "shepherds" are beings of a definite age and country.

They borrowed from their models a kind of pastoral diction merely, not their partiality for the form: 'shepherd' is with them merely another word for lover or poet, while almost any act of such may be described as 'folding his sheep' or the like.

I contend that the Sad Shepherd is a case in point, and Mr. Swinburne's remarks, I conceive, bear out my view.

The shepherd of these sheep is a child, who is yet too young to bear a spear, or carry harness on his back.

no, the shepherd is my love.

Shepherds are such familiar figures in poetryutilized for instance in Milton's Lycidas, as well as by many poets of antiquitythat the introduction of them into Shelley's Elegy is no matter for surprise.

In the Italian pastoral proper the shepherds are themselves the aristocracy of Arcadia, the introduction of such social hierarchy as is implied in the phrase being a point of chivalric and courtly tradition.

Goshen must have been at a considerable distance from those parts of Egypt inhabited by the Egyptians; so far at least as to prevent their contact with the Israelites, since the reason assigned for locating them in Goshen was, that shepherds were "an abomination to the Egyptians;" besides, their employments would naturally lead them out of the settled parts of Egypt to find a free range of pasturage for their immense flocks and herds.

Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to his Love is a typical poetic expression of the fancied delight in pastoral life: "...we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Of the influence of the drama of Tasso and Guarini there is, indeed, but little, the plot being in no wise that of orthodox tradition; but shepherd and ranger are true Arcadians, neither disguised courtiers nor rustic clowns, as in the Sidneian romance.

When he had cut it loose and carried it home, the shepherd also became his firm friend, and would have gone through fire and water to serve him.