John Gay's burlesque pastoral poem, The Shepherd's Week, has its origin in a literary-critical debate concerning the nature of pastoral poetry that took place in the early part of the eighteenth century. In April 1713 a series of five articles, written by Thomas Tickell (1686-1740) appeared in Richard Steele's The Guardian, arguing for a revival of the realistic English tradition in pastoral, going back especially to Spenser. Tickell particularly praised the pastoral poems of Ambrose Philips (1674-1749), but almost totally neglected those of Gay's friend, Alexander Pope (1688-1744), which had been published at the same time: in Tonson's Miscellany, Volume VI, May 1709, where Philips's pastorals opened, and Pope's closed, the volume. Both Tickell and Philips were members of Addison's Whig literary clique, or Little Senate, which met at Button's coffee house.
Neither Gay...
3040 words
Citation: Gordon, Ian. "The Shepherd's Week". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 May 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7721, accessed 09 June 2026.]
