The anthology opens with Ben Jonson's commendatory verse on Breton, urging readers to 'see a mind attired in perfect strains'—a phrase that immediately signals the collection's interest in how pastoral form can reveal inner states. Charles Lamb's praise of Wither follows, claiming he discovered poetry as 'a present possession' rather than a posthumous reward. These epigraphs frame the three poets not as mere nature writers but as explorers of subjective experience through pastoral convention.

Breton's Lyric Sequences and Refrains

Breton's section begins with 'A Sweet Pastoral' and moves through a series of dialogues and songs featuring shepherds Phyllida, Corydon, and Phyllis. The poems are short, often built around repeated refrains—'Then, love me, sweet, while I am young'—that create a hypnotic, song-like quality. The editor has grouped them by character pair, so the reader encounters a miniature dramatic cycle. Notice how Breton varies the refrain's context: in 'Phyllida and Corydon' it is playful, while in 'Corydon's Supplication to Phyllis' it becomes plaintive. This structural repetition invites comparison across poems, rewarding a sequential reading.

Wither's Extended Meditations

Wither's selection is dominated by longer, more discursive poems. 'The Shepherd's Hunting' opens with a prelude that sets a reflective tone, while 'Faire Virtue' supplies several excerpts, including the well-known 'Shall I, wasting in despair.' Unlike Breton's tight refrains, Wither uses irregular stanza forms and rhetorical questions—'Lordly gallants!'—to address social themes. The 'Rhomboidal Dirge' is a formal curiosity: its diamond-shaped typography on the page mirrors the content's geometric conceit. Readers should attend to how Wither shifts between personal complaint and moral exhortation, often within the same poem.

Browne's Narrative Pastorals and the Christmas Poem

William Browne's contributions include excerpts from Britannia's Pastorals, which are more narrative in scope, with descriptive passages of landscape and extended similes. The most striking inclusion is the anonymous 'Christmas' poem, a long carol cataloguing seasonal revels: 'The wenches with their wassel-bowls / About the streets are singing.' This piece stands apart from the love complaints and moral verses, offering a communal, festive voice. Its placement near the end of the collection suggests the editor valued variety over strict thematic unity. Browne's own 'A Rocking Hymn' closes the volume with a tender lullaby addressed to the infant Christ, blending pastoral simplicity with religious devotion.

Editorial Structure and the Pembroke Booklet Series

The volume is part of the Pembroke Booklets (First Series), a limited large-paper edition of 250 copies. The editor, William Bailey Kempling, provides a brief prefatory note but no explanatory notes or glosses. This minimal apparatus means the poems must speak for themselves, and the ordering—Breton's short lyrics, then Wither's meditations, then Browne's pastorals—creates a progression from the epigrammatic to the expansive. The inclusion of the 'Christmas' poem and 'A Rocking Hymn' broadens the definition of pastoral beyond shepherds and nymphs to include domestic and liturgical scenes. Readers may wish to compare the three poets' treatments of the same motif, such as the lullaby or the complaint, to observe how each adapts the pastoral mode.

This anthology rewards a sequential reading that moves from Breton's tight refrains through Wither's moral reflections to Browne's narrative and devotional pieces. The editor's selection emphasizes variety within the pastoral tradition, from love dialogues to Christmas carols. For a first reading, pay attention to how each poet handles the shepherd's voice—whether as a lover, a moralist, or a worshipper—and how the collection as a whole expands the pastoral's range beyond the conventional.