Pastoral Quotes

“Et in Arcadia ego.”

“Even in Arcadia, there am I [i.e. Death]”

“Wikipedia: Pastoral”

“O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
  Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
  Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!”

“Polonius: The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.”

“In time of yore when shepherds dwelt
  Upon the mountain rocks,
And simple people never felt
  The pain of lovers’ mocks;
But little birds would carry tales
  ’Twixt Susan and her sweeting,
And all the dainty nightingales
  Did sing at lovers’ meeting:
Then might you see what looks did pass
  Where shepherds did assemble,
And where the life of true love was
  When hearts could not dissemble.Then yea and nay was thought an oath
  That was not to be doubted,
And when it came to faith and troth
  We were not to be flouted.
Then did they talk of curds and cream,
  Of butter, cheese and milk;
There was no speech of sunny beam
  Nor of the golden silk.
Then for a gift a row of pins,
  A purse, a pair of knives,
Was all the way that love begins;
  And so the shepherd wives.But now we have so much ado,
  And are so sore aggrievèd,
That when we go about to woo
  We cannot be believèd;
Such choice of jewels, rings and chains,
  That may but favour move,
And such intolerable pains
  Ere one can hit on love;
That if I still shall bide this life
  ’Twixt love and deadly hate,
I will go learn the country life
  Or leave the lover’s state.”