Chapter VII: Masques and General Influence (5)

[72] _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, II. viii. (Dyce, ii. p. 172), and _The Pilgrim_, IV. ii. (Dyce, viii. p. 66).

[73] B. M., Roxburghe, III. 160, also II. 30.

[74] References are best given to F. J. Child's monumental collection, in five volumes, where all variants are printed. _Cowdenknows_ and the _Bonny May_ are No. 217; _The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter_ 110, the _Bonny Ilynd_ 50, _Child Waters_ 63, _The Laird of Drum_ 236, _Lizie Lindsay_ 226, _Lizie Baillie_ 227, _Glasgow Peggie_ 228, and _Johnie Faa_ 200. No doubt further examples might be collected.

[75] Similar shepherd-scenes are found not only in French but even in Italian miracle plays. The tendency they indicate, however, is not traceable in later pastoral, as it is with us. That such representations as those of the Sienese 'Rozzi' formed no exception to this general statement I shall have to show later.

[76] For the literary history of the Wakefield cycle, see A. W. Pollard's admirable introduction to the edition published by the Early English Text Society.

[77] They also criticize the angels' singing in curiously technical language.

[78] Towneley Plays, XII. l. 377, &c., and l. 386, &c., cf. Vergil, _Bucolics_, IV. 6.

[79] It is perhaps necessary to define the above use of 'idealization' as that modification of photographie reality observable in all true art. It is only when the methods of art have become self-conscious that realism can become an end in itself.

[80] _An English Garner_: Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, ed. A. W. Pollard, 1903, p. 87. The carol is from a MS. at Balliol College.

[81] The poem will be found in Arber's edition of the 'Miscellany,' p. 138, and in A. H. Bullen's reprint of _England's Helicon_, p. 56. In dealing with isolated poems I have quoted, wherever possible, from Bullen's reprints of the song books, &c.

[82] Forst = cared for.

[83] It first appeared as 'The Ploughman's Song' in the 'Entertainment at Elvetham' in 1591. This has been recently claimed for Lyly. Without expressing any opinion in this place as to the likelihood of such an ascription for the bulk of the piece, it may be remarked that the song in question is as like the rest of Breton's work in style as it is unlike anything to be found in Lyly's writings.

[84] Of all pedestrian, not to say reptilian, metres, this is perhaps the most intolerable; indeed, it was not until touched to new life by the genius of Blake that it deserved to be called a metre at all.

[85] See R. B. McKerrow's articles on the Elizabethan 'classical metres' in the _Modern Language Quarterly_ for December, 1901, and April, 1902, iv. p. 172, and v. p. 6.

[86] Eclogues i-iv were printed by Pynson, and the fifth by Wynkyn de Worde early in the century; i-iii were twice reprinted about 1550. Barclay died in 1552.

[87] Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II. I suppose that it is on account of this statement of Barclay's that English critics have constantly referred to the work as pastoral. It is nothing but a prose invective against court life.

[88] See Dyce's _Skelton_, Introduction, p. xxxvi.

[89] 'Eglogs Epytaphes, and Sonettes. Newly written by Barnabe Googe: 1563. 15. Marche.' Reprinted by Professer Arber from the Huth copy.

[90] The title of the collection as originally published is obviously ambiguous--is Shepheardes' to be considered as singular or plural? There is a tendency among modern critics to evade the difficulty in such cases by quoting titles in the original spelling. I confess that this practice seems to me both clumsy and pedantic. In the present case there can be little doubt that the title of Spenser's work was suggested by the _Calender of Shepherds_. On the other hand, I think it is likewise clear that the poet, in adopting it, was thinking particularly of Colin Clout--that he intended, that is, to call his poems 'the calender of the shepherd' (see first line of postscript), rather than 'the calender for shepherds.' I have therefore adopted the singular form. 'Calender' is, I think, a defensible spelling.

[91] The alternative view, which would make Spenser his own commentator, is not without supporters both in Germany and in this country. Even were the question, however, one of greater importance from our point of view, the 'proofs' so far adduced do not constitute sufficient of an _a priori_ case to justify discussion here.

[92] _Anglia_, iii. p. 266, and ix. p. 205.

[93] At the end of the _Calender_ Spenser placed as his motto 'Merce non mercede'--as merchandise, not for reward.

[94] On all questions relating to the _Shepherd's Calender_ see C. H. Herford's edition, to which I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness. So far as I am aware, we possess no more admirable edition of any monument of English literature.

[95] Cf. the titles of Drayton's _Idea_ and Basse's MS. eclogues, _infra_.

[96] _Discoveries_, 1640 (-41), p. 116 (Gifford, 1875; § cxxv). The 'ancients,' as appears from the context, are Chaucer and Gower.

[97] _Apology for Poetry_, 1595; Arber's edition, p. 63.

[98] Even Sidney's authorities break down to some extent. Theocritus certainly modified the literary dialect in his pastoral idyls, and we may recall that when Vergil began his third eclogue with the line--

Die mihi, Damoeta, cuium pecus? an Meliboei?

a wit of Rome retorted:

Die mihi, Damoeta, 'cuium pecus?' anne Latinum?

Or again it may be asked whether Lorenzo de' Medici is not as good a name to conjure by as Jacopo Sannazzaro.

[99] Some of the eclogues are mucn more pronouncedly dialectal than others, but even within the limits of a single one, literary and dialectal forms may often be found used indiscriminately. See Herford's remarks on the subject.

[100] 'February,' l. 33, &c. Lines 35-6 contain one of the few direct reminiscences of Chaucer. Cf. _House of Fame_, II. 1225-6. Spenser repeated the imitation, _Faery Queen_, VI. ix. 43-5, and was followed by Fletcher, _Faithful Shepherdess_, V. v. 183-4.

[101] _Pastime of Pleasure_, xxxv. 6, from the edition of 1555 (Percy Soc., 1845, p. 113).

[102] In the above instance the rime is sacrificed, and I do not mean that all anomalous lines in Spenser's measure become strict decasyllables when done into ME.; indeed, they do so of course only by accident. My point is that Chaucer's verse as read by the sixteenth-century editors must have often contained just such unmetrical lines as Spenser's. The view I have indicated above is that accepted by W. J. Courthope (_History of English Poetry_, ii. p. 253). Herford, on the other hand, while having recourse to Chancer's influence to explain Spenser's anomalies, regards the metre in question as derived from the old alliterative line. From this view I am reluctantly forced to dissent. The alliterative line may be readily traced in the mystery cycles, and later influenced the verse of the interludes and such comedies as _Royster Doyster_; and this tradition may have affected the verse of the later poets of the school of Lydgate, and even the popular ideas concerning Chaucer's metre. But as to the actual origin of Spenser's four-beat line there can surely be no doubt.

[103] The late A. B. Grosart, in a passage which is a masterpiece of literary casuistry _(Spenser_, iii. p. lii.), put forward the truly astounding theory that the discussions on the evils of the clergy and similar subjects, put into the mouths of shepherds in the _Calender_ and elsewhere, are 'in nicest keeping with character.' Such a theory ignores the essence of the question, for, even supposing that shepherds had done nothing else but discuss the corruption of the Curia since there was a Curia to be corrupted, it is still utterly beside the mark. Apart from his own observation of ecclesiastical manners, Spenser's compositions have for their sole origin the similar discussions of the humanistic eclogues, while these in their turn did but cast the individual opinions of their authors into a conventional mould inherited from the classical poets. Thus, so far as actual shepherds are connected with Spenser's eclogues at all, they belong to an age when the Curia and all its sins were happily unknown.

[104] The MS. is now in the library of Caius College, Cambridge, and is contained in the volume numbered 595 in the catalogue. It is entitled _Poimenologia_. The dedication to William James, Dean of Christ Church, fixes the date as between 1584 and 1596. Dove became Master of Arts in 1586, and since he does not describe himself as such, the translation probably belongs to an earlier date. I am indebted for knowledge of and information concerning this MS. to the kindness of Prof. Moore Smith, and of Dr. J. S. Reid, Librarian of Caius College.

[105] Winstanley (_Lives of the English Poets_, 1687, p. 196) ascribes it to Sir Richard Fanshawe; but he was no doubt confusing it with the Latin version of the _Faithful Shepherdess_.

[106] _Faery Queen_, VII. vi. 349, &c.

[107] Somewhat similar episodes occur both in the _Orlando_ and the _Gerusalemme_, to the imitation of which, indeed, certain passages in Spenser can be directly referred.

[108] See A. H. Bullen's edition, two vols., 1890-91. The poems in question will be fonnd in vol. i, pp. 48, 58, 63 and 76.

[109] It is worth noting that in the last stanza all the early editions read 'Thenot' instead of 'Wrenock'; Thenot being the corresponding character in Spenser.

[110] Perhaps Anne Goodere: but the question is alien to our present discussion. Some of the allusions in the eclogues are obvious, and probably all the names, except perhaps the speaker's, conceal real personalities. In the _Muses' Elizium_, on the other hand, most of the names and characters appear to me fictitious. In connexion with the name 'Idea,' in which certain critics have wished to see a deep philosophical meaning, I would suggest that it may be nothing but the feminine of 'Idaeus,' that is, a shepherd of Mount Ida, a name found in the second eclogue of Petrarch. It is, however, true that the word 'idea' bore the meaning of 'an ideal,' in which sense, no doubt, we occasionally find it applied to England.

[111] Concerning translations of Watson's Latin poems, I may be allowed to refer to a paper contributed to the _Modern Language Quarterly_, February, 1904, vi. p. 125.

[112] Cf. the passage from Spenser's October eclogue, quoted on p. 88.

[113] A certain similarity between this poem and the song in _Love's Labour's Lost_, beginning:

On a day--alack the day!--
Love, whose month was ever May;

has caused them to be at times ascribed to Shakespeare. They are subscribed 'Ignoto' in _England's Helicon_, but appeared among the poems published with Barnfield's _Lady Pecunia_ in 1598, a tail of thirty lines of very inferior quality being substituted for the singularly perfect and effective final couplet. The poem appeared again in the following year in the _Passionate Pilgrim_, this time with both the couplet and the addition. The _Helicon_ version is certainly by far the best, and not improbably represents the poem as originally written in imitation of Shakespeare's. See J. B. Henneman's paper in _An English Miscellany_, Oxford, 1901.

[114] Gascoigne's _Steel Glass_ is far rather medieval in conception.

[115] Compare with the lines in _Rosalynd_, beginning 'Phoebe sat, sweet she sat,' those in _Tarlton's News out of Purgatory_, beginning, 'Down I sat, I sat down,' and see A. H. Bullen's _Poems from Elizabethan Romances_, 1890, p. xi.

[116] The copy of _Pan's Pipe_ in the British Museum wants the _Tale_, but this will be found by itself marked C. 40. e. 68 (2, 3).

[117] Collier and Hazlitt supposed two William Basses, but the balance of evidence seems against the theory. See S. L. Lee in _Dic. Nat. Biog_., and the edition by R. W. Bond, 1893.

[118] Fleay (_Biographical Chronicle_, i. p. 67) identifies Musidore with Lodge, and 'Hero's last Musaeus' with H. Petowe. The latter identification, which had already been proposed by Collier (_Bibliographical Account_, i. p. 130), is in all probability correct.

[119] Printed by me in the _Modern Language Quarterly_, July, 1901, iv. p. 85.

[120] These are missing in most copies of the book; the only one I know containing them is in the Bodleian.

[121] I do not know who started the idea. It was mentioned in the _Retrospective Review_ (ii. p. 180) in 1820, accepted by Sommer, and elaborated with small success by K. Windscheid. Masson makes no mention of it in his edition of Milton's poetical works. The author of _Lycidas_ was probably a reader and admirer of Browne's poems, but of _Britannia's Pastorals_ rather than of the decidedly inferior eclogues.

[122] The _Arcadian Princess_, translated by Brathwaite from Mariano Silesio, a kind of metaphorical manual of judicial polity, is in no way pastoral. It may be remarked that in 1627 there appeared as the work of one I. D. B. an 'Eclogue, ou Chant Pastoral,' on the marriage (1625) of Charles and Henrietta Maria, in which two Scotch Shepherds, Robin and Jacquet, discourse in French Alexandrines. _Taylor's Pastoral_ of 1624 again, a fanciful treatise of religious and secular history, does not properly belong to pastoral tradition.

[123] One of these appeared two years previously, entitled _The Shepherd's Oracle_.

[124] Appended to the third edition of the _Arcadia_, 1598.

[125] Appended to the _Arcadia_ in 1613.

[126] _Arcadia_, 1590, fol. 237 verso.

[127] _Opera_, Basel, 1553, p. 622.

[128] The song is said to be between 'two nymphs, each answering other line for line'; but the simple alternation adopted by Spenser makes nonsense of the present poem. The above arrangement seems to distribute the lines best; viz. the first quatrain to Phillis, with interposition of lines 2 and 4 by Amaryllis, the second quatrain to Amaryllis, with interposition of line 2 only by Phillis.

[129] Others in the _Passionate Pilgrim_, 1599, and Walton's _Complete Angler_, 1653.

[130] So, rather than 'Fair-lined,' as Bullen prints; but query 'Fur-lined.'

[131] This is the text of _England's Helicon_, which is superior to that in the play, except for the omission of the couplet in brackets, and possibly in the reading 'hath sworn' for 'is sworn,' in l. 11.

[132] From E. K. Chambers' _English Pastorals_, p. 113. The date is uncertain, but a tune of the name was extant in 1603. The earliest recorded text is a broadside, of about 1650, in the Roxburghe collection (III. 142). The conjecture of an 'original issue, _circa_ 1600,' is on the whole plausible. In that case there was, somewhere, a poet capable of anticipating the particular cadences of _Sirena_ and _Agincourt_, and that poet is more likely to have been Drayton than another. See Ebsworth's edition for the Ballad Society (_Roxburghe Ballads_, vi. p. 460).

[133] _Lycidas_ is almost too familiar, one might suppose, to need comment, but such irreconcilable views have been held by different authorities, from Dr. Johnson onwards, that it may not be idle to attempt to view the work critically in relation to pastoral tradition as a whole.

[134] When Johnson went on to describe the form of the poem as 'easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting,' he was but exhibiting a critical incapacity which seriously impairs his authority in literary matters.

[135] For a detailed account of the poem, as well as for a number of parallel passages--as well as some of doubtful relevance--the reader may be referred to F. W. Moorman's monograph. I use the text of G. Goodwin's edition of Browne's poems, with introduction by A. H. Bullen, 2 vols., 1894.

[136] K. Windscheid professes to discover a different hand in the third book, and is inclined to ascribe it to some imitator of Browne. Its merit is certainly not high, but it is no worse than parts of the former books; and Browne's work is so notoriously unequal that I can see no excuse for depriving or relieving him of its authorship.

[137]

The hatred which they bore was only this,
That every one did hate to do amiss;
Their fortune still was subject to their will;
Their want--O happy!--was the want of ill. (II. iii. 447.)

Many readers may be inclined to pity poor men and women debarred from that

First of all joys that unto sin belong--
The sweet felicity of doing wrong.

[138] Pail.

[139] The translater was afterwards knighted. Who was the first person to ascribe this translation to Thomas Wilcox, a certain 'very painful minister of God's word,' I am not sure. The mistake has, however, been constantly repeated, and led Underhill, in his able monograph on _Spanish Literature in England_, to give a detailed account of Wilcox and his wholly chimerical connexion with the spread of Spanish influence in this country. The translation is preserved in the British Museum, Addit. MS. 18,638, and contains the translator's name perfectly clearly written, both on the title-page and at the end of the dedicatory epistle to Fulke Greville. This MS. is a copy of the original made by the translator himself about 1617, and bears on the fly-leaf the name 'Dorothy Grevell.' The title-page is worth transcribing: 'Diana de Monte mayor done out of Spanish by Thomas Wilsõ Esquire, In the yeare 1596 & dedicated to the Erle of Southamptõ who was then uppon y'e Spanish voiage w'th my Lord of Essex--Wherein under the names and vailes of Sheppards and theire Lovers are covertly discoursed manie noble actions & affections of the Spanish nation, as is of y'e English of [_sic_] y't admirable & never enough praised booke of S'r. Phil: Sidneyes Arcadia.'

[140] Arber's edition, p. 83.

[141] See the useful table of correspondences given by Homer Smith in his paper on the _Pastoral Influence in the English Drama_. All needful apparatus for the study of the story will of course be found in Furness' 'Variorum' edition of the play.

[142] Macaulay once remarked of the _Faery Queen_, that few and weary are the readers who are in at the death of the Blatant Beast. It might with equal or even greater force be contended that most readers are asleep ere the Arcadian princesses in Sidney's romance are rescued from the power of Cecropia.

[143] Into purely bibliographical questions, such as the history of the Edinburgh edition of 1599, it is of course impossible to enter here.

[144] Letter in the State Papers. See Introduction to Sommer's facsimile of the first edition, 1891.

[145] Conversations with Drummond, X. Shakespeare Society, 1842, p. 10.

[146] K. Brunhuber, to whose work on the _Arcadia_ (_Sir Philip Sidneys Arcadia und ihre Nachläufer_, 1903) I am in a measure indebted, failing to find many specific borrowings, is inclined to make light of Montemayor's influence. There can, however, be little question that, in general style and conception, Sidney, while influenced by the Greek romance, yet belonged essentially to the Spanish school.

[147] Analyses of the _Arcadia_ will be fouud in all works upon the novel from Dunlop to J. J. Jusserand and W. Raleigh. Perhaps the fullest, which is also provided with copious extracts, is that in the _Retrospective Review_, 1820, ii. p. 1.

[148] An allegorical interpretation certainly found favour among the critics of the time, and was advanced by Puttenham in his _Art of English Poesy_ (1589), even before the publication of the romance. See also Thomas Wilson's allusion on the title-page of his translation from the _Diana_, given above (p. 141, note).

[149] A critical edition remains, however, a desideratum.

[150] See Jusserand's _English Novel in the time of Shakespeare_, 1890, p. 274.

[151] The later fashionable pastoral of French origin, with the _Astrée_ as its type and chief representative, does not concern us, or at most concerns us so indirectly as not to warrant our lingering over it here.

[152] I should at once say that the view of the development of the pastoral drama adopted above is not endorsed by all scholars. To have set forth at length the considerations upon which it is based would have swollen beyond all bounds an introductory section of my work. Since, however, the question is one of considerable interest, I have added what I believe to be a fairly full and impartial discussion in the form of an appendix.

[153] 'Orfeo cantando giugne all' Inferno' is one of the stage directions.

[154] For an elaborate example (1547) of this kind of stage, on which various localities were simultaneously represented, see Petit de Julleville, _Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française_, ii. pp. 416-7.

[155] Concerning the play see the account given by Symonds, together with his admirable translation in _Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece_, ii. p. 345, also an elaborate essay, 'L'Orfeo del Poliziano alla corte di Mantova,' by Isidoro del Lungo, in the _Nuova antologia_ for August, 1881, and A. D'Ancona, _Origini del teatro italiano_, ii. pp. 2 and 106. The standard edition of Poliziano's Italian works, that by Carducci, is unfortunately not in the British Museum.

[156] A note concerning the use of the term 'nymph' may save confusion. Creizenach remarks that the introduction of a nymph as the beloved of a shepherd is a peculiarity of the renaissance pastoral which manifestly owes its origin to Boccaccio's _Ninfale fiesolano_ (_Geschichte des neueren Dramas_, ii. p. 196). In so far as this view implies that the 'nymphs' of pastoral convention are the same order of beings as those either of the _Ninfale_ or of classical myth, it appears to me utterly erroneous. The 'nymphs' who love the shepherds in the renaissance pastorals are nothing but shepherdesses. The confusion no doubt began with Boccaccio. The nymph of Diana in the _Ninfale_ is, as we have already seen, nothing but a nun in pagan disguise. The nymphs of the _Ameto_ are represented as of the classical type, but their amorous confessions reveal them as in nowise differing from mortal woman. The gradual change in the connotation of the word is one of the results of the blending of Christian and classical ideas. The original elemental or local spirits even in Greek myth acquired some of the characteristics of votaries (as in the legeud of Calisto), and these Christian tradition tended to accentuate, while popular romance, and in many cases contemporary manners, facilitated the connecting of such characters with tales of secret passion. Gradually, however, the idea of illicit love gave place to one merely of unrestrained natural desire, the religious elements of the character were forgotten as the supernatural had been earlier, and 'nymph' came to be no more than the feminine of 'shepherd' in an ideal society which by its freedom of intercourse, as by its honesty of dealing, presented a complete contrast to the polished circles of aristocratic Italy.

[157] A small circular picture in _chiaroscuro_ among the arabesques of the _cappella nova_ in the cathedral at Orvieto. It represents the youthful Orpheus crowned with the laureate wreath playing before Pluto and Proserpine upon a fiddle or crowd of antique pattern. At his feet lies Eurydice, while around are spirits of the other world.

[158] In some passages of this speech the resemblance with Ovid is very close:

famaque si ueteris non est mentita rapinae,
uos quoque iunxit Amor...
omnia debentur nobis, paulumque morati
serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam...
haec quoque, cum iustos matura peregerit annos,
iuris erit uestri; pro munere poscimus usum.
quod si fata negant ueniam pro coniuge, certum est
nolle redire mihi: leto gaudete duorum. (_Met_. x. 28, &c.)

[159] Cf. _Amores_, II. xii, ll. 1, 2, 5, and 16.

[160] This interpretation of the passion of Orpheus, characteristic as it is of renaissance thought, was not original. Though unknown in early times, it is found in Phanocles, a poet probably of the third or fourth century B. C.

[161] So original: revision 'oè oè.'

[162] The earliest edition I have seen is that contained in the 'Opere' of June 10, 1507, where the heading runs: 'Fabula di Caephalo cõposta dal Signor Nicolo da Correggia a lo Illustrissimo. D. Hercole & da lui repsentata al suo florẽtissimo Populo di Ferrara nel. M. cccc. lxxxvi. adi. xxi. Ianuarii.' In this edition, printed at Venice by Manfrido Bono de Monteferrato, the works are said to be 'Stampate nouamente: & ben corrette.' Bibliographers record no edition previous to 1510. The date in the heading is either a misprint, or refers to the year 1486-7 according to the Venetian reckoning. See D'Ancona, _Origini del teatro_, ii. p. 128-9. Symonds (_Renaissance_, v. p. 120) quotes some Latin lines as from the prologue to this play. This is an error. He has misread D'Ancona, to whom he refers (ed. 1877), and from whom he evidently copied the quotation. The lines actually occur in the prologue to a Latin play on the subject of the taking of Granada.

[163] Rossi, _Battista Guarini ed il Pastor Fido_, 1886, p. 171, note 2.

[164] I do not, of course, mean that no mythological plays were produced between the days of Correggio and those of Beccari, but that they show no signs of consistent development in a pastoral or indeed in any other direction.

[165] _Il Verato secondo_, 1593, p. 206.

[166] _Compendio della poesia tragicomica, tratto dai duo Verati_, 1602, pp. 49-50.

[167] In this and the following section I have used the texts of the exceedingly useful collection of _Drammi de' boschi_ in the 'Biblioteca classica economica,' which comprises the _Aminta, Pastor fido, Filli di Sciro_, and _Alceo_.

[168] Symonds, in dealing with Tasso in the sixth volume of his _Italian Renaissance_, lays, to my mind very justly, considerable stress upon this quality.

[169] Quoted by Serassi, Tasso's biographer, in his preface to the Bodoni edition of the play (Crisopoli, 1789), p. 8.

[170] See Angelo Solerti, _Vita di T. Tasso_, Torino, Loescher, 1895, i. p. 181, &c. Carducci, 'Storia dell' _Aminta_,' the third of the _Saggi_, 80, 1st edition.

[171] Leigh Hunt pointed out, in some interesting if rather uncritical remarks prefixed to his translation of the _Aminta_ (London, 1820), that some at any rate of the regular choruses cannot have formed part of the original composition. In fact the first edition (Aldus, 1581) contains those to Acts I and V only; that to Act II appeared in the second edition (Ferrara, 1581), and also in the collected _Rime_ (Aldus, 1581); the rest were added in the Aldine quarto of 1590.

[172] Supposing always that this representation, of which Filippo Baldinucci, in his _Notizie dei professori del disegno_ (sec. iv, dec. vii; 1688, p. 102), has left a glowing account, was a representation of the _Aminta_, and not, as some have maintained, of the _Intrichi d' amore_, another play sometimes ascribed to Tasso.

[173] Amore had already spoken the prologue to Lodovico Dolce's _Dido_; and a mythological play by Sannazzaro, of which the opening alone is extant, introduces Venus in pursuit of her son, and warning the ladies of the audience against his wiles (Creizenach, ii. p. 209). The prologue to the _Pastor fido_ is put into the mouth of the river-god Alfeo, that of Bonarelli's _Filli di Sciro_, which begins with another Ovidian reminiscence (_Amores_, I. xiii. 40), and was written by Marino, is spoken by a personification of night, that of Ongaro's _Alceo_ by Venus, of Castelletti's _Amarilli_ by 'Apollo in habito pastorale,' of Cristoforo Lauro's _Frutti d'amore_ by Janus in similar garb, of Cesana's _Prova amoroso_, by Hercules. The list might be extended indefinitely. Contarini, at the beginning of the next century, followed precedent less closely; his _Finta Fiammetta_ has a dramatic prologue introducing Venus, Cupid, Anteros (the avenger of slighted love), and a chorus of _amoretti_; that of his _Fida ninfa_ is spoken by the shade of Petrarch.

[174] Most of the identifications made by Menagio in his edition, Paris, 1650, have generally been accepted since, except by Fontanini, who would identify Pigna with Mopso. There seems, however, to be little doubt possible on the point, though it is not to Tasso's credit. For an audience conversant with the inner life of the court, the references to Elpino contained whole volumes of contemporary scandal. In Licori we may see Lucrezia Bendidio. This lady, the wife of Count Paolo Machiavelli, and sister-in-law of Guarini, is said to have been the mistress of Cardinal Luigi d' Este; but Pigna, too, courted her, and brooked no rivalry on the part of fledgling poets. Tasso appears to have paid her imprudent attention in the early days of his residence at Ferrara, and thus incurred the secretary's wrath. The princess Leonora remonstrated with her poet on his folly, and Tasso, by way of palinode, wrote a fulsome commentary on three of Pigna's wooden _canzoni_, ranking them with Petrarch's. Tasso is appareutly allnding to this incident when he puts into Elpino's mouth the words:

Quivi con Tirsi ragionando andava
Pur di colei che nell' istessa rete
Lui prima e me dappoi ravvolse e strinse;
E preponendo alla sua fuga, al suo
Libero stato il mio dolce servigio. (V. i. 61.)

The origin of the name 'Licori' may possibly, as Carducci points out (p. 94), be sought in an epigram, _Ad Licorim_, found among Pigna's Latin _Carmina_ (1553). The whole incident throws a curious light on the pettiness of the Ferrarese Court, a characteristic in which it was, however, not peculiar. (See Rossi, pp. 34, &c.) It is perhaps worth while mentioning that by the _antro dell' Aurora_ was no doubt intended the room in the castle, said to have formed part of the private apartments of Leonora, still known as the _sala dell' Aurora_, from a wretched fresco on the ceiling by the local artist Dosso Dossi.

[175] _Aminta_, I. i; _Canace_, IV. ii.

[176] _Lettere del Guarini_, Veneta, Ciotti, 1615, p. 92. See Rossi, 56^{1}

[177] I have already had occasion to point out that, from the time of Boccaccio onwards, a nymph of Diana might represent a nun, but the whole of Silvia's relations with Dafne make it plain that she is in no way vowed to virginity. Her being represented as a follower of Diana implies no more than that she is fancy-free, and so in a sense under the protection of the virgin goddess. This use of the phrase is as old as Theocritus: 'Artemis, be not wrathful, thy votary breaks her vow' (_Idyl_ 27). And it is so used by Silvia herself in her proud and petulant retort to Aminta: 'Pastor, non mi toccar; son di Diana' (III. i).

[178] The idea passed from Italian into English verse:

tell me why
This goblin 'honour,' by the world enshrined,
Should make men atheists, and not women kind--

to improve upon the exceedingly neat bowdlerization which the Rev. J. W. Ebsworth has sought to palm off as the genuine text of Tom Carew.

[179] We have, in the passages quoted, a foretaste of the priggish extravagance of the _Faithful Shepherdess_. That there should have been found critics to combine just but wholly otiose condemnation of Cloe with reverential appreciation of the absurdities of Clorin and Thenot, and to clap applause to the self-conscious virtue, little removed from smugness, in which the 'moral grandeur' of the Lady of the Ludlow masque is clothed, is indeed a striking witness to the tyranny of conventional morality. If virginal purity were in fact the hypocritical convention which it is to some extent possible to condone in the _Aminta_, but which becomes wholly loathsome in the work of Fletcher, the sooner it disappeared from the region of practical ethics the better for the moral health of humanity.

[180] Menagio's edition is said to have appeared in 1650, but I have only seen the edition of 1655, which I also notice is the date given by Weise and Pèrcopo (p. 319). The play is said to have been printed in Italy alone some two hundred times; there are twenty French translations, five German, at least nine English, several in Spanish and other languages. A version in the Slavonic Illyrian dialect appeared in 1598; a Latin one in iambic trimeters by Andrea Hiltebrando, a Pomeranian physician, in 1615; another in modern Greek in 1745. See Carducci, p. 99.

[181] Published, together with Paglia's reply, by Antonio Bulifon in his _Lettere memorabili_, Naples, 1698, iii. p. 307. The play had already been adversely criticized by Francesco Patrizi and Gian Vincenzo Gravina.

[182] 'L'Aminta difeso e illustrato da G. Fontanini,' Roma, 1700. Another edition appeared in 1730 at Venice, with further annotations by Uberto Benvoglienti.

[183] It is, however, perfectly true that the play, together with the writings in its defence and the notes, to be considered later, occupied the attention of the author for a period of fully twenty years, and it is possibly thus that the tradition arose. I may say that throughout this section I am under deep obligations to Rossi's monograph.

[184] Rossi, p. 183. I shall return to the point.

[185] In later days he was often called Giovanbattista, but the addition is without authority, in spite of its appearance in the British Museum catalogue.

[186] This preliminary history is drawn, as Guarini himself points out in his notes of 1602, from Pausanias (VII. 21), though less closely than he there implies. The rest of the plot he claimed as original, but it is to a large extent merely a rehandling of the same motive.

[187] Carino is said to represent Guarini in the same manner as Tirsi does Tasso.

[188] There is a legend that this scene was placed on the Index. This, anyhow, cannot refer to the _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_, but only to the _Index Expurgatorius_, which was at no time an officiai publication. But the whole story appears to be without foundation.

[189] In comparing the two pieces, it is worth remembering that, whereas the _Aminta_ contains about 2,000 lines, the _Pastor fido_ runs to close upon 7,000.

[190] _Storia della letteratura italiana nel secolo XVI_, Milano, 1880, pp. 244-7. See Rossi, p. 264. His argument is that it anticipated a revolt against the conventional nature of domestic love, reflecting better than any other dramatic work the ideas that towards the end of the _cinquecento_ were, according to him, leading in the direction of a moral regeneration of Italian Society. It is, however, difficult to reconcile his theory with what we know of Italy in the days of the counter-reformation; while it may at the same time be doubted whether a tone of anaemic sentimentality is, in itself, preferable to one of cynical convention. It should be added that there is little regeneration of domestic love to be found in the partly pathetic and partly sordid tragedy of Guarini's own family.

[191] The quotations are from the opening scene of either play. The parallel is that selected by Symonds for quotation, and is among the most striking examples of Guarini's method, but similar instances might be collected from almost every scene.

[192] G. B. Manso, _Vita di T. Tasso_, Venezia, Denchino, 1621, p. 329. Carducci, p. 99.

[193] 'Il Pastor Fido Tragicomedia Pastorale di Battista Guarini, Dedicata al Ser'mo. D. Carlo Emanuele Duca di Sauoia, &c. Nelle Reali Nozze di S. A. con la Ser'ma. Infante D. Caterina d'Austria.' The tradition of a performance on this occasion dates from early in the seventeenth century, and is endorsed by the poet's nephew and biographer, Alessandro Guarini. It is in part due to a confusion of words: the play was _presentato_, but not _rappresentato_.

[194] Guarini, _Lettere_, Venetia, Ciotti, 1615, p. 174. Rossi, 228^{7}.

[195] At least one of these, a worthless production by a certain Niccolo Averara, is extant. That of 1598 was probably spoken by Hymen. Rossi, pp. 232-3.

[196] It has sometimes been supposed that the Baldini edition, Ferrara, 1590, was the earlier, but Guarini's letter is conclusive.

[197] Of this edition the British Museum possesses a magnificent copy on large and thick paper, bearing on the title-page the inscription: 'Al Ser^{mo}. Principe di Vinegia Marin Grimani,' showing that it was the presentation copy to the Doge at the time of publication. Another copy on large but not on thick paper is in my own possession, and has on the title-page the remains of a similar inscription beginning apparently 'All Ill^{mo} et R^{mo}...' I rather suspect it of being the copy presented to the ecclesiastic, whoever he was, who represented the Congregation of the Index at Venice. Innumerable editions followed; I have notes of no less than fifty during the half-century succeeding publication, i.e. 1590-1639.

[198] The authorship of the notes is placed beyond doubt by a letter of Guarini's, otherwise it might have been doubted whether even he could have been guilty of the fulsome self-laudation they contain. On the controversy see Rossi, pp. 238-43.

[199] Certain modern writers have shown themselves worthy descendants of the criticaster of Vicenza by insisting that the play should properly be called the _Pastorella fida_. Guarini was weak enough to reply to Malacreta's carpings in his notes, and thereby exposed himself to similar attacks from posterity.

[200] The absurdity lies of course in the commanding merit ascribed to the piece. As Saintsbury has pointed out in his _History of Criticism_, had Aristotle known the romantic drama of the renaissance, the _Poetics_ would have been largely another work.

[201] Summo evidently thought that Pescetti's defence at least was the work of Guarini himself. There is no evidence that this was so, but Rossi considers it not improbable that Guarini at least directed the labours of his supporters.

[202] It is unnecessary to enter into any further discussion of these plays. The following titles, however, quoted by Stiefel in his review of Rossi, may be mentioned. Scipione Dionisio, _Amore cortese_, 1570 (?) (not the Alessandro Dionisio whose _ecloga_, entitled _Amorosi sospiri_, with intermezzos of a mythological character, was printed in 1599); Niccolò degli Angeli, _Ligurino_, 1574 (so Allacci, _Drammaturgia_, 1755; the only edition in the British Museum is dated 1594; Venus and Silenus are among the characters, and the prologue is spoken by 'Tempo'); Cesare della Valle, _Filide_, 1579; Giovanni Fratta, _La Nigella_, 1580; Cristoforo Castelletti, _Amarilli_, 1580 (which edition, though given by Allacci, appears to be now unknown, as is also the date of composition; a second edition appeared in 1582; the prologue was spoken by 'Apollo in habito pastorale,' and Ongaro contributed a commendatory sonnet); Giovanni Donato Cuchetti, _La Pazzia_, 1581; Pietro Cresci, _Tirena_, 1584; Alessandro Mirari, _Mauriziano_, 1584; Dionisio Rondinelli, _Galizia_, 1583 (his _Pastor vedovo_ was printed in 1599, with a prologue spoken by 'Primavera,' and an echo scene).

[203] Preface to the Bodoni edition of the _Aminta_, p. 12.

[204] This episode of the double love of Celia formed the subject of an attack on the play. The author wrote an elaborate defence which was printed at Ancona in 1612. It runs to 221 quarto pages.

[205] I am aware that attempts have been made to find evidence of Italian influence in Lyly, but of this later.

[206] The piece appeared anonymously, but the authorship is attested by Nashe in his preface to Greene's _Menaphon_, 1589. Some songs from the play also appear over Peele's signature in _England's Helicon_, 1600. I have quoted from A. H. Bullen's edition of Peele's works, 2 vols. 1888.

[207] Fraunce's translation in his _Ivychurch_ (_vide post_), and J. Wolfe's edition, together with the _Pastor fido_, both 1591.

[208] Like Dove. Cf. p. 98.

[209] i.e. coupled impartially with its reward.

[210] Umpire.

[211] Groves.

[212] The entry of the piece to R. Jones, on July 26, 1591, in the Stationers' Register, coupled with the fact that _England's Parnassus_ quotes almost entirely from printed works, puts this practically beyond doubt. It is of course possible that a copy may yet be discovered.

[213] Dr. Henry Jackson, than whom no classical scholar has devoted more study to the Elizabethan drama, draws my attention to the fact that a somewhat indelicate passage in the play, obscurely hinted at in Drummond's notes (ed. Bullen, ii. p. 366), evidently forms the basis of that poet's own epigram 'Of Nisa' (ed. Turnbull, p. 104).

[214] Two other plays of Lyly's appear at first sight to present pastoral features. There are five 'shepherds' among the dramatis personae of _Mydas_, but they appear in one scene only (IV. ii), and merely represent the common people, introduced to comment on the actions of the king. The names, as is usual with Lyly, except in the case of comic characters, are classical. The other play is _Mother Bombie_, which, however, is nothing but a comedy of low life, combining the tradition of the Latin comedy with the native farce, which goes back through _Gammer Gurton_ to the old interludes. It contains a good deal of honest fun and a notable lack of Euphuism.

[215] For many years, indeed, his romance continued to run through ever-fresh editions, that of 1636 being the twelfth. It is clear, however, that its public had changed.

[216] It is a curious fact that the authorship of these songs, though it has never been seriously questioned, rests on very uncertain evidence. I may refer to an article on the subject in the _Modern Language Review_ for October, 1905, i. p. 43.

[217] A play entitled 'Iphis and Ianthe, or A marriage without a man,' was entered on the Stationers' Register on June 29, 1660, as the work of Shakespeare.

[218] Lyly may very possibly have known the story of Hesione cited by R. W. Bond (ii. 421), but it presents no particular points of similarity, and the outline of the legend was of course common property. A similar sacrifice forms an episode in _Orlando furioso_, VIII. 52, &c.; the sacrifice of a youth to an _orribile serpe_ also forms the central incident in Orazio Serono's _Fida Armilla_, 1610; while the motive of the annual sacrifice occurs of course in the _Pastor fido_.

[219] There can be little doubt as to the identity of the 'Commoedie of Titirus and Galathea,' entered on the Stationers' Register under date April 1, 1585; and now that, thanks to Bond's researches, it is evident that the reference to _Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus_ (see III. iii) was no _ex post facto_ prophecy, but borrowed from Richard Harvey's _Astrological Discourse_ of 1583, there is no reason to suppose a double date.

[220] Bond argues in favour of the extant text being mutilated, and representing a late revival about 1600. I am not prepared, and in the present place certainly not concerned, to dispute his hypothesis; whatever the cause, the literary result is unsatisfactory, and from his remarks concerning its dramatic merits I must emphatically dissent.

[221] Bond's emendation, undoubtedly correct, for _nip_ of the quarto.

[222] This story, strangely characterized as 'extremely attractive' by Bond, is elaborated from that given by Ovid in the eighth book of the _Metamorphoses_. I have elsewhere alluded to the theory of Italian pastoral influence in Lyly. I had in mind L. L. Schiicking's monograph on _Die stofflichen Beziehungen der englischen Komodie zur italienischen bis Lilly_, Halle, 1901, but must here state that to my mind he has completely failed to prove his thesis. I need not enter into details in this place, but may refer to Bond's discussion in his 'Note on Italian influence in Lyly's plays' (ii. p. 473). There is, however, one passage in _Love's Metamorphosis_ (not mentioned by Schucking) which suggests a reminiscence of the _Aminta_; Cupid, namely, describes himself (V. i.) as 'such a god that maketh thunder fall out of Joves hand, by throwing thoughts into his heart.' Compare the lines in Tasso's Prologue:

un dio...
Che fa spesso cader di mano a Marte
La sanguinosa spada...
E le folgori eterne al sommo Giove.

I give the parallel for what it is worth. So far as I am aware it is the only one which can claim the least plausibility, and alone it is clearly insufficient to prove any borrowing on the part of the English playwright.

[223] Bond adduces some fairly strong reasons for supposing it later than 1590. A. W. Ward was evidently unable to make up his mind upon the question, and treats the play at the head of the list of Lyly's works, in which it seems to me that he hardly does justice to his critical powers.

[224] A very similar reminiscence of Marlowe's rhythm: /p And think I wear a rich imperial crowne, p/ occurs in the old play of _King Leir_, which must belong to about the same date, _c._ 1592.

[225] It is possible, though of course by no means necessary, that we have a specifie reminiscence of the lines in _Faustus_:

More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms. (Sc. xv.)

[226] I have of course not concerned myself with those mythological plays which offer no pastoral features. Nor is it possible to go into the question of the Latin plays performed at the Universities. I may, however, mention the _Atalanta_ of Philip Parsons, a short piece preserved in the British Museum, MS. Harl. 6924, and dedicated to no less a person than Laud, when President of St. John's, Oxford, a position he held from 1611 to 1615. The play is founded upon the Boeotian legend of Atalanta, though the laying of the scene in Arcadia would appear to indicate a confusion with the other version. Pastoral characters and scenes are introduced.

[227] See the epistle dedicatory to the Countess of Pembroke, prefixed to the _Ivychurch_, in which the translation appeared, 1591.

[228] The choruses to Acts III and IV are omitted, which proves that Fraunce worked, as we should expect, from some edition previous to the Aldine quarto of 1590. There are also certain unimportant alterations in the translation from Watson. For a more detailed examination of Fraunce's relation to his Italian original, see an article by E. Koeppel on 'Die englischen Tasso-Übersetzungen des 16. Jahrhunderts,' in _Anglia_, vol. xi (1889), p. 11.

[229] 'Phillis, alas, tho' thou live, another by this will be dying' would be a more elegant as well as more correct rendering of 'Oimè! tu vivi; Altri non già': it would, however, not scan according to Fraunce's rules.

[230] Numerous French translations were, moreover, available for such as happened to be more familiar with that language.

[231] Though not a point of much importance, I may as well take the opportunity of endeavouring to clear up the singular confusion which has surrounded the authorship. The ascription to John Reynolds rests ultimately upon the authority of Edward Phillips, in whose _Theatrum Poetarum_, 1675, we find _s.v._ Torquato Tasso the note (pt. ii, p. 186): 'Amintas, a Pastoral, elegantly translated into English by John Reynolds.' Who this John was is open to question. The _Dic. Nat. Biog._ recognizes three John Reynolds in the first half of the seventeenth century: (1) John Reynolds, or Reinolds (1584-1614), epigrammatist, fellow of New College, Oxford; (2) John Reynolds, of Exeter, (_fl._ 1621-50), author of _God's Revenge against Murder_, and of translations from French and Dutch; and (3) Sir John Reynolds, colonel in the Parliamentary army. The British Museum Catalogue, on the other hand, distinguishes between John Reynolds, of Exeter, author of _God's Revenge_ and other works, and John Reynolds the translator (to whom the _Aminta_ is tentatively ascribed). I am not aware of any authority for this distinction, though there is nothing in the composition of _God's Revenge_ to make one suppose the author capable of producing the translation of the _Aminta_. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the incidental verse in some of his other works, notably in the _Flower of Fidelity_, a romance published in 1650, is distinctly on a more respectable level than his prose. The ascription, however, to John Reynolds has not very much to support it. Phillips' authority is second-rate at best, and is not likely to be at its best in the present case. It is indeed surprising that he should have been acquainted with this early translation rather than with that by John Dancer, which appeared in 1660, and must have been far more generally known at the end of the seventeenth century. The first to identify the translator with Henry Reynolds was, so far as I am aware, Mary A. Scott, in her valuable series of papers on 'Elizabethan Translations from the Italian,' in the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (vol. xi. p. 112); and the same view was taken independently by the writer of a notice in the _Dic. Nat. Biog._ This ascription is based upon the entry in the Stationers' Register, which runs: '7º Novembris 1627. William Lee. Entred for his Copye under the handes of Sir Henry Herbert and both the wardens A booke called Torquato Tassos Aminta Englished by Henry Reynoldes ... vj^{d}' (Arber, iv. p. 188). Several songs of his are extant, and an epistle of Drayton's is dedicated to him. This appears to me the more reasonable ascription of the two. The writer in the _Dic. Nat. Biog._ further claims that the identity of the translator with Henry Reynolds is proved by internal evidence of style. I may add that Serassi, in his remarks prefixed to the Bodoni edition of the _Aminta_ (Parma, 1789), ascribed the present translation to Oldmixon through a confusion of the dates 1628 and 1698.

[232] Streams or inlets.

[233] The unfortunate cacophony of the opening is the retribution on the translator for not having the courage to begin with a hypermetrical line.

[234] Later translations of the _Aminta_ may be mentioned: John Oldmixon, 1698; P. B. Du Bois, in prose, with Italian, 1726; William Ayre [1737]; Percival Stockdale, 1770; and, lastly, the very graceful rendering by Leigh Hunt, 1820. As lately as 1900 a gentleman who need not be named had the impertinence to publish, in an American series, a mediocre version of the _Aminta_ as being 'Now first rendered into English.' I may mention that some confusion has been introduced into the question of the date of Du Bois' translation by the wholly unwarranted opinion on the part of the B. M. catalogue that the second (undated) edition appeared _c._ 1650. I have compared the two editions at the Bodleian, and have no doubt that the second belongs to _c._ 1730.

[235] The facts are as follow. The entry on the Stationers' Register is dated September 16, 1601, and does not mention the translator's name. The first edition, quarto, 1602, contains a sonnet by Daniel, addressed to Sir Edward Dymocke, in which he refers to the translator as the knight's 'kinde Countryman.' This is followed by 'A Sonnet of the Translator, dedicated to that honourable Knight his kinsman, Syr Edward Dymock.' After this comes an epistle dedicatory addressed to Sir Edward, and signed by Simon Waterson, the publisher, dated 'London this last of December. 1601.' In it the writer speaks of Sir Edward's 'nearenesse of kinne to the deceased Translator.' The play was reprinted in 1633, in 12mo, with an epistle dedicatory by John Waterson to 'Charles Dymock, Esquire,' beginning: 'That it may appeare unto the world, that you are Heire of what ever else was your Fathers, as well as of his vertues, I heere restore what formerly his gracious acceptance made onely his: Which as a testimonie to all, that it received Life from none but him, was content to loose its being with us, since he ceased to bee.' Through the hyperbolical ambiguity of this passage it clearly appears that Charles was Sir Edward's son, but not in the least that he was the translator as has been supposed, still less that he was the son of the translator, as has also been suggested. The play is first mentioned in the second edition (1782) of the _Biographia Dramatica_, where the translator is said to be a 'Mr. Dymock,' and Charles is identified as his son. This was copied in the 1812 edition, and also by Halliwell, while Mr. Hazlitt has the astonishing statement that the version was by 'Charles Dymock and a second person unknown.' The _Dic. Nat. Biog._ does not recognize any of the persons concerned. There is, however, one curious piece of evidence which has been so far overlooked. In the list of plays, namely, appended by the publisher Edward Archer to his edition of the _Old Law_ in 1656, occurs the entry: 'Faithfull Shepheardesse. C[omedy]. John Dymmocke.' The compiler has of course confused the translation with Fletcher's play, but the ascription is nevertheless interesting. If we insist on identifying the translator at all, it must be with this John Dymocke. The entries in Archer's list, however, are far too untrustworthy for their unsupported evidence to carry much weight. A translation 'by D. D. Gent. 12mo. 1633,' recorded by Halliwell and others, is evidently due to a series of blunders on the part of bibliographers, though what the origin of the initials is I have been unable to discover. They are probably due to Coxeter.

[236] MS. Addit. 29,493.

[237] I understand that an edition of Fanshawe's works is in preparation for Mr. Bullen.

[238] Later translations of the _Pastor fido_ appeared in 1782 [by William Grove], and in 1809 [by William Clapperton?].

[239] MS. Ff. ii. 9.

[240] The allusion, which has hitherto escaped notice, will be found quoted below, p. 252 note.

[241] In this note the _Pastor fido_ is said to have been 'Translated by some Author before this,' but the context makes it evident that 'some' is a misprint for 'the same.'

[242] It might be objected that J. S. is called 'Gent,' while Sidnam is termed esquire; but it should be remarked that in the MS. the 'Esq;' has been added in a later hand.

[243] MS. Sloane 836, folio 76^{v}.

[244] MS. Sloane 857, folio 195^{v}.

[245] MS. Addit. 12,128. Another MS. in the Bodleian.