Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama Part 40

_Somnium Puteani (Cornus, sive Phagesiposia Cimeria)_ _Song of Solomon_ Sophocles _Sophy_ Southampton, Earl of _Speeches at Bisham, &c._ Speed, John Spencer, Sir John Spenser, Edmund Speroni, Sperone Spinelli, A. G.

Stanley, Ferdinando (Lord Strange) _Steel Gla.s.s_ Steele, Sir Richard Stesichorus Stevenson, R. L.

Stiefel, A. L.

Stockdale, Percival _Stonehenge_ Strange, Lord, _see_ Stanley, F.

_Stultifera Navis_ Suckling, Sir Thomas Suidas _Summer's Last Will and Testament_ Summo, Faustino Surrey, Earl of (Henry Howard) _Sweet Sobs and Amorous Complaints_ Swinburne, A. C.

Symonds, J. A.

T., I.

Taccone, Balda.s.sare Talbot, Sir George _Tale of Troy_ _Tancia_ Tansillo, Luigi _Tarlton's News out of Purgatory_ Ta.s.so, Torquato Tatham, John Taylor, John _Taylor's Pastoral_ _Tears of the Muses_ Tebaldeo, Antonio _Tempest_ Texeda, Jeronimo de _Theatrum Poetarum_ Theocritus Thomason, George Thorndike, A. H.

_Thracian Wonder_ Thynne, William Tibullus Ticknor, George _Timone_ Tiraboschi, Girolamo _Tirena_ _Tirsi_ _t.i.tirus and Galathea_ Tofte, Robert _Tottel's Miscellany_ _Townley mysteries_ _Triumph of Beauty_ _Triumph of Peace_ _Triumph of Virtue_ Torraca, Francesco Turberville, George Turnbull, W. B.

_Twelfth Night_ _Tivo Gentlemen of Verona_ _Two n.o.ble Kinsmen_

Ugolino, Braccio Ulloa, Alonzo de _Under der linden_ Underhill, J. G.

Uniti, Accademia degli Urceo Urfe, Honore d'

_Valle tenebrosa_ (_Vallis Opaca_) Valle, Cesare della Valois, House of Vega, Lope de _Vendemmiatore_ _Venus and Adonis_ _Verato_ _Verato secondo_ Vergil Vergna, Maria della, _see_ La Fayette, Comtesse de Vicente, Gil Vida, Marco Girolamo Villon, Francois _Volpone_ _Vuelta de Egypto_

W., A.

Waldron, F. G.

Walsingham, Sir Francis Walther von der Vogelweide Walton, Isaac _War without Blows and Love without Suit (? Strife)_ Ward, A. W.

Warner, William Warton, Thomas Waterson, Simon Watson, Thomas, III Web, William, _Lord Mayor_ Webbe, William Weber, H. W.

Webster, John Webster, William Weinberg, Gustav Weise, Berthold White, Edward Wicksteed, P. H.

Wilc.o.x, Thomas Wilde, George Wilson, H.

Wilson, Thomas _Wily Beguiled_ Windscheid, Katharina Winstanley, William _Winter's Tale_ Wither, George Wolfe, John Wolsey, Thomas, _Cardinal_ _Woman in the Moon_ _Wonder of Women_ Wood, Anthony a Wotton, Sir John Wotton, Sir Henry Wyatt, Sir Thomas, the elder Wynkyn de Worde

Yong (or Young), Bartholomew

_Zanitonella_ Zinano, Gabriele Zola, Emil Zurla, Lodovico

Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University.

Footnotes

[1] The often cited pastoralism of the _Song of Solomon_ resolves itself on investigation into an occasional simile. These argue familiarity with the scenes of pastoral life, but equally reveal the existence of the contrast in the mind of the writer. It was on the orthodox interpretation of this love-song that Remi Belleau founded his _eclogues sacrees_, but they contain little or nothing of a pastoral nature. The same may be said of Drayton's paraphrase, included in his _Harmony of the Church_ in 1591, which is chiefly remarkable for the evident and honest pleasure with which he rendered the unsophisticated meaning of the original. It is, however, just possible that the Hebrew poem may have had some influence on pastoral poetry in Italy. There is a monograph on the subject by A. Abbruzzese, _Il Cantico dei Cantici in alcune parafrasi poetiche italiane: contributo alla storia del dramma pastorale_, which, however, I have not seen. With regard to possible Greek predecessors of Theocritus, it must be borne in mind that there were singing contests between shepherds at the Sicilian festival of Artemis, and it is possible that the compet.i.tors may have been sufficiently influenced by other orders of civilization to have given a definitely pastoral colouring to their songs. Little is known of their nature beyond the fact that they probably contained the motive of the lament for Daphnis, which appears to be as old as Stesichorus. They have perished all but two lines which are found prefixed by way of motto to the _Idyls_:

[Greek: d??a? t?? ??a??? t??a?, d??a? t?? ???e?a?, ?? f???e? pa?? t?s ?e??, ?? ??a??ssat? t??a.]

What I have wished to emphasize above is the fact that because shepherds sang songs we have no reason to a.s.sume that these were distinctively pastoral. In later times the pastoral generally acknowledged a theoretical dependence on rustic song, and the popular compositions did actually now and again affect literary tradition. But this was rare.

[2] Details concerning the conception of the golden age will be found in Moorman's _William Browne_, p. 59.

[3] The tendency to form an ideal picture of his own youth is common both to mankind and man. The romance of childhood is the dream with which age consoles itself for the disillusionments of life. This it is that gives a peculiar appropriateness to the t.i.tle of Mr. Graham's pictures of childhood in _The Golden Age_, a work of the profoundest insight and genius, as delightful as it is unique. I am not aware that there has ever been another author in English who could have written thus intimately of children without once striking a false note.

[4] There is some truth in the charge. Even Symonds wrote of Theocritus, possibly with Fontenelle's words in his mind: 'As it is, we find enough of rustic grossness on his pages, and may even complain that his cowherds and goatherds savour too strongly of their stables.' (_Greek Poets_, ii. p.

246.)

[5] Landscapes as decoration may be seen on the walls of the so-called Casa Nuova at Pompeii. It should be remarked that one idyl is addressed to Hiero, ruler of Syracuse, and it is quite possible that Theocritus may have been a frequent visitor there.

[6] Theocritus flourished in the first half of the third century B.C. Some authorities place the younger poets more than a hundred years later.

[7] Familiar to English readers through Matthew Arnold's translation.

[8] Suidas says that Moschus came from Sicily, and some authorities speak of him as a Syracusan. But in his 'Lament' he alludes to his 'Ausonian'

song, apparently as distinguished from that of Theocritus 'of Syracuse.'

The pa.s.sage, however, is rendered obscure by an hiatus. Another tradition made Theocritus a native of the island of Cos. More probably it was between the time of his leaving Syracuse and that of his settling at Alexandria that he was the pupil of the Coan poet and critic, Philetas.

[9] Ernest Myers' version from Andrew Lang's delightful volume in the Golden Treasury Series.

[10] Placing the romance, that is, in the third century A.D. Authorities a.s.sign it to various dates from the second to the sixth centuries, according as they regard it as a model or an imitation of Heliodorus'

work.

[11] A similar use of ??a?????s?? is very frequent in the Italian pastoral drama, where, however, it is more probably derived from Latin comedy.

[12] This was not the first Italian version of Longus. _Daphnis and Chloe_ had been translated directly from the Greek by Annibale Caro in the previous century.

[13] Two poems, written in close imitation of Theocritus' natural manner, and ent.i.tled respectively _Moretum_ and _Copa_, have sometimes, but wrongly, been attributed to Vergil.

[14] _Greek Poets_, ii. p. 265.

[15] Symonds speaks strongly on the point. 'Virgil not only lacks his [Theocritus'] vigour and enthusiasm for the open-air life of the country, but, with Roman bad taste, he commits the capital crime of allegorising.'

(_Greek Poets_, ii. p. 247.)

[16] Seyffert's cla.s.sical dictionary, as revised by Nettles.h.i.+p and Sandys (1899), definitely a.s.signs Calpurnius to the middle of the first century.

In that case the amphitheatre mentioned was no doubt the wooden structure that preceded the Colosseum.

[17] See, in Conington and Nettles.h.i.+p's _Virgil_, 1881, the essay on 'The Later Bucolic Poets of Rome,' in which will be found a detailed account of this very intricate controversy.

[18] It would appear that the two founders of the renaissance eclogue deliberately chose the Vergilian form as that best suited to their purpose. Petrarch calls attention to the advantages offered by the pastoral for covert reference to men and events of the day, since it is characteristic of the form to let its meaning only partially appear. He was therefore perfectly aware of the allegorical nature of the Vergilian eclogue, and adopted it for definite purposes of utility. Boccaccio is even more explicit, and I cannot do better than transcribe the very interesting summary of the history of pastoral verse down to his day, given in a letter addressed by him to Martino da Signa, which I shall again have occasion to mention in dealing with his own contributions to the kind. He writes: 'Theocritus Syracusa.n.u.s Poeta, ut ab antiquis accepimus, primus fuit, qui Graeco Carmine Buccolic.u.m escogitavit stylum, verum nil sensit, praeter quod cortex verborum demonstrat. Post hunc Latine scripsit Virgilius, sed sub cortice nonnullos abscondit sensus, esto non semper voluerit sub nominibus colloquentium aliquid sentiremus.

Post hunc autem scripserunt et alii, sed ign.o.biles, de quibus nil curandum est, excepto inclyto Praeceptore meo Francisco Petrarca qui stylum praeter solitum paululum sublimavit et secundum Eclogarum suarum materias continue collocutorum nomina aliquid significantia posuit. Ex his ego Virgilium secutus sum quapropter non curavi in omnibus colloquentium nominibus sensum abscondere.' _Lettere di G. Boccaccio_, ed. Corazzini, 1877, p.

267.

[19] Line 1228. See Skeat's note in the _Athenaeum_, March 1, 1902.

[20] On all points connected with these compositions see the elaborate monograph by Wicksteed and Gardner.

[21] Dante's poems do not stand altogether isolated in this respect. It would be possible to cite eclogues formerly ascribed to Mussato, as also some from the pens of Giovanni de Boni of Arezzo and Cecco di Mileto, in support of the above remarks. It is significant of their independence of medieval pastoralism, that Giovanni del Virgilio repeatedly speaks of Dante as the first to write bucolic poetry since Vergil, thus ignoring the whole production from Calpurnius to Metellus.

[22] Boccaccio was of course acquainted with Dante's eclogues, and in his life of the poet he allows them considerable beauty. It seems never to have occurred to him, however, to regard them as serious contributions to pastoral literature, for, as we have already seen, he stigmatizes all bucolic writers between Vergil and Petrarch as _ign.o.biles_. I do not think this att.i.tude was due to the influence of Petrarch having lessened his admiration of Dante, as maintained by Wicksteed and Gardner, but simply to his recognition of the absolute unimportance of the poems in question from the historical point of view.

[23] In this connexion it will be remembered that Dante places Brutus and Ca.s.sius, the betrayers of Julius, in company with Judas, the betrayer of Christ, as arch-traitors in the innermost circle of h.e.l.l (_Inferno_, x.x.xiv). He was no doubt influenced in this by his philosophical Ghibelline tendencies.

[24] The evolution of this idea, suggested of course by John X. II, can be clearly traced in the mosaics at Ravenna.