Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama Part 45

[192] G. B. Manso, _Vita di T. Ta.s.so_, 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 t.i.tle-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 t.i.tle-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 authors.h.i.+p 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 t.i.tles, however, quoted by Stiefel in his review of Rossi, may be mentioned. Scipione Dionisio, _Amore cortese_, 1570 (?) (not the Alessandro Dionisio whose _ecloga_, ent.i.tled _Amorosi sospiri_, with intermezzos of a mythological character, was printed in 1599); Niccol 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 authors.h.i.+p 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 Parna.s.sus_ 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 cla.s.sical scholar has devoted more study to the Elizabethan drama, draws my attention to the fact that a somewhat indelicate pa.s.sage 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 cla.s.sical. 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 authors.h.i.+p 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 ent.i.tled '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 ident.i.ty of the 'Commoedie of t.i.tirus 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 pa.s.sage in _Love's Metamorphosis_ (not mentioned by Schucking) which suggests a reminiscence of the _Aminta_; Cupid, namely, describes himself (V. i.) as 'such a G.o.d that maketh thunder fall out of Joves hand, by throwing thoughts into his heart.' Compare the lines in Ta.s.so'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 Ta.s.so-ubersetzungen 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 'Oime! tu vivi; Altri non gia': 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 authors.h.i.+p. The ascription to John Reynolds rests ultimately upon the authority of Edward Phillips, in whose _Theatrum Poetarum_, 1675, we find _s.v._ Torquato Ta.s.so 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 _G.o.d'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 _G.o.d'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 _G.o.d'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 a.s.sociation 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: '7 Novembris 1627. William Lee. Entred for his Copye under the handes of Sir Henry Herbert and both the wardens A booke called Torquato Ta.s.sos 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 ident.i.ty of the translator with Henry Reynolds is proved by internal evidence of style. I may add that Sera.s.si, 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.