18 PASTORAL LITEKATUBE FROM OPITZ TO GESSXEK. 



CHAPTER III. 



PaSTOEAL LlTERATIliE FROM OpITZ TO GeSSXER. 



Wlien the classic studies again began to flourish m Italy, Yergil 

 was at once enthroned as king of poets, and became the pattern 

 whom all imitated. Lyric, romance, and dramatic 

 Introductory: literature alike were soon influenced and con- 

 The Renais- trolled by his pastoral allegory. 



sance; Pastoral The allegorical eclogTie was first re-introiluced 

 Literature in by Petrachi and Boccaccio: the latter also wrote 

 Italy. a pastoral romance, L'Ameto. The pastoral was 



first developed into the shepherd drama by Polizi- 

 ano in the shepherd-play Orfeo.'- 1471. which had for its subject 

 the descent of Orpheus into the lower world. 



The pastoral romance Arcadia, by Jac. Sannazaro.^ occupies 

 a most important place in popularizing the pastoral element 

 and fixing it upon later literature. It electrified all Italy; 

 and was publi-shed more than sixty times duiing the sixteenth 

 century.* Infiueuced by the great popularity of this work, Tasso 

 wrote his shepherd-play Aminta. which in turn was imitated in 

 Guarini's famous II Pastor Fido (1.585). 



The character of these woiks is to a great extent determined 

 by the fact that the scene is laid in the Golden Age= of which 



1 On accomit of the allegorical element, Petrach had to give a key to his 

 poems, in order to be under.stood. 



2 This wa-s the first theatrical representation which differed from the so- 

 caUed mysteries. See P. A. Budik: Leben and Wirken der vnrzUglicbsteD 

 lateinischea Dichter des XV.-XVIl. Jabrbunde'i^s. 



3 He always celebrated VergO's birthday by a feast. He wrote Latin eclogties 

 which show the influence of Theocritus, whose first seven idyls had been trans- 

 lated into Latin hexameter by Pbileticus in 1483. 



^ Arcadia was first printed 1.502-4. In it Sannazaro describes, in prose and 

 verse, the hardheartedness of his mistress, his wanderings and misfortunes, la- 

 ments the death of his mother and of his shepherdess, disclosing to us the secrets 

 of his life and the history of his time. 



5 In Pastor Fido. end of act IV.. a chorus sings of the Golden Age and the 

 Guilty Age: 



