PASTOUAI. I.ITKHATrm; Fl!0.\r OI'lTZ TO GKSS.NIvlt. 19 



even Theocritus had sung;. The accepted name of the lionie of 

 this ideal existence is Arcadia,^ whirh was inhabited not only by 

 shepherds and nymphs, but also by all the divinities of the an- 

 cients, and by allegorical figures of all kinds.- Into this ideal 

 world the poet was evei' introducing the characters of contem- 

 porary men whom he wished to praise. With these incompatible 

 elements (shepherds, gods, allegory, and contemporary men), 

 how could incidents ever seem real, or characterization be any- 

 thing but vague? ^ 



The pastoral literature of Italy was admired and imitated in 

 the other romance countries and in England. In the year 1558 

 Montemayor published his great Spanish shepherd - romance, 

 Diana. Upon this, as well as upon Pastor Fido, the Frenchman 

 Honore d'Urfe, modeled his allegorical pastoral novel, Astvee 

 (first part 1609). These works ushered in a long series of imi- 

 tations, which were even more unreal and turgid than their mod- 

 els. In English literature* the eclogues of Alexander Barclay, 

 Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar (1579), and Faery Queen (1590-6), 

 show this i^astoral influence. Of especial importance for us is the 

 famous Arcadia^ by Sir Philip Sidney. This is not a mere imi- 

 tation of Spanish and Italian models, as Sidney describes scenes 

 not only from pastoral life, but also, with equal skill, from hunt- 

 ing and chivalry. 



The seeds of this pastoral literature were now wafted into Ger- 

 many, where they sprang into luxiu'ious giowth. producing fruit 

 that was abundant, though not of superior quality. 



At the beginnmg of the seventeenth century German poetry 

 had reached its lowest ebb. Xot only the upper but also the mid- 



1 Yergil in eclogue VII. speaks of Corydon and ThjTsis as Arcades ambo. 



~ Cf. .Jacob Bnrekhardt: Die Cultur der Renaissance iu Italien, p. 319. ff. 



3 So Boccaccio makes one of his nvmphs a good catholic. Cf. Burckhardt, p. 

 -350. 



^ A clear presentation of this whole subject is given by Homer Smith: Pas- 

 toral iuHiieuce iu the Englisli Drama, in the Publications of the modern lan- 

 guage association of America. ts97. Vol. XII., Xo. 3 (New Series. Vol. V., 3). 



5 Arcadia became the model of the Hercynlehj Opitz; see p. 21. 



