hich I
now propose to make of this play, I shall attempt to show how, coming
midway between Tasso's _Aminta_ and Marino's _Adone_, and appealing to
the dominant musical enthusiasms of the epoch, Guarini's _Pastor Fido_
may have merited the condemnation of far-sighted moralists. Not
censurable in itself, it was so related to the sentimental sensuality of
its period as to form a link in the chain of enervation which weighed on
Italy.

[Footnote 183: _Il Pastor Fido_, per cura di G. Casella (Firenze,
Barbera, 1866), p. liv.]

The _Pastor Fido_ is a tragi-comedy, as its author points out with some
elaboration in the critical essay he composed upon that species of the
drama. The scene is laid in Arcadia, where according to Guarini it was
customary to sacrifice a maiden each year to Diana, in expiation of an
ancient curse brought upon the country by a woman's infidelity. An
oracle has declared that when two scions of divine lineage are united in
marriage, and a faithful shepherd atones for woman's faithlessness,
this inhuman rite shall cease. The only youth and girl who fulfill these
conditions of divine descent are the daughter of Titiro named Amarilli,
and Silvio, the son of the high priest Montano. They have accordingly
been betrothed. But Silvio is indifferent to womankind in general, and
Amarilli loves a handsome stranger, Mirtillo, supposed to be the son of
Carino. The plot turns upon the unexpected fulfillment of the prophecy,
in spite of the human means which have been blindly taken to secure its
accomplishment. Amarilli is condemned to death for suspected misconduct
with a lover; and Mirtillo, who has substituted himself as victim in her
place, is found to be the lost son of Montano. This solution of the
intrigue, effected by an anagnorisis like that of the _Oedipus
Tyrannus_, supplies a series of dramatic scenes and thrilling situations
in the last act. Meanwhile the passion of Dorinda for Silvio, and the
accident whereby he is brought to return her affection at the moment
when his dart has wounded her, form a picturesque underplot of
considerable interest. Both plot and underplot are so connected in the
main action and so interwoven by links of mutual dependency that they
form one richly varied fabric. Regarded as a piece of cunning mechanism,
the complicated structure of the _Pastor Fido_ leaves nothing to be
desired. In its kind, this pastoral drama is a monumental work of art,
glittering and faultless like a p