SOURCE: Whitfield, J. H. Introduction to Battista Guarini: Il pastor fido/The Faithfull Shepherd, Translated (1647) by Richard Fanshawe, edited by J. H. Whitfield, pp. 1-43. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976.

In the essay below, Whitfield places Il pastor fido in historical context, traces its performance and critical histories, and provides biographical information about the author. Whitfield also discusses the possible influences of the work on the comedies of William Shakespeare.

The sixteenth century is not littered with successful Italian plays. From the first assaults on the two citadels, of tragedy and comedy, there had come discouraging results. It was Voltaire who said once that regular tragedy began for both France and Italy with a dull Sophonisba, and Trissino certainly answered to this charge. Moreover, his attempt to revive the spirit of Greek tragedy, which had lived on myth, was negated by his resort to a Roman historical theme...