Listening to the deliberations of these two, it cannot but strike us that in spite of their polished speech the straightforward London stage would have hesitated but little to bestow on them the names they deserve, and which it were yet scarce honest to have here set down.  We pass on, and, whatever may be said regarding the moral atmosphere of the rest of the play, we shall not again have to make complaint of the corruption of manners assumed in the situation.  In the following scene Tirsi undertakes the difficult task of inducing Aminta to intrude upon Silvia, where she is said to be alone at the spring preparing for the chase.  It is only by hinting that Silvia has secretly instructed Dafne to arrange the tryst that he in the end succeeds in persuading the bashful lover to risk the displeasure of his mistress.

At the opening of Act III Tirsi enters lamenting in bitter terms the cruelty of Silvia.  Interrogated by the chorus, he relates how, as he and Aminta approached the spring where Silvia was bathing, they heard a cry and, hastening to the spot, found the nymph bound hand and foot to a tree, and confronting her the satyr.  At their approach the monster fled, and Aminta released the nymph, who ignuda come nacque at once took flight, leaving her lover in despair.  In the meanwhile Aminta has sought to kill himself with his own spear, but has been prevented by Dafne, and the two now enter.  At this moment too comes Nerina, one of the ‘messengers’ of the piece, with the news that Silvia has been slain while pursuing a wolf in the forest.  Thereupon Aminta, with a last reproach to Dafne for having prevented him from putting an end to his miserable life before being the recipient of such direful news, rushes off the scene at a pace to mock pursuit.  In the next act, however, Silvia reappears and narrates her escape.  Here we arrive at the dramatic climax of the play.  Dafne expresses her fear that the false report of Silvia’s death may indeed prove the death of Aminta.  The nymph at first shows herself incredulous, but on learning that he had already once sought death on her account she wavers and owns to pity if not to love—­

              Oh potess’ io
    Con l’ amor mio comprar la vita sua,
    Anzi pur con la mia la vita sua,
    S’ egli e pur morto!

Hereupon Ergasto enters with the news that Aminta has thrown himself from a cliff, and Silvia, now completely overcome, goes off with the intention of dying on the body of her dead lover.

The shortness, as well as the dramatic weakness, of the fifth act is conspicuous even in proportion to the modest limits of the whole.  It runs to less than one hundred and fifty lines, and merely relates how Aminta’s fall was broken, how Silvia’s love awoke, and all ended happily.  The most significant passage, that namely which describes Aminta being called back to life in Silvia’s arms, has been already quoted.  He revives unharmed, and the lovers,