Bembo and the Duchess Elizabeth.  At this point may be mentioned a somewhat similar eclogue found in a Spanish romance of about 1512, entitled Cuestion de amor, descriptive of the Hispano-Neapolitan society of the time.  The eclogue, which is clearly modelled on the Italian examples, contains five characters, and is supposed to represent the love affairs of real personages[379].  Two so-called ‘commedie pastorali,’ from which Stiefel hoped for useful evidence, prove on inspection to be medleys of pastoral amours exhibiting little advance in dramatization, though interesting as showing traces of the influence of the not yet fully developed ‘rustic’ eclogue.  They are composed throughout in terza rima without any division into acts or scenes, and are the work of one Alessandro Caperano of Faenza, thus hailing, like the later Amaranta, from the Romagna[380].  In 1517 we find a fantastic pastoral entitled Pulicane, written in octaves by Piero Antonio Legacci dello Stricca, a Sienese, who was also the author of several rustic pieces, in which is introduced a monster half dog and half man.  Another work by the same, again in octaves, and entitled Cicro, appeared in 1538.  Another piece mentioned by Stiefel as likely to throw light on the development of the dramatic pastoral is the ’Ecloga di amicizia’ of Bastiano di Francesco, or Bastiano ’the flax-dresser’(linaiuolo), also of Siena, which was first printed in 1523.  It turns out, however, to be a decidedly primitive composition in terza rima, with a certain slightly satirical colouring[381].

If the texts that have survived are somewhat scanty, there is good reason to believe that they form but a small portion of the eclogues actually represented at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries.  Thus we find a show, of the nature of which it is not altogether easy to judge, recorded in a letter by a certain Floriano Dulfo, written from Bologna in July, 1496[382].  It appears to have been a composition of some length, pastoral only in part, supernatural in others, but belonging on the whole rather to the cycle of chivalresque romance than of classical mythology.  In Act I an astrologer announces the birth of a giant, who in Act II is represented as persecuting the shepherds.  Acts III and IV are occupied by various complaints on his account In Act V, called by Dulfo ‘la ultima comedia, overo egloga,’ the giant carries off a nymph while she is gathering flowers; the shepherds, however, come to her rescue and restore her to her lover.  This incident, reminiscent possibly of the rape of Proserpine, tends to connect the piece with the mythological tradition.  So far as can be gathered, the verse appears to have been ottava rima with the introduction of lyrical passages.  Again, we know that the representation of eclogues formed part of the festivities at the marriage of Lucrezia Borgia with Giovanni Sforza in 1493, and again in 1502, when she espoused Alfonzo