and the episode of the latter being bound to a tree, appear to anticipate the later pastoral; while the introduction of Cupid as a dramatis persona carries one back to the mythological drama, and the rustic characters connect the piece with the plays of the Rozzi.  Another composition of Tuscan origin is the Lilia, first printed in 1538, and composed throughout in polished octaves.[395] It merely relates how the shepherd Fileno courted the fair Lilia, a certain rustic element being introduced in the persons of the herdsmen Crotolo and Tirso.

With the Amaranta of Casalio we have been sufficiently concerned in the text (p. 172).  It was printed at Venice in 1538,[396] having probably been written some years earlier.  It is composed in ottava and terza rima, with the introduction of a canzonet, and marks an important advance on previous work, not only in the nature of the plot, but in being divided into acts and scenes.  Sixteen years elapsed between the publication of Amaranta and the appearance of the regular pastoral drama in Beccari’s Sacrifizio.  Some time ago Stiefel pointed out a considerable hiatus at this point in Rossi’s account, and mentioned certain works which might be expected to fill it.  These and others have since been examined by Carducci, with the result that it is possible, at least partially, to bridge the gap.  The period proves to be one less of gradual evolution than of conscious experiment.  At least this is how I read the available evidence.

Besides the Cecaria, mentioned above, Epicuro de’ Marsi also left a manuscript play entitled Mirzia, which he describes as a ’favola boschereccia,’ being thus the first to make use of the term later adopted by Tasso.[397] The piece, which was written some ten years before the author’s death in 1555, leads us off into one of the numerous by-paths into which the pastorals of this period were for ever wandering.  Two despised lovers, together with their friend Ottimo, witness unseen the dances of Diana and the nymphs, on which occasion Ottimo falls in love with the goddess herself.  After passing through various plights, into which they are led by their love of the careless nymphs, they all have recourse to an oracle, whose predictions are fulfilled through a series of violent metamorphoses.  This mixture of mythology and magic is wholly foreign to the spirit of the Arcadian drama, and the Mirzia cannot any more than the Cecaria be regarded as the progenitor of that form.  I may mention incidentally that among the characters is a good-natured satyr, who consoles Ottimo in his hopeless passion for Diana.