The narrative interest in the Arcadia is of the slightest.  It opens with a description of the ‘dilettevole piano, di ampiezza non molto spazioso,’ lying at the summit of Parthenium, ’non umile monte della pastorale Arcadia,’ which was henceforth to be the abode sacred to the shepherd-folk.  There, as in Vergil’s Italy and in Browne’s Devon, in Chaucer’s dreamland, and in the realm of the Faery Queen, ’son forse dodici o quindici alberi di tanto strana ed eccessiva bellezza, che chiunque li vedesse, giudicherebbe che la maestra natura vi si fosse con sommo diletto studiata in formarli.’[57] The shepherds, who are assembled with their flocks, are about to seek their homes at the approach of night, when they meet Montano playing upon his pipe, and a musical contest ensues between him and Uranio.  Next day is celebrated the feast of Pales, an account of which is given at length, and is followed by a song in which Galicio sings the praises of his mistress Amaranta, of whom the narrator proceeds to give a minute description.  After another singing-match between Logisto and Elpino the company betake themselves to the tomb of Androgeo, whose praises are set forth in prose and rime.  There follows a song by the old shepherd Opico, on the superiority of the ‘former age’; after which Carino asks the narrator, Sincero—­the pseudonym under which Sannazzaro travelled in the realm of shepherds—­to recount his history, which he does at length, ending with a lament in sestina form.  By way of consoling him in his exile Carino, in return, tells the tale of his own amorous adventures.  Next the reverend Opico is induced to discourse of the powers of magic as the shepherds proceed to the sacred grove of Pan, who shares with Pales the honours of Arcadian worship, and to the games held at the tomb of sibyllic Massilia—­a name under which Sannazzaro is said to have commemorated his own mother.  At this point the narrator is troubled by a dream portending death to the lady of his love.  As, tormented by this thought, he wanders lonely in the chill dawn he meets a nymph, who leads him through a marvellous cavern into the depths of the earth, where he beholds the springs of many famous rivers, and finally, following the course of the Sabeto, arrives at his native city of Naples, where he learns the truth of his sorrowful forebodings.

The form has been systematized since Boccaccio wrote, the whole being divided into twelve Prose, alternating with as many Ecloghe, preceded by a Proemio and followed by an address Alla sampogna, both in prose.  The verse is mediocre, and several of the eclogues are composed in the unattractive sestina form, while others affect the wearisome rime sdrucciole.[58] The most pleasing is Ergasto’s lament at Androgeo’s tomb, beginning: