[184] Rossi, p. 183.  I shall return to the point.

[185] In later days he was often called Giovanbattista, but the addition is without authority, in spite of its appearance in the British Museum catalogue.

[186] This preliminary history is drawn, as Guarini himself points out in his notes of 1602, from Pausanias (VII. 21), though less closely than he there implies.  The rest of the plot he claimed as original, but it is to a large extent merely a rehandling of the same motive.

[187] Carino is said to represent Guarini in the same manner as Tirsi does Tasso.

[188] There is a legend that this scene was placed on the Index.  This, anyhow, cannot refer to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, but only to the Index Expurgatorius, which was at no time an officiai publication.  But the whole story appears to be without foundation.

[189] In comparing the two pieces, it is worth remembering that, whereas the Aminta contains about 2,000 lines, the Pastor fido runs to close upon 7,000.

[190] Storia della letteratura italiana nel secolo XVI, Milano, 1880, pp. 244-7.  See Rossi, p. 264.  His argument is that it anticipated a revolt against the conventional nature of domestic love, reflecting better than any other dramatic work the ideas that towards the end of the cinquecento were, according to him, leading in the direction of a moral regeneration of Italian Society.  It is, however, difficult to reconcile his theory with what we know of Italy in the days of the counter-reformation; while it may at the same time be doubted whether a tone of anaemic sentimentality is, in itself, preferable to one of cynical convention.  It should be added that there is little regeneration of domestic love to be found in the partly pathetic and partly sordid tragedy of Guarini’s own family.

[191] The quotations are from the opening scene of either play.  The parallel is that selected by Symonds for quotation, and is among the most striking examples of Guarini’s method, but similar instances might be collected from almost every scene.

[192] G. B. Manso, Vita di T. Tasso, Venezia, Denchino, 1621, p. 329.  Carducci, p. 99.

[193] ’Il Pastor Fido Tragicomedia Pastorale di Battista Guarini, Dedicata al Ser’mo.  D. Carlo Emanuele Duca di Sauoia, &c.  Nelle Reali Nozze di S. A. con la Ser’ma.  Infante D. Caterina d’Austria.’  The tradition of a performance on this occasion dates from early in the seventeenth century, and is endorsed by the poet’s nephew and biographer, Alessandro Guarini.  It is in part due to a confusion of words:  the play was presentato, but not rappresentato.

[194] Guarini, Lettere, Venetia, Ciotti, 1615, p. 174.  Rossi, 228^{7}.

[195] At least one of these, a worthless production by a certain Niccolo Averara, is extant.  That of 1598 was probably spoken by Hymen.  Rossi, pp. 232-3.