But solely that.... the law of gold,
That glad and golden law, all free, all fitted,
Which Nature's own hand wrote--What pleases is permitted!...
Go! let us love, the daylight dies, is born;
But unto us the light
Dies once for all, and sleep brings on eternal night.
Over thirty pastoral plays can be ascribed to Italy in the last third of the sixteenth century. The most successful imitator of Tasso was Giovanni Battista Guarini (born 1537) in The True Shepherd (II Pastor Fido). One quotation will shew how he outvied Aminta. In Act I, Scene 1, Linko says:
Look round thee, Sylvia; behold
All in the world that's amiable and fair
Is love's sweet work: heaven loves, the earth, the sea,