But the nearest approach to a dramatic composition made by Juan de la Enzina is to be found in two eclogues between “The Esquire that turns Shepherd,” and “The Shepherds that turn Courtiers”; both of which should be taken together and examined as one whole, though, in his simplicity, the poet makes them separate and independent of each other.[445] In the first, a shepherdess, who is a coquette, shows herself well disposed to receive Mingo, one of the shepherds, for her lover, till a certain gay esquire presents himself, whom, after a fair discussion, she prefers to accept, on condition he will turn shepherd;—an unceremonious transformation, with which, and the customary villancico, the piece concludes. The second eclogue, however, at its opening, shows the esquire already tired of his pastoral life, and busy in persuading all the shepherds, somewhat in the tone of Touchstone in “As you like it,” to go to court, and become courtly. In the dialogue that follows, an opportunity occurs, which is not neglected, for a satire on court manners, and for natural and graceful praise of life in the country. But the esquire carries his point. They change their dresses, and set forth gayly upon their adventures, singing, by way of finale, a spirited villancico in honor of the power of Love, that can thus transform shepherds to courtiers, and courtiers to shepherds.
The most poetical passage in the two eclogues is one in which Mingo, the best of the shepherds, still unpersuaded to give up his accustomed happy life in the country, describes its cheerful pleasures and resources, with more of natural feeling, and more of a pastoral air, than are found anywhere else in these singular dialogues.
But look ye, Gil, at morning dawn,
How fresh and fragrant are the fields;
And then what savory coolness yields
The cabin’s shade upon the lawn.
And he that knows what ’t is to rest
Amidst his flocks the livelong night,
Sure he can never find delight
In courts, by courtly ways oppressed.