198. The authorship of the notes is placed beyond doubt by a letter of Guarini's, otherwise it might have been doubted whether even he could have been guilty of the fulsome self-laudation they contain. On the controversy see Rossi, pp. 238-43.
199. Certain modern writers have shown themselves worthy descendants of the criticaster of Vicenza by insisting that the play should properly be called the Pastorella fida. Guarini was weak enough to reply to Malacreta's carpings in his notes, and thereby exposed himself to similar attacks from posterity.
200. The absurdity lies of course in the commanding merit ascribed to the piece. As Saintsbury has pointed out in his History of Criticism, had Aristotle known the romantic drama of the renaissance, the Poetics would have been largely another work.
201. Summo evidently thought that Pescetti's defence at least was the work of Guarini himself. There is no evidence that this was so, but Rossi considers it not improbable that Guarini at least directed the labours of his supporters.
202. It is unnecessary to enter into any further discussion of these plays. The following titles, however, quoted by Stiefel in his review of Rossi, may be mentioned. Scipione Dionisio, Amore cortese, 1570 (?) (not the Alessandro Dionisio whose ecloga, entitled Amorosi sospiri, with intermezzos of a mythological character, was printed in 1599); Niccolò degli Angeli, Ligurino, 1574 (so Allacci, Drammaturgia, 1755; the only edition in the British Museum is dated 1594; Venus and Silenus are among the characters, and the prologue is spoken by 'Tempo'); Cesare della Valle, Filide, 1579; Giovanni Fratta, La Nigella, 1580; Cristoforo Castelletti, Amarilli, 1580 (which edition, though given by Allacci, appears to be now unknown, as is also the date of composition; a second edition appeared in 1582; the prologue was spoken by 'Apollo in habito pastorale,' and Ongaro contributed a commendatory sonnet); Giovanni Donato Cuchetti, La Pazzia, 1581; Pietro Cresci, Tirena, 1584; Alessandro Mirari, Mauriziano, 1584; Dionisio Rondinelli, Galizia, 1583 (his Pastor vedovo was printed in 1599, with a prologue spoken by 'Primavera,' and an echo scene).
203. Preface to the Bodoni edition of the Aminta, p. 12.
204. This episode of the double love of Celia formed the subject of an attack on the play. The author wrote an elaborate defence which was printed at Ancona in 1612. It runs to 221 quarto pages.
205. I am aware that attempts have been made to find evidence of Italian influence in Lyly, but of this later.
206. The piece appeared anonymously, but the authorship is attested by Nashe in his preface to Greene's Menaphon, 1589. Some songs from the play also appear over Peele's signature in England's Helicon, 1600. I have quoted from A. H. Bullen's edition of Peele's works, 2 vols. 1888.
207. Fraunce's translation in his Ivychurch (vide post), and J. Wolfe's edition, together with the Pastor fido, both 1591.