Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama / A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration Stage in England

by W. W. Greg

359. Conversations, IV and III, Shakespeare Society, 1842, pp. 4 and 2.

360. Those who wish to pursue the subject further will find the necessary references in Sommer's Erster Versuch über die Englische Hirtendichtung, and a full discussion in an elaborate 'Inquiry into the propriety of the rules prescribed for Pastoral Poetry,' prefixed to the edition of Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, published at Edinburgh in 1808. Some judicious remarks will also be found in the Introduction to Chambers' English Pastorals, pp. xliv, &c.

361. This limitation, it may be observed, does not necessarily apply to all literary forms. It may, I think, reasonably be maintained that the form of the drama, for instance, is essentially conditioned by the psychological relation of author to audience, through the medium of actual representation, and that this relation is equivalent to, or at least capable of forming the basis of, a theory of drama. I am aware that such an abstract view as this finds little favour with the majority of modern critics, but while myself doubtful as to its practical value, I do not see that it involves any critical absurdity.

362. This impulse can certainly be traced in some of the eclogues, and still more markedly in the purely lyrical verse of a pastoral sort. But the cross influences are too complex to be recapitulated here.

363. The influence of the Latin eclogue of the renaissance was undoubtedly also direct, but though widespread it was hardly vital, and its importance, as compared with that of the vernacular tradition, may be not inadequately measured by the relative importance of the chief exponents of either, Googe and Spenser.

364. Especially the allusions to religions controversy. The romance was, of course, highly topical in Spain, but, waiving the rather debatable point of Sidney's allusive intentions, it never appears to have been generally so regarded in this country.

365. Possibly I ought to add a fourth, the masques at court; but their influence in large measure duplicated that of the Italian drama, and cannot be distinguished from it.

366. See Rossi, p. 175, note 1.

367. Ferrara, Caraffo, 1588, p. 50. Rossi, 175¹. Carducci, 59.

368. Discorso, Padova, Meieto, 1587; Rossi, 175¹.