Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama by Walter W. Greg

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It is to the critics of the late years of the seventeenth century and
early ones of the eighteenth that we owe the attempt to formulate a theory
of pastoral composition. The attempt has not for us any great importance.
All the work we have been considering had appeared, and the vast majority
of it had passed into oblivion, before the French critics first engaged
upon the task. Nor has the attempt much intrinsic interest. The theories
of individual writers such as those already mentioned are of value, as
showing the critical mood in which they themselves created; but these, and
still more the theories of pure critics, are of no importance, either in
the field of abstract critical theory or of historical inquiry.
Fontenelle, offended at the odour of Theocritus' hines, Rapin, with his
Jesuitical prudicity and ethico-literary theories of propriety, are not
the kind of thinkers to advance critical and historical science. Yet it
was to their school that the far greater English critics of the early
eighteenth century belonged. Their work consists for the most part of
various combinations of _a priori_ definition and arbitrary rules, based
on the notion of propriety. Thus Pope in the _Discourse on Pastoral_,
prefixed to his eclogues in 1717, writes: 'A pastoral is an imitation of
the action of a shepherd, or one considered under that character.... If we
would copy nature, it may be useful to take this idea along with us, that
pastoral is an image of what they call the golden age. So that we are not
to describe our shepherds as shepherds at this day really are, but as they
may be conceived then to have been, when the best of men followed the
employment.' Shallow formalism this; but what else was to be expected from
Alexander Pope at the age of sixteen? His contemporaries, however, and
successors down to Johnson, took his solemn vacuity in all seriousness.
Steele, writing in the _Guardian_ in 1713 (Nos. 22, &c.), follows much the
same lines. He speaks of 'Innocence, Simplicity, and whatever else has
been laid down as distinguishing Marks of Pastoral.' Again, the reader is
informed that 'Whoever can bear these'--namely, certain _concetti_ from
Tasso and Guarini--'may be assured he hath no Taste for Pastoral.' We find
the same pedantic and ignorant objections to Sannazzaro's piscatorials as
were later advanced by Johnson: 'who can pardon him,' loftily queries the
censor, 'for his Arbitrary Change of the sweet Manners and pleasing
objects of the Country, for what in their own Nature are uncomfortable and
dreadful?' An afternoon's idling along the cliffs of Sorento or the shore
of Posilipo will supply a sufficient answer to such ignorant conceit as
this. Lastly, in the same familiar strain, but with all the pompous weight
of undisputed dictatorship, we find Dr. Johnson a generation later laying
down in the _Rambler_ that a pastoral is 'a Poem in which any action or
Passion is represented by its Effects upon a Country Life.... In Pastoral,
as in other Writings, Chastity of sentiment ought doubtless to be
observed, and Purity of Manners to be represented; not because the Poet is
confined to the Images of the golden Age'--this is a rap at Pope--'but
because, having the subject in his own Choice, he ought always to consult
the Interest of Virtue.' The one fixed idea which runs throughout these
criticisms is that pastoral in its nature somehow is, or should be, other
than what it is in fact[360].

This is a view which very rightly meets with small mercy at the hands of
the modern historical school of criticism. A last fragment of the hoary
fallacy may be traced in Dr. Sommer's remark: 'Die Theorie des
Hirtengedichtes ist kurz in folgenden Worten ausgedrueckt: schlichte und
ungekuenstelte Darstellung des Hirtenlebens und wahre Naturschilderung.' It
cannot be too emphatically laid down that there is and can be no such
thing as a 'theory' of pastoral, or, indeed, of any other artistic form
dependent, like it, upon what are merely accidental conditions.[361] As I
started by pointing out at the beginning of this work, pastoral is not
capable of definition by reference to any essential quality; whence it
follows that any theory of pastoral is not a theory of pastoral as it
exists, but as the critic imagines that it ought to exist. 'Everything is
what it is, and not another thing,' and pastoral is what the writers of
pastoral have made it.

It may be convenient before closing this chapter to summarize briefly the
results of our inquiry into the history of pastoral tradition on the
pre-restoration stage in England, without the elaboration of detail and
the many necessary though minor distinctions unavoidable in the foregoing
account. We saw, in the first place, that the idea of a literature dealing
with the humours and romance of farm and sheepcot was not wholly alien to
national English literature; but, on the contrary, that the shepherd plays
of the religions cycles, the popular ballads, and a few of the Scots poets
of the time of Henryson, all alike furnish verse which may be regarded as
the index of the readiness of the popular mind to receive the
introduction of a formal pastoral tradition. Next, preceding, as in Italy,
the introduction or evolution of a regular pastoral drama, we find a
series of mythological plays embodying incidentally elements of pastoral,
written for the amusement of court circles, and founded on the
_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid. In these the nature of the pastoral scenes appear
to be conditioned, in so far as they are independent of their classical
source, partly by the already existing eclogue, and partly perhaps by the
native impulse mentioned above[362]. All this anticipates the rise of the
pastoral drama proper. The foreign pastoral tradition reached England
through three main channels. The earliest of these, the eclogue, was
imitated by Spenser from Marot, who, while depending somewhat more
closely, perhaps, than was usual upon the ancients, and adding to his work
a certain original flavour, yet belonged essentially to the tradition of
the allegorical pastoral which took its fashion from the works of Petrarch
and Mantuan. The second, and for the English drama vastly the more
important channel, was the pastoral-chivalric romance borrowed by Sidney
from Montemayor, the great exponent of the Spanish school, which was,
however, based upon the Italian work of Sannazzaro. The third was the
Arcadian drama of the Ferrarese court, which was imitated, chiefly from
Guarini, by Samuel Daniel. Thus, of the three forms, verse, prose, and
drama, adopted by England from Italy, the first came by way of France, the
second by way of Spain, while the third alone was taken direct[363]. These
three blended with the pre-existing mythological play, and with the
traditions of the romantic drama generally, to produce the pastoral drama
of the English stage. The influence ot the eclogue was on the whole
slight, but to it we may reasonably ascribe a share of the topical and
allusive elements, when these do not appear assignable either to the
Arcadian drama or to masque literature generally.[364] The influence of
the mythological drama, again, is not of the first importance, and is also
very restricted in its occurrence; the _Maid's Metamorphosis_ is the most
striking example. The three main influences at work in fashioning the
pastoral drama upon the English stage were, therefore, the Arcadian drama
of Italy, the Sidneian romance borrowed from Spain, and the native
tradition of the romantic drama.[365] But we have seen that the most
important examples of dramatic pastoral in this country, though to some
extent conditioned like the rest by the above-mentioned influences, were
the outcome of direct and conscious experiment. In part, at least, the
earliest, and by far the most simple, was the work of Samuel Daniel
himself, which aimed at nothing beyond the mere transference of the
Italian tradition unaltered on to the English stage. A different aim
underlay the attempts alike of Fletcher and Randolph; the combination,
namely, of the traditions of the Arcadian and romantic dramas. This common
end they sought, however, by very diverse means. Fletcher, while adopting
the machinery and methods of the popular drama, left the ideal and
imaginary content practically untouched, and even chose a plot which in
its structure resembled those familiar in the romantic drama even less
than did Guarini's own. Randolph, on the other hand, while preserving much
of the classical mechanism as he found it in Guarini, altered the whole
tone and character of the piece to correspond to the greater complexity of
interest, more genial humour, and more genuine romanticism of the English
stage. Lastly, we found Jonson cutting himself almost entirely adrift from
the tradition of Italian Arcadianism, and seeking to create an essentially
national pastoral by the combination of shepherd lads and girls,
transmuted from actuality by a natural process of refinement akin to that
of Theocritus, with the magic and fairy lore of popular fancy, and with
the characters of Robin and Marian and all the essentially English
tradition of Sherwood. These three chief experiments in the production of
an English pastoral drama which should rival that of Italy stand, together
with Daniel's two plays, apart from the general run of pieces of the kind.
It is also worth notice that they are all alike unaffected by the Sidneian
romance. The remaining plays which form the great bulk of the contribution
made by English drama to pastoral, and among which we must look for such
dramatic pastoral tradition as existed, are almost all characterized by a
more or less prevalent court atmosphere, disguisings and adventures in
shepherd's garb forming the mainstay of the plot, while the genuine
pastoral elements supply little beyond the background of the action.

Into the post-restoration pastorals it is no part of my present scheme to
enter. They flourished for a while under the wing of the fashionable
romance of France, but were almost more than their predecessors the things
of artificial convention, having their form and being in a world whose
only pre-occupations were the pangs and transports of sensibility. They
occupy by right a small corner in the _Carte du Tendre_. Nor do I propose
to do more than allude in passing to Allan Ramsay's _Gentle Shepherd_. In
spite of the almost unvarying praise which has been lavished upon this
'Scots pastoral,' and even though the characters may have some points of
humanity in common with actual Lothian rustics, the whole composition of
the piece can scarcely be pronounced less artificial than that of the
Arcadian drama itself, and the play has undoubtedly shared in the
exaggerated esteem which has fallen to the lot of dialectal literature
generally. The tradition lingered on throughout the eighteenth and into
the nineteenth century. Goethe in his youth, while under the French
influence, composed the _Laune des Verliebten_, and in his later days at
Weimar the _Fischerin_, a piscatorial adapted for representation on an
open-air stage, in which the interest was purely spectacular. As a general
rule, however, pastoral inanity seldom strayed beyond the limits of the
opera.

That the pastoral should flourish by the side of the romantic drama was
not to be expected. It was impossible in England, as it was impossible in
Spain. In either case it might now and again achieve a mild success at
court, or under some exceptional conditions of representation; it never
held the popular stage. No literature based on the accidents of a special
form of civilization, or upon a set of artificially imagined conditions,
can ever hope to outlive the civilization or the fashion that gave it
birth. 'Love _in vacuo_' failed to arouse the interest of general mankind.
Every literature of course wears the livery of its age, but where the body
beneath is instinct with human life it can change its dress and pass
unchanged itself from one order of things to another; where the livery is
all, the form cannot a second time be galvanized into life. Pastoral,
relying for its distinctive features upon the accidents rather than the
essentials of life, failed to justify its pretentions as a serious and
independent form of art. The trivial toy of a courtly coterie, it
attempted to arrogate to itself the position of a philosophy, and in so
doing exposed itself to the ridicule of succeeding ages. Men with a stern
purpose in life turned wearily from the sickly amours of romantic poets
who dreamed that human happiness found its place in the economy of the
world. They left it to a rout of melodious idlers to imagine unto
themselves a state in which serious importance should attach to the
gracious things of sentiment and the loves of youth and maiden.

Addenda

Page 19.--Even apart from the evidence of the _Bucolica Quirinalium_, it
is, of course, clear that Vergil's eclogues were familiar to the writers
of the early middle ages. How far their interest in them was literary, and
how far, like that of the mystery-writers, it was theological, may,
however, be questioned. It is worth noticing in this connexion that a
German translation was projected by no less a person than Notker, and
since they are coupled by him with the _Andria_, we may reasonably infer
that in this case at least the writer's concern, if not distinctively
literary, was at any rate educational. (See W. P. Ker, _The Dark Ages_, p.
317.)

Page 112, note 2.--There is an error here. _The Passionate Pilgrim_
version of 'As it fell upon a day' does not contain the couplet found in
_England's Helicon_. I was misled by its being supplied from the latter by
the Cambridge editors. Another poem of the same description appears in
Francis Sabie's _Pan's Pipe_. (See Sidney Lee's introduction to the Oxford
Press facsimile of the _Passionate Pilgrim_, p. 31.)

Page 204.--It is perhaps hardly surprising to find Tasso's 'S' ei piace,
ei lice' quoted by English writers as summing up the cynical philosophy of
those whom they not unaptly styled 'politicians.' In Marston's tragedy on
the story of Sophonisba, for instance, the villain Syphax concludes a
'Machiavellian' speech with the words:

For we hold firm, that 's lawful which doth please.
(_Wonder of Women_, IV. i. 191.)

Appendix I

On the Origin and Development of the Italian Pastoral Drama

The chapter in the history of Italian literature which shall deal with the
evolution of the Arcadian drama still remains to be written. The treatment
of it in Symonds' _Renaissance_ is decidedly inadequate, and even as far
as it goes not altogether satisfactory. The explanation of this is, that
the most important works fall outside his period; the _Aminta_ and the
_Pastor fido_ are admirably treated in the volumes dealing with the
counter-reformation, but these are of the nature of an appendix, and
formed no part of his original plan. Tiraboschi's account is also meagre.
A long discussion of the subject will be found in the fifth volume of J.
L. Klein's _Geschichte des Dramas_ (Leipzig, 1867), but the bewildering
irrelevancy of much of the matter introduced by that eccentric writer
seriously impairs the critical value of his work. An excellent sketch of
the early history as far as Beccari, with full references, is given in
Vittorio Rossi's valuable monograph, _Battista Guarini ed il Pastor Fido_
(Torino, 1886), pt. ii. ch. i. This has the immense advantage of
conciseness, and of a clear and scholarly style. An important review of
Rossi's book, concerning itself particularly with the chapter in question,
appeared in the _Literaturblatt fuer germanische und romanische Philologie_
for 1891 (col. 376), from the pen of A. L. Stiefel, who incidentally
announced that he was himself engaged on a comprehensive history of the
pastoral drama. Of this work I have been unable to obtain any further
information. Next an elaborate essay by the veteran Giosue Carducci,
largely combatting Rossi's conclusions as to the literary evolution of the
form, and bringing forward a good deal of fresh evidence, appeared in the
_Nuova Antologia_ for September, 1894, and was reprinted with additions
and corrections as the second of three papers in the author's pamphlet _Su
l'Aminta di T. Tasso_ (Firenze, 1896). To this Rossi rejoined, effectively
as it seems to me, in the _Giornale storico della letteratura italiana_
(1898, xxxi. p. 108). The treatment in W. Creizenach's _Geschichte des
neueren Dramas_ (Halle, 1901, ii. p. 359) is unfortunately not yet
complete.

The theory of development which I have adopted is substantially that
elaborated by Rossi. To him belongs the honour of having been the first
clearly to indicate the historical steps by which the eclogue passes into
the drama. The idea, however, was not original; it underlies the accounts
given by Egidio Menagio in the notes to his edition of the _Aminta_
(Paris, 1655), by G. Fontanini (_Aminta difeso_, Roma, 1700, and Venezia,
1730), by P. L. Ginguene (_Histoire litteraire d'Italie,_ vol. vi, Paris,
1813), and by Klein. It was also virtually accepted by Stiefel in his
review of Rossi, since he confined his criticism to pointing out and
attempting to fill occasional gaps in the sequence of development, and to
insisting on the influence of the regular drama, and more particularly of
the Intronati comedy. The incomplete state of Creizenach's work, and the
caution with which he expresses himself on the subject, preclude our
reckoning him among the declared supporters of the theory; but there can
be little doubt, I think, as to the tendency of his remarks. This may then
be regarded as the orthodox view. It has not, however, received the
exclusive adherence of scholars, and it may therefore be thought right
that I should both give in detail the arguments by which it is supported
and my reasons for accepting it, and likewise state the grounds on which I
reject the rival theories that have been propounded.

Two of these latter may be quickly dismissed. These are the views put
forward respectively by Gustav Weinberg, _Das franzoesische Schaeferspiel in
der ersten Haelfte des XVIIten Jahrhunderts_ (Frankfurt, 1884), and by J.
G. Schoenherr in his _Jorge de Montemayor_ (Halle, 1886). Weinberg finds
the origin of the Italian pastoral drama in the 'Eclogas' of Juan del
Encina. With regard to this theory it may be sufficient to observe that,
at the time Encina wrote, the _ecloga rappresentativa_, or dramatic
eclogue, was already familiar in the Italian courts, and that, so far from
his writings being the source of any pastoral tradition even in his own
country, what subsequent dramatic work of the kind is to be found in Spain
merely represents a further borrowing from Italy. Schoenherr, on the other
hand, regards the _Jus Robins et Marion_ as the source of the Arcadian
drama. Not only, however, did Adan de le Hale's play fail to originale any
dramatic tradition in its own country, but it is itself nothing but an
amplified _pastourelle_, a form which, in spite of marked Provencal
influence, never obtained to any extent in Italy. It need hardly be said
that there is not a vestige of historical evidence to support either of
these theories[366].

It is different with the theory advanced by Carducci in the essay already
mentioned. The reputation of the great Italian critic would alone entitle
any view he advanced to the most respectful consideration. In the present
case, however, there is more than this, for his essay is a monument of
deep and loving scholarship, and whether we agree or not with its
conclusions, it adds greatly to our knowledge of the subject. Briefly and
baldly stated, his contention is as follows. The Arcadian drama was a
creation of the literary and courtly circles of Ferrara, and so far as
Italy is concerned the precursors of the _Aminta_ are to be sought in
Beccari's _Sacrifizio_ and Giraldi Cintio's _Egle_ alone, with a
connecting link as it were supplied by the pastoral fragment of the latter
author, first printed as an appendix to the essay in question. Beyond
these compositions no influence can be traced, except that of a study of
the classics in general, and of Theocritus in particular. It is certainly
remarkable that the important texts mentioned above, as well as Argenti's
_Sfortunato_ and the _Aminta_ itself, should all alike have been written
for and produced at the court of the Estensi at Ferrara. The selection,
however, I regard as somewhat arbitrary. The _Egle_ appears to lie
entirely off the road of pastoral development, and I cannot help thinking
that Carducci falls into the not unnatural error of exaggerating the
importance of the interesting document he was the first to publish. The
primitive dramatic eclogue was not altogether unknown at Ferrara, nor do
the pastoral shows elsewhere appear to have been always as remote from the
courtly grace of the Arcadian tradition as the critic is at pains to
demonstrate. In view therefore of the practically unbroken line of formal
development, and the consistency of artistic aim observable from
Sannazzaro in the last quarter of the fifteenth to Guarini in the last
quarter of the sixteenth century, I find it impossible to accept
Carducci's conclusions.

The advocates of the orthodox theory, however, must be prepared to meet
and combat the objections which Carducci has raised, and which, in his
opinion, necessitate the adoption of a different explanation. The
evolution of the pastoral drama from the eclogue he declares to be
impossible, in the first place, on historical grounds. This objection
relates to the evidence as to a continuous development traceable in the
accessible texts, and to it the account given in the following pages
will--or will not--be found a sufficient answer. In the second place, he
declares it to be impossible on aesthetic grounds. These are three in
number, and may be briefly considered here. (_a_) 'Idealization cannot
develop out of caricature.' Here, I presume, he is using 'caricature' in
its technical sense of what Aristotle calls 'imitation worse than
nature,' not merely for the resuit of an inadequate command over the
medium of artistic [Greek: mi/mesis]. The remark, therefore, can only apply
to the 'rustic' productions. But, as Aristotle's phrase suggests,
burlesque, or caricature, is only idealization in a different direction,
so that there appears to be less antagonism between the two tendencies
than might at first be supposed. Moreover, no one has suggested that the
rustic shows were the origin of the Arcadian drama, so that it is to be
presumed that Carducci had in mind the more or less frequent but still
sporadic elements borrowed by the eclogues from the popular drama. These,
however, are found in conjunction with idealized elements of courtly
tradition, both in the dramatic eclogues themselves and more especially in
the _ecloghe maggiaiuole_ or May-day shows of the Congrega dei Rozzi.
Thus, although it is true that we should not expect idealization to be
evolved out of caricature, there is no reason to deny its evolution from a
form in which burlesque and romance subsisted side by side. (_b_) 'Those
eclogues that are not burlesque are occasional compositions equally
incapable of developing into the Arcadian drama.' Though, no doubt,
usually written for presentation upon some particular occasion, several of
the dramatic eclogues present no topical features. Nor does it appear why
a form of composition, the type of which was fairly constant although the
individual examples might be ephemeral enough, should not develop into
something of a more permanent nature. Moreover, the topical allusions
scattered throughout the _Aminta_, as well as the highly occasional
character of the prologue to the _Pastor fido_, serve to connect these
plays directly with the 'occasional' eclogue. (_c_) The metrical form of
the recognized dramatic pastorals differs from that of the eclogues.'
While beginning, however, with simple _terza_ or _ottava rima_, the
dramatic eclogue gradually became highly polymetric in structure, though
it is true that it seldom affected the free measures peculiar to the
Arcadian drama. These, however, were no more suited to short compositions
than the stiff terzines and octaves to more complicated dramatic works.
The prevalent metre, as indeed many other points, might well be borrowed
by the dramatic pastoral from the practice of the regular stage without it
thereby ceasing to be the formal descendant of the eclogue.

Another point in debate is the view taken of the question by contemporary
critics--that is, by Guarini and his adversaries. Rossi pointed out a
passage in Guarini's _Veraio_ of 1588[367] which he held to support his
theory of development. Translated, the passage runs: 'And why should it
not be thought lawful for the eclogue to grow out of its infancy and
arrive at mature years, if this has been possible in the case of tragedy?
... Even as the Muses grafted tragedy upon the dithyrambic stock, and
comedy upon the phallic, so in their ever-fertile garden they set the
eclogue as a tiny cutting, whence sprang in later years the stately growth
of the pastoral,' that is, of the _favola di pastori_, or dramatic
pastoral, as he elsewhere explains. 'But in these words,' objects
Carducci, 'the writer is in no way referring to the Italian eclogues of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The eclogue had passed out of its
infancy in the work of Theocritus.' Here, however, Carducci appears to me
to misinterpret Guarini's meaning in an almost perverse manner. The
metaphoric 'infancy' of which Guarini speaks is the pre-dramatic period of
pastoral growth. No one will deny that the Theocritean idyl had attained
full and perfect development in its own kind; but from the dramatic point
of view, and granted that it contained the germ of the later pastoral
drama, it belonged to a period of infancy, or, to adopt a more strictly
accurate metaphor, of gestation. Were further evidence needed to show that
the allusion is to the Italian rather than to the classical eclogue, it
might be found in the fact that the passage in question was Guarini's
answer to the following criticism of De Nores, as to the meaning of which
there can be no two opinions. Attacking the pastoral tragi-comedy, the
critic remarks: 'Until the other day similar compositions were represented
under the name of eclogues at festivals and banquets, ... but now of a
sudden they have been fashioned of the extension of comedies and tragedies
in five acts[368].' It will be noticed that in his reply Guarini makes no
attempt to question the underlying identity of the pastoral tragi-comedy
with the dramatic eclogue, but contents himself with very justly asserting
the right of the latter to develop into a mature literary form. Two other
passages from Guarini have been quoted as germane to the discussion. They
occur in the _Verato secondo_, written as a counterblast to De Nores'
_Apologia_,[369]. One may be rendered thus: 'Although the dramatic
pastoral, in respect of the characters introduced, recognizes its ultimate
origin in the eclogue and in the satire [i. e. the satyric drama] of the
ancients, nevertheless, in respect of its form and ordinance it may be
said to be a modern kind of poetry, seeing that no example of such
dramatic composition, whether Greek or Latin, is to be found in ancient
times.' The other runs: 'having regard to the fact that Theocritus stepped
beyond the number of persons usual in similar poems, and composed one [the
_Feast of Adonis_] which not only contains many interlocutors, but is of a
more dramatic character than usual, and remarkable also for its greater
length; it seemed to him [Beccari] that he might with great honour supply
that kind neglected by the Greek and Latin authors[370].' In the former of
these passages Guarini, while recognizing the community of subject-matter
between the classical eclogue and the renaissance pastoral drama, claims
that as an artistic form the latter is independent of the former. Nor is
this inconsistent with what he says in the subsequent passage, for it is
perfectly true that it was with Beccari that the pastoral first attained
its full complexity of dramatic structure, and his allusion to Theocritus
means, not that he regarded him as the father of the form, but that, after
the manner of a _cinquecento_ critic, he is seeking for authority at least
among the ancients where direct precedent is not to be found. His
reference to the evolution of classical tragedy and comedy in the passage
cited from his first essay shows clearly that he had in mind a process of
gradual and natural development, not one of definite borrowing or
artificial creation.