ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Guarini's experiments with pastoral drama to expand its scope, and the strategies by which he subsequently defended his Pastor fido from accusations that it lacked verisimilitude as well as moral and literary decorum. It focuses on the critical debate surrounding the pastoral tragicomedy, which raised important questions about the social role of poetry and drama. Battista Guarini was well placed to make a seminal contribution to the development of pastoral drama. Amarilli never actually encounters her betrothed, the hunter Silvio, on stage during the play. Instead, he appears in conjunction with the nymph Dorinda in a related, but almost entirely separate, pastoral context. Even before its publication, Pastor fido became associated with questions of imitation, generic legitimacy and decorum, and ethical values in relation to the pastoral setting. For instance, in his Poetica he ignores all performative aspects of drama, in order to concentrate solely on the art of the dramatist-writer, interpreted in political and ethical terms.
