Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a more nuanced historical and sociological understanding of the ways in which pastoral drama responded to external political and religious changes than is presented in Clubb's authoritative monograph on some genres of Italian drama. It investigates examples from the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries, of which the latter especially represent a rather neglected area of study. The book discusses the surprising appearance of female-authored pastoral plays from the late 1580s which represents a fertile new area of study only so far briefly touched upon in specific relation to the genre by Ricco. It gives a detailed attention respectively to the high-profile plays of Tasso, Guarini and Bonarelli, because of their role in legitimizing the pastoral genre and documenting its fortunes, and the greater surviving evidence for their reception and performance.