ABSTRACT
This chapter draws attention to the increasing diversity and dispersion within the genre, responding to changing social environments and dramatic practices, and the evolving tastes and concerns of its audiences. Chiabrera's Alcippo draws more noticeably on the other canonical pastoral model, Guarini's Pastor fido, with its legal problems and resolution through the recognition of a lost son. Chiabrera's three pastoral plays variously adapt the canonical models of pastoral drama, as well as integrating some comic topoi. Cefalo shows how a pastoral drama could be adapted to integrate the most innovative scenotechnic practices, perhaps influenced by the celebrated 1598 performance of Guarini's Pastor fido in Mantua. Many of the significant changes within regular pastoral drama in the seventeenth century are attributable to its increased popularization on stage and especially in print following the enormous Success of Tasso and Guarini's examples.
