ABSTRACT

From her obscure early years, during which scholars speculate that Isabella Canali Andreini (1562-1604) was trained to be a cortigiana onesta, like Tullia d'Aragona, to those during which she starred in productions of the acclaimed acting troupe, the Gelosi, Isabella had a remarkable rise to fame. It is no surprise, then, that she not only imitates, but also challenges ideas about true love and the nature of women when responding to Torquato Tasso's Aminta (ca. 1573) in her pastoral La Mirtilla (1588). While Tasso's Silvia moves predictably from chaste follower of Cynthia to helpless damsel in distress to ardent lover of Aminta, these traditional experiences are splintered among Andreini's characters, and each is explored in fascinating and often hilarious depth, as she pushes each convention to its limits. In their handling of the suicide attempts in their stories, Tasso and Andreini also make significantly different use of agency for their female characters.