ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issues with a view to providing a speculative understanding of the author's intentions for the work and its implications for the genre as a whole. Tasso's Aminta enjoyed immediate success both in performance and in printed form and was instrumental in securing the reputation of the genre. Contemporaries were quick to recognize the Aminta's importance to the establishment of regular pastoral drama and even today it represents the best known example of the genre. Belvedere similarly allowed space for self-contemplation, games and debate, all of which occur in Tasso's pastoral as in the earlier examples of such plays. Aminta also draws on a rich tradition of courtly and academic discussions on love in Ferrara, stimulated by the proliferation of academies from the 1560s. Tasso was also fascinated by Castiglione's Cortegiano, which explores complex views of masking and social role-playing within a courtly context, and includes some consideration of the mechanisms of pastoral disguise.
