ta_ of Tasso (1573), in
whose Arcadia is allegorically mirrored the Ferrara court. Adorned by
choral lyrics of great beauty, it presents an allegorical treatment of a
social and moral problem; and since the conception of the characters,
all of whom think and speak of nothing but love, is artificial, the
charm of the poem lies not in the interest of its action, but in the
passion and sweetness of its sentiment. This work was the model of many
others, and the pastoral drama reached its height of popularity in the
famous _Pastor fido_ (written before 1590) of G. B. Guarini, which,
while founded on a tragic love-story, introduces into its complicated
plot a comic element, partly with a satirical intention. It is one of
those exceptional works which, by circumstance as well as by merit, have
become the property of the world's literature at large. Thus, both in
Italian and in other literatures, the pastoral drama became a distinct
species, characterized, like the great body of modern pastoral poetry in
general, by a tendency either towards the artificial or towards the
burlesque. Its artificiality affected the entire growth of Italian
comedy, including the _commedia dell' arte_, and impressed itself in an
intensified form upon the opera. The foremost Italian masters of the
last-named species, so far as it can claim to be included in the poetic
drama, were A. Zeno (1668-1750) and P. Metastasio.

Comedy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Goldoni.

Gozzi.

The comic dramatists of the 17th century are grouped as followers of the
classical and of the romantic school, G. B. della Porta (q.v.) and G. A.
Cicognini (whom Goldoni describes as full of whining pathos and
commonplace drollery, but as still possessing a great power to interest)
being regarded as the leading representatives of the former. But neither
of these largely intermixed groups of writers could, with all its
fertility, prevail against the competition, on the one hand of the
musical drama, and on the other of the popular farcical entertainments
and those introduced in imitation of Spanish examples. Italian comedy
had fallen into decay, when its reform was undertaken by the wonderful
theatrical genius of C. Goldoni. One of the most fertile and rapid of
playwrights (of his 150 comedies 16 were written and acted in a single
year), he at the same time pursued definite aims as a dramatist.
Disgusted with the conventional buffoonery, and ashamed of the rampant
im