Not censurable in itself, it was so related to the sentimental sensuality of its period as to form a link in the chain of enervation which weighed on Italy.
[Footnote 183: _Il Pastor Fido_, per cura di G.Casella (Firenze, Barbera, 1866), p.

liv.] The _Pastor Fido_ is a tragi-comedy, as its author points out with some elaboration in the critical essay he composed upon that species of the drama.

The scene is laid in Arcadia, where according to Guarini it was customary to sacrifice a maiden each year to Diana, in expiation of an ancient curse brought upon the country by a woman's infidelity.

An oracle has declared that when two scions of divine lineage are united in marriage, and a faithful shepherd atones for woman's faithlessness, this inhuman rite shall cease.

The only youth and girl who fulfill these conditions of divine descent are the daughter of Titiro named Amarilli, and Silvio, the son of the high priest Montano.