Not Corisca's wanton blandishments and professed cynicism, but Mirtillo's rapturous dithyrambs on kissing, Dorinda's melting moods of tenderness, and Amarilli's delicate regrets that love must be postponed to honor, justified Bellarmino's censure.

Without anywhere transgressing the limits of decorum, the _Pastor Fido_ is steeped in sensuousness.

The sentiment of love idealized in Mirtillo and Amarilli is pure and self-sacrificing.

_Ama l'onesta mia, s'amante sei_, says this maiden to her lover; and he obeys her.

Yet, though the drama is dedicated to virtue, no one can read it without perceiving the blandishments of its luxurious rhetoric.