This first one is thus translated by Symonds,[16] whose English version is here used throughout.
"Listen, ye wild woods, to my roundelay; Since the fair nymph will hear not, though I pray.
The lovely nymph is deaf to my lament, Nor heeds the music of this rustic reed; Wherefore my flocks and herds are ill content, Nor bathe the hoof where grows the water weed, Nor touch the tender herbage on the mead; So sad because their shepherd grieves are they." [Footnote 16: In "Sketches and Studies in Italy," pp.

217-224.] There are four stanzas.

The nymph who has bewitched Aristaeus is Euridice and the second scene shows us the shepherd pursuing her.

It appears that in trying to escape from the shepherd she was bitten by a deadly snake, for in the third scene a dryad tells the story of the tragedy to her sisters.

In the first edition, "dei codici chigiano e Riccardiano," the next scene introduces Orpheus, who sings a song with Latin text beginning thus: "O meos longum modulata lusus Quos amor primam docuit juventam, Flecte nunc mecum numeros novumque Dic, lyra, carmen." The most significant matter connected with this scene in the early version of the poem is the stage direction, which reads thus: "Orfeo cantando sopra il monte in su la lira e seguente versi latini fu interotto da un pastore nunciatore della morte di Euridice." The name of the actor of Orfeo is mentioned as Baccio Ugolino.