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48 and her husband, Louis of Taranto, to Naples. King Louis of Hungary had driven them from their realm, but he was later forced to withdraw his armies, an action which secured the safe return of the couple. The eclogue begins with Meliboeus mourning for the exiled Alcestus (Louis of Taranto), even though it is a festival day. Amintas brings him good news: Poliphemus (the Hungarian King) has retired, and Alcestus has actually returned. In joy the two shepherds sing the Virgilian hymn of the new Golden Age, while the altars fume, the flocks graze, and the fields remain in quiet peace. Alcestus has brought back with him Astraea (Giovanna), the goddess of justice, and together they have united the wolf and flock in common toil. A thorough knowledge of Neapolitan affairs in the 1340's would be necessary for the modern student to understand the allegory unassisted. A problem arises in this eclogue that is inherent in political allegory: the possible loss of effectiveness, when the events allegorized are so contemporary that succeeding generations cannot relate to them. A close adherence to the myth and a conscious attempt to make the particulars of the allegory more universal can prevent the poet from losing his audience. By speaking in large mythic images applicable to any auspicious beginning, Virgil secured immortality for his Golden Age myth. Most Renaissance poets failed to acquire any lasting degree of
49 recognition from their political allegories. Although Petrarch had introduced religious topics in his pastorals, Boccaccio was responsible for giving the real impetus to the religious eclogue. The influence of Dante's Commedia seems highly prevalent throughout Boccaccio's religious eclogues. The tenth offers a gruesome description of the torments of Hell; the fourteenth envisions the joys of Paradise; and the fifteenth, an account of Boccaccio's own religious conversion guided by Petrarch, depicts the long and painful road to salvation as a sort 33 of purgatory on earth. The Olympia (XIV) holds a special interest because of its similarities to the almost contemporary Middle English dream-vision, the Pearl. The Olympia is likewise placed in the medieval framework of the vision, a situation unique in pastoral. This eclogue is an elegy for Boccaccio's young daughter Violante, who had died at age five, and reveals only vague similarities to the Virgilian elegiac form. He does draw from Virgil's description of the Golden Age for his pastoral representation of Heaven. His metaphorical allusions, however, are Petrarchan, and he relies heavily on the Paradise for his description of the New Jerusalem. Simultaneous to commemorating Violante's death, the poem also becomes a didactic homily and an elaborate consolation, which conveys the same mood found in Petrarch's
Page 1 and 2: THE EVOLUTION OF ALLEGORY IN THE PA
Page 3 and 4: CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION To readers o
Page 5 and 6: 2 that was independently valuable a
Page 7 and 8: CHAPTER II THE CLASSICAL PASTORAL P
Page 9 and 10: scene, the task of defining befell
Page 11 and 12: times the terms pastoral and idyll
Page 13 and 14: masquerade in which he wishes us to
Page 15 and 16: 13 important for its introduction o
Page 17 and 18: any he had previously garnered and
Page 19 and 20: Tityrus, the eclogue ends on a note
Page 21 and 22: 19 popular use of riddles and puzzl
Page 23 and 24: 21 the problem of conflict between
Page 25 and 26: 23 integrated the Greek version of
Page 27 and 28: 25 harmonize the perfection of natu
Page 29 and 30: 27 conventions. To a greater extent
Page 31 and 32: of this seriousness that Virgil min
Page 33 and 34: 31 Whether Calpurnius held any infl
Page 35 and 36: 33 classics. Virgil's entire works
Page 37 and 38: 35 elegy is a consolation. In the f
Page 39 and 40: 37 New developments also arose in t
Page 41 and 42: 39 Ages had done. Man is still a fa
Page 43 and 44: 41 Blacks or Guelfics supported the
Page 45 and 46: During the years between 1347 and 1
Page 47 and 48: 45 secular world or to religious li
Page 49: 47 satire against the Church. These
Page 53 and 54: After Petrarch and Boccaccio, there
Page 55 and 56: 53 comic element envelope the most
Page 57 and 58: 55 Barclay's fourth Egloge and Spen
Page 59 and 60: 57 a strong feeling of nationalism;
Page 61 and 62: 59 gulf which exists between the wo
Page 63 and 64: in which the fisherman is substitut
Page 65 and 66: setting, and "to return, strengthen
Page 67 and 68: 65 humanists' pastorals, which in m
Page 69 and 70: The Italian humanists along with th
Page 71 and 72: 69 consideration involves two theme
Page 73 and 74: 71 an element of humor in his pasto
Page 75 and 76: 73 The birde of Cornewall, the Cran
Page 77 and 78: 75 When men be busied in killing of
Page 79 and 80: 77 shepherds lend themselves readil
Page 81 and 82: 79 unifying effect in the Calender.
Page 83 and 84: 81 implications of the Aesopic fabl
Page 85 and 86: 83 origin, • • of one of the ma
Page 87 and 88: 85 bulk of his successors composed
Page 89 and 90: 87 The second set of characters con
Page 91 and 92: 89 the pastoral tradition. The fina
Page 93 and 94: meditating the muse, for after all,
Page 95 and 96: 93 This Platonic revival was respon
Page 97 and 98: 95 it had existed was forgotten. Hu
Page 99 and 100: NOTES CHAPTER I Martha H. Shackford
Page 101 and 102:
22, -Virgil himself refers to his p
Page 103 and 104:
101 CHAPTER III iRenato Poggioli, "
Page 105 and 106:
103 Harrison, p. 8. ^^Grant, p. 104
Page 107 and 108:
105 l^Highet, The Classical Traditi
Page 109 and 110:
107 49 Kermode, p. 43. 50 Evans, p.
Page 111 and 112:
Greenlaw, Edwin A. "Spenser and Luc
Page 113:
Shackford, Martha H. "A Definition
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