Three Renaissance Pastorals: Tasso, Guarini, Daniel (review)

Reviews 283 be hoped that the anticipated volume will be profusely illustrated, as this is, so that there, too, the reader will be able to follow Cutler's observations and appreciate to some extent the colour, smoothness and grain, and thickness or translucency of the ivory, as well as, very importandy, the manner of carving. The hand of the master has provided rich rewards through a focus primarily on the material and techniques used to produce these sensuous objects. At the same time there is no neglect of considerations of context, style and iconography relevant to this approach. Ann Moffatt The Australian National University Canberra Donno, Elizabeth Story (ed.), Three Renaissance Pastorals: Tasso, Guarini Daniel (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 102), Binghamton (NY), Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of N e w York, 1993; cloth; pp. xxxiii, 260; R R P not notified. In the ten years or so since the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies began its publishing activities under the inspiration and guidance of the indefatigable Professor Mario Di Cesare, it has produced over one hundredtides.It is the declared policy of M R T S to provide 'books that are needed—texts, translations, and major research tools' and 'to publish the highest quality scholarship in attractive and durable format at modest cost'. This is a large undertaking and one which the Center has succeeded in living up to with remarkable consistency. The present volume is a welcome addition to the series and upholds the now well-established tradition. The edition is a pleasing one from several points of view, not least the aesthetic. Like all productions of M R T S , it is spaciously set out, employing a readable and attractive font, printed on paper of high quality and is strongly bound. The physical quality of the book is a remarkable achievement in itself when one thinks of the high cost normally associated with books printed at this level of production. Elizabeth Story Donno has provided materials to farilitate the study of early drama in the pastoral mode. Samuel Daniel's The Queenes Arcadia was written in response to Queen Anne's decision in 1604, soon after her husband James I ascended the English throne, to become patron to a company thereafter known as the Children of the Queen's Revels. The 284 Reviews polished and sophisticated venture into pastoral drama which Daniel produced for the Children has been much noted as an item in the history of theatre, but it has remained unjusdy neglected as a claimant to serious literary attention by many interpreters of seventeenth-century drama. One reason for the neglect has probably been the play's indebtedness to Italian models not readily accessible in contemporary or near-contemporary translations. The decision to publish such translations of Daniel's most influential sources, Tasso's Aminta and Guarini's Pastor Fido, in the same volume with Daniel's play is therefore highly commendable and in keeping with M R T S policy. It should also be noted that, with the exception of the nineteenth-century edition by the inevitable A. B. Grosart (but where would we be without Grosart?), this is the first edition of Daniel's play since his own day. It should be further noted that Grosart took for his copy text the faulty edition of 1623. In a real sense, then, this is thefirstreliable edition since Daniel's own revised version was published in 1607. Donno has taken for her copy text thefirstedition of 1606, supplemented by the corrections and revisions of 1607. As far as the Italian source plays represented in translation are concerned, Donno has produced 'a reading, not a critical edition' (p. xix), which is probably a good decision. One cannot achieve too many purposes all at once. The result is a clear, readable text of Aminta and Pastor Fido without a great deal of critical apparatus. The notes are sparing and in the main denotative rather than interpretive. Disappointingly, however, the notes to The Queenes Arcadia are equally sparing. If the main purpose of the edition istoforeground Daniel's work, then much more assistance could have been given to the reader...