after the Ciotti edition of 1602, the remaining copies being re-issued with additional matter the following year; it went through two editions between the restoration and the end of the century, and was again reprinted together with the original, and with alterations in 1736[237].  In the meantime, however, the translation had been adapted to the stage by Elkanah Settle.  In a dedication to Lady Elizabeth Delaval, the adapter ingenuously disclaims all knowledge of Italian, and when he speaks of ‘the Translated Pastor Fido’ every reader would no doubt be expected to know that he was referring to Fanshawe’s work.  He left his readers, however, to discover for themselves that, while he considerably altered, and of course condensed, the original, for whatever poetic merit his scenes possess he is entirely indebted to his predecessor.  The adaptation was licensed by L’Estrange in 1676, and printed the following year, while reprints dated 1689 and 1694 seem to indicate that it achieved some success at the Duke’s Theatre.  It was presumably of this version that Pepys notices a performance on February 25, 1668.[238]

Besides these English translations there is also extant one in Latin, a manuscript of which is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge.[239] The name of the translater does not appear, but the heading runs:  ’Il pastor fido, di signor Guarini ... recitata in Collegio Regali Cantabrigiae.’  The title is so scrawled over that it would be impossible to say for certain whether the note of performance referred to the present play, were it not for an allusion casually dropped by the anonymous recorder of a royal visit to Oxford, which not only substantiates the inference to be drawn from the manuscript, but also supplies us with a downward limit of August, 1605.[240] In this translation a dialogue between the characters ‘Prologus’ and ‘Argumentum’ takes the place of Guarini’s long topical prologue, and a short conventional ‘Epilogus’ is added at the end.

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It was not till 1655 that the Filli di Sciro of Bonarelli, which has usually been thought to hold the third place among Italian pastorals, appeared in English dress.  The translation published in that year is ascribed on the title-page to ‘J.  S. Gent.,’ an ascription which has given rise to a good deal of conjecture.  And yet a very little investigation might have settled the matter.  Prefixed to the translation are some commendatory verses signed ‘I.  H.’, in a marginal note to which we read:  ’This Comedy was Translated long ago by M. I.  S. and layd by, as also was Pastor Fido, which was since Translated and set forth by Mr. Rich.  Fanshaw.’  Another note,[241] to some verses to the reader, tells us that both translations were made ‘neer twenty years agone,’ and, as we should expect, the Pastor fido first; and further, that the latter remained in manuscript owing to the appearance of