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Amyntas
(Aminta, 1573)
Pastoral tragicomedy in five acts, with a prologue
Torquato TASSO Written 1573. Published 1580
The prologue spoken by Love and a chorus that
first recounts the delights of Arcadia and then becomes an
integral part of the dialogue as onlookers to whom offstage
events are announced. Amyntas loves Silvia, who is too shy
to admit her love for him and can talk about it only to the
poet Thyrsis. Amyntas saves Silvia from the advances of a
satyr, who has stripped her naked, but she runs away to hide
her embarrassment. Daphne, a woman wise in the ways of love,
tries to console Amyntas, but he wishes only to die. His
resolve is strengthened when he meets the nymph Nerina, who
tells him that she has found Silvia's bloodstained veil and
seen a pack of wolves devouring a heap of bones. In fact,
Silvia is not dead, for the bones are those of an animal.
Amyntas, believing Silvia has been killed, leaps from a
precipice but is saved from death by landing in some bushes.
When Silvia learns of his attempt at suicide, she loses her
timidity and the couple are at last united, while the chorus
sings of happy love.
{PETER BONDANELLA}