During the same century the "pastoral drama" flourished in Italy. The origin of this peculiar species--which was the bucolic idyll in a dramatic form, and which freely lent itself to the introduction of both mythological and allegorical elements--was purely literary, and arose directly out of the classical studies and tastes of the Renaissance. It was very far removed from the genuine peasant plays which flourished in Venetia and Tuscany early in the 16th century. The earliest example of the artificial, but in some of its productions exquisite, growth in question was the renowned scholar A. Politian's _Orfeo_ (1472), which begins like an idyll and ends like a tragedy. Intended to be performed with music--for the pastoral drama is the parent of the opera--this beautiful work tells its story simply. N. da Correggio's (1450-1508) _Cefalo_, or _Aurora_, and others followed, before in 1554 A. Beccari produced, as totally new of its kind, his Arcadian pastoral drama _Il Sagrifizio_, in which the comic element predominates. But an epoch in the history of the species is marked by the _Aminta_ of Tasso (1573), in whose Arcadia is allegorically mirrored the Ferrara court. Adorned by choral lyrics of great beauty, it presents an allegorical treatment of a social and moral problem; and since the conception of the characters, all of whom think and speak of nothing but love, is artificial, the charm of the poem lies not in the interest of its action, but in the passion and sweetness of its sentiment. This work was the model of many others, and the pastoral drama reached its height of popularity in the famous _Pastor fido_ (written before 1590) of G. B. Guarini, which, while founded on a tragic love-story, introduces into its complicated plot a comic element, partly with a satirical intention. It is one of those exceptional works which, by circumstance as well as by merit, have become the property of the world's literature at large. Thus, both in Italian and in other literatures, the pastoral drama became a distinct species, characterized, like the great body of modern pastoral poetry in general, by a tendency either towards the artificial or towards the burlesque. Its artificiality affected the entire growth of Italian comedy, including the _commedia dell' arte_, and impressed itself in an intensified form upon the opera. The foremost Italian masters of the last-named species, so far as it can claim to be included in the poetic drama, were A. Zeno (1668-1750) and P. Metastasio. Comedy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Goldoni. Gozzi.