Bentivoglio (1506-1573), Salviati (1540-1589), Firenzuola (1493-1547), Caro (1507-1566), Cardinal Bibiena, (1470-1520), Aretino (1492-1556), and others, are among the principal comic writers of the age, who displayed more or less dramatic talent. Of all the Italian comedies composed in the sixteenth century, however, scarcely one was the work of eminent genius. A species of comic drama, known under the name of _Commedia dell' arte_, took its rise in this century. The characteristic of these plays is that the story only belongs to the poet, the dialogue being improvised by the actors. The four principal characters, denominated masks, were _Pantaloon_, a merchant of Venice, a doctor of laws from Bologna, and two servants, known to us as _Harlequin_ and _Columbine_. When we add to these a couple of sons, one virtuous and the other profligate; a couple of daughters, and a pert, intriguing chambermaid, we have nearly the whole _dramatis personae_ of these plays. The extempore dialogue by which the plot was developed was replete with drollery and wit, and there was no end to the novelty of the jests. 7. PASTORAL DRAMA AND DIDACTIC POETRY.--The pastoral drama, which describes characters and passions in their primitive simplicity, is thus distinguished from tragedy and comedy. It is probable that the idyls of the Greeks afforded the first germ of this species of composition, but Beccari, a poet of Ferrara (1510-1590), is considered the father of the genuine pastoral drama. Before him Sannazzaro (1458-1530) had written the "Arcadia," which, however, bears the character of an eclogue rather than that of a drama. It is written in the choicest Italian; its versification is melodious, and it abounds with beautiful descriptions; as an imitation of the ancients, it is entitled to the highest rank. The beauty of the Italian landscape and the softness of the Italian climate seem naturally fitted to dispose the poetic soul to the dreams of rural life, and the language seems, by its graceful simplicity, peculiarly adapted to express the feelings of a class of people whom we picture to ourselves as ingenuous and infantine in their natures. The manners of the Italian peasantry are more truly pastoral than those of any other people, and a bucolic poet in that fair region need not wander to Arcadia. But Sannazzaro, like all the early pastoral poets of Italy, proposed to himself, as the highest excellence, a close imitation of Virgil; he took his shepherds from the fabulous ages of antiquity, borrowed the mythology of the Greeks, and completed the machinery with fauns, nymphs, and satyrs. Like Sannazzaro, Beccari places his shepherds in Arcadia, and invests them with ancient manners; but he goes beyond mere dialogue; he connects their conversations by a series of dramatic actions. The representation of one of these poems incited Tasso to the composition of his "Aminta," the success of which was due less to the interest of the story than to the