SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE AND THE FAITHFULL SHEPHERD

Abstract

Since the Aminta, written and performed in 1573, was printed at the end of 1580, it had a ten years' lead over the Pastor fido (published in 1590) as an exportable commodity. And indeed it reached England before its follower and rival, with Thomas Watson's Latin version of 1587. But by the time that Abraham Fraunce converted Watson's Latin into English hexameters in 1591 the Pastor fido was significantly pressing at its heels. In the matter of translations the seventeenth century is not entirely forgetful of the Aminta: Torquato Tasso's Aminta Englisht (by John Reynolds?) of 1628 was followed by a bilingual edition printed at Oxford in 1650(?)—and Oxford was to remain faithful to this procedure in the next century, in 1726 and 1731—while John Dancer in 1660 and Mr. Oldmixon in 1698 bring up the rear with new translations of their own. But in this modest series the poetry remains on the Italian page, and we have to look outside for its entry into the English tradition.