Aminta

Among the many theoretical pieces written by Tasso throughout his literary career there are none devoted specifically to the Aminta. The work was composed in the early months of 1573, performed at Belriguardo for the Ferrarese court, and hailed immediately as a masterpiece. Although as regards literary genre it was a prime and highly successful example of Ferrara’s tradition of the pastoral (with recent support from Luigi d’Este), partly modelled on Speroni’s Canace, the Aminta was closely bound up with the Este Court, of which it offered a barely veiled depiction, marked by tranquillity and harmony (for an interpretation of the relationship between the work and the court see E. Graziosi, Aminta 1573-1580. Amore e matrimonio in casa d’Esta, Pisa, Pacini 2001). Arranged into five acts and starting with a prologue by Love, the play narrates Aminta’s initially crossed love for the reluctant Silvia. Neither the wise advice given to the two young people by Dafne and Tirsi (a character based on Tasso himself), nor Aminta’s rescue of Silvia from the threat of the Satyr’s violence, manage to dissolve her icy detachment, which softens only when she hears of Aminta’s apparent death by suicide. The two young people are finally united, although this occurs beyond the stage itself. But the happy ending does not completely dispel a vague sensation of tragedy hanging over the story: the chorus of the first act stands out as a symbolic expression of this “ambiguous harmony”, celebrating the Golden Age as a kingdom of Love as yet unrestrained by the rules imposed by Honour, and governed by a “legge aurea e felice / che natura scolpì: / S’ei piace ei lice” (“golden and happy law that Nature sculpted: If it pleases, it is allowed”)