the pastoral never was thoroughly naturalized, remaining to the end
somewhat alien to its English surroundings. Shepherds with their oaten
pipes were never quite at home in the English climate, which is ill
suited to life in the open, to loose tunics, and bare limbs.[1] It is
doubtful whether the pastoral would have become popular in England
without the stimulus furnished by contemporary European literature.
Most influential of these contemporary influences was the "Diana
Enamorada," published about 1558, a Spanish pastoral romance written
by Jorge de Montemayor, a Portuguese by birth, a Spaniard by adoption.
Although the English translation of the "Diana" did not appear until
1598[2] it was well known to Sidney, who translated parts of it, and
imitated it in his "Arcadia" (1590), and to Greene, whose "Menaphon,"
also an imitation of the "Diana," had appeared in 1589, the year
before "Rosalynde." Though it is entirely possible that Lodge may have
imitated Greene, it is probable that he, like Greene, had read the
"Diana," for it is certain that he knew Spanish,[3] as well as French
and Italian, and the "Diana" was already, it is said,[4] the most
popular book in Europe.

[Footnote 1: Steele, speaking of the pastoral (_The Guardian_, No.
30), says, "The difference of the climate is also to be considered,
for what is proper in Arcadia, or even in Italy, might be quite absurd
in a colder country."]

[Footnote 2: Though not published till 1598, Bartholomew Young's
translation of the "Diana" was made in 1583.]

[Footnote 3: In the epistle To the Gentlemen Readers, prefixed to "A
Margarite of America," he tells us that he read the original of that
story "in the Library of the Jesuits in Sanctum ... in the Spanish