GUIDUBALDO BONARELLI’S Phyllis of Scyros (Filli di Sciro) is one of the highpoints of Italian drama and helped to define the pastoral mode. This quasi-elegiac tragicomedy was first performed in 1605 in the new ducal theater at Ferrara. In 1607 it was published under the auspices of the Academy of Intrepid Spirits (Accademia degli Intrepidi).
PHYLLIS is a masterpiece of word-play, wit, wonderfully flowing verses, gentle musicality, parody and irony. It was also groundreaking for its moral and psychological portrayal of a character seized by a furious double passion — one of them incestuous. Bonarelli was forced to defend his work, and in his Discorsi he boldly claimed for poetry the right to treat life, love, death, furor and ardor in their full complexity rather than as perfect ideals.
ABOUT THE EDITOR & TRANSLATOR: Nicolas J. Perella is Professor Emeritus of Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught from 1957 to 1993.
Dual-Language Poetry
Includes introduction, bibliography.
Paperback. 332 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-934977-61-6
Price: $25.00
Licensing Rights are available for stage and other media performances. Please contact us.
Copyright © 2016
ITALICA PRESS, INC.
