Pastoral

Artists and writers of the Renaissance often portrayed the countryside as a perfect place, far from the corrupt life of the city and the court. This style, known as the pastoral, became one of the most popular forms for art and literature. Such noted Renaissance figures as English playwright William Shakespeare, Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, and Flemish* painter Peter Paul Rubens all created works in a pastoral style.

The pastoral developed out of a variety of ancient and medieval* forms. In particular, it drew on the ancient Roman poems called eclogues, which focused on conversations between shepherds. In the 1200s and 1300s, the Italian poets Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio created new Latin works in this form. Later writers produced eclogues in Italian, and in time the pastoral form spread throughout Europe. Artists also adopted pastoral themes in their works, often placing biblical stories in a country setting.

The Renaissance pastoral was not really a single distinct genre*. Writers used pastoral themes in a variety of forms, including poetry, prose, and drama. For example, Italian playwright Giovanni Battista Guarini used the pastoral style in his play The Faithful Shepherd (1590). Guarini believed that the pastoral's rural setting, far removed from the customs of city life, made it an ideal form for social, political, and even sexual experimentation. Other works, such as Cervantes's Don Quixote, combined the pastoral style with elements of the romance* form.

The pastoral became extremely popular in England in the late 1500s. English writers produced many famous pastoral works in a variety of literary forms. Edmund Spenser created a book of eclogues called The Shepheardes Calender and also used pastoral themes in his epic* The Faerie Queene. Philip Sidney produced Arcadia, a pastoral romance, and Shakespeare adopted the pastoral style in his comedy As You Like It.

(See alsoDrama, French; Italian Language and Literature; Poetry, English. )

* Flemish

relating to Flanders, a region along the coasts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands

* medieval

referring to the Middle Ages, a period that began around a.d. 400 and ended around 1400 in Italy and 1500 in the rest of Europe

* genre

literary form

* romance

adventure story of the Middle Ages, the forerunner of the modern novel

* epic

long poem about the adventures of a hero

pas·to·ral / ˈpastərəl; pasˈtôrəl/ • adj. 1. (esp. of land or a farm) used for or related to the keeping or grazing of sheep or cattle: scattered pastoral farms. ∎  associated with country life: the view was pastoral, with rolling fields and grazing sheep. ∎  (of a work of art) portraying or evoking country life, typically in a romanticized or idealized form.2. (in the Christian Church) concerning or appropriate to the giving of spiritual guidance: pastoral and doctrinal issues clergy doing pastoral work.• n. a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life: the story, though a pastoral, has an actual connection with the life of agricultural labor.DERIVATIVES: pas·to·ral·ism / ˈpastərəˌlizəm/ n.pas·to·ral·ly adv.

pastoral In literature, work portraying rural life in an idealized manner, especially to contrast its supposed innocence with the corruption of the city or royal court. In classical times, Theocritus and Virgil wrote pastoral poems. The form was revived during the Renaissance by such poets as Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Spenser. Milton and Shelley were noted for their pastoral elegies, and poets such as Wordsworth and Frost have been referred to as pastoral poets because their work has a characteristically rural setting.

pas·tor / ˈpastər/ • n. a minister in charge of a Christian church or congregation.• v. [tr.] be pastor of (a church or a congregation): he pastored Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto | [intr.] he continued to study law while pastoring in Chicago. DERIVATIVES: pas·tor·ship / -ˌship/ n.ORIGIN: late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pastour, from Latin pastor ‘shepherd,’ from past- ‘fed, grazed,’ from the verb pascere.

pastoral a form of literature portraying an idealized version of country life, the earliest example of which is found in the Idylls of the Greek poet Theocritus (c.310–c.250 bc). The pastoral became popular during the Renaissance, and inspired particularly such prose romances as Sidney's Arcadia.

The word comes ultimately from Latin pastor ‘shepherd’; in late Middle English, pastoral denoted a book on the cure or care of souls, often with reference to the title of St Gregory the Great's Cura Pastoralis (‘Pastoral Care’), which had been translated into English by King Alfred.
Pastoral Epistles the books of the New Testament comprising the two letters of Paul to Timothy and the one to Titus, which deal chiefly with the duties of those charged with the care of souls.
pastoral letter an official letter from a bishop to all the clergy or members of his or her diocese, and a pastoral staff is a bishop's crozier.
pastoral theology is Christian theology, that considers religious truth in relation to spiritual needs.