Love in a Green Shade examines for the first time in depth the reception history of Daphnis and Chloe in literature, beginning with its Renaissance rediscovery and working through its various transformations in English, French, Spanish, andother literatures. At the same time, Richard F. Hardin launches a groundbreaking exploration of the idyllic romance tradition in fiction and drama.

While Virgil and Theocritus beget a tradition of poetry concerned with male eroticism, idyllic romance centers on the couple in a story pointing toward marriage. In addition to Daphnis and...

This book shows the impact of the 1428 rediscovery of Plautus's plays on the theory and composition of comedy, and sets Plautus's reception apart from that of the quite different dramatist Terence. The latter half takes up the Plautine traits that appear in the practice of English comic dramatists ca. 1500-1640.