This article forms the core of Traub’s 2002 book by the same name, covered in entry #69. However summarizing this original article will provide a different angle and different details than I picked up from that previous entry.
Il Pastor Fido (Giovanni Battista Guarini (original Italian version) Richard Fanshawe (English version))
Il Pastor Fido (The faithful shepherd) appeared in many adaptations of the 1590 Italian original by Guarini, including a 1647 English translation by Fanshawe and another 17th century English adaptation by Dymock. In the context of a kissing game among (female) nymphs, the shepher Mirtillo disguises himself as a woman to gain access to the woman he desires.
LHMP entry
The introduction begins with a consideration of the play Il Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd) and the interpretation of a key scene in art, when the shepherd Mirtillo -- having disguised himself as a woman to gain access to the object of his desire, the nymph Amarillis -- comes upon the nymphs holding a kissing competition among themselves. He enters the competition (still in disguise) and is crowned the victor by Amarillis (the scene commonly portrayed in paintings).
