Diana's hair cord given to Sireno

Diana's hair cord given to Sireno is a keepsake that gives physical form to the lovers’ former intimacy and to the pain of remembering it after their relationship has changed. Made from Diana’s own hair, it joins a promise of devotion to the objects Sireno keeps and handles in grief.

Gift and Material Form

Diana’s gift is a cord she says she made from her hair. In giving it to Sireno, she connects the visible token to a claim about their bond: it is meant to remind him that he has taken possession of her heart as well as of the cord and its material. The object therefore bears both a personal trace of Diana and the meaning she assigns to their relationship.

The narrative later shows Sireno drawing from his bosom a paper containing green silk cords and hair. The passage does not explicitly identify each item in that paper as the particular cord Diana described, but it places cords and hair among the intimate remnants he has kept. He lays them on the grass and weeps before taking up his lute, making the small keepsakes part of a scene of mourning rather than ordinary use.

A Token Revisited in Grief

Sireno’s handling of the preserved objects follows his return to the place where he first saw Diana. His memories dwell on the spring and its alder trees, where Diana had wept while promising that no parental will, persuasion from brothers, or pressure from relatives could turn her thoughts from him. The hair cord belongs to the material world of such assurances: it can be held and seen after the circumstances that gave the promise its force have altered.

When Sireno takes up the tokens, he calls them keepsakes of the most beautiful and disloyal shepherdess and laments that they have deceived him while remaining before his eyes. His response makes the object double-edged. Its closeness to Diana preserves the intimacy he once valued, but that same closeness renews the pain of having loved and lost her.

Promises, Memory, and Contrast

Diana’s earlier letter strengthens the contrast between the token’s loving meaning and Sireno’s present sense of betrayal. In it, she insists that she loves him deeply, says that her honor is safe with him, and urges him not to surrender to jealousy and suspicion. The cord and the letter thus survive as different kinds of testimony: one is a tangible gift, the other a written declaration. Sireno’s recollection brings both into contact with his present conviction that Diana no longer remembers him.

The cord’s significance lies not in changing events but in making the past persist as an object of attention. Sireno can put it away and take it out again, yet cannot recover the former relationship it represents. In the opening scene, the keepsake concentrates the work’s tension between remembered vows and present loss, while showing how an intimate possession can console through its connection to the beloved and wound through the same connection.