Ismenia and Selvagia's Relationship

Ismenia and Selvagia's Relationship is shaped by a deception that makes affection and injury inseparable. Ismenia approaches Selvagia disguised as Alanio, and Selvagia falls for the person she believes she has met. The revelation that the disguised figure is Ismenia, who loves her cousin Alanio, transforms their connection: Selvagia's attachment becomes part of Ismenia's appeal to her, but also the consequence of a betrayal for which Selvagia demands an account.

The Encounter and the Disguise

Selvagia recalls first noticing a shepherdess who repeatedly watched her while seeming to look elsewhere. The stranger's visible eyes draw Selvagia's attention; when the shepherdess takes Selvagia's hand and studies it, Selvagia responds with an offer of her heart and thoughts as well as her service. This exchange establishes how quickly the encounter becomes emotionally charged for Selvagia, even though she does not yet know who the other person is.

The shepherdess presents herself as Alanio, says that she comes from Galia, three miles from Selvagia's village, and arranges to meet again. At their parting, Selvagia remembers embraces, tears, and sighs; she turns back to see whether the supposed Alanio is looking at her and notices what seems to be a half-smile. She doubts her own sight rather than treating that moment as proof of deceit. On returning, she carries the imagined Alanio's eyes and words with her, convinced that the affection expressed to her was genuine.

The later disclosure changes the meaning of these details. Ismenia is the name of the person Selvagia had known as Alanio, and the disguise was a deliberate means of approaching her. The real Alanio is Ismenia's cousin, whom she loves more than herself and whose appearance resembles the figure she used to deceive Selvagia. That resemblance helps explain how the performance could persuade Selvagia, but it does not lessen the breach of trust: the meetings and affectionate gestures Selvagia understood as signs of a shared attachment belonged to a false identity.

The Plea and Selvagia's Answer

After the deception is exposed, Ismenia appeals to Selvagia to forget the real Alanio and asks her to restore him, as far as she can, to the shepherdess who loves him. Her plea acknowledges that Selvagia has reason to resent whoever caused her to be forgotten, while also presenting Ismenia as suffering from a love she cannot openly claim. The request therefore places the two women in conflict over Alanio but does not reduce their relationship to simple rivalry: Ismenia asks for help from the very person her disguise has hurt.

Selvagia's answer holds grievance and sympathy together. She cannot decide whether to blame Ismenia or thank her for having led her into this state of feeling; she says that the outcome of her own love will determine how she judges the deception. She pities Ismenia's distress, yet insists that Selvagia was free when Ismenia deceived her at the temple and is now subject to the will of the man Ismenia wanted to give her to. In her account, Ismenia's scheme has produced an attachment that cannot simply be undone at Ismenia's request.

Selvagia also dwells on the resemblance between Ismenia and the real Alanio. She remembers the eyes that first looked at her and the face Ismenia showed after being pressed to reveal herself, and regrets that someone so like Alanio should suffer such unhappiness. Her compassion does not erase the injury or settle what she will do. Instead, she recognizes Ismenia's pain while keeping the deception, and its consequences for her own feelings, in view.

The Later Encounter and Reversal

At a later meeting, the balance of grievance shifts. Ismenia is described as mourning her misfortune, while Selvagia laughs at her tears and mocks her sighs. Ismenia is glad to see Selvagia; Selvagia is not glad to see her, and confronts her with the earlier deception. Ismenia answers so persuasively that Selvagia begins to feel she is the one who owes satisfaction. She argues that, although she played a trick on Selvagia, Selvagia has repaid her by taking away Alanio, the cousin Ismenia loved more than herself, and by bringing Ismenia's Montano into a changed state.

The exchange makes their bond reciprocal without making it equal. Ismenia first used a false identity to draw Selvagia into an attachment; later, she frames Selvagia's entanglements as a counterstroke that has deprived her of the man she loves and altered Montano. Selvagia's laughter and accusations show that the injury has not been forgotten, while Ismenia's pleasure at seeing her and skill in defending herself preserve a continuing connection between them. Their meeting gathers the consequences of the disguise into one confrontation, but the account breaks off as Montano arrives, leaving the four people in discord rather than providing a final reconciliation.