Selvagia and Alanio's Love Affair

Selvagia and Alanio’s love affair grows out of a deception at the Temple of Minerva and becomes one link in a shifting chain of desire among Selvagia, Alanio, Ismenia, and Montano. Selvagia falls for the figure Ismenia presents at the festival, then remains attached to Alanio after learning the truth. Alanio initially appears to return her love, but jealousy and Ismenia’s changing affections redirect him, turning their courtship into a story of unequal constancy rather than mutual fulfillment.

First Encounter and Deception

Selvagia recounts the affair as a story of how a staged encounter acquired real emotional force. On the eve of the festival at the Temple of Minerva, she enters with other shepherdesses to keep vigil. Men are allowed to enter only to pay their respects before leaving, so the women remain inside to celebrate together. A company of veiled shepherdesses arrives, and one sits beside Selvagia, watching her through the veil. Selvagia is especially struck by the stranger’s visible eyes and, when the stranger takes her hand and studies it, responds with an immediate declaration of devotion.

The veiled figure answers as though the attraction is mutual, while continuing to conceal both identity and face. Selvagia grows increasingly eager to know whom she loves. At last, Ismenia takes her aside, removes the veil, and reveals that the apparent shepherdess is a man in disguise. The revelation changes Selvagia’s understanding of the encounter, but does not undo its effect: she is already deeply taken by the stranger’s beauty and words. She even distinguishes between being pleased by the attraction and regretting that the disguise was not adopted deliberately to win her. That qualification shows how the affair begins under false pretences yet immediately becomes an attachment Selvagia experiences as her own.

The Real Alanio and a Secret Courtship

The disclosure complicates rather than ends the deception. Ismenia gives the name Alanio and says that he comes from Galia, three miles from Selvagia’s village; the account then clarifies that Ismenia has a cousin named Alanio, whom Ismenia loves intensely. The cousin resembles Ismenia so closely in face and eyes that the two could be mistaken for one another. Ismenia’s first use of the name, the story suggests, comes from the person already occupying Ismenia’s thoughts. The disguised encounter thus entangles Selvagia not only with Alanio but with Ismenia’s attachment to him.

After leaving the temple, Ismenia tells the cousin what happened, recounting Selvagia’s response in detail and laughing with him at the trick. Alanio conceals his reaction, but eight days later he comes to Selvagia’s village and places himself where she will see him as she passes with other girls on the way to the spring. Selvagia mistakes him for the disguised figure from the temple and signals him to join her. Their meeting gives the initial fantasy a direct continuation: they talk as long as circumstances allow, and Selvagia’s love becomes firmer. She says that even discovering the deception could not have turned her from her purpose. Alanio, too, seems to become attached, though Selvagia judges that he does not show his love as fully as he should.

For a time, they meet and communicate as secretly as they can. Ismenia discovers the courtship and recognizes a painful irony: by deceiving Selvagia and then telling Alanio what happened, Ismenia has helped bring the two together. Ismenia expects that once Selvagia learns the truth, she will forget Alanio. Instead, Selvagia says that knowing the truth makes her love him more. The mismatch between Ismenia’s expectation and Selvagia’s persistence marks a decisive difference between a prank’s intended effect and the attachment it actually produces.

Jealousy and the Reversal of Affections

Ismenia attempts to recover Alanio by pretending to return the long-standing love of Montano, a shepherd with whom Alanio is on bad terms. The plan is meant to make Alanio feel the loss of an affection he had treated as secure. Montano responds with joy and devoted service; what begins as Ismenia’s feigned change of heart becomes genuine. Ismenia transfers her love to Montano and turns away from Alanio, whom she now wishes to see less than anyone.

Alanio’s response unsettles his relationship with Selvagia. He is distressed to see Ismenia attached to Montano, his enemy, and becomes determined to obstruct their connection. He begins paying renewed attention to Ismenia, reduces his visits to Selvagia, and avoids appearing openly in her village. Selvagia presents the change not as a weakening of her own love but as a withdrawal on Alanio’s side: she remains committed, while his anger at Montano and renewed proximity to Ismenia pull him elsewhere. His absences therefore expose the affair’s central imbalance. Selvagia’s devotion persists through the reversal; Alanio’s conduct changes with the rivalries around him.

The Four-Way Entanglement

The affair eventually forms a chain of crossed desires: Selvagia loves Alanio, Alanio loves Ismenia, Ismenia loves Montano, and Montano comes to love Selvagia. Montano’s interest begins when he sees Selvagia bringing her sheep to the fold. The narrative describes his affection as growing through his conduct, until his love for her is said to equal the intensity of the others’ attachments. The chain does not restore Selvagia and Alanio’s earlier mutuality; it places their relationship within a wider pattern in which each person’s pursuit redirects another’s hopes.

Their movements through the countryside make the pattern concrete. Ismenia goes into the fields and Alanio follows; Montano goes to his flock and Ismenia follows him; Selvagia takes her sheep toward the mountain and Montano follows. Selvagia, in turn, seeks out Alanio when she learns where he is grazing. The repeated pursuit contrasts with the diminishing openness of Alanio’s visits to Selvagia: she continues to seek him even as he avoids her. In the account’s latest development, the original courtship remains emotionally consequential but no longer reciprocal. Its significance lies in that contrast between the attachment Selvagia refuses to abandon and the unstable desires that carry Alanio away from her.