Silvano's Affection for Diana

Silvano's affection for Diana is an unrequited love shaped by restraint: although he suffers as her rejected suitor, he refuses to turn his disappointment against Sireno, the man she once favored. His story traces a change from steadfast attachment to magical release and mutual love with Selvagia, while Diana's part in that change is more than the object of his former devotion: she becomes, in his account, the person who taught him how to love and later helped him recognize happiness elsewhere.

Origins in a Rivalry

Silvano first appears in relation to Diana through the rivalry with Sireno over her affection. Sireno recalls that Diana had favored him openly, sharing the ordinary work of pastoral life: she accompanied him as he took the flock to the river, led lambs to the grove, and brought sheep into the shade of the alders at midday. Silvano, by contrast, had lived with her disfavor. The imbalance gives his love its particular difficulty: he sees the intimacy Diana once offered Sireno, yet does not make that intimacy a reason to hate the man who received it.

When the two shepherds meet again at the spring, Silvano approaches Sireno with tears and embraces him. He says that he would not take revenge on Sireno even if he could, because his love for Diana forbids him to oppose the person in whom she had placed her own love. His loyalty thus extends beyond an abstract claim of devotion: he accepts Diana's choice as a reason to care for Sireno, despite the pain that choice has caused him. Sireno is astonished by this generosity and treats Silvano's endurance as an example of how adversity can be borne.

Constancy Without Resentment

Silvano does not pretend that his love is rewarded. He recognizes that his service to Diana offers no prospect of recompense, and that a less constant lover might have abandoned the pursuit. Yet he remains faithful even when surrounded by reasons to forget someone who does not remember him in the same way. His constancy is not presented as ignorance of his position; it is a deliberate persistence in the face of it.

His compassion for Sireno makes that persistence more complex. Silvano remembers the favors Sireno received and the tenderness of Diana's former words, but he does not use those memories to claim that Sireno deserves punishment. Instead, he explains that Diana's affection for Sireno was never a cause for him to stop loving Sireno as a fellow sufferer. Sireno's grief moves him, and he says that if he cannot feel for another's pain, his own should never find an end. The relationship therefore joins romantic disappointment to a striking form of friendship: the two men share sorrow without treating love as a contest that must end in hostility.

Silvano's later assessment is less forgiving toward Diana's treatment of him. When the shepherds meet her again, he says that if anyone has grounds to complain of her ingratitude, it is he, because she treated him poorly despite the depth of his love. Selvagia answers with tenderness, telling him that no shepherdess could fail to gain by being loved by him. The exchange allows his old grievance to be acknowledged without restoring his former pursuit or turning it into revenge.

Felicia's Magic and a New Attachment

At Felicia's house, Silvano's attachment to Diana ends through an intervention he does not initiate. Felicia gives him and Selvagia a vessel of enchanted water, after explaining that it will remedy their past suffering and begin a different happiness. Both fall into a sleep so deep that Felismena cannot wake them by calling or shaking them. Felicia later touches Silvano with a book, and he awakens with his love directed toward Selvagia.

The change is immediate and emphatic. Silvano compares his former wandering thoughts to a ship lost at sea, unable to find a secure harbor; now, he says, he has reached a harbor and hopes to be welcomed there. He calls his former devotion to Diana a period of error and declares that seeing Selvagia has awakened his thought. His passion is no longer an unreturned service but a hope for mutual affection. The contrast matters: where his love for Diana had required endurance without reward, the new bond promises a happiness he can imagine sharing.

Selvagia initially remains asleep while Silvano tries to rouse her, and his urgent appeals bring him to tears. Felicia then wakes her and tests the change by suggesting that Alanio, whom Selvagia had previously loved, has come seeking her with permission to marry. Selvagia refuses that supposed solution and asks instead where Silvano is. When he hears her answer, Silvano comes out of the adjoining room; the two look at one another with love, and their attachment is confirmed as mutual. The scene completes the redirection of his affection: Diana is no longer the center of his desire, and Selvagia responds to him freely.

Diana's Recognition of the Change

When Diana later encounters the shepherds, the altered relationships are visible to her. She notices that Silvano's eyes show the contentment he finds in Selvagia, and she urges him to speak of her beauty and of the love she gives him rather than dwell on pasture, lambs, or the changing fortunes of the world. Silvano answers that Diana deserves his gratitude: she taught him to love, and now guides him in how to enjoy the happiness his new affection brings. His words recast their former connection without denying its cost. Diana remains important to the history of his emotional life, but no longer as the beloved he seeks to win.

The contrast is especially sharp beside Sireno's continuing conversation with Diana. Silvano can affirm his present happiness with Selvagia while Diana and Sireno revisit the wounds and obligations of their past. Diana's intervention does not erase the years of Silvano's unreturned love; it recognizes that his attention now belongs elsewhere. By encouraging him to cherish the affection he has found, she helps mark the difference between his former longing and his present, reciprocal relationship.

Meaning of the Relationship's Change

Silvano's relation to Diana moves through three distinct positions: rejected rival, loyal lover who refuses vengeance, and former beloved whose experience becomes a source of gratitude rather than continued pursuit. His conduct at the spring shows that steadfast love need not become hostility toward a rival; Felicia's magic, by contrast, reveals how abruptly that steadfastness can be broken within the story's enchanted world. The new love for Selvagia changes not only the object of Silvano's affection but also its conditions, replacing unreciprocated service with mutual recognition.

Diana's role likewise changes. At first, she is the beloved whose favors to Sireno make Silvano's position painful; later, she is the person Silvano credits with teaching him love and encouraging him to value the happiness Selvagia offers. The relationship thus ends not in a confession of renewed desire but in a reordering of affection: Silvano can acknowledge what Diana meant to him, recognize the hurt he suffered, and turn toward a different bond without seeking revenge.