Diana, La

Spanish pastoral romance by Jorge de Montemayor published in 1559. The meandering story, with passages of rich descriptive detail, involves an enchantress and magicians, a magic potion, and a number of other complications, marvels, and relationships. Love is portrayed as irrational and painful, but ennobling. In England it influenced Arcadia by Sidney.

A prose narrative, with interspersed lyrics, it concerns the love of Sereno for Diana, who is married to Delio. It was an immense success, especially among the courtly audiences previously devoted to the romances of chivalry.

Though a lesser work than the Arcadia by Sannazaro, which it imitates, it was frequently reprinted and widely translated. It influenced a number of later pastoralists, in Spain notably Gaspar Gil Polo in his Diana enamorada (1564) and Cervantes in La Galatea (1585).