The Faithful Shepherdess

The Faithful Shepherdess is a Jacobean era stage play, the work that inaugurated the playwriting career of John Fletcher. Though the initial production was a failure with its audience, the printed text that followed proved significant, in that it contained Fletcher's influential definition of tragicomedy. Like many of Fletcher's later tragicomedies, The Faithful Shepherdess deals with the darker side of sexuality and sexual jealousy, albeit within a comic framework.

The play’s eponymous heroine is Clorin, a virgin shepherdess who values chastity and devotion above all. A skilled healer, Clorin has chosen to live in solitude near the grave of her first love. During the course of the play, various couples will find themselves thrown into erotic turmoil, and it is Clorin who heals them and facilitates their reconciliation.

In the first storyline, the shepherd Perigot and the shepherdess Amoret are in love, though their love is unconsummated and pure. The shepherdess Amarillis, however, is also in love with Perigot, and plots to undermine the happy couple. Amarillis enlists the help of the Sullen Shepherd, a libertine villain willing to go to any lengths to obtain his desires or to break the "plighted troths of mutual souls." With the help of a magic fountain, Amarillis takes on the likeness of Amoret. The disguised Amarillis makes advances on Perigot, convincing him that his Amoret is unchaste. Bitterly disappointed in his love, Perigot stabs the real Amoret. He leaves her to die, and the Sullen Shepherd throws her body into the river, but Amoret is saved by the intervention of the river god. Amarillis later confesses her deception to Perigot, but this only leads to further confusion: when the healed Amoret tries to reconcile with Perigot, he believes her to be Amarillis in disguise, and stabs her a second time. A Satyr finds the hurt Amoret and brings her to Clorin to be healed. Meanwhile, Perigot cannot wash Amoret’s blood off his hands. Perigot seeks Clorin’s help, but even her holy water cannot cleanse him, since his hands are stained with the blood of an innocent maiden. Perigot sees Amoret and begs forgiveness; Amoret pardons him, and his hands become clean.

In the second storyline, the lustful shepherdess Cloe is seeking a lover. Any lover will do; as she declares, “It is impossible to ravish me, I am so willing.” She first tries to seduce the modest shepherd Daphnis, but finds him too restrained for her taste. She then turns to the shepherd Alexis, who is eager to comply. They meet at night for their tryst, but are spied upon by the Sullen Shepherd, who suddenly lusts after Cloe himself. The Sullen Shepherd attacks Alexis, and Cloe runs off. The Satyr brings the wounded Alexis to Clorin’s cabin. Clorin heals Alexis, and teaches him to abandon his lust. Cloe is also brought before Clorin, and purged of her unruly desire.

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