SOURCE: "An Introduction to Sappho and Phao," in "Campaspe": "Sappho and Phao, " by John Lyly, edited by G. K. Hunter and David Bevington, Manchester University Press, 1991, pp. 141-95.

In the excerpt below, Bevington discusses Lyly's employment of allegory and the tradition of the comedy of courtship in Sappho and Phao, as well as his use of language in the play.

Allegory

Lyly plainly intended his dramatic portrait of Sappho as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, before whom the play was presented at court; although the play has other interests as well, Lyly's dramatic retelling of his many sources keeps this overriding consideration in mind. May he not then have used contemporary history as his most important source, relating through allegory an actual courtship in which Elizabeth triumphed over the entanglements of love? Sappho's obscure dream (IV.iii), like that of Cynthia in Endymion, seems to beg its audience...