Faire Daphne staye, too chaste because too faire,
      Yet fairer in mine eies, because so chaste,
    And yet because so chaste, must I despaire? 
      And to despaire, I yeelded have at last.

‘Daphne running to her Majestie uttered this:’ 

    I stay, for whether should chastety fly for succour, but to the Queene
    of chastety, &c.

a speech which can without loss be left to the imagination of the reader.  The third day’s show was prevented by bad weather:  it was designed thus.  Summoned by one clad in sheep-skins, the Queen was to be led to where the shepherds of Cotswold were engaged in choosing a king and queen of the feast by the simple divination of a bean and a pea concealed in a cake.  After a while spying her Majesty, the whole company should have joined in a welcome.  The rest of the show is in no wise pastoral.  The very marked Euphuism of the prose portions, combined with some lyrical merit, makes the composition worth notice, and has led to its ascription to the pen of Lyly himself.  It was, of course, composed and presented for her Majesty’s delectation at a time when Lyly’s plays were the delight of the court; but however grateful we may feel to Mr. Bond for having made this and other similar pieces accessible in his edition of the poet, we need not necessarily accept his view of the authorship.[340]

To the end of the sixteenth century belong undoubtedly many of the pieces printed for the first time in 1637 in Thomas Heywood’s volume of Dialogues and Dramas.[341] The only one of these that can really be styled pastoral is a slight composition entitled Amphrissa, or the Forsaken Shepherdess.  Two shepherdesses, Pelopaea and Alope, meet and fall to discoursing of love and inconstancy, and cite incidentally the unhappy case of Amphrissa, who at that moment appears in person and joins in the conversation.  The nymphs undertake her cure, and give her much wise counsel while they crown her with willow.  Then there appears upon the scene the huntress queen of Arcadia herself, attended by her nymphs, virgin Diana, before whom the country maidens bow in awe.  She graciously raises them, and the slight piece ends with dance and song.

In this drama or dialogue or masque, or whatever it may be most appropriately called, we see all plot disappear, and the interest concentrate itself in the dialogue, which, for all that it is written in blank verse of some rhythmical merit, reveals a strong inclination towards Euphuism.  Thus we read of men how

      like as the Chamelions change themselves
    Into all perfect colours saving white;
    So they can to all humors frame their speech,
    Save only to prove honest;

or else how

      light minds are catcht with little things,
    And Phancie smels to Fennell.

Nor are other and more marked traces of Lyly’s influence wanting:  witness the following passage, which is a mere metrical paraphrase of a speech in the Gallathea already quoted (p. 227):