[203] Preface to the Bodoni edition of the Aminta, p. 12.

[204] This episode of the double love of Celia formed the subject of an attack on the play.  The author wrote an elaborate defence which was printed at Ancona in 1612.  It runs to 221 quarto pages.

[205] I am aware that attempts have been made to find evidence of Italian influence in Lyly, but of this later.

[206] The piece appeared anonymously, but the authorship is attested by Nashe in his preface to Greene’s Menaphon, 1589.  Some songs from the play also appear over Peele’s signature in England’s Helicon, 1600.  I have quoted from A. H. Bullen’s edition of Peele’s works, 2 vols. 1888.

[207] Fraunce’s translation in his Ivychurch (vide post), and J. Wolfe’s edition, together with the Pastor fido, both 1591.

[208] Like Dove.  Cf. p. 98.

[209] i.e. coupled impartially with its reward.

[210] Umpire.

[211] Groves.

[212] The entry of the piece to R. Jones, on July 26, 1591, in the Stationers’ Register, coupled with the fact that England’s Parnassus quotes almost entirely from printed works, puts this practically beyond doubt.  It is of course possible that a copy may yet be discovered.

[213] Dr. Henry Jackson, than whom no classical scholar has devoted more study to the Elizabethan drama, draws my attention to the fact that a somewhat indelicate passage in the play, obscurely hinted at in Drummond’s notes (ed.  Bullen, ii. p. 366), evidently forms the basis of that poet’s own epigram ‘Of Nisa’ (ed.  Turnbull, p. 104).

[214] Two other plays of Lyly’s appear at first sight to present pastoral features.  There are five ‘shepherds’ among the dramatis personae of Mydas, but they appear in one scene only (IV. ii), and merely represent the common people, introduced to comment on the actions of the king.  The names, as is usual with Lyly, except in the case of comic characters, are classical.  The other play is Mother Bombie, which, however, is nothing but a comedy of low life, combining the tradition of the Latin comedy with the native farce, which goes back through Gammer Gurton to the old interludes.  It contains a good deal of honest fun and a notable lack of Euphuism.

[215] For many years, indeed, his romance continued to run through ever-fresh editions, that of 1636 being the twelfth.  It is clear, however, that its public had changed.

[216] It is a curious fact that the authorship of these songs, though it has never been seriously questioned, rests on very uncertain evidence.  I may refer to an article on the subject in the Modern Language Review for October, 1905, i. p. 43.

[217] A play entitled ‘Iphis and Ianthe, or A marriage without a man,’ was entered on the Stationers’ Register on June 29, 1660, as the work of Shakespeare.