[224] A very similar reminiscence of Marlowe’s rhythm:  p And think I wear a rich imperial crowne, p occurs in the old play of King Leir, which must belong to about the same date, c. 1592.

[225] It is possible, though of course by no means necessary, that we have a specifie reminiscence of the lines in Faustus: 

  More lovely than the monarch of the sky
  In wanton Arethusa’s azur’d arms. (Sc. xv.)

[226] I have of course not concerned myself with those mythological plays which offer no pastoral features.  Nor is it possible to go into the question of the Latin plays performed at the Universities.  I may, however, mention the Atalanta of Philip Parsons, a short piece preserved in the British Museum, MS. Harl. 6924, and dedicated to no less a person than Laud, when President of St. John’s, Oxford, a position he held from 1611 to 1615.  The play is founded upon the Boeotian legend of Atalanta, though the laying of the scene in Arcadia would appear to indicate a confusion with the other version.  Pastoral characters and scenes are introduced.

[227] See the epistle dedicatory to the Countess of Pembroke, prefixed to the Ivychurch, in which the translation appeared, 1591.

[228] The choruses to Acts III and IV are omitted, which proves that Fraunce worked, as we should expect, from some edition previous to the Aldine quarto of 1590.  There are also certain unimportant alterations in the translation from Watson.  For a more detailed examination of Fraunce’s relation to his Italian original, see an article by E. Koeppel on ’Die englischen Tasso-Uebersetzungen des 16.  Jahrhunderts,’ in Anglia, vol. xi (1889), p. 11.

[229] ‘Phillis, alas, tho’ thou live, another by this will be dying’ would be a more elegant as well as more correct rendering of ’Oime! tu vivi; Altri non gia’:  it would, however, not scan according to Fraunce’s rules.

[230] Numerous French translations were, moreover, available for such as happened to be more familiar with that language.

[231] Though not a point of much importance, I may as well take the opportunity of endeavouring to clear up the singular confusion which has surrounded the authorship.  The ascription to John Reynolds rests ultimately upon the authority of Edward Phillips, in whose Theatrum Poetarum, 1675, we find s.v. Torquato Tasso the note (pt. ii, p. 186):  ‘Amintas, a Pastoral, elegantly translated into English by John Reynolds.’  Who this John was is open to question.  The Dic.  Nat.  Biog. recognizes three John Reynolds in the first half of the seventeenth century:  (1) John Reynolds, or Reinolds (1584-1614), epigrammatist, fellow of New College, Oxford; (2) John Reynolds, of Exeter, (fl. 1621-50), author of God’s Revenge against Murder, and of translations from French and Dutch; and (3) Sir John Reynolds, colonel in the Parliamentary