[338] I may take the opportanity of mentioning in a note one or two Latin plays.  In Emmanuel College (to the courtesy of whose librarian, Mr. E. S. Shuckburgh, I am much indebted) is preserved the manuscript of a play entitled Parthenia, which was no doubt acted at Cambridge, but concerning which no record apparently survives.  The introduction of ’Pan Arcadiae deus’ and of a character ‘Cacius Latro’ show that the piece was influenced both by the mythological drama and the romance of adventure.  The most interesting point about the play is that the chief male characters bear the names of Philissides and Amyntas, which will be recognized as the pastoral titles of Sidney and Watson respectively.  Since, however, the handwriting appears to be after 1600, and there is no correspondeuce in the female parts, it is more than doubtful whether any allusion was intended.  Another Cambridge piece is the Silvanus, a MS. of which is in the Bodleian (Douce 234).  It was performed on January 13, 1596, and may possibly have been written by one Anthony Rollinson—­the name is erased.

[339] Bullen’s Peele, i.p. 363.

[340] The only recorded copy of the original is in the British Museum, but is imperfect, having the title-page in facsimile from some other copy at present unknown.  A reprint from another copy, possibly of a different edition, is found in Nichols’ Progresses of Elisabeth, from which a modernized reprint was prepared by the Lee Priory Press in 1815.  Finally, it appears in Mr. Bond’s edition of Lyly, i. p. 471, whence I quote.

[341] See the excellent edition by W. Bang, Materialien zur Kunde des alteren englischen Dramas, vol. iii, 1903.

[342] All necessary apparatns for the study of this literary curiosity will be fonnd in Miss M. L. Lee’s edition, 1893.  The original is a MS. in the Bodleian.

[343] See A. H. Thorndike, Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher on Shakspeare, 1901, p. 32.  In Mucedorus (I. i. 51) we find mention of a shepherd’s disguise used ‘in Lord Julio’s masque.’  The passage occurs in the additional scenes of 1610, and there are numerous masques of the period that might claim to be that referred to.  Fleay conjectures ’The Shepherds’ Mask of James I.’s time,’ and elsewhere identifies this title, which he gets from Halliwell’s Dictionary, with Jonson’s masque, Pan’s Anniversary, or the Shepherds’ Holiday.  This, however, was produced at earliest in 1623, and can hardly therefore have been alluded to in 1610.  Halliwell took his title from the British Museum MS. Addit. 10,444, in which appears the music for a number of ‘masques,’ or dances taken from masques, and in which this particular Shepherds’ Masque (fol. 34^{v}) is dated 1635.

[344] The date here assigned presents obvions difficultes.  It would naturally mean that it was performed after March 24, 1625; but as James died after about a fortnight’s serious illness on March 27, this can hardly be accepted.  Nichols placed the performance conjecturally in August, 1624, for reasons which I am inclined to regard as satisfactory.  Fleay pronounces in favour of June 19, 1623, with a confidence not altogether calculated to inspire the like feeling in others.