sacrifice of a virgin (of course dear to Diana), on condition that Cupid should be released. The difficulty arising out of the mutual affection of Galathea and Phillida is overcome by Venus undertaking to change the sex of one of them. The following is part of the courtship between Galathea and Phillida, neither knowing the real sex of the other, nor daring to confess it themselves.

'Phillida.—It is a pity that nature framed you not a woman, having a face so fair, so lovely a countenance, so modest a behaviour. Galathea.-There is a tree in Tylos whose nuts have shells like fire, and, being cracked, the kernel is but water.

Phillida. What a toy is it to tell me of that tree, being nothing to the purpose! I say it is pity you are not a woman.

Galathea. I would not wish to be a woman, unless it were because thou art a man.

Phillida.-Nay, I do not wish to be a woman; for then I should not love thee, for I have sworn never to love a woman.

Galathea.-A strange humour in so pretty a youth, and according to mine; for myself will never love a woman.

Phillida.—It were a shame if a maiden should be a suitor (a thing hated in that sex), and thou shouldst deny to be her servant.

Galathea. What dread riseth in my mind! I fear the boy to be, as I am, a maiden.

Phillida.-Tush! It cannot be his voice shows the contrary. Galathea.-Yet I do not think it, for he would then have blushed. Phillida.-Have you ever a sister?

Galathea.—If I had but one, my brother must needs have two. But, I pray, have you ever one?

Phillida.—My father had but one daughter, and therefore I could

have no sister.

are.

Galathea.-Aye me! he is as I am, for his speeches be as mine

Phillida.-What shall I do? either he is subtle or my sex simple.' The comic portion of the piece has not the slightest con

nexion with the rest of it, and consists chiefly of scenes between an Alchymist and an Astronomer, who, in succession, hire the same roguish servant. A dance by fairies is also introduced into this rather sickly Court entertainment.

The story of Midas (printed in 1592), including his subsequent decision between Apollo and Pan, needs no explanation. By the prologue we learn that, in this form, it was a union of several pieces: 'what heretofore hath been served in several dishes for a feast is now minced in a charger for a gallimaufry'; so that the author does not speak very respectfully of his work, nor does it deserve much praise. In one particular it merits notice, viz., that some of the comic scenes, between two sprightly lacqueys and a waiting-maid, are considerably better than those which relate to Midas, and superior perhaps to any others of the same description in Lyly's other works. It is but justice therefore to add a short specimen, with some pretensions to be thought lively without buffoonery.

'Licio.-But soft: here comes Pipenetta.-What news?

Pipenetta.—I would not be in your coats for anything.

Licio.—Indeed, if thou shouldst jig up and down in our jackets, thou wouldst be thought a very tomboy.

Pipenetta.—I mean I would not be in your cases.

Petulus. Neither shalt thou, Pipenetta; for first they are too little for thy body, and then too fair to pull over so fair a skin.

Pipenetta.-These boys be drunk.-I would not be in your takings. Licio.—I think so, for we take nothing in our hands but weapons : it is for thee to use needles and pins-a sampler, not a buckler. Pipenetta.-Nay, then, we shall never have done-I mean I would not be so curst1 as you shall be.

Petulus.—Worse and worse: we are no chase (pretty mopsy), for

1 The humour of the answer of Petulus depends upon taking curst for coursed-i. e., angrily pursued.

deer we are not, neither red nor fallow, because we are bachelors and have not cornucopia: we want heads. Hares we cannot be, because they are male one year and the next female; we change not our sex. Badgers we are not, for our legs are one as long as another; and who will take us to be foxes, that stand so near a goose and bite not? Pipenetta.—Fools you are, and therefore good game for wise men My mistress would rise, and lacks your worship to fetch

to hunt.

her hair.

Petulus.—Why, is it not on her head?

Pipenetta.Methinks it should; but I mean the hair that she must wear to-day.

Licio. Why, doth she wear any but her own?

Pipenetta.—In faith, Sir, no: I am sure it is her own when she pays for it.'

The plot of Mother Bombie (printed in 1594 and 1598) relates principally to two fathers, one of whom has a foolish son, and the other a silly daughter, but neither of them knowing that the offspring of the other is half-witted. The object of the two old men is to impose their children upon each other, and this absurd scheme is absurdly enough conducted without much wit or drollery. Mother Bombie, ‘the cunning woman of Rochester', is resorted to by various parties for information as to future events, and hence the title of the play. The only portion of it at all amusing is a scene between some mischievous pages and a hackneyman, who had lent one of them a horse: the description of the animal, which, among other perfections, 'was so obedient that he would do duty every minute on his knees, as though every stone had been his father', seems imitated, in some degree, from Berni's praise of a mule that had been lent to him by a friend, beginning—

'Dal piu profondo e tenebroso centro," etc.,

1 Rime Piacevoli del Berni, Copetta, Francesi, etc., edit. Vicenza, 1609, vol. ii, fol. 4 b.

and would show, as was most probable, that Lyly was acquainted with the Italian poets.

A passage in The Maid's Metamorphosis (attributed doubtfully to Lyly, and printed anonymously in 1600), was imitated from Spenser's Fairy Queen. This production is a pretty pastoral, chiefly in rhyme, some of the comic scenes between shepherd-boys and the page of a courtier being the only part of the performance in prose. Philander and Orestes are employed to carry away and murder Eurymene, a beautiful virgin of low parentage, with whom Ascanio, a king's son, had fallen desperately in love. They take compassion upon her, and leave her in a wood, where a forester and a shepherd fall in love with her. She is followed by the prince, but is sought in vain; and he exclaims in his despair, very prettily— 'Adorned with the presence of my love,

The woods, I fear, such secret power shall prove,
As they'll shut up each path, hide every way,
Because they still would have her go astray,
And in that place would always have her seen,
Only because they would be ever green,
And keep the winged choristers still there
To banish winter clean out of the year.'

Some pleasing variety is then given to the scene by the intervention of Juno, Iris, and Somnus, who produce for Ascanio a vision of Eurymene, after which the fairies are introduced, singing and dancing to very sprightly music'By the moon we sport and play, With the night begins our day: As we dance the dew doth fall.

Trip it, little urchins all,
Lightly as the little bee,

Two by two, and three by three,

And about go we, and about go we.'

Fairies, as has been seen, are several times employed in Lyly's plays, but this is the first time he has made them vocal

'First Fairy.-I do come about the copse,

Leaping upon flowers' tops :

Then I get upon a fly,

She carries me above the sky;

And trip and go.

Second Fairy.-When a dew-drop falleth down,
And doth light upon my crown,

Then I shake my head and skip ;
And about I trip.

Third Fairy.-When I feel a girl asleep,

Underneath her frock I peep,

There to sport, and there I play,
And I bite her like a flea;

And about I skip.'

The introduction of the 'flea' seems not judicious, and m'ght easily have been avoided by the words 'till 'tis day', or some others; but 'flea' was then pronounced etymologically, flay.

The title of The Maid's Metamorphosis is derived from this circumstance:--Apollo falls in love with Eurymene, and boasts of his power as a god: she calls upon him to prove it by changing her sex, and he complies, and is caught in his own trap. Eurymene has afterwards reason to regret her metamorphosis; and the Muses, at the instance of Arimanthus, a wizard (who turns out to be the father of Eurymene, and a banished nobleman), induce Apollo to relent, and to restore the lady to her sex, after which she is united to Ascanio. It is in the following description of the spring, near which the Graces and Muses inhabit, that a not very close imitation of Spenser is found