CHAPTER IV

SHAKESPEARE'S EARLIER CONTEMPORARIES

21. Prominent Dramatists. In the decade between 1570 and 1580 there grew up at Oxford and Cambridge a remarkable group of men who made a most distinct contribution to the developing form of the drama and in one way or another became forerunners of the great master soon to appear. They were as definite in their ideas about life and art as they were in their actual achievement. “A pride in university training which amounted to arrogance, and a curious belief, not unknown even to-day, that only the university-bred man can possibly have the equipment and the sources of information fitting him to be a proper exponent of new, and, at the same time, of really valuable, ideas and literary methods-these were sentiments shared by all the members of the group of 'university wits.'" 1 The men to whom this term-this sometimes rather misleading term—is applied were primarily John Lyly, George Peele, Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge, and Thomas Nash. "University bred one and all, these five men were proud of their breeding. However severe from time to time might be their censures of their intellectual mother, they were always ready to take arms against the unwarranted assumption, as it seemed to them, of certain dramatists who lacked this university training and 1 Baker: "The Plays of the University Wits," C. H. E. L., V, 136 and 159.

to confuse them by the sallies of their wit." Lodge and Nash made no such contribution as the others, and are in fact more important in the history of the novel than of the drama, though Lodge's story Rosalynde has vital connection with Shakespeare's As You Like It. Kyd and Marlowe, who are also treated in the present chapter, while early contemporaries of Shakespeare, are generally somewhat detached from the men just remarked, though their own connections were close. Kyd, while he received some foundation in things cultural, was not primarily a university man; but it is rather by temper than by training that Marlowe is to be distinguished from his contemporaries. A certain "high seriousness" characterized both men, and in the case of Marlowe this took the form of a soaring passion that was not the less effective because it was arrogant, ambitious, and bold."

22. John Lyly.-John Lyly (1554?-1606) holds a unique place in the history of the English drama. Eminently a man of scholarly and cultured associations, he was also the possessor of much good sense and humor. After receiving the A. B. degree at Oxford in 1573, the 'A. M. in 1575, and also the A. M. at Cambridge in 1579, he went to London, where he was under the protection of Lord Burleigh, afterwards the Earl of Oxford. He married a lady of considerable standing, sat in four parliaments, and at times managed the children of St. Paul's and of the Chapel at Blackfriars; but he aspired in vain

For texts of plays of men considered in the present chapter see Manly's Specimens, Vol. II, Neilson's The Chief Elizabethan Dramatics, or individual volumes in Mermaid Series. In addition to critical articles by Baker and G. Gregory Smith in C. H. E. L., Vol. V, note especially Baker: The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist, Chapter I.

to the office of Master of the Revels. He is best known for his prose work, Euphues, which appeared in two parts, Euphues and his Anatomie of Wit (1579) and Euphues and his England (1580-81). This work gave to the language a new word, euphuism, to designate a style marked by alliteration, antithesis, similes, conceits, puns, mythological allusions, and a general show of wit; and in it Lyly, himself a courtier, gave a model not only for the writing but also for the conversation of the lords and ladies at the court of Elizabeth. To his credit are eight plays, all comedies: Campaspe (1580 3), Sapho and Phao (1581), Endimion (1585), Gallathea (1584), Midas (1589), Mother Bombie (1590), The Woman in the Moone (1591), and Love's Metamorphosis (1589). These plays were generally first played before the Queen by "the children of Paul's; " they are mainly in prose; and being panegyrics on the virtue and glory of the Queen, they are more or less allegorical. They also have a political touch and were primarily addressed to a limited and sophisticated audience.

Campaspe is generally considered the best and clearest of Lyly's dramas. The prologue professes to mix mirth with counsel and discipline with delight. Campaspe is a Theban captive who in the first scene is brought into the presence of Alexander, King of Macedon, and certain of his soldiers. Alexander falls in love with her, frees her, and commissions Apelles to paint her portrait. While the painter is performing his task he himself falls in love with Campaspe, and his affection is returned. At length Alexander learns of the love between Apelles and Campaspe,

'Dates are of first appearance, in some cases only approximate, and generally with indebtedness to Schelling.

gives up the maiden to the painter, and sets out for Persia with Hephestion, a general and his friend. Diogenes and his servant Manes furnish the comic matter of the play, as when, in the fourth act, Populus comes to see Diogenes fly. Lyly does not succeed very well in connecting his main plot and his comic matter; but the main plot is coherent and natural, and the love motive is sympathetically handled. The lyrics are of excellent quality, and the drama as a whole is quite worthy to be the first original prose play in the language.

If Campaspe is Lyly's clearest play, Endimion certainly holds the strongest allegory. Tellus, the earthly love of the hero, has been abandoned by her lover for Cynthia, the goddess of the moon. She persuades the witch Dipsas to charm Endimion into a deep sleep, and he slumbers for forty years. Cynthia banishes Tellus to the guard of Corsites and sends into all parts of the world for a remedy for Endimion. His friend Eumenides at length finds out from an oracle in Thessaly that a kiss from Cynthia will bring him back to life. The goddess hears this in the presence of her ladies, visits Endimion, finds him grown old, and kisses him. His youth is restored and he devotes his life to the contemplation of Cynthia's glory and perfection. The subplots are joined to the main plot in romantic fashion; Dipsas, for instance, is loved by Sir Thopas, and thus furnishes a parody on the love of Cynthia and Endimion. Various interpretations of the allegory of the play have been given, but about all that editors are generally agreed on is that Cynthia is Elizabeth and Endimion Leicester.

Lyly's service to the stage was considerable. "In his attitude toward love-his gallant trifling; his idealization

of women, which, with him, goes even to the point of making them mere wraiths; above all, in the curious effect produced by his figures as rather in love with being in love than moved by real human passion-he is Italianate and of the renascence." He was artificial, and his works show no great tragic emotion; yet he discovered the possibilities of repartee and the occasional lyric, he promoted the union of the masque and the regular drama, and, aided by euphuism in the choice of vocabulary and form, he definitely established prose as the medium of high as well as low comedy in English. He is in every sense worthy of the high place he holds among the predecessors of Shakespeare.

23. George Peele.-Not a very great deal is known about the life of Peele (1558?-1597?). He attended Christ's Hospital as a free scholar, and in March, 1571, he entered what is now Pembroke College, Oxford; but from 1574 to 1579 he was at Christ's Church, where he received the A. B. degree in 1577 and the A. M. in 1579. In 1583 he was already married and had obtained some land in his wife's right. His life in London, generally sordid, was given to making a living in any way he could by his talents. In his Palladis Tamia (1598) Francis Meres spoke of him as dead.

In the list of Peele's plays, masques, and pageants, five dramas stand out with prominence. These are The Ar raignment of Paris (1581), The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First (1590), The Battle of Alcazar '(1591), The Old Wives' Tale (1590), and The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe (1589). The flattery of Elizabeth in the first of these plays was deliberate; its Baker, C. H. E. L., V, 139.