John Lyly

John Lyly, Shakespeare's forerunner in English comedy, wrote eight highly individual plays. This study of the plays, with each chapter devoted to a different play, concentrates on the courtly aspects of Lyly's work - he wrote all but one of his plays for court performance. In particular, it examines the relationship of Lylian drama to royal panegyric, a kind of writing which he did much to establish. However, the plays also present a parody of panegyric, and thus might also be said to have a counter-courtly aspect. The study also explores the ways in which Lyly uses "country" themes drawn from pastoral and Ovidian poetry to complicate his attitude towards the court and its culture. The plays included are: "Campaspe", "Endymion", "Galatea", "Mother Bombie", "Sappho and Phao", "Midas", "Love's Metamorphosis", and "the Woman on the Moon".