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Midas. 1589-90
S. R. 1591, Oct. 4. Vide supra, s.v. Galathea. 1592. Midas. Plaied before the Queenes Maiestie upon Twelfe day at night. By the Children of Paules. Thomas Scarlet for J. B. [Prologue 'in Paules'.] Edition by C. W. Dilke (1814, O. E. P. i). Internal allusions suggest a date as late as 1589, and the Twelfth Night of the t.p. must therefore be 6 Jan. 1590. Fleay, ii. 42, and Bond, iii. 111, accept this date. Feuillerat, 578, prefers 6 Jan. 1589, because Gabriel Harvey alludes to the play in his Advertisement to Pap-Hatchet, dated 5 Nov. 1589. But there was no Court performance on that day, and Harvey may have seen the play 'in Paules'.
Mother Bombie. 1587 < > 90
S. R. 1594, June 18. 'A booke intituled mother Bumbye beinge an enterlude.' Cuthbert Burby (Arber, ii. 654). 1594. Mother Bombie. As it was sundrie times plaied by the Children of Powles. Thomas Scarlet for Cuthbert Burby.
1598. Thomas Creede for Cuthbert Burby.
Edition by C. W. Dilke (1814, O. E. P. i). The play doubtless belongs to the Paul's series of 1587-90. It seems hardly possible to date it more closely. Feuillerat, 578, thinks it later in style than Midas.
Love's Metamorphosis. 1589-90 (?) S. R. 1600, Nov. 25 (Pasfield). 'A booke Called Loves metamorphesis wrytten by master John Lylly and playd by the Children of Paules.' William Wood (Arber, iii. 176). 1601. Loves Metamorphosis. A Wittie and Courtly Pastorall. Written by M^r Iohn Lyllie. First playd by the Children of Paules, and now by the Children of the Chapell. For William Wood.
F. Brie (E. S. xlii. 222) suggests that the play borrowed from Greene's Greenes Metamorphosis (S. R. 9 Dec. 1588). Probably the Paul's boys produced it c. 1589-90, and the Chapel revived it in 1600-1.
The Woman in the Moon. 1590 < > 5 (?)
S. R. 1595, Sept. 22. 'A booke intituled a woman in the moone.' Robert Fynche (Arber, iii. 48).
1597. The Woman in the Moone. As it was presented before her Highnesse. By Iohn Lyllie Maister of Arts. William Jones. [Prologue.]
The prologue says:
Remember all is but a poet's dream,
The first he had in Phoebus holy bower,
But not the last, unless the first displease.
This has been taken as indicating that the play was Lyly's first; but it need only mean that it was his first in verse. All the others are in
