John Lilly.
One of the firſt Reformers of our Language, in Queen Elizabeth’s Days; he was born in Kent, bred in Magdalen-College, Oxon, and there took his Degree of Maſter of Arts, 1575. The Time of his Death I know not; he has publiſhed theſe Nine Plays following.
Alexander and Campaſpe, a Tragi-Comedy, 12 mo. 1632. Acted on a Twelfth Night, before the Queen, by her Majeſty’s Children, and thoſe of Paul’s, and ſometimes after at Black Fryars. Plot from Pliny’s Natural Hiſt. Lib. 35. Cap. 10.
Endimion, a Comedy, 12 mo. 1632. Preſented alſo before Queen Elizabeth, by the ſame Children. Plot from Lucian’s Dialogue between Venus and the Moon, Natales Comes, and Galtruchius’s Hiſt. of the Heathen Gods.
Galathea, a Comedy, 12 mo. 1632. Preſented likewiſe before the Queen at Greenwich, by the Children of Paul’s on New-Year’s-Day. See the Story of Iphis and Ianthe, in Ovid Metamorph. Lib. 9. Tab. 12, &c.
Love’s Metamorphoſis, a Paſtoral, 4 to. 1601. Firſt play’d by the Children of Paul’s, and afterwards by her Majeſty’s Children of the Chappel.
The Maid’s Metamorphoſis, a Comedy, 4 to. 1600. Acted ſundry times by the Children of Paul’s.
Mother Bombie, a pleſsant conceited Comedy (ſays the Title), printed 12 mo. 1632. and ſundry times play’d by the Children of Paul’s.
Mydas, a Comedy, 12 mo. 1632. This was alſo play’d before the Queen on Twelfth Day at Night, Apuleius has writ this Story at large in his Aureus Aſinus. See alſo Natales Comes, Galtruchius’s Hiſt. of the Heathen Gods, and Ovid’s Metamorph. Lib. 11.
Sapho and Phaon, a Comedy, 12 mo. 1632. Preſented before the Queen on Shrove Tuesday, and afterwards at the Black Fryars. Plot from Ovid Epiſt.
Woman in the Moon, a Comedu, 4 to. 1667.
Six of the above Plays are printed together 12 mo. and publiſhed by one Mr. Blount, called Court Comedies; the other three are printed ſingle in 4 to. Mr. Lilly alſo writ a Book called, Eupheus and his England, 4 to. at that time much eſteemed.
