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286

MOTHER BOMBIE: A COMEDY,

· Pris. The next day at mine.

Sper. Then at mine the last; and even so spend this week in good cheer.

Drom. Then we were best be going whilst every one is pleased; and yet these couples are not fully pleased till the priest have done his

worst.

Ris. Come, Serjeant, we'll toss it this week, and make thy mace arrest a boiled capon.

Serj. No more words at the wedding: if the mayor should know it, I were in danger of mine office.

Ris. Then take heed how, on such as we are, you show a cast of your office.

Half. If you mace us, we'll pepper you.

Acc. Come, sister, the best is, we shall have good cheer these four days.

Luc. And be fools for ever.

Sil. That's none of our upseekings.

FINIS.

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FOR the subject and incidents of this Comedy, Lyly was indebted to Ovid, Galtruchius, and "The Golden Ass" of Apuleius; in the latter work the story is related at large. If the reader be not already acquainted with it, he may be desirous of knowing something of the fabulous history on which it is founded, without referring to works, some of which are little known. According to these, Silenus, the drunken preceptor of Bacchus, having lost his way, was taken by some shepherds to the court of Midas, king of Phrygia, who hospitably entertained him for ten days, and then conducted him in safety to Bacchus, who, gratified at the kindness and attention shown to his friend, permitted Midas to make choice of his own recompense, and he solicited that every thing he touched might be changed into gold; his wish was immediately granted, a compliance

"That kept the word of promise to the ear,

And broke it to the hope."

For his very food was necessarily subject to these transmutations, and thus the fulfilment of his own desires became a curse instead of a blessing. Overwhelmed with this unforeseen consequence he again approached the god, and, in compliance with his directions, bathed himself in the river Pactolus, and was released from this unhappy power; the final exertion of which was on the sands over which the river coursed, which were immediately changed into gold: but the misfortunes of Midas did not end here; for having on a future occasion maintained the superiority of Pan over Apollo in a musical contention of these gods, the latter, enraged at his be

sotted ignorance, changed his ears into those of an ass; this disgrace he contrived to conceal from all but his barber, whom he bound never to divulge it; but he, finding this impossible, and fearing the vengeance of the monarch if it should be known that he had betrayed him, opened a hole in the earth, there whispered it, and closed the ground as before. On that spot grew a number of reeds, these when agitated gave to the winds the same sounds that had been buried, proclaiming to the world that Midas had the ears of an ass. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that this, as most other of these fables, has been supposed to represent in allegory some real circumstance of history.

If

In the adoption of these incidents Lyly has closely followed his original, without any attempt to ridicule their absurdity; but it seems evident from the general purport of the piece, and particularly from a speech in the opening of the third act, that the courtly poet had a further view in the selection of this story than the mere amusement of his auditors, intending through it to commemorate and applaud the exploits of his royal mistress. this conjecture be correct, Philip II. of Spain was meant to be represented under the character of Midas; the produce of his mines in South America, by his desire to turn every thing about him into gold; and the defeat of the Armada, by the fruitless attempts of Midas to subdue the Island of Lesbos: this last, as the most glorious transaction of her reign, must have been in the highest degree acceptable to Elizabeth; the more so as the intended compliment, though it might be evident, was not gross.

On a part of this story is founded the celebrated burletta of the same name. In this latter piece, as the intention of the author was only to raise mirth and excite laughter, he is not supposed under any obligation to follow the necessary rules of regular comedy. The passages therefore where Juno threatens to cite Jupiter to appear in Doctor's Commons, where Midas (who lived before the Trojan war) is represented as a Justice of the Peace, bribed by English guineas and an old Jacobus, where Nysa

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