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Ir is perhaps needless to observe that the plot of this play, like the preceding, is taken from the mythological writers. In presenting to the public the last of Lyly's, which will be inserted in the present collection, it may not be unnecessary to state what was probably the intention of the poet, in fixing upon, stories apparently so unfit for dramatic representation as those of " Midas” and "Endymion." And the true solution of this seems to be, that these were, what they were afterwards called, court comedies," and intended for the particular amusement and gratification of Queen Elizabeth. In that of "Midas," she is complimented as a queen; in that of "Endymion," her supposed charms and attractions as a woman are the more particular objects, which the courtly poet had in view and it is surely no mean praise to Lyly if he successfully followed the example of a poet like Spenser. Cynthia, under which name she is supposed to be depicted, is not only one of the names of Diana, or the moon, but is that under which Elizabeth was celebrated by Spenser in his poem of "Colin Clout's come Home again." That was the age of allegory in English poetry; and Elizabeth was not only generally depicted in the poem of that name as the "Fairy Queen," but is unquestionably meant by Mercilla in Book V. and by Belphœbe in Book II. Who was the person that sat for the picture of Endymion in the present drama, (or whether any particular person was intended), is left to the judgment or imagination of the reader. But as the play in all probability was not represented till any idea of her Majesty's marriage was out of

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the question, the sentiments which he avows for his celestial mistress, in the third scene of the last act, and the manner in which she receives and acknowledges them, seem managed with much address, and probably were in a very high degree acceptable to the Cynthia who was meant, and before whom the plays were represented.