action and more direct and dramatic presentation of the romantic stage.  The earliest play in which these characteristics are found is the anonymous Maid’s Metamorphosis, printed and probably acted ‘by the Children of Powles’ in 1600.[315] The plot, which from the blending of different elements it presents is of considerable historical interest, is briefly as follows.  Eurymine, of whose connexions we hear nothing but that she is supposed to be lowly born, and Ascanio, the duke’s son, are in love.  The duke, discovering this, orders two of his retainers to lead Eurymine secretly into the forest and there slay her.  Her youth and beauty, however, touch their hearts, and they agree to spare her on condition that she shall live among the country folk, and never return to court.  They have no sooner left her than she meets with a shepherd and a hunter, who both fall in love on the spot, and whose rivalry supplies her with the means of livelihood.  Ascanio now appears in search of his love, and is directed by Morpheus, at the hest of Juno, to seek out a certain hermit, who will be able to advise him.  In the meantime, however, an unexpected complication has arisen.  Apollo, meeting Eurymine in her shepherdess’ disguise, has fallen violently in love, and threatens mischief.  To escape from his pursuit she craves a boon, and having extorted a promise from the infatuated god, demands that he shall change her into a man.  Much regretting his rash promise, Apollo complies.  The next thing that happens is that the lovers meet.  This is distinctly unsatisfactory, but at the suggestion of the hermit ‘three or four Muses’ and the ‘Charities’ or Graces are called in to help, and by their prayers at length induce Apollo to relent and restore Eurymine to her original sex.  No sooner is this performed than she is discovered to be the daughter of the hermit, and he the exiled prince of Lesbos.  At this juncture arrives a messenger from the duke, begging Ascanio to return to court, and adding casually, as it seems, that should Eurymine happen to be still alive she too will be welcome.

Thus we see the threefold weft, Arcadian, courtly, and mythological, weaving the fantastic web of the earliest of the romantic pastorals.  Of the influence of the drama of Tasso and Guarini there is, indeed, but little, the plot being in no wise that of orthodox tradition; but shepherd and ranger are true Arcadians, neither disguised courtiers nor rustic clowns, as in the Sidneian romance.  The author, whoever he was, may have drawn a hint for his plot from Lyly’s Gallathea, in which, it will be remembered, Venus promises to change one of the enamoured maidens into a man, or else, maybe, direct from the tale of Iphis in Ovid.[316] As to the sources of the other elements, it will be sufficient for our purpose to note that the verse portions of the play are rimed throughout in couplets, a fact that carries them back towards Peele’s Arraignment and the days previous to Marlowe.  The slight comic business is in prose, and the characters of the three young rogues are directly traceable to the waggish pages of Lyly.[317]