The prologue and epilogue were evidently for the Court. The epistle describes this as the first of certain comedies which had come into the printer’s hands ‘since the plays in Pauls were dissolved’. Baker, lxxxiii, suggested a date of composition in the autumn of 1579, while Spingarn, Bond, iii. 11, and Feuillerat, 577, take the Candlemas of the t.p. to be that of 1586, but the only available Candlemas performance by the Paul’s boys is that of 1588 (cf. App. B). With Long I find no conviction in the attempts of Halpin, Baker, Bond, and Feuillerat to trace Elizabeth’s politics and amours in the play. If Lyly had meant half of what they suggest, he would have ruined his career in her service at the outset.
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.