The Maid’s Metamorphosis. 1600
S. R. 1600, July 24 (Hartwell). ‘Two plaies or thinges thone called the maides metamorphosis thother gyve a man luck and throw him into the Sea.’ Richard Oliffe (Arber, iii. 168).
1600. The Maydes Metamorphosis. As it hath beene sundrie times Acted by the Children of Powles. Thomas Creede for Richard Olive. [Prologue.]
Editions by A. H. Bullen (1882, O. E. P. i), R. W. Bond (1902, Lyly, iii. 341), and J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.).
Archer’s play list of 1656 (Greg, Masques, lxxxvi) started an ascription to Lyly, which was probably suggested by the similarity of name to Love’s Metamorphosis. Daniel, with Lyly as reviser, is substituted by Fleay, ii. 324; Day by Gosse and Bullen; Day, with Lyly as reviser, by Bond. A limit of date is given by the reopening of Paul’s in 1599, and IV. i. 157 points to the ‘leape yeare’ 1600. Fleay thinks that the play was performed at Anne Russell’s wedding on 16 June 1600 (cf. ch. V), but, though ‘three or foure Muses’ dance at the end of the play, there is no indication of a mask, while the accounts of the wedding say nothing of a play.
The Marriage of Wit and Science > 1570
S. R. 1569–70. ‘A play intituled the maryage of Wytt and Scyence.’ Thomas Marsh (Arber, i. 399).
N.D. A new and Pleasant enterlude intituled the mariage of Witte and Science. Thomas Marsh.
Editions in Dodsley4 (1874, ii) and by J. S. Farmer (1909, T. F. T.).
An allegorical moral, indebted to John Redford’s Wit and Science (Med. Stage, ii. 454). Fleay, 64; ii. 288, 294, proposes to identify this with the Wit and Will played at court in 1567–8 (cf. App. B), as Will is a character.