ions or by any list of direct imitations
or borrowings. For the Elizabethan it offered a standard of comedy, and
its plots, persons, and devices were freely used in all kinds of plays,
romantic as well as realistic, sentimental as well as satirical or
farcical. The plots of Plautus and Terence offer a series of tricks in
which the complications are often increased by having the trickster
tricked. Certain fixed types of character play the parts of gulls or
gullers, as the old parents, the young lovers, the parasite, the
braggart soldier, and the clever slave. The intrigue is forwarded by the
use of disguise, mistaken identity, and most surprising coincidences;
and it is accomplished by dialogue, often gross and abusive, but usually
lively. This model served every nation of western Europe, reappearing
with prolonged vitality in the inventions of Lope de Vega, the "commedia
del arte" of Italy, and in the masterpieces of Moliere. Much in its
scheme that seems artificial and theatrical to-day was, we must
remember, accepted without question by Europe of the sixteenth century
as essential and desirable in comedy, especially in realistic comedy of
intrigue or manners.

The plots of Terence, notably that of the _Andria_, also gave some
encouragement to the modern fondness for adventure and sentimental love,
and some classical sanction to the abundant romantic material that was
knocking at the doors of comedy. If by romantic we mean what is strange
and removed from ordinary experience and what has the attractions of
wonder, thrill, and idealization, then for the Elizabethan the world of
romance was a wide one. It included the medieval stories of knights and
their gests, and also the fresher tales of classical mythology; the
Americas and Indies of contemporary adventure and the artificial
Arcadias of humanist imitators of Virgil and Theocritus. Ovid and
Malory, Homer and Boccaccio, Drake and Sanazzaro, were all contributors.
The union of this romance with comedy on the stage began in two ways,
and principally under the innovation of two writers, Lyly and Greene.

The taste for pageants, processions, and tableaux grew and flourished
under the patronage of the court; and music, dancing, and spectacle were
combined with dialogue in various court exhibitions and plays given by
the child actors. John Lyly, writing for these choir boys, developed
this type of entertainment into a distinct species of comedy. Of his
eight plays, written