g her up to her lover Apelles.
The social change, which I have sought to indicate in the preceding
pages, is at once evident in this play. "We calling Alexander from his
grave," says its Prologue[114], "seeke only who was his love"; and the
remark is a sweep of the hat to the ladies of the Court, whose
importance, as an integral part of the audience, is now for the first
time openly acknowledged. "Alexander, the great conqueror of the world,"
says Lyly with his hand upon his heart, "only interests me as a lover."
The whole motive of the play, which would have been meaningless to a
mediaeval audience, is a compliment to the ladies. It is as if our
author nets Mars with Venus, and presents the shamefaced god as an
offering of flattery to the Queen and her Court. _Campaspe_ is, in fact,
the first romantic drama, not only the forerunner of Shakespeare, but a
remote ancestor of _Hernani_ and the 19th century French theatre. "The
play's defect," says Mr Bond, "is one of passion"--a criticism which is
applicable to all Lyly's dramas; and yet we must not forget that Lyly
was the earliest to deal with passion dramatically. The love of
Alexander is certainly unemotional, not to say callous; but possibly the
great monarch's equanimity was a veiled tribute to the supposed
indifference of the virgin Queen to all matters of Cupid's trade.
Between Campaspe and Apelles, however, we have scenes which are imbued,
if not vitalized, by passion. Lyly was a beginner, and his fault lay in
attempting too much. Caring more for brilliancy of dialogue than for
anything else, he was no more likely to be successful here, in
portraying passion through conversation weighted by euphuism, than he
had been in his novel. Yet his endeavour to depict the conflict of
masculine passion with feminine wit, impatient sallies neatly parried,
deliberate lunges quietly turned aside, was in every way praiseworthy.
"A witte apt to conceive and quickest to answer" is attributed by
Alexander to Campaspe, and, though she exhibits few signs of it, yet in
his very idea of endowing women with wit Lyly leads us on to the
high-road of comedy leading to Congreve.

[114] From _Prologue_ at the Court.

In addition to the romantic elements above described, we have here also
that page-prattle which is so characteristic of all Lyly's plays. These
urchins, full of mischief and delighting in quips, were probably
borrowed from Edwardes, but Lyly made them all his own; and one can