d Pithias_, a romantic play upon a
classical theme; and in Gascoigne's _Supposes_, brilliant prose
dialogue. That he was induced to make such a study, and that he was
enabled to carry it out so thoroughly, was due partly, I think, to his
peculiar financial position. As secretary of de Vere, and later as
Vice-master of St Paul's School, he was independent of the actual
necessity of bread-winning, which forced even Shakespeare to pander to
the garlic-eating multitude he loathed, and wrung from him the cry,

"Alas, 'tis true I have been here and there
And made myself a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear" ...

But, on the other hand, neither post was sufficiently remunerative to
secure for him the comforts, still less the luxuries, of life. His
income required supplementing, if only for the sake of meeting his
tobacco bill, though I have a strong suspicion that the bills sent in to
him served no more useful purpose than to light his pipe. But, however,
adopting the theatre as his profession, he would naturally make a
serious study of dramatic art, and, having no need for constantly
filling the maw of present necessity, he could undertake such a study
thoroughly and at his leisure. And to this cause his peculiar importance
in the history of the Elizabethan stage is mainly due. Next to Jonson,
the most learned of all the dramatists, yet possessing little of their
poetical capacity, he set them the most conspicuous example in technique
and stage-craft, in the science of play-writing, which they would
probably have been far too busy to acquire for themselves. Lyly's eight
dramas formed the rough-hewn but indispensable foundation-stone of the
Elizabethan edifice. Spenser has been called the poet's poet, Lyly was
in his own days the playwright's dramatist.

Of his dramatic construction we have already spoken. We have noticed
that he introduced the art of disguise; that he varied his action by
songs, accompanied perhaps with pantomime. Mr Bond suggests further that
he probably did much to extend the use of stage properties and
scenery[128]. But the real importance of his plays lies in their plot
construction and character drawing, points which as yet we have only
touched upon. The way in which he manages the action of his plays shows
a skill quite unapproached by anything that had gone before, and more
pronounced than that of many which came after. Too often indeed we have
di