ginning to end full of reminiscences from the
plays of the earlier dramatist, transmuted, vitalized, and beautified by
the genius of our greatest poet. It is as if he had witnessed in one
day a representation of all Lyly's dramatic work, and wearied by the
effort of attention had fallen asleep and dreamt this _Dream_. _Love's
Labour's Lost_ is only less indebted to Lyly; indeed nearly all
Shakespeare's plays, certainly all his comedies, exhibit the same
influence: for he knew his Lyly through and through, and his
assimilative power was unequalled. Shakespeare might almost be said to
be a combination of Marlowe and Lyly plus that indefinable something
which made him the greatest writer of all time. Marlowe, his master in
tragedy, was also his master in poetry, in that strength of conception
and beauty of execution which together make up the soul of drama. Lyly,
besides the lesson he taught him in comedy, was also his model for
dramatic construction, brilliancy of dialogue, technical skill, and all
that comprises the science of play-making--things which were perhaps of
more moment to him, with his scanty classical knowledge, than Marlowe's
lesson which he had little need of learning. And what we have said of
Shakespeare may be said of Elizabethan drama as a whole. "Marlowe's
place," writes Mr Havelock Ellis, "is at the heart of English poetry";
his "high, astounding terms" took the world of his day by storm, his
gift to English literature was the gift of sublime beauty, of
imagination, and passion. Lyly could lay claim to none of these, but his
contribution was perhaps of more importance still. He did the
spade-work, and did it once and for all. With his knowledge of the
Classics and of previous English experiments he wrote plays that,
compared with what had gone before, were models of plot construction, of
the development of action, and even of characterization. Moreover he was
before Marlowe by some nine years in the production of true romantic
drama, and in his treatment of women. In spite, therefore, of Marlowe's
immense superiority to him on the aesthetic side, Lyly must be placed
above the author of _Edward II._ in dynamical importance.

In connexion with Lyly's influence the question of the exact nature of
his dramatic productions is worth a moment's consideration. Are they
masques or dramas? and if the latter are they strictly speaking
classical or romantic in form? As I have already suggested, the answer
to the f