not choose; it goeth against my mind to make them
loose.

_Eurota._ Let me see;--now 'tis unpossible to be undone.

_Cupid._ It is the true love knot of a woman's heart, therefore
cannot be undone.

_Ramia._ That falls in sunder of itself.

_Cupid._ It was made of a man's thought, which will never hang
together.

_Larissa._ You have undone that well.

_Cupid._ Aye, because it was never tied well.

_Telusa._ To the rest; for she will give you no rest. These two
knots are finely untied!

_Cupid._ It was because I never tied them. The one was knit by
Pluto, not Cupid, by money, not love; the other by force, not
faith, by appointment, not affection.

_Ramia._ Why do you lay that knot aside?

_Cupid._ For death.

_Telusa._ Why?

_Cupid._ Because the knot was knit by faith, and must only be
unknit of death.

The plot of _Mother Bombie_ must be briefly sketched because it is the
only one in which Lyly dispenses with the aid of classical tradition and
mythology and attempts a Comedy of Intrigue. As such it has a certain
historical interest.--The scene is Rochester, Kent. Memphio and Stellio,
the fathers respectively of son Accius and daughter Silena, separately
and craftily resolve to bring about by fraud the wedding of these two
young people, for the reason that each knows his child to be
weak-minded, and, believing his neighbour's child to be sound-witted and
of good heritage, perceives that only deceit can accomplish the union.
In this attempt to overreach each other they employ their servants,
Dromio and Riscio, as principal agents. Not far away live two young
people, Livia and Candius, whose mutual love is made unhappy by the
opposition of their fathers, Prisius and Sperantius, since these latter
covet rather their children's marriage with Accius and Silena. In
pursuit of this other object these two countrymen send their servants,
Lucio and Halfpenny, to spy out the land. By the ordinary chance of good
comradeship the four servants meet and make known to each other their
errands, when the opportunity of a mischievous entangling of the threads
at once becomes apparent. Disguises are used, with the result that the
loving couple, Livia and Candius, marry under the unconscious benisons
of their parents. The trick being discovered, there is general trouble,
especially at the exposure of the hitherto concealed imbecili