The earliest of these English mythological plays, alike in date of production and of publication, was George Peele's _Arraignment of Paris_, 'A Pastorall. Presented before the Queenes Majestie, by the children of her Chappell,' no doubt in 1581, and printed three years later.[206] It partakes of the nature of the masque in that the whole composition centres round a compliment to the Queen, Eliza or Zabeta--a name which, as Dr.

Ward notes, Peele probably borrowed along with one or two other hints from Gascoigne's Kenilworth entertainment of 1575. The t.i.tle sufficiently expresses its mythological character, and the precise value of the term 'pastoral' on the t.i.tle-page is difficult to determine. The characters are for the most part either mythological or rustic; the only truly pastoral ones being Paris and Oenone, whose parts, however, in so far as they are pastoral, are also of the slightest. It is of course impossible to say exactly to what extent the fame of the Italian pastoral drama may have penetrated to England--the _Aminta_ was first printed the year of the production of Peele's play, and waited a decade before the first English translation and the first English edition appeared[207]--but no influence of Ta.s.so's masterpiece can be detected in the _Arraignment_; still less is it possible to trace any acquaintance with Poliziano's work.

After a prologue, in which Ate foretells in staid and measured but not unpleasing blank verse the fall of Troy, the silvan deities, Pan, Faunus, Silva.n.u.s, Pomona, Flora, enter to welcome the three G.o.ddesses who are on their way to visit 'Ida hills,' and who after a while enter, led by Rhanis and accompanied by the Muses, whose processional chant heralds their approach. They are greeted by Pan, who sings:

The G.o.d of Shepherds, and his mates, With country cheer salutes your states, Fair, wise, and worthy as you be, And thank the gracions ladies three For honour done to Ida.

When these have retired from the stage there follows a charming idyllic scene between the lovers Paris and Oenone, which contains the delightful old song, one of the lyric pearls of the Elizabethan drama:

_Oenone._ Fair and fair, and twice so fair, As fair as any may be; The fairest shepherd on our green, A love for any lady.

_Paris._ Fair and fair, and twice so fair, As fair as any may be; Thy love is fair for thee alone, And for no other lady.

_Oenone._ My love is fair, my love is gay, As fresh as bin the flowers in May, And of my love my roundelay, My merry, merry, merry roundelay, Concludes with Cupid's curse-- They that do change old love for new, Pray G.o.ds they change for worse!

_Both._ They that do change old love for new, Pray G.o.ds they change for worse!

The second act presents us the three G.o.ddesses who have come to Ida on a party of pleasure with no very definite object in view, and are now engaged in exercising their tongues at one another's expense. The scene consists of a cross-fire of feminine amenities, not of the most delicate, it is true, and therefore not here to be reproduced, yet of a keenness of temper and a ringing mastery in the rimed verse little less than brilliant in themselves, and little less than a portent at the date of their appearance. Then a storm arises, during which, the G.o.ddesses having sought refuge in Diana's bower, Ate rolls the fatal ball upon the stage. On the return of the three the inscription _Detur pulcherrimae_ breeds fresh strife, until they agree to submit the case for judgement to the next man they meet. Paris arriving upon the scene at this point is at once called upon to decide the rival claims of the contending G.o.ddesses. First Juno promises wealth and empery, and presents a tree hung as with fruit with crowns and diadems, all which shall be the meed of the partial judge.

Pallas next seeks to allure the swain with the pomp and circ.u.mstance of war, and conjures up a show in which nine knights, no doubt the nine worthies, tread a 'warlike almain.' Last Venus speaks:

Come, shepherd, come, sweet shepherd, look on me, These bene too hot alarums these for thee: But if thou wilt give me the golden ball, Cupid my boy shall ha't to play withal, That whenso'er this apple he shall see, The G.o.d of Love himself shall think on thee, And bid thee look and choose, and he will wound Whereso thy fancy's object shall be found.

Whereupon 'Helen entereth in her bravery' attended by four Cupids, and singing an Italian song which has, however, little merit. As at a later day Faustus, so now Paris bows before the sovereignty of her beauty, and then wanders off through Ida glades in the company of the victorious queen of love, leaving her outraged rivals to plot a common revenge. Act III introduces the slight rustic element. Hobbinol, Diggon, and Thenot enter to Colin, who is lamenting the cruelty of his love Thestylis. The names are obviously borrowed from the _Shepherd's Calender_, but while Colin is still the type of the hopeless lover, there is no necessity to suspect any personal identification. The _Arraignment_ was probably produced less than two years after the publication of Spenser's eclogues, and Peele, who was an Oxford man, may even have been ignorant of their authorship[208]. Still more unnecessary are certain other identifications between characters in the play and persons at court which have been propounded. Such identifications, at any rate, have no importance for our present task, which is to ascertain in what measure and in what manner Peele's work paved the way for the advent of the Italian pastoral; and we note, with regard to the present scene, that the more polished and more homely elements alike--both Colin on the one hand, and Diggon, Hobbinol, and the rest on the other--are inspired by Spenser's work, and by his alone.

Meanwhile Oenone enters, lamenting her desertion by Paris. There is delicate pathos in the reminiscence of her former song which haunts the outpouring of her grief--

False Paris, this was not thy vow, when thou and I were one, To range and change old loves for new; but now those days be gone.

She is less happy in a set lament, beginning:

Melpomene, the Muse of tragic songs,

in which we may perhaps catch a distant echo of Spenser's:

Melpomene, the mournfull'st Muse of nine.

As she ends she is accosted by Mercury, who has been sent to summon Paris to appear at Juno's suit before the a.s.sembly of the G.o.ds on a charge of partiality in judgement. A pretty dialogue ensues in broken fourteeners, in which the subtle G.o.d elicits a description of the shepherd from the unsuspecting nymph--it too contains some delicate reminiscences of the lover's duet.

_Mercury._ Is love to blame?

_Oenone._ The queen of love hath made him false his troth.

_Mer._ Mean ye, indeed, the queen of love?

_Oen._ Even wanton Cupid's dame.

_Mer._ Why, was thy love so lovely, then?

_Oen._ His beauty height his shame; The fairest shepherd on our green.

_Mer._ Is he a shepherd, than?

_Oen._ And sometime kept a bleating flock.

_Mer._ Enough, this is the man.

In the next scene we find Paris and Venus together. First the G.o.ddess directs the a.s.sembled shepherds to inscribe the words, 'The love whom Thestylis hath slain,' as the epitaph of the now dead Colin. When these have left the stage she turns to Paris:

Sweet shepherd, didst thou ever love?

_Paris._ Lady, a little once.

She then warns him against the dangers of faithlessness in a pa.s.sage which is a good example of Peele's use of the old rimed versification, and as such deserves quotation.

My boy, I will instruct thee in a piece of poetry, That haply erst thou hast not heard: in h.e.l.l there is a tree, Where once a-day do sleep the souls of false forsworen lovers, With open hearts; and there about in swarms the number hovers Of poor forsaken ghosts, whose wings from off this tree do beat Round drops of fiery Phlegethon to scorch false hearts with heat.

This pain did Venus and her son entreat the prince of h.e.l.l T'impose on such as faithless were to such as loved them well: And, therefore, this, my lovely boy, fair Venus doth advise thee, Be true and steadfast in thy love, beware thou do disguise thee; For he that makes but love a jest, when pleaseth him to start, Shall feel those fiery water-drops consume his faithless heart.

_Paris._ Is Venus and her son so full of justice and severity?

_Venus._ Pity it were that love should not be linked with indifferency.[209]

Then follow Colin's funeral, the punishment of the hard-hearted Thestylis, condemned to love a 'foul crooked churl' who 'crabbedly refuseth her,'

and the scene in which Mercury summons Paris before the Olympian tribunal.

Here we find him in the next act. The G.o.ds being seated in the bower of Diana, Juno and Pallas, and Venus and Paris appear 'on sides' before the throne of Jove, and in answer to his indictment the shepherd of Ida delivers a spirited speech. Again the verse is of no small merit.

Defending himself from the charge of partiality in the bestowal of the prize, he argues:

Had it been destined to majesty-- Yet will I not rob Venus of her grace-- Then stately Juno might have borne the ball.

Had it to wisdom been int.i.tuled, My human wit had given it Pallas then.

But sith unto the fairest of the three That power, that threw it for my farther ill, Did dedicate this ball--and safest durst My shepherd's skill adventure, as I thought, To judge of form and beauty rather than Of Juno's state or Pallas' worthiness--...

Behold, to Venus Paris gave the fruit, A daysman[210] chosen there by full consent, And heavenly powers should not repent their deeds.

After consultation the G.o.ds decide to dismiss the prisoner, though we gather that he is not wholly acquitted.

_Jupiter._ Shepherd, thou hast been heard with equity and law, And for thy stars do thee to other calling draw, We here dismiss thee hence, by order of our senate; Go take thy way to Troy, and there abide thy fate.

_Venus._ Sweet shepherd, with such luck in love, while thou dost live, As may the Queen of Love to any lover give.

_Paris._ My luck is loss, howe'er my love do speed: I fear me Paris shall but rue his deed.

_Apollo._ From Ida woods now wends the shepherd's boy, That in his bosom carries fire to Troy.

This, however, does not settle the case, and the final adjudication of the apple of beauty is entrusted by the G.o.ds to Diana, since it was in her grove that it was found. Parting company with cla.s.sical legend in the incident which gives its t.i.tle to the play, Peele further adds a fifth act, in which he contrives to make the world-famous history subserve the courtly ends of the masque. When the rival claimants have solemnly sworn to abide by the decision of their compeer, Diana begins:

It is enough; and, G.o.ddesses, attend.

There wons within these pleasaunt shady woods, Where neither storm nor sun's distemperature Have power to hurt by cruel heat or cold, ...

Far from disturbance of our country G.o.ds, Amid the cypress springs[211], a gracions nymph, That honours Dian for her chast.i.ty, And likes the labours well of Phoebe's groves; The place Elizium hight, and of the place Her name that governs there Eliza is, A kingdom that may well compare with mine, An auncient seat of kings, a second Troy, Y-compa.s.s'd round with a commodious sea.

The rest may be easily imagined. The contending divinities resign their claims: