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LVII. The Background of Lyly's Tophas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Sir Tophas in John Lyly's Endimion merits study for several reasons. He is in some ways an adumbration of Shakespeare's Don Armado. He is, though a minor figure, probably the most amusing of Lyly's dramatis persona, a farced braggart with a curious individuality. Finally, he represents an early and successful attempt to domesticate on the Elizabethan stage not only the miles gloriosus of Latin comedy but also the capitano millantatore of the Italian theater. The notes that follow bring together materials bearing on the Latin, Italian, and English background of Sir Tophas—apart from Chaucer.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1939
References
1 See C. C. Hense, “John Lyly und Shakespeare,” Shakespeare Jahrbuch, viii (1873), 251; H. Graf. Der “Miles Gloriosus” im englischen Drama (Rostock, 1892), pp. 30–31; A. W. Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature (London, 1899), i, 284; and R. W. Bond in his ed. of Lyly's Works (Oxford, 1902), ii, 284, iii, 10. Graf believed that the Plautine elements were filtered through Udall's Roister Doisler.
2 Plautus, ed. and tr. P. Nixon (London and New York, 1924–38), iii, Miles Gloriosus, ll 13 ff.; Endimion, in Bond ed., iii, Act i, scene 3.
3 Miles Gloriosus, ll. 58–68.
4 Terence, ed. and tr. J. Sergeant (London and New York, 1912), i, Eunuchus, ll. 391–439, etc.
5 Violet M. Jeffery, John Lyly and the Italian Renaissance (Paris, 1928), pp. 98–102.
6 Miles Gloriosus, ll. 17–53.
7 I have consulted Delia Porta's Commedie, 4 vols. (Napoli, 1726), and the ed. of V. Spampanato, 2 vols. (Bari, 1910).
8 La Furiosa, iii, 7 and iv, 3.
9 Miles Gloriosus, ll. 1413 ff.
10 The original of this situation, I believe, is in Truculentus, ii, 7.
11 Eunuchus, ll. 755–811.
12 Endimion, i, 3.
13 Miss Jeffery refers in a note to the pedants in two of Delia Porta's comedies.
14 Teatro Italiano Antico (Milano, 1809), vi, P. Aretino, Il Marescalco, v, 3; La Fantesca, iv, 5.
15 For the following notes, I am heavily indebted to Gr. Senigaglia, Capitan Spavenlo (Firenze, 1899), pp. 1–162; and to I. Sanesi, La Commedia, 2 vols. (Milano, 1911), i, 61–445.
16 Senigaglia, p. 126. Delia Porta began writing about 1550 (Sanesi, p. 352).
17 La Trappolaria, iv, 11.
18 Il Moro, iii, 3.
19 Cited by Miss Jeffery.
20 Endimion, ii, 2.
21 Menander, Fragments, ed. and tr. F. G. Allison (London and New York, 1921), pp. 409–413.
22 A. Piccolomini, L'Amor Coslante, i, 2 and 12, and iii, 1; Gl'Ingannati, ii, 3 and iv, 6. I have consulted these in I. Sanesi's edition of the Commedie del Cinquecento (Bari, 1912).
23 Alessandro (Vinegia, 1562), iii, 4.
24 Senigaglia, p. 94.
25 Endimion, iii, 3.
26 Ibid., v, 2.
27 Il Marescalco, especially ii, 2 and ii, 11.
28 Aristophanes, tr. A. S. Way, i (London, 1934), The Frogs, Scene 1.
29 R. Dodsley and W. C. Hazlitt, Old English Plays, 4th ed., 15 vols. (London, 1874–76), iv, 176 ff. Ralph Roister Doister wore a kitchen pot for a helmet (Roister Doister, iv, 7).
30 Dodsley-Hazlitt, i, 395 ff.
31 Endimion, i, 3.
32 Ibid. ii, 2.
33 Ibid., v, 2.
34 William Harrison, Description of England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, New Shakespeare Society, 2 vols. (London, 1877–78), i, 133; Shakespeare's England, ed. Sidney Lee (Oxford, 1916), i, 325; and J. B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth (Oxford, 1936), pp. 216–225.
35 Endimion, i, 3 and p. 505 n.
36 Phillip Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, ed. F. J. Furnivall, New Shakespeare Society 2 vols., London, 1877–82, ii, 50; and Harrison, i, 169.
37 Endimion, iii, 3.
38 Ibid., v, 2.
39 Ibid., iii, 3 and iv, 2.
40 Ibid., v, 3. The play has also such elements of London reality as the conception of love as a body that “hath iustled my Ubertie from the wall” (v, 2).