Galatea and Midas: John Lyly

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Galatea and Midas: John Lyly
Authors and Contributors      Edited by George Hunter
Edited by Stephen Bevington
SeriesThe Revels Plays
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:304
Dimensions(mm): Height 240,Width 138
Category/GenrePlays, playscripts
Literary studies - c 1500 to c 1800
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9780719078279
ClassificationsDewey:822.3
Audience
Undergraduate

Publishing Details

Publisher Manchester University Press
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publication Date 1 January 2007
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Galatea and Midas are two of John Lyly's most engaging plays. Lyly took up the story of two young women, Galatea (or Gallathea) and Phillida who are dressed up in male clothes by their fathers so that they can avoid the requirement of the god Neptune that every year 'the fairest and chastest virgin in all the country' be sacrificed to a sea-monster. Hiding together in the forest, the two maidens fall in love, each supposing the other to be a young man. Galatea has become the subject of considerable feminist critical study in recent years. Midas (1590) uses mythology in quite a different way, dramatising two stories about King Midas in such a way as to fashion a satire of King Philip of Spain (and of any tyrant like him) for colossal greediness and folly. In the wake of the defeat of Philip's Armada fleet and its attempted invasion of England in 1588, this satire was calculated to win the approval of Queen Elizabeth and her court. -- .

Author Biography

George K. Hunter is Professor Emeritus at Yale University David Bevington is Phyllis Fay Horton Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago -- .