Galatea and Midas (The Revels Plays) [Hardcover]

John Lyly (Author), George K. Hunter (Editor), David Bevington (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0719030951 | ISBN-13: 978-0719030956 | Publication Date: November 18, 2000

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, dramatizing 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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

George Hunter is Professor of English and Renaissance Studies at Yale University.

David Bevington is Phyllis Fay Horton Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Manchester University Press (November 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0719030951
• ISBN-13: 978-0719030956
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,395,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)