is the etiological myth, sometimes expanded into a tale.
Thus, in =Mirrha=, for instance, the growth of rare spices and perfumes
in Panchaia is explained by the story of how Hebe once spilled nectar
there (p. 147).

Comparable marks of Shakespearean influence are the aggressive female
like Mirrha, reminiscent of Shakespeare's Venus; the hunting motif in
=Dom Diego= and =Amos and Laura=, recalling Adonis' obsession with the
hunt; and the catalog of the senses in =Philos and Licia=, pp. 15-16,
and =Hiren=, stanzas 75-79, which imitates Shakespeare's =Venus and
Adonis=, ll. 427-450. Only =Mirrha= among these poems, however, makes
specific acknowledgment of a debt to Shakespeare (see p. 177).
Finally, Dom Diego's plangent laments at Ginevra's cruelty recall
Glaucus' unrestrained weeping at Scylla's cruelty in Lodge's =Scillaes
Metamorphosis=. But whereas the "piteous Nimphes" surrounding Glaucus
weep till a "pretie brooke" forms,[29] "the fayre =Oreades= pitty-moved
gerles" that comfort Dom Diego are loath to lose the "liquid pearles"
he weeps. Consequently they gather (and presumably preserve) them with
"Spunge-like Mosse" (p. 95). Lynche extends his debt to Lodge by
establishing at the end of his poem a link between Ginevra and the
Maiden he professes to love. But, whereas Lodge in the Envoy to his
poem uses Scylla on the rocks as a horrible example of what may happen
to unyielding maids, Lynche holds up Ginevra, who finally marries her
lover, as an example to be followed by the poet's disdainful Diella of
the accompanying sonnets (see p. 101).

It would probably be impossible, even if it were desirable, for any
given minor epic to follow all the conventions of the genre, or even
all its alternative conventions. Yet all the poems included here
adhere so closely to most of the important minor epic conventions that
there should be no question as to the minor epic identity of any.[30]

THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY EDITIONS

=Philos and Licia=, though entered on October 2, 1606 and presumably
printed soon thereafter, survives only in the unique copy of the 1624
edition printed by W. S. [William Stansby?] for John Smethwick. (No
record of transfer of this poem from William Aspley, who entered it,
exists, though Aspley and Smethwick were associated, along with
William Jaggard, in the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio of
1623.)

Robert Burton bequeathed this copy of =Philos and Licia=, along with
many of his other bo