temporaries of
throwing vitality into his work. When they took up an old story they
entered into possession of it, creating fresh scenes and introducing new
and effective actors; above all, in their most successful productions,
they grasped the necessity of having one or more clearly defined
figures, which, by their strongly human appeal, or their exaggerated
traits, should grip the attention of the spectators with unforgettable
force. Marlowe was the supreme master of this art; Diogenes, Sir Tophas,
Margaret of Fressingfield, Queen Dorothea, and others are examples of
what Lyly and Greene could do. The same vitality is visible in their
best known plots and scenes. Apelles loved Campaspe long ago in the
pages of history, and was forgotten there; Lyly made him woo and win her
again, and now their home is for ever between the covers of his little
volume. Greene tells the story of Earl Lacy's love for Margaret, and the
details of that delightfully human romance return to us whenever his
name is mentioned. But what characters or scenes spring up to proclaim
Peele's authorship? He dramatized the narrative of Absalom's rebellion,
and, as soon as the end of the play is reached, the theme, with the
possible exception of the first scene, slips back, in our minds, into
its old biblical setting; it belongs to the writer of _The Book of
Samuel_, not to Peele. He wrote a Marlowesque play, similar to Greene's
_Alphonsus, King of Arragon_, but failed to create out of his several
leaders a single dominant figure to compare with Alphonsus. The same
might be said of his _Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes_ and his _Edward the
First_; and his _Old Wives' Tale_ is a by-word for confusion. Only in
the sub-plot of _The Arraignment of Paris_ does he present a character
that may be said to owe its permanence in English literature to him. The
first love of Paris is there told so prettily, with so pathetic a
presentation of the heart-broken Oenone, that at once the deserted
maiden won a place in English hearts and minds; Tennyson's poem is an
exquisite wreath laid at the foot of the monument raised by Peele to her
memory. On the other hand, the main plot, retelling the old legend of
the Apple of Discord, is painted in the same neutral tints as coloured
his other plays. Such slight distinction as it may have it draws from
association with a matter of extraneous interest, the conversion of the
action into an elaborate compliment to Queen Elizabeth; the go