ur wherever they went, seriously detracted from the appearance of
free Nature. Nevertheless, by the poet and the stage-manager they were,
doubtless, prized equally with the rural background and the shepherds,
perhaps even more than they. To them is given pre-eminence in the play.
Indeed, what particularly impresses any one who remembers the stage as
he reads, is the watchful provision for spectacular effect in every
scene. It is this, combined with the author's choice of subject and
characters, which has led to the comparison of this comedy with a
Masque. The resemblance, too manifest to be overlooked, gives an
additional interest to a play which thus is seen to hold something like
an intermediary position between drama proper and that other, infinitely
more ornate, form of court entertainment. Viewing it in this light, we
are no longer surprised to read, in a stage direction at the close,
that Diana 'delivers the ball of gold to the Queen's own hand'. After
all, the play, like a Masque, is little more than an exaggerated and
richly designed compliment, the most beautiful of its kind. In selecting
suitable extracts one is drawn from scene to scene, uncertain which
deserves preference. The two offered here illustrate respectively the
tuneful variety of Peele's verse and the delicate embroidery of Diana's
famous decision.

(1)

[JUNO _bribes_ PARIS _to award her the apple._]

_Juno._ And for thy meed, sith I am queen of riches,
Shepherd, I will reward thee with great monarchies,
Empires, and kingdoms, heaps of massy gold,
Sceptres and diadems curious to behold,
Rich robes, of sumptuous workmanship and cost,
And thousand things whereof I make no boast:
The mould whereon thou treadest shall be of Tagus' sands,
And Xanthus shall run liquid gold for thee to wash thy hands;
And if thou like to tend thy flock, and not from them to fly,
Their fleeces shall be curled gold to please their master's eye;
And last, to set thy heart on fire, give this one fruit to me,
And, shepherd, lo, this tree of gold will I bestow on thee!

[JUNO'S _Show. A Tree of Gold rises, laden with diadems and crowns
of gold._]

The ground whereon it grows, the grass, the root of gold,
The body and the bark of gold, all glistering to behold,
The leaves of burnish'd gold, the fruits that thereon grow
Are diadems set with pearl in gold, in gorgeous glistering show;