Book 161

Gallathea, 1592

by John Lyly

Published 1 October 1998
John Lyly's comedy Gallathea was performed in 1588, in what may have been already a revival, and was printed by John Charlwood in 1592. The present volume provides a photographic facsimile of this text taken from one of the three surviving copies, now in the British Library. The songs, not printed in 1592, are supplied from a copy of Lyly's Sixe Court Comedies, published by Edward Blount in 1632, now in the Huntington Library, California. In her Introduction, Leah Scragg discusses the publication and printing of the 1592 quarto and describes the surviving copies. She provides evidence relating to the composition and early performance of the play and briefly characterises it as 'Lyly's outstanding achievement in the translation of the euphuistic mode into a dramatic technique'. Through-line-numbers for the quarto text are supplied.

Book 165

Sapho and Phao

by John Lyly

Published 1 August 2002
This volume in the Malone Society Reprints series consists of a photofacsimile of the Huntington Library copy of the first edition of Lyly's Sapho and Phao (1584), together with the songs from the first collected edition of Lyly's plays, published by Edward Blount in 1632. The introduction discusses the relationship between the first edition and that represented by the British Library copy (now known, following the work of David Bevington, to be the second), and traces the bibliographical history of the play from its first publication until Blount's edition of 1632. The volume facilitates the study of the relationship between the three quartos, and in particular the priority of that represented by the Huntington Library copy.