ABSTRACT
This chapter explores three early modern dramatizations of "Iphis and Ianthe": Henry Bellamy's Latin version, Iphis; Isaac de Benserade's French adaptation, Iphis et Iante; and Charles Hopkins's English adaptation, Friendship Improv'd; Or, The Female Warriour. It examines three slightly earlier plays—John Lyly's Gallathea, the anonymous The Maydes Metamorphosis, and Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, and possibly Philip Massinger's Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid—which demonstrate the various, complex, and surprising uses to which Ovidian material could be put. Although modeled on "Caenis/Caeneus", The Maydes Metamorphosis follows "Iphis and Ianthe" in foregrounding the trope of impossible love, but in regard to male homosexuality, not female. The paired assumptions upon which the success of Eurymine's escape plan depend—that the sexually aggressive god will not desire a male victim, and that, besides, men cannot be raped—are borrowed directly from "Caenis/Caeneus".
