ABSTRACT
Platonic tragi-comedy triumphed but a few brief years, while its popularity was insured by the queen’s gracious influence. The love-making of his devout Platonics never becomes really tedious, for it is constantly assailed, in its most solemn moments, by the cynical wit of the inconstant shepherd Hylas. Moreover, the inconstant shepherd wins each of his successive mistresses by Platonic compliments as gracious as Sylvandre himself could have devised. There are “proviso” scenes in late Elizabethan comedy in which the mistress makes conditions favoring her sovereignty in love. Each of the plays, however, brings valuable evidence to bear upon the ways in which Platonic customs acquired a new emphasis, as the court mode waned, and began to enforce new interests in realistic comedy. There are “proviso” scenes in late Elizabethan comedy in which the mistress makes conditions favoring her sovereignty in love.
