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{{italic title}}
[[Image:Midas john lyly.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Title page of ''Midas''.]]▼
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
'''''Midas''''' is an [[Literature in English#Elizabethan literature|Elizabethan]] era stage play, a comedy written by [[John Lyly]]. It is arguably the most overtly and extensively [[Allegory|allegorical]] of Lyly's allegorical plays.▼
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
▲'''''Midas''''' is an [[
== Performance and
''Midas'' was entered into the [[Stationers' Register]] on
''Midas'' was probably acted by the [[Children of Paul's]], Lyly's regular company through most of his playwriting career. The title page of the first edition states that the play was performed at Court on [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]], probably on 6 January
"Obviously"<ref>Richard Warwick Bond, ed., ''The Complete Works of John Lyly,'' Oxford,
The student theatre ensemble of [[Stuart Hall School]], located in Staunton, Virginia, staged a production of Midas
== Synopsis ==
Lyly based his play on the treatment of the [[Midas]] story given in Book xi of the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' of [[Ovid]]; he departs from Ovid's version mainly to strengthen the allegorical aspects of the play (see below). He exploits both aspects of the Midas legend in classical mythology
[[Dionysus|Bacchus]], the god of wine, rewards the hospitality of Midas, king of [[Phrygia]], by offering him anything he desires. The king's three courtiers, Eristus, Martius, and Mellicrates, variously advise him to choose rewards that center on love, war, and wealth; Midas accepts the advice of Mellicrates and asks that everything he touches turn to [[gold]]. (In the classic legend, Midas is motivated simply by greed; in Lyly's play, Midas wants gold partly to finance his planned invasion of the island of [[Lesbos]], an idea that winds throughout the play.)
In the play as in the myth, Midas's misfortunes with his golden touch follow; his clothes, food, wine, and even his beard all turn to gold. Midas eventually cures himself by taking the advice of Bacchus and bathing in the river Pactolus, which becomes gold-producing as a result. In the second phase of the king's adventures, Midas, hunting in a wood on Mount Tmolus, encounters [[Apollo]] and [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]], who are preparing to engage in a musical competition. Midas
Midas's sensible daughter Sophronia (a Lylian addition) appeals to Apollo's oracle at [[Delphi]] for guidance. Midas goes to Delphi, admits his foolishness and expresses repentance; his auricular affliction is cured, and a newly humbled Midas renounces his plans for conquest, especially against the stalwart islanders of Lesbos.
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The play has a more overtly comic subplot focused on Motto, Midas's barber. Motto comes into possession of Midas's golden beard after removing it from the king's face; but the beard is stolen from him by the mischievous pages that are a standard feature of Lyly's drama. Motto recovers the beard by curing a case of toothache (barbers doubled as dentists in Lyly's era, and for long before and after). But the pages exploit Motto's role in spreading the news about the king's ass-ears: they accuse him of treason, and demand and obtain the beard as the price of their silence.
== Allegory ==
It is universally recognized that Lyly's Midas represents the fabulously wealthy [[Philip II of Spain]], while the island of Lesbos that he longs to conquer is Elizabeth's England. [[Nicholas John Halpin]], in his ''Oberon's Vision'' (1834), offered a complex and detailed interpretation of the fine points of Lyly's allegory, in which the Pactolus is the [[Tagus]] River in [[Portugal]]; the barber Motto is Philip II's secretary [[Antonio Pérez (statesman)|Antonio Pérez]], who was banished for betraying royal secrets; Martius is the [[Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia|Duke of Medina Sedonia]], while Mellicrates is the [[Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba|Duke of Alva]]; Eristus is Ruy Gomez de Libra; and Sophronia is Philip's daughter [[Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain|Isabella Clara Eugenia]], among various other identifications. Critics rarely go so far as to embrace all of Halpin's points, though most concede some of the more obvious, like Sophronia/Isabella.<ref>Bond, Vol. 3, pp.
== References ==
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[[Category:English Renaissance plays]]
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[[Category:1590 plays]]
[[Category:Plays based on Metamorphoses]]
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