The interest and value of the play lies in the two characters, Ida and Dorothea. In the outline given above small space is assigned to the former because her part is almost entirely confined to minor scenes in which she and her mother talk together over their fancy-work, and Eustace pays successful court for her hand. But by her purity and maidenly reserve she merits our attention. It is a pity that her virtue makes her rather dull and prosaic. Dorothea's adventures in disguise show Greene profiting perhaps by the example of Peele, although the loss of so many contemporary plays warns us against naming models too definitely. The popularity of disguised girls in later drama and their appearance in the works of Peele, Lyly and Greene, point to their having been early accepted as favourites whenever an author sought for an easy addition to the entanglement of his plot. Faithful love in the face of desertion and cruelty is the dominant note in Dorothea's character as it was in that of Angelica.--Slipper and Nano, two dwarf brothers, engaged as attendants respectively on Ateukin and Queen Dorothea, provide most of the humour. More worthy of note are Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Bohan, the embittered Scotch recluse, who together provide an Induction to the play. We are reminded of the Induction to _The Taming of the Shrew_. Ben Jonson also makes use of this device. In this particular Induction the story of James the Fourth is supposed to be played before Oberon to illustrate the reason of Bohan's disgust with the world; but these two persons recur several times to round off the acts with fairy dances and dumb shows, which have no reference to the main play. In Greene's verse we discover a half-hearted return to rhyme, passages in it, and even odd couplets, being interspersed plentifully through his blank verse. To make amends for our slight notice of Ida in the outline of the play we select our illustration from a scene in that lady's home. [_The_ COUNTESS OF ARRAN _and_ IDA _discovered in their porch, sitting at work._] _Countess._ Fair Ida, might you choose the greatest good, Midst all the world in blessings that abound, Wherein, my daughter, should your liking be? _Ida._ Not in delights, or pomp, or majesty. _Countess._ And why? _Ida._ Since these are means to draw the mind From perfect good, and make true judgment blind. _Countess._ Might you have wealth and Fortune's richest store? _Ida._ Yet would I, might I choose, be honest-poor: For she that sits at Fortune's feet a-low Is sure she shall not taste a further woe, But those that prank on top of Fortune's ball Still fear a change, and, fearing, catch a fall. _Countess._ Tut, foolish maid, each one contemneth need. _Ida._ Good reason why, they know not good indeed. _Countess._ Many, marry, then, on whom distress doth lour.