_Cupid._ If they be true love knots 'tis unpossible to unknit them; if false, I never tied them. _Eurota._ Make no excuse, but to it. _Cupid._ Love knots are tied with eyes, and cannot be undone with hands; made fast with thoughts, and cannot be unloosed with fingers. Had Diana no task to set Cupid to but things impossible? I will to it. _Ramia._ Why, how now? you tie the knots faster. _Cupid._ I cannot choose; it goeth against my mind to make them loose. _Eurota._ Let me see;--now 'tis unpossible to be undone. _Cupid._ It is the true love knot of a woman's heart, therefore cannot be undone. _Ramia._ That falls in sunder of itself. _Cupid._ It was made of a man's thought, which will never hang together. _Larissa._ You have undone that well. _Cupid._ Aye, because it was never tied well. _Telusa._ To the rest; for she will give you no rest. These two knots are finely untied! _Cupid._ It was because I never tied them. The one was knit by Pluto, not Cupid, by money, not love; the other by force, not faith, by appointment, not affection. _Ramia._ Why do you lay that knot aside? _Cupid._ For death. _Telusa._ Why? _Cupid._ Because the knot was knit by faith, and must only be unknit of death. The plot of _Mother Bombie_ must be briefly sketched because it is the only one in which Lyly dispenses with the aid of classical tradition and mythology and attempts a Comedy of Intrigue. As such it has a certain historical interest.--The scene is Rochester, Kent. Memphio and Stellio, the fathers respectively of son Accius and daughter Silena, separately and craftily resolve to bring about by fraud the wedding of these two young people, for the reason that each knows his child to be weak-minded, and, believing his neighbour's child to be sound-witted and of good heritage, perceives that only deceit can accomplish the union. In this attempt to overreach each other they employ their servants, Dromio and Riscio, as principal agents. Not far away live two young people, Livia and Candius, whose mutual love is made unhappy by the opposition of their fathers, Prisius and Sperantius, since these latter covet rather their children's marriage with Accius and Silena. In pursuit of this other object these two countrymen send their servants, Lucio and Halfpenny, to spy out the land. By the ordinary chance of good comradeship the four servants meet and make known to each other their errands, when the opportunity of a mischievous entangling of the threads at once becomes apparent. Disguises are used, with the result that the loving couple, Livia and Candius, marry under the unconscious benisons of their parents. The trick being discovered, there is general trouble, especially at the exposure of the hitherto concealed imbecility of Accius and Silena; but a certain woman, Vicina, now comes forward, with