John Lyly (wr. 1579/80, prod. 1584).
Comedy set in Athens in the fourth century B.C., when Alexander the Great has retired after a successful campaign against Thebes, bringing with him many prisoners, including the chaste and modest Campaspe, with whom he falls in love. In the unnaturally peaceful days that follow, poets and philosophers flourish, particularly the colorful Diogenes the Cynic, a crabbed old individualist who abuses the Athenians. Meanwhile, Campaspe and Appeles, an artist whom Alexander has commissioned to paint her portrait, have fallen deeply in love, and Alexander wisely orders them to marry. Realising that his army is growing listless he sets off on a vigorous campaign against Persia, declaring "When all the world is won . . . either find me another to subdue, or . . . I will fall in love."