While I’m quite sure that Lyly’s contemporary audiences recognized the not-quite-so-subtle homage to Queen Elizabeth I from the get-go (who could mistake the fawned over Cynthia, a woman of unsurpassed beauty and excellence, for anyone else?), but for those of us today not catching on quite as quickly, Lyly’s conclusion proved without a reservation that the plot of the play was written foremost to flatter the Queen. Now this isn’t such a terrible thing, such an aim hardly inhibited Lyly’s stylistic choices as a playwright and that is arguably where he succeeds most, but it does necessarily affect his characterization, and it’s worth taking a look at.
For the majority of the play, Cynthia remains a figure of unattainable proportions, her appearances are few and her lines numbered, yet thanks to Endymion her presence is palpably felt even in her absence and her greatness simply understood. Taking Cynthia as a substitute for the Queen, it makes sense since Elizabeth’s power came not from her constant showing of authority, but the implicit understanding of its existence. Until the final Act, Cynthia maintains this somewhat removed nature, however by the final scene Lyly entirely shifts her role from a passive force to an active one.
No longer able to simply stand over watch, Cynthia assumes the role of judge, jury, healer, mediator, and all-around resolver, bringing to a close the various strands of the play in a way that only an omnipotent figure could really hope to do. In fact, it makes you wonder why none of this could have been accomplished sooner (given the decades that passed with Endymion’s slumber). But placing such quibbles aside, Lyly built up the play adulating a mythical woman almost without reason only to close by justifying such praise when she finally takes action; and while I’m none too familiar with the reign of Elizabeth I, I’m content to say that this is a fitting way to pay tribute to any figurehead under ‘threat’ of seemingly unsubstantiated praise.
I too questioned the neat and tidy ending, wondering how it could not have been enacted earlier. But the real concern I took was with Cynthia herself, who despite her omnipotent presence and authority seemed wholly unaware of all the mischief in her kingdom. Taking this as a tribute to the glorious Queen herself, one might argue that this leaves room for a critic to assert her overall detachment from her subjects. Admittedly she grants them everything they want for and more, but only after they individually appeal to her. Furthermore her final proclamations betray a lack of understanding about the people she is ruling over. Despite her beauty, wisdom, and experience her solutions appear possibly superficial and ill-informed. However, this might be nit-picking and as it stands, my critique runs the risk of tainting this otherwise very flattering tribute.