page_title: Campaspe (play)
section_title: Synopsis
hierarchical_section_title: Campaspe (play) / Synopsis
context_page_description: Campaspe is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by John Lyly based on the life of Campaspe. Widely considered Lyly's earliest drama, Campaspe was an influence and a precedent for much that followed in English Renaissance drama.
context_section_description: While in Athens, Alexander falls in love with the beautiful Theban captive, Campaspe. He grants the young woman her freedom, and has her portrait painted by the artist Apelles. Apelles quickly falls in love with her too; when the portrait is finished, he deliberately mars it to have more time with his sitter. Campaspe in turn falls in love with Apelles. When Apelles eventually presents the completed portrait to Alexander, the painter's behaviour reveals that he is in love with Campaspe. Alexander magnanimously resigns his interest in Campaspe so that the true love between her and Apelles can flower; he turns his attention to the invasion of Persia and further conquests.
  Alexander also spends his time in Athens conversing and consorting with the philosophers of the era – most notably with Diogenes, whose famous tub is prominently featured onstage. Diogenes is little impressed with the conqueror. Aristotle and Plato share a conversation, and other philosophers appear as well. The play also features the witty pages that are a hallmark of Lyly's drama.
  The play's prose style is heavily "euphuistic," sharing significant commonalities with Lyly's famous novel Euphues (1578). Notably, Apelles is a crucial figure in both works. This euphuistic style helps to support the view that Campaspe was Lyly's first venture at writing for the stage.
caption: Apelles Painting Campaspe in the Presence of Alexander the Great, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, France
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