384 ARIADNE FLORENT1NA, 



gil with the Ludus Trojse, or equestrian game of winding and 

 turning, continued in England from twelfth century ; and 

 having for last relic the maze * called ' Troy Town/ at Troy 

 farm, near Somerton, Oxfordshire, which itself resembles the 

 circular labyrinth on a coin of Cnossus in ' Fors Clavigera.' 



" The connecting quotation from Virg., 2En., v., 588, is as 

 follows : 



* Ut quond am Greta fertur Labyrinthus in alta 

 Parietibus textum caecis iter, ancipitemque 

 Mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi 

 Falleret indeprensus et inremeabilis error. 

 Haud alio Teucriin nati vestigia cursu 

 Impediuiit, texuntque fagas et proelia ludo, 

 Delphinum similes.' " 



Labyrinth of Ariadne, as cut on the Downs by shepherds 

 from time immemorial, 



Shakspeare, ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' Act ii. sc. 2 : 



u Oberon. The nine-men's morris f is filled up with mud ; 

 And the quaint mazes in the wanton green 

 By lack of tread are undistinguishable." 



The following passage, 'Merchant of Venice,' Act in., sc. 2, 

 confuses (to all appearance) the Athenian tribute to Crete, 

 with the story of Hesione : and may point to general con- 

 fusion in the Elizabethan mind about the myths : 



" Portia with much more love 



Than young Alcides, when he did reduce 

 The virgin-tribute paid by howling Troy 

 To the sea monster." \ 



Theseus is the Attic Hercules, however ; and Troy may 

 have been a sort of house of call for mythical monsters, in the 

 view of midland shepherds. 



* Strutt, pp. 97-8, ed. 1801. 



f Explained as " a game still played by the shepherds, cowkeepera," 

 etc. , in the midland counties. 

 t See Iliad, 20, 145. 



