summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
-rw-r--r--.gitattributes3
-rw-r--r--22525-0.txt5473
-rw-r--r--22525-0.zipbin0 -> 112113 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-8.txt5473
-rw-r--r--22525-8.zipbin0 -> 112021 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-h.zipbin0 -> 124055 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-h/22525-h.htm6363
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f001.pngbin0 -> 10734 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f002.pngbin0 -> 5601 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f003.pngbin0 -> 38627 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f004.pngbin0 -> 53313 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f005.pngbin0 -> 23675 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f006.pngbin0 -> 27113 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f007.pngbin0 -> 49739 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f008.pngbin0 -> 58796 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f009.pngbin0 -> 58928 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f010.pngbin0 -> 58450 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f011.pngbin0 -> 59851 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f012.pngbin0 -> 60211 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f013.pngbin0 -> 61973 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f014.pngbin0 -> 60640 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/f015.pngbin0 -> 60139 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p010.pngbin0 -> 43217 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p011.pngbin0 -> 60995 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p012.pngbin0 -> 61057 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p013.pngbin0 -> 59375 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p014.pngbin0 -> 58077 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p015.pngbin0 -> 60920 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p016.pngbin0 -> 59306 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p017.pngbin0 -> 62504 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p018.pngbin0 -> 61601 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p019.pngbin0 -> 58946 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p020.pngbin0 -> 60277 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p021.pngbin0 -> 56557 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p022.pngbin0 -> 61006 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p023.pngbin0 -> 60810 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p024.pngbin0 -> 60925 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p025.pngbin0 -> 57178 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p026.pngbin0 -> 57629 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p027.pngbin0 -> 61332 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p028.pngbin0 -> 59526 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p029.pngbin0 -> 60070 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p030.pngbin0 -> 59272 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p031.pngbin0 -> 59974 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p032.pngbin0 -> 60714 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p033.pngbin0 -> 63613 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p034.pngbin0 -> 59520 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p035.pngbin0 -> 63481 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p036.pngbin0 -> 59065 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p037.pngbin0 -> 57908 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p038.pngbin0 -> 56275 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p039.pngbin0 -> 60894 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p040.pngbin0 -> 60106 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p041.pngbin0 -> 58888 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p042.pngbin0 -> 59274 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p043.pngbin0 -> 56660 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p044.pngbin0 -> 49294 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p045.pngbin0 -> 55171 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p046.pngbin0 -> 56213 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p047.pngbin0 -> 57744 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p048.pngbin0 -> 60613 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p049.pngbin0 -> 60597 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p050.pngbin0 -> 60850 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p051.pngbin0 -> 60943 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p052.pngbin0 -> 54605 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p053.pngbin0 -> 60375 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p054.pngbin0 -> 58561 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p055.pngbin0 -> 58951 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p056.pngbin0 -> 56922 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p057.pngbin0 -> 60867 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p058.pngbin0 -> 58983 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p059.pngbin0 -> 59756 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p060.pngbin0 -> 60195 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p061.pngbin0 -> 59697 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p062.pngbin0 -> 55128 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p063.pngbin0 -> 14495 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p064.pngbin0 -> 40701 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p065.pngbin0 -> 58286 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p066.pngbin0 -> 62525 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p067.pngbin0 -> 59352 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p068.pngbin0 -> 61017 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p069.pngbin0 -> 61277 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p070.pngbin0 -> 56638 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p071.pngbin0 -> 56857 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p072.pngbin0 -> 60407 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p073.pngbin0 -> 61913 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p074.pngbin0 -> 60416 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p075.pngbin0 -> 60283 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p076.pngbin0 -> 61046 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p077.pngbin0 -> 61402 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p078.pngbin0 -> 58697 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p079.pngbin0 -> 61244 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p080.pngbin0 -> 58611 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p081.pngbin0 -> 59404 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p082.pngbin0 -> 61214 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p083.pngbin0 -> 62619 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p084.pngbin0 -> 53018 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p085.pngbin0 -> 45341 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p086.pngbin0 -> 60611 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p087.pngbin0 -> 62508 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p088.pngbin0 -> 57597 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p089.pngbin0 -> 50109 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p090.pngbin0 -> 60025 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p091.pngbin0 -> 57664 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p092.pngbin0 -> 58058 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p093.pngbin0 -> 63411 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p094.pngbin0 -> 55404 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p095.pngbin0 -> 62474 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p096.pngbin0 -> 61151 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p097.pngbin0 -> 62039 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p098.pngbin0 -> 58427 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p099.pngbin0 -> 64974 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p100.pngbin0 -> 61406 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p101.pngbin0 -> 63274 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p102.pngbin0 -> 61113 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p103.pngbin0 -> 59707 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p104.pngbin0 -> 59481 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p105.pngbin0 -> 60258 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p106.pngbin0 -> 43028 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p107.pngbin0 -> 62137 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p108.pngbin0 -> 61932 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p109.pngbin0 -> 62017 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p110.pngbin0 -> 59723 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p111.pngbin0 -> 60886 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p112.pngbin0 -> 61481 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p113.pngbin0 -> 59004 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p114.pngbin0 -> 60434 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p115.pngbin0 -> 62087 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p116.pngbin0 -> 61784 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p117.pngbin0 -> 57323 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p118.pngbin0 -> 45433 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p119.pngbin0 -> 59330 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p120.pngbin0 -> 58431 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p121.pngbin0 -> 61513 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p122.pngbin0 -> 62702 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p123.pngbin0 -> 60887 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p124.pngbin0 -> 63898 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p125.pngbin0 -> 60137 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p126.pngbin0 -> 58902 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p127.pngbin0 -> 61815 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p128.pngbin0 -> 62032 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p129.pngbin0 -> 61709 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p130.pngbin0 -> 59854 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p131.pngbin0 -> 32369 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p132.pngbin0 -> 41549 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p133.pngbin0 -> 60745 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p134.pngbin0 -> 62441 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p135.pngbin0 -> 58843 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p136.pngbin0 -> 60845 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p137.pngbin0 -> 60139 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p138.pngbin0 -> 62920 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p139.pngbin0 -> 60734 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p140.pngbin0 -> 36241 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p141.pngbin0 -> 41274 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p142.pngbin0 -> 37354 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p143.pngbin0 -> 42604 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p144.pngbin0 -> 51086 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p145.pngbin0 -> 47585 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p146.pngbin0 -> 53357 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p147.pngbin0 -> 52119 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525-page-images/p148.pngbin0 -> 26481 bytes
-rw-r--r--22525.txt5473
-rw-r--r--22525.zipbin0 -> 111925 bytes
-rw-r--r--LICENSE.txt11
-rw-r--r--README.md2
165 files changed, 22798 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/22525-0.txt b/22525-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc6f04a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5473 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: John Lyly
+
+Author: John Dover Wilson
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22525]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+This e-text includes one word in accented Greek. If it does not display properly,
+please use the transliterated (Latin-1) version of this text instead.]
+
+
+
+
+ JOHN LYLY
+
+
+ BY
+
+ JOHN DOVER WILSON,
+
+
+
+ B.A., Late Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
+ Members' Prizeman, 1902. Harness Prizeman, 1904.
+ Honours in Historical Tripos.
+
+
+
+
+ Macmillan and Bowes
+ Cambridge
+ 1905
+
+
+
+
+ A
+ MIA
+ DONNA.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following treatise was awarded the _Harness Prize_ at Cambridge in
+1904. I have, however, revised it since then, and in some matters
+considerably enlarged it.
+
+A list of the chief authorities to whom I am indebted will be found at
+the end of the book, but it is fitting that I should here make
+particular mention of my obligations to the exhaustive work of Mr
+Bond[1]. Not only have his labours of research and collation lightened
+the task for me, and for any future student of Lyly, to an incalculable
+extent, but the various introductory essays scattered up and down his
+volumes are full of invaluable suggestions.
+
+ [1] _The Complete Works of John Lyly._ R. W. Bond, 3 Vols. Clarendon
+ Press.
+
+This book was unfortunately nearing its completion before I was able to
+avail myself of Mr Martin Hume's _Spanish Influence on English
+Literature_. But, though I might have added more had his book been
+accessible earlier, I was glad to find that his conclusions left the
+main theory of my chapter on Euphuism untouched.
+
+Much as has been written upon John Lyly, no previous critic has
+attempted to cover the whole ground, and to sum up in a brief and
+convenient form the three main literary problems which centre round his
+name. My solution of these problems may be faulty in detail, but it will
+I hope be of service to Elizabethan students to have them presented in a
+single volume and from a single point of view. Furthermore, when I
+undertook this study, I found several points which seemed to demand
+closer attention than they had hitherto received. It appeared to me that
+the last word had not been said even upon the subject of Euphuism,
+although that topic has usurped the lion's share of critical treatment.
+And again, while Lyly's claims as a novelist are acknowledged on all
+hands, I felt that a clear statement of his exact position in the
+history of our novel was still needed. Finally, inasmuch as the
+personality of an author is always more fascinating to me than his
+writings, I determined to attempt to throw some light, however fitful
+and uncertain, upon the man Lyly himself. The attempt was not entirely
+fruitless, for it led to the interesting discovery that the
+fully-developed euphuism was not the creation of Lyly, or Pettie, or
+indeed of any one individual, but of a circle of young Oxford men which
+included Gosson, Watson, Hakluyt, and possibly many others.
+
+I have to thank Mr J. R. Collins and Mr J. N. Frazer, the one for help
+in revision, and the other for assistance in Spanish. But my chief debt
+of gratitude is due to Dr Ward, the Master of Peterhouse, who has twice
+read through this book at different stages of its construction. The
+readiness with which he has put his great learning at my disposal, his
+kindly interest, and frequent encouragement have been of the very
+greatest help in a task which was undertaken and completed under
+pressure of other work.
+
+As the full titles of authorities used are to be found in the list at
+the end, I have referred to works in the footnotes simply by the name of
+their author, while in quoting from _Euphues_ I have throughout employed
+Prof. Arber's reprint. Should errors be discovered in the text I must
+plead in excuse that, owing to circumstances, the book had to be passed
+very quickly through the press.
+
+JOHN DOVER WILSON.
+
+HOLMLEIGH, SHELFORD, _August, 1905_.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+ PAGE
+
+The problem stated--Sketch of Lyly's life 1
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EUPHUISM 10
+
+Section I. The Anatomy of Euphuism 13
+
+Section II. The Origin of Euphuism 21
+
+Section III. Lyly's legatees and the relation between
+Euphuism and the Renaissance 43
+
+Section IV. The position of Euphuism in the history of English
+Prose 52
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL 64
+
+The rise of the Novel--the characteristics of _The Anatomy of
+Wit_ and _Euphues and his England_--the Elizabethan Novel.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LYLY THE DRAMATIST 85
+
+Section I. English Comedy before 1580 89
+
+Section II. The Eight Plays 98
+
+Section III. Lyly's advance and subsequent influence 119
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CONCLUSION 132
+
+Lyly's Character--Summary.
+
+INDEX 143
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Since the day when Taine established a scientific basis for the
+historical study of Art, criticism has tended gradually but naturally to
+fall into two divisions, as distinct from each other as the functions
+they respectively perform are distinct. The one, which we may call
+aesthetic criticism, deals with the artist and his works solely for the
+purpose of interpretation and appreciation, judging them according to
+some artistic standard, which, as often as not, derives its only
+sanction from the prejudices of the critic himself. It is of course
+obvious that, until all critics are agreed upon some common principles
+of artistic valuation, aesthetic criticism can lay no claim to
+scientific precision, but must be classed as a department of Art itself.
+The other, an application of the Darwinian hypothesis to literature,
+which owes its existence almost entirely to the great French critic
+before mentioned, but which has since rejected as unscientific many of
+the laws he formulated, may be called historical or sociological
+criticism. It judges a work of art, an artist, or an artistic period, on
+its dynamic and not its intrinsic merits. Its standard is influence, not
+power or beauty. It is concerned with the artistic qualities of a given
+artist only in so far as he exerts influence over his successors by
+those qualities. It is essentially scientific, for it treats the artist
+as science treats any other natural phenomenon, that is, as the effect
+of previous causes and the cause of subsequent effects. Its function is
+one of classification, and with interpretation or appreciation it has
+nothing to do.
+
+Before undertaking the study of an artist, the critic should carefully
+distinguish between these two critical methods. A complete study must of
+course comprehend both; and in the case of Shakespeare, shall we say,
+each should be exhaustive. On the other hand, there are artists whose
+dynamical value is far greater than their intrinsic value, and _vice
+versa_; and in such instances the critic must be guided in his action by
+the relative importance of these values in any particular example. This
+is so in the case of John Lyly. In the course of the following treatise
+we shall have occasion to pass many aesthetic judgments upon his work;
+but it will be from the historical side that we shall view him in the
+main, because his importance for the readers of the twentieth century is
+almost entirely dynamical. His work is by no means devoid of aesthetic
+merit. He was, like so many of the Elizabethans, a writer of beautiful
+lyrics which are well known to this day; but, though the rest of his
+work is undoubtedly that of an artist of no mean ability, the beauty it
+possesses is the beauty of a fossil in which few but students would
+profess any interest. Moreover, even could we claim more for John Lyly
+than this, any aesthetic criticism would of necessity become a secondary
+matter in comparison with his importance in other directions, for to the
+scientific critic he is or should be one of the most significant figures
+in English literature. This claim I hope to justify in the following
+pages; but it will be well, by way of obtaining a broad general view of
+our subject, to call attention to a few points upon which our
+justification must ultimately rest.
+
+In the first place John Lyly, inasmuch as he was one of the earliest
+writers who considered prose as an artistic end in itself, and not
+simply as a medium of expression, may be justly described as a founder,
+if not _the_ founder, of English prose style.
+
+In the second place he was the author of the first novel of manners in
+the language.
+
+And in the third place, and from the point of view of Elizabethan
+literature most important of all, he was one of our very earliest
+dramatists, and without doubt merits the title of Father of English
+Comedy.
+
+It is almost impossible to over-estimate his historical importance in
+these three departments, and this not because he was a great genius or
+possessed of any magnificent artistic gifts, but for the simple reason
+that he happened to stand upon the threshold of modern English
+literature and at the very entrance to its splendid Elizabethan
+ante-room, and therefore all who came after felt something of his
+influence. These are the three chief points of interest about Lyly, but
+they do not exhaust the problems he presents. We shall have to notice
+also that as a pamphleteer he becomes entangled in the famous
+_Marprelate_ controversy, and that he was one of the first, being
+perhaps even earlier than Marlowe, to perceive the value of blank verse
+for dramatic purposes. Finally, as we have seen, he was the reputed
+author of some delightful lyrics.
+
+The man of whom one can say such things, the man who showed such
+versatility and range of expression, the man who took the world by storm
+and made euphuism the fashion at court before he was well out of his
+nonage, who for years provided the great Queen with food for laughter,
+and who was connected with the first ominous outburst of the Puritan
+spirit, surely possesses personal attractions apart from any literary
+considerations. We shall presently see reason to believe that his
+personality was a brilliant and fascinating one. But such a
+reconstruction of the artist[2] is only possible after a thorough
+analysis of his works. It would be as well here, however, by way of
+obtaining an historical framework for our study, to give a brief account
+of his life as it is known to us.
+
+ [2] Cf. Hennequin.
+
+"Eloquent and witty" John Lyly first saw light in the year 1553 or
+1554[3]. Anthony à Wood, the 17th century author of _Athenae
+Oxonienses_, tells us that he was, like his contemporary Stephen Gosson,
+a Kentish man born[4]; and with this clue to help them both Mr Bond and
+Mr Baker are inclined to accept much of the story of Fidus as
+autobiographical[5]. If their inference be correct, our author would
+seem to have been the son of middle-class, but well-to-do, parents. But
+it is with his residence at Oxford that any authentic account of his
+life must begin, and even then our information is very meagre. Wood
+tells us that he "became a student in Magdalen College in the beginning
+of 1569, aged 16 or thereabouts." "And since," adds Mr Bond, "in 1574 he
+describes himself as Burleigh's alumnus, and owns obligations to him, it
+is possible that he owed his university career to Burleigh's
+assistance[6]." And yet, limited as our knowledge is, it is possible, I
+think, to form a fairly accurate conception of Lyly's manner of life at
+Oxford, if we are bold enough to read between the lines of the scraps of
+contemporary evidence that have come down to us. Lyly himself tells us
+that he left Oxford for three years not long after his arrival.
+"Oxford," he says, "seemed to weane me before she brought me forth, and
+to give me boanes to gnawe, before I could get the teate to suck.
+Wherein she played the nice mother in sending me into the countrie to
+nurse, where I tyred at a drie breast for three years and was at last
+inforced to weane myself." Mr Bond, influenced by the high moral tone of
+_Euphues_, which, as we shall see, was merely a traditional literary
+prose borrowed from the moral court treatise, is anxious to vindicate
+Lyly from all charges of lawlessness, and refuses to admit that the
+foregoing words refer to rustication[7]. Lyly's enforced absence he
+holds was due to the plague which broke out at Oxford at this time. Such
+an interpretation seems to me to be sufficiently disposed of by the fact
+that the plague in question did not break out until 1571[8], while
+Lyly's words must refer to a departure (at the very latest) in 1570.
+Everything, in fact, goes to show that he was out of favour with the
+University authorities. In the first place he seems to have paid small
+attention to his regular studies. To quote Wood again, he was "always
+averse to the crabbed studies of Logic and Philosophy. For so it was
+that his genie, being naturally bent to the pleasant paths of poetry (as
+if Apollo had given to him a wreath of his own Bays without snatching or
+struggling), did in a manner neglect academical studies, yet not so much
+but that he took the Degree in Arts, that of Master being completed in
+1575[9]."
+
+ [3] Bond, I. p. 2; Baker, p. v.
+
+ [4] _Ath. Ox._ (ed. Bliss), I. p. 676.
+
+ [5] _Euphues_, p. 268.
+
+ [6] Bond, I. p. 6. But Baker, pp. vii, viii, would seem to disagree
+ with this.
+
+ [7] Bond, I. p. 11.
+
+ [8] Baker, p. xii.
+
+ [9] _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. Bliss), I. p. 676.
+
+Neglect of the recognised studies, however, was not the only blot upon
+Lyly's Oxford life. From the hints thrown out by his contemporaries, and
+from some allusions, doubtless personal, in the _Euphues_, we learn
+that, as an undergraduate, he was an irresponsible madcap. "Esteemed in
+the University a noted wit," he would very naturally become the centre
+of a pleasure-seeking circle of friends, despising the persons and
+ideas of their elders, eager to adopt the latest fashion whether in
+dress or in thought, and intolerant alike of regulations and of duty.
+Gabriel Harvey, who nursed a grudge against Lyly, even speaks of
+"horning, gaming, fooling and knaving," words which convey a distinct
+sense of something discreditable, whatever may be their exact
+significance. It is necessary to lay stress upon this period of Lyly's
+life, because, as I hope to show, his residence at Oxford, and the
+friends he made there, had a profound influence upon his later
+development, and in particular determined his literary bent. For our
+present purpose, however, which is merely to give a brief sketch of his
+life, it is sufficient to notice that our author's conduct during his
+residence was not so exemplary as it might have been. It must,
+therefore, have called forth a sigh of relief from the authorities of
+Magdalen, when they saw the last of John Lyly, M.A., in 1575. He
+however, quite naturally, saw matters otherwise. It would seem to him
+that the College was suffering wrong in losing so excellent a wit, and
+accordingly he heroically took steps to prevent such a catastrophe, for
+in 1576 we find him writing to his patron Burleigh, requesting him to
+procure mandatory letters from the Queen "that so under your auspices I
+may be quietly admitted a Fellow there." The petition was refused,
+Burleigh's sense of propriety overcoming his sense of humour, and the
+petitioner quitted Oxford, leaving his College the legacy of an unpaid
+bill for battels, and probably already preparing in his brain the
+revenge, which subsequently took the form of an attack upon his
+University in _Euphues_, which he published in 1578.
+
+It is interesting to learn that in 1579, according to the common
+practice of that day, he proceeded to his degree of M.A. at Cambridge,
+though there is no evidence of any residence there[10]. Indeed we know
+from other sources that in 1578, or perhaps earlier, Lyly had taken up
+his position at the Savoy Hospital. It seems probable that he became
+again indebted to Burleigh's generosity for the rooms he occupied
+here--unless they were hired for him by Burleigh's son-in-law Edward de
+Vere, Earl of Oxford. This person, though few of his writings are now
+extant, is nevertheless an interesting figure in Elizabethan literature.
+The second part of _Euphues_ published in 1580, and the _Hekatompathia_
+of Thomas Watson, are both dedicated to him, and he seems to have acted
+as patron to most of Lyly's literary associates when they left Oxford
+for London. Lyly became his private secretary; and as the Earl was
+himself a dramatist, though his comedies are now lost, his influence
+must have confirmed in our author those dramatic aspirations, which were
+probably acquired at Oxford; and we have every reason for believing that
+Lyly was still his secretary when he was publishing his two first plays,
+_Campaspe_ and _Sapho_, in 1584. But this point will require a fuller
+treatment at a later stage of our study.
+
+ [10] Mr Baker however seems to think that his reference to Cambridge
+ (_Euphues_, p. 436) implies a term of residence there. Baker, p. xxii.
+
+Somewhere about 1585 Fate settled once and for all the lines on which
+Lyly's genius was to develop, for at that time he became an assistant
+master at the St Paul's Choir School. Schools, and especially those for
+choristers, at this time offered excellent opportunities for dramatic
+production. Lyly in his new position made good use of his chance, and
+wrote plays for his young scholars to act, drilling them himself, and
+perhaps frequently appearing personally on the stage. These
+chorister-actors were connected in a very special way with royal
+entertainments; and therefore they and their instructor would be
+constantly brought into touch with the Revels' Office. As we know from
+his letters to Elizabeth and to Cecil, the mastership of the Revels was
+the post Lyly coveted, and coveted without success, as far as we can
+tell, until the end of his life. But these letters also show us that he
+was already connected with this office by his position in the
+subordinate office of Tents and Toils. The latter, originally instituted
+for the purpose of furnishing the necessaries of royal hunting and
+campaigning[11], had apparently become amalgamated under a female
+sovereign with the Revels' Office, possibly owing to the fact that its
+costumes and weapons provided useful material for entertainments and
+interludes. Another position which, as Mr Bond shows, was held at one
+time by Lyly, was that of reader of new books to the Bishop of London.
+This connexion with the censorship of the day is interesting, as showing
+how Lyly was drawn into the whirlpool of the _Marprelate_ controversy.
+Finally we know that he was elected a member of Parliament on four
+separate occasions[12].
+
+ [11] Bond, I. p. 38.
+
+ [12] I have to thank Dr Ward for pointing out to me the interesting
+ fact that a large proportion of Elizabeth's M.P.'s were royal
+ officials.
+
+These varied occupations are proof of the energy and versatility of our
+author, but not one of them can be described as lucrative. Nor can his
+publications have brought him much profit; for, though both _Euphues_
+and its sequel passed through ten editions before his death, an author
+in those days received very little of the proceeds of his work. Moreover
+the publication of his plays is rather an indication of financial
+distress than a sign of prosperity. The two dramas already mentioned
+were printed before Lyly's connexion with the Choir School; and, when in
+1585 he became "vice-master of Poules and Foolmaster of the Theater,"
+he would be careful to keep his plays out of the publisher's hands, in
+order to preserve the acting monopoly. It is probable that the tenure of
+this Actor-manager-schoolmastership marks the height of Lyly's
+prosperity, and the inhibition of the boys' acting rights in 1591 must
+have meant a severe financial loss to him. Thus it is only after this
+date that he is forced to make what he can by the publication of his
+other plays. The fear of poverty was the more urgent, because he had a
+wife and family on his hands. And though Mr Bond believes that he found
+an occupation after 1591 in writing royal entertainments, and though the
+inhibition on the choristers' acting was removed as early as 1599, yet
+the last years of Lyly's life were probably full of disappointment. This
+indeed is confirmed by the bitter tone of his letter to Elizabeth in
+1598 in reference to the mastership of the Revels' Office, which he had
+at last despaired of. The letter in question is sad reading. Beginning
+with a euphuism and ending in a jest, it tells of a man who still
+retains, despite all adversity, a courtly mask and a merry tongue, but
+beneath this brave surface there is visible a despair--almost amounting
+to anguish--which the forced merriment only renders more pitiable. And
+the gloom which surrounded his last years was not only due to the
+distress of poverty. Before his death in 1606 he had seen his novel
+eclipsed by the new Arcadian fashion, and had watched the rise of a host
+of rival dramatists, thrusting him aside while they took advantage of
+his methods. Greatest of them all, as he must have realised, was
+Shakespeare, the sun of our drama before whom the silver light of his
+little moon, which had first illumined our darkness, waned and faded
+away and was to be for centuries forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EUPHUISM.
+
+
+It was as a novelist that Lyly first came before the world of English
+letters. In 1578 he published a volume, bearing the inscription,
+_Euphues: the anatomy of wyt_, to which was subjoined the attractive
+advertisement, _very pleasant for all gentlemen to reade, and most
+necessary to remember_. This book, which was to work a revolution in our
+literature, was completed in 1580 by a sequel, entitled _Euphues and his
+England_. _Euphues_, to combine the two parts under one name, the fruit
+of Lyly's nonage, seems to have determined the form of his reputation
+for the Elizabethans; and even to-day it attracts more attention than
+any other of his works. This probably implies a false estimate of Lyly's
+comparative merits as a novelist and as a dramatist. But it is not
+surprising that critics, living in the century of the novel, and with
+their eyes towards the country pre-eminent in its production, should
+think and write of Lyly chiefly as the first of English novelists. The
+bias of the age is as natural and as dangerous an element in criticism
+as the bias of the individual. But it is not with the modern
+appraisement of _Euphues_ that we are here concerned. Nor need we
+proceed immediately to a consideration of its position in the history of
+the English novel. We have first to deal with its Elizabethan
+reputation. Had _Euphues_ been a still-born child of Lyly's genius, had
+it produced no effect upon the literature of the age, it would possess
+nothing but a purely archaeological interest for us to-day. It would
+still be the first of English novels: but this claim would lose half its
+significance, did it not carry with it the implication that the book was
+also the origin of English novel writing. The importance, therefore, of
+_Euphues_ is not so much that it was primary, as that it was primordial;
+and, to be such, it must have laid its spell in some way or other upon
+succeeding writers. Our first task is therefore to enquire what this
+spell was, and to discover whether the attraction of _Euphues_ must be
+ascribed to Lyly's own invention or to artifices which he borrows from
+others.
+
+While, as I have said, Lyly's name is associated with the novel by most
+modern critics, it has earned a more widespread reputation among the
+laity for affectation and mannerisms of style. Indeed, until fifty years
+ago, Lyly spelt nothing but euphuism, and euphuism meant simply
+nonsense, clothed in bombast. It was a blind acceptance of these loose
+ideas which led Sir Walter Scott to create (as a caricature of Lyly) his
+Sir Piercie Shafton in _The Monastery_--an historical _faux pas_ for
+which he has been since sufficiently called to account. Nevertheless
+Lyly's reputation had a certain basis of fact, and we may trace the
+tradition back to Elizabethan days. It is perhaps worth pointing out
+that, had we no other evidence upon the subject, the survival of this
+tradition would lead us to suppose that it was Lyly's style more than
+anything else which appealed to the men of his day. A contemporary
+confirmation of this may be found in the words of William Webbe. Writing
+in 1586 of the "great good grace and sweet vogue which Eloquence hath
+attained in our Speeche," he declares that the English language has thus
+progressed, "because it hath had the helpe of such rare and singular
+wits, as from time to time myght still adde some amendment to the same.
+Among whom I think there is none that will gainsay, but Master John Lyly
+hath deservedly moste high commendations, as he hath stept one steppe
+further therein than any either before or since he first began the
+wyttie discourse of his _Euphues_, whose works, surely in respect of his
+singular eloquence and brave composition of apt words and sentences, let
+the learned examine and make tryall thereof, through all the parts of
+Rethoricke, in fitte phrases, in pithy sentences, in galant tropes, in
+flowing speeche, in plaine sense, and surely in my judgment, I think he
+wyll yeelde him that verdict which Quintillian giveth of both the best
+orators Demosthenes and Tully, that from the one, nothing may be taken
+away, to the other nothing may be added[13]." After such eulogy, the
+description of Lyly by another writer as "alter Tullius anglorum" will
+not seem strange. These praises were not the extravagances of a few
+uncritical admirers; they echo the verdict of the age. Lyly's
+enthronement was of short duration--a matter of some ten years--but,
+while it lasted, he reigned supreme. Such literary idolatries are by no
+means uncommon, and often hold their ground for a considerable period.
+Beside the vogue of Waller, for example, the duration of Lyly's
+reputation was comparatively brief. More than a century after the
+publication of his poems, Waller was hailed by the Sidney Lee of the day
+in the _Biographia Britannica_ of 1766, as "the most celebrated Lyric
+Poet that England ever produced." Whence comes this striking contrast
+between past glory and present neglect? How is it that a writer once
+known as the greatest master of English prose, and a poet once named the
+most conspicuous of English lyrists, are now but names? They have not
+faded from memory owing to a mere caprice of fashion. Great artists are
+subject to an ebb and flow of popularity, for which as yet no tidal
+theory has been offered as an explanation; but like the sea they are
+ever permanent. The case of our two writers is different. The wheel of
+time will never bring _Euphues_ and _Sacharissa_ "to their own again."
+They are as dead as the Jacobite cause. And for that very reason they
+are all the more interesting for the literary historian. All writers are
+conditioned by their environment, but some concern themselves with the
+essentials, others with the accidents, of that internally constant, but
+externally unstable, phenomenon, known as humanity. Waller and Lyly were
+of the latter class. Like jewels suitable to one costume only, they
+remained in favour just as long as the fashion that created them lasted.
+Waller was probably inferior to Lyly as an artist, but he happened to
+strike a vein which was not exhausted until the end of the 18th century;
+while the vogue of _Euphues_, though at first far-reaching, was soon
+crossed by new artificialities such as arcadianism. The secret of
+Waller's influence was that he stereotyped a new poetic form, a form
+which, in its restraint and precision, was exactly suited to the
+intellect of the _ancien régime_ with its craving for form and its
+contempt for ideas. The mainspring of Lyly's popularity was that he did
+in prose what Waller did in poetry.
+
+ [13] _A discourse of English Poetrie_, Arber's reprint.
+
+
+SECTION I. _The Anatomy of Euphuism._
+
+The books which have been written upon the characteristics of Lyly's
+prose are numberless, and far outweigh the attention given to his power
+as a novelist, to say nothing of his dramas[14]. Indeed the absorption
+of the critics in the analysis of euphuism seems to have been, up to a
+few years ago, definitely injurious to a true appreciation of our
+author's position, by blocking the path to a recognition of his
+importance in other directions. And yet, in spite of all this, it cannot
+be said that any adequate examination of the structure of Lyly's style
+appeared until Mr Child took the matter in hand in 1894[15]. And Mr
+Child has performed his task so scientifically and so exhaustively that
+he has killed the topic by making any further treatment of it
+superfluous. This being the case, a description of the euphuistic style
+need not detain us for long. I shall content myself with the briefest
+summary of its characteristics, drawing upon Mr Child for my matter, and
+referring those who are desirous of further details to Mr Child's work
+itself. We shall then be in a position to proceed to the more
+interesting, and as yet unsettled problem, of the origins of euphuism.
+The great value of Mr Child's work lies in the fact that he has at once
+simplified and amplified the conclusions of previous investigators. Dr
+Weymouth[16] was the first to discover that, beneath the "curtizan-like
+painted affectation" of euphuism, there lay a definite theory of style
+and a consistent method of procedure. Dr Landmann carried the analysis
+still further in his now famous paper published in the _New Shakespeare
+Society's Transactions_ (1880-82). But these two, and those who have
+followed them, have erred, on the one hand in implying that euphuism was
+much more complex than it is in reality, and on the other by confining
+their attention to single sentences, and so failing to perceive that the
+euphuistic method was applicable to the paragraph, as a whole, no less
+than to the sentence. And it is upon these two points that Mr Child's
+essay is so specially illuminating. We shall obtain a correct notion of
+the "essential character" of the "euphuistic rhetoric," he writes, "if
+we observe that it employs but one simple principle in practice, and
+that it applies this, not only to the ordering of the single sentence,
+but in every structural relation[17]": and this simple principle is "the
+inducement of artificial emphasis through Antithesis and
+Repetition--Antithesis to give pointed expression to the thought,
+Repetition to enforce it[18]." When Lyly set out to write his novel, it
+seemed that his intention was to produce a most elaborate essay in
+antithesis. The book as a whole, "very pleasant for all gentlemen to
+read and most necessary to remember," was itself an antithesis; the
+discourses it contains were framed upon the same plan; the sentences are
+grouped antithetically; while the antithesis is pointed by an equally
+elaborate repetition of ideas, of vowel sounds and of consonant sounds.
+Letters, syllables, words, sentences, sentence groups, paragraphs, all
+are employed for the purpose of producing the antithetical style now
+known as euphuism. An example will serve to make the matter clearer.
+Philautus, upbraiding his treacherous friend Euphues for robbing him of
+his lady's love, delivers himself of the following speech: "Although
+hitherto Euphues I have shrined thee in my heart for a trusty friend, I
+will shunne thee hereafter as a trothless foe, and although I cannot see
+in thee less wit than I was wont, yet do I find less honesty. I perceive
+at the last (although being deceived it be too late) that musk though
+it be sweet in the smell is sour in the smack, that the leaf of the
+cedar tree though it be fair to be seen, yet the syrup depriveth
+sight--that friendship though it be plighted by the shaking of the hand,
+yet it is shaken by the fraud of the heart. But thou hast not much to
+boast of, for as thou hast won a fickle lady, so hast thou lost a
+faithful friend[19]." It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the
+euphuistic style save in a lengthy quotation, such as the discourse of
+Eubulus selected by Mr Child for that purpose[20]; but, within the
+narrow limits of the passage I have chosen, the main characteristics of
+euphuism are sufficiently obvious. It should be noticed how one part of
+a sentence is balanced by another part, and how this balance or
+"parallelism" is made more pointed by means of alliteration, e.g.
+"shrined thee for a trusty friend," "shun thee as a trothless foe"; musk
+"sweet in the smell," "sour in the smack," and so on. The former of
+these antitheses is an example of transverse alliteration, of which so
+much is made by Dr Landmann, but which, as Mr Child shows, plays a
+subordinate, and an entirely mechanical, part in Lyly's style[21].
+Lyly's most natural and most usual method of emphasizing is by means of
+simple alliteration. On the other hand it must be noticed that he
+employs alliteration for the sake of euphony alone much more frequently
+than he uses it for the purpose of emphasis. So that we may conclude by
+saying that simple alliteration forms the basis of the euphuistic
+diction, just as we have seen antithesis forms the basis of the
+euphuistic construction. This brief survey of the framework of euphuism
+is far from being an exhaustive analysis. All that is here attempted is
+an enumeration of the most obvious marks of euphuism, as a necessary
+step to an investigation of its origin, and to a determination of its
+place in the history of our literature.
+
+ [14] Child, pp. 6-20, for an account of chief writers who have dealt
+ with euphuism.
+
+ [15] _John Lyly and Euphuism._ C. G. Child.
+
+ [16] _On Euphuism_, Phil. Soc. Trans., 1870-2.
+
+ [17] Child, p. 43.
+
+ [18] _id._, p. 44.
+
+ [19] _Euphues_, p. 90.
+
+ [20] Child, p. 39.
+
+ [21] _id._, p. 46.
+
+Before, however, leaving the subject entirely, we must mention two more
+characteristics of Lyly's prose which are very noticeable, but which
+come under the head of ornamental, rather than constructional, devices.
+The first of these is a peculiar use of the rhetorical interrogation.
+Lyly makes use of it when he wishes to portray his characters in
+distress or excitement, and it most frequently occurs in soliloquies.
+Sometimes we find a string of these interrogations, at others they are
+answered by sentences beginning "ay but," and occasionally we have the
+"ay but" sentence with the preceding interrogation missing. I make a
+special mention of this point, as we shall find it has a certain
+connexion with the subject of the origins of euphuism.
+
+The other ornamental device is one which has attracted a considerable
+quantity of attention from critics, and has frequently been taken by
+itself as the distinguishing mark of euphuism. In point of fact,
+however, the euphuists shared it with many other writers of their age,
+though it is doubtful whether anyone carried it to such extravagant
+lengths as Lyly. It took the form of illustrations and analogies, so
+excessive and overwhelming that it is difficult to see how even the
+idlest lady of Elizabeth's court found time or patience to wade through
+them. They consist first of anecdotes and allusions relating to
+historical or mythological persons of the ancient world; some being
+drawn from Plutarch, Pliny, Ovid, Virgil, and other sources, but many
+springing simply from Lyly's exuberant fancy. In the second place
+_Euphues_ is a collection of similes borrowed from "a fantastical
+natural history, a sort of mythology of plants and stones, to which the
+most extraordinary virtues are attributed[22]." "I have heard," says
+Camilla, bashfully excusing herself for taking up the cudgels of
+argument with the learned Surius, "that the Tortoise in India when the
+sunne shineth, swimmeth above the water wyth hyr back, and being
+delighted with the fine weather, forgetteth her selfe until the heate of
+the sunne so harden her shell, that she cannot sink when she woulde,
+whereby she is caught. And so it may fare with me that in this good
+companye displaying my minde, having more regard to my delight in
+talking, than to the ears of the hearers, I forget what I speake, and so
+be taken in something I would not utter, which happilye the itchyng ears
+of young gentlemen would so canvas that when I would call it in, I
+cannot, and so be caught with the Tortoise, when I would not[23]." And,
+when she had finished her discourse, Surius again employs the simile for
+the purpose of turning a neat compliment, saying, "Lady, if the Tortoise
+you spoke of in India were as cunning in swimming, as you are in
+speaking, she would neither fear the heate of the sunne nor the ginne of
+the Fisher." This is but a mild example of the "unnatural natural
+philosophy" which _Euphues_ has made famous. An unending procession of
+such similes, often of the most extravagant nature, runs throughout the
+book, and sometimes the development of the plot is made dependent on
+them. Thus Lucilla hesitates to forsake Philautus for Euphues, because
+she feels that her new lover will remember "that the glasse once chased
+will with the least clappe be cracked, that the cloth which stayneth
+with milke will soon loose his coulour with Vinegar; that the eagle's
+wing will waste the feather as well as of the Phoenix as of the
+Pheasant: and that she that hath become faithlesse to one, will never
+be faithfull to any[24]." What proof could be more exact, what better
+example could be given of the methods of concomitant variations? It is
+precisely the same logical process which induces the savage to wreak his
+vengeance by melting a waxen image of his enemy, and the farmer to
+predict a change of weather at the new moon.
+
+ [22] Jusserand, p. 107.
+
+ [23] _Euphues_, p. 402.
+
+ [24] _id._, p. 58.
+
+Lyly, however, was not concerned with making philosophical
+generalizations, or scientific laws, about the world in general. His
+natural, or unnatural, phenomena were simply saturated with moral
+significance: not that he saw any connexion between the ethical process
+and the cosmic process, but, like every one of his contemporaries, he
+employed the facts of animal and vegetable life to point a moral or to
+help out a sermon. The arguments he used appear to us puerile in their
+old-world dress, and yet similar ones are to be heard to-day in every
+pulpit where a smattering of science is used to eke out a poverty of
+theology. And, to be fair, such reasoning is not confined to pulpits.
+Even so eminent a writer as Mr Edward Carpenter has been known to
+moralize on the habits of the wild mustard, irresistibly reminding us of
+the "Camomill which the more it is trodden and pressed down the more it
+speedeth[25]." Moreover the _soi-disant_ founder of the inductive
+method, the great Bacon himself, is, as Liebig[26] shows in his amusing
+and interesting study of the renowned "scientist's" scientific methods,
+tarred with the same mediaeval brush, and should be ranked with Lyly and
+the other Elizabethan "scholastics" rather than with men like Harvey and
+Newton.
+
+ [25] _Euphues_, p. 46.
+
+ [26] _Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen âge_, par
+ Liebig, traduit par de Tchihatchef.
+
+Lyly's natural history was at any rate the result of learning; many of
+his "facts" were drawn from Pliny, while others were to be found in the
+plentiful crop of mediaeval bestiaries, which, as Professor Raleigh
+remarks, "preceded the biological hand-books." Perhaps also we must
+again allow something for Lyly's invention; for lists of authorities,
+and footnotes indicative of sources, were not demanded of the scientist
+of those days, and one can thoroughly sympathise with an author who
+found an added zest in inventing the facts upon which his theories
+rested. Have not ethical philosophers of all ages been guilty of it?
+Certainly Gabriel Harvey seems to be hinting at Lyly when he slyly
+remarks: "I could name a party, that in comparison of his own
+inventions, termed Pliny a barren wombe[27]."
+
+ [27] Bond, I. p. 131 note.
+
+The affectations we have just enumerated are much less conspicuous in
+the second part of _Euphues_ than in the first, and, though they find a
+place in his earlier plays, Lyly gradually frees himself from their
+influence, owing perhaps to the decline of the euphuistic fashion, but
+more probably to the growth of his dramatic instinct, which saw that
+such forms were a drag upon the action of a play. And yet at times Lyly
+could use his clumsy weapon with great precision and effect. How
+admirably, for example, does he express in his antithetical fashion the
+essence of coquetry. Iffida, speaking to Fidus of one she loved but
+wished to test, is made to say, "I seem straight-laced as one neither
+accustomed to such suites, nor willing to entertain such a servant, yet
+so warily, as putting him from me with my little finger, I drewe him to
+me with my whole hand[28]." Other little delicate turns of phrase may be
+found in the mine of _Euphues_--for the digging. Our author was no
+genius, but he had a full measure of that indefinable quality known as
+wit; and, though the stylist's mask he wears is uncouth and rigid, it
+cannot always conceal the twinkle of his eyes. Moreover a certain
+weariness of this sermonizing on the stilts of antithesis is often
+visible; and we may suspect that he half sympathises with the petulant
+exclamation of the sea-sick Philautus to his interminable friend:
+
+"In fayth, Euphues, thou hast told a long tale, the beginning I have
+forgotten, ye middle I understand not, and the end hangeth not well
+together[29]"; and with this piece of self-criticism we may leave Lyly
+for the present and turn to his predecessors.
+
+ [28] _Euphues_, p. 299.
+
+ [29] _Euphues_, p. 248.
+
+
+SECTION II. _The Origins of Euphuism._
+
+When we pass from an analytical to an historical consideration of the
+style which Lyly made his own and stamped for ever with the name of his
+hero, we come upon a problem which is at once the most difficult and the
+most fascinating with which we have to deal. The search for a solution
+will lead us far afield; but, inasmuch as the publication and success of
+_Euphues_ have given euphuism its importance in the history of our
+literature, the digression, which an attempt to trace the origin of
+euphuism will necessitate, can hardly be considered outside the scope of
+this book. Critics have long since decided that the peculiar style,
+which we have just dissolved into its elements, was not the invention of
+Lyly's genius; but on the other hand, no critic, in my opinion, has as
+yet solved the problem of origins with any claim to finality. Perhaps a
+tentative solution is all that is possible in the present stage of our
+knowledge. It is, of course, easy to point to the book or books from
+which Lyly borrowed, and to dismiss the question thus. But this simply
+evades the whole issue; for, though it explains _Euphues_, it by no
+means explains euphuism. Equally unsatisfactory is the theory that
+euphuism was of purely Spanish origin. Such a solution has all the
+fascination, and all the dangers, which usually attend a simple answer
+to a complex question. The idea that euphuism was originally an article
+of foreign production was first set on foot by Dr Landmann. The real
+father of Lyly's style, he tells us, was Antonio de Guevara, bishop of
+Guadix, who published in 1529 a book, the title of which was as follows:
+_The book of the emperor Marcus Aurelius with a Diall for princes_. This
+book was translated into English in 1534 by Lord Berners, and again in
+1557 by Sir Thomas North; in both cases from a French version. The two
+translations are conveniently distinguished by their titles, that of
+Berners being _The Golden Boke_, that of North being _The Diall of
+Princes_. Dr Landmann is very positive with regard to his theory, but
+the fact that both translations come from the French and not from the
+Castilian, seems to me to constitute a serious drawback to its
+acceptance. And moreover this theory does not explain the really
+important crux of the whole matter, namely the reason why a style of
+this kind, whatever its origin, found a ready acceptance in England: for
+fourteen editions of _The Golden Boke_ are known between 1534 and 1588,
+a number for those days quite exceptional and showing the existence of
+an eager public. Two answers are possible to the last question; that
+there existed a large body of men in the England of the Tudors who were
+interested in Spanish literature of all kinds and in Guevara among
+others; and that the euphuistic style was already forming in England,
+and that this was the reason of Guevara's popularity. In both answers I
+think there is truth; and I hope to show that they give us, when
+combined, a fairly adequate explanation of the vogue of euphuism in our
+country. Let us deal with external influences first.
+
+The upholders of the Spanish theory have contented themselves with
+stating that Lyly borrowed from Guevara, and pointing out the parallels
+between the two writers. But it is possible to give their case a greater
+plausibility, by showing that Guevara was no isolated instance of such
+Spanish influence, and by proving that during the Tudor period there was
+a consistent and far-reaching interest in Spanish literature among a
+certain class of Englishmen. Intimacy with Spain dates from Henry VIII.'s
+marriage with Katherine of Aragon, though no Spanish book had actually
+been translated into English before her divorce. But the period from
+then onwards until the accession of James I., a period when Spain looms
+as largely in English politics as does France later, saw the publication
+in London of "some hundred and seventy volumes written either by
+peninsular authors, or in the peninsular tongues[30]." At such a time
+this number represents a very considerable influence; and it is,
+therefore, no wonder that critics have fallen victims to the allurements
+of a theory which would ascribe Spanish origins for all the various
+prose epidemics of Elizabethan literature. To pair Lyly with Guevara,
+Sidney with Montemayor[31], and Nash with Mendoza, and thus to point at
+Spain as the parent, not only of the euphuistic, but also of the
+pastoral and picaresque romance, is to furnish an explanation almost
+irresistible in its symmetry. It must have been with the joy of a
+mathematician, solving an intricate problem, that Dr Landmann formulated
+this theory of literary equations. But without going to such lengths,
+without pressing the connexion between particular writers, one may admit
+that in general Spanish literature must have exercised an influence upon
+the Elizabethans. Mr Underhill, our latest authority on the subject,
+allows this, while at the same time cautioning us against the dangers of
+over-estimating it. Any contact on the side of the lyric and the drama
+was, he declares, very slight[32], and the peninsular writings actually
+circulated in our country at this time, in translations, he divides into
+three classes; occasional literature, that is topical tracts and
+pamphlets on contemporary Spanish affairs; didactic literature,
+comprising scientific treatises, accounts of voyages such as inspired
+Hakluyt, works on military science, and, more important still, the
+religious writings of mystics like Granada; and lastly artistic prose.
+The last item, which alone concerns us, is by far the smallest of the
+three, and by itself amounts to less than half the translations from
+Italian literature; moreover most of the Spanish translations under this
+head came into England after 1580, and could not therefore have
+influenced Lyly's novel. But of course the _Libro Aureo_ had been
+englished long before this, while the _Lazarillo de Tórmes_,
+Mendoza's[33] picaresque romance, was given an English garb by Rowland
+in 1576, and, though Montemayor's _Diana_ was not translated until 1596,
+Spanish and French editions of it had existed in England long previous
+to that date. Perhaps most important of all was the famous realistic
+novel _Celestina_, which was well known, in a French translation, to
+Englishmen at the beginning of the 16th century, and was denounced by
+Vives at Oxford. It was actually translated into English as early as
+1530[34]. There was on the whole, therefore, quite an appreciable
+quantity of Spanish artistic literature circulating in England before
+_Euphues_ saw the light.
+
+ [30] Underhill, p. 339.
+
+ [31] _id._, p. 268 note. Mr Underhill writes: "The attempt to connect
+ the style of Sidney with that of Montemayor has failed."
+
+ [32] Underhill, p. 48, but see Martin Hume, ch. IX.
+
+ [33] Some doubt has been thrown upon Mendoza's authorship. See
+ Fitzmaurice-Kelly, p. 158, and Martin Hume, p. 133.
+
+ [34] Martin Hume, p. 126.
+
+This literary invasion will seem perfectly natural if we bear in mind
+the political conditions of the day. Under Mary, England had been all
+but a Spanish dependency, and, though in the next reign, she threw off
+the yoke, the antagonism which existed probably acted as an even greater
+literary stimulus than the former alliance. Throughout the whole of
+Elizabeth's rule, the English were continually coming into contact with
+the Spaniards, either in trade, in ecclesiastical matters, in politics,
+or in actual warfare; and again the magnificence of the great Spanish
+empire, and the glamour which surrounded its connexion with the new
+world, were very attractive to the Englishmen of Elizabeth's day,
+especially as they were desirous of emulating the achievements of Spain.
+And lastly it may be noticed that English and Spanish conditions of
+intellectual life, if we shut our eyes to the religious differences,
+were very similar at this time. Both countries had replaced a shattered
+feudal system by an absolute and united monarchy. Both countries owed an
+immense debt to Italy, and, in both, the Italian influence took a
+similar form, modified on the one hand by humanism, and on the other by
+feelings of patriotism, if not of imperialism. Spain and England took
+the Renaissance fever more coldly, and at the same time more seriously,
+than did Italy. And in both the new movement eventually assumed the
+character of intellectual asceticism moulded by the sombre hand of
+religious fanaticism; for Spain was the cradle of the Counter-Reformation,
+England of Puritanism.
+
+Leaving the general issue, let us now try to establish a partial
+connexion between our author, or at least his surroundings, and Spanish
+influences. And here I think a suggestive, if not a strong case, can be
+made out. Ever since the beginning of the 16th century a Spanish
+tradition had existed at Oxford. Vives, the Spanish humanist, and the
+friend of Erasmus, was in 1517 admitted Fellow of Corpus Christi
+College, and in 1523 became reader in rhetoric; and, though he was
+banished in 1528, at the time of the divorce, it seems that he was
+continually lecturing before the University during the five years of his
+residence there. The circle of his friends, though quite distinct from
+the contemporary Berners-Guevara group, included many interesting men,
+and among others the famous Sir John Cheke. Under Mary we naturally find
+two Spanish professors at Oxford, Pedro de Soto and Juan de Villa
+Garcia. But Elizabeth maintained the tradition; and in 1559 she offered
+a chair at Oxford to a Spanish Protestant, Guerrero. The important name,
+however, in our connexion is Antonio de Corro, who resided as a student
+at Christ Church from 1575 to 1585, thus being a contemporary of Lyly,
+though it is impossible to say whether they were acquainted or not. Lyly
+had, however, another Oxford contemporary who certainly took a keen
+interest in Spanish literature, possessing a knowledge of Castilian,
+though himself an Englishman. This was Hakluyt, who must have been known
+to Lyly; and for the following reason. In 1597 Henry Lok[35] published a
+volume of religious poems to which Lyly contributed commendatory
+verses. On the other hand Hakluyt's first book was supplemented by a
+woodcut map executed by his friend Michael Lok[36], brother of Thomas
+Lok the Spanish merchant, and uncle to the aforesaid Henry. It seems
+highly improbable, therefore, that Lyly and Hakluyt possessing these
+common friends could have remained unknown to each other at Oxford.
+Indeed we may feel justified in supposing that Hakluyt, Sidney, Carew,
+Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and Thomas Rogers (the translator of _Estella_) were
+all personally acquainted, if not intimate, at the University. Another
+and very important name may be added to this list, that of Stephen
+Gosson, who, "a Kentish man born" like our hero, and entering Oxford a
+year after him (in 1572), must, I feel sure, have been one of his
+friends. The fact that he was at first interested in acting, and is said
+to have written comedies, goes a long way to confirm this. We are also
+led to suppose that he had devoted some attention to Spanish literature,
+and that he was probably acquainted with Hakluyt and the Loks, from
+certain verses of his, printed at the end of Thomas Nicholas' _Pleasant
+History of the Conquest of West India_, a translation of Cortes' book
+published in 1578[37]. Taking all this into consideration, it is
+extremely interesting to find Gosson publishing in 1579 his famous
+_Schoole of Abuse_, which bears most of the distinguishing marks of
+euphuism already noted, but which can scarcely have been modelled upon
+Lyly's work; for as Professor Saintsbury writes: "the very short
+interval between the appearance of _Euphues_ and the _Schoole of Abuse_,
+shows that he must rather have mastered the Lylian style in the same
+circumstances and situations as Lyly than have directly borrowed it
+from his fellow at Oxford[38]." And moreover Gosson's style does not
+read like an imitation of Lyly. The same tricks and affectations are
+employed, but they are employed differently and perhaps more
+effectively.
+
+ [35] Bond, I. p. 67.
+
+ [36] Underhill, p. 178, to whom I am indebted for nearly all the
+ preceding remarks in connexion with the Spanish atmosphere at Oxford.
+
+ [37] Arber's reprint, _School of Abuse_, p. 97.
+
+ [38] Craik, vol. I.
+
+Lyly is again found in contact with the Spanish atmosphere, as one of
+the dependents of the Earl of Oxford, who patronized Robert Baker,
+George Baker, and Anthony Munday, who were all under the "spell of the
+peninsula[39]." But we cannot be certain when his relations with de Vere
+commenced, and unless we can feel sure that they had begun before the
+writing of _Euphues_, the point is not of importance for our present
+argument.
+
+ [39] Underhill, ch. VIII. § 2.
+
+These facts are of course little more than hints, but I think they are
+sufficient to establish a fairly strong probability that Lyly was one of
+a literary set at Oxford (as I have already suggested in dealing with
+his life) the members of which were especially interested in Spanish
+literature, perhaps through the influence of Corro. It seems extremely
+improbable that Lyly himself possessed any knowledge of Castilian, and
+it is by no means necessary to show that he did, for it is quite
+sufficient to point out that he must have been continually in the
+presence of those who were discussing peninsular writings, and that in
+this way he would have come to a knowledge of the most famous Spanish
+book which had yet received translation, the _Libro Aureo_ of Guevara.
+
+But we are still left with the question on our hands; why was this book
+the most famous peninsular production of Lyly's day? It is a question
+which no critic, as far as I am aware, has ever formulated, and yet it
+seems endowed with the greatest importance. We have seen how and why
+Spanish literature in general found a reception in England. But the
+special question as to the ascendancy of Guevara obviously requires a
+special answer. Guevara was of course well known all over the continent,
+and it might seem that this was a sufficient explanation of his
+popularity in England. In reality, however, such an explanation is no
+solution at all, it merely widens the issue; for we are still left
+asking for a reason of his continental fame. The problem requires a
+closer investigation than it has at present received. It was undoubtedly
+Guevara's _alto estilo_ which gave his writings their chief attraction;
+and a style so elaborate would only find a reception in a favourable
+atmosphere, that is among those who had already gone some way towards
+the creation of a similar style themselves. _A priori_ therefore the
+answer to our question would be that Guevara was no isolated stylist,
+but only the most famous example of a literary phase, which had its
+independent representatives all over Europe. A consideration of English
+prose under the Tudors will, I think, fully confirm this conclusion as
+far as our own country is concerned, and it will also offer us an
+explanation, in terms of internal development, of the origin and sources
+of euphuism.
+
+We have noticed with suspicion that our two translators took their
+Guevara from the French. And it is therefore quite legitimate to suppose
+that Berners and North, separated as they were from the original, were
+as much creators as translators of the euphuistic style. But there are
+other circumstances connected with Berners, which are much more fatal to
+Dr Landmann's theory than this. In the first place it appears that the
+part played by Berners in the history of euphuism has been considerably
+under-estimated. Mr Sidney Lee was the first to combat the generally
+accepted view in a criticism of Mrs Humphry Ward's article on
+_Euphuism_ in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, in which she follows Dr
+Landmann. His criticism, which appeared in the _Athenæum_, was
+afterwards enlarged in an appendix to his edition of Berners'
+translation of _Huon of Bordeaux_. "Lord Berners' sentences," Mr Lee
+writes, "are euphuistic beyond all question; they are characterized by
+the forced antitheses, alliteration, and the far-fetched illustrations
+from natural phenomena, peculiar to Lyly and his successors[40]." He
+denies, moreover, that Berners was any less euphuistic than North, and
+gives parallel extracts from their translations to prove this. A
+comparison of the two passages in question can leave no doubt that Mr
+Lee's deduction is correct. Mr Bond therefore is in grave error when he
+writes, "North endeavoured what Berners had not aimed at, to reproduce
+in his Diall the characteristics of Guevara's style, with the notable
+addition of an alliteration natural to English but not to Spanish; and
+it is he who must be regarded as the real founder of our euphuistic
+literary fashion[41]." Lyly may indeed have borrowed from North rather
+than from Berners; but, if Berners' English was as euphuistic as
+North's, and if Berners could show fourteen editions to North's two
+before 1580, it is Berners and not North who must be described as "the
+real founder of our euphuistic literary fashion." And as Mr Lee shows,
+his nephew Sir Francis Bryan must share the title with him, for the
+colophon of the _Golden Boke_ states that the translation was undertaken
+"at the instaunt desire of his nevewe Sir Francis Bryan Knyghte." It was
+Bryan also who wrote the passage at the conclusion of the _Boke_
+applauding the "swete style[42]." This Sir Francis Bryan was a
+favourite of Henry VIII., a friend of Surrey and Wyatt, possibly of
+Ascham and of his master Cheke, in fact a very well-known figure at
+court and in the literary circles of his day[43]. Euphuism must,
+therefore, have had a considerable vogue even in the days of Henry VIII.
+If it could be shown that Bryan could read Castilian, the Guevara theory
+might still possess some plausibility, for it would be argued that
+Berners learnt his style from his nephew. But, though we know Bryan to
+have entertained a peculiar affection for Guevara's writings, there is
+no evidence to prove that he could read them in the original. Indeed
+when he set himself to translate Guevara's _Dispraise of the life of a
+courtier_, he, like his uncle, had to go to a French translation[44].
+Wherever we turn, in fact, we are met by this French barrier between
+Guevara and his English translators, which seems to preclude the
+possibility of his style having exercised the influence ascribed to it
+by Dr Landmann and those who follow him.
+
+ [40] Huon of Bordeaux, appendix I., _Lord Berners and Euphuism_,
+ p. 786.
+
+ [41] Bond, I. p. 158.
+
+ [42] See _Athenæum_, July 14, 1883.
+
+ [43] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Bryan.
+
+ [44] The 2nd edition of this book, which was published under another
+ title, is thus described in the B. M. Cat.: "_A looking-glass for the
+ court_ ... out of Castilian drawne into French by A. Alaygre; and out
+ of the French into English by Sir F. Briant."
+
+But there is more behind: and we cannot help feeling convinced that the
+facts we are now about to bring forward ought to dispose of the
+Landmann-Guevara theory once and for all. In the article before
+mentioned Mr Lee goes on to say: "The translator's prologue to Lord
+Berners' _Froissart_ written in 1524 and that to be found in other of
+his works show him to have come under Guevara's or a similar influence
+before he translated the _Golden Boke_[45]." Here is an extract from the
+prologue in question. "The most profitable thing in this world for the
+institution of the human life is history. Once the continual reading
+thereof maketh young men equal in prudence to old men, and to old
+fathers striken in age it ministereth experience of things. More it
+yieldeth private persons worthy of dignity, rule and governance: it
+compelleth the emperors, high rulers, and governors to do noble deeds to
+the end they may obtain immortal glory: it exciteth, moveth and stirreth
+the strong, hardy warriors, for the great laud that they have after they
+lie dead, promptly to go in hand with great and hard perils in defence
+of their country: and it prohibiteth reproveable persons to do
+mischievous deeds for fear of infamy and shame. So thus through the
+monuments of writing which is the testimony unto virtue many men have
+been moved, some to build cities, some to devise and establish laws
+right, profitable, necessary and behoveful for the human life, some
+other to find new arts, crafts and sciences, very requisite to the use
+of mankind. But above all things, whereby man's wealth riseth, special
+laud and praise ought to be given to history: it is the keeper of such
+things as have been virtuously done, and the witness of evil deeds, and
+by the benefit of history all noble, high and virtuous acts be immortal.
+What moved the strong and fierce Hercules to enterprise in his life so
+many great incomparable labours and perils? Certainly nought else but
+that for his great merit immortality might be given him of all folk....
+Why moved and stirred Phalerius the King Ptolemy oft and diligently to
+read books? Forsooth for no other cause but that those things are found
+written in books that the friends dare not show to the prince[46]." This
+is of course far from being the full-blown euphuism of Lyly or Pettie,
+yet we cannot but agree with Mr Lee, when he declares that "the
+parallelism of the sentences, the repetition of the same thought
+differently expressed, the rhetorical question, the accumulation of
+synonyms, the classical references, are irrefutable witnesses to the
+presence of euphuism[47]." But Mr Lee appeared to be quite unconscious
+of the full significance of his discovery. _It means that Berners was
+writing euphuism in 1524, five years before Guevara published his book
+in Spain._ No critic, as far as I have been able to discover, has shown
+any consciousness of this significant fact[48], which is of course of
+the utmost importance in this connexion; as, if it is to carry all the
+weight that is at first sight due to it, the theory that euphuism was a
+mere borrowing from the Spanish must be pronounced entirely exploded.
+But it is as well not to be over-confident. Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, his
+earliest work, was undoubtedly first published by his authority in 1529,
+but there seems to be a general feeling that the book had previously
+appeared in pirated form. This feeling is based upon the title of the
+1529 edition[49], which describes the book as "_nueuamente reuisto por
+su señoria_," and upon certain remarks of Hallam in his _Literature of
+Europe_. Though I can find no confirmation for the statements he makes
+upon the authority of a certain Dr West of Dublin, yet the words of so
+well known a writer cannot be ignored. He quotes Dr West in a footnote
+as follows: "There are some circumstances connected with the _Relox_
+(i.e. the sub-title of the _Libro Aureo_) not generally known, which
+satisfactorily account for various erroneous statements that have been
+made on the subject by writers of high authority. The fact is that
+Guevara, about the year 1518, commenced a life and letters of M.
+Aurelius which purported to be a translation of a Greek work found in
+Florence. Having sometime afterwards lent this MS. to the emperor it was
+surreptitiously copied and printed, as he informs us himself, first in
+Seville and afterwards in Portugal.... Guevara himself subsequently
+published it (1529) with considerable additions[50]." From this it
+appears that previous unauthorised editions of Guevara's book had been
+published before 1529. Might not Berners therefore have come under
+Guevara's influence as early as 1524? We must concede that it is
+possible, but, on the other hand, the difficulties in the way of such a
+contingency seem almost insuperable. In the first place, if we are to
+believe Dr West, Guevara did not begin to write his work before 1518,
+and it was not until "some time afterwards" (whatever this may mean)
+that it was "surreptitiously copied and printed." It would require a
+bold man to assert that a book thus published could be influencing the
+style of an English writer as early as 1524. But further it must be
+remembered that Berners almost certainly could not read Castilian[51].
+Now the earliest known French translation of Guevara is one by Réné
+Bertaut in 1531, which Berners himself is known to have used[52].
+Therefore, if Berners was already under Guevara's influence in 1524, he
+must have known of an earlier French pirated translation of an earlier
+pirated edition of the _Libro Aureo_. To sum up; if the euphuistic
+tendency in English prose is to be ascribed entirely, or even mainly, to
+the influence of Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, we must digest four
+improbabilities: (i) that there existed a pirated edition of the book in
+Spain _earlier_ than 1524: (ii) that this had been translated into
+French, also before 1524, although the version of Bertaut in 1531 is the
+earliest French translation we have any trace of: (iii) that Berners
+himself had come across this hypothetical French edition, again before
+1524: and (iv) that the French translation had so faithfully reproduced
+the style of the original, that Berners was able to translate it from
+French into English, for the purpose of his prologue to _Froissart_.
+
+ [45] Huon, p. 787.
+
+ [46] _Froissart_, Globe edition, p. xxviii.
+
+ [47] Huon, p. 788.
+
+ [48] After writing the above I have noticed that Mr G. C. Macaulay, in
+ the Introduction to the Globe _Froissart_, writes as follows (p. xvi):
+ "If nothing else could be adduced to show that the tendency (i.e.
+ euphuism) existed already in English literature, the prefaces to Lord
+ Berners' _Froissart_ written before he could possibly have read
+ Guevara, would be enough to prove it."
+
+ [49] There are two extant editions of 1529, (i) published at
+ Valladolid, from which the words above are quoted, (ii) published at
+ Enueres, which appears to be an earlier edition. Copies of both in the
+ British Museum.
+
+ [50] Hallam, _Lit. of Europe_, ed. 1855, vol. I. p. 403 n. Brunet in
+ his _Manuel de Libraire_ gives Hallam's view without comment, tome II.
+ "Guevara."
+
+ [51] Underhill, p. 69.
+
+ [52] Bond, vol. I. p. 137.
+
+In face of these facts, the Guevara theory is no longer tenable; and in
+consequence the whole situation is reversed, and we approach the problem
+from the natural side, the side from which it should have been
+approached from the first--that is from the English and not the Spanish
+side. I say the natural side, because it seems to me obvious that the
+popularity of a foreign author in any country implies the existence in
+that country, previous to the introduction of the author, of an
+atmosphere (or more concretely a public) favourable to the
+distinguishing characteristics of the author introduced. And so it now
+appears that Guevara found favour in England because his style, or
+something very like it, was already known there; and it was the most
+natural thing in the world that Berners, who shows that style most
+prominently, should have been the channel by which Guevara became known
+to English readers. The whole problem of this 16th century prose is
+analogous to that of 18th century verse. The solution of both was for a
+long time found in foreign influence. It was natural to assume that
+France, the pivot of our foreign policy at the end of the 17th century,
+gave us the classical movement, and that Spain, equally important
+politically in the 16th century, gave us euphuism. Closer investigation
+has disproved both these theories[53], showing that, while foreign
+influence was undoubtedly an immense factor in the _development_ of
+these literary fashions, their real _origin_ was English.
+
+ [53] For 18th century v. Gosse, _From Shakespeare to Pope_.
+
+The proof of this does not rest entirely on the case of Berners. We
+might even concede that he was acquainted with an earlier edition of
+Guevara, and that his style was actually derived from Spanish sources,
+without surrendering our thesis that euphuism was a natural growth.
+Berners' euphuism, whatever its origin, was premature; and, though the
+_Golden Boke_ passed through twelve editions between 1534 and 1560, we
+cannot say that its style influenced English writing until the time of
+Lyly, for its vogue was confined to a small class of readers, designated
+by Mr Underhill as the "Guevara-group." On the other hand, it is
+possible to trace a feeling towards euphuism among writers who were
+quite outside this group.
+
+Latimer, for example, delighted in alliterative turns of speech, though
+the antithetical mannerisms are absent in him. His famous denunciation
+of the unpreaching prelates is an excellent instance:
+
+"But now for the faults of unpreaching prelates, methink I could guess
+what might be said for the excusing of them. They are so troubled with
+lordly living, they be so placed in palaces, couched in courts, ruffling
+in their rents, dancing in their dominions, burdened with ambassages,
+pampering of their paunches like a monk that maketh his jubilee,
+munching in their mangers, and moiling in their gay manors and
+mansions, and so troubled with loitering in their lordships, that they
+cannot attend it."
+
+Here is no transverse alliteration, such as we find so frequently in
+Lyly, but a simple alliteration--"a rudimentary euphuism of balanced and
+alliterative phrases, probably like the alliteration of Anglo-Saxon
+homilies, borrowed from popular poetry[54]." Latimer also employs the
+responsive method so frequently used by Lyly. "But ye say it is new
+learning. Now I tell you it is old learning. Yea, ye say, it is old
+heresy new scoured. Nay, I tell you it is old truth long rusted with
+your canker, and now made new bright and scoured." It is no long step
+from this to the rhetorical question and its formal answer "ay but----."
+Alliteration is not found in Guevara; it was an addition, and a very
+important one, made by his translators. This was at any rate a purely
+native product, and cannot be assigned to Spain. The antithesis and
+parallelism were the fruits of humanism, and they appear, combined with
+Latimer's alliteration, in the writings of Sir John Cheke and his pupil
+Roger Ascham. Cheke's famous criticism of Sallust's style, as being
+"more art than nature and more labour than art," introduces us at once
+to euphuism, and gives us by the way a very excellent comment upon it.
+Again he speaks of "magistrates more ready to tender all justice and
+pitifull in hearing the poor man's causes which ought to amend matters
+more than you can devise and were ready to redress them better than you
+can imagine[55]"; which is a good example of the euphuistic combination
+of alliteration and balance.
+
+ [54] Craik, vol. I. p. 224.
+
+ [55] Craik, p. 258.
+
+In Ascham the style is still more marked. There are, indeed, so many
+examples of euphuism in the _Schoolmaster_ and in the _Toxophilus_,
+that one can only select. As an illustration of transverse alliteration
+quite as complex as any in _Euphues_, we may notice the following: "Hard
+wittes be hard to receive, but sure to keep; painfull without weariness,
+hedefull without wavering, constant without any new fanglednesse;
+bearing heavie things, though not lightlie, yet willinglie; entering
+hard things though not easily, yet depelie[56]." Classical allusions
+abound throughout Ascham's work, and he occasionally indulges in the
+ethics of natural history as follows:
+
+"Young Graftes grow not onlie sonest, but also fairest and bring always
+forth the best and sweetest fruite; young whelps learne easilie to
+carrie; young Popingeis learne quickly to speak; and so, to be short, if
+in all other things though they lacke reason, sense, and life, the
+similitude of youth is fittest to all goodnesse, surelie nature in
+mankinde is more beneficial and effectual in this behalfe[57]."
+
+ [56] Arber, _Schoolmaster_, p. 35.
+
+ [57] _id._, p. 46.
+
+We know that Lyly had read the _Schoolmaster_, as he took the very title
+of his book from its description of Εὐφυής as "he that is apte
+by goodnesse of witte and applicable by readiness of will to
+learning"--a description which is in itself a euphuism; and it is
+probable that he knew his Ascham as thoroughly as he did his Guevara.
+
+Sir Henry Craik has some very pertinent remarks on the peculiarities of
+Ascham's style. "One of these," he writes, "is his proneness to
+alliteration, due perhaps to his desire to reproduce the most striking
+features of the Early English.... A tendency of an almost directly
+opposite kind is the balance of sentences which he imitates from
+Classical models.... These two are perhaps the most striking
+characteristics of Ascham's prose; and it is interesting to observe how
+much the structure of the sentence in the more elaborated stages of
+English prose is due to their combination[58]." Here we have the two
+elements of our native-grown euphuism, and their origins, carefully
+distinguished. Of course with euphuism we do not commence English prose;
+that is already centuries old; but we are dealing with the beginnings of
+English prose style, by which we mean a conscious and artistic striving
+after literary effect. That the first stylists should look to the
+rhetoricians for their models was inevitable, and of these there were
+two kinds available; the classical orators and the alliterative homilies
+of the Early English. But, deferring this point for a later treatment,
+let us conclude our study of the evolution of euphuism in England.
+
+ [58] Craik, I. p. 269.
+
+So far we have been dealing with euphuistic tendencies only, since in
+the style of Ascham and his predecessors, alliteration and antithesis
+are not employed consistently, but merely on occasion for the sake of
+emphasis. Other marks of euphuism, such as the fantastic embroidery of
+mythical beasts and flowers, are absent. Even in North's _Diall_
+alliteration is not profuse, and similes from natural history are
+comparatively rare. In George Pettie, however, we find a complete
+euphuist before _Euphues_. This writer again brings us in touch with
+that Oxford atmosphere, which, I maintain, surrounded the birth of the
+full-blown euphuism. A student of Christ Church, he took his B.A. degree
+in 1560[59], and so probably just escaped being a contemporary of Lyly.
+But, as he was a "dear friend" of William Gager, who was a considerably
+younger man than himself, it seems probable that he continued his Oxford
+connexion after his degree. However this may be, he published his
+_Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure_, which so exactly anticipates
+the style of _Euphues_, in 1576, only two years before the later book.
+The _Petite Pallace_ was an imitation of the famous _Palace of Pleasure_
+published in 1566 by William Painter, who, though he had known Guevara's
+writings, drew his material almost entirely from Italian sources. That
+Pettie also possessed a knowledge of Spanish literature, as we should
+expect from the period of his residence at Oxford, is shown by his
+translation of Guazzo's _Civile Conversation_ in 1581, to which he
+affixes a euphuistic preface. This again was only a left-handed
+transcript from the French. Therefore the Spanish elements, though
+undoubtedly present, cannot be insisted upon. We may concede that Pettie
+had read North, or even go so far as to assert with Mr Underhill that he
+was acquainted with "parts of the Gallicized Guevara," without lending
+countenance to Dr Landmann's radical theories. No one, reading the
+_Petite Pleasure_, can doubt that Pettie was the real creator of
+euphuism in its fullest development, and that Lyly was only an imitator.
+Though I have already somewhat overburdened this chapter. I cannot
+refrain from quoting a passage from Pettie, not only as an example of
+his style, but also because the passage is in itself so delightful, that
+it is one's duty to rescue it from oblivion:
+
+"As amongst all the bonds of benevolence and good will, there is none
+more honourable, ancient, or honest than marriage, so in my fancy there
+is none that doth more firmly fasten and inseparably unite us together
+than the same estate doth, or wherein the fruits of true friendship do
+more plenteously appear: in the father is a certain severe love and
+careful goodwill towards the child, the child beareth a fearful
+affection and awful obedience towards the father: the master hath an
+imperious regard of the servant, the servant a servile care of the
+master. The friendship amongst men is grounded upon no love and
+dissolved upon every light occasion: the goodwill of kinsfolk is
+constantly cold, as much of custom as of devotion: but in this stately
+estate of matrimony there is nothing fearful, all things are done
+faithfully without doubting, truly without doubling, willingly without
+constraint, joyfully without complaint: yea there is such a general
+consent and mutual agreement between the man and wife, that they both
+wish and will covet and crave one thing. And as a scion grafted in a
+strange stalk, their natures being united by growth, they become one and
+together bear one fruit: so the love of the wife planted in the breast
+of her husband, their hearts by continuance of love become one, one
+sense and one soul serveth them both. And as the scion severed from the
+stock withereth away, if it be not grafted in some other: so a loving
+wife separated from the society of her husband withereth away in woe and
+leadeth a life no less pleasant than death[60]." Lyly never wrote
+anything to equal this. Indeed it is not unworthy of the lips of one of
+Shakespeare's heroines.
+
+ [59] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Pettie.
+
+ [60] I have taken the liberty of modernising the spelling.
+
+The euphuism of the foregoing quotation will be readily detected. The
+sole difference between the styles of Lyly and Pettie is that, while
+Pettie's similes from nature are simple and natural, Lyly, with his
+knowledge of Pliny and of the bestiaries, added his fabulous "unnatural
+natural history." Pettie's book was popular for the time, three editions
+of it being called for in the first year of its publication, but it was
+soon to be thrust aside by the fame of the much more pretentious, and,
+apart from the style, better constructed _Euphues_ of Lyly. In truth, as
+Gabriel Harvey justly but unkindly remarks, "Young Euphues but hatched
+the eggs his elder freendes laid." But the parental responsibility and
+merit must be attributed to him who hatches. It was Lyly who made
+euphuism famous and therefore a power; and, despite the fact that he
+marks the culmination of the movement, he is the most dynamical of all
+the euphuists.
+
+It remains to sum up our conclusions respecting the origin and
+development of this literary phase. Difficult as it is to unravel the
+tangled network of obscure influences which surrounded its birth, I
+venture to think that a sufficiently complete disproof of that extreme
+theory, which would ascribe it entirely to Guevara's influence, has been
+offered. Guevara, in the translation of Berners, undoubtedly took the
+field early, but, as we have seen, Berners was probably feeling towards
+the style before he knew Guevara; and moreover the bishop's _alto
+estilo_ must have suffered considerably while passing through the
+French. Even allowing everything, as we have done, for the close
+connexion between Spain and England, for the Spanish tradition at
+Oxford, and for the interest in peninsular writings shown by Lyly's
+immediate circle of friends, we cannot accord to Dr Landmann's
+explanation anything more than a very modified acceptance. Nor would a
+complete rejection of this solution of the Lyly problem render English
+euphuism inexplicable; for something very like it would naturally have
+resulted from the close application of classical methods to prose
+writing; and in the case of Cheke and Ascham we actually see the process
+at work. And yet Lyly owed a great debt to Guevara. A true solution,
+therefore, must find a place for foreign as well as native influences.
+And to say that the Spanish intervention confirmed and hastened a
+development already at work, of which the original impulse was English,
+is, I think, to give a due allowance to both.
+
+
+SECTION III. _Lyly's Legatees and the relation between Euphuism and the
+Renaissance._
+
+The publication of _Euphues_ was the culmination, rather than the
+origin, of that literary phase to which it gave its name. And the vogue
+of euphuism after 1579 was short, lasting indeed only until about 1590;
+yet during these ten years its influence was far-reaching, and left a
+definite mark upon later English prose. It would be idle, if not
+impossible, to trace its effects upon every individual writer who fell
+under its immediate fascination. Moreover the task has already been
+performed in a great measure by M. Jusserand[61] and Mr Bond[62]. They
+have shown once and for all that Greene, Lodge, Welbanke, Munday,
+Warner, Wilkinson, and above all Shakespeare, were indebted to our
+author for certain mannerisms of style. I shall therefore content myself
+with noticing two or three writers, tainted with euphuism, who have been
+generally overlooked, and who seem to me important enough, either in
+themselves, or as throwing light upon the subject of the essay, to
+receive attention.
+
+ [61] Jusserand, ch. IV.
+
+ [62] Bond, vol. I. pp. 164-175.
+
+The first of these is the dramatist Kyd, who completed his well-known
+_Spanish Tragedy_ between 1584 and 1589, that is at the height of the
+euphuistic fashion. This play was apparently an inexhaustible joke to
+the Elizabethans; for the references to it in later dramatists are
+innumerable. One passage must have been particularly famous, for we find
+it parodied most elaborately by Field, as late as 1606, in his _A Woman
+is a Weathercock_[63]. The passage in question, which was obviously
+inspired by Lyly, runs as follows:
+
+ "Yet might she love me for my valiance:
+ I, but that's slandered by captivity.
+ Yet might she love me to content her sire:
+ I, but her reason masters her desire.
+ Yet might she love me as her brother's friend:
+ I, but her hopes aim at some other end.
+ Yet might she love me to uprear her state:
+ I, but perhaps she loves some nobler mate.
+ Yet might she love me as her beautie's thrall:
+ I, but I feare she cannot love at all."
+
+ [63] Act I. Sc. II.
+
+Nathaniel Field's parody of this melodramatic nonsense is so amusing
+that I cannot forbear quoting it. This time the despairing lover is Sir
+Abraham Ninny, who quotes Kyd to his companions, and they with the cry
+of "Ha God-a-mercy, old Hieromino!" begin the game of parody, which must
+have been keenly enjoyed by the audience. Field improves on the original
+by putting the alternate lines of despair into the mouths of Ninny's
+jesting friends. It runs, therefore:
+
+ "--Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.
+ --Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.
+ --Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.
+ --Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.
+ --Yet might she love me for my proper body.
+ --Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.
+ --Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.
+ --Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.
+ --Yet might she love me in despite of all.
+ (the lady herself)--Ay but indeed I cannot love at all."
+
+This parody, apart from any interest it possesses for the student of
+Lyly, is an excellent illustration of the ways of Elizabethan
+playwrights, and of the thorough knowledge of previous plays they
+assumed their audience to have possessed. There are several other
+examples of Kyd's acquaintance with the _Euphues_ in the _Spanish
+Tragedy_[64], in the other dramas[65], and in his prose works[66], which
+it is not necessary to quote. But there is one more passage, again from
+his most famous play, which is so full of interest that it cannot be
+passed over in silence. It is a counsel of hope to the despairing lover,
+and assumes this inspiring form:
+
+ "My Lord, though Belimperia seem thus coy
+ Let reason hold you in your wonted joy;
+ In time the savage Bull sustains the yoke,
+ In time all Haggard Hawkes will stoop to lure,
+ In time small wedges cleave the hardest Oake,
+ In time the flint is pearst with softest shower,
+ And she in time will fall from her disdain,
+ And rue the sufferance of your deadly paine[67]."
+
+ [64] _Sp. Trag._, Act IV. 190 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 146).
+
+ [65] _Soliman and Perseda_, Act III. 130 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 100), and
+ Act II. 199.
+
+ [66] _Kyd's Works_ (Boas), p. 288, and ch. IX.
+
+ [67] _Sp. Trag._, Act II. 1-8.
+
+Now these lines are practically a transcript of the opening words of the
+47th sonnet in Watson's _Hekatompathia_ published in 1582. Remembering
+Lyly's penetrating observation that "the soft droppes of rain pearce the
+hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oake[68]," and bearing
+in mind that the high priest of euphuism himself contributed a
+commendatory epistle to the _Hekatompathia_, we should expect that these
+Bulls and Hawkes and Oakes were choice flowers of speech, culled from
+that botanico-zoological "garden of prose"--the _Euphues_. But as a
+matter of fact Watson himself informs us in a note that his sonnet is an
+imitation of the Italian Serafino, from whom he also borrows other
+sonnet-conceits in the same volume, some of which are full of similar
+references to the properties of animals and plants. The conclusion is
+forced upon us therefore that Watson and Lyly went to the same source,
+or, if a knowledge of Italian cannot be granted to our author, that he
+borrowed from Watson. At any rate Watson cannot be placed amongst the
+imitators of _Euphues_. Like Pettie and Gosson he must share with Lyly
+the credit of creation. He was a friend of Lyly's at Oxford; they
+dedicated their books to the same patron, and they employed the same
+publisher. Moreover, the little we have of Watson's prose is highly
+euphuistic, and it is apparent from the epistle above mentioned that he
+was on terms of closest intimacy with the author of _Euphues_. In him we
+have another member of that interesting circle of Oxford euphuists, who
+continued their connexion in London under de Vere's patronage.
+
+ [68] _Euphues_, p. 337.
+
+Watson again was a friend of the well-known poet Richard Barnefield, who
+though too young in 1578 to have been of the University coterie of
+euphuists, shows definite traces of their affectation in his works. The
+conventional illustrations from an "unnatural natural history" abound in
+his _Affectionate Shepherd_[69] (1594), and he repeats the jargon about
+marble and showers[70] which we have seen in Lyly, Watson and Kyd. Again
+in his _Cynthia_ (1594) there is a distinct reference to the opening
+words of _Euphues_ in the lines,
+
+ "Wit without wealth is bad, yet counted good;
+ Wealth wanting wisdom's worse, yet deemed as well[71]."
+
+His prose introduction betrays the same influence.
+
+ [69] _Poems_, Arber, pp. 18 and 19.
+
+ [70] _id._, p. 24.
+
+ [71] _id._, p. 51.
+
+These then are a few among the countless scribblers of those prolific
+times who fell under the spell of the euphuistic fashion. They are
+mentioned, either because their connexion with the movement has been
+overlooked, or because they throw a new and important light upon Lyly
+himself. Of other legatees it is impossible to treat here; and it is
+enough, without tracing it in any detail, to indicate "the slender
+euphuistic thread that runs in iron through Marlowe, in silver through
+Shakespeare, in bronze through Bacon, in more or less inferior metal
+through every writer of that age[72]."
+
+ [72] Symonds, p. 407.
+
+There is nothing strange in this infatuation, if we remember that
+euphuism was "the English type of an all but universal disease[73]," as
+Symonds puts it. Dr Landmann, we have decided, was wrong in his
+insistence upon foreign influence; but his error was a natural one, and
+points to a fact which no student of Renaissance literature can afford
+to neglect. Matthew Arnold long ago laid down the clarifying principle
+that "the criticism which alone can much help us for the future, is a
+criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual
+purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working
+to a common result[74]." And the truth of this becomes more and more
+indisputable, the longer we study European history, whether it be from
+the side of Politics, of Religion, or of Art. Landmann ascribes euphuism
+to Spain, Symonds ascribes it to Italy, and an equally good case might
+be made out in favour of France. There is truth in all these hypotheses,
+but each misses the true significance of the matter, which is that
+euphuism must have come, and would have come, without any question of
+borrowing.
+
+ [73] _id._, p. 404.
+
+ [74] _Essays in Criticism_, I. p. 39.
+
+The date 1453 is usually taken as a convenient starting point for the
+Renaissance, though the movement was already at work in Italy, for that
+was the year of Byzantium's fall and of the diffusion of the classics
+over Europe. But, for the countries outside Italy, I think that the date
+1493 is almost as important. Hitherto the new learning had been in a
+great measure confined to Italy, but with the invasion of Charles VIII.,
+which commences a long period of French and Spanish occupation of
+Italian soil, the Renaissance, especially on its artistic side, began to
+find its way into the neighbouring states, and through them into
+England. It is the old story, so familiar to sociologists, of a lower
+civilization falling under the spell of the culture exhibited by a more
+advanced subject population, of a conqueror worshipping the gods of the
+conquered. It is the story of the conquest of Greece by Rome, of the
+conquest of Rome by the Germans. But the interesting point to notice is
+that, when the "barbarian" Frenchman descended from the Alps upon the
+fair plains of Lombardy, the Italian Renaissance was already showing
+signs of decadence. It was in the age of the Petrarchisti, of Aretino,
+of Doni, and of Marini that Europe awoke to the full consciousness of
+the wonders of Italian literature. Thus it was that those beyond the
+Alps drank of water already tainted. That France, Spain, and England
+should be attracted by the affectations of Italy, rather than by what
+was best in her literature, was only to be expected. "It was easier to
+catch the trick of an Aretino, and a Marini, than to emulate the style
+of a Tasso or a Castiglione": and besides they were themselves inventing
+similar extravagances independently of Italy. The purely formal ideal of
+Art had in Spain already found expression among the courtiers of
+Juan II. of Castile. One of them, Baena, writes as follows of poetry:
+"that it cannot be learned or well and properly known, save by the man
+of very deep and subtle invention, and of a very lofty and fine
+discretion, and of a very healthy and unerring judgment, and such a one
+must have seen and heard and read many and diverse books and writings,
+and know all languages and have frequented kings' Courts and associated
+with great men and beheld and taken part in worldly affairs; and finally
+he must be of gentle birth, courteous and sedate, polished, humorous,
+polite, witty, and have in his composition honey, and sugar, and salt,
+and a good presence and a witty manner of reasoning; moreover he must be
+also a lover and ever make a show and pretence of it[75]." Such a
+catalogue of the poet's requisites might have been written by any one of
+our Oxford euphuists; and Watson, at least, among them fulfilled all its
+conditions.
+
+ [75] Butler Clarke, _Spanish Literature_, p. 71.
+
+The Italian influence, therefore, did but hasten a process already at
+work. The reasons for this universal movement are very difficult to
+determine. But among many suggestions of more or less value, a few
+causes of the change may here be hazarded. In the first place, then, the
+Renaissance happened to be contemporaneous with the death of feudalism.
+The ideal of chivalry is dying out all over Europe; and the romances of
+chivalry are everywhere despised. The horizontal class divisions become
+obscured by the newly found perpendicular divisions of nationality; and
+in Italy and England at least the old feudal nobility have almost
+entirely disappeared. A new centre of national life and culture is
+therefore in the process of formation, that of the Court; and thanks to
+this, the ideal of chivalry gives place to the new ideal of the courtier
+or the gentleman. This ideal found literary expression in the moral
+Court treatises, which were so universally popular during the
+Renaissance, and of which Guevara, Castiglione, and Lyly are the most
+famous instances. The ambition of those who frequent Courts has always
+been to appear distinguished--distinguished that is from the vulgar and
+the ordinary, or, as we should now say, from the Philistine. In the
+Courts of the Renaissance period, where learning was considered so
+admirable, this necessary distinction would naturally take the form of a
+cultured, if not pedantic, diction; and for this it was natural that men
+should go to the classics, and more especially to classical orators, as
+models of good speech. It must not be imagined that this process was a
+conscious one. In many countries the rhetorical style was already formed
+by scholars before it became the speech of the Court. In fact the
+beginnings of modern prose style are to be found in humanism. Ascham
+with his hatred of the "Italianated gentleman," was probably quite
+unconscious of his own affinity to that objectionable type, when
+imitating the style of his favourite Tully in the _Schoolmaster_. The
+classics it must be remembered were not discovered by the humanists,
+they were only rediscovered. The middle ages had used them, as they had
+used the Old Testament, as prophetic books. Virgil's mediaeval
+reputation for example rests for the most part upon the fourth Eclogue.
+The humanists, on the other hand, looked upon the classics as literature
+and valued them for their style. But here again they drank from tainted
+sources; for, with the exception of a few writers such as Cicero and
+Terence, the classics they knew and loved best were the product of the
+silver age of Rome, the characteristics of which are beautifully
+described by the author of _Marius the Epicurean_ in his chapter
+significantly called _Euphuism_. Few of the Renaissance students had the
+critical acumen of Cheke, and they fell therefore an easy prey to the
+stylism of the later Latin writers, with its antithesis and
+extravagance. But, with all this, men could not quite shake off the
+middle ages. There is much of the Scholastic in Lyly, and the exuberance
+of ornament, the fantastic similes from natural history, and the moral
+lessons deduced from them, are quite mediaeval in feeling. We learnt the
+lessons of the classics backward; and it was not until centuries after,
+that men realised that the essence of Hellenism is restraint and
+harmony.
+
+I have spoken of the movement generally, but it passed through many
+phases, such as arcadianism, gongorism, dubartism; and yet of all these
+phases euphuism was, I think, the most important: certainly if we
+confine our attention to English literature this must be admitted. But,
+even if we keep our eyes upon the Continent alone, euphuism would seem
+to be more significant than the movements which succeeded it; for it was
+a definite attempt, seriously undertaken, to force modern languages into
+a classical mould, while the other and later affectations were merely
+passing extravagances, possessing little dynamical importance. In this
+way, short-lived and abortive as it seemed, euphuism anticipated the
+literature of the _ancien régime_.
+
+The movement, moreover, was only one aspect of the Renaissance; it was
+the under-current which in the 18th century became the main stream.
+Paradoxical as it may seem, the Renaissance in its most modern aspect
+was a development of the middle ages, and not of the classics. This we
+call romanticism. As an artistic product it was developed on strictly
+national and traditional lines, born of the fields as it were, free as a
+bird and as sweet, giving birth in England to the drama, in Italy to the
+plastic arts. It is essentially opposed to the classical movement, for
+it represents the idea as distinct from the form. Lyly belongs to both
+movements, for, while he is the protagonist of the romantic drama, in
+his _Euphues_ we may discover the source of the artificial stream which,
+concealed for a while beneath the wild exuberance of the romantic
+growth, appears later in the 18th century embracing the whole current of
+English literature. Before, however, proceeding to fix the position of
+euphuism in the development of English prose, let us sum up the results
+we have obtained from our examination of its relation to the general
+European Renaissance. Originating in that study of classical style we
+find so forcibly advocated by Ascham in his _Schoolmaster_, it was
+essentially a product of humanism. In every country scholars were
+interested as much in the style as in the matter of the newly discovered
+classics. This was due, partly to the lateness of the Latin writers
+chiefly known to them, partly to the mediaeval preference for words
+rather than ideas, and partly to the fact that the times were not yet
+ripe for an appreciation of the spirit as distinct from the letter of
+the classics. In Italy, in France, and in Spain, therefore, we may find
+parallels to euphuism without supposing any international borrowings.
+_Euphues_, in fact, is not so much a reflection of, as a _Glasse for
+Europe_.
+
+
+SECTION IV. _The position of Euphuism in the history of English prose._
+
+A few words remain to be said about this literary curiosity, by way of
+assigning a place to it in the history of our prose. To do so with any
+scientific precision is impossible, but there are many points of no
+small significance in this connexion, which should not be passed over.
+
+English prose at the beginning of the 16th century, that is before the
+new learning had become a power in the land, though it had not yet been
+employed for artistic purposes, was already an important part of our
+literature, and possessed a quality which no national prose had
+exhibited since the days of Greece, the quality of popularity[76]. This
+popularity, which arose from the fact that French and Latin had for so
+long been the language of the ruling section of the community, is still
+the distinction which marks off our prose from that of other nations. In
+Italy, for example, the language of literature is practically
+incomprehensible to the dwellers on the soil. But what English prose has
+gained in breadth and comprehension by representing the tongue of the
+people, it has lost in subtlety. French prose, which developed from the
+speech of the Court, is a delicate instrument, capable of expressing the
+finest shades of meaning, while the styles of George Meredith and of
+Henry James show how difficult it is for a subtle intellect to move
+freely within the limitations of English prose. Indeed, "it is a
+remarkable fact," as Sainte Beuve noticed, "and an inversion of what is
+true of other languages that, in French, prose has always had the
+precedence over poetry." Repeated attempts, however, have been made to
+capture our language, and to transport it into aristocratic atmospheres;
+and of these attempts the first is associated with the name of Lyly.
+
+ [76] Cf. Earle, pp. 422, 423.
+
+We have seen that English euphuism was at first a flower of unconscious
+growth sprung from the soil of humanism. But ultimately, in the hands of
+Pettie, Gosson, Lyly, and Watson, it became the instrument of an Oxford
+coterie deliberately and consciously employed for the purpose of
+altering the form of English prose. These men did not despise their
+native tongue; they used the purest English, carefully avoiding the
+favourite "ink-horn terms" of their contemporaries: they admired it, as
+one admires a wild bird of the fields, which one wishes to capture in
+order to make it hop and sing in a golden cage. The humanists were
+already developing a learned style within the native language; Lyly and
+his friends utilized this learned style for the creation of an
+aristocratic type. Euphuism was no "transient phase of madness[77]," as
+Mr Earle contemptuously calls it, but a brave attempt, and withal a
+first attempt, to assert that prose writing is an art no less than the
+writing of poetry; and this alone should give it a claim upon students
+of English literature.
+
+ [77] Earle, p. 436.
+
+The first point we must notice, therefore, about English euphuism is
+that it represents a tendency to confine literature within the limits of
+the Court--in accordance, one might almost say, with the general
+centralization of politics and religion under the Tudors--and that, as a
+necessary result of this, conscious prose style appears for the first
+time in our language. I say English euphuism, because that is our chief
+concern, and because though euphuism on the Continent was, as we have
+seen, the expression in literature of the new ideal of the courtier, yet
+it was by no means so great an innovation as it was in England, inasmuch
+as the Romance literatures had always represented the aristocracy. The
+form which this style assumed was dependent upon the circumstances which
+gave it birth, and upon the general conditions of the age. Owing to the
+former it became erudite, polished, precise, meet indeed for the
+"parleyings" of courtiers and maids-in-waiting; but it was to the latter
+that it owed its essentials. Hitherto we have contented ourselves with
+indicating the rhetorical aspect of euphuism. We have seen that the
+Latin orators and the writers of our English homilies exercised a
+considerable influence over the new stylists. It was natural that
+rhetoricians should attract those who were desirous of writing
+ornamental and artistic prose, and one feels inclined to believe that it
+was not entirely for spiritual reasons that Lyly frequently attended Dr
+Andrews' sermons[78]. But the euphuistic manner has a wider significance
+than this, for it marks the transition from poetry to prose.
+
+ [78] Bond, I. p. 60.
+
+"The age of Elizabeth is pre-eminently an age of poetry, of which prose
+may be regarded as merely the overflow[79]." It was at once the end of
+the mediaeval, and the beginning of the modern, world, and consequently,
+it displays the qualities of both. But the future lay with the small men
+rather than with the great. Shakespeare and Milton were no innovators.
+With their names the epoch of primitive literature, which finds
+expression in the drama and the epic, ends, while it reaches its highest
+flights. The dawn of the modern epoch, the age of prose and of the
+novel, is, on the other hand, connected with the names of Lyly, Sidney,
+and Nash. Thus, as in the 18th century poetry was subservient, and so
+became assimilated, to prose, so the prose of the 16th century exhibited
+many of the characteristics of verse. And of this general literary
+feature euphuism is the most conspicuous example; for in its employment
+of alliteration and antithesis, in addition to the excessive use of
+illustration and simile which characterizes arcadianism and its
+successors, the style of Lyly is transitional in structure as well as in
+ornament. Moreover the alliteration, which is peculiar to English
+euphuism, gives it a musical element which its continental parallels
+lacked. The dividing line between alliteration and rhyme, and between
+antithesis and rhythm, is not a broad one[80]. Indeed Pettie found it so
+narrow that he occasionally lapsed into metrical rhythm. And so, though
+we cannot say that euphuism is verse, we can say that it partakes of the
+nature of verse. In this endeavour to provide an adequate structure for
+the support of the mass of imagery that the taste of the age demanded,
+it showed itself superior to the rival prose fashions. _Euphues_ is a
+model of form beside the tedious prolixity of the _Arcadia_, or the
+chaotic effusions of Nash. The weariness, which the modern reader feels
+for the romance of Lyly, is due rather to the excessive quantity of its
+metaphor, which was the fault of the age, than to its pedantic style.
+
+ [79] Raleigh, p. 45.
+
+ [80] This touches upon the famous dispute between Dr Schwan and Dr
+ Goodlet which is excellently dealt with by Mr Child, p. 77.
+
+I write loosely of "style," but strictly speaking the euphuists paid
+especial attention to diction. And here again the poetical and
+aristocratic tendencies of euphuism show themselves. For diction, which
+is the art of selection, the selection of apt words, is of course one of
+the first essentials of poetic art, and is also more prominent in the
+prose of Court literature than elsewhere. The precision, the _finesse_,
+the subtlety, of French prose has only been attained by centuries of
+attention to diction. English prose, on the other hand, is singularly
+lacking in this quality; and for this cause it would never have produced
+a Flaubert, despite its splendid achievements in style. Had euphuism
+been more successful, it might have altered the whole aspect of later
+English prose, by giving us in the 16th century that quality of diction
+which did not become prominent in our prose until the days of Pater and
+the purists.
+
+And yet, though it failed in this particular, the influence of the
+general qualities of its style upon later prose must have been
+incalculable. The vogue of euphuism as a craze was brief; but _Euphues_
+received fresh publication about once every three years down to 1636,
+and long after its social popularity had become a thing of the past, it
+probably attracted the careful study of those who wished to write
+artistic prose. The only model of prose form which the age possessed
+could scarcely sink into oblivion, or become out of date, until its
+principal lessons had been so well learnt as to pass into common-places.
+The exaggerations, which first gave it fame, were probably discounted by
+the more sincere appreciation of later critics, to whom its more
+sterling qualities would appeal. For some reason, the musical properties
+of euphuism do not appear to have found favour among those critics, and
+this was probably a loss to our literature. "Alliteration," as Professor
+Raleigh remarks, "is often condemned as a flaw in rhymed verse, and it
+may well be open to question whether Lyly did not give it its true
+position in attempting to invent a place for it in what is called
+prose[81]." Possibly its failure in this respect was due to the growth
+of that intellectual asceticism, and that reaction against the
+domination of poetry, which are, I think, intimately bound up with the
+fortunes of Puritanism. The beginning of this reaction is visible as
+early as 1589 in the words of Warner's preface to _Albion's England_,
+which display the very affectation they protest against: "onely this
+error may be thought hatching in our English, that to runne on the
+letter we often runne from the matter: and being over prodigall in
+similes we become lesse profitable in sentences and more prolixious to
+sense." But, however this may be, it was the formal rather than the
+musical qualities which gave _Euphues_ its dynamical importance in the
+history of English prose. Subsequent writers had much to learn from a
+book in which the principle of design is for the first time visible.
+With euphuism, antithesis and the use of balanced sentences came to
+stay. We may see them in the style of Johnson and Gibbon, while
+alliterative antithesis reappears to-day in the shape of the epigram.
+Doubtless Lyly abused the antithetical device; but his successors had
+only to discover a means of skilfully concealing the structure, an
+improvement which the early euphuists, with all the enthusiasm of
+inventors, could not have appreciated.
+
+ [81] Raleigh, p. 47.
+
+Moreover, in aiming at elegance and precision, Lyly attained a lucidity
+almost unequalled among his contemporaries. His attention to form saved
+him from the besetting sin of Elizabethan prose,--incoherence by reason
+of an overwhelming display of ornament. His very illustrations were
+subject to the restraint which his style demanded, being sown, to use
+his own metaphor, "here and there lyke Strawberries, not in heapes, lyke
+Hoppes[82]." Arcadianism came as a reaction against euphuism, attempting
+to replace its artificiality by simplicity. But how infinitely more
+preferable is the novel of Lyly, with its artificial precision and
+lucidity, to the conscious artlessness of Sidney's _Arcadia_, with its
+interminable sentences and confused syntax. As a modern euphuist has
+taught us, of all poses the natural pose is the most irritating. In
+accordance with his desire for precision, Lyly made frequent use of the
+short sentence. In this we have another indication of his modernity:
+for the short sentence, which is so characteristic of English prose
+style to-day, occurs more often in his work than in the writings of any
+of his predecessors. And, in reference to the same question of lucidity,
+we may notice that he was the first writer who gave special attention to
+the separation of his prose into paragraphs,--a matter apparently
+trivial, but really of no small importance. Finally, it is a remarkable
+fact that the number of words to be found in _Euphues_ which have since
+become obsolete is a very small one--"at most but a small fraction of
+one per cent.[83]" And this is in itself sufficient to indicate the
+influence which Lyly's novel has exerted upon English prose. As he reads
+it, no one can avoid being struck by the modernity of its language, an
+impression not to be obtained from a perusal of the plays. The
+explanation is simple enough. The plays were not read or absorbed by
+their author's contemporaries and successors; _Euphues_ was. In the
+domain of style, _Euphues_ was dynamical; the plays were not.
+
+ [82] _Euphues_, p. 220.
+
+ [83] Child, p. 41.
+
+But the true value of Lyly's prose lies not so much in what it achieved
+as in what it attempted; for the qualities, which euphuism, by its
+insistence upon design and elegance, really aimed at, were strength,
+brilliancy, and refinement. For the first time in the history of our
+literature, men are found to write prose with the purpose of fascinating
+and enticing the reader, not merely by what is said, but also by the
+manner of saying it. "Lyly" (and, we may add, his associates), writes
+his latest editor, "grasped the fact that in prose no less than in
+poetry, the reader demanded to be led onward by a succession of half
+imperceptible shocks of pleasure in the beauty and vigour of diction, or
+in the ingenuity of phrasing, in sentence after sentence--pleasure
+inseparable from that caused by a perception of the nice adaptation of
+words to thought, pleasure quite other than that derivable from the
+acquisition of fresh knowledge[84]." The direct influence of the man who
+first taught us this lesson, who showed us that a writer, to be
+successful, should seek not merely to express himself, but also to study
+the mind of his reader, must have been something quite beyond
+computation. And that his direct influence was not more lasting was due,
+in the first place, to the fact that he had not grasped the full
+significance of this psychological aspect of style, if we may so call
+it, which he and his friends had been the first to discover. As with
+most first attempts, euphuism, while bestowing immense benefits upon
+those who came after, was itself a failure. The euphuists perceived the
+problem of style, but successfully attacked only one half of it. More
+acute than their contemporaries, they realised the principle of economy,
+but, as with one who makes an entirely new mechanical invention, they
+were themselves unable to appreciate what their discovery would lead to.
+They were right in addressing themselves to the task of attracting, and
+stimulating, the reader by means of precision, pointed antithesis, and
+such like attempts to induce pleasurable mental sensations, but they
+forgot that anyone must eventually grow weary under the influence of
+continuous excitation without variation. The soft drops of rain pierce
+the hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oak, and much
+monotony will tire the readiest reader. Or, to use the phraseology of a
+somewhat more recent scientist, they "considered only those causes of
+force in language which depend upon economy of the mental _energies_,"
+they paid no attention to "those which depend upon the economy of the
+mental _sensibilities_[85]." This is one explanation of the weariness
+with which _Euphues_ fills the modern reader, and of the speed with
+which, in spite of its priceless pioneer work, that book was superseded
+and forgotten in its own days. It is our duty to give it its full meed
+of recognition, but we can understand and forgive the ungratefulness of
+its contemporaries.
+
+ [84] Bond, I. p. 146.
+
+ [85] H. Spencer, Essays, II. _Phil. of Style_.
+
+Another cause of the oblivion which so soon overtook the famous
+Elizabethan novel, has already been suggested. Euphuism was too
+antagonistic to the general current of English prose to be successful.
+Lyly and his Oxford clique were attempting a revolution similar to that
+undertaken, at the same period, by Ronsard and his _Pleiad_. Lyly failed
+in prose, where Ronsard succeeded in poetry, because he endeavoured to
+go back upon tradition, while the Frenchman worked strictly within its
+limits. The attempt to throw Court dress over the plain homespun of our
+English prose might have been attended with success, had our literature
+been younger and more easily led astray. As it was, prose in this
+country, when euphuism invaded it, could already show seven centuries of
+development, and, moreover, development along the broad and national
+lines of common or vulgar speech. Euphuism was after all only part of
+the general tendency of the age to focus everything that was good in
+politics, religion, and art, on the person and immediate surroundings of
+the sovereign; and the history of the eighteenth century, which saw the
+last issue of the series of _Euphues_ reprints, is the history of the
+collapse of this centralization all along the line, ending in the
+complete vindication of the democratic basis of English life and
+literature.
+
+With these general remarks we must leave the subject of euphuism. No
+history of its origin and its influence can be completely satisfactory:
+such questions must of necessity receive a speculative and tentative
+solution, for it is impossible to give them an exact answer which admits
+of no dispute. The age of Lyly was far more complex than ours, with all
+our artistic sects and schisms; the currents of literary influence were
+multitudinous and extremely involved. As Symonds wrote, "The romantic
+art of the modern world did not spring like that of Greece from an
+ungarnered field of flowers. Troubled by reminiscences from the past and
+by reciprocal influences from one another, the literatures of modern
+Europe came into existence with composite dialects and obeyed confused
+canons of taste, exhibited their adolescent vigour with affected graces
+and showed themselves senile in their cradles." In the field of
+literature to-day the standards are more numerous, but more distinctive,
+than those of the Elizabethans. Our ideals are classified with almost
+scientific exactness, and we wear the labels proudly. But the very
+splendour of the Renaissance was due to the fact that in the same group,
+in the same artist, were to be found the most diverse ideals and the
+most opposite methods. They worshipped they knew not what, we know what
+we worship. Yet this difference does not prevent us from seeing curious
+points of similarity between our own and those times. The 16th, like the
+19th century, was a period of revolt from the past: and at such moments
+men feel a supreme contempt for the common-place in literature. The cry
+of art for art's sake is raised, and the result is extravagance,
+euphuism. A wave of intellectual dandyism seems to sweep over the face
+of literature, aristocratic in its aims and sympathies. Then are the
+battle lines drawn up, and the spectators watch, with admiration or
+contempt, the eternally recurrent strife between David and the
+Philistines; and whether the young hero be clad in the knee-breeches of
+aestheticism, or the slashed doublet of the courtier; whether he be
+armed with epigram and sunflower, or with euphuism and camomile;
+variation of costume cannot conceal the identity of his personality--the
+personality of the fop of culture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL.
+
+
+Despite the disproportionate attention given to euphuism by so many of
+Lyly's critics, _Euphues_ is no less important as a novel than as a
+piece of prose. We can, however, dismiss this second branch of our
+subject in fewer words, because the problem of _Euphues_ is much simpler
+and more straightforward than the problem of euphuism. It can scarcely
+be said that Lyly has yet been thoroughly appreciated as a novelist;
+indeed, the whole subject of the Elizabethan novel is very far from
+having received a satisfactory treatment at present. This is not
+surprising when we consider that the last word remains to be said upon
+the Elizabethan drama. The birth of modern literature was so sudden, its
+life, even in the cradle, was so complex that it baffles criticism. Like
+the peal of an organ with a thousand stops, the English Renaissance
+seemed to break the stillness of the great mediaeval church, shaking its
+beautiful sombre walls and filling it from floor to roof with wild,
+pagan music. Indeed, the more we study those 50 or 60 years which
+embrace the so-called Elizabethan period, the more are we struck by the
+fact that, ever since, we have been simply making variations upon the
+themes, which the men of those times gave us. Modern science, modern
+poetry, modern drama, sat like pages at the feet of the Great Queen.
+Among these the novel cut but an insignificant figure, although it was
+the novel which had perhaps the longest future before it. We need not
+wonder therefore that our first English novelist has been treated by
+many with neglect. None I think have done more to make amends in this
+direction than Professor Raleigh and M. Jusserand; the former in his
+graceful, humorous, and penetrating little book, _The English Novel_;
+and the latter in his well-known work on _The English Novel in the time
+of Shakespeare_, which gives one, while reading it, the feeling of being
+present at a fancy-dress ball, so skilfully does he detect the forms and
+faces of present-day fiction behind euphuistic mask and beneath arcadian
+costume. To these two books the present writer owes a debt which all
+must feel who have stood bewildered upon the threshold of Elizabeth's
+Court with its glittering throng of genius and wit.
+
+Sudden, however, as was this crop of warriors wielding pen, it must not
+be forgotten that the dragon's teeth had first been sown in mediaeval
+soil. With Lyly the English novel came into being, but that child of his
+genius was not without ancestry or relations. And so, before discussing
+the character and fortunes of the infant, let us devote a few
+introductory remarks to pedigree. Roughly speaking, the prose narrative
+in England, before _Euphues_, falls into three divisions, the romance of
+chivalry, the _novella_, and the moral Court treatise,--and all three
+are of foreign extraction, that is to say, they are represented in
+England by translations only. Chaucer indeed is a mine of material
+suitable for the novel, but the father of English literature elected to
+write in verse, and his _Canterbury Tales_ have no appreciable influence
+upon the later prose story. For some reason, the mediaeval prose
+narrative seems to have been confined to the so-called Celtic races.
+Certainly, both the romance of chivalry and the _novella_ are to be
+traced back to French sources. The _novella_, which, at our period, had
+become thoroughly naturalized in Italy, under the auspices of Boccaccio,
+had originally sprung from the _fabliaux_ of 13th century France. Nor
+was the _fabliau_ the only article of French production which found a
+new and more stimulative home across the Alps; for just as it is
+possible to trace the German Reformation back, through Huss, to its
+birth in Wycliff's England, so French critics have delighted to point
+out that the Italian Renaissance itself was but an expansion of an
+earlier Renaissance in France, which, for all the strength and maturity
+it gained under its new conditions, lost much of that indescribable
+flavour of direct simplicity and gracious sweetness which breathes from
+the pages of _Aucassin and Nicolette_ and its companion _Amis and
+Amile_. Under Charles VIII. and his successors this Renaissance was
+carried home, as it were, to die--so subtle is the ebb and flow of
+intellectual influences between country and country. In England the
+_novella_, of which Chaucer had made ample use, first appeared in prose
+dress from the printing-press of Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde.
+The Dutch printer had also published Lord Berners' translation of _Huon
+of Bordeaux_, the best romance of chivalry belonging to the Charlemagne
+cycle. But, before the dawn of the 16th century Malory had already given
+us _Morte D'Arthur_, from the Arthurian cycle, printed, as everyone
+knows, by the industrious Caxton himself. Thus, if we neglect, as I
+think we may, translations from the _Gesta Romanorum_, we may say that
+the prose narrative appeared in England simultaneously with the
+printing-press, a fact which is more than coincidence; since the
+multiplication of books, which Caxton began, decreased the necessity for
+remembering tales; and therefore it was now possible to dispense with
+the aid of verse; in fact Caxton deprived the minstrel of his
+occupation.
+
+Of the third form of prose narrative--the moral Court treatise--we have
+already said something. It had appeared in Italy and in Spain, and our
+connexion with it came from the latter country, through Berners'
+translation of the _Golden Boke_ of Guevara. So slight was the thread of
+narrative running through this book, that one would imagine at first
+sight that it could have little to do with the history of our novel. And
+yet in comparison with its importance in this respect the _novella_ and
+the romance of chivalry are quite insignificant. The two latter never
+indeed lost their popularity during the Elizabethan age, but they had
+ceased to be considered respectable--a very different thing--before that
+age began. The first cause of their fall in the social scale was the
+disapprobation of the humanists. Ascham, echoing Plato's condemnation of
+Homer, attacks the romance of chivalry from the moral point of view, at
+the same time cunningly associating it with "Papistrie." But he holds
+the _novella_ even in greater abhorrence, for, after declaring that the
+whole pleasure of the _Morte D'Arthur_ "standeth in two speciall
+poyntes, in open mans slaughter, and bold bawdrye," he goes on to say:
+"and yet ten _Morte Arthurs_ do not a tenth part so much harm as one of
+those bookes, made in Italy and translated in England[86]."
+
+ [86] _Schoolmaster_, p. 80.
+
+But there were social as well as moral reasons for the depreciation of
+Malory and Boccaccio. The taste of the age began to find these foreign
+dishes, if not unpalatable, at least not sufficiently delicate. England
+was fortunate in receiving the Reformation and the Renaissance at the
+same time; and the men of those "spacious times" set before their eyes
+that ideal of the courtier, so exquisitely embodied by Sir Philip
+Sidney, in which godliness was not thought incompatible with refinement
+of culture and graciousness of bearing. For the first time our country
+became civilized in the full meaning of that word, and the knight,
+shedding the armour of barbarism, became the gentleman, clothed in
+velvet and silk. The romance of chivalry, therefore, became
+old-fashioned; and it seemed for a time doomed to destruction until it
+received a new lease of life, purged of mediaevalism and modernised by
+the hands of Sidney himself, under the guise of arcadianism. While,
+however, _Arcadia_ remained an undiscovered country, the needs of the
+age were supplied by the "moral Court treatise." It was perhaps not so
+much that the old stories found little response in the new form of
+society, as that they did not reflect that society. We may well believe
+that the taste for mirrors, which now became so fashionable, found its
+psychological parallel in the desire of the Elizabethans to discover
+their own fashions, their own affectations, themselves, in the stories
+they read; and if this indeed be what is meant by realism in literature
+that quality in the novel dates from those days. In this sense if in no
+other, in the sense that he held, for the first time, a polished mirror
+before contemporary life and manners, Lyly must be called the first of
+English novelists.
+
+_The Anatomy of Wit_, which it is most important to distinguish from its
+sequel, was the descendant in the direct line from the "moral Court
+treatise." Something perhaps of the atmosphere of the _novella_ clung
+about its pages, but that was only to be expected: Lyly added incident
+to the bare scheme of discourses, and for that he had no other models
+but the Italians. But Guevara was his real source. Dr Landmann's
+verdict, that "Euphuism is not only adapted from Guevara's _alto
+estilo_, but _Euphues_ itself, as to its contents, is a mere imitation
+of Guevara's enlarged biography of Marcus Aurelius," has certainly been
+shown by Mr Bond to be a gross overstatement; yet there can be no doubt
+that the _Diall of Princes_ was Lyly's model on the side of matter, as
+was Pettie's _Pallace_ on the side of style. Our author's debt to the
+Spaniard is seen in a correspondence between many parts of his book and
+the _Aureo Libro_, in certain of the concluding letters and discourses,
+and in many other ways which Mr Bond has patiently noted[87]. Guevara,
+however, was but one among many previous writers to whom Lyly owed
+obligations. _Euphues_ was justly styled by its author "compiled," being
+in fact a mosaic, pieced together from the classics, and especially
+Plutarch, Pliny, and Ovid, and from previous English writers such as
+Harrison, Heywood, Fortescue, and Gascoigne; names that indicate the
+course of literary "browsing" that Lyly substituted for the ordinary
+curriculum at Oxford. To mention all the authors from whom he borrowed,
+and to point out the portions of his novel which are due to their
+several influences, would only be to repeat a task already accomplished
+by Mr Bond[88].
+
+ [87] Bond, I. pp. 154-156.
+
+ [88] Bond, I. pp. 156-159.
+
+Allowing for all its author's "picking and stealing," _The Anatomy of
+Wit_ was in the highest sense an original book; for, though it is the
+old moral treatise, its form is new, and it is enlivened by a thin
+thread of narrative. The hero Euphues is a young man lately come from
+Athens, which is unmistakeably Oxford, to Naples, which is just as
+unmistakeably London. Here he soon becomes the centre of a convivial
+circle, where he is wise enough to distinguish between friend and
+parasite, to discern the difference between the "faith of Laelius and
+the flattery of Aristippus." The story thus opens bravely, but the words
+of the title-page, "most necessary to remember," are ever present in the
+author's mind, and before we have reached the fourth page the sermon is
+upon us. For "conscience" attired as an old man, Eubulus, now enters the
+stage of this Court _morality_ and proceeds to deliver a long harangue
+upon the folly of youth, concluding with much excellent though obvious
+counsel. We should be in sympathy with the rude answer of Euphues, were
+it but curt at the same time, but, alas, it covers six pages. Having
+thus imprudently crushed the "wisdom of eld" by the weight of his
+utterance, our hero shows his natural preference for the companionship
+and counsel of youth, by forming an ardent friendship with Philautus, of
+so close a nature, that "they used not only one boorde but one bed, one
+booke (if so be that they thought it not one too many)." This alliance,
+however, is not concluded until Euphues has given us his own views,
+together with those of half antiquity, upon the subject of friendship,
+or before he has formally professed his affection in a pompous address,
+beginning "Gentleman and friend," and has been as formally accepted. By
+Philautus he is introduced to Lucilla, the chief female character of the
+book, a lady, if we are to believe the description of her "Lilly cheeks
+dyed with a Vermilion red," of startling if somewhat factitious beauty.
+To say that the plot now thickens would be to use too coarse a word; it
+becomes slightly tinged with incident, inasmuch as Euphues falls in love
+with Lucilla, the destined bride of Philautus. She reciprocates his
+passion, and the double fickleness of mistress and friend forms an
+excellent opportunity, which Lyly does not fail to seize, for infinite
+moralizings in euphuistic strains. Philautus is naturally indignant at
+the turn affairs have taken, and the former friends exchange letters of
+recrimination, in which, however, their embittered feelings are
+concealed beneath a vast display of classical learning. But Nemesis,
+swift and sudden, awaits the faithless Euphues. Lucilla, it turns out,
+is subject to a mild form of erotomania and is constitutionally fickle,
+so that before her new lover has begun to realise his bliss she has
+already contracted a passion for some other young gentleman. Thus,
+struck down in the hour of his pride and passion, Euphues becomes "a
+changed man," and bethinks himself of his soul, which he has so long
+neglected. This is the turning-point of the book, the turning-point of
+half the English novels written since Lyly's day. The remainder of the
+_Anatomy of Wit_ is taken up with what may be described as the private
+papers of Euphues, consisting of letters, essays, and dialogues,
+including _A Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers_, a treatise on
+education, and a refutation of atheism, and so amid the thunders of the
+artillery of platitude the first part of _Euphues_ closes.
+
+Professor Raleigh's explanation of this tedious moralizing is that Lyly,
+wit and euphuist, possessed the Nonconformist conscience: "Beneath the
+courtier's slashed doublet, under his ornate brocade and frills, there
+stood the Puritan." This I believe to be a mistaken view of the case. As
+we shall later see reason to suppose, Lyly never became, as did his
+acquaintance Gosson, a very seriously-minded person. Certainly _Euphues_
+does not prove that Puritanism was latent in him. The moral atmosphere
+which pervades it was not of Lyly's invention; he inherited it from his
+predecessors Guevara and Castiglione, and he employed it because he knew
+that it was expected of him. That he moralized not so much from
+conviction as from convention (to use a euphuism), is, I think,
+sufficiently proved by the fact that in the second part of his novel,
+where he is addressing a new public, the pulpit strain is much less
+frequent, while in his plays it entirely disappears. The _Anatomy of
+Wit_ is essentially the work of an inexperienced writer, feeling his way
+towards a public, and without sufficient skill or courage to dispense
+with the conventions which he has inherited from previous writers. One
+feels, while reading the book, that Lyly was himself conscious that his
+hero was an insufferable coxcomb, and that he only created him because
+he wished to comply with the public taste. It may be, as M. Jusserand
+asserts, that Lyly anticipated Richardson, but, if the light-hearted
+Oxford madcap had any qualities in common with the sedate bookseller,
+artistic sincerity was not one of them.
+
+What has just been said is not entirely applicable to the treatise on
+education which passed under the title of _Euphues and his Ephoebus_.
+Although simply an adaptation of the _De Educatione_ of Plutarch, it was
+not entirely devoid of originality. Here we find the famous attack upon
+Oxford, which was, we fear, prompted by a desire to spite the University
+authorities rather than by any earnest feeling of moral condemnation.
+But in addition to this there are contributions of Lyly's own invention
+to the theory of teaching which are not without merit. He was, as we
+have seen, interested in education. It seems even possible that he had
+actually practised as a master before the _Euphues_ saw light[89]; and,
+therefore, we have every reason to suppose that this little treatise
+was a labour of love. Possibly Ascham's _Schoolmaster_ inspired him with
+the idea of writing it. Certainly, when we have allowed everything for
+Plutarch's work, enough remains over to justify Mr Quick's inclusion of
+John Lyly, side by side with Roger Ascham, in his _Educational
+Reformers_.
+
+ [89] Bond, I. p. 10.
+
+But such excellent work has but little to do with the business of
+novel-writing, and, when we turn to this aspect of the _Anatomy of Wit_,
+there is little to be said for it from the aesthetic point of view.
+Indeed, it cannot strictly be called a novel at all. It is the bridge
+between the moral Court treatise and the novel, and, as such, all its
+aesthetic defects matter little in comparison with its dynamical value.
+It was a great step to hang the chestnuts of discourse upon a string of
+incident. The story is feeble, the plot puerile, but it was something to
+have a story and a plot which dealt with contemporary life. And lastly,
+though characterization is not even attempted, yet now and again these
+euphuistic puppets, distinguishable only by their labels, are inspired
+with something that is almost life by a phrase or a chance word.
+
+I have said that it is very important to distinguish between the two
+parts of _Euphues_. Two years only elapsed between their respective
+publications, but in these two years Lyly, and with him our novel, had
+made great strides. In 1578 he was not yet a novelist, though the
+conception of the novel and the capacity for its creation were, as we
+have just shown, already forming in his brain. In 1580, however, the
+English novel had ceased to be merely potential; for it had come into
+being with the appearance of _Euphues and his England_. Here in the same
+writer, in the same book, and within the space of two years, we may
+observe one of the most momentous changes of modern literature in
+actual process. The _Anatomy of Wit_ is still the moral Court treatise,
+coloured by the influence of the Italian _novella_; _Euphues and his
+England_ is the first English novel. Lyly unconsciously symbolizes the
+change he initiated by laying the scene of his first part in Italy,
+while in the second he brings his hero to England. That sea voyage,
+which provoked the stomach of Philautus sore, was an important one for
+us, since the freight of the vessel was nothing less than our English
+novel.
+
+The difference between the two parts is remarkable in more ways than
+one, and in none more so than in the change of dedication. The _Anatomy
+of Wit_, as was only fitting in a moral Court treatise, was inscribed to
+the gentleman readers; _Euphues and his England_, on the other hand,
+made an appeal to a very different class of readers, and a class which
+had hitherto been neglected by authors--"the ladies and gentlewomen of
+England." With the instinct, almost, of a religious reformer, Lyly saw
+that to succeed he must enlist the ladies on his side. And the
+experiment was so successful that I am inclined to attribute the
+pre-eminence of Lyly among other euphuists to this fact alone. "Hatch
+the egges his friendes had laid" he certainly did, but he fed the chicks
+upon a patent food of his own invention. Mr Bond suggests that the
+general attention which the _Anatomy_ secured by its attacks upon women
+gave Lyly the idea for the second part. But, though this was probably
+the immediate cause of his change of front, something like _Euphues and
+his England_ must have come sooner or later, because all the conditions
+were ripe for its production. Side by side with the ideal of the
+courtier had arisen the ideal of the cultured lady. Ascham, visiting
+Lady Jane Grey, "founde her in her chamber reading _Phaedon Platonis_
+in Greeke and that with as much delite, as some gentlemen would read a
+merie tale in Bocase[90]"; and, when a Queen came to the throne who
+could talk Greek at Cambridge, the fashion of learning for ladies must
+have received an immense impetus. With a "blue stocking" showing on the
+royal footstool, all the ladies of the Court would at least lay claim to
+a certain amount of learning. Dr Landmann has attributed the vogue of
+euphuism, at least in part, to feminine influences, but in so far as
+England shared that affectation with the other Courts of Europe, where
+the fair sex had not yet acquired such freedom as in England, we must
+not press the point too much in this direction. The importance in
+English literature of that "monstrous regiment of women," against which
+John Knox blew his rude trumpet so shamelessly, is seen not so much in
+the style of _Euphues_ as in its contents; indeed, in the second part of
+that work euphuism is much less prominent than in the first. The romance
+of chivalry and the Italian tale would be still more distasteful to the
+new woman than they were to the new courtier. Doubtless Boccaccio may
+have found a place in many a lady's secret bookshelf as Zola and Guy de
+Maupassant do perchance to-day, but he was scarcely suitable for the
+boudoir table or for polite literary discussion. Something was needed
+which would appeal at once to the feminine taste for learning and to the
+desire for delicacy and refinement. This want was only partially
+supplied by the moral Court treatise, which was ostensibly written for
+the courtier and not the maid-in-waiting. What was required was a book
+expressly provided for the eye of ladies--such a book, in fact, as
+_Euphues and his England_. Lyly's discovery of this new literary public
+and its requirements was of great importance, for have not the ladies
+ever since his day been the patrons and purchasers of the novel? What
+would happen to the literary market to-day were our mothers, wives, and
+sisters to deny themselves the pleasure of fiction? The very question
+would send the blood from Mr Mudie's lips. The two thousand and odd
+novels which are published annually in this country show the existence
+of a large leisured class in our community, and this class is
+undoubtedly the feminine one. The novel, therefore, owes not only its
+birth, but its continued existence down to our own day, to the "ladies
+and gentlewomen of England"; and this dedication may be taken as a
+general one for all novels since Lyly's time. "_Euphues_," he writes,
+"had rather lye shut in a Ladye's casket than open in a scholar's
+studie," and he continues, "after dinner you may overlooke him to keepe
+you from sleepe, or if you be heavie, to bring you to sleepe ... it were
+better to hold _Euphues_ in your hands though you let him fall, when you
+be willing to winke, then to sowe in a clout, and pricke your fingers
+when you begin to nod[91]." "With _Euphues_," remarks M. Jusserand,
+"commences in England the literature of the drawing-room[92]"; and the
+literature of the drawing-room is to all intents and purposes the novel.
+
+ [90] _Schoolmaster_, p. 47.
+
+ [91] _Euphues_, p. 220.
+
+ [92] Jusserand, p. 5.
+
+All the faults of its predecessor are present in _Euphues and his
+England_, but they are not so conspicuous. The euphuistic garb and the
+mantle of the prophet Guevara sit more lightly upon our author. In every
+way his movements are freer and bolder; having gained confidence by his
+first success, he now dares to be original. The story becomes at times
+quite interesting, even for a modern reader. At its opening Euphues and
+Philautus, who have come to terms on a basis of common condemnation of
+Lucilla, are discovered on their way to England. By way of enlivening
+the weary hours, our hero, ever ready to play the preacher now that he
+has ceased to be the warning, delivers himself of a lengthy, but highly
+edifying tale, which evokes the impatient exclamation of Philautus
+already quoted; we may however notice as a sign of progress that Euphues
+has substituted a moral narrative for his usual discourse. The relations
+between the two friends have become distinctly amusing, and might, in
+abler hands, have resulted in comic situation. Euphues, having learnt
+the lesson of the burnt child, is now a very grave person, proud of his
+own experience and of its fruits in himself. Extremes met,
+
+ "Where pinched ascetic and red sensualist
+ Alternately recurrent freeze and burn,"
+
+and it is interesting to note that Euphues embodies many of the
+characteristics of the Byronic hero--his sententiousness, his misogyny,
+his cynicism born of disillusionment, and his rhetorical flatulency; but
+he is no rebel like Manfred because he finds consolation in his own
+pre-eminence in a world of platitude. Conscious of his dearly bought
+wisdom, he makes it his continuous duty, if not pleasure, to rebuke the
+over-amorous Philautus, who was at least human, and to enlarge upon the
+infidelity of the opposite sex. Lyly failed to realise the possibilities
+of this antagonism of character, because he always appears to be in
+sympathy with his hero, and so misses an opportunity which would have
+delighted the heart of Thackeray. I say "appears," because I consider
+that this sympathy was nothing but a pose which he considered necessary
+for the popularity of his book. It is important however to observe that
+the idea of one character as a foil to another, though undeveloped, is
+here present for the first time in our national prose story.
+
+The tale ended and the voyage over, our friends arrive in England, where
+after stopping at Dover "3 or 4 days, until they had digested ye seas,
+and recovered their healths," they proceeded to Canterbury, at which
+place they fell in with an old man named Fidus, who gave them
+entertainment for body and mind. To those who have conscientiously read
+the whole history of Euphues up to this point, the incident of Fidus
+will appear immensely refreshing. It seems to me, in fact, to mark the
+highest point of Lyly's skill as a novelist, doubtless because he is
+here drawing upon his memory[93] and not his imagination. The old
+gentleman, very different from his prototype Eubulus, moves quite
+humanly among his bees and flowers, and tells the graceful story of his
+love with a charm that is almost natural. And, although he checks the
+action of the story for thirty-three pages, we are sorry to take leave
+of this "fatherlye and friendlye sire"; for he lays for a time the ghost
+of homily, which reappears directly his guests begin to "forme their
+steppes towards London." Having reached the Court, in due time
+Philautus, in accordance with the prophecies of Euphues though much to
+his disgust, falls in love. The lady of his choice, however, has
+unfortunately given her heart to another, by name Surius. The despondent
+lover, after applying in vain to an Italian magician for a love-philtre,
+at length determines to adopt the bolder line of writing to his scornful
+lady. The letter is conveyed in a pomegranate, and the incident of its
+presentation is prettily conceived and displays a certain amount of
+dramatic power. The upshot is that Philautus eventually finds a maiden
+who is unattached and who is ready to return love for love. Her he
+marries, and remains behind with "his Violet" in England, while Euphues,
+less happy than self-satisfied, returns to Athens. The interest of the
+latter half of the book centres round the house of Lady Flavia, where
+the principal characters of both sexes meet together and discuss the
+philosophy of love and the psychology of ladies. Such intellectual
+gatherings were a recognised institution at Florence at this time, being
+an imitation of Plato's symposium, and Lyly had already attempted, not
+so successfully as here, to describe one in the house of Lucilla of the
+_Anatomy of Wit_.
+
+ [93] Mr Bond thinks it a picture of Lyly's father.
+
+In every way _Euphues and his England_ is an improvement upon its
+predecessor. The story and plot are still weak, but the situations are
+often well thought out and treated with dramatic effect. The action
+indeed is slow, but it moves; and in the story of Fidus it moves
+comparatively quickly. Such motion of course can scarcely ruffle the
+mental waters of those accustomed to the breathless whirlwinds which
+form the heart of George Meredith's novels; but these whirlwinds are as
+directly traceable to the gentle but fitful agitation of _Euphues_, as
+was the storm that overtook Ahab's chariot to the little cloud
+undiscerned by the prophet's eye. The figures, again, that move in
+Lyly's second novel are no longer clothes filled with moral sawdust. The
+character of Philautus is especially well drawn, though at times blurred
+and indistinct. Lyly had not yet passed the stage of creating types,
+that is of portraying one aspect and an obvious one of such a complex
+thing as human nature. But a criticism which would be applicable to
+Dickens is no condemnation of an Elizabethan pioneer. It was much to
+have attempted characterization, and in the case of Philautus, Iffida,
+Camilla, and perhaps "the Violet" the attempt was nearly if not quite
+successful. It is noticeable that for one who was afterwards to become a
+writer of comedy, Lyly shows a remarkable absence of humour in these
+novels. Now and again we seem trembling on the brink of humour, when the
+young wiseacre is brought into contact with his weak-hearted friend, but
+the line is seldom actually crossed. Wit, as Lyly here understood it,
+had nothing of the risible in it; for it meant to him little more than a
+graceful handling of obvious themes.
+
+But the importance of _Euphues_ was in its influence, not in its actual
+achievement. And here again we must reassert the significance of Lyly's
+appeal to women. "That noble faculty," as Macaulay expresses it,
+"whereby man is able to live in the past and in the future in the
+distant and in the unreal," is rarely found in the opposite sex. They
+delight in novelty, their minds are of a practical cast, and their
+interests almost invariably lie in the present. The names of Jane
+Austen, George Eliot, and Mrs Humphry Ward are sufficient to show how
+entirely successful a woman may be in delineating the life around her.
+If there is any truth in this generalization, it was no mere coincidence
+that the first English romance dealing with contemporary life was
+written expressly for the ladies of Elizabeth's Court. The alteration in
+the face of social life, brought about by the recognition of the
+feminine claim and hastened no doubt by the fact that England, Scotland,
+and France were at this period under the rule of three ladies of strong
+character, was inevitably attended with great changes in literature.
+This change is first expressed by Lyly in his second novel and later in
+his dramas. The mediaeval conception of women, a masculine conception,
+now underwent feminine correction; and what is perhaps of more
+importance still, the conception of man undergoes transformation also.
+The result is that the centre of gravity of the story is now shifted. Of
+old it had treated of deeds and glorious prowess for the sake of honour,
+or more often for the sake of some anaemic damsel; now it deals with the
+passion itself and not its knightly manifestations,--with the very
+feelings and hearts of the lovers. In other words under the auspices of
+Elizabeth and her maids of honour, the English story becomes subjective,
+feminine, its scene is shifted from the battlefield and the lists to the
+lady's boudoir; it becomes a novel. "We change lance and war-horse, for
+walking-sword and pumps and silk stockings. We forget the filletted
+brows and wind-blown hair, the zone, the flowing robe, the sandalled or
+buskined feet, and feel the dawning empire of the fan, the glove, the
+high-heeled shoe, the bonnet, the petticoat, and the parasol[94]": in
+fact we enter into the modern world. At the first expression of this
+change in literature _Euphues and his England_ is of the very greatest
+interest. Characters in fiction now for the first time move before a
+background of everyday life and discuss matters of everyday importance.
+And, as if Lyly wished to leave no doubt as to his aims and methods, he
+gives at the conclusion of his book that interesting description of
+Elizabethan England entitled _A glasse for Europe_.
+
+ [94] Bond, I. p. 161.
+
+It is however in Lyly's treatment of the subject of love that the change
+is most conspicuous. The subtleties of passion are now realised for the
+first time. We are shown the private emotions, the secret alternations
+of hope and despair which agitate the breasts of man and maid, and,
+more important still, we find these emotions at work under the restraint
+of social conditions; the violent torrent of passion checked and
+confined by the demands of etiquette and the conventions of aristocratic
+life. The relation between these unwritten laws of our social
+constitution and the impetuous ardour of the lover, has formed the main
+theme of our modern love stories in the novel and on the stage. In the
+days of chivalry, when love ran wild in the woods, woman was the passive
+object either of hunt or of rescue; but the scene of battle being
+shifted to the boudoir she can demand her own conditions with the result
+that the game becomes infinitely more refined and intricate. Persons of
+both sexes, outwardly at peace but inwardly armed to the teeth, meet
+together in some lady's house to discuss the subject so dangerous to
+both, and conversation conditioned by this fact inevitably becomes
+subtle, allusive, intense; for it derives its light and shade from the
+flicker of that fire which the company finds such a perilous fascination
+in playing with. Lyly's work does not exhibit quite such modernity as
+this, but we may truthfully say that his _Euphues and his England_ is
+the psychological novel in germ.
+
+Its latent possibilities were however not perceived by the writers of
+the 16th century. The style which had in part won popularity for it so
+speedily was the cause also of its equally speedy decline. Like a fossil
+in the stratum of euphuism it was soon covered up by the artificial
+layer of arcadianism. The novel of Sidney, though its loose and
+meandering style marked a reaction against euphuism, carried on the
+Lylian tradition in its appeal to ladies. The _Arcadia_, in no way so
+modern as the _Euphues_, lies for that very reason more directly in the
+line of development[95]; for, while the former is linked by the
+heroical romance of the seventeenth century to the romance of this day,
+the latter's influence is not visible until the eighteenth century, if
+we except its immediate Elizabethan imitators. And yet, as we remarked
+of Lyly's prose, a book which received so many editions cannot have been
+entirely without effect upon the minds of its readers and upon the
+literature of the age. This influence, however, could have been little
+more than suggestive and indirect, and it is quite impossible to
+determine its value. Its importance for us lies in the fact that we can
+realise how it anticipated the novel of the 18th and 19th centuries. Not
+until the days of Richardson is it possible to detect a Lylian flavour
+in English fiction; and even here it would be risky to insist too
+pointedly on any inference that might be drawn from the coincidence of
+an abridged form of _Euphues_ being republished (after almost a
+century's oblivion) twenty years before the appearance of _Pamela_. A
+direct literary connexion between Lyly and Richardson seems out of the
+question: and the utmost we can say with certainty is that the novel of
+the latter, in providing moral food for its own generation, relieved the
+18th century reader of the necessity of going back to the Elizabethan
+writer for the entertainment he desired. As a novelist, therefore, Lyly
+was only of secondary dynamical importance, by which I mean that,
+although we can rest assured that he exercised a considerable influence
+upon later writers, we cannot actually trace this influence at work; we
+cannot in fact point to Lyly as the first of a _definite_ series. The
+novel like its style coloured, but did not deflect, the stream of
+English literature. And indeed we may say this not only of _Euphues_
+but of Elizabethan fiction as a whole. The public to which a 16th
+century novel would appeal was a small one. Few people in those days
+could read, and of these the majority preferred to read poetry; and
+though, as we have seen, _Euphues_ passed through, for the age, a
+considerable number of editions, the circle of those who appreciated
+Lyly, Sidney, and Nash must have been for the most part confined to the
+Court. And this accounts for the brevity of their popularity and for its
+intensity while it lasted; a phenomenon which is not seen in the drama,
+and which is due to the susceptibility of Court life to sudden changes
+of fashion. Drama was the natural form of literature in an age when most
+people were illiterate and yet when all were eager for literary
+entertainment. Drama was therefore the main current of artistic
+production, the prose novel being quite a minor, almost an
+insignificant, tributary. Realising then the inevitable limitations
+which surrounded our English fiction at its birth we can understand its
+infantile imperfections and the subsequent arrest of its development.
+
+ [95] It was Sidney and Nash who set the fashion for the 17th century.
+
+"The novel held in Elizabeth's time very much the same place as was held
+by the drama at the Restoration; it was an essentially aristocratic
+entertainment, and the same pitfall waylaid both, the pitfall of
+artificiality. Dryden's audiences and the readers of _Euphues_ both
+sought for better bread than is made of wheat; both were supplied with
+what satisfied them in an elaborate confection of husks[96]."
+
+ [96] Raleigh, p. 57. He writes _Arcadia_ for _Euphues_ but the
+ substitution is legitimate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LYLY THE DRAMATIST.
+
+
+So far we have been dealing with those of Lyly's writings, which, though
+they are his most famous, form quite a small section of his work, and
+exerted an influence upon later writers which may have been considerable
+but was certainly indirect. His plays on the other hand, in the
+production of which he spent the better part of his life, greatly
+outweigh his novel both in aesthetic and historical importance. To
+attempt to estimate Lyly's position as a novelist and as a prose writer
+is to chase the will-o'-the-wisp of theory over the morass of
+uncertainty; the task of investigating his comedies is altogether
+simpler and more straightforward. After groping our way through the
+undergrowth of minor literature, we come out upon the great highway of
+Elizabethan art--the drama. Let us first see how Lyly himself came to
+tread this same pathway.
+
+There is a difference of opinion between Mr Bond and Mr Baker, our chief
+authorities, as to the order in which Lyly wrote his plays[97]. But
+though Mr Baker claims priority for _Endymion_, and Mr Bond for
+_Campaspe_, both are convinced that our author was already in 1580
+beginning to look to the stage as a larger arena for his artistic genius
+than the novel. And from what I have said of his life at Oxford and his
+connexion with de Vere, we need not be surprised that this was so. It
+would be well however at this juncture to recapitulate, and in part to
+expand those remarks, in order to show more clearly how Lyly's dramatic
+bent was formed. Seats of learning, as we shall see presently, had long
+before the days of Lyly favoured the comic muse, and Oxford was no
+exception to this rule. Anthony à Wood tells us how Richard Edwardes in
+1566 produced at that University his play _Palamon and Arcite_, and how
+her Majesty "laughed heartily thereat and gave the author great thanks
+for his pains"; a scene which would still be fresh in men's minds five
+years after, when Lyly entered Magdalen College. But it is scarcely
+necessary to stretch a point here since we know from the _Anatomy of
+Wit_ that Lyly was a student of Edwardes' comedies[98]. Again, William
+Gager, Pettie's "dear friend" and Lyly's fellow-student, was a
+dramatist, while Gosson himself tells us of comedies which he had
+written before 1577.
+
+ [97] Baker, p. lxxxviii, places _Endymion_ as early as Sept. 1579.
+ Bond, vol. III. p. 10, attempts to disprove Baker's contention, and in
+ vol. II. p. 309, he maintains chiefly on grounds of style that
+ _Campaspe_ was the earliest of Lyly's plays, being produced at the
+ Christmas of 1580.
+
+ [98] Bond, II. p. 238.
+
+Probably however it was not until he had left Oxford for London that
+Lyly conceived the idea of writing comedy, for we must attribute its
+original suggestion to his friend and employer the Earl of Oxford.
+Edward de Vere, Burleigh's son-in-law, had visited Italy, and affected
+the vices and artificialities of that country, returning home, we are
+told, laden with silks and oriental stuffs for the adornment of his
+chamber and his person. He was frequently in debt and still more
+frequently in disgrace with the Queen and with his father-in-law.
+Dilettante, aesthete, and euphuist, he would naturally attract the
+Oxford fop, and that Lyly attached himself to his clique disposes, in my
+mind at least, of all theories of his puritanical tendencies. Certainly
+a Nonconformist conscience could not have flourished in de Vere's
+household. One bond between the Earl and his secretary was their love of
+music--an art which played an important part in the beginning of our
+comedy.
+
+In relieving the action of his plays by those songs of woodland beauty
+unmatched in literature Shakespeare was only following a custom set by
+his predecessors, Udall, Edwardes, and Lyly, who being schoolmasters
+(and the two latter being musicians and holding positions in choir
+schools), embroidered their comedies with lyrics to be sung by the fresh
+young voices of their pupils. De Vere, though unconnected with a school,
+probably followed the same tradition. For the interesting thing about
+him is that he also wrote comedy. Like many members of the nobility in
+those days he maintained his own company of players; and we find them in
+1581 giving performances at Cambridge and Ipswich. His comedies,
+moreover, though now lost were placed in the same rank as those of
+Edwardes by the Elizabethan critic Puttenham[99]. Now as secretary of
+such a man, and therefore in close intimacy with him, it would be the
+most natural thing in the world for Lyly to try his hand at
+play-writing, and, if his patron approved of his efforts, an
+introduction to Court could be procured, since Oxford was Lord High
+Chamberlain, and the play would be acted. It was to Oxford's patronage,
+therefore, and not to his subsequent connexion with the "children of
+Powles," that Lyly owed his first dramatic impulse, and probably also
+his first dramatic success, for _Campaspe_ and _Sapho_ were produced at
+Court in 1582[100]. His appointment at the choir school of course
+confirmed his resolutions and thus he became the first great Elizabethan
+dramatist.
+
+ [99] _Dict. Of Nat. Biog._, Edward de Vere.
+
+ [100] Bond, II. p. 230 (chronological table).
+
+But a purely circumstantial explanation of an important departure in a
+man's life will only appear satisfactory to fatalists who worship the
+blind god Environment. And without indulging in any abstruse
+psychological discussion, but rather looking at the question from a
+general point of view, we can understand how an intellect of Lyly's
+type, as revealed by the _Euphues_, found its ultimate expression in
+comedy. Comedy, as Meredith tells us, is only possible in a civilized
+society, "where ideas are current and the perceptions quick." We have
+already touched upon this point and later we must return to it again;
+but for the moment let us notice that this idea of comedy, though he
+would have been quite unable to formulate it in words, was in reality at
+the back of Lyly's mind, or rather we should perhaps say that he quite
+unconsciously embodied it. He was _par excellence_ the product of a
+"social" atmosphere; he moved more freely within the Court than without;
+his whole mind was absorbed by the subtleties of language; a brilliant
+conversation, an apt repartee, a well-turned phrase were the very breath
+of his nostrils; his ideal was the intellectual beau. Add to this
+compound the ingredient of literary ambition and the result is a comic
+dramatist. Lyly, Congreve, Sheridan, were all men of fashion first and
+writers of comedy after. In the author of _Lady Windermere's Fan_ we
+have lately seen another example--the example of one whose ambition was
+to be "the first well-dressed philosopher in the history of thought."
+Poems, novels, fairy stories, he gave us, but it was on the stage of
+comedy that he eventually found his true _métier_. "With _Euphues_,"
+writes Mr Bond, "we enter the path which leads to the Restoration
+dramatists ... and in Lucilla and Camilla we are prescient of Millamant
+and Belinda[101]." This is very true, but the statement has a nearer
+application which Mr Bond misses. Camilla is the lady who moves under
+varied names through all Lyly's plays. The second part of _Euphues_ and
+the first of Lyly's comedies are as closely connected psychologically
+and aesthetically, as they were in point of time.
+
+ [101] Bond, I. p. 161.
+
+
+SECTION I. _English Comedy before 1580._
+
+But when Lyly's creations began to walk the boards, the English stage
+was already some centuries old and therefore, in order to appreciate our
+author's position, a few words are necessary upon the development of our
+drama and especially of comedy previous to his time.
+
+Though the _miracle_ play of our forefathers frequently contained a
+species of coarse humour usually put into the mouth of the Devil, who
+appears to have been for the middle ages very much what the "comic muse"
+is for us moderns, it is to the _morality_ not to the _miracle_ that one
+should look for the real beginnings of comedy as distinct from mere
+buffoonery.
+
+The _morality_ was not so much an offshoot as a complement of the
+_miracle_. They stood to each other, as sermon does to service. To say
+therefore that the _morality_ secularized the drama is to go too far; as
+well might we say that Luther secularized Christianity. What it did,
+however, was important enough; it severed the connexion between drama
+and ritual. The _miracle_, treating of the history of mankind from the
+Creation to the days of Christ, unfolded before the eyes of its
+audience the grand scheme of human salvation; the _morality_ on the
+other hand was not concerned with historical so much as practical
+Christianity. Its object was to point a moral: and it did this in two
+ways; either as an affirmative, constructive inculcator of what life
+should be,--as the portrayer of the ideal; or as a negative, critical
+describer of the types of life actually existing,--as the portrayer of
+the real. It approached more nearly to comedy in its latter function,
+but in both aspects it really prepared the way for the comic muse. The
+natural prey of comedy, as our greatest comic writer has taught us, is
+folly, "known to it in all her transformations, in every disguise; and
+it is with the springing delight of hawk over heron, hound after fox,
+that it gives her chase, never fretting, never tiring, sure of having
+her, allowing her no rest." Thus it is that characters in comedy,
+symbolizing as they often do some social folly, tend to be rather types
+than personalities. The _morality_, therefore, in substituting typical
+figures, however crude, for the mechanical religious characters of the
+_miracle_, makes an immense advance towards comedy. Moreover, the very
+selection of types requires an appreciation, if not an analysis, of the
+differences of human character, an appreciation for which there was no
+need in the _miracle_. In the _morality_ again the action is no longer
+determined by tradition, and it becomes incumbent on the playwright to
+provide motives for the movements of his puppets. It follows naturally
+from this that situations must be devised to show up the particular
+quality which each type symbolizes. We need not enter the vexed question
+of the origin of plot construction; but we may notice in this connexion
+that the _morality_ certainly gave us that peculiar form of
+plot-movement which is most suitable to comedy. To quote Mr Gayley's
+words: "In tragedy, the movement must be economic of its ups and downs;
+once headed downwards it must plunge, with but one or two vain recovers,
+to the abyss. In comedy, on the other hand, though the movement is
+ultimately upward, the crises are more numerous; the oftener the
+individual stumbles without breaking his neck, and the more varied his
+discomfitures, so long as they are temporary, the better does he enjoy
+his ease in the cool of the day.... Now the novelty of the plot in the
+_moral_ play, lay in the fact that the movement was of this oscillating,
+upward kind--a kind unknown as a rule to the _miracle_, whose conditions
+were less fluid, and to the farce, which was too shallow and
+superficial[102]."
+
+ [102] Gayley, p. lxiv.
+
+If all these claims be justifiable there can be no doubt that the
+_morality_ was of the utmost importance in the history not only of
+comedy but of English drama as a whole. Though it was the cousin, not
+the child of the _miracle_, though it cannot be said to have secularized
+our drama, it is the link between the ritual play and the play of pure
+amusement; it connects the rood gallery with the London theatre. When
+Symonds writes that the _morality_ "can hardly be said to lie in the
+direct line of evolution between the _miracle_ and the legitimate drama"
+we may in part agree with him; but he is quite wrong when he goes on to
+describe it as "an abortive side-effect, which was destined to bear
+barren fruit[103]."
+
+ [103] Symonds, p. 199.
+
+The real secularization of the drama was in the first place probably due
+to classical influences--or, to be more precise, I should perhaps say,
+scholastic influences--and it is not until the 16th century that these
+influences become prominent. I say "become prominent," because Terence
+and Plautus were known from the earliest times, and Dr Ward is inclined
+to think that Latin comedy affected the earlier drama of England to a
+considerable extent[104], although good examples of Terentian comedy are
+not found until the 16th century. Humanism again comes forward as an
+important literary formative element. The part which the student class
+took in the development of European drama as a whole has as yet scarcely
+been appreciated. It is to scholars that the birth of the secular Drama
+must be attributed. Lyly, as we said, made use of his mastership for the
+production of his plays, but Lyly was by no means the first
+schoolmaster-dramatist. Schools and universities had long before his day
+been productive of drama; our very earliest existing saints' play or
+_marvel_ was produced by a certain Geoffrey at Dunstable, "de
+consuetudine magistrorum et scholarum[105]." And this was only natural,
+seeing that at such places any number of actors is available and all are
+supposed to be interested in literature. It is a remarkable fact,
+however, and illustrative of the connexion between comedy and music,
+that of all places of education choir schools seem to have usurped the
+lion's share of drama. John Heywood, the first to break away from the
+tradition of the _morality_, was a choir boy of the Chapel Royal, and
+afterwards in all probability held a post there as master[106].
+Heywood's brilliant, but farcical interludes are too slight to merit the
+title of comedy, yet he is of great importance because of his rejection
+of allegories and of his use of "personal types" instead of
+"personified abstractions[107]." It was not until 1540, a few years
+after Heywood's interlude _The Play of the Wether_, that pure English
+comedy appears, and we must turn to Eton to discover its cradle, for
+Nicholas Udall's _Roister Doister_ has every claim to rank as the first
+completely constructed comedy in our language--the first comedy of flesh
+and blood. Roister smacks of the "miles gloriosus"; Merygreeke combines
+the vice with the Terentian rogue; and yet, when all is said, Udall's
+play remains a remarkably original production, realistic and English.
+
+ [104] Ward, I. p. 7.
+
+ [105] Gayley, p. xiv.
+
+ [106] I put this interpretation upon the account of Heywood's
+ receiving 40 shillings from Queen Mary "for pleying an interlude with
+ his children."
+
+ [107] Ward, _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Heywood.
+
+Next, in point of time and importance, comes Stevenson's _Gammer
+Gurton's Needle_, still more thoroughly English than the last, though
+quite inferior as a comedy, and indeed scarcely rising above the level
+of farce. Inasmuch, however, as it is a drama of English rustic life, it
+is directly antecedent to _Mother Bombie_, and perhaps also to the
+picaresque novel. Secular dramas now began to multiply apace. But
+keeping our eye upon comedy, and upon Lyly in particular as we near the
+date of his advent, it will be sufficient I think to mention two more
+names to complete the chain of development. From Cambridge, the nurse of
+Stevenson, we must now turn to Oxford; and, as we do so, we seem to be
+drawing very close to the end of our journey. Thus far we have had
+nothing like the romantic comedy--the comedy of sentiment, of love, the
+comedy which is at once serious and witty, and which contains the
+elements of tragedy. This appears, or is at least foreshadowed for the
+first time, about four years after Stevenson's "first-rate screaming
+farce," as Symonds has dubbed it, in the _Damon and Pithias_ of Richard
+Edwardes, a writer with whom, as we have seen, Lyly was thoroughly
+familiar. Indeed, the play in question anticipates our author in many
+ways, for example in the introduction of pages, in the use of English
+proverbs and Latin quotations, and in the insertion of songs[108]. With
+reference to the last point, we may remark that Edwardes like Lyly was
+interested in music, and like him also held a post in a choir school,
+being one of the "gentlemen of the Chapel Royal." In the _Damon and
+Pithias_ the old _morality_ is once and for all discarded. The play is
+entirely free from all allegorical elements, and is only faintly tinged
+with didacticism. But we cannot express the aim of Edwardes better than
+in his own words:
+
+ "In comedies the greatest skyll is this, lightly to touch
+ All thynges to the quick; and eke to frame each person so
+ That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know."
+
+To touch lightly and yet with penetration, to reveal character by
+dialogue, this is indeed to write modern drama, modern comedy.
+
+ [108] Bond, II. p. 238.
+
+It would seem that between Edwardes and Lyly there was no room for
+another link, so closely does the one follow the other; and yet one more
+play must be mentioned to complete the series. This time we are no
+longer brought into touch with the classics or with the scholastic
+influences, for the play in question is a translation from the Italian,
+being in fact Ariosto's _Suppositi_, englished by George Gascoigne[109].
+Though a translation it was more than a transcript; it was englished in
+the true sense of that word, in sentiment as well as in phrase. Its
+chief importance lies in the fact that it is written in prose, and is
+therefore the first prose comedy in our language. But Mr Gayley would go
+further than this, for he describes it as "the first English comedy in
+every way worthy of the name." It was written entirely for amusement,
+and for the amusement of adults, not of children; and if it were the
+only product of Gascoigne's pen it would justify the remark of an early
+17th century critic, who says of this writer that he "brake the ice for
+our quainter poets who now write, that they may more safely swim through
+the main ocean of sweet poesy"; for, to quote a modern writer, "with the
+blood of the New comedy, the Latin comedy, the Renaissance in its veins,
+it is far ahead of its English contemporaries, if not of its time[110]."
+The play was well known and popular among the Elizabethans, being
+revived at Oxford in 1582[111]. Shakespeare used it for the construction
+of his _Taming of the Shrew_: and altogether it is difficult to say how
+much Elizabethan drama probably owed to this one comedy, which though
+Italian in origin was carefully adapted to English taste by its
+translator. There can be no doubt that Lyly studied this among other of
+Gascoigne's works, and that he must have learnt many lessons from it,
+though the fact does not appear to have been sufficiently appreciated by
+Lylian students; for even Mr Bond fails, I think, to realise its
+importance.
+
+ [109] 1566.
+
+ [110] Gayley, p. lxxxv.
+
+ [111] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Gascoigne, George.
+
+This, in brief outline, is the history of our comedy down to the time
+when Lyly took it in hand; or should we not rather say "an introduction
+to the history of our comedy"? For true English comedy is not to be
+found in any of the plays we have mentioned. Heywood, Udall, Stevenson,
+Edwardes, are the names that convey "broken lights" of comedy, hints of
+the dawn, nothing more; and Gascoigne was a translator. The supreme
+importance of a writer, who at this juncture produced eight comedies of
+sustained merit, and of varying types, is something which is quite
+beyond computation. But if we are to attempt to realise the greatness
+of our debt to Lyly, let us estimate exactly how much these previous
+efforts had done in the way of pioneer work, and how far also they fell
+short of comedy in the strict sense of that word.
+
+The fifty years which lie between Heywood and Lyly saw considerable
+progress, but progress of a negative rather than a constructive nature,
+and moreover progress which came in fits and starts, and not
+continuously. It was in fact a period of transition and of individual
+and disconnected experiments. Each of the writers above mentioned
+contributed something towards the common development, but not one of
+them, except Ariosto's translator, gave us comedy which may be
+considered complete in every way. They all display a very elementary
+knowledge of plot construction. Udall is perhaps the most successful in
+this respect; his plot is trivial but, well versed as he is in Terence,
+he manages to give it an ordered and natural development. But the other
+pre-Lylian dramatists quite failed to realise the vital importance of
+plot, which is indeed the very essence of comedy; and, in expending
+energies upon the development of an argument, as in _Jacke Jugeler_,
+which was a parody of transubstantiation, or upon the construction of
+disconnected humorous situations, as in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, they
+missed the whole point of comedy. Again, though there is a clear idea of
+distinction and interplay of characters, there is little perception of
+the necessity of developing character as the plot moves forward.
+Merygreeke, it may be objected, is an example of such development, but
+the alteration in Merygreeke's nature is due to inconsistency, not to
+evolution. Moreover, stage conventions had not yet become a matter of
+fixed tradition. "We have a perpetual conflict between what spectators
+actually see and what they are supposed to see, between the time
+actually passed and that supposed to have elapsed; an outrageous demand
+on the imagination in one place, a refusal to exercise or allow us to
+exercise it in another[112]." Further, English comedy before 1580 was
+marked, on the one hand, by its poetic literary form and, on the other,
+by its almost complete absence of poetic ideas. Lyly, with the instinct
+of a born conversationalist, realised that prose was the only possible
+dress for comedy that should seek to represent contemporary life. But
+even in their use of verse his predecessors were unsuccessful. Udall
+seemed to have thought that his unequal dogtail lines would wag if he
+struck a rhyme at the end, and even Edwardes was little better. The use
+of blank verse had yet to be discovered, and Lyly was to have a hand in
+this matter also[113]. As for poetical treatment of comedy, Edwardes is
+the only one who even approaches it. He does so, because he sees that
+the comic muse only ceases to be a mask when sentiment is allowed to
+play over her features. And even he only half perceives it; for the
+sentiment of friendship is not strong enough for complete animation, the
+muse's eyes may twinkle, but passion alone will give them depth and let
+the soul shine through. But, in order that passion should fill comedy
+with the breath of life, it was necessary that both sexes should walk
+the stage on an equal footing. That which comedy before 1580 lacked,
+that which alone could round it off into a poetic whole, was the female
+element. "Comedy," writes George Meredith, "lifts women to a station
+offering them free play for their wit, as they usually show it, when
+they have it, on the side of sound sense. The higher the comedy, the
+more prominent the part they enjoy in it." But the dramatist cannot lift
+them far; the civilized plane must lie only just beneath the comic
+plane; the stage cannot be lighted by woman's wit if the audience have
+not yet realised that brain forms a part of the feminine organism. In
+the days of Elizabeth this realisation began to dawn in men's minds; but
+it was Lyly who first expressed it in literature, in his novel and then
+in his dramas. Those who preceded him were only dimly conscious of it,
+and therefore they failed to seize upon it as material for art. It was
+at Court, the Court of a great virgin Queen, that the equality of social
+privileges for women was first established; it was a courtier who
+introduced heroines into our drama.
+
+ [112] Bond, II. p. 237.
+
+ [113] George Gascoigne, whose importance does not seem to have been
+ realised by Elizabethan students, also produced a drama in blank
+ verse.
+
+
+SECTION II. _The Eight Plays._
+
+Concerning the order of Lyly's plays there is, as we have seen, some
+difference of opinion. The discussion between Mr Bond and Mr Baker in
+reality turns upon the interpretation of the allegory of _Endymion_, and
+it is therefore one of those questions of literary probability which can
+never hope to receive a satisfactory answer. Both critics, however, are
+in agreement as to the proper method of classification. They divide the
+dramas into four categories: historical, of which _Campaspe_ is the sole
+example; allegorical, which includes _Sapho and Phao_, _Endymion_, and
+_Midas_; pastoral, which includes _Gallathea_, _The Woman in the Moon_,
+and _Love's Metamorphosis_; and lastly realistic, of which again there
+is only one example, _Mother Bombie_. The fault which may be found with
+this classification is that the so-called pastoral plays have much of
+the allegorical about them, and it is perhaps better, therefore, to
+consider them rather as a subdivision of class two than as a distinct
+species.
+
+For the moment putting on one side all questions of the allegory of
+_Endymion_, there are two reasons which seem to go a long way towards
+justifying Mr Bond for placing _Campaspe_ as the earliest of Lyly's
+plays. In the first place the atmosphere of _Euphues_, which becomes
+weaker in the other plays, is so unmistakeable in this historical drama
+as to force the conclusion upon us that they belong to the same period.
+The painter Apelles, whose name seemed almost to obsess Lyly in his
+novel, is one of the chief characters of _Campaspe_, and the dialogue is
+more decidedly euphuistic than any other play. The second point we may
+notice is one which can leave very little doubt as to the correctness of
+Mr Bond's chronology. _Campaspe_ and _Sapho_ were published before 1585,
+that is, before Lyly accepted the mastership at the St Paul's choir
+school, whereas none of his other plays came into the printer's hands
+until after the inhibition of the boys' acting rights in 1591; the
+obvious inference being that Lyly printed his plays only when he had no
+interest in preserving the acting rights.
+
+But whatever date we assign to _Campaspe_, there can be little doubt
+that it was one of the first dramas in our language with an historical
+background. Indeed, _Kynge Johan_ is the only play before 1580 which can
+claim to rival it in this respect. But _Kynge Johan_ was written solely
+for the purpose of religious satire, being an attack upon the priesthood
+and Church abuses. It must, therefore, be classed among those political
+_moralities_, of which so many examples appeared during the early part
+of the 16th century. _Campaspe_, on the other hand, is entirely devoid
+of any ethical or satirical motive. Allegory, which Lyly was able to
+put to his own peculiar uses, is here quite absent. The sole aim of its
+author was to provide amusement, and in this respect it must have been
+entirely successful. The play is interesting, and at times amusing, even
+to a modern reader; but to those who witnessed its performance at
+Blackfriars, and, two years later, at the Court, it would appear as a
+marvel of wit and dramatic power after the crude material which had
+hitherto been offered to them. In the choice of his subject Lyly shows
+at once that he is an artist with a feeling for beauty, even if he
+seldom rises to its sublimities. The story of the play, taken from
+Pliny, is that of Alexander's love for his Theban captive Campaspe, and
+of his subsequent self-sacrifice in giving her up to her lover Apelles.
+The social change, which I have sought to indicate in the preceding
+pages, is at once evident in this play. "We calling Alexander from his
+grave," says its Prologue[114], "seeke only who was his love"; and the
+remark is a sweep of the hat to the ladies of the Court, whose
+importance, as an integral part of the audience, is now for the first
+time openly acknowledged. "Alexander, the great conqueror of the world,"
+says Lyly with his hand upon his heart, "only interests me as a lover."
+The whole motive of the play, which would have been meaningless to a
+mediaeval audience, is a compliment to the ladies. It is as if our
+author nets Mars with Venus, and presents the shamefaced god as an
+offering of flattery to the Queen and her Court. _Campaspe_ is, in fact,
+the first romantic drama, not only the forerunner of Shakespeare, but a
+remote ancestor of _Hernani_ and the 19th century French theatre. "The
+play's defect," says Mr Bond, "is one of passion"--a criticism which is
+applicable to all Lyly's dramas; and yet we must not forget that Lyly
+was the earliest to deal with passion dramatically. The love of
+Alexander is certainly unemotional, not to say callous; but possibly the
+great monarch's equanimity was a veiled tribute to the supposed
+indifference of the virgin Queen to all matters of Cupid's trade.
+Between Campaspe and Apelles, however, we have scenes which are imbued,
+if not vitalized, by passion. Lyly was a beginner, and his fault lay in
+attempting too much. Caring more for brilliancy of dialogue than for
+anything else, he was no more likely to be successful here, in
+portraying passion through conversation weighted by euphuism, than he
+had been in his novel. Yet his endeavour to depict the conflict of
+masculine passion with feminine wit, impatient sallies neatly parried,
+deliberate lunges quietly turned aside, was in every way praiseworthy.
+"A witte apt to conceive and quickest to answer" is attributed by
+Alexander to Campaspe, and, though she exhibits few signs of it, yet in
+his very idea of endowing women with wit Lyly leads us on to the
+high-road of comedy leading to Congreve.
+
+ [114] From _Prologue_ at the Court.
+
+In addition to the romantic elements above described, we have here also
+that page-prattle which is so characteristic of all Lyly's plays. These
+urchins, full of mischief and delighting in quips, were probably
+borrowed from Edwardes, but Lyly made them all his own; and one can
+understand how naturally their parts would be played by his boy-actors.
+Their repartee, when it is not pulling to pieces some Latin quotation
+familiar to them at school, or ridiculing a point of logic, is often
+really witty. One of them, overhearing the hungry Manes at strife with
+Diogenes over the matter of an overdue dinner, exclaims to his friend,
+"This is their use, nowe do they dine one upon another." Diogenes again,
+in whom we may see the prototype of Shakespeare's Timon, is amusing
+enough at times with his "dogged" snarlings and sallies which
+frequently however miss their mark. He and the pages form an underplot
+of farce, upon which Lyly improved in his later plays, bringing it also
+more into connexion with the main plot. In passing, we may notice that
+few of Shakespeare's plays are without this farcical substratum.
+
+Leaving the question of dramatic construction and characterization for a
+more general treatment later, we now pass on to the consideration of
+Lyly's allegorical plays. The absence of all allegory from _Campaspe_
+shows that Lyly had broken with the _morality_: and we seem therefore to
+be going back, when two years later we have an allegorical play from his
+pen. But in reality there is no retrogression; for with Lyly allegory is
+not an ethical instrument. I have mentioned examples of plays before his
+day which employed the machinery of the _morality_, for the purposes of
+political and religious satire. The old form of drama seems to have
+developed a keen sensibility to _double entendre_ among theatre-goers.
+Nothing indeed is so remarkable about the Elizabethan stage as the
+secret understanding which almost invariably existed between the
+dramatist and his audience. We have already had occasion to notice it in
+connexion with Field's parody of Kyd. The spectators were always on the
+alert to detect some veiled reference to prominent political figures or
+to current affairs. Often in fact, as was natural, they would discover
+hints where nothing was implied; and for one Mrs Gallup in modern
+America there must have been a dozen in every auditorium of Elizabethan
+England. Such over-clever busybodies would readily twist an innocent
+remark into treason or sacrilege, and therefore, long before Lyly's
+time, it was customary for a playwright to defend himself in the
+prologue against such treatment, by denying any ambiguity in his
+dialogue. In an audience thus susceptible to innuendo Lyly saw his
+opportunity. He was a courtier writing for the Court, he was also, let
+us add, anxious to obtain a certain coveted post at the Revels' Office.
+He was an artist not entirely without ideals, yet ever ready to curry
+favour and to aim at material advantages by his literary facility. The
+idea therefore of writing dramas which should be, from beginning to end,
+nothing but an ingenious compliment to his royal mistress would not be
+in the least distasteful to him. But we must not attribute too much to
+motives of personal ambition. Spenser's _Faery Queen_ was not published
+until 1590; but Lyly had known Spenser before the latter's departure for
+Ireland, and, even if the scheme of that poet's masterpiece had not been
+confided to him, the ideas which it contained were in the air. The cult
+of Elizabeth, which was far from being a piece of insincere adulation,
+had for some time past been growing into a kind of literary religion.
+Even to us, there is something magical about the great Queen, and we can
+hardly be surprised that the pagans of those days hailed her as half
+divine. When Lyly commenced his career, she had been on the throne for
+twenty years, in itself a wonderful fact to those who could remember the
+gloom which had surrounded her accession. Through a period of infinite
+danger both at home and abroad she had guided England with intrepidity
+and success; and furthermore she had done all this single-handed,
+refusing to share her throne with a partner even for the sake of
+protection, and yet improving upon the Habsburg policy[115] by making
+coquetry the pivot of her diplomacy. It was no wonder therefore that,
+
+ "As the imperial votaress passed on
+ In maiden meditation fancy free,"
+
+the courtiers she fondled, and the artists she patronized, should half
+in fancy, half in earnest, think of her as something more than human,
+and search the fables of their newly discovered classics for examples of
+enthroned chastity and unconquerable virgin queens.
+
+ [115] "Alii bella gerunt, tu felix Austria nube."
+
+All Lyly's plays except _Campaspe_ and _Mother Bombie_ are written in
+this vein; each, as Symonds beautifully puts it, is "a censer of
+exquisitely chased silver, full of incense to be tossed before Elizabeth
+upon her throne." In the three plays _Sapho and Phao_, _Endymion_, and
+_Midas_ this element of flattery is more prominent than in the others,
+inasmuch as they are not only full of compliments unmistakeably directed
+towards the Queen, but they actually seek to depict incidents from her
+reign under the guise of classical mythology. It is for this reason that
+they have been classified under the label of allegory. It is quite
+possible, however, to read and enjoy these plays without a suspicion of
+any inner meaning; nor does the absence of such suspicion render the
+action of the play in any way unintelligible, so skilfully does Lyly
+manipulate his story. With a view, therefore, to his position in the
+history of Elizabethan drama, and to the lessons which he taught those
+who came after him, the superficial interpretation of each play is all
+that need engage our attention, and we shall content ourselves with
+briefly indicating the actual incident which it symbolizes.
+
+The story of _Sapho and Phao_ is, very shortly, as follows. Phao, a poor
+ferryman, is endowed by Venus with the gift of beauty. Sapho, who in
+Lyly's hands is stripped of all poetical attributes and becomes simply a
+great Queen of Sicily, sees him and instantly falls in love with him.
+To conceal her passion, she pretends to her ladies that she has a fever,
+at the same time sending for Phao, who is rumoured to have herbs for
+such complaints. Meanwhile Venus herself falls a victim to the charms
+she has bestowed upon the ferryman. Cupid is therefore called in to
+remedy matters on her behalf. The boy, who plays a part which no one can
+fail to compare with that of Puck in the _Midsummer Night's Dream_,
+succeeds in curing Sapho's passion, but, much to his mother's disgust,
+won over by the Queen's attractions, refuses to go further, and even
+inspires Phao with a loathing for the goddess. The play ends with Phao's
+departure from Sicily in despair, and Cupid's definite rebellion from
+the rule of Venus, resulting in his remaining with Sapho. In this story,
+which is practically a creation of Lyly's brain, though of course it is
+founded upon the classical tale of Sapho's love for Phao, our playwright
+presents under the form of allegory the history of Alençon's courtship
+of Elizabeth. Sapho, Queen of Sicily, is of course Elizabeth, Queen of
+England. The difficulty of Alençon's (that is Phao's) ugliness is
+overcome by the device of making it love's task to confer beauty upon
+him. Phao like Alençon quits the island and its Queen in despair; while
+the play is rounded off by the pretty compliment of representing love as
+a willing captive in Elizabeth's Court.
+
+As a play _Sapho and Phao_ shows a distinct advance upon _Campaspe_. The
+dialogue is less euphuistic, and therefore much more effective. The
+conversation between Sapho and Phao, in the scene where the latter comes
+with his herbs to cure the Queen, is very charming, and well expresses
+the passion which the one is too humble and the other too proud to
+show.
+
+ PHAO. I know no hearb to make lovers sleepe but Heartesease, which
+ because it groweth so high, I cannot reach: for--
+
+ SAPHO. For whom?
+
+ PHAO. For such as love.
+
+ SAPHO. It groweth very low, and I can never stoop to it, that--
+
+ PHAO. That what?
+
+ SAPHO. That I may gather it: but why doe you sigh so, Phao?
+
+ PHAO. It is mine use Madame.
+
+ SAPHO. It will doe you harme and mee too: for I never heare one
+ sighe, but I must sigh't also.
+
+ PHAO. It were best then that your Ladyship give me leave to be gone:
+ for I can but sigh.
+
+ SAPHO. Nay stay: for now I beginne to sighe, I shall not leave
+ though you be gone. But what do you thinke best for your
+ sighing to take it away?
+
+ PHAO. Yew, Madame.
+
+ SAPHO. Mee?
+
+ PHAO. No, Madame, yewe of the tree.
+
+ SAPHO. Then will I love yewe the better, and indeed I think it
+ should make me sleepe too, therefore all other simples set
+ aside, I will simply use onely yewe.
+
+ PHAO. Doe Madame: for I think nothing in the world so good as
+ yewe[116].
+
+ [116] _Sapho and Phao_, Act III. Sc. IV. 60-85.
+
+Altogether there is a great increase in general vitality in this play.
+Lyly draws nearer to the conception of ideal comedy. "Our interest," he
+tells us in his Prologue, "was at this time to move inward delight not
+outward lightnesse, and to breede (if it might be) soft smiling, not
+loud laughing"; and to this end he tends to minimize the purely farcical
+element. The pages are still present, but they are balanced by a group
+of Sapho's maids-in-waiting who discuss the subject of love upon the
+stage with great frankness and charm. Mileta, the leader of this chorus,
+is, we may suspect, a portrait drawn from life; she is certainly much
+more convincing than the somewhat shadowy Campaspe. The figures in
+Lyly's studio are limited in number--Camilla, Lucilla, Campaspe, Mileta,
+all come from the same mould: in Pandion we may discover Euphues under a
+new name, and the surly Vulcan is only another edition of the "crabbed
+Diogenes." And yet each of these types becomes more life-like as he
+proceeds, and if the puppets that he left to his successors were not yet
+human, they had learnt to walk the stage without that angularity of
+movement and jerkiness of speech which betray the machine.
+
+Departing for a moment from the strictly chronological order, and
+leaving _Gallathea_ for later treatment, we pass on to _Endymion_, the
+second of the allegorical dramas, and, without doubt, the boldest in
+conception and the most beautiful in execution of all Lyly's plays. The
+story is founded upon the classical fable of Diana's kiss to the
+sleeping boy, but its arrangement and development are for the most part
+of Lyly's invention: indeed, he was obliged to frame it in accordance
+with the facts which he sought to allegorize. All critics are agreed in
+identifying Cynthia with Elizabeth and Endymion with Leicester, but they
+part company upon the interpretation of the play as a whole. The story
+is briefly as follows. Endymion, forsaking his former love Tellus,
+contracts an ardent passion for Cynthia, who, in accordance with her
+character as moon-goddess, meets his advances with coolness. Tellus
+determines to be revenged, and, by the aid of a sorceress Dipsas, sends
+the youth into a deep sleep from which no one can awaken him. Cynthia
+learns what has befallen, and although she does not suspect Tellus, she
+orders the latter to be shut up in a castle for speaking maliciously of
+Endymion. She then sends Eumenides, the young man's great friend, to
+seek out a remedy. This man is deeply in love with Semele, who scorns
+his passion, and therefore, when he reaches a magic fountain which will
+answer any question put to it, he is so absorbed with his own troubles
+as almost to forget those of his friend. A carefully thought-out piece
+of writing follows, for he debates with himself whether to use his one
+question for an enquiry about his love or his sleeping friend.
+Friendship and duty conquer at length, and, looking into the well, he
+discovers that the remedy for Endymion's sickness is a kiss from
+Cynthia's lips. He returns with his message, the kiss is given,
+Endymion, grown old after 40 years' sleep, is restored to youth, the
+treachery of Tellus is discovered and eventually forgiven, and the play
+ends amid a peal of marriage bells. Endymion, however, is left
+unmarried, knowing as he does that lowly and distant worship is all he
+can be allowed to offer the virgin goddess. The play, of course, has a
+farcical underplot which is only connected very slightly with the main
+story by Sir Tophas' ridiculous passion for Dipsas. His love in fact is
+presented as a kind of caricature of Endymion's, and he is the
+laughing-stock of a number of pages who gambol and play pranks after the
+usual manner of Lyly's boys. The solution of the allegory lies mainly in
+the interpretation of Tellus' character, and I cannot but agree with Mr
+Bond when he decides that Tellus is Mary Queen of Scots. He is perhaps
+less convincing where he pairs Endymion with Sidney, and Semele with
+Penelope Devereux, the famous _Stella_. Lastly we may notice his
+suggestion that Tophas may be Gabriel Harvey, which certainly appears to
+be more probable than Halpin's theory that Stephen Gosson is here
+meant[117]. But the whole question is one of such obscurity, and of so
+little importance from the point of view of my argument, that I shall
+not attempt to enter further into it.
+
+ [117] Halpin, _Oberon's Vision_, Shakespeare Society, 1843.
+
+In _Endymion_ Lyly shows that his mastership of St Paul's has increased
+his knowledge of stage-craft. For example, while _Campaspe_ contains at
+least four imaginary transfers in space in the middle of a scene,
+_Endymion_ has only one: and it is a transfer which requires a much
+smaller stretch of imagination than the constant appearance of Diogenes'
+tub upon the stage whenever and wherever comic relief was considered
+necessary. There is improvement moreover in characterization. But the
+interesting thing about this play is Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of
+it, visible chiefly in the _Midsummer Night's Dream_. The well-known
+speech of Oberon to Puck, directing him to gather the "little western
+flower," is to all intents and purposes a beautiful condensation of
+Lyly's allegory. One would like, indeed, to think that there was
+something more than fancy in Mr Gollancz's suggestion that Shakespeare
+when a boy had seen this play of Lyly's acted at Kenilworth, where
+Leicester entertained Elizabeth; little William going thither with his
+father from the neighbouring town of Stratford. But however that may be,
+_Endymion_ certainly had a peculiar fascination for him; we may even
+detect borrowings from the underplot. Tophas' enumeration of the charms
+of Dipsas[118] foreshadows Thisbe's speech over the fallen Pyramus[119],
+while, did we not know Lyly's play to be the earlier, we might suspect
+the page's song near the sleeping knight to be a clumsy caricature of
+the graceful songs of the fairies guarding Titania's dreams. Again there
+are parallels in Shakespeare's earliest comedy _Love's Labour's Lost_.
+Sir Tophas, who is undoubtedly modelled upon Roister Doister, reappears
+with his page, as Armado with his attendant Moth. And I have no doubt
+that many other resemblances might be discovered by careful
+investigation. We cannot wonder that _Endymion_ attracted Shakespeare,
+for it is the most "romantic" of all Lyly's plays. Indistinctness of
+character seems to be in keeping with an allegory of moonshine; and even
+the mechanical action cannot spoil the poetical atmosphere which
+pervades the whole. Here if anywhere Lyly reached the poetical plane. He
+speaks of "thoughts stitched to the starres," of "time that treadeth all
+things down but truth," of the "ivy which, though it climb up by the
+elme, can never get hold of the beames of the sunne," and the play is
+full of many other quaint poetical conceits.
+
+ [118] _Endymion_, Act III. Sc. II. ll. 30-60.
+
+ [119] Cp. also Shakespeare, _Sonnet_ CXXX.
+
+From the point of view of drama, however, it cannot be considered equal
+to the third of the allegorical plays. As a man of fashion Lyly was
+nothing if not up to date. In August 1588 the great Armada had made its
+abortive attack upon Cynthia's kingdom, and twelve months were scarcely
+gone before the industrious Court dramatist had written and produced on
+the stage an allegorical satire upon his Catholic Majesty Philip, King
+of Spain. Though it contains compliments to Elizabeth, _Midas_ is more
+of a patriotic than a purely Court play. The story, with but a few
+necessary alterations, comes from Ovid's _Metamorphoses_[120]. It is the
+old tale of the three wishes. Love, power, and wealth are offered, and
+Midas chooses the last. But he soon finds that the gift of turning
+everything to gold has its drawbacks. Even his beard accidentally
+becomes bullion. He eventually gets rid of his obnoxious power by
+bathing in a river. The fault of the play is that there are, as it were,
+two sections; for now we are introduced to an entirely new situation.
+The King chances upon Apollo and Pan engaged in a musical contest, and,
+asked to decide between them, gives his verdict for the goat-foot god.
+Apollo, in revenge, endows him with a pair of ass's ears. For some time
+he manages to conceal them; but "murder will out," for the reeds breathe
+the secret to the wind. Midas in the end seeks pardon at Apollo's
+shrine, and is relieved of his ears. At the same time he abandons his
+project of invading the neighbouring island of Lesbos, to which
+continual references are made throughout the play. This island is of
+course England; the golden touch refers to the wealth of Spanish
+America, while, if Halpin be correct, Pan and Apollo signify the
+Catholic and the Protestant faith respectively. We may also notice, in
+passing, that the ears obviously gave Shakespeare the idea of Bottom's
+"transfiguration."
+
+ [120] XI. 85-193.
+
+The weakness of the play, as I have said, lies in its duality of action.
+In other respects, however, it is certainly a great advance on its
+predecessors, especially in its underplot, which is for the first time
+connected satisfactorily with the main argument. Motto, the royal
+barber, in the course of his duties, obtains possession of the golden
+beard: and the history of this somewhat unusual form of treasure
+affords a certain amount of amusing farcical relief. It is stolen by one
+of the Court pages, Motto recovers it as a reward for curing the thief's
+toothache, but he loses it again because, being overheard hinting at the
+ass's ears, he is convicted of treason by the pages, and is blackmailed
+in consequence. From this it will be seen that the underplot is more
+embroidered with incident and is, in every way, better arranged than in
+the earlier plays.
+
+We must now turn to the pastoral plays, _Gallathea_, _The Woman in the
+Moon_, and _Love's Metamorphosis_, which we may consider together since
+their stories, uninspired by any allegorical purpose beyond general
+compliments to the Queen, do not require any detailed consideration. And
+yet it should be pointed out that this distinction between Lyly's
+allegorical and pastoral plays is more apparent than real. There are
+shepherds in _Midas_, the Queen appears under the mythological title of
+Ceres in _Love's Metamorphosis_. Such overlapping however is only to be
+expected, and the division is at least very convenient for purposes of
+classification. Lyly's pastoral plays form, as it were, a link between
+the drama and the masque; indeed, when we consider that all the
+Elizabethan dramatists were students of Lyly, it is possible that comedy
+and masque may have been evolved from the Lylian mythological play by a
+process of differentiation. It may be that our author increased the
+pastoral element as the arcadian fashion came into vogue, but this
+argument does not hold of _Gallathea_, while we are uncertain as to the
+date of _Love's Metamorphosis_. None of these plays are worth
+considering in detail, but each has its own particular point of
+interest. In _Gallathea_ this is the introduction of girls in boys'
+clothes. As far as I know, Lyly is the first to use the convenient
+dramatic device of disguise. How effective a trick it was, is proved by
+the manner in which later dramatists, and in particular Shakespeare,
+adopted it. Its full significance cannot be appreciated by us to-day,
+for the whole point of it was that the actors, who appeared as girls
+dressed up as boys, were, as the audience knew, really boys themselves;
+a fact which doubtless increased the funniness of the situation. _The
+Woman in the Moon_ gives us a man disguised in his wife's clothes, which
+is a variation of the same trick. But the importance of _The Woman_ lies
+in its poetical form. Most Elizabethan scholars have decided that this
+play was Lyly's first dramatic effort, on the authority of the Prologue,
+which bids the audience
+
+ "Remember all is but a poet's dream,
+ The first he had in Phoebus' holy bower,
+ But not the last, unless the first displease."
+
+But the maturity and strength of the drama argue a fairly considerable
+experience in its author, and we shall therefore be probably more
+correct if we place it last instead of first of Lyly's plays,
+interpreting the words of the Prologue as simply implying that it was
+Lyly's first experiment in blank verse, inspired possibly by the example
+of Marlowe in _Tamburlaine_ and of Shakespeare in _Love's Labour's
+Lost_[121]. But, whatever its date, _The Woman in the Moon_ must rank
+among the earliest examples of blank verse in our language, and, as
+such, its importance is very great. In _Love's Metamorphosis_ there is
+nothing of interest equal to those points we have noticed in the other
+two plays of the same class. The only remarkable thing, indeed, about it
+is the absence of that farcical under-current which appears in all his
+other plays. Mr Bond suggests, with great plausibility, that such an
+element had originally appeared, but that, because it dealt with
+dangerous questions of the time, perhaps with the _Marprelate_
+controversy, it was expunged.
+
+ [121] Bond, III. p. 234.
+
+It now remains to say a few words upon _Mother Bombie_, which forms the
+fourth division of Lyly's dramatic writings. Though it presents many
+points of similarity in detail to his other plays, its general
+atmosphere is so different (displaying, indeed, at times distinct errors
+of taste) that I should be inclined to assign it to a friend or pupil of
+Lyly, were it not bound up with Blount's _Sixe Court Comedies_[122], and
+therein said to be written by "the onely Rare Poet of that time, the
+wittie, comical, facetiously quicke, and unparalleled John Lilly master
+of arts." It is clever in construction, but undeniably tedious. It shows
+that Lyly had learnt much from Udall, Stevenson, and Gascoigne, and
+perhaps its chief point of interest is that it links these writers to
+the later realists, Ben Jonson, and that student of London life, who is
+surely one of the most charming of all the Elizabethan dramatists,
+whimsical and delightful Thomas Dekker. _Mother Bombie_ was an
+experiment in the drama of realism, the realism that Nash was employing
+so successfully in his novels. It has been labelled as our earliest pure
+farce of well-constructed plot and literary form, but, though it is
+certainly on a much higher plane than _Roister Doister_, it would only
+create confusion if we denied that title to Udall's play. Yet, despite
+its comparative unimportance, and although it is evident that Lyly is
+here out of his natural element, _Mother Bombie_ is interesting as
+showing the (to our ideas) extraordinary confusion of artistic ideals
+which, as I have already noticed, is the remarkable thing about the
+Renaissance in England. Here we have a courtier, a writer of allegories,
+of dream-plays, the first of our mighty line of romanticists, producing
+a somewhat vulgar realistic play of rustic life. There is nothing
+anomalous in this. "Violence and variation," which someone has described
+as the two essentials of the ideal life, were certainly the
+distinguishing marks of the New Birth; and the men of that age demanded
+it in their literature. The drama of horror, the drama of insanity, the
+drama of blood, all were found on the Elizabethan stage, and all
+attracted large audiences. People delighted to read accounts of
+contemporary crime; often these choice morsels were dished up for them
+by some famous writer, as Kyd did in _The Murder of John Brewer_. The
+taste for realism is by no means a purely 19th century product.
+Moreover, the Elizabethans soon wearied of sameness; only a writer of
+the greatest versatility, such as Shakespeare, could hope for success,
+or at least financial success; and it was, perhaps, in order to revive
+his waning popularity that Lyly took to realism. But the child of
+fashion is always the earliest to become out of date, and we cannot
+think that _Mother Bombie_ did much towards improving our author's
+reputation.
+
+ [122] For title-page, Bond, III. p. 1, date 1632.
+
+At this point of our enquiry it will be as well to say a few words upon
+the lyrics which Lyly sprinkled broadcast over his plays. From an
+aesthetic point of view these are superior to anything else he wrote.
+"Foreshortened in the tract of time," his novel, his plays, have become
+forgotten, and it is as the author of _Cupid and my Campaspe played_
+that he is alone known to the lover of literature. There is no need to
+enter into an investigation of the numerous anonymous poems which Mr
+Bond has claimed for him[123]; even if we knew for certain that he was
+their author, they are so mediocre in themselves as to be unworthy of
+notice, scarcely I think of recovery. But let us turn to the songs of
+his dramas, of which there are 32 in all. These are, of course, unequal
+in merit, but the best are worthy to be ranked with Shakespeare's
+lyrics, and our greatest dramatist was only following Lyly's example
+when he introduced lyrics into his plays. I have already pointed out
+that music was an important element in our early comedy. Udall had
+introduced songs into his _Roister Doister_, and we have them also in
+_Gammer Gurton_ and _Damon and Pithias_, but never, before Lyly's day,
+had they taken so prominent a part in drama, for no previous dramatist
+had possessed a tithe of Lyly's lyrical genius. Every condition favoured
+our author in this introduction of songs into his plays. He had
+tradition at his back; he was intensely interested in music, and
+probably composed the airs himself; and lastly he was master of a choir
+school, and would therefore use every opportunity for displaying his
+pupils' voices on the stage. Too much stress, however, must not be laid
+upon this last condition, because Lyly had already written three songs
+for _Campaspe_ and four for _Sapho and Phao_ before he became connected
+with St Paul's, a fact which points again to de Vere, himself a lyrist
+of considerable powers, as Lyly's adviser and master. Doubts, indeed,
+have been cast upon Lyly's authorship of these lyrics on the ground that
+they are omitted from the first edition of the plays. But we need, I
+think, have no hesitation in accepting Lyly as their creator, since the
+omission in question is fully accounted for by the fact that they were
+probably written separately from the plays, and handed round amongst the
+boys together with the musical score[124]. These songs are of various
+kinds and of widely different value. We have, for example, the purely
+comic poem, probably accompanied by gesture and pantomime, such as the
+song of Petulus from _Midas_, beginning, "O my Teeth! deare Barber ease
+me," with interruptions and refrains supplied by his companion and the
+scornful Motto. Many of these songs, indeed, are cast into dialogue
+form, sometimes each page singing a verse by himself, as in "O for a
+Bowle of fatt canary." This last is the earliest of Lyly's wine-songs,
+which for swing and vigour are among some of the best in our language,
+reminding us irresistibly of those pagan chants of the mediaeval
+wandering scholar which the late Mr Symonds has collected for us in his
+_Wine, Women, and Song_. The drinking song, "Io Bacchus," which occurs
+in _Mother Bombie_, is undoubtedly, I think, modelled on one of these
+earlier student compositions; the reference to the practice of throwing
+hats into the fire is alone sufficient to suggest it. But it is as a
+writer of the lyric proper that Lyly is best known. No one but Herrick,
+perhaps, has given us more graceful love trifles woven about some
+classical conceit. Mr Palgrave has familiarized us with the best, _Cupid
+and my Campaspe played_, but there are others only less charming than
+this. The same theme is employed in the following:
+
+ "O Cupid! Monarch over Kings!
+ Wherefore hast thou feet and wings?
+ Is it to show how swift thou art,
+ When thou would'st wound a tender heart?
+ Thy wings being clipped, and feet held still,
+ Thy bow so many would not kill.
+ It is all one in Venus' wanton school
+ Who highest sits, the wise man or the fool!
+ Fools in love's college
+ Have far more knowledge
+ To read a woman over,
+ Than a neat prating lover.
+ Nay, 'tis confessed
+ That fools please women best[125]!"
+
+ [123] Bond, III. p. 433.
+
+ [124] Bond, I. p. 36, II. p. 265.
+
+ [125] _Mother Bombie_, Act III. Sc. III. 1-14.
+
+Another quotation must be permitted. This time it is no embroidered
+conceit, but one of those lyrics of pure nature music, of which the
+Renaissance poets were so lavish, touched with the fire of Spring, with
+the light of hope, bird-notes untroubled by doubt, unconscious of
+pessimism, which are therefore all the more charming for us who dwell
+amid sunsets of intense colouring, who can see nothing but the hectic
+splendours of autumn. For the melancholy nightingale the poet has
+surprise and admiration, no sympathy:
+
+ "What Bird so sings, yet so does wail?
+ O 'tis the ravished Nightingale.
+ Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu, she cries,
+ And still her woes at Midnight rise.
+ Brave prick song! who is't now we hear?
+ None but the lark so shrill and clear;
+ Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
+ The Morn not waking till she sings.
+ Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat
+ Poor Robin-red-breast tunes his note.
+ Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing
+ 'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring,
+ 'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring[126]."
+
+ [126] _Campaspe_, Act V. Sc. I. 32-44. I have modernised the spelling.
+
+This delightful song comes from the first of Lyly's dramas, and few even
+of Shakespeare's lyrics can equal it. Indeed, coming as it does at the
+dawn of the Elizabethan era, it seems like the cuckoo herself "to
+welcome in the spring."
+
+
+SECTION III. _Lyly's dramatic Genius and Influence._
+
+Having thus very briefly passed in review the various plays that Lyly
+bequeathed to posterity[127], we must say a few words in conclusion on
+their main characteristics, the advance they made upon their
+predecessors, and their influence on later drama.
+
+ [127] I have said nothing of the _Mayde's Metamorphosis_, as most
+ critics are agreed in assigning it to some unknown author.
+
+In Lyly, it is worth noticing, England has her first professional
+dramatist. Unlike those who had gone before him he was no amateur, he
+wrote for his living, and he wrote as one interested in the technical
+side of the theatre. They had played with drama, producing indeed
+interesting experiments, but accomplishing only what one would expect
+from men who merely took a lay interest in the theatre, and who
+possessed a certain knowledge, scholastic rather than technical, of the
+methods of the classical playwrights. He, having probably learnt at
+Oxford all there was to be known concerning the drama of the ancient
+world, came to London, and, definitely deciding to embark upon the
+dramatist's career, saw and studied such _moralities_ and plays as were
+to be seen, aided and directed by the experience and knowledge of his
+patron: finding in the _moralities_, allegory; in the plays of Udall and
+Stevenson, farce; in _Damon and Pithias_, a romantic play upon a
+classical theme; and in Gascoigne's _Supposes_, brilliant prose
+dialogue. That he was induced to make such a study, and that he was
+enabled to carry it out so thoroughly, was due partly, I think, to his
+peculiar financial position. As secretary of de Vere, and later as
+Vice-master of St Paul's School, he was independent of the actual
+necessity of bread-winning, which forced even Shakespeare to pander to
+the garlic-eating multitude he loathed, and wrung from him the cry,
+
+ "Alas, 'tis true I have been here and there
+ And made myself a motley to the view,
+ Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear" ...
+
+But, on the other hand, neither post was sufficiently remunerative to
+secure for him the comforts, still less the luxuries, of life. His
+income required supplementing, if only for the sake of meeting his
+tobacco bill, though I have a strong suspicion that the bills sent in to
+him served no more useful purpose than to light his pipe. But, however,
+adopting the theatre as his profession, he would naturally make a
+serious study of dramatic art, and, having no need for constantly
+filling the maw of present necessity, he could undertake such a study
+thoroughly and at his leisure. And to this cause his peculiar importance
+in the history of the Elizabethan stage is mainly due. Next to Jonson,
+the most learned of all the dramatists, yet possessing little of their
+poetical capacity, he set them the most conspicuous example in technique
+and stage-craft, in the science of play-writing, which they would
+probably have been far too busy to acquire for themselves. Lyly's eight
+dramas formed the rough-hewn but indispensable foundation-stone of the
+Elizabethan edifice. Spenser has been called the poet's poet, Lyly was
+in his own days the playwright's dramatist.
+
+Of his dramatic construction we have already spoken. We have noticed
+that he introduced the art of disguise; that he varied his action by
+songs, accompanied perhaps with pantomime. Mr Bond suggests further that
+he probably did much to extend the use of stage properties and
+scenery[128]. But the real importance of his plays lies in their plot
+construction and character drawing, points which as yet we have only
+touched upon. The way in which he manages the action of his plays shows
+a skill quite unapproached by anything that had gone before, and more
+pronounced than that of many which came after. Too often indeed we have
+dialogues, scenes, and characters which have no connexion with the
+development of the story; but when we consider how frequently
+Shakespeare sinned in this respect, we cannot blame Lyly for introducing
+a philosophical discussion between Plato and Aristotle, as in
+_Campaspe_, or those merry altercations between his pages which added so
+much colour and variety to his plays. However many interruptions there
+were, he never allowed his audience to forget the main business, as
+Dekker, for example, so frequently did. Nowhere, again, in Lyly's plays
+are the motives inadequate to support the action, as they were in the
+majority of dramas previous to 1580. Even Alexander's somewhat tame
+surrender of Campaspe is quite in accordance with his royal dignity and
+magnanimity; and, moreover, we are warned in the third act that the
+King's love is slight and will fade away at the first blast of the war
+trumpet, for as he tells us he is "not so far in love with Campaspe as
+with Bucephalus, if occasion serve either of conflict or of
+conquest[129]." In _Endymion_ the motives are perhaps most skilfully
+displayed, and lead most naturally on to the action, and in this play,
+also, Lyly is perhaps most successful in creating that dramatic
+excitement which is caused by working up to an apparent deadlock (due to
+the intrigues of Tellus), and which is made to resolve itself and
+disappear in the final act. Closely allied with the development of
+action by the presentation of motives is the weaving of the plot. And
+in this Lyly is not so satisfactory, though, of course, far in advance
+of his predecessors. A steady improvement, however, is discernible as he
+proceeds. In the earlier plays the page element does little more than
+afford comic relief: the encounters between Manes and his friends, and
+between Manes and his master, can hardly be dignified by the name of
+plot. It is in _Midas_, as I have already suggested, that this farcical
+under-current displays incident and action of its own, turning as it
+does upon the relations of the pages with Motto and the theft of the
+beard. Here again the comic scenes, now connected together for the first
+time, are also united with the main story. But the page element by no
+means represents Lyly's only attempt at creating an underplot. It will
+be seen from the story of _Endymion_ related above that in that play our
+author is not contented with a single passion-nexus, if the expression
+may be allowed, that of Tellus, Cynthia, and Endymion, but he gives us
+another, that of Eumenides and Semele, which has no real connexion with
+the action, but which seriously threatens to interrupt it at one point.
+Other interests are hinted at, rather than developed, by the infatuation
+of Sir Tophas for Dipsas, and by the history of the latter's husband.
+Though _Midas_ is more advanced in other ways, it displays nothing like
+the complexity of _Endymion_, and it is moreover, as I have said, cut in
+two by the want of connexion between the incident of the golden touch
+and that of the ass's ears. Lastly, in _Love's Metamorphosis_, which is
+without the element of farce, the relations between the nymphs and the
+shepherds complete that underplot of passion which is hinted at in
+_Sapho_, in the evident fancy which Mileta shows for Phao, and developed
+as we have just noticed in _Endymion_.
+
+ [128] Bond, II. pp. 265-266.
+
+ [129] _Campaspe_, Act III. Sc. IV. 31.
+
+In this plot construction and interweaving, Lyly had no models except
+the classics, and we may, therefore, say that his work in this direction
+was almost entirely original. The last-mentioned play was produced at
+Court some time before 1590, and we cannot doubt, was attended by our
+greatest dramatist. At any rate the lessons which Shakespeare learnt
+from Lyly in the matter of plot complication are visible in the
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_, which was produced in 1595[130]. The
+intricate mechanism of this play, reminding us with its four plots (the
+Duke and Hippolyta, the lovers, the mechanics, and the fairies) of the
+_miracle_ with its imposing but unimportant divinities in the Rood
+gallery, its main stage whereon moved human characters, its Crypt
+supplying the rude comic element in the shape of devils, and its angels
+who moved from one level to another welding the whole together, was far
+beyond Lyly's powers, but it was only possible even for Shakespeare
+after a thorough study of Lyly's methods.
+
+ [130] Sidney Lee, _Life_, p. 151.
+
+As I have previously pointed out, Lyly was not very successful in the
+matter of character drawing. Never, even for a moment, is passion
+allowed to disturb the cultured placidity of the dialogue. The
+conditions under which his plays were produced may in part account for
+this. The children of Paul's could hardly be expected to display much
+light and shade of emotion in their acting, certainly depth of passion
+was beyond their scope. But the fault, I think, lies rather in the
+dramatist than in the actors. Lyly's mind was in all probability
+altogether of too superficial a nature for a sympathetic analysis of the
+human soul. That at least is how I interpret his character. All his work
+was more "art than nature," some of it was "more labour than art." On
+the technical side his dramatic advance is immense, but we may look in
+vain in his dramas for any of that appreciation of the elemental facts
+of human nature which can alone create enduring art. In their
+characterization, Lyly's plays do little more than form a link between
+Shakespeare and the old _morality_. This comes out most strongly in
+their peculiar method of character grouping. By a very natural process
+the _moral_ type is split up with the intention of giving it life and
+variety. Thus we have those groups of pages, of maids-in-waiting, of
+shepherds, of deities, etc., which are so characteristic of Lyly's
+plays. There is no real distinction between page and page, and between
+nymph and nymph; but their merry conversations give a piquancy and
+colour to the drama which make up for, and in part conceal, the absence
+of character. All that was necessary for the creation of character was
+to fit these pieces of the _moral_ type together again in a different
+way, and to breathe the spirit of genius into the new creation. We can
+see Lyly feeling towards this solution of the problem in his portrayal
+of Gunophilus, the clown of _The Woman in the Moon_. This character,
+which anticipates the immortal clowns of Shakespeare, is formed by an
+amalgamation of the pages in the previous plays into one comic figure.
+But Lyly also attempts to create single figures, in addition to these
+group characters which for the most part have little to do with the
+action. Often he helps out his poverty of invention by placing
+descriptions of one character in the mouth of another. "How stately she
+passeth bye, yet how soberly!" exclaims Alexander watching Campaspe at a
+distance, "a sweet consent in her countenance with a chaste disdaine,
+desire mingled with coyness, and I cannot tell how to tearme it, a curst
+yeelding modestie!"--an excellent piece of description, and one which is
+very necessary for the animation of the shadowy Campaspe. At times
+however Lyly can dispense with such adventitious aids. Pipenetta, the
+fascinating little wench in _Midas_ and one of our dramatist's most
+successful creations, needs no other illumination than her own pert
+speeches. Diogenes again is an effective piece of work. But both these
+are minor characters who therefore receive no development, and if we
+look at the more important personages of Lyly's portrait gallery, we
+must agree with Mr Bond[131] that Tellus is the best. She is a character
+which exhibits considerable development, and she is also Lyly's only
+attempt to embody the evil principle in woman--a hint for the
+construction of that marvellous portrait of another Scottish queen, the
+Lady Macbeth, which Lyly just before his death in 1606 may have seen
+upon the stage.
+
+ [131] Bond, II. p. 284.
+
+On the whole Lyly is most successful when he is drawing women, which was
+only as it should be, if we allow that the feminine element is the very
+pivot of true comedy. This he saw, and it is because he was the first to
+realise it and to grapple with the difficulties it entailed that the
+title of father of English comedy may be given him without the least
+reserve or hesitation. Sapho the haughty but amorous queen, Mileta the
+mocking but tender Court lady, Gallathea the shy provincial lass, and
+Pipenetta the saucy little maid-servant, fill our stage for the first
+time in history with their tears and their laughter, their scorn of the
+mere male and their "curst yeelding modestie," their bold sallies and
+their bashful blushes. Nothing like this had as yet been seen in English
+literature. I have already pointed out why it was that woman asserted
+her place in art at this juncture. Yet, although the revolution would
+have come about in any case, all honour must be paid to the man who saw
+it coming, anticipated it, and determined its fortunes by the creation
+of such a number of feminine characters from every class in the social
+scale. And if it be true that he only gave us "their outward husk of wit
+and raillery and flirtation," if it be true that his interpretation of
+woman was superficial, that he had no understanding for the soul behind
+the social mask, for the emotional and passionate current, now a quiet
+stream, now a raging torrent, beneath the layer of etiquette, his work
+was none the less important for that.
+
+ "Blood and brain and spirit, three
+ Join for true felicity."
+
+Blood his girls had and brain, but his genius was not divine enough to
+bestow upon them the third essential. Yet they were alive, they were
+flesh, they had wit, and in this they are undoubtedly the forerunners
+not only of Shakespeare's heroines but of Congreve's and of
+Meredith's--to mention the three greatest delineators of women in our
+language. They are the Undines in the story of our literature, beautiful
+and seductive, complete in everything but soul!
+
+While realising that woman should be the real protagonist in comedy,
+Lyly also appreciated the fact that skilful dialogue and brilliant
+repartee are only less important, and that for this purpose prose was
+more suitable than verse. Gascoigne's _Supposes_ was his model in both
+these innovations, and yet he would undoubtedly have adopted them of his
+own accord without any outside suggestion. And since _The Supposes_ was
+a translation, _Campaspe_ deserves the title of the first purely English
+comedy in prose. The _Euphues_ had given him a reputation for sprightly
+and witty dialogue, he himself was possibly known at Court as a
+brilliant conversationalist, and therefore when he came to write plays
+he would naturally do all in his power to maintain and to improve his
+fame in this respect. With his acute sense of form he would recognise
+how clumsy had been the efforts of previous dramatists, and he knew also
+how impossible it would be, in verse form, to write witty dialogue, up
+to date in the subjects it handled. He therefore determined to use
+prose, and, though he manipulates it somewhat awkwardly in his earlier
+plays while still under the influence of the euphuistic fashion, he
+steadily improves, as he gains experience of the function and needs of
+dialogue, until at length he succeeds in creating a thoroughly
+serviceable dramatic instrument. This departure was a great event in
+English literature. Shakespeare was too much of a poet ever to dispense
+altogether with verse, but he appreciated the virtue of prose as a
+vehicle of comic dialogue, and he uses it occasionally even in his
+earliest comedy, _Love's Labour's Lost_. Ben Jonson on the other
+hand--perhaps more than any other Lyly's spiritual heir--wrote nearly
+all his comedies in prose. And it is not fanciful I think to see in
+Lyly's pointed dialogue, tinged with euphuism, the forerunner of
+Congreve's sparkling conversation and of the epigrammatic writing of our
+modern English playwrights.
+
+Such are the main characteristics of Lyly's dramatic genius. To attempt
+to trace his influence upon later writers would be to write a history of
+the Elizabethan stage. In the foregoing remarks I have continually
+indicated Shakespeare's debt to him in matters of detail. _The Midsummer
+Night's Dream_ is from beginning to end full of reminiscences from the
+plays of the earlier dramatist, transmuted, vitalized, and beautified by
+the genius of our greatest poet. It is as if he had witnessed in one
+day a representation of all Lyly's dramatic work, and wearied by the
+effort of attention had fallen asleep and dreamt this _Dream_. _Love's
+Labour's Lost_ is only less indebted to Lyly; indeed nearly all
+Shakespeare's plays, certainly all his comedies, exhibit the same
+influence: for he knew his Lyly through and through, and his
+assimilative power was unequalled. Shakespeare might almost be said to
+be a combination of Marlowe and Lyly plus that indefinable something
+which made him the greatest writer of all time. Marlowe, his master in
+tragedy, was also his master in poetry, in that strength of conception
+and beauty of execution which together make up the soul of drama. Lyly,
+besides the lesson he taught him in comedy, was also his model for
+dramatic construction, brilliancy of dialogue, technical skill, and all
+that comprises the science of play-making--things which were perhaps of
+more moment to him, with his scanty classical knowledge, than Marlowe's
+lesson which he had little need of learning. And what we have said of
+Shakespeare may be said of Elizabethan drama as a whole. "Marlowe's
+place," writes Mr Havelock Ellis, "is at the heart of English poetry";
+his "high, astounding terms" took the world of his day by storm, his
+gift to English literature was the gift of sublime beauty, of
+imagination, and passion. Lyly could lay claim to none of these, but his
+contribution was perhaps of more importance still. He did the
+spade-work, and did it once and for all. With his knowledge of the
+Classics and of previous English experiments he wrote plays that,
+compared with what had gone before, were models of plot construction, of
+the development of action, and even of characterization. Moreover he was
+before Marlowe by some nine years in the production of true romantic
+drama, and in his treatment of women. In spite, therefore, of Marlowe's
+immense superiority to him on the aesthetic side, Lyly must be placed
+above the author of _Edward II._ in dynamical importance.
+
+In connexion with Lyly's influence the question of the exact nature of
+his dramatic productions is worth a moment's consideration. Are they
+masques or dramas? and if the latter are they strictly speaking
+classical or romantic in form? As I have already suggested, the answer
+to the first half of this question is that they were neither and both.
+In Lyly's day drama had not yet been differentiated from masque, and his
+plays, therefore, partook of the nature of both. Produced as they were
+for the Court, it was natural that they should possess something of that
+atmosphere of pageantry, music, and pantomime which we now associate
+with the word masque. But Elizabeth was economical and preferred plain
+drama to the expensive masque displays, though she was ready to enjoy
+the latter, if they were provided for her by Leicester or some other
+favourite. Lyly's work therefore never advanced very far in the
+direction of the masque, though in its complimentary allegories it had
+much in common with it. The question as to whether it should be
+described as classical rather than as romantic is not one which need
+detain us long. It is interesting however as it again brings out the
+peculiarity of Lyly's position. It may indeed be claimed for him that
+all sections of Elizabethan drama, except perhaps tragedy, are to be
+found in embryo in his plays. I have said that he was the first of the
+romanticists, but he was no less the first important writer of classical
+drama. _Gorbuduc_ and its like had been tedious and clumsy imitations,
+and, moreover, they had imitated Seneca, who was a late classic. Lyly,
+though the Greek dramatists were unknown to him, had probably studied
+Aristotle's _Poetics_, and was certainly acquainted with Horace's _Ars
+Poetica_, and with the comedies of Terence and Plautus. He was,
+therefore, an authority on matters dramatic, and could boast of a
+learning on the subject of technique which few of his contemporaries or
+his successors could lay claim to, and which they were only too ready to
+glean second-hand. And yet, though he was wise enough to appreciate all
+that the classics could teach him, he was a romanticist at heart, or
+perhaps it would be better to say that he threw the beautiful and
+loosely fitting garment of romanticism over the classical frame of his
+dramas. And even in the matter of this frame he was not always orthodox.
+He bowed to the tradition of the unities: but he frequently broke with
+it; in _The Woman_ alone does he confine the action to one day; and,
+though he is more careful to observe unity of place, imaginary transfers
+occurring in the middle of scenes indicate his rebellion against this
+restriction. Nevertheless, when all is said, he remains, with the
+exception of Jonson, the most classical of all Elizabethan playwrights,
+and just as he anticipates the 17th and 18th centuries in his prose, so
+in his dramas we may discover the first competent handling of those
+principles and restrictions which, more clearly enunciated by Ben
+Jonson, became iron laws for the post-Elizabethan dramatists.
+
+It is this "balance between classic precedent and romantic freedom[132]"
+that constitutes his supreme importance, not only in Elizabethan
+literature, but even in the history of subsequent English drama. From
+Lyly we may trace the current of romanticism, through Shakespeare, to
+Goethe and Victor Hugo; in Lyly also we may see the first embodiment of
+that classical tradition which even Shakespeare's "purge" could do
+nothing to check, and which was eventually to lay its dead hand upon the
+art of the 18th century. May we not say more than this? Is he not the
+first name in a continuous series from 1580 to our own day, the first
+link in the chain of dramatic development, which binds the "singing room
+of Powles" to the Lyceum of Irving? And it is interesting to notice that
+the principle which he was the first to express shows at the present
+moment evident signs of exhaustion; for its future developments seem to
+be limited to that narrow strip of social melodrama, which lies between
+the devil of the comic opera and the deep sea of the Ibsenic problem
+play. Indeed it would not be altogether fanciful, I think, to say that
+_The Importance of being Earnest_ finishes the process that _Campaspe_
+started; and to view that process as a circle begun in euphuism, and
+completed in aestheticism.
+
+ [132] Bond, II. p. 266.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+At the beginning of this essay I gave a short account of the main facts
+of our author's life, reserving my judgment upon his character and
+genius until after the examination of his works. That examination which
+I have now concluded is far too superficial in character to justify a
+psychological synthesis such as that advocated by M. Hennequin[133]. But
+though this essay cannot claim to have exhausted the subject of the ways
+and means of Lyly's art, yet in the course of our survey we have had
+occasion to notice several interesting points in reference to his mind
+and character, which it will be well to bring together now in order to
+give a portrait, however inadequate, of the man who played so important
+a part in English literature.
+
+ [133] _La Critique Scientifique._
+
+Nash supplies the only piece of contemporary information about his
+person and habits, and all he tells us is that he was short of stature
+and that he smoked. But Ben Jonson gives us an unmistakeable caricature
+of him under the delightfully appropriate name of Fastidious Brisk in
+_Every Man out of His Humour_. He describes him as a "neat, spruce,
+affecting courtier, one that wears clothes well, and in fashion;
+practiseth by his glass how to salute; speaks good remnants
+notwithstanding his base viol and tobacco; swears tersely and with
+variety; cares not what lady's favour he belies, or great man's
+familiarity: a good property to perfume the boot of a coach. He will
+borrow another man's horse to praise and back him as his own. Or, for a
+need can post himself into credit with his merchant, only with the
+gingle of his spur and the jerk of his wand[134]." Allowing for the
+exaggeration of satire, we cannot doubt that this portrait is in the
+main correct. It indicates a man who follows fashion, even in swearing,
+to the excess of foppery, who delights in scandal, who contracts debts
+with an easy conscience, and who is withal a merry fellow and a wit. All
+this is in accordance with what we know of his life. We can picture him
+at Oxford serenading the Magdalen dons with his "base viol," or perhaps
+organizing a night party to disturb the slumbers of some insolent
+tradesman who had dared to insist upon payment; his neat little figure
+leading a gang of young rascals, and among them the "sea-dog" Hakluyt,
+the sturdy and as yet unconverted Gosson, the refined Watson, and
+perchance George Pettie concealing his thorough enjoyment of the
+situation by a smile of elderly amusement. Or yet again we can see him
+at the room of some boon companion seriously announcing to a convulsed
+assembly his intention of applying for a fellowship, and when the last
+quip had been hurled at him through clouds of smoke and the laughter had
+died down, proposing that the house should go into committee for the
+purpose of concocting the now famous letter to Burleigh. When we next
+catch a glimpse of him he is no longer the madcap; he walks with such
+dignity as his stature permits, for he is now author of the
+much-talked-of _Anatomy of Wit_, and one of the most fashionable young
+men of the Court. What elaboration of toilet, what adjustment and
+readjustment of ruffles and lace, what bowing and scraping before the
+glass, preceded that great event of his life--his presentation to the
+Queen--can only be guessed at. But we can well picture him, following
+his magnificently over-dressed patron up the long reception-room, his
+heart beating with pleasurable excitement, yet his manners not forgotten
+in the hour of his pride, as he nods to an acquaintance and bows with
+sly demureness to some Iffida or Camilla. Those were the days of his
+success, the happiest period of his life when, as secretary to the Lord
+Chamberlain and associate of the highest in the land, he breathed his
+native atmosphere, the praises and flattery of a fickle world of
+fashion. But, time-server as he was, he was no sycophant. Leaving de
+Vere's service after a sharp quarrel, he was not ashamed to take up the
+profession of teaching in which he had already had some experience. We
+see him next, therefore, a master of St Paul's, engrossed in the not
+unpleasant duties of drilling his pupils for the performance of his
+plays, accompanying their songs on his instrument, or himself taking his
+place on the stage, now as Diogenes in his ubiquitous tub, and now as
+the golden-bearded and long-eared Midas. And last of all he appears as
+the disappointed, disillusioned man, "infelix academicus ignotus." A
+wife and children on his hands, his occupation gone, his hopes of the
+Revels Mastership blasted, he becomes desperate, and writes that last
+bitter letter to Elizabeth.
+
+ [134] From the _Preface_.
+
+The man of fashion out of date, the social success left high and dry by
+the unheeding current, he died eventually in poverty, not because he had
+wasted his substance, like Greene, in Bohemia, but because, thinking to
+take Belgravia by storm, he had forgotten that the foundations of that
+city are laid on the bodies of her sons. But leaving
+
+ "The thrice three muses mourning for the death
+ Of Learning late deceased in beggary,"
+
+let us look more closely into the character of this man, whose brilliant
+and successful youth was followed by so sad an old age.
+
+In spite of Professor Raleigh and the moralizing of _Euphues_, we may
+decide that there was nothing of the Puritan about him. His life at
+Oxford, his attachment to the notorious de Vere, the keen pleasure he
+took in the things of this world, are, I think, sufficient to prove
+this. His general attitude towards life was one of vigorous hedonism,
+not of intellectual asceticism. The ethical element of _Euphues_ links
+him rather to the already vanishing Humanism than to the rising
+Puritanism, against which all his sympathies were enlisted, as his
+contributions to the _Marprelate_ controversy indicate. I have refrained
+from touching upon these _Mar-Martin_ tracts because they possess
+neither aesthetic nor dynamical importance, being, as Gabriel
+Harvey--always ready with the spiteful epigram--describes them,
+"alehouse and tinkerly stuffe, nothing worthy a scholar or a real
+gentleman." They are worth mentioning, however, as throwing a light upon
+the religious prejudices of our author. He was a courtier and he was a
+churchman, and in lending his aid to crush sectarians he thought no more
+deeply about the matter than he did in voting as Member of Parliament
+against measures which conflicted with his social inclinations. There
+was probably not an ounce of the theological spirit in his whole
+composition; for his refutation of atheism was a youthful essay in
+dialectics, a bone thrown to the traditions of the moral Court
+treatise.
+
+If, indeed, he was seriously minded in any respect, it was upon the
+subject of Art. Himself a novelist and dramatist, he displayed also a
+keen delight in music, and evinced a considerable, if somewhat
+superficial, interest in painting. And yet, though he apparently made it
+his business to know something of every art, he was no sciolist, and, if
+he went far afield, it was only in order to improve himself in his own
+particular branch. All the knowledge he acquired in such amateur
+appreciation was brought to the service of his literary productions. And
+the same may be said of his extensive excursions into the land of books.
+No Elizabethan dramatist but Lyly, with the possible exception of
+Jonson, could marshal such an array of learning, and few could have
+turned even what they had with such skill and effect to their own
+purposes. Lyly had made a thorough study of such classics as were
+available in his day, and we have seen how he employed them in his novel
+and in his plays. But the classics formed only a small section of the
+books digested by this omnivorous reader. If he could not read Spanish,
+French, or Italian, he devoured and assimilated the numerous
+translations from those languages into English, Guevara indeed being his
+chief inspiration. Nor did he neglect the literature of his own land.
+Few books we may suppose, which had been published in English previous
+to 1580, had been unnoticed by him. We have seen what a thorough
+acquaintance he possessed of English drama before his day, and how he
+exhibits the influence of the writings of Ascham and perhaps other
+humanists, how he laid himself under obligation to the bestiaries and
+the proverb-books for his euphuistic philosophy, and how his lyrics
+indicate a possible study of the mediaeval scholar song-books. In
+conclusion, it is interesting to notice that we have clear evidence that
+he knew Chaucer[135].
+
+ [135] Bond, I. p. 401.
+
+Idleness, therefore, cannot be urged against him; nor does this imposing
+display of learning indicate a pedant. Lyly had nothing in common with
+the spirit of his old friend Gabriel Harvey, whom indeed he laughed at.
+There is a story that Watson and Nash invited a company together to sup
+at the Nag's Head in Cheapside, and to discuss the pedantries of Harvey,
+and our euphuist in all probability made one of the party. His erudition
+sat lightly on him, for it was simply a means to the end of his art.
+Moreover, a student's life could have possessed no attraction for one of
+his temperament. Unlike Marlowe and Greene, he had harvested all his
+wild oats before he left Oxford; but the process had refined rather than
+sobered him, for his laugh lost none of its merriment, and his wit
+improved with experience, so that we may well believe that in the Court
+he was more Philautus than Euphues. In his writings also his aim was to
+be graceful rather than erudite; and, ponderous as his _Euphues_ seems
+to us now, it appealed to its Elizabethan public as a model of elegance.
+His art was perhaps only an instrument for the acquisition of social
+success, but he was nevertheless an artist to the fingertips. Yet he was
+without the artist's ideals, and this fact, together with his frivolity,
+vitiated his writings to a considerable extent, or, rather, the
+superficiality of his art was the result of the superficiality of his
+soul. Of that "high seriousness," which Aristotle has declared to be the
+poet's essential, he has nothing. Technique throughout was his chief
+interest, and it is in technique alone that he can claim to have
+succeeded. "More art than nature" is a just criticism of everything he
+wrote, with the exception of his lyrics. He was supremely clever, one of
+the cleverest writers in our literature when we consider what he
+accomplished, and how small was the legacy of his predecessors; but he
+was much too clever to be simple. He excelled in the niceties of art, he
+revelled in the accomplishment of literary feats, his intellect was akin
+to the intellect of those who in their humbler fashion find pleasure in
+the solution of acrostics. And consequently his writings were frequently
+as finical as his dress was fastidious; for it was the form and not the
+idea which fascinated him; to his type of mind the letter was everything
+and the spirit nothing. Indeed, the true spirit of art was quite beyond
+his comprehension, though he was connoisseur enough to appreciate its
+presence in others. Artist and man of taste he was, but he was no poet.
+Artist he was, I have said, to the fingertips, but his art lay at his
+fingers' ends, not at his soul. He was facile, ingenious, dexterous,
+everything but inspired. He had wit, learning, skill, imagination, but
+none of that passionate apprehension of life which makes the poet, and
+which Marlowe and Shakespeare possessed so fully. And therefore it was
+his fate to be nothing more than a forerunner, a straightener of the
+way; and before his death he realised with bitterness that he was only a
+stepping-stone for young Shakespeare to mount his throne. He was,
+indeed, the draughtsman of the Elizabethan workshop, planning and
+designing what others might build. He was the expert mathematician who
+formulated the laws which enabled Shakespeare to read the stars. Of the
+heights and depths of passion he was unconscious; he was no
+psychologist, laying bare the human soul with the lancet; and though now
+and again, as in _Endymion_, he caught a glimpse of the silver beauties
+of the moon, he had no conception of the glories of the midday sun.
+
+And yet though he lacked the poet's sense, his wit did something to
+repair the defect, and even if it has a musty flavour for our pampered
+palates, it saves his writings from becoming unbearably wearisome; and
+moreover his fun was without that element of coarseness which mars the
+comic scenes of later dramatists who appealed to more popular audiences.
+But it is quite impossible for us to realise how brilliant his wit
+seemed to the Elizabethans before it was eclipsed by the genius of
+Shakespeare. Even as late as 1632 Blount exclaims, "This poet sat at the
+sunne's table," words referring perhaps more especially to Lyly's
+poetical faculty, but much truer if interpreted as an allusion to his
+wit. The genius of our hero played like a dancing sunbeam over the early
+Elizabethan stage. Never before had England seen anything like it, and
+we cannot wonder that his public hailed him in their delight as one of
+the greatest writers of all time. How could they know that he was only
+the first voice in a choir of singers which, bursting forth before his
+notes had died away, would shake the very arch of heaven with the
+passion and the beauty of their song? But for us who have heard the
+chorus first, the recitative seems poor and thin. The magic has long
+passed from _Euphues_, once a name to conjure with, and even the plays
+seem dull and lifeless. That it should be so was inevitable, for the wit
+which illuminated these works was of the time, temporary, the earliest
+beam of the rising sun. This sunbeam it is impossible to recover, and
+with all our efforts we catch little but dust.
+
+And yet for the scientific critic Lyly's work is still alive with
+significance. Worthless as much of it is from the aesthetic point of
+view, from the dynamical, the historical aspect few English writers are
+of greater interest. Waller was rescued from oblivion and labelled as
+the first of the classical poets. But we can claim more for Lyly than
+this. Extravagant as it may sound, he was one of the great founders of
+our literature. His experiments in prose first taught men that style was
+a matter worthy of careful study, he was among the earliest of those who
+realised the utility of blank verse for dramatic purposes, he wrote the
+first English novel in our language, and finally he is not only
+deservedly recognised as the father of English comedy, but by his
+mastery of dramatic technique he laid such a burden of obligation upon
+future playwrights that he placed English drama upon a completely new
+basis. Of the three main branches of our literature, therefore, two--the
+novel and the drama--were practically of his creation, and though his
+work suffered because it lacked the quality of poetry, for the historian
+of literature it is none the less important on that account.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF CHIEF AUTHORITIES.
+
+
+ARBER. The Martin Marprelate Controversy. Scholar's Library.
+
+ASCHAM, ROGER. The Schoolmaster. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+ASCHAM, ROGER. Toxophilus. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+BAKER, G. P. Lyly's Endymion.
+
+BARNEFIELD, RICHARD. Poems. Arber's Scholar's Library.
+
+BERNERS, LORD. The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius.
+
+BERNERS, LORD. Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.
+
+BOAS. Works of Kyd. Clarendon Press.
+
+BOND, R. W. John Lyly. Clarendon Press. 3 Vols.
+
+BRUNET. Manuel de Libraire.
+
+BUTLER CLARKE. Spanish Literature.
+
+CHILD, C. G. John Lyly and Euphuism. _Münchener Beiträge_ VII.
+
+CRAIK, SIR H. Specimens of English Prose.
+
+DICTIONARY of National Biography.
+
+EARLE. History of English Prose.
+
+FIELD, NATHANIEL. A Woman is a Weathercock.
+
+FITZMAURICE-KELLY. Spanish Literature. Heinemann.
+
+GAYLEY. Representative English Comedies.
+
+GOSSE. From Shakespeare to Pope.
+
+GOSSON. School of Abuse. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+GUEVARA, ANTONIO DE. Libro Aureo del emperado Marco Aurelio.
+
+HALLAM. Introduction to the Literature of Europe.
+
+HENNEQUIN. La Critique Scientifique.
+
+HUME, MARTIN. Spanish Influence on English Literature.
+
+JUSSERAND. The English Novel in the time of Shakespeare.
+
+LANDMANN, DR. Shakespeare and Euphuism. _New Shak. Soc. Trans._ 1880-2.
+
+LANDMANN, DR. Introduction to Euphues. Sprache und Literatur.
+
+LATIMER. Sermons. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Athenæum, July 14, 1883.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Huon of Bordeaux (Berners'). Early Eng. Text Soc. Extra
+Series XL., XLI.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Life of Shakespeare.
+
+LIEBIG. Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen âge.
+
+LYLY. Euphues. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+MACAULAY, G. G. Introd. to Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.
+
+MEREDITH, GEORGE. Essay on Comedy.
+
+MÉZIÈRES. Prédécesseurs et contemporains de Shakespeare.
+
+MINTO. Manual of English Prose Literature.
+
+NORTH, THOMAS. Diall of Princes.
+
+PEARSON, KARL. Chances of Death. Vol. II. _German Passion Play._
+
+PETTIE, GEORGE. Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure.
+
+RALEIGH, PROF. W. The English Novel.
+
+RETURN FROM PARNASSUS. Arber's Scholar's Library.
+
+SAINTSBURY. Specimens of English Prose.
+
+SPENCER, HERBERT. Essays--Philosophy of Style.
+
+SYMONDS, J. A. Shakespeare's Predecessors.
+
+UDALL, NICHOLAS. Ralph Roister Doister. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+UNDERHILL. Spanish Literature in Tudor England.
+
+WARD, DR A. W. English Dramatic Literature. 3 Vols.
+
+WARD, MRS H. "John Lyly," Article in _Enc. Brit._
+
+WATSON, THOMAS. Poems. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+WEBBE. Discourses of English Poetry. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+WEYMOUTH, DR R. F. On Euphuism. _Phil. Soc. Trans._ 1870-2.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_Affectionate Shepherd_, 46
+
+_Albion's England_, 57
+
+Alençon, Duc d', 105
+
+_Amis and Amile_, 66
+
+_Anatomy of Wit_ (v. _Euphues_)
+
+Andrews, Dr, 55
+
+Arber (reprints), 12, 27, 38, 46
+
+_Arcadia_, 9, 51, 56, 58, 68, 82, 84
+
+Aretino, 48
+
+Ariosto, 94, 96
+
+Aristotle, 121, 129, 137
+
+Armada, Spanish, 110
+
+Arnold, Matthew, 47
+
+_Ars Poetica_ (of Horace), 130
+
+Ascham, 31, 37, 38, 39, 42, 50, 52, 67, 73, 74, 136
+
+_Athenae Oxonienses_, 4, 5
+
+_Athenæum_, 30
+
+Athens, 69, 79
+
+_Aucassin and Nicolette_, 66
+
+Aurelius, Marcus, 22, 34, 69
+
+Austen, Jane, 80
+
+
+Bacon, Lord, 19, 47
+
+Baena, 48
+
+Baker, G. P., 4, 5, 7, 85, 98
+
+Baker, George, 28
+
+Baker, Robert, 28
+
+Barnefield, Richard, 46
+
+Berners, Lord, 22, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 42, 66, 67
+
+Bertaut, Réné, 34, 35
+
+bestiaries, 20, 41, 136
+
+_Biographia Britannica_, 12
+
+Blackfriars, 100
+
+blank verse, 3, 97, 113
+
+Blount, 114, 139
+
+Boas, 45
+
+Boccaccio, 66, 67, 75
+
+Bond, R. W., 4, 5, 8, 9, 26, 30, 34, 43, 55, 60, 69, 72, 74, 78, 81, 85,
+ 86, 87, 89, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 108, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117,
+ 120, 125, 130, 137
+
+Brunet, 34
+
+Bryan, Sir Francis, 30, 31
+
+Burleigh, 4, 6, 7, 86, 133
+
+Butler Clarke, 49
+
+Byron (anticipated by Lyly), 77
+
+
+Cambridge, 7, 75, 87, 93
+
+_Campaspe_, 7, 85, 87, 98-102, 104, 105, 109, 116, 121, 124, 126
+
+_Canterbury Tales_, 65
+
+Carew, 27
+
+Carpenter, Edward, 19
+
+Castiglione, 48, 49, 72
+
+Caxton, 66, 67
+
+Cecil, 8
+
+_Celestina_, 24
+
+Charles VIII., 48, 66
+
+Chaucer, 65, 66, 137
+
+Cheke, Sir John, 26, 31, 37, 42, 50
+
+Child, C. G., 14, 15, 16, 56, 59
+
+choristers, 7, 8, 87, 92, 94, 116
+
+Christ Church, 26, 39
+
+Cicero, 12, 50
+
+_Civile Conversation_, 40
+
+comedy
+ before Lyly, 89-98
+ and folly, 90
+ and masque, 112
+ and music, 87, 92, 94, 116
+ and society, 88
+ and woman, 97-98, 100-101, 125-126
+
+Congreve, 88, 101, 126, 127
+
+_Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers, A_, 71
+
+Corpus Christi College (Oxford), 26
+
+Corro, Antonio de, 26, 28
+
+Cortes, 27
+
+Craik, Sir H., 28, 37, 38, 39
+
+_Cupid and my Campaspe played_, 115, 117
+
+_Cynthia_, 46
+
+
+_Damon and Pithias_, 93, 116, 119
+
+_De Educatione_ (of Plutarch), 72
+
+Dekker, Thomas, 114, 121
+
+Demosthenes, 12
+
+Devereux, Penelope, 109
+
+_Diall of Princes_, 22, 30, 39, 69
+
+_Diana_, 24
+
+Dickens, 79
+
+_Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier_, 31
+
+Doni, 48
+
+Dryden, 84
+
+dubartism, 51
+
+
+Earle, 53, 54
+
+education (Lyly's views on), 72-73
+
+_Edward II._, 129
+
+Edwardes, Richard, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95, 97, 101
+
+Eliot, George, 80
+
+Elizabeth, Queen, 3, 6, 8, 9, 17, 25, 26, 65, 75, 80, 81, 86, 98, 100,
+ 101, 103, 104, 105, 107, 112, 129, 134
+
+Ellis, Havelock, 128
+
+_Endymion_, 85, 98, 99, 104, 107-110, 121, 122, 138
+
+_English Novel, The_ (v. Raleigh)
+
+_English Novel in the time of Shakespeare, The_ (v. Jusserand)
+
+Erasmus, 26
+
+_Estella_, 27
+
+Eton, 93
+
+_Euphues_
+ antecedents of, 65-69
+ criticism and description of
+ (i) _Anatomy of Wit_, 69-73
+ (ii) _Euphues and his England_, 76-80
+ dedication of, 74-76
+ distinction between the two parts, 73-74
+ Elizabethan reputation of, 10-13, 43-47, 57, 61, 84, 137
+ first English novel, 3, 10-11, 74, 140
+ moral tone of, 5, 71-72
+ publication and editions of, 6, 7, 8, 10, 43, 57, 61, 73, 83, 84
+ quoted, 4, 10, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 45, 58, 70, 76, 78
+
+_Euphues and his England_ (v. _Euphues_)
+
+_Euphues and his Ephoebus_, 72-73
+
+Euphuism
+ analysis of, 13-21
+ an aristocratic fashion, 3, 49, 54, 56, 61, 62
+ diction and, 56
+ humanism and, 36-39, 50-53
+ imitators of, 43-46
+ origins of, 21-43
+ Oxford and, 26-28, 39-42, 45-46, 54, 60, 61
+ poetry and, 55-56
+ Renaissance and, 47-52, 62
+ Scott's misapprehension of, 11
+ secret of Lyly's influence, 11-13
+ Spain and, 22-36
+
+_Every Man out of His Humour_, 132
+
+
+fabliau, the, 66
+
+_Faery Queen, The_, 103
+
+Field, Nathaniel, 44, 102
+
+Fitzmaurice-Kelly, 24
+
+Flaubert, 56
+
+Florence, 79
+
+Fortescue, 69
+
+France (and French), 22, 23, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 40, 42, 47, 48, 52, 53,
+ 56, 61, 66, 80, 136
+
+_Froissart_, 31, 33, 35
+
+
+Gager, William, 39, 86
+
+_Gallathea_, 98, 107, 112
+
+_Gammer Gurton's Needle_, 93, 96, 116
+
+Gascoigne, George, 69, 94, 95, 97, 114, 119, 126
+
+Gayley, 91, 92, 94, 95
+
+Geoffrey of Dunstable, 92
+
+_Gesta Romanorum_, 66
+
+Gibbon, 58
+
+_Glasse for Europe, A_, 52, 81
+
+Goethe, 130
+
+_Golden Boke, The_, 22, 30, 31, 36, 37
+
+Gollancz, 109
+
+gongorism, 51
+
+Goodlet, Dr, 56
+
+_Gorbuduc_, 129
+
+Gosse, 36
+
+Gosson, Stephen, 4, 27, 28, 46, 53, 71, 86, 109, 133
+
+Granada, 24
+
+Greek, 48, 62
+
+Greene, 43, 135, 137
+
+Grey, Lady Jane, 74
+
+Guazzo, 40
+
+Guerrero, 26
+
+Guevara, Antonio de, 22-24, 28-31, 33-38, 40, 42, 49, 69, 72, 76, 136
+
+
+Habsburgs, 103
+
+Hakluyt, 24, 26, 27, 133
+
+Hallam, 33, 34
+
+Halpin, 109, 111
+
+Harrison, 69
+
+Harvey, Dr, 19
+
+Harvey, Gabriel, 6, 20, 42, 109, 135, 137
+
+_Hekatompathia_, 7, 45, 46
+
+Hennequin, 4, 132
+
+Henry VIII., 23, 31
+
+_Hernani_, 100
+
+Herrick, 117
+
+Heywood, 69, 92, 95, 96
+
+Homer, 67
+
+Horace, 130
+
+Hugo, Victor, 130
+
+humanism, 25, 26, 37, 50, 52, 53, 54, 67, 92, 135
+
+Hume, Martin, 24, 25
+
+_Huon of Bordeaux_, 30, 66
+
+Huss, John, 66
+
+
+_Importance of being Earnest, The_, 131
+
+Italy (and Italian), 24, 25, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 66, 67, 69, 74, 75, 78,
+ 86, 94, 95, 136
+
+
+_Jacke Jugelar_, 96
+
+James I., 23
+
+James, Henry, 53
+
+Johnson, Dr, 58
+
+Jonson, Ben, 114, 120, 127, 130, 132, 136
+
+Jusserand, 18, 43, 65, 72, 76
+
+
+Katherine of Aragon, 23
+
+Kenilworth, 109
+
+Knox, John, 75
+
+Kyd, 43-46, 102, 115
+
+_Kynge Johan_, 99
+
+
+_Lady Windermere's Fan_, 88
+
+Landmann, Dr, 14, 16, 22, 24, 29, 30, 31, 40, 42, 47, 69, 75
+
+Latimer, 36
+
+_Lazarillo de Tórmes_, 24
+
+Lee, Sidney, 12, 29-33, 123
+
+Leicester, Earl of, 107, 109, 129
+
+_Libro Aureo_ (v. Guevara)
+
+Liebig, 19
+
+_Literature of Europe_, 33, 34
+
+Lodge, Thomas, 27, 43
+
+Lok, Henry, Thomas, and Michael, 26, 27
+
+London, 7, 71, 78, 91, 114, 119
+
+London, Bishop of, 8
+
+_Love's Labour's Lost_, 110, 113, 127, 128
+
+_Love's Metamorphosis_, 98, 112, 113, 122
+
+Luther, 89
+
+Lyly, John:
+ character and genius, 3, 51, 62, 63, 123, 137-139
+ compared with Marlowe, 128-129
+ courtier and man of fashion, 63, 87, 88, 98, 103, 110, 134, 135
+ dramatist, 7, 8, 9, 85-131
+ forerunner of Shakespeare, 43, 47, 95, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109-111,
+ 116, 123, 124, 127-128, 130, 138-139
+ friends of, 26-28, 39, 42, 46, 53, 54, 61, 133, 135, 137
+ Jonson's caricature of, 132-133
+ learning, 17, 20, 38, 69, 86, 95, 119-120, 130, 136-137
+ life, 4-9, 86-88, 119-120, 132-135
+ novelist, 10, 64-84
+ poet, 3, 110, 113, 115-118, 138, 139
+ position in English literature, 2-3, 10-13, 51, 52-63, 65-69, 73-84,
+ 98-131, 138-140
+ prose, 3, 11-21, 52-63, 97, 126-127
+ reputation, 9, 11-13, 43, 57, 58, 60, 61
+
+lyrics, 115-118
+
+
+Macaulay, G. C., 33
+
+Macaulay, Lord, 80
+
+_Macbeth_, 125
+
+Magdalen College (Oxford), 4, 6, 86, 133
+
+Malory, 66, 67
+
+Marini, 48
+
+_Marius the Epicurean_, 50
+
+Marlowe, 3, 47, 113, 128-129, 137, 138
+
+_Martin Marprelate_, 3, 8, 114, 135-136
+
+Mary (Tudor), 25, 26
+
+Mary (of Scots), 109
+
+masque, 112, 129
+
+Maupassant, Guy de, 75
+
+_Mayde's Metamorphosis_, 119
+
+Mendoza, 23, 24
+
+Meredith, George, 53, 79, 88, 97, 126
+
+_Midas_, 98, 104, 110-112, 117, 122, 125
+
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_ (anticipated by Lyly), 105, 109-111, 123, 127
+
+Milton, 55
+
+miracle-play, the, 89-91, 123
+
+_Monastery, The_, 11
+
+Montemayor, 23, 24
+
+moral court treatise, the, 49, 65, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 75
+
+morality-play, the, 70, 89-92, 94, 99, 102, 119, 124
+
+_Morte d'Arthur_, 66, 67
+
+_Mother Bombie_, 98, 105, 114-117
+
+Munday, Anthony, 28, 43
+
+_Murder of John Brewer, The_, 115
+
+
+Naples, 69
+
+Nash, 23, 55, 56, 84, 114, 137
+
+Newton, 19
+
+Nicholas, Thomas, 27
+
+North, Sir Thomas, 22, 29, 30, 39
+
+novella, the, 65, 66, 67, 68, 74, 75
+
+
+Ovid, 17, 69, 111
+
+Oxford, 4-7, 25-28, 39, 42, 46, 49, 53, 61, 69, 72, 86, 87, 93, 95, 119,
+ 133, 137
+
+Oxford, Earl of (v. Vere, Edward de)
+
+
+Painter, William, 40
+
+Palgrave, 117
+
+_Palamon and Arcite_, 86
+
+_Pallace of Pleasure_, 40
+
+_Pamela_, 83
+
+pastoral romance, 23, 68
+
+Petrarchisti, 48
+
+Pettie, George, 32, 39, 40, 41, 46, 53, 56, 69, 86, 133
+
+_Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure_, 40, 69
+
+Philip II. of Spain (caricatured by Lyly), 110
+
+picaresque romance, 23
+
+Plato, 67, 75, 79, 121
+
+Plautus, 92
+
+_Play of the Wether, The_, 93
+
+_Pleasant History of the Conquest of West India_, 27
+
+Pliny, 17, 20, 41, 69, 100
+
+Plutarch, 17, 69, 72, 73
+
+_Poetics of Aristotle, The_, 130
+
+puritanism, 3, 26, 57, 71, 135
+
+Puttenham, 87
+
+
+Quick, 73
+
+Quintilian, 12
+
+
+Raleigh, Prof. W., 20, 55, 57, 65, 71, 84, 135
+
+_Ralph Roister Doister_, 93, 110, 114, 116
+
+Renaissance, the, 25, 47-52, 62, 64, 66, 68, 95, 115, 118
+
+Revels' Office, the, 8, 9, 103, 134
+
+Richardson, 72, 83
+
+Rogers, Thomas, 27
+
+romance of chivalry, 65-68, 75
+
+Ronsard, 61
+
+Rowland, 24
+
+
+_Sacharissa_, 13
+
+Sainte Beuve, 53
+
+St Paul's Choir School, 7, 8, 87, 99, 109, 116, 119, 123, 131, 134
+
+Saintsbury, Prof., 27
+
+Sallust, 37
+
+_Sapho and Phao_, 7, 87, 98, 99, 104-107, 116, 122
+
+Savoy Hospital, the, 7
+
+_School of Abuse, The_, 27
+
+_Schoolmaster, The_, 38, 50, 52, 67, 73, 75
+
+Schwan, Dr, 56
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 11
+
+Seneca, 129
+
+Shakespeare, 2, 9, 43, 47, 55, 95, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109, 110, 111,
+ 113, 115, 116, 118, 120-124, 127, 128, 130, 138, 139
+
+Sheridan, 88
+
+Sidney, Sir Philip, 23, 27, 55, 58, 68, 82, 84
+
+_Sixe Court Comedies_, 114
+
+_Soliman and Perseda_, 45
+
+Soto, Pedro de, 26
+
+Spain (and Spanish), 22-28, 30, 31, 33-36, 40, 42, 47, 48, 52, 66, 69,
+ 136
+
+_Spanish Tragedy, The_, 43, 44, 45
+
+Spencer, Herbert, 61
+
+Spenser, 103, 120
+
+_Stella_, 109
+
+Stevenson, 93, 95, 114, 119
+
+Stratford, 109
+
+_Suppositi_ (_Supposes_), 94, 119, 126
+
+Surrey, 31
+
+Symonds, J. A., 47, 62, 91, 93, 104, 117
+
+
+Taine, 1
+
+_Tamburlaine_, 113
+
+_Taming of the Shrew, The_, 93
+
+Tasso, 48
+
+Tents and Toils (office of), 8
+
+Terence, 50, 92, 96
+
+Thackeray, 77
+
+_Timon of Athens_ (anticipated by Lyly), 101
+
+_Toxophilus_, 38
+
+Tully (v. Cicero)
+
+
+Udall, Nicholas, 87, 93, 95, 96, 97, 114, 116, 119
+
+Underhill, 23, 24, 27, 28, 34, 36, 40
+
+
+Vere, Edward de, 7, 28, 46, 86, 87, 116, 119, 134
+
+Villa Garcia, 26
+
+Virgil, 17, 50
+
+Vives, 25, 26
+
+
+Waller, 12, 140
+
+Ward, Dr, 8, 92, 93
+
+Ward, Mrs H., 30, 80
+
+Warner, 43, 57
+
+Watson, Thomas, 7, 45, 46, 49, 53, 133, 137
+
+Webbe, William, 11
+
+Welbanke, 43
+
+West, Dr, 33, 34
+
+Weymouth, Dr, 14
+
+Wilkinson, 43
+
+_Wine, Women and Song_, 117
+
+_Woman in the Moon, The_, 98, 112, 113, 124, 130
+
+_Woman is a Weathercock, A_, 44
+
+women, importance of, in the Elizabethan age, 74-76, 80-82, 97-98,
+ 100-101, 125-126, 128
+
+Wood, Anthony à, 4, 5, 86
+
+Wyatt, 31
+
+Wycliff, 66
+
+Wynkyn de Worde, 66
+
+
+Zola, 75
+
+
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22525-0.txt or 22525-0.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22525/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+ the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+ you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
+ owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+ has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+ Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
+ must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+ prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+ returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+ sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+ address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+ the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+ you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+ does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+ License. You must require such a user to return or
+ destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+ and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+ Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+ money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+ electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+ of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+ distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+ Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+ Chief Executive and Director
+ gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+ http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/22525-0.zip b/22525-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..692ec88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-0.zip
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-8.txt b/22525-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b21a95e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5473 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: John Lyly
+
+Author: John Dover Wilson
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22525]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+This e-text contains one Greek word that has been transliterated and
+placed inside slashes: /Euphus/.]
+
+
+
+
+ JOHN LYLY
+
+
+ BY
+
+ JOHN DOVER WILSON,
+
+
+
+ B.A., Late Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
+ Members' Prizeman, 1902. Harness Prizeman, 1904.
+ Honours in Historical Tripos.
+
+
+
+
+ Macmillan and Bowes
+ Cambridge
+ 1905
+
+
+
+
+ A
+ MIA
+ DONNA.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following treatise was awarded the _Harness Prize_ at Cambridge in
+1904. I have, however, revised it since then, and in some matters
+considerably enlarged it.
+
+A list of the chief authorities to whom I am indebted will be found at
+the end of the book, but it is fitting that I should here make
+particular mention of my obligations to the exhaustive work of Mr
+Bond[1]. Not only have his labours of research and collation lightened
+the task for me, and for any future student of Lyly, to an incalculable
+extent, but the various introductory essays scattered up and down his
+volumes are full of invaluable suggestions.
+
+ [1] _The Complete Works of John Lyly._ R. W. Bond, 3 Vols. Clarendon
+ Press.
+
+This book was unfortunately nearing its completion before I was able to
+avail myself of Mr Martin Hume's _Spanish Influence on English
+Literature_. But, though I might have added more had his book been
+accessible earlier, I was glad to find that his conclusions left the
+main theory of my chapter on Euphuism untouched.
+
+Much as has been written upon John Lyly, no previous critic has
+attempted to cover the whole ground, and to sum up in a brief and
+convenient form the three main literary problems which centre round his
+name. My solution of these problems may be faulty in detail, but it will
+I hope be of service to Elizabethan students to have them presented in a
+single volume and from a single point of view. Furthermore, when I
+undertook this study, I found several points which seemed to demand
+closer attention than they had hitherto received. It appeared to me that
+the last word had not been said even upon the subject of Euphuism,
+although that topic has usurped the lion's share of critical treatment.
+And again, while Lyly's claims as a novelist are acknowledged on all
+hands, I felt that a clear statement of his exact position in the
+history of our novel was still needed. Finally, inasmuch as the
+personality of an author is always more fascinating to me than his
+writings, I determined to attempt to throw some light, however fitful
+and uncertain, upon the man Lyly himself. The attempt was not entirely
+fruitless, for it led to the interesting discovery that the
+fully-developed euphuism was not the creation of Lyly, or Pettie, or
+indeed of any one individual, but of a circle of young Oxford men which
+included Gosson, Watson, Hakluyt, and possibly many others.
+
+I have to thank Mr J. R. Collins and Mr J. N. Frazer, the one for help
+in revision, and the other for assistance in Spanish. But my chief debt
+of gratitude is due to Dr Ward, the Master of Peterhouse, who has twice
+read through this book at different stages of its construction. The
+readiness with which he has put his great learning at my disposal, his
+kindly interest, and frequent encouragement have been of the very
+greatest help in a task which was undertaken and completed under
+pressure of other work.
+
+As the full titles of authorities used are to be found in the list at
+the end, I have referred to works in the footnotes simply by the name of
+their author, while in quoting from _Euphues_ I have throughout employed
+Prof. Arber's reprint. Should errors be discovered in the text I must
+plead in excuse that, owing to circumstances, the book had to be passed
+very quickly through the press.
+
+JOHN DOVER WILSON.
+
+HOLMLEIGH, SHELFORD, _August, 1905_.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+ PAGE
+
+The problem stated--Sketch of Lyly's life 1
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EUPHUISM 10
+
+Section I. The Anatomy of Euphuism 13
+
+Section II. The Origin of Euphuism 21
+
+Section III. Lyly's legatees and the relation between
+Euphuism and the Renaissance 43
+
+Section IV. The position of Euphuism in the history of English
+Prose 52
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL 64
+
+The rise of the Novel--the characteristics of _The Anatomy of
+Wit_ and _Euphues and his England_--the Elizabethan Novel.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LYLY THE DRAMATIST 85
+
+Section I. English Comedy before 1580 89
+
+Section II. The Eight Plays 98
+
+Section III. Lyly's advance and subsequent influence 119
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CONCLUSION 132
+
+Lyly's Character--Summary.
+
+INDEX 143
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Since the day when Taine established a scientific basis for the
+historical study of Art, criticism has tended gradually but naturally to
+fall into two divisions, as distinct from each other as the functions
+they respectively perform are distinct. The one, which we may call
+aesthetic criticism, deals with the artist and his works solely for the
+purpose of interpretation and appreciation, judging them according to
+some artistic standard, which, as often as not, derives its only
+sanction from the prejudices of the critic himself. It is of course
+obvious that, until all critics are agreed upon some common principles
+of artistic valuation, aesthetic criticism can lay no claim to
+scientific precision, but must be classed as a department of Art itself.
+The other, an application of the Darwinian hypothesis to literature,
+which owes its existence almost entirely to the great French critic
+before mentioned, but which has since rejected as unscientific many of
+the laws he formulated, may be called historical or sociological
+criticism. It judges a work of art, an artist, or an artistic period, on
+its dynamic and not its intrinsic merits. Its standard is influence, not
+power or beauty. It is concerned with the artistic qualities of a given
+artist only in so far as he exerts influence over his successors by
+those qualities. It is essentially scientific, for it treats the artist
+as science treats any other natural phenomenon, that is, as the effect
+of previous causes and the cause of subsequent effects. Its function is
+one of classification, and with interpretation or appreciation it has
+nothing to do.
+
+Before undertaking the study of an artist, the critic should carefully
+distinguish between these two critical methods. A complete study must of
+course comprehend both; and in the case of Shakespeare, shall we say,
+each should be exhaustive. On the other hand, there are artists whose
+dynamical value is far greater than their intrinsic value, and _vice
+versa_; and in such instances the critic must be guided in his action by
+the relative importance of these values in any particular example. This
+is so in the case of John Lyly. In the course of the following treatise
+we shall have occasion to pass many aesthetic judgments upon his work;
+but it will be from the historical side that we shall view him in the
+main, because his importance for the readers of the twentieth century is
+almost entirely dynamical. His work is by no means devoid of aesthetic
+merit. He was, like so many of the Elizabethans, a writer of beautiful
+lyrics which are well known to this day; but, though the rest of his
+work is undoubtedly that of an artist of no mean ability, the beauty it
+possesses is the beauty of a fossil in which few but students would
+profess any interest. Moreover, even could we claim more for John Lyly
+than this, any aesthetic criticism would of necessity become a secondary
+matter in comparison with his importance in other directions, for to the
+scientific critic he is or should be one of the most significant figures
+in English literature. This claim I hope to justify in the following
+pages; but it will be well, by way of obtaining a broad general view of
+our subject, to call attention to a few points upon which our
+justification must ultimately rest.
+
+In the first place John Lyly, inasmuch as he was one of the earliest
+writers who considered prose as an artistic end in itself, and not
+simply as a medium of expression, may be justly described as a founder,
+if not _the_ founder, of English prose style.
+
+In the second place he was the author of the first novel of manners in
+the language.
+
+And in the third place, and from the point of view of Elizabethan
+literature most important of all, he was one of our very earliest
+dramatists, and without doubt merits the title of Father of English
+Comedy.
+
+It is almost impossible to over-estimate his historical importance in
+these three departments, and this not because he was a great genius or
+possessed of any magnificent artistic gifts, but for the simple reason
+that he happened to stand upon the threshold of modern English
+literature and at the very entrance to its splendid Elizabethan
+ante-room, and therefore all who came after felt something of his
+influence. These are the three chief points of interest about Lyly, but
+they do not exhaust the problems he presents. We shall have to notice
+also that as a pamphleteer he becomes entangled in the famous
+_Marprelate_ controversy, and that he was one of the first, being
+perhaps even earlier than Marlowe, to perceive the value of blank verse
+for dramatic purposes. Finally, as we have seen, he was the reputed
+author of some delightful lyrics.
+
+The man of whom one can say such things, the man who showed such
+versatility and range of expression, the man who took the world by storm
+and made euphuism the fashion at court before he was well out of his
+nonage, who for years provided the great Queen with food for laughter,
+and who was connected with the first ominous outburst of the Puritan
+spirit, surely possesses personal attractions apart from any literary
+considerations. We shall presently see reason to believe that his
+personality was a brilliant and fascinating one. But such a
+reconstruction of the artist[2] is only possible after a thorough
+analysis of his works. It would be as well here, however, by way of
+obtaining an historical framework for our study, to give a brief account
+of his life as it is known to us.
+
+ [2] Cf. Hennequin.
+
+"Eloquent and witty" John Lyly first saw light in the year 1553 or
+1554[3]. Anthony Wood, the 17th century author of _Athenae
+Oxonienses_, tells us that he was, like his contemporary Stephen Gosson,
+a Kentish man born[4]; and with this clue to help them both Mr Bond and
+Mr Baker are inclined to accept much of the story of Fidus as
+autobiographical[5]. If their inference be correct, our author would
+seem to have been the son of middle-class, but well-to-do, parents. But
+it is with his residence at Oxford that any authentic account of his
+life must begin, and even then our information is very meagre. Wood
+tells us that he "became a student in Magdalen College in the beginning
+of 1569, aged 16 or thereabouts." "And since," adds Mr Bond, "in 1574 he
+describes himself as Burleigh's alumnus, and owns obligations to him, it
+is possible that he owed his university career to Burleigh's
+assistance[6]." And yet, limited as our knowledge is, it is possible, I
+think, to form a fairly accurate conception of Lyly's manner of life at
+Oxford, if we are bold enough to read between the lines of the scraps of
+contemporary evidence that have come down to us. Lyly himself tells us
+that he left Oxford for three years not long after his arrival.
+"Oxford," he says, "seemed to weane me before she brought me forth, and
+to give me boanes to gnawe, before I could get the teate to suck.
+Wherein she played the nice mother in sending me into the countrie to
+nurse, where I tyred at a drie breast for three years and was at last
+inforced to weane myself." Mr Bond, influenced by the high moral tone of
+_Euphues_, which, as we shall see, was merely a traditional literary
+prose borrowed from the moral court treatise, is anxious to vindicate
+Lyly from all charges of lawlessness, and refuses to admit that the
+foregoing words refer to rustication[7]. Lyly's enforced absence he
+holds was due to the plague which broke out at Oxford at this time. Such
+an interpretation seems to me to be sufficiently disposed of by the fact
+that the plague in question did not break out until 1571[8], while
+Lyly's words must refer to a departure (at the very latest) in 1570.
+Everything, in fact, goes to show that he was out of favour with the
+University authorities. In the first place he seems to have paid small
+attention to his regular studies. To quote Wood again, he was "always
+averse to the crabbed studies of Logic and Philosophy. For so it was
+that his genie, being naturally bent to the pleasant paths of poetry (as
+if Apollo had given to him a wreath of his own Bays without snatching or
+struggling), did in a manner neglect academical studies, yet not so much
+but that he took the Degree in Arts, that of Master being completed in
+1575[9]."
+
+ [3] Bond, I. p. 2; Baker, p. v.
+
+ [4] _Ath. Ox._ (ed. Bliss), I. p. 676.
+
+ [5] _Euphues_, p. 268.
+
+ [6] Bond, I. p. 6. But Baker, pp. vii, viii, would seem to disagree
+ with this.
+
+ [7] Bond, I. p. 11.
+
+ [8] Baker, p. xii.
+
+ [9] _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. Bliss), I. p. 676.
+
+Neglect of the recognised studies, however, was not the only blot upon
+Lyly's Oxford life. From the hints thrown out by his contemporaries, and
+from some allusions, doubtless personal, in the _Euphues_, we learn
+that, as an undergraduate, he was an irresponsible madcap. "Esteemed in
+the University a noted wit," he would very naturally become the centre
+of a pleasure-seeking circle of friends, despising the persons and
+ideas of their elders, eager to adopt the latest fashion whether in
+dress or in thought, and intolerant alike of regulations and of duty.
+Gabriel Harvey, who nursed a grudge against Lyly, even speaks of
+"horning, gaming, fooling and knaving," words which convey a distinct
+sense of something discreditable, whatever may be their exact
+significance. It is necessary to lay stress upon this period of Lyly's
+life, because, as I hope to show, his residence at Oxford, and the
+friends he made there, had a profound influence upon his later
+development, and in particular determined his literary bent. For our
+present purpose, however, which is merely to give a brief sketch of his
+life, it is sufficient to notice that our author's conduct during his
+residence was not so exemplary as it might have been. It must,
+therefore, have called forth a sigh of relief from the authorities of
+Magdalen, when they saw the last of John Lyly, M.A., in 1575. He
+however, quite naturally, saw matters otherwise. It would seem to him
+that the College was suffering wrong in losing so excellent a wit, and
+accordingly he heroically took steps to prevent such a catastrophe, for
+in 1576 we find him writing to his patron Burleigh, requesting him to
+procure mandatory letters from the Queen "that so under your auspices I
+may be quietly admitted a Fellow there." The petition was refused,
+Burleigh's sense of propriety overcoming his sense of humour, and the
+petitioner quitted Oxford, leaving his College the legacy of an unpaid
+bill for battels, and probably already preparing in his brain the
+revenge, which subsequently took the form of an attack upon his
+University in _Euphues_, which he published in 1578.
+
+It is interesting to learn that in 1579, according to the common
+practice of that day, he proceeded to his degree of M.A. at Cambridge,
+though there is no evidence of any residence there[10]. Indeed we know
+from other sources that in 1578, or perhaps earlier, Lyly had taken up
+his position at the Savoy Hospital. It seems probable that he became
+again indebted to Burleigh's generosity for the rooms he occupied
+here--unless they were hired for him by Burleigh's son-in-law Edward de
+Vere, Earl of Oxford. This person, though few of his writings are now
+extant, is nevertheless an interesting figure in Elizabethan literature.
+The second part of _Euphues_ published in 1580, and the _Hekatompathia_
+of Thomas Watson, are both dedicated to him, and he seems to have acted
+as patron to most of Lyly's literary associates when they left Oxford
+for London. Lyly became his private secretary; and as the Earl was
+himself a dramatist, though his comedies are now lost, his influence
+must have confirmed in our author those dramatic aspirations, which were
+probably acquired at Oxford; and we have every reason for believing that
+Lyly was still his secretary when he was publishing his two first plays,
+_Campaspe_ and _Sapho_, in 1584. But this point will require a fuller
+treatment at a later stage of our study.
+
+ [10] Mr Baker however seems to think that his reference to Cambridge
+ (_Euphues_, p. 436) implies a term of residence there. Baker, p. xxii.
+
+Somewhere about 1585 Fate settled once and for all the lines on which
+Lyly's genius was to develop, for at that time he became an assistant
+master at the St Paul's Choir School. Schools, and especially those for
+choristers, at this time offered excellent opportunities for dramatic
+production. Lyly in his new position made good use of his chance, and
+wrote plays for his young scholars to act, drilling them himself, and
+perhaps frequently appearing personally on the stage. These
+chorister-actors were connected in a very special way with royal
+entertainments; and therefore they and their instructor would be
+constantly brought into touch with the Revels' Office. As we know from
+his letters to Elizabeth and to Cecil, the mastership of the Revels was
+the post Lyly coveted, and coveted without success, as far as we can
+tell, until the end of his life. But these letters also show us that he
+was already connected with this office by his position in the
+subordinate office of Tents and Toils. The latter, originally instituted
+for the purpose of furnishing the necessaries of royal hunting and
+campaigning[11], had apparently become amalgamated under a female
+sovereign with the Revels' Office, possibly owing to the fact that its
+costumes and weapons provided useful material for entertainments and
+interludes. Another position which, as Mr Bond shows, was held at one
+time by Lyly, was that of reader of new books to the Bishop of London.
+This connexion with the censorship of the day is interesting, as showing
+how Lyly was drawn into the whirlpool of the _Marprelate_ controversy.
+Finally we know that he was elected a member of Parliament on four
+separate occasions[12].
+
+ [11] Bond, I. p. 38.
+
+ [12] I have to thank Dr Ward for pointing out to me the interesting
+ fact that a large proportion of Elizabeth's M.P.'s were royal
+ officials.
+
+These varied occupations are proof of the energy and versatility of our
+author, but not one of them can be described as lucrative. Nor can his
+publications have brought him much profit; for, though both _Euphues_
+and its sequel passed through ten editions before his death, an author
+in those days received very little of the proceeds of his work. Moreover
+the publication of his plays is rather an indication of financial
+distress than a sign of prosperity. The two dramas already mentioned
+were printed before Lyly's connexion with the Choir School; and, when in
+1585 he became "vice-master of Poules and Foolmaster of the Theater,"
+he would be careful to keep his plays out of the publisher's hands, in
+order to preserve the acting monopoly. It is probable that the tenure of
+this Actor-manager-schoolmastership marks the height of Lyly's
+prosperity, and the inhibition of the boys' acting rights in 1591 must
+have meant a severe financial loss to him. Thus it is only after this
+date that he is forced to make what he can by the publication of his
+other plays. The fear of poverty was the more urgent, because he had a
+wife and family on his hands. And though Mr Bond believes that he found
+an occupation after 1591 in writing royal entertainments, and though the
+inhibition on the choristers' acting was removed as early as 1599, yet
+the last years of Lyly's life were probably full of disappointment. This
+indeed is confirmed by the bitter tone of his letter to Elizabeth in
+1598 in reference to the mastership of the Revels' Office, which he had
+at last despaired of. The letter in question is sad reading. Beginning
+with a euphuism and ending in a jest, it tells of a man who still
+retains, despite all adversity, a courtly mask and a merry tongue, but
+beneath this brave surface there is visible a despair--almost amounting
+to anguish--which the forced merriment only renders more pitiable. And
+the gloom which surrounded his last years was not only due to the
+distress of poverty. Before his death in 1606 he had seen his novel
+eclipsed by the new Arcadian fashion, and had watched the rise of a host
+of rival dramatists, thrusting him aside while they took advantage of
+his methods. Greatest of them all, as he must have realised, was
+Shakespeare, the sun of our drama before whom the silver light of his
+little moon, which had first illumined our darkness, waned and faded
+away and was to be for centuries forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EUPHUISM.
+
+
+It was as a novelist that Lyly first came before the world of English
+letters. In 1578 he published a volume, bearing the inscription,
+_Euphues: the anatomy of wyt_, to which was subjoined the attractive
+advertisement, _very pleasant for all gentlemen to reade, and most
+necessary to remember_. This book, which was to work a revolution in our
+literature, was completed in 1580 by a sequel, entitled _Euphues and his
+England_. _Euphues_, to combine the two parts under one name, the fruit
+of Lyly's nonage, seems to have determined the form of his reputation
+for the Elizabethans; and even to-day it attracts more attention than
+any other of his works. This probably implies a false estimate of Lyly's
+comparative merits as a novelist and as a dramatist. But it is not
+surprising that critics, living in the century of the novel, and with
+their eyes towards the country pre-eminent in its production, should
+think and write of Lyly chiefly as the first of English novelists. The
+bias of the age is as natural and as dangerous an element in criticism
+as the bias of the individual. But it is not with the modern
+appraisement of _Euphues_ that we are here concerned. Nor need we
+proceed immediately to a consideration of its position in the history of
+the English novel. We have first to deal with its Elizabethan
+reputation. Had _Euphues_ been a still-born child of Lyly's genius, had
+it produced no effect upon the literature of the age, it would possess
+nothing but a purely archaeological interest for us to-day. It would
+still be the first of English novels: but this claim would lose half its
+significance, did it not carry with it the implication that the book was
+also the origin of English novel writing. The importance, therefore, of
+_Euphues_ is not so much that it was primary, as that it was primordial;
+and, to be such, it must have laid its spell in some way or other upon
+succeeding writers. Our first task is therefore to enquire what this
+spell was, and to discover whether the attraction of _Euphues_ must be
+ascribed to Lyly's own invention or to artifices which he borrows from
+others.
+
+While, as I have said, Lyly's name is associated with the novel by most
+modern critics, it has earned a more widespread reputation among the
+laity for affectation and mannerisms of style. Indeed, until fifty years
+ago, Lyly spelt nothing but euphuism, and euphuism meant simply
+nonsense, clothed in bombast. It was a blind acceptance of these loose
+ideas which led Sir Walter Scott to create (as a caricature of Lyly) his
+Sir Piercie Shafton in _The Monastery_--an historical _faux pas_ for
+which he has been since sufficiently called to account. Nevertheless
+Lyly's reputation had a certain basis of fact, and we may trace the
+tradition back to Elizabethan days. It is perhaps worth pointing out
+that, had we no other evidence upon the subject, the survival of this
+tradition would lead us to suppose that it was Lyly's style more than
+anything else which appealed to the men of his day. A contemporary
+confirmation of this may be found in the words of William Webbe. Writing
+in 1586 of the "great good grace and sweet vogue which Eloquence hath
+attained in our Speeche," he declares that the English language has thus
+progressed, "because it hath had the helpe of such rare and singular
+wits, as from time to time myght still adde some amendment to the same.
+Among whom I think there is none that will gainsay, but Master John Lyly
+hath deservedly moste high commendations, as he hath stept one steppe
+further therein than any either before or since he first began the
+wyttie discourse of his _Euphues_, whose works, surely in respect of his
+singular eloquence and brave composition of apt words and sentences, let
+the learned examine and make tryall thereof, through all the parts of
+Rethoricke, in fitte phrases, in pithy sentences, in galant tropes, in
+flowing speeche, in plaine sense, and surely in my judgment, I think he
+wyll yeelde him that verdict which Quintillian giveth of both the best
+orators Demosthenes and Tully, that from the one, nothing may be taken
+away, to the other nothing may be added[13]." After such eulogy, the
+description of Lyly by another writer as "alter Tullius anglorum" will
+not seem strange. These praises were not the extravagances of a few
+uncritical admirers; they echo the verdict of the age. Lyly's
+enthronement was of short duration--a matter of some ten years--but,
+while it lasted, he reigned supreme. Such literary idolatries are by no
+means uncommon, and often hold their ground for a considerable period.
+Beside the vogue of Waller, for example, the duration of Lyly's
+reputation was comparatively brief. More than a century after the
+publication of his poems, Waller was hailed by the Sidney Lee of the day
+in the _Biographia Britannica_ of 1766, as "the most celebrated Lyric
+Poet that England ever produced." Whence comes this striking contrast
+between past glory and present neglect? How is it that a writer once
+known as the greatest master of English prose, and a poet once named the
+most conspicuous of English lyrists, are now but names? They have not
+faded from memory owing to a mere caprice of fashion. Great artists are
+subject to an ebb and flow of popularity, for which as yet no tidal
+theory has been offered as an explanation; but like the sea they are
+ever permanent. The case of our two writers is different. The wheel of
+time will never bring _Euphues_ and _Sacharissa_ "to their own again."
+They are as dead as the Jacobite cause. And for that very reason they
+are all the more interesting for the literary historian. All writers are
+conditioned by their environment, but some concern themselves with the
+essentials, others with the accidents, of that internally constant, but
+externally unstable, phenomenon, known as humanity. Waller and Lyly were
+of the latter class. Like jewels suitable to one costume only, they
+remained in favour just as long as the fashion that created them lasted.
+Waller was probably inferior to Lyly as an artist, but he happened to
+strike a vein which was not exhausted until the end of the 18th century;
+while the vogue of _Euphues_, though at first far-reaching, was soon
+crossed by new artificialities such as arcadianism. The secret of
+Waller's influence was that he stereotyped a new poetic form, a form
+which, in its restraint and precision, was exactly suited to the
+intellect of the _ancien rgime_ with its craving for form and its
+contempt for ideas. The mainspring of Lyly's popularity was that he did
+in prose what Waller did in poetry.
+
+ [13] _A discourse of English Poetrie_, Arber's reprint.
+
+
+SECTION I. _The Anatomy of Euphuism._
+
+The books which have been written upon the characteristics of Lyly's
+prose are numberless, and far outweigh the attention given to his power
+as a novelist, to say nothing of his dramas[14]. Indeed the absorption
+of the critics in the analysis of euphuism seems to have been, up to a
+few years ago, definitely injurious to a true appreciation of our
+author's position, by blocking the path to a recognition of his
+importance in other directions. And yet, in spite of all this, it cannot
+be said that any adequate examination of the structure of Lyly's style
+appeared until Mr Child took the matter in hand in 1894[15]. And Mr
+Child has performed his task so scientifically and so exhaustively that
+he has killed the topic by making any further treatment of it
+superfluous. This being the case, a description of the euphuistic style
+need not detain us for long. I shall content myself with the briefest
+summary of its characteristics, drawing upon Mr Child for my matter, and
+referring those who are desirous of further details to Mr Child's work
+itself. We shall then be in a position to proceed to the more
+interesting, and as yet unsettled problem, of the origins of euphuism.
+The great value of Mr Child's work lies in the fact that he has at once
+simplified and amplified the conclusions of previous investigators. Dr
+Weymouth[16] was the first to discover that, beneath the "curtizan-like
+painted affectation" of euphuism, there lay a definite theory of style
+and a consistent method of procedure. Dr Landmann carried the analysis
+still further in his now famous paper published in the _New Shakespeare
+Society's Transactions_ (1880-82). But these two, and those who have
+followed them, have erred, on the one hand in implying that euphuism was
+much more complex than it is in reality, and on the other by confining
+their attention to single sentences, and so failing to perceive that the
+euphuistic method was applicable to the paragraph, as a whole, no less
+than to the sentence. And it is upon these two points that Mr Child's
+essay is so specially illuminating. We shall obtain a correct notion of
+the "essential character" of the "euphuistic rhetoric," he writes, "if
+we observe that it employs but one simple principle in practice, and
+that it applies this, not only to the ordering of the single sentence,
+but in every structural relation[17]": and this simple principle is "the
+inducement of artificial emphasis through Antithesis and
+Repetition--Antithesis to give pointed expression to the thought,
+Repetition to enforce it[18]." When Lyly set out to write his novel, it
+seemed that his intention was to produce a most elaborate essay in
+antithesis. The book as a whole, "very pleasant for all gentlemen to
+read and most necessary to remember," was itself an antithesis; the
+discourses it contains were framed upon the same plan; the sentences are
+grouped antithetically; while the antithesis is pointed by an equally
+elaborate repetition of ideas, of vowel sounds and of consonant sounds.
+Letters, syllables, words, sentences, sentence groups, paragraphs, all
+are employed for the purpose of producing the antithetical style now
+known as euphuism. An example will serve to make the matter clearer.
+Philautus, upbraiding his treacherous friend Euphues for robbing him of
+his lady's love, delivers himself of the following speech: "Although
+hitherto Euphues I have shrined thee in my heart for a trusty friend, I
+will shunne thee hereafter as a trothless foe, and although I cannot see
+in thee less wit than I was wont, yet do I find less honesty. I perceive
+at the last (although being deceived it be too late) that musk though
+it be sweet in the smell is sour in the smack, that the leaf of the
+cedar tree though it be fair to be seen, yet the syrup depriveth
+sight--that friendship though it be plighted by the shaking of the hand,
+yet it is shaken by the fraud of the heart. But thou hast not much to
+boast of, for as thou hast won a fickle lady, so hast thou lost a
+faithful friend[19]." It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the
+euphuistic style save in a lengthy quotation, such as the discourse of
+Eubulus selected by Mr Child for that purpose[20]; but, within the
+narrow limits of the passage I have chosen, the main characteristics of
+euphuism are sufficiently obvious. It should be noticed how one part of
+a sentence is balanced by another part, and how this balance or
+"parallelism" is made more pointed by means of alliteration, e.g.
+"shrined thee for a trusty friend," "shun thee as a trothless foe"; musk
+"sweet in the smell," "sour in the smack," and so on. The former of
+these antitheses is an example of transverse alliteration, of which so
+much is made by Dr Landmann, but which, as Mr Child shows, plays a
+subordinate, and an entirely mechanical, part in Lyly's style[21].
+Lyly's most natural and most usual method of emphasizing is by means of
+simple alliteration. On the other hand it must be noticed that he
+employs alliteration for the sake of euphony alone much more frequently
+than he uses it for the purpose of emphasis. So that we may conclude by
+saying that simple alliteration forms the basis of the euphuistic
+diction, just as we have seen antithesis forms the basis of the
+euphuistic construction. This brief survey of the framework of euphuism
+is far from being an exhaustive analysis. All that is here attempted is
+an enumeration of the most obvious marks of euphuism, as a necessary
+step to an investigation of its origin, and to a determination of its
+place in the history of our literature.
+
+ [14] Child, pp. 6-20, for an account of chief writers who have dealt
+ with euphuism.
+
+ [15] _John Lyly and Euphuism._ C. G. Child.
+
+ [16] _On Euphuism_, Phil. Soc. Trans., 1870-2.
+
+ [17] Child, p. 43.
+
+ [18] _id._, p. 44.
+
+ [19] _Euphues_, p. 90.
+
+ [20] Child, p. 39.
+
+ [21] _id._, p. 46.
+
+Before, however, leaving the subject entirely, we must mention two more
+characteristics of Lyly's prose which are very noticeable, but which
+come under the head of ornamental, rather than constructional, devices.
+The first of these is a peculiar use of the rhetorical interrogation.
+Lyly makes use of it when he wishes to portray his characters in
+distress or excitement, and it most frequently occurs in soliloquies.
+Sometimes we find a string of these interrogations, at others they are
+answered by sentences beginning "ay but," and occasionally we have the
+"ay but" sentence with the preceding interrogation missing. I make a
+special mention of this point, as we shall find it has a certain
+connexion with the subject of the origins of euphuism.
+
+The other ornamental device is one which has attracted a considerable
+quantity of attention from critics, and has frequently been taken by
+itself as the distinguishing mark of euphuism. In point of fact,
+however, the euphuists shared it with many other writers of their age,
+though it is doubtful whether anyone carried it to such extravagant
+lengths as Lyly. It took the form of illustrations and analogies, so
+excessive and overwhelming that it is difficult to see how even the
+idlest lady of Elizabeth's court found time or patience to wade through
+them. They consist first of anecdotes and allusions relating to
+historical or mythological persons of the ancient world; some being
+drawn from Plutarch, Pliny, Ovid, Virgil, and other sources, but many
+springing simply from Lyly's exuberant fancy. In the second place
+_Euphues_ is a collection of similes borrowed from "a fantastical
+natural history, a sort of mythology of plants and stones, to which the
+most extraordinary virtues are attributed[22]." "I have heard," says
+Camilla, bashfully excusing herself for taking up the cudgels of
+argument with the learned Surius, "that the Tortoise in India when the
+sunne shineth, swimmeth above the water wyth hyr back, and being
+delighted with the fine weather, forgetteth her selfe until the heate of
+the sunne so harden her shell, that she cannot sink when she woulde,
+whereby she is caught. And so it may fare with me that in this good
+companye displaying my minde, having more regard to my delight in
+talking, than to the ears of the hearers, I forget what I speake, and so
+be taken in something I would not utter, which happilye the itchyng ears
+of young gentlemen would so canvas that when I would call it in, I
+cannot, and so be caught with the Tortoise, when I would not[23]." And,
+when she had finished her discourse, Surius again employs the simile for
+the purpose of turning a neat compliment, saying, "Lady, if the Tortoise
+you spoke of in India were as cunning in swimming, as you are in
+speaking, she would neither fear the heate of the sunne nor the ginne of
+the Fisher." This is but a mild example of the "unnatural natural
+philosophy" which _Euphues_ has made famous. An unending procession of
+such similes, often of the most extravagant nature, runs throughout the
+book, and sometimes the development of the plot is made dependent on
+them. Thus Lucilla hesitates to forsake Philautus for Euphues, because
+she feels that her new lover will remember "that the glasse once chased
+will with the least clappe be cracked, that the cloth which stayneth
+with milke will soon loose his coulour with Vinegar; that the eagle's
+wing will waste the feather as well as of the Phoenix as of the
+Pheasant: and that she that hath become faithlesse to one, will never
+be faithfull to any[24]." What proof could be more exact, what better
+example could be given of the methods of concomitant variations? It is
+precisely the same logical process which induces the savage to wreak his
+vengeance by melting a waxen image of his enemy, and the farmer to
+predict a change of weather at the new moon.
+
+ [22] Jusserand, p. 107.
+
+ [23] _Euphues_, p. 402.
+
+ [24] _id._, p. 58.
+
+Lyly, however, was not concerned with making philosophical
+generalizations, or scientific laws, about the world in general. His
+natural, or unnatural, phenomena were simply saturated with moral
+significance: not that he saw any connexion between the ethical process
+and the cosmic process, but, like every one of his contemporaries, he
+employed the facts of animal and vegetable life to point a moral or to
+help out a sermon. The arguments he used appear to us puerile in their
+old-world dress, and yet similar ones are to be heard to-day in every
+pulpit where a smattering of science is used to eke out a poverty of
+theology. And, to be fair, such reasoning is not confined to pulpits.
+Even so eminent a writer as Mr Edward Carpenter has been known to
+moralize on the habits of the wild mustard, irresistibly reminding us of
+the "Camomill which the more it is trodden and pressed down the more it
+speedeth[25]." Moreover the _soi-disant_ founder of the inductive
+method, the great Bacon himself, is, as Liebig[26] shows in his amusing
+and interesting study of the renowned "scientist's" scientific methods,
+tarred with the same mediaeval brush, and should be ranked with Lyly and
+the other Elizabethan "scholastics" rather than with men like Harvey and
+Newton.
+
+ [25] _Euphues_, p. 46.
+
+ [26] _Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen ge_, par
+ Liebig, traduit par de Tchihatchef.
+
+Lyly's natural history was at any rate the result of learning; many of
+his "facts" were drawn from Pliny, while others were to be found in the
+plentiful crop of mediaeval bestiaries, which, as Professor Raleigh
+remarks, "preceded the biological hand-books." Perhaps also we must
+again allow something for Lyly's invention; for lists of authorities,
+and footnotes indicative of sources, were not demanded of the scientist
+of those days, and one can thoroughly sympathise with an author who
+found an added zest in inventing the facts upon which his theories
+rested. Have not ethical philosophers of all ages been guilty of it?
+Certainly Gabriel Harvey seems to be hinting at Lyly when he slyly
+remarks: "I could name a party, that in comparison of his own
+inventions, termed Pliny a barren wombe[27]."
+
+ [27] Bond, I. p. 131 note.
+
+The affectations we have just enumerated are much less conspicuous in
+the second part of _Euphues_ than in the first, and, though they find a
+place in his earlier plays, Lyly gradually frees himself from their
+influence, owing perhaps to the decline of the euphuistic fashion, but
+more probably to the growth of his dramatic instinct, which saw that
+such forms were a drag upon the action of a play. And yet at times Lyly
+could use his clumsy weapon with great precision and effect. How
+admirably, for example, does he express in his antithetical fashion the
+essence of coquetry. Iffida, speaking to Fidus of one she loved but
+wished to test, is made to say, "I seem straight-laced as one neither
+accustomed to such suites, nor willing to entertain such a servant, yet
+so warily, as putting him from me with my little finger, I drewe him to
+me with my whole hand[28]." Other little delicate turns of phrase may be
+found in the mine of _Euphues_--for the digging. Our author was no
+genius, but he had a full measure of that indefinable quality known as
+wit; and, though the stylist's mask he wears is uncouth and rigid, it
+cannot always conceal the twinkle of his eyes. Moreover a certain
+weariness of this sermonizing on the stilts of antithesis is often
+visible; and we may suspect that he half sympathises with the petulant
+exclamation of the sea-sick Philautus to his interminable friend:
+
+"In fayth, Euphues, thou hast told a long tale, the beginning I have
+forgotten, ye middle I understand not, and the end hangeth not well
+together[29]"; and with this piece of self-criticism we may leave Lyly
+for the present and turn to his predecessors.
+
+ [28] _Euphues_, p. 299.
+
+ [29] _Euphues_, p. 248.
+
+
+SECTION II. _The Origins of Euphuism._
+
+When we pass from an analytical to an historical consideration of the
+style which Lyly made his own and stamped for ever with the name of his
+hero, we come upon a problem which is at once the most difficult and the
+most fascinating with which we have to deal. The search for a solution
+will lead us far afield; but, inasmuch as the publication and success of
+_Euphues_ have given euphuism its importance in the history of our
+literature, the digression, which an attempt to trace the origin of
+euphuism will necessitate, can hardly be considered outside the scope of
+this book. Critics have long since decided that the peculiar style,
+which we have just dissolved into its elements, was not the invention of
+Lyly's genius; but on the other hand, no critic, in my opinion, has as
+yet solved the problem of origins with any claim to finality. Perhaps a
+tentative solution is all that is possible in the present stage of our
+knowledge. It is, of course, easy to point to the book or books from
+which Lyly borrowed, and to dismiss the question thus. But this simply
+evades the whole issue; for, though it explains _Euphues_, it by no
+means explains euphuism. Equally unsatisfactory is the theory that
+euphuism was of purely Spanish origin. Such a solution has all the
+fascination, and all the dangers, which usually attend a simple answer
+to a complex question. The idea that euphuism was originally an article
+of foreign production was first set on foot by Dr Landmann. The real
+father of Lyly's style, he tells us, was Antonio de Guevara, bishop of
+Guadix, who published in 1529 a book, the title of which was as follows:
+_The book of the emperor Marcus Aurelius with a Diall for princes_. This
+book was translated into English in 1534 by Lord Berners, and again in
+1557 by Sir Thomas North; in both cases from a French version. The two
+translations are conveniently distinguished by their titles, that of
+Berners being _The Golden Boke_, that of North being _The Diall of
+Princes_. Dr Landmann is very positive with regard to his theory, but
+the fact that both translations come from the French and not from the
+Castilian, seems to me to constitute a serious drawback to its
+acceptance. And moreover this theory does not explain the really
+important crux of the whole matter, namely the reason why a style of
+this kind, whatever its origin, found a ready acceptance in England: for
+fourteen editions of _The Golden Boke_ are known between 1534 and 1588,
+a number for those days quite exceptional and showing the existence of
+an eager public. Two answers are possible to the last question; that
+there existed a large body of men in the England of the Tudors who were
+interested in Spanish literature of all kinds and in Guevara among
+others; and that the euphuistic style was already forming in England,
+and that this was the reason of Guevara's popularity. In both answers I
+think there is truth; and I hope to show that they give us, when
+combined, a fairly adequate explanation of the vogue of euphuism in our
+country. Let us deal with external influences first.
+
+The upholders of the Spanish theory have contented themselves with
+stating that Lyly borrowed from Guevara, and pointing out the parallels
+between the two writers. But it is possible to give their case a greater
+plausibility, by showing that Guevara was no isolated instance of such
+Spanish influence, and by proving that during the Tudor period there was
+a consistent and far-reaching interest in Spanish literature among a
+certain class of Englishmen. Intimacy with Spain dates from HenryVIII.'s
+marriage with Katherine of Aragon, though no Spanish book had actually
+been translated into English before her divorce. But the period from
+then onwards until the accession of JamesI., a period when Spain looms
+as largely in English politics as does France later, saw the publication
+in London of "some hundred and seventy volumes written either by
+peninsular authors, or in the peninsular tongues[30]." At such a time
+this number represents a very considerable influence; and it is,
+therefore, no wonder that critics have fallen victims to the allurements
+of a theory which would ascribe Spanish origins for all the various
+prose epidemics of Elizabethan literature. To pair Lyly with Guevara,
+Sidney with Montemayor[31], and Nash with Mendoza, and thus to point at
+Spain as the parent, not only of the euphuistic, but also of the
+pastoral and picaresque romance, is to furnish an explanation almost
+irresistible in its symmetry. It must have been with the joy of a
+mathematician, solving an intricate problem, that Dr Landmann formulated
+this theory of literary equations. But without going to such lengths,
+without pressing the connexion between particular writers, one may admit
+that in general Spanish literature must have exercised an influence upon
+the Elizabethans. Mr Underhill, our latest authority on the subject,
+allows this, while at the same time cautioning us against the dangers of
+over-estimating it. Any contact on the side of the lyric and the drama
+was, he declares, very slight[32], and the peninsular writings actually
+circulated in our country at this time, in translations, he divides into
+three classes; occasional literature, that is topical tracts and
+pamphlets on contemporary Spanish affairs; didactic literature,
+comprising scientific treatises, accounts of voyages such as inspired
+Hakluyt, works on military science, and, more important still, the
+religious writings of mystics like Granada; and lastly artistic prose.
+The last item, which alone concerns us, is by far the smallest of the
+three, and by itself amounts to less than half the translations from
+Italian literature; moreover most of the Spanish translations under this
+head came into England after 1580, and could not therefore have
+influenced Lyly's novel. But of course the _Libro Aureo_ had been
+englished long before this, while the _Lazarillo de Trmes_,
+Mendoza's[33] picaresque romance, was given an English garb by Rowland
+in 1576, and, though Montemayor's _Diana_ was not translated until 1596,
+Spanish and French editions of it had existed in England long previous
+to that date. Perhaps most important of all was the famous realistic
+novel _Celestina_, which was well known, in a French translation, to
+Englishmen at the beginning of the 16th century, and was denounced by
+Vives at Oxford. It was actually translated into English as early as
+1530[34]. There was on the whole, therefore, quite an appreciable
+quantity of Spanish artistic literature circulating in England before
+_Euphues_ saw the light.
+
+ [30] Underhill, p. 339.
+
+ [31] _id._, p. 268 note. Mr Underhill writes: "The attempt to connect
+ the style of Sidney with that of Montemayor has failed."
+
+ [32] Underhill, p. 48, but see Martin Hume, ch. IX.
+
+ [33] Some doubt has been thrown upon Mendoza's authorship. See
+ Fitzmaurice-Kelly, p. 158, and Martin Hume, p. 133.
+
+ [34] Martin Hume, p. 126.
+
+This literary invasion will seem perfectly natural if we bear in mind
+the political conditions of the day. Under Mary, England had been all
+but a Spanish dependency, and, though in the next reign, she threw off
+the yoke, the antagonism which existed probably acted as an even greater
+literary stimulus than the former alliance. Throughout the whole of
+Elizabeth's rule, the English were continually coming into contact with
+the Spaniards, either in trade, in ecclesiastical matters, in politics,
+or in actual warfare; and again the magnificence of the great Spanish
+empire, and the glamour which surrounded its connexion with the new
+world, were very attractive to the Englishmen of Elizabeth's day,
+especially as they were desirous of emulating the achievements of Spain.
+And lastly it may be noticed that English and Spanish conditions of
+intellectual life, if we shut our eyes to the religious differences,
+were very similar at this time. Both countries had replaced a shattered
+feudal system by an absolute and united monarchy. Both countries owed an
+immense debt to Italy, and, in both, the Italian influence took a
+similar form, modified on the one hand by humanism, and on the other by
+feelings of patriotism, if not of imperialism. Spain and England took
+the Renaissance fever more coldly, and at the same time more seriously,
+than did Italy. And in both the new movement eventually assumed the
+character of intellectual asceticism moulded by the sombre hand of
+religious fanaticism; for Spain was the cradle of the Counter-Reformation,
+England of Puritanism.
+
+Leaving the general issue, let us now try to establish a partial
+connexion between our author, or at least his surroundings, and Spanish
+influences. And here I think a suggestive, if not a strong case, can be
+made out. Ever since the beginning of the 16th century a Spanish
+tradition had existed at Oxford. Vives, the Spanish humanist, and the
+friend of Erasmus, was in 1517 admitted Fellow of Corpus Christi
+College, and in 1523 became reader in rhetoric; and, though he was
+banished in 1528, at the time of the divorce, it seems that he was
+continually lecturing before the University during the five years of his
+residence there. The circle of his friends, though quite distinct from
+the contemporary Berners-Guevara group, included many interesting men,
+and among others the famous Sir John Cheke. Under Mary we naturally find
+two Spanish professors at Oxford, Pedro de Soto and Juan de Villa
+Garcia. But Elizabeth maintained the tradition; and in 1559 she offered
+a chair at Oxford to a Spanish Protestant, Guerrero. The important name,
+however, in our connexion is Antonio de Corro, who resided as a student
+at Christ Church from 1575 to 1585, thus being a contemporary of Lyly,
+though it is impossible to say whether they were acquainted or not. Lyly
+had, however, another Oxford contemporary who certainly took a keen
+interest in Spanish literature, possessing a knowledge of Castilian,
+though himself an Englishman. This was Hakluyt, who must have been known
+to Lyly; and for the following reason. In 1597 Henry Lok[35] published a
+volume of religious poems to which Lyly contributed commendatory
+verses. On the other hand Hakluyt's first book was supplemented by a
+woodcut map executed by his friend Michael Lok[36], brother of Thomas
+Lok the Spanish merchant, and uncle to the aforesaid Henry. It seems
+highly improbable, therefore, that Lyly and Hakluyt possessing these
+common friends could have remained unknown to each other at Oxford.
+Indeed we may feel justified in supposing that Hakluyt, Sidney, Carew,
+Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and Thomas Rogers (the translator of _Estella_) were
+all personally acquainted, if not intimate, at the University. Another
+and very important name may be added to this list, that of Stephen
+Gosson, who, "a Kentish man born" like our hero, and entering Oxford a
+year after him (in 1572), must, I feel sure, have been one of his
+friends. The fact that he was at first interested in acting, and is said
+to have written comedies, goes a long way to confirm this. We are also
+led to suppose that he had devoted some attention to Spanish literature,
+and that he was probably acquainted with Hakluyt and the Loks, from
+certain verses of his, printed at the end of Thomas Nicholas' _Pleasant
+History of the Conquest of West India_, a translation of Cortes' book
+published in 1578[37]. Taking all this into consideration, it is
+extremely interesting to find Gosson publishing in 1579 his famous
+_Schoole of Abuse_, which bears most of the distinguishing marks of
+euphuism already noted, but which can scarcely have been modelled upon
+Lyly's work; for as Professor Saintsbury writes: "the very short
+interval between the appearance of _Euphues_ and the _Schoole of Abuse_,
+shows that he must rather have mastered the Lylian style in the same
+circumstances and situations as Lyly than have directly borrowed it
+from his fellow at Oxford[38]." And moreover Gosson's style does not
+read like an imitation of Lyly. The same tricks and affectations are
+employed, but they are employed differently and perhaps more
+effectively.
+
+ [35] Bond, I. p. 67.
+
+ [36] Underhill, p. 178, to whom I am indebted for nearly all the
+ preceding remarks in connexion with the Spanish atmosphere at Oxford.
+
+ [37] Arber's reprint, _School of Abuse_, p. 97.
+
+ [38] Craik, vol. I.
+
+Lyly is again found in contact with the Spanish atmosphere, as one of
+the dependents of the Earl of Oxford, who patronized Robert Baker,
+George Baker, and Anthony Munday, who were all under the "spell of the
+peninsula[39]." But we cannot be certain when his relations with de Vere
+commenced, and unless we can feel sure that they had begun before the
+writing of _Euphues_, the point is not of importance for our present
+argument.
+
+ [39] Underhill, ch. VIII. 2.
+
+These facts are of course little more than hints, but I think they are
+sufficient to establish a fairly strong probability that Lyly was one of
+a literary set at Oxford (as I have already suggested in dealing with
+his life) the members of which were especially interested in Spanish
+literature, perhaps through the influence of Corro. It seems extremely
+improbable that Lyly himself possessed any knowledge of Castilian, and
+it is by no means necessary to show that he did, for it is quite
+sufficient to point out that he must have been continually in the
+presence of those who were discussing peninsular writings, and that in
+this way he would have come to a knowledge of the most famous Spanish
+book which had yet received translation, the _Libro Aureo_ of Guevara.
+
+But we are still left with the question on our hands; why was this book
+the most famous peninsular production of Lyly's day? It is a question
+which no critic, as far as I am aware, has ever formulated, and yet it
+seems endowed with the greatest importance. We have seen how and why
+Spanish literature in general found a reception in England. But the
+special question as to the ascendancy of Guevara obviously requires a
+special answer. Guevara was of course well known all over the continent,
+and it might seem that this was a sufficient explanation of his
+popularity in England. In reality, however, such an explanation is no
+solution at all, it merely widens the issue; for we are still left
+asking for a reason of his continental fame. The problem requires a
+closer investigation than it has at present received. It was undoubtedly
+Guevara's _alto estilo_ which gave his writings their chief attraction;
+and a style so elaborate would only find a reception in a favourable
+atmosphere, that is among those who had already gone some way towards
+the creation of a similar style themselves. _A priori_ therefore the
+answer to our question would be that Guevara was no isolated stylist,
+but only the most famous example of a literary phase, which had its
+independent representatives all over Europe. A consideration of English
+prose under the Tudors will, I think, fully confirm this conclusion as
+far as our own country is concerned, and it will also offer us an
+explanation, in terms of internal development, of the origin and sources
+of euphuism.
+
+We have noticed with suspicion that our two translators took their
+Guevara from the French. And it is therefore quite legitimate to suppose
+that Berners and North, separated as they were from the original, were
+as much creators as translators of the euphuistic style. But there are
+other circumstances connected with Berners, which are much more fatal to
+Dr Landmann's theory than this. In the first place it appears that the
+part played by Berners in the history of euphuism has been considerably
+under-estimated. Mr Sidney Lee was the first to combat the generally
+accepted view in a criticism of Mrs Humphry Ward's article on
+_Euphuism_ in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, in which she follows Dr
+Landmann. His criticism, which appeared in the _Athenum_, was
+afterwards enlarged in an appendix to his edition of Berners'
+translation of _Huon of Bordeaux_. "Lord Berners' sentences," Mr Lee
+writes, "are euphuistic beyond all question; they are characterized by
+the forced antitheses, alliteration, and the far-fetched illustrations
+from natural phenomena, peculiar to Lyly and his successors[40]." He
+denies, moreover, that Berners was any less euphuistic than North, and
+gives parallel extracts from their translations to prove this. A
+comparison of the two passages in question can leave no doubt that Mr
+Lee's deduction is correct. Mr Bond therefore is in grave error when he
+writes, "North endeavoured what Berners had not aimed at, to reproduce
+in his Diall the characteristics of Guevara's style, with the notable
+addition of an alliteration natural to English but not to Spanish; and
+it is he who must be regarded as the real founder of our euphuistic
+literary fashion[41]." Lyly may indeed have borrowed from North rather
+than from Berners; but, if Berners' English was as euphuistic as
+North's, and if Berners could show fourteen editions to North's two
+before 1580, it is Berners and not North who must be described as "the
+real founder of our euphuistic literary fashion." And as Mr Lee shows,
+his nephew Sir Francis Bryan must share the title with him, for the
+colophon of the _Golden Boke_ states that the translation was undertaken
+"at the instaunt desire of his nevewe Sir Francis Bryan Knyghte." It was
+Bryan also who wrote the passage at the conclusion of the _Boke_
+applauding the "swete style[42]." This Sir Francis Bryan was a
+favourite of HenryVIII., a friend of Surrey and Wyatt, possibly of
+Ascham and of his master Cheke, in fact a very well-known figure at
+court and in the literary circles of his day[43]. Euphuism must,
+therefore, have had a considerable vogue even in the days of HenryVIII.
+If it could be shown that Bryan could read Castilian, the Guevara theory
+might still possess some plausibility, for it would be argued that
+Berners learnt his style from his nephew. But, though we know Bryan to
+have entertained a peculiar affection for Guevara's writings, there is
+no evidence to prove that he could read them in the original. Indeed
+when he set himself to translate Guevara's _Dispraise of the life of a
+courtier_, he, like his uncle, had to go to a French translation[44].
+Wherever we turn, in fact, we are met by this French barrier between
+Guevara and his English translators, which seems to preclude the
+possibility of his style having exercised the influence ascribed to it
+by Dr Landmann and those who follow him.
+
+ [40] Huon of Bordeaux, appendix I., _Lord Berners and Euphuism_,
+ p. 786.
+
+ [41] Bond, I. p. 158.
+
+ [42] See _Athenum_, July 14, 1883.
+
+ [43] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Bryan.
+
+ [44] The 2nd edition of this book, which was published under another
+ title, is thus described in the B. M. Cat.: "_A looking-glass for the
+ court_ ... out of Castilian drawne into French by A. Alaygre; and out
+ of the French into English by Sir F. Briant."
+
+But there is more behind: and we cannot help feeling convinced that the
+facts we are now about to bring forward ought to dispose of the
+Landmann-Guevara theory once and for all. In the article before
+mentioned Mr Lee goes on to say: "The translator's prologue to Lord
+Berners' _Froissart_ written in 1524 and that to be found in other of
+his works show him to have come under Guevara's or a similar influence
+before he translated the _Golden Boke_[45]." Here is an extract from the
+prologue in question. "The most profitable thing in this world for the
+institution of the human life is history. Once the continual reading
+thereof maketh young men equal in prudence to old men, and to old
+fathers striken in age it ministereth experience of things. More it
+yieldeth private persons worthy of dignity, rule and governance: it
+compelleth the emperors, high rulers, and governors to do noble deeds to
+the end they may obtain immortal glory: it exciteth, moveth and stirreth
+the strong, hardy warriors, for the great laud that they have after they
+lie dead, promptly to go in hand with great and hard perils in defence
+of their country: and it prohibiteth reproveable persons to do
+mischievous deeds for fear of infamy and shame. So thus through the
+monuments of writing which is the testimony unto virtue many men have
+been moved, some to build cities, some to devise and establish laws
+right, profitable, necessary and behoveful for the human life, some
+other to find new arts, crafts and sciences, very requisite to the use
+of mankind. But above all things, whereby man's wealth riseth, special
+laud and praise ought to be given to history: it is the keeper of such
+things as have been virtuously done, and the witness of evil deeds, and
+by the benefit of history all noble, high and virtuous acts be immortal.
+What moved the strong and fierce Hercules to enterprise in his life so
+many great incomparable labours and perils? Certainly nought else but
+that for his great merit immortality might be given him of all folk....
+Why moved and stirred Phalerius the King Ptolemy oft and diligently to
+read books? Forsooth for no other cause but that those things are found
+written in books that the friends dare not show to the prince[46]." This
+is of course far from being the full-blown euphuism of Lyly or Pettie,
+yet we cannot but agree with Mr Lee, when he declares that "the
+parallelism of the sentences, the repetition of the same thought
+differently expressed, the rhetorical question, the accumulation of
+synonyms, the classical references, are irrefutable witnesses to the
+presence of euphuism[47]." But Mr Lee appeared to be quite unconscious
+of the full significance of his discovery. _It means that Berners was
+writing euphuism in 1524, five years before Guevara published his book
+in Spain._ No critic, as far as I have been able to discover, has shown
+any consciousness of this significant fact[48], which is of course of
+the utmost importance in this connexion; as, if it is to carry all the
+weight that is at first sight due to it, the theory that euphuism was a
+mere borrowing from the Spanish must be pronounced entirely exploded.
+But it is as well not to be over-confident. Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, his
+earliest work, was undoubtedly first published by his authority in 1529,
+but there seems to be a general feeling that the book had previously
+appeared in pirated form. This feeling is based upon the title of the
+1529 edition[49], which describes the book as "_nueuamente reuisto por
+su seoria_," and upon certain remarks of Hallam in his _Literature of
+Europe_. Though I can find no confirmation for the statements he makes
+upon the authority of a certain Dr West of Dublin, yet the words of so
+well known a writer cannot be ignored. He quotes Dr West in a footnote
+as follows: "There are some circumstances connected with the _Relox_
+(i.e. the sub-title of the _Libro Aureo_) not generally known, which
+satisfactorily account for various erroneous statements that have been
+made on the subject by writers of high authority. The fact is that
+Guevara, about the year 1518, commenced a life and letters of M.
+Aurelius which purported to be a translation of a Greek work found in
+Florence. Having sometime afterwards lent this MS. to the emperor it was
+surreptitiously copied and printed, as he informs us himself, first in
+Seville and afterwards in Portugal.... Guevara himself subsequently
+published it (1529) with considerable additions[50]." From this it
+appears that previous unauthorised editions of Guevara's book had been
+published before 1529. Might not Berners therefore have come under
+Guevara's influence as early as 1524? We must concede that it is
+possible, but, on the other hand, the difficulties in the way of such a
+contingency seem almost insuperable. In the first place, if we are to
+believe Dr West, Guevara did not begin to write his work before 1518,
+and it was not until "some time afterwards" (whatever this may mean)
+that it was "surreptitiously copied and printed." It would require a
+bold man to assert that a book thus published could be influencing the
+style of an English writer as early as 1524. But further it must be
+remembered that Berners almost certainly could not read Castilian[51].
+Now the earliest known French translation of Guevara is one by Rn
+Bertaut in 1531, which Berners himself is known to have used[52].
+Therefore, if Berners was already under Guevara's influence in 1524, he
+must have known of an earlier French pirated translation of an earlier
+pirated edition of the _Libro Aureo_. To sum up; if the euphuistic
+tendency in English prose is to be ascribed entirely, or even mainly, to
+the influence of Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, we must digest four
+improbabilities: (i) that there existed a pirated edition of the book in
+Spain _earlier_ than 1524: (ii) that this had been translated into
+French, also before 1524, although the version of Bertaut in 1531 is the
+earliest French translation we have any trace of: (iii) that Berners
+himself had come across this hypothetical French edition, again before
+1524: and (iv) that the French translation had so faithfully reproduced
+the style of the original, that Berners was able to translate it from
+French into English, for the purpose of his prologue to _Froissart_.
+
+ [45] Huon, p. 787.
+
+ [46] _Froissart_, Globe edition, p. xxviii.
+
+ [47] Huon, p. 788.
+
+ [48] After writing the above I have noticed that Mr G. C. Macaulay, in
+ the Introduction to the Globe _Froissart_, writes as follows (p. xvi):
+ "If nothing else could be adduced to show that the tendency (i.e.
+ euphuism) existed already in English literature, the prefaces to Lord
+ Berners' _Froissart_ written before he could possibly have read
+ Guevara, would be enough to prove it."
+
+ [49] There are two extant editions of 1529, (i) published at
+ Valladolid, from which the words above are quoted, (ii) published at
+ Enueres, which appears to be an earlier edition. Copies of both in the
+ British Museum.
+
+ [50] Hallam, _Lit. of Europe_, ed. 1855, vol. I. p. 403 n. Brunet in
+ his _Manuel de Libraire_ gives Hallam's view without comment, tome II.
+ "Guevara."
+
+ [51] Underhill, p. 69.
+
+ [52] Bond, vol. I. p. 137.
+
+In face of these facts, the Guevara theory is no longer tenable; and in
+consequence the whole situation is reversed, and we approach the problem
+from the natural side, the side from which it should have been
+approached from the first--that is from the English and not the Spanish
+side. I say the natural side, because it seems to me obvious that the
+popularity of a foreign author in any country implies the existence in
+that country, previous to the introduction of the author, of an
+atmosphere (or more concretely a public) favourable to the
+distinguishing characteristics of the author introduced. And so it now
+appears that Guevara found favour in England because his style, or
+something very like it, was already known there; and it was the most
+natural thing in the world that Berners, who shows that style most
+prominently, should have been the channel by which Guevara became known
+to English readers. The whole problem of this 16th century prose is
+analogous to that of 18th century verse. The solution of both was for a
+long time found in foreign influence. It was natural to assume that
+France, the pivot of our foreign policy at the end of the 17th century,
+gave us the classical movement, and that Spain, equally important
+politically in the 16th century, gave us euphuism. Closer investigation
+has disproved both these theories[53], showing that, while foreign
+influence was undoubtedly an immense factor in the _development_ of
+these literary fashions, their real _origin_ was English.
+
+ [53] For 18th century v. Gosse, _From Shakespeare to Pope_.
+
+The proof of this does not rest entirely on the case of Berners. We
+might even concede that he was acquainted with an earlier edition of
+Guevara, and that his style was actually derived from Spanish sources,
+without surrendering our thesis that euphuism was a natural growth.
+Berners' euphuism, whatever its origin, was premature; and, though the
+_Golden Boke_ passed through twelve editions between 1534 and 1560, we
+cannot say that its style influenced English writing until the time of
+Lyly, for its vogue was confined to a small class of readers, designated
+by Mr Underhill as the "Guevara-group." On the other hand, it is
+possible to trace a feeling towards euphuism among writers who were
+quite outside this group.
+
+Latimer, for example, delighted in alliterative turns of speech, though
+the antithetical mannerisms are absent in him. His famous denunciation
+of the unpreaching prelates is an excellent instance:
+
+"But now for the faults of unpreaching prelates, methink I could guess
+what might be said for the excusing of them. They are so troubled with
+lordly living, they be so placed in palaces, couched in courts, ruffling
+in their rents, dancing in their dominions, burdened with ambassages,
+pampering of their paunches like a monk that maketh his jubilee,
+munching in their mangers, and moiling in their gay manors and
+mansions, and so troubled with loitering in their lordships, that they
+cannot attend it."
+
+Here is no transverse alliteration, such as we find so frequently in
+Lyly, but a simple alliteration--"a rudimentary euphuism of balanced and
+alliterative phrases, probably like the alliteration of Anglo-Saxon
+homilies, borrowed from popular poetry[54]." Latimer also employs the
+responsive method so frequently used by Lyly. "But ye say it is new
+learning. Now I tell you it is old learning. Yea, ye say, it is old
+heresy new scoured. Nay, I tell you it is old truth long rusted with
+your canker, and now made new bright and scoured." It is no long step
+from this to the rhetorical question and its formal answer "ay but----."
+Alliteration is not found in Guevara; it was an addition, and a very
+important one, made by his translators. This was at any rate a purely
+native product, and cannot be assigned to Spain. The antithesis and
+parallelism were the fruits of humanism, and they appear, combined with
+Latimer's alliteration, in the writings of Sir John Cheke and his pupil
+Roger Ascham. Cheke's famous criticism of Sallust's style, as being
+"more art than nature and more labour than art," introduces us at once
+to euphuism, and gives us by the way a very excellent comment upon it.
+Again he speaks of "magistrates more ready to tender all justice and
+pitifull in hearing the poor man's causes which ought to amend matters
+more than you can devise and were ready to redress them better than you
+can imagine[55]"; which is a good example of the euphuistic combination
+of alliteration and balance.
+
+ [54] Craik, vol. I. p. 224.
+
+ [55] Craik, p. 258.
+
+In Ascham the style is still more marked. There are, indeed, so many
+examples of euphuism in the _Schoolmaster_ and in the _Toxophilus_,
+that one can only select. As an illustration of transverse alliteration
+quite as complex as any in _Euphues_, we may notice the following: "Hard
+wittes be hard to receive, but sure to keep; painfull without weariness,
+hedefull without wavering, constant without any new fanglednesse;
+bearing heavie things, though not lightlie, yet willinglie; entering
+hard things though not easily, yet depelie[56]." Classical allusions
+abound throughout Ascham's work, and he occasionally indulges in the
+ethics of natural history as follows:
+
+"Young Graftes grow not onlie sonest, but also fairest and bring always
+forth the best and sweetest fruite; young whelps learne easilie to
+carrie; young Popingeis learne quickly to speak; and so, to be short, if
+in all other things though they lacke reason, sense, and life, the
+similitude of youth is fittest to all goodnesse, surelie nature in
+mankinde is more beneficial and effectual in this behalfe[57]."
+
+ [56] Arber, _Schoolmaster_, p. 35.
+
+ [57] _id._, p. 46.
+
+We know that Lyly had read the _Schoolmaster_, as he took the very title
+of his book from its description of /Euphus/ as "he that is apte by
+goodnesse of witte and applicable by readiness of will to learning"--a
+description which is in itself a euphuism; and it is probable that he
+knew his Ascham as thoroughly as he did his Guevara.
+
+Sir Henry Craik has some very pertinent remarks on the peculiarities of
+Ascham's style. "One of these," he writes, "is his proneness to
+alliteration, due perhaps to his desire to reproduce the most striking
+features of the Early English.... A tendency of an almost directly
+opposite kind is the balance of sentences which he imitates from
+Classical models.... These two are perhaps the most striking
+characteristics of Ascham's prose; and it is interesting to observe how
+much the structure of the sentence in the more elaborated stages of
+English prose is due to their combination[58]." Here we have the two
+elements of our native-grown euphuism, and their origins, carefully
+distinguished. Of course with euphuism we do not commence English prose;
+that is already centuries old; but we are dealing with the beginnings of
+English prose style, by which we mean a conscious and artistic striving
+after literary effect. That the first stylists should look to the
+rhetoricians for their models was inevitable, and of these there were
+two kinds available; the classical orators and the alliterative homilies
+of the Early English. But, deferring this point for a later treatment,
+let us conclude our study of the evolution of euphuism in England.
+
+ [58] Craik, I. p. 269.
+
+So far we have been dealing with euphuistic tendencies only, since in
+the style of Ascham and his predecessors, alliteration and antithesis
+are not employed consistently, but merely on occasion for the sake of
+emphasis. Other marks of euphuism, such as the fantastic embroidery of
+mythical beasts and flowers, are absent. Even in North's _Diall_
+alliteration is not profuse, and similes from natural history are
+comparatively rare. In George Pettie, however, we find a complete
+euphuist before _Euphues_. This writer again brings us in touch with
+that Oxford atmosphere, which, I maintain, surrounded the birth of the
+full-blown euphuism. A student of Christ Church, he took his B.A. degree
+in 1560[59], and so probably just escaped being a contemporary of Lyly.
+But, as he was a "dear friend" of William Gager, who was a considerably
+younger man than himself, it seems probable that he continued his Oxford
+connexion after his degree. However this may be, he published his
+_Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure_, which so exactly anticipates
+the style of _Euphues_, in 1576, only two years before the later book.
+The _Petite Pallace_ was an imitation of the famous _Palace of Pleasure_
+published in 1566 by William Painter, who, though he had known Guevara's
+writings, drew his material almost entirely from Italian sources. That
+Pettie also possessed a knowledge of Spanish literature, as we should
+expect from the period of his residence at Oxford, is shown by his
+translation of Guazzo's _Civile Conversation_ in 1581, to which he
+affixes a euphuistic preface. This again was only a left-handed
+transcript from the French. Therefore the Spanish elements, though
+undoubtedly present, cannot be insisted upon. We may concede that Pettie
+had read North, or even go so far as to assert with Mr Underhill that he
+was acquainted with "parts of the Gallicized Guevara," without lending
+countenance to Dr Landmann's radical theories. No one, reading the
+_Petite Pleasure_, can doubt that Pettie was the real creator of
+euphuism in its fullest development, and that Lyly was only an imitator.
+Though I have already somewhat overburdened this chapter. I cannot
+refrain from quoting a passage from Pettie, not only as an example of
+his style, but also because the passage is in itself so delightful, that
+it is one's duty to rescue it from oblivion:
+
+"As amongst all the bonds of benevolence and good will, there is none
+more honourable, ancient, or honest than marriage, so in my fancy there
+is none that doth more firmly fasten and inseparably unite us together
+than the same estate doth, or wherein the fruits of true friendship do
+more plenteously appear: in the father is a certain severe love and
+careful goodwill towards the child, the child beareth a fearful
+affection and awful obedience towards the father: the master hath an
+imperious regard of the servant, the servant a servile care of the
+master. The friendship amongst men is grounded upon no love and
+dissolved upon every light occasion: the goodwill of kinsfolk is
+constantly cold, as much of custom as of devotion: but in this stately
+estate of matrimony there is nothing fearful, all things are done
+faithfully without doubting, truly without doubling, willingly without
+constraint, joyfully without complaint: yea there is such a general
+consent and mutual agreement between the man and wife, that they both
+wish and will covet and crave one thing. And as a scion grafted in a
+strange stalk, their natures being united by growth, they become one and
+together bear one fruit: so the love of the wife planted in the breast
+of her husband, their hearts by continuance of love become one, one
+sense and one soul serveth them both. And as the scion severed from the
+stock withereth away, if it be not grafted in some other: so a loving
+wife separated from the society of her husband withereth away in woe and
+leadeth a life no less pleasant than death[60]." Lyly never wrote
+anything to equal this. Indeed it is not unworthy of the lips of one of
+Shakespeare's heroines.
+
+ [59] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Pettie.
+
+ [60] I have taken the liberty of modernising the spelling.
+
+The euphuism of the foregoing quotation will be readily detected. The
+sole difference between the styles of Lyly and Pettie is that, while
+Pettie's similes from nature are simple and natural, Lyly, with his
+knowledge of Pliny and of the bestiaries, added his fabulous "unnatural
+natural history." Pettie's book was popular for the time, three editions
+of it being called for in the first year of its publication, but it was
+soon to be thrust aside by the fame of the much more pretentious, and,
+apart from the style, better constructed _Euphues_ of Lyly. In truth, as
+Gabriel Harvey justly but unkindly remarks, "Young Euphues but hatched
+the eggs his elder freendes laid." But the parental responsibility and
+merit must be attributed to him who hatches. It was Lyly who made
+euphuism famous and therefore a power; and, despite the fact that he
+marks the culmination of the movement, he is the most dynamical of all
+the euphuists.
+
+It remains to sum up our conclusions respecting the origin and
+development of this literary phase. Difficult as it is to unravel the
+tangled network of obscure influences which surrounded its birth, I
+venture to think that a sufficiently complete disproof of that extreme
+theory, which would ascribe it entirely to Guevara's influence, has been
+offered. Guevara, in the translation of Berners, undoubtedly took the
+field early, but, as we have seen, Berners was probably feeling towards
+the style before he knew Guevara; and moreover the bishop's _alto
+estilo_ must have suffered considerably while passing through the
+French. Even allowing everything, as we have done, for the close
+connexion between Spain and England, for the Spanish tradition at
+Oxford, and for the interest in peninsular writings shown by Lyly's
+immediate circle of friends, we cannot accord to Dr Landmann's
+explanation anything more than a very modified acceptance. Nor would a
+complete rejection of this solution of the Lyly problem render English
+euphuism inexplicable; for something very like it would naturally have
+resulted from the close application of classical methods to prose
+writing; and in the case of Cheke and Ascham we actually see the process
+at work. And yet Lyly owed a great debt to Guevara. A true solution,
+therefore, must find a place for foreign as well as native influences.
+And to say that the Spanish intervention confirmed and hastened a
+development already at work, of which the original impulse was English,
+is, I think, to give a due allowance to both.
+
+
+SECTION III. _Lyly's Legatees and the relation between Euphuism and the
+Renaissance._
+
+The publication of _Euphues_ was the culmination, rather than the
+origin, of that literary phase to which it gave its name. And the vogue
+of euphuism after 1579 was short, lasting indeed only until about 1590;
+yet during these ten years its influence was far-reaching, and left a
+definite mark upon later English prose. It would be idle, if not
+impossible, to trace its effects upon every individual writer who fell
+under its immediate fascination. Moreover the task has already been
+performed in a great measure by M. Jusserand[61] and Mr Bond[62]. They
+have shown once and for all that Greene, Lodge, Welbanke, Munday,
+Warner, Wilkinson, and above all Shakespeare, were indebted to our
+author for certain mannerisms of style. I shall therefore content myself
+with noticing two or three writers, tainted with euphuism, who have been
+generally overlooked, and who seem to me important enough, either in
+themselves, or as throwing light upon the subject of the essay, to
+receive attention.
+
+ [61] Jusserand, ch. IV.
+
+ [62] Bond, vol. I. pp. 164-175.
+
+The first of these is the dramatist Kyd, who completed his well-known
+_Spanish Tragedy_ between 1584 and 1589, that is at the height of the
+euphuistic fashion. This play was apparently an inexhaustible joke to
+the Elizabethans; for the references to it in later dramatists are
+innumerable. One passage must have been particularly famous, for we find
+it parodied most elaborately by Field, as late as 1606, in his _A Woman
+is a Weathercock_[63]. The passage in question, which was obviously
+inspired by Lyly, runs as follows:
+
+ "Yet might she love me for my valiance:
+ I, but that's slandered by captivity.
+ Yet might she love me to content her sire:
+ I, but her reason masters her desire.
+ Yet might she love me as her brother's friend:
+ I, but her hopes aim at some other end.
+ Yet might she love me to uprear her state:
+ I, but perhaps she loves some nobler mate.
+ Yet might she love me as her beautie's thrall:
+ I, but I feare she cannot love at all."
+
+ [63] Act I. Sc. II.
+
+Nathaniel Field's parody of this melodramatic nonsense is so amusing
+that I cannot forbear quoting it. This time the despairing lover is Sir
+Abraham Ninny, who quotes Kyd to his companions, and they with the cry
+of "Ha God-a-mercy, old Hieromino!" begin the game of parody, which must
+have been keenly enjoyed by the audience. Field improves on the original
+by putting the alternate lines of despair into the mouths of Ninny's
+jesting friends. It runs, therefore:
+
+ "--Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.
+ --Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.
+ --Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.
+ --Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.
+ --Yet might she love me for my proper body.
+ --Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.
+ --Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.
+ --Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.
+ --Yet might she love me in despite of all.
+ (the lady herself)--Ay but indeed I cannot love at all."
+
+This parody, apart from any interest it possesses for the student of
+Lyly, is an excellent illustration of the ways of Elizabethan
+playwrights, and of the thorough knowledge of previous plays they
+assumed their audience to have possessed. There are several other
+examples of Kyd's acquaintance with the _Euphues_ in the _Spanish
+Tragedy_[64], in the other dramas[65], and in his prose works[66], which
+it is not necessary to quote. But there is one more passage, again from
+his most famous play, which is so full of interest that it cannot be
+passed over in silence. It is a counsel of hope to the despairing lover,
+and assumes this inspiring form:
+
+ "My Lord, though Belimperia seem thus coy
+ Let reason hold you in your wonted joy;
+ In time the savage Bull sustains the yoke,
+ In time all Haggard Hawkes will stoop to lure,
+ In time small wedges cleave the hardest Oake,
+ In time the flint is pearst with softest shower,
+ And she in time will fall from her disdain,
+ And rue the sufferance of your deadly paine[67]."
+
+ [64] _Sp. Trag._, Act IV. 190 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 146).
+
+ [65] _Soliman and Perseda_, Act III. 130 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 100), and
+ Act II. 199.
+
+ [66] _Kyd's Works_ (Boas), p. 288, and ch. IX.
+
+ [67] _Sp. Trag._, Act II. 1-8.
+
+Now these lines are practically a transcript of the opening words of the
+47th sonnet in Watson's _Hekatompathia_ published in 1582. Remembering
+Lyly's penetrating observation that "the soft droppes of rain pearce the
+hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oake[68]," and bearing
+in mind that the high priest of euphuism himself contributed a
+commendatory epistle to the _Hekatompathia_, we should expect that these
+Bulls and Hawkes and Oakes were choice flowers of speech, culled from
+that botanico-zoological "garden of prose"--the _Euphues_. But as a
+matter of fact Watson himself informs us in a note that his sonnet is an
+imitation of the Italian Serafino, from whom he also borrows other
+sonnet-conceits in the same volume, some of which are full of similar
+references to the properties of animals and plants. The conclusion is
+forced upon us therefore that Watson and Lyly went to the same source,
+or, if a knowledge of Italian cannot be granted to our author, that he
+borrowed from Watson. At any rate Watson cannot be placed amongst the
+imitators of _Euphues_. Like Pettie and Gosson he must share with Lyly
+the credit of creation. He was a friend of Lyly's at Oxford; they
+dedicated their books to the same patron, and they employed the same
+publisher. Moreover, the little we have of Watson's prose is highly
+euphuistic, and it is apparent from the epistle above mentioned that he
+was on terms of closest intimacy with the author of _Euphues_. In him we
+have another member of that interesting circle of Oxford euphuists, who
+continued their connexion in London under de Vere's patronage.
+
+ [68] _Euphues_, p. 337.
+
+Watson again was a friend of the well-known poet Richard Barnefield, who
+though too young in 1578 to have been of the University coterie of
+euphuists, shows definite traces of their affectation in his works. The
+conventional illustrations from an "unnatural natural history" abound in
+his _Affectionate Shepherd_[69] (1594), and he repeats the jargon about
+marble and showers[70] which we have seen in Lyly, Watson and Kyd. Again
+in his _Cynthia_ (1594) there is a distinct reference to the opening
+words of _Euphues_ in the lines,
+
+ "Wit without wealth is bad, yet counted good;
+ Wealth wanting wisdom's worse, yet deemed as well[71]."
+
+His prose introduction betrays the same influence.
+
+ [69] _Poems_, Arber, pp. 18 and 19.
+
+ [70] _id._, p. 24.
+
+ [71] _id._, p. 51.
+
+These then are a few among the countless scribblers of those prolific
+times who fell under the spell of the euphuistic fashion. They are
+mentioned, either because their connexion with the movement has been
+overlooked, or because they throw a new and important light upon Lyly
+himself. Of other legatees it is impossible to treat here; and it is
+enough, without tracing it in any detail, to indicate "the slender
+euphuistic thread that runs in iron through Marlowe, in silver through
+Shakespeare, in bronze through Bacon, in more or less inferior metal
+through every writer of that age[72]."
+
+ [72] Symonds, p. 407.
+
+There is nothing strange in this infatuation, if we remember that
+euphuism was "the English type of an all but universal disease[73]," as
+Symonds puts it. Dr Landmann, we have decided, was wrong in his
+insistence upon foreign influence; but his error was a natural one, and
+points to a fact which no student of Renaissance literature can afford
+to neglect. Matthew Arnold long ago laid down the clarifying principle
+that "the criticism which alone can much help us for the future, is a
+criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual
+purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working
+to a common result[74]." And the truth of this becomes more and more
+indisputable, the longer we study European history, whether it be from
+the side of Politics, of Religion, or of Art. Landmann ascribes euphuism
+to Spain, Symonds ascribes it to Italy, and an equally good case might
+be made out in favour of France. There is truth in all these hypotheses,
+but each misses the true significance of the matter, which is that
+euphuism must have come, and would have come, without any question of
+borrowing.
+
+ [73] _id._, p. 404.
+
+ [74] _Essays in Criticism_, I. p. 39.
+
+The date 1453 is usually taken as a convenient starting point for the
+Renaissance, though the movement was already at work in Italy, for that
+was the year of Byzantium's fall and of the diffusion of the classics
+over Europe. But, for the countries outside Italy, I think that the date
+1493 is almost as important. Hitherto the new learning had been in a
+great measure confined to Italy, but with the invasion of CharlesVIII.,
+which commences a long period of French and Spanish occupation of
+Italian soil, the Renaissance, especially on its artistic side, began to
+find its way into the neighbouring states, and through them into
+England. It is the old story, so familiar to sociologists, of a lower
+civilization falling under the spell of the culture exhibited by a more
+advanced subject population, of a conqueror worshipping the gods of the
+conquered. It is the story of the conquest of Greece by Rome, of the
+conquest of Rome by the Germans. But the interesting point to notice is
+that, when the "barbarian" Frenchman descended from the Alps upon the
+fair plains of Lombardy, the Italian Renaissance was already showing
+signs of decadence. It was in the age of the Petrarchisti, of Aretino,
+of Doni, and of Marini that Europe awoke to the full consciousness of
+the wonders of Italian literature. Thus it was that those beyond the
+Alps drank of water already tainted. That France, Spain, and England
+should be attracted by the affectations of Italy, rather than by what
+was best in her literature, was only to be expected. "It was easier to
+catch the trick of an Aretino, and a Marini, than to emulate the style
+of a Tasso or a Castiglione": and besides they were themselves inventing
+similar extravagances independently of Italy. The purely formal ideal of
+Art had in Spain already found expression among the courtiers of
+JuanII. of Castile. One of them, Baena, writes as follows of poetry:
+"that it cannot be learned or well and properly known, save by the man
+of very deep and subtle invention, and of a very lofty and fine
+discretion, and of a very healthy and unerring judgment, and such a one
+must have seen and heard and read many and diverse books and writings,
+and know all languages and have frequented kings' Courts and associated
+with great men and beheld and taken part in worldly affairs; and finally
+he must be of gentle birth, courteous and sedate, polished, humorous,
+polite, witty, and have in his composition honey, and sugar, and salt,
+and a good presence and a witty manner of reasoning; moreover he must be
+also a lover and ever make a show and pretence of it[75]." Such a
+catalogue of the poet's requisites might have been written by any one of
+our Oxford euphuists; and Watson, at least, among them fulfilled all its
+conditions.
+
+ [75] Butler Clarke, _Spanish Literature_, p. 71.
+
+The Italian influence, therefore, did but hasten a process already at
+work. The reasons for this universal movement are very difficult to
+determine. But among many suggestions of more or less value, a few
+causes of the change may here be hazarded. In the first place, then, the
+Renaissance happened to be contemporaneous with the death of feudalism.
+The ideal of chivalry is dying out all over Europe; and the romances of
+chivalry are everywhere despised. The horizontal class divisions become
+obscured by the newly found perpendicular divisions of nationality; and
+in Italy and England at least the old feudal nobility have almost
+entirely disappeared. A new centre of national life and culture is
+therefore in the process of formation, that of the Court; and thanks to
+this, the ideal of chivalry gives place to the new ideal of the courtier
+or the gentleman. This ideal found literary expression in the moral
+Court treatises, which were so universally popular during the
+Renaissance, and of which Guevara, Castiglione, and Lyly are the most
+famous instances. The ambition of those who frequent Courts has always
+been to appear distinguished--distinguished that is from the vulgar and
+the ordinary, or, as we should now say, from the Philistine. In the
+Courts of the Renaissance period, where learning was considered so
+admirable, this necessary distinction would naturally take the form of a
+cultured, if not pedantic, diction; and for this it was natural that men
+should go to the classics, and more especially to classical orators, as
+models of good speech. It must not be imagined that this process was a
+conscious one. In many countries the rhetorical style was already formed
+by scholars before it became the speech of the Court. In fact the
+beginnings of modern prose style are to be found in humanism. Ascham
+with his hatred of the "Italianated gentleman," was probably quite
+unconscious of his own affinity to that objectionable type, when
+imitating the style of his favourite Tully in the _Schoolmaster_. The
+classics it must be remembered were not discovered by the humanists,
+they were only rediscovered. The middle ages had used them, as they had
+used the Old Testament, as prophetic books. Virgil's mediaeval
+reputation for example rests for the most part upon the fourth Eclogue.
+The humanists, on the other hand, looked upon the classics as literature
+and valued them for their style. But here again they drank from tainted
+sources; for, with the exception of a few writers such as Cicero and
+Terence, the classics they knew and loved best were the product of the
+silver age of Rome, the characteristics of which are beautifully
+described by the author of _Marius the Epicurean_ in his chapter
+significantly called _Euphuism_. Few of the Renaissance students had the
+critical acumen of Cheke, and they fell therefore an easy prey to the
+stylism of the later Latin writers, with its antithesis and
+extravagance. But, with all this, men could not quite shake off the
+middle ages. There is much of the Scholastic in Lyly, and the exuberance
+of ornament, the fantastic similes from natural history, and the moral
+lessons deduced from them, are quite mediaeval in feeling. We learnt the
+lessons of the classics backward; and it was not until centuries after,
+that men realised that the essence of Hellenism is restraint and
+harmony.
+
+I have spoken of the movement generally, but it passed through many
+phases, such as arcadianism, gongorism, dubartism; and yet of all these
+phases euphuism was, I think, the most important: certainly if we
+confine our attention to English literature this must be admitted. But,
+even if we keep our eyes upon the Continent alone, euphuism would seem
+to be more significant than the movements which succeeded it; for it was
+a definite attempt, seriously undertaken, to force modern languages into
+a classical mould, while the other and later affectations were merely
+passing extravagances, possessing little dynamical importance. In this
+way, short-lived and abortive as it seemed, euphuism anticipated the
+literature of the _ancien rgime_.
+
+The movement, moreover, was only one aspect of the Renaissance; it was
+the under-current which in the 18th century became the main stream.
+Paradoxical as it may seem, the Renaissance in its most modern aspect
+was a development of the middle ages, and not of the classics. This we
+call romanticism. As an artistic product it was developed on strictly
+national and traditional lines, born of the fields as it were, free as a
+bird and as sweet, giving birth in England to the drama, in Italy to the
+plastic arts. It is essentially opposed to the classical movement, for
+it represents the idea as distinct from the form. Lyly belongs to both
+movements, for, while he is the protagonist of the romantic drama, in
+his _Euphues_ we may discover the source of the artificial stream which,
+concealed for a while beneath the wild exuberance of the romantic
+growth, appears later in the 18th century embracing the whole current of
+English literature. Before, however, proceeding to fix the position of
+euphuism in the development of English prose, let us sum up the results
+we have obtained from our examination of its relation to the general
+European Renaissance. Originating in that study of classical style we
+find so forcibly advocated by Ascham in his _Schoolmaster_, it was
+essentially a product of humanism. In every country scholars were
+interested as much in the style as in the matter of the newly discovered
+classics. This was due, partly to the lateness of the Latin writers
+chiefly known to them, partly to the mediaeval preference for words
+rather than ideas, and partly to the fact that the times were not yet
+ripe for an appreciation of the spirit as distinct from the letter of
+the classics. In Italy, in France, and in Spain, therefore, we may find
+parallels to euphuism without supposing any international borrowings.
+_Euphues_, in fact, is not so much a reflection of, as a _Glasse for
+Europe_.
+
+
+SECTION IV. _The position of Euphuism in the history of English prose._
+
+A few words remain to be said about this literary curiosity, by way of
+assigning a place to it in the history of our prose. To do so with any
+scientific precision is impossible, but there are many points of no
+small significance in this connexion, which should not be passed over.
+
+English prose at the beginning of the 16th century, that is before the
+new learning had become a power in the land, though it had not yet been
+employed for artistic purposes, was already an important part of our
+literature, and possessed a quality which no national prose had
+exhibited since the days of Greece, the quality of popularity[76]. This
+popularity, which arose from the fact that French and Latin had for so
+long been the language of the ruling section of the community, is still
+the distinction which marks off our prose from that of other nations. In
+Italy, for example, the language of literature is practically
+incomprehensible to the dwellers on the soil. But what English prose has
+gained in breadth and comprehension by representing the tongue of the
+people, it has lost in subtlety. French prose, which developed from the
+speech of the Court, is a delicate instrument, capable of expressing the
+finest shades of meaning, while the styles of George Meredith and of
+Henry James show how difficult it is for a subtle intellect to move
+freely within the limitations of English prose. Indeed, "it is a
+remarkable fact," as Sainte Beuve noticed, "and an inversion of what is
+true of other languages that, in French, prose has always had the
+precedence over poetry." Repeated attempts, however, have been made to
+capture our language, and to transport it into aristocratic atmospheres;
+and of these attempts the first is associated with the name of Lyly.
+
+ [76] Cf. Earle, pp. 422, 423.
+
+We have seen that English euphuism was at first a flower of unconscious
+growth sprung from the soil of humanism. But ultimately, in the hands of
+Pettie, Gosson, Lyly, and Watson, it became the instrument of an Oxford
+coterie deliberately and consciously employed for the purpose of
+altering the form of English prose. These men did not despise their
+native tongue; they used the purest English, carefully avoiding the
+favourite "ink-horn terms" of their contemporaries: they admired it, as
+one admires a wild bird of the fields, which one wishes to capture in
+order to make it hop and sing in a golden cage. The humanists were
+already developing a learned style within the native language; Lyly and
+his friends utilized this learned style for the creation of an
+aristocratic type. Euphuism was no "transient phase of madness[77]," as
+Mr Earle contemptuously calls it, but a brave attempt, and withal a
+first attempt, to assert that prose writing is an art no less than the
+writing of poetry; and this alone should give it a claim upon students
+of English literature.
+
+ [77] Earle, p. 436.
+
+The first point we must notice, therefore, about English euphuism is
+that it represents a tendency to confine literature within the limits of
+the Court--in accordance, one might almost say, with the general
+centralization of politics and religion under the Tudors--and that, as a
+necessary result of this, conscious prose style appears for the first
+time in our language. I say English euphuism, because that is our chief
+concern, and because though euphuism on the Continent was, as we have
+seen, the expression in literature of the new ideal of the courtier, yet
+it was by no means so great an innovation as it was in England, inasmuch
+as the Romance literatures had always represented the aristocracy. The
+form which this style assumed was dependent upon the circumstances which
+gave it birth, and upon the general conditions of the age. Owing to the
+former it became erudite, polished, precise, meet indeed for the
+"parleyings" of courtiers and maids-in-waiting; but it was to the latter
+that it owed its essentials. Hitherto we have contented ourselves with
+indicating the rhetorical aspect of euphuism. We have seen that the
+Latin orators and the writers of our English homilies exercised a
+considerable influence over the new stylists. It was natural that
+rhetoricians should attract those who were desirous of writing
+ornamental and artistic prose, and one feels inclined to believe that it
+was not entirely for spiritual reasons that Lyly frequently attended Dr
+Andrews' sermons[78]. But the euphuistic manner has a wider significance
+than this, for it marks the transition from poetry to prose.
+
+ [78] Bond, I. p. 60.
+
+"The age of Elizabeth is pre-eminently an age of poetry, of which prose
+may be regarded as merely the overflow[79]." It was at once the end of
+the mediaeval, and the beginning of the modern, world, and consequently,
+it displays the qualities of both. But the future lay with the small men
+rather than with the great. Shakespeare and Milton were no innovators.
+With their names the epoch of primitive literature, which finds
+expression in the drama and the epic, ends, while it reaches its highest
+flights. The dawn of the modern epoch, the age of prose and of the
+novel, is, on the other hand, connected with the names of Lyly, Sidney,
+and Nash. Thus, as in the 18th century poetry was subservient, and so
+became assimilated, to prose, so the prose of the 16th century exhibited
+many of the characteristics of verse. And of this general literary
+feature euphuism is the most conspicuous example; for in its employment
+of alliteration and antithesis, in addition to the excessive use of
+illustration and simile which characterizes arcadianism and its
+successors, the style of Lyly is transitional in structure as well as in
+ornament. Moreover the alliteration, which is peculiar to English
+euphuism, gives it a musical element which its continental parallels
+lacked. The dividing line between alliteration and rhyme, and between
+antithesis and rhythm, is not a broad one[80]. Indeed Pettie found it so
+narrow that he occasionally lapsed into metrical rhythm. And so, though
+we cannot say that euphuism is verse, we can say that it partakes of the
+nature of verse. In this endeavour to provide an adequate structure for
+the support of the mass of imagery that the taste of the age demanded,
+it showed itself superior to the rival prose fashions. _Euphues_ is a
+model of form beside the tedious prolixity of the _Arcadia_, or the
+chaotic effusions of Nash. The weariness, which the modern reader feels
+for the romance of Lyly, is due rather to the excessive quantity of its
+metaphor, which was the fault of the age, than to its pedantic style.
+
+ [79] Raleigh, p. 45.
+
+ [80] This touches upon the famous dispute between Dr Schwan and Dr
+ Goodlet which is excellently dealt with by Mr Child, p. 77.
+
+I write loosely of "style," but strictly speaking the euphuists paid
+especial attention to diction. And here again the poetical and
+aristocratic tendencies of euphuism show themselves. For diction, which
+is the art of selection, the selection of apt words, is of course one of
+the first essentials of poetic art, and is also more prominent in the
+prose of Court literature than elsewhere. The precision, the _finesse_,
+the subtlety, of French prose has only been attained by centuries of
+attention to diction. English prose, on the other hand, is singularly
+lacking in this quality; and for this cause it would never have produced
+a Flaubert, despite its splendid achievements in style. Had euphuism
+been more successful, it might have altered the whole aspect of later
+English prose, by giving us in the 16th century that quality of diction
+which did not become prominent in our prose until the days of Pater and
+the purists.
+
+And yet, though it failed in this particular, the influence of the
+general qualities of its style upon later prose must have been
+incalculable. The vogue of euphuism as a craze was brief; but _Euphues_
+received fresh publication about once every three years down to 1636,
+and long after its social popularity had become a thing of the past, it
+probably attracted the careful study of those who wished to write
+artistic prose. The only model of prose form which the age possessed
+could scarcely sink into oblivion, or become out of date, until its
+principal lessons had been so well learnt as to pass into common-places.
+The exaggerations, which first gave it fame, were probably discounted by
+the more sincere appreciation of later critics, to whom its more
+sterling qualities would appeal. For some reason, the musical properties
+of euphuism do not appear to have found favour among those critics, and
+this was probably a loss to our literature. "Alliteration," as Professor
+Raleigh remarks, "is often condemned as a flaw in rhymed verse, and it
+may well be open to question whether Lyly did not give it its true
+position in attempting to invent a place for it in what is called
+prose[81]." Possibly its failure in this respect was due to the growth
+of that intellectual asceticism, and that reaction against the
+domination of poetry, which are, I think, intimately bound up with the
+fortunes of Puritanism. The beginning of this reaction is visible as
+early as 1589 in the words of Warner's preface to _Albion's England_,
+which display the very affectation they protest against: "onely this
+error may be thought hatching in our English, that to runne on the
+letter we often runne from the matter: and being over prodigall in
+similes we become lesse profitable in sentences and more prolixious to
+sense." But, however this may be, it was the formal rather than the
+musical qualities which gave _Euphues_ its dynamical importance in the
+history of English prose. Subsequent writers had much to learn from a
+book in which the principle of design is for the first time visible.
+With euphuism, antithesis and the use of balanced sentences came to
+stay. We may see them in the style of Johnson and Gibbon, while
+alliterative antithesis reappears to-day in the shape of the epigram.
+Doubtless Lyly abused the antithetical device; but his successors had
+only to discover a means of skilfully concealing the structure, an
+improvement which the early euphuists, with all the enthusiasm of
+inventors, could not have appreciated.
+
+ [81] Raleigh, p. 47.
+
+Moreover, in aiming at elegance and precision, Lyly attained a lucidity
+almost unequalled among his contemporaries. His attention to form saved
+him from the besetting sin of Elizabethan prose,--incoherence by reason
+of an overwhelming display of ornament. His very illustrations were
+subject to the restraint which his style demanded, being sown, to use
+his own metaphor, "here and there lyke Strawberries, not in heapes, lyke
+Hoppes[82]." Arcadianism came as a reaction against euphuism, attempting
+to replace its artificiality by simplicity. But how infinitely more
+preferable is the novel of Lyly, with its artificial precision and
+lucidity, to the conscious artlessness of Sidney's _Arcadia_, with its
+interminable sentences and confused syntax. As a modern euphuist has
+taught us, of all poses the natural pose is the most irritating. In
+accordance with his desire for precision, Lyly made frequent use of the
+short sentence. In this we have another indication of his modernity:
+for the short sentence, which is so characteristic of English prose
+style to-day, occurs more often in his work than in the writings of any
+of his predecessors. And, in reference to the same question of lucidity,
+we may notice that he was the first writer who gave special attention to
+the separation of his prose into paragraphs,--a matter apparently
+trivial, but really of no small importance. Finally, it is a remarkable
+fact that the number of words to be found in _Euphues_ which have since
+become obsolete is a very small one--"at most but a small fraction of
+one per cent.[83]" And this is in itself sufficient to indicate the
+influence which Lyly's novel has exerted upon English prose. As he reads
+it, no one can avoid being struck by the modernity of its language, an
+impression not to be obtained from a perusal of the plays. The
+explanation is simple enough. The plays were not read or absorbed by
+their author's contemporaries and successors; _Euphues_ was. In the
+domain of style, _Euphues_ was dynamical; the plays were not.
+
+ [82] _Euphues_, p. 220.
+
+ [83] Child, p. 41.
+
+But the true value of Lyly's prose lies not so much in what it achieved
+as in what it attempted; for the qualities, which euphuism, by its
+insistence upon design and elegance, really aimed at, were strength,
+brilliancy, and refinement. For the first time in the history of our
+literature, men are found to write prose with the purpose of fascinating
+and enticing the reader, not merely by what is said, but also by the
+manner of saying it. "Lyly" (and, we may add, his associates), writes
+his latest editor, "grasped the fact that in prose no less than in
+poetry, the reader demanded to be led onward by a succession of half
+imperceptible shocks of pleasure in the beauty and vigour of diction, or
+in the ingenuity of phrasing, in sentence after sentence--pleasure
+inseparable from that caused by a perception of the nice adaptation of
+words to thought, pleasure quite other than that derivable from the
+acquisition of fresh knowledge[84]." The direct influence of the man who
+first taught us this lesson, who showed us that a writer, to be
+successful, should seek not merely to express himself, but also to study
+the mind of his reader, must have been something quite beyond
+computation. And that his direct influence was not more lasting was due,
+in the first place, to the fact that he had not grasped the full
+significance of this psychological aspect of style, if we may so call
+it, which he and his friends had been the first to discover. As with
+most first attempts, euphuism, while bestowing immense benefits upon
+those who came after, was itself a failure. The euphuists perceived the
+problem of style, but successfully attacked only one half of it. More
+acute than their contemporaries, they realised the principle of economy,
+but, as with one who makes an entirely new mechanical invention, they
+were themselves unable to appreciate what their discovery would lead to.
+They were right in addressing themselves to the task of attracting, and
+stimulating, the reader by means of precision, pointed antithesis, and
+such like attempts to induce pleasurable mental sensations, but they
+forgot that anyone must eventually grow weary under the influence of
+continuous excitation without variation. The soft drops of rain pierce
+the hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oak, and much
+monotony will tire the readiest reader. Or, to use the phraseology of a
+somewhat more recent scientist, they "considered only those causes of
+force in language which depend upon economy of the mental _energies_,"
+they paid no attention to "those which depend upon the economy of the
+mental _sensibilities_[85]." This is one explanation of the weariness
+with which _Euphues_ fills the modern reader, and of the speed with
+which, in spite of its priceless pioneer work, that book was superseded
+and forgotten in its own days. It is our duty to give it its full meed
+of recognition, but we can understand and forgive the ungratefulness of
+its contemporaries.
+
+ [84] Bond, I. p. 146.
+
+ [85] H. Spencer, Essays, II. _Phil. of Style_.
+
+Another cause of the oblivion which so soon overtook the famous
+Elizabethan novel, has already been suggested. Euphuism was too
+antagonistic to the general current of English prose to be successful.
+Lyly and his Oxford clique were attempting a revolution similar to that
+undertaken, at the same period, by Ronsard and his _Pleiad_. Lyly failed
+in prose, where Ronsard succeeded in poetry, because he endeavoured to
+go back upon tradition, while the Frenchman worked strictly within its
+limits. The attempt to throw Court dress over the plain homespun of our
+English prose might have been attended with success, had our literature
+been younger and more easily led astray. As it was, prose in this
+country, when euphuism invaded it, could already show seven centuries of
+development, and, moreover, development along the broad and national
+lines of common or vulgar speech. Euphuism was after all only part of
+the general tendency of the age to focus everything that was good in
+politics, religion, and art, on the person and immediate surroundings of
+the sovereign; and the history of the eighteenth century, which saw the
+last issue of the series of _Euphues_ reprints, is the history of the
+collapse of this centralization all along the line, ending in the
+complete vindication of the democratic basis of English life and
+literature.
+
+With these general remarks we must leave the subject of euphuism. No
+history of its origin and its influence can be completely satisfactory:
+such questions must of necessity receive a speculative and tentative
+solution, for it is impossible to give them an exact answer which admits
+of no dispute. The age of Lyly was far more complex than ours, with all
+our artistic sects and schisms; the currents of literary influence were
+multitudinous and extremely involved. As Symonds wrote, "The romantic
+art of the modern world did not spring like that of Greece from an
+ungarnered field of flowers. Troubled by reminiscences from the past and
+by reciprocal influences from one another, the literatures of modern
+Europe came into existence with composite dialects and obeyed confused
+canons of taste, exhibited their adolescent vigour with affected graces
+and showed themselves senile in their cradles." In the field of
+literature to-day the standards are more numerous, but more distinctive,
+than those of the Elizabethans. Our ideals are classified with almost
+scientific exactness, and we wear the labels proudly. But the very
+splendour of the Renaissance was due to the fact that in the same group,
+in the same artist, were to be found the most diverse ideals and the
+most opposite methods. They worshipped they knew not what, we know what
+we worship. Yet this difference does not prevent us from seeing curious
+points of similarity between our own and those times. The 16th, like the
+19th century, was a period of revolt from the past: and at such moments
+men feel a supreme contempt for the common-place in literature. The cry
+of art for art's sake is raised, and the result is extravagance,
+euphuism. A wave of intellectual dandyism seems to sweep over the face
+of literature, aristocratic in its aims and sympathies. Then are the
+battle lines drawn up, and the spectators watch, with admiration or
+contempt, the eternally recurrent strife between David and the
+Philistines; and whether the young hero be clad in the knee-breeches of
+aestheticism, or the slashed doublet of the courtier; whether he be
+armed with epigram and sunflower, or with euphuism and camomile;
+variation of costume cannot conceal the identity of his personality--the
+personality of the fop of culture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL.
+
+
+Despite the disproportionate attention given to euphuism by so many of
+Lyly's critics, _Euphues_ is no less important as a novel than as a
+piece of prose. We can, however, dismiss this second branch of our
+subject in fewer words, because the problem of _Euphues_ is much simpler
+and more straightforward than the problem of euphuism. It can scarcely
+be said that Lyly has yet been thoroughly appreciated as a novelist;
+indeed, the whole subject of the Elizabethan novel is very far from
+having received a satisfactory treatment at present. This is not
+surprising when we consider that the last word remains to be said upon
+the Elizabethan drama. The birth of modern literature was so sudden, its
+life, even in the cradle, was so complex that it baffles criticism. Like
+the peal of an organ with a thousand stops, the English Renaissance
+seemed to break the stillness of the great mediaeval church, shaking its
+beautiful sombre walls and filling it from floor to roof with wild,
+pagan music. Indeed, the more we study those 50 or 60 years which
+embrace the so-called Elizabethan period, the more are we struck by the
+fact that, ever since, we have been simply making variations upon the
+themes, which the men of those times gave us. Modern science, modern
+poetry, modern drama, sat like pages at the feet of the Great Queen.
+Among these the novel cut but an insignificant figure, although it was
+the novel which had perhaps the longest future before it. We need not
+wonder therefore that our first English novelist has been treated by
+many with neglect. None I think have done more to make amends in this
+direction than Professor Raleigh and M. Jusserand; the former in his
+graceful, humorous, and penetrating little book, _The English Novel_;
+and the latter in his well-known work on _The English Novel in the time
+of Shakespeare_, which gives one, while reading it, the feeling of being
+present at a fancy-dress ball, so skilfully does he detect the forms and
+faces of present-day fiction behind euphuistic mask and beneath arcadian
+costume. To these two books the present writer owes a debt which all
+must feel who have stood bewildered upon the threshold of Elizabeth's
+Court with its glittering throng of genius and wit.
+
+Sudden, however, as was this crop of warriors wielding pen, it must not
+be forgotten that the dragon's teeth had first been sown in mediaeval
+soil. With Lyly the English novel came into being, but that child of his
+genius was not without ancestry or relations. And so, before discussing
+the character and fortunes of the infant, let us devote a few
+introductory remarks to pedigree. Roughly speaking, the prose narrative
+in England, before _Euphues_, falls into three divisions, the romance of
+chivalry, the _novella_, and the moral Court treatise,--and all three
+are of foreign extraction, that is to say, they are represented in
+England by translations only. Chaucer indeed is a mine of material
+suitable for the novel, but the father of English literature elected to
+write in verse, and his _Canterbury Tales_ have no appreciable influence
+upon the later prose story. For some reason, the mediaeval prose
+narrative seems to have been confined to the so-called Celtic races.
+Certainly, both the romance of chivalry and the _novella_ are to be
+traced back to French sources. The _novella_, which, at our period, had
+become thoroughly naturalized in Italy, under the auspices of Boccaccio,
+had originally sprung from the _fabliaux_ of 13th century France. Nor
+was the _fabliau_ the only article of French production which found a
+new and more stimulative home across the Alps; for just as it is
+possible to trace the German Reformation back, through Huss, to its
+birth in Wycliff's England, so French critics have delighted to point
+out that the Italian Renaissance itself was but an expansion of an
+earlier Renaissance in France, which, for all the strength and maturity
+it gained under its new conditions, lost much of that indescribable
+flavour of direct simplicity and gracious sweetness which breathes from
+the pages of _Aucassin and Nicolette_ and its companion _Amis and
+Amile_. Under CharlesVIII. and his successors this Renaissance was
+carried home, as it were, to die--so subtle is the ebb and flow of
+intellectual influences between country and country. In England the
+_novella_, of which Chaucer had made ample use, first appeared in prose
+dress from the printing-press of Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde.
+The Dutch printer had also published Lord Berners' translation of _Huon
+of Bordeaux_, the best romance of chivalry belonging to the Charlemagne
+cycle. But, before the dawn of the 16th century Malory had already given
+us _Morte D'Arthur_, from the Arthurian cycle, printed, as everyone
+knows, by the industrious Caxton himself. Thus, if we neglect, as I
+think we may, translations from the _Gesta Romanorum_, we may say that
+the prose narrative appeared in England simultaneously with the
+printing-press, a fact which is more than coincidence; since the
+multiplication of books, which Caxton began, decreased the necessity for
+remembering tales; and therefore it was now possible to dispense with
+the aid of verse; in fact Caxton deprived the minstrel of his
+occupation.
+
+Of the third form of prose narrative--the moral Court treatise--we have
+already said something. It had appeared in Italy and in Spain, and our
+connexion with it came from the latter country, through Berners'
+translation of the _Golden Boke_ of Guevara. So slight was the thread of
+narrative running through this book, that one would imagine at first
+sight that it could have little to do with the history of our novel. And
+yet in comparison with its importance in this respect the _novella_ and
+the romance of chivalry are quite insignificant. The two latter never
+indeed lost their popularity during the Elizabethan age, but they had
+ceased to be considered respectable--a very different thing--before that
+age began. The first cause of their fall in the social scale was the
+disapprobation of the humanists. Ascham, echoing Plato's condemnation of
+Homer, attacks the romance of chivalry from the moral point of view, at
+the same time cunningly associating it with "Papistrie." But he holds
+the _novella_ even in greater abhorrence, for, after declaring that the
+whole pleasure of the _Morte D'Arthur_ "standeth in two speciall
+poyntes, in open mans slaughter, and bold bawdrye," he goes on to say:
+"and yet ten _Morte Arthurs_ do not a tenth part so much harm as one of
+those bookes, made in Italy and translated in England[86]."
+
+ [86] _Schoolmaster_, p. 80.
+
+But there were social as well as moral reasons for the depreciation of
+Malory and Boccaccio. The taste of the age began to find these foreign
+dishes, if not unpalatable, at least not sufficiently delicate. England
+was fortunate in receiving the Reformation and the Renaissance at the
+same time; and the men of those "spacious times" set before their eyes
+that ideal of the courtier, so exquisitely embodied by Sir Philip
+Sidney, in which godliness was not thought incompatible with refinement
+of culture and graciousness of bearing. For the first time our country
+became civilized in the full meaning of that word, and the knight,
+shedding the armour of barbarism, became the gentleman, clothed in
+velvet and silk. The romance of chivalry, therefore, became
+old-fashioned; and it seemed for a time doomed to destruction until it
+received a new lease of life, purged of mediaevalism and modernised by
+the hands of Sidney himself, under the guise of arcadianism. While,
+however, _Arcadia_ remained an undiscovered country, the needs of the
+age were supplied by the "moral Court treatise." It was perhaps not so
+much that the old stories found little response in the new form of
+society, as that they did not reflect that society. We may well believe
+that the taste for mirrors, which now became so fashionable, found its
+psychological parallel in the desire of the Elizabethans to discover
+their own fashions, their own affectations, themselves, in the stories
+they read; and if this indeed be what is meant by realism in literature
+that quality in the novel dates from those days. In this sense if in no
+other, in the sense that he held, for the first time, a polished mirror
+before contemporary life and manners, Lyly must be called the first of
+English novelists.
+
+_The Anatomy of Wit_, which it is most important to distinguish from its
+sequel, was the descendant in the direct line from the "moral Court
+treatise." Something perhaps of the atmosphere of the _novella_ clung
+about its pages, but that was only to be expected: Lyly added incident
+to the bare scheme of discourses, and for that he had no other models
+but the Italians. But Guevara was his real source. Dr Landmann's
+verdict, that "Euphuism is not only adapted from Guevara's _alto
+estilo_, but _Euphues_ itself, as to its contents, is a mere imitation
+of Guevara's enlarged biography of Marcus Aurelius," has certainly been
+shown by Mr Bond to be a gross overstatement; yet there can be no doubt
+that the _Diall of Princes_ was Lyly's model on the side of matter, as
+was Pettie's _Pallace_ on the side of style. Our author's debt to the
+Spaniard is seen in a correspondence between many parts of his book and
+the _Aureo Libro_, in certain of the concluding letters and discourses,
+and in many other ways which Mr Bond has patiently noted[87]. Guevara,
+however, was but one among many previous writers to whom Lyly owed
+obligations. _Euphues_ was justly styled by its author "compiled," being
+in fact a mosaic, pieced together from the classics, and especially
+Plutarch, Pliny, and Ovid, and from previous English writers such as
+Harrison, Heywood, Fortescue, and Gascoigne; names that indicate the
+course of literary "browsing" that Lyly substituted for the ordinary
+curriculum at Oxford. To mention all the authors from whom he borrowed,
+and to point out the portions of his novel which are due to their
+several influences, would only be to repeat a task already accomplished
+by Mr Bond[88].
+
+ [87] Bond, I. pp. 154-156.
+
+ [88] Bond, I. pp. 156-159.
+
+Allowing for all its author's "picking and stealing," _The Anatomy of
+Wit_ was in the highest sense an original book; for, though it is the
+old moral treatise, its form is new, and it is enlivened by a thin
+thread of narrative. The hero Euphues is a young man lately come from
+Athens, which is unmistakeably Oxford, to Naples, which is just as
+unmistakeably London. Here he soon becomes the centre of a convivial
+circle, where he is wise enough to distinguish between friend and
+parasite, to discern the difference between the "faith of Laelius and
+the flattery of Aristippus." The story thus opens bravely, but the words
+of the title-page, "most necessary to remember," are ever present in the
+author's mind, and before we have reached the fourth page the sermon is
+upon us. For "conscience" attired as an old man, Eubulus, now enters the
+stage of this Court _morality_ and proceeds to deliver a long harangue
+upon the folly of youth, concluding with much excellent though obvious
+counsel. We should be in sympathy with the rude answer of Euphues, were
+it but curt at the same time, but, alas, it covers six pages. Having
+thus imprudently crushed the "wisdom of eld" by the weight of his
+utterance, our hero shows his natural preference for the companionship
+and counsel of youth, by forming an ardent friendship with Philautus, of
+so close a nature, that "they used not only one boorde but one bed, one
+booke (if so be that they thought it not one too many)." This alliance,
+however, is not concluded until Euphues has given us his own views,
+together with those of half antiquity, upon the subject of friendship,
+or before he has formally professed his affection in a pompous address,
+beginning "Gentleman and friend," and has been as formally accepted. By
+Philautus he is introduced to Lucilla, the chief female character of the
+book, a lady, if we are to believe the description of her "Lilly cheeks
+dyed with a Vermilion red," of startling if somewhat factitious beauty.
+To say that the plot now thickens would be to use too coarse a word; it
+becomes slightly tinged with incident, inasmuch as Euphues falls in love
+with Lucilla, the destined bride of Philautus. She reciprocates his
+passion, and the double fickleness of mistress and friend forms an
+excellent opportunity, which Lyly does not fail to seize, for infinite
+moralizings in euphuistic strains. Philautus is naturally indignant at
+the turn affairs have taken, and the former friends exchange letters of
+recrimination, in which, however, their embittered feelings are
+concealed beneath a vast display of classical learning. But Nemesis,
+swift and sudden, awaits the faithless Euphues. Lucilla, it turns out,
+is subject to a mild form of erotomania and is constitutionally fickle,
+so that before her new lover has begun to realise his bliss she has
+already contracted a passion for some other young gentleman. Thus,
+struck down in the hour of his pride and passion, Euphues becomes "a
+changed man," and bethinks himself of his soul, which he has so long
+neglected. This is the turning-point of the book, the turning-point of
+half the English novels written since Lyly's day. The remainder of the
+_Anatomy of Wit_ is taken up with what may be described as the private
+papers of Euphues, consisting of letters, essays, and dialogues,
+including _A Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers_, a treatise on
+education, and a refutation of atheism, and so amid the thunders of the
+artillery of platitude the first part of _Euphues_ closes.
+
+Professor Raleigh's explanation of this tedious moralizing is that Lyly,
+wit and euphuist, possessed the Nonconformist conscience: "Beneath the
+courtier's slashed doublet, under his ornate brocade and frills, there
+stood the Puritan." This I believe to be a mistaken view of the case. As
+we shall later see reason to suppose, Lyly never became, as did his
+acquaintance Gosson, a very seriously-minded person. Certainly _Euphues_
+does not prove that Puritanism was latent in him. The moral atmosphere
+which pervades it was not of Lyly's invention; he inherited it from his
+predecessors Guevara and Castiglione, and he employed it because he knew
+that it was expected of him. That he moralized not so much from
+conviction as from convention (to use a euphuism), is, I think,
+sufficiently proved by the fact that in the second part of his novel,
+where he is addressing a new public, the pulpit strain is much less
+frequent, while in his plays it entirely disappears. The _Anatomy of
+Wit_ is essentially the work of an inexperienced writer, feeling his way
+towards a public, and without sufficient skill or courage to dispense
+with the conventions which he has inherited from previous writers. One
+feels, while reading the book, that Lyly was himself conscious that his
+hero was an insufferable coxcomb, and that he only created him because
+he wished to comply with the public taste. It may be, as M. Jusserand
+asserts, that Lyly anticipated Richardson, but, if the light-hearted
+Oxford madcap had any qualities in common with the sedate bookseller,
+artistic sincerity was not one of them.
+
+What has just been said is not entirely applicable to the treatise on
+education which passed under the title of _Euphues and his Ephoebus_.
+Although simply an adaptation of the _De Educatione_ of Plutarch, it was
+not entirely devoid of originality. Here we find the famous attack upon
+Oxford, which was, we fear, prompted by a desire to spite the University
+authorities rather than by any earnest feeling of moral condemnation.
+But in addition to this there are contributions of Lyly's own invention
+to the theory of teaching which are not without merit. He was, as we
+have seen, interested in education. It seems even possible that he had
+actually practised as a master before the _Euphues_ saw light[89]; and,
+therefore, we have every reason to suppose that this little treatise
+was a labour of love. Possibly Ascham's _Schoolmaster_ inspired him with
+the idea of writing it. Certainly, when we have allowed everything for
+Plutarch's work, enough remains over to justify Mr Quick's inclusion of
+John Lyly, side by side with Roger Ascham, in his _Educational
+Reformers_.
+
+ [89] Bond, I. p. 10.
+
+But such excellent work has but little to do with the business of
+novel-writing, and, when we turn to this aspect of the _Anatomy of Wit_,
+there is little to be said for it from the aesthetic point of view.
+Indeed, it cannot strictly be called a novel at all. It is the bridge
+between the moral Court treatise and the novel, and, as such, all its
+aesthetic defects matter little in comparison with its dynamical value.
+It was a great step to hang the chestnuts of discourse upon a string of
+incident. The story is feeble, the plot puerile, but it was something to
+have a story and a plot which dealt with contemporary life. And lastly,
+though characterization is not even attempted, yet now and again these
+euphuistic puppets, distinguishable only by their labels, are inspired
+with something that is almost life by a phrase or a chance word.
+
+I have said that it is very important to distinguish between the two
+parts of _Euphues_. Two years only elapsed between their respective
+publications, but in these two years Lyly, and with him our novel, had
+made great strides. In 1578 he was not yet a novelist, though the
+conception of the novel and the capacity for its creation were, as we
+have just shown, already forming in his brain. In 1580, however, the
+English novel had ceased to be merely potential; for it had come into
+being with the appearance of _Euphues and his England_. Here in the same
+writer, in the same book, and within the space of two years, we may
+observe one of the most momentous changes of modern literature in
+actual process. The _Anatomy of Wit_ is still the moral Court treatise,
+coloured by the influence of the Italian _novella_; _Euphues and his
+England_ is the first English novel. Lyly unconsciously symbolizes the
+change he initiated by laying the scene of his first part in Italy,
+while in the second he brings his hero to England. That sea voyage,
+which provoked the stomach of Philautus sore, was an important one for
+us, since the freight of the vessel was nothing less than our English
+novel.
+
+The difference between the two parts is remarkable in more ways than
+one, and in none more so than in the change of dedication. The _Anatomy
+of Wit_, as was only fitting in a moral Court treatise, was inscribed to
+the gentleman readers; _Euphues and his England_, on the other hand,
+made an appeal to a very different class of readers, and a class which
+had hitherto been neglected by authors--"the ladies and gentlewomen of
+England." With the instinct, almost, of a religious reformer, Lyly saw
+that to succeed he must enlist the ladies on his side. And the
+experiment was so successful that I am inclined to attribute the
+pre-eminence of Lyly among other euphuists to this fact alone. "Hatch
+the egges his friendes had laid" he certainly did, but he fed the chicks
+upon a patent food of his own invention. Mr Bond suggests that the
+general attention which the _Anatomy_ secured by its attacks upon women
+gave Lyly the idea for the second part. But, though this was probably
+the immediate cause of his change of front, something like _Euphues and
+his England_ must have come sooner or later, because all the conditions
+were ripe for its production. Side by side with the ideal of the
+courtier had arisen the ideal of the cultured lady. Ascham, visiting
+Lady Jane Grey, "founde her in her chamber reading _Phaedon Platonis_
+in Greeke and that with as much delite, as some gentlemen would read a
+merie tale in Bocase[90]"; and, when a Queen came to the throne who
+could talk Greek at Cambridge, the fashion of learning for ladies must
+have received an immense impetus. With a "blue stocking" showing on the
+royal footstool, all the ladies of the Court would at least lay claim to
+a certain amount of learning. Dr Landmann has attributed the vogue of
+euphuism, at least in part, to feminine influences, but in so far as
+England shared that affectation with the other Courts of Europe, where
+the fair sex had not yet acquired such freedom as in England, we must
+not press the point too much in this direction. The importance in
+English literature of that "monstrous regiment of women," against which
+John Knox blew his rude trumpet so shamelessly, is seen not so much in
+the style of _Euphues_ as in its contents; indeed, in the second part of
+that work euphuism is much less prominent than in the first. The romance
+of chivalry and the Italian tale would be still more distasteful to the
+new woman than they were to the new courtier. Doubtless Boccaccio may
+have found a place in many a lady's secret bookshelf as Zola and Guy de
+Maupassant do perchance to-day, but he was scarcely suitable for the
+boudoir table or for polite literary discussion. Something was needed
+which would appeal at once to the feminine taste for learning and to the
+desire for delicacy and refinement. This want was only partially
+supplied by the moral Court treatise, which was ostensibly written for
+the courtier and not the maid-in-waiting. What was required was a book
+expressly provided for the eye of ladies--such a book, in fact, as
+_Euphues and his England_. Lyly's discovery of this new literary public
+and its requirements was of great importance, for have not the ladies
+ever since his day been the patrons and purchasers of the novel? What
+would happen to the literary market to-day were our mothers, wives, and
+sisters to deny themselves the pleasure of fiction? The very question
+would send the blood from Mr Mudie's lips. The two thousand and odd
+novels which are published annually in this country show the existence
+of a large leisured class in our community, and this class is
+undoubtedly the feminine one. The novel, therefore, owes not only its
+birth, but its continued existence down to our own day, to the "ladies
+and gentlewomen of England"; and this dedication may be taken as a
+general one for all novels since Lyly's time. "_Euphues_," he writes,
+"had rather lye shut in a Ladye's casket than open in a scholar's
+studie," and he continues, "after dinner you may overlooke him to keepe
+you from sleepe, or if you be heavie, to bring you to sleepe ... it were
+better to hold _Euphues_ in your hands though you let him fall, when you
+be willing to winke, then to sowe in a clout, and pricke your fingers
+when you begin to nod[91]." "With _Euphues_," remarks M. Jusserand,
+"commences in England the literature of the drawing-room[92]"; and the
+literature of the drawing-room is to all intents and purposes the novel.
+
+ [90] _Schoolmaster_, p. 47.
+
+ [91] _Euphues_, p. 220.
+
+ [92] Jusserand, p. 5.
+
+All the faults of its predecessor are present in _Euphues and his
+England_, but they are not so conspicuous. The euphuistic garb and the
+mantle of the prophet Guevara sit more lightly upon our author. In every
+way his movements are freer and bolder; having gained confidence by his
+first success, he now dares to be original. The story becomes at times
+quite interesting, even for a modern reader. At its opening Euphues and
+Philautus, who have come to terms on a basis of common condemnation of
+Lucilla, are discovered on their way to England. By way of enlivening
+the weary hours, our hero, ever ready to play the preacher now that he
+has ceased to be the warning, delivers himself of a lengthy, but highly
+edifying tale, which evokes the impatient exclamation of Philautus
+already quoted; we may however notice as a sign of progress that Euphues
+has substituted a moral narrative for his usual discourse. The relations
+between the two friends have become distinctly amusing, and might, in
+abler hands, have resulted in comic situation. Euphues, having learnt
+the lesson of the burnt child, is now a very grave person, proud of his
+own experience and of its fruits in himself. Extremes met,
+
+ "Where pinched ascetic and red sensualist
+ Alternately recurrent freeze and burn,"
+
+and it is interesting to note that Euphues embodies many of the
+characteristics of the Byronic hero--his sententiousness, his misogyny,
+his cynicism born of disillusionment, and his rhetorical flatulency; but
+he is no rebel like Manfred because he finds consolation in his own
+pre-eminence in a world of platitude. Conscious of his dearly bought
+wisdom, he makes it his continuous duty, if not pleasure, to rebuke the
+over-amorous Philautus, who was at least human, and to enlarge upon the
+infidelity of the opposite sex. Lyly failed to realise the possibilities
+of this antagonism of character, because he always appears to be in
+sympathy with his hero, and so misses an opportunity which would have
+delighted the heart of Thackeray. I say "appears," because I consider
+that this sympathy was nothing but a pose which he considered necessary
+for the popularity of his book. It is important however to observe that
+the idea of one character as a foil to another, though undeveloped, is
+here present for the first time in our national prose story.
+
+The tale ended and the voyage over, our friends arrive in England, where
+after stopping at Dover "3 or 4 days, until they had digested ye seas,
+and recovered their healths," they proceeded to Canterbury, at which
+place they fell in with an old man named Fidus, who gave them
+entertainment for body and mind. To those who have conscientiously read
+the whole history of Euphues up to this point, the incident of Fidus
+will appear immensely refreshing. It seems to me, in fact, to mark the
+highest point of Lyly's skill as a novelist, doubtless because he is
+here drawing upon his memory[93] and not his imagination. The old
+gentleman, very different from his prototype Eubulus, moves quite
+humanly among his bees and flowers, and tells the graceful story of his
+love with a charm that is almost natural. And, although he checks the
+action of the story for thirty-three pages, we are sorry to take leave
+of this "fatherlye and friendlye sire"; for he lays for a time the ghost
+of homily, which reappears directly his guests begin to "forme their
+steppes towards London." Having reached the Court, in due time
+Philautus, in accordance with the prophecies of Euphues though much to
+his disgust, falls in love. The lady of his choice, however, has
+unfortunately given her heart to another, by name Surius. The despondent
+lover, after applying in vain to an Italian magician for a love-philtre,
+at length determines to adopt the bolder line of writing to his scornful
+lady. The letter is conveyed in a pomegranate, and the incident of its
+presentation is prettily conceived and displays a certain amount of
+dramatic power. The upshot is that Philautus eventually finds a maiden
+who is unattached and who is ready to return love for love. Her he
+marries, and remains behind with "his Violet" in England, while Euphues,
+less happy than self-satisfied, returns to Athens. The interest of the
+latter half of the book centres round the house of Lady Flavia, where
+the principal characters of both sexes meet together and discuss the
+philosophy of love and the psychology of ladies. Such intellectual
+gatherings were a recognised institution at Florence at this time, being
+an imitation of Plato's symposium, and Lyly had already attempted, not
+so successfully as here, to describe one in the house of Lucilla of the
+_Anatomy of Wit_.
+
+ [93] Mr Bond thinks it a picture of Lyly's father.
+
+In every way _Euphues and his England_ is an improvement upon its
+predecessor. The story and plot are still weak, but the situations are
+often well thought out and treated with dramatic effect. The action
+indeed is slow, but it moves; and in the story of Fidus it moves
+comparatively quickly. Such motion of course can scarcely ruffle the
+mental waters of those accustomed to the breathless whirlwinds which
+form the heart of George Meredith's novels; but these whirlwinds are as
+directly traceable to the gentle but fitful agitation of _Euphues_, as
+was the storm that overtook Ahab's chariot to the little cloud
+undiscerned by the prophet's eye. The figures, again, that move in
+Lyly's second novel are no longer clothes filled with moral sawdust. The
+character of Philautus is especially well drawn, though at times blurred
+and indistinct. Lyly had not yet passed the stage of creating types,
+that is of portraying one aspect and an obvious one of such a complex
+thing as human nature. But a criticism which would be applicable to
+Dickens is no condemnation of an Elizabethan pioneer. It was much to
+have attempted characterization, and in the case of Philautus, Iffida,
+Camilla, and perhaps "the Violet" the attempt was nearly if not quite
+successful. It is noticeable that for one who was afterwards to become a
+writer of comedy, Lyly shows a remarkable absence of humour in these
+novels. Now and again we seem trembling on the brink of humour, when the
+young wiseacre is brought into contact with his weak-hearted friend, but
+the line is seldom actually crossed. Wit, as Lyly here understood it,
+had nothing of the risible in it; for it meant to him little more than a
+graceful handling of obvious themes.
+
+But the importance of _Euphues_ was in its influence, not in its actual
+achievement. And here again we must reassert the significance of Lyly's
+appeal to women. "That noble faculty," as Macaulay expresses it,
+"whereby man is able to live in the past and in the future in the
+distant and in the unreal," is rarely found in the opposite sex. They
+delight in novelty, their minds are of a practical cast, and their
+interests almost invariably lie in the present. The names of Jane
+Austen, George Eliot, and Mrs Humphry Ward are sufficient to show how
+entirely successful a woman may be in delineating the life around her.
+If there is any truth in this generalization, it was no mere coincidence
+that the first English romance dealing with contemporary life was
+written expressly for the ladies of Elizabeth's Court. The alteration in
+the face of social life, brought about by the recognition of the
+feminine claim and hastened no doubt by the fact that England, Scotland,
+and France were at this period under the rule of three ladies of strong
+character, was inevitably attended with great changes in literature.
+This change is first expressed by Lyly in his second novel and later in
+his dramas. The mediaeval conception of women, a masculine conception,
+now underwent feminine correction; and what is perhaps of more
+importance still, the conception of man undergoes transformation also.
+The result is that the centre of gravity of the story is now shifted. Of
+old it had treated of deeds and glorious prowess for the sake of honour,
+or more often for the sake of some anaemic damsel; now it deals with the
+passion itself and not its knightly manifestations,--with the very
+feelings and hearts of the lovers. In other words under the auspices of
+Elizabeth and her maids of honour, the English story becomes subjective,
+feminine, its scene is shifted from the battlefield and the lists to the
+lady's boudoir; it becomes a novel. "We change lance and war-horse, for
+walking-sword and pumps and silk stockings. We forget the filletted
+brows and wind-blown hair, the zone, the flowing robe, the sandalled or
+buskined feet, and feel the dawning empire of the fan, the glove, the
+high-heeled shoe, the bonnet, the petticoat, and the parasol[94]": in
+fact we enter into the modern world. At the first expression of this
+change in literature _Euphues and his England_ is of the very greatest
+interest. Characters in fiction now for the first time move before a
+background of everyday life and discuss matters of everyday importance.
+And, as if Lyly wished to leave no doubt as to his aims and methods, he
+gives at the conclusion of his book that interesting description of
+Elizabethan England entitled _A glasse for Europe_.
+
+ [94] Bond, I. p. 161.
+
+It is however in Lyly's treatment of the subject of love that the change
+is most conspicuous. The subtleties of passion are now realised for the
+first time. We are shown the private emotions, the secret alternations
+of hope and despair which agitate the breasts of man and maid, and,
+more important still, we find these emotions at work under the restraint
+of social conditions; the violent torrent of passion checked and
+confined by the demands of etiquette and the conventions of aristocratic
+life. The relation between these unwritten laws of our social
+constitution and the impetuous ardour of the lover, has formed the main
+theme of our modern love stories in the novel and on the stage. In the
+days of chivalry, when love ran wild in the woods, woman was the passive
+object either of hunt or of rescue; but the scene of battle being
+shifted to the boudoir she can demand her own conditions with the result
+that the game becomes infinitely more refined and intricate. Persons of
+both sexes, outwardly at peace but inwardly armed to the teeth, meet
+together in some lady's house to discuss the subject so dangerous to
+both, and conversation conditioned by this fact inevitably becomes
+subtle, allusive, intense; for it derives its light and shade from the
+flicker of that fire which the company finds such a perilous fascination
+in playing with. Lyly's work does not exhibit quite such modernity as
+this, but we may truthfully say that his _Euphues and his England_ is
+the psychological novel in germ.
+
+Its latent possibilities were however not perceived by the writers of
+the 16th century. The style which had in part won popularity for it so
+speedily was the cause also of its equally speedy decline. Like a fossil
+in the stratum of euphuism it was soon covered up by the artificial
+layer of arcadianism. The novel of Sidney, though its loose and
+meandering style marked a reaction against euphuism, carried on the
+Lylian tradition in its appeal to ladies. The _Arcadia_, in no way so
+modern as the _Euphues_, lies for that very reason more directly in the
+line of development[95]; for, while the former is linked by the
+heroical romance of the seventeenth century to the romance of this day,
+the latter's influence is not visible until the eighteenth century, if
+we except its immediate Elizabethan imitators. And yet, as we remarked
+of Lyly's prose, a book which received so many editions cannot have been
+entirely without effect upon the minds of its readers and upon the
+literature of the age. This influence, however, could have been little
+more than suggestive and indirect, and it is quite impossible to
+determine its value. Its importance for us lies in the fact that we can
+realise how it anticipated the novel of the 18th and 19th centuries. Not
+until the days of Richardson is it possible to detect a Lylian flavour
+in English fiction; and even here it would be risky to insist too
+pointedly on any inference that might be drawn from the coincidence of
+an abridged form of _Euphues_ being republished (after almost a
+century's oblivion) twenty years before the appearance of _Pamela_. A
+direct literary connexion between Lyly and Richardson seems out of the
+question: and the utmost we can say with certainty is that the novel of
+the latter, in providing moral food for its own generation, relieved the
+18th century reader of the necessity of going back to the Elizabethan
+writer for the entertainment he desired. As a novelist, therefore, Lyly
+was only of secondary dynamical importance, by which I mean that,
+although we can rest assured that he exercised a considerable influence
+upon later writers, we cannot actually trace this influence at work; we
+cannot in fact point to Lyly as the first of a _definite_ series. The
+novel like its style coloured, but did not deflect, the stream of
+English literature. And indeed we may say this not only of _Euphues_
+but of Elizabethan fiction as a whole. The public to which a 16th
+century novel would appeal was a small one. Few people in those days
+could read, and of these the majority preferred to read poetry; and
+though, as we have seen, _Euphues_ passed through, for the age, a
+considerable number of editions, the circle of those who appreciated
+Lyly, Sidney, and Nash must have been for the most part confined to the
+Court. And this accounts for the brevity of their popularity and for its
+intensity while it lasted; a phenomenon which is not seen in the drama,
+and which is due to the susceptibility of Court life to sudden changes
+of fashion. Drama was the natural form of literature in an age when most
+people were illiterate and yet when all were eager for literary
+entertainment. Drama was therefore the main current of artistic
+production, the prose novel being quite a minor, almost an
+insignificant, tributary. Realising then the inevitable limitations
+which surrounded our English fiction at its birth we can understand its
+infantile imperfections and the subsequent arrest of its development.
+
+ [95] It was Sidney and Nash who set the fashion for the 17th century.
+
+"The novel held in Elizabeth's time very much the same place as was held
+by the drama at the Restoration; it was an essentially aristocratic
+entertainment, and the same pitfall waylaid both, the pitfall of
+artificiality. Dryden's audiences and the readers of _Euphues_ both
+sought for better bread than is made of wheat; both were supplied with
+what satisfied them in an elaborate confection of husks[96]."
+
+ [96] Raleigh, p. 57. He writes _Arcadia_ for _Euphues_ but the
+ substitution is legitimate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LYLY THE DRAMATIST.
+
+
+So far we have been dealing with those of Lyly's writings, which, though
+they are his most famous, form quite a small section of his work, and
+exerted an influence upon later writers which may have been considerable
+but was certainly indirect. His plays on the other hand, in the
+production of which he spent the better part of his life, greatly
+outweigh his novel both in aesthetic and historical importance. To
+attempt to estimate Lyly's position as a novelist and as a prose writer
+is to chase the will-o'-the-wisp of theory over the morass of
+uncertainty; the task of investigating his comedies is altogether
+simpler and more straightforward. After groping our way through the
+undergrowth of minor literature, we come out upon the great highway of
+Elizabethan art--the drama. Let us first see how Lyly himself came to
+tread this same pathway.
+
+There is a difference of opinion between Mr Bond and Mr Baker, our chief
+authorities, as to the order in which Lyly wrote his plays[97]. But
+though Mr Baker claims priority for _Endymion_, and Mr Bond for
+_Campaspe_, both are convinced that our author was already in 1580
+beginning to look to the stage as a larger arena for his artistic genius
+than the novel. And from what I have said of his life at Oxford and his
+connexion with de Vere, we need not be surprised that this was so. It
+would be well however at this juncture to recapitulate, and in part to
+expand those remarks, in order to show more clearly how Lyly's dramatic
+bent was formed. Seats of learning, as we shall see presently, had long
+before the days of Lyly favoured the comic muse, and Oxford was no
+exception to this rule. Anthony Wood tells us how Richard Edwardes in
+1566 produced at that University his play _Palamon and Arcite_, and how
+her Majesty "laughed heartily thereat and gave the author great thanks
+for his pains"; a scene which would still be fresh in men's minds five
+years after, when Lyly entered Magdalen College. But it is scarcely
+necessary to stretch a point here since we know from the _Anatomy of
+Wit_ that Lyly was a student of Edwardes' comedies[98]. Again, William
+Gager, Pettie's "dear friend" and Lyly's fellow-student, was a
+dramatist, while Gosson himself tells us of comedies which he had
+written before 1577.
+
+ [97] Baker, p. lxxxviii, places _Endymion_ as early as Sept. 1579.
+ Bond, vol. III. p. 10, attempts to disprove Baker's contention, and in
+ vol. II. p. 309, he maintains chiefly on grounds of style that
+ _Campaspe_ was the earliest of Lyly's plays, being produced at the
+ Christmas of 1580.
+
+ [98] Bond, II. p. 238.
+
+Probably however it was not until he had left Oxford for London that
+Lyly conceived the idea of writing comedy, for we must attribute its
+original suggestion to his friend and employer the Earl of Oxford.
+Edward de Vere, Burleigh's son-in-law, had visited Italy, and affected
+the vices and artificialities of that country, returning home, we are
+told, laden with silks and oriental stuffs for the adornment of his
+chamber and his person. He was frequently in debt and still more
+frequently in disgrace with the Queen and with his father-in-law.
+Dilettante, aesthete, and euphuist, he would naturally attract the
+Oxford fop, and that Lyly attached himself to his clique disposes, in my
+mind at least, of all theories of his puritanical tendencies. Certainly
+a Nonconformist conscience could not have flourished in de Vere's
+household. One bond between the Earl and his secretary was their love of
+music--an art which played an important part in the beginning of our
+comedy.
+
+In relieving the action of his plays by those songs of woodland beauty
+unmatched in literature Shakespeare was only following a custom set by
+his predecessors, Udall, Edwardes, and Lyly, who being schoolmasters
+(and the two latter being musicians and holding positions in choir
+schools), embroidered their comedies with lyrics to be sung by the fresh
+young voices of their pupils. De Vere, though unconnected with a school,
+probably followed the same tradition. For the interesting thing about
+him is that he also wrote comedy. Like many members of the nobility in
+those days he maintained his own company of players; and we find them in
+1581 giving performances at Cambridge and Ipswich. His comedies,
+moreover, though now lost were placed in the same rank as those of
+Edwardes by the Elizabethan critic Puttenham[99]. Now as secretary of
+such a man, and therefore in close intimacy with him, it would be the
+most natural thing in the world for Lyly to try his hand at
+play-writing, and, if his patron approved of his efforts, an
+introduction to Court could be procured, since Oxford was Lord High
+Chamberlain, and the play would be acted. It was to Oxford's patronage,
+therefore, and not to his subsequent connexion with the "children of
+Powles," that Lyly owed his first dramatic impulse, and probably also
+his first dramatic success, for _Campaspe_ and _Sapho_ were produced at
+Court in 1582[100]. His appointment at the choir school of course
+confirmed his resolutions and thus he became the first great Elizabethan
+dramatist.
+
+ [99] _Dict. Of Nat. Biog._, Edward de Vere.
+
+ [100] Bond, II. p. 230 (chronological table).
+
+But a purely circumstantial explanation of an important departure in a
+man's life will only appear satisfactory to fatalists who worship the
+blind god Environment. And without indulging in any abstruse
+psychological discussion, but rather looking at the question from a
+general point of view, we can understand how an intellect of Lyly's
+type, as revealed by the _Euphues_, found its ultimate expression in
+comedy. Comedy, as Meredith tells us, is only possible in a civilized
+society, "where ideas are current and the perceptions quick." We have
+already touched upon this point and later we must return to it again;
+but for the moment let us notice that this idea of comedy, though he
+would have been quite unable to formulate it in words, was in reality at
+the back of Lyly's mind, or rather we should perhaps say that he quite
+unconsciously embodied it. He was _par excellence_ the product of a
+"social" atmosphere; he moved more freely within the Court than without;
+his whole mind was absorbed by the subtleties of language; a brilliant
+conversation, an apt repartee, a well-turned phrase were the very breath
+of his nostrils; his ideal was the intellectual beau. Add to this
+compound the ingredient of literary ambition and the result is a comic
+dramatist. Lyly, Congreve, Sheridan, were all men of fashion first and
+writers of comedy after. In the author of _Lady Windermere's Fan_ we
+have lately seen another example--the example of one whose ambition was
+to be "the first well-dressed philosopher in the history of thought."
+Poems, novels, fairy stories, he gave us, but it was on the stage of
+comedy that he eventually found his true _mtier_. "With _Euphues_,"
+writes Mr Bond, "we enter the path which leads to the Restoration
+dramatists ... and in Lucilla and Camilla we are prescient of Millamant
+and Belinda[101]." This is very true, but the statement has a nearer
+application which Mr Bond misses. Camilla is the lady who moves under
+varied names through all Lyly's plays. The second part of _Euphues_ and
+the first of Lyly's comedies are as closely connected psychologically
+and aesthetically, as they were in point of time.
+
+ [101] Bond, I. p. 161.
+
+
+SECTION I. _English Comedy before 1580._
+
+But when Lyly's creations began to walk the boards, the English stage
+was already some centuries old and therefore, in order to appreciate our
+author's position, a few words are necessary upon the development of our
+drama and especially of comedy previous to his time.
+
+Though the _miracle_ play of our forefathers frequently contained a
+species of coarse humour usually put into the mouth of the Devil, who
+appears to have been for the middle ages very much what the "comic muse"
+is for us moderns, it is to the _morality_ not to the _miracle_ that one
+should look for the real beginnings of comedy as distinct from mere
+buffoonery.
+
+The _morality_ was not so much an offshoot as a complement of the
+_miracle_. They stood to each other, as sermon does to service. To say
+therefore that the _morality_ secularized the drama is to go too far; as
+well might we say that Luther secularized Christianity. What it did,
+however, was important enough; it severed the connexion between drama
+and ritual. The _miracle_, treating of the history of mankind from the
+Creation to the days of Christ, unfolded before the eyes of its
+audience the grand scheme of human salvation; the _morality_ on the
+other hand was not concerned with historical so much as practical
+Christianity. Its object was to point a moral: and it did this in two
+ways; either as an affirmative, constructive inculcator of what life
+should be,--as the portrayer of the ideal; or as a negative, critical
+describer of the types of life actually existing,--as the portrayer of
+the real. It approached more nearly to comedy in its latter function,
+but in both aspects it really prepared the way for the comic muse. The
+natural prey of comedy, as our greatest comic writer has taught us, is
+folly, "known to it in all her transformations, in every disguise; and
+it is with the springing delight of hawk over heron, hound after fox,
+that it gives her chase, never fretting, never tiring, sure of having
+her, allowing her no rest." Thus it is that characters in comedy,
+symbolizing as they often do some social folly, tend to be rather types
+than personalities. The _morality_, therefore, in substituting typical
+figures, however crude, for the mechanical religious characters of the
+_miracle_, makes an immense advance towards comedy. Moreover, the very
+selection of types requires an appreciation, if not an analysis, of the
+differences of human character, an appreciation for which there was no
+need in the _miracle_. In the _morality_ again the action is no longer
+determined by tradition, and it becomes incumbent on the playwright to
+provide motives for the movements of his puppets. It follows naturally
+from this that situations must be devised to show up the particular
+quality which each type symbolizes. We need not enter the vexed question
+of the origin of plot construction; but we may notice in this connexion
+that the _morality_ certainly gave us that peculiar form of
+plot-movement which is most suitable to comedy. To quote Mr Gayley's
+words: "In tragedy, the movement must be economic of its ups and downs;
+once headed downwards it must plunge, with but one or two vain recovers,
+to the abyss. In comedy, on the other hand, though the movement is
+ultimately upward, the crises are more numerous; the oftener the
+individual stumbles without breaking his neck, and the more varied his
+discomfitures, so long as they are temporary, the better does he enjoy
+his ease in the cool of the day.... Now the novelty of the plot in the
+_moral_ play, lay in the fact that the movement was of this oscillating,
+upward kind--a kind unknown as a rule to the _miracle_, whose conditions
+were less fluid, and to the farce, which was too shallow and
+superficial[102]."
+
+ [102] Gayley, p. lxiv.
+
+If all these claims be justifiable there can be no doubt that the
+_morality_ was of the utmost importance in the history not only of
+comedy but of English drama as a whole. Though it was the cousin, not
+the child of the _miracle_, though it cannot be said to have secularized
+our drama, it is the link between the ritual play and the play of pure
+amusement; it connects the rood gallery with the London theatre. When
+Symonds writes that the _morality_ "can hardly be said to lie in the
+direct line of evolution between the _miracle_ and the legitimate drama"
+we may in part agree with him; but he is quite wrong when he goes on to
+describe it as "an abortive side-effect, which was destined to bear
+barren fruit[103]."
+
+ [103] Symonds, p. 199.
+
+The real secularization of the drama was in the first place probably due
+to classical influences--or, to be more precise, I should perhaps say,
+scholastic influences--and it is not until the 16th century that these
+influences become prominent. I say "become prominent," because Terence
+and Plautus were known from the earliest times, and Dr Ward is inclined
+to think that Latin comedy affected the earlier drama of England to a
+considerable extent[104], although good examples of Terentian comedy are
+not found until the 16th century. Humanism again comes forward as an
+important literary formative element. The part which the student class
+took in the development of European drama as a whole has as yet scarcely
+been appreciated. It is to scholars that the birth of the secular Drama
+must be attributed. Lyly, as we said, made use of his mastership for the
+production of his plays, but Lyly was by no means the first
+schoolmaster-dramatist. Schools and universities had long before his day
+been productive of drama; our very earliest existing saints' play or
+_marvel_ was produced by a certain Geoffrey at Dunstable, "de
+consuetudine magistrorum et scholarum[105]." And this was only natural,
+seeing that at such places any number of actors is available and all are
+supposed to be interested in literature. It is a remarkable fact,
+however, and illustrative of the connexion between comedy and music,
+that of all places of education choir schools seem to have usurped the
+lion's share of drama. John Heywood, the first to break away from the
+tradition of the _morality_, was a choir boy of the Chapel Royal, and
+afterwards in all probability held a post there as master[106].
+Heywood's brilliant, but farcical interludes are too slight to merit the
+title of comedy, yet he is of great importance because of his rejection
+of allegories and of his use of "personal types" instead of
+"personified abstractions[107]." It was not until 1540, a few years
+after Heywood's interlude _The Play of the Wether_, that pure English
+comedy appears, and we must turn to Eton to discover its cradle, for
+Nicholas Udall's _Roister Doister_ has every claim to rank as the first
+completely constructed comedy in our language--the first comedy of flesh
+and blood. Roister smacks of the "miles gloriosus"; Merygreeke combines
+the vice with the Terentian rogue; and yet, when all is said, Udall's
+play remains a remarkably original production, realistic and English.
+
+ [104] Ward, I. p. 7.
+
+ [105] Gayley, p. xiv.
+
+ [106] I put this interpretation upon the account of Heywood's
+ receiving 40 shillings from Queen Mary "for pleying an interlude with
+ his children."
+
+ [107] Ward, _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Heywood.
+
+Next, in point of time and importance, comes Stevenson's _Gammer
+Gurton's Needle_, still more thoroughly English than the last, though
+quite inferior as a comedy, and indeed scarcely rising above the level
+of farce. Inasmuch, however, as it is a drama of English rustic life, it
+is directly antecedent to _Mother Bombie_, and perhaps also to the
+picaresque novel. Secular dramas now began to multiply apace. But
+keeping our eye upon comedy, and upon Lyly in particular as we near the
+date of his advent, it will be sufficient I think to mention two more
+names to complete the chain of development. From Cambridge, the nurse of
+Stevenson, we must now turn to Oxford; and, as we do so, we seem to be
+drawing very close to the end of our journey. Thus far we have had
+nothing like the romantic comedy--the comedy of sentiment, of love, the
+comedy which is at once serious and witty, and which contains the
+elements of tragedy. This appears, or is at least foreshadowed for the
+first time, about four years after Stevenson's "first-rate screaming
+farce," as Symonds has dubbed it, in the _Damon and Pithias_ of Richard
+Edwardes, a writer with whom, as we have seen, Lyly was thoroughly
+familiar. Indeed, the play in question anticipates our author in many
+ways, for example in the introduction of pages, in the use of English
+proverbs and Latin quotations, and in the insertion of songs[108]. With
+reference to the last point, we may remark that Edwardes like Lyly was
+interested in music, and like him also held a post in a choir school,
+being one of the "gentlemen of the Chapel Royal." In the _Damon and
+Pithias_ the old _morality_ is once and for all discarded. The play is
+entirely free from all allegorical elements, and is only faintly tinged
+with didacticism. But we cannot express the aim of Edwardes better than
+in his own words:
+
+ "In comedies the greatest skyll is this, lightly to touch
+ All thynges to the quick; and eke to frame each person so
+ That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know."
+
+To touch lightly and yet with penetration, to reveal character by
+dialogue, this is indeed to write modern drama, modern comedy.
+
+ [108] Bond, II. p. 238.
+
+It would seem that between Edwardes and Lyly there was no room for
+another link, so closely does the one follow the other; and yet one more
+play must be mentioned to complete the series. This time we are no
+longer brought into touch with the classics or with the scholastic
+influences, for the play in question is a translation from the Italian,
+being in fact Ariosto's _Suppositi_, englished by George Gascoigne[109].
+Though a translation it was more than a transcript; it was englished in
+the true sense of that word, in sentiment as well as in phrase. Its
+chief importance lies in the fact that it is written in prose, and is
+therefore the first prose comedy in our language. But Mr Gayley would go
+further than this, for he describes it as "the first English comedy in
+every way worthy of the name." It was written entirely for amusement,
+and for the amusement of adults, not of children; and if it were the
+only product of Gascoigne's pen it would justify the remark of an early
+17th century critic, who says of this writer that he "brake the ice for
+our quainter poets who now write, that they may more safely swim through
+the main ocean of sweet poesy"; for, to quote a modern writer, "with the
+blood of the New comedy, the Latin comedy, the Renaissance in its veins,
+it is far ahead of its English contemporaries, if not of its time[110]."
+The play was well known and popular among the Elizabethans, being
+revived at Oxford in 1582[111]. Shakespeare used it for the construction
+of his _Taming of the Shrew_: and altogether it is difficult to say how
+much Elizabethan drama probably owed to this one comedy, which though
+Italian in origin was carefully adapted to English taste by its
+translator. There can be no doubt that Lyly studied this among other of
+Gascoigne's works, and that he must have learnt many lessons from it,
+though the fact does not appear to have been sufficiently appreciated by
+Lylian students; for even Mr Bond fails, I think, to realise its
+importance.
+
+ [109] 1566.
+
+ [110] Gayley, p. lxxxv.
+
+ [111] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Gascoigne, George.
+
+This, in brief outline, is the history of our comedy down to the time
+when Lyly took it in hand; or should we not rather say "an introduction
+to the history of our comedy"? For true English comedy is not to be
+found in any of the plays we have mentioned. Heywood, Udall, Stevenson,
+Edwardes, are the names that convey "broken lights" of comedy, hints of
+the dawn, nothing more; and Gascoigne was a translator. The supreme
+importance of a writer, who at this juncture produced eight comedies of
+sustained merit, and of varying types, is something which is quite
+beyond computation. But if we are to attempt to realise the greatness
+of our debt to Lyly, let us estimate exactly how much these previous
+efforts had done in the way of pioneer work, and how far also they fell
+short of comedy in the strict sense of that word.
+
+The fifty years which lie between Heywood and Lyly saw considerable
+progress, but progress of a negative rather than a constructive nature,
+and moreover progress which came in fits and starts, and not
+continuously. It was in fact a period of transition and of individual
+and disconnected experiments. Each of the writers above mentioned
+contributed something towards the common development, but not one of
+them, except Ariosto's translator, gave us comedy which may be
+considered complete in every way. They all display a very elementary
+knowledge of plot construction. Udall is perhaps the most successful in
+this respect; his plot is trivial but, well versed as he is in Terence,
+he manages to give it an ordered and natural development. But the other
+pre-Lylian dramatists quite failed to realise the vital importance of
+plot, which is indeed the very essence of comedy; and, in expending
+energies upon the development of an argument, as in _Jacke Jugeler_,
+which was a parody of transubstantiation, or upon the construction of
+disconnected humorous situations, as in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, they
+missed the whole point of comedy. Again, though there is a clear idea of
+distinction and interplay of characters, there is little perception of
+the necessity of developing character as the plot moves forward.
+Merygreeke, it may be objected, is an example of such development, but
+the alteration in Merygreeke's nature is due to inconsistency, not to
+evolution. Moreover, stage conventions had not yet become a matter of
+fixed tradition. "We have a perpetual conflict between what spectators
+actually see and what they are supposed to see, between the time
+actually passed and that supposed to have elapsed; an outrageous demand
+on the imagination in one place, a refusal to exercise or allow us to
+exercise it in another[112]." Further, English comedy before 1580 was
+marked, on the one hand, by its poetic literary form and, on the other,
+by its almost complete absence of poetic ideas. Lyly, with the instinct
+of a born conversationalist, realised that prose was the only possible
+dress for comedy that should seek to represent contemporary life. But
+even in their use of verse his predecessors were unsuccessful. Udall
+seemed to have thought that his unequal dogtail lines would wag if he
+struck a rhyme at the end, and even Edwardes was little better. The use
+of blank verse had yet to be discovered, and Lyly was to have a hand in
+this matter also[113]. As for poetical treatment of comedy, Edwardes is
+the only one who even approaches it. He does so, because he sees that
+the comic muse only ceases to be a mask when sentiment is allowed to
+play over her features. And even he only half perceives it; for the
+sentiment of friendship is not strong enough for complete animation, the
+muse's eyes may twinkle, but passion alone will give them depth and let
+the soul shine through. But, in order that passion should fill comedy
+with the breath of life, it was necessary that both sexes should walk
+the stage on an equal footing. That which comedy before 1580 lacked,
+that which alone could round it off into a poetic whole, was the female
+element. "Comedy," writes George Meredith, "lifts women to a station
+offering them free play for their wit, as they usually show it, when
+they have it, on the side of sound sense. The higher the comedy, the
+more prominent the part they enjoy in it." But the dramatist cannot lift
+them far; the civilized plane must lie only just beneath the comic
+plane; the stage cannot be lighted by woman's wit if the audience have
+not yet realised that brain forms a part of the feminine organism. In
+the days of Elizabeth this realisation began to dawn in men's minds; but
+it was Lyly who first expressed it in literature, in his novel and then
+in his dramas. Those who preceded him were only dimly conscious of it,
+and therefore they failed to seize upon it as material for art. It was
+at Court, the Court of a great virgin Queen, that the equality of social
+privileges for women was first established; it was a courtier who
+introduced heroines into our drama.
+
+ [112] Bond, II. p. 237.
+
+ [113] George Gascoigne, whose importance does not seem to have been
+ realised by Elizabethan students, also produced a drama in blank
+ verse.
+
+
+SECTION II. _The Eight Plays._
+
+Concerning the order of Lyly's plays there is, as we have seen, some
+difference of opinion. The discussion between Mr Bond and Mr Baker in
+reality turns upon the interpretation of the allegory of _Endymion_, and
+it is therefore one of those questions of literary probability which can
+never hope to receive a satisfactory answer. Both critics, however, are
+in agreement as to the proper method of classification. They divide the
+dramas into four categories: historical, of which _Campaspe_ is the sole
+example; allegorical, which includes _Sapho and Phao_, _Endymion_, and
+_Midas_; pastoral, which includes _Gallathea_, _The Woman in the Moon_,
+and _Love's Metamorphosis_; and lastly realistic, of which again there
+is only one example, _Mother Bombie_. The fault which may be found with
+this classification is that the so-called pastoral plays have much of
+the allegorical about them, and it is perhaps better, therefore, to
+consider them rather as a subdivision of class two than as a distinct
+species.
+
+For the moment putting on one side all questions of the allegory of
+_Endymion_, there are two reasons which seem to go a long way towards
+justifying Mr Bond for placing _Campaspe_ as the earliest of Lyly's
+plays. In the first place the atmosphere of _Euphues_, which becomes
+weaker in the other plays, is so unmistakeable in this historical drama
+as to force the conclusion upon us that they belong to the same period.
+The painter Apelles, whose name seemed almost to obsess Lyly in his
+novel, is one of the chief characters of _Campaspe_, and the dialogue is
+more decidedly euphuistic than any other play. The second point we may
+notice is one which can leave very little doubt as to the correctness of
+Mr Bond's chronology. _Campaspe_ and _Sapho_ were published before 1585,
+that is, before Lyly accepted the mastership at the St Paul's choir
+school, whereas none of his other plays came into the printer's hands
+until after the inhibition of the boys' acting rights in 1591; the
+obvious inference being that Lyly printed his plays only when he had no
+interest in preserving the acting rights.
+
+But whatever date we assign to _Campaspe_, there can be little doubt
+that it was one of the first dramas in our language with an historical
+background. Indeed, _Kynge Johan_ is the only play before 1580 which can
+claim to rival it in this respect. But _Kynge Johan_ was written solely
+for the purpose of religious satire, being an attack upon the priesthood
+and Church abuses. It must, therefore, be classed among those political
+_moralities_, of which so many examples appeared during the early part
+of the 16th century. _Campaspe_, on the other hand, is entirely devoid
+of any ethical or satirical motive. Allegory, which Lyly was able to
+put to his own peculiar uses, is here quite absent. The sole aim of its
+author was to provide amusement, and in this respect it must have been
+entirely successful. The play is interesting, and at times amusing, even
+to a modern reader; but to those who witnessed its performance at
+Blackfriars, and, two years later, at the Court, it would appear as a
+marvel of wit and dramatic power after the crude material which had
+hitherto been offered to them. In the choice of his subject Lyly shows
+at once that he is an artist with a feeling for beauty, even if he
+seldom rises to its sublimities. The story of the play, taken from
+Pliny, is that of Alexander's love for his Theban captive Campaspe, and
+of his subsequent self-sacrifice in giving her up to her lover Apelles.
+The social change, which I have sought to indicate in the preceding
+pages, is at once evident in this play. "We calling Alexander from his
+grave," says its Prologue[114], "seeke only who was his love"; and the
+remark is a sweep of the hat to the ladies of the Court, whose
+importance, as an integral part of the audience, is now for the first
+time openly acknowledged. "Alexander, the great conqueror of the world,"
+says Lyly with his hand upon his heart, "only interests me as a lover."
+The whole motive of the play, which would have been meaningless to a
+mediaeval audience, is a compliment to the ladies. It is as if our
+author nets Mars with Venus, and presents the shamefaced god as an
+offering of flattery to the Queen and her Court. _Campaspe_ is, in fact,
+the first romantic drama, not only the forerunner of Shakespeare, but a
+remote ancestor of _Hernani_ and the 19th century French theatre. "The
+play's defect," says Mr Bond, "is one of passion"--a criticism which is
+applicable to all Lyly's dramas; and yet we must not forget that Lyly
+was the earliest to deal with passion dramatically. The love of
+Alexander is certainly unemotional, not to say callous; but possibly the
+great monarch's equanimity was a veiled tribute to the supposed
+indifference of the virgin Queen to all matters of Cupid's trade.
+Between Campaspe and Apelles, however, we have scenes which are imbued,
+if not vitalized, by passion. Lyly was a beginner, and his fault lay in
+attempting too much. Caring more for brilliancy of dialogue than for
+anything else, he was no more likely to be successful here, in
+portraying passion through conversation weighted by euphuism, than he
+had been in his novel. Yet his endeavour to depict the conflict of
+masculine passion with feminine wit, impatient sallies neatly parried,
+deliberate lunges quietly turned aside, was in every way praiseworthy.
+"A witte apt to conceive and quickest to answer" is attributed by
+Alexander to Campaspe, and, though she exhibits few signs of it, yet in
+his very idea of endowing women with wit Lyly leads us on to the
+high-road of comedy leading to Congreve.
+
+ [114] From _Prologue_ at the Court.
+
+In addition to the romantic elements above described, we have here also
+that page-prattle which is so characteristic of all Lyly's plays. These
+urchins, full of mischief and delighting in quips, were probably
+borrowed from Edwardes, but Lyly made them all his own; and one can
+understand how naturally their parts would be played by his boy-actors.
+Their repartee, when it is not pulling to pieces some Latin quotation
+familiar to them at school, or ridiculing a point of logic, is often
+really witty. One of them, overhearing the hungry Manes at strife with
+Diogenes over the matter of an overdue dinner, exclaims to his friend,
+"This is their use, nowe do they dine one upon another." Diogenes again,
+in whom we may see the prototype of Shakespeare's Timon, is amusing
+enough at times with his "dogged" snarlings and sallies which
+frequently however miss their mark. He and the pages form an underplot
+of farce, upon which Lyly improved in his later plays, bringing it also
+more into connexion with the main plot. In passing, we may notice that
+few of Shakespeare's plays are without this farcical substratum.
+
+Leaving the question of dramatic construction and characterization for a
+more general treatment later, we now pass on to the consideration of
+Lyly's allegorical plays. The absence of all allegory from _Campaspe_
+shows that Lyly had broken with the _morality_: and we seem therefore to
+be going back, when two years later we have an allegorical play from his
+pen. But in reality there is no retrogression; for with Lyly allegory is
+not an ethical instrument. I have mentioned examples of plays before his
+day which employed the machinery of the _morality_, for the purposes of
+political and religious satire. The old form of drama seems to have
+developed a keen sensibility to _double entendre_ among theatre-goers.
+Nothing indeed is so remarkable about the Elizabethan stage as the
+secret understanding which almost invariably existed between the
+dramatist and his audience. We have already had occasion to notice it in
+connexion with Field's parody of Kyd. The spectators were always on the
+alert to detect some veiled reference to prominent political figures or
+to current affairs. Often in fact, as was natural, they would discover
+hints where nothing was implied; and for one Mrs Gallup in modern
+America there must have been a dozen in every auditorium of Elizabethan
+England. Such over-clever busybodies would readily twist an innocent
+remark into treason or sacrilege, and therefore, long before Lyly's
+time, it was customary for a playwright to defend himself in the
+prologue against such treatment, by denying any ambiguity in his
+dialogue. In an audience thus susceptible to innuendo Lyly saw his
+opportunity. He was a courtier writing for the Court, he was also, let
+us add, anxious to obtain a certain coveted post at the Revels' Office.
+He was an artist not entirely without ideals, yet ever ready to curry
+favour and to aim at material advantages by his literary facility. The
+idea therefore of writing dramas which should be, from beginning to end,
+nothing but an ingenious compliment to his royal mistress would not be
+in the least distasteful to him. But we must not attribute too much to
+motives of personal ambition. Spenser's _Faery Queen_ was not published
+until 1590; but Lyly had known Spenser before the latter's departure for
+Ireland, and, even if the scheme of that poet's masterpiece had not been
+confided to him, the ideas which it contained were in the air. The cult
+of Elizabeth, which was far from being a piece of insincere adulation,
+had for some time past been growing into a kind of literary religion.
+Even to us, there is something magical about the great Queen, and we can
+hardly be surprised that the pagans of those days hailed her as half
+divine. When Lyly commenced his career, she had been on the throne for
+twenty years, in itself a wonderful fact to those who could remember the
+gloom which had surrounded her accession. Through a period of infinite
+danger both at home and abroad she had guided England with intrepidity
+and success; and furthermore she had done all this single-handed,
+refusing to share her throne with a partner even for the sake of
+protection, and yet improving upon the Habsburg policy[115] by making
+coquetry the pivot of her diplomacy. It was no wonder therefore that,
+
+ "As the imperial votaress passed on
+ In maiden meditation fancy free,"
+
+the courtiers she fondled, and the artists she patronized, should half
+in fancy, half in earnest, think of her as something more than human,
+and search the fables of their newly discovered classics for examples of
+enthroned chastity and unconquerable virgin queens.
+
+ [115] "Alii bella gerunt, tu felix Austria nube."
+
+All Lyly's plays except _Campaspe_ and _Mother Bombie_ are written in
+this vein; each, as Symonds beautifully puts it, is "a censer of
+exquisitely chased silver, full of incense to be tossed before Elizabeth
+upon her throne." In the three plays _Sapho and Phao_, _Endymion_, and
+_Midas_ this element of flattery is more prominent than in the others,
+inasmuch as they are not only full of compliments unmistakeably directed
+towards the Queen, but they actually seek to depict incidents from her
+reign under the guise of classical mythology. It is for this reason that
+they have been classified under the label of allegory. It is quite
+possible, however, to read and enjoy these plays without a suspicion of
+any inner meaning; nor does the absence of such suspicion render the
+action of the play in any way unintelligible, so skilfully does Lyly
+manipulate his story. With a view, therefore, to his position in the
+history of Elizabethan drama, and to the lessons which he taught those
+who came after him, the superficial interpretation of each play is all
+that need engage our attention, and we shall content ourselves with
+briefly indicating the actual incident which it symbolizes.
+
+The story of _Sapho and Phao_ is, very shortly, as follows. Phao, a poor
+ferryman, is endowed by Venus with the gift of beauty. Sapho, who in
+Lyly's hands is stripped of all poetical attributes and becomes simply a
+great Queen of Sicily, sees him and instantly falls in love with him.
+To conceal her passion, she pretends to her ladies that she has a fever,
+at the same time sending for Phao, who is rumoured to have herbs for
+such complaints. Meanwhile Venus herself falls a victim to the charms
+she has bestowed upon the ferryman. Cupid is therefore called in to
+remedy matters on her behalf. The boy, who plays a part which no one can
+fail to compare with that of Puck in the _Midsummer Night's Dream_,
+succeeds in curing Sapho's passion, but, much to his mother's disgust,
+won over by the Queen's attractions, refuses to go further, and even
+inspires Phao with a loathing for the goddess. The play ends with Phao's
+departure from Sicily in despair, and Cupid's definite rebellion from
+the rule of Venus, resulting in his remaining with Sapho. In this story,
+which is practically a creation of Lyly's brain, though of course it is
+founded upon the classical tale of Sapho's love for Phao, our playwright
+presents under the form of allegory the history of Alenon's courtship
+of Elizabeth. Sapho, Queen of Sicily, is of course Elizabeth, Queen of
+England. The difficulty of Alenon's (that is Phao's) ugliness is
+overcome by the device of making it love's task to confer beauty upon
+him. Phao like Alenon quits the island and its Queen in despair; while
+the play is rounded off by the pretty compliment of representing love as
+a willing captive in Elizabeth's Court.
+
+As a play _Sapho and Phao_ shows a distinct advance upon _Campaspe_. The
+dialogue is less euphuistic, and therefore much more effective. The
+conversation between Sapho and Phao, in the scene where the latter comes
+with his herbs to cure the Queen, is very charming, and well expresses
+the passion which the one is too humble and the other too proud to
+show.
+
+ PHAO. I know no hearb to make lovers sleepe but Heartesease, which
+ because it groweth so high, I cannot reach: for--
+
+ SAPHO. For whom?
+
+ PHAO. For such as love.
+
+ SAPHO. It groweth very low, and I can never stoop to it, that--
+
+ PHAO. That what?
+
+ SAPHO. That I may gather it: but why doe you sigh so, Phao?
+
+ PHAO. It is mine use Madame.
+
+ SAPHO. It will doe you harme and mee too: for I never heare one
+ sighe, but I must sigh't also.
+
+ PHAO. It were best then that your Ladyship give me leave to be gone:
+ for I can but sigh.
+
+ SAPHO. Nay stay: for now I beginne to sighe, I shall not leave
+ though you be gone. But what do you thinke best for your
+ sighing to take it away?
+
+ PHAO. Yew, Madame.
+
+ SAPHO. Mee?
+
+ PHAO. No, Madame, yewe of the tree.
+
+ SAPHO. Then will I love yewe the better, and indeed I think it
+ should make me sleepe too, therefore all other simples set
+ aside, I will simply use onely yewe.
+
+ PHAO. Doe Madame: for I think nothing in the world so good as
+ yewe[116].
+
+ [116] _Sapho and Phao_, Act III. Sc. IV. 60-85.
+
+Altogether there is a great increase in general vitality in this play.
+Lyly draws nearer to the conception of ideal comedy. "Our interest," he
+tells us in his Prologue, "was at this time to move inward delight not
+outward lightnesse, and to breede (if it might be) soft smiling, not
+loud laughing"; and to this end he tends to minimize the purely farcical
+element. The pages are still present, but they are balanced by a group
+of Sapho's maids-in-waiting who discuss the subject of love upon the
+stage with great frankness and charm. Mileta, the leader of this chorus,
+is, we may suspect, a portrait drawn from life; she is certainly much
+more convincing than the somewhat shadowy Campaspe. The figures in
+Lyly's studio are limited in number--Camilla, Lucilla, Campaspe, Mileta,
+all come from the same mould: in Pandion we may discover Euphues under a
+new name, and the surly Vulcan is only another edition of the "crabbed
+Diogenes." And yet each of these types becomes more life-like as he
+proceeds, and if the puppets that he left to his successors were not yet
+human, they had learnt to walk the stage without that angularity of
+movement and jerkiness of speech which betray the machine.
+
+Departing for a moment from the strictly chronological order, and
+leaving _Gallathea_ for later treatment, we pass on to _Endymion_, the
+second of the allegorical dramas, and, without doubt, the boldest in
+conception and the most beautiful in execution of all Lyly's plays. The
+story is founded upon the classical fable of Diana's kiss to the
+sleeping boy, but its arrangement and development are for the most part
+of Lyly's invention: indeed, he was obliged to frame it in accordance
+with the facts which he sought to allegorize. All critics are agreed in
+identifying Cynthia with Elizabeth and Endymion with Leicester, but they
+part company upon the interpretation of the play as a whole. The story
+is briefly as follows. Endymion, forsaking his former love Tellus,
+contracts an ardent passion for Cynthia, who, in accordance with her
+character as moon-goddess, meets his advances with coolness. Tellus
+determines to be revenged, and, by the aid of a sorceress Dipsas, sends
+the youth into a deep sleep from which no one can awaken him. Cynthia
+learns what has befallen, and although she does not suspect Tellus, she
+orders the latter to be shut up in a castle for speaking maliciously of
+Endymion. She then sends Eumenides, the young man's great friend, to
+seek out a remedy. This man is deeply in love with Semele, who scorns
+his passion, and therefore, when he reaches a magic fountain which will
+answer any question put to it, he is so absorbed with his own troubles
+as almost to forget those of his friend. A carefully thought-out piece
+of writing follows, for he debates with himself whether to use his one
+question for an enquiry about his love or his sleeping friend.
+Friendship and duty conquer at length, and, looking into the well, he
+discovers that the remedy for Endymion's sickness is a kiss from
+Cynthia's lips. He returns with his message, the kiss is given,
+Endymion, grown old after 40 years' sleep, is restored to youth, the
+treachery of Tellus is discovered and eventually forgiven, and the play
+ends amid a peal of marriage bells. Endymion, however, is left
+unmarried, knowing as he does that lowly and distant worship is all he
+can be allowed to offer the virgin goddess. The play, of course, has a
+farcical underplot which is only connected very slightly with the main
+story by Sir Tophas' ridiculous passion for Dipsas. His love in fact is
+presented as a kind of caricature of Endymion's, and he is the
+laughing-stock of a number of pages who gambol and play pranks after the
+usual manner of Lyly's boys. The solution of the allegory lies mainly in
+the interpretation of Tellus' character, and I cannot but agree with Mr
+Bond when he decides that Tellus is Mary Queen of Scots. He is perhaps
+less convincing where he pairs Endymion with Sidney, and Semele with
+Penelope Devereux, the famous _Stella_. Lastly we may notice his
+suggestion that Tophas may be Gabriel Harvey, which certainly appears to
+be more probable than Halpin's theory that Stephen Gosson is here
+meant[117]. But the whole question is one of such obscurity, and of so
+little importance from the point of view of my argument, that I shall
+not attempt to enter further into it.
+
+ [117] Halpin, _Oberon's Vision_, Shakespeare Society, 1843.
+
+In _Endymion_ Lyly shows that his mastership of St Paul's has increased
+his knowledge of stage-craft. For example, while _Campaspe_ contains at
+least four imaginary transfers in space in the middle of a scene,
+_Endymion_ has only one: and it is a transfer which requires a much
+smaller stretch of imagination than the constant appearance of Diogenes'
+tub upon the stage whenever and wherever comic relief was considered
+necessary. There is improvement moreover in characterization. But the
+interesting thing about this play is Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of
+it, visible chiefly in the _Midsummer Night's Dream_. The well-known
+speech of Oberon to Puck, directing him to gather the "little western
+flower," is to all intents and purposes a beautiful condensation of
+Lyly's allegory. One would like, indeed, to think that there was
+something more than fancy in Mr Gollancz's suggestion that Shakespeare
+when a boy had seen this play of Lyly's acted at Kenilworth, where
+Leicester entertained Elizabeth; little William going thither with his
+father from the neighbouring town of Stratford. But however that may be,
+_Endymion_ certainly had a peculiar fascination for him; we may even
+detect borrowings from the underplot. Tophas' enumeration of the charms
+of Dipsas[118] foreshadows Thisbe's speech over the fallen Pyramus[119],
+while, did we not know Lyly's play to be the earlier, we might suspect
+the page's song near the sleeping knight to be a clumsy caricature of
+the graceful songs of the fairies guarding Titania's dreams. Again there
+are parallels in Shakespeare's earliest comedy _Love's Labour's Lost_.
+Sir Tophas, who is undoubtedly modelled upon Roister Doister, reappears
+with his page, as Armado with his attendant Moth. And I have no doubt
+that many other resemblances might be discovered by careful
+investigation. We cannot wonder that _Endymion_ attracted Shakespeare,
+for it is the most "romantic" of all Lyly's plays. Indistinctness of
+character seems to be in keeping with an allegory of moonshine; and even
+the mechanical action cannot spoil the poetical atmosphere which
+pervades the whole. Here if anywhere Lyly reached the poetical plane. He
+speaks of "thoughts stitched to the starres," of "time that treadeth all
+things down but truth," of the "ivy which, though it climb up by the
+elme, can never get hold of the beames of the sunne," and the play is
+full of many other quaint poetical conceits.
+
+ [118] _Endymion_, Act III. Sc. II. ll. 30-60.
+
+ [119] Cp. also Shakespeare, _Sonnet_ CXXX.
+
+From the point of view of drama, however, it cannot be considered equal
+to the third of the allegorical plays. As a man of fashion Lyly was
+nothing if not up to date. In August 1588 the great Armada had made its
+abortive attack upon Cynthia's kingdom, and twelve months were scarcely
+gone before the industrious Court dramatist had written and produced on
+the stage an allegorical satire upon his Catholic Majesty Philip, King
+of Spain. Though it contains compliments to Elizabeth, _Midas_ is more
+of a patriotic than a purely Court play. The story, with but a few
+necessary alterations, comes from Ovid's _Metamorphoses_[120]. It is the
+old tale of the three wishes. Love, power, and wealth are offered, and
+Midas chooses the last. But he soon finds that the gift of turning
+everything to gold has its drawbacks. Even his beard accidentally
+becomes bullion. He eventually gets rid of his obnoxious power by
+bathing in a river. The fault of the play is that there are, as it were,
+two sections; for now we are introduced to an entirely new situation.
+The King chances upon Apollo and Pan engaged in a musical contest, and,
+asked to decide between them, gives his verdict for the goat-foot god.
+Apollo, in revenge, endows him with a pair of ass's ears. For some time
+he manages to conceal them; but "murder will out," for the reeds breathe
+the secret to the wind. Midas in the end seeks pardon at Apollo's
+shrine, and is relieved of his ears. At the same time he abandons his
+project of invading the neighbouring island of Lesbos, to which
+continual references are made throughout the play. This island is of
+course England; the golden touch refers to the wealth of Spanish
+America, while, if Halpin be correct, Pan and Apollo signify the
+Catholic and the Protestant faith respectively. We may also notice, in
+passing, that the ears obviously gave Shakespeare the idea of Bottom's
+"transfiguration."
+
+ [120] XI. 85-193.
+
+The weakness of the play, as I have said, lies in its duality of action.
+In other respects, however, it is certainly a great advance on its
+predecessors, especially in its underplot, which is for the first time
+connected satisfactorily with the main argument. Motto, the royal
+barber, in the course of his duties, obtains possession of the golden
+beard: and the history of this somewhat unusual form of treasure
+affords a certain amount of amusing farcical relief. It is stolen by one
+of the Court pages, Motto recovers it as a reward for curing the thief's
+toothache, but he loses it again because, being overheard hinting at the
+ass's ears, he is convicted of treason by the pages, and is blackmailed
+in consequence. From this it will be seen that the underplot is more
+embroidered with incident and is, in every way, better arranged than in
+the earlier plays.
+
+We must now turn to the pastoral plays, _Gallathea_, _The Woman in the
+Moon_, and _Love's Metamorphosis_, which we may consider together since
+their stories, uninspired by any allegorical purpose beyond general
+compliments to the Queen, do not require any detailed consideration. And
+yet it should be pointed out that this distinction between Lyly's
+allegorical and pastoral plays is more apparent than real. There are
+shepherds in _Midas_, the Queen appears under the mythological title of
+Ceres in _Love's Metamorphosis_. Such overlapping however is only to be
+expected, and the division is at least very convenient for purposes of
+classification. Lyly's pastoral plays form, as it were, a link between
+the drama and the masque; indeed, when we consider that all the
+Elizabethan dramatists were students of Lyly, it is possible that comedy
+and masque may have been evolved from the Lylian mythological play by a
+process of differentiation. It may be that our author increased the
+pastoral element as the arcadian fashion came into vogue, but this
+argument does not hold of _Gallathea_, while we are uncertain as to the
+date of _Love's Metamorphosis_. None of these plays are worth
+considering in detail, but each has its own particular point of
+interest. In _Gallathea_ this is the introduction of girls in boys'
+clothes. As far as I know, Lyly is the first to use the convenient
+dramatic device of disguise. How effective a trick it was, is proved by
+the manner in which later dramatists, and in particular Shakespeare,
+adopted it. Its full significance cannot be appreciated by us to-day,
+for the whole point of it was that the actors, who appeared as girls
+dressed up as boys, were, as the audience knew, really boys themselves;
+a fact which doubtless increased the funniness of the situation. _The
+Woman in the Moon_ gives us a man disguised in his wife's clothes, which
+is a variation of the same trick. But the importance of _The Woman_ lies
+in its poetical form. Most Elizabethan scholars have decided that this
+play was Lyly's first dramatic effort, on the authority of the Prologue,
+which bids the audience
+
+ "Remember all is but a poet's dream,
+ The first he had in Phoebus' holy bower,
+ But not the last, unless the first displease."
+
+But the maturity and strength of the drama argue a fairly considerable
+experience in its author, and we shall therefore be probably more
+correct if we place it last instead of first of Lyly's plays,
+interpreting the words of the Prologue as simply implying that it was
+Lyly's first experiment in blank verse, inspired possibly by the example
+of Marlowe in _Tamburlaine_ and of Shakespeare in _Love's Labour's
+Lost_[121]. But, whatever its date, _The Woman in the Moon_ must rank
+among the earliest examples of blank verse in our language, and, as
+such, its importance is very great. In _Love's Metamorphosis_ there is
+nothing of interest equal to those points we have noticed in the other
+two plays of the same class. The only remarkable thing, indeed, about it
+is the absence of that farcical under-current which appears in all his
+other plays. Mr Bond suggests, with great plausibility, that such an
+element had originally appeared, but that, because it dealt with
+dangerous questions of the time, perhaps with the _Marprelate_
+controversy, it was expunged.
+
+ [121] Bond, III. p. 234.
+
+It now remains to say a few words upon _Mother Bombie_, which forms the
+fourth division of Lyly's dramatic writings. Though it presents many
+points of similarity in detail to his other plays, its general
+atmosphere is so different (displaying, indeed, at times distinct errors
+of taste) that I should be inclined to assign it to a friend or pupil of
+Lyly, were it not bound up with Blount's _Sixe Court Comedies_[122], and
+therein said to be written by "the onely Rare Poet of that time, the
+wittie, comical, facetiously quicke, and unparalleled John Lilly master
+of arts." It is clever in construction, but undeniably tedious. It shows
+that Lyly had learnt much from Udall, Stevenson, and Gascoigne, and
+perhaps its chief point of interest is that it links these writers to
+the later realists, Ben Jonson, and that student of London life, who is
+surely one of the most charming of all the Elizabethan dramatists,
+whimsical and delightful Thomas Dekker. _Mother Bombie_ was an
+experiment in the drama of realism, the realism that Nash was employing
+so successfully in his novels. It has been labelled as our earliest pure
+farce of well-constructed plot and literary form, but, though it is
+certainly on a much higher plane than _Roister Doister_, it would only
+create confusion if we denied that title to Udall's play. Yet, despite
+its comparative unimportance, and although it is evident that Lyly is
+here out of his natural element, _Mother Bombie_ is interesting as
+showing the (to our ideas) extraordinary confusion of artistic ideals
+which, as I have already noticed, is the remarkable thing about the
+Renaissance in England. Here we have a courtier, a writer of allegories,
+of dream-plays, the first of our mighty line of romanticists, producing
+a somewhat vulgar realistic play of rustic life. There is nothing
+anomalous in this. "Violence and variation," which someone has described
+as the two essentials of the ideal life, were certainly the
+distinguishing marks of the New Birth; and the men of that age demanded
+it in their literature. The drama of horror, the drama of insanity, the
+drama of blood, all were found on the Elizabethan stage, and all
+attracted large audiences. People delighted to read accounts of
+contemporary crime; often these choice morsels were dished up for them
+by some famous writer, as Kyd did in _The Murder of John Brewer_. The
+taste for realism is by no means a purely 19th century product.
+Moreover, the Elizabethans soon wearied of sameness; only a writer of
+the greatest versatility, such as Shakespeare, could hope for success,
+or at least financial success; and it was, perhaps, in order to revive
+his waning popularity that Lyly took to realism. But the child of
+fashion is always the earliest to become out of date, and we cannot
+think that _Mother Bombie_ did much towards improving our author's
+reputation.
+
+ [122] For title-page, Bond, III. p. 1, date 1632.
+
+At this point of our enquiry it will be as well to say a few words upon
+the lyrics which Lyly sprinkled broadcast over his plays. From an
+aesthetic point of view these are superior to anything else he wrote.
+"Foreshortened in the tract of time," his novel, his plays, have become
+forgotten, and it is as the author of _Cupid and my Campaspe played_
+that he is alone known to the lover of literature. There is no need to
+enter into an investigation of the numerous anonymous poems which Mr
+Bond has claimed for him[123]; even if we knew for certain that he was
+their author, they are so mediocre in themselves as to be unworthy of
+notice, scarcely I think of recovery. But let us turn to the songs of
+his dramas, of which there are 32 in all. These are, of course, unequal
+in merit, but the best are worthy to be ranked with Shakespeare's
+lyrics, and our greatest dramatist was only following Lyly's example
+when he introduced lyrics into his plays. I have already pointed out
+that music was an important element in our early comedy. Udall had
+introduced songs into his _Roister Doister_, and we have them also in
+_Gammer Gurton_ and _Damon and Pithias_, but never, before Lyly's day,
+had they taken so prominent a part in drama, for no previous dramatist
+had possessed a tithe of Lyly's lyrical genius. Every condition favoured
+our author in this introduction of songs into his plays. He had
+tradition at his back; he was intensely interested in music, and
+probably composed the airs himself; and lastly he was master of a choir
+school, and would therefore use every opportunity for displaying his
+pupils' voices on the stage. Too much stress, however, must not be laid
+upon this last condition, because Lyly had already written three songs
+for _Campaspe_ and four for _Sapho and Phao_ before he became connected
+with St Paul's, a fact which points again to de Vere, himself a lyrist
+of considerable powers, as Lyly's adviser and master. Doubts, indeed,
+have been cast upon Lyly's authorship of these lyrics on the ground that
+they are omitted from the first edition of the plays. But we need, I
+think, have no hesitation in accepting Lyly as their creator, since the
+omission in question is fully accounted for by the fact that they were
+probably written separately from the plays, and handed round amongst the
+boys together with the musical score[124]. These songs are of various
+kinds and of widely different value. We have, for example, the purely
+comic poem, probably accompanied by gesture and pantomime, such as the
+song of Petulus from _Midas_, beginning, "O my Teeth! deare Barber ease
+me," with interruptions and refrains supplied by his companion and the
+scornful Motto. Many of these songs, indeed, are cast into dialogue
+form, sometimes each page singing a verse by himself, as in "O for a
+Bowle of fatt canary." This last is the earliest of Lyly's wine-songs,
+which for swing and vigour are among some of the best in our language,
+reminding us irresistibly of those pagan chants of the mediaeval
+wandering scholar which the late Mr Symonds has collected for us in his
+_Wine, Women, and Song_. The drinking song, "Io Bacchus," which occurs
+in _Mother Bombie_, is undoubtedly, I think, modelled on one of these
+earlier student compositions; the reference to the practice of throwing
+hats into the fire is alone sufficient to suggest it. But it is as a
+writer of the lyric proper that Lyly is best known. No one but Herrick,
+perhaps, has given us more graceful love trifles woven about some
+classical conceit. Mr Palgrave has familiarized us with the best, _Cupid
+and my Campaspe played_, but there are others only less charming than
+this. The same theme is employed in the following:
+
+ "O Cupid! Monarch over Kings!
+ Wherefore hast thou feet and wings?
+ Is it to show how swift thou art,
+ When thou would'st wound a tender heart?
+ Thy wings being clipped, and feet held still,
+ Thy bow so many would not kill.
+ It is all one in Venus' wanton school
+ Who highest sits, the wise man or the fool!
+ Fools in love's college
+ Have far more knowledge
+ To read a woman over,
+ Than a neat prating lover.
+ Nay, 'tis confessed
+ That fools please women best[125]!"
+
+ [123] Bond, III. p. 433.
+
+ [124] Bond, I. p. 36, II. p. 265.
+
+ [125] _Mother Bombie_, Act III. Sc. III. 1-14.
+
+Another quotation must be permitted. This time it is no embroidered
+conceit, but one of those lyrics of pure nature music, of which the
+Renaissance poets were so lavish, touched with the fire of Spring, with
+the light of hope, bird-notes untroubled by doubt, unconscious of
+pessimism, which are therefore all the more charming for us who dwell
+amid sunsets of intense colouring, who can see nothing but the hectic
+splendours of autumn. For the melancholy nightingale the poet has
+surprise and admiration, no sympathy:
+
+ "What Bird so sings, yet so does wail?
+ O 'tis the ravished Nightingale.
+ Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu, she cries,
+ And still her woes at Midnight rise.
+ Brave prick song! who is't now we hear?
+ None but the lark so shrill and clear;
+ Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
+ The Morn not waking till she sings.
+ Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat
+ Poor Robin-red-breast tunes his note.
+ Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing
+ 'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring,
+ 'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring[126]."
+
+ [126] _Campaspe_, Act V. Sc. I. 32-44. I have modernised the spelling.
+
+This delightful song comes from the first of Lyly's dramas, and few even
+of Shakespeare's lyrics can equal it. Indeed, coming as it does at the
+dawn of the Elizabethan era, it seems like the cuckoo herself "to
+welcome in the spring."
+
+
+SECTION III. _Lyly's dramatic Genius and Influence._
+
+Having thus very briefly passed in review the various plays that Lyly
+bequeathed to posterity[127], we must say a few words in conclusion on
+their main characteristics, the advance they made upon their
+predecessors, and their influence on later drama.
+
+ [127] I have said nothing of the _Mayde's Metamorphosis_, as most
+ critics are agreed in assigning it to some unknown author.
+
+In Lyly, it is worth noticing, England has her first professional
+dramatist. Unlike those who had gone before him he was no amateur, he
+wrote for his living, and he wrote as one interested in the technical
+side of the theatre. They had played with drama, producing indeed
+interesting experiments, but accomplishing only what one would expect
+from men who merely took a lay interest in the theatre, and who
+possessed a certain knowledge, scholastic rather than technical, of the
+methods of the classical playwrights. He, having probably learnt at
+Oxford all there was to be known concerning the drama of the ancient
+world, came to London, and, definitely deciding to embark upon the
+dramatist's career, saw and studied such _moralities_ and plays as were
+to be seen, aided and directed by the experience and knowledge of his
+patron: finding in the _moralities_, allegory; in the plays of Udall and
+Stevenson, farce; in _Damon and Pithias_, a romantic play upon a
+classical theme; and in Gascoigne's _Supposes_, brilliant prose
+dialogue. That he was induced to make such a study, and that he was
+enabled to carry it out so thoroughly, was due partly, I think, to his
+peculiar financial position. As secretary of de Vere, and later as
+Vice-master of St Paul's School, he was independent of the actual
+necessity of bread-winning, which forced even Shakespeare to pander to
+the garlic-eating multitude he loathed, and wrung from him the cry,
+
+ "Alas, 'tis true I have been here and there
+ And made myself a motley to the view,
+ Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear" ...
+
+But, on the other hand, neither post was sufficiently remunerative to
+secure for him the comforts, still less the luxuries, of life. His
+income required supplementing, if only for the sake of meeting his
+tobacco bill, though I have a strong suspicion that the bills sent in to
+him served no more useful purpose than to light his pipe. But, however,
+adopting the theatre as his profession, he would naturally make a
+serious study of dramatic art, and, having no need for constantly
+filling the maw of present necessity, he could undertake such a study
+thoroughly and at his leisure. And to this cause his peculiar importance
+in the history of the Elizabethan stage is mainly due. Next to Jonson,
+the most learned of all the dramatists, yet possessing little of their
+poetical capacity, he set them the most conspicuous example in technique
+and stage-craft, in the science of play-writing, which they would
+probably have been far too busy to acquire for themselves. Lyly's eight
+dramas formed the rough-hewn but indispensable foundation-stone of the
+Elizabethan edifice. Spenser has been called the poet's poet, Lyly was
+in his own days the playwright's dramatist.
+
+Of his dramatic construction we have already spoken. We have noticed
+that he introduced the art of disguise; that he varied his action by
+songs, accompanied perhaps with pantomime. Mr Bond suggests further that
+he probably did much to extend the use of stage properties and
+scenery[128]. But the real importance of his plays lies in their plot
+construction and character drawing, points which as yet we have only
+touched upon. The way in which he manages the action of his plays shows
+a skill quite unapproached by anything that had gone before, and more
+pronounced than that of many which came after. Too often indeed we have
+dialogues, scenes, and characters which have no connexion with the
+development of the story; but when we consider how frequently
+Shakespeare sinned in this respect, we cannot blame Lyly for introducing
+a philosophical discussion between Plato and Aristotle, as in
+_Campaspe_, or those merry altercations between his pages which added so
+much colour and variety to his plays. However many interruptions there
+were, he never allowed his audience to forget the main business, as
+Dekker, for example, so frequently did. Nowhere, again, in Lyly's plays
+are the motives inadequate to support the action, as they were in the
+majority of dramas previous to 1580. Even Alexander's somewhat tame
+surrender of Campaspe is quite in accordance with his royal dignity and
+magnanimity; and, moreover, we are warned in the third act that the
+King's love is slight and will fade away at the first blast of the war
+trumpet, for as he tells us he is "not so far in love with Campaspe as
+with Bucephalus, if occasion serve either of conflict or of
+conquest[129]." In _Endymion_ the motives are perhaps most skilfully
+displayed, and lead most naturally on to the action, and in this play,
+also, Lyly is perhaps most successful in creating that dramatic
+excitement which is caused by working up to an apparent deadlock (due to
+the intrigues of Tellus), and which is made to resolve itself and
+disappear in the final act. Closely allied with the development of
+action by the presentation of motives is the weaving of the plot. And
+in this Lyly is not so satisfactory, though, of course, far in advance
+of his predecessors. A steady improvement, however, is discernible as he
+proceeds. In the earlier plays the page element does little more than
+afford comic relief: the encounters between Manes and his friends, and
+between Manes and his master, can hardly be dignified by the name of
+plot. It is in _Midas_, as I have already suggested, that this farcical
+under-current displays incident and action of its own, turning as it
+does upon the relations of the pages with Motto and the theft of the
+beard. Here again the comic scenes, now connected together for the first
+time, are also united with the main story. But the page element by no
+means represents Lyly's only attempt at creating an underplot. It will
+be seen from the story of _Endymion_ related above that in that play our
+author is not contented with a single passion-nexus, if the expression
+may be allowed, that of Tellus, Cynthia, and Endymion, but he gives us
+another, that of Eumenides and Semele, which has no real connexion with
+the action, but which seriously threatens to interrupt it at one point.
+Other interests are hinted at, rather than developed, by the infatuation
+of Sir Tophas for Dipsas, and by the history of the latter's husband.
+Though _Midas_ is more advanced in other ways, it displays nothing like
+the complexity of _Endymion_, and it is moreover, as I have said, cut in
+two by the want of connexion between the incident of the golden touch
+and that of the ass's ears. Lastly, in _Love's Metamorphosis_, which is
+without the element of farce, the relations between the nymphs and the
+shepherds complete that underplot of passion which is hinted at in
+_Sapho_, in the evident fancy which Mileta shows for Phao, and developed
+as we have just noticed in _Endymion_.
+
+ [128] Bond, II. pp. 265-266.
+
+ [129] _Campaspe_, Act III. Sc. IV. 31.
+
+In this plot construction and interweaving, Lyly had no models except
+the classics, and we may, therefore, say that his work in this direction
+was almost entirely original. The last-mentioned play was produced at
+Court some time before 1590, and we cannot doubt, was attended by our
+greatest dramatist. At any rate the lessons which Shakespeare learnt
+from Lyly in the matter of plot complication are visible in the
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_, which was produced in 1595[130]. The
+intricate mechanism of this play, reminding us with its four plots (the
+Duke and Hippolyta, the lovers, the mechanics, and the fairies) of the
+_miracle_ with its imposing but unimportant divinities in the Rood
+gallery, its main stage whereon moved human characters, its Crypt
+supplying the rude comic element in the shape of devils, and its angels
+who moved from one level to another welding the whole together, was far
+beyond Lyly's powers, but it was only possible even for Shakespeare
+after a thorough study of Lyly's methods.
+
+ [130] Sidney Lee, _Life_, p. 151.
+
+As I have previously pointed out, Lyly was not very successful in the
+matter of character drawing. Never, even for a moment, is passion
+allowed to disturb the cultured placidity of the dialogue. The
+conditions under which his plays were produced may in part account for
+this. The children of Paul's could hardly be expected to display much
+light and shade of emotion in their acting, certainly depth of passion
+was beyond their scope. But the fault, I think, lies rather in the
+dramatist than in the actors. Lyly's mind was in all probability
+altogether of too superficial a nature for a sympathetic analysis of the
+human soul. That at least is how I interpret his character. All his work
+was more "art than nature," some of it was "more labour than art." On
+the technical side his dramatic advance is immense, but we may look in
+vain in his dramas for any of that appreciation of the elemental facts
+of human nature which can alone create enduring art. In their
+characterization, Lyly's plays do little more than form a link between
+Shakespeare and the old _morality_. This comes out most strongly in
+their peculiar method of character grouping. By a very natural process
+the _moral_ type is split up with the intention of giving it life and
+variety. Thus we have those groups of pages, of maids-in-waiting, of
+shepherds, of deities, etc., which are so characteristic of Lyly's
+plays. There is no real distinction between page and page, and between
+nymph and nymph; but their merry conversations give a piquancy and
+colour to the drama which make up for, and in part conceal, the absence
+of character. All that was necessary for the creation of character was
+to fit these pieces of the _moral_ type together again in a different
+way, and to breathe the spirit of genius into the new creation. We can
+see Lyly feeling towards this solution of the problem in his portrayal
+of Gunophilus, the clown of _The Woman in the Moon_. This character,
+which anticipates the immortal clowns of Shakespeare, is formed by an
+amalgamation of the pages in the previous plays into one comic figure.
+But Lyly also attempts to create single figures, in addition to these
+group characters which for the most part have little to do with the
+action. Often he helps out his poverty of invention by placing
+descriptions of one character in the mouth of another. "How stately she
+passeth bye, yet how soberly!" exclaims Alexander watching Campaspe at a
+distance, "a sweet consent in her countenance with a chaste disdaine,
+desire mingled with coyness, and I cannot tell how to tearme it, a curst
+yeelding modestie!"--an excellent piece of description, and one which is
+very necessary for the animation of the shadowy Campaspe. At times
+however Lyly can dispense with such adventitious aids. Pipenetta, the
+fascinating little wench in _Midas_ and one of our dramatist's most
+successful creations, needs no other illumination than her own pert
+speeches. Diogenes again is an effective piece of work. But both these
+are minor characters who therefore receive no development, and if we
+look at the more important personages of Lyly's portrait gallery, we
+must agree with Mr Bond[131] that Tellus is the best. She is a character
+which exhibits considerable development, and she is also Lyly's only
+attempt to embody the evil principle in woman--a hint for the
+construction of that marvellous portrait of another Scottish queen, the
+Lady Macbeth, which Lyly just before his death in 1606 may have seen
+upon the stage.
+
+ [131] Bond, II. p. 284.
+
+On the whole Lyly is most successful when he is drawing women, which was
+only as it should be, if we allow that the feminine element is the very
+pivot of true comedy. This he saw, and it is because he was the first to
+realise it and to grapple with the difficulties it entailed that the
+title of father of English comedy may be given him without the least
+reserve or hesitation. Sapho the haughty but amorous queen, Mileta the
+mocking but tender Court lady, Gallathea the shy provincial lass, and
+Pipenetta the saucy little maid-servant, fill our stage for the first
+time in history with their tears and their laughter, their scorn of the
+mere male and their "curst yeelding modestie," their bold sallies and
+their bashful blushes. Nothing like this had as yet been seen in English
+literature. I have already pointed out why it was that woman asserted
+her place in art at this juncture. Yet, although the revolution would
+have come about in any case, all honour must be paid to the man who saw
+it coming, anticipated it, and determined its fortunes by the creation
+of such a number of feminine characters from every class in the social
+scale. And if it be true that he only gave us "their outward husk of wit
+and raillery and flirtation," if it be true that his interpretation of
+woman was superficial, that he had no understanding for the soul behind
+the social mask, for the emotional and passionate current, now a quiet
+stream, now a raging torrent, beneath the layer of etiquette, his work
+was none the less important for that.
+
+ "Blood and brain and spirit, three
+ Join for true felicity."
+
+Blood his girls had and brain, but his genius was not divine enough to
+bestow upon them the third essential. Yet they were alive, they were
+flesh, they had wit, and in this they are undoubtedly the forerunners
+not only of Shakespeare's heroines but of Congreve's and of
+Meredith's--to mention the three greatest delineators of women in our
+language. They are the Undines in the story of our literature, beautiful
+and seductive, complete in everything but soul!
+
+While realising that woman should be the real protagonist in comedy,
+Lyly also appreciated the fact that skilful dialogue and brilliant
+repartee are only less important, and that for this purpose prose was
+more suitable than verse. Gascoigne's _Supposes_ was his model in both
+these innovations, and yet he would undoubtedly have adopted them of his
+own accord without any outside suggestion. And since _The Supposes_ was
+a translation, _Campaspe_ deserves the title of the first purely English
+comedy in prose. The _Euphues_ had given him a reputation for sprightly
+and witty dialogue, he himself was possibly known at Court as a
+brilliant conversationalist, and therefore when he came to write plays
+he would naturally do all in his power to maintain and to improve his
+fame in this respect. With his acute sense of form he would recognise
+how clumsy had been the efforts of previous dramatists, and he knew also
+how impossible it would be, in verse form, to write witty dialogue, up
+to date in the subjects it handled. He therefore determined to use
+prose, and, though he manipulates it somewhat awkwardly in his earlier
+plays while still under the influence of the euphuistic fashion, he
+steadily improves, as he gains experience of the function and needs of
+dialogue, until at length he succeeds in creating a thoroughly
+serviceable dramatic instrument. This departure was a great event in
+English literature. Shakespeare was too much of a poet ever to dispense
+altogether with verse, but he appreciated the virtue of prose as a
+vehicle of comic dialogue, and he uses it occasionally even in his
+earliest comedy, _Love's Labour's Lost_. Ben Jonson on the other
+hand--perhaps more than any other Lyly's spiritual heir--wrote nearly
+all his comedies in prose. And it is not fanciful I think to see in
+Lyly's pointed dialogue, tinged with euphuism, the forerunner of
+Congreve's sparkling conversation and of the epigrammatic writing of our
+modern English playwrights.
+
+Such are the main characteristics of Lyly's dramatic genius. To attempt
+to trace his influence upon later writers would be to write a history of
+the Elizabethan stage. In the foregoing remarks I have continually
+indicated Shakespeare's debt to him in matters of detail. _The Midsummer
+Night's Dream_ is from beginning to end full of reminiscences from the
+plays of the earlier dramatist, transmuted, vitalized, and beautified by
+the genius of our greatest poet. It is as if he had witnessed in one
+day a representation of all Lyly's dramatic work, and wearied by the
+effort of attention had fallen asleep and dreamt this _Dream_. _Love's
+Labour's Lost_ is only less indebted to Lyly; indeed nearly all
+Shakespeare's plays, certainly all his comedies, exhibit the same
+influence: for he knew his Lyly through and through, and his
+assimilative power was unequalled. Shakespeare might almost be said to
+be a combination of Marlowe and Lyly plus that indefinable something
+which made him the greatest writer of all time. Marlowe, his master in
+tragedy, was also his master in poetry, in that strength of conception
+and beauty of execution which together make up the soul of drama. Lyly,
+besides the lesson he taught him in comedy, was also his model for
+dramatic construction, brilliancy of dialogue, technical skill, and all
+that comprises the science of play-making--things which were perhaps of
+more moment to him, with his scanty classical knowledge, than Marlowe's
+lesson which he had little need of learning. And what we have said of
+Shakespeare may be said of Elizabethan drama as a whole. "Marlowe's
+place," writes Mr Havelock Ellis, "is at the heart of English poetry";
+his "high, astounding terms" took the world of his day by storm, his
+gift to English literature was the gift of sublime beauty, of
+imagination, and passion. Lyly could lay claim to none of these, but his
+contribution was perhaps of more importance still. He did the
+spade-work, and did it once and for all. With his knowledge of the
+Classics and of previous English experiments he wrote plays that,
+compared with what had gone before, were models of plot construction, of
+the development of action, and even of characterization. Moreover he was
+before Marlowe by some nine years in the production of true romantic
+drama, and in his treatment of women. In spite, therefore, of Marlowe's
+immense superiority to him on the aesthetic side, Lyly must be placed
+above the author of _EdwardII._ in dynamical importance.
+
+In connexion with Lyly's influence the question of the exact nature of
+his dramatic productions is worth a moment's consideration. Are they
+masques or dramas? and if the latter are they strictly speaking
+classical or romantic in form? As I have already suggested, the answer
+to the first half of this question is that they were neither and both.
+In Lyly's day drama had not yet been differentiated from masque, and his
+plays, therefore, partook of the nature of both. Produced as they were
+for the Court, it was natural that they should possess something of that
+atmosphere of pageantry, music, and pantomime which we now associate
+with the word masque. But Elizabeth was economical and preferred plain
+drama to the expensive masque displays, though she was ready to enjoy
+the latter, if they were provided for her by Leicester or some other
+favourite. Lyly's work therefore never advanced very far in the
+direction of the masque, though in its complimentary allegories it had
+much in common with it. The question as to whether it should be
+described as classical rather than as romantic is not one which need
+detain us long. It is interesting however as it again brings out the
+peculiarity of Lyly's position. It may indeed be claimed for him that
+all sections of Elizabethan drama, except perhaps tragedy, are to be
+found in embryo in his plays. I have said that he was the first of the
+romanticists, but he was no less the first important writer of classical
+drama. _Gorbuduc_ and its like had been tedious and clumsy imitations,
+and, moreover, they had imitated Seneca, who was a late classic. Lyly,
+though the Greek dramatists were unknown to him, had probably studied
+Aristotle's _Poetics_, and was certainly acquainted with Horace's _Ars
+Poetica_, and with the comedies of Terence and Plautus. He was,
+therefore, an authority on matters dramatic, and could boast of a
+learning on the subject of technique which few of his contemporaries or
+his successors could lay claim to, and which they were only too ready to
+glean second-hand. And yet, though he was wise enough to appreciate all
+that the classics could teach him, he was a romanticist at heart, or
+perhaps it would be better to say that he threw the beautiful and
+loosely fitting garment of romanticism over the classical frame of his
+dramas. And even in the matter of this frame he was not always orthodox.
+He bowed to the tradition of the unities: but he frequently broke with
+it; in _The Woman_ alone does he confine the action to one day; and,
+though he is more careful to observe unity of place, imaginary transfers
+occurring in the middle of scenes indicate his rebellion against this
+restriction. Nevertheless, when all is said, he remains, with the
+exception of Jonson, the most classical of all Elizabethan playwrights,
+and just as he anticipates the 17th and 18th centuries in his prose, so
+in his dramas we may discover the first competent handling of those
+principles and restrictions which, more clearly enunciated by Ben
+Jonson, became iron laws for the post-Elizabethan dramatists.
+
+It is this "balance between classic precedent and romantic freedom[132]"
+that constitutes his supreme importance, not only in Elizabethan
+literature, but even in the history of subsequent English drama. From
+Lyly we may trace the current of romanticism, through Shakespeare, to
+Goethe and Victor Hugo; in Lyly also we may see the first embodiment of
+that classical tradition which even Shakespeare's "purge" could do
+nothing to check, and which was eventually to lay its dead hand upon the
+art of the 18th century. May we not say more than this? Is he not the
+first name in a continuous series from 1580 to our own day, the first
+link in the chain of dramatic development, which binds the "singing room
+of Powles" to the Lyceum of Irving? And it is interesting to notice that
+the principle which he was the first to express shows at the present
+moment evident signs of exhaustion; for its future developments seem to
+be limited to that narrow strip of social melodrama, which lies between
+the devil of the comic opera and the deep sea of the Ibsenic problem
+play. Indeed it would not be altogether fanciful, I think, to say that
+_The Importance of being Earnest_ finishes the process that _Campaspe_
+started; and to view that process as a circle begun in euphuism, and
+completed in aestheticism.
+
+ [132] Bond, II. p. 266.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+At the beginning of this essay I gave a short account of the main facts
+of our author's life, reserving my judgment upon his character and
+genius until after the examination of his works. That examination which
+I have now concluded is far too superficial in character to justify a
+psychological synthesis such as that advocated by M. Hennequin[133]. But
+though this essay cannot claim to have exhausted the subject of the ways
+and means of Lyly's art, yet in the course of our survey we have had
+occasion to notice several interesting points in reference to his mind
+and character, which it will be well to bring together now in order to
+give a portrait, however inadequate, of the man who played so important
+a part in English literature.
+
+ [133] _La Critique Scientifique._
+
+Nash supplies the only piece of contemporary information about his
+person and habits, and all he tells us is that he was short of stature
+and that he smoked. But Ben Jonson gives us an unmistakeable caricature
+of him under the delightfully appropriate name of Fastidious Brisk in
+_Every Man out of His Humour_. He describes him as a "neat, spruce,
+affecting courtier, one that wears clothes well, and in fashion;
+practiseth by his glass how to salute; speaks good remnants
+notwithstanding his base viol and tobacco; swears tersely and with
+variety; cares not what lady's favour he belies, or great man's
+familiarity: a good property to perfume the boot of a coach. He will
+borrow another man's horse to praise and back him as his own. Or, for a
+need can post himself into credit with his merchant, only with the
+gingle of his spur and the jerk of his wand[134]." Allowing for the
+exaggeration of satire, we cannot doubt that this portrait is in the
+main correct. It indicates a man who follows fashion, even in swearing,
+to the excess of foppery, who delights in scandal, who contracts debts
+with an easy conscience, and who is withal a merry fellow and a wit. All
+this is in accordance with what we know of his life. We can picture him
+at Oxford serenading the Magdalen dons with his "base viol," or perhaps
+organizing a night party to disturb the slumbers of some insolent
+tradesman who had dared to insist upon payment; his neat little figure
+leading a gang of young rascals, and among them the "sea-dog" Hakluyt,
+the sturdy and as yet unconverted Gosson, the refined Watson, and
+perchance George Pettie concealing his thorough enjoyment of the
+situation by a smile of elderly amusement. Or yet again we can see him
+at the room of some boon companion seriously announcing to a convulsed
+assembly his intention of applying for a fellowship, and when the last
+quip had been hurled at him through clouds of smoke and the laughter had
+died down, proposing that the house should go into committee for the
+purpose of concocting the now famous letter to Burleigh. When we next
+catch a glimpse of him he is no longer the madcap; he walks with such
+dignity as his stature permits, for he is now author of the
+much-talked-of _Anatomy of Wit_, and one of the most fashionable young
+men of the Court. What elaboration of toilet, what adjustment and
+readjustment of ruffles and lace, what bowing and scraping before the
+glass, preceded that great event of his life--his presentation to the
+Queen--can only be guessed at. But we can well picture him, following
+his magnificently over-dressed patron up the long reception-room, his
+heart beating with pleasurable excitement, yet his manners not forgotten
+in the hour of his pride, as he nods to an acquaintance and bows with
+sly demureness to some Iffida or Camilla. Those were the days of his
+success, the happiest period of his life when, as secretary to the Lord
+Chamberlain and associate of the highest in the land, he breathed his
+native atmosphere, the praises and flattery of a fickle world of
+fashion. But, time-server as he was, he was no sycophant. Leaving de
+Vere's service after a sharp quarrel, he was not ashamed to take up the
+profession of teaching in which he had already had some experience. We
+see him next, therefore, a master of St Paul's, engrossed in the not
+unpleasant duties of drilling his pupils for the performance of his
+plays, accompanying their songs on his instrument, or himself taking his
+place on the stage, now as Diogenes in his ubiquitous tub, and now as
+the golden-bearded and long-eared Midas. And last of all he appears as
+the disappointed, disillusioned man, "infelix academicus ignotus." A
+wife and children on his hands, his occupation gone, his hopes of the
+Revels Mastership blasted, he becomes desperate, and writes that last
+bitter letter to Elizabeth.
+
+ [134] From the _Preface_.
+
+The man of fashion out of date, the social success left high and dry by
+the unheeding current, he died eventually in poverty, not because he had
+wasted his substance, like Greene, in Bohemia, but because, thinking to
+take Belgravia by storm, he had forgotten that the foundations of that
+city are laid on the bodies of her sons. But leaving
+
+ "The thrice three muses mourning for the death
+ Of Learning late deceased in beggary,"
+
+let us look more closely into the character of this man, whose brilliant
+and successful youth was followed by so sad an old age.
+
+In spite of Professor Raleigh and the moralizing of _Euphues_, we may
+decide that there was nothing of the Puritan about him. His life at
+Oxford, his attachment to the notorious de Vere, the keen pleasure he
+took in the things of this world, are, I think, sufficient to prove
+this. His general attitude towards life was one of vigorous hedonism,
+not of intellectual asceticism. The ethical element of _Euphues_ links
+him rather to the already vanishing Humanism than to the rising
+Puritanism, against which all his sympathies were enlisted, as his
+contributions to the _Marprelate_ controversy indicate. I have refrained
+from touching upon these _Mar-Martin_ tracts because they possess
+neither aesthetic nor dynamical importance, being, as Gabriel
+Harvey--always ready with the spiteful epigram--describes them,
+"alehouse and tinkerly stuffe, nothing worthy a scholar or a real
+gentleman." They are worth mentioning, however, as throwing a light upon
+the religious prejudices of our author. He was a courtier and he was a
+churchman, and in lending his aid to crush sectarians he thought no more
+deeply about the matter than he did in voting as Member of Parliament
+against measures which conflicted with his social inclinations. There
+was probably not an ounce of the theological spirit in his whole
+composition; for his refutation of atheism was a youthful essay in
+dialectics, a bone thrown to the traditions of the moral Court
+treatise.
+
+If, indeed, he was seriously minded in any respect, it was upon the
+subject of Art. Himself a novelist and dramatist, he displayed also a
+keen delight in music, and evinced a considerable, if somewhat
+superficial, interest in painting. And yet, though he apparently made it
+his business to know something of every art, he was no sciolist, and, if
+he went far afield, it was only in order to improve himself in his own
+particular branch. All the knowledge he acquired in such amateur
+appreciation was brought to the service of his literary productions. And
+the same may be said of his extensive excursions into the land of books.
+No Elizabethan dramatist but Lyly, with the possible exception of
+Jonson, could marshal such an array of learning, and few could have
+turned even what they had with such skill and effect to their own
+purposes. Lyly had made a thorough study of such classics as were
+available in his day, and we have seen how he employed them in his novel
+and in his plays. But the classics formed only a small section of the
+books digested by this omnivorous reader. If he could not read Spanish,
+French, or Italian, he devoured and assimilated the numerous
+translations from those languages into English, Guevara indeed being his
+chief inspiration. Nor did he neglect the literature of his own land.
+Few books we may suppose, which had been published in English previous
+to 1580, had been unnoticed by him. We have seen what a thorough
+acquaintance he possessed of English drama before his day, and how he
+exhibits the influence of the writings of Ascham and perhaps other
+humanists, how he laid himself under obligation to the bestiaries and
+the proverb-books for his euphuistic philosophy, and how his lyrics
+indicate a possible study of the mediaeval scholar song-books. In
+conclusion, it is interesting to notice that we have clear evidence that
+he knew Chaucer[135].
+
+ [135] Bond, I. p. 401.
+
+Idleness, therefore, cannot be urged against him; nor does this imposing
+display of learning indicate a pedant. Lyly had nothing in common with
+the spirit of his old friend Gabriel Harvey, whom indeed he laughed at.
+There is a story that Watson and Nash invited a company together to sup
+at the Nag's Head in Cheapside, and to discuss the pedantries of Harvey,
+and our euphuist in all probability made one of the party. His erudition
+sat lightly on him, for it was simply a means to the end of his art.
+Moreover, a student's life could have possessed no attraction for one of
+his temperament. Unlike Marlowe and Greene, he had harvested all his
+wild oats before he left Oxford; but the process had refined rather than
+sobered him, for his laugh lost none of its merriment, and his wit
+improved with experience, so that we may well believe that in the Court
+he was more Philautus than Euphues. In his writings also his aim was to
+be graceful rather than erudite; and, ponderous as his _Euphues_ seems
+to us now, it appealed to its Elizabethan public as a model of elegance.
+His art was perhaps only an instrument for the acquisition of social
+success, but he was nevertheless an artist to the fingertips. Yet he was
+without the artist's ideals, and this fact, together with his frivolity,
+vitiated his writings to a considerable extent, or, rather, the
+superficiality of his art was the result of the superficiality of his
+soul. Of that "high seriousness," which Aristotle has declared to be the
+poet's essential, he has nothing. Technique throughout was his chief
+interest, and it is in technique alone that he can claim to have
+succeeded. "More art than nature" is a just criticism of everything he
+wrote, with the exception of his lyrics. He was supremely clever, one of
+the cleverest writers in our literature when we consider what he
+accomplished, and how small was the legacy of his predecessors; but he
+was much too clever to be simple. He excelled in the niceties of art, he
+revelled in the accomplishment of literary feats, his intellect was akin
+to the intellect of those who in their humbler fashion find pleasure in
+the solution of acrostics. And consequently his writings were frequently
+as finical as his dress was fastidious; for it was the form and not the
+idea which fascinated him; to his type of mind the letter was everything
+and the spirit nothing. Indeed, the true spirit of art was quite beyond
+his comprehension, though he was connoisseur enough to appreciate its
+presence in others. Artist and man of taste he was, but he was no poet.
+Artist he was, I have said, to the fingertips, but his art lay at his
+fingers' ends, not at his soul. He was facile, ingenious, dexterous,
+everything but inspired. He had wit, learning, skill, imagination, but
+none of that passionate apprehension of life which makes the poet, and
+which Marlowe and Shakespeare possessed so fully. And therefore it was
+his fate to be nothing more than a forerunner, a straightener of the
+way; and before his death he realised with bitterness that he was only a
+stepping-stone for young Shakespeare to mount his throne. He was,
+indeed, the draughtsman of the Elizabethan workshop, planning and
+designing what others might build. He was the expert mathematician who
+formulated the laws which enabled Shakespeare to read the stars. Of the
+heights and depths of passion he was unconscious; he was no
+psychologist, laying bare the human soul with the lancet; and though now
+and again, as in _Endymion_, he caught a glimpse of the silver beauties
+of the moon, he had no conception of the glories of the midday sun.
+
+And yet though he lacked the poet's sense, his wit did something to
+repair the defect, and even if it has a musty flavour for our pampered
+palates, it saves his writings from becoming unbearably wearisome; and
+moreover his fun was without that element of coarseness which mars the
+comic scenes of later dramatists who appealed to more popular audiences.
+But it is quite impossible for us to realise how brilliant his wit
+seemed to the Elizabethans before it was eclipsed by the genius of
+Shakespeare. Even as late as 1632 Blount exclaims, "This poet sat at the
+sunne's table," words referring perhaps more especially to Lyly's
+poetical faculty, but much truer if interpreted as an allusion to his
+wit. The genius of our hero played like a dancing sunbeam over the early
+Elizabethan stage. Never before had England seen anything like it, and
+we cannot wonder that his public hailed him in their delight as one of
+the greatest writers of all time. How could they know that he was only
+the first voice in a choir of singers which, bursting forth before his
+notes had died away, would shake the very arch of heaven with the
+passion and the beauty of their song? But for us who have heard the
+chorus first, the recitative seems poor and thin. The magic has long
+passed from _Euphues_, once a name to conjure with, and even the plays
+seem dull and lifeless. That it should be so was inevitable, for the wit
+which illuminated these works was of the time, temporary, the earliest
+beam of the rising sun. This sunbeam it is impossible to recover, and
+with all our efforts we catch little but dust.
+
+And yet for the scientific critic Lyly's work is still alive with
+significance. Worthless as much of it is from the aesthetic point of
+view, from the dynamical, the historical aspect few English writers are
+of greater interest. Waller was rescued from oblivion and labelled as
+the first of the classical poets. But we can claim more for Lyly than
+this. Extravagant as it may sound, he was one of the great founders of
+our literature. His experiments in prose first taught men that style was
+a matter worthy of careful study, he was among the earliest of those who
+realised the utility of blank verse for dramatic purposes, he wrote the
+first English novel in our language, and finally he is not only
+deservedly recognised as the father of English comedy, but by his
+mastery of dramatic technique he laid such a burden of obligation upon
+future playwrights that he placed English drama upon a completely new
+basis. Of the three main branches of our literature, therefore, two--the
+novel and the drama--were practically of his creation, and though his
+work suffered because it lacked the quality of poetry, for the historian
+of literature it is none the less important on that account.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF CHIEF AUTHORITIES.
+
+
+ARBER. The Martin Marprelate Controversy. Scholar's Library.
+
+ASCHAM, ROGER. The Schoolmaster. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+ASCHAM, ROGER. Toxophilus. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+BAKER, G. P. Lyly's Endymion.
+
+BARNEFIELD, RICHARD. Poems. Arber's Scholar's Library.
+
+BERNERS, LORD. The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius.
+
+BERNERS, LORD. Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.
+
+BOAS. Works of Kyd. Clarendon Press.
+
+BOND, R. W. John Lyly. Clarendon Press. 3 Vols.
+
+BRUNET. Manuel de Libraire.
+
+BUTLER CLARKE. Spanish Literature.
+
+CHILD, C. G. John Lyly and Euphuism. _Mnchener Beitrge_ VII.
+
+CRAIK, SIR H. Specimens of English Prose.
+
+DICTIONARY of National Biography.
+
+EARLE. History of English Prose.
+
+FIELD, NATHANIEL. A Woman is a Weathercock.
+
+FITZMAURICE-KELLY. Spanish Literature. Heinemann.
+
+GAYLEY. Representative English Comedies.
+
+GOSSE. From Shakespeare to Pope.
+
+GOSSON. School of Abuse. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+GUEVARA, ANTONIO DE. Libro Aureo del emperado Marco Aurelio.
+
+HALLAM. Introduction to the Literature of Europe.
+
+HENNEQUIN. La Critique Scientifique.
+
+HUME, MARTIN. Spanish Influence on English Literature.
+
+JUSSERAND. The English Novel in the time of Shakespeare.
+
+LANDMANN, DR. Shakespeare and Euphuism. _New Shak. Soc. Trans._ 1880-2.
+
+LANDMANN, DR. Introduction to Euphues. Sprache und Literatur.
+
+LATIMER. Sermons. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Athenum, July 14, 1883.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Huon of Bordeaux (Berners'). Early Eng. Text Soc. Extra
+Series XL., XLI.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Life of Shakespeare.
+
+LIEBIG. Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen ge.
+
+LYLY. Euphues. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+MACAULAY, G. G. Introd. to Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.
+
+MEREDITH, GEORGE. Essay on Comedy.
+
+MZIRES. Prdcesseurs et contemporains de Shakespeare.
+
+MINTO. Manual of English Prose Literature.
+
+NORTH, THOMAS. Diall of Princes.
+
+PEARSON, KARL. Chances of Death. Vol. II. _German Passion Play._
+
+PETTIE, GEORGE. Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure.
+
+RALEIGH, PROF. W. The English Novel.
+
+RETURN FROM PARNASSUS. Arber's Scholar's Library.
+
+SAINTSBURY. Specimens of English Prose.
+
+SPENCER, HERBERT. Essays--Philosophy of Style.
+
+SYMONDS, J. A. Shakespeare's Predecessors.
+
+UDALL, NICHOLAS. Ralph Roister Doister. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+UNDERHILL. Spanish Literature in Tudor England.
+
+WARD, DR A. W. English Dramatic Literature. 3 Vols.
+
+WARD, MRS H. "John Lyly," Article in _Enc. Brit._
+
+WATSON, THOMAS. Poems. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+WEBBE. Discourses of English Poetry. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+WEYMOUTH, DR R. F. On Euphuism. _Phil. Soc. Trans._ 1870-2.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_Affectionate Shepherd_, 46
+
+_Albion's England_, 57
+
+Alenon, Duc d', 105
+
+_Amis and Amile_, 66
+
+_Anatomy of Wit_ (v. _Euphues_)
+
+Andrews, Dr, 55
+
+Arber (reprints), 12, 27, 38, 46
+
+_Arcadia_, 9, 51, 56, 58, 68, 82, 84
+
+Aretino, 48
+
+Ariosto, 94, 96
+
+Aristotle, 121, 129, 137
+
+Armada, Spanish, 110
+
+Arnold, Matthew, 47
+
+_Ars Poetica_ (of Horace), 130
+
+Ascham, 31, 37, 38, 39, 42, 50, 52, 67, 73, 74, 136
+
+_Athenae Oxonienses_, 4, 5
+
+_Athenum_, 30
+
+Athens, 69, 79
+
+_Aucassin and Nicolette_, 66
+
+Aurelius, Marcus, 22, 34, 69
+
+Austen, Jane, 80
+
+
+Bacon, Lord, 19, 47
+
+Baena, 48
+
+Baker, G. P., 4, 5, 7, 85, 98
+
+Baker, George, 28
+
+Baker, Robert, 28
+
+Barnefield, Richard, 46
+
+Berners, Lord, 22, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 42, 66, 67
+
+Bertaut, Rn, 34, 35
+
+bestiaries, 20, 41, 136
+
+_Biographia Britannica_, 12
+
+Blackfriars, 100
+
+blank verse, 3, 97, 113
+
+Blount, 114, 139
+
+Boas, 45
+
+Boccaccio, 66, 67, 75
+
+Bond, R. W., 4, 5, 8, 9, 26, 30, 34, 43, 55, 60, 69, 72, 74, 78, 81, 85,
+ 86, 87, 89, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 108, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117,
+ 120, 125, 130, 137
+
+Brunet, 34
+
+Bryan, Sir Francis, 30, 31
+
+Burleigh, 4, 6, 7, 86, 133
+
+Butler Clarke, 49
+
+Byron (anticipated by Lyly), 77
+
+
+Cambridge, 7, 75, 87, 93
+
+_Campaspe_, 7, 85, 87, 98-102, 104, 105, 109, 116, 121, 124, 126
+
+_Canterbury Tales_, 65
+
+Carew, 27
+
+Carpenter, Edward, 19
+
+Castiglione, 48, 49, 72
+
+Caxton, 66, 67
+
+Cecil, 8
+
+_Celestina_, 24
+
+Charles VIII., 48, 66
+
+Chaucer, 65, 66, 137
+
+Cheke, Sir John, 26, 31, 37, 42, 50
+
+Child, C. G., 14, 15, 16, 56, 59
+
+choristers, 7, 8, 87, 92, 94, 116
+
+Christ Church, 26, 39
+
+Cicero, 12, 50
+
+_Civile Conversation_, 40
+
+comedy
+ before Lyly, 89-98
+ and folly, 90
+ and masque, 112
+ and music, 87, 92, 94, 116
+ and society, 88
+ and woman, 97-98, 100-101, 125-126
+
+Congreve, 88, 101, 126, 127
+
+_Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers, A_, 71
+
+Corpus Christi College (Oxford), 26
+
+Corro, Antonio de, 26, 28
+
+Cortes, 27
+
+Craik, Sir H., 28, 37, 38, 39
+
+_Cupid and my Campaspe played_, 115, 117
+
+_Cynthia_, 46
+
+
+_Damon and Pithias_, 93, 116, 119
+
+_De Educatione_ (of Plutarch), 72
+
+Dekker, Thomas, 114, 121
+
+Demosthenes, 12
+
+Devereux, Penelope, 109
+
+_Diall of Princes_, 22, 30, 39, 69
+
+_Diana_, 24
+
+Dickens, 79
+
+_Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier_, 31
+
+Doni, 48
+
+Dryden, 84
+
+dubartism, 51
+
+
+Earle, 53, 54
+
+education (Lyly's views on), 72-73
+
+_Edward II._, 129
+
+Edwardes, Richard, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95, 97, 101
+
+Eliot, George, 80
+
+Elizabeth, Queen, 3, 6, 8, 9, 17, 25, 26, 65, 75, 80, 81, 86, 98, 100,
+ 101, 103, 104, 105, 107, 112, 129, 134
+
+Ellis, Havelock, 128
+
+_Endymion_, 85, 98, 99, 104, 107-110, 121, 122, 138
+
+_English Novel, The_ (v. Raleigh)
+
+_English Novel in the time of Shakespeare, The_ (v. Jusserand)
+
+Erasmus, 26
+
+_Estella_, 27
+
+Eton, 93
+
+_Euphues_
+ antecedents of, 65-69
+ criticism and description of
+ (i) _Anatomy of Wit_, 69-73
+ (ii) _Euphues and his England_, 76-80
+ dedication of, 74-76
+ distinction between the two parts, 73-74
+ Elizabethan reputation of, 10-13, 43-47, 57, 61, 84, 137
+ first English novel, 3, 10-11, 74, 140
+ moral tone of, 5, 71-72
+ publication and editions of, 6, 7, 8, 10, 43, 57, 61, 73, 83, 84
+ quoted, 4, 10, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 45, 58, 70, 76, 78
+
+_Euphues and his England_ (v. _Euphues_)
+
+_Euphues and his Ephoebus_, 72-73
+
+Euphuism
+ analysis of, 13-21
+ an aristocratic fashion, 3, 49, 54, 56, 61, 62
+ diction and, 56
+ humanism and, 36-39, 50-53
+ imitators of, 43-46
+ origins of, 21-43
+ Oxford and, 26-28, 39-42, 45-46, 54, 60, 61
+ poetry and, 55-56
+ Renaissance and, 47-52, 62
+ Scott's misapprehension of, 11
+ secret of Lyly's influence, 11-13
+ Spain and, 22-36
+
+_Every Man out of His Humour_, 132
+
+
+fabliau, the, 66
+
+_Faery Queen, The_, 103
+
+Field, Nathaniel, 44, 102
+
+Fitzmaurice-Kelly, 24
+
+Flaubert, 56
+
+Florence, 79
+
+Fortescue, 69
+
+France (and French), 22, 23, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 40, 42, 47, 48, 52, 53,
+ 56, 61, 66, 80, 136
+
+_Froissart_, 31, 33, 35
+
+
+Gager, William, 39, 86
+
+_Gallathea_, 98, 107, 112
+
+_Gammer Gurton's Needle_, 93, 96, 116
+
+Gascoigne, George, 69, 94, 95, 97, 114, 119, 126
+
+Gayley, 91, 92, 94, 95
+
+Geoffrey of Dunstable, 92
+
+_Gesta Romanorum_, 66
+
+Gibbon, 58
+
+_Glasse for Europe, A_, 52, 81
+
+Goethe, 130
+
+_Golden Boke, The_, 22, 30, 31, 36, 37
+
+Gollancz, 109
+
+gongorism, 51
+
+Goodlet, Dr, 56
+
+_Gorbuduc_, 129
+
+Gosse, 36
+
+Gosson, Stephen, 4, 27, 28, 46, 53, 71, 86, 109, 133
+
+Granada, 24
+
+Greek, 48, 62
+
+Greene, 43, 135, 137
+
+Grey, Lady Jane, 74
+
+Guazzo, 40
+
+Guerrero, 26
+
+Guevara, Antonio de, 22-24, 28-31, 33-38, 40, 42, 49, 69, 72, 76, 136
+
+
+Habsburgs, 103
+
+Hakluyt, 24, 26, 27, 133
+
+Hallam, 33, 34
+
+Halpin, 109, 111
+
+Harrison, 69
+
+Harvey, Dr, 19
+
+Harvey, Gabriel, 6, 20, 42, 109, 135, 137
+
+_Hekatompathia_, 7, 45, 46
+
+Hennequin, 4, 132
+
+Henry VIII., 23, 31
+
+_Hernani_, 100
+
+Herrick, 117
+
+Heywood, 69, 92, 95, 96
+
+Homer, 67
+
+Horace, 130
+
+Hugo, Victor, 130
+
+humanism, 25, 26, 37, 50, 52, 53, 54, 67, 92, 135
+
+Hume, Martin, 24, 25
+
+_Huon of Bordeaux_, 30, 66
+
+Huss, John, 66
+
+
+_Importance of being Earnest, The_, 131
+
+Italy (and Italian), 24, 25, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 66, 67, 69, 74, 75, 78,
+ 86, 94, 95, 136
+
+
+_Jacke Jugelar_, 96
+
+James I., 23
+
+James, Henry, 53
+
+Johnson, Dr, 58
+
+Jonson, Ben, 114, 120, 127, 130, 132, 136
+
+Jusserand, 18, 43, 65, 72, 76
+
+
+Katherine of Aragon, 23
+
+Kenilworth, 109
+
+Knox, John, 75
+
+Kyd, 43-46, 102, 115
+
+_Kynge Johan_, 99
+
+
+_Lady Windermere's Fan_, 88
+
+Landmann, Dr, 14, 16, 22, 24, 29, 30, 31, 40, 42, 47, 69, 75
+
+Latimer, 36
+
+_Lazarillo de Trmes_, 24
+
+Lee, Sidney, 12, 29-33, 123
+
+Leicester, Earl of, 107, 109, 129
+
+_Libro Aureo_ (v. Guevara)
+
+Liebig, 19
+
+_Literature of Europe_, 33, 34
+
+Lodge, Thomas, 27, 43
+
+Lok, Henry, Thomas, and Michael, 26, 27
+
+London, 7, 71, 78, 91, 114, 119
+
+London, Bishop of, 8
+
+_Love's Labour's Lost_, 110, 113, 127, 128
+
+_Love's Metamorphosis_, 98, 112, 113, 122
+
+Luther, 89
+
+Lyly, John:
+ character and genius, 3, 51, 62, 63, 123, 137-139
+ compared with Marlowe, 128-129
+ courtier and man of fashion, 63, 87, 88, 98, 103, 110, 134, 135
+ dramatist, 7, 8, 9, 85-131
+ forerunner of Shakespeare, 43, 47, 95, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109-111,
+ 116, 123, 124, 127-128, 130, 138-139
+ friends of, 26-28, 39, 42, 46, 53, 54, 61, 133, 135, 137
+ Jonson's caricature of, 132-133
+ learning, 17, 20, 38, 69, 86, 95, 119-120, 130, 136-137
+ life, 4-9, 86-88, 119-120, 132-135
+ novelist, 10, 64-84
+ poet, 3, 110, 113, 115-118, 138, 139
+ position in English literature, 2-3, 10-13, 51, 52-63, 65-69, 73-84,
+ 98-131, 138-140
+ prose, 3, 11-21, 52-63, 97, 126-127
+ reputation, 9, 11-13, 43, 57, 58, 60, 61
+
+lyrics, 115-118
+
+
+Macaulay, G. C., 33
+
+Macaulay, Lord, 80
+
+_Macbeth_, 125
+
+Magdalen College (Oxford), 4, 6, 86, 133
+
+Malory, 66, 67
+
+Marini, 48
+
+_Marius the Epicurean_, 50
+
+Marlowe, 3, 47, 113, 128-129, 137, 138
+
+_Martin Marprelate_, 3, 8, 114, 135-136
+
+Mary (Tudor), 25, 26
+
+Mary (of Scots), 109
+
+masque, 112, 129
+
+Maupassant, Guy de, 75
+
+_Mayde's Metamorphosis_, 119
+
+Mendoza, 23, 24
+
+Meredith, George, 53, 79, 88, 97, 126
+
+_Midas_, 98, 104, 110-112, 117, 122, 125
+
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_ (anticipated by Lyly), 105, 109-111, 123, 127
+
+Milton, 55
+
+miracle-play, the, 89-91, 123
+
+_Monastery, The_, 11
+
+Montemayor, 23, 24
+
+moral court treatise, the, 49, 65, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 75
+
+morality-play, the, 70, 89-92, 94, 99, 102, 119, 124
+
+_Morte d'Arthur_, 66, 67
+
+_Mother Bombie_, 98, 105, 114-117
+
+Munday, Anthony, 28, 43
+
+_Murder of John Brewer, The_, 115
+
+
+Naples, 69
+
+Nash, 23, 55, 56, 84, 114, 137
+
+Newton, 19
+
+Nicholas, Thomas, 27
+
+North, Sir Thomas, 22, 29, 30, 39
+
+novella, the, 65, 66, 67, 68, 74, 75
+
+
+Ovid, 17, 69, 111
+
+Oxford, 4-7, 25-28, 39, 42, 46, 49, 53, 61, 69, 72, 86, 87, 93, 95, 119,
+ 133, 137
+
+Oxford, Earl of (v. Vere, Edward de)
+
+
+Painter, William, 40
+
+Palgrave, 117
+
+_Palamon and Arcite_, 86
+
+_Pallace of Pleasure_, 40
+
+_Pamela_, 83
+
+pastoral romance, 23, 68
+
+Petrarchisti, 48
+
+Pettie, George, 32, 39, 40, 41, 46, 53, 56, 69, 86, 133
+
+_Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure_, 40, 69
+
+Philip II. of Spain (caricatured by Lyly), 110
+
+picaresque romance, 23
+
+Plato, 67, 75, 79, 121
+
+Plautus, 92
+
+_Play of the Wether, The_, 93
+
+_Pleasant History of the Conquest of West India_, 27
+
+Pliny, 17, 20, 41, 69, 100
+
+Plutarch, 17, 69, 72, 73
+
+_Poetics of Aristotle, The_, 130
+
+puritanism, 3, 26, 57, 71, 135
+
+Puttenham, 87
+
+
+Quick, 73
+
+Quintilian, 12
+
+
+Raleigh, Prof. W., 20, 55, 57, 65, 71, 84, 135
+
+_Ralph Roister Doister_, 93, 110, 114, 116
+
+Renaissance, the, 25, 47-52, 62, 64, 66, 68, 95, 115, 118
+
+Revels' Office, the, 8, 9, 103, 134
+
+Richardson, 72, 83
+
+Rogers, Thomas, 27
+
+romance of chivalry, 65-68, 75
+
+Ronsard, 61
+
+Rowland, 24
+
+
+_Sacharissa_, 13
+
+Sainte Beuve, 53
+
+St Paul's Choir School, 7, 8, 87, 99, 109, 116, 119, 123, 131, 134
+
+Saintsbury, Prof., 27
+
+Sallust, 37
+
+_Sapho and Phao_, 7, 87, 98, 99, 104-107, 116, 122
+
+Savoy Hospital, the, 7
+
+_School of Abuse, The_, 27
+
+_Schoolmaster, The_, 38, 50, 52, 67, 73, 75
+
+Schwan, Dr, 56
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 11
+
+Seneca, 129
+
+Shakespeare, 2, 9, 43, 47, 55, 95, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109, 110, 111,
+ 113, 115, 116, 118, 120-124, 127, 128, 130, 138, 139
+
+Sheridan, 88
+
+Sidney, Sir Philip, 23, 27, 55, 58, 68, 82, 84
+
+_Sixe Court Comedies_, 114
+
+_Soliman and Perseda_, 45
+
+Soto, Pedro de, 26
+
+Spain (and Spanish), 22-28, 30, 31, 33-36, 40, 42, 47, 48, 52, 66, 69,
+ 136
+
+_Spanish Tragedy, The_, 43, 44, 45
+
+Spencer, Herbert, 61
+
+Spenser, 103, 120
+
+_Stella_, 109
+
+Stevenson, 93, 95, 114, 119
+
+Stratford, 109
+
+_Suppositi_ (_Supposes_), 94, 119, 126
+
+Surrey, 31
+
+Symonds, J. A., 47, 62, 91, 93, 104, 117
+
+
+Taine, 1
+
+_Tamburlaine_, 113
+
+_Taming of the Shrew, The_, 93
+
+Tasso, 48
+
+Tents and Toils (office of), 8
+
+Terence, 50, 92, 96
+
+Thackeray, 77
+
+_Timon of Athens_ (anticipated by Lyly), 101
+
+_Toxophilus_, 38
+
+Tully (v. Cicero)
+
+
+Udall, Nicholas, 87, 93, 95, 96, 97, 114, 116, 119
+
+Underhill, 23, 24, 27, 28, 34, 36, 40
+
+
+Vere, Edward de, 7, 28, 46, 86, 87, 116, 119, 134
+
+Villa Garcia, 26
+
+Virgil, 17, 50
+
+Vives, 25, 26
+
+
+Waller, 12, 140
+
+Ward, Dr, 8, 92, 93
+
+Ward, Mrs H., 30, 80
+
+Warner, 43, 57
+
+Watson, Thomas, 7, 45, 46, 49, 53, 133, 137
+
+Webbe, William, 11
+
+Welbanke, 43
+
+West, Dr, 33, 34
+
+Weymouth, Dr, 14
+
+Wilkinson, 43
+
+_Wine, Women and Song_, 117
+
+_Woman in the Moon, The_, 98, 112, 113, 124, 130
+
+_Woman is a Weathercock, A_, 44
+
+women, importance of, in the Elizabethan age, 74-76, 80-82, 97-98,
+ 100-101, 125-126, 128
+
+Wood, Anthony , 4, 5, 86
+
+Wyatt, 31
+
+Wycliff, 66
+
+Wynkyn de Worde, 66
+
+
+Zola, 75
+
+
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22525-8.txt or 22525-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22525/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+ the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+ you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
+ owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+ has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+ Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
+ must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+ prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+ returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+ sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+ address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+ the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+ you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+ does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+ License. You must require such a user to return or
+ destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+ and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+ Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+ money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+ electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+ of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+ distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+ Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+ Chief Executive and Director
+ gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+ http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/22525-8.zip b/22525-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3c2bd7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-8.zip
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-h.zip b/22525-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d34394
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-h.zip
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-h/22525-h.htm b/22525-h/22525-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee514d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-h/22525-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,6363 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
+ <head>
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+ <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson</title>
+ <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */
+<!--
+ body { margin-left: 15%;
+ margin-right: 15%;
+ }
+
+ h1, h2, h3 { text-align: center;
+ clear: both;
+ }
+
+ h2 { margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 2em; line-height: 160%; }
+
+ h3 { margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; font-weight: normal; font-size: 120%; }
+
+ p { margin-top: .75em;
+ text-align: justify;
+ margin-bottom: .75em;
+ text-indent: 1.5em;
+ }
+
+ blockquote p,
+ p.dropcap,
+ p.noindent { text-indent: 0; }
+
+ p.dropcap:first-letter { font-size: 220%; float: left; margin: -0.1em 0.1em 0 0; }
+
+ blockquote { margin-left: 4.5em; margin-right: 4.5em; }
+
+ i, em, cite, q, abbr { font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; }
+
+ ul#toc { list-style-type: none; margin: -2em auto 0 auto; padding: 0; width: 75%; position: relative; }
+ ul#toc li { padding: 0; margin: 0; }
+ ul#toc .chapter { text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; }
+ ul#toc .chap-desc { text-align: left; padding-top: 1em; }
+ ul#toc .desc { margin-left: 1.5em; padding: 0.5em 2.5em 0.5em 0; }
+ ul#toc .page { position: absolute; right: 0; }
+
+ ul#toc ul.sections { list-style-type: none; padding: 0 0 0 1.5em; margin: 0; }
+ ul#toc ul.sections li { padding: 0.5em 2.5em 0 0; margin: 0; }
+
+ ul#bibliography { width: 75%; list-style-type: none; margin: 0 auto 0 auto; padding: 0; }
+ ul#bibliography li { margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0.25em 0; text-indent: 0; }
+
+ ul.index { width: 75%; list-style-type: none; margin: 0 auto 2em auto; padding: 0; }
+ ul.index li { margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0.25em 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em; }
+
+ ul.index ul.index-sub { list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0 0; }
+ ul.index ul.index-sub li { margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0.25em 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em; }
+
+ ul.index ul.index-sub ol.index-sub { list-style-type: lower-roman; margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0 1.5em; }
+ ul.index ul.index-sub ol.index-sub li { margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0.25em 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em; }
+
+ .pagenum { position: absolute;
+ left: 88%;
+ font-size: 0.9em;
+ text-align: right;
+ color: #808080;
+ text-indent: 0;
+ }
+
+ .center { text-align: center; }
+
+ .smcap { font-variant: small-caps; }
+
+ .footnotes { border: 1px dashed #808080; margin-bottom: 80px; padding: 1em 0 1em 0; }
+ .footnote { margin: 0 10% 0 15%; }
+ .footnote .label { position: absolute; right: 77%; text-align: right; }
+ .footnote .label,
+ .fnanchor { vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none; }
+ .footnote p { margin: 0.25em 0 0.25em 0; text-indent: 0; }
+
+ .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; }
+ .poem br { display: none; }
+ .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; }
+ .poem span.i0 { display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; }
+ .poem span.i1 { display: block; margin-left: 0.4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; }
+ .poem span.i2 { display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; }
+ // -->
+ /* XML end ]]>*/
+ </style>
+ </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: John Lyly
+
+Author: John Dover Wilson
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22525]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1 style="margin-top: 80px; margin-bottom: 40px;">JOHN LYLY</h1>
+
+<p class="center noindent">BY<br/><br/>
+<span style="font-size: 150%;">JOHN DOVER WILSON,</span><br/><br/>
+
+B.A., Late Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.<br/>
+Members' Prizeman, 1902. Harness Prizeman, 1904.<br/>
+Honours in Historical Tripos.</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent" style="font-size: 115%; line-height: 150%; margin-top: 80px; margin-bottom: 120px;">Macmillan and Bowes<br/>
+Cambridge<br/>
+1905</p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="center noindent" style="margin-bottom: 120px; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%;">A<br/>
+MIA<br/>
+DONNA.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></h2>
+
+
+<p class="dropcap">The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v">[v]</a></span>
+following treatise was awarded the <em>Harness
+Prize</em> at Cambridge in 1904. I have, however,
+revised it since then, and in some matters considerably
+enlarged it.</p>
+
+<p>A list of the chief authorities to whom I am indebted
+will be found at the end of the book, but it is fitting
+that I should here make particular mention of my
+obligations to the exhaustive work of Mr Bond<a name="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>. Not
+only have his labours of research and collation lightened
+the task for me, and for any future student of Lyly, to an
+incalculable extent, but the various introductory essays
+scattered up and down his volumes are full of invaluable
+suggestions.</p>
+
+<p>This book was unfortunately nearing its completion
+before I was able to avail myself of Mr Martin Hume's
+<cite>Spanish Influence on English Literature</cite>. But, though
+I might have added more had his book been accessible
+earlier, I was glad to find that his conclusions left the
+main theory of my chapter on Euphuism untouched.</p>
+
+<p>Much as has been written upon John Lyly, no
+previous critic has attempted to cover the whole ground,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>
+and to sum up in a brief and convenient form the three
+main literary problems which centre round his name.
+My solution of these problems may be faulty in detail,
+but it will I hope be of service to Elizabethan students
+to have them presented in a single volume and from
+a single point of view. Furthermore, when I undertook
+this study, I found several points which seemed to
+demand closer attention than they had hitherto received.
+It appeared to me that the last word had not been said
+even upon the subject of Euphuism, although that topic
+has usurped the lion's share of critical treatment. And
+again, while Lyly's claims as a novelist are acknowledged
+on all hands, I felt that a clear statement of his exact
+position in the history of our novel was still needed.
+Finally, inasmuch as the personality of an author is
+always more fascinating to me than his writings,
+I determined to attempt to throw some light, however
+fitful and uncertain, upon the man Lyly himself. The
+attempt was not entirely fruitless, for it led to the
+interesting discovery that the fully-developed euphuism
+was not the creation of Lyly, or Pettie, or indeed of
+any one individual, but of a circle of young Oxford men
+which included Gosson, Watson, Hakluyt, and possibly
+many others.</p>
+
+<p>I have to thank Mr&nbsp;J.&nbsp;R. Collins and Mr&nbsp;J.&nbsp;N. Frazer,
+the one for help in revision, and the other for assistance
+in Spanish. But my chief debt of gratitude is due to
+Dr Ward, the Master of Peterhouse, who has twice read
+through this book at different stages of its construction.
+The readiness with which he has put his great learning
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>
+at my disposal, his kindly interest, and frequent encouragement
+have been of the very greatest help in a
+task which was undertaken and completed under pressure
+of other work.</p>
+
+<p>As the full titles of authorities used are to be found
+in the list at the end, I have referred to works in the
+footnotes simply by the name of their author, while in
+quoting from <cite>Euphues</cite> I have throughout employed
+Prof. Arber's reprint. Should errors be discovered in
+the text I must plead in excuse that, owing to circumstances,
+the book had to be passed very quickly through
+the press.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-right: 3em;">JOHN DOVER WILSON.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Holmleigh, Shelford</span>, <i>August, 1905</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS">TABLE OF CONTENTS.</a></h2>
+
+
+<ul id="toc">
+ <li class="chapter"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a>
+ <div class="chap-desc">The problem stated&mdash;Sketch of Lyly's life <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1</span>
+ </div></li>
+ <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER&nbsp;I.</a>
+ <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">Euphuism</span> <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10</span>
+ <ul class="sections">
+ <li><a href="#Section_I_I">Section&nbsp;I.</a> The Anatomy of Euphuism <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;13</span></li>
+ <li><a href="#Section_I_II">Section&nbsp;II.</a> The Origins of Euphuism <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;21</span></li>
+ <li><a href="#Section_I_III">Section&nbsp;III.</a> Lyly's Legatees and the relation between Euphuism and the Renaissance <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;43</span></li>
+ <li><a href="#Section_I_IV">Section&nbsp;IV.</a> The position of Euphuism in the history of English prose <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;52</span></li>
+ </ul></div>
+ </li>
+ <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER&nbsp;II.</a>
+ <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">The First English Novel</span> <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;64</span>
+ <div class="desc">The rise of the Novel&mdash;the characteristics of <cite>The
+ Anatomy of Wit</cite> and <cite>Euphues and his England</cite>&mdash;the
+ Elizabethan Novel.</div>
+ </div>
+ </li>
+ <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER&nbsp;III.</a>
+ <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">Lyly the Dramatist</span> <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;85</span>
+ <ul class="sections">
+ <li><a href="#Section_III_I">Section&nbsp;I.</a> English Comedy before 1580 <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;89</span></li>
+ <li><a href="#Section_III_II">Section&nbsp;II.</a> The Eight Plays <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;98</span></li>
+ <li><a href="#Section_III_III">Section&nbsp;III.</a> Lyly's advance and subsequent influence <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;119</span></li>
+ </ul></div>
+ </li>
+ <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER&nbsp;IV.</a>
+ <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span> <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;132</span><br/>
+ <div class="desc">Lyly's Character&mdash;Summary.</div>
+ <div style="white-space: nowrap; padding-top: 1em;"><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span> <span class="page">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;143</span></div>
+ </div></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</a></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1">[1]</a></span>
+Since the day when Taine established a scientific
+basis for the historical study of Art, criticism has tended
+gradually but naturally to fall into two divisions, as distinct
+from each other as the functions they respectively
+perform are distinct. The one, which we may call
+aesthetic criticism, deals with the artist and his works
+solely for the purpose of interpretation and appreciation,
+judging them according to some artistic standard, which,
+as often as not, derives its only sanction from the prejudices
+of the critic himself. It is of course obvious that,
+until all critics are agreed upon some common principles
+of artistic valuation, aesthetic criticism can lay no claim
+to scientific precision, but must be classed as a department
+of Art itself. The other, an application of the
+Darwinian hypothesis to literature, which owes its existence
+almost entirely to the great French critic before
+mentioned, but which has since rejected as unscientific
+many of the laws he formulated, may be called historical
+or sociological criticism. It judges a work of art, an
+artist, or an artistic period, on its dynamic and not its
+intrinsic merits. Its standard is influence, not power or
+beauty. It is concerned with the artistic qualities of a
+given artist only in so far as he exerts influence over his
+successors by those qualities. It is essentially scientific,
+for it treats the artist as science treats any other natural
+phenomenon, that is, as the effect of previous causes and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+the cause of subsequent effects. Its function is one of
+classification, and with interpretation or appreciation it
+has nothing to do.</p>
+
+<p>Before undertaking the study of an artist, the critic
+should carefully distinguish between these two critical
+methods. A complete study must of course comprehend
+both; and in the case of Shakespeare, shall we say, each
+should be exhaustive. On the other hand, there are
+artists whose dynamical value is far greater than their
+intrinsic value, and <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">vice versa</em>; and in such instances the
+critic must be guided in his action by the relative importance
+of these values in any particular example. This
+is so in the case of John Lyly. In the course of the
+following treatise we shall have occasion to pass many
+aesthetic judgments upon his work; but it will be from
+the historical side that we shall view him in the main,
+because his importance for the readers of the twentieth
+century is almost entirely dynamical. His work is by
+no means devoid of aesthetic merit. He was, like so
+many of the Elizabethans, a writer of beautiful lyrics
+which are well known to this day; but, though the rest
+of his work is undoubtedly that of an artist of no mean
+ability, the beauty it possesses is the beauty of a fossil in
+which few but students would profess any interest. Moreover,
+even could we claim more for John Lyly than this,
+any aesthetic criticism would of necessity become a
+secondary matter in comparison with his importance in
+other directions, for to the scientific critic he is or should
+be one of the most significant figures in English literature.
+This claim I hope to justify in the following pages; but
+it will be well, by way of obtaining a broad general view
+of our subject, to call attention to a few points upon
+which our justification must ultimately rest.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place John Lyly, inasmuch as he was one
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+of the earliest writers who considered prose as an artistic
+end in itself, and not simply as a medium of expression,
+may be justly described as a founder, if not <em>the</em> founder,
+of English prose style.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place he was the author of the first
+novel of manners in the language.</p>
+
+<p>And in the third place, and from the point of view of
+Elizabethan literature most important of all, he was one
+of our very earliest dramatists, and without doubt merits
+the title of Father of English Comedy.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost impossible to over-estimate his historical
+importance in these three departments, and this not
+because he was a great genius or possessed of any
+magnificent artistic gifts, but for the simple reason that
+he happened to stand upon the threshold of modern
+English literature and at the very entrance to its
+splendid Elizabethan ante-room, and therefore all who
+came after felt something of his influence. These are
+the three chief points of interest about Lyly, but they do
+not exhaust the problems he presents. We shall have to
+notice also that as a pamphleteer he becomes entangled
+in the famous <cite>Marprelate</cite> controversy, and that he was
+one of the first, being perhaps even earlier than Marlowe,
+to perceive the value of blank verse for dramatic purposes.
+Finally, as we have seen, he was the reputed author of
+some delightful lyrics.</p>
+
+<p>The man of whom one can say such things, the man
+who showed such versatility and range of expression, the
+man who took the world by storm and made euphuism
+the fashion at court before he was well out of his nonage,
+who for years provided the great Queen with food for
+laughter, and who was connected with the first ominous
+outburst of the Puritan spirit, surely possesses personal
+attractions apart from any literary considerations. We
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+shall presently see reason to believe that his personality
+was a brilliant and fascinating one. But such a reconstruction
+of the artist<a name="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> is only possible after a thorough
+analysis of his works. It would be as well here, however,
+by way of obtaining an historical framework for our study,
+to give a brief account of his life as it is known to us.</p>
+
+<p>"Eloquent and witty" John Lyly first saw light in
+the year 1553 or 1554<a name="FNanchor_3_3" href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>. Anthony &agrave; Wood, the 17th
+century author of <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athenae Oxonienses</cite>, tells us that he
+was, like his contemporary Stephen Gosson, a Kentish
+man born<a name="FNanchor_4_4" href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>; and with this clue to help them both
+Mr Bond and Mr Baker are inclined to accept much
+of the story of Fidus as autobiographical<a name="FNanchor_5_5" href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>. If their
+inference be correct, our author would seem to have
+been the son of middle-class, but well-to-do, parents.
+But it is with his residence at Oxford that any authentic
+account of his life must begin, and even then our information
+is very meagre. Wood tells us that he "became a
+student in Magdalen College in the beginning of 1569,
+aged 16 or thereabouts." "And since," adds Mr Bond,
+"in 1574 he describes himself as Burleigh's alumnus, and
+owns obligations to him, it is possible that he owed his
+university career to Burleigh's assistance<a name="FNanchor_6_6" href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>." And yet,
+limited as our knowledge is, it is possible, I think, to
+form a fairly accurate conception of Lyly's manner of
+life at Oxford, if we are bold enough to read between
+the lines of the scraps of contemporary evidence that
+have come down to us. Lyly himself tells us that he
+left Oxford for three years not long after his arrival.
+"Oxford," he says, "seemed to weane me before she
+brought me forth, and to give me boanes to gnawe,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+before I could get the teate to suck. Wherein she played
+the nice mother in sending me into the countrie to nurse,
+where I tyred at a drie breast for three years and was at
+last inforced to weane myself." Mr Bond, influenced by
+the high moral tone of <cite>Euphues</cite>, which, as we shall see,
+was merely a traditional literary prose borrowed from the
+moral court treatise, is anxious to vindicate Lyly from
+all charges of lawlessness, and refuses to admit that the
+foregoing words refer to rustication<a name="FNanchor_7_7" href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>. Lyly's enforced
+absence he holds was due to the plague which broke out
+at Oxford at this time. Such an interpretation seems
+to me to be sufficiently disposed of by the fact that the
+plague in question did not break out until 1571<a name="FNanchor_8_8" href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>, while
+Lyly's words must refer to a departure (at the very
+latest) in 1570. Everything, in fact, goes to show that
+he was out of favour with the University authorities.
+In the first place he seems to have paid small attention
+to his regular studies. To quote Wood again, he was
+"always averse to the crabbed studies of Logic and
+Philosophy. For so it was that his genie, being naturally
+bent to the pleasant paths of poetry (as if Apollo had
+given to him a wreath of his own Bays without snatching
+or struggling), did in a manner neglect academical studies,
+yet not so much but that he took the Degree in Arts,
+that of Master being completed in 1575<a name="FNanchor_9_9" href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>Neglect of the recognised studies, however, was not
+the only blot upon Lyly's Oxford life. From the hints
+thrown out by his contemporaries, and from some
+allusions, doubtless personal, in the <cite>Euphues</cite>, we learn
+that, as an undergraduate, he was an irresponsible madcap.
+"Esteemed in the University a noted wit," he
+would very naturally become the centre of a pleasure-seeking
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+circle of friends, despising the persons and ideas
+of their elders, eager to adopt the latest fashion whether
+in dress or in thought, and intolerant alike of regulations
+and of duty. Gabriel Harvey, who nursed a grudge
+against Lyly, even speaks of "horning, gaming, fooling
+and knaving," words which convey a distinct sense of
+something discreditable, whatever may be their exact
+significance. It is necessary to lay stress upon this
+period of Lyly's life, because, as I hope to show, his
+residence at Oxford, and the friends he made there, had
+a profound influence upon his later development, and in
+particular determined his literary bent. For our present
+purpose, however, which is merely to give a brief sketch
+of his life, it is sufficient to notice that our author's
+conduct during his residence was not so exemplary as
+it might have been. It must, therefore, have called
+forth a sigh of relief from the authorities of Magdalen,
+when they saw the last of John Lyly, M.A., in 1575.
+He however, quite naturally, saw matters otherwise. It
+would seem to him that the College was suffering wrong
+in losing so excellent a wit, and accordingly he heroically
+took steps to prevent such a catastrophe, for in 1576 we
+find him writing to his patron Burleigh, requesting him
+to procure mandatory letters from the Queen "that so
+under your auspices I may be quietly admitted a Fellow
+there." The petition was refused, Burleigh's sense of
+propriety overcoming his sense of humour, and the
+petitioner quitted Oxford, leaving his College the legacy
+of an unpaid bill for battels, and probably already preparing
+in his brain the revenge, which subsequently took
+the form of an attack upon his University in <cite>Euphues</cite>,
+which he published in 1578.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to learn that in 1579, according to
+the common practice of that day, he proceeded to his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+degree of M.A. at Cambridge, though there is no
+evidence of any residence there<a name="FNanchor_10_10" href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>. Indeed we know
+from other sources that in 1578, or perhaps earlier, Lyly
+had taken up his position at the Savoy Hospital. It
+seems probable that he became again indebted to Burleigh's
+generosity for the rooms he occupied here&mdash;unless
+they were hired for him by Burleigh's son-in-law
+Edward de&nbsp;Vere, Earl of Oxford. This person, though
+few of his writings are now extant, is nevertheless an
+interesting figure in Elizabethan literature. The second
+part of <cite>Euphues</cite> published in 1580, and the <cite>Hekatompathia</cite>
+of Thomas Watson, are both dedicated to him, and he
+seems to have acted as patron to most of Lyly's literary
+associates when they left Oxford for London. Lyly
+became his private secretary; and as the Earl was
+himself a dramatist, though his comedies are now lost,
+his influence must have confirmed in our author those
+dramatic aspirations, which were probably acquired at
+Oxford; and we have every reason for believing that
+Lyly was still his secretary when he was publishing his
+two first plays, <cite>Campaspe</cite> and <cite>Sapho</cite>, in 1584. But this
+point will require a fuller treatment at a later stage of
+our study.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere about 1585 Fate settled once and for all
+the lines on which Lyly's genius was to develop, for at
+that time he became an assistant master at the St Paul's
+Choir School. Schools, and especially those for choristers,
+at this time offered excellent opportunities for dramatic
+production. Lyly in his new position made good use of
+his chance, and wrote plays for his young scholars to act,
+drilling them himself, and perhaps frequently appearing
+personally on the stage. These chorister-actors were
+connected in a very special way with royal entertainments;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+and therefore they and their instructor would be
+constantly brought into touch with the Revels' Office.
+As we know from his letters to Elizabeth and to Cecil,
+the mastership of the Revels was the post Lyly coveted,
+and coveted without success, as far as we can tell, until
+the end of his life. But these letters also show us that
+he was already connected with this office by his position
+in the subordinate office of Tents and Toils. The latter,
+originally instituted for the purpose of furnishing the
+necessaries of royal hunting and campaigning<a name="FNanchor_11_11" href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>, had apparently
+become amalgamated under a female sovereign
+with the Revels' Office, possibly owing to the fact that its
+costumes and weapons provided useful material for entertainments
+and interludes. Another position which, as
+Mr Bond shows, was held at one time by Lyly, was that
+of reader of new books to the Bishop of London. This
+connexion with the censorship of the day is interesting,
+as showing how Lyly was drawn into the whirlpool of
+the <cite>Marprelate</cite> controversy. Finally we know that he
+was elected a member of Parliament on four separate
+occasions<a name="FNanchor_12_12" href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>.</p>
+
+<p>These varied occupations are proof of the energy
+and versatility of our author, but not one of them can
+be described as lucrative. Nor can his publications have
+brought him much profit; for, though both <cite>Euphues</cite> and
+its sequel passed through ten editions before his death,
+an author in those days received very little of the proceeds
+of his work. Moreover the publication of his plays
+is rather an indication of financial distress than a sign of
+prosperity. The two dramas already mentioned were
+printed before Lyly's connexion with the Choir School;
+and, when in 1585 he became "vice-master of Poules
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+and Foolmaster of the Theater," he would be careful to
+keep his plays out of the publisher's hands, in order to
+preserve the acting monopoly. It is probable that the
+tenure of this Actor-manager-schoolmastership marks
+the height of Lyly's prosperity, and the inhibition of the
+boys' acting rights in 1591 must have meant a severe
+financial loss to him. Thus it is only after this date that
+he is forced to make what he can by the publication of
+his other plays. The fear of poverty was the more
+urgent, because he had a wife and family on his hands.
+And though Mr Bond believes that he found an occupation
+after 1591 in writing royal entertainments, and
+though the inhibition on the choristers' acting was removed
+as early as 1599, yet the last years of Lyly's life
+were probably full of disappointment. This indeed is
+confirmed by the bitter tone of his letter to Elizabeth in
+1598 in reference to the mastership of the Revels' Office,
+which he had at last despaired of. The letter in question
+is sad reading. Beginning with a euphuism and ending
+in a jest, it tells of a man who still retains, despite all
+adversity, a courtly mask and a merry tongue, but
+beneath this brave surface there is visible a despair&mdash;almost
+amounting to anguish&mdash;which the forced merriment
+only renders more pitiable. And the gloom which
+surrounded his last years was not only due to the distress
+of poverty. Before his death in 1606 he had seen his
+novel eclipsed by the new Arcadian fashion, and had
+watched the rise of a host of rival dramatists, thrusting
+him aside while they took advantage of his methods.
+Greatest of them all, as he must have realised, was
+Shakespeare, the sun of our drama before whom the
+silver light of his little moon, which had first illumined
+our darkness, waned and faded away and was to be for
+centuries forgotten.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER&nbsp;I.</a><br/>
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">EUPHUISM.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+It was as a novelist that Lyly first came before the
+world of English letters. In 1578 he published a volume,
+bearing the inscription, <cite>Euphues: the anatomy of wyt</cite>,
+to which was subjoined the attractive advertisement,
+<q>very pleasant for all gentlemen to reade, and most necessary
+to remember</q>. This book, which was to work a revolution
+in our literature, was completed in 1580 by a sequel,
+entitled <cite>Euphues and his England</cite>. <cite>Euphues</cite>, to combine
+the two parts under one name, the fruit of Lyly's nonage,
+seems to have determined the form of his reputation
+for the Elizabethans; and even to-day it attracts more
+attention than any other of his works. This probably
+implies a false estimate of Lyly's comparative merits as
+a novelist and as a dramatist. But it is not surprising
+that critics, living in the century of the novel, and
+with their eyes towards the country pre-eminent in its
+production, should think and write of Lyly chiefly as
+the first of English novelists. The bias of the age is as
+natural and as dangerous an element in criticism as the
+bias of the individual. But it is not with the modern
+appraisement of <cite>Euphues</cite> that we are here concerned.
+Nor need we proceed immediately to a consideration
+of its position in the history of the English novel.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+We have first to deal with its Elizabethan reputation.
+Had <cite>Euphues</cite> been a still-born child of Lyly's genius,
+had it produced no effect upon the literature of the age,
+it would possess nothing but a purely archaeological
+interest for us to-day. It would still be the first of
+English novels: but this claim would lose half its
+significance, did it not carry with it the implication that
+the book was also the origin of English novel writing.
+The importance, therefore, of <cite>Euphues</cite> is not so much
+that it was primary, as that it was primordial; and, to
+be such, it must have laid its spell in some way or other
+upon succeeding writers. Our first task is therefore to
+enquire what this spell was, and to discover whether the
+attraction of <cite>Euphues</cite> must be ascribed to Lyly's own
+invention or to artifices which he borrows from others.</p>
+
+<p>While, as I have said, Lyly's name is associated with
+the novel by most modern critics, it has earned a more
+widespread reputation among the laity for affectation
+and mannerisms of style. Indeed, until fifty years ago,
+Lyly spelt nothing but euphuism, and euphuism meant
+simply nonsense, clothed in bombast. It was a blind
+acceptance of these loose ideas which led Sir Walter
+Scott to create (as a caricature of Lyly) his Sir Piercie
+Shafton in <cite>The Monastery</cite>&mdash;an historical <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">faux pas</em> for
+which he has been since sufficiently called to account.
+Nevertheless Lyly's reputation had a certain basis of
+fact, and we may trace the tradition back to Elizabethan
+days. It is perhaps worth pointing out that, had we
+no other evidence upon the subject, the survival of this
+tradition would lead us to suppose that it was Lyly's
+style more than anything else which appealed to the
+men of his day. A contemporary confirmation of this
+may be found in the words of William Webbe. Writing
+in 1586 of the "great good grace and sweet vogue which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+Eloquence hath attained in our Speeche," he declares
+that the English language has thus progressed, "because
+it hath had the helpe of such rare and singular wits, as
+from time to time myght still adde some amendment to
+the same. Among whom I think there is none that will
+gainsay, but Master John Lyly hath deservedly moste
+high commendations, as he hath stept one steppe further
+therein than any either before or since he first began the
+wyttie discourse of his <cite>Euphues</cite>, whose works, surely in
+respect of his singular eloquence and brave composition
+of apt words and sentences, let the learned examine and
+make tryall thereof, through all the parts of Rethoricke,
+in fitte phrases, in pithy sentences, in galant tropes, in
+flowing speeche, in plaine sense, and surely in my
+judgment, I think he wyll yeelde him that verdict which
+Quintillian giveth of both the best orators Demosthenes
+and Tully, that from the one, nothing may be taken
+away, to the other nothing may be added<a name="FNanchor_13_13" href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>." After such
+eulogy, the description of Lyly by another writer as
+"alter Tullius anglorum" will not seem strange. These
+praises were not the extravagances of a few uncritical
+admirers; they echo the verdict of the age. Lyly's
+enthronement was of short duration&mdash;a matter of some
+ten years&mdash;but, while it lasted, he reigned supreme.
+Such literary idolatries are by no means uncommon,
+and often hold their ground for a considerable period.
+Beside the vogue of Waller, for example, the duration
+of Lyly's reputation was comparatively brief. More
+than a century after the publication of his poems,
+Waller was hailed by the Sidney Lee of the day in the
+<cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Biographia Britannica</cite> of 1766, as "the most celebrated
+Lyric Poet that England ever produced." Whence
+comes this striking contrast between past glory and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+present neglect? How is it that a writer once known
+as the greatest master of English prose, and a poet once
+named the most conspicuous of English lyrists, are now
+but names? They have not faded from memory owing
+to a mere caprice of fashion. Great artists are subject
+to an ebb and flow of popularity, for which as yet no
+tidal theory has been offered as an explanation; but
+like the sea they are ever permanent. The case of our
+two writers is different. The wheel of time will never
+bring <cite>Euphues</cite> and <cite>Sacharissa</cite> "to their own again."
+They are as dead as the Jacobite cause. And for that
+very reason they are all the more interesting for the
+literary historian. All writers are conditioned by their
+environment, but some concern themselves with the
+essentials, others with the accidents, of that internally
+constant, but externally unstable, phenomenon, known
+as humanity. Waller and Lyly were of the latter class.
+Like jewels suitable to one costume only, they remained
+in favour just as long as the fashion that created them
+lasted. Waller was probably inferior to Lyly as an
+artist, but he happened to strike a vein which was not
+exhausted until the end of the 18th century; while the
+vogue of <cite>Euphues</cite>, though at first far-reaching, was soon
+crossed by new artificialities such as arcadianism. The
+secret of Waller's influence was that he stereotyped a
+new poetic form, a form which, in its restraint and
+precision, was exactly suited to the intellect of the
+<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ancien r&eacute;gime</em> with its craving for form and its contempt
+for ideas. The mainspring of Lyly's popularity was
+that he did in prose what Waller did in poetry.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_I_I">Section&nbsp;I.</a></span> <i>The Anatomy of Euphuism.</i></h3>
+
+<p>The books which have been written upon the characteristics
+of Lyly's prose are numberless, and far outweigh
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+the attention given to his power as a novelist, to say
+nothing of his dramas<a name="FNanchor_14_14" href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>. Indeed the absorption of the
+critics in the analysis of euphuism seems to have been,
+up to a few years ago, definitely injurious to a true
+appreciation of our author's position, by blocking the
+path to a recognition of his importance in other directions.
+And yet, in spite of all this, it cannot be said
+that any adequate examination of the structure of Lyly's
+style appeared until Mr Child took the matter in hand
+in 1894<a name="FNanchor_15_15" href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>. And Mr Child has performed his task so
+scientifically and so exhaustively that he has killed the
+topic by making any further treatment of it superfluous.
+This being the case, a description of the euphuistic style
+need not detain us for long. I shall content myself with
+the briefest summary of its characteristics, drawing upon
+Mr Child for my matter, and referring those who are
+desirous of further details to Mr Child's work itself.
+We shall then be in a position to proceed to the more
+interesting, and as yet unsettled problem, of the origins
+of euphuism. The great value of Mr Child's work lies
+in the fact that he has at once simplified and amplified
+the conclusions of previous investigators. Dr Weymouth<a name="FNanchor_16_16" href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+was the first to discover that, beneath the "curtizan-like
+painted affectation" of euphuism, there lay a definite
+theory of style and a consistent method of procedure.
+Dr Landmann carried the analysis still further in his
+now famous paper published in the <cite>New Shakespeare
+Society's Transactions</cite> (1880&ndash;82). But these two, and
+those who have followed them, have erred, on the one
+hand in implying that euphuism was much more complex
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+than it is in reality, and on the other by confining their
+attention to single sentences, and so failing to perceive
+that the euphuistic method was applicable to the paragraph,
+as a whole, no less than to the sentence. And it
+is upon these two points that Mr Child's essay is so
+specially illuminating. We shall obtain a correct notion
+of the "essential character" of the "euphuistic rhetoric,"
+he writes, "if we observe that it employs but one simple
+principle in practice, and that it applies this, not only to
+the ordering of the single sentence, but in every structural
+relation<a name="FNanchor_17_17" href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>": and this simple principle is "the inducement
+of artificial emphasis through Antithesis and Repetition&mdash;Antithesis
+to give pointed expression to the thought,
+Repetition to enforce it<a name="FNanchor_18_18" href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>." When Lyly set out to write
+his novel, it seemed that his intention was to produce
+a most elaborate essay in antithesis. The book as a
+whole, "very pleasant for all gentlemen to read and
+most necessary to remember," was itself an antithesis;
+the discourses it contains were framed upon the same
+plan; the sentences are grouped antithetically; while
+the antithesis is pointed by an equally elaborate repetition
+of ideas, of vowel sounds and of consonant sounds.
+Letters, syllables, words, sentences, sentence groups,
+paragraphs, all are employed for the purpose of producing
+the antithetical style now known as euphuism.
+An example will serve to make the matter clearer.
+Philautus, upbraiding his treacherous friend Euphues
+for robbing him of his lady's love, delivers himself of
+the following speech: "Although hitherto Euphues
+I have shrined thee in my heart for a trusty friend,
+I will shunne thee hereafter as a trothless foe, and
+although I cannot see in thee less wit than I was wont,
+yet do I find less honesty. I perceive at the last
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+(although being deceived it be too late) that musk
+though it be sweet in the smell is sour in the smack,
+that the leaf of the cedar tree though it be fair to be
+seen, yet the syrup depriveth sight&mdash;that friendship
+though it be plighted by the shaking of the hand, yet
+it is shaken by the fraud of the heart. But thou hast
+not much to boast of, for as thou hast won a fickle lady,
+so hast thou lost a faithful friend<a name="FNanchor_19_19" href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>." It is impossible to
+give an adequate idea of the euphuistic style save in
+a lengthy quotation, such as the discourse of Eubulus
+selected by Mr Child for that purpose<a name="FNanchor_20_20" href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>; but, within the
+narrow limits of the passage I have chosen, the main
+characteristics of euphuism are sufficiently obvious. It
+should be noticed how one part of a sentence is balanced
+by another part, and how this balance or "parallelism"
+is made more pointed by means of alliteration, e.g.
+"shrined thee for a trusty friend," "shun thee as a trothless
+foe"; musk "sweet in the smell," "sour in the
+smack," and so on. The former of these antitheses is
+an example of transverse alliteration, of which so much
+is made by Dr Landmann, but which, as Mr Child shows,
+plays a subordinate, and an entirely mechanical, part in
+Lyly's style<a name="FNanchor_21_21" href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>. Lyly's most natural and most usual
+method of emphasizing is by means of simple alliteration.
+On the other hand it must be noticed that he
+employs alliteration for the sake of euphony alone
+much more frequently than he uses it for the purpose
+of emphasis. So that we may conclude by saying that
+simple alliteration forms the basis of the euphuistic
+diction, just as we have seen antithesis forms the basis
+of the euphuistic construction. This brief survey of the
+framework of euphuism is far from being an exhaustive
+analysis. All that is here attempted is an enumeration
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+of the most obvious marks of euphuism, as a necessary
+step to an investigation of its origin, and to a determination
+of its place in the history of our literature.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, leaving the subject entirely, we must
+mention two more characteristics of Lyly's prose which
+are very noticeable, but which come under the head
+of ornamental, rather than constructional, devices. The
+first of these is a peculiar use of the rhetorical interrogation.
+Lyly makes use of it when he wishes to portray
+his characters in distress or excitement, and it most frequently
+occurs in soliloquies. Sometimes we find a string
+of these interrogations, at others they are answered by
+sentences beginning "ay but," and occasionally we have
+the "ay but" sentence with the preceding interrogation
+missing. I make a special mention of this point, as we
+shall find it has a certain connexion with the subject of
+the origins of euphuism.</p>
+
+<p>The other ornamental device is one which has
+attracted a considerable quantity of attention from
+critics, and has frequently been taken by itself as the
+distinguishing mark of euphuism. In point of fact, however,
+the euphuists shared it with many other writers of
+their age, though it is doubtful whether anyone carried
+it to such extravagant lengths as Lyly. It took the
+form of illustrations and analogies, so excessive and overwhelming
+that it is difficult to see how even the idlest
+lady of Elizabeth's court found time or patience to wade
+through them. They consist first of anecdotes and allusions
+relating to historical or mythological persons of the
+ancient world; some being drawn from Plutarch, Pliny,
+Ovid, Virgil, and other sources, but many springing simply
+from Lyly's exuberant fancy. In the second place <cite>Euphues</cite>
+is a collection of similes borrowed from "a fantastical
+natural history, a sort of mythology of plants and stones,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+to which the most extraordinary virtues are attributed<a name="FNanchor_22_22" href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>."
+"I have heard," says Camilla, bashfully excusing herself
+for taking up the cudgels of argument with the learned
+Surius, "that the Tortoise in India when the sunne
+shineth, swimmeth above the water wyth hyr back, and
+being delighted with the fine weather, forgetteth her
+selfe until the heate of the sunne so harden her shell,
+that she cannot sink when she woulde, whereby she is
+caught. And so it may fare with me that in this good
+companye displaying my minde, having more regard to
+my delight in talking, than to the ears of the hearers, I
+forget what I speake, and so be taken in something
+I would not utter, which happilye the itchyng ears of
+young gentlemen would so canvas that when I would
+call it in, I cannot, and so be caught with the Tortoise,
+when I would not<a name="FNanchor_23_23" href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>." And, when she had finished her
+discourse, Surius again employs the simile for the purpose
+of turning a neat compliment, saying, "Lady, if the Tortoise
+you spoke of in India were as cunning in swimming,
+as you are in speaking, she would neither fear the heate
+of the sunne nor the ginne of the Fisher." This is but a
+mild example of the "unnatural natural philosophy"
+which <cite>Euphues</cite> has made famous. An unending procession
+of such similes, often of the most extravagant
+nature, runs throughout the book, and sometimes the
+development of the plot is made dependent on them.
+Thus Lucilla hesitates to forsake Philautus for Euphues,
+because she feels that her new lover will remember "that
+the glasse once chased will with the least clappe be
+cracked, that the cloth which stayneth with milke will
+soon loose his coulour with Vinegar; that the eagle's
+wing will waste the feather as well as of the Phoenix as
+of the Pheasant: and that she that hath become faithlesse
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+to one, will never be faithfull to any<a name="FNanchor_24_24" href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>." What proof
+could be more exact, what better example could be given
+of the methods of concomitant variations? It is precisely
+the same logical process which induces the savage
+to wreak his vengeance by melting a waxen image of his
+enemy, and the farmer to predict a change of weather at
+the new moon.</p>
+
+<p>Lyly, however, was not concerned with making
+philosophical generalizations, or scientific laws, about
+the world in general. His natural, or unnatural, phenomena
+were simply saturated with moral significance:
+not that he saw any connexion between the ethical process
+and the cosmic process, but, like every one of his
+contemporaries, he employed the facts of animal and
+vegetable life to point a moral or to help out a sermon.
+The arguments he used appear to us puerile in their old-world
+dress, and yet similar ones are to be heard to-day
+in every pulpit where a smattering of science is used to
+eke out a poverty of theology. And, to be fair, such
+reasoning is not confined to pulpits. Even so eminent
+a writer as Mr Edward Carpenter has been known to
+moralize on the habits of the wild mustard, irresistibly
+reminding us of the "Camomill which the more it is
+trodden and pressed down the more it speedeth<a name="FNanchor_25_25" href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>." Moreover
+the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">soi-disant</em> founder of the inductive method, the
+great Bacon himself, is, as Liebig<a name="FNanchor_26_26" href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> shows in his amusing
+and interesting study of the renowned "scientist's"
+scientific methods, tarred with the same mediaeval
+brush, and should be ranked with Lyly and the other
+Elizabethan "scholastics" rather than with men like
+Harvey and Newton.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+Lyly's natural history was at any rate the result of
+learning; many of his "facts" were drawn from Pliny,
+while others were to be found in the plentiful crop of
+mediaeval bestiaries, which, as Professor Raleigh remarks,
+"preceded the biological hand-books." Perhaps also we
+must again allow something for Lyly's invention; for
+lists of authorities, and footnotes indicative of sources,
+were not demanded of the scientist of those days, and
+one can thoroughly sympathise with an author who
+found an added zest in inventing the facts upon which
+his theories rested. Have not ethical philosophers of all
+ages been guilty of it? Certainly Gabriel Harvey seems
+to be hinting at Lyly when he slyly remarks: "I could
+name a party, that in comparison of his own inventions,
+termed Pliny a barren wombe<a name="FNanchor_27_27" href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>The affectations we have just enumerated are much
+less conspicuous in the second part of <cite>Euphues</cite> than in
+the first, and, though they find a place in his earlier
+plays, Lyly gradually frees himself from their influence,
+owing perhaps to the decline of the euphuistic fashion,
+but more probably to the growth of his dramatic instinct,
+which saw that such forms were a drag upon the action
+of a play. And yet at times Lyly could use his clumsy
+weapon with great precision and effect. How admirably,
+for example, does he express in his antithetical fashion
+the essence of coquetry. Iffida, speaking to Fidus of one
+she loved but wished to test, is made to say, "I seem
+straight-laced as one neither accustomed to such suites,
+nor willing to entertain such a servant, yet so warily, as
+putting him from me with my little finger, I drewe him
+to me with my whole hand<a name="FNanchor_28_28" href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>." Other little delicate turns
+of phrase may be found in the mine of <cite>Euphues</cite>&mdash;for the
+digging. Our author was no genius, but he had a full
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+measure of that indefinable quality known as wit; and,
+though the stylist's mask he wears is uncouth and rigid,
+it cannot always conceal the twinkle of his eyes. Moreover
+a certain weariness of this sermonizing on the stilts
+of antithesis is often visible; and we may suspect that
+he half sympathises with the petulant exclamation of
+the sea-sick Philautus to his interminable friend:</p>
+
+<p>"In fayth, Euphues, thou hast told a long tale, the
+beginning I have forgotten, ye middle I understand not,
+and the end hangeth not well together<a name="FNanchor_29_29" href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>"; and with this
+piece of self-criticism we may leave Lyly for the present
+and turn to his predecessors.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_I_II">Section&nbsp;II.</a></span> <i>The Origins of Euphuism.</i></h3>
+
+<p>When we pass from an analytical to an historical
+consideration of the style which Lyly made his own and
+stamped for ever with the name of his hero, we come
+upon a problem which is at once the most difficult and
+the most fascinating with which we have to deal. The
+search for a solution will lead us far afield; but, inasmuch
+as the publication and success of <cite>Euphues</cite> have
+given euphuism its importance in the history of our
+literature, the digression, which an attempt to trace the
+origin of euphuism will necessitate, can hardly be considered
+outside the scope of this book. Critics have long
+since decided that the peculiar style, which we have just
+dissolved into its elements, was not the invention of
+Lyly's genius; but on the other hand, no critic, in my
+opinion, has as yet solved the problem of origins with
+any claim to finality. Perhaps a tentative solution is all
+that is possible in the present stage of our knowledge.
+It is, of course, easy to point to the book or books from
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+which Lyly borrowed, and to dismiss the question thus.
+But this simply evades the whole issue; for, though it
+explains <cite>Euphues</cite>, it by no means explains euphuism.
+Equally unsatisfactory is the theory that euphuism was
+of purely Spanish origin. Such a solution has all the
+fascination, and all the dangers, which usually attend a
+simple answer to a complex question. The idea that
+euphuism was originally an article of foreign production
+was first set on foot by Dr Landmann. The real father
+of Lyly's style, he tells us, was Antonio de&nbsp;Guevara,
+bishop of Guadix, who published in 1529 a book, the
+title of which was as follows: <cite>The book of the emperor
+Marcus Aurelius with a Diall for princes</cite>. This book
+was translated into English in 1534 by Lord Berners,
+and again in 1557 by Sir Thomas North; in both cases
+from a French version. The two translations are conveniently
+distinguished by their titles, that of Berners
+being <cite>The Golden Boke</cite>, that of North being <cite>The Diall of
+Princes</cite>. Dr Landmann is very positive with regard to
+his theory, but the fact that both translations come from
+the French and not from the Castilian, seems to me to
+constitute a serious drawback to its acceptance. And
+moreover this theory does not explain the really important
+crux of the whole matter, namely the reason
+why a style of this kind, whatever its origin, found a
+ready acceptance in England: for fourteen editions of
+<cite>The Golden Boke</cite> are known between 1534 and 1588, a
+number for those days quite exceptional and showing
+the existence of an eager public. Two answers are
+possible to the last question; that there existed a large
+body of men in the England of the Tudors who were
+interested in Spanish literature of all kinds and in
+Guevara among others; and that the euphuistic style
+was already forming in England, and that this was the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+reason of Guevara's popularity. In both answers I think
+there is truth; and I hope to show that they give us,
+when combined, a fairly adequate explanation of the
+vogue of euphuism in our country. Let us deal with
+external influences first.</p>
+
+<p>The upholders of the Spanish theory have contented
+themselves with stating that Lyly borrowed from
+Guevara, and pointing out the parallels between the two
+writers. But it is possible to give their case a greater
+plausibility, by showing that Guevara was no isolated
+instance of such Spanish influence, and by proving that
+during the Tudor period there was a consistent and
+far-reaching interest in Spanish literature among a
+certain class of Englishmen. Intimacy with Spain dates
+from Henry&nbsp;VIII.'s marriage with Katherine of Aragon,
+though no Spanish book had actually been translated
+into English before her divorce. But the period from
+then onwards until the accession of James&nbsp;I., a period
+when Spain looms as largely in English politics as does
+France later, saw the publication in London of "some
+hundred and seventy volumes written either by peninsular
+authors, or in the peninsular tongues<a name="FNanchor_30_30" href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>." At such a time
+this number represents a very considerable influence;
+and it is, therefore, no wonder that critics have fallen
+victims to the allurements of a theory which would
+ascribe Spanish origins for all the various prose epidemics
+of Elizabethan literature. To pair Lyly with Guevara,
+Sidney with Montemayor<a name="FNanchor_31_31" href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a>, and Nash with Mendoza, and
+thus to point at Spain as the parent, not only of the
+euphuistic, but also of the pastoral and picaresque romance,
+is to furnish an explanation almost irresistible in its
+symmetry. It must have been with the joy of a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+mathematician, solving an intricate problem, that
+Dr Landmann formulated this theory of literary equations.
+But without going to such lengths, without
+pressing the connexion between particular writers, one
+may admit that in general Spanish literature must
+have exercised an influence upon the Elizabethans.
+Mr Underhill, our latest authority on the subject, allows
+this, while at the same time cautioning us against the
+dangers of over-estimating it. Any contact on the side
+of the lyric and the drama was, he declares, very slight<a name="FNanchor_32_32" href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a>,
+and the peninsular writings actually circulated in our
+country at this time, in translations, he divides into three
+classes; occasional literature, that is topical tracts and
+pamphlets on contemporary Spanish affairs; didactic
+literature, comprising scientific treatises, accounts of
+voyages such as inspired Hakluyt, works on military
+science, and, more important still, the religious writings
+of mystics like Granada; and lastly artistic prose. The
+last item, which alone concerns us, is by far the smallest
+of the three, and by itself amounts to less than half the
+translations from Italian literature; moreover most of
+the Spanish translations under this head came into
+England after 1580, and could not therefore have
+influenced Lyly's novel. But of course the <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite>
+had been englished long before this, while the <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Lazarillo
+de&nbsp;T&oacute;rmes</cite>, Mendoza's<a name="FNanchor_33_33" href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> picaresque romance, was given
+an English garb by Rowland in 1576, and, though
+Montemayor's <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Diana</cite> was not translated until 1596,
+Spanish and French editions of it had existed in England
+long previous to that date. Perhaps most important
+of all was the famous realistic novel <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Celestina</cite>, which was
+well known, in a French translation, to Englishmen at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+the beginning of the 16th century, and was denounced
+by Vives at Oxford. It was actually translated into
+English as early as 1530<a name="FNanchor_34_34" href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>. There was on the whole,
+therefore, quite an appreciable quantity of Spanish
+artistic literature circulating in England before <cite>Euphues</cite>
+saw the light.</p>
+
+<p>This literary invasion will seem perfectly natural
+if we bear in mind the political conditions of the day.
+Under Mary, England had been all but a Spanish
+dependency, and, though in the next reign, she threw
+off the yoke, the antagonism which existed probably
+acted as an even greater literary stimulus than the
+former alliance. Throughout the whole of Elizabeth's
+rule, the English were continually coming into contact
+with the Spaniards, either in trade, in ecclesiastical
+matters, in politics, or in actual warfare; and again the
+magnificence of the great Spanish empire, and the
+glamour which surrounded its connexion with the new
+world, were very attractive to the Englishmen of
+Elizabeth's day, especially as they were desirous of
+emulating the achievements of Spain. And lastly
+it may be noticed that English and Spanish conditions
+of intellectual life, if we shut our eyes to the religious
+differences, were very similar at this time. Both countries
+had replaced a shattered feudal system by an absolute
+and united monarchy. Both countries owed an immense
+debt to Italy, and, in both, the Italian influence took
+a similar form, modified on the one hand by humanism,
+and on the other by feelings of patriotism, if not of
+imperialism. Spain and England took the Renaissance
+fever more coldly, and at the same time more seriously,
+than did Italy. And in both the new movement eventually
+assumed the character of intellectual asceticism
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+moulded by the sombre hand of religious fanaticism;
+for Spain was the cradle of the Counter-Reformation,
+England of Puritanism.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the general issue, let us now try to establish
+a partial connexion between our author, or at least his
+surroundings, and Spanish influences. And here I think
+a suggestive, if not a strong case, can be made out.
+Ever since the beginning of the 16th century a Spanish
+tradition had existed at Oxford. Vives, the Spanish
+humanist, and the friend of Erasmus, was in 1517
+admitted Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and in 1523
+became reader in rhetoric; and, though he was banished
+in 1528, at the time of the divorce, it seems that he was
+continually lecturing before the University during the
+five years of his residence there. The circle of his friends,
+though quite distinct from the contemporary Berners-Guevara
+group, included many interesting men, and
+among others the famous Sir John Cheke. Under Mary
+we naturally find two Spanish professors at Oxford,
+Pedro de&nbsp;Soto and Juan de&nbsp;Villa Garcia. But Elizabeth
+maintained the tradition; and in 1559 she offered a
+chair at Oxford to a Spanish Protestant, Guerrero.
+The important name, however, in our connexion is
+Antonio de&nbsp;Corro, who resided as a student at Christ
+Church from 1575 to 1585, thus being a contemporary
+of Lyly, though it is impossible to say whether they
+were acquainted or not. Lyly had, however, another
+Oxford contemporary who certainly took a keen interest
+in Spanish literature, possessing a knowledge of Castilian,
+though himself an Englishman. This was Hakluyt, who
+must have been known to Lyly; and for the following
+reason. In 1597 Henry Lok<a name="FNanchor_35_35" href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> published a volume of
+religious poems to which Lyly contributed commendatory
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+verses. On the other hand Hakluyt's first book
+was supplemented by a woodcut map executed by his
+friend Michael Lok<a name="FNanchor_36_36" href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>, brother of Thomas Lok the Spanish
+merchant, and uncle to the aforesaid Henry. It seems
+highly improbable, therefore, that Lyly and Hakluyt
+possessing these common friends could have remained
+unknown to each other at Oxford. Indeed we may feel
+justified in supposing that Hakluyt, Sidney, Carew, Lyly,
+Thomas Lodge, and Thomas Rogers (the translator of
+<cite>Estella</cite>) were all personally acquainted, if not intimate,
+at the University. Another and very important name
+may be added to this list, that of Stephen Gosson, who,
+"a Kentish man born" like our hero, and entering
+Oxford a year after him (in 1572), must, I feel sure,
+have been one of his friends. The fact that he was
+at first interested in acting, and is said to have written
+comedies, goes a long way to confirm this. We are also
+led to suppose that he had devoted some attention to
+Spanish literature, and that he was probably acquainted
+with Hakluyt and the Loks, from certain verses of his,
+printed at the end of Thomas Nicholas' <cite>Pleasant History
+of the Conquest of West India</cite>, a translation of Cortes'
+book published in 1578<a name="FNanchor_37_37" href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>. Taking all this into consideration,
+it is extremely interesting to find Gosson publishing
+in 1579 his famous <cite>Schoole of Abuse</cite>, which bears
+most of the distinguishing marks of euphuism already
+noted, but which can scarcely have been modelled upon
+Lyly's work; for as Professor Saintsbury writes: "the
+very short interval between the appearance of <cite>Euphues</cite>
+and the <cite>Schoole of Abuse</cite>, shows that he must rather
+have mastered the Lylian style in the same circumstances
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+and situations as Lyly than have directly borrowed it
+from his fellow at Oxford<a name="FNanchor_38_38" href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>." And moreover Gosson's
+style does not read like an imitation of Lyly. The
+same tricks and affectations are employed, but they are
+employed differently and perhaps more effectively.</p>
+
+<p>Lyly is again found in contact with the Spanish atmosphere,
+as one of the dependents of the Earl of Oxford,
+who patronized Robert Baker, George Baker, and
+Anthony Munday, who were all under the "spell of the
+peninsula<a name="FNanchor_39_39" href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>." But we cannot be certain when his relations
+with de&nbsp;Vere commenced, and unless we can feel sure
+that they had begun before the writing of <cite>Euphues</cite>, the
+point is not of importance for our present argument.</p>
+
+<p>These facts are of course little more than hints, but
+I think they are sufficient to establish a fairly strong
+probability that Lyly was one of a literary set at Oxford
+(as I have already suggested in dealing with his life) the
+members of which were especially interested in Spanish
+literature, perhaps through the influence of Corro. It
+seems extremely improbable that Lyly himself possessed
+any knowledge of Castilian, and it is by no means necessary
+to show that he did, for it is quite sufficient to point
+out that he must have been continually in the presence
+of those who were discussing peninsular writings, and
+that in this way he would have come to a knowledge of
+the most famous Spanish book which had yet received
+translation, the <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite> of Guevara.</p>
+
+<p>But we are still left with the question on our hands;
+why was this book the most famous peninsular production
+of Lyly's day? It is a question which no critic,
+as far as I am aware, has ever formulated, and yet it
+seems endowed with the greatest importance. We have
+seen how and why Spanish literature in general found
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+a reception in England. But the special question as to
+the ascendancy of Guevara obviously requires a special
+answer. Guevara was of course well known all over the
+continent, and it might seem that this was a sufficient
+explanation of his popularity in England. In reality,
+however, such an explanation is no solution at all, it
+merely widens the issue; for we are still left asking for
+a reason of his continental fame. The problem requires
+a closer investigation than it has at present received.
+It was undoubtedly Guevara's <em lang="es" xml:lang="es">alto estilo</em> which gave his
+writings their chief attraction; and a style so elaborate
+would only find a reception in a favourable atmosphere,
+that is among those who had already gone some way
+towards the creation of a similar style themselves.
+<em lang="la" xml:lang="la">A priori</em> therefore the answer to our question would be
+that Guevara was no isolated stylist, but only the most
+famous example of a literary phase, which had its
+independent representatives all over Europe. A consideration
+of English prose under the Tudors will,
+I think, fully confirm this conclusion as far as our own
+country is concerned, and it will also offer us an explanation,
+in terms of internal development, of the origin
+and sources of euphuism.</p>
+
+<p>We have noticed with suspicion that our two translators
+took their Guevara from the French. And it is
+therefore quite legitimate to suppose that Berners and
+North, separated as they were from the original, were as
+much creators as translators of the euphuistic style. But
+there are other circumstances connected with Berners,
+which are much more fatal to Dr Landmann's theory
+than this. In the first place it appears that the part
+played by Berners in the history of euphuism has been
+considerably under-estimated. Mr Sidney Lee was the
+first to combat the generally accepted view in a criticism
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+of Mrs Humphry Ward's article on <cite>Euphuism</cite> in the
+<cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Encyclopaedia Britannica</cite>, in which she follows Dr Landmann.
+His criticism, which appeared in the <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athen&aelig;um</cite>,
+was afterwards enlarged in an appendix to his edition
+of Berners' translation of <cite>Huon of Bordeaux</cite>. "Lord
+Berners' sentences," Mr Lee writes, "are euphuistic
+beyond all question; they are characterized by the
+forced antitheses, alliteration, and the far-fetched illustrations
+from natural phenomena, peculiar to Lyly and
+his successors<a name="FNanchor_40_40" href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>." He denies, moreover, that Berners
+was any less euphuistic than North, and gives parallel
+extracts from their translations to prove this. A comparison
+of the two passages in question can leave no
+doubt that Mr Lee's deduction is correct. Mr Bond
+therefore is in grave error when he writes, "North
+endeavoured what Berners had not aimed at, to reproduce
+in his Diall the characteristics of Guevara's style,
+with the notable addition of an alliteration natural to
+English but not to Spanish; and it is he who must be
+regarded as the real founder of our euphuistic literary
+fashion<a name="FNanchor_41_41" href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>." Lyly may indeed have borrowed from North
+rather than from Berners; but, if Berners' English was
+as euphuistic as North's, and if Berners could show
+fourteen editions to North's two before 1580, it is
+Berners and not North who must be described as "the
+real founder of our euphuistic literary fashion." And
+as Mr Lee shows, his nephew Sir Francis Bryan must
+share the title with him, for the colophon of the <cite>Golden
+Boke</cite> states that the translation was undertaken "at the
+instaunt desire of his nevewe Sir Francis Bryan Knyghte."
+It was Bryan also who wrote the passage at the
+conclusion of the <cite>Boke</cite> applauding the "swete style<a name="FNanchor_42_42" href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+This Sir Francis Bryan was a favourite of Henry&nbsp;VIII.,
+a friend of Surrey and Wyatt, possibly of Ascham and
+of his master Cheke, in fact a very well-known figure at
+court and in the literary circles of his day<a name="FNanchor_43_43" href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>. Euphuism
+must, therefore, have had a considerable vogue even in
+the days of Henry&nbsp;VIII. If it could be shown that
+Bryan could read Castilian, the Guevara theory might
+still possess some plausibility, for it would be argued
+that Berners learnt his style from his nephew. But,
+though we know Bryan to have entertained a peculiar
+affection for Guevara's writings, there is no evidence to
+prove that he could read them in the original. Indeed
+when he set himself to translate Guevara's <cite>Dispraise of
+the life of a courtier</cite>, he, like his uncle, had to go to a
+French translation<a name="FNanchor_44_44" href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>. Wherever we turn, in fact, we are
+met by this French barrier between Guevara and his
+English translators, which seems to preclude the possibility
+of his style having exercised the influence ascribed
+to it by Dr Landmann and those who follow him.</p>
+
+<p>But there is more behind: and we cannot help feeling
+convinced that the facts we are now about to bring
+forward ought to dispose of the Landmann-Guevara
+theory once and for all. In the article before mentioned
+Mr Lee goes on to say: "The translator's prologue to
+Lord Berners' <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite> written in 1524 and that to be
+found in other of his works show him to have come
+under Guevara's or a similar influence before he translated
+the <cite>Golden Boke</cite><a name="FNanchor_45_45" href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>." Here is an extract from the
+prologue in question. "The most profitable thing in this
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+world for the institution of the human life is history.
+Once the continual reading thereof maketh young men
+equal in prudence to old men, and to old fathers striken
+in age it ministereth experience of things. More it
+yieldeth private persons worthy of dignity, rule and
+governance: it compelleth the emperors, high rulers,
+and governors to do noble deeds to the end they may
+obtain immortal glory: it exciteth, moveth and stirreth
+the strong, hardy warriors, for the great laud that they
+have after they lie dead, promptly to go in hand with
+great and hard perils in defence of their country: and it
+prohibiteth reproveable persons to do mischievous deeds
+for fear of infamy and shame. So thus through the
+monuments of writing which is the testimony unto virtue
+many men have been moved, some to build cities, some
+to devise and establish laws right, profitable, necessary
+and behoveful for the human life, some other to find new
+arts, crafts and sciences, very requisite to the use of
+mankind. But above all things, whereby man's wealth
+riseth, special laud and praise ought to be given to
+history: it is the keeper of such things as have been
+virtuously done, and the witness of evil deeds, and by
+the benefit of history all noble, high and virtuous acts be
+immortal. What moved the strong and fierce Hercules
+to enterprise in his life so many great incomparable
+labours and perils? Certainly nought else but that for
+his great merit immortality might be given him of all
+folk.&hellip; Why moved and stirred Phalerius the King
+Ptolemy oft and diligently to read books? Forsooth
+for no other cause but that those things are found written
+in books that the friends dare not show to the prince<a name="FNanchor_46_46" href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a>."
+This is of course far from being the full-blown euphuism
+of Lyly or Pettie, yet we cannot but agree with Mr Lee,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+when he declares that "the parallelism of the sentences,
+the repetition of the same thought differently expressed,
+the rhetorical question, the accumulation of synonyms,
+the classical references, are irrefutable witnesses to the
+presence of euphuism<a name="FNanchor_47_47" href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a>." But Mr Lee appeared to be
+quite unconscious of the full significance of his discovery.
+<em>It means that Berners was writing euphuism in 1524, five
+years before Guevara published his book in Spain.</em> No
+critic, as far as I have been able to discover, has shown
+any consciousness of this significant fact<a name="FNanchor_48_48" href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a>, which is of
+course of the utmost importance in this connexion; as, if
+it is to carry all the weight that is at first sight due to it,
+the theory that euphuism was a mere borrowing from
+the Spanish must be pronounced entirely exploded.
+But it is as well not to be over-confident. Guevara's
+<cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite>, his earliest work, was undoubtedly first
+published by his authority in 1529, but there seems to be
+a general feeling that the book had previously appeared
+in pirated form. This feeling is based upon the title of
+the 1529 edition<a name="FNanchor_49_49" href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>, which describes the book as "<q lang="es" xml:lang="es">nueuamente
+reuisto por su se&ntilde;oria</q>," and upon certain remarks
+of Hallam in his <cite>Literature of Europe</cite>. Though I can
+find no confirmation for the statements he makes upon
+the authority of a certain Dr West of Dublin, yet the
+words of so well known a writer cannot be ignored. He
+quotes Dr West in a footnote as follows: "There are
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+some circumstances connected with the <cite>Relox</cite> (i.e. the
+sub-title of the <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite>) not generally known, which
+satisfactorily account for various erroneous statements
+that have been made on the subject by writers of high
+authority. The fact is that Guevara, about the year 1518,
+commenced a life and letters of M.&nbsp;Aurelius which purported
+to be a translation of a Greek work found in
+Florence. Having sometime afterwards lent this MS. to
+the emperor it was surreptitiously copied and printed, as
+he informs us himself, first in Seville and afterwards in
+Portugal.&hellip; Guevara himself subsequently published it
+(1529) with considerable additions<a name="FNanchor_50_50" href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>." From this it appears
+that previous unauthorised editions of Guevara's
+book had been published before 1529. Might not
+Berners therefore have come under Guevara's influence
+as early as 1524? We must concede that it is possible,
+but, on the other hand, the difficulties in the way of such
+a contingency seem almost insuperable. In the first place,
+if we are to believe Dr West, Guevara did not begin to
+write his work before 1518, and it was not until "some
+time afterwards" (whatever this may mean) that it was
+"surreptitiously copied and printed." It would require
+a bold man to assert that a book thus published could
+be influencing the style of an English writer as early as
+1524. But further it must be remembered that Berners
+almost certainly could not read Castilian<a name="FNanchor_51_51" href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a>. Now the
+earliest known French translation of Guevara is one by
+R&eacute;n&eacute; Bertaut in 1531, which Berners himself is known
+to have used<a name="FNanchor_52_52" href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a>. Therefore, if Berners was already under
+Guevara's influence in 1524, he must have known of an
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+earlier French pirated translation of an earlier pirated
+edition of the <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite>. To sum up; if the euphuistic
+tendency in English prose is to be ascribed entirely, or
+even mainly, to the influence of Guevara's <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite>,
+we must digest four improbabilities: (i) that there existed
+a pirated edition of the book in Spain <em>earlier</em> than 1524:
+(ii) that this had been translated into French, also before
+1524, although the version of Bertaut in 1531 is the
+earliest French translation we have any trace of: (iii) that
+Berners himself had come across this hypothetical French
+edition, again before 1524: and (iv) that the French
+translation had so faithfully reproduced the style of the
+original, that Berners was able to translate it from French
+into English, for the purpose of his prologue to <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>In face of these facts, the Guevara theory is no
+longer tenable; and in consequence the whole situation
+is reversed, and we approach the problem from the
+natural side, the side from which it should have been
+approached from the first&mdash;that is from the English and
+not the Spanish side. I say the natural side, because it
+seems to me obvious that the popularity of a foreign
+author in any country implies the existence in that
+country, previous to the introduction of the author, of
+an atmosphere (or more concretely a public) favourable
+to the distinguishing characteristics of the author introduced.
+And so it now appears that Guevara found
+favour in England because his style, or something very
+like it, was already known there; and it was the most
+natural thing in the world that Berners, who shows that
+style most prominently, should have been the channel by
+which Guevara became known to English readers. The
+whole problem of this 16th century prose is analogous to
+that of 18th century verse. The solution of both was for
+a long time found in foreign influence. It was natural
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+to assume that France, the pivot of our foreign policy at
+the end of the 17th century, gave us the classical movement,
+and that Spain, equally important politically in
+the 16th century, gave us euphuism. Closer investigation
+has disproved both these theories<a name="FNanchor_53_53" href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>, showing that, while
+foreign influence was undoubtedly an immense factor in
+the <em>development</em> of these literary fashions, their real <em>origin</em>
+was English.</p>
+
+<p>The proof of this does not rest entirely on the case of
+Berners. We might even concede that he was acquainted
+with an earlier edition of Guevara, and that his style was
+actually derived from Spanish sources, without surrendering
+our thesis that euphuism was a natural growth.
+Berners' euphuism, whatever its origin, was premature;
+and, though the <cite>Golden Boke</cite> passed through twelve
+editions between 1534 and 1560, we cannot say that its
+style influenced English writing until the time of Lyly,
+for its vogue was confined to a small class of readers,
+designated by Mr Underhill as the "Guevara-group." On
+the other hand, it is possible to trace a feeling towards
+euphuism among writers who were quite outside this
+group.</p>
+
+<p>Latimer, for example, delighted in alliterative turns
+of speech, though the antithetical mannerisms are absent
+in him. His famous denunciation of the unpreaching
+prelates is an excellent instance:</p>
+
+<p>"But now for the faults of unpreaching prelates,
+methink I could guess what might be said for the excusing
+of them. They are so troubled with lordly living,
+they be so placed in palaces, couched in courts, ruffling
+in their rents, dancing in their dominions, burdened with
+ambassages, pampering of their paunches like a monk
+that maketh his jubilee, munching in their mangers, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+moiling in their gay manors and mansions, and so
+troubled with loitering in their lordships, that they
+cannot attend it."</p>
+
+<p>Here is no transverse alliteration, such as we find so
+frequently in Lyly, but a simple alliteration&mdash;"a rudimentary
+euphuism of balanced and alliterative phrases,
+probably like the alliteration of Anglo-Saxon homilies,
+borrowed from popular poetry<a name="FNanchor_54_54" href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>." Latimer also employs
+the responsive method so frequently used by Lyly. "But
+ye say it is new learning. Now I tell you it is old
+learning. Yea, ye say, it is old heresy new scoured.
+Nay, I tell you it is old truth long rusted with your
+canker, and now made new bright and scoured." It is
+no long step from this to the rhetorical question and its
+formal answer "ay but&mdash;&mdash;." Alliteration is not found
+in Guevara; it was an addition, and a very important
+one, made by his translators. This was at any rate a
+purely native product, and cannot be assigned to Spain.
+The antithesis and parallelism were the fruits of humanism,
+and they appear, combined with Latimer's alliteration, in
+the writings of Sir John Cheke and his pupil Roger
+Ascham. Cheke's famous criticism of Sallust's style, as
+being "more art than nature and more labour than art,"
+introduces us at once to euphuism, and gives us by the
+way a very excellent comment upon it. Again he speaks
+of "magistrates more ready to tender all justice and pitifull
+in hearing the poor man's causes which ought to
+amend matters more than you can devise and were ready
+to redress them better than you can imagine<a name="FNanchor_55_55" href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>"; which is
+a good example of the euphuistic combination of alliteration
+and balance.</p>
+
+<p>In Ascham the style is still more marked. There
+are, indeed, so many examples of euphuism in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+<cite>Schoolmaster</cite> and in the <cite>Toxophilus</cite>, that one can only
+select. As an illustration of transverse alliteration quite
+as complex as any in <cite>Euphues</cite>, we may notice the following:
+"Hard wittes be hard to receive, but sure to
+keep; painfull without weariness, hedefull without wavering,
+constant without any new fanglednesse; bearing
+heavie things, though not lightlie, yet willinglie; entering
+hard things though not easily, yet depelie<a name="FNanchor_56_56" href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>." Classical
+allusions abound throughout Ascham's work, and he
+occasionally indulges in the ethics of natural history as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Young Graftes grow not onlie sonest, but also
+fairest and bring always forth the best and sweetest
+fruite; young whelps learne easilie to carrie; young
+Popingeis learne quickly to speak; and so, to be short,
+if in all other things though they lacke reason, sense, and
+life, the similitude of youth is fittest to all goodnesse,
+surelie nature in mankinde is more beneficial and effectual
+in this behalfe<a name="FNanchor_57_57" href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>We know that Lyly had read the <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, as he
+took the very title of his book from its description of
+<span lang="el" xml:lang="el" title="Euphu&ecirc;s" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #06C;">Εὐφυής</span> as "he that is apte by goodnesse of witte and
+applicable by readiness of will to learning"&mdash;a description
+which is in itself a euphuism; and it is probable
+that he knew his Ascham as thoroughly as he did his
+Guevara.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Henry Craik has some very pertinent remarks
+on the peculiarities of Ascham's style. "One of these,"
+he writes, "is his proneness to alliteration, due perhaps
+to his desire to reproduce the most striking features of
+the Early English.&hellip; A tendency of an almost directly
+opposite kind is the balance of sentences which he
+imitates from Classical models.&hellip; These two are
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+perhaps the most striking characteristics of Ascham's
+prose; and it is interesting to observe how much the
+structure of the sentence in the more elaborated stages
+of English prose is due to their combination<a name="FNanchor_58_58" href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a>." Here
+we have the two elements of our native-grown euphuism,
+and their origins, carefully distinguished. Of course
+with euphuism we do not commence English prose;
+that is already centuries old; but we are dealing with
+the beginnings of English prose style, by which we mean
+a conscious and artistic striving after literary effect.
+That the first stylists should look to the rhetoricians for
+their models was inevitable, and of these there were two
+kinds available; the classical orators and the alliterative
+homilies of the Early English. But, deferring this point
+for a later treatment, let us conclude our study of the
+evolution of euphuism in England.</p>
+
+<p>So far we have been dealing with euphuistic tendencies
+only, since in the style of Ascham and his predecessors,
+alliteration and antithesis are not employed consistently,
+but merely on occasion for the sake of emphasis. Other
+marks of euphuism, such as the fantastic embroidery of
+mythical beasts and flowers, are absent. Even in North's
+<cite>Diall</cite> alliteration is not profuse, and similes from natural
+history are comparatively rare. In George Pettie,
+however, we find a complete euphuist before <cite>Euphues</cite>.
+This writer again brings us in touch with that Oxford
+atmosphere, which, I maintain, surrounded the birth of
+the full-blown euphuism. A student of Christ Church,
+he took his B.A. degree in 1560<a name="FNanchor_59_59" href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>, and so probably just
+escaped being a contemporary of Lyly. But, as he was
+a "dear friend" of William Gager, who was a considerably
+younger man than himself, it seems probable that he
+continued his Oxford connexion after his degree.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+However this may be, he published his <cite>Petite Pallace of
+Pettie his Pleasure</cite>, which so exactly anticipates the style
+of <cite>Euphues</cite>, in 1576, only two years before the later book.
+The <cite>Petite Pallace</cite> was an imitation of the famous
+<cite>Palace of Pleasure</cite> published in 1566 by William
+Painter, who, though he had known Guevara's writings,
+drew his material almost entirely from Italian sources.
+That Pettie also possessed a knowledge of Spanish
+literature, as we should expect from the period of his
+residence at Oxford, is shown by his translation of
+Guazzo's <cite>Civile Conversation</cite> in 1581, to which he affixes
+a euphuistic preface. This again was only a left-handed
+transcript from the French. Therefore the Spanish
+elements, though undoubtedly present, cannot be insisted
+upon. We may concede that Pettie had read North,
+or even go so far as to assert with Mr Underhill that
+he was acquainted with "parts of the Gallicized Guevara,"
+without lending countenance to Dr Landmann's radical
+theories. No one, reading the <cite>Petite Pleasure</cite>, can doubt
+that Pettie was the real creator of euphuism in its fullest
+development, and that Lyly was only an imitator.
+Though I have already somewhat overburdened this
+chapter. I cannot refrain from quoting a passage from
+Pettie, not only as an example of his style, but also
+because the passage is in itself so delightful, that it is
+one's duty to rescue it from oblivion:</p>
+
+<p>"As amongst all the bonds of benevolence and good
+will, there is none more honourable, ancient, or honest
+than marriage, so in my fancy there is none that doth
+more firmly fasten and inseparably unite us together
+than the same estate doth, or wherein the fruits of true
+friendship do more plenteously appear: in the father is
+a certain severe love and careful goodwill towards the
+child, the child beareth a fearful affection and awful
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+obedience towards the father: the master hath an
+imperious regard of the servant, the servant a servile
+care of the master. The friendship amongst men is
+grounded upon no love and dissolved upon every light
+occasion: the goodwill of kinsfolk is constantly cold,
+as much of custom as of devotion: but in this stately
+estate of matrimony there is nothing fearful, all things
+are done faithfully without doubting, truly without
+doubling, willingly without constraint, joyfully without
+complaint: yea there is such a general consent and
+mutual agreement between the man and wife, that they
+both wish and will covet and crave one thing. And as
+a scion grafted in a strange stalk, their natures being
+united by growth, they become one and together bear
+one fruit: so the love of the wife planted in the breast
+of her husband, their hearts by continuance of love
+become one, one sense and one soul serveth them both.
+And as the scion severed from the stock withereth
+away, if it be not grafted in some other: so a loving
+wife separated from the society of her husband withereth
+away in woe and leadeth a life no less pleasant than
+death<a name="FNanchor_60_60" href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>." Lyly never wrote anything to equal this. Indeed
+it is not unworthy of the lips of one of Shakespeare's
+heroines.</p>
+
+<p>The euphuism of the foregoing quotation will be
+readily detected. The sole difference between the styles
+of Lyly and Pettie is that, while Pettie's similes from
+nature are simple and natural, Lyly, with his knowledge
+of Pliny and of the bestiaries, added his fabulous
+"unnatural natural history." Pettie's book was popular
+for the time, three editions of it being called for in the
+first year of its publication, but it was soon to be thrust
+aside by the fame of the much more pretentious, and,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+apart from the style, better constructed <cite>Euphues</cite> of Lyly.
+In truth, as Gabriel Harvey justly but unkindly remarks,
+"Young Euphues but hatched the eggs his elder freendes
+laid." But the parental responsibility and merit must
+be attributed to him who hatches. It was Lyly who
+made euphuism famous and therefore a power; and,
+despite the fact that he marks the culmination of the
+movement, he is the most dynamical of all the euphuists.</p>
+
+<p>It remains to sum up our conclusions respecting the
+origin and development of this literary phase. Difficult
+as it is to unravel the tangled network of obscure
+influences which surrounded its birth, I venture to think
+that a sufficiently complete disproof of that extreme
+theory, which would ascribe it entirely to Guevara's
+influence, has been offered. Guevara, in the translation
+of Berners, undoubtedly took the field early, but, as we
+have seen, Berners was probably feeling towards the
+style before he knew Guevara; and moreover the bishop's
+<em lang="es" xml:lang="es">alto estilo</em> must have suffered considerably while passing
+through the French. Even allowing everything, as we
+have done, for the close connexion between Spain and
+England, for the Spanish tradition at Oxford, and for the
+interest in peninsular writings shown by Lyly's immediate
+circle of friends, we cannot accord to Dr Landmann's
+explanation anything more than a very modified acceptance.
+Nor would a complete rejection of this solution
+of the Lyly problem render English euphuism inexplicable;
+for something very like it would naturally
+have resulted from the close application of classical
+methods to prose writing; and in the case of Cheke and
+Ascham we actually see the process at work. And yet
+Lyly owed a great debt to Guevara. A true solution,
+therefore, must find a place for foreign as well as native
+influences. And to say that the Spanish intervention
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+confirmed and hastened a development already at work,
+of which the original impulse was English, is, I think, to
+give a due allowance to both.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_I_III">Section&nbsp;III.</a></span> <i>Lyly's Legatees and the relation
+between Euphuism and the Renaissance.</i></h3>
+
+<p>The publication of <cite>Euphues</cite> was the culmination,
+rather than the origin, of that literary phase to which
+it gave its name. And the vogue of euphuism after
+1579 was short, lasting indeed only until about 1590;
+yet during these ten years its influence was far-reaching,
+and left a definite mark upon later English prose. It
+would be idle, if not impossible, to trace its effects upon
+every individual writer who fell under its immediate
+fascination. Moreover the task has already been performed
+in a great measure by M.&nbsp;Jusserand<a name="FNanchor_61_61" href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> and
+Mr Bond<a name="FNanchor_62_62" href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a>. They have shown once and for all that
+Greene, Lodge, Welbanke, Munday, Warner, Wilkinson,
+and above all Shakespeare, were indebted to our author
+for certain mannerisms of style. I shall therefore content
+myself with noticing two or three writers, tainted
+with euphuism, who have been generally overlooked, and
+who seem to me important enough, either in themselves,
+or as throwing light upon the subject of the essay, to
+receive attention.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these is the dramatist Kyd, who completed
+his well-known <cite>Spanish Tragedy</cite> between 1584
+and 1589, that is at the height of the euphuistic fashion.
+This play was apparently an inexhaustible joke to the
+Elizabethans; for the references to it in later dramatists
+are innumerable. One passage must have been particularly
+famous, for we find it parodied most elaborately by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+Field, as late as 1606, in his <cite>A Woman is a Weathercock</cite><a name="FNanchor_63_63" href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a>.
+The passage in question, which was obviously inspired by
+Lyly, runs as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yet might she love me for my valiance:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I, but that's slandered by captivity.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet might she love me to content her sire:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I, but her reason masters her desire.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet might she love me as her brother's friend:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I, but her hopes aim at some other end.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet might she love me to uprear her state:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I, but perhaps she loves some nobler mate.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet might she love me as her beautie's thrall:<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">I, but I feare she cannot love at all."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Nathaniel Field's parody of this melodramatic nonsense
+is so amusing that I cannot forbear quoting it. This
+time the despairing lover is Sir Abraham Ninny, who
+quotes Kyd to his companions, and they with the cry of
+"Ha God-a-mercy, old Hieromino!" begin the game of
+parody, which must have been keenly enjoyed by the
+audience. Field improves on the original by putting the
+alternate lines of despair into the mouths of Ninny's
+jesting friends. It runs, therefore:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"&mdash;Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Yet might she love me for my proper body.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">&mdash;Yet might she love me in despite of all.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(the lady herself)&mdash;Ay but indeed I cannot love at all."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">This parody, apart from any interest it possesses for the
+student of Lyly, is an excellent illustration of the ways
+of Elizabethan playwrights, and of the thorough knowledge
+of previous plays they assumed their audience to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+have possessed. There are several other examples of
+Kyd's acquaintance with the <cite>Euphues</cite> in the <cite>Spanish
+Tragedy</cite><a name="FNanchor_64_64" href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a>, in the other dramas<a name="FNanchor_65_65" href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a>, and in his prose works<a name="FNanchor_66_66" href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a>,
+which it is not necessary to quote. But there is one more
+passage, again from his most famous play, which is so
+full of interest that it cannot be passed over in silence.
+It is a counsel of hope to the despairing lover, and
+assumes this inspiring form:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"My Lord, though Belimperia seem thus coy<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Let reason hold you in your wonted joy;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In time the savage Bull sustains the yoke,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In time all Haggard Hawkes will stoop to lure,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In time small wedges cleave the hardest Oake,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In time the flint is pearst with softest shower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And she in time will fall from her disdain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And rue the sufferance of your deadly paine<a name="FNanchor_67_67" href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Now these lines are practically a transcript of the opening
+words of the 47th sonnet in Watson's <cite>Hekatompathia</cite>
+published in 1582. Remembering Lyly's penetrating
+observation that "the soft droppes of rain pearce the
+hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oake<a name="FNanchor_68_68" href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a>,"
+and bearing in mind that the high priest of euphuism
+himself contributed a commendatory epistle to the
+<cite>Hekatompathia</cite>, we should expect that these Bulls and
+Hawkes and Oakes were choice flowers of speech, culled
+from that botanico-zoological "garden of prose"&mdash;the
+<cite>Euphues</cite>. But as a matter of fact Watson himself informs
+us in a note that his sonnet is an imitation of the
+Italian Serafino, from whom he also borrows other
+sonnet-conceits in the same volume, some of which are
+full of similar references to the properties of animals and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+plants. The conclusion is forced upon us therefore that
+Watson and Lyly went to the same source, or, if a knowledge
+of Italian cannot be granted to our author, that he
+borrowed from Watson. At any rate Watson cannot be
+placed amongst the imitators of <cite>Euphues</cite>. Like Pettie
+and Gosson he must share with Lyly the credit of
+creation. He was a friend of Lyly's at Oxford; they
+dedicated their books to the same patron, and they
+employed the same publisher. Moreover, the little we
+have of Watson's prose is highly euphuistic, and it is
+apparent from the epistle above mentioned that he was
+on terms of closest intimacy with the author of <cite>Euphues</cite>.
+In him we have another member of that interesting circle
+of Oxford euphuists, who continued their connexion in
+London under de&nbsp;Vere's patronage.</p>
+
+<p>Watson again was a friend of the well-known poet
+Richard Barnefield, who though too young in 1578 to
+have been of the University coterie of euphuists, shows
+definite traces of their affectation in his works. The
+conventional illustrations from an "unnatural natural
+history" abound in his <cite>Affectionate Shepherd</cite><a name="FNanchor_69_69" href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> (1594),
+and he repeats the jargon about marble and showers<a name="FNanchor_70_70" href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a>
+which we have seen in Lyly, Watson and Kyd. Again
+in his <cite>Cynthia</cite> (1594) there is a distinct reference to the
+opening words of <cite>Euphues</cite> in the lines,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Wit without wealth is bad, yet counted good;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Wealth wanting wisdom's worse, yet deemed as well<a name="FNanchor_71_71" href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">His prose introduction betrays the same influence.</p>
+
+<p>These then are a few among the countless scribblers
+of those prolific times who fell under the spell of the
+euphuistic fashion. They are mentioned, either because
+their connexion with the movement has been overlooked,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+or because they throw a new and important
+light upon Lyly himself. Of other legatees it is impossible
+to treat here; and it is enough, without tracing
+it in any detail, to indicate "the slender euphuistic
+thread that runs in iron through Marlowe, in silver
+through Shakespeare, in bronze through Bacon, in
+more or less inferior metal through every writer of
+that age<a name="FNanchor_72_72" href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing strange in this infatuation, if we
+remember that euphuism was "the English type of an
+all but universal disease<a name="FNanchor_73_73" href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a>," as Symonds puts it. Dr Landmann,
+we have decided, was wrong in his insistence
+upon foreign influence; but his error was a natural one,
+and points to a fact which no student of Renaissance
+literature can afford to neglect. Matthew Arnold long
+ago laid down the clarifying principle that "the criticism
+which alone can much help us for the future, is
+a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual
+and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound
+to a joint action and working to a common result<a name="FNanchor_74_74" href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a>."
+And the truth of this becomes more and more indisputable,
+the longer we study European history, whether
+it be from the side of Politics, of Religion, or of Art.
+Landmann ascribes euphuism to Spain, Symonds ascribes
+it to Italy, and an equally good case might be made out
+in favour of France. There is truth in all these hypotheses,
+but each misses the true significance of the matter,
+which is that euphuism must have come, and would have
+come, without any question of borrowing.</p>
+
+<p>The date 1453 is usually taken as a convenient
+starting point for the Renaissance, though the movement
+was already at work in Italy, for that was the year of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+Byzantium's fall and of the diffusion of the classics over
+Europe. But, for the countries outside Italy, I think
+that the date 1493 is almost as important. Hitherto the
+new learning had been in a great measure confined to
+Italy, but with the invasion of Charles&nbsp;VIII., which commences
+a long period of French and Spanish occupation
+of Italian soil, the Renaissance, especially on its artistic
+side, began to find its way into the neighbouring states,
+and through them into England. It is the old story, so
+familiar to sociologists, of a lower civilization falling
+under the spell of the culture exhibited by a more
+advanced subject population, of a conqueror worshipping
+the gods of the conquered. It is the story of the conquest
+of Greece by Rome, of the conquest of Rome by
+the Germans. But the interesting point to notice is that,
+when the "barbarian" Frenchman descended from the
+Alps upon the fair plains of Lombardy, the Italian
+Renaissance was already showing signs of decadence.
+It was in the age of the Petrarchisti, of Aretino, of Doni,
+and of Marini that Europe awoke to the full consciousness
+of the wonders of Italian literature. Thus it was
+that those beyond the Alps drank of water already
+tainted. That France, Spain, and England should be
+attracted by the affectations of Italy, rather than by
+what was best in her literature, was only to be expected.
+"It was easier to catch the trick of an Aretino, and
+a Marini, than to emulate the style of a Tasso or a
+Castiglione": and besides they were themselves inventing
+similar extravagances independently of Italy. The
+purely formal ideal of Art had in Spain already found
+expression among the courtiers of Juan&nbsp;II. of Castile.
+One of them, Baena, writes as follows of poetry: "that
+it cannot be learned or well and properly known, save by
+the man of very deep and subtle invention, and of a very
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+lofty and fine discretion, and of a very healthy and unerring
+judgment, and such a one must have seen and
+heard and read many and diverse books and writings,
+and know all languages and have frequented kings'
+Courts and associated with great men and beheld and
+taken part in worldly affairs; and finally he must be of
+gentle birth, courteous and sedate, polished, humorous,
+polite, witty, and have in his composition honey, and
+sugar, and salt, and a good presence and a witty manner
+of reasoning; moreover he must be also a lover and ever
+make a show and pretence of it<a name="FNanchor_75_75" href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a>." Such a catalogue of
+the poet's requisites might have been written by any
+one of our Oxford euphuists; and Watson, at least,
+among them fulfilled all its conditions.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian influence, therefore, did but hasten a
+process already at work. The reasons for this universal
+movement are very difficult to determine. But among
+many suggestions of more or less value, a few causes of
+the change may here be hazarded. In the first place,
+then, the Renaissance happened to be contemporaneous
+with the death of feudalism. The ideal of chivalry is
+dying out all over Europe; and the romances of chivalry
+are everywhere despised. The horizontal class divisions
+become obscured by the newly found perpendicular
+divisions of nationality; and in Italy and England at
+least the old feudal nobility have almost entirely disappeared.
+A new centre of national life and culture is
+therefore in the process of formation, that of the Court;
+and thanks to this, the ideal of chivalry gives place to
+the new ideal of the courtier or the gentleman. This
+ideal found literary expression in the moral Court
+treatises, which were so universally popular during the
+Renaissance, and of which Guevara, Castiglione, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+Lyly are the most famous instances. The ambition of
+those who frequent Courts has always been to appear
+distinguished&mdash;distinguished that is from the vulgar and
+the ordinary, or, as we should now say, from the Philistine.
+In the Courts of the Renaissance period, where
+learning was considered so admirable, this necessary
+distinction would naturally take the form of a cultured,
+if not pedantic, diction; and for this it was natural that
+men should go to the classics, and more especially to
+classical orators, as models of good speech. It must
+not be imagined that this process was a conscious one.
+In many countries the rhetorical style was already
+formed by scholars before it became the speech of the
+Court. In fact the beginnings of modern prose style are
+to be found in humanism. Ascham with his hatred of
+the "Italianated gentleman," was probably quite unconscious
+of his own affinity to that objectionable type,
+when imitating the style of his favourite Tully in the
+<cite>Schoolmaster</cite>. The classics it must be remembered
+were not discovered by the humanists, they were only
+rediscovered. The middle ages had used them, as they
+had used the Old Testament, as prophetic books. Virgil's
+mediaeval reputation for example rests for the most
+part upon the fourth Eclogue. The humanists, on the
+other hand, looked upon the classics as literature and
+valued them for their style. But here again they drank
+from tainted sources; for, with the exception of a few
+writers such as Cicero and Terence, the classics they
+knew and loved best were the product of the silver age
+of Rome, the characteristics of which are beautifully
+described by the author of <cite>Marius the Epicurean</cite> in his
+chapter significantly called <cite>Euphuism</cite>. Few of the Renaissance
+students had the critical acumen of Cheke,
+and they fell therefore an easy prey to the stylism of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+later Latin writers, with its antithesis and extravagance.
+But, with all this, men could not quite shake off the
+middle ages. There is much of the Scholastic in Lyly,
+and the exuberance of ornament, the fantastic similes
+from natural history, and the moral lessons deduced
+from them, are quite mediaeval in feeling. We learnt
+the lessons of the classics backward; and it was not
+until centuries after, that men realised that the essence
+of Hellenism is restraint and harmony.</p>
+
+<p>I have spoken of the movement generally, but it
+passed through many phases, such as arcadianism, gongorism,
+dubartism; and yet of all these phases euphuism
+was, I think, the most important: certainly if we confine
+our attention to English literature this must be admitted.
+But, even if we keep our eyes upon the Continent alone,
+euphuism would seem to be more significant than the
+movements which succeeded it; for it was a definite
+attempt, seriously undertaken, to force modern languages
+into a classical mould, while the other and later affectations
+were merely passing extravagances, possessing
+little dynamical importance. In this way, short-lived
+and abortive as it seemed, euphuism anticipated the
+literature of the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ancien r&eacute;gime</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The movement, moreover, was only one aspect of the
+Renaissance; it was the under-current which in the 18th
+century became the main stream. Paradoxical as it may
+seem, the Renaissance in its most modern aspect was a
+development of the middle ages, and not of the classics.
+This we call romanticism. As an artistic product it was
+developed on strictly national and traditional lines, born
+of the fields as it were, free as a bird and as sweet, giving
+birth in England to the drama, in Italy to the plastic
+arts. It is essentially opposed to the classical movement,
+for it represents the idea as distinct from the form. Lyly
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+belongs to both movements, for, while he is the protagonist
+of the romantic drama, in his <cite>Euphues</cite> we may
+discover the source of the artificial stream which, concealed
+for a while beneath the wild exuberance of the
+romantic growth, appears later in the 18th century embracing
+the whole current of English literature. Before,
+however, proceeding to fix the position of euphuism in
+the development of English prose, let us sum up the
+results we have obtained from our examination of its
+relation to the general European Renaissance. Originating
+in that study of classical style we find so forcibly
+advocated by Ascham in his <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, it was essentially
+a product of humanism. In every country scholars
+were interested as much in the style as in the matter of
+the newly discovered classics. This was due, partly to
+the lateness of the Latin writers chiefly known to them,
+partly to the mediaeval preference for words rather than
+ideas, and partly to the fact that the times were not yet
+ripe for an appreciation of the spirit as distinct from the
+letter of the classics. In Italy, in France, and in Spain,
+therefore, we may find parallels to euphuism without
+supposing any international borrowings. <cite>Euphues</cite>, in
+fact, is not so much a reflection of, as a <cite>Glasse for
+Europe</cite>.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_I_IV">Section&nbsp;IV.</a></span> <i>The position of Euphuism in the history
+of English prose.</i></h3>
+
+<p>A few words remain to be said about this literary
+curiosity, by way of assigning a place to it in the history
+of our prose. To do so with any scientific precision is
+impossible, but there are many points of no small
+significance in this connexion, which should not be
+passed over.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+English prose at the beginning of the 16th century,
+that is before the new learning had become a power in
+the land, though it had not yet been employed for
+artistic purposes, was already an important part of our
+literature, and possessed a quality which no national
+prose had exhibited since the days of Greece, the quality
+of popularity<a name="FNanchor_76_76" href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a>. This popularity, which arose from the
+fact that French and Latin had for so long been the
+language of the ruling section of the community, is still
+the distinction which marks off our prose from that of
+other nations. In Italy, for example, the language of
+literature is practically incomprehensible to the dwellers
+on the soil. But what English prose has gained in
+breadth and comprehension by representing the tongue
+of the people, it has lost in subtlety. French prose,
+which developed from the speech of the Court, is a
+delicate instrument, capable of expressing the finest
+shades of meaning, while the styles of George Meredith
+and of Henry James show how difficult it is for a subtle
+intellect to move freely within the limitations of English
+prose. Indeed, "it is a remarkable fact," as Sainte Beuve
+noticed, "and an inversion of what is true of other languages
+that, in French, prose has always had the precedence
+over poetry." Repeated attempts, however, have
+been made to capture our language, and to transport it
+into aristocratic atmospheres; and of these attempts the
+first is associated with the name of Lyly.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that English euphuism was at first a
+flower of unconscious growth sprung from the soil of
+humanism. But ultimately, in the hands of Pettie,
+Gosson, Lyly, and Watson, it became the instrument
+of an Oxford coterie deliberately and consciously employed
+for the purpose of altering the form of English
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+prose. These men did not despise their native tongue;
+they used the purest English, carefully avoiding the
+favourite "ink-horn terms" of their contemporaries:
+they admired it, as one admires a wild bird of the
+fields, which one wishes to capture in order to make it
+hop and sing in a golden cage. The humanists were
+already developing a learned style within the native
+language; Lyly and his friends utilized this learned
+style for the creation of an aristocratic type. Euphuism
+was no "transient phase of madness<a name="FNanchor_77_77" href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a>," as Mr Earle contemptuously
+calls it, but a brave attempt, and withal a
+first attempt, to assert that prose writing is an art no less
+than the writing of poetry; and this alone should give it
+a claim upon students of English literature.</p>
+
+<p>The first point we must notice, therefore, about
+English euphuism is that it represents a tendency to
+confine literature within the limits of the Court&mdash;in
+accordance, one might almost say, with the general
+centralization of politics and religion under the Tudors&mdash;and
+that, as a necessary result of this, conscious prose
+style appears for the first time in our language. I say
+English euphuism, because that is our chief concern, and
+because though euphuism on the Continent was, as we
+have seen, the expression in literature of the new ideal
+of the courtier, yet it was by no means so great an innovation
+as it was in England, inasmuch as the Romance
+literatures had always represented the aristocracy. The
+form which this style assumed was dependent upon the
+circumstances which gave it birth, and upon the general
+conditions of the age. Owing to the former it became
+erudite, polished, precise, meet indeed for the "parleyings"
+of courtiers and maids-in-waiting; but it was to the latter
+that it owed its essentials. Hitherto we have contented
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+ourselves with indicating the rhetorical aspect of euphuism.
+We have seen that the Latin orators and the
+writers of our English homilies exercised a considerable
+influence over the new stylists. It was natural that
+rhetoricians should attract those who were desirous of
+writing ornamental and artistic prose, and one feels inclined
+to believe that it was not entirely for spiritual
+reasons that Lyly frequently attended Dr Andrews'
+sermons<a name="FNanchor_78_78" href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a>. But the euphuistic manner has a wider
+significance than this, for it marks the transition from
+poetry to prose.</p>
+
+<p>"The age of Elizabeth is pre-eminently an age of
+poetry, of which prose may be regarded as merely the
+overflow<a name="FNanchor_79_79" href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a>." It was at once the end of the mediaeval,
+and the beginning of the modern, world, and consequently,
+it displays the qualities of both. But the future
+lay with the small men rather than with the great.
+Shakespeare and Milton were no innovators. With their
+names the epoch of primitive literature, which finds expression
+in the drama and the epic, ends, while it reaches
+its highest flights. The dawn of the modern epoch,
+the age of prose and of the novel, is, on the other hand,
+connected with the names of Lyly, Sidney, and Nash.
+Thus, as in the 18th century poetry was subservient, and
+so became assimilated, to prose, so the prose of the 16th
+century exhibited many of the characteristics of verse.
+And of this general literary feature euphuism is the
+most conspicuous example; for in its employment of
+alliteration and antithesis, in addition to the excessive
+use of illustration and simile which characterizes arcadianism
+and its successors, the style of Lyly is transitional
+in structure as well as in ornament. Moreover
+the alliteration, which is peculiar to English euphuism,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+gives it a musical element which its continental parallels
+lacked. The dividing line between alliteration and
+rhyme, and between antithesis and rhythm, is not a
+broad one<a name="FNanchor_80_80" href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a>. Indeed Pettie found it so narrow that he
+occasionally lapsed into metrical rhythm. And so,
+though we cannot say that euphuism is verse, we can
+say that it partakes of the nature of verse. In this
+endeavour to provide an adequate structure for the
+support of the mass of imagery that the taste of the
+age demanded, it showed itself superior to the rival
+prose fashions. <cite>Euphues</cite> is a model of form beside the
+tedious prolixity of the <cite>Arcadia</cite>, or the chaotic effusions
+of Nash. The weariness, which the modern reader feels
+for the romance of Lyly, is due rather to the excessive
+quantity of its metaphor, which was the fault of the age,
+than to its pedantic style.</p>
+
+<p>I write loosely of "style," but strictly speaking the
+euphuists paid especial attention to diction. And here
+again the poetical and aristocratic tendencies of euphuism
+show themselves. For diction, which is the art of
+selection, the selection of apt words, is of course one of
+the first essentials of poetic art, and is also more prominent
+in the prose of Court literature than elsewhere.
+The precision, the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">finesse</em>, the subtlety, of French prose
+has only been attained by centuries of attention to
+diction. English prose, on the other hand, is singularly
+lacking in this quality; and for this cause it would
+never have produced a Flaubert, despite its splendid
+achievements in style. Had euphuism been more successful,
+it might have altered the whole aspect of later
+English prose, by giving us in the 16th century that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+quality of diction which did not become prominent in
+our prose until the days of Pater and the purists.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, though it failed in this particular, the influence
+of the general qualities of its style upon later
+prose must have been incalculable. The vogue of
+euphuism as a craze was brief; but <cite>Euphues</cite> received
+fresh publication about once every three years down to
+1636, and long after its social popularity had become a
+thing of the past, it probably attracted the careful study
+of those who wished to write artistic prose. The only
+model of prose form which the age possessed could
+scarcely sink into oblivion, or become out of date, until
+its principal lessons had been so well learnt as to pass
+into common-places. The exaggerations, which first
+gave it fame, were probably discounted by the more
+sincere appreciation of later critics, to whom its more
+sterling qualities would appeal. For some reason, the
+musical properties of euphuism do not appear to have
+found favour among those critics, and this was probably
+a loss to our literature. "Alliteration," as Professor
+Raleigh remarks, "is often condemned as a flaw in
+rhymed verse, and it may well be open to question
+whether Lyly did not give it its true position in attempting
+to invent a place for it in what is called prose<a name="FNanchor_81_81" href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a>."
+Possibly its failure in this respect was due to the growth
+of that intellectual asceticism, and that reaction against
+the domination of poetry, which are, I think, intimately
+bound up with the fortunes of Puritanism. The beginning
+of this reaction is visible as early as 1589 in the
+words of Warner's preface to <cite>Albion's England</cite>, which
+display the very affectation they protest against: "onely
+this error may be thought hatching in our English, that
+to runne on the letter we often runne from the matter:
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+and being over prodigall in similes we become lesse
+profitable in sentences and more prolixious to sense."
+But, however this may be, it was the formal rather than
+the musical qualities which gave <cite>Euphues</cite> its dynamical
+importance in the history of English prose. Subsequent
+writers had much to learn from a book in which the
+principle of design is for the first time visible. With
+euphuism, antithesis and the use of balanced sentences
+came to stay. We may see them in the style of Johnson
+and Gibbon, while alliterative antithesis reappears to-day
+in the shape of the epigram. Doubtless Lyly abused
+the antithetical device; but his successors had only to
+discover a means of skilfully concealing the structure,
+an improvement which the early euphuists, with all the
+enthusiasm of inventors, could not have appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, in aiming at elegance and precision, Lyly
+attained a lucidity almost unequalled among his contemporaries.
+His attention to form saved him from
+the besetting sin of Elizabethan prose,&mdash;incoherence by
+reason of an overwhelming display of ornament. His
+very illustrations were subject to the restraint which his
+style demanded, being sown, to use his own metaphor,
+"here and there lyke Strawberries, not in heapes, lyke
+Hoppes<a name="FNanchor_82_82" href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a>." Arcadianism came as a reaction against
+euphuism, attempting to replace its artificiality by
+simplicity. But how infinitely more preferable is the
+novel of Lyly, with its artificial precision and lucidity,
+to the conscious artlessness of Sidney's <cite>Arcadia</cite>, with
+its interminable sentences and confused syntax. As a
+modern euphuist has taught us, of all poses the natural
+pose is the most irritating. In accordance with his
+desire for precision, Lyly made frequent use of the short
+sentence. In this we have another indication of his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+modernity: for the short sentence, which is so characteristic
+of English prose style to-day, occurs more often in
+his work than in the writings of any of his predecessors.
+And, in reference to the same question of lucidity, we
+may notice that he was the first writer who gave special
+attention to the separation of his prose into paragraphs,&mdash;a
+matter apparently trivial, but really of no small
+importance. Finally, it is a remarkable fact that the
+number of words to be found in <cite>Euphues</cite> which have
+since become obsolete is a very small one&mdash;"at most but
+a small fraction of one per cent.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a>" And this is in itself
+sufficient to indicate the influence which Lyly's novel
+has exerted upon English prose. As he reads it, no one
+can avoid being struck by the modernity of its language,
+an impression not to be obtained from a perusal of the
+plays. The explanation is simple enough. The plays
+were not read or absorbed by their author's contemporaries
+and successors; <cite>Euphues</cite> was. In the domain
+of style, <cite>Euphues</cite> was dynamical; the plays were not.</p>
+
+<p>But the true value of Lyly's prose lies not so much
+in what it achieved as in what it attempted; for the
+qualities, which euphuism, by its insistence upon design
+and elegance, really aimed at, were strength, brilliancy,
+and refinement. For the first time in the history of our
+literature, men are found to write prose with the purpose
+of fascinating and enticing the reader, not merely by
+what is said, but also by the manner of saying it.
+"Lyly" (and, we may add, his associates), writes his latest
+editor, "grasped the fact that in prose no less than in
+poetry, the reader demanded to be led onward by a
+succession of half imperceptible shocks of pleasure in
+the beauty and vigour of diction, or in the ingenuity
+of phrasing, in sentence after sentence&mdash;pleasure inseparable
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+from that caused by a perception of the nice
+adaptation of words to thought, pleasure quite other than
+that derivable from the acquisition of fresh knowledge<a name="FNanchor_84_84" href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a>."
+The direct influence of the man who first taught us this
+lesson, who showed us that a writer, to be successful,
+should seek not merely to express himself, but also to
+study the mind of his reader, must have been something
+quite beyond computation. And that his direct influence
+was not more lasting was due, in the first place, to the
+fact that he had not grasped the full significance of this
+psychological aspect of style, if we may so call it, which
+he and his friends had been the first to discover. As
+with most first attempts, euphuism, while bestowing
+immense benefits upon those who came after, was itself
+a failure. The euphuists perceived the problem of style,
+but successfully attacked only one half of it. More
+acute than their contemporaries, they realised the
+principle of economy, but, as with one who makes an
+entirely new mechanical invention, they were themselves
+unable to appreciate what their discovery would lead to.
+They were right in addressing themselves to the task
+of attracting, and stimulating, the reader by means of
+precision, pointed antithesis, and such like attempts
+to induce pleasurable mental sensations, but they forgot
+that anyone must eventually grow weary under the
+influence of continuous excitation without variation.
+The soft drops of rain pierce the hard marble, many
+strokes overthrow the tallest oak, and much monotony
+will tire the readiest reader. Or, to use the phraseology
+of a somewhat more recent scientist, they "considered
+only those causes of force in language which depend
+upon economy of the mental <em>energies</em>," they paid no
+attention to "those which depend upon the economy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+of the mental <em>sensibilities</em><a name="FNanchor_85_85" href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a>." This is one explanation
+of the weariness with which <cite>Euphues</cite> fills the modern
+reader, and of the speed with which, in spite of its
+priceless pioneer work, that book was superseded and
+forgotten in its own days. It is our duty to give it its
+full meed of recognition, but we can understand and
+forgive the ungratefulness of its contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>Another cause of the oblivion which so soon overtook
+the famous Elizabethan novel, has already been
+suggested. Euphuism was too antagonistic to the
+general current of English prose to be successful. Lyly
+and his Oxford clique were attempting a revolution
+similar to that undertaken, at the same period, by Ronsard
+and his <em>Pleiad</em>. Lyly failed in prose, where Ronsard
+succeeded in poetry, because he endeavoured to go back
+upon tradition, while the Frenchman worked strictly
+within its limits. The attempt to throw Court dress over
+the plain homespun of our English prose might have
+been attended with success, had our literature been
+younger and more easily led astray. As it was, prose in
+this country, when euphuism invaded it, could already
+show seven centuries of development, and, moreover,
+development along the broad and national lines of
+common or vulgar speech. Euphuism was after all only
+part of the general tendency of the age to focus everything
+that was good in politics, religion, and art, on the
+person and immediate surroundings of the sovereign;
+and the history of the eighteenth century, which saw the
+last issue of the series of <cite>Euphues</cite> reprints, is the history
+of the collapse of this centralization all along the line,
+ending in the complete vindication of the democratic
+basis of English life and literature.</p>
+
+<p>With these general remarks we must leave the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+subject of euphuism. No history of its origin and its influence
+can be completely satisfactory: such questions
+must of necessity receive a speculative and tentative
+solution, for it is impossible to give them an exact
+answer which admits of no dispute. The age of Lyly
+was far more complex than ours, with all our artistic
+sects and schisms; the currents of literary influence were
+multitudinous and extremely involved. As Symonds
+wrote, "The romantic art of the modern world did not
+spring like that of Greece from an ungarnered field of
+flowers. Troubled by reminiscences from the past and
+by reciprocal influences from one another, the literatures
+of modern Europe came into existence with composite
+dialects and obeyed confused canons of taste, exhibited
+their adolescent vigour with affected graces and showed
+themselves senile in their cradles." In the field of literature
+to-day the standards are more numerous, but
+more distinctive, than those of the Elizabethans. Our
+ideals are classified with almost scientific exactness, and
+we wear the labels proudly. But the very splendour of
+the Renaissance was due to the fact that in the same
+group, in the same artist, were to be found the most
+diverse ideals and the most opposite methods. They
+worshipped they knew not what, we know what we worship.
+Yet this difference does not prevent us from
+seeing curious points of similarity between our own and
+those times. The 16th, like the 19th century, was a
+period of revolt from the past: and at such moments
+men feel a supreme contempt for the common-place in
+literature. The cry of art for art's sake is raised, and
+the result is extravagance, euphuism. A wave of intellectual
+dandyism seems to sweep over the face of literature,
+aristocratic in its aims and sympathies. Then are
+the battle lines drawn up, and the spectators watch, with
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+admiration or contempt, the eternally recurrent strife
+between David and the Philistines; and whether the
+young hero be clad in the knee-breeches of aestheticism,
+or the slashed doublet of the courtier; whether he be
+armed with epigram and sunflower, or with euphuism
+and camomile; variation of costume cannot conceal the
+identity of his personality&mdash;the personality of the fop of
+culture.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER&nbsp;II.</a><br/>
+<span style="font-size: 80%">THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+Despite the disproportionate attention given to
+euphuism by so many of Lyly's critics, <cite>Euphues</cite> is no
+less important as a novel than as a piece of prose. We
+can, however, dismiss this second branch of our subject
+in fewer words, because the problem of <cite>Euphues</cite> is much
+simpler and more straightforward than the problem of
+euphuism. It can scarcely be said that Lyly has yet
+been thoroughly appreciated as a novelist; indeed, the
+whole subject of the Elizabethan novel is very far from
+having received a satisfactory treatment at present.
+This is not surprising when we consider that the last
+word remains to be said upon the Elizabethan drama.
+The birth of modern literature was so sudden, its life,
+even in the cradle, was so complex that it baffles criticism.
+Like the peal of an organ with a thousand stops,
+the English Renaissance seemed to break the stillness
+of the great mediaeval church, shaking its beautiful
+sombre walls and filling it from floor to roof with wild,
+pagan music. Indeed, the more we study those 50 or
+60 years which embrace the so-called Elizabethan period,
+the more are we struck by the fact that, ever since,
+we have been simply making variations upon the themes,
+which the men of those times gave us. Modern science,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+modern poetry, modern drama, sat like pages at the feet
+of the Great Queen. Among these the novel cut but an
+insignificant figure, although it was the novel which had
+perhaps the longest future before it. We need not
+wonder therefore that our first English novelist has been
+treated by many with neglect. None I think have done
+more to make amends in this direction than Professor
+Raleigh and M.&nbsp;Jusserand; the former in his graceful,
+humorous, and penetrating little book, <cite>The English
+Novel</cite>; and the latter in his well-known work on <cite>The
+English Novel in the time of Shakespeare</cite>, which gives
+one, while reading it, the feeling of being present at a
+fancy-dress ball, so skilfully does he detect the forms
+and faces of present-day fiction behind euphuistic mask
+and beneath arcadian costume. To these two books
+the present writer owes a debt which all must feel who
+have stood bewildered upon the threshold of Elizabeth's
+Court with its glittering throng of genius and wit.</p>
+
+<p>Sudden, however, as was this crop of warriors wielding
+pen, it must not be forgotten that the dragon's teeth
+had first been sown in mediaeval soil. With Lyly the
+English novel came into being, but that child of his
+genius was not without ancestry or relations. And so,
+before discussing the character and fortunes of the infant,
+let us devote a few introductory remarks to pedigree.
+Roughly speaking, the prose narrative in England,
+before <cite>Euphues</cite>, falls into three divisions, the romance of
+chivalry, the <em>novella</em>, and the moral Court treatise,&mdash;and
+all three are of foreign extraction, that is to say, they
+are represented in England by translations only. Chaucer
+indeed is a mine of material suitable for the novel, but
+the father of English literature elected to write in verse,
+and his <cite>Canterbury Tales</cite> have no appreciable influence
+upon the later prose story. For some reason, the mediaeval
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+prose narrative seems to have been confined to the
+so-called Celtic races. Certainly, both the romance of
+chivalry and the <em>novella</em> are to be traced back to French
+sources. The <em>novella</em>, which, at our period, had become
+thoroughly naturalized in Italy, under the auspices of
+Boccaccio, had originally sprung from the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fabliaux</em> of
+13th century France. Nor was the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fabliau</em> the only
+article of French production which found a new and
+more stimulative home across the Alps; for just as it is
+possible to trace the German Reformation back, through
+Huss, to its birth in Wycliff's England, so French critics
+have delighted to point out that the Italian Renaissance
+itself was but an expansion of an earlier Renaissance in
+France, which, for all the strength and maturity it
+gained under its new conditions, lost much of that
+indescribable flavour of direct simplicity and gracious
+sweetness which breathes from the pages of <cite>Aucassin
+and Nicolette</cite> and its companion <cite>Amis and Amile</cite>.
+Under Charles&nbsp;VIII. and his successors this Renaissance
+was carried home, as it were, to die&mdash;so subtle is the ebb
+and flow of intellectual influences between country and
+country. In England the <em>novella</em>, of which Chaucer had
+made ample use, first appeared in prose dress from the
+printing-press of Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de&nbsp;Worde.
+The Dutch printer had also published Lord Berners'
+translation of <cite>Huon of Bordeaux</cite>, the best romance of
+chivalry belonging to the Charlemagne cycle. But,
+before the dawn of the 16th century Malory had already
+given us <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Morte D'Arthur</cite>, from the Arthurian cycle,
+printed, as everyone knows, by the industrious Caxton
+himself. Thus, if we neglect, as I think we may, translations
+from the <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Gesta Romanorum</cite>, we may say that the
+prose narrative appeared in England simultaneously
+with the printing-press, a fact which is more than coincidence;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+since the multiplication of books, which Caxton
+began, decreased the necessity for remembering tales;
+and therefore it was now possible to dispense with the
+aid of verse; in fact Caxton deprived the minstrel of his
+occupation.</p>
+
+<p>Of the third form of prose narrative&mdash;the moral
+Court treatise&mdash;we have already said something. It had
+appeared in Italy and in Spain, and our connexion with
+it came from the latter country, through Berners' translation
+of the <cite>Golden Boke</cite> of Guevara. So slight was
+the thread of narrative running through this book, that
+one would imagine at first sight that it could have little
+to do with the history of our novel. And yet in comparison
+with its importance in this respect the <em>novella</em>
+and the romance of chivalry are quite insignificant.
+The two latter never indeed lost their popularity during
+the Elizabethan age, but they had ceased to be considered
+respectable&mdash;a very different thing&mdash;before that
+age began. The first cause of their fall in the social
+scale was the disapprobation of the humanists. Ascham,
+echoing Plato's condemnation of Homer, attacks the
+romance of chivalry from the moral point of view, at the
+same time cunningly associating it with "Papistrie."
+But he holds the <em>novella</em> even in greater abhorrence, for,
+after declaring that the whole pleasure of the <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Morte
+D'Arthur</cite> "standeth in two speciall poyntes, in open
+mans slaughter, and bold bawdrye," he goes on to say:
+"and yet ten <cite>Morte Arthurs</cite> do not a tenth part so much
+harm as one of those bookes, made in Italy and translated
+in England<a name="FNanchor_86_86" href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>But there were social as well as moral reasons for the
+depreciation of Malory and Boccaccio. The taste of the
+age began to find these foreign dishes, if not unpalatable,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+at least not sufficiently delicate. England was fortunate
+in receiving the Reformation and the Renaissance at the
+same time; and the men of those "spacious times" set
+before their eyes that ideal of the courtier, so exquisitely
+embodied by Sir Philip Sidney, in which godliness was
+not thought incompatible with refinement of culture and
+graciousness of bearing. For the first time our country
+became civilized in the full meaning of that word, and
+the knight, shedding the armour of barbarism, became
+the gentleman, clothed in velvet and silk. The romance
+of chivalry, therefore, became old-fashioned; and it
+seemed for a time doomed to destruction until it received
+a new lease of life, purged of mediaevalism and modernised
+by the hands of Sidney himself, under the guise of
+arcadianism. While, however, <cite>Arcadia</cite> remained an undiscovered
+country, the needs of the age were supplied
+by the "moral Court treatise." It was perhaps not so
+much that the old stories found little response in the
+new form of society, as that they did not reflect that
+society. We may well believe that the taste for mirrors,
+which now became so fashionable, found its psychological
+parallel in the desire of the Elizabethans to discover
+their own fashions, their own affectations, themselves,
+in the stories they read; and if this indeed be what is
+meant by realism in literature that quality in the novel
+dates from those days. In this sense if in no other, in
+the sense that he held, for the first time, a polished
+mirror before contemporary life and manners, Lyly must
+be called the first of English novelists.</p>
+
+<p><cite>The Anatomy of Wit</cite>, which it is most important to
+distinguish from its sequel, was the descendant in the
+direct line from the "moral Court treatise." Something
+perhaps of the atmosphere of the <em>novella</em> clung about its
+pages, but that was only to be expected: Lyly added
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+incident to the bare scheme of discourses, and for that
+he had no other models but the Italians. But Guevara
+was his real source. Dr Landmann's verdict, that
+"Euphuism is not only adapted from Guevara's <em lang="es" xml:lang="es">alto
+estilo</em>, but <cite>Euphues</cite> itself, as to its contents, is a mere
+imitation of Guevara's enlarged biography of Marcus
+Aurelius," has certainly been shown by Mr Bond to be
+a gross overstatement; yet there can be no doubt that
+the <cite>Diall of Princes</cite> was Lyly's model on the side of
+matter, as was Pettie's <cite>Pallace</cite> on the side of style. Our
+author's debt to the Spaniard is seen in a correspondence
+between many parts of his book and the <cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Aureo Libro</cite>, in
+certain of the concluding letters and discourses, and in
+many other ways which Mr Bond has patiently noted<a name="FNanchor_87_87" href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a>.
+Guevara, however, was but one among many previous
+writers to whom Lyly owed obligations. <cite>Euphues</cite> was
+justly styled by its author "compiled," being in fact
+a mosaic, pieced together from the classics, and especially
+Plutarch, Pliny, and Ovid, and from previous English
+writers such as Harrison, Heywood, Fortescue, and
+Gascoigne; names that indicate the course of literary
+"browsing" that Lyly substituted for the ordinary
+curriculum at Oxford. To mention all the authors from
+whom he borrowed, and to point out the portions of
+his novel which are due to their several influences,
+would only be to repeat a task already accomplished
+by Mr Bond<a name="FNanchor_88_88" href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Allowing for all its author's "picking and stealing,"
+<cite>The Anatomy of Wit</cite> was in the highest sense an original
+book; for, though it is the old moral treatise, its form is
+new, and it is enlivened by a thin thread of narrative.
+The hero Euphues is a young man lately come from
+Athens, which is unmistakeably Oxford, to Naples,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+which is just as unmistakeably London. Here he soon
+becomes the centre of a convivial circle, where he is wise
+enough to distinguish between friend and parasite, to
+discern the difference between the "faith of Laelius
+and the flattery of Aristippus." The story thus opens
+bravely, but the words of the title-page, "most necessary
+to remember," are ever present in the author's mind,
+and before we have reached the fourth page the sermon
+is upon us. For "conscience" attired as an old man,
+Eubulus, now enters the stage of this Court <em>morality</em> and
+proceeds to deliver a long harangue upon the folly of
+youth, concluding with much excellent though obvious
+counsel. We should be in sympathy with the rude
+answer of Euphues, were it but curt at the same time,
+but, alas, it covers six pages. Having thus imprudently
+crushed the "wisdom of eld" by the weight of his
+utterance, our hero shows his natural preference for the
+companionship and counsel of youth, by forming an
+ardent friendship with Philautus, of so close a nature,
+that "they used not only one boorde but one bed, one
+booke (if so be that they thought it not one too many)."
+This alliance, however, is not concluded until Euphues
+has given us his own views, together with those of half
+antiquity, upon the subject of friendship, or before he
+has formally professed his affection in a pompous address,
+beginning "Gentleman and friend," and has been
+as formally accepted. By Philautus he is introduced to
+Lucilla, the chief female character of the book, a lady,
+if we are to believe the description of her "Lilly cheeks
+dyed with a Vermilion red," of startling if somewhat
+factitious beauty. To say that the plot now thickens
+would be to use too coarse a word; it becomes slightly
+tinged with incident, inasmuch as Euphues falls in
+love with Lucilla, the destined bride of Philautus. She
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+reciprocates his passion, and the double fickleness of
+mistress and friend forms an excellent opportunity,
+which Lyly does not fail to seize, for infinite moralizings
+in euphuistic strains. Philautus is naturally indignant
+at the turn affairs have taken, and the former friends
+exchange letters of recrimination, in which, however,
+their embittered feelings are concealed beneath a vast
+display of classical learning. But Nemesis, swift and
+sudden, awaits the faithless Euphues. Lucilla, it turns
+out, is subject to a mild form of erotomania and is
+constitutionally fickle, so that before her new lover has
+begun to realise his bliss she has already contracted
+a passion for some other young gentleman. Thus,
+struck down in the hour of his pride and passion,
+Euphues becomes "a changed man," and bethinks himself
+of his soul, which he has so long neglected. This is
+the turning-point of the book, the turning-point of half
+the English novels written since Lyly's day. The
+remainder of the <cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite> is taken up with what
+may be described as the private papers of Euphues,
+consisting of letters, essays, and dialogues, including
+<cite>A Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers</cite>, a treatise on
+education, and a refutation of atheism, and so amid the
+thunders of the artillery of platitude the first part of
+<cite>Euphues</cite> closes.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Raleigh's explanation of this tedious
+moralizing is that Lyly, wit and euphuist, possessed
+the Nonconformist conscience: "Beneath the courtier's
+slashed doublet, under his ornate brocade and frills, there
+stood the Puritan." This I believe to be a mistaken
+view of the case. As we shall later see reason to suppose,
+Lyly never became, as did his acquaintance Gosson, a
+very seriously-minded person. Certainly <cite>Euphues</cite> does
+not prove that Puritanism was latent in him. The moral
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+atmosphere which pervades it was not of Lyly's invention;
+he inherited it from his predecessors Guevara
+and Castiglione, and he employed it because he knew
+that it was expected of him. That he moralized not so
+much from conviction as from convention (to use a
+euphuism), is, I think, sufficiently proved by the fact
+that in the second part of his novel, where he is addressing
+a new public, the pulpit strain is much less frequent,
+while in his plays it entirely disappears. The <cite>Anatomy
+of Wit</cite> is essentially the work of an inexperienced writer,
+feeling his way towards a public, and without sufficient
+skill or courage to dispense with the conventions which
+he has inherited from previous writers. One feels, while
+reading the book, that Lyly was himself conscious that
+his hero was an insufferable coxcomb, and that he only
+created him because he wished to comply with the
+public taste. It may be, as M.&nbsp;Jusserand asserts, that
+Lyly anticipated Richardson, but, if the light-hearted
+Oxford madcap had any qualities in common with the
+sedate bookseller, artistic sincerity was not one of them.</p>
+
+<p>What has just been said is not entirely applicable to
+the treatise on education which passed under the title of
+<cite>Euphues and his Ephoebus</cite>. Although simply an adaptation
+of the <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">De Educatione</cite> of Plutarch, it was not entirely
+devoid of originality. Here we find the famous attack
+upon Oxford, which was, we fear, prompted by a desire
+to spite the University authorities rather than by any
+earnest feeling of moral condemnation. But in addition
+to this there are contributions of Lyly's own invention
+to the theory of teaching which are not without merit.
+He was, as we have seen, interested in education. It
+seems even possible that he had actually practised as
+a master before the <cite>Euphues</cite> saw light<a name="FNanchor_89_89" href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a>; and, therefore,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+we have every reason to suppose that this little treatise
+was a labour of love. Possibly Ascham's <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>
+inspired him with the idea of writing it. Certainly, when
+we have allowed everything for Plutarch's work, enough
+remains over to justify Mr Quick's inclusion of John
+Lyly, side by side with Roger Ascham, in his <cite>Educational
+Reformers</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>But such excellent work has but little to do with the
+business of novel-writing, and, when we turn to this
+aspect of the <cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite>, there is little to be said
+for it from the aesthetic point of view. Indeed, it cannot
+strictly be called a novel at all. It is the bridge between
+the moral Court treatise and the novel, and, as such, all
+its aesthetic defects matter little in comparison with its
+dynamical value. It was a great step to hang the chestnuts
+of discourse upon a string of incident. The story
+is feeble, the plot puerile, but it was something to have
+a story and a plot which dealt with contemporary life.
+And lastly, though characterization is not even attempted,
+yet now and again these euphuistic puppets, distinguishable
+only by their labels, are inspired with something
+that is almost life by a phrase or a chance word.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that it is very important to distinguish
+between the two parts of <cite>Euphues</cite>. Two years only
+elapsed between their respective publications, but in
+these two years Lyly, and with him our novel, had
+made great strides. In 1578 he was not yet a novelist,
+though the conception of the novel and the capacity for
+its creation were, as we have just shown, already forming
+in his brain. In 1580, however, the English novel had
+ceased to be merely potential; for it had come into being
+with the appearance of <cite>Euphues and his England</cite>. Here
+in the same writer, in the same book, and within the
+space of two years, we may observe one of the most
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+momentous changes of modern literature in actual process.
+The <cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite> is still the moral Court
+treatise, coloured by the influence of the Italian <em>novella</em>;
+<cite>Euphues and his England</cite> is the first English novel.
+Lyly unconsciously symbolizes the change he initiated
+by laying the scene of his first part in Italy, while in
+the second he brings his hero to England. That sea
+voyage, which provoked the stomach of Philautus sore,
+was an important one for us, since the freight of the
+vessel was nothing less than our English novel.</p>
+
+<p>The difference between the two parts is remarkable
+in more ways than one, and in none more so than in the
+change of dedication. The <cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite>, as was
+only fitting in a moral Court treatise, was inscribed to
+the gentleman readers; <cite>Euphues and his England</cite>, on the
+other hand, made an appeal to a very different class of
+readers, and a class which had hitherto been neglected
+by authors&mdash;"the ladies and gentlewomen of England."
+With the instinct, almost, of a religious reformer, Lyly
+saw that to succeed he must enlist the ladies on his side.
+And the experiment was so successful that I am inclined
+to attribute the pre-eminence of Lyly among other
+euphuists to this fact alone. "Hatch the egges his
+friendes had laid" he certainly did, but he fed the
+chicks upon a patent food of his own invention.
+Mr Bond suggests that the general attention which the
+<cite>Anatomy</cite> secured by its attacks upon women gave Lyly
+the idea for the second part. But, though this was probably
+the immediate cause of his change of front, something
+like <cite>Euphues and his England</cite> must have come
+sooner or later, because all the conditions were ripe for
+its production. Side by side with the ideal of the
+courtier had arisen the ideal of the cultured lady.
+Ascham, visiting Lady Jane Grey, "founde her in her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+chamber reading <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Phaedon Platonis</cite> in Greeke and that
+with as much delite, as some gentlemen would read a
+merie tale in Bocase<a name="FNanchor_90_90" href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a>"; and, when a Queen came to the
+throne who could talk Greek at Cambridge, the fashion
+of learning for ladies must have received an immense
+impetus. With a "blue stocking" showing on the royal
+footstool, all the ladies of the Court would at least lay
+claim to a certain amount of learning. Dr Landmann
+has attributed the vogue of euphuism, at least in part, to
+feminine influences, but in so far as England shared that
+affectation with the other Courts of Europe, where the
+fair sex had not yet acquired such freedom as in England,
+we must not press the point too much in this direction.
+The importance in English literature of that "monstrous
+regiment of women," against which John Knox blew his
+rude trumpet so shamelessly, is seen not so much in the
+style of <cite>Euphues</cite> as in its contents; indeed, in the second
+part of that work euphuism is much less prominent than
+in the first. The romance of chivalry and the Italian
+tale would be still more distasteful to the new woman
+than they were to the new courtier. Doubtless Boccaccio
+may have found a place in many a lady's secret bookshelf
+as Zola and Guy de&nbsp;Maupassant do perchance to-day,
+but he was scarcely suitable for the boudoir table
+or for polite literary discussion. Something was needed
+which would appeal at once to the feminine taste for
+learning and to the desire for delicacy and refinement.
+This want was only partially supplied by the moral
+Court treatise, which was ostensibly written for the
+courtier and not the maid-in-waiting. What was required
+was a book expressly provided for the eye of
+ladies&mdash;such a book, in fact, as <cite>Euphues and his England</cite>.
+Lyly's discovery of this new literary public and its
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+requirements was of great importance, for have not the
+ladies ever since his day been the patrons and purchasers
+of the novel? What would happen to the literary market
+to-day were our mothers, wives, and sisters to deny themselves
+the pleasure of fiction? The very question would
+send the blood from Mr Mudie's lips. The two thousand
+and odd novels which are published annually in this
+country show the existence of a large leisured class in
+our community, and this class is undoubtedly the feminine
+one. The novel, therefore, owes not only its birth,
+but its continued existence down to our own day, to the
+"ladies and gentlewomen of England"; and this dedication
+may be taken as a general one for all novels
+since Lyly's time. "<cite>Euphues</cite>," he writes, "had rather lye
+shut in a Ladye's casket than open in a scholar's studie,"
+and he continues, "after dinner you may overlooke him
+to keepe you from sleepe, or if you be heavie, to bring
+you to sleepe &hellip; it were better to hold <cite>Euphues</cite> in your
+hands though you let him fall, when you be willing to
+winke, then to sowe in a clout, and pricke your fingers
+when you begin to nod<a name="FNanchor_91_91" href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a>." "With <cite>Euphues</cite>," remarks
+M. Jusserand, "commences in England the literature of
+the drawing-room<a name="FNanchor_92_92" href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a>"; and the literature of the drawing-room
+is to all intents and purposes the novel.</p>
+
+<p>All the faults of its predecessor are present in <cite>Euphues
+and his England</cite>, but they are not so conspicuous. The
+euphuistic garb and the mantle of the prophet Guevara
+sit more lightly upon our author. In every way his
+movements are freer and bolder; having gained confidence
+by his first success, he now dares to be original.
+The story becomes at times quite interesting, even for
+a modern reader. At its opening Euphues and Philautus,
+who have come to terms on a basis of common condemnation
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+of Lucilla, are discovered on their way to
+England. By way of enlivening the weary hours, our
+hero, ever ready to play the preacher now that he has
+ceased to be the warning, delivers himself of a lengthy,
+but highly edifying tale, which evokes the impatient
+exclamation of Philautus already quoted; we may however
+notice as a sign of progress that Euphues has
+substituted a moral narrative for his usual discourse.
+The relations between the two friends have become
+distinctly amusing, and might, in abler hands, have
+resulted in comic situation. Euphues, having learnt the
+lesson of the burnt child, is now a very grave person,
+proud of his own experience and of its fruits in himself.
+Extremes met,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Where pinched ascetic and red sensualist<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Alternately recurrent freeze and burn,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">and it is interesting to note that Euphues embodies
+many of the characteristics of the Byronic hero&mdash;his
+sententiousness, his misogyny, his cynicism born of disillusionment,
+and his rhetorical flatulency; but he is no
+rebel like Manfred because he finds consolation in his
+own pre-eminence in a world of platitude. Conscious
+of his dearly bought wisdom, he makes it his continuous
+duty, if not pleasure, to rebuke the over-amorous
+Philautus, who was at least human, and to enlarge upon
+the infidelity of the opposite sex. Lyly failed to realise
+the possibilities of this antagonism of character, because
+he always appears to be in sympathy with his hero, and
+so misses an opportunity which would have delighted
+the heart of Thackeray. I say "appears," because I
+consider that this sympathy was nothing but a pose
+which he considered necessary for the popularity of his
+book. It is important however to observe that the idea
+of one character as a foil to another, though undeveloped,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+is here present for the first time in our national
+prose story.</p>
+
+<p>The tale ended and the voyage over, our friends
+arrive in England, where after stopping at Dover "3 or
+4 days, until they had digested ye seas, and recovered
+their healths," they proceeded to Canterbury, at which
+place they fell in with an old man named Fidus, who
+gave them entertainment for body and mind. To those
+who have conscientiously read the whole history of
+Euphues up to this point, the incident of Fidus will
+appear immensely refreshing. It seems to me, in fact,
+to mark the highest point of Lyly's skill as a novelist,
+doubtless because he is here drawing upon his memory<a name="FNanchor_93_93" href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a>
+and not his imagination. The old gentleman, very
+different from his prototype Eubulus, moves quite
+humanly among his bees and flowers, and tells the
+graceful story of his love with a charm that is almost
+natural. And, although he checks the action of the
+story for thirty-three pages, we are sorry to take leave
+of this "fatherlye and friendlye sire"; for he lays for
+a time the ghost of homily, which reappears directly
+his guests begin to "forme their steppes towards
+London." Having reached the Court, in due time
+Philautus, in accordance with the prophecies of Euphues
+though much to his disgust, falls in love. The lady of
+his choice, however, has unfortunately given her heart
+to another, by name Surius. The despondent lover,
+after applying in vain to an Italian magician for a love-philtre,
+at length determines to adopt the bolder line of
+writing to his scornful lady. The letter is conveyed in
+a pomegranate, and the incident of its presentation is
+prettily conceived and displays a certain amount of
+dramatic power. The upshot is that Philautus eventually
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+finds a maiden who is unattached and who is ready to
+return love for love. Her he marries, and remains
+behind with "his Violet" in England, while Euphues,
+less happy than self-satisfied, returns to Athens. The
+interest of the latter half of the book centres round the
+house of Lady Flavia, where the principal characters
+of both sexes meet together and discuss the philosophy
+of love and the psychology of ladies. Such intellectual
+gatherings were a recognised institution at Florence at
+this time, being an imitation of Plato's symposium, and
+Lyly had already attempted, not so successfully as here,
+to describe one in the house of Lucilla of the <cite>Anatomy
+of Wit</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>In every way <cite>Euphues and his England</cite> is an improvement
+upon its predecessor. The story and plot
+are still weak, but the situations are often well thought
+out and treated with dramatic effect. The action indeed
+is slow, but it moves; and in the story of Fidus it
+moves comparatively quickly. Such motion of course
+can scarcely ruffle the mental waters of those accustomed
+to the breathless whirlwinds which form the
+heart of George Meredith's novels; but these whirlwinds
+are as directly traceable to the gentle but fitful agitation
+of <cite>Euphues</cite>, as was the storm that overtook Ahab's
+chariot to the little cloud undiscerned by the prophet's
+eye. The figures, again, that move in Lyly's second
+novel are no longer clothes filled with moral sawdust.
+The character of Philautus is especially well drawn,
+though at times blurred and indistinct. Lyly had not
+yet passed the stage of creating types, that is of portraying
+one aspect and an obvious one of such a
+complex thing as human nature. But a criticism which
+would be applicable to Dickens is no condemnation of
+an Elizabethan pioneer. It was much to have attempted
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+characterization, and in the case of Philautus, Iffida,
+Camilla, and perhaps "the Violet" the attempt was
+nearly if not quite successful. It is noticeable that for
+one who was afterwards to become a writer of comedy,
+Lyly shows a remarkable absence of humour in these
+novels. Now and again we seem trembling on the
+brink of humour, when the young wiseacre is brought
+into contact with his weak-hearted friend, but the line
+is seldom actually crossed. Wit, as Lyly here understood
+it, had nothing of the risible in it; for it meant
+to him little more than a graceful handling of obvious
+themes.</p>
+
+<p>But the importance of <cite>Euphues</cite> was in its influence,
+not in its actual achievement. And here again we must
+reassert the significance of Lyly's appeal to women.
+"That noble faculty," as Macaulay expresses it, "whereby
+man is able to live in the past and in the future in the
+distant and in the unreal," is rarely found in the opposite
+sex. They delight in novelty, their minds are of a practical
+cast, and their interests almost invariably lie in the
+present. The names of Jane Austen, George Eliot, and
+Mrs Humphry Ward are sufficient to show how entirely
+successful a woman may be in delineating the life around
+her. If there is any truth in this generalization, it was
+no mere coincidence that the first English romance
+dealing with contemporary life was written expressly for
+the ladies of Elizabeth's Court. The alteration in the
+face of social life, brought about by the recognition of
+the feminine claim and hastened no doubt by the fact
+that England, Scotland, and France were at this period
+under the rule of three ladies of strong character, was
+inevitably attended with great changes in literature.
+This change is first expressed by Lyly in his second
+novel and later in his dramas. The mediaeval conception
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+of women, a masculine conception, now underwent
+feminine correction; and what is perhaps of more importance
+still, the conception of man undergoes transformation
+also. The result is that the centre of gravity
+of the story is now shifted. Of old it had treated of
+deeds and glorious prowess for the sake of honour, or
+more often for the sake of some anaemic damsel; now
+it deals with the passion itself and not its knightly
+manifestations,&mdash;with the very feelings and hearts of the
+lovers. In other words under the auspices of Elizabeth
+and her maids of honour, the English story becomes
+subjective, feminine, its scene is shifted from the battlefield
+and the lists to the lady's boudoir; it becomes a
+novel. "We change lance and war-horse, for walking-sword
+and pumps and silk stockings. We forget the
+filletted brows and wind-blown hair, the zone, the flowing
+robe, the sandalled or buskined feet, and feel the dawning
+empire of the fan, the glove, the high-heeled shoe,
+the bonnet, the petticoat, and the parasol<a name="FNanchor_94_94" href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a>": in fact we
+enter into the modern world. At the first expression of
+this change in literature <cite>Euphues and his England</cite> is of
+the very greatest interest. Characters in fiction now for
+the first time move before a background of everyday
+life and discuss matters of everyday importance. And,
+as if Lyly wished to leave no doubt as to his aims and
+methods, he gives at the conclusion of his book that interesting
+description of Elizabethan England entitled
+<cite>A glasse for Europe</cite>.</p>
+
+<p>It is however in Lyly's treatment of the subject of
+love that the change is most conspicuous. The subtleties
+of passion are now realised for the first time. We are
+shown the private emotions, the secret alternations of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+hope and despair which agitate the breasts of man and
+maid, and, more important still, we find these emotions
+at work under the restraint of social conditions; the
+violent torrent of passion checked and confined by the
+demands of etiquette and the conventions of aristocratic
+life. The relation between these unwritten laws of our
+social constitution and the impetuous ardour of the lover,
+has formed the main theme of our modern love stories
+in the novel and on the stage. In the days of chivalry,
+when love ran wild in the woods, woman was the passive
+object either of hunt or of rescue; but the scene of battle
+being shifted to the boudoir she can demand her own
+conditions with the result that the game becomes infinitely
+more refined and intricate. Persons of both
+sexes, outwardly at peace but inwardly armed to the
+teeth, meet together in some lady's house to discuss the
+subject so dangerous to both, and conversation conditioned
+by this fact inevitably becomes subtle, allusive,
+intense; for it derives its light and shade from the flicker
+of that fire which the company finds such a perilous
+fascination in playing with. Lyly's work does not exhibit
+quite such modernity as this, but we may truthfully
+say that his <cite>Euphues and his England</cite> is the psychological
+novel in germ.</p>
+
+<p>Its latent possibilities were however not perceived by
+the writers of the 16th century. The style which had in
+part won popularity for it so speedily was the cause also
+of its equally speedy decline. Like a fossil in the stratum
+of euphuism it was soon covered up by the artificial layer
+of arcadianism. The novel of Sidney, though its loose and
+meandering style marked a reaction against euphuism,
+carried on the Lylian tradition in its appeal to ladies.
+The <cite>Arcadia</cite>, in no way so modern as the <cite>Euphues</cite>, lies
+for that very reason more directly in the line of development<a name="FNanchor_95_95" href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a>;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+for, while the former is linked by the heroical
+romance of the seventeenth century to the romance
+of this day, the latter's influence is not visible until
+the eighteenth century, if we except its immediate
+Elizabethan imitators. And yet, as we remarked of
+Lyly's prose, a book which received so many editions
+cannot have been entirely without effect upon the minds
+of its readers and upon the literature of the age. This
+influence, however, could have been little more than
+suggestive and indirect, and it is quite impossible to
+determine its value. Its importance for us lies in the
+fact that we can realise how it anticipated the novel of
+the 18th and 19th centuries. Not until the days of
+Richardson is it possible to detect a Lylian flavour in
+English fiction; and even here it would be risky to
+insist too pointedly on any inference that might be
+drawn from the coincidence of an abridged form of
+<cite>Euphues</cite> being republished (after almost a century's
+oblivion) twenty years before the appearance of <cite>Pamela</cite>.
+A direct literary connexion between Lyly and Richardson
+seems out of the question: and the utmost we can
+say with certainty is that the novel of the latter, in providing
+moral food for its own generation, relieved the
+18th century reader of the necessity of going back to
+the Elizabethan writer for the entertainment he desired.
+As a novelist, therefore, Lyly was only of secondary
+dynamical importance, by which I mean that, although
+we can rest assured that he exercised a considerable
+influence upon later writers, we cannot actually trace
+this influence at work; we cannot in fact point to Lyly
+as the first of a <em>definite</em> series. The novel like its style
+coloured, but did not deflect, the stream of English
+literature. And indeed we may say this not only of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+<cite>Euphues</cite> but of Elizabethan fiction as a whole. The
+public to which a 16th century novel would appeal was
+a small one. Few people in those days could read, and
+of these the majority preferred to read poetry; and
+though, as we have seen, <cite>Euphues</cite> passed through, for
+the age, a considerable number of editions, the circle of
+those who appreciated Lyly, Sidney, and Nash must
+have been for the most part confined to the Court. And
+this accounts for the brevity of their popularity and for
+its intensity while it lasted; a phenomenon which is not
+seen in the drama, and which is due to the susceptibility
+of Court life to sudden changes of fashion. Drama was
+the natural form of literature in an age when most people
+were illiterate and yet when all were eager for literary
+entertainment. Drama was therefore the main current
+of artistic production, the prose novel being quite a
+minor, almost an insignificant, tributary. Realising then
+the inevitable limitations which surrounded our English
+fiction at its birth we can understand its infantile
+imperfections and the subsequent arrest of its development.</p>
+
+<p>"The novel held in Elizabeth's time very much the
+same place as was held by the drama at the Restoration;
+it was an essentially aristocratic entertainment, and the
+same pitfall waylaid both, the pitfall of artificiality.
+Dryden's audiences and the readers of <cite>Euphues</cite> both
+sought for better bread than is made of wheat; both
+were supplied with what satisfied them in an elaborate
+confection of husks<a name="FNanchor_96_96" href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a>."</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER&nbsp;III.</a><br/>
+<span style="font-size: 80%">LYLY THE DRAMATIST.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+So far we have been dealing with those of Lyly's
+writings, which, though they are his most famous, form
+quite a small section of his work, and exerted an influence
+upon later writers which may have been considerable but
+was certainly indirect. His plays on the other hand, in the
+production of which he spent the better part of his life,
+greatly outweigh his novel both in aesthetic and historical
+importance. To attempt to estimate Lyly's position as
+a novelist and as a prose writer is to chase the will-o'-the-wisp
+of theory over the morass of uncertainty; the task
+of investigating his comedies is altogether simpler and
+more straightforward. After groping our way through
+the undergrowth of minor literature, we come out upon
+the great highway of Elizabethan art&mdash;the drama. Let
+us first see how Lyly himself came to tread this same
+pathway.</p>
+
+<p>There is a difference of opinion between Mr Bond
+and Mr Baker, our chief authorities, as to the order in
+which Lyly wrote his plays<a name="FNanchor_97_97" href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a>. But though Mr Baker
+claims priority for <cite>Endymion</cite>, and Mr Bond for <cite>Campaspe</cite>,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+both are convinced that our author was already in 1580
+beginning to look to the stage as a larger arena for his
+artistic genius than the novel. And from what I have
+said of his life at Oxford and his connexion with de&nbsp;Vere,
+we need not be surprised that this was so. It would be
+well however at this juncture to recapitulate, and in part
+to expand those remarks, in order to show more clearly
+how Lyly's dramatic bent was formed. Seats of learning,
+as we shall see presently, had long before the days of
+Lyly favoured the comic muse, and Oxford was no
+exception to this rule. Anthony &agrave; Wood tells us how
+Richard Edwardes in 1566 produced at that University
+his play <cite>Palamon and Arcite</cite>, and how her Majesty
+"laughed heartily thereat and gave the author great
+thanks for his pains"; a scene which would still be fresh
+in men's minds five years after, when Lyly entered
+Magdalen College. But it is scarcely necessary to stretch
+a point here since we know from the <cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite>
+that Lyly was a student of Edwardes' comedies<a name="FNanchor_98_98" href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a>. Again,
+William Gager, Pettie's "dear friend" and Lyly's fellow-student,
+was a dramatist, while Gosson himself tells us
+of comedies which he had written before 1577.</p>
+
+<p>Probably however it was not until he had left Oxford
+for London that Lyly conceived the idea of writing
+comedy, for we must attribute its original suggestion
+to his friend and employer the Earl of Oxford. Edward
+de&nbsp;Vere, Burleigh's son-in-law, had visited Italy, and
+affected the vices and artificialities of that country,
+returning home, we are told, laden with silks and oriental
+stuffs for the adornment of his chamber and his person.
+He was frequently in debt and still more frequently in
+disgrace with the Queen and with his father-in-law.
+Dilettante, aesthete, and euphuist, he would naturally
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+attract the Oxford fop, and that Lyly attached himself
+to his clique disposes, in my mind at least, of all theories
+of his puritanical tendencies. Certainly a Nonconformist
+conscience could not have flourished in de&nbsp;Vere's household.
+One bond between the Earl and his secretary was
+their love of music&mdash;an art which played an important
+part in the beginning of our comedy.</p>
+
+<p>In relieving the action of his plays by those songs
+of woodland beauty unmatched in literature Shakespeare
+was only following a custom set by his predecessors,
+Udall, Edwardes, and Lyly, who being schoolmasters
+(and the two latter being musicians and holding positions
+in choir schools), embroidered their comedies with lyrics
+to be sung by the fresh young voices of their pupils.
+De Vere, though unconnected with a school, probably
+followed the same tradition. For the interesting thing
+about him is that he also wrote comedy. Like many
+members of the nobility in those days he maintained his
+own company of players; and we find them in 1581
+giving performances at Cambridge and Ipswich. His
+comedies, moreover, though now lost were placed in the
+same rank as those of Edwardes by the Elizabethan
+critic Puttenham<a name="FNanchor_99_99" href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a>. Now as secretary of such a man, and
+therefore in close intimacy with him, it would be the
+most natural thing in the world for Lyly to try his hand
+at play-writing, and, if his patron approved of his efforts,
+an introduction to Court could be procured, since Oxford
+was Lord High Chamberlain, and the play would be
+acted. It was to Oxford's patronage, therefore, and
+not to his subsequent connexion with the "children of
+Powles," that Lyly owed his first dramatic impulse, and
+probably also his first dramatic success, for <cite>Campaspe</cite>
+and <cite>Sapho</cite> were produced at Court in 1582<a name="FNanchor_100_100" href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a>. His
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+appointment at the choir school of course confirmed his
+resolutions and thus he became the first great Elizabethan
+dramatist.</p>
+
+<p>But a purely circumstantial explanation of an important
+departure in a man's life will only appear satisfactory
+to fatalists who worship the blind god Environment.
+And without indulging in any abstruse psychological
+discussion, but rather looking at the question from
+a general point of view, we can understand how an
+intellect of Lyly's type, as revealed by the <cite>Euphues</cite>,
+found its ultimate expression in comedy. Comedy, as
+Meredith tells us, is only possible in a civilized society,
+"where ideas are current and the perceptions quick."
+We have already touched upon this point and later we
+must return to it again; but for the moment let us
+notice that this idea of comedy, though he would have
+been quite unable to formulate it in words, was in reality
+at the back of Lyly's mind, or rather we should perhaps
+say that he quite unconsciously embodied it. He was
+<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">par excellence</em> the product of a "social" atmosphere; he
+moved more freely within the Court than without; his
+whole mind was absorbed by the subtleties of language;
+a brilliant conversation, an apt repartee, a well-turned
+phrase were the very breath of his nostrils; his ideal
+was the intellectual beau. Add to this compound the
+ingredient of literary ambition and the result is a comic
+dramatist. Lyly, Congreve, Sheridan, were all men
+of fashion first and writers of comedy after. In the
+author of <cite>Lady Windermere's Fan</cite> we have lately seen
+another example&mdash;the example of one whose ambition
+was to be "the first well-dressed philosopher in the
+history of thought." Poems, novels, fairy stories, he
+gave us, but it was on the stage of comedy that he
+eventually found his true <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">m&eacute;tier</em>. "With <cite>Euphues</cite>,"
+writes Mr Bond, "we enter the path which leads to the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+Restoration dramatists &hellip; and in Lucilla and Camilla
+we are prescient of Millamant and Belinda<a name="FNanchor_101_101" href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a>." This is
+very true, but the statement has a nearer application
+which Mr Bond misses. Camilla is the lady who moves
+under varied names through all Lyly's plays. The
+second part of <cite>Euphues</cite> and the first of Lyly's comedies
+are as closely connected psychologically and aesthetically,
+as they were in point of time.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_III_I">Section&nbsp;I.</a></span> <i>English Comedy before 1580.</i></h3>
+
+<p>But when Lyly's creations began to walk the boards,
+the English stage was already some centuries old and
+therefore, in order to appreciate our author's position,
+a few words are necessary upon the development of
+our drama and especially of comedy previous to his
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Though the <em>miracle</em> play of our forefathers frequently
+contained a species of coarse humour usually put into
+the mouth of the Devil, who appears to have been for
+the middle ages very much what the "comic muse" is
+for us moderns, it is to the <em>morality</em> not to the <em>miracle</em>
+that one should look for the real beginnings of comedy
+as distinct from mere buffoonery.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>morality</em> was not so much an offshoot as a complement
+of the <em>miracle</em>. They stood to each other, as
+sermon does to service. To say therefore that the
+<em>morality</em> secularized the drama is to go too far; as well
+might we say that Luther secularized Christianity.
+What it did, however, was important enough; it severed
+the connexion between drama and ritual. The <em>miracle</em>,
+treating of the history of mankind from the Creation to
+the days of Christ, unfolded before the eyes of its
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+audience the grand scheme of human salvation; the
+<em>morality</em> on the other hand was not concerned with
+historical so much as practical Christianity. Its object
+was to point a moral: and it did this in two ways;
+either as an affirmative, constructive inculcator of what
+life should be,&mdash;as the portrayer of the ideal; or as
+a negative, critical describer of the types of life actually
+existing,&mdash;as the portrayer of the real. It approached
+more nearly to comedy in its latter function, but in both
+aspects it really prepared the way for the comic muse.
+The natural prey of comedy, as our greatest comic
+writer has taught us, is folly, "known to it in all her
+transformations, in every disguise; and it is with the
+springing delight of hawk over heron, hound after fox,
+that it gives her chase, never fretting, never tiring, sure
+of having her, allowing her no rest." Thus it is that
+characters in comedy, symbolizing as they often do some
+social folly, tend to be rather types than personalities.
+The <em>morality</em>, therefore, in substituting typical figures,
+however crude, for the mechanical religious characters of
+the <em>miracle</em>, makes an immense advance towards comedy.
+Moreover, the very selection of types requires an appreciation,
+if not an analysis, of the differences of human
+character, an appreciation for which there was no need
+in the <em>miracle</em>. In the <em>morality</em> again the action is no
+longer determined by tradition, and it becomes incumbent
+on the playwright to provide motives for the movements
+of his puppets. It follows naturally from this
+that situations must be devised to show up the particular
+quality which each type symbolizes. We need not
+enter the vexed question of the origin of plot construction;
+but we may notice in this connexion that the
+<em>morality</em> certainly gave us that peculiar form of plot-movement
+which is most suitable to comedy. To quote
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+Mr Gayley's words: "In tragedy, the movement must
+be economic of its ups and downs; once headed downwards
+it must plunge, with but one or two vain recovers,
+to the abyss. In comedy, on the other hand, though the
+movement is ultimately upward, the crises are more
+numerous; the oftener the individual stumbles without
+breaking his neck, and the more varied his discomfitures,
+so long as they are temporary, the better does he
+enjoy his ease in the cool of the day.&hellip; Now the
+novelty of the plot in the <em>moral</em> play, lay in the fact that
+the movement was of this oscillating, upward kind&mdash;a
+kind unknown as a rule to the <em>miracle</em>, whose conditions
+were less fluid, and to the farce, which was too shallow
+and superficial<a name="FNanchor_102_102" href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>If all these claims be justifiable there can be no
+doubt that the <em>morality</em> was of the utmost importance
+in the history not only of comedy but of English
+drama as a whole. Though it was the cousin, not the
+child of the <em>miracle</em>, though it cannot be said to have
+secularized our drama, it is the link between the ritual
+play and the play of pure amusement; it connects the
+rood gallery with the London theatre. When Symonds
+writes that the <em>morality</em> "can hardly be said to lie in
+the direct line of evolution between the <em>miracle</em> and the
+legitimate drama" we may in part agree with him; but
+he is quite wrong when he goes on to describe it as "an
+abortive side-effect, which was destined to bear barren
+fruit<a name="FNanchor_103_103" href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a>."</p>
+
+<p>The real secularization of the drama was in the first
+place probably due to classical influences&mdash;or, to be
+more precise, I should perhaps say, scholastic influences&mdash;and
+it is not until the 16th century that these influences
+become prominent. I say "become prominent,"
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+because Terence and Plautus were known from the
+earliest times, and Dr Ward is inclined to think that
+Latin comedy affected the earlier drama of England to
+a considerable extent<a name="FNanchor_104_104" href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a>, although good examples of
+Terentian comedy are not found until the 16th century.
+Humanism again comes forward as an important
+literary formative element. The part which the student
+class took in the development of European drama as a
+whole has as yet scarcely been appreciated. It is to
+scholars that the birth of the secular Drama must be
+attributed. Lyly, as we said, made use of his mastership
+for the production of his plays, but Lyly was by
+no means the first schoolmaster-dramatist. Schools and
+universities had long before his day been productive of
+drama; our very earliest existing saints' play or <em>marvel</em>
+was produced by a certain Geoffrey at Dunstable, "de
+consuetudine magistrorum et scholarum<a name="FNanchor_105_105" href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a>." And this
+was only natural, seeing that at such places any number
+of actors is available and all are supposed to be interested
+in literature. It is a remarkable fact, however,
+and illustrative of the connexion between comedy and
+music, that of all places of education choir schools
+seem to have usurped the lion's share of drama. John
+Heywood, the first to break away from the tradition of
+the <em>morality</em>, was a choir boy of the Chapel Royal, and
+afterwards in all probability held a post there as
+master<a name="FNanchor_106_106" href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a>. Heywood's brilliant, but farcical interludes
+are too slight to merit the title of comedy, yet he is
+of great importance because of his rejection of allegories
+and of his use of "personal types" instead of "personified
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+abstractions<a name="FNanchor_107_107" href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a>." It was not until 1540, a few years after
+Heywood's interlude <cite>The Play of the Wether</cite>, that pure
+English comedy appears, and we must turn to Eton to
+discover its cradle, for Nicholas Udall's <cite>Roister Doister</cite>
+has every claim to rank as the first completely constructed
+comedy in our language&mdash;the first comedy of
+flesh and blood. Roister smacks of the "miles gloriosus";
+Merygreeke combines the vice with the Terentian rogue;
+and yet, when all is said, Udall's play remains a remarkably
+original production, realistic and English.</p>
+
+<p>Next, in point of time and importance, comes
+Stevenson's <cite>Gammer Gurton's Needle</cite>, still more
+thoroughly English than the last, though quite inferior
+as a comedy, and indeed scarcely rising above the level
+of farce. Inasmuch, however, as it is a drama of English
+rustic life, it is directly antecedent to <cite>Mother Bombie</cite>,
+and perhaps also to the picaresque novel. Secular
+dramas now began to multiply apace. But keeping our
+eye upon comedy, and upon Lyly in particular as we
+near the date of his advent, it will be sufficient I think
+to mention two more names to complete the chain of
+development. From Cambridge, the nurse of Stevenson,
+we must now turn to Oxford; and, as we do so, we seem
+to be drawing very close to the end of our journey.
+Thus far we have had nothing like the romantic comedy&mdash;the
+comedy of sentiment, of love, the comedy which
+is at once serious and witty, and which contains the
+elements of tragedy. This appears, or is at least foreshadowed
+for the first time, about four years after
+Stevenson's "first-rate screaming farce," as Symonds
+has dubbed it, in the <cite>Damon and Pithias</cite> of Richard
+Edwardes, a writer with whom, as we have seen, Lyly
+was thoroughly familiar. Indeed, the play in question
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+anticipates our author in many ways, for example in
+the introduction of pages, in the use of English proverbs
+and Latin quotations, and in the insertion of songs<a name="FNanchor_108_108" href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a>.
+With reference to the last point, we may remark that
+Edwardes like Lyly was interested in music, and like
+him also held a post in a choir school, being one of the
+"gentlemen of the Chapel Royal." In the <cite>Damon and
+Pithias</cite> the old <em>morality</em> is once and for all discarded.
+The play is entirely free from all allegorical elements,
+and is only faintly tinged with didacticism. But we
+cannot express the aim of Edwardes better than in his
+own words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"In comedies the greatest skyll is this, lightly to touch<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">All thynges to the quick; and eke to frame each person so<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">To touch lightly and yet with penetration, to reveal
+character by dialogue, this is indeed to write modern
+drama, modern comedy.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that between Edwardes and Lyly
+there was no room for another link, so closely does the
+one follow the other; and yet one more play must be
+mentioned to complete the series. This time we are
+no longer brought into touch with the classics or with
+the scholastic influences, for the play in question is a
+translation from the Italian, being in fact Ariosto's
+<cite lang="it" xml:lang="it">Suppositi</cite>, englished by George Gascoigne<a name="FNanchor_109_109" href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a>. Though
+a translation it was more than a transcript; it was
+englished in the true sense of that word, in sentiment
+as well as in phrase. Its chief importance lies in the
+fact that it is written in prose, and is therefore the first
+prose comedy in our language. But Mr Gayley would
+go further than this, for he describes it as "the first
+English comedy in every way worthy of the name."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+It was written entirely for amusement, and for the
+amusement of adults, not of children; and if it were
+the only product of Gascoigne's pen it would justify the
+remark of an early 17th century critic, who says of this
+writer that he "brake the ice for our quainter poets who
+now write, that they may more safely swim through the
+main ocean of sweet poesy"; for, to quote a modern
+writer, "with the blood of the New comedy, the Latin
+comedy, the Renaissance in its veins, it is far ahead
+of its English contemporaries, if not of its time<a name="FNanchor_110_110" href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a>." The
+play was well known and popular among the Elizabethans,
+being revived at Oxford in 1582<a name="FNanchor_111_111" href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a>. Shakespeare
+used it for the construction of his <cite>Taming of the Shrew</cite>:
+and altogether it is difficult to say how much Elizabethan
+drama probably owed to this one comedy, which though
+Italian in origin was carefully adapted to English taste
+by its translator. There can be no doubt that Lyly
+studied this among other of Gascoigne's works, and that
+he must have learnt many lessons from it, though the
+fact does not appear to have been sufficiently appreciated
+by Lylian students; for even Mr Bond fails, I
+think, to realise its importance.</p>
+
+<p>This, in brief outline, is the history of our comedy
+down to the time when Lyly took it in hand; or should
+we not rather say "an introduction to the history of our
+comedy"? For true English comedy is not to be found
+in any of the plays we have mentioned. Heywood,
+Udall, Stevenson, Edwardes, are the names that convey
+"broken lights" of comedy, hints of the dawn, nothing
+more; and Gascoigne was a translator. The supreme
+importance of a writer, who at this juncture produced
+eight comedies of sustained merit, and of varying types,
+is something which is quite beyond computation. But
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+if we are to attempt to realise the greatness of our debt
+to Lyly, let us estimate exactly how much these previous
+efforts had done in the way of pioneer work, and how far
+also they fell short of comedy in the strict sense of that
+word.</p>
+
+<p>The fifty years which lie between Heywood and Lyly
+saw considerable progress, but progress of a negative
+rather than a constructive nature, and moreover progress
+which came in fits and starts, and not continuously. It
+was in fact a period of transition and of individual and
+disconnected experiments. Each of the writers above
+mentioned contributed something towards the common
+development, but not one of them, except Ariosto's
+translator, gave us comedy which may be considered
+complete in every way. They all display a very
+elementary knowledge of plot construction. Udall is
+perhaps the most successful in this respect; his plot is
+trivial but, well versed as he is in Terence, he manages
+to give it an ordered and natural development. But the
+other pre-Lylian dramatists quite failed to realise the
+vital importance of plot, which is indeed the very essence
+of comedy; and, in expending energies upon the development
+of an argument, as in <cite>Jacke Jugeler</cite>, which was a
+parody of transubstantiation, or upon the construction
+of disconnected humorous situations, as in <cite>Gammer
+Gurton's Needle</cite>, they missed the whole point of comedy.
+Again, though there is a clear idea of distinction and
+interplay of characters, there is little perception of the
+necessity of developing character as the plot moves
+forward. Merygreeke, it may be objected, is an example
+of such development, but the alteration in Merygreeke's
+nature is due to inconsistency, not to evolution. Moreover,
+stage conventions had not yet become a matter of
+fixed tradition. "We have a perpetual conflict between
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+what spectators actually see and what they are supposed
+to see, between the time actually passed and that supposed
+to have elapsed; an outrageous demand on the
+imagination in one place, a refusal to exercise or allow
+us to exercise it in another<a name="FNanchor_112_112" href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a>." Further, English comedy
+before 1580 was marked, on the one hand, by its poetic
+literary form and, on the other, by its almost complete
+absence of poetic ideas. Lyly, with the instinct of a
+born conversationalist, realised that prose was the only
+possible dress for comedy that should seek to represent
+contemporary life. But even in their use of verse his
+predecessors were unsuccessful. Udall seemed to have
+thought that his unequal dogtail lines would wag if he
+struck a rhyme at the end, and even Edwardes was little
+better. The use of blank verse had yet to be discovered,
+and Lyly was to have a hand in this matter also<a name="FNanchor_113_113" href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a>. As
+for poetical treatment of comedy, Edwardes is the only
+one who even approaches it. He does so, because he
+sees that the comic muse only ceases to be a mask when
+sentiment is allowed to play over her features. And
+even he only half perceives it; for the sentiment of
+friendship is not strong enough for complete animation,
+the muse's eyes may twinkle, but passion alone will give
+them depth and let the soul shine through. But, in
+order that passion should fill comedy with the breath
+of life, it was necessary that both sexes should walk the
+stage on an equal footing. That which comedy before
+1580 lacked, that which alone could round it off into a
+poetic whole, was the female element. "Comedy," writes
+George Meredith, "lifts women to a station offering
+them free play for their wit, as they usually show it,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+when they have it, on the side of sound sense. The
+higher the comedy, the more prominent the part they
+enjoy in it." But the dramatist cannot lift them far;
+the civilized plane must lie only just beneath the comic
+plane; the stage cannot be lighted by woman's wit if
+the audience have not yet realised that brain forms
+a part of the feminine organism. In the days of Elizabeth
+this realisation began to dawn in men's minds; but
+it was Lyly who first expressed it in literature, in his
+novel and then in his dramas. Those who preceded
+him were only dimly conscious of it, and therefore they
+failed to seize upon it as material for art. It was at
+Court, the Court of a great virgin Queen, that the
+equality of social privileges for women was first established;
+it was a courtier who introduced heroines into
+our drama.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_III_II">Section&nbsp;II.</a></span> <i>The Eight Plays.</i></h3>
+
+<p>Concerning the order of Lyly's plays there is, as we
+have seen, some difference of opinion. The discussion
+between Mr Bond and Mr Baker in reality turns upon
+the interpretation of the allegory of <cite>Endymion</cite>, and it is
+therefore one of those questions of literary probability
+which can never hope to receive a satisfactory answer.
+Both critics, however, are in agreement as to the proper
+method of classification. They divide the dramas into
+four categories: historical, of which <cite>Campaspe</cite> is the sole
+example; allegorical, which includes <cite>Sapho and Phao</cite>,
+<cite>Endymion</cite>, and <cite>Midas</cite>; pastoral, which includes <cite>Gallathea</cite>,
+<cite>The Woman in the Moon</cite>, and <cite>Love's Metamorphosis</cite>; and
+lastly realistic, of which again there is only one example,
+<cite>Mother Bombie</cite>. The fault which may be found with this
+classification is that the so-called pastoral plays have
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+much of the allegorical about them, and it is perhaps
+better, therefore, to consider them rather as a subdivision
+of class two than as a distinct species.</p>
+
+<p>For the moment putting on one side all questions of
+the allegory of <cite>Endymion</cite>, there are two reasons which
+seem to go a long way towards justifying Mr Bond for
+placing <cite>Campaspe</cite> as the earliest of Lyly's plays. In the
+first place the atmosphere of <cite>Euphues</cite>, which becomes
+weaker in the other plays, is so unmistakeable in this
+historical drama as to force the conclusion upon us that
+they belong to the same period. The painter Apelles,
+whose name seemed almost to obsess Lyly in his novel,
+is one of the chief characters of <cite>Campaspe</cite>, and the
+dialogue is more decidedly euphuistic than any other
+play. The second point we may notice is one which can
+leave very little doubt as to the correctness of Mr Bond's
+chronology. <cite>Campaspe</cite> and <cite>Sapho</cite> were published before
+1585, that is, before Lyly accepted the mastership at the
+St Paul's choir school, whereas none of his other plays
+came into the printer's hands until after the inhibition of
+the boys' acting rights in 1591; the obvious inference
+being that Lyly printed his plays only when he had no
+interest in preserving the acting rights.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever date we assign to <cite>Campaspe</cite>, there can
+be little doubt that it was one of the first dramas in our
+language with an historical background. Indeed, <cite>Kynge
+Johan</cite> is the only play before 1580 which can claim to
+rival it in this respect. But <cite>Kynge Johan</cite> was written
+solely for the purpose of religious satire, being an attack
+upon the priesthood and Church abuses. It must, therefore,
+be classed among those political <em>moralities</em>, of which
+so many examples appeared during the early part of the
+16th century. <cite>Campaspe</cite>, on the other hand, is entirely
+devoid of any ethical or satirical motive. Allegory,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+which Lyly was able to put to his own peculiar uses,
+is here quite absent. The sole aim of its author was to
+provide amusement, and in this respect it must have
+been entirely successful. The play is interesting, and at
+times amusing, even to a modern reader; but to those
+who witnessed its performance at Blackfriars, and, two
+years later, at the Court, it would appear as a marvel of
+wit and dramatic power after the crude material which
+had hitherto been offered to them. In the choice of his
+subject Lyly shows at once that he is an artist with a
+feeling for beauty, even if he seldom rises to its sublimities.
+The story of the play, taken from Pliny, is that of
+Alexander's love for his Theban captive Campaspe, and
+of his subsequent self-sacrifice in giving her up to her
+lover Apelles. The social change, which I have sought
+to indicate in the preceding pages, is at once evident in
+this play. "We calling Alexander from his grave," says
+its Prologue<a name="FNanchor_114_114" href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a>, "seeke only who was his love"; and the
+remark is a sweep of the hat to the ladies of the Court,
+whose importance, as an integral part of the audience, is
+now for the first time openly acknowledged. "Alexander,
+the great conqueror of the world," says Lyly with his
+hand upon his heart, "only interests me as a lover."
+The whole motive of the play, which would have been
+meaningless to a mediaeval audience, is a compliment to
+the ladies. It is as if our author nets Mars with Venus,
+and presents the shamefaced god as an offering of flattery
+to the Queen and her Court. <cite>Campaspe</cite> is, in fact, the
+first romantic drama, not only the forerunner of Shakespeare,
+but a remote ancestor of <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Hernani</cite> and the 19th
+century French theatre. "The play's defect," says
+Mr Bond, "is one of passion"&mdash;a criticism which is
+applicable to all Lyly's dramas; and yet we must not
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+forget that Lyly was the earliest to deal with passion
+dramatically. The love of Alexander is certainly unemotional,
+not to say callous; but possibly the great
+monarch's equanimity was a veiled tribute to the supposed
+indifference of the virgin Queen to all matters of
+Cupid's trade. Between Campaspe and Apelles, however,
+we have scenes which are imbued, if not vitalized,
+by passion. Lyly was a beginner, and his fault lay in
+attempting too much. Caring more for brilliancy of
+dialogue than for anything else, he was no more likely
+to be successful here, in portraying passion through conversation
+weighted by euphuism, than he had been in his
+novel. Yet his endeavour to depict the conflict of masculine
+passion with feminine wit, impatient sallies neatly
+parried, deliberate lunges quietly turned aside, was in
+every way praiseworthy. "A witte apt to conceive and
+quickest to answer" is attributed by Alexander to Campaspe,
+and, though she exhibits few signs of it, yet in his
+very idea of endowing women with wit Lyly leads us on
+to the high-road of comedy leading to Congreve.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the romantic elements above described,
+we have here also that page-prattle which is so characteristic
+of all Lyly's plays. These urchins, full of mischief
+and delighting in quips, were probably borrowed from
+Edwardes, but Lyly made them all his own; and one
+can understand how naturally their parts would be played
+by his boy-actors. Their repartee, when it is not pulling
+to pieces some Latin quotation familiar to them at school,
+or ridiculing a point of logic, is often really witty. One
+of them, overhearing the hungry Manes at strife with
+Diogenes over the matter of an overdue dinner, exclaims
+to his friend, "This is their use, nowe do they dine one
+upon another." Diogenes again, in whom we may see
+the prototype of Shakespeare's Timon, is amusing enough
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+at times with his "dogged" snarlings and sallies which
+frequently however miss their mark. He and the pages
+form an underplot of farce, upon which Lyly improved
+in his later plays, bringing it also more into connexion
+with the main plot. In passing, we may notice that few
+of Shakespeare's plays are without this farcical substratum.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the question of dramatic construction and
+characterization for a more general treatment later, we
+now pass on to the consideration of Lyly's allegorical
+plays. The absence of all allegory from <cite>Campaspe</cite> shows
+that Lyly had broken with the <em>morality</em>: and we seem
+therefore to be going back, when two years later we have
+an allegorical play from his pen. But in reality there is
+no retrogression; for with Lyly allegory is not an ethical
+instrument. I have mentioned examples of plays before
+his day which employed the machinery of the <em>morality</em>,
+for the purposes of political and religious satire. The
+old form of drama seems to have developed a keen
+sensibility to <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">double entendre</em> among theatre-goers.
+Nothing indeed is so remarkable about the Elizabethan
+stage as the secret understanding which almost invariably
+existed between the dramatist and his audience.
+We have already had occasion to notice it in connexion
+with Field's parody of Kyd. The spectators were always
+on the alert to detect some veiled reference to prominent
+political figures or to current affairs. Often in fact, as
+was natural, they would discover hints where nothing
+was implied; and for one Mrs Gallup in modern America
+there must have been a dozen in every auditorium of
+Elizabethan England. Such over-clever busybodies
+would readily twist an innocent remark into treason or
+sacrilege, and therefore, long before Lyly's time, it was
+customary for a playwright to defend himself in the prologue
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+against such treatment, by denying any ambiguity
+in his dialogue. In an audience thus susceptible to
+innuendo Lyly saw his opportunity. He was a courtier
+writing for the Court, he was also, let us add, anxious to
+obtain a certain coveted post at the Revels' Office. He
+was an artist not entirely without ideals, yet ever ready
+to curry favour and to aim at material advantages by
+his literary facility. The idea therefore of writing dramas
+which should be, from beginning to end, nothing but an
+ingenious compliment to his royal mistress would not be
+in the least distasteful to him. But we must not attribute
+too much to motives of personal ambition. Spenser's
+<cite>Faery Queen</cite> was not published until 1590; but Lyly
+had known Spenser before the latter's departure for
+Ireland, and, even if the scheme of that poet's masterpiece
+had not been confided to him, the ideas which it
+contained were in the air. The cult of Elizabeth, which
+was far from being a piece of insincere adulation, had
+for some time past been growing into a kind of literary
+religion. Even to us, there is something magical about
+the great Queen, and we can hardly be surprised that the
+pagans of those days hailed her as half divine. When
+Lyly commenced his career, she had been on the throne
+for twenty years, in itself a wonderful fact to those who
+could remember the gloom which had surrounded her
+accession. Through a period of infinite danger both at
+home and abroad she had guided England with intrepidity
+and success; and furthermore she had done
+all this single-handed, refusing to share her throne with
+a partner even for the sake of protection, and yet improving
+upon the Habsburg policy<a name="FNanchor_115_115" href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> by making coquetry
+the pivot of her diplomacy. It was no wonder therefore
+that,</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"As the imperial votaress passed on<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In maiden meditation fancy free,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">the courtiers she fondled, and the artists she patronized,
+should half in fancy, half in earnest, think of her as
+something more than human, and search the fables of
+their newly discovered classics for examples of enthroned
+chastity and unconquerable virgin queens.</p>
+
+<p>All Lyly's plays except <cite>Campaspe</cite> and <cite>Mother Bombie</cite>
+are written in this vein; each, as Symonds beautifully
+puts it, is "a censer of exquisitely chased silver, full of
+incense to be tossed before Elizabeth upon her throne."
+In the three plays <cite>Sapho and Phao</cite>, <cite>Endymion</cite>, and
+<cite>Midas</cite> this element of flattery is more prominent than
+in the others, inasmuch as they are not only full of compliments
+unmistakeably directed towards the Queen, but
+they actually seek to depict incidents from her reign
+under the guise of classical mythology. It is for this
+reason that they have been classified under the label of
+allegory. It is quite possible, however, to read and enjoy
+these plays without a suspicion of any inner meaning;
+nor does the absence of such suspicion render the action
+of the play in any way unintelligible, so skilfully does
+Lyly manipulate his story. With a view, therefore, to
+his position in the history of Elizabethan drama, and to
+the lessons which he taught those who came after him,
+the superficial interpretation of each play is all that need
+engage our attention, and we shall content ourselves
+with briefly indicating the actual incident which it
+symbolizes.</p>
+
+<p>The story of <cite>Sapho and Phao</cite> is, very shortly, as
+follows. Phao, a poor ferryman, is endowed by Venus
+with the gift of beauty. Sapho, who in Lyly's hands
+is stripped of all poetical attributes and becomes simply
+a great Queen of Sicily, sees him and instantly falls in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+love with him. To conceal her passion, she pretends to
+her ladies that she has a fever, at the same time sending
+for Phao, who is rumoured to have herbs for such complaints.
+Meanwhile Venus herself falls a victim to the
+charms she has bestowed upon the ferryman. Cupid is
+therefore called in to remedy matters on her behalf.
+The boy, who plays a part which no one can fail to
+compare with that of Puck in the <cite>Midsummer Night's
+Dream</cite>, succeeds in curing Sapho's passion, but, much to
+his mother's disgust, won over by the Queen's attractions,
+refuses to go further, and even inspires Phao with a
+loathing for the goddess. The play ends with Phao's
+departure from Sicily in despair, and Cupid's definite
+rebellion from the rule of Venus, resulting in his remaining
+with Sapho. In this story, which is practically
+a creation of Lyly's brain, though of course it is founded
+upon the classical tale of Sapho's love for Phao, our
+playwright presents under the form of allegory the
+history of Alen&ccedil;on's courtship of Elizabeth. Sapho,
+Queen of Sicily, is of course Elizabeth, Queen of England.
+The difficulty of Alen&ccedil;on's (that is Phao's) ugliness is
+overcome by the device of making it love's task to
+confer beauty upon him. Phao like Alen&ccedil;on quits the
+island and its Queen in despair; while the play is
+rounded off by the pretty compliment of representing
+love as a willing captive in Elizabeth's Court.</p>
+
+<p>As a play <cite>Sapho and Phao</cite> shows a distinct advance
+upon <cite>Campaspe</cite>. The dialogue is less euphuistic, and
+therefore much more effective. The conversation between
+Sapho and Phao, in the scene where the latter
+comes with his herbs to cure the Queen, is very charming,
+and well expresses the passion which the one is too
+humble and the other too proud to show.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> I know no hearb to make lovers sleepe but
+Heartesease, which because it groweth
+so high, I cannot reach: for&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> For whom?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> For such as love.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> It groweth very low, and I can never stoop
+to it, that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> That what?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> That I may gather it: but why doe you
+sigh so, Phao?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> It is mine use Madame.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> It will doe you harme and mee too: for I
+never heare one sighe, but I must sigh't
+also.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> It were best then that your Ladyship give
+me leave to be gone: for I can but sigh.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> Nay stay: for now I beginne to sighe, I
+shall not leave though you be gone.
+But what do you thinke best for your
+sighing to take it away?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> Yew, Madame.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> Mee?</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> No, Madame, yewe of the tree.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sapho.</span> Then will I love yewe the better, and
+indeed I think it should make me sleepe
+too, therefore all other simples set aside,
+I will simply use onely yewe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phao.</span> Doe Madame: for I think nothing in the
+world so good as yewe<a name="FNanchor_116_116" href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Altogether there is a great increase in general vitality
+in this play. Lyly draws nearer to the conception of
+ideal comedy. "Our interest," he tells us in his Prologue,
+"was at this time to move inward delight not
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+outward lightnesse, and to breede (if it might be) soft
+smiling, not loud laughing"; and to this end he tends
+to minimize the purely farcical element. The pages are
+still present, but they are balanced by a group of
+Sapho's maids-in-waiting who discuss the subject of love
+upon the stage with great frankness and charm. Mileta,
+the leader of this chorus, is, we may suspect, a portrait
+drawn from life; she is certainly much more convincing
+than the somewhat shadowy Campaspe. The figures in
+Lyly's studio are limited in number&mdash;Camilla, Lucilla,
+Campaspe, Mileta, all come from the same mould: in
+Pandion we may discover Euphues under a new name,
+and the surly Vulcan is only another edition of the
+"crabbed Diogenes." And yet each of these types
+becomes more life-like as he proceeds, and if the puppets
+that he left to his successors were not yet human, they
+had learnt to walk the stage without that angularity of
+movement and jerkiness of speech which betray the
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>Departing for a moment from the strictly chronological
+order, and leaving <cite>Gallathea</cite> for later treatment,
+we pass on to <cite>Endymion</cite>, the second of the allegorical
+dramas, and, without doubt, the boldest in conception
+and the most beautiful in execution of all Lyly's plays.
+The story is founded upon the classical fable of Diana's
+kiss to the sleeping boy, but its arrangement and development
+are for the most part of Lyly's invention:
+indeed, he was obliged to frame it in accordance with
+the facts which he sought to allegorize. All critics are
+agreed in identifying Cynthia with Elizabeth and Endymion
+with Leicester, but they part company upon the
+interpretation of the play as a whole. The story is
+briefly as follows. Endymion, forsaking his former love
+Tellus, contracts an ardent passion for Cynthia, who, in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+accordance with her character as moon-goddess, meets
+his advances with coolness. Tellus determines to be
+revenged, and, by the aid of a sorceress Dipsas, sends
+the youth into a deep sleep from which no one can
+awaken him. Cynthia learns what has befallen, and
+although she does not suspect Tellus, she orders the
+latter to be shut up in a castle for speaking maliciously
+of Endymion. She then sends Eumenides, the young
+man's great friend, to seek out a remedy. This man is
+deeply in love with Semele, who scorns his passion, and
+therefore, when he reaches a magic fountain which will
+answer any question put to it, he is so absorbed with his
+own troubles as almost to forget those of his friend.
+A carefully thought-out piece of writing follows, for he
+debates with himself whether to use his one question for
+an enquiry about his love or his sleeping friend. Friendship
+and duty conquer at length, and, looking into the
+well, he discovers that the remedy for Endymion's sickness
+is a kiss from Cynthia's lips. He returns with his
+message, the kiss is given, Endymion, grown old after
+40 years' sleep, is restored to youth, the treachery of
+Tellus is discovered and eventually forgiven, and the
+play ends amid a peal of marriage bells. Endymion,
+however, is left unmarried, knowing as he does that
+lowly and distant worship is all he can be allowed to
+offer the virgin goddess. The play, of course, has a
+farcical underplot which is only connected very slightly
+with the main story by Sir Tophas' ridiculous passion
+for Dipsas. His love in fact is presented as a kind of
+caricature of Endymion's, and he is the laughing-stock
+of a number of pages who gambol and play pranks after
+the usual manner of Lyly's boys. The solution of the
+allegory lies mainly in the interpretation of Tellus'
+character, and I cannot but agree with Mr Bond when
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+he decides that Tellus is Mary Queen of Scots. He is
+perhaps less convincing where he pairs Endymion with
+Sidney, and Semele with Penelope Devereux, the famous
+<cite>Stella</cite>. Lastly we may notice his suggestion that Tophas
+may be Gabriel Harvey, which certainly appears to be
+more probable than Halpin's theory that Stephen Gosson
+is here meant<a name="FNanchor_117_117" href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a>. But the whole question is one of such
+obscurity, and of so little importance from the point of
+view of my argument, that I shall not attempt to enter
+further into it.</p>
+
+<p>In <cite>Endymion</cite> Lyly shows that his mastership of
+St Paul's has increased his knowledge of stage-craft.
+For example, while <cite>Campaspe</cite> contains at least four
+imaginary transfers in space in the middle of a scene,
+<cite>Endymion</cite> has only one: and it is a transfer which
+requires a much smaller stretch of imagination than
+the constant appearance of Diogenes' tub upon the
+stage whenever and wherever comic relief was considered
+necessary. There is improvement moreover in
+characterization. But the interesting thing about this
+play is Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of it, visible
+chiefly in the <cite>Midsummer Night's Dream</cite>. The well-known
+speech of Oberon to Puck, directing him to
+gather the "little western flower," is to all intents and
+purposes a beautiful condensation of Lyly's allegory.
+One would like, indeed, to think that there was something
+more than fancy in Mr Gollancz's suggestion that
+Shakespeare when a boy had seen this play of Lyly's
+acted at Kenilworth, where Leicester entertained Elizabeth;
+little William going thither with his father from
+the neighbouring town of Stratford. But however that
+may be, <cite>Endymion</cite> certainly had a peculiar fascination
+for him; we may even detect borrowings from the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+underplot. Tophas' enumeration of the charms of
+Dipsas<a name="FNanchor_118_118" href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> foreshadows Thisbe's speech over the fallen
+Pyramus<a name="FNanchor_119_119" href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a>, while, did we not know Lyly's play to be the
+earlier, we might suspect the page's song near the sleeping
+knight to be a clumsy caricature of the graceful
+songs of the fairies guarding Titania's dreams. Again
+there are parallels in Shakespeare's earliest comedy
+<cite>Love's Labour's Lost</cite>. Sir Tophas, who is undoubtedly
+modelled upon Roister Doister, reappears with his page,
+as Armado with his attendant Moth. And I have no
+doubt that many other resemblances might be discovered
+by careful investigation. We cannot wonder
+that <cite>Endymion</cite> attracted Shakespeare, for it is the
+most "romantic" of all Lyly's plays. Indistinctness of
+character seems to be in keeping with an allegory of
+moonshine; and even the mechanical action cannot
+spoil the poetical atmosphere which pervades the whole.
+Here if anywhere Lyly reached the poetical plane. He
+speaks of "thoughts stitched to the starres," of "time
+that treadeth all things down but truth," of the "ivy
+which, though it climb up by the elme, can never get
+hold of the beames of the sunne," and the play is full of
+many other quaint poetical conceits.</p>
+
+<p>From the point of view of drama, however, it cannot
+be considered equal to the third of the allegorical plays.
+As a man of fashion Lyly was nothing if not up to date.
+In August 1588 the great Armada had made its abortive
+attack upon Cynthia's kingdom, and twelve months were
+scarcely gone before the industrious Court dramatist had
+written and produced on the stage an allegorical satire
+upon his Catholic Majesty Philip, King of Spain. Though
+it contains compliments to Elizabeth, <cite>Midas</cite> is more of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+a patriotic than a purely Court play. The story, with
+but a few necessary alterations, comes from Ovid's
+<cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Metamorphoses</cite><a name="FNanchor_120_120" href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a>. It is the old tale of the three wishes.
+Love, power, and wealth are offered, and Midas chooses
+the last. But he soon finds that the gift of turning
+everything to gold has its drawbacks. Even his beard
+accidentally becomes bullion. He eventually gets rid
+of his obnoxious power by bathing in a river. The
+fault of the play is that there are, as it were, two sections;
+for now we are introduced to an entirely new situation.
+The King chances upon Apollo and Pan engaged in a
+musical contest, and, asked to decide between them,
+gives his verdict for the goat-foot god. Apollo, in
+revenge, endows him with a pair of ass's ears. For
+some time he manages to conceal them; but "murder
+will out," for the reeds breathe the secret to the wind.
+Midas in the end seeks pardon at Apollo's shrine, and is
+relieved of his ears. At the same time he abandons his
+project of invading the neighbouring island of Lesbos,
+to which continual references are made throughout the
+play. This island is of course England; the golden
+touch refers to the wealth of Spanish America, while,
+if Halpin be correct, Pan and Apollo signify the Catholic
+and the Protestant faith respectively. We may also notice,
+in passing, that the ears obviously gave Shakespeare the
+idea of Bottom's "transfiguration."</p>
+
+<p>The weakness of the play, as I have said, lies in its
+duality of action. In other respects, however, it is certainly
+a great advance on its predecessors, especially in
+its underplot, which is for the first time connected satisfactorily
+with the main argument. Motto, the royal
+barber, in the course of his duties, obtains possession
+of the golden beard: and the history of this somewhat
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+unusual form of treasure affords a certain amount of
+amusing farcical relief. It is stolen by one of the Court
+pages, Motto recovers it as a reward for curing the thief's
+toothache, but he loses it again because, being overheard
+hinting at the ass's ears, he is convicted of treason by
+the pages, and is blackmailed in consequence. From
+this it will be seen that the underplot is more embroidered
+with incident and is, in every way, better arranged
+than in the earlier plays.</p>
+
+<p>We must now turn to the pastoral plays, <cite>Gallathea</cite>,
+<cite>The Woman in the Moon</cite>, and <cite>Love's Metamorphosis</cite>,
+which we may consider together since their stories,
+uninspired by any allegorical purpose beyond general
+compliments to the Queen, do not require any detailed
+consideration. And yet it should be pointed out that
+this distinction between Lyly's allegorical and pastoral
+plays is more apparent than real. There are shepherds
+in <cite>Midas</cite>, the Queen appears under the mythological
+title of Ceres in <cite>Love's Metamorphosis</cite>. Such overlapping
+however is only to be expected, and the division is at
+least very convenient for purposes of classification.
+Lyly's pastoral plays form, as it were, a link between
+the drama and the masque; indeed, when we consider
+that all the Elizabethan dramatists were students of
+Lyly, it is possible that comedy and masque may have
+been evolved from the Lylian mythological play by a
+process of differentiation. It may be that our author
+increased the pastoral element as the arcadian fashion
+came into vogue, but this argument does not hold of
+<cite>Gallathea</cite>, while we are uncertain as to the date of <cite>Love's
+Metamorphosis</cite>. None of these plays are worth considering
+in detail, but each has its own particular point of
+interest. In <cite>Gallathea</cite> this is the introduction of girls
+in boys' clothes. As far as I know, Lyly is the first to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+use the convenient dramatic device of disguise. How
+effective a trick it was, is proved by the manner in which
+later dramatists, and in particular Shakespeare, adopted
+it. Its full significance cannot be appreciated by us to-day,
+for the whole point of it was that the actors, who
+appeared as girls dressed up as boys, were, as the audience
+knew, really boys themselves; a fact which doubtless
+increased the funniness of the situation. <cite>The Woman in
+the Moon</cite> gives us a man disguised in his wife's clothes,
+which is a variation of the same trick. But the importance
+of <cite>The Woman</cite> lies in its poetical form. Most
+Elizabethan scholars have decided that this play was
+Lyly's first dramatic effort, on the authority of the
+Prologue, which bids the audience</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Remember all is but a poet's dream,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The first he had in Phoebus' holy bower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But not the last, unless the first displease."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But the maturity and strength of the drama argue a
+fairly considerable experience in its author, and we shall
+therefore be probably more correct if we place it last instead
+of first of Lyly's plays, interpreting the words of
+the Prologue as simply implying that it was Lyly's first
+experiment in blank verse, inspired possibly by the
+example of Marlowe in <cite>Tamburlaine</cite> and of Shakespeare
+in <cite>Love's Labour's Lost</cite><a name="FNanchor_121_121" href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a>. But, whatever its date, <cite>The
+Woman in the Moon</cite> must rank among the earliest
+examples of blank verse in our language, and, as such,
+its importance is very great. In <cite>Love's Metamorphosis</cite>
+there is nothing of interest equal to those points we have
+noticed in the other two plays of the same class. The
+only remarkable thing, indeed, about it is the absence of
+that farcical under-current which appears in all his other
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+plays. Mr Bond suggests, with great plausibility, that
+such an element had originally appeared, but that, because
+it dealt with dangerous questions of the time,
+perhaps with the <cite>Marprelate</cite> controversy, it was expunged.</p>
+
+<p>It now remains to say a few words upon <cite>Mother
+Bombie</cite>, which forms the fourth division of Lyly's
+dramatic writings. Though it presents many points
+of similarity in detail to his other plays, its general
+atmosphere is so different (displaying, indeed, at times
+distinct errors of taste) that I should be inclined to assign
+it to a friend or pupil of Lyly, were it not bound up with
+Blount's <cite>Sixe Court Comedies</cite><a name="FNanchor_122_122" href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a>, and therein said to be
+written by "the onely Rare Poet of that time, the wittie,
+comical, facetiously quicke, and unparalleled John Lilly
+master of arts." It is clever in construction, but undeniably
+tedious. It shows that Lyly had learnt much
+from Udall, Stevenson, and Gascoigne, and perhaps its
+chief point of interest is that it links these writers to the
+later realists, Ben Jonson, and that student of London
+life, who is surely one of the most charming of all the
+Elizabethan dramatists, whimsical and delightful Thomas
+Dekker. <cite>Mother Bombie</cite> was an experiment in the drama
+of realism, the realism that Nash was employing so
+successfully in his novels. It has been labelled as our
+earliest pure farce of well-constructed plot and literary
+form, but, though it is certainly on a much higher plane
+than <cite>Roister Doister</cite>, it would only create confusion if
+we denied that title to Udall's play. Yet, despite its
+comparative unimportance, and although it is evident
+that Lyly is here out of his natural element, <cite>Mother
+Bombie</cite> is interesting as showing the (to our ideas) extraordinary
+confusion of artistic ideals which, as I have
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+already noticed, is the remarkable thing about the
+Renaissance in England. Here we have a courtier, a
+writer of allegories, of dream-plays, the first of our
+mighty line of romanticists, producing a somewhat
+vulgar realistic play of rustic life. There is nothing
+anomalous in this. "Violence and variation," which
+someone has described as the two essentials of the ideal
+life, were certainly the distinguishing marks of the New
+Birth; and the men of that age demanded it in their
+literature. The drama of horror, the drama of insanity,
+the drama of blood, all were found on the Elizabethan
+stage, and all attracted large audiences. People delighted
+to read accounts of contemporary crime; often these
+choice morsels were dished up for them by some famous
+writer, as Kyd did in <cite>The Murder of John Brewer</cite>. The
+taste for realism is by no means a purely 19th century
+product. Moreover, the Elizabethans soon wearied
+of sameness; only a writer of the greatest versatility,
+such as Shakespeare, could hope for success, or at least
+financial success; and it was, perhaps, in order to
+revive his waning popularity that Lyly took to realism.
+But the child of fashion is always the earliest to
+become out of date, and we cannot think that <cite>Mother
+Bombie</cite> did much towards improving our author's reputation.</p>
+
+<p>At this point of our enquiry it will be as well to say
+a few words upon the lyrics which Lyly sprinkled broadcast
+over his plays. From an aesthetic point of view
+these are superior to anything else he wrote. "Foreshortened
+in the tract of time," his novel, his plays, have
+become forgotten, and it is as the author of <cite>Cupid and
+my Campaspe played</cite> that he is alone known to the lover
+of literature. There is no need to enter into an investigation
+of the numerous anonymous poems which Mr Bond
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+has claimed for him<a name="FNanchor_123_123" href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a>; even if we knew for certain that
+he was their author, they are so mediocre in themselves
+as to be unworthy of notice, scarcely I think of recovery.
+But let us turn to the songs of his dramas, of which there
+are 32 in all. These are, of course, unequal in merit, but
+the best are worthy to be ranked with Shakespeare's
+lyrics, and our greatest dramatist was only following
+Lyly's example when he introduced lyrics into his plays.
+I have already pointed out that music was an important
+element in our early comedy. Udall had introduced
+songs into his <cite>Roister Doister</cite>, and we have them also in
+<cite>Gammer Gurton</cite> and <cite>Damon and Pithias</cite>, but never, before
+Lyly's day, had they taken so prominent a part in
+drama, for no previous dramatist had possessed a tithe
+of Lyly's lyrical genius. Every condition favoured our
+author in this introduction of songs into his plays. He
+had tradition at his back; he was intensely interested in
+music, and probably composed the airs himself; and
+lastly he was master of a choir school, and would
+therefore use every opportunity for displaying his pupils'
+voices on the stage. Too much stress, however, must
+not be laid upon this last condition, because Lyly had
+already written three songs for <cite>Campaspe</cite> and four for
+<cite>Sapho and Phao</cite> before he became connected with
+St Paul's, a fact which points again to de&nbsp;Vere, himself
+a lyrist of considerable powers, as Lyly's adviser and
+master. Doubts, indeed, have been cast upon Lyly's
+authorship of these lyrics on the ground that they are
+omitted from the first edition of the plays. But we need,
+I think, have no hesitation in accepting Lyly as their
+creator, since the omission in question is fully accounted
+for by the fact that they were probably written separately
+from the plays, and handed round amongst the boys
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+together with the musical score<a name="FNanchor_124_124" href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a>. These songs are of
+various kinds and of widely different value. We have,
+for example, the purely comic poem, probably accompanied
+by gesture and pantomime, such as the song of
+Petulus from <cite>Midas</cite>, beginning, "O my Teeth! deare
+Barber ease me," with interruptions and refrains supplied
+by his companion and the scornful Motto. Many of
+these songs, indeed, are cast into dialogue form, sometimes
+each page singing a verse by himself, as in "O for
+a Bowle of fatt canary." This last is the earliest of
+Lyly's wine-songs, which for swing and vigour are among
+some of the best in our language, reminding us irresistibly
+of those pagan chants of the mediaeval wandering scholar
+which the late Mr Symonds has collected for us in his
+<cite>Wine, Women, and Song</cite>. The drinking song, "Io
+Bacchus," which occurs in <cite>Mother Bombie</cite>, is undoubtedly,
+I think, modelled on one of these earlier student
+compositions; the reference to the practice of throwing
+hats into the fire is alone sufficient to suggest it. But it
+is as a writer of the lyric proper that Lyly is best known.
+No one but Herrick, perhaps, has given us more graceful
+love trifles woven about some classical conceit. Mr
+Palgrave has familiarized us with the best, <cite>Cupid and
+my Campaspe played</cite>, but there are others only less
+charming than this. The same theme is employed in
+the following:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O Cupid! Monarch over Kings!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Wherefore hast thou feet and wings?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Is it to show how swift thou art,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">When thou would'st wound a tender heart?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Thy wings being clipped, and feet held still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Thy bow so many would not kill.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">It is all one in Venus' wanton school<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Who highest sits, the wise man or the fool!<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+<span class="i2">Fools in love's college<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Have far more knowledge<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To read a woman over,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Than a neat prating lover.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nay, 'tis confessed<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">That fools please women best<a name="FNanchor_125_125" href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a>!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Another quotation must be permitted. This time it is
+no embroidered conceit, but one of those lyrics of pure
+nature music, of which the Renaissance poets were so
+lavish, touched with the fire of Spring, with the light of
+hope, bird-notes untroubled by doubt, unconscious of
+pessimism, which are therefore all the more charming
+for us who dwell amid sunsets of intense colouring, who
+can see nothing but the hectic splendours of autumn.
+For the melancholy nightingale the poet has surprise
+and admiration, no sympathy:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"What Bird so sings, yet so does wail?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">O 'tis the ravished Nightingale.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu, she cries,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And still her woes at Midnight rise.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Brave prick song! who is't now we hear?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">None but the lark so shrill and clear;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The Morn not waking till she sings.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Poor Robin-red-breast tunes his note.<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring<a name="FNanchor_126_126" href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">This delightful song comes from the first of Lyly's
+dramas, and few even of Shakespeare's lyrics can
+equal it. Indeed, coming as it does at the dawn of the
+Elizabethan era, it seems like the cuckoo herself "to
+welcome in the spring."</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Section_III_III">Section&nbsp;III.</a></span> <i>Lyly's dramatic Genius and Influence.</i></h3>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+Having thus very briefly passed in review the various
+plays that Lyly bequeathed to posterity<a name="FNanchor_127_127" href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a>, we must say
+a few words in conclusion on their main characteristics,
+the advance they made upon their predecessors, and
+their influence on later drama.</p>
+
+<p>In Lyly, it is worth noticing, England has her first
+professional dramatist. Unlike those who had gone
+before him he was no amateur, he wrote for his living, and
+he wrote as one interested in the technical side of the
+theatre. They had played with drama, producing indeed
+interesting experiments, but accomplishing only what
+one would expect from men who merely took a lay
+interest in the theatre, and who possessed a certain
+knowledge, scholastic rather than technical, of the
+methods of the classical playwrights. He, having
+probably learnt at Oxford all there was to be known
+concerning the drama of the ancient world, came to
+London, and, definitely deciding to embark upon the
+dramatist's career, saw and studied such <em>moralities</em> and
+plays as were to be seen, aided and directed by the
+experience and knowledge of his patron: finding in
+the <em>moralities</em>, allegory; in the plays of Udall and
+Stevenson, farce; in <cite>Damon and Pithias</cite>, a romantic play
+upon a classical theme; and in Gascoigne's <cite>Supposes</cite>,
+brilliant prose dialogue. That he was induced to make
+such a study, and that he was enabled to carry it out so
+thoroughly, was due partly, I think, to his peculiar
+financial position. As secretary of de&nbsp;Vere, and later
+as Vice-master of St Paul's School, he was independent
+of the actual necessity of bread-winning, which forced
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+even Shakespeare to pander to the garlic-eating multitude
+he loathed, and wrung from him the cry,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Alas, 'tis true I have been here and there<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And made myself a motley to the view,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear" &hellip;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">But, on the other hand, neither post was sufficiently
+remunerative to secure for him the comforts, still less
+the luxuries, of life. His income required supplementing,
+if only for the sake of meeting his tobacco bill,
+though I have a strong suspicion that the bills sent in
+to him served no more useful purpose than to light his
+pipe. But, however, adopting the theatre as his profession,
+he would naturally make a serious study of
+dramatic art, and, having no need for constantly filling
+the maw of present necessity, he could undertake such
+a study thoroughly and at his leisure. And to this
+cause his peculiar importance in the history of the
+Elizabethan stage is mainly due. Next to Jonson, the
+most learned of all the dramatists, yet possessing little of
+their poetical capacity, he set them the most conspicuous
+example in technique and stage-craft, in the science of
+play-writing, which they would probably have been far
+too busy to acquire for themselves. Lyly's eight dramas
+formed the rough-hewn but indispensable foundation-stone
+of the Elizabethan edifice. Spenser has been
+called the poet's poet, Lyly was in his own days the
+playwright's dramatist.</p>
+
+<p>Of his dramatic construction we have already spoken.
+We have noticed that he introduced the art of disguise;
+that he varied his action by songs, accompanied perhaps
+with pantomime. Mr Bond suggests further that he
+probably did much to extend the use of stage properties
+and scenery<a name="FNanchor_128_128" href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a>. But the real importance of his plays lies
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+in their plot construction and character drawing, points
+which as yet we have only touched upon. The way in
+which he manages the action of his plays shows a skill
+quite unapproached by anything that had gone before,
+and more pronounced than that of many which came
+after. Too often indeed we have dialogues, scenes, and
+characters which have no connexion with the development
+of the story; but when we consider how frequently
+Shakespeare sinned in this respect, we cannot blame
+Lyly for introducing a philosophical discussion between
+Plato and Aristotle, as in <cite>Campaspe</cite>, or those merry
+altercations between his pages which added so much
+colour and variety to his plays. However many interruptions
+there were, he never allowed his audience to
+forget the main business, as Dekker, for example, so
+frequently did. Nowhere, again, in Lyly's plays are
+the motives inadequate to support the action, as they
+were in the majority of dramas previous to 1580. Even
+Alexander's somewhat tame surrender of Campaspe is
+quite in accordance with his royal dignity and magnanimity;
+and, moreover, we are warned in the third act
+that the King's love is slight and will fade away at the
+first blast of the war trumpet, for as he tells us he is
+"not so far in love with Campaspe as with Bucephalus,
+if occasion serve either of conflict or of conquest<a name="FNanchor_129_129" href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a>."
+In <cite>Endymion</cite> the motives are perhaps most skilfully
+displayed, and lead most naturally on to the action, and
+in this play, also, Lyly is perhaps most successful in
+creating that dramatic excitement which is caused by
+working up to an apparent deadlock (due to the
+intrigues of Tellus), and which is made to resolve itself
+and disappear in the final act. Closely allied with the
+development of action by the presentation of motives
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+is the weaving of the plot. And in this Lyly is not so
+satisfactory, though, of course, far in advance of his
+predecessors. A steady improvement, however, is discernible
+as he proceeds. In the earlier plays the page
+element does little more than afford comic relief: the
+encounters between Manes and his friends, and between
+Manes and his master, can hardly be dignified by the
+name of plot. It is in <cite>Midas</cite>, as I have already
+suggested, that this farcical under-current displays incident
+and action of its own, turning as it does upon the
+relations of the pages with Motto and the theft of the
+beard. Here again the comic scenes, now connected
+together for the first time, are also united with the main
+story. But the page element by no means represents
+Lyly's only attempt at creating an underplot. It will
+be seen from the story of <cite>Endymion</cite> related above that
+in that play our author is not contented with a single
+passion-nexus, if the expression may be allowed, that of
+Tellus, Cynthia, and Endymion, but he gives us another,
+that of Eumenides and Semele, which has no real connexion
+with the action, but which seriously threatens to
+interrupt it at one point. Other interests are hinted at,
+rather than developed, by the infatuation of Sir Tophas
+for Dipsas, and by the history of the latter's husband.
+Though <cite>Midas</cite> is more advanced in other ways, it
+displays nothing like the complexity of <cite>Endymion</cite>, and
+it is moreover, as I have said, cut in two by the want of
+connexion between the incident of the golden touch
+and that of the ass's ears. Lastly, in <cite>Love's Metamorphosis</cite>,
+which is without the element of farce, the relations
+between the nymphs and the shepherds complete
+that underplot of passion which is hinted at in <cite>Sapho</cite>,
+in the evident fancy which Mileta shows for Phao, and
+developed as we have just noticed in <cite>Endymion</cite>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+In this plot construction and interweaving, Lyly had
+no models except the classics, and we may, therefore,
+say that his work in this direction was almost entirely
+original. The last-mentioned play was produced at
+Court some time before 1590, and we cannot doubt, was
+attended by our greatest dramatist. At any rate the
+lessons which Shakespeare learnt from Lyly in the
+matter of plot complication are visible in the <cite>Midsummer
+Night's Dream</cite>, which was produced in 1595<a name="FNanchor_130_130" href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a>. The intricate
+mechanism of this play, reminding us with its
+four plots (the Duke and Hippolyta, the lovers, the
+mechanics, and the fairies) of the <em>miracle</em> with its imposing
+but unimportant divinities in the Rood gallery, its
+main stage whereon moved human characters, its Crypt
+supplying the rude comic element in the shape of devils,
+and its angels who moved from one level to another
+welding the whole together, was far beyond Lyly's
+powers, but it was only possible even for Shakespeare
+after a thorough study of Lyly's methods.</p>
+
+<p>As I have previously pointed out, Lyly was not very
+successful in the matter of character drawing. Never,
+even for a moment, is passion allowed to disturb the
+cultured placidity of the dialogue. The conditions under
+which his plays were produced may in part account for
+this. The children of Paul's could hardly be expected
+to display much light and shade of emotion in their
+acting, certainly depth of passion was beyond their
+scope. But the fault, I think, lies rather in the dramatist
+than in the actors. Lyly's mind was in all probability
+altogether of too superficial a nature for a sympathetic
+analysis of the human soul. That at least is how I interpret
+his character. All his work was more "art than
+nature," some of it was "more labour than art." On the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+technical side his dramatic advance is immense, but we
+may look in vain in his dramas for any of that appreciation
+of the elemental facts of human nature which can
+alone create enduring art. In their characterization,
+Lyly's plays do little more than form a link between
+Shakespeare and the old <em>morality</em>. This comes out most
+strongly in their peculiar method of character grouping.
+By a very natural process the <em>moral</em> type is split up with
+the intention of giving it life and variety. Thus we have
+those groups of pages, of maids-in-waiting, of shepherds,
+of deities, etc., which are so characteristic of Lyly's plays.
+There is no real distinction between page and page, and
+between nymph and nymph; but their merry conversations
+give a piquancy and colour to the drama which
+make up for, and in part conceal, the absence of character.
+All that was necessary for the creation of character was
+to fit these pieces of the <em>moral</em> type together again in a
+different way, and to breathe the spirit of genius into
+the new creation. We can see Lyly feeling towards this
+solution of the problem in his portrayal of Gunophilus,
+the clown of <cite>The Woman in the Moon</cite>. This character,
+which anticipates the immortal clowns of Shakespeare,
+is formed by an amalgamation of the pages in the
+previous plays into one comic figure. But Lyly also
+attempts to create single figures, in addition to these
+group characters which for the most part have little to
+do with the action. Often he helps out his poverty of
+invention by placing descriptions of one character in the
+mouth of another. "How stately she passeth bye, yet
+how soberly!" exclaims Alexander watching Campaspe
+at a distance, "a sweet consent in her countenance with
+a chaste disdaine, desire mingled with coyness, and I cannot
+tell how to tearme it, a curst yeelding modestie!"&mdash;an
+excellent piece of description, and one which is very
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+necessary for the animation of the shadowy Campaspe.
+At times however Lyly can dispense with such adventitious
+aids. Pipenetta, the fascinating little wench in
+<cite>Midas</cite> and one of our dramatist's most successful creations,
+needs no other illumination than her own pert
+speeches. Diogenes again is an effective piece of work.
+But both these are minor characters who therefore receive
+no development, and if we look at the more important
+personages of Lyly's portrait gallery, we must agree
+with Mr Bond<a name="FNanchor_131_131" href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> that Tellus is the best. She is a character
+which exhibits considerable development, and she is also
+Lyly's only attempt to embody the evil principle in
+woman&mdash;a hint for the construction of that marvellous
+portrait of another Scottish queen, the Lady Macbeth,
+which Lyly just before his death in 1606 may have seen
+upon the stage.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole Lyly is most successful when he is
+drawing women, which was only as it should be, if we
+allow that the feminine element is the very pivot of true
+comedy. This he saw, and it is because he was the first
+to realise it and to grapple with the difficulties it entailed
+that the title of father of English comedy may be given
+him without the least reserve or hesitation. Sapho the
+haughty but amorous queen, Mileta the mocking but
+tender Court lady, Gallathea the shy provincial lass, and
+Pipenetta the saucy little maid-servant, fill our stage for
+the first time in history with their tears and their laughter,
+their scorn of the mere male and their "curst yeelding
+modestie," their bold sallies and their bashful blushes.
+Nothing like this had as yet been seen in English
+literature. I have already pointed out why it was
+that woman asserted her place in art at this juncture.
+Yet, although the revolution would have come about in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+any case, all honour must be paid to the man who saw
+it coming, anticipated it, and determined its fortunes by
+the creation of such a number of feminine characters
+from every class in the social scale. And if it be true
+that he only gave us "their outward husk of wit and
+raillery and flirtation," if it be true that his interpretation
+of woman was superficial, that he had no understanding
+for the soul behind the social mask, for the emotional
+and passionate current, now a quiet stream, now a raging
+torrent, beneath the layer of etiquette, his work was none
+the less important for that.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Blood and brain and spirit, three<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Join for true felicity."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">Blood his girls had and brain, but his genius was not
+divine enough to bestow upon them the third essential.
+Yet they were alive, they were flesh, they had wit, and
+in this they are undoubtedly the forerunners not only of
+Shakespeare's heroines but of Congreve's and of Meredith's&mdash;to
+mention the three greatest delineators of
+women in our language. They are the Undines in the
+story of our literature, beautiful and seductive, complete
+in everything but soul!</p>
+
+<p>While realising that woman should be the real
+protagonist in comedy, Lyly also appreciated the fact
+that skilful dialogue and brilliant repartee are only less
+important, and that for this purpose prose was more suitable
+than verse. Gascoigne's <cite>Supposes</cite> was his model in
+both these innovations, and yet he would undoubtedly
+have adopted them of his own accord without any
+outside suggestion. And since <cite>The Supposes</cite> was a
+translation, <cite>Campaspe</cite> deserves the title of the first purely
+English comedy in prose. The <cite>Euphues</cite> had given him
+a reputation for sprightly and witty dialogue, he himself
+was possibly known at Court as a brilliant conversationalist,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+and therefore when he came to write plays he
+would naturally do all in his power to maintain and to
+improve his fame in this respect. With his acute sense
+of form he would recognise how clumsy had been the
+efforts of previous dramatists, and he knew also how
+impossible it would be, in verse form, to write witty
+dialogue, up to date in the subjects it handled. He
+therefore determined to use prose, and, though he manipulates
+it somewhat awkwardly in his earlier plays
+while still under the influence of the euphuistic fashion,
+he steadily improves, as he gains experience of the
+function and needs of dialogue, until at length he succeeds
+in creating a thoroughly serviceable dramatic
+instrument. This departure was a great event in English
+literature. Shakespeare was too much of a poet ever to
+dispense altogether with verse, but he appreciated the
+virtue of prose as a vehicle of comic dialogue, and he
+uses it occasionally even in his earliest comedy, <cite>Love's
+Labour's Lost</cite>. Ben Jonson on the other hand&mdash;perhaps
+more than any other Lyly's spiritual heir&mdash;wrote nearly
+all his comedies in prose. And it is not fanciful I think
+to see in Lyly's pointed dialogue, tinged with euphuism,
+the forerunner of Congreve's sparkling conversation and
+of the epigrammatic writing of our modern English
+playwrights.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the main characteristics of Lyly's dramatic
+genius. To attempt to trace his influence upon later
+writers would be to write a history of the Elizabethan
+stage. In the foregoing remarks I have continually indicated
+Shakespeare's debt to him in matters of detail.
+<cite>The Midsummer Night's Dream</cite> is from beginning to end
+full of reminiscences from the plays of the earlier dramatist,
+transmuted, vitalized, and beautified by the genius
+of our greatest poet. It is as if he had witnessed in one
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+day a representation of all Lyly's dramatic work, and
+wearied by the effort of attention had fallen asleep and
+dreamt this <cite>Dream</cite>. <cite>Love's Labour's Lost</cite> is only less
+indebted to Lyly; indeed nearly all Shakespeare's plays,
+certainly all his comedies, exhibit the same influence:
+for he knew his Lyly through and through, and his
+assimilative power was unequalled. Shakespeare might
+almost be said to be a combination of Marlowe and Lyly
+plus that indefinable something which made him the
+greatest writer of all time. Marlowe, his master in
+tragedy, was also his master in poetry, in that strength
+of conception and beauty of execution which together
+make up the soul of drama. Lyly, besides the lesson he
+taught him in comedy, was also his model for dramatic
+construction, brilliancy of dialogue, technical skill, and all
+that comprises the science of play-making&mdash;things which
+were perhaps of more moment to him, with his scanty
+classical knowledge, than Marlowe's lesson which he had
+little need of learning. And what we have said of
+Shakespeare may be said of Elizabethan drama as a
+whole. "Marlowe's place," writes Mr Havelock Ellis,
+"is at the heart of English poetry"; his "high, astounding
+terms" took the world of his day by storm, his gift
+to English literature was the gift of sublime beauty, of
+imagination, and passion. Lyly could lay claim to none
+of these, but his contribution was perhaps of more importance
+still. He did the spade-work, and did it once
+and for all. With his knowledge of the Classics and of
+previous English experiments he wrote plays that, compared
+with what had gone before, were models of plot
+construction, of the development of action, and even of
+characterization. Moreover he was before Marlowe by
+some nine years in the production of true romantic
+drama, and in his treatment of women. In spite, therefore,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+of Marlowe's immense superiority to him on the
+aesthetic side, Lyly must be placed above the author of
+<cite>Edward&nbsp;II.</cite> in dynamical importance.</p>
+
+<p>In connexion with Lyly's influence the question of
+the exact nature of his dramatic productions is worth
+a moment's consideration. Are they masques or dramas?
+and if the latter are they strictly speaking classical or
+romantic in form? As I have already suggested, the
+answer to the first half of this question is that they were
+neither and both. In Lyly's day drama had not yet
+been differentiated from masque, and his plays, therefore,
+partook of the nature of both. Produced as they were
+for the Court, it was natural that they should possess
+something of that atmosphere of pageantry, music, and
+pantomime which we now associate with the word
+masque. But Elizabeth was economical and preferred
+plain drama to the expensive masque displays, though
+she was ready to enjoy the latter, if they were provided
+for her by Leicester or some other favourite. Lyly's
+work therefore never advanced very far in the direction
+of the masque, though in its complimentary allegories it
+had much in common with it. The question as to
+whether it should be described as classical rather than
+as romantic is not one which need detain us long. It is
+interesting however as it again brings out the peculiarity
+of Lyly's position. It may indeed be claimed for him
+that all sections of Elizabethan drama, except perhaps
+tragedy, are to be found in embryo in his plays. I have
+said that he was the first of the romanticists, but he was
+no less the first important writer of classical drama.
+<cite>Gorbuduc</cite> and its like had been tedious and clumsy
+imitations, and, moreover, they had imitated Seneca, who
+was a late classic. Lyly, though the Greek dramatists
+were unknown to him, had probably studied Aristotle's
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+<cite>Poetics</cite>, and was certainly acquainted with Horace's <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ars
+Poetica</cite>, and with the comedies of Terence and Plautus.
+He was, therefore, an authority on matters dramatic, and
+could boast of a learning on the subject of technique
+which few of his contemporaries or his successors could
+lay claim to, and which they were only too ready to
+glean second-hand. And yet, though he was wise
+enough to appreciate all that the classics could teach
+him, he was a romanticist at heart, or perhaps it would
+be better to say that he threw the beautiful and loosely
+fitting garment of romanticism over the classical frame
+of his dramas. And even in the matter of this frame he
+was not always orthodox. He bowed to the tradition of
+the unities: but he frequently broke with it; in <cite>The
+Woman</cite> alone does he confine the action to one day;
+and, though he is more careful to observe unity of place,
+imaginary transfers occurring in the middle of scenes
+indicate his rebellion against this restriction. Nevertheless,
+when all is said, he remains, with the exception of
+Jonson, the most classical of all Elizabethan playwrights,
+and just as he anticipates the 17th and 18th centuries in
+his prose, so in his dramas we may discover the first
+competent handling of those principles and restrictions
+which, more clearly enunciated by Ben Jonson, became
+iron laws for the post-Elizabethan dramatists.</p>
+
+<p>It is this "balance between classic precedent and
+romantic freedom<a name="FNanchor_132_132" href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a>" that constitutes his supreme importance,
+not only in Elizabethan literature, but even
+in the history of subsequent English drama. From
+Lyly we may trace the current of romanticism, through
+Shakespeare, to Goethe and Victor Hugo; in Lyly
+also we may see the first embodiment of that classical
+tradition which even Shakespeare's "purge" could do
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+nothing to check, and which was eventually to lay its
+dead hand upon the art of the 18th century. May we
+not say more than this? Is he not the first name in a
+continuous series from 1580 to our own day, the first
+link in the chain of dramatic development, which binds
+the "singing room of Powles" to the Lyceum of Irving?
+And it is interesting to notice that the principle which
+he was the first to express shows at the present moment
+evident signs of exhaustion; for its future developments
+seem to be limited to that narrow strip of social melodrama,
+which lies between the devil of the comic opera
+and the deep sea of the Ibsenic problem play. Indeed
+it would not be altogether fanciful, I think, to say that
+<cite>The Importance of being Earnest</cite> finishes the process that
+<cite>Campaspe</cite> started; and to view that process as a circle
+begun in euphuism, and completed in aestheticism.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER&nbsp;IV.</a><br/>
+<span style="font-size: 80%;">CONCLUSION.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+At the beginning of this essay I gave a short account
+of the main facts of our author's life, reserving my judgment
+upon his character and genius until after the
+examination of his works. That examination which
+I have now concluded is far too superficial in character
+to justify a psychological synthesis such as that advocated
+by M.&nbsp;Hennequin<a name="FNanchor_133_133" href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a>. But though this essay cannot
+claim to have exhausted the subject of the ways and
+means of Lyly's art, yet in the course of our survey we
+have had occasion to notice several interesting points in
+reference to his mind and character, which it will be well
+to bring together now in order to give a portrait, however
+inadequate, of the man who played so important a part
+in English literature.</p>
+
+<p>Nash supplies the only piece of contemporary information
+about his person and habits, and all he tells us
+is that he was short of stature and that he smoked.
+But Ben Jonson gives us an unmistakeable caricature
+of him under the delightfully appropriate name of
+Fastidious Brisk in <cite>Every Man out of His Humour</cite>.
+He describes him as a "neat, spruce, affecting courtier,
+one that wears clothes well, and in fashion; practiseth
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+by his glass how to salute; speaks good remnants notwithstanding
+his base viol and tobacco; swears tersely
+and with variety; cares not what lady's favour he belies,
+or great man's familiarity: a good property to perfume
+the boot of a coach. He will borrow another man's
+horse to praise and back him as his own. Or, for a need
+can post himself into credit with his merchant, only with
+the gingle of his spur and the jerk of his wand<a name="FNanchor_134_134" href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a>."
+Allowing for the exaggeration of satire, we cannot
+doubt that this portrait is in the main correct. It
+indicates a man who follows fashion, even in swearing,
+to the excess of foppery, who delights in scandal, who
+contracts debts with an easy conscience, and who is
+withal a merry fellow and a wit. All this is in accordance
+with what we know of his life. We can picture
+him at Oxford serenading the Magdalen dons with his
+"base viol," or perhaps organizing a night party to
+disturb the slumbers of some insolent tradesman who
+had dared to insist upon payment; his neat little figure
+leading a gang of young rascals, and among them the
+"sea-dog" Hakluyt, the sturdy and as yet unconverted
+Gosson, the refined Watson, and perchance George
+Pettie concealing his thorough enjoyment of the situation
+by a smile of elderly amusement. Or yet again we
+can see him at the room of some boon companion
+seriously announcing to a convulsed assembly his intention
+of applying for a fellowship, and when the last
+quip had been hurled at him through clouds of smoke
+and the laughter had died down, proposing that the
+house should go into committee for the purpose of
+concocting the now famous letter to Burleigh. When
+we next catch a glimpse of him he is no longer the
+madcap; he walks with such dignity as his stature
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+permits, for he is now author of the much-talked-of
+<cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite>, and one of the most fashionable young
+men of the Court. What elaboration of toilet, what
+adjustment and readjustment of ruffles and lace, what
+bowing and scraping before the glass, preceded that
+great event of his life&mdash;his presentation to the Queen&mdash;can
+only be guessed at. But we can well picture him,
+following his magnificently over-dressed patron up the
+long reception-room, his heart beating with pleasurable
+excitement, yet his manners not forgotten in the hour
+of his pride, as he nods to an acquaintance and bows
+with sly demureness to some Iffida or Camilla. Those
+were the days of his success, the happiest period of his
+life when, as secretary to the Lord Chamberlain and
+associate of the highest in the land, he breathed his
+native atmosphere, the praises and flattery of a fickle
+world of fashion. But, time-server as he was, he was no
+sycophant. Leaving de&nbsp;Vere's service after a sharp
+quarrel, he was not ashamed to take up the profession
+of teaching in which he had already had some experience.
+We see him next, therefore, a master of St Paul's,
+engrossed in the not unpleasant duties of drilling his
+pupils for the performance of his plays, accompanying
+their songs on his instrument, or himself taking his
+place on the stage, now as Diogenes in his ubiquitous
+tub, and now as the golden-bearded and long-eared
+Midas. And last of all he appears as the disappointed,
+disillusioned man, "infelix academicus ignotus." A wife
+and children on his hands, his occupation gone, his hopes
+of the Revels Mastership blasted, he becomes desperate,
+and writes that last bitter letter to Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>The man of fashion out of date, the social success
+left high and dry by the unheeding current, he died
+eventually in poverty, not because he had wasted his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+substance, like Greene, in Bohemia, but because, thinking
+to take Belgravia by storm, he had forgotten that the
+foundations of that city are laid on the bodies of her
+sons. But leaving</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The thrice three muses mourning for the death<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of Learning late deceased in beggary,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">let us look more closely into the character of this man,
+whose brilliant and successful youth was followed by so
+sad an old age.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of Professor Raleigh and the moralizing of
+<cite>Euphues</cite>, we may decide that there was nothing of the
+Puritan about him. His life at Oxford, his attachment
+to the notorious de&nbsp;Vere, the keen pleasure he took in
+the things of this world, are, I think, sufficient to prove
+this. His general attitude towards life was one of vigorous
+hedonism, not of intellectual asceticism. The ethical
+element of <cite>Euphues</cite> links him rather to the already
+vanishing Humanism than to the rising Puritanism,
+against which all his sympathies were enlisted, as his
+contributions to the <cite>Marprelate</cite> controversy indicate. I
+have refrained from touching upon these <em>Mar-Martin</em>
+tracts because they possess neither aesthetic nor dynamical
+importance, being, as Gabriel Harvey&mdash;always
+ready with the spiteful epigram&mdash;describes them, "alehouse
+and tinkerly stuffe, nothing worthy a scholar or a
+real gentleman." They are worth mentioning, however,
+as throwing a light upon the religious prejudices of our
+author. He was a courtier and he was a churchman, and
+in lending his aid to crush sectarians he thought no more
+deeply about the matter than he did in voting as Member
+of Parliament against measures which conflicted with his
+social inclinations. There was probably not an ounce of
+the theological spirit in his whole composition; for his
+refutation of atheism was a youthful essay in dialectics,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+a bone thrown to the traditions of the moral Court
+treatise.</p>
+
+<p>If, indeed, he was seriously minded in any respect, it
+was upon the subject of Art. Himself a novelist and
+dramatist, he displayed also a keen delight in music, and
+evinced a considerable, if somewhat superficial, interest
+in painting. And yet, though he apparently made it his
+business to know something of every art, he was no
+sciolist, and, if he went far afield, it was only in order to
+improve himself in his own particular branch. All the
+knowledge he acquired in such amateur appreciation was
+brought to the service of his literary productions. And
+the same may be said of his extensive excursions into
+the land of books. No Elizabethan dramatist but Lyly,
+with the possible exception of Jonson, could marshal
+such an array of learning, and few could have turned even
+what they had with such skill and effect to their own
+purposes. Lyly had made a thorough study of such
+classics as were available in his day, and we have seen
+how he employed them in his novel and in his plays.
+But the classics formed only a small section of the books
+digested by this omnivorous reader. If he could not
+read Spanish, French, or Italian, he devoured and assimilated
+the numerous translations from those languages
+into English, Guevara indeed being his chief inspiration.
+Nor did he neglect the literature of his own land. Few
+books we may suppose, which had been published in
+English previous to 1580, had been unnoticed by him.
+We have seen what a thorough acquaintance he possessed
+of English drama before his day, and how he exhibits
+the influence of the writings of Ascham and perhaps
+other humanists, how he laid himself under obligation
+to the bestiaries and the proverb-books for his euphuistic
+philosophy, and how his lyrics indicate a possible study
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+of the mediaeval scholar song-books. In conclusion, it
+is interesting to notice that we have clear evidence that
+he knew Chaucer<a name="FNanchor_135_135" href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Idleness, therefore, cannot be urged against him; nor
+does this imposing display of learning indicate a pedant.
+Lyly had nothing in common with the spirit of his old
+friend Gabriel Harvey, whom indeed he laughed at.
+There is a story that Watson and Nash invited a company
+together to sup at the Nag's Head in Cheapside,
+and to discuss the pedantries of Harvey, and our euphuist
+in all probability made one of the party. His erudition
+sat lightly on him, for it was simply a means to the end
+of his art. Moreover, a student's life could have possessed
+no attraction for one of his temperament. Unlike Marlowe
+and Greene, he had harvested all his wild oats
+before he left Oxford; but the process had refined rather
+than sobered him, for his laugh lost none of its merriment,
+and his wit improved with experience, so that
+we may well believe that in the Court he was more
+Philautus than Euphues. In his writings also his aim
+was to be graceful rather than erudite; and, ponderous
+as his <cite>Euphues</cite> seems to us now, it appealed to its
+Elizabethan public as a model of elegance. His art was
+perhaps only an instrument for the acquisition of social
+success, but he was nevertheless an artist to the fingertips.
+Yet he was without the artist's ideals, and this fact,
+together with his frivolity, vitiated his writings to a considerable
+extent, or, rather, the superficiality of his art
+was the result of the superficiality of his soul. Of that
+"high seriousness," which Aristotle has declared to be
+the poet's essential, he has nothing. Technique throughout
+was his chief interest, and it is in technique alone
+that he can claim to have succeeded. "More art than
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+nature" is a just criticism of everything he wrote, with
+the exception of his lyrics. He was supremely clever,
+one of the cleverest writers in our literature when we
+consider what he accomplished, and how small was the
+legacy of his predecessors; but he was much too clever
+to be simple. He excelled in the niceties of art, he
+revelled in the accomplishment of literary feats, his
+intellect was akin to the intellect of those who in their
+humbler fashion find pleasure in the solution of acrostics.
+And consequently his writings were frequently as finical
+as his dress was fastidious; for it was the form and not
+the idea which fascinated him; to his type of mind the
+letter was everything and the spirit nothing. Indeed,
+the true spirit of art was quite beyond his comprehension,
+though he was connoisseur enough to appreciate its presence
+in others. Artist and man of taste he was, but he
+was no poet. Artist he was, I have said, to the fingertips,
+but his art lay at his fingers' ends, not at his soul.
+He was facile, ingenious, dexterous, everything but inspired.
+He had wit, learning, skill, imagination, but
+none of that passionate apprehension of life which
+makes the poet, and which Marlowe and Shakespeare
+possessed so fully. And therefore it was his fate to be
+nothing more than a forerunner, a straightener of the
+way; and before his death he realised with bitterness
+that he was only a stepping-stone for young Shakespeare
+to mount his throne. He was, indeed, the draughtsman
+of the Elizabethan workshop, planning and designing
+what others might build. He was the expert mathematician
+who formulated the laws which enabled Shakespeare
+to read the stars. Of the heights and depths of passion
+he was unconscious; he was no psychologist, laying bare
+the human soul with the lancet; and though now and
+again, as in <cite>Endymion</cite>, he caught a glimpse of the silver
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+beauties of the moon, he had no conception of the glories
+of the midday sun.</p>
+
+<p>And yet though he lacked the poet's sense, his wit
+did something to repair the defect, and even if it has a
+musty flavour for our pampered palates, it saves his
+writings from becoming unbearably wearisome; and
+moreover his fun was without that element of coarseness
+which mars the comic scenes of later dramatists
+who appealed to more popular audiences. But it is
+quite impossible for us to realise how brilliant his wit
+seemed to the Elizabethans before it was eclipsed by
+the genius of Shakespeare. Even as late as 1632 Blount
+exclaims, "This poet sat at the sunne's table," words
+referring perhaps more especially to Lyly's poetical
+faculty, but much truer if interpreted as an allusion
+to his wit. The genius of our hero played like a dancing
+sunbeam over the early Elizabethan stage. Never before
+had England seen anything like it, and we cannot wonder
+that his public hailed him in their delight as one of the
+greatest writers of all time. How could they know that
+he was only the first voice in a choir of singers which,
+bursting forth before his notes had died away, would
+shake the very arch of heaven with the passion and the
+beauty of their song? But for us who have heard the
+chorus first, the recitative seems poor and thin. The
+magic has long passed from <cite>Euphues</cite>, once a name to
+conjure with, and even the plays seem dull and lifeless.
+That it should be so was inevitable, for the wit which
+illuminated these works was of the time, temporary, the
+earliest beam of the rising sun. This sunbeam it is
+impossible to recover, and with all our efforts we catch
+little but dust.</p>
+
+<p>And yet for the scientific critic Lyly's work is still
+alive with significance. Worthless as much of it is from
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+the aesthetic point of view, from the dynamical, the
+historical aspect few English writers are of greater
+interest. Waller was rescued from oblivion and labelled
+as the first of the classical poets. But we can claim
+more for Lyly than this. Extravagant as it may sound,
+he was one of the great founders of our literature. His
+experiments in prose first taught men that style was a
+matter worthy of careful study, he was among the earliest
+of those who realised the utility of blank verse for
+dramatic purposes, he wrote the first English novel in
+our language, and finally he is not only deservedly recognised
+as the father of English comedy, but by his
+mastery of dramatic technique he laid such a burden of
+obligation upon future playwrights that he placed English
+drama upon a completely new basis. Of the three main
+branches of our literature, therefore, two&mdash;the novel and
+the drama&mdash;were practically of his creation, and though
+his work suffered because it lacked the quality of poetry,
+for the historian of literature it is none the less important
+on that account.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="LIST_OF_CHIEF_AUTHORITIES">LIST OF CHIEF AUTHORITIES.</a></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+<ul id="bibliography">
+<li><span class="smcap">Arber.</span> The Martin Marprelate Controversy. Scholar's Library.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Ascham, Roger.</span> The Schoolmaster. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Ascham, Roger.</span> Toxophilus. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Baker, G.&nbsp;P.</span> Lyly's Endymion.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Barnefield, Richard.</span> Poems. Arber's Scholar's Library.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Berners, Lord.</span> The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Berners, Lord.</span> Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Boas.</span> Works of Kyd. Clarendon Press.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Bond, R.&nbsp;W.</span> John Lyly. Clarendon Press. 3 Vols.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Brunet.</span> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Manuel de Libraire.</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Butler Clarke.</span> Spanish Literature.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Child, C.&nbsp;G.</span> John Lyly and Euphuism. <cite lang="de" xml:lang="de">M&uuml;nchener Beitr&auml;ge</cite> <span class="smcap">vii</span>.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Craik, Sir&nbsp;H.</span> Specimens of English Prose.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Dictionary</span> of National Biography.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Earle.</span> History of English Prose.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Field, Nathaniel.</span> A Woman is a Weathercock.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Fitzmaurice-Kelly.</span> Spanish Literature. Heinemann.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Gayley.</span> Representative English Comedies.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Gosse.</span> From Shakespeare to Pope.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Gosson.</span> School of Abuse. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Guevara, Antonio&nbsp;de.</span> <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo del emperado Marco Aurelio.</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Hallam.</span> Introduction to the Literature of Europe.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Hennequin.</span> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La Critique Scientifique.</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Hume, Martin.</span> Spanish Influence on English Literature.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Jusserand.</span> The English Novel in the time of Shakespeare.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Landmann, Dr.</span> Shakespeare and Euphuism. <cite>New Shak. Soc. Trans.</cite> 1880&ndash;2.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Landmann, Dr.</span> Introduction to Euphues. <span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Sprache und Literatur.</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Latimer.</span> Sermons. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+<span class="smcap">Lee, Sidney.</span> <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athen&aelig;um</span>, July 14, 1883.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Lee, Sidney.</span> Huon of Bordeaux (Berners'). Early Eng. Text Soc. Extra Series <span class="smcap">xl</span>., <span class="smcap">xli</span>.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Lee, Sidney.</span> Life of Shakespeare.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Liebig.</span> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen &acirc;ge.</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Lyly.</span> Euphues. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Macaulay, G.&nbsp;G.</span> Introd. to Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Meredith, George.</span> Essay on Comedy.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">M&eacute;zi&egrave;res.</span> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Pr&eacute;d&eacute;cesseurs et contemporains de Shakespeare.</span></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Minto.</span> Manual of English Prose Literature.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">North, Thomas.</span> Diall of Princes.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Pearson, Karl.</span> Chances of Death. Vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ii</span>. <cite>German Passion Play.</cite></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Pettie, George.</span> Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Raleigh, Prof.&nbsp;W.</span> The English Novel.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Return from Parnassus.</span> Arber's Scholar's Library.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Saintsbury.</span> Specimens of English Prose.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Spencer, Herbert.</span> Essays&mdash;Philosophy of Style.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Symonds, J.&nbsp;A.</span> Shakespeare's Predecessors.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Udall, Nicholas.</span> Ralph Roister Doister. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Underhill.</span> Spanish Literature in Tudor England.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Ward, Dr&nbsp;A.&nbsp;W.</span> English Dramatic Literature. 3 Vols.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Ward, Mrs&nbsp;H.</span> "John Lyly," Article in <cite>Enc. Brit.</cite></li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Watson, Thomas.</span> Poems. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Webbe.</span> Discourses of English Poetry. Arber's English Reprints.</li>
+<li><span class="smcap">Weymouth, Dr&nbsp;R.&nbsp;F.</span> On Euphuism. <cite>Phil. Soc. Trans.</cite> 1870&ndash;2.</li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<h2><a name="INDEX">INDEX.</a></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+<ul class="index">
+<li><cite>Affectionate Shepherd</cite>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li><cite>Albion's England</cite>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+<li>Alen&ccedil;on, Duc d', <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+<li><cite>Amis and Amile</cite>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li><cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite> (v.&nbsp;<cite>Euphues</cite>)</li>
+<li>Andrews, Dr, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+<li>Arber (reprints), <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li><cite>Arcadia</cite>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+<li>Aretino, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Ariosto, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+<li>Aristotle, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Armada, Spanish, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+<li>Arnold, Matthew, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ars Poetica</cite> (of Horace), <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+<li>Ascham, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athenae Oxonienses</cite>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athen&aelig;um</cite>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li>
+<li>Athens, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+<li><cite>Aucassin and Nicolette</cite>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>Aurelius, Marcus, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>Austen, Jane, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Bacon, Lord, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+<li>Baena, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Baker, G.&nbsp;P., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+<li>Baker, George, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+<li>Baker, Robert, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+<li>Barnefield, Richard, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li>Berners, Lord, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+<li>Bertaut, R&eacute;n&eacute;, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+<li>bestiaries, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Biographia Britannica</cite>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+<li>Blackfriars, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+<li>blank verse, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+<li>Blount, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+<li>Boas, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+<li>Boccaccio, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>Bond, R.&nbsp;W., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Brunet, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+<li>Bryan, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+<li>Burleigh, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>Butler Clarke, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+<li>Byron (anticipated by Lyly), <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Cambridge, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li><cite>Campaspe</cite>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+<li><cite>Canterbury Tales</cite>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+<li>Carew, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>Carpenter, Edward, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+<li>Castiglione, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>Caxton, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+<li>Cecil, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Celestina</cite>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Charles&nbsp;VIII., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>Chaucer, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Cheke, Sir John, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li>Child, C.&nbsp;G., <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+<li>choristers, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>Christ Church, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+<li>Cicero, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li><cite>Civile Conversation</cite>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+comedy
+ <ul class="index-sub">
+ <li>before Lyly, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+ <li>and folly, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+ <li>and masque, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+ <li>and music, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+ <li>and society, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+ <li>and woman, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li>Congreve, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+<li><cite>Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers, A</cite>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+<li>Corpus Christi College (Oxford), <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Corro, Antonio de, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+<li>Cortes, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>Craik, Sir H., <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+<li><cite>Cupid and my Campaspe played</cite>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+<li><cite>Cynthia</cite>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li><cite>Damon and Pithias</cite>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">De Educatione</cite> (of Plutarch), <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>Dekker, Thomas, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+<li>Demosthenes, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+<li>Devereux, Penelope, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+<li><cite>Diall of Princes</cite>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Diana</cite>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Dickens, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+<li><cite>Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier</cite>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+<li>Doni, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Dryden, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+<li>dubartism, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Earle, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li>
+<li>education (Lyly's views on), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li><cite>Edward&nbsp;II.</cite>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li>Edwardes, Richard, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+<li>Eliot, George, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+<li>Elizabeth, Queen, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+<li>Ellis, Havelock, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+<li><cite>Endymion</cite>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+<li><cite>English Novel, The</cite> (v.&nbsp;Raleigh)</li>
+<li><cite>English Novel in the time of Shakespeare, The</cite> (v.&nbsp;Jusserand)</li>
+<li>Erasmus, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li><cite>Estella</cite>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>Eton, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li><cite>Euphues</cite>
+ <ul class="index-sub">
+ <li>antecedents of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+ <li>criticism and description of
+ <ol class="index-sub">
+ <li><cite>Anatomy of Wit</cite>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+ <li><cite>Euphues and his England</cite>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+ </ol></li>
+ <li>dedication of, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+ <li>distinction between the two parts, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+ <li>Elizabethan reputation of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+ <li>first English novel, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+ <li>moral tone of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+ <li>publication and editions of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+ <li>quoted, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li><cite>Euphues and his England</cite> (v.&nbsp;<cite>Euphues</cite>)</li>
+<li><cite>Euphues and his Ephoebus</cite>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>Euphuism
+ <ul class="index-sub">
+ <li>analysis of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+ <li>an aristocratic fashion, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+ <li>diction and, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+ <li>humanism and, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+ <li>imitators of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+ <li>origins of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+ <li>Oxford and, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+ <li>poetry and, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+ <li>Renaissance and, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+ <li>Scott's misapprehension of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+ <li>secret of Lyly's influence, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+ <li>Spain and, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+<cite>Every Man out of His Humour</cite>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>fabliau, the, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li><cite>Faery Queen, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+<li>Field, Nathaniel, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+<li>Fitzmaurice-Kelly, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Flaubert, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+<li>Florence, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+<li>Fortescue, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>France (and French), <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Gager, William, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+<li><cite>Gallathea</cite>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+<li><cite>Gammer Gurton's Needle</cite>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>Gascoigne, George, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+<li>Gayley, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+<li>Geoffrey of Dunstable, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Gesta Romanorum</cite>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>Gibbon, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+<li><cite>Glasse for Europe, A</cite>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+<li>Goethe, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+<li><cite>Golden Boke, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+<li>Gollancz, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+<li>gongorism, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+<li>Goodlet, Dr, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+<li><cite>Gorbuduc</cite>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li>Gosse, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+<li>Gosson, Stephen, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>Granada, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Greek, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+<li>Greene, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Grey, Lady Jane, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+<li>Guazzo, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+<li>Guerrero, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Guevara, Antonio de, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Habsburgs, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+<li>Hakluyt, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>Hallam, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+<li>Halpin, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+<li>Harrison, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>Harvey, Dr, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+<li>Harvey, Gabriel, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li><cite>Hekatompathia</cite>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li>Hennequin, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+<li>Henry&nbsp;VIII., <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Hernani</cite>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+<li>Herrick, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+<li>Heywood, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+<li>Homer, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+<li>Horace, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+<li>Hugo, Victor, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+<li>humanism, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+<li>Hume, Martin, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+<li><cite>Huon of Bordeaux</cite>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>Huss, John, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li><cite>Importance of being Earnest, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+<li>Italy (and Italian), <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li><cite>Jacke Jugelar</cite>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+<li>James&nbsp;I., <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+<li>James, Henry, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+<li>Johnson, Dr, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+<li>Jonson, Ben, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+<li>Jusserand, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Katherine of Aragon, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+<li>Kenilworth, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+<li>Knox, John, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>Kyd, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+<li><cite>Kynge Johan</cite>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li><cite>Lady Windermere's Fan</cite>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+<li>Landmann, Dr, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+Latimer, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Lazarillo de&nbsp;T&oacute;rmes</cite>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Lee, Sidney, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+<li>Leicester, Earl of, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="es" xml:lang="es">Libro Aureo</cite> (v.&nbsp;Guevara)</li>
+<li>Liebig, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+<li><cite>Literature of Europe</cite>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+<li>Lodge, Thomas, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+<li>Lok, Henry, Thomas, and Michael, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>London, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li>London, Bishop of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+<li><cite>Love's Labour's Lost</cite>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+<li><cite>Love's Metamorphosis</cite>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>
+<li>Luther, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+<li>Lyly, John:
+ <ul class="index-sub">
+ <li>character and genius, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+ <li>compared with Marlowe, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+ <li>courtier and man of fashion, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+ <li>dramatist, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+ <li>forerunner of Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+ <li>friends of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+ <li>Jonson's caricature of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+ <li>learning, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+ <li>life, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+ <li>novelist, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+ <li>poet, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+ <li>position in English literature, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+ <li>prose, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+ <li>reputation, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li>lyrics, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Macaulay, G.&nbsp;C., <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+<li>Macaulay, Lord, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+<li><cite>Macbeth</cite>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+<li>Magdalen College (Oxford), <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>Malory, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+<li>Marini, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li><cite>Marius the Epicurean</cite>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li>Marlowe, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+<li><cite>Martin Marprelate</cite>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+<li>Mary (Tudor), <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Mary (of Scots), <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+<li>masque, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li>Maupassant, Guy de, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li><cite>Mayde's Metamorphosis</cite>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li>Mendoza, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Meredith, George, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+<li><cite>Midas</cite>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+<li><cite>Midsummer Night's Dream</cite> (anticipated by Lyly), <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+<li>Milton, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+<li>miracle-play, the, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+<li><cite>Monastery, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+<li>Montemayor, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>moral court treatise, the, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>morality-play, the, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Morte d'Arthur</cite>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+<li><cite>Mother Bombie</cite>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+<li>Munday, Anthony, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+<li><cite>Murder of John Brewer, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Naples, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>Nash, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Newton, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+<li>Nicholas, Thomas, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>North, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+<li>novella, the, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+Ovid, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+<li>Oxford, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Oxford, Earl of (v.&nbsp;Vere, Edward&nbsp;de)</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Painter, William, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+<li>Palgrave, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+<li><cite>Palamon and Arcite</cite>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+<li><cite>Pallace of Pleasure</cite>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+<li><cite>Pamela</cite>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+<li>pastoral romance, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+<li>Petrarchisti, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Pettie, George, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li><cite>Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure</cite>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>Philip&nbsp;II. of Spain (caricatured by Lyly), <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+<li>picaresque romance, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+<li>Plato, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+<li>Plautus, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+<li><cite>Play of the Wether, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li><cite>Pleasant History of the Conquest of West India</cite>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>Pliny, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+<li>Plutarch, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li><cite>Poetics of Aristotle, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+<li>puritanism, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+<li>Puttenham, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Quick, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>Quintilian, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Raleigh, Prof.&nbsp;W., <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+<li><cite>Ralph Roister Doister</cite>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>Renaissance, the, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+<li>Revels' Office, the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+<li>Richardson, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+<li>Rogers, Thomas, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>romance of chivalry, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>Ronsard, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+<li>Rowland, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li><cite>Sacharissa</cite>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+<li>Sainte Beuve, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+<li>St Paul's Choir School, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+<li>Saintsbury, Prof., <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>Sallust, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+<li><cite>Sapho and Phao</cite>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>
+<li>Savoy Hospital, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+<li><cite>School of Abuse, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li><cite>Schoolmaster, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>Schwan, Dr, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+<li>Scott, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+<li>Seneca, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li>Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+<li>Sheridan, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+<li>Sidney, Sir Philip, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+<li><cite>Sixe Court Comedies</cite>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+<li><cite>Soliman and Perseda</cite>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+<li>Soto, Pedro de, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Spain (and Spanish), <a href="#Page_22">22</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+<li><cite>Spanish Tragedy, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+<li>Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+<li>Spenser, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+<li><cite>Stella</cite>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+<li>Stevenson, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li>Stratford, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+<li><cite lang="it" xml:lang="it">Suppositi</cite> (<cite>Supposes</cite>), <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+<li>Surrey, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+<li>Symonds, J.&nbsp;A., <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Taine, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+<li><cite>Tamburlaine</cite>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+<li><cite>Taming of the Shrew, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+Tasso, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Tents and Toils (office of), <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+<li>Terence, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+<li>Thackeray, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+<li><cite>Timon of Athens</cite> (anticipated by Lyly), <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+<li><cite>Toxophilus</cite>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+<li>Tully (v.&nbsp;Cicero)</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Udall, Nicholas, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li>Underhill, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Vere, Edward&nbsp;de, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+<li>Villa Garcia, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Virgil, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li>Vives, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Waller, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+<li>Ward, Dr, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li>Ward, Mrs H., <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+<li>Warner, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+<li>Watson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+<li>Webbe, William, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+<li>Welbanke, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+<li>West, Dr, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+<li>Weymouth, Dr, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+<li>Wilkinson, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+<li><cite>Wine, Women and Song</cite>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+<li><cite>Woman in the Moon, The</cite>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+<li><cite>Woman is a Weathercock, A</cite>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+<li>women, importance of, in the Elizabethan age, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>&ndash;<a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+<li>Wood, Anthony &agrave;, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+<li>Wyatt, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+<li>Wycliff, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>Wynkyn de&nbsp;Worde, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Zola, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size: smaller; margin-top: 60px; margin-bottom: 60px;">CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> <cite>The Complete Works of John Lyly.</cite> R.&nbsp;W. Bond, 3 Vols. Clarendon
+Press.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> Cf.&nbsp;Hennequin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;2; Baker, p.&nbsp;v.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ath. Ox.</cite> (ed. Bliss), <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;676.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;6. But Baker, pp.&nbsp;vii, viii, would seem to disagree with this.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> Baker, p.&nbsp;xii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athenae Oxonienses</cite> (ed. Bliss), <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;676.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> Mr Baker however seems to think that his reference to Cambridge
+(<cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;436) implies a term of residence there. Baker, p.&nbsp;xxii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;38.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="label">[12]</a> I have to thank Dr Ward for pointing out to me the interesting fact
+that a large proportion of Elizabeth's M.P.'s were royal officials.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="label">[13]</a> <cite>A discourse of English Poetrie</cite>, Arber's reprint.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="label">[14]</a> Child, pp.&nbsp;6&ndash;20, for an account of chief writers who have dealt with
+euphuism.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="label">[15]</a> <cite>John Lyly and Euphuism.</cite> C.&nbsp;G. Child.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="label">[16]</a> <cite>On Euphuism</cite>, Phil. Soc. Trans., 1870&ndash;2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> Child, p.&nbsp;43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;44.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="label">[19]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;90.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="label">[20]</a> Child, p.&nbsp;39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="label">[21]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;46.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="label">[22]</a> Jusserand, p.&nbsp;107.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" href="#FNanchor_23_23" class="label">[23]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;402.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" href="#FNanchor_24_24" class="label">[24]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;58.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" href="#FNanchor_25_25" class="label">[25]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;46.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" href="#FNanchor_26_26" class="label">[26]</a> <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen &acirc;ge</cite>, par Liebig,
+traduit par de Tchihatchef.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" href="#FNanchor_27_27" class="label">[27]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;131 note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" href="#FNanchor_28_28" class="label">[28]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;299.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" href="#FNanchor_29_29" class="label">[29]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;248.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" href="#FNanchor_30_30" class="label">[30]</a> Underhill, p.&nbsp;339.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" href="#FNanchor_31_31" class="label">[31]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;268 note. Mr Underhill writes: "The attempt to connect the
+style of Sidney with that of Montemayor has failed."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" href="#FNanchor_32_32" class="label">[32]</a> Underhill, p.&nbsp;48, but see Martin Hume, ch.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ix</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" href="#FNanchor_33_33" class="label">[33]</a> Some doubt has been thrown upon Mendoza's authorship. See
+Fitzmaurice-Kelly, p.&nbsp;158, and Martin Hume, p.&nbsp;133.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" href="#FNanchor_34_34" class="label">[34]</a> Martin Hume, p.&nbsp;126.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" href="#FNanchor_35_35" class="label">[35]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" href="#FNanchor_36_36" class="label">[36]</a> Underhill, p.&nbsp;178, to whom I am indebted for nearly all the preceding
+remarks in connexion with the Spanish atmosphere at Oxford.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" href="#FNanchor_37_37" class="label">[37]</a> Arber's reprint, <cite>School of Abuse</cite>, p.&nbsp;97.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" href="#FNanchor_38_38" class="label">[38]</a> Craik, vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" href="#FNanchor_39_39" class="label">[39]</a> Underhill, ch.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">viii</span>. &sect; 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" href="#FNanchor_40_40" class="label">[40]</a> Huon of Bordeaux, appendix <span class="smcap">i</span>., <cite>Lord Berners and Euphuism</cite>, p.&nbsp;786.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" href="#FNanchor_41_41" class="label">[41]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;158.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" href="#FNanchor_42_42" class="label">[42]</a> See <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athen&aelig;um</cite>, July 14, 1883.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" href="#FNanchor_43_43" class="label">[43]</a> <cite>Dict. of Nat. Biog.</cite>, Bryan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" href="#FNanchor_44_44" class="label">[44]</a> The 2nd edition of this book, which was published under another title,
+is thus described in the B.&nbsp;M. Cat.: "<cite>A looking-glass for the court</cite> &hellip; out of
+Castilian drawne into French by A.&nbsp;Alaygre; and out of the French into
+English by Sir&nbsp;F.&nbsp;Briant."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" href="#FNanchor_45_45" class="label">[45]</a> Huon, p.&nbsp;787.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" href="#FNanchor_46_46" class="label">[46]</a> <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite>, Globe edition, p.&nbsp;xxviii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" href="#FNanchor_47_47" class="label">[47]</a> Huon, p.&nbsp;788.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" href="#FNanchor_48_48" class="label">[48]</a> After writing the above I have noticed that Mr G.&nbsp;C. Macaulay,
+in the Introduction to the Globe <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite>, writes as follows (p.&nbsp;xvi):
+"If nothing else could be adduced to show that the tendency (i.e. euphuism)
+existed already in English literature, the prefaces to Lord Berners' <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite>
+written before he could possibly have read Guevara, would be enough
+to prove it."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" href="#FNanchor_49_49" class="label">[49]</a> There are two extant editions of 1529, (i) published at Valladolid,
+from which the words above are quoted, (ii) published at Enueres, which
+appears to be an earlier edition. Copies of both in the British Museum.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" href="#FNanchor_50_50" class="label">[50]</a> Hallam, <cite>Lit. of Europe</cite>, ed.&nbsp;1855, vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;403&nbsp;n. Brunet in his
+<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Manuel de Libraire</cite> gives Hallam's view without comment, tome <span class="smcap">ii</span>.
+"Guevara."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" href="#FNanchor_51_51" class="label">[51]</a> Underhill, p.&nbsp;69.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" href="#FNanchor_52_52" class="label">[52]</a> Bond, vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;137.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" href="#FNanchor_53_53" class="label">[53]</a> For 18th century v.&nbsp;Gosse, <cite>From Shakespeare to Pope</cite>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" href="#FNanchor_54_54" class="label">[54]</a> Craik, vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;224.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" href="#FNanchor_55_55" class="label">[55]</a> Craik, p.&nbsp;258.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" href="#FNanchor_56_56" class="label">[56]</a> Arber, <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, p.&nbsp;35.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" href="#FNanchor_57_57" class="label">[57]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;46.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" href="#FNanchor_58_58" class="label">[58]</a> Craik, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;269.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" href="#FNanchor_59_59" class="label">[59]</a> <cite>Dict. of Nat. Biog.</cite>, Pettie.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" href="#FNanchor_60_60" class="label">[60]</a> I have taken the liberty of modernising the spelling.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" href="#FNanchor_61_61" class="label">[61]</a> Jusserand, ch.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iv</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" href="#FNanchor_62_62" class="label">[62]</a> Bond, vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>. pp.&nbsp;164&ndash;175.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" href="#FNanchor_63_63" class="label">[63]</a> Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>. Sc.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ii</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" href="#FNanchor_64_64" class="label">[64]</a> <cite>Sp. Trag.</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iv</span>. 190 (cp.&nbsp;<cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;146).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" href="#FNanchor_65_65" class="label">[65]</a> <cite>Soliman and Perseda</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. 130 (cp.&nbsp;<cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;100), and Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ii</span>. 199.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" href="#FNanchor_66_66" class="label">[66]</a> <cite>Kyd's Works</cite> (Boas), p.&nbsp;288, and ch.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ix</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" href="#FNanchor_67_67" class="label">[67]</a> <cite>Sp. Trag.</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ii</span>. 1&ndash;8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" href="#FNanchor_68_68" class="label">[68]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;337.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" href="#FNanchor_69_69" class="label">[69]</a> <cite>Poems</cite>, Arber, pp.&nbsp;18 and 19.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" href="#FNanchor_70_70" class="label">[70]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" href="#FNanchor_71_71" class="label">[71]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;51.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" href="#FNanchor_72_72" class="label">[72]</a> Symonds, p.&nbsp;407.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" href="#FNanchor_73_73" class="label">[73]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p.&nbsp;404.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" href="#FNanchor_74_74" class="label">[74]</a> <cite>Essays in Criticism</cite>, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" href="#FNanchor_75_75" class="label">[75]</a> Butler Clarke, <cite>Spanish Literature</cite>, p.&nbsp;71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" href="#FNanchor_76_76" class="label">[76]</a> Cf.&nbsp;Earle, pp.&nbsp;422, 423.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" href="#FNanchor_77_77" class="label">[77]</a> Earle, p.&nbsp;436.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" href="#FNanchor_78_78" class="label">[78]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" href="#FNanchor_79_79" class="label">[79]</a> Raleigh, p.&nbsp;45.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" href="#FNanchor_80_80" class="label">[80]</a> This touches upon the famous dispute between Dr Schwan and
+Dr Goodlet which is excellently dealt with by Mr Child, p.&nbsp;77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" href="#FNanchor_81_81" class="label">[81]</a> Raleigh, p.&nbsp;47.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" href="#FNanchor_82_82" class="label">[82]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;220.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" href="#FNanchor_83_83" class="label">[83]</a> Child, p.&nbsp;41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" href="#FNanchor_84_84" class="label">[84]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;146.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" href="#FNanchor_85_85" class="label">[85]</a> H.&nbsp;Spencer, Essays, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. <cite>Phil. of Style</cite>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" href="#FNanchor_86_86" class="label">[86]</a> <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, p.&nbsp;80.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" href="#FNanchor_87_87" class="label">[87]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. pp.&nbsp;154&ndash;156.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" href="#FNanchor_88_88" class="label">[88]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. pp.&nbsp;156&ndash;159.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" href="#FNanchor_89_89" class="label">[89]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;10.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" href="#FNanchor_90_90" class="label">[90]</a> <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, p.&nbsp;47.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" href="#FNanchor_91_91" class="label">[91]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p.&nbsp;220.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" href="#FNanchor_92_92" class="label">[92]</a> Jusserand, p.&nbsp;5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" href="#FNanchor_93_93" class="label">[93]</a> Mr Bond thinks it a picture of Lyly's father.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" href="#FNanchor_94_94" class="label">[94]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;161.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" href="#FNanchor_95_95" class="label">[95]</a> It was Sidney and Nash who set the fashion for the 17th century.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" href="#FNanchor_96_96" class="label">[96]</a> Raleigh, p.&nbsp;57. He writes <cite>Arcadia</cite> for <cite>Euphues</cite> but the substitution
+is legitimate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" href="#FNanchor_97_97" class="label">[97]</a> Baker, p.&nbsp;lxxxviii, places <cite>Endymion</cite> as early as Sept. 1579. Bond,
+vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. p.&nbsp;10, attempts to disprove Baker's contention, and in vol.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;309,
+he maintains chiefly on grounds of style that <cite>Campaspe</cite> was the earliest of
+Lyly's plays, being produced at the Christmas of 1580.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" href="#FNanchor_98_98" class="label">[98]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;238.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" href="#FNanchor_99_99" class="label">[99]</a> <cite>Dict. Of Nat. Biog.</cite>, Edward de&nbsp;Vere.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" href="#FNanchor_100_100" class="label">[100]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;230 (chronological table).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" href="#FNanchor_101_101" class="label">[101]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;161.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" href="#FNanchor_102_102" class="label">[102]</a> Gayley, p.&nbsp;lxiv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" href="#FNanchor_103_103" class="label">[103]</a> Symonds, p.&nbsp;199.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" href="#FNanchor_104_104" class="label">[104]</a> Ward, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" href="#FNanchor_105_105" class="label">[105]</a> Gayley, p.&nbsp;xiv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" href="#FNanchor_106_106" class="label">[106]</a> I put this interpretation upon the account of Heywood's receiving
+40 shillings from Queen Mary "for pleying an interlude with his children."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" href="#FNanchor_107_107" class="label">[107]</a> Ward, <cite>Dict. of Nat. Biog.</cite>, Heywood.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" href="#FNanchor_108_108" class="label">[108]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;238.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" href="#FNanchor_109_109" class="label">[109]</a> 1566.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" href="#FNanchor_110_110" class="label">[110]</a> Gayley, p.&nbsp;lxxxv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" href="#FNanchor_111_111" class="label">[111]</a> <cite>Dict. of Nat. Biog.</cite>, Gascoigne, George.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" href="#FNanchor_112_112" class="label">[112]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;237.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" href="#FNanchor_113_113" class="label">[113]</a> George Gascoigne, whose importance does not seem to have been
+realised by Elizabethan students, also produced a drama in blank verse.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" href="#FNanchor_114_114" class="label">[114]</a> From <cite>Prologue</cite> at the Court.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" href="#FNanchor_115_115" class="label">[115]</a> <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">"Alii bella gerunt, tu felix Austria nube."</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" href="#FNanchor_116_116" class="label">[116]</a> <cite>Sapho and Phao</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iv</span>. 60&ndash;85.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" href="#FNanchor_117_117" class="label">[117]</a> Halpin, <cite>Oberon's Vision</cite>, Shakespeare Society, 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" href="#FNanchor_118_118" class="label">[118]</a> <cite>Endymion</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">ii</span>. ll.&nbsp;30&ndash;60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" href="#FNanchor_119_119" class="label">[119]</a> Cp.&nbsp;also Shakespeare, <cite>Sonnet <span class="smcap">cxxx</span></cite>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" href="#FNanchor_120_120" class="label">[120]</a> <span class="smcap">xi</span>. 85&ndash;193.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" href="#FNanchor_121_121" class="label">[121]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">iii</span>. p.&nbsp;234.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" href="#FNanchor_122_122" class="label">[122]</a> For title-page, Bond, <span class="smcap">iii</span>. p.&nbsp;1, date 1632.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" href="#FNanchor_123_123" class="label">[123]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">iii</span>. p.&nbsp;433.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" href="#FNanchor_124_124" class="label">[124]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;36, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;265.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" href="#FNanchor_125_125" class="label">[125]</a> <cite>Mother Bombie</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. 1&ndash;14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" href="#FNanchor_126_126" class="label">[126]</a> <cite>Campaspe</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">v</span>. Sc.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">i</span>. 32&ndash;44. I have modernised the spelling.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" href="#FNanchor_127_127" class="label">[127]</a> I have said nothing of the <cite>Mayde's Metamorphosis</cite>, as most critics are
+agreed in assigning it to some unknown author.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" href="#FNanchor_128_128" class="label">[128]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. pp.&nbsp;265&ndash;266.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" href="#FNanchor_129_129" class="label">[129]</a> <cite>Campaspe</cite>, Act&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc.&nbsp;<span class="smcap">iv</span>. 31.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" href="#FNanchor_130_130" class="label">[130]</a> Sidney Lee, <cite>Life</cite>, p.&nbsp;151.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" href="#FNanchor_131_131" class="label">[131]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;284.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" href="#FNanchor_132_132" class="label">[132]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p.&nbsp;266.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" href="#FNanchor_133_133" class="label">[133]</a> <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La Critique Scientifique.</cite></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" href="#FNanchor_134_134" class="label">[134]</a> From the <cite>Preface</cite>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" href="#FNanchor_135_135" class="label">[135]</a> Bond, <span class="smcap">i</span>. p.&nbsp;401.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22525-h.htm or 22525-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22525/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+ the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+ you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
+ owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+ has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+ Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
+ must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+ prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+ returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+ sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+ address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+ the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+ you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+ does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+ License. You must require such a user to return or
+ destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+ and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+ Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+ money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+ electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+ of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+ distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+ Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+ Chief Executive and Director
+ gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+ http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f001.png b/22525-page-images/f001.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cddceb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f001.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f002.png b/22525-page-images/f002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2f5b91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f002.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f003.png b/22525-page-images/f003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ecd957f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f003.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f004.png b/22525-page-images/f004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5432760
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f004.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f005.png b/22525-page-images/f005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be77c50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f005.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f006.png b/22525-page-images/f006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88e6eaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f006.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f007.png b/22525-page-images/f007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4a5eef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f007.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f008.png b/22525-page-images/f008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d89ad9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f008.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f009.png b/22525-page-images/f009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f63fcc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f009.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f010.png b/22525-page-images/f010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87e4420
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f010.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f011.png b/22525-page-images/f011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b411820
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f011.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f012.png b/22525-page-images/f012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb436b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f012.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f013.png b/22525-page-images/f013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b4f4e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f013.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f014.png b/22525-page-images/f014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e0fe9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f014.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/f015.png b/22525-page-images/f015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67da037
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/f015.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p010.png b/22525-page-images/p010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd0c7ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p010.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p011.png b/22525-page-images/p011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1d0c4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p011.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p012.png b/22525-page-images/p012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8758e5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p012.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p013.png b/22525-page-images/p013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1d1189
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p013.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p014.png b/22525-page-images/p014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f57b242
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p014.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p015.png b/22525-page-images/p015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e45acec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p015.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p016.png b/22525-page-images/p016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bf49e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p016.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p017.png b/22525-page-images/p017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a96be10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p017.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p018.png b/22525-page-images/p018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62f3eff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p018.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p019.png b/22525-page-images/p019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e034da2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p019.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p020.png b/22525-page-images/p020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de925ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p020.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p021.png b/22525-page-images/p021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87d456f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p021.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p022.png b/22525-page-images/p022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d4d84b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p022.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p023.png b/22525-page-images/p023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4feb0cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p023.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p024.png b/22525-page-images/p024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7426f2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p024.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p025.png b/22525-page-images/p025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee18540
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p025.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p026.png b/22525-page-images/p026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bde44f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p026.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p027.png b/22525-page-images/p027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bc6d20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p027.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p028.png b/22525-page-images/p028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8184ac3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p028.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p029.png b/22525-page-images/p029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..136af68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p029.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p030.png b/22525-page-images/p030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5777eb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p030.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p031.png b/22525-page-images/p031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed1c309
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p031.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p032.png b/22525-page-images/p032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69ba597
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p032.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p033.png b/22525-page-images/p033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef49f3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p033.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p034.png b/22525-page-images/p034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9312d32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p034.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p035.png b/22525-page-images/p035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba6ae32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p035.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p036.png b/22525-page-images/p036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5438bb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p036.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p037.png b/22525-page-images/p037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..28066f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p037.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p038.png b/22525-page-images/p038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59b131b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p038.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p039.png b/22525-page-images/p039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3628353
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p039.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p040.png b/22525-page-images/p040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a3a150
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p040.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p041.png b/22525-page-images/p041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..969c692
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p041.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p042.png b/22525-page-images/p042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddd4c33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p042.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p043.png b/22525-page-images/p043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..267b2da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p043.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p044.png b/22525-page-images/p044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..056e61e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p044.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p045.png b/22525-page-images/p045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a14d8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p045.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p046.png b/22525-page-images/p046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a8ac06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p046.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p047.png b/22525-page-images/p047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed57472
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p047.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p048.png b/22525-page-images/p048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5185d22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p048.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p049.png b/22525-page-images/p049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f943675
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p049.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p050.png b/22525-page-images/p050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22e1186
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p050.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p051.png b/22525-page-images/p051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33cb931
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p051.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p052.png b/22525-page-images/p052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a21f5a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p052.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p053.png b/22525-page-images/p053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fd0041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p053.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p054.png b/22525-page-images/p054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1b1703
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p054.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p055.png b/22525-page-images/p055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c564f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p055.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p056.png b/22525-page-images/p056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea9a392
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p056.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p057.png b/22525-page-images/p057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f761e7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p057.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p058.png b/22525-page-images/p058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bb2d9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p058.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p059.png b/22525-page-images/p059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efa00b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p059.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p060.png b/22525-page-images/p060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e357f5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p060.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p061.png b/22525-page-images/p061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3384f22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p061.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p062.png b/22525-page-images/p062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..744be33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p062.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p063.png b/22525-page-images/p063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..781c34d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p063.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p064.png b/22525-page-images/p064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3212dad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p064.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p065.png b/22525-page-images/p065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a86608
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p065.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p066.png b/22525-page-images/p066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9530aa2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p066.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p067.png b/22525-page-images/p067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de3a2bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p067.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p068.png b/22525-page-images/p068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e09488
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p068.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p069.png b/22525-page-images/p069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d89cdf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p069.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p070.png b/22525-page-images/p070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20e87f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p070.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p071.png b/22525-page-images/p071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54facd5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p071.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p072.png b/22525-page-images/p072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbfeac9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p072.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p073.png b/22525-page-images/p073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f0c34e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p073.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p074.png b/22525-page-images/p074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a345f68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p074.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p075.png b/22525-page-images/p075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..503094c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p075.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p076.png b/22525-page-images/p076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0c46119
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p076.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p077.png b/22525-page-images/p077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8669a8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p077.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p078.png b/22525-page-images/p078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92e2d2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p078.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p079.png b/22525-page-images/p079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7dda24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p079.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p080.png b/22525-page-images/p080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac73a47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p080.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p081.png b/22525-page-images/p081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2610a3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p081.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p082.png b/22525-page-images/p082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21c7128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p082.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p083.png b/22525-page-images/p083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52e9fa3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p083.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p084.png b/22525-page-images/p084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5eed4db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p084.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p085.png b/22525-page-images/p085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..befe94b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p085.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p086.png b/22525-page-images/p086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9e0ffe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p086.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p087.png b/22525-page-images/p087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad2eeb9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p087.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p088.png b/22525-page-images/p088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d0715ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p088.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p089.png b/22525-page-images/p089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8206c95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p089.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p090.png b/22525-page-images/p090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a6cfd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p090.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p091.png b/22525-page-images/p091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e5b355
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p091.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p092.png b/22525-page-images/p092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f1de4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p092.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p093.png b/22525-page-images/p093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..598f49a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p093.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p094.png b/22525-page-images/p094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e39ffd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p094.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p095.png b/22525-page-images/p095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d88f3e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p095.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p096.png b/22525-page-images/p096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb0fcfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p096.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p097.png b/22525-page-images/p097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f5fb51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p097.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p098.png b/22525-page-images/p098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e8d92f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p098.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p099.png b/22525-page-images/p099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3442b43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p099.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p100.png b/22525-page-images/p100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0401c07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p100.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p101.png b/22525-page-images/p101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9074325
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p101.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p102.png b/22525-page-images/p102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0fb7239
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p102.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p103.png b/22525-page-images/p103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c38eb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p103.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p104.png b/22525-page-images/p104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5726f4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p104.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p105.png b/22525-page-images/p105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4e294e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p105.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p106.png b/22525-page-images/p106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5770884
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p106.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p107.png b/22525-page-images/p107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..728ff66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p107.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p108.png b/22525-page-images/p108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95bd821
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p108.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p109.png b/22525-page-images/p109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62cce90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p109.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p110.png b/22525-page-images/p110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..007597d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p110.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p111.png b/22525-page-images/p111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36fa1ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p111.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p112.png b/22525-page-images/p112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4cf9b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p112.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p113.png b/22525-page-images/p113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e37058
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p113.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p114.png b/22525-page-images/p114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e396d6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p114.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p115.png b/22525-page-images/p115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99e5def
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p115.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p116.png b/22525-page-images/p116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d795082
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p116.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p117.png b/22525-page-images/p117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94bd171
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p117.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p118.png b/22525-page-images/p118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41e7a54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p118.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p119.png b/22525-page-images/p119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8842b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p119.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p120.png b/22525-page-images/p120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c2e88e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p120.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p121.png b/22525-page-images/p121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be7702e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p121.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p122.png b/22525-page-images/p122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ac0218
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p122.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p123.png b/22525-page-images/p123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..342270d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p123.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p124.png b/22525-page-images/p124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..191e581
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p124.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p125.png b/22525-page-images/p125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9eae0af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p125.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p126.png b/22525-page-images/p126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c24ca72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p126.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p127.png b/22525-page-images/p127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b35b49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p127.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p128.png b/22525-page-images/p128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..508d190
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p128.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p129.png b/22525-page-images/p129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ecf5db2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p129.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p130.png b/22525-page-images/p130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96a2d9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p130.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p131.png b/22525-page-images/p131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51610df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p131.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p132.png b/22525-page-images/p132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dfbfc98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p132.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p133.png b/22525-page-images/p133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6dcf149
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p133.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p134.png b/22525-page-images/p134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82a4a60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p134.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p135.png b/22525-page-images/p135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa89042
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p135.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p136.png b/22525-page-images/p136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..293bbcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p136.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p137.png b/22525-page-images/p137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71b1222
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p137.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p138.png b/22525-page-images/p138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c1c640
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p138.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p139.png b/22525-page-images/p139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7345597
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p139.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p140.png b/22525-page-images/p140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c27566
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p140.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p141.png b/22525-page-images/p141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da91d5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p141.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p142.png b/22525-page-images/p142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4ad8ab2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p142.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p143.png b/22525-page-images/p143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f264a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p143.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p144.png b/22525-page-images/p144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bbf5b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p144.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p145.png b/22525-page-images/p145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e31b78f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p145.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p146.png b/22525-page-images/p146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6a8e02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p146.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p147.png b/22525-page-images/p147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a5ebdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p147.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525-page-images/p148.png b/22525-page-images/p148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..463ad01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525-page-images/p148.png
Binary files differ
diff --git a/22525.txt b/22525.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db13163
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5473 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: John Lyly
+
+Author: John Dover Wilson
+
+Release Date: September 6, 2007 [EBook #22525]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+This e-text contains one Greek word that has been transliterated and
+placed inside slashes: /Euphues/.]
+
+
+
+
+ JOHN LYLY
+
+
+ BY
+
+ JOHN DOVER WILSON,
+
+
+
+ B.A., Late Scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
+ Members' Prizeman, 1902. Harness Prizeman, 1904.
+ Honours in Historical Tripos.
+
+
+
+
+ Macmillan and Bowes
+ Cambridge
+ 1905
+
+
+
+
+ A
+ MIA
+ DONNA.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following treatise was awarded the _Harness Prize_ at Cambridge in
+1904. I have, however, revised it since then, and in some matters
+considerably enlarged it.
+
+A list of the chief authorities to whom I am indebted will be found at
+the end of the book, but it is fitting that I should here make
+particular mention of my obligations to the exhaustive work of Mr
+Bond[1]. Not only have his labours of research and collation lightened
+the task for me, and for any future student of Lyly, to an incalculable
+extent, but the various introductory essays scattered up and down his
+volumes are full of invaluable suggestions.
+
+ [1] _The Complete Works of John Lyly._ R. W. Bond, 3 Vols. Clarendon
+ Press.
+
+This book was unfortunately nearing its completion before I was able to
+avail myself of Mr Martin Hume's _Spanish Influence on English
+Literature_. But, though I might have added more had his book been
+accessible earlier, I was glad to find that his conclusions left the
+main theory of my chapter on Euphuism untouched.
+
+Much as has been written upon John Lyly, no previous critic has
+attempted to cover the whole ground, and to sum up in a brief and
+convenient form the three main literary problems which centre round his
+name. My solution of these problems may be faulty in detail, but it will
+I hope be of service to Elizabethan students to have them presented in a
+single volume and from a single point of view. Furthermore, when I
+undertook this study, I found several points which seemed to demand
+closer attention than they had hitherto received. It appeared to me that
+the last word had not been said even upon the subject of Euphuism,
+although that topic has usurped the lion's share of critical treatment.
+And again, while Lyly's claims as a novelist are acknowledged on all
+hands, I felt that a clear statement of his exact position in the
+history of our novel was still needed. Finally, inasmuch as the
+personality of an author is always more fascinating to me than his
+writings, I determined to attempt to throw some light, however fitful
+and uncertain, upon the man Lyly himself. The attempt was not entirely
+fruitless, for it led to the interesting discovery that the
+fully-developed euphuism was not the creation of Lyly, or Pettie, or
+indeed of any one individual, but of a circle of young Oxford men which
+included Gosson, Watson, Hakluyt, and possibly many others.
+
+I have to thank Mr J. R. Collins and Mr J. N. Frazer, the one for help
+in revision, and the other for assistance in Spanish. But my chief debt
+of gratitude is due to Dr Ward, the Master of Peterhouse, who has twice
+read through this book at different stages of its construction. The
+readiness with which he has put his great learning at my disposal, his
+kindly interest, and frequent encouragement have been of the very
+greatest help in a task which was undertaken and completed under
+pressure of other work.
+
+As the full titles of authorities used are to be found in the list at
+the end, I have referred to works in the footnotes simply by the name of
+their author, while in quoting from _Euphues_ I have throughout employed
+Prof. Arber's reprint. Should errors be discovered in the text I must
+plead in excuse that, owing to circumstances, the book had to be passed
+very quickly through the press.
+
+JOHN DOVER WILSON.
+
+HOLMLEIGH, SHELFORD, _August, 1905_.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+ PAGE
+
+The problem stated--Sketch of Lyly's life 1
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EUPHUISM 10
+
+Section I. The Anatomy of Euphuism 13
+
+Section II. The Origin of Euphuism 21
+
+Section III. Lyly's legatees and the relation between
+Euphuism and the Renaissance 43
+
+Section IV. The position of Euphuism in the history of English
+Prose 52
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL 64
+
+The rise of the Novel--the characteristics of _The Anatomy of
+Wit_ and _Euphues and his England_--the Elizabethan Novel.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LYLY THE DRAMATIST 85
+
+Section I. English Comedy before 1580 89
+
+Section II. The Eight Plays 98
+
+Section III. Lyly's advance and subsequent influence 119
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CONCLUSION 132
+
+Lyly's Character--Summary.
+
+INDEX 143
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Since the day when Taine established a scientific basis for the
+historical study of Art, criticism has tended gradually but naturally to
+fall into two divisions, as distinct from each other as the functions
+they respectively perform are distinct. The one, which we may call
+aesthetic criticism, deals with the artist and his works solely for the
+purpose of interpretation and appreciation, judging them according to
+some artistic standard, which, as often as not, derives its only
+sanction from the prejudices of the critic himself. It is of course
+obvious that, until all critics are agreed upon some common principles
+of artistic valuation, aesthetic criticism can lay no claim to
+scientific precision, but must be classed as a department of Art itself.
+The other, an application of the Darwinian hypothesis to literature,
+which owes its existence almost entirely to the great French critic
+before mentioned, but which has since rejected as unscientific many of
+the laws he formulated, may be called historical or sociological
+criticism. It judges a work of art, an artist, or an artistic period, on
+its dynamic and not its intrinsic merits. Its standard is influence, not
+power or beauty. It is concerned with the artistic qualities of a given
+artist only in so far as he exerts influence over his successors by
+those qualities. It is essentially scientific, for it treats the artist
+as science treats any other natural phenomenon, that is, as the effect
+of previous causes and the cause of subsequent effects. Its function is
+one of classification, and with interpretation or appreciation it has
+nothing to do.
+
+Before undertaking the study of an artist, the critic should carefully
+distinguish between these two critical methods. A complete study must of
+course comprehend both; and in the case of Shakespeare, shall we say,
+each should be exhaustive. On the other hand, there are artists whose
+dynamical value is far greater than their intrinsic value, and _vice
+versa_; and in such instances the critic must be guided in his action by
+the relative importance of these values in any particular example. This
+is so in the case of John Lyly. In the course of the following treatise
+we shall have occasion to pass many aesthetic judgments upon his work;
+but it will be from the historical side that we shall view him in the
+main, because his importance for the readers of the twentieth century is
+almost entirely dynamical. His work is by no means devoid of aesthetic
+merit. He was, like so many of the Elizabethans, a writer of beautiful
+lyrics which are well known to this day; but, though the rest of his
+work is undoubtedly that of an artist of no mean ability, the beauty it
+possesses is the beauty of a fossil in which few but students would
+profess any interest. Moreover, even could we claim more for John Lyly
+than this, any aesthetic criticism would of necessity become a secondary
+matter in comparison with his importance in other directions, for to the
+scientific critic he is or should be one of the most significant figures
+in English literature. This claim I hope to justify in the following
+pages; but it will be well, by way of obtaining a broad general view of
+our subject, to call attention to a few points upon which our
+justification must ultimately rest.
+
+In the first place John Lyly, inasmuch as he was one of the earliest
+writers who considered prose as an artistic end in itself, and not
+simply as a medium of expression, may be justly described as a founder,
+if not _the_ founder, of English prose style.
+
+In the second place he was the author of the first novel of manners in
+the language.
+
+And in the third place, and from the point of view of Elizabethan
+literature most important of all, he was one of our very earliest
+dramatists, and without doubt merits the title of Father of English
+Comedy.
+
+It is almost impossible to over-estimate his historical importance in
+these three departments, and this not because he was a great genius or
+possessed of any magnificent artistic gifts, but for the simple reason
+that he happened to stand upon the threshold of modern English
+literature and at the very entrance to its splendid Elizabethan
+ante-room, and therefore all who came after felt something of his
+influence. These are the three chief points of interest about Lyly, but
+they do not exhaust the problems he presents. We shall have to notice
+also that as a pamphleteer he becomes entangled in the famous
+_Marprelate_ controversy, and that he was one of the first, being
+perhaps even earlier than Marlowe, to perceive the value of blank verse
+for dramatic purposes. Finally, as we have seen, he was the reputed
+author of some delightful lyrics.
+
+The man of whom one can say such things, the man who showed such
+versatility and range of expression, the man who took the world by storm
+and made euphuism the fashion at court before he was well out of his
+nonage, who for years provided the great Queen with food for laughter,
+and who was connected with the first ominous outburst of the Puritan
+spirit, surely possesses personal attractions apart from any literary
+considerations. We shall presently see reason to believe that his
+personality was a brilliant and fascinating one. But such a
+reconstruction of the artist[2] is only possible after a thorough
+analysis of his works. It would be as well here, however, by way of
+obtaining an historical framework for our study, to give a brief account
+of his life as it is known to us.
+
+ [2] Cf. Hennequin.
+
+"Eloquent and witty" John Lyly first saw light in the year 1553 or
+1554[3]. Anthony a Wood, the 17th century author of _Athenae
+Oxonienses_, tells us that he was, like his contemporary Stephen Gosson,
+a Kentish man born[4]; and with this clue to help them both Mr Bond and
+Mr Baker are inclined to accept much of the story of Fidus as
+autobiographical[5]. If their inference be correct, our author would
+seem to have been the son of middle-class, but well-to-do, parents. But
+it is with his residence at Oxford that any authentic account of his
+life must begin, and even then our information is very meagre. Wood
+tells us that he "became a student in Magdalen College in the beginning
+of 1569, aged 16 or thereabouts." "And since," adds Mr Bond, "in 1574 he
+describes himself as Burleigh's alumnus, and owns obligations to him, it
+is possible that he owed his university career to Burleigh's
+assistance[6]." And yet, limited as our knowledge is, it is possible, I
+think, to form a fairly accurate conception of Lyly's manner of life at
+Oxford, if we are bold enough to read between the lines of the scraps of
+contemporary evidence that have come down to us. Lyly himself tells us
+that he left Oxford for three years not long after his arrival.
+"Oxford," he says, "seemed to weane me before she brought me forth, and
+to give me boanes to gnawe, before I could get the teate to suck.
+Wherein she played the nice mother in sending me into the countrie to
+nurse, where I tyred at a drie breast for three years and was at last
+inforced to weane myself." Mr Bond, influenced by the high moral tone of
+_Euphues_, which, as we shall see, was merely a traditional literary
+prose borrowed from the moral court treatise, is anxious to vindicate
+Lyly from all charges of lawlessness, and refuses to admit that the
+foregoing words refer to rustication[7]. Lyly's enforced absence he
+holds was due to the plague which broke out at Oxford at this time. Such
+an interpretation seems to me to be sufficiently disposed of by the fact
+that the plague in question did not break out until 1571[8], while
+Lyly's words must refer to a departure (at the very latest) in 1570.
+Everything, in fact, goes to show that he was out of favour with the
+University authorities. In the first place he seems to have paid small
+attention to his regular studies. To quote Wood again, he was "always
+averse to the crabbed studies of Logic and Philosophy. For so it was
+that his genie, being naturally bent to the pleasant paths of poetry (as
+if Apollo had given to him a wreath of his own Bays without snatching or
+struggling), did in a manner neglect academical studies, yet not so much
+but that he took the Degree in Arts, that of Master being completed in
+1575[9]."
+
+ [3] Bond, I. p. 2; Baker, p. v.
+
+ [4] _Ath. Ox._ (ed. Bliss), I. p. 676.
+
+ [5] _Euphues_, p. 268.
+
+ [6] Bond, I. p. 6. But Baker, pp. vii, viii, would seem to disagree
+ with this.
+
+ [7] Bond, I. p. 11.
+
+ [8] Baker, p. xii.
+
+ [9] _Athenae Oxonienses_ (ed. Bliss), I. p. 676.
+
+Neglect of the recognised studies, however, was not the only blot upon
+Lyly's Oxford life. From the hints thrown out by his contemporaries, and
+from some allusions, doubtless personal, in the _Euphues_, we learn
+that, as an undergraduate, he was an irresponsible madcap. "Esteemed in
+the University a noted wit," he would very naturally become the centre
+of a pleasure-seeking circle of friends, despising the persons and
+ideas of their elders, eager to adopt the latest fashion whether in
+dress or in thought, and intolerant alike of regulations and of duty.
+Gabriel Harvey, who nursed a grudge against Lyly, even speaks of
+"horning, gaming, fooling and knaving," words which convey a distinct
+sense of something discreditable, whatever may be their exact
+significance. It is necessary to lay stress upon this period of Lyly's
+life, because, as I hope to show, his residence at Oxford, and the
+friends he made there, had a profound influence upon his later
+development, and in particular determined his literary bent. For our
+present purpose, however, which is merely to give a brief sketch of his
+life, it is sufficient to notice that our author's conduct during his
+residence was not so exemplary as it might have been. It must,
+therefore, have called forth a sigh of relief from the authorities of
+Magdalen, when they saw the last of John Lyly, M.A., in 1575. He
+however, quite naturally, saw matters otherwise. It would seem to him
+that the College was suffering wrong in losing so excellent a wit, and
+accordingly he heroically took steps to prevent such a catastrophe, for
+in 1576 we find him writing to his patron Burleigh, requesting him to
+procure mandatory letters from the Queen "that so under your auspices I
+may be quietly admitted a Fellow there." The petition was refused,
+Burleigh's sense of propriety overcoming his sense of humour, and the
+petitioner quitted Oxford, leaving his College the legacy of an unpaid
+bill for battels, and probably already preparing in his brain the
+revenge, which subsequently took the form of an attack upon his
+University in _Euphues_, which he published in 1578.
+
+It is interesting to learn that in 1579, according to the common
+practice of that day, he proceeded to his degree of M.A. at Cambridge,
+though there is no evidence of any residence there[10]. Indeed we know
+from other sources that in 1578, or perhaps earlier, Lyly had taken up
+his position at the Savoy Hospital. It seems probable that he became
+again indebted to Burleigh's generosity for the rooms he occupied
+here--unless they were hired for him by Burleigh's son-in-law Edward de
+Vere, Earl of Oxford. This person, though few of his writings are now
+extant, is nevertheless an interesting figure in Elizabethan literature.
+The second part of _Euphues_ published in 1580, and the _Hekatompathia_
+of Thomas Watson, are both dedicated to him, and he seems to have acted
+as patron to most of Lyly's literary associates when they left Oxford
+for London. Lyly became his private secretary; and as the Earl was
+himself a dramatist, though his comedies are now lost, his influence
+must have confirmed in our author those dramatic aspirations, which were
+probably acquired at Oxford; and we have every reason for believing that
+Lyly was still his secretary when he was publishing his two first plays,
+_Campaspe_ and _Sapho_, in 1584. But this point will require a fuller
+treatment at a later stage of our study.
+
+ [10] Mr Baker however seems to think that his reference to Cambridge
+ (_Euphues_, p. 436) implies a term of residence there. Baker, p. xxii.
+
+Somewhere about 1585 Fate settled once and for all the lines on which
+Lyly's genius was to develop, for at that time he became an assistant
+master at the St Paul's Choir School. Schools, and especially those for
+choristers, at this time offered excellent opportunities for dramatic
+production. Lyly in his new position made good use of his chance, and
+wrote plays for his young scholars to act, drilling them himself, and
+perhaps frequently appearing personally on the stage. These
+chorister-actors were connected in a very special way with royal
+entertainments; and therefore they and their instructor would be
+constantly brought into touch with the Revels' Office. As we know from
+his letters to Elizabeth and to Cecil, the mastership of the Revels was
+the post Lyly coveted, and coveted without success, as far as we can
+tell, until the end of his life. But these letters also show us that he
+was already connected with this office by his position in the
+subordinate office of Tents and Toils. The latter, originally instituted
+for the purpose of furnishing the necessaries of royal hunting and
+campaigning[11], had apparently become amalgamated under a female
+sovereign with the Revels' Office, possibly owing to the fact that its
+costumes and weapons provided useful material for entertainments and
+interludes. Another position which, as Mr Bond shows, was held at one
+time by Lyly, was that of reader of new books to the Bishop of London.
+This connexion with the censorship of the day is interesting, as showing
+how Lyly was drawn into the whirlpool of the _Marprelate_ controversy.
+Finally we know that he was elected a member of Parliament on four
+separate occasions[12].
+
+ [11] Bond, I. p. 38.
+
+ [12] I have to thank Dr Ward for pointing out to me the interesting
+ fact that a large proportion of Elizabeth's M.P.'s were royal
+ officials.
+
+These varied occupations are proof of the energy and versatility of our
+author, but not one of them can be described as lucrative. Nor can his
+publications have brought him much profit; for, though both _Euphues_
+and its sequel passed through ten editions before his death, an author
+in those days received very little of the proceeds of his work. Moreover
+the publication of his plays is rather an indication of financial
+distress than a sign of prosperity. The two dramas already mentioned
+were printed before Lyly's connexion with the Choir School; and, when in
+1585 he became "vice-master of Poules and Foolmaster of the Theater,"
+he would be careful to keep his plays out of the publisher's hands, in
+order to preserve the acting monopoly. It is probable that the tenure of
+this Actor-manager-schoolmastership marks the height of Lyly's
+prosperity, and the inhibition of the boys' acting rights in 1591 must
+have meant a severe financial loss to him. Thus it is only after this
+date that he is forced to make what he can by the publication of his
+other plays. The fear of poverty was the more urgent, because he had a
+wife and family on his hands. And though Mr Bond believes that he found
+an occupation after 1591 in writing royal entertainments, and though the
+inhibition on the choristers' acting was removed as early as 1599, yet
+the last years of Lyly's life were probably full of disappointment. This
+indeed is confirmed by the bitter tone of his letter to Elizabeth in
+1598 in reference to the mastership of the Revels' Office, which he had
+at last despaired of. The letter in question is sad reading. Beginning
+with a euphuism and ending in a jest, it tells of a man who still
+retains, despite all adversity, a courtly mask and a merry tongue, but
+beneath this brave surface there is visible a despair--almost amounting
+to anguish--which the forced merriment only renders more pitiable. And
+the gloom which surrounded his last years was not only due to the
+distress of poverty. Before his death in 1606 he had seen his novel
+eclipsed by the new Arcadian fashion, and had watched the rise of a host
+of rival dramatists, thrusting him aside while they took advantage of
+his methods. Greatest of them all, as he must have realised, was
+Shakespeare, the sun of our drama before whom the silver light of his
+little moon, which had first illumined our darkness, waned and faded
+away and was to be for centuries forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+EUPHUISM.
+
+
+It was as a novelist that Lyly first came before the world of English
+letters. In 1578 he published a volume, bearing the inscription,
+_Euphues: the anatomy of wyt_, to which was subjoined the attractive
+advertisement, _very pleasant for all gentlemen to reade, and most
+necessary to remember_. This book, which was to work a revolution in our
+literature, was completed in 1580 by a sequel, entitled _Euphues and his
+England_. _Euphues_, to combine the two parts under one name, the fruit
+of Lyly's nonage, seems to have determined the form of his reputation
+for the Elizabethans; and even to-day it attracts more attention than
+any other of his works. This probably implies a false estimate of Lyly's
+comparative merits as a novelist and as a dramatist. But it is not
+surprising that critics, living in the century of the novel, and with
+their eyes towards the country pre-eminent in its production, should
+think and write of Lyly chiefly as the first of English novelists. The
+bias of the age is as natural and as dangerous an element in criticism
+as the bias of the individual. But it is not with the modern
+appraisement of _Euphues_ that we are here concerned. Nor need we
+proceed immediately to a consideration of its position in the history of
+the English novel. We have first to deal with its Elizabethan
+reputation. Had _Euphues_ been a still-born child of Lyly's genius, had
+it produced no effect upon the literature of the age, it would possess
+nothing but a purely archaeological interest for us to-day. It would
+still be the first of English novels: but this claim would lose half its
+significance, did it not carry with it the implication that the book was
+also the origin of English novel writing. The importance, therefore, of
+_Euphues_ is not so much that it was primary, as that it was primordial;
+and, to be such, it must have laid its spell in some way or other upon
+succeeding writers. Our first task is therefore to enquire what this
+spell was, and to discover whether the attraction of _Euphues_ must be
+ascribed to Lyly's own invention or to artifices which he borrows from
+others.
+
+While, as I have said, Lyly's name is associated with the novel by most
+modern critics, it has earned a more widespread reputation among the
+laity for affectation and mannerisms of style. Indeed, until fifty years
+ago, Lyly spelt nothing but euphuism, and euphuism meant simply
+nonsense, clothed in bombast. It was a blind acceptance of these loose
+ideas which led Sir Walter Scott to create (as a caricature of Lyly) his
+Sir Piercie Shafton in _The Monastery_--an historical _faux pas_ for
+which he has been since sufficiently called to account. Nevertheless
+Lyly's reputation had a certain basis of fact, and we may trace the
+tradition back to Elizabethan days. It is perhaps worth pointing out
+that, had we no other evidence upon the subject, the survival of this
+tradition would lead us to suppose that it was Lyly's style more than
+anything else which appealed to the men of his day. A contemporary
+confirmation of this may be found in the words of William Webbe. Writing
+in 1586 of the "great good grace and sweet vogue which Eloquence hath
+attained in our Speeche," he declares that the English language has thus
+progressed, "because it hath had the helpe of such rare and singular
+wits, as from time to time myght still adde some amendment to the same.
+Among whom I think there is none that will gainsay, but Master John Lyly
+hath deservedly moste high commendations, as he hath stept one steppe
+further therein than any either before or since he first began the
+wyttie discourse of his _Euphues_, whose works, surely in respect of his
+singular eloquence and brave composition of apt words and sentences, let
+the learned examine and make tryall thereof, through all the parts of
+Rethoricke, in fitte phrases, in pithy sentences, in galant tropes, in
+flowing speeche, in plaine sense, and surely in my judgment, I think he
+wyll yeelde him that verdict which Quintillian giveth of both the best
+orators Demosthenes and Tully, that from the one, nothing may be taken
+away, to the other nothing may be added[13]." After such eulogy, the
+description of Lyly by another writer as "alter Tullius anglorum" will
+not seem strange. These praises were not the extravagances of a few
+uncritical admirers; they echo the verdict of the age. Lyly's
+enthronement was of short duration--a matter of some ten years--but,
+while it lasted, he reigned supreme. Such literary idolatries are by no
+means uncommon, and often hold their ground for a considerable period.
+Beside the vogue of Waller, for example, the duration of Lyly's
+reputation was comparatively brief. More than a century after the
+publication of his poems, Waller was hailed by the Sidney Lee of the day
+in the _Biographia Britannica_ of 1766, as "the most celebrated Lyric
+Poet that England ever produced." Whence comes this striking contrast
+between past glory and present neglect? How is it that a writer once
+known as the greatest master of English prose, and a poet once named the
+most conspicuous of English lyrists, are now but names? They have not
+faded from memory owing to a mere caprice of fashion. Great artists are
+subject to an ebb and flow of popularity, for which as yet no tidal
+theory has been offered as an explanation; but like the sea they are
+ever permanent. The case of our two writers is different. The wheel of
+time will never bring _Euphues_ and _Sacharissa_ "to their own again."
+They are as dead as the Jacobite cause. And for that very reason they
+are all the more interesting for the literary historian. All writers are
+conditioned by their environment, but some concern themselves with the
+essentials, others with the accidents, of that internally constant, but
+externally unstable, phenomenon, known as humanity. Waller and Lyly were
+of the latter class. Like jewels suitable to one costume only, they
+remained in favour just as long as the fashion that created them lasted.
+Waller was probably inferior to Lyly as an artist, but he happened to
+strike a vein which was not exhausted until the end of the 18th century;
+while the vogue of _Euphues_, though at first far-reaching, was soon
+crossed by new artificialities such as arcadianism. The secret of
+Waller's influence was that he stereotyped a new poetic form, a form
+which, in its restraint and precision, was exactly suited to the
+intellect of the _ancien regime_ with its craving for form and its
+contempt for ideas. The mainspring of Lyly's popularity was that he did
+in prose what Waller did in poetry.
+
+ [13] _A discourse of English Poetrie_, Arber's reprint.
+
+
+SECTION I. _The Anatomy of Euphuism._
+
+The books which have been written upon the characteristics of Lyly's
+prose are numberless, and far outweigh the attention given to his power
+as a novelist, to say nothing of his dramas[14]. Indeed the absorption
+of the critics in the analysis of euphuism seems to have been, up to a
+few years ago, definitely injurious to a true appreciation of our
+author's position, by blocking the path to a recognition of his
+importance in other directions. And yet, in spite of all this, it cannot
+be said that any adequate examination of the structure of Lyly's style
+appeared until Mr Child took the matter in hand in 1894[15]. And Mr
+Child has performed his task so scientifically and so exhaustively that
+he has killed the topic by making any further treatment of it
+superfluous. This being the case, a description of the euphuistic style
+need not detain us for long. I shall content myself with the briefest
+summary of its characteristics, drawing upon Mr Child for my matter, and
+referring those who are desirous of further details to Mr Child's work
+itself. We shall then be in a position to proceed to the more
+interesting, and as yet unsettled problem, of the origins of euphuism.
+The great value of Mr Child's work lies in the fact that he has at once
+simplified and amplified the conclusions of previous investigators. Dr
+Weymouth[16] was the first to discover that, beneath the "curtizan-like
+painted affectation" of euphuism, there lay a definite theory of style
+and a consistent method of procedure. Dr Landmann carried the analysis
+still further in his now famous paper published in the _New Shakespeare
+Society's Transactions_ (1880-82). But these two, and those who have
+followed them, have erred, on the one hand in implying that euphuism was
+much more complex than it is in reality, and on the other by confining
+their attention to single sentences, and so failing to perceive that the
+euphuistic method was applicable to the paragraph, as a whole, no less
+than to the sentence. And it is upon these two points that Mr Child's
+essay is so specially illuminating. We shall obtain a correct notion of
+the "essential character" of the "euphuistic rhetoric," he writes, "if
+we observe that it employs but one simple principle in practice, and
+that it applies this, not only to the ordering of the single sentence,
+but in every structural relation[17]": and this simple principle is "the
+inducement of artificial emphasis through Antithesis and
+Repetition--Antithesis to give pointed expression to the thought,
+Repetition to enforce it[18]." When Lyly set out to write his novel, it
+seemed that his intention was to produce a most elaborate essay in
+antithesis. The book as a whole, "very pleasant for all gentlemen to
+read and most necessary to remember," was itself an antithesis; the
+discourses it contains were framed upon the same plan; the sentences are
+grouped antithetically; while the antithesis is pointed by an equally
+elaborate repetition of ideas, of vowel sounds and of consonant sounds.
+Letters, syllables, words, sentences, sentence groups, paragraphs, all
+are employed for the purpose of producing the antithetical style now
+known as euphuism. An example will serve to make the matter clearer.
+Philautus, upbraiding his treacherous friend Euphues for robbing him of
+his lady's love, delivers himself of the following speech: "Although
+hitherto Euphues I have shrined thee in my heart for a trusty friend, I
+will shunne thee hereafter as a trothless foe, and although I cannot see
+in thee less wit than I was wont, yet do I find less honesty. I perceive
+at the last (although being deceived it be too late) that musk though
+it be sweet in the smell is sour in the smack, that the leaf of the
+cedar tree though it be fair to be seen, yet the syrup depriveth
+sight--that friendship though it be plighted by the shaking of the hand,
+yet it is shaken by the fraud of the heart. But thou hast not much to
+boast of, for as thou hast won a fickle lady, so hast thou lost a
+faithful friend[19]." It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the
+euphuistic style save in a lengthy quotation, such as the discourse of
+Eubulus selected by Mr Child for that purpose[20]; but, within the
+narrow limits of the passage I have chosen, the main characteristics of
+euphuism are sufficiently obvious. It should be noticed how one part of
+a sentence is balanced by another part, and how this balance or
+"parallelism" is made more pointed by means of alliteration, e.g.
+"shrined thee for a trusty friend," "shun thee as a trothless foe"; musk
+"sweet in the smell," "sour in the smack," and so on. The former of
+these antitheses is an example of transverse alliteration, of which so
+much is made by Dr Landmann, but which, as Mr Child shows, plays a
+subordinate, and an entirely mechanical, part in Lyly's style[21].
+Lyly's most natural and most usual method of emphasizing is by means of
+simple alliteration. On the other hand it must be noticed that he
+employs alliteration for the sake of euphony alone much more frequently
+than he uses it for the purpose of emphasis. So that we may conclude by
+saying that simple alliteration forms the basis of the euphuistic
+diction, just as we have seen antithesis forms the basis of the
+euphuistic construction. This brief survey of the framework of euphuism
+is far from being an exhaustive analysis. All that is here attempted is
+an enumeration of the most obvious marks of euphuism, as a necessary
+step to an investigation of its origin, and to a determination of its
+place in the history of our literature.
+
+ [14] Child, pp. 6-20, for an account of chief writers who have dealt
+ with euphuism.
+
+ [15] _John Lyly and Euphuism._ C. G. Child.
+
+ [16] _On Euphuism_, Phil. Soc. Trans., 1870-2.
+
+ [17] Child, p. 43.
+
+ [18] _id._, p. 44.
+
+ [19] _Euphues_, p. 90.
+
+ [20] Child, p. 39.
+
+ [21] _id._, p. 46.
+
+Before, however, leaving the subject entirely, we must mention two more
+characteristics of Lyly's prose which are very noticeable, but which
+come under the head of ornamental, rather than constructional, devices.
+The first of these is a peculiar use of the rhetorical interrogation.
+Lyly makes use of it when he wishes to portray his characters in
+distress or excitement, and it most frequently occurs in soliloquies.
+Sometimes we find a string of these interrogations, at others they are
+answered by sentences beginning "ay but," and occasionally we have the
+"ay but" sentence with the preceding interrogation missing. I make a
+special mention of this point, as we shall find it has a certain
+connexion with the subject of the origins of euphuism.
+
+The other ornamental device is one which has attracted a considerable
+quantity of attention from critics, and has frequently been taken by
+itself as the distinguishing mark of euphuism. In point of fact,
+however, the euphuists shared it with many other writers of their age,
+though it is doubtful whether anyone carried it to such extravagant
+lengths as Lyly. It took the form of illustrations and analogies, so
+excessive and overwhelming that it is difficult to see how even the
+idlest lady of Elizabeth's court found time or patience to wade through
+them. They consist first of anecdotes and allusions relating to
+historical or mythological persons of the ancient world; some being
+drawn from Plutarch, Pliny, Ovid, Virgil, and other sources, but many
+springing simply from Lyly's exuberant fancy. In the second place
+_Euphues_ is a collection of similes borrowed from "a fantastical
+natural history, a sort of mythology of plants and stones, to which the
+most extraordinary virtues are attributed[22]." "I have heard," says
+Camilla, bashfully excusing herself for taking up the cudgels of
+argument with the learned Surius, "that the Tortoise in India when the
+sunne shineth, swimmeth above the water wyth hyr back, and being
+delighted with the fine weather, forgetteth her selfe until the heate of
+the sunne so harden her shell, that she cannot sink when she woulde,
+whereby she is caught. And so it may fare with me that in this good
+companye displaying my minde, having more regard to my delight in
+talking, than to the ears of the hearers, I forget what I speake, and so
+be taken in something I would not utter, which happilye the itchyng ears
+of young gentlemen would so canvas that when I would call it in, I
+cannot, and so be caught with the Tortoise, when I would not[23]." And,
+when she had finished her discourse, Surius again employs the simile for
+the purpose of turning a neat compliment, saying, "Lady, if the Tortoise
+you spoke of in India were as cunning in swimming, as you are in
+speaking, she would neither fear the heate of the sunne nor the ginne of
+the Fisher." This is but a mild example of the "unnatural natural
+philosophy" which _Euphues_ has made famous. An unending procession of
+such similes, often of the most extravagant nature, runs throughout the
+book, and sometimes the development of the plot is made dependent on
+them. Thus Lucilla hesitates to forsake Philautus for Euphues, because
+she feels that her new lover will remember "that the glasse once chased
+will with the least clappe be cracked, that the cloth which stayneth
+with milke will soon loose his coulour with Vinegar; that the eagle's
+wing will waste the feather as well as of the Phoenix as of the
+Pheasant: and that she that hath become faithlesse to one, will never
+be faithfull to any[24]." What proof could be more exact, what better
+example could be given of the methods of concomitant variations? It is
+precisely the same logical process which induces the savage to wreak his
+vengeance by melting a waxen image of his enemy, and the farmer to
+predict a change of weather at the new moon.
+
+ [22] Jusserand, p. 107.
+
+ [23] _Euphues_, p. 402.
+
+ [24] _id._, p. 58.
+
+Lyly, however, was not concerned with making philosophical
+generalizations, or scientific laws, about the world in general. His
+natural, or unnatural, phenomena were simply saturated with moral
+significance: not that he saw any connexion between the ethical process
+and the cosmic process, but, like every one of his contemporaries, he
+employed the facts of animal and vegetable life to point a moral or to
+help out a sermon. The arguments he used appear to us puerile in their
+old-world dress, and yet similar ones are to be heard to-day in every
+pulpit where a smattering of science is used to eke out a poverty of
+theology. And, to be fair, such reasoning is not confined to pulpits.
+Even so eminent a writer as Mr Edward Carpenter has been known to
+moralize on the habits of the wild mustard, irresistibly reminding us of
+the "Camomill which the more it is trodden and pressed down the more it
+speedeth[25]." Moreover the _soi-disant_ founder of the inductive
+method, the great Bacon himself, is, as Liebig[26] shows in his amusing
+and interesting study of the renowned "scientist's" scientific methods,
+tarred with the same mediaeval brush, and should be ranked with Lyly and
+the other Elizabethan "scholastics" rather than with men like Harvey and
+Newton.
+
+ [25] _Euphues_, p. 46.
+
+ [26] _Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen age_, par
+ Liebig, traduit par de Tchihatchef.
+
+Lyly's natural history was at any rate the result of learning; many of
+his "facts" were drawn from Pliny, while others were to be found in the
+plentiful crop of mediaeval bestiaries, which, as Professor Raleigh
+remarks, "preceded the biological hand-books." Perhaps also we must
+again allow something for Lyly's invention; for lists of authorities,
+and footnotes indicative of sources, were not demanded of the scientist
+of those days, and one can thoroughly sympathise with an author who
+found an added zest in inventing the facts upon which his theories
+rested. Have not ethical philosophers of all ages been guilty of it?
+Certainly Gabriel Harvey seems to be hinting at Lyly when he slyly
+remarks: "I could name a party, that in comparison of his own
+inventions, termed Pliny a barren wombe[27]."
+
+ [27] Bond, I. p. 131 note.
+
+The affectations we have just enumerated are much less conspicuous in
+the second part of _Euphues_ than in the first, and, though they find a
+place in his earlier plays, Lyly gradually frees himself from their
+influence, owing perhaps to the decline of the euphuistic fashion, but
+more probably to the growth of his dramatic instinct, which saw that
+such forms were a drag upon the action of a play. And yet at times Lyly
+could use his clumsy weapon with great precision and effect. How
+admirably, for example, does he express in his antithetical fashion the
+essence of coquetry. Iffida, speaking to Fidus of one she loved but
+wished to test, is made to say, "I seem straight-laced as one neither
+accustomed to such suites, nor willing to entertain such a servant, yet
+so warily, as putting him from me with my little finger, I drewe him to
+me with my whole hand[28]." Other little delicate turns of phrase may be
+found in the mine of _Euphues_--for the digging. Our author was no
+genius, but he had a full measure of that indefinable quality known as
+wit; and, though the stylist's mask he wears is uncouth and rigid, it
+cannot always conceal the twinkle of his eyes. Moreover a certain
+weariness of this sermonizing on the stilts of antithesis is often
+visible; and we may suspect that he half sympathises with the petulant
+exclamation of the sea-sick Philautus to his interminable friend:
+
+"In fayth, Euphues, thou hast told a long tale, the beginning I have
+forgotten, ye middle I understand not, and the end hangeth not well
+together[29]"; and with this piece of self-criticism we may leave Lyly
+for the present and turn to his predecessors.
+
+ [28] _Euphues_, p. 299.
+
+ [29] _Euphues_, p. 248.
+
+
+SECTION II. _The Origins of Euphuism._
+
+When we pass from an analytical to an historical consideration of the
+style which Lyly made his own and stamped for ever with the name of his
+hero, we come upon a problem which is at once the most difficult and the
+most fascinating with which we have to deal. The search for a solution
+will lead us far afield; but, inasmuch as the publication and success of
+_Euphues_ have given euphuism its importance in the history of our
+literature, the digression, which an attempt to trace the origin of
+euphuism will necessitate, can hardly be considered outside the scope of
+this book. Critics have long since decided that the peculiar style,
+which we have just dissolved into its elements, was not the invention of
+Lyly's genius; but on the other hand, no critic, in my opinion, has as
+yet solved the problem of origins with any claim to finality. Perhaps a
+tentative solution is all that is possible in the present stage of our
+knowledge. It is, of course, easy to point to the book or books from
+which Lyly borrowed, and to dismiss the question thus. But this simply
+evades the whole issue; for, though it explains _Euphues_, it by no
+means explains euphuism. Equally unsatisfactory is the theory that
+euphuism was of purely Spanish origin. Such a solution has all the
+fascination, and all the dangers, which usually attend a simple answer
+to a complex question. The idea that euphuism was originally an article
+of foreign production was first set on foot by Dr Landmann. The real
+father of Lyly's style, he tells us, was Antonio de Guevara, bishop of
+Guadix, who published in 1529 a book, the title of which was as follows:
+_The book of the emperor Marcus Aurelius with a Diall for princes_. This
+book was translated into English in 1534 by Lord Berners, and again in
+1557 by Sir Thomas North; in both cases from a French version. The two
+translations are conveniently distinguished by their titles, that of
+Berners being _The Golden Boke_, that of North being _The Diall of
+Princes_. Dr Landmann is very positive with regard to his theory, but
+the fact that both translations come from the French and not from the
+Castilian, seems to me to constitute a serious drawback to its
+acceptance. And moreover this theory does not explain the really
+important crux of the whole matter, namely the reason why a style of
+this kind, whatever its origin, found a ready acceptance in England: for
+fourteen editions of _The Golden Boke_ are known between 1534 and 1588,
+a number for those days quite exceptional and showing the existence of
+an eager public. Two answers are possible to the last question; that
+there existed a large body of men in the England of the Tudors who were
+interested in Spanish literature of all kinds and in Guevara among
+others; and that the euphuistic style was already forming in England,
+and that this was the reason of Guevara's popularity. In both answers I
+think there is truth; and I hope to show that they give us, when
+combined, a fairly adequate explanation of the vogue of euphuism in our
+country. Let us deal with external influences first.
+
+The upholders of the Spanish theory have contented themselves with
+stating that Lyly borrowed from Guevara, and pointing out the parallels
+between the two writers. But it is possible to give their case a greater
+plausibility, by showing that Guevara was no isolated instance of such
+Spanish influence, and by proving that during the Tudor period there was
+a consistent and far-reaching interest in Spanish literature among a
+certain class of Englishmen. Intimacy with Spain dates from Henry VIII.'s
+marriage with Katherine of Aragon, though no Spanish book had actually
+been translated into English before her divorce. But the period from
+then onwards until the accession of James I., a period when Spain looms
+as largely in English politics as does France later, saw the publication
+in London of "some hundred and seventy volumes written either by
+peninsular authors, or in the peninsular tongues[30]." At such a time
+this number represents a very considerable influence; and it is,
+therefore, no wonder that critics have fallen victims to the allurements
+of a theory which would ascribe Spanish origins for all the various
+prose epidemics of Elizabethan literature. To pair Lyly with Guevara,
+Sidney with Montemayor[31], and Nash with Mendoza, and thus to point at
+Spain as the parent, not only of the euphuistic, but also of the
+pastoral and picaresque romance, is to furnish an explanation almost
+irresistible in its symmetry. It must have been with the joy of a
+mathematician, solving an intricate problem, that Dr Landmann formulated
+this theory of literary equations. But without going to such lengths,
+without pressing the connexion between particular writers, one may admit
+that in general Spanish literature must have exercised an influence upon
+the Elizabethans. Mr Underhill, our latest authority on the subject,
+allows this, while at the same time cautioning us against the dangers of
+over-estimating it. Any contact on the side of the lyric and the drama
+was, he declares, very slight[32], and the peninsular writings actually
+circulated in our country at this time, in translations, he divides into
+three classes; occasional literature, that is topical tracts and
+pamphlets on contemporary Spanish affairs; didactic literature,
+comprising scientific treatises, accounts of voyages such as inspired
+Hakluyt, works on military science, and, more important still, the
+religious writings of mystics like Granada; and lastly artistic prose.
+The last item, which alone concerns us, is by far the smallest of the
+three, and by itself amounts to less than half the translations from
+Italian literature; moreover most of the Spanish translations under this
+head came into England after 1580, and could not therefore have
+influenced Lyly's novel. But of course the _Libro Aureo_ had been
+englished long before this, while the _Lazarillo de Tormes_,
+Mendoza's[33] picaresque romance, was given an English garb by Rowland
+in 1576, and, though Montemayor's _Diana_ was not translated until 1596,
+Spanish and French editions of it had existed in England long previous
+to that date. Perhaps most important of all was the famous realistic
+novel _Celestina_, which was well known, in a French translation, to
+Englishmen at the beginning of the 16th century, and was denounced by
+Vives at Oxford. It was actually translated into English as early as
+1530[34]. There was on the whole, therefore, quite an appreciable
+quantity of Spanish artistic literature circulating in England before
+_Euphues_ saw the light.
+
+ [30] Underhill, p. 339.
+
+ [31] _id._, p. 268 note. Mr Underhill writes: "The attempt to connect
+ the style of Sidney with that of Montemayor has failed."
+
+ [32] Underhill, p. 48, but see Martin Hume, ch. IX.
+
+ [33] Some doubt has been thrown upon Mendoza's authorship. See
+ Fitzmaurice-Kelly, p. 158, and Martin Hume, p. 133.
+
+ [34] Martin Hume, p. 126.
+
+This literary invasion will seem perfectly natural if we bear in mind
+the political conditions of the day. Under Mary, England had been all
+but a Spanish dependency, and, though in the next reign, she threw off
+the yoke, the antagonism which existed probably acted as an even greater
+literary stimulus than the former alliance. Throughout the whole of
+Elizabeth's rule, the English were continually coming into contact with
+the Spaniards, either in trade, in ecclesiastical matters, in politics,
+or in actual warfare; and again the magnificence of the great Spanish
+empire, and the glamour which surrounded its connexion with the new
+world, were very attractive to the Englishmen of Elizabeth's day,
+especially as they were desirous of emulating the achievements of Spain.
+And lastly it may be noticed that English and Spanish conditions of
+intellectual life, if we shut our eyes to the religious differences,
+were very similar at this time. Both countries had replaced a shattered
+feudal system by an absolute and united monarchy. Both countries owed an
+immense debt to Italy, and, in both, the Italian influence took a
+similar form, modified on the one hand by humanism, and on the other by
+feelings of patriotism, if not of imperialism. Spain and England took
+the Renaissance fever more coldly, and at the same time more seriously,
+than did Italy. And in both the new movement eventually assumed the
+character of intellectual asceticism moulded by the sombre hand of
+religious fanaticism; for Spain was the cradle of the Counter-Reformation,
+England of Puritanism.
+
+Leaving the general issue, let us now try to establish a partial
+connexion between our author, or at least his surroundings, and Spanish
+influences. And here I think a suggestive, if not a strong case, can be
+made out. Ever since the beginning of the 16th century a Spanish
+tradition had existed at Oxford. Vives, the Spanish humanist, and the
+friend of Erasmus, was in 1517 admitted Fellow of Corpus Christi
+College, and in 1523 became reader in rhetoric; and, though he was
+banished in 1528, at the time of the divorce, it seems that he was
+continually lecturing before the University during the five years of his
+residence there. The circle of his friends, though quite distinct from
+the contemporary Berners-Guevara group, included many interesting men,
+and among others the famous Sir John Cheke. Under Mary we naturally find
+two Spanish professors at Oxford, Pedro de Soto and Juan de Villa
+Garcia. But Elizabeth maintained the tradition; and in 1559 she offered
+a chair at Oxford to a Spanish Protestant, Guerrero. The important name,
+however, in our connexion is Antonio de Corro, who resided as a student
+at Christ Church from 1575 to 1585, thus being a contemporary of Lyly,
+though it is impossible to say whether they were acquainted or not. Lyly
+had, however, another Oxford contemporary who certainly took a keen
+interest in Spanish literature, possessing a knowledge of Castilian,
+though himself an Englishman. This was Hakluyt, who must have been known
+to Lyly; and for the following reason. In 1597 Henry Lok[35] published a
+volume of religious poems to which Lyly contributed commendatory
+verses. On the other hand Hakluyt's first book was supplemented by a
+woodcut map executed by his friend Michael Lok[36], brother of Thomas
+Lok the Spanish merchant, and uncle to the aforesaid Henry. It seems
+highly improbable, therefore, that Lyly and Hakluyt possessing these
+common friends could have remained unknown to each other at Oxford.
+Indeed we may feel justified in supposing that Hakluyt, Sidney, Carew,
+Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and Thomas Rogers (the translator of _Estella_) were
+all personally acquainted, if not intimate, at the University. Another
+and very important name may be added to this list, that of Stephen
+Gosson, who, "a Kentish man born" like our hero, and entering Oxford a
+year after him (in 1572), must, I feel sure, have been one of his
+friends. The fact that he was at first interested in acting, and is said
+to have written comedies, goes a long way to confirm this. We are also
+led to suppose that he had devoted some attention to Spanish literature,
+and that he was probably acquainted with Hakluyt and the Loks, from
+certain verses of his, printed at the end of Thomas Nicholas' _Pleasant
+History of the Conquest of West India_, a translation of Cortes' book
+published in 1578[37]. Taking all this into consideration, it is
+extremely interesting to find Gosson publishing in 1579 his famous
+_Schoole of Abuse_, which bears most of the distinguishing marks of
+euphuism already noted, but which can scarcely have been modelled upon
+Lyly's work; for as Professor Saintsbury writes: "the very short
+interval between the appearance of _Euphues_ and the _Schoole of Abuse_,
+shows that he must rather have mastered the Lylian style in the same
+circumstances and situations as Lyly than have directly borrowed it
+from his fellow at Oxford[38]." And moreover Gosson's style does not
+read like an imitation of Lyly. The same tricks and affectations are
+employed, but they are employed differently and perhaps more
+effectively.
+
+ [35] Bond, I. p. 67.
+
+ [36] Underhill, p. 178, to whom I am indebted for nearly all the
+ preceding remarks in connexion with the Spanish atmosphere at Oxford.
+
+ [37] Arber's reprint, _School of Abuse_, p. 97.
+
+ [38] Craik, vol. I.
+
+Lyly is again found in contact with the Spanish atmosphere, as one of
+the dependents of the Earl of Oxford, who patronized Robert Baker,
+George Baker, and Anthony Munday, who were all under the "spell of the
+peninsula[39]." But we cannot be certain when his relations with de Vere
+commenced, and unless we can feel sure that they had begun before the
+writing of _Euphues_, the point is not of importance for our present
+argument.
+
+ [39] Underhill, ch. VIII. Sec. 2.
+
+These facts are of course little more than hints, but I think they are
+sufficient to establish a fairly strong probability that Lyly was one of
+a literary set at Oxford (as I have already suggested in dealing with
+his life) the members of which were especially interested in Spanish
+literature, perhaps through the influence of Corro. It seems extremely
+improbable that Lyly himself possessed any knowledge of Castilian, and
+it is by no means necessary to show that he did, for it is quite
+sufficient to point out that he must have been continually in the
+presence of those who were discussing peninsular writings, and that in
+this way he would have come to a knowledge of the most famous Spanish
+book which had yet received translation, the _Libro Aureo_ of Guevara.
+
+But we are still left with the question on our hands; why was this book
+the most famous peninsular production of Lyly's day? It is a question
+which no critic, as far as I am aware, has ever formulated, and yet it
+seems endowed with the greatest importance. We have seen how and why
+Spanish literature in general found a reception in England. But the
+special question as to the ascendancy of Guevara obviously requires a
+special answer. Guevara was of course well known all over the continent,
+and it might seem that this was a sufficient explanation of his
+popularity in England. In reality, however, such an explanation is no
+solution at all, it merely widens the issue; for we are still left
+asking for a reason of his continental fame. The problem requires a
+closer investigation than it has at present received. It was undoubtedly
+Guevara's _alto estilo_ which gave his writings their chief attraction;
+and a style so elaborate would only find a reception in a favourable
+atmosphere, that is among those who had already gone some way towards
+the creation of a similar style themselves. _A priori_ therefore the
+answer to our question would be that Guevara was no isolated stylist,
+but only the most famous example of a literary phase, which had its
+independent representatives all over Europe. A consideration of English
+prose under the Tudors will, I think, fully confirm this conclusion as
+far as our own country is concerned, and it will also offer us an
+explanation, in terms of internal development, of the origin and sources
+of euphuism.
+
+We have noticed with suspicion that our two translators took their
+Guevara from the French. And it is therefore quite legitimate to suppose
+that Berners and North, separated as they were from the original, were
+as much creators as translators of the euphuistic style. But there are
+other circumstances connected with Berners, which are much more fatal to
+Dr Landmann's theory than this. In the first place it appears that the
+part played by Berners in the history of euphuism has been considerably
+under-estimated. Mr Sidney Lee was the first to combat the generally
+accepted view in a criticism of Mrs Humphry Ward's article on
+_Euphuism_ in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, in which she follows Dr
+Landmann. His criticism, which appeared in the _Athenaeum_, was
+afterwards enlarged in an appendix to his edition of Berners'
+translation of _Huon of Bordeaux_. "Lord Berners' sentences," Mr Lee
+writes, "are euphuistic beyond all question; they are characterized by
+the forced antitheses, alliteration, and the far-fetched illustrations
+from natural phenomena, peculiar to Lyly and his successors[40]." He
+denies, moreover, that Berners was any less euphuistic than North, and
+gives parallel extracts from their translations to prove this. A
+comparison of the two passages in question can leave no doubt that Mr
+Lee's deduction is correct. Mr Bond therefore is in grave error when he
+writes, "North endeavoured what Berners had not aimed at, to reproduce
+in his Diall the characteristics of Guevara's style, with the notable
+addition of an alliteration natural to English but not to Spanish; and
+it is he who must be regarded as the real founder of our euphuistic
+literary fashion[41]." Lyly may indeed have borrowed from North rather
+than from Berners; but, if Berners' English was as euphuistic as
+North's, and if Berners could show fourteen editions to North's two
+before 1580, it is Berners and not North who must be described as "the
+real founder of our euphuistic literary fashion." And as Mr Lee shows,
+his nephew Sir Francis Bryan must share the title with him, for the
+colophon of the _Golden Boke_ states that the translation was undertaken
+"at the instaunt desire of his nevewe Sir Francis Bryan Knyghte." It was
+Bryan also who wrote the passage at the conclusion of the _Boke_
+applauding the "swete style[42]." This Sir Francis Bryan was a
+favourite of Henry VIII., a friend of Surrey and Wyatt, possibly of
+Ascham and of his master Cheke, in fact a very well-known figure at
+court and in the literary circles of his day[43]. Euphuism must,
+therefore, have had a considerable vogue even in the days of Henry VIII.
+If it could be shown that Bryan could read Castilian, the Guevara theory
+might still possess some plausibility, for it would be argued that
+Berners learnt his style from his nephew. But, though we know Bryan to
+have entertained a peculiar affection for Guevara's writings, there is
+no evidence to prove that he could read them in the original. Indeed
+when he set himself to translate Guevara's _Dispraise of the life of a
+courtier_, he, like his uncle, had to go to a French translation[44].
+Wherever we turn, in fact, we are met by this French barrier between
+Guevara and his English translators, which seems to preclude the
+possibility of his style having exercised the influence ascribed to it
+by Dr Landmann and those who follow him.
+
+ [40] Huon of Bordeaux, appendix I., _Lord Berners and Euphuism_,
+ p. 786.
+
+ [41] Bond, I. p. 158.
+
+ [42] See _Athenaeum_, July 14, 1883.
+
+ [43] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Bryan.
+
+ [44] The 2nd edition of this book, which was published under another
+ title, is thus described in the B. M. Cat.: "_A looking-glass for the
+ court_ ... out of Castilian drawne into French by A. Alaygre; and out
+ of the French into English by Sir F. Briant."
+
+But there is more behind: and we cannot help feeling convinced that the
+facts we are now about to bring forward ought to dispose of the
+Landmann-Guevara theory once and for all. In the article before
+mentioned Mr Lee goes on to say: "The translator's prologue to Lord
+Berners' _Froissart_ written in 1524 and that to be found in other of
+his works show him to have come under Guevara's or a similar influence
+before he translated the _Golden Boke_[45]." Here is an extract from the
+prologue in question. "The most profitable thing in this world for the
+institution of the human life is history. Once the continual reading
+thereof maketh young men equal in prudence to old men, and to old
+fathers striken in age it ministereth experience of things. More it
+yieldeth private persons worthy of dignity, rule and governance: it
+compelleth the emperors, high rulers, and governors to do noble deeds to
+the end they may obtain immortal glory: it exciteth, moveth and stirreth
+the strong, hardy warriors, for the great laud that they have after they
+lie dead, promptly to go in hand with great and hard perils in defence
+of their country: and it prohibiteth reproveable persons to do
+mischievous deeds for fear of infamy and shame. So thus through the
+monuments of writing which is the testimony unto virtue many men have
+been moved, some to build cities, some to devise and establish laws
+right, profitable, necessary and behoveful for the human life, some
+other to find new arts, crafts and sciences, very requisite to the use
+of mankind. But above all things, whereby man's wealth riseth, special
+laud and praise ought to be given to history: it is the keeper of such
+things as have been virtuously done, and the witness of evil deeds, and
+by the benefit of history all noble, high and virtuous acts be immortal.
+What moved the strong and fierce Hercules to enterprise in his life so
+many great incomparable labours and perils? Certainly nought else but
+that for his great merit immortality might be given him of all folk....
+Why moved and stirred Phalerius the King Ptolemy oft and diligently to
+read books? Forsooth for no other cause but that those things are found
+written in books that the friends dare not show to the prince[46]." This
+is of course far from being the full-blown euphuism of Lyly or Pettie,
+yet we cannot but agree with Mr Lee, when he declares that "the
+parallelism of the sentences, the repetition of the same thought
+differently expressed, the rhetorical question, the accumulation of
+synonyms, the classical references, are irrefutable witnesses to the
+presence of euphuism[47]." But Mr Lee appeared to be quite unconscious
+of the full significance of his discovery. _It means that Berners was
+writing euphuism in 1524, five years before Guevara published his book
+in Spain._ No critic, as far as I have been able to discover, has shown
+any consciousness of this significant fact[48], which is of course of
+the utmost importance in this connexion; as, if it is to carry all the
+weight that is at first sight due to it, the theory that euphuism was a
+mere borrowing from the Spanish must be pronounced entirely exploded.
+But it is as well not to be over-confident. Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, his
+earliest work, was undoubtedly first published by his authority in 1529,
+but there seems to be a general feeling that the book had previously
+appeared in pirated form. This feeling is based upon the title of the
+1529 edition[49], which describes the book as "_nueuamente reuisto por
+su senoria_," and upon certain remarks of Hallam in his _Literature of
+Europe_. Though I can find no confirmation for the statements he makes
+upon the authority of a certain Dr West of Dublin, yet the words of so
+well known a writer cannot be ignored. He quotes Dr West in a footnote
+as follows: "There are some circumstances connected with the _Relox_
+(i.e. the sub-title of the _Libro Aureo_) not generally known, which
+satisfactorily account for various erroneous statements that have been
+made on the subject by writers of high authority. The fact is that
+Guevara, about the year 1518, commenced a life and letters of M.
+Aurelius which purported to be a translation of a Greek work found in
+Florence. Having sometime afterwards lent this MS. to the emperor it was
+surreptitiously copied and printed, as he informs us himself, first in
+Seville and afterwards in Portugal.... Guevara himself subsequently
+published it (1529) with considerable additions[50]." From this it
+appears that previous unauthorised editions of Guevara's book had been
+published before 1529. Might not Berners therefore have come under
+Guevara's influence as early as 1524? We must concede that it is
+possible, but, on the other hand, the difficulties in the way of such a
+contingency seem almost insuperable. In the first place, if we are to
+believe Dr West, Guevara did not begin to write his work before 1518,
+and it was not until "some time afterwards" (whatever this may mean)
+that it was "surreptitiously copied and printed." It would require a
+bold man to assert that a book thus published could be influencing the
+style of an English writer as early as 1524. But further it must be
+remembered that Berners almost certainly could not read Castilian[51].
+Now the earliest known French translation of Guevara is one by Rene
+Bertaut in 1531, which Berners himself is known to have used[52].
+Therefore, if Berners was already under Guevara's influence in 1524, he
+must have known of an earlier French pirated translation of an earlier
+pirated edition of the _Libro Aureo_. To sum up; if the euphuistic
+tendency in English prose is to be ascribed entirely, or even mainly, to
+the influence of Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, we must digest four
+improbabilities: (i) that there existed a pirated edition of the book in
+Spain _earlier_ than 1524: (ii) that this had been translated into
+French, also before 1524, although the version of Bertaut in 1531 is the
+earliest French translation we have any trace of: (iii) that Berners
+himself had come across this hypothetical French edition, again before
+1524: and (iv) that the French translation had so faithfully reproduced
+the style of the original, that Berners was able to translate it from
+French into English, for the purpose of his prologue to _Froissart_.
+
+ [45] Huon, p. 787.
+
+ [46] _Froissart_, Globe edition, p. xxviii.
+
+ [47] Huon, p. 788.
+
+ [48] After writing the above I have noticed that Mr G. C. Macaulay, in
+ the Introduction to the Globe _Froissart_, writes as follows (p. xvi):
+ "If nothing else could be adduced to show that the tendency (i.e.
+ euphuism) existed already in English literature, the prefaces to Lord
+ Berners' _Froissart_ written before he could possibly have read
+ Guevara, would be enough to prove it."
+
+ [49] There are two extant editions of 1529, (i) published at
+ Valladolid, from which the words above are quoted, (ii) published at
+ Enueres, which appears to be an earlier edition. Copies of both in the
+ British Museum.
+
+ [50] Hallam, _Lit. of Europe_, ed. 1855, vol. I. p. 403 n. Brunet in
+ his _Manuel de Libraire_ gives Hallam's view without comment, tome II.
+ "Guevara."
+
+ [51] Underhill, p. 69.
+
+ [52] Bond, vol. I. p. 137.
+
+In face of these facts, the Guevara theory is no longer tenable; and in
+consequence the whole situation is reversed, and we approach the problem
+from the natural side, the side from which it should have been
+approached from the first--that is from the English and not the Spanish
+side. I say the natural side, because it seems to me obvious that the
+popularity of a foreign author in any country implies the existence in
+that country, previous to the introduction of the author, of an
+atmosphere (or more concretely a public) favourable to the
+distinguishing characteristics of the author introduced. And so it now
+appears that Guevara found favour in England because his style, or
+something very like it, was already known there; and it was the most
+natural thing in the world that Berners, who shows that style most
+prominently, should have been the channel by which Guevara became known
+to English readers. The whole problem of this 16th century prose is
+analogous to that of 18th century verse. The solution of both was for a
+long time found in foreign influence. It was natural to assume that
+France, the pivot of our foreign policy at the end of the 17th century,
+gave us the classical movement, and that Spain, equally important
+politically in the 16th century, gave us euphuism. Closer investigation
+has disproved both these theories[53], showing that, while foreign
+influence was undoubtedly an immense factor in the _development_ of
+these literary fashions, their real _origin_ was English.
+
+ [53] For 18th century v. Gosse, _From Shakespeare to Pope_.
+
+The proof of this does not rest entirely on the case of Berners. We
+might even concede that he was acquainted with an earlier edition of
+Guevara, and that his style was actually derived from Spanish sources,
+without surrendering our thesis that euphuism was a natural growth.
+Berners' euphuism, whatever its origin, was premature; and, though the
+_Golden Boke_ passed through twelve editions between 1534 and 1560, we
+cannot say that its style influenced English writing until the time of
+Lyly, for its vogue was confined to a small class of readers, designated
+by Mr Underhill as the "Guevara-group." On the other hand, it is
+possible to trace a feeling towards euphuism among writers who were
+quite outside this group.
+
+Latimer, for example, delighted in alliterative turns of speech, though
+the antithetical mannerisms are absent in him. His famous denunciation
+of the unpreaching prelates is an excellent instance:
+
+"But now for the faults of unpreaching prelates, methink I could guess
+what might be said for the excusing of them. They are so troubled with
+lordly living, they be so placed in palaces, couched in courts, ruffling
+in their rents, dancing in their dominions, burdened with ambassages,
+pampering of their paunches like a monk that maketh his jubilee,
+munching in their mangers, and moiling in their gay manors and
+mansions, and so troubled with loitering in their lordships, that they
+cannot attend it."
+
+Here is no transverse alliteration, such as we find so frequently in
+Lyly, but a simple alliteration--"a rudimentary euphuism of balanced and
+alliterative phrases, probably like the alliteration of Anglo-Saxon
+homilies, borrowed from popular poetry[54]." Latimer also employs the
+responsive method so frequently used by Lyly. "But ye say it is new
+learning. Now I tell you it is old learning. Yea, ye say, it is old
+heresy new scoured. Nay, I tell you it is old truth long rusted with
+your canker, and now made new bright and scoured." It is no long step
+from this to the rhetorical question and its formal answer "ay but----."
+Alliteration is not found in Guevara; it was an addition, and a very
+important one, made by his translators. This was at any rate a purely
+native product, and cannot be assigned to Spain. The antithesis and
+parallelism were the fruits of humanism, and they appear, combined with
+Latimer's alliteration, in the writings of Sir John Cheke and his pupil
+Roger Ascham. Cheke's famous criticism of Sallust's style, as being
+"more art than nature and more labour than art," introduces us at once
+to euphuism, and gives us by the way a very excellent comment upon it.
+Again he speaks of "magistrates more ready to tender all justice and
+pitifull in hearing the poor man's causes which ought to amend matters
+more than you can devise and were ready to redress them better than you
+can imagine[55]"; which is a good example of the euphuistic combination
+of alliteration and balance.
+
+ [54] Craik, vol. I. p. 224.
+
+ [55] Craik, p. 258.
+
+In Ascham the style is still more marked. There are, indeed, so many
+examples of euphuism in the _Schoolmaster_ and in the _Toxophilus_,
+that one can only select. As an illustration of transverse alliteration
+quite as complex as any in _Euphues_, we may notice the following: "Hard
+wittes be hard to receive, but sure to keep; painfull without weariness,
+hedefull without wavering, constant without any new fanglednesse;
+bearing heavie things, though not lightlie, yet willinglie; entering
+hard things though not easily, yet depelie[56]." Classical allusions
+abound throughout Ascham's work, and he occasionally indulges in the
+ethics of natural history as follows:
+
+"Young Graftes grow not onlie sonest, but also fairest and bring always
+forth the best and sweetest fruite; young whelps learne easilie to
+carrie; young Popingeis learne quickly to speak; and so, to be short, if
+in all other things though they lacke reason, sense, and life, the
+similitude of youth is fittest to all goodnesse, surelie nature in
+mankinde is more beneficial and effectual in this behalfe[57]."
+
+ [56] Arber, _Schoolmaster_, p. 35.
+
+ [57] _id._, p. 46.
+
+We know that Lyly had read the _Schoolmaster_, as he took the very title
+of his book from its description of /Euphues/ as "he that is apte by
+goodnesse of witte and applicable by readiness of will to learning"--a
+description which is in itself a euphuism; and it is probable that he
+knew his Ascham as thoroughly as he did his Guevara.
+
+Sir Henry Craik has some very pertinent remarks on the peculiarities of
+Ascham's style. "One of these," he writes, "is his proneness to
+alliteration, due perhaps to his desire to reproduce the most striking
+features of the Early English.... A tendency of an almost directly
+opposite kind is the balance of sentences which he imitates from
+Classical models.... These two are perhaps the most striking
+characteristics of Ascham's prose; and it is interesting to observe how
+much the structure of the sentence in the more elaborated stages of
+English prose is due to their combination[58]." Here we have the two
+elements of our native-grown euphuism, and their origins, carefully
+distinguished. Of course with euphuism we do not commence English prose;
+that is already centuries old; but we are dealing with the beginnings of
+English prose style, by which we mean a conscious and artistic striving
+after literary effect. That the first stylists should look to the
+rhetoricians for their models was inevitable, and of these there were
+two kinds available; the classical orators and the alliterative homilies
+of the Early English. But, deferring this point for a later treatment,
+let us conclude our study of the evolution of euphuism in England.
+
+ [58] Craik, I. p. 269.
+
+So far we have been dealing with euphuistic tendencies only, since in
+the style of Ascham and his predecessors, alliteration and antithesis
+are not employed consistently, but merely on occasion for the sake of
+emphasis. Other marks of euphuism, such as the fantastic embroidery of
+mythical beasts and flowers, are absent. Even in North's _Diall_
+alliteration is not profuse, and similes from natural history are
+comparatively rare. In George Pettie, however, we find a complete
+euphuist before _Euphues_. This writer again brings us in touch with
+that Oxford atmosphere, which, I maintain, surrounded the birth of the
+full-blown euphuism. A student of Christ Church, he took his B.A. degree
+in 1560[59], and so probably just escaped being a contemporary of Lyly.
+But, as he was a "dear friend" of William Gager, who was a considerably
+younger man than himself, it seems probable that he continued his Oxford
+connexion after his degree. However this may be, he published his
+_Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure_, which so exactly anticipates
+the style of _Euphues_, in 1576, only two years before the later book.
+The _Petite Pallace_ was an imitation of the famous _Palace of Pleasure_
+published in 1566 by William Painter, who, though he had known Guevara's
+writings, drew his material almost entirely from Italian sources. That
+Pettie also possessed a knowledge of Spanish literature, as we should
+expect from the period of his residence at Oxford, is shown by his
+translation of Guazzo's _Civile Conversation_ in 1581, to which he
+affixes a euphuistic preface. This again was only a left-handed
+transcript from the French. Therefore the Spanish elements, though
+undoubtedly present, cannot be insisted upon. We may concede that Pettie
+had read North, or even go so far as to assert with Mr Underhill that he
+was acquainted with "parts of the Gallicized Guevara," without lending
+countenance to Dr Landmann's radical theories. No one, reading the
+_Petite Pleasure_, can doubt that Pettie was the real creator of
+euphuism in its fullest development, and that Lyly was only an imitator.
+Though I have already somewhat overburdened this chapter. I cannot
+refrain from quoting a passage from Pettie, not only as an example of
+his style, but also because the passage is in itself so delightful, that
+it is one's duty to rescue it from oblivion:
+
+"As amongst all the bonds of benevolence and good will, there is none
+more honourable, ancient, or honest than marriage, so in my fancy there
+is none that doth more firmly fasten and inseparably unite us together
+than the same estate doth, or wherein the fruits of true friendship do
+more plenteously appear: in the father is a certain severe love and
+careful goodwill towards the child, the child beareth a fearful
+affection and awful obedience towards the father: the master hath an
+imperious regard of the servant, the servant a servile care of the
+master. The friendship amongst men is grounded upon no love and
+dissolved upon every light occasion: the goodwill of kinsfolk is
+constantly cold, as much of custom as of devotion: but in this stately
+estate of matrimony there is nothing fearful, all things are done
+faithfully without doubting, truly without doubling, willingly without
+constraint, joyfully without complaint: yea there is such a general
+consent and mutual agreement between the man and wife, that they both
+wish and will covet and crave one thing. And as a scion grafted in a
+strange stalk, their natures being united by growth, they become one and
+together bear one fruit: so the love of the wife planted in the breast
+of her husband, their hearts by continuance of love become one, one
+sense and one soul serveth them both. And as the scion severed from the
+stock withereth away, if it be not grafted in some other: so a loving
+wife separated from the society of her husband withereth away in woe and
+leadeth a life no less pleasant than death[60]." Lyly never wrote
+anything to equal this. Indeed it is not unworthy of the lips of one of
+Shakespeare's heroines.
+
+ [59] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Pettie.
+
+ [60] I have taken the liberty of modernising the spelling.
+
+The euphuism of the foregoing quotation will be readily detected. The
+sole difference between the styles of Lyly and Pettie is that, while
+Pettie's similes from nature are simple and natural, Lyly, with his
+knowledge of Pliny and of the bestiaries, added his fabulous "unnatural
+natural history." Pettie's book was popular for the time, three editions
+of it being called for in the first year of its publication, but it was
+soon to be thrust aside by the fame of the much more pretentious, and,
+apart from the style, better constructed _Euphues_ of Lyly. In truth, as
+Gabriel Harvey justly but unkindly remarks, "Young Euphues but hatched
+the eggs his elder freendes laid." But the parental responsibility and
+merit must be attributed to him who hatches. It was Lyly who made
+euphuism famous and therefore a power; and, despite the fact that he
+marks the culmination of the movement, he is the most dynamical of all
+the euphuists.
+
+It remains to sum up our conclusions respecting the origin and
+development of this literary phase. Difficult as it is to unravel the
+tangled network of obscure influences which surrounded its birth, I
+venture to think that a sufficiently complete disproof of that extreme
+theory, which would ascribe it entirely to Guevara's influence, has been
+offered. Guevara, in the translation of Berners, undoubtedly took the
+field early, but, as we have seen, Berners was probably feeling towards
+the style before he knew Guevara; and moreover the bishop's _alto
+estilo_ must have suffered considerably while passing through the
+French. Even allowing everything, as we have done, for the close
+connexion between Spain and England, for the Spanish tradition at
+Oxford, and for the interest in peninsular writings shown by Lyly's
+immediate circle of friends, we cannot accord to Dr Landmann's
+explanation anything more than a very modified acceptance. Nor would a
+complete rejection of this solution of the Lyly problem render English
+euphuism inexplicable; for something very like it would naturally have
+resulted from the close application of classical methods to prose
+writing; and in the case of Cheke and Ascham we actually see the process
+at work. And yet Lyly owed a great debt to Guevara. A true solution,
+therefore, must find a place for foreign as well as native influences.
+And to say that the Spanish intervention confirmed and hastened a
+development already at work, of which the original impulse was English,
+is, I think, to give a due allowance to both.
+
+
+SECTION III. _Lyly's Legatees and the relation between Euphuism and the
+Renaissance._
+
+The publication of _Euphues_ was the culmination, rather than the
+origin, of that literary phase to which it gave its name. And the vogue
+of euphuism after 1579 was short, lasting indeed only until about 1590;
+yet during these ten years its influence was far-reaching, and left a
+definite mark upon later English prose. It would be idle, if not
+impossible, to trace its effects upon every individual writer who fell
+under its immediate fascination. Moreover the task has already been
+performed in a great measure by M. Jusserand[61] and Mr Bond[62]. They
+have shown once and for all that Greene, Lodge, Welbanke, Munday,
+Warner, Wilkinson, and above all Shakespeare, were indebted to our
+author for certain mannerisms of style. I shall therefore content myself
+with noticing two or three writers, tainted with euphuism, who have been
+generally overlooked, and who seem to me important enough, either in
+themselves, or as throwing light upon the subject of the essay, to
+receive attention.
+
+ [61] Jusserand, ch. IV.
+
+ [62] Bond, vol. I. pp. 164-175.
+
+The first of these is the dramatist Kyd, who completed his well-known
+_Spanish Tragedy_ between 1584 and 1589, that is at the height of the
+euphuistic fashion. This play was apparently an inexhaustible joke to
+the Elizabethans; for the references to it in later dramatists are
+innumerable. One passage must have been particularly famous, for we find
+it parodied most elaborately by Field, as late as 1606, in his _A Woman
+is a Weathercock_[63]. The passage in question, which was obviously
+inspired by Lyly, runs as follows:
+
+ "Yet might she love me for my valiance:
+ I, but that's slandered by captivity.
+ Yet might she love me to content her sire:
+ I, but her reason masters her desire.
+ Yet might she love me as her brother's friend:
+ I, but her hopes aim at some other end.
+ Yet might she love me to uprear her state:
+ I, but perhaps she loves some nobler mate.
+ Yet might she love me as her beautie's thrall:
+ I, but I feare she cannot love at all."
+
+ [63] Act I. Sc. II.
+
+Nathaniel Field's parody of this melodramatic nonsense is so amusing
+that I cannot forbear quoting it. This time the despairing lover is Sir
+Abraham Ninny, who quotes Kyd to his companions, and they with the cry
+of "Ha God-a-mercy, old Hieromino!" begin the game of parody, which must
+have been keenly enjoyed by the audience. Field improves on the original
+by putting the alternate lines of despair into the mouths of Ninny's
+jesting friends. It runs, therefore:
+
+ "--Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.
+ --Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.
+ --Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.
+ --Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.
+ --Yet might she love me for my proper body.
+ --Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.
+ --Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.
+ --Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.
+ --Yet might she love me in despite of all.
+ (the lady herself)--Ay but indeed I cannot love at all."
+
+This parody, apart from any interest it possesses for the student of
+Lyly, is an excellent illustration of the ways of Elizabethan
+playwrights, and of the thorough knowledge of previous plays they
+assumed their audience to have possessed. There are several other
+examples of Kyd's acquaintance with the _Euphues_ in the _Spanish
+Tragedy_[64], in the other dramas[65], and in his prose works[66], which
+it is not necessary to quote. But there is one more passage, again from
+his most famous play, which is so full of interest that it cannot be
+passed over in silence. It is a counsel of hope to the despairing lover,
+and assumes this inspiring form:
+
+ "My Lord, though Belimperia seem thus coy
+ Let reason hold you in your wonted joy;
+ In time the savage Bull sustains the yoke,
+ In time all Haggard Hawkes will stoop to lure,
+ In time small wedges cleave the hardest Oake,
+ In time the flint is pearst with softest shower,
+ And she in time will fall from her disdain,
+ And rue the sufferance of your deadly paine[67]."
+
+ [64] _Sp. Trag._, Act IV. 190 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 146).
+
+ [65] _Soliman and Perseda_, Act III. 130 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 100), and
+ Act II. 199.
+
+ [66] _Kyd's Works_ (Boas), p. 288, and ch. IX.
+
+ [67] _Sp. Trag._, Act II. 1-8.
+
+Now these lines are practically a transcript of the opening words of the
+47th sonnet in Watson's _Hekatompathia_ published in 1582. Remembering
+Lyly's penetrating observation that "the soft droppes of rain pearce the
+hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oake[68]," and bearing
+in mind that the high priest of euphuism himself contributed a
+commendatory epistle to the _Hekatompathia_, we should expect that these
+Bulls and Hawkes and Oakes were choice flowers of speech, culled from
+that botanico-zoological "garden of prose"--the _Euphues_. But as a
+matter of fact Watson himself informs us in a note that his sonnet is an
+imitation of the Italian Serafino, from whom he also borrows other
+sonnet-conceits in the same volume, some of which are full of similar
+references to the properties of animals and plants. The conclusion is
+forced upon us therefore that Watson and Lyly went to the same source,
+or, if a knowledge of Italian cannot be granted to our author, that he
+borrowed from Watson. At any rate Watson cannot be placed amongst the
+imitators of _Euphues_. Like Pettie and Gosson he must share with Lyly
+the credit of creation. He was a friend of Lyly's at Oxford; they
+dedicated their books to the same patron, and they employed the same
+publisher. Moreover, the little we have of Watson's prose is highly
+euphuistic, and it is apparent from the epistle above mentioned that he
+was on terms of closest intimacy with the author of _Euphues_. In him we
+have another member of that interesting circle of Oxford euphuists, who
+continued their connexion in London under de Vere's patronage.
+
+ [68] _Euphues_, p. 337.
+
+Watson again was a friend of the well-known poet Richard Barnefield, who
+though too young in 1578 to have been of the University coterie of
+euphuists, shows definite traces of their affectation in his works. The
+conventional illustrations from an "unnatural natural history" abound in
+his _Affectionate Shepherd_[69] (1594), and he repeats the jargon about
+marble and showers[70] which we have seen in Lyly, Watson and Kyd. Again
+in his _Cynthia_ (1594) there is a distinct reference to the opening
+words of _Euphues_ in the lines,
+
+ "Wit without wealth is bad, yet counted good;
+ Wealth wanting wisdom's worse, yet deemed as well[71]."
+
+His prose introduction betrays the same influence.
+
+ [69] _Poems_, Arber, pp. 18 and 19.
+
+ [70] _id._, p. 24.
+
+ [71] _id._, p. 51.
+
+These then are a few among the countless scribblers of those prolific
+times who fell under the spell of the euphuistic fashion. They are
+mentioned, either because their connexion with the movement has been
+overlooked, or because they throw a new and important light upon Lyly
+himself. Of other legatees it is impossible to treat here; and it is
+enough, without tracing it in any detail, to indicate "the slender
+euphuistic thread that runs in iron through Marlowe, in silver through
+Shakespeare, in bronze through Bacon, in more or less inferior metal
+through every writer of that age[72]."
+
+ [72] Symonds, p. 407.
+
+There is nothing strange in this infatuation, if we remember that
+euphuism was "the English type of an all but universal disease[73]," as
+Symonds puts it. Dr Landmann, we have decided, was wrong in his
+insistence upon foreign influence; but his error was a natural one, and
+points to a fact which no student of Renaissance literature can afford
+to neglect. Matthew Arnold long ago laid down the clarifying principle
+that "the criticism which alone can much help us for the future, is a
+criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual
+purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working
+to a common result[74]." And the truth of this becomes more and more
+indisputable, the longer we study European history, whether it be from
+the side of Politics, of Religion, or of Art. Landmann ascribes euphuism
+to Spain, Symonds ascribes it to Italy, and an equally good case might
+be made out in favour of France. There is truth in all these hypotheses,
+but each misses the true significance of the matter, which is that
+euphuism must have come, and would have come, without any question of
+borrowing.
+
+ [73] _id._, p. 404.
+
+ [74] _Essays in Criticism_, I. p. 39.
+
+The date 1453 is usually taken as a convenient starting point for the
+Renaissance, though the movement was already at work in Italy, for that
+was the year of Byzantium's fall and of the diffusion of the classics
+over Europe. But, for the countries outside Italy, I think that the date
+1493 is almost as important. Hitherto the new learning had been in a
+great measure confined to Italy, but with the invasion of Charles VIII.,
+which commences a long period of French and Spanish occupation of
+Italian soil, the Renaissance, especially on its artistic side, began to
+find its way into the neighbouring states, and through them into
+England. It is the old story, so familiar to sociologists, of a lower
+civilization falling under the spell of the culture exhibited by a more
+advanced subject population, of a conqueror worshipping the gods of the
+conquered. It is the story of the conquest of Greece by Rome, of the
+conquest of Rome by the Germans. But the interesting point to notice is
+that, when the "barbarian" Frenchman descended from the Alps upon the
+fair plains of Lombardy, the Italian Renaissance was already showing
+signs of decadence. It was in the age of the Petrarchisti, of Aretino,
+of Doni, and of Marini that Europe awoke to the full consciousness of
+the wonders of Italian literature. Thus it was that those beyond the
+Alps drank of water already tainted. That France, Spain, and England
+should be attracted by the affectations of Italy, rather than by what
+was best in her literature, was only to be expected. "It was easier to
+catch the trick of an Aretino, and a Marini, than to emulate the style
+of a Tasso or a Castiglione": and besides they were themselves inventing
+similar extravagances independently of Italy. The purely formal ideal of
+Art had in Spain already found expression among the courtiers of
+Juan II. of Castile. One of them, Baena, writes as follows of poetry:
+"that it cannot be learned or well and properly known, save by the man
+of very deep and subtle invention, and of a very lofty and fine
+discretion, and of a very healthy and unerring judgment, and such a one
+must have seen and heard and read many and diverse books and writings,
+and know all languages and have frequented kings' Courts and associated
+with great men and beheld and taken part in worldly affairs; and finally
+he must be of gentle birth, courteous and sedate, polished, humorous,
+polite, witty, and have in his composition honey, and sugar, and salt,
+and a good presence and a witty manner of reasoning; moreover he must be
+also a lover and ever make a show and pretence of it[75]." Such a
+catalogue of the poet's requisites might have been written by any one of
+our Oxford euphuists; and Watson, at least, among them fulfilled all its
+conditions.
+
+ [75] Butler Clarke, _Spanish Literature_, p. 71.
+
+The Italian influence, therefore, did but hasten a process already at
+work. The reasons for this universal movement are very difficult to
+determine. But among many suggestions of more or less value, a few
+causes of the change may here be hazarded. In the first place, then, the
+Renaissance happened to be contemporaneous with the death of feudalism.
+The ideal of chivalry is dying out all over Europe; and the romances of
+chivalry are everywhere despised. The horizontal class divisions become
+obscured by the newly found perpendicular divisions of nationality; and
+in Italy and England at least the old feudal nobility have almost
+entirely disappeared. A new centre of national life and culture is
+therefore in the process of formation, that of the Court; and thanks to
+this, the ideal of chivalry gives place to the new ideal of the courtier
+or the gentleman. This ideal found literary expression in the moral
+Court treatises, which were so universally popular during the
+Renaissance, and of which Guevara, Castiglione, and Lyly are the most
+famous instances. The ambition of those who frequent Courts has always
+been to appear distinguished--distinguished that is from the vulgar and
+the ordinary, or, as we should now say, from the Philistine. In the
+Courts of the Renaissance period, where learning was considered so
+admirable, this necessary distinction would naturally take the form of a
+cultured, if not pedantic, diction; and for this it was natural that men
+should go to the classics, and more especially to classical orators, as
+models of good speech. It must not be imagined that this process was a
+conscious one. In many countries the rhetorical style was already formed
+by scholars before it became the speech of the Court. In fact the
+beginnings of modern prose style are to be found in humanism. Ascham
+with his hatred of the "Italianated gentleman," was probably quite
+unconscious of his own affinity to that objectionable type, when
+imitating the style of his favourite Tully in the _Schoolmaster_. The
+classics it must be remembered were not discovered by the humanists,
+they were only rediscovered. The middle ages had used them, as they had
+used the Old Testament, as prophetic books. Virgil's mediaeval
+reputation for example rests for the most part upon the fourth Eclogue.
+The humanists, on the other hand, looked upon the classics as literature
+and valued them for their style. But here again they drank from tainted
+sources; for, with the exception of a few writers such as Cicero and
+Terence, the classics they knew and loved best were the product of the
+silver age of Rome, the characteristics of which are beautifully
+described by the author of _Marius the Epicurean_ in his chapter
+significantly called _Euphuism_. Few of the Renaissance students had the
+critical acumen of Cheke, and they fell therefore an easy prey to the
+stylism of the later Latin writers, with its antithesis and
+extravagance. But, with all this, men could not quite shake off the
+middle ages. There is much of the Scholastic in Lyly, and the exuberance
+of ornament, the fantastic similes from natural history, and the moral
+lessons deduced from them, are quite mediaeval in feeling. We learnt the
+lessons of the classics backward; and it was not until centuries after,
+that men realised that the essence of Hellenism is restraint and
+harmony.
+
+I have spoken of the movement generally, but it passed through many
+phases, such as arcadianism, gongorism, dubartism; and yet of all these
+phases euphuism was, I think, the most important: certainly if we
+confine our attention to English literature this must be admitted. But,
+even if we keep our eyes upon the Continent alone, euphuism would seem
+to be more significant than the movements which succeeded it; for it was
+a definite attempt, seriously undertaken, to force modern languages into
+a classical mould, while the other and later affectations were merely
+passing extravagances, possessing little dynamical importance. In this
+way, short-lived and abortive as it seemed, euphuism anticipated the
+literature of the _ancien regime_.
+
+The movement, moreover, was only one aspect of the Renaissance; it was
+the under-current which in the 18th century became the main stream.
+Paradoxical as it may seem, the Renaissance in its most modern aspect
+was a development of the middle ages, and not of the classics. This we
+call romanticism. As an artistic product it was developed on strictly
+national and traditional lines, born of the fields as it were, free as a
+bird and as sweet, giving birth in England to the drama, in Italy to the
+plastic arts. It is essentially opposed to the classical movement, for
+it represents the idea as distinct from the form. Lyly belongs to both
+movements, for, while he is the protagonist of the romantic drama, in
+his _Euphues_ we may discover the source of the artificial stream which,
+concealed for a while beneath the wild exuberance of the romantic
+growth, appears later in the 18th century embracing the whole current of
+English literature. Before, however, proceeding to fix the position of
+euphuism in the development of English prose, let us sum up the results
+we have obtained from our examination of its relation to the general
+European Renaissance. Originating in that study of classical style we
+find so forcibly advocated by Ascham in his _Schoolmaster_, it was
+essentially a product of humanism. In every country scholars were
+interested as much in the style as in the matter of the newly discovered
+classics. This was due, partly to the lateness of the Latin writers
+chiefly known to them, partly to the mediaeval preference for words
+rather than ideas, and partly to the fact that the times were not yet
+ripe for an appreciation of the spirit as distinct from the letter of
+the classics. In Italy, in France, and in Spain, therefore, we may find
+parallels to euphuism without supposing any international borrowings.
+_Euphues_, in fact, is not so much a reflection of, as a _Glasse for
+Europe_.
+
+
+SECTION IV. _The position of Euphuism in the history of English prose._
+
+A few words remain to be said about this literary curiosity, by way of
+assigning a place to it in the history of our prose. To do so with any
+scientific precision is impossible, but there are many points of no
+small significance in this connexion, which should not be passed over.
+
+English prose at the beginning of the 16th century, that is before the
+new learning had become a power in the land, though it had not yet been
+employed for artistic purposes, was already an important part of our
+literature, and possessed a quality which no national prose had
+exhibited since the days of Greece, the quality of popularity[76]. This
+popularity, which arose from the fact that French and Latin had for so
+long been the language of the ruling section of the community, is still
+the distinction which marks off our prose from that of other nations. In
+Italy, for example, the language of literature is practically
+incomprehensible to the dwellers on the soil. But what English prose has
+gained in breadth and comprehension by representing the tongue of the
+people, it has lost in subtlety. French prose, which developed from the
+speech of the Court, is a delicate instrument, capable of expressing the
+finest shades of meaning, while the styles of George Meredith and of
+Henry James show how difficult it is for a subtle intellect to move
+freely within the limitations of English prose. Indeed, "it is a
+remarkable fact," as Sainte Beuve noticed, "and an inversion of what is
+true of other languages that, in French, prose has always had the
+precedence over poetry." Repeated attempts, however, have been made to
+capture our language, and to transport it into aristocratic atmospheres;
+and of these attempts the first is associated with the name of Lyly.
+
+ [76] Cf. Earle, pp. 422, 423.
+
+We have seen that English euphuism was at first a flower of unconscious
+growth sprung from the soil of humanism. But ultimately, in the hands of
+Pettie, Gosson, Lyly, and Watson, it became the instrument of an Oxford
+coterie deliberately and consciously employed for the purpose of
+altering the form of English prose. These men did not despise their
+native tongue; they used the purest English, carefully avoiding the
+favourite "ink-horn terms" of their contemporaries: they admired it, as
+one admires a wild bird of the fields, which one wishes to capture in
+order to make it hop and sing in a golden cage. The humanists were
+already developing a learned style within the native language; Lyly and
+his friends utilized this learned style for the creation of an
+aristocratic type. Euphuism was no "transient phase of madness[77]," as
+Mr Earle contemptuously calls it, but a brave attempt, and withal a
+first attempt, to assert that prose writing is an art no less than the
+writing of poetry; and this alone should give it a claim upon students
+of English literature.
+
+ [77] Earle, p. 436.
+
+The first point we must notice, therefore, about English euphuism is
+that it represents a tendency to confine literature within the limits of
+the Court--in accordance, one might almost say, with the general
+centralization of politics and religion under the Tudors--and that, as a
+necessary result of this, conscious prose style appears for the first
+time in our language. I say English euphuism, because that is our chief
+concern, and because though euphuism on the Continent was, as we have
+seen, the expression in literature of the new ideal of the courtier, yet
+it was by no means so great an innovation as it was in England, inasmuch
+as the Romance literatures had always represented the aristocracy. The
+form which this style assumed was dependent upon the circumstances which
+gave it birth, and upon the general conditions of the age. Owing to the
+former it became erudite, polished, precise, meet indeed for the
+"parleyings" of courtiers and maids-in-waiting; but it was to the latter
+that it owed its essentials. Hitherto we have contented ourselves with
+indicating the rhetorical aspect of euphuism. We have seen that the
+Latin orators and the writers of our English homilies exercised a
+considerable influence over the new stylists. It was natural that
+rhetoricians should attract those who were desirous of writing
+ornamental and artistic prose, and one feels inclined to believe that it
+was not entirely for spiritual reasons that Lyly frequently attended Dr
+Andrews' sermons[78]. But the euphuistic manner has a wider significance
+than this, for it marks the transition from poetry to prose.
+
+ [78] Bond, I. p. 60.
+
+"The age of Elizabeth is pre-eminently an age of poetry, of which prose
+may be regarded as merely the overflow[79]." It was at once the end of
+the mediaeval, and the beginning of the modern, world, and consequently,
+it displays the qualities of both. But the future lay with the small men
+rather than with the great. Shakespeare and Milton were no innovators.
+With their names the epoch of primitive literature, which finds
+expression in the drama and the epic, ends, while it reaches its highest
+flights. The dawn of the modern epoch, the age of prose and of the
+novel, is, on the other hand, connected with the names of Lyly, Sidney,
+and Nash. Thus, as in the 18th century poetry was subservient, and so
+became assimilated, to prose, so the prose of the 16th century exhibited
+many of the characteristics of verse. And of this general literary
+feature euphuism is the most conspicuous example; for in its employment
+of alliteration and antithesis, in addition to the excessive use of
+illustration and simile which characterizes arcadianism and its
+successors, the style of Lyly is transitional in structure as well as in
+ornament. Moreover the alliteration, which is peculiar to English
+euphuism, gives it a musical element which its continental parallels
+lacked. The dividing line between alliteration and rhyme, and between
+antithesis and rhythm, is not a broad one[80]. Indeed Pettie found it so
+narrow that he occasionally lapsed into metrical rhythm. And so, though
+we cannot say that euphuism is verse, we can say that it partakes of the
+nature of verse. In this endeavour to provide an adequate structure for
+the support of the mass of imagery that the taste of the age demanded,
+it showed itself superior to the rival prose fashions. _Euphues_ is a
+model of form beside the tedious prolixity of the _Arcadia_, or the
+chaotic effusions of Nash. The weariness, which the modern reader feels
+for the romance of Lyly, is due rather to the excessive quantity of its
+metaphor, which was the fault of the age, than to its pedantic style.
+
+ [79] Raleigh, p. 45.
+
+ [80] This touches upon the famous dispute between Dr Schwan and Dr
+ Goodlet which is excellently dealt with by Mr Child, p. 77.
+
+I write loosely of "style," but strictly speaking the euphuists paid
+especial attention to diction. And here again the poetical and
+aristocratic tendencies of euphuism show themselves. For diction, which
+is the art of selection, the selection of apt words, is of course one of
+the first essentials of poetic art, and is also more prominent in the
+prose of Court literature than elsewhere. The precision, the _finesse_,
+the subtlety, of French prose has only been attained by centuries of
+attention to diction. English prose, on the other hand, is singularly
+lacking in this quality; and for this cause it would never have produced
+a Flaubert, despite its splendid achievements in style. Had euphuism
+been more successful, it might have altered the whole aspect of later
+English prose, by giving us in the 16th century that quality of diction
+which did not become prominent in our prose until the days of Pater and
+the purists.
+
+And yet, though it failed in this particular, the influence of the
+general qualities of its style upon later prose must have been
+incalculable. The vogue of euphuism as a craze was brief; but _Euphues_
+received fresh publication about once every three years down to 1636,
+and long after its social popularity had become a thing of the past, it
+probably attracted the careful study of those who wished to write
+artistic prose. The only model of prose form which the age possessed
+could scarcely sink into oblivion, or become out of date, until its
+principal lessons had been so well learnt as to pass into common-places.
+The exaggerations, which first gave it fame, were probably discounted by
+the more sincere appreciation of later critics, to whom its more
+sterling qualities would appeal. For some reason, the musical properties
+of euphuism do not appear to have found favour among those critics, and
+this was probably a loss to our literature. "Alliteration," as Professor
+Raleigh remarks, "is often condemned as a flaw in rhymed verse, and it
+may well be open to question whether Lyly did not give it its true
+position in attempting to invent a place for it in what is called
+prose[81]." Possibly its failure in this respect was due to the growth
+of that intellectual asceticism, and that reaction against the
+domination of poetry, which are, I think, intimately bound up with the
+fortunes of Puritanism. The beginning of this reaction is visible as
+early as 1589 in the words of Warner's preface to _Albion's England_,
+which display the very affectation they protest against: "onely this
+error may be thought hatching in our English, that to runne on the
+letter we often runne from the matter: and being over prodigall in
+similes we become lesse profitable in sentences and more prolixious to
+sense." But, however this may be, it was the formal rather than the
+musical qualities which gave _Euphues_ its dynamical importance in the
+history of English prose. Subsequent writers had much to learn from a
+book in which the principle of design is for the first time visible.
+With euphuism, antithesis and the use of balanced sentences came to
+stay. We may see them in the style of Johnson and Gibbon, while
+alliterative antithesis reappears to-day in the shape of the epigram.
+Doubtless Lyly abused the antithetical device; but his successors had
+only to discover a means of skilfully concealing the structure, an
+improvement which the early euphuists, with all the enthusiasm of
+inventors, could not have appreciated.
+
+ [81] Raleigh, p. 47.
+
+Moreover, in aiming at elegance and precision, Lyly attained a lucidity
+almost unequalled among his contemporaries. His attention to form saved
+him from the besetting sin of Elizabethan prose,--incoherence by reason
+of an overwhelming display of ornament. His very illustrations were
+subject to the restraint which his style demanded, being sown, to use
+his own metaphor, "here and there lyke Strawberries, not in heapes, lyke
+Hoppes[82]." Arcadianism came as a reaction against euphuism, attempting
+to replace its artificiality by simplicity. But how infinitely more
+preferable is the novel of Lyly, with its artificial precision and
+lucidity, to the conscious artlessness of Sidney's _Arcadia_, with its
+interminable sentences and confused syntax. As a modern euphuist has
+taught us, of all poses the natural pose is the most irritating. In
+accordance with his desire for precision, Lyly made frequent use of the
+short sentence. In this we have another indication of his modernity:
+for the short sentence, which is so characteristic of English prose
+style to-day, occurs more often in his work than in the writings of any
+of his predecessors. And, in reference to the same question of lucidity,
+we may notice that he was the first writer who gave special attention to
+the separation of his prose into paragraphs,--a matter apparently
+trivial, but really of no small importance. Finally, it is a remarkable
+fact that the number of words to be found in _Euphues_ which have since
+become obsolete is a very small one--"at most but a small fraction of
+one per cent.[83]" And this is in itself sufficient to indicate the
+influence which Lyly's novel has exerted upon English prose. As he reads
+it, no one can avoid being struck by the modernity of its language, an
+impression not to be obtained from a perusal of the plays. The
+explanation is simple enough. The plays were not read or absorbed by
+their author's contemporaries and successors; _Euphues_ was. In the
+domain of style, _Euphues_ was dynamical; the plays were not.
+
+ [82] _Euphues_, p. 220.
+
+ [83] Child, p. 41.
+
+But the true value of Lyly's prose lies not so much in what it achieved
+as in what it attempted; for the qualities, which euphuism, by its
+insistence upon design and elegance, really aimed at, were strength,
+brilliancy, and refinement. For the first time in the history of our
+literature, men are found to write prose with the purpose of fascinating
+and enticing the reader, not merely by what is said, but also by the
+manner of saying it. "Lyly" (and, we may add, his associates), writes
+his latest editor, "grasped the fact that in prose no less than in
+poetry, the reader demanded to be led onward by a succession of half
+imperceptible shocks of pleasure in the beauty and vigour of diction, or
+in the ingenuity of phrasing, in sentence after sentence--pleasure
+inseparable from that caused by a perception of the nice adaptation of
+words to thought, pleasure quite other than that derivable from the
+acquisition of fresh knowledge[84]." The direct influence of the man who
+first taught us this lesson, who showed us that a writer, to be
+successful, should seek not merely to express himself, but also to study
+the mind of his reader, must have been something quite beyond
+computation. And that his direct influence was not more lasting was due,
+in the first place, to the fact that he had not grasped the full
+significance of this psychological aspect of style, if we may so call
+it, which he and his friends had been the first to discover. As with
+most first attempts, euphuism, while bestowing immense benefits upon
+those who came after, was itself a failure. The euphuists perceived the
+problem of style, but successfully attacked only one half of it. More
+acute than their contemporaries, they realised the principle of economy,
+but, as with one who makes an entirely new mechanical invention, they
+were themselves unable to appreciate what their discovery would lead to.
+They were right in addressing themselves to the task of attracting, and
+stimulating, the reader by means of precision, pointed antithesis, and
+such like attempts to induce pleasurable mental sensations, but they
+forgot that anyone must eventually grow weary under the influence of
+continuous excitation without variation. The soft drops of rain pierce
+the hard marble, many strokes overthrow the tallest oak, and much
+monotony will tire the readiest reader. Or, to use the phraseology of a
+somewhat more recent scientist, they "considered only those causes of
+force in language which depend upon economy of the mental _energies_,"
+they paid no attention to "those which depend upon the economy of the
+mental _sensibilities_[85]." This is one explanation of the weariness
+with which _Euphues_ fills the modern reader, and of the speed with
+which, in spite of its priceless pioneer work, that book was superseded
+and forgotten in its own days. It is our duty to give it its full meed
+of recognition, but we can understand and forgive the ungratefulness of
+its contemporaries.
+
+ [84] Bond, I. p. 146.
+
+ [85] H. Spencer, Essays, II. _Phil. of Style_.
+
+Another cause of the oblivion which so soon overtook the famous
+Elizabethan novel, has already been suggested. Euphuism was too
+antagonistic to the general current of English prose to be successful.
+Lyly and his Oxford clique were attempting a revolution similar to that
+undertaken, at the same period, by Ronsard and his _Pleiad_. Lyly failed
+in prose, where Ronsard succeeded in poetry, because he endeavoured to
+go back upon tradition, while the Frenchman worked strictly within its
+limits. The attempt to throw Court dress over the plain homespun of our
+English prose might have been attended with success, had our literature
+been younger and more easily led astray. As it was, prose in this
+country, when euphuism invaded it, could already show seven centuries of
+development, and, moreover, development along the broad and national
+lines of common or vulgar speech. Euphuism was after all only part of
+the general tendency of the age to focus everything that was good in
+politics, religion, and art, on the person and immediate surroundings of
+the sovereign; and the history of the eighteenth century, which saw the
+last issue of the series of _Euphues_ reprints, is the history of the
+collapse of this centralization all along the line, ending in the
+complete vindication of the democratic basis of English life and
+literature.
+
+With these general remarks we must leave the subject of euphuism. No
+history of its origin and its influence can be completely satisfactory:
+such questions must of necessity receive a speculative and tentative
+solution, for it is impossible to give them an exact answer which admits
+of no dispute. The age of Lyly was far more complex than ours, with all
+our artistic sects and schisms; the currents of literary influence were
+multitudinous and extremely involved. As Symonds wrote, "The romantic
+art of the modern world did not spring like that of Greece from an
+ungarnered field of flowers. Troubled by reminiscences from the past and
+by reciprocal influences from one another, the literatures of modern
+Europe came into existence with composite dialects and obeyed confused
+canons of taste, exhibited their adolescent vigour with affected graces
+and showed themselves senile in their cradles." In the field of
+literature to-day the standards are more numerous, but more distinctive,
+than those of the Elizabethans. Our ideals are classified with almost
+scientific exactness, and we wear the labels proudly. But the very
+splendour of the Renaissance was due to the fact that in the same group,
+in the same artist, were to be found the most diverse ideals and the
+most opposite methods. They worshipped they knew not what, we know what
+we worship. Yet this difference does not prevent us from seeing curious
+points of similarity between our own and those times. The 16th, like the
+19th century, was a period of revolt from the past: and at such moments
+men feel a supreme contempt for the common-place in literature. The cry
+of art for art's sake is raised, and the result is extravagance,
+euphuism. A wave of intellectual dandyism seems to sweep over the face
+of literature, aristocratic in its aims and sympathies. Then are the
+battle lines drawn up, and the spectators watch, with admiration or
+contempt, the eternally recurrent strife between David and the
+Philistines; and whether the young hero be clad in the knee-breeches of
+aestheticism, or the slashed doublet of the courtier; whether he be
+armed with epigram and sunflower, or with euphuism and camomile;
+variation of costume cannot conceal the identity of his personality--the
+personality of the fop of culture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL.
+
+
+Despite the disproportionate attention given to euphuism by so many of
+Lyly's critics, _Euphues_ is no less important as a novel than as a
+piece of prose. We can, however, dismiss this second branch of our
+subject in fewer words, because the problem of _Euphues_ is much simpler
+and more straightforward than the problem of euphuism. It can scarcely
+be said that Lyly has yet been thoroughly appreciated as a novelist;
+indeed, the whole subject of the Elizabethan novel is very far from
+having received a satisfactory treatment at present. This is not
+surprising when we consider that the last word remains to be said upon
+the Elizabethan drama. The birth of modern literature was so sudden, its
+life, even in the cradle, was so complex that it baffles criticism. Like
+the peal of an organ with a thousand stops, the English Renaissance
+seemed to break the stillness of the great mediaeval church, shaking its
+beautiful sombre walls and filling it from floor to roof with wild,
+pagan music. Indeed, the more we study those 50 or 60 years which
+embrace the so-called Elizabethan period, the more are we struck by the
+fact that, ever since, we have been simply making variations upon the
+themes, which the men of those times gave us. Modern science, modern
+poetry, modern drama, sat like pages at the feet of the Great Queen.
+Among these the novel cut but an insignificant figure, although it was
+the novel which had perhaps the longest future before it. We need not
+wonder therefore that our first English novelist has been treated by
+many with neglect. None I think have done more to make amends in this
+direction than Professor Raleigh and M. Jusserand; the former in his
+graceful, humorous, and penetrating little book, _The English Novel_;
+and the latter in his well-known work on _The English Novel in the time
+of Shakespeare_, which gives one, while reading it, the feeling of being
+present at a fancy-dress ball, so skilfully does he detect the forms and
+faces of present-day fiction behind euphuistic mask and beneath arcadian
+costume. To these two books the present writer owes a debt which all
+must feel who have stood bewildered upon the threshold of Elizabeth's
+Court with its glittering throng of genius and wit.
+
+Sudden, however, as was this crop of warriors wielding pen, it must not
+be forgotten that the dragon's teeth had first been sown in mediaeval
+soil. With Lyly the English novel came into being, but that child of his
+genius was not without ancestry or relations. And so, before discussing
+the character and fortunes of the infant, let us devote a few
+introductory remarks to pedigree. Roughly speaking, the prose narrative
+in England, before _Euphues_, falls into three divisions, the romance of
+chivalry, the _novella_, and the moral Court treatise,--and all three
+are of foreign extraction, that is to say, they are represented in
+England by translations only. Chaucer indeed is a mine of material
+suitable for the novel, but the father of English literature elected to
+write in verse, and his _Canterbury Tales_ have no appreciable influence
+upon the later prose story. For some reason, the mediaeval prose
+narrative seems to have been confined to the so-called Celtic races.
+Certainly, both the romance of chivalry and the _novella_ are to be
+traced back to French sources. The _novella_, which, at our period, had
+become thoroughly naturalized in Italy, under the auspices of Boccaccio,
+had originally sprung from the _fabliaux_ of 13th century France. Nor
+was the _fabliau_ the only article of French production which found a
+new and more stimulative home across the Alps; for just as it is
+possible to trace the German Reformation back, through Huss, to its
+birth in Wycliff's England, so French critics have delighted to point
+out that the Italian Renaissance itself was but an expansion of an
+earlier Renaissance in France, which, for all the strength and maturity
+it gained under its new conditions, lost much of that indescribable
+flavour of direct simplicity and gracious sweetness which breathes from
+the pages of _Aucassin and Nicolette_ and its companion _Amis and
+Amile_. Under Charles VIII. and his successors this Renaissance was
+carried home, as it were, to die--so subtle is the ebb and flow of
+intellectual influences between country and country. In England the
+_novella_, of which Chaucer had made ample use, first appeared in prose
+dress from the printing-press of Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde.
+The Dutch printer had also published Lord Berners' translation of _Huon
+of Bordeaux_, the best romance of chivalry belonging to the Charlemagne
+cycle. But, before the dawn of the 16th century Malory had already given
+us _Morte D'Arthur_, from the Arthurian cycle, printed, as everyone
+knows, by the industrious Caxton himself. Thus, if we neglect, as I
+think we may, translations from the _Gesta Romanorum_, we may say that
+the prose narrative appeared in England simultaneously with the
+printing-press, a fact which is more than coincidence; since the
+multiplication of books, which Caxton began, decreased the necessity for
+remembering tales; and therefore it was now possible to dispense with
+the aid of verse; in fact Caxton deprived the minstrel of his
+occupation.
+
+Of the third form of prose narrative--the moral Court treatise--we have
+already said something. It had appeared in Italy and in Spain, and our
+connexion with it came from the latter country, through Berners'
+translation of the _Golden Boke_ of Guevara. So slight was the thread of
+narrative running through this book, that one would imagine at first
+sight that it could have little to do with the history of our novel. And
+yet in comparison with its importance in this respect the _novella_ and
+the romance of chivalry are quite insignificant. The two latter never
+indeed lost their popularity during the Elizabethan age, but they had
+ceased to be considered respectable--a very different thing--before that
+age began. The first cause of their fall in the social scale was the
+disapprobation of the humanists. Ascham, echoing Plato's condemnation of
+Homer, attacks the romance of chivalry from the moral point of view, at
+the same time cunningly associating it with "Papistrie." But he holds
+the _novella_ even in greater abhorrence, for, after declaring that the
+whole pleasure of the _Morte D'Arthur_ "standeth in two speciall
+poyntes, in open mans slaughter, and bold bawdrye," he goes on to say:
+"and yet ten _Morte Arthurs_ do not a tenth part so much harm as one of
+those bookes, made in Italy and translated in England[86]."
+
+ [86] _Schoolmaster_, p. 80.
+
+But there were social as well as moral reasons for the depreciation of
+Malory and Boccaccio. The taste of the age began to find these foreign
+dishes, if not unpalatable, at least not sufficiently delicate. England
+was fortunate in receiving the Reformation and the Renaissance at the
+same time; and the men of those "spacious times" set before their eyes
+that ideal of the courtier, so exquisitely embodied by Sir Philip
+Sidney, in which godliness was not thought incompatible with refinement
+of culture and graciousness of bearing. For the first time our country
+became civilized in the full meaning of that word, and the knight,
+shedding the armour of barbarism, became the gentleman, clothed in
+velvet and silk. The romance of chivalry, therefore, became
+old-fashioned; and it seemed for a time doomed to destruction until it
+received a new lease of life, purged of mediaevalism and modernised by
+the hands of Sidney himself, under the guise of arcadianism. While,
+however, _Arcadia_ remained an undiscovered country, the needs of the
+age were supplied by the "moral Court treatise." It was perhaps not so
+much that the old stories found little response in the new form of
+society, as that they did not reflect that society. We may well believe
+that the taste for mirrors, which now became so fashionable, found its
+psychological parallel in the desire of the Elizabethans to discover
+their own fashions, their own affectations, themselves, in the stories
+they read; and if this indeed be what is meant by realism in literature
+that quality in the novel dates from those days. In this sense if in no
+other, in the sense that he held, for the first time, a polished mirror
+before contemporary life and manners, Lyly must be called the first of
+English novelists.
+
+_The Anatomy of Wit_, which it is most important to distinguish from its
+sequel, was the descendant in the direct line from the "moral Court
+treatise." Something perhaps of the atmosphere of the _novella_ clung
+about its pages, but that was only to be expected: Lyly added incident
+to the bare scheme of discourses, and for that he had no other models
+but the Italians. But Guevara was his real source. Dr Landmann's
+verdict, that "Euphuism is not only adapted from Guevara's _alto
+estilo_, but _Euphues_ itself, as to its contents, is a mere imitation
+of Guevara's enlarged biography of Marcus Aurelius," has certainly been
+shown by Mr Bond to be a gross overstatement; yet there can be no doubt
+that the _Diall of Princes_ was Lyly's model on the side of matter, as
+was Pettie's _Pallace_ on the side of style. Our author's debt to the
+Spaniard is seen in a correspondence between many parts of his book and
+the _Aureo Libro_, in certain of the concluding letters and discourses,
+and in many other ways which Mr Bond has patiently noted[87]. Guevara,
+however, was but one among many previous writers to whom Lyly owed
+obligations. _Euphues_ was justly styled by its author "compiled," being
+in fact a mosaic, pieced together from the classics, and especially
+Plutarch, Pliny, and Ovid, and from previous English writers such as
+Harrison, Heywood, Fortescue, and Gascoigne; names that indicate the
+course of literary "browsing" that Lyly substituted for the ordinary
+curriculum at Oxford. To mention all the authors from whom he borrowed,
+and to point out the portions of his novel which are due to their
+several influences, would only be to repeat a task already accomplished
+by Mr Bond[88].
+
+ [87] Bond, I. pp. 154-156.
+
+ [88] Bond, I. pp. 156-159.
+
+Allowing for all its author's "picking and stealing," _The Anatomy of
+Wit_ was in the highest sense an original book; for, though it is the
+old moral treatise, its form is new, and it is enlivened by a thin
+thread of narrative. The hero Euphues is a young man lately come from
+Athens, which is unmistakeably Oxford, to Naples, which is just as
+unmistakeably London. Here he soon becomes the centre of a convivial
+circle, where he is wise enough to distinguish between friend and
+parasite, to discern the difference between the "faith of Laelius and
+the flattery of Aristippus." The story thus opens bravely, but the words
+of the title-page, "most necessary to remember," are ever present in the
+author's mind, and before we have reached the fourth page the sermon is
+upon us. For "conscience" attired as an old man, Eubulus, now enters the
+stage of this Court _morality_ and proceeds to deliver a long harangue
+upon the folly of youth, concluding with much excellent though obvious
+counsel. We should be in sympathy with the rude answer of Euphues, were
+it but curt at the same time, but, alas, it covers six pages. Having
+thus imprudently crushed the "wisdom of eld" by the weight of his
+utterance, our hero shows his natural preference for the companionship
+and counsel of youth, by forming an ardent friendship with Philautus, of
+so close a nature, that "they used not only one boorde but one bed, one
+booke (if so be that they thought it not one too many)." This alliance,
+however, is not concluded until Euphues has given us his own views,
+together with those of half antiquity, upon the subject of friendship,
+or before he has formally professed his affection in a pompous address,
+beginning "Gentleman and friend," and has been as formally accepted. By
+Philautus he is introduced to Lucilla, the chief female character of the
+book, a lady, if we are to believe the description of her "Lilly cheeks
+dyed with a Vermilion red," of startling if somewhat factitious beauty.
+To say that the plot now thickens would be to use too coarse a word; it
+becomes slightly tinged with incident, inasmuch as Euphues falls in love
+with Lucilla, the destined bride of Philautus. She reciprocates his
+passion, and the double fickleness of mistress and friend forms an
+excellent opportunity, which Lyly does not fail to seize, for infinite
+moralizings in euphuistic strains. Philautus is naturally indignant at
+the turn affairs have taken, and the former friends exchange letters of
+recrimination, in which, however, their embittered feelings are
+concealed beneath a vast display of classical learning. But Nemesis,
+swift and sudden, awaits the faithless Euphues. Lucilla, it turns out,
+is subject to a mild form of erotomania and is constitutionally fickle,
+so that before her new lover has begun to realise his bliss she has
+already contracted a passion for some other young gentleman. Thus,
+struck down in the hour of his pride and passion, Euphues becomes "a
+changed man," and bethinks himself of his soul, which he has so long
+neglected. This is the turning-point of the book, the turning-point of
+half the English novels written since Lyly's day. The remainder of the
+_Anatomy of Wit_ is taken up with what may be described as the private
+papers of Euphues, consisting of letters, essays, and dialogues,
+including _A Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers_, a treatise on
+education, and a refutation of atheism, and so amid the thunders of the
+artillery of platitude the first part of _Euphues_ closes.
+
+Professor Raleigh's explanation of this tedious moralizing is that Lyly,
+wit and euphuist, possessed the Nonconformist conscience: "Beneath the
+courtier's slashed doublet, under his ornate brocade and frills, there
+stood the Puritan." This I believe to be a mistaken view of the case. As
+we shall later see reason to suppose, Lyly never became, as did his
+acquaintance Gosson, a very seriously-minded person. Certainly _Euphues_
+does not prove that Puritanism was latent in him. The moral atmosphere
+which pervades it was not of Lyly's invention; he inherited it from his
+predecessors Guevara and Castiglione, and he employed it because he knew
+that it was expected of him. That he moralized not so much from
+conviction as from convention (to use a euphuism), is, I think,
+sufficiently proved by the fact that in the second part of his novel,
+where he is addressing a new public, the pulpit strain is much less
+frequent, while in his plays it entirely disappears. The _Anatomy of
+Wit_ is essentially the work of an inexperienced writer, feeling his way
+towards a public, and without sufficient skill or courage to dispense
+with the conventions which he has inherited from previous writers. One
+feels, while reading the book, that Lyly was himself conscious that his
+hero was an insufferable coxcomb, and that he only created him because
+he wished to comply with the public taste. It may be, as M. Jusserand
+asserts, that Lyly anticipated Richardson, but, if the light-hearted
+Oxford madcap had any qualities in common with the sedate bookseller,
+artistic sincerity was not one of them.
+
+What has just been said is not entirely applicable to the treatise on
+education which passed under the title of _Euphues and his Ephoebus_.
+Although simply an adaptation of the _De Educatione_ of Plutarch, it was
+not entirely devoid of originality. Here we find the famous attack upon
+Oxford, which was, we fear, prompted by a desire to spite the University
+authorities rather than by any earnest feeling of moral condemnation.
+But in addition to this there are contributions of Lyly's own invention
+to the theory of teaching which are not without merit. He was, as we
+have seen, interested in education. It seems even possible that he had
+actually practised as a master before the _Euphues_ saw light[89]; and,
+therefore, we have every reason to suppose that this little treatise
+was a labour of love. Possibly Ascham's _Schoolmaster_ inspired him with
+the idea of writing it. Certainly, when we have allowed everything for
+Plutarch's work, enough remains over to justify Mr Quick's inclusion of
+John Lyly, side by side with Roger Ascham, in his _Educational
+Reformers_.
+
+ [89] Bond, I. p. 10.
+
+But such excellent work has but little to do with the business of
+novel-writing, and, when we turn to this aspect of the _Anatomy of Wit_,
+there is little to be said for it from the aesthetic point of view.
+Indeed, it cannot strictly be called a novel at all. It is the bridge
+between the moral Court treatise and the novel, and, as such, all its
+aesthetic defects matter little in comparison with its dynamical value.
+It was a great step to hang the chestnuts of discourse upon a string of
+incident. The story is feeble, the plot puerile, but it was something to
+have a story and a plot which dealt with contemporary life. And lastly,
+though characterization is not even attempted, yet now and again these
+euphuistic puppets, distinguishable only by their labels, are inspired
+with something that is almost life by a phrase or a chance word.
+
+I have said that it is very important to distinguish between the two
+parts of _Euphues_. Two years only elapsed between their respective
+publications, but in these two years Lyly, and with him our novel, had
+made great strides. In 1578 he was not yet a novelist, though the
+conception of the novel and the capacity for its creation were, as we
+have just shown, already forming in his brain. In 1580, however, the
+English novel had ceased to be merely potential; for it had come into
+being with the appearance of _Euphues and his England_. Here in the same
+writer, in the same book, and within the space of two years, we may
+observe one of the most momentous changes of modern literature in
+actual process. The _Anatomy of Wit_ is still the moral Court treatise,
+coloured by the influence of the Italian _novella_; _Euphues and his
+England_ is the first English novel. Lyly unconsciously symbolizes the
+change he initiated by laying the scene of his first part in Italy,
+while in the second he brings his hero to England. That sea voyage,
+which provoked the stomach of Philautus sore, was an important one for
+us, since the freight of the vessel was nothing less than our English
+novel.
+
+The difference between the two parts is remarkable in more ways than
+one, and in none more so than in the change of dedication. The _Anatomy
+of Wit_, as was only fitting in a moral Court treatise, was inscribed to
+the gentleman readers; _Euphues and his England_, on the other hand,
+made an appeal to a very different class of readers, and a class which
+had hitherto been neglected by authors--"the ladies and gentlewomen of
+England." With the instinct, almost, of a religious reformer, Lyly saw
+that to succeed he must enlist the ladies on his side. And the
+experiment was so successful that I am inclined to attribute the
+pre-eminence of Lyly among other euphuists to this fact alone. "Hatch
+the egges his friendes had laid" he certainly did, but he fed the chicks
+upon a patent food of his own invention. Mr Bond suggests that the
+general attention which the _Anatomy_ secured by its attacks upon women
+gave Lyly the idea for the second part. But, though this was probably
+the immediate cause of his change of front, something like _Euphues and
+his England_ must have come sooner or later, because all the conditions
+were ripe for its production. Side by side with the ideal of the
+courtier had arisen the ideal of the cultured lady. Ascham, visiting
+Lady Jane Grey, "founde her in her chamber reading _Phaedon Platonis_
+in Greeke and that with as much delite, as some gentlemen would read a
+merie tale in Bocase[90]"; and, when a Queen came to the throne who
+could talk Greek at Cambridge, the fashion of learning for ladies must
+have received an immense impetus. With a "blue stocking" showing on the
+royal footstool, all the ladies of the Court would at least lay claim to
+a certain amount of learning. Dr Landmann has attributed the vogue of
+euphuism, at least in part, to feminine influences, but in so far as
+England shared that affectation with the other Courts of Europe, where
+the fair sex had not yet acquired such freedom as in England, we must
+not press the point too much in this direction. The importance in
+English literature of that "monstrous regiment of women," against which
+John Knox blew his rude trumpet so shamelessly, is seen not so much in
+the style of _Euphues_ as in its contents; indeed, in the second part of
+that work euphuism is much less prominent than in the first. The romance
+of chivalry and the Italian tale would be still more distasteful to the
+new woman than they were to the new courtier. Doubtless Boccaccio may
+have found a place in many a lady's secret bookshelf as Zola and Guy de
+Maupassant do perchance to-day, but he was scarcely suitable for the
+boudoir table or for polite literary discussion. Something was needed
+which would appeal at once to the feminine taste for learning and to the
+desire for delicacy and refinement. This want was only partially
+supplied by the moral Court treatise, which was ostensibly written for
+the courtier and not the maid-in-waiting. What was required was a book
+expressly provided for the eye of ladies--such a book, in fact, as
+_Euphues and his England_. Lyly's discovery of this new literary public
+and its requirements was of great importance, for have not the ladies
+ever since his day been the patrons and purchasers of the novel? What
+would happen to the literary market to-day were our mothers, wives, and
+sisters to deny themselves the pleasure of fiction? The very question
+would send the blood from Mr Mudie's lips. The two thousand and odd
+novels which are published annually in this country show the existence
+of a large leisured class in our community, and this class is
+undoubtedly the feminine one. The novel, therefore, owes not only its
+birth, but its continued existence down to our own day, to the "ladies
+and gentlewomen of England"; and this dedication may be taken as a
+general one for all novels since Lyly's time. "_Euphues_," he writes,
+"had rather lye shut in a Ladye's casket than open in a scholar's
+studie," and he continues, "after dinner you may overlooke him to keepe
+you from sleepe, or if you be heavie, to bring you to sleepe ... it were
+better to hold _Euphues_ in your hands though you let him fall, when you
+be willing to winke, then to sowe in a clout, and pricke your fingers
+when you begin to nod[91]." "With _Euphues_," remarks M. Jusserand,
+"commences in England the literature of the drawing-room[92]"; and the
+literature of the drawing-room is to all intents and purposes the novel.
+
+ [90] _Schoolmaster_, p. 47.
+
+ [91] _Euphues_, p. 220.
+
+ [92] Jusserand, p. 5.
+
+All the faults of its predecessor are present in _Euphues and his
+England_, but they are not so conspicuous. The euphuistic garb and the
+mantle of the prophet Guevara sit more lightly upon our author. In every
+way his movements are freer and bolder; having gained confidence by his
+first success, he now dares to be original. The story becomes at times
+quite interesting, even for a modern reader. At its opening Euphues and
+Philautus, who have come to terms on a basis of common condemnation of
+Lucilla, are discovered on their way to England. By way of enlivening
+the weary hours, our hero, ever ready to play the preacher now that he
+has ceased to be the warning, delivers himself of a lengthy, but highly
+edifying tale, which evokes the impatient exclamation of Philautus
+already quoted; we may however notice as a sign of progress that Euphues
+has substituted a moral narrative for his usual discourse. The relations
+between the two friends have become distinctly amusing, and might, in
+abler hands, have resulted in comic situation. Euphues, having learnt
+the lesson of the burnt child, is now a very grave person, proud of his
+own experience and of its fruits in himself. Extremes met,
+
+ "Where pinched ascetic and red sensualist
+ Alternately recurrent freeze and burn,"
+
+and it is interesting to note that Euphues embodies many of the
+characteristics of the Byronic hero--his sententiousness, his misogyny,
+his cynicism born of disillusionment, and his rhetorical flatulency; but
+he is no rebel like Manfred because he finds consolation in his own
+pre-eminence in a world of platitude. Conscious of his dearly bought
+wisdom, he makes it his continuous duty, if not pleasure, to rebuke the
+over-amorous Philautus, who was at least human, and to enlarge upon the
+infidelity of the opposite sex. Lyly failed to realise the possibilities
+of this antagonism of character, because he always appears to be in
+sympathy with his hero, and so misses an opportunity which would have
+delighted the heart of Thackeray. I say "appears," because I consider
+that this sympathy was nothing but a pose which he considered necessary
+for the popularity of his book. It is important however to observe that
+the idea of one character as a foil to another, though undeveloped, is
+here present for the first time in our national prose story.
+
+The tale ended and the voyage over, our friends arrive in England, where
+after stopping at Dover "3 or 4 days, until they had digested ye seas,
+and recovered their healths," they proceeded to Canterbury, at which
+place they fell in with an old man named Fidus, who gave them
+entertainment for body and mind. To those who have conscientiously read
+the whole history of Euphues up to this point, the incident of Fidus
+will appear immensely refreshing. It seems to me, in fact, to mark the
+highest point of Lyly's skill as a novelist, doubtless because he is
+here drawing upon his memory[93] and not his imagination. The old
+gentleman, very different from his prototype Eubulus, moves quite
+humanly among his bees and flowers, and tells the graceful story of his
+love with a charm that is almost natural. And, although he checks the
+action of the story for thirty-three pages, we are sorry to take leave
+of this "fatherlye and friendlye sire"; for he lays for a time the ghost
+of homily, which reappears directly his guests begin to "forme their
+steppes towards London." Having reached the Court, in due time
+Philautus, in accordance with the prophecies of Euphues though much to
+his disgust, falls in love. The lady of his choice, however, has
+unfortunately given her heart to another, by name Surius. The despondent
+lover, after applying in vain to an Italian magician for a love-philtre,
+at length determines to adopt the bolder line of writing to his scornful
+lady. The letter is conveyed in a pomegranate, and the incident of its
+presentation is prettily conceived and displays a certain amount of
+dramatic power. The upshot is that Philautus eventually finds a maiden
+who is unattached and who is ready to return love for love. Her he
+marries, and remains behind with "his Violet" in England, while Euphues,
+less happy than self-satisfied, returns to Athens. The interest of the
+latter half of the book centres round the house of Lady Flavia, where
+the principal characters of both sexes meet together and discuss the
+philosophy of love and the psychology of ladies. Such intellectual
+gatherings were a recognised institution at Florence at this time, being
+an imitation of Plato's symposium, and Lyly had already attempted, not
+so successfully as here, to describe one in the house of Lucilla of the
+_Anatomy of Wit_.
+
+ [93] Mr Bond thinks it a picture of Lyly's father.
+
+In every way _Euphues and his England_ is an improvement upon its
+predecessor. The story and plot are still weak, but the situations are
+often well thought out and treated with dramatic effect. The action
+indeed is slow, but it moves; and in the story of Fidus it moves
+comparatively quickly. Such motion of course can scarcely ruffle the
+mental waters of those accustomed to the breathless whirlwinds which
+form the heart of George Meredith's novels; but these whirlwinds are as
+directly traceable to the gentle but fitful agitation of _Euphues_, as
+was the storm that overtook Ahab's chariot to the little cloud
+undiscerned by the prophet's eye. The figures, again, that move in
+Lyly's second novel are no longer clothes filled with moral sawdust. The
+character of Philautus is especially well drawn, though at times blurred
+and indistinct. Lyly had not yet passed the stage of creating types,
+that is of portraying one aspect and an obvious one of such a complex
+thing as human nature. But a criticism which would be applicable to
+Dickens is no condemnation of an Elizabethan pioneer. It was much to
+have attempted characterization, and in the case of Philautus, Iffida,
+Camilla, and perhaps "the Violet" the attempt was nearly if not quite
+successful. It is noticeable that for one who was afterwards to become a
+writer of comedy, Lyly shows a remarkable absence of humour in these
+novels. Now and again we seem trembling on the brink of humour, when the
+young wiseacre is brought into contact with his weak-hearted friend, but
+the line is seldom actually crossed. Wit, as Lyly here understood it,
+had nothing of the risible in it; for it meant to him little more than a
+graceful handling of obvious themes.
+
+But the importance of _Euphues_ was in its influence, not in its actual
+achievement. And here again we must reassert the significance of Lyly's
+appeal to women. "That noble faculty," as Macaulay expresses it,
+"whereby man is able to live in the past and in the future in the
+distant and in the unreal," is rarely found in the opposite sex. They
+delight in novelty, their minds are of a practical cast, and their
+interests almost invariably lie in the present. The names of Jane
+Austen, George Eliot, and Mrs Humphry Ward are sufficient to show how
+entirely successful a woman may be in delineating the life around her.
+If there is any truth in this generalization, it was no mere coincidence
+that the first English romance dealing with contemporary life was
+written expressly for the ladies of Elizabeth's Court. The alteration in
+the face of social life, brought about by the recognition of the
+feminine claim and hastened no doubt by the fact that England, Scotland,
+and France were at this period under the rule of three ladies of strong
+character, was inevitably attended with great changes in literature.
+This change is first expressed by Lyly in his second novel and later in
+his dramas. The mediaeval conception of women, a masculine conception,
+now underwent feminine correction; and what is perhaps of more
+importance still, the conception of man undergoes transformation also.
+The result is that the centre of gravity of the story is now shifted. Of
+old it had treated of deeds and glorious prowess for the sake of honour,
+or more often for the sake of some anaemic damsel; now it deals with the
+passion itself and not its knightly manifestations,--with the very
+feelings and hearts of the lovers. In other words under the auspices of
+Elizabeth and her maids of honour, the English story becomes subjective,
+feminine, its scene is shifted from the battlefield and the lists to the
+lady's boudoir; it becomes a novel. "We change lance and war-horse, for
+walking-sword and pumps and silk stockings. We forget the filletted
+brows and wind-blown hair, the zone, the flowing robe, the sandalled or
+buskined feet, and feel the dawning empire of the fan, the glove, the
+high-heeled shoe, the bonnet, the petticoat, and the parasol[94]": in
+fact we enter into the modern world. At the first expression of this
+change in literature _Euphues and his England_ is of the very greatest
+interest. Characters in fiction now for the first time move before a
+background of everyday life and discuss matters of everyday importance.
+And, as if Lyly wished to leave no doubt as to his aims and methods, he
+gives at the conclusion of his book that interesting description of
+Elizabethan England entitled _A glasse for Europe_.
+
+ [94] Bond, I. p. 161.
+
+It is however in Lyly's treatment of the subject of love that the change
+is most conspicuous. The subtleties of passion are now realised for the
+first time. We are shown the private emotions, the secret alternations
+of hope and despair which agitate the breasts of man and maid, and,
+more important still, we find these emotions at work under the restraint
+of social conditions; the violent torrent of passion checked and
+confined by the demands of etiquette and the conventions of aristocratic
+life. The relation between these unwritten laws of our social
+constitution and the impetuous ardour of the lover, has formed the main
+theme of our modern love stories in the novel and on the stage. In the
+days of chivalry, when love ran wild in the woods, woman was the passive
+object either of hunt or of rescue; but the scene of battle being
+shifted to the boudoir she can demand her own conditions with the result
+that the game becomes infinitely more refined and intricate. Persons of
+both sexes, outwardly at peace but inwardly armed to the teeth, meet
+together in some lady's house to discuss the subject so dangerous to
+both, and conversation conditioned by this fact inevitably becomes
+subtle, allusive, intense; for it derives its light and shade from the
+flicker of that fire which the company finds such a perilous fascination
+in playing with. Lyly's work does not exhibit quite such modernity as
+this, but we may truthfully say that his _Euphues and his England_ is
+the psychological novel in germ.
+
+Its latent possibilities were however not perceived by the writers of
+the 16th century. The style which had in part won popularity for it so
+speedily was the cause also of its equally speedy decline. Like a fossil
+in the stratum of euphuism it was soon covered up by the artificial
+layer of arcadianism. The novel of Sidney, though its loose and
+meandering style marked a reaction against euphuism, carried on the
+Lylian tradition in its appeal to ladies. The _Arcadia_, in no way so
+modern as the _Euphues_, lies for that very reason more directly in the
+line of development[95]; for, while the former is linked by the
+heroical romance of the seventeenth century to the romance of this day,
+the latter's influence is not visible until the eighteenth century, if
+we except its immediate Elizabethan imitators. And yet, as we remarked
+of Lyly's prose, a book which received so many editions cannot have been
+entirely without effect upon the minds of its readers and upon the
+literature of the age. This influence, however, could have been little
+more than suggestive and indirect, and it is quite impossible to
+determine its value. Its importance for us lies in the fact that we can
+realise how it anticipated the novel of the 18th and 19th centuries. Not
+until the days of Richardson is it possible to detect a Lylian flavour
+in English fiction; and even here it would be risky to insist too
+pointedly on any inference that might be drawn from the coincidence of
+an abridged form of _Euphues_ being republished (after almost a
+century's oblivion) twenty years before the appearance of _Pamela_. A
+direct literary connexion between Lyly and Richardson seems out of the
+question: and the utmost we can say with certainty is that the novel of
+the latter, in providing moral food for its own generation, relieved the
+18th century reader of the necessity of going back to the Elizabethan
+writer for the entertainment he desired. As a novelist, therefore, Lyly
+was only of secondary dynamical importance, by which I mean that,
+although we can rest assured that he exercised a considerable influence
+upon later writers, we cannot actually trace this influence at work; we
+cannot in fact point to Lyly as the first of a _definite_ series. The
+novel like its style coloured, but did not deflect, the stream of
+English literature. And indeed we may say this not only of _Euphues_
+but of Elizabethan fiction as a whole. The public to which a 16th
+century novel would appeal was a small one. Few people in those days
+could read, and of these the majority preferred to read poetry; and
+though, as we have seen, _Euphues_ passed through, for the age, a
+considerable number of editions, the circle of those who appreciated
+Lyly, Sidney, and Nash must have been for the most part confined to the
+Court. And this accounts for the brevity of their popularity and for its
+intensity while it lasted; a phenomenon which is not seen in the drama,
+and which is due to the susceptibility of Court life to sudden changes
+of fashion. Drama was the natural form of literature in an age when most
+people were illiterate and yet when all were eager for literary
+entertainment. Drama was therefore the main current of artistic
+production, the prose novel being quite a minor, almost an
+insignificant, tributary. Realising then the inevitable limitations
+which surrounded our English fiction at its birth we can understand its
+infantile imperfections and the subsequent arrest of its development.
+
+ [95] It was Sidney and Nash who set the fashion for the 17th century.
+
+"The novel held in Elizabeth's time very much the same place as was held
+by the drama at the Restoration; it was an essentially aristocratic
+entertainment, and the same pitfall waylaid both, the pitfall of
+artificiality. Dryden's audiences and the readers of _Euphues_ both
+sought for better bread than is made of wheat; both were supplied with
+what satisfied them in an elaborate confection of husks[96]."
+
+ [96] Raleigh, p. 57. He writes _Arcadia_ for _Euphues_ but the
+ substitution is legitimate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LYLY THE DRAMATIST.
+
+
+So far we have been dealing with those of Lyly's writings, which, though
+they are his most famous, form quite a small section of his work, and
+exerted an influence upon later writers which may have been considerable
+but was certainly indirect. His plays on the other hand, in the
+production of which he spent the better part of his life, greatly
+outweigh his novel both in aesthetic and historical importance. To
+attempt to estimate Lyly's position as a novelist and as a prose writer
+is to chase the will-o'-the-wisp of theory over the morass of
+uncertainty; the task of investigating his comedies is altogether
+simpler and more straightforward. After groping our way through the
+undergrowth of minor literature, we come out upon the great highway of
+Elizabethan art--the drama. Let us first see how Lyly himself came to
+tread this same pathway.
+
+There is a difference of opinion between Mr Bond and Mr Baker, our chief
+authorities, as to the order in which Lyly wrote his plays[97]. But
+though Mr Baker claims priority for _Endymion_, and Mr Bond for
+_Campaspe_, both are convinced that our author was already in 1580
+beginning to look to the stage as a larger arena for his artistic genius
+than the novel. And from what I have said of his life at Oxford and his
+connexion with de Vere, we need not be surprised that this was so. It
+would be well however at this juncture to recapitulate, and in part to
+expand those remarks, in order to show more clearly how Lyly's dramatic
+bent was formed. Seats of learning, as we shall see presently, had long
+before the days of Lyly favoured the comic muse, and Oxford was no
+exception to this rule. Anthony a Wood tells us how Richard Edwardes in
+1566 produced at that University his play _Palamon and Arcite_, and how
+her Majesty "laughed heartily thereat and gave the author great thanks
+for his pains"; a scene which would still be fresh in men's minds five
+years after, when Lyly entered Magdalen College. But it is scarcely
+necessary to stretch a point here since we know from the _Anatomy of
+Wit_ that Lyly was a student of Edwardes' comedies[98]. Again, William
+Gager, Pettie's "dear friend" and Lyly's fellow-student, was a
+dramatist, while Gosson himself tells us of comedies which he had
+written before 1577.
+
+ [97] Baker, p. lxxxviii, places _Endymion_ as early as Sept. 1579.
+ Bond, vol. III. p. 10, attempts to disprove Baker's contention, and in
+ vol. II. p. 309, he maintains chiefly on grounds of style that
+ _Campaspe_ was the earliest of Lyly's plays, being produced at the
+ Christmas of 1580.
+
+ [98] Bond, II. p. 238.
+
+Probably however it was not until he had left Oxford for London that
+Lyly conceived the idea of writing comedy, for we must attribute its
+original suggestion to his friend and employer the Earl of Oxford.
+Edward de Vere, Burleigh's son-in-law, had visited Italy, and affected
+the vices and artificialities of that country, returning home, we are
+told, laden with silks and oriental stuffs for the adornment of his
+chamber and his person. He was frequently in debt and still more
+frequently in disgrace with the Queen and with his father-in-law.
+Dilettante, aesthete, and euphuist, he would naturally attract the
+Oxford fop, and that Lyly attached himself to his clique disposes, in my
+mind at least, of all theories of his puritanical tendencies. Certainly
+a Nonconformist conscience could not have flourished in de Vere's
+household. One bond between the Earl and his secretary was their love of
+music--an art which played an important part in the beginning of our
+comedy.
+
+In relieving the action of his plays by those songs of woodland beauty
+unmatched in literature Shakespeare was only following a custom set by
+his predecessors, Udall, Edwardes, and Lyly, who being schoolmasters
+(and the two latter being musicians and holding positions in choir
+schools), embroidered their comedies with lyrics to be sung by the fresh
+young voices of their pupils. De Vere, though unconnected with a school,
+probably followed the same tradition. For the interesting thing about
+him is that he also wrote comedy. Like many members of the nobility in
+those days he maintained his own company of players; and we find them in
+1581 giving performances at Cambridge and Ipswich. His comedies,
+moreover, though now lost were placed in the same rank as those of
+Edwardes by the Elizabethan critic Puttenham[99]. Now as secretary of
+such a man, and therefore in close intimacy with him, it would be the
+most natural thing in the world for Lyly to try his hand at
+play-writing, and, if his patron approved of his efforts, an
+introduction to Court could be procured, since Oxford was Lord High
+Chamberlain, and the play would be acted. It was to Oxford's patronage,
+therefore, and not to his subsequent connexion with the "children of
+Powles," that Lyly owed his first dramatic impulse, and probably also
+his first dramatic success, for _Campaspe_ and _Sapho_ were produced at
+Court in 1582[100]. His appointment at the choir school of course
+confirmed his resolutions and thus he became the first great Elizabethan
+dramatist.
+
+ [99] _Dict. Of Nat. Biog._, Edward de Vere.
+
+ [100] Bond, II. p. 230 (chronological table).
+
+But a purely circumstantial explanation of an important departure in a
+man's life will only appear satisfactory to fatalists who worship the
+blind god Environment. And without indulging in any abstruse
+psychological discussion, but rather looking at the question from a
+general point of view, we can understand how an intellect of Lyly's
+type, as revealed by the _Euphues_, found its ultimate expression in
+comedy. Comedy, as Meredith tells us, is only possible in a civilized
+society, "where ideas are current and the perceptions quick." We have
+already touched upon this point and later we must return to it again;
+but for the moment let us notice that this idea of comedy, though he
+would have been quite unable to formulate it in words, was in reality at
+the back of Lyly's mind, or rather we should perhaps say that he quite
+unconsciously embodied it. He was _par excellence_ the product of a
+"social" atmosphere; he moved more freely within the Court than without;
+his whole mind was absorbed by the subtleties of language; a brilliant
+conversation, an apt repartee, a well-turned phrase were the very breath
+of his nostrils; his ideal was the intellectual beau. Add to this
+compound the ingredient of literary ambition and the result is a comic
+dramatist. Lyly, Congreve, Sheridan, were all men of fashion first and
+writers of comedy after. In the author of _Lady Windermere's Fan_ we
+have lately seen another example--the example of one whose ambition was
+to be "the first well-dressed philosopher in the history of thought."
+Poems, novels, fairy stories, he gave us, but it was on the stage of
+comedy that he eventually found his true _metier_. "With _Euphues_,"
+writes Mr Bond, "we enter the path which leads to the Restoration
+dramatists ... and in Lucilla and Camilla we are prescient of Millamant
+and Belinda[101]." This is very true, but the statement has a nearer
+application which Mr Bond misses. Camilla is the lady who moves under
+varied names through all Lyly's plays. The second part of _Euphues_ and
+the first of Lyly's comedies are as closely connected psychologically
+and aesthetically, as they were in point of time.
+
+ [101] Bond, I. p. 161.
+
+
+SECTION I. _English Comedy before 1580._
+
+But when Lyly's creations began to walk the boards, the English stage
+was already some centuries old and therefore, in order to appreciate our
+author's position, a few words are necessary upon the development of our
+drama and especially of comedy previous to his time.
+
+Though the _miracle_ play of our forefathers frequently contained a
+species of coarse humour usually put into the mouth of the Devil, who
+appears to have been for the middle ages very much what the "comic muse"
+is for us moderns, it is to the _morality_ not to the _miracle_ that one
+should look for the real beginnings of comedy as distinct from mere
+buffoonery.
+
+The _morality_ was not so much an offshoot as a complement of the
+_miracle_. They stood to each other, as sermon does to service. To say
+therefore that the _morality_ secularized the drama is to go too far; as
+well might we say that Luther secularized Christianity. What it did,
+however, was important enough; it severed the connexion between drama
+and ritual. The _miracle_, treating of the history of mankind from the
+Creation to the days of Christ, unfolded before the eyes of its
+audience the grand scheme of human salvation; the _morality_ on the
+other hand was not concerned with historical so much as practical
+Christianity. Its object was to point a moral: and it did this in two
+ways; either as an affirmative, constructive inculcator of what life
+should be,--as the portrayer of the ideal; or as a negative, critical
+describer of the types of life actually existing,--as the portrayer of
+the real. It approached more nearly to comedy in its latter function,
+but in both aspects it really prepared the way for the comic muse. The
+natural prey of comedy, as our greatest comic writer has taught us, is
+folly, "known to it in all her transformations, in every disguise; and
+it is with the springing delight of hawk over heron, hound after fox,
+that it gives her chase, never fretting, never tiring, sure of having
+her, allowing her no rest." Thus it is that characters in comedy,
+symbolizing as they often do some social folly, tend to be rather types
+than personalities. The _morality_, therefore, in substituting typical
+figures, however crude, for the mechanical religious characters of the
+_miracle_, makes an immense advance towards comedy. Moreover, the very
+selection of types requires an appreciation, if not an analysis, of the
+differences of human character, an appreciation for which there was no
+need in the _miracle_. In the _morality_ again the action is no longer
+determined by tradition, and it becomes incumbent on the playwright to
+provide motives for the movements of his puppets. It follows naturally
+from this that situations must be devised to show up the particular
+quality which each type symbolizes. We need not enter the vexed question
+of the origin of plot construction; but we may notice in this connexion
+that the _morality_ certainly gave us that peculiar form of
+plot-movement which is most suitable to comedy. To quote Mr Gayley's
+words: "In tragedy, the movement must be economic of its ups and downs;
+once headed downwards it must plunge, with but one or two vain recovers,
+to the abyss. In comedy, on the other hand, though the movement is
+ultimately upward, the crises are more numerous; the oftener the
+individual stumbles without breaking his neck, and the more varied his
+discomfitures, so long as they are temporary, the better does he enjoy
+his ease in the cool of the day.... Now the novelty of the plot in the
+_moral_ play, lay in the fact that the movement was of this oscillating,
+upward kind--a kind unknown as a rule to the _miracle_, whose conditions
+were less fluid, and to the farce, which was too shallow and
+superficial[102]."
+
+ [102] Gayley, p. lxiv.
+
+If all these claims be justifiable there can be no doubt that the
+_morality_ was of the utmost importance in the history not only of
+comedy but of English drama as a whole. Though it was the cousin, not
+the child of the _miracle_, though it cannot be said to have secularized
+our drama, it is the link between the ritual play and the play of pure
+amusement; it connects the rood gallery with the London theatre. When
+Symonds writes that the _morality_ "can hardly be said to lie in the
+direct line of evolution between the _miracle_ and the legitimate drama"
+we may in part agree with him; but he is quite wrong when he goes on to
+describe it as "an abortive side-effect, which was destined to bear
+barren fruit[103]."
+
+ [103] Symonds, p. 199.
+
+The real secularization of the drama was in the first place probably due
+to classical influences--or, to be more precise, I should perhaps say,
+scholastic influences--and it is not until the 16th century that these
+influences become prominent. I say "become prominent," because Terence
+and Plautus were known from the earliest times, and Dr Ward is inclined
+to think that Latin comedy affected the earlier drama of England to a
+considerable extent[104], although good examples of Terentian comedy are
+not found until the 16th century. Humanism again comes forward as an
+important literary formative element. The part which the student class
+took in the development of European drama as a whole has as yet scarcely
+been appreciated. It is to scholars that the birth of the secular Drama
+must be attributed. Lyly, as we said, made use of his mastership for the
+production of his plays, but Lyly was by no means the first
+schoolmaster-dramatist. Schools and universities had long before his day
+been productive of drama; our very earliest existing saints' play or
+_marvel_ was produced by a certain Geoffrey at Dunstable, "de
+consuetudine magistrorum et scholarum[105]." And this was only natural,
+seeing that at such places any number of actors is available and all are
+supposed to be interested in literature. It is a remarkable fact,
+however, and illustrative of the connexion between comedy and music,
+that of all places of education choir schools seem to have usurped the
+lion's share of drama. John Heywood, the first to break away from the
+tradition of the _morality_, was a choir boy of the Chapel Royal, and
+afterwards in all probability held a post there as master[106].
+Heywood's brilliant, but farcical interludes are too slight to merit the
+title of comedy, yet he is of great importance because of his rejection
+of allegories and of his use of "personal types" instead of
+"personified abstractions[107]." It was not until 1540, a few years
+after Heywood's interlude _The Play of the Wether_, that pure English
+comedy appears, and we must turn to Eton to discover its cradle, for
+Nicholas Udall's _Roister Doister_ has every claim to rank as the first
+completely constructed comedy in our language--the first comedy of flesh
+and blood. Roister smacks of the "miles gloriosus"; Merygreeke combines
+the vice with the Terentian rogue; and yet, when all is said, Udall's
+play remains a remarkably original production, realistic and English.
+
+ [104] Ward, I. p. 7.
+
+ [105] Gayley, p. xiv.
+
+ [106] I put this interpretation upon the account of Heywood's
+ receiving 40 shillings from Queen Mary "for pleying an interlude with
+ his children."
+
+ [107] Ward, _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Heywood.
+
+Next, in point of time and importance, comes Stevenson's _Gammer
+Gurton's Needle_, still more thoroughly English than the last, though
+quite inferior as a comedy, and indeed scarcely rising above the level
+of farce. Inasmuch, however, as it is a drama of English rustic life, it
+is directly antecedent to _Mother Bombie_, and perhaps also to the
+picaresque novel. Secular dramas now began to multiply apace. But
+keeping our eye upon comedy, and upon Lyly in particular as we near the
+date of his advent, it will be sufficient I think to mention two more
+names to complete the chain of development. From Cambridge, the nurse of
+Stevenson, we must now turn to Oxford; and, as we do so, we seem to be
+drawing very close to the end of our journey. Thus far we have had
+nothing like the romantic comedy--the comedy of sentiment, of love, the
+comedy which is at once serious and witty, and which contains the
+elements of tragedy. This appears, or is at least foreshadowed for the
+first time, about four years after Stevenson's "first-rate screaming
+farce," as Symonds has dubbed it, in the _Damon and Pithias_ of Richard
+Edwardes, a writer with whom, as we have seen, Lyly was thoroughly
+familiar. Indeed, the play in question anticipates our author in many
+ways, for example in the introduction of pages, in the use of English
+proverbs and Latin quotations, and in the insertion of songs[108]. With
+reference to the last point, we may remark that Edwardes like Lyly was
+interested in music, and like him also held a post in a choir school,
+being one of the "gentlemen of the Chapel Royal." In the _Damon and
+Pithias_ the old _morality_ is once and for all discarded. The play is
+entirely free from all allegorical elements, and is only faintly tinged
+with didacticism. But we cannot express the aim of Edwardes better than
+in his own words:
+
+ "In comedies the greatest skyll is this, lightly to touch
+ All thynges to the quick; and eke to frame each person so
+ That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know."
+
+To touch lightly and yet with penetration, to reveal character by
+dialogue, this is indeed to write modern drama, modern comedy.
+
+ [108] Bond, II. p. 238.
+
+It would seem that between Edwardes and Lyly there was no room for
+another link, so closely does the one follow the other; and yet one more
+play must be mentioned to complete the series. This time we are no
+longer brought into touch with the classics or with the scholastic
+influences, for the play in question is a translation from the Italian,
+being in fact Ariosto's _Suppositi_, englished by George Gascoigne[109].
+Though a translation it was more than a transcript; it was englished in
+the true sense of that word, in sentiment as well as in phrase. Its
+chief importance lies in the fact that it is written in prose, and is
+therefore the first prose comedy in our language. But Mr Gayley would go
+further than this, for he describes it as "the first English comedy in
+every way worthy of the name." It was written entirely for amusement,
+and for the amusement of adults, not of children; and if it were the
+only product of Gascoigne's pen it would justify the remark of an early
+17th century critic, who says of this writer that he "brake the ice for
+our quainter poets who now write, that they may more safely swim through
+the main ocean of sweet poesy"; for, to quote a modern writer, "with the
+blood of the New comedy, the Latin comedy, the Renaissance in its veins,
+it is far ahead of its English contemporaries, if not of its time[110]."
+The play was well known and popular among the Elizabethans, being
+revived at Oxford in 1582[111]. Shakespeare used it for the construction
+of his _Taming of the Shrew_: and altogether it is difficult to say how
+much Elizabethan drama probably owed to this one comedy, which though
+Italian in origin was carefully adapted to English taste by its
+translator. There can be no doubt that Lyly studied this among other of
+Gascoigne's works, and that he must have learnt many lessons from it,
+though the fact does not appear to have been sufficiently appreciated by
+Lylian students; for even Mr Bond fails, I think, to realise its
+importance.
+
+ [109] 1566.
+
+ [110] Gayley, p. lxxxv.
+
+ [111] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, Gascoigne, George.
+
+This, in brief outline, is the history of our comedy down to the time
+when Lyly took it in hand; or should we not rather say "an introduction
+to the history of our comedy"? For true English comedy is not to be
+found in any of the plays we have mentioned. Heywood, Udall, Stevenson,
+Edwardes, are the names that convey "broken lights" of comedy, hints of
+the dawn, nothing more; and Gascoigne was a translator. The supreme
+importance of a writer, who at this juncture produced eight comedies of
+sustained merit, and of varying types, is something which is quite
+beyond computation. But if we are to attempt to realise the greatness
+of our debt to Lyly, let us estimate exactly how much these previous
+efforts had done in the way of pioneer work, and how far also they fell
+short of comedy in the strict sense of that word.
+
+The fifty years which lie between Heywood and Lyly saw considerable
+progress, but progress of a negative rather than a constructive nature,
+and moreover progress which came in fits and starts, and not
+continuously. It was in fact a period of transition and of individual
+and disconnected experiments. Each of the writers above mentioned
+contributed something towards the common development, but not one of
+them, except Ariosto's translator, gave us comedy which may be
+considered complete in every way. They all display a very elementary
+knowledge of plot construction. Udall is perhaps the most successful in
+this respect; his plot is trivial but, well versed as he is in Terence,
+he manages to give it an ordered and natural development. But the other
+pre-Lylian dramatists quite failed to realise the vital importance of
+plot, which is indeed the very essence of comedy; and, in expending
+energies upon the development of an argument, as in _Jacke Jugeler_,
+which was a parody of transubstantiation, or upon the construction of
+disconnected humorous situations, as in _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, they
+missed the whole point of comedy. Again, though there is a clear idea of
+distinction and interplay of characters, there is little perception of
+the necessity of developing character as the plot moves forward.
+Merygreeke, it may be objected, is an example of such development, but
+the alteration in Merygreeke's nature is due to inconsistency, not to
+evolution. Moreover, stage conventions had not yet become a matter of
+fixed tradition. "We have a perpetual conflict between what spectators
+actually see and what they are supposed to see, between the time
+actually passed and that supposed to have elapsed; an outrageous demand
+on the imagination in one place, a refusal to exercise or allow us to
+exercise it in another[112]." Further, English comedy before 1580 was
+marked, on the one hand, by its poetic literary form and, on the other,
+by its almost complete absence of poetic ideas. Lyly, with the instinct
+of a born conversationalist, realised that prose was the only possible
+dress for comedy that should seek to represent contemporary life. But
+even in their use of verse his predecessors were unsuccessful. Udall
+seemed to have thought that his unequal dogtail lines would wag if he
+struck a rhyme at the end, and even Edwardes was little better. The use
+of blank verse had yet to be discovered, and Lyly was to have a hand in
+this matter also[113]. As for poetical treatment of comedy, Edwardes is
+the only one who even approaches it. He does so, because he sees that
+the comic muse only ceases to be a mask when sentiment is allowed to
+play over her features. And even he only half perceives it; for the
+sentiment of friendship is not strong enough for complete animation, the
+muse's eyes may twinkle, but passion alone will give them depth and let
+the soul shine through. But, in order that passion should fill comedy
+with the breath of life, it was necessary that both sexes should walk
+the stage on an equal footing. That which comedy before 1580 lacked,
+that which alone could round it off into a poetic whole, was the female
+element. "Comedy," writes George Meredith, "lifts women to a station
+offering them free play for their wit, as they usually show it, when
+they have it, on the side of sound sense. The higher the comedy, the
+more prominent the part they enjoy in it." But the dramatist cannot lift
+them far; the civilized plane must lie only just beneath the comic
+plane; the stage cannot be lighted by woman's wit if the audience have
+not yet realised that brain forms a part of the feminine organism. In
+the days of Elizabeth this realisation began to dawn in men's minds; but
+it was Lyly who first expressed it in literature, in his novel and then
+in his dramas. Those who preceded him were only dimly conscious of it,
+and therefore they failed to seize upon it as material for art. It was
+at Court, the Court of a great virgin Queen, that the equality of social
+privileges for women was first established; it was a courtier who
+introduced heroines into our drama.
+
+ [112] Bond, II. p. 237.
+
+ [113] George Gascoigne, whose importance does not seem to have been
+ realised by Elizabethan students, also produced a drama in blank
+ verse.
+
+
+SECTION II. _The Eight Plays._
+
+Concerning the order of Lyly's plays there is, as we have seen, some
+difference of opinion. The discussion between Mr Bond and Mr Baker in
+reality turns upon the interpretation of the allegory of _Endymion_, and
+it is therefore one of those questions of literary probability which can
+never hope to receive a satisfactory answer. Both critics, however, are
+in agreement as to the proper method of classification. They divide the
+dramas into four categories: historical, of which _Campaspe_ is the sole
+example; allegorical, which includes _Sapho and Phao_, _Endymion_, and
+_Midas_; pastoral, which includes _Gallathea_, _The Woman in the Moon_,
+and _Love's Metamorphosis_; and lastly realistic, of which again there
+is only one example, _Mother Bombie_. The fault which may be found with
+this classification is that the so-called pastoral plays have much of
+the allegorical about them, and it is perhaps better, therefore, to
+consider them rather as a subdivision of class two than as a distinct
+species.
+
+For the moment putting on one side all questions of the allegory of
+_Endymion_, there are two reasons which seem to go a long way towards
+justifying Mr Bond for placing _Campaspe_ as the earliest of Lyly's
+plays. In the first place the atmosphere of _Euphues_, which becomes
+weaker in the other plays, is so unmistakeable in this historical drama
+as to force the conclusion upon us that they belong to the same period.
+The painter Apelles, whose name seemed almost to obsess Lyly in his
+novel, is one of the chief characters of _Campaspe_, and the dialogue is
+more decidedly euphuistic than any other play. The second point we may
+notice is one which can leave very little doubt as to the correctness of
+Mr Bond's chronology. _Campaspe_ and _Sapho_ were published before 1585,
+that is, before Lyly accepted the mastership at the St Paul's choir
+school, whereas none of his other plays came into the printer's hands
+until after the inhibition of the boys' acting rights in 1591; the
+obvious inference being that Lyly printed his plays only when he had no
+interest in preserving the acting rights.
+
+But whatever date we assign to _Campaspe_, there can be little doubt
+that it was one of the first dramas in our language with an historical
+background. Indeed, _Kynge Johan_ is the only play before 1580 which can
+claim to rival it in this respect. But _Kynge Johan_ was written solely
+for the purpose of religious satire, being an attack upon the priesthood
+and Church abuses. It must, therefore, be classed among those political
+_moralities_, of which so many examples appeared during the early part
+of the 16th century. _Campaspe_, on the other hand, is entirely devoid
+of any ethical or satirical motive. Allegory, which Lyly was able to
+put to his own peculiar uses, is here quite absent. The sole aim of its
+author was to provide amusement, and in this respect it must have been
+entirely successful. The play is interesting, and at times amusing, even
+to a modern reader; but to those who witnessed its performance at
+Blackfriars, and, two years later, at the Court, it would appear as a
+marvel of wit and dramatic power after the crude material which had
+hitherto been offered to them. In the choice of his subject Lyly shows
+at once that he is an artist with a feeling for beauty, even if he
+seldom rises to its sublimities. The story of the play, taken from
+Pliny, is that of Alexander's love for his Theban captive Campaspe, and
+of his subsequent self-sacrifice in giving her up to her lover Apelles.
+The social change, which I have sought to indicate in the preceding
+pages, is at once evident in this play. "We calling Alexander from his
+grave," says its Prologue[114], "seeke only who was his love"; and the
+remark is a sweep of the hat to the ladies of the Court, whose
+importance, as an integral part of the audience, is now for the first
+time openly acknowledged. "Alexander, the great conqueror of the world,"
+says Lyly with his hand upon his heart, "only interests me as a lover."
+The whole motive of the play, which would have been meaningless to a
+mediaeval audience, is a compliment to the ladies. It is as if our
+author nets Mars with Venus, and presents the shamefaced god as an
+offering of flattery to the Queen and her Court. _Campaspe_ is, in fact,
+the first romantic drama, not only the forerunner of Shakespeare, but a
+remote ancestor of _Hernani_ and the 19th century French theatre. "The
+play's defect," says Mr Bond, "is one of passion"--a criticism which is
+applicable to all Lyly's dramas; and yet we must not forget that Lyly
+was the earliest to deal with passion dramatically. The love of
+Alexander is certainly unemotional, not to say callous; but possibly the
+great monarch's equanimity was a veiled tribute to the supposed
+indifference of the virgin Queen to all matters of Cupid's trade.
+Between Campaspe and Apelles, however, we have scenes which are imbued,
+if not vitalized, by passion. Lyly was a beginner, and his fault lay in
+attempting too much. Caring more for brilliancy of dialogue than for
+anything else, he was no more likely to be successful here, in
+portraying passion through conversation weighted by euphuism, than he
+had been in his novel. Yet his endeavour to depict the conflict of
+masculine passion with feminine wit, impatient sallies neatly parried,
+deliberate lunges quietly turned aside, was in every way praiseworthy.
+"A witte apt to conceive and quickest to answer" is attributed by
+Alexander to Campaspe, and, though she exhibits few signs of it, yet in
+his very idea of endowing women with wit Lyly leads us on to the
+high-road of comedy leading to Congreve.
+
+ [114] From _Prologue_ at the Court.
+
+In addition to the romantic elements above described, we have here also
+that page-prattle which is so characteristic of all Lyly's plays. These
+urchins, full of mischief and delighting in quips, were probably
+borrowed from Edwardes, but Lyly made them all his own; and one can
+understand how naturally their parts would be played by his boy-actors.
+Their repartee, when it is not pulling to pieces some Latin quotation
+familiar to them at school, or ridiculing a point of logic, is often
+really witty. One of them, overhearing the hungry Manes at strife with
+Diogenes over the matter of an overdue dinner, exclaims to his friend,
+"This is their use, nowe do they dine one upon another." Diogenes again,
+in whom we may see the prototype of Shakespeare's Timon, is amusing
+enough at times with his "dogged" snarlings and sallies which
+frequently however miss their mark. He and the pages form an underplot
+of farce, upon which Lyly improved in his later plays, bringing it also
+more into connexion with the main plot. In passing, we may notice that
+few of Shakespeare's plays are without this farcical substratum.
+
+Leaving the question of dramatic construction and characterization for a
+more general treatment later, we now pass on to the consideration of
+Lyly's allegorical plays. The absence of all allegory from _Campaspe_
+shows that Lyly had broken with the _morality_: and we seem therefore to
+be going back, when two years later we have an allegorical play from his
+pen. But in reality there is no retrogression; for with Lyly allegory is
+not an ethical instrument. I have mentioned examples of plays before his
+day which employed the machinery of the _morality_, for the purposes of
+political and religious satire. The old form of drama seems to have
+developed a keen sensibility to _double entendre_ among theatre-goers.
+Nothing indeed is so remarkable about the Elizabethan stage as the
+secret understanding which almost invariably existed between the
+dramatist and his audience. We have already had occasion to notice it in
+connexion with Field's parody of Kyd. The spectators were always on the
+alert to detect some veiled reference to prominent political figures or
+to current affairs. Often in fact, as was natural, they would discover
+hints where nothing was implied; and for one Mrs Gallup in modern
+America there must have been a dozen in every auditorium of Elizabethan
+England. Such over-clever busybodies would readily twist an innocent
+remark into treason or sacrilege, and therefore, long before Lyly's
+time, it was customary for a playwright to defend himself in the
+prologue against such treatment, by denying any ambiguity in his
+dialogue. In an audience thus susceptible to innuendo Lyly saw his
+opportunity. He was a courtier writing for the Court, he was also, let
+us add, anxious to obtain a certain coveted post at the Revels' Office.
+He was an artist not entirely without ideals, yet ever ready to curry
+favour and to aim at material advantages by his literary facility. The
+idea therefore of writing dramas which should be, from beginning to end,
+nothing but an ingenious compliment to his royal mistress would not be
+in the least distasteful to him. But we must not attribute too much to
+motives of personal ambition. Spenser's _Faery Queen_ was not published
+until 1590; but Lyly had known Spenser before the latter's departure for
+Ireland, and, even if the scheme of that poet's masterpiece had not been
+confided to him, the ideas which it contained were in the air. The cult
+of Elizabeth, which was far from being a piece of insincere adulation,
+had for some time past been growing into a kind of literary religion.
+Even to us, there is something magical about the great Queen, and we can
+hardly be surprised that the pagans of those days hailed her as half
+divine. When Lyly commenced his career, she had been on the throne for
+twenty years, in itself a wonderful fact to those who could remember the
+gloom which had surrounded her accession. Through a period of infinite
+danger both at home and abroad she had guided England with intrepidity
+and success; and furthermore she had done all this single-handed,
+refusing to share her throne with a partner even for the sake of
+protection, and yet improving upon the Habsburg policy[115] by making
+coquetry the pivot of her diplomacy. It was no wonder therefore that,
+
+ "As the imperial votaress passed on
+ In maiden meditation fancy free,"
+
+the courtiers she fondled, and the artists she patronized, should half
+in fancy, half in earnest, think of her as something more than human,
+and search the fables of their newly discovered classics for examples of
+enthroned chastity and unconquerable virgin queens.
+
+ [115] "Alii bella gerunt, tu felix Austria nube."
+
+All Lyly's plays except _Campaspe_ and _Mother Bombie_ are written in
+this vein; each, as Symonds beautifully puts it, is "a censer of
+exquisitely chased silver, full of incense to be tossed before Elizabeth
+upon her throne." In the three plays _Sapho and Phao_, _Endymion_, and
+_Midas_ this element of flattery is more prominent than in the others,
+inasmuch as they are not only full of compliments unmistakeably directed
+towards the Queen, but they actually seek to depict incidents from her
+reign under the guise of classical mythology. It is for this reason that
+they have been classified under the label of allegory. It is quite
+possible, however, to read and enjoy these plays without a suspicion of
+any inner meaning; nor does the absence of such suspicion render the
+action of the play in any way unintelligible, so skilfully does Lyly
+manipulate his story. With a view, therefore, to his position in the
+history of Elizabethan drama, and to the lessons which he taught those
+who came after him, the superficial interpretation of each play is all
+that need engage our attention, and we shall content ourselves with
+briefly indicating the actual incident which it symbolizes.
+
+The story of _Sapho and Phao_ is, very shortly, as follows. Phao, a poor
+ferryman, is endowed by Venus with the gift of beauty. Sapho, who in
+Lyly's hands is stripped of all poetical attributes and becomes simply a
+great Queen of Sicily, sees him and instantly falls in love with him.
+To conceal her passion, she pretends to her ladies that she has a fever,
+at the same time sending for Phao, who is rumoured to have herbs for
+such complaints. Meanwhile Venus herself falls a victim to the charms
+she has bestowed upon the ferryman. Cupid is therefore called in to
+remedy matters on her behalf. The boy, who plays a part which no one can
+fail to compare with that of Puck in the _Midsummer Night's Dream_,
+succeeds in curing Sapho's passion, but, much to his mother's disgust,
+won over by the Queen's attractions, refuses to go further, and even
+inspires Phao with a loathing for the goddess. The play ends with Phao's
+departure from Sicily in despair, and Cupid's definite rebellion from
+the rule of Venus, resulting in his remaining with Sapho. In this story,
+which is practically a creation of Lyly's brain, though of course it is
+founded upon the classical tale of Sapho's love for Phao, our playwright
+presents under the form of allegory the history of Alencon's courtship
+of Elizabeth. Sapho, Queen of Sicily, is of course Elizabeth, Queen of
+England. The difficulty of Alencon's (that is Phao's) ugliness is
+overcome by the device of making it love's task to confer beauty upon
+him. Phao like Alencon quits the island and its Queen in despair; while
+the play is rounded off by the pretty compliment of representing love as
+a willing captive in Elizabeth's Court.
+
+As a play _Sapho and Phao_ shows a distinct advance upon _Campaspe_. The
+dialogue is less euphuistic, and therefore much more effective. The
+conversation between Sapho and Phao, in the scene where the latter comes
+with his herbs to cure the Queen, is very charming, and well expresses
+the passion which the one is too humble and the other too proud to
+show.
+
+ PHAO. I know no hearb to make lovers sleepe but Heartesease, which
+ because it groweth so high, I cannot reach: for--
+
+ SAPHO. For whom?
+
+ PHAO. For such as love.
+
+ SAPHO. It groweth very low, and I can never stoop to it, that--
+
+ PHAO. That what?
+
+ SAPHO. That I may gather it: but why doe you sigh so, Phao?
+
+ PHAO. It is mine use Madame.
+
+ SAPHO. It will doe you harme and mee too: for I never heare one
+ sighe, but I must sigh't also.
+
+ PHAO. It were best then that your Ladyship give me leave to be gone:
+ for I can but sigh.
+
+ SAPHO. Nay stay: for now I beginne to sighe, I shall not leave
+ though you be gone. But what do you thinke best for your
+ sighing to take it away?
+
+ PHAO. Yew, Madame.
+
+ SAPHO. Mee?
+
+ PHAO. No, Madame, yewe of the tree.
+
+ SAPHO. Then will I love yewe the better, and indeed I think it
+ should make me sleepe too, therefore all other simples set
+ aside, I will simply use onely yewe.
+
+ PHAO. Doe Madame: for I think nothing in the world so good as
+ yewe[116].
+
+ [116] _Sapho and Phao_, Act III. Sc. IV. 60-85.
+
+Altogether there is a great increase in general vitality in this play.
+Lyly draws nearer to the conception of ideal comedy. "Our interest," he
+tells us in his Prologue, "was at this time to move inward delight not
+outward lightnesse, and to breede (if it might be) soft smiling, not
+loud laughing"; and to this end he tends to minimize the purely farcical
+element. The pages are still present, but they are balanced by a group
+of Sapho's maids-in-waiting who discuss the subject of love upon the
+stage with great frankness and charm. Mileta, the leader of this chorus,
+is, we may suspect, a portrait drawn from life; she is certainly much
+more convincing than the somewhat shadowy Campaspe. The figures in
+Lyly's studio are limited in number--Camilla, Lucilla, Campaspe, Mileta,
+all come from the same mould: in Pandion we may discover Euphues under a
+new name, and the surly Vulcan is only another edition of the "crabbed
+Diogenes." And yet each of these types becomes more life-like as he
+proceeds, and if the puppets that he left to his successors were not yet
+human, they had learnt to walk the stage without that angularity of
+movement and jerkiness of speech which betray the machine.
+
+Departing for a moment from the strictly chronological order, and
+leaving _Gallathea_ for later treatment, we pass on to _Endymion_, the
+second of the allegorical dramas, and, without doubt, the boldest in
+conception and the most beautiful in execution of all Lyly's plays. The
+story is founded upon the classical fable of Diana's kiss to the
+sleeping boy, but its arrangement and development are for the most part
+of Lyly's invention: indeed, he was obliged to frame it in accordance
+with the facts which he sought to allegorize. All critics are agreed in
+identifying Cynthia with Elizabeth and Endymion with Leicester, but they
+part company upon the interpretation of the play as a whole. The story
+is briefly as follows. Endymion, forsaking his former love Tellus,
+contracts an ardent passion for Cynthia, who, in accordance with her
+character as moon-goddess, meets his advances with coolness. Tellus
+determines to be revenged, and, by the aid of a sorceress Dipsas, sends
+the youth into a deep sleep from which no one can awaken him. Cynthia
+learns what has befallen, and although she does not suspect Tellus, she
+orders the latter to be shut up in a castle for speaking maliciously of
+Endymion. She then sends Eumenides, the young man's great friend, to
+seek out a remedy. This man is deeply in love with Semele, who scorns
+his passion, and therefore, when he reaches a magic fountain which will
+answer any question put to it, he is so absorbed with his own troubles
+as almost to forget those of his friend. A carefully thought-out piece
+of writing follows, for he debates with himself whether to use his one
+question for an enquiry about his love or his sleeping friend.
+Friendship and duty conquer at length, and, looking into the well, he
+discovers that the remedy for Endymion's sickness is a kiss from
+Cynthia's lips. He returns with his message, the kiss is given,
+Endymion, grown old after 40 years' sleep, is restored to youth, the
+treachery of Tellus is discovered and eventually forgiven, and the play
+ends amid a peal of marriage bells. Endymion, however, is left
+unmarried, knowing as he does that lowly and distant worship is all he
+can be allowed to offer the virgin goddess. The play, of course, has a
+farcical underplot which is only connected very slightly with the main
+story by Sir Tophas' ridiculous passion for Dipsas. His love in fact is
+presented as a kind of caricature of Endymion's, and he is the
+laughing-stock of a number of pages who gambol and play pranks after the
+usual manner of Lyly's boys. The solution of the allegory lies mainly in
+the interpretation of Tellus' character, and I cannot but agree with Mr
+Bond when he decides that Tellus is Mary Queen of Scots. He is perhaps
+less convincing where he pairs Endymion with Sidney, and Semele with
+Penelope Devereux, the famous _Stella_. Lastly we may notice his
+suggestion that Tophas may be Gabriel Harvey, which certainly appears to
+be more probable than Halpin's theory that Stephen Gosson is here
+meant[117]. But the whole question is one of such obscurity, and of so
+little importance from the point of view of my argument, that I shall
+not attempt to enter further into it.
+
+ [117] Halpin, _Oberon's Vision_, Shakespeare Society, 1843.
+
+In _Endymion_ Lyly shows that his mastership of St Paul's has increased
+his knowledge of stage-craft. For example, while _Campaspe_ contains at
+least four imaginary transfers in space in the middle of a scene,
+_Endymion_ has only one: and it is a transfer which requires a much
+smaller stretch of imagination than the constant appearance of Diogenes'
+tub upon the stage whenever and wherever comic relief was considered
+necessary. There is improvement moreover in characterization. But the
+interesting thing about this play is Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of
+it, visible chiefly in the _Midsummer Night's Dream_. The well-known
+speech of Oberon to Puck, directing him to gather the "little western
+flower," is to all intents and purposes a beautiful condensation of
+Lyly's allegory. One would like, indeed, to think that there was
+something more than fancy in Mr Gollancz's suggestion that Shakespeare
+when a boy had seen this play of Lyly's acted at Kenilworth, where
+Leicester entertained Elizabeth; little William going thither with his
+father from the neighbouring town of Stratford. But however that may be,
+_Endymion_ certainly had a peculiar fascination for him; we may even
+detect borrowings from the underplot. Tophas' enumeration of the charms
+of Dipsas[118] foreshadows Thisbe's speech over the fallen Pyramus[119],
+while, did we not know Lyly's play to be the earlier, we might suspect
+the page's song near the sleeping knight to be a clumsy caricature of
+the graceful songs of the fairies guarding Titania's dreams. Again there
+are parallels in Shakespeare's earliest comedy _Love's Labour's Lost_.
+Sir Tophas, who is undoubtedly modelled upon Roister Doister, reappears
+with his page, as Armado with his attendant Moth. And I have no doubt
+that many other resemblances might be discovered by careful
+investigation. We cannot wonder that _Endymion_ attracted Shakespeare,
+for it is the most "romantic" of all Lyly's plays. Indistinctness of
+character seems to be in keeping with an allegory of moonshine; and even
+the mechanical action cannot spoil the poetical atmosphere which
+pervades the whole. Here if anywhere Lyly reached the poetical plane. He
+speaks of "thoughts stitched to the starres," of "time that treadeth all
+things down but truth," of the "ivy which, though it climb up by the
+elme, can never get hold of the beames of the sunne," and the play is
+full of many other quaint poetical conceits.
+
+ [118] _Endymion_, Act III. Sc. II. ll. 30-60.
+
+ [119] Cp. also Shakespeare, _Sonnet_ CXXX.
+
+From the point of view of drama, however, it cannot be considered equal
+to the third of the allegorical plays. As a man of fashion Lyly was
+nothing if not up to date. In August 1588 the great Armada had made its
+abortive attack upon Cynthia's kingdom, and twelve months were scarcely
+gone before the industrious Court dramatist had written and produced on
+the stage an allegorical satire upon his Catholic Majesty Philip, King
+of Spain. Though it contains compliments to Elizabeth, _Midas_ is more
+of a patriotic than a purely Court play. The story, with but a few
+necessary alterations, comes from Ovid's _Metamorphoses_[120]. It is the
+old tale of the three wishes. Love, power, and wealth are offered, and
+Midas chooses the last. But he soon finds that the gift of turning
+everything to gold has its drawbacks. Even his beard accidentally
+becomes bullion. He eventually gets rid of his obnoxious power by
+bathing in a river. The fault of the play is that there are, as it were,
+two sections; for now we are introduced to an entirely new situation.
+The King chances upon Apollo and Pan engaged in a musical contest, and,
+asked to decide between them, gives his verdict for the goat-foot god.
+Apollo, in revenge, endows him with a pair of ass's ears. For some time
+he manages to conceal them; but "murder will out," for the reeds breathe
+the secret to the wind. Midas in the end seeks pardon at Apollo's
+shrine, and is relieved of his ears. At the same time he abandons his
+project of invading the neighbouring island of Lesbos, to which
+continual references are made throughout the play. This island is of
+course England; the golden touch refers to the wealth of Spanish
+America, while, if Halpin be correct, Pan and Apollo signify the
+Catholic and the Protestant faith respectively. We may also notice, in
+passing, that the ears obviously gave Shakespeare the idea of Bottom's
+"transfiguration."
+
+ [120] XI. 85-193.
+
+The weakness of the play, as I have said, lies in its duality of action.
+In other respects, however, it is certainly a great advance on its
+predecessors, especially in its underplot, which is for the first time
+connected satisfactorily with the main argument. Motto, the royal
+barber, in the course of his duties, obtains possession of the golden
+beard: and the history of this somewhat unusual form of treasure
+affords a certain amount of amusing farcical relief. It is stolen by one
+of the Court pages, Motto recovers it as a reward for curing the thief's
+toothache, but he loses it again because, being overheard hinting at the
+ass's ears, he is convicted of treason by the pages, and is blackmailed
+in consequence. From this it will be seen that the underplot is more
+embroidered with incident and is, in every way, better arranged than in
+the earlier plays.
+
+We must now turn to the pastoral plays, _Gallathea_, _The Woman in the
+Moon_, and _Love's Metamorphosis_, which we may consider together since
+their stories, uninspired by any allegorical purpose beyond general
+compliments to the Queen, do not require any detailed consideration. And
+yet it should be pointed out that this distinction between Lyly's
+allegorical and pastoral plays is more apparent than real. There are
+shepherds in _Midas_, the Queen appears under the mythological title of
+Ceres in _Love's Metamorphosis_. Such overlapping however is only to be
+expected, and the division is at least very convenient for purposes of
+classification. Lyly's pastoral plays form, as it were, a link between
+the drama and the masque; indeed, when we consider that all the
+Elizabethan dramatists were students of Lyly, it is possible that comedy
+and masque may have been evolved from the Lylian mythological play by a
+process of differentiation. It may be that our author increased the
+pastoral element as the arcadian fashion came into vogue, but this
+argument does not hold of _Gallathea_, while we are uncertain as to the
+date of _Love's Metamorphosis_. None of these plays are worth
+considering in detail, but each has its own particular point of
+interest. In _Gallathea_ this is the introduction of girls in boys'
+clothes. As far as I know, Lyly is the first to use the convenient
+dramatic device of disguise. How effective a trick it was, is proved by
+the manner in which later dramatists, and in particular Shakespeare,
+adopted it. Its full significance cannot be appreciated by us to-day,
+for the whole point of it was that the actors, who appeared as girls
+dressed up as boys, were, as the audience knew, really boys themselves;
+a fact which doubtless increased the funniness of the situation. _The
+Woman in the Moon_ gives us a man disguised in his wife's clothes, which
+is a variation of the same trick. But the importance of _The Woman_ lies
+in its poetical form. Most Elizabethan scholars have decided that this
+play was Lyly's first dramatic effort, on the authority of the Prologue,
+which bids the audience
+
+ "Remember all is but a poet's dream,
+ The first he had in Phoebus' holy bower,
+ But not the last, unless the first displease."
+
+But the maturity and strength of the drama argue a fairly considerable
+experience in its author, and we shall therefore be probably more
+correct if we place it last instead of first of Lyly's plays,
+interpreting the words of the Prologue as simply implying that it was
+Lyly's first experiment in blank verse, inspired possibly by the example
+of Marlowe in _Tamburlaine_ and of Shakespeare in _Love's Labour's
+Lost_[121]. But, whatever its date, _The Woman in the Moon_ must rank
+among the earliest examples of blank verse in our language, and, as
+such, its importance is very great. In _Love's Metamorphosis_ there is
+nothing of interest equal to those points we have noticed in the other
+two plays of the same class. The only remarkable thing, indeed, about it
+is the absence of that farcical under-current which appears in all his
+other plays. Mr Bond suggests, with great plausibility, that such an
+element had originally appeared, but that, because it dealt with
+dangerous questions of the time, perhaps with the _Marprelate_
+controversy, it was expunged.
+
+ [121] Bond, III. p. 234.
+
+It now remains to say a few words upon _Mother Bombie_, which forms the
+fourth division of Lyly's dramatic writings. Though it presents many
+points of similarity in detail to his other plays, its general
+atmosphere is so different (displaying, indeed, at times distinct errors
+of taste) that I should be inclined to assign it to a friend or pupil of
+Lyly, were it not bound up with Blount's _Sixe Court Comedies_[122], and
+therein said to be written by "the onely Rare Poet of that time, the
+wittie, comical, facetiously quicke, and unparalleled John Lilly master
+of arts." It is clever in construction, but undeniably tedious. It shows
+that Lyly had learnt much from Udall, Stevenson, and Gascoigne, and
+perhaps its chief point of interest is that it links these writers to
+the later realists, Ben Jonson, and that student of London life, who is
+surely one of the most charming of all the Elizabethan dramatists,
+whimsical and delightful Thomas Dekker. _Mother Bombie_ was an
+experiment in the drama of realism, the realism that Nash was employing
+so successfully in his novels. It has been labelled as our earliest pure
+farce of well-constructed plot and literary form, but, though it is
+certainly on a much higher plane than _Roister Doister_, it would only
+create confusion if we denied that title to Udall's play. Yet, despite
+its comparative unimportance, and although it is evident that Lyly is
+here out of his natural element, _Mother Bombie_ is interesting as
+showing the (to our ideas) extraordinary confusion of artistic ideals
+which, as I have already noticed, is the remarkable thing about the
+Renaissance in England. Here we have a courtier, a writer of allegories,
+of dream-plays, the first of our mighty line of romanticists, producing
+a somewhat vulgar realistic play of rustic life. There is nothing
+anomalous in this. "Violence and variation," which someone has described
+as the two essentials of the ideal life, were certainly the
+distinguishing marks of the New Birth; and the men of that age demanded
+it in their literature. The drama of horror, the drama of insanity, the
+drama of blood, all were found on the Elizabethan stage, and all
+attracted large audiences. People delighted to read accounts of
+contemporary crime; often these choice morsels were dished up for them
+by some famous writer, as Kyd did in _The Murder of John Brewer_. The
+taste for realism is by no means a purely 19th century product.
+Moreover, the Elizabethans soon wearied of sameness; only a writer of
+the greatest versatility, such as Shakespeare, could hope for success,
+or at least financial success; and it was, perhaps, in order to revive
+his waning popularity that Lyly took to realism. But the child of
+fashion is always the earliest to become out of date, and we cannot
+think that _Mother Bombie_ did much towards improving our author's
+reputation.
+
+ [122] For title-page, Bond, III. p. 1, date 1632.
+
+At this point of our enquiry it will be as well to say a few words upon
+the lyrics which Lyly sprinkled broadcast over his plays. From an
+aesthetic point of view these are superior to anything else he wrote.
+"Foreshortened in the tract of time," his novel, his plays, have become
+forgotten, and it is as the author of _Cupid and my Campaspe played_
+that he is alone known to the lover of literature. There is no need to
+enter into an investigation of the numerous anonymous poems which Mr
+Bond has claimed for him[123]; even if we knew for certain that he was
+their author, they are so mediocre in themselves as to be unworthy of
+notice, scarcely I think of recovery. But let us turn to the songs of
+his dramas, of which there are 32 in all. These are, of course, unequal
+in merit, but the best are worthy to be ranked with Shakespeare's
+lyrics, and our greatest dramatist was only following Lyly's example
+when he introduced lyrics into his plays. I have already pointed out
+that music was an important element in our early comedy. Udall had
+introduced songs into his _Roister Doister_, and we have them also in
+_Gammer Gurton_ and _Damon and Pithias_, but never, before Lyly's day,
+had they taken so prominent a part in drama, for no previous dramatist
+had possessed a tithe of Lyly's lyrical genius. Every condition favoured
+our author in this introduction of songs into his plays. He had
+tradition at his back; he was intensely interested in music, and
+probably composed the airs himself; and lastly he was master of a choir
+school, and would therefore use every opportunity for displaying his
+pupils' voices on the stage. Too much stress, however, must not be laid
+upon this last condition, because Lyly had already written three songs
+for _Campaspe_ and four for _Sapho and Phao_ before he became connected
+with St Paul's, a fact which points again to de Vere, himself a lyrist
+of considerable powers, as Lyly's adviser and master. Doubts, indeed,
+have been cast upon Lyly's authorship of these lyrics on the ground that
+they are omitted from the first edition of the plays. But we need, I
+think, have no hesitation in accepting Lyly as their creator, since the
+omission in question is fully accounted for by the fact that they were
+probably written separately from the plays, and handed round amongst the
+boys together with the musical score[124]. These songs are of various
+kinds and of widely different value. We have, for example, the purely
+comic poem, probably accompanied by gesture and pantomime, such as the
+song of Petulus from _Midas_, beginning, "O my Teeth! deare Barber ease
+me," with interruptions and refrains supplied by his companion and the
+scornful Motto. Many of these songs, indeed, are cast into dialogue
+form, sometimes each page singing a verse by himself, as in "O for a
+Bowle of fatt canary." This last is the earliest of Lyly's wine-songs,
+which for swing and vigour are among some of the best in our language,
+reminding us irresistibly of those pagan chants of the mediaeval
+wandering scholar which the late Mr Symonds has collected for us in his
+_Wine, Women, and Song_. The drinking song, "Io Bacchus," which occurs
+in _Mother Bombie_, is undoubtedly, I think, modelled on one of these
+earlier student compositions; the reference to the practice of throwing
+hats into the fire is alone sufficient to suggest it. But it is as a
+writer of the lyric proper that Lyly is best known. No one but Herrick,
+perhaps, has given us more graceful love trifles woven about some
+classical conceit. Mr Palgrave has familiarized us with the best, _Cupid
+and my Campaspe played_, but there are others only less charming than
+this. The same theme is employed in the following:
+
+ "O Cupid! Monarch over Kings!
+ Wherefore hast thou feet and wings?
+ Is it to show how swift thou art,
+ When thou would'st wound a tender heart?
+ Thy wings being clipped, and feet held still,
+ Thy bow so many would not kill.
+ It is all one in Venus' wanton school
+ Who highest sits, the wise man or the fool!
+ Fools in love's college
+ Have far more knowledge
+ To read a woman over,
+ Than a neat prating lover.
+ Nay, 'tis confessed
+ That fools please women best[125]!"
+
+ [123] Bond, III. p. 433.
+
+ [124] Bond, I. p. 36, II. p. 265.
+
+ [125] _Mother Bombie_, Act III. Sc. III. 1-14.
+
+Another quotation must be permitted. This time it is no embroidered
+conceit, but one of those lyrics of pure nature music, of which the
+Renaissance poets were so lavish, touched with the fire of Spring, with
+the light of hope, bird-notes untroubled by doubt, unconscious of
+pessimism, which are therefore all the more charming for us who dwell
+amid sunsets of intense colouring, who can see nothing but the hectic
+splendours of autumn. For the melancholy nightingale the poet has
+surprise and admiration, no sympathy:
+
+ "What Bird so sings, yet so does wail?
+ O 'tis the ravished Nightingale.
+ Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu, she cries,
+ And still her woes at Midnight rise.
+ Brave prick song! who is't now we hear?
+ None but the lark so shrill and clear;
+ Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
+ The Morn not waking till she sings.
+ Hark, hark, with what a pretty throat
+ Poor Robin-red-breast tunes his note.
+ Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing
+ 'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring,
+ 'Cuckoo' to welcome in the spring[126]."
+
+ [126] _Campaspe_, Act V. Sc. I. 32-44. I have modernised the spelling.
+
+This delightful song comes from the first of Lyly's dramas, and few even
+of Shakespeare's lyrics can equal it. Indeed, coming as it does at the
+dawn of the Elizabethan era, it seems like the cuckoo herself "to
+welcome in the spring."
+
+
+SECTION III. _Lyly's dramatic Genius and Influence._
+
+Having thus very briefly passed in review the various plays that Lyly
+bequeathed to posterity[127], we must say a few words in conclusion on
+their main characteristics, the advance they made upon their
+predecessors, and their influence on later drama.
+
+ [127] I have said nothing of the _Mayde's Metamorphosis_, as most
+ critics are agreed in assigning it to some unknown author.
+
+In Lyly, it is worth noticing, England has her first professional
+dramatist. Unlike those who had gone before him he was no amateur, he
+wrote for his living, and he wrote as one interested in the technical
+side of the theatre. They had played with drama, producing indeed
+interesting experiments, but accomplishing only what one would expect
+from men who merely took a lay interest in the theatre, and who
+possessed a certain knowledge, scholastic rather than technical, of the
+methods of the classical playwrights. He, having probably learnt at
+Oxford all there was to be known concerning the drama of the ancient
+world, came to London, and, definitely deciding to embark upon the
+dramatist's career, saw and studied such _moralities_ and plays as were
+to be seen, aided and directed by the experience and knowledge of his
+patron: finding in the _moralities_, allegory; in the plays of Udall and
+Stevenson, farce; in _Damon and Pithias_, a romantic play upon a
+classical theme; and in Gascoigne's _Supposes_, brilliant prose
+dialogue. That he was induced to make such a study, and that he was
+enabled to carry it out so thoroughly, was due partly, I think, to his
+peculiar financial position. As secretary of de Vere, and later as
+Vice-master of St Paul's School, he was independent of the actual
+necessity of bread-winning, which forced even Shakespeare to pander to
+the garlic-eating multitude he loathed, and wrung from him the cry,
+
+ "Alas, 'tis true I have been here and there
+ And made myself a motley to the view,
+ Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear" ...
+
+But, on the other hand, neither post was sufficiently remunerative to
+secure for him the comforts, still less the luxuries, of life. His
+income required supplementing, if only for the sake of meeting his
+tobacco bill, though I have a strong suspicion that the bills sent in to
+him served no more useful purpose than to light his pipe. But, however,
+adopting the theatre as his profession, he would naturally make a
+serious study of dramatic art, and, having no need for constantly
+filling the maw of present necessity, he could undertake such a study
+thoroughly and at his leisure. And to this cause his peculiar importance
+in the history of the Elizabethan stage is mainly due. Next to Jonson,
+the most learned of all the dramatists, yet possessing little of their
+poetical capacity, he set them the most conspicuous example in technique
+and stage-craft, in the science of play-writing, which they would
+probably have been far too busy to acquire for themselves. Lyly's eight
+dramas formed the rough-hewn but indispensable foundation-stone of the
+Elizabethan edifice. Spenser has been called the poet's poet, Lyly was
+in his own days the playwright's dramatist.
+
+Of his dramatic construction we have already spoken. We have noticed
+that he introduced the art of disguise; that he varied his action by
+songs, accompanied perhaps with pantomime. Mr Bond suggests further that
+he probably did much to extend the use of stage properties and
+scenery[128]. But the real importance of his plays lies in their plot
+construction and character drawing, points which as yet we have only
+touched upon. The way in which he manages the action of his plays shows
+a skill quite unapproached by anything that had gone before, and more
+pronounced than that of many which came after. Too often indeed we have
+dialogues, scenes, and characters which have no connexion with the
+development of the story; but when we consider how frequently
+Shakespeare sinned in this respect, we cannot blame Lyly for introducing
+a philosophical discussion between Plato and Aristotle, as in
+_Campaspe_, or those merry altercations between his pages which added so
+much colour and variety to his plays. However many interruptions there
+were, he never allowed his audience to forget the main business, as
+Dekker, for example, so frequently did. Nowhere, again, in Lyly's plays
+are the motives inadequate to support the action, as they were in the
+majority of dramas previous to 1580. Even Alexander's somewhat tame
+surrender of Campaspe is quite in accordance with his royal dignity and
+magnanimity; and, moreover, we are warned in the third act that the
+King's love is slight and will fade away at the first blast of the war
+trumpet, for as he tells us he is "not so far in love with Campaspe as
+with Bucephalus, if occasion serve either of conflict or of
+conquest[129]." In _Endymion_ the motives are perhaps most skilfully
+displayed, and lead most naturally on to the action, and in this play,
+also, Lyly is perhaps most successful in creating that dramatic
+excitement which is caused by working up to an apparent deadlock (due to
+the intrigues of Tellus), and which is made to resolve itself and
+disappear in the final act. Closely allied with the development of
+action by the presentation of motives is the weaving of the plot. And
+in this Lyly is not so satisfactory, though, of course, far in advance
+of his predecessors. A steady improvement, however, is discernible as he
+proceeds. In the earlier plays the page element does little more than
+afford comic relief: the encounters between Manes and his friends, and
+between Manes and his master, can hardly be dignified by the name of
+plot. It is in _Midas_, as I have already suggested, that this farcical
+under-current displays incident and action of its own, turning as it
+does upon the relations of the pages with Motto and the theft of the
+beard. Here again the comic scenes, now connected together for the first
+time, are also united with the main story. But the page element by no
+means represents Lyly's only attempt at creating an underplot. It will
+be seen from the story of _Endymion_ related above that in that play our
+author is not contented with a single passion-nexus, if the expression
+may be allowed, that of Tellus, Cynthia, and Endymion, but he gives us
+another, that of Eumenides and Semele, which has no real connexion with
+the action, but which seriously threatens to interrupt it at one point.
+Other interests are hinted at, rather than developed, by the infatuation
+of Sir Tophas for Dipsas, and by the history of the latter's husband.
+Though _Midas_ is more advanced in other ways, it displays nothing like
+the complexity of _Endymion_, and it is moreover, as I have said, cut in
+two by the want of connexion between the incident of the golden touch
+and that of the ass's ears. Lastly, in _Love's Metamorphosis_, which is
+without the element of farce, the relations between the nymphs and the
+shepherds complete that underplot of passion which is hinted at in
+_Sapho_, in the evident fancy which Mileta shows for Phao, and developed
+as we have just noticed in _Endymion_.
+
+ [128] Bond, II. pp. 265-266.
+
+ [129] _Campaspe_, Act III. Sc. IV. 31.
+
+In this plot construction and interweaving, Lyly had no models except
+the classics, and we may, therefore, say that his work in this direction
+was almost entirely original. The last-mentioned play was produced at
+Court some time before 1590, and we cannot doubt, was attended by our
+greatest dramatist. At any rate the lessons which Shakespeare learnt
+from Lyly in the matter of plot complication are visible in the
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_, which was produced in 1595[130]. The
+intricate mechanism of this play, reminding us with its four plots (the
+Duke and Hippolyta, the lovers, the mechanics, and the fairies) of the
+_miracle_ with its imposing but unimportant divinities in the Rood
+gallery, its main stage whereon moved human characters, its Crypt
+supplying the rude comic element in the shape of devils, and its angels
+who moved from one level to another welding the whole together, was far
+beyond Lyly's powers, but it was only possible even for Shakespeare
+after a thorough study of Lyly's methods.
+
+ [130] Sidney Lee, _Life_, p. 151.
+
+As I have previously pointed out, Lyly was not very successful in the
+matter of character drawing. Never, even for a moment, is passion
+allowed to disturb the cultured placidity of the dialogue. The
+conditions under which his plays were produced may in part account for
+this. The children of Paul's could hardly be expected to display much
+light and shade of emotion in their acting, certainly depth of passion
+was beyond their scope. But the fault, I think, lies rather in the
+dramatist than in the actors. Lyly's mind was in all probability
+altogether of too superficial a nature for a sympathetic analysis of the
+human soul. That at least is how I interpret his character. All his work
+was more "art than nature," some of it was "more labour than art." On
+the technical side his dramatic advance is immense, but we may look in
+vain in his dramas for any of that appreciation of the elemental facts
+of human nature which can alone create enduring art. In their
+characterization, Lyly's plays do little more than form a link between
+Shakespeare and the old _morality_. This comes out most strongly in
+their peculiar method of character grouping. By a very natural process
+the _moral_ type is split up with the intention of giving it life and
+variety. Thus we have those groups of pages, of maids-in-waiting, of
+shepherds, of deities, etc., which are so characteristic of Lyly's
+plays. There is no real distinction between page and page, and between
+nymph and nymph; but their merry conversations give a piquancy and
+colour to the drama which make up for, and in part conceal, the absence
+of character. All that was necessary for the creation of character was
+to fit these pieces of the _moral_ type together again in a different
+way, and to breathe the spirit of genius into the new creation. We can
+see Lyly feeling towards this solution of the problem in his portrayal
+of Gunophilus, the clown of _The Woman in the Moon_. This character,
+which anticipates the immortal clowns of Shakespeare, is formed by an
+amalgamation of the pages in the previous plays into one comic figure.
+But Lyly also attempts to create single figures, in addition to these
+group characters which for the most part have little to do with the
+action. Often he helps out his poverty of invention by placing
+descriptions of one character in the mouth of another. "How stately she
+passeth bye, yet how soberly!" exclaims Alexander watching Campaspe at a
+distance, "a sweet consent in her countenance with a chaste disdaine,
+desire mingled with coyness, and I cannot tell how to tearme it, a curst
+yeelding modestie!"--an excellent piece of description, and one which is
+very necessary for the animation of the shadowy Campaspe. At times
+however Lyly can dispense with such adventitious aids. Pipenetta, the
+fascinating little wench in _Midas_ and one of our dramatist's most
+successful creations, needs no other illumination than her own pert
+speeches. Diogenes again is an effective piece of work. But both these
+are minor characters who therefore receive no development, and if we
+look at the more important personages of Lyly's portrait gallery, we
+must agree with Mr Bond[131] that Tellus is the best. She is a character
+which exhibits considerable development, and she is also Lyly's only
+attempt to embody the evil principle in woman--a hint for the
+construction of that marvellous portrait of another Scottish queen, the
+Lady Macbeth, which Lyly just before his death in 1606 may have seen
+upon the stage.
+
+ [131] Bond, II. p. 284.
+
+On the whole Lyly is most successful when he is drawing women, which was
+only as it should be, if we allow that the feminine element is the very
+pivot of true comedy. This he saw, and it is because he was the first to
+realise it and to grapple with the difficulties it entailed that the
+title of father of English comedy may be given him without the least
+reserve or hesitation. Sapho the haughty but amorous queen, Mileta the
+mocking but tender Court lady, Gallathea the shy provincial lass, and
+Pipenetta the saucy little maid-servant, fill our stage for the first
+time in history with their tears and their laughter, their scorn of the
+mere male and their "curst yeelding modestie," their bold sallies and
+their bashful blushes. Nothing like this had as yet been seen in English
+literature. I have already pointed out why it was that woman asserted
+her place in art at this juncture. Yet, although the revolution would
+have come about in any case, all honour must be paid to the man who saw
+it coming, anticipated it, and determined its fortunes by the creation
+of such a number of feminine characters from every class in the social
+scale. And if it be true that he only gave us "their outward husk of wit
+and raillery and flirtation," if it be true that his interpretation of
+woman was superficial, that he had no understanding for the soul behind
+the social mask, for the emotional and passionate current, now a quiet
+stream, now a raging torrent, beneath the layer of etiquette, his work
+was none the less important for that.
+
+ "Blood and brain and spirit, three
+ Join for true felicity."
+
+Blood his girls had and brain, but his genius was not divine enough to
+bestow upon them the third essential. Yet they were alive, they were
+flesh, they had wit, and in this they are undoubtedly the forerunners
+not only of Shakespeare's heroines but of Congreve's and of
+Meredith's--to mention the three greatest delineators of women in our
+language. They are the Undines in the story of our literature, beautiful
+and seductive, complete in everything but soul!
+
+While realising that woman should be the real protagonist in comedy,
+Lyly also appreciated the fact that skilful dialogue and brilliant
+repartee are only less important, and that for this purpose prose was
+more suitable than verse. Gascoigne's _Supposes_ was his model in both
+these innovations, and yet he would undoubtedly have adopted them of his
+own accord without any outside suggestion. And since _The Supposes_ was
+a translation, _Campaspe_ deserves the title of the first purely English
+comedy in prose. The _Euphues_ had given him a reputation for sprightly
+and witty dialogue, he himself was possibly known at Court as a
+brilliant conversationalist, and therefore when he came to write plays
+he would naturally do all in his power to maintain and to improve his
+fame in this respect. With his acute sense of form he would recognise
+how clumsy had been the efforts of previous dramatists, and he knew also
+how impossible it would be, in verse form, to write witty dialogue, up
+to date in the subjects it handled. He therefore determined to use
+prose, and, though he manipulates it somewhat awkwardly in his earlier
+plays while still under the influence of the euphuistic fashion, he
+steadily improves, as he gains experience of the function and needs of
+dialogue, until at length he succeeds in creating a thoroughly
+serviceable dramatic instrument. This departure was a great event in
+English literature. Shakespeare was too much of a poet ever to dispense
+altogether with verse, but he appreciated the virtue of prose as a
+vehicle of comic dialogue, and he uses it occasionally even in his
+earliest comedy, _Love's Labour's Lost_. Ben Jonson on the other
+hand--perhaps more than any other Lyly's spiritual heir--wrote nearly
+all his comedies in prose. And it is not fanciful I think to see in
+Lyly's pointed dialogue, tinged with euphuism, the forerunner of
+Congreve's sparkling conversation and of the epigrammatic writing of our
+modern English playwrights.
+
+Such are the main characteristics of Lyly's dramatic genius. To attempt
+to trace his influence upon later writers would be to write a history of
+the Elizabethan stage. In the foregoing remarks I have continually
+indicated Shakespeare's debt to him in matters of detail. _The Midsummer
+Night's Dream_ is from beginning to end full of reminiscences from the
+plays of the earlier dramatist, transmuted, vitalized, and beautified by
+the genius of our greatest poet. It is as if he had witnessed in one
+day a representation of all Lyly's dramatic work, and wearied by the
+effort of attention had fallen asleep and dreamt this _Dream_. _Love's
+Labour's Lost_ is only less indebted to Lyly; indeed nearly all
+Shakespeare's plays, certainly all his comedies, exhibit the same
+influence: for he knew his Lyly through and through, and his
+assimilative power was unequalled. Shakespeare might almost be said to
+be a combination of Marlowe and Lyly plus that indefinable something
+which made him the greatest writer of all time. Marlowe, his master in
+tragedy, was also his master in poetry, in that strength of conception
+and beauty of execution which together make up the soul of drama. Lyly,
+besides the lesson he taught him in comedy, was also his model for
+dramatic construction, brilliancy of dialogue, technical skill, and all
+that comprises the science of play-making--things which were perhaps of
+more moment to him, with his scanty classical knowledge, than Marlowe's
+lesson which he had little need of learning. And what we have said of
+Shakespeare may be said of Elizabethan drama as a whole. "Marlowe's
+place," writes Mr Havelock Ellis, "is at the heart of English poetry";
+his "high, astounding terms" took the world of his day by storm, his
+gift to English literature was the gift of sublime beauty, of
+imagination, and passion. Lyly could lay claim to none of these, but his
+contribution was perhaps of more importance still. He did the
+spade-work, and did it once and for all. With his knowledge of the
+Classics and of previous English experiments he wrote plays that,
+compared with what had gone before, were models of plot construction, of
+the development of action, and even of characterization. Moreover he was
+before Marlowe by some nine years in the production of true romantic
+drama, and in his treatment of women. In spite, therefore, of Marlowe's
+immense superiority to him on the aesthetic side, Lyly must be placed
+above the author of _Edward II._ in dynamical importance.
+
+In connexion with Lyly's influence the question of the exact nature of
+his dramatic productions is worth a moment's consideration. Are they
+masques or dramas? and if the latter are they strictly speaking
+classical or romantic in form? As I have already suggested, the answer
+to the first half of this question is that they were neither and both.
+In Lyly's day drama had not yet been differentiated from masque, and his
+plays, therefore, partook of the nature of both. Produced as they were
+for the Court, it was natural that they should possess something of that
+atmosphere of pageantry, music, and pantomime which we now associate
+with the word masque. But Elizabeth was economical and preferred plain
+drama to the expensive masque displays, though she was ready to enjoy
+the latter, if they were provided for her by Leicester or some other
+favourite. Lyly's work therefore never advanced very far in the
+direction of the masque, though in its complimentary allegories it had
+much in common with it. The question as to whether it should be
+described as classical rather than as romantic is not one which need
+detain us long. It is interesting however as it again brings out the
+peculiarity of Lyly's position. It may indeed be claimed for him that
+all sections of Elizabethan drama, except perhaps tragedy, are to be
+found in embryo in his plays. I have said that he was the first of the
+romanticists, but he was no less the first important writer of classical
+drama. _Gorbuduc_ and its like had been tedious and clumsy imitations,
+and, moreover, they had imitated Seneca, who was a late classic. Lyly,
+though the Greek dramatists were unknown to him, had probably studied
+Aristotle's _Poetics_, and was certainly acquainted with Horace's _Ars
+Poetica_, and with the comedies of Terence and Plautus. He was,
+therefore, an authority on matters dramatic, and could boast of a
+learning on the subject of technique which few of his contemporaries or
+his successors could lay claim to, and which they were only too ready to
+glean second-hand. And yet, though he was wise enough to appreciate all
+that the classics could teach him, he was a romanticist at heart, or
+perhaps it would be better to say that he threw the beautiful and
+loosely fitting garment of romanticism over the classical frame of his
+dramas. And even in the matter of this frame he was not always orthodox.
+He bowed to the tradition of the unities: but he frequently broke with
+it; in _The Woman_ alone does he confine the action to one day; and,
+though he is more careful to observe unity of place, imaginary transfers
+occurring in the middle of scenes indicate his rebellion against this
+restriction. Nevertheless, when all is said, he remains, with the
+exception of Jonson, the most classical of all Elizabethan playwrights,
+and just as he anticipates the 17th and 18th centuries in his prose, so
+in his dramas we may discover the first competent handling of those
+principles and restrictions which, more clearly enunciated by Ben
+Jonson, became iron laws for the post-Elizabethan dramatists.
+
+It is this "balance between classic precedent and romantic freedom[132]"
+that constitutes his supreme importance, not only in Elizabethan
+literature, but even in the history of subsequent English drama. From
+Lyly we may trace the current of romanticism, through Shakespeare, to
+Goethe and Victor Hugo; in Lyly also we may see the first embodiment of
+that classical tradition which even Shakespeare's "purge" could do
+nothing to check, and which was eventually to lay its dead hand upon the
+art of the 18th century. May we not say more than this? Is he not the
+first name in a continuous series from 1580 to our own day, the first
+link in the chain of dramatic development, which binds the "singing room
+of Powles" to the Lyceum of Irving? And it is interesting to notice that
+the principle which he was the first to express shows at the present
+moment evident signs of exhaustion; for its future developments seem to
+be limited to that narrow strip of social melodrama, which lies between
+the devil of the comic opera and the deep sea of the Ibsenic problem
+play. Indeed it would not be altogether fanciful, I think, to say that
+_The Importance of being Earnest_ finishes the process that _Campaspe_
+started; and to view that process as a circle begun in euphuism, and
+completed in aestheticism.
+
+ [132] Bond, II. p. 266.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+At the beginning of this essay I gave a short account of the main facts
+of our author's life, reserving my judgment upon his character and
+genius until after the examination of his works. That examination which
+I have now concluded is far too superficial in character to justify a
+psychological synthesis such as that advocated by M. Hennequin[133]. But
+though this essay cannot claim to have exhausted the subject of the ways
+and means of Lyly's art, yet in the course of our survey we have had
+occasion to notice several interesting points in reference to his mind
+and character, which it will be well to bring together now in order to
+give a portrait, however inadequate, of the man who played so important
+a part in English literature.
+
+ [133] _La Critique Scientifique._
+
+Nash supplies the only piece of contemporary information about his
+person and habits, and all he tells us is that he was short of stature
+and that he smoked. But Ben Jonson gives us an unmistakeable caricature
+of him under the delightfully appropriate name of Fastidious Brisk in
+_Every Man out of His Humour_. He describes him as a "neat, spruce,
+affecting courtier, one that wears clothes well, and in fashion;
+practiseth by his glass how to salute; speaks good remnants
+notwithstanding his base viol and tobacco; swears tersely and with
+variety; cares not what lady's favour he belies, or great man's
+familiarity: a good property to perfume the boot of a coach. He will
+borrow another man's horse to praise and back him as his own. Or, for a
+need can post himself into credit with his merchant, only with the
+gingle of his spur and the jerk of his wand[134]." Allowing for the
+exaggeration of satire, we cannot doubt that this portrait is in the
+main correct. It indicates a man who follows fashion, even in swearing,
+to the excess of foppery, who delights in scandal, who contracts debts
+with an easy conscience, and who is withal a merry fellow and a wit. All
+this is in accordance with what we know of his life. We can picture him
+at Oxford serenading the Magdalen dons with his "base viol," or perhaps
+organizing a night party to disturb the slumbers of some insolent
+tradesman who had dared to insist upon payment; his neat little figure
+leading a gang of young rascals, and among them the "sea-dog" Hakluyt,
+the sturdy and as yet unconverted Gosson, the refined Watson, and
+perchance George Pettie concealing his thorough enjoyment of the
+situation by a smile of elderly amusement. Or yet again we can see him
+at the room of some boon companion seriously announcing to a convulsed
+assembly his intention of applying for a fellowship, and when the last
+quip had been hurled at him through clouds of smoke and the laughter had
+died down, proposing that the house should go into committee for the
+purpose of concocting the now famous letter to Burleigh. When we next
+catch a glimpse of him he is no longer the madcap; he walks with such
+dignity as his stature permits, for he is now author of the
+much-talked-of _Anatomy of Wit_, and one of the most fashionable young
+men of the Court. What elaboration of toilet, what adjustment and
+readjustment of ruffles and lace, what bowing and scraping before the
+glass, preceded that great event of his life--his presentation to the
+Queen--can only be guessed at. But we can well picture him, following
+his magnificently over-dressed patron up the long reception-room, his
+heart beating with pleasurable excitement, yet his manners not forgotten
+in the hour of his pride, as he nods to an acquaintance and bows with
+sly demureness to some Iffida or Camilla. Those were the days of his
+success, the happiest period of his life when, as secretary to the Lord
+Chamberlain and associate of the highest in the land, he breathed his
+native atmosphere, the praises and flattery of a fickle world of
+fashion. But, time-server as he was, he was no sycophant. Leaving de
+Vere's service after a sharp quarrel, he was not ashamed to take up the
+profession of teaching in which he had already had some experience. We
+see him next, therefore, a master of St Paul's, engrossed in the not
+unpleasant duties of drilling his pupils for the performance of his
+plays, accompanying their songs on his instrument, or himself taking his
+place on the stage, now as Diogenes in his ubiquitous tub, and now as
+the golden-bearded and long-eared Midas. And last of all he appears as
+the disappointed, disillusioned man, "infelix academicus ignotus." A
+wife and children on his hands, his occupation gone, his hopes of the
+Revels Mastership blasted, he becomes desperate, and writes that last
+bitter letter to Elizabeth.
+
+ [134] From the _Preface_.
+
+The man of fashion out of date, the social success left high and dry by
+the unheeding current, he died eventually in poverty, not because he had
+wasted his substance, like Greene, in Bohemia, but because, thinking to
+take Belgravia by storm, he had forgotten that the foundations of that
+city are laid on the bodies of her sons. But leaving
+
+ "The thrice three muses mourning for the death
+ Of Learning late deceased in beggary,"
+
+let us look more closely into the character of this man, whose brilliant
+and successful youth was followed by so sad an old age.
+
+In spite of Professor Raleigh and the moralizing of _Euphues_, we may
+decide that there was nothing of the Puritan about him. His life at
+Oxford, his attachment to the notorious de Vere, the keen pleasure he
+took in the things of this world, are, I think, sufficient to prove
+this. His general attitude towards life was one of vigorous hedonism,
+not of intellectual asceticism. The ethical element of _Euphues_ links
+him rather to the already vanishing Humanism than to the rising
+Puritanism, against which all his sympathies were enlisted, as his
+contributions to the _Marprelate_ controversy indicate. I have refrained
+from touching upon these _Mar-Martin_ tracts because they possess
+neither aesthetic nor dynamical importance, being, as Gabriel
+Harvey--always ready with the spiteful epigram--describes them,
+"alehouse and tinkerly stuffe, nothing worthy a scholar or a real
+gentleman." They are worth mentioning, however, as throwing a light upon
+the religious prejudices of our author. He was a courtier and he was a
+churchman, and in lending his aid to crush sectarians he thought no more
+deeply about the matter than he did in voting as Member of Parliament
+against measures which conflicted with his social inclinations. There
+was probably not an ounce of the theological spirit in his whole
+composition; for his refutation of atheism was a youthful essay in
+dialectics, a bone thrown to the traditions of the moral Court
+treatise.
+
+If, indeed, he was seriously minded in any respect, it was upon the
+subject of Art. Himself a novelist and dramatist, he displayed also a
+keen delight in music, and evinced a considerable, if somewhat
+superficial, interest in painting. And yet, though he apparently made it
+his business to know something of every art, he was no sciolist, and, if
+he went far afield, it was only in order to improve himself in his own
+particular branch. All the knowledge he acquired in such amateur
+appreciation was brought to the service of his literary productions. And
+the same may be said of his extensive excursions into the land of books.
+No Elizabethan dramatist but Lyly, with the possible exception of
+Jonson, could marshal such an array of learning, and few could have
+turned even what they had with such skill and effect to their own
+purposes. Lyly had made a thorough study of such classics as were
+available in his day, and we have seen how he employed them in his novel
+and in his plays. But the classics formed only a small section of the
+books digested by this omnivorous reader. If he could not read Spanish,
+French, or Italian, he devoured and assimilated the numerous
+translations from those languages into English, Guevara indeed being his
+chief inspiration. Nor did he neglect the literature of his own land.
+Few books we may suppose, which had been published in English previous
+to 1580, had been unnoticed by him. We have seen what a thorough
+acquaintance he possessed of English drama before his day, and how he
+exhibits the influence of the writings of Ascham and perhaps other
+humanists, how he laid himself under obligation to the bestiaries and
+the proverb-books for his euphuistic philosophy, and how his lyrics
+indicate a possible study of the mediaeval scholar song-books. In
+conclusion, it is interesting to notice that we have clear evidence that
+he knew Chaucer[135].
+
+ [135] Bond, I. p. 401.
+
+Idleness, therefore, cannot be urged against him; nor does this imposing
+display of learning indicate a pedant. Lyly had nothing in common with
+the spirit of his old friend Gabriel Harvey, whom indeed he laughed at.
+There is a story that Watson and Nash invited a company together to sup
+at the Nag's Head in Cheapside, and to discuss the pedantries of Harvey,
+and our euphuist in all probability made one of the party. His erudition
+sat lightly on him, for it was simply a means to the end of his art.
+Moreover, a student's life could have possessed no attraction for one of
+his temperament. Unlike Marlowe and Greene, he had harvested all his
+wild oats before he left Oxford; but the process had refined rather than
+sobered him, for his laugh lost none of its merriment, and his wit
+improved with experience, so that we may well believe that in the Court
+he was more Philautus than Euphues. In his writings also his aim was to
+be graceful rather than erudite; and, ponderous as his _Euphues_ seems
+to us now, it appealed to its Elizabethan public as a model of elegance.
+His art was perhaps only an instrument for the acquisition of social
+success, but he was nevertheless an artist to the fingertips. Yet he was
+without the artist's ideals, and this fact, together with his frivolity,
+vitiated his writings to a considerable extent, or, rather, the
+superficiality of his art was the result of the superficiality of his
+soul. Of that "high seriousness," which Aristotle has declared to be the
+poet's essential, he has nothing. Technique throughout was his chief
+interest, and it is in technique alone that he can claim to have
+succeeded. "More art than nature" is a just criticism of everything he
+wrote, with the exception of his lyrics. He was supremely clever, one of
+the cleverest writers in our literature when we consider what he
+accomplished, and how small was the legacy of his predecessors; but he
+was much too clever to be simple. He excelled in the niceties of art, he
+revelled in the accomplishment of literary feats, his intellect was akin
+to the intellect of those who in their humbler fashion find pleasure in
+the solution of acrostics. And consequently his writings were frequently
+as finical as his dress was fastidious; for it was the form and not the
+idea which fascinated him; to his type of mind the letter was everything
+and the spirit nothing. Indeed, the true spirit of art was quite beyond
+his comprehension, though he was connoisseur enough to appreciate its
+presence in others. Artist and man of taste he was, but he was no poet.
+Artist he was, I have said, to the fingertips, but his art lay at his
+fingers' ends, not at his soul. He was facile, ingenious, dexterous,
+everything but inspired. He had wit, learning, skill, imagination, but
+none of that passionate apprehension of life which makes the poet, and
+which Marlowe and Shakespeare possessed so fully. And therefore it was
+his fate to be nothing more than a forerunner, a straightener of the
+way; and before his death he realised with bitterness that he was only a
+stepping-stone for young Shakespeare to mount his throne. He was,
+indeed, the draughtsman of the Elizabethan workshop, planning and
+designing what others might build. He was the expert mathematician who
+formulated the laws which enabled Shakespeare to read the stars. Of the
+heights and depths of passion he was unconscious; he was no
+psychologist, laying bare the human soul with the lancet; and though now
+and again, as in _Endymion_, he caught a glimpse of the silver beauties
+of the moon, he had no conception of the glories of the midday sun.
+
+And yet though he lacked the poet's sense, his wit did something to
+repair the defect, and even if it has a musty flavour for our pampered
+palates, it saves his writings from becoming unbearably wearisome; and
+moreover his fun was without that element of coarseness which mars the
+comic scenes of later dramatists who appealed to more popular audiences.
+But it is quite impossible for us to realise how brilliant his wit
+seemed to the Elizabethans before it was eclipsed by the genius of
+Shakespeare. Even as late as 1632 Blount exclaims, "This poet sat at the
+sunne's table," words referring perhaps more especially to Lyly's
+poetical faculty, but much truer if interpreted as an allusion to his
+wit. The genius of our hero played like a dancing sunbeam over the early
+Elizabethan stage. Never before had England seen anything like it, and
+we cannot wonder that his public hailed him in their delight as one of
+the greatest writers of all time. How could they know that he was only
+the first voice in a choir of singers which, bursting forth before his
+notes had died away, would shake the very arch of heaven with the
+passion and the beauty of their song? But for us who have heard the
+chorus first, the recitative seems poor and thin. The magic has long
+passed from _Euphues_, once a name to conjure with, and even the plays
+seem dull and lifeless. That it should be so was inevitable, for the wit
+which illuminated these works was of the time, temporary, the earliest
+beam of the rising sun. This sunbeam it is impossible to recover, and
+with all our efforts we catch little but dust.
+
+And yet for the scientific critic Lyly's work is still alive with
+significance. Worthless as much of it is from the aesthetic point of
+view, from the dynamical, the historical aspect few English writers are
+of greater interest. Waller was rescued from oblivion and labelled as
+the first of the classical poets. But we can claim more for Lyly than
+this. Extravagant as it may sound, he was one of the great founders of
+our literature. His experiments in prose first taught men that style was
+a matter worthy of careful study, he was among the earliest of those who
+realised the utility of blank verse for dramatic purposes, he wrote the
+first English novel in our language, and finally he is not only
+deservedly recognised as the father of English comedy, but by his
+mastery of dramatic technique he laid such a burden of obligation upon
+future playwrights that he placed English drama upon a completely new
+basis. Of the three main branches of our literature, therefore, two--the
+novel and the drama--were practically of his creation, and though his
+work suffered because it lacked the quality of poetry, for the historian
+of literature it is none the less important on that account.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF CHIEF AUTHORITIES.
+
+
+ARBER. The Martin Marprelate Controversy. Scholar's Library.
+
+ASCHAM, ROGER. The Schoolmaster. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+ASCHAM, ROGER. Toxophilus. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+BAKER, G. P. Lyly's Endymion.
+
+BARNEFIELD, RICHARD. Poems. Arber's Scholar's Library.
+
+BERNERS, LORD. The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius.
+
+BERNERS, LORD. Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.
+
+BOAS. Works of Kyd. Clarendon Press.
+
+BOND, R. W. John Lyly. Clarendon Press. 3 Vols.
+
+BRUNET. Manuel de Libraire.
+
+BUTLER CLARKE. Spanish Literature.
+
+CHILD, C. G. John Lyly and Euphuism. _Muenchener Beitraege_ VII.
+
+CRAIK, SIR H. Specimens of English Prose.
+
+DICTIONARY of National Biography.
+
+EARLE. History of English Prose.
+
+FIELD, NATHANIEL. A Woman is a Weathercock.
+
+FITZMAURICE-KELLY. Spanish Literature. Heinemann.
+
+GAYLEY. Representative English Comedies.
+
+GOSSE. From Shakespeare to Pope.
+
+GOSSON. School of Abuse. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+GUEVARA, ANTONIO DE. Libro Aureo del emperado Marco Aurelio.
+
+HALLAM. Introduction to the Literature of Europe.
+
+HENNEQUIN. La Critique Scientifique.
+
+HUME, MARTIN. Spanish Influence on English Literature.
+
+JUSSERAND. The English Novel in the time of Shakespeare.
+
+LANDMANN, DR. Shakespeare and Euphuism. _New Shak. Soc. Trans._ 1880-2.
+
+LANDMANN, DR. Introduction to Euphues. Sprache und Literatur.
+
+LATIMER. Sermons. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Athenaeum, July 14, 1883.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Huon of Bordeaux (Berners'). Early Eng. Text Soc. Extra
+Series XL., XLI.
+
+LEE, SIDNEY. Life of Shakespeare.
+
+LIEBIG. Lord Bacon et les sciences d'observation en moyen age.
+
+LYLY. Euphues. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+MACAULAY, G. G. Introd. to Froissart's Chronicles. Globe Edition.
+
+MEREDITH, GEORGE. Essay on Comedy.
+
+MEZIERES. Predecesseurs et contemporains de Shakespeare.
+
+MINTO. Manual of English Prose Literature.
+
+NORTH, THOMAS. Diall of Princes.
+
+PEARSON, KARL. Chances of Death. Vol. II. _German Passion Play._
+
+PETTIE, GEORGE. Petite Palace of Pettie his Pleasure.
+
+RALEIGH, PROF. W. The English Novel.
+
+RETURN FROM PARNASSUS. Arber's Scholar's Library.
+
+SAINTSBURY. Specimens of English Prose.
+
+SPENCER, HERBERT. Essays--Philosophy of Style.
+
+SYMONDS, J. A. Shakespeare's Predecessors.
+
+UDALL, NICHOLAS. Ralph Roister Doister. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+UNDERHILL. Spanish Literature in Tudor England.
+
+WARD, DR A. W. English Dramatic Literature. 3 Vols.
+
+WARD, MRS H. "John Lyly," Article in _Enc. Brit._
+
+WATSON, THOMAS. Poems. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+WEBBE. Discourses of English Poetry. Arber's English Reprints.
+
+WEYMOUTH, DR R. F. On Euphuism. _Phil. Soc. Trans._ 1870-2.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+_Affectionate Shepherd_, 46
+
+_Albion's England_, 57
+
+Alencon, Duc d', 105
+
+_Amis and Amile_, 66
+
+_Anatomy of Wit_ (v. _Euphues_)
+
+Andrews, Dr, 55
+
+Arber (reprints), 12, 27, 38, 46
+
+_Arcadia_, 9, 51, 56, 58, 68, 82, 84
+
+Aretino, 48
+
+Ariosto, 94, 96
+
+Aristotle, 121, 129, 137
+
+Armada, Spanish, 110
+
+Arnold, Matthew, 47
+
+_Ars Poetica_ (of Horace), 130
+
+Ascham, 31, 37, 38, 39, 42, 50, 52, 67, 73, 74, 136
+
+_Athenae Oxonienses_, 4, 5
+
+_Athenaeum_, 30
+
+Athens, 69, 79
+
+_Aucassin and Nicolette_, 66
+
+Aurelius, Marcus, 22, 34, 69
+
+Austen, Jane, 80
+
+
+Bacon, Lord, 19, 47
+
+Baena, 48
+
+Baker, G. P., 4, 5, 7, 85, 98
+
+Baker, George, 28
+
+Baker, Robert, 28
+
+Barnefield, Richard, 46
+
+Berners, Lord, 22, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 42, 66, 67
+
+Bertaut, Rene, 34, 35
+
+bestiaries, 20, 41, 136
+
+_Biographia Britannica_, 12
+
+Blackfriars, 100
+
+blank verse, 3, 97, 113
+
+Blount, 114, 139
+
+Boas, 45
+
+Boccaccio, 66, 67, 75
+
+Bond, R. W., 4, 5, 8, 9, 26, 30, 34, 43, 55, 60, 69, 72, 74, 78, 81, 85,
+ 86, 87, 89, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 108, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117,
+ 120, 125, 130, 137
+
+Brunet, 34
+
+Bryan, Sir Francis, 30, 31
+
+Burleigh, 4, 6, 7, 86, 133
+
+Butler Clarke, 49
+
+Byron (anticipated by Lyly), 77
+
+
+Cambridge, 7, 75, 87, 93
+
+_Campaspe_, 7, 85, 87, 98-102, 104, 105, 109, 116, 121, 124, 126
+
+_Canterbury Tales_, 65
+
+Carew, 27
+
+Carpenter, Edward, 19
+
+Castiglione, 48, 49, 72
+
+Caxton, 66, 67
+
+Cecil, 8
+
+_Celestina_, 24
+
+Charles VIII., 48, 66
+
+Chaucer, 65, 66, 137
+
+Cheke, Sir John, 26, 31, 37, 42, 50
+
+Child, C. G., 14, 15, 16, 56, 59
+
+choristers, 7, 8, 87, 92, 94, 116
+
+Christ Church, 26, 39
+
+Cicero, 12, 50
+
+_Civile Conversation_, 40
+
+comedy
+ before Lyly, 89-98
+ and folly, 90
+ and masque, 112
+ and music, 87, 92, 94, 116
+ and society, 88
+ and woman, 97-98, 100-101, 125-126
+
+Congreve, 88, 101, 126, 127
+
+_Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers, A_, 71
+
+Corpus Christi College (Oxford), 26
+
+Corro, Antonio de, 26, 28
+
+Cortes, 27
+
+Craik, Sir H., 28, 37, 38, 39
+
+_Cupid and my Campaspe played_, 115, 117
+
+_Cynthia_, 46
+
+
+_Damon and Pithias_, 93, 116, 119
+
+_De Educatione_ (of Plutarch), 72
+
+Dekker, Thomas, 114, 121
+
+Demosthenes, 12
+
+Devereux, Penelope, 109
+
+_Diall of Princes_, 22, 30, 39, 69
+
+_Diana_, 24
+
+Dickens, 79
+
+_Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier_, 31
+
+Doni, 48
+
+Dryden, 84
+
+dubartism, 51
+
+
+Earle, 53, 54
+
+education (Lyly's views on), 72-73
+
+_Edward II._, 129
+
+Edwardes, Richard, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95, 97, 101
+
+Eliot, George, 80
+
+Elizabeth, Queen, 3, 6, 8, 9, 17, 25, 26, 65, 75, 80, 81, 86, 98, 100,
+ 101, 103, 104, 105, 107, 112, 129, 134
+
+Ellis, Havelock, 128
+
+_Endymion_, 85, 98, 99, 104, 107-110, 121, 122, 138
+
+_English Novel, The_ (v. Raleigh)
+
+_English Novel in the time of Shakespeare, The_ (v. Jusserand)
+
+Erasmus, 26
+
+_Estella_, 27
+
+Eton, 93
+
+_Euphues_
+ antecedents of, 65-69
+ criticism and description of
+ (i) _Anatomy of Wit_, 69-73
+ (ii) _Euphues and his England_, 76-80
+ dedication of, 74-76
+ distinction between the two parts, 73-74
+ Elizabethan reputation of, 10-13, 43-47, 57, 61, 84, 137
+ first English novel, 3, 10-11, 74, 140
+ moral tone of, 5, 71-72
+ publication and editions of, 6, 7, 8, 10, 43, 57, 61, 73, 83, 84
+ quoted, 4, 10, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 45, 58, 70, 76, 78
+
+_Euphues and his England_ (v. _Euphues_)
+
+_Euphues and his Ephoebus_, 72-73
+
+Euphuism
+ analysis of, 13-21
+ an aristocratic fashion, 3, 49, 54, 56, 61, 62
+ diction and, 56
+ humanism and, 36-39, 50-53
+ imitators of, 43-46
+ origins of, 21-43
+ Oxford and, 26-28, 39-42, 45-46, 54, 60, 61
+ poetry and, 55-56
+ Renaissance and, 47-52, 62
+ Scott's misapprehension of, 11
+ secret of Lyly's influence, 11-13
+ Spain and, 22-36
+
+_Every Man out of His Humour_, 132
+
+
+fabliau, the, 66
+
+_Faery Queen, The_, 103
+
+Field, Nathaniel, 44, 102
+
+Fitzmaurice-Kelly, 24
+
+Flaubert, 56
+
+Florence, 79
+
+Fortescue, 69
+
+France (and French), 22, 23, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 40, 42, 47, 48, 52, 53,
+ 56, 61, 66, 80, 136
+
+_Froissart_, 31, 33, 35
+
+
+Gager, William, 39, 86
+
+_Gallathea_, 98, 107, 112
+
+_Gammer Gurton's Needle_, 93, 96, 116
+
+Gascoigne, George, 69, 94, 95, 97, 114, 119, 126
+
+Gayley, 91, 92, 94, 95
+
+Geoffrey of Dunstable, 92
+
+_Gesta Romanorum_, 66
+
+Gibbon, 58
+
+_Glasse for Europe, A_, 52, 81
+
+Goethe, 130
+
+_Golden Boke, The_, 22, 30, 31, 36, 37
+
+Gollancz, 109
+
+gongorism, 51
+
+Goodlet, Dr, 56
+
+_Gorbuduc_, 129
+
+Gosse, 36
+
+Gosson, Stephen, 4, 27, 28, 46, 53, 71, 86, 109, 133
+
+Granada, 24
+
+Greek, 48, 62
+
+Greene, 43, 135, 137
+
+Grey, Lady Jane, 74
+
+Guazzo, 40
+
+Guerrero, 26
+
+Guevara, Antonio de, 22-24, 28-31, 33-38, 40, 42, 49, 69, 72, 76, 136
+
+
+Habsburgs, 103
+
+Hakluyt, 24, 26, 27, 133
+
+Hallam, 33, 34
+
+Halpin, 109, 111
+
+Harrison, 69
+
+Harvey, Dr, 19
+
+Harvey, Gabriel, 6, 20, 42, 109, 135, 137
+
+_Hekatompathia_, 7, 45, 46
+
+Hennequin, 4, 132
+
+Henry VIII., 23, 31
+
+_Hernani_, 100
+
+Herrick, 117
+
+Heywood, 69, 92, 95, 96
+
+Homer, 67
+
+Horace, 130
+
+Hugo, Victor, 130
+
+humanism, 25, 26, 37, 50, 52, 53, 54, 67, 92, 135
+
+Hume, Martin, 24, 25
+
+_Huon of Bordeaux_, 30, 66
+
+Huss, John, 66
+
+
+_Importance of being Earnest, The_, 131
+
+Italy (and Italian), 24, 25, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 66, 67, 69, 74, 75, 78,
+ 86, 94, 95, 136
+
+
+_Jacke Jugelar_, 96
+
+James I., 23
+
+James, Henry, 53
+
+Johnson, Dr, 58
+
+Jonson, Ben, 114, 120, 127, 130, 132, 136
+
+Jusserand, 18, 43, 65, 72, 76
+
+
+Katherine of Aragon, 23
+
+Kenilworth, 109
+
+Knox, John, 75
+
+Kyd, 43-46, 102, 115
+
+_Kynge Johan_, 99
+
+
+_Lady Windermere's Fan_, 88
+
+Landmann, Dr, 14, 16, 22, 24, 29, 30, 31, 40, 42, 47, 69, 75
+
+Latimer, 36
+
+_Lazarillo de Tormes_, 24
+
+Lee, Sidney, 12, 29-33, 123
+
+Leicester, Earl of, 107, 109, 129
+
+_Libro Aureo_ (v. Guevara)
+
+Liebig, 19
+
+_Literature of Europe_, 33, 34
+
+Lodge, Thomas, 27, 43
+
+Lok, Henry, Thomas, and Michael, 26, 27
+
+London, 7, 71, 78, 91, 114, 119
+
+London, Bishop of, 8
+
+_Love's Labour's Lost_, 110, 113, 127, 128
+
+_Love's Metamorphosis_, 98, 112, 113, 122
+
+Luther, 89
+
+Lyly, John:
+ character and genius, 3, 51, 62, 63, 123, 137-139
+ compared with Marlowe, 128-129
+ courtier and man of fashion, 63, 87, 88, 98, 103, 110, 134, 135
+ dramatist, 7, 8, 9, 85-131
+ forerunner of Shakespeare, 43, 47, 95, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109-111,
+ 116, 123, 124, 127-128, 130, 138-139
+ friends of, 26-28, 39, 42, 46, 53, 54, 61, 133, 135, 137
+ Jonson's caricature of, 132-133
+ learning, 17, 20, 38, 69, 86, 95, 119-120, 130, 136-137
+ life, 4-9, 86-88, 119-120, 132-135
+ novelist, 10, 64-84
+ poet, 3, 110, 113, 115-118, 138, 139
+ position in English literature, 2-3, 10-13, 51, 52-63, 65-69, 73-84,
+ 98-131, 138-140
+ prose, 3, 11-21, 52-63, 97, 126-127
+ reputation, 9, 11-13, 43, 57, 58, 60, 61
+
+lyrics, 115-118
+
+
+Macaulay, G. C., 33
+
+Macaulay, Lord, 80
+
+_Macbeth_, 125
+
+Magdalen College (Oxford), 4, 6, 86, 133
+
+Malory, 66, 67
+
+Marini, 48
+
+_Marius the Epicurean_, 50
+
+Marlowe, 3, 47, 113, 128-129, 137, 138
+
+_Martin Marprelate_, 3, 8, 114, 135-136
+
+Mary (Tudor), 25, 26
+
+Mary (of Scots), 109
+
+masque, 112, 129
+
+Maupassant, Guy de, 75
+
+_Mayde's Metamorphosis_, 119
+
+Mendoza, 23, 24
+
+Meredith, George, 53, 79, 88, 97, 126
+
+_Midas_, 98, 104, 110-112, 117, 122, 125
+
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_ (anticipated by Lyly), 105, 109-111, 123, 127
+
+Milton, 55
+
+miracle-play, the, 89-91, 123
+
+_Monastery, The_, 11
+
+Montemayor, 23, 24
+
+moral court treatise, the, 49, 65, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 75
+
+morality-play, the, 70, 89-92, 94, 99, 102, 119, 124
+
+_Morte d'Arthur_, 66, 67
+
+_Mother Bombie_, 98, 105, 114-117
+
+Munday, Anthony, 28, 43
+
+_Murder of John Brewer, The_, 115
+
+
+Naples, 69
+
+Nash, 23, 55, 56, 84, 114, 137
+
+Newton, 19
+
+Nicholas, Thomas, 27
+
+North, Sir Thomas, 22, 29, 30, 39
+
+novella, the, 65, 66, 67, 68, 74, 75
+
+
+Ovid, 17, 69, 111
+
+Oxford, 4-7, 25-28, 39, 42, 46, 49, 53, 61, 69, 72, 86, 87, 93, 95, 119,
+ 133, 137
+
+Oxford, Earl of (v. Vere, Edward de)
+
+
+Painter, William, 40
+
+Palgrave, 117
+
+_Palamon and Arcite_, 86
+
+_Pallace of Pleasure_, 40
+
+_Pamela_, 83
+
+pastoral romance, 23, 68
+
+Petrarchisti, 48
+
+Pettie, George, 32, 39, 40, 41, 46, 53, 56, 69, 86, 133
+
+_Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure_, 40, 69
+
+Philip II. of Spain (caricatured by Lyly), 110
+
+picaresque romance, 23
+
+Plato, 67, 75, 79, 121
+
+Plautus, 92
+
+_Play of the Wether, The_, 93
+
+_Pleasant History of the Conquest of West India_, 27
+
+Pliny, 17, 20, 41, 69, 100
+
+Plutarch, 17, 69, 72, 73
+
+_Poetics of Aristotle, The_, 130
+
+puritanism, 3, 26, 57, 71, 135
+
+Puttenham, 87
+
+
+Quick, 73
+
+Quintilian, 12
+
+
+Raleigh, Prof. W., 20, 55, 57, 65, 71, 84, 135
+
+_Ralph Roister Doister_, 93, 110, 114, 116
+
+Renaissance, the, 25, 47-52, 62, 64, 66, 68, 95, 115, 118
+
+Revels' Office, the, 8, 9, 103, 134
+
+Richardson, 72, 83
+
+Rogers, Thomas, 27
+
+romance of chivalry, 65-68, 75
+
+Ronsard, 61
+
+Rowland, 24
+
+
+_Sacharissa_, 13
+
+Sainte Beuve, 53
+
+St Paul's Choir School, 7, 8, 87, 99, 109, 116, 119, 123, 131, 134
+
+Saintsbury, Prof., 27
+
+Sallust, 37
+
+_Sapho and Phao_, 7, 87, 98, 99, 104-107, 116, 122
+
+Savoy Hospital, the, 7
+
+_School of Abuse, The_, 27
+
+_Schoolmaster, The_, 38, 50, 52, 67, 73, 75
+
+Schwan, Dr, 56
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, 11
+
+Seneca, 129
+
+Shakespeare, 2, 9, 43, 47, 55, 95, 100, 101, 102, 105, 109, 110, 111,
+ 113, 115, 116, 118, 120-124, 127, 128, 130, 138, 139
+
+Sheridan, 88
+
+Sidney, Sir Philip, 23, 27, 55, 58, 68, 82, 84
+
+_Sixe Court Comedies_, 114
+
+_Soliman and Perseda_, 45
+
+Soto, Pedro de, 26
+
+Spain (and Spanish), 22-28, 30, 31, 33-36, 40, 42, 47, 48, 52, 66, 69,
+ 136
+
+_Spanish Tragedy, The_, 43, 44, 45
+
+Spencer, Herbert, 61
+
+Spenser, 103, 120
+
+_Stella_, 109
+
+Stevenson, 93, 95, 114, 119
+
+Stratford, 109
+
+_Suppositi_ (_Supposes_), 94, 119, 126
+
+Surrey, 31
+
+Symonds, J. A., 47, 62, 91, 93, 104, 117
+
+
+Taine, 1
+
+_Tamburlaine_, 113
+
+_Taming of the Shrew, The_, 93
+
+Tasso, 48
+
+Tents and Toils (office of), 8
+
+Terence, 50, 92, 96
+
+Thackeray, 77
+
+_Timon of Athens_ (anticipated by Lyly), 101
+
+_Toxophilus_, 38
+
+Tully (v. Cicero)
+
+
+Udall, Nicholas, 87, 93, 95, 96, 97, 114, 116, 119
+
+Underhill, 23, 24, 27, 28, 34, 36, 40
+
+
+Vere, Edward de, 7, 28, 46, 86, 87, 116, 119, 134
+
+Villa Garcia, 26
+
+Virgil, 17, 50
+
+Vives, 25, 26
+
+
+Waller, 12, 140
+
+Ward, Dr, 8, 92, 93
+
+Ward, Mrs H., 30, 80
+
+Warner, 43, 57
+
+Watson, Thomas, 7, 45, 46, 49, 53, 133, 137
+
+Webbe, William, 11
+
+Welbanke, 43
+
+West, Dr, 33, 34
+
+Weymouth, Dr, 14
+
+Wilkinson, 43
+
+_Wine, Women and Song_, 117
+
+_Woman in the Moon, The_, 98, 112, 113, 124, 130
+
+_Woman is a Weathercock, A_, 44
+
+women, importance of, in the Elizabethan age, 74-76, 80-82, 97-98,
+ 100-101, 125-126, 128
+
+Wood, Anthony a, 4, 5, 86
+
+Wyatt, 31
+
+Wycliff, 66
+
+Wynkyn de Worde, 66
+
+
+Zola, 75
+
+
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Lyly, by John Dover Wilson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LYLY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22525.txt or 22525.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/2/22525/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jana Srna and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+ the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+ you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
+ owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+ has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+ Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
+ must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+ prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+ returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+ sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+ address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+ the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+ you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+ does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+ License. You must require such a user to return or
+ destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+ and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+ Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+ money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+ electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+ of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+ distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+ Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+ Chief Executive and Director
+ gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+ http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/22525.zip b/22525.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d4aa87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/22525.zip
Binary files differ
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..131d57c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #22525 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22525)