diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-0.txt | 5473 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 112113 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-8.txt | 5473 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 112021 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 124055 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-h/22525-h.htm | 6363 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f001.png | bin | 0 -> 10734 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f002.png | bin | 0 -> 5601 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f003.png | bin | 0 -> 38627 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f004.png | bin | 0 -> 53313 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f005.png | bin | 0 -> 23675 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f006.png | bin | 0 -> 27113 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f007.png | bin | 0 -> 49739 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f008.png | bin | 0 -> 58796 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f009.png | bin | 0 -> 58928 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f010.png | bin | 0 -> 58450 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f011.png | bin | 0 -> 59851 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f012.png | bin | 0 -> 60211 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f013.png | bin | 0 -> 61973 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f014.png | bin | 0 -> 60640 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/f015.png | bin | 0 -> 60139 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p010.png | bin | 0 -> 43217 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p011.png | bin | 0 -> 60995 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p012.png | bin | 0 -> 61057 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p013.png | bin | 0 -> 59375 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p014.png | bin | 0 -> 58077 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p015.png | bin | 0 -> 60920 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p016.png | bin | 0 -> 59306 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p017.png | bin | 0 -> 62504 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p018.png | bin | 0 -> 61601 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p019.png | bin | 0 -> 58946 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p020.png | bin | 0 -> 60277 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p021.png | bin | 0 -> 56557 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p022.png | bin | 0 -> 61006 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p023.png | bin | 0 -> 60810 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p024.png | bin | 0 -> 60925 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p025.png | bin | 0 -> 57178 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p026.png | bin | 0 -> 57629 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p027.png | bin | 0 -> 61332 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p028.png | bin | 0 -> 59526 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p029.png | bin | 0 -> 60070 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p030.png | bin | 0 -> 59272 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p031.png | bin | 0 -> 59974 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p032.png | bin | 0 -> 60714 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p033.png | bin | 0 -> 63613 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p034.png | bin | 0 -> 59520 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p035.png | bin | 0 -> 63481 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p036.png | bin | 0 -> 59065 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p037.png | bin | 0 -> 57908 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p038.png | bin | 0 -> 56275 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p039.png | bin | 0 -> 60894 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p040.png | bin | 0 -> 60106 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p041.png | bin | 0 -> 58888 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p042.png | bin | 0 -> 59274 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p043.png | bin | 0 -> 56660 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p044.png | bin | 0 -> 49294 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p045.png | bin | 0 -> 55171 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p046.png | bin | 0 -> 56213 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p047.png | bin | 0 -> 57744 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p048.png | bin | 0 -> 60613 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p049.png | bin | 0 -> 60597 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p050.png | bin | 0 -> 60850 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p051.png | bin | 0 -> 60943 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p052.png | bin | 0 -> 54605 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p053.png | bin | 0 -> 60375 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p054.png | bin | 0 -> 58561 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p055.png | bin | 0 -> 58951 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p056.png | bin | 0 -> 56922 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p057.png | bin | 0 -> 60867 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p058.png | bin | 0 -> 58983 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p059.png | bin | 0 -> 59756 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p060.png | bin | 0 -> 60195 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p061.png | bin | 0 -> 59697 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p062.png | bin | 0 -> 55128 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p063.png | bin | 0 -> 14495 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p064.png | bin | 0 -> 40701 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p065.png | bin | 0 -> 58286 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p066.png | bin | 0 -> 62525 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p067.png | bin | 0 -> 59352 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p068.png | bin | 0 -> 61017 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p069.png | bin | 0 -> 61277 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p070.png | bin | 0 -> 56638 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p071.png | bin | 0 -> 56857 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p072.png | bin | 0 -> 60407 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p073.png | bin | 0 -> 61913 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p074.png | bin | 0 -> 60416 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p075.png | bin | 0 -> 60283 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p076.png | bin | 0 -> 61046 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p077.png | bin | 0 -> 61402 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p078.png | bin | 0 -> 58697 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p079.png | bin | 0 -> 61244 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p080.png | bin | 0 -> 58611 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p081.png | bin | 0 -> 59404 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p082.png | bin | 0 -> 61214 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p083.png | bin | 0 -> 62619 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p084.png | bin | 0 -> 53018 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p085.png | bin | 0 -> 45341 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p086.png | bin | 0 -> 60611 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p087.png | bin | 0 -> 62508 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p088.png | bin | 0 -> 57597 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p089.png | bin | 0 -> 50109 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p090.png | bin | 0 -> 60025 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p091.png | bin | 0 -> 57664 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p092.png | bin | 0 -> 58058 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p093.png | bin | 0 -> 63411 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p094.png | bin | 0 -> 55404 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p095.png | bin | 0 -> 62474 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p096.png | bin | 0 -> 61151 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p097.png | bin | 0 -> 62039 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p098.png | bin | 0 -> 58427 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p099.png | bin | 0 -> 64974 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p100.png | bin | 0 -> 61406 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p101.png | bin | 0 -> 63274 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p102.png | bin | 0 -> 61113 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p103.png | bin | 0 -> 59707 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p104.png | bin | 0 -> 59481 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p105.png | bin | 0 -> 60258 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p106.png | bin | 0 -> 43028 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p107.png | bin | 0 -> 62137 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p108.png | bin | 0 -> 61932 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p109.png | bin | 0 -> 62017 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p110.png | bin | 0 -> 59723 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p111.png | bin | 0 -> 60886 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p112.png | bin | 0 -> 61481 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p113.png | bin | 0 -> 59004 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p114.png | bin | 0 -> 60434 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p115.png | bin | 0 -> 62087 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p116.png | bin | 0 -> 61784 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p117.png | bin | 0 -> 57323 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p118.png | bin | 0 -> 45433 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p119.png | bin | 0 -> 59330 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p120.png | bin | 0 -> 58431 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p121.png | bin | 0 -> 61513 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p122.png | bin | 0 -> 62702 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p123.png | bin | 0 -> 60887 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p124.png | bin | 0 -> 63898 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p125.png | bin | 0 -> 60137 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p126.png | bin | 0 -> 58902 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p127.png | bin | 0 -> 61815 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p128.png | bin | 0 -> 62032 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p129.png | bin | 0 -> 61709 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p130.png | bin | 0 -> 59854 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p131.png | bin | 0 -> 32369 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p132.png | bin | 0 -> 41549 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p133.png | bin | 0 -> 60745 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p134.png | bin | 0 -> 62441 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p135.png | bin | 0 -> 58843 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p136.png | bin | 0 -> 60845 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p137.png | bin | 0 -> 60139 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p138.png | bin | 0 -> 62920 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p139.png | bin | 0 -> 60734 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p140.png | bin | 0 -> 36241 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p141.png | bin | 0 -> 41274 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p142.png | bin | 0 -> 37354 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p143.png | bin | 0 -> 42604 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p144.png | bin | 0 -> 51086 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p145.png | bin | 0 -> 47585 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p146.png | bin | 0 -> 53357 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p147.png | bin | 0 -> 52119 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525-page-images/p148.png | bin | 0 -> 26481 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525.txt | 5473 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 22525.zip | bin | 0 -> 111925 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
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 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..692ec88 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-0.zip 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 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3c2bd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-8.zip diff --git a/22525-h.zip b/22525-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d34394 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-h.zip 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 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 +<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—Sketch of Lyly's life <span class="page"> 1</span> + </div></li> + <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a> + <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">Euphuism</span> <span class="page"> 10</span> + <ul class="sections"> + <li><a href="#Section_I_I">Section I.</a> The Anatomy of Euphuism <span class="page"> 13</span></li> + <li><a href="#Section_I_II">Section II.</a> The Origins of Euphuism <span class="page"> 21</span></li> + <li><a href="#Section_I_III">Section III.</a> Lyly's Legatees and the relation between Euphuism and the Renaissance <span class="page"> 43</span></li> + <li><a href="#Section_I_IV">Section IV.</a> The position of Euphuism in the history of English prose <span class="page"> 52</span></li> + </ul></div> + </li> + <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a> + <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">The First English Novel</span> <span class="page"> 64</span> + <div class="desc">The rise of the Novel—the characteristics of <cite>The + Anatomy of Wit</cite> and <cite>Euphues and his England</cite>—the + Elizabethan Novel.</div> + </div> + </li> + <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a> + <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">Lyly the Dramatist</span> <span class="page"> 85</span> + <ul class="sections"> + <li><a href="#Section_III_I">Section I.</a> English Comedy before 1580 <span class="page"> 89</span></li> + <li><a href="#Section_III_II">Section II.</a> The Eight Plays <span class="page"> 98</span></li> + <li><a href="#Section_III_III">Section III.</a> Lyly's advance and subsequent influence <span class="page"> 119</span></li> + </ul></div> + </li> + <li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a> + <div class="chap-desc"><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span> <span class="page"> 132</span><br/> + <div class="desc">Lyly's Character—Summary.</div> + <div style="white-space: nowrap; padding-top: 1em;"><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span> <span class="page"> 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 à 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—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 <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—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.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER 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>—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—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 +<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 régime</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 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> (1880–82). 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—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—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>—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 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 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 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<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 Tórmes</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 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<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 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">Athenæum</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 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 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.… 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 señoria</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. 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<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 +Réné 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—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—"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——." 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="Euphuês" 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"—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.… A tendency of an almost directly +opposite kind is the balance of sentences which he +imitates from Classical models.… 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 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. 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">"—Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Yet might she love me for my proper body.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">—Yet might she love me in despite of all.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(the lady herself)—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"—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 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 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 +<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—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 régime</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 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—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 +<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,—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,—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—"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—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—the personality of the fop of +culture.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER 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. 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,—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 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 <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 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—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 <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—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 <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. 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—"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 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 <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 … 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—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,—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 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—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 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 <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 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 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.</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—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">métier</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 … 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 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,—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 <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.… 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—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—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," +<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—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—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 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"—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 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.</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—</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—</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—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 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 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 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" …<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!"—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—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—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—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.</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—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 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 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. 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—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.</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 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—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, +<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—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.</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. 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. 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. G.</span> John Lyly and Euphuism. <cite lang="de" xml:lang="de">Münchener Beiträge</cite> <span class="smcap">vii</span>.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Craik, Sir 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 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> 1880–2.</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">Athenæum</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 âge.</span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Lyly.</span> Euphues. Arber's English Reprints.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Macaulay, G. 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">Mézières.</span> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Prédécesseurs 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. <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. 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—Philosophy of Style.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Symonds, J. 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 A. W.</span> English Dramatic Literature. 3 Vols.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Ward, Mrs 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 R. F.</span> On Euphuism. <cite>Phil. Soc. Trans.</cite> 1870–2.</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>Alençon, 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. <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">Athenæum</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. 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, Réné, <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. 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>–<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 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. 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>–<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>–<a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>–<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>–<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>–<a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> +<li><cite>Edward 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>–<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. Raleigh)</li> +<li><cite>English Novel in the time of Shakespeare, The</cite> (v. 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>–<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>–<a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + <li><cite>Euphues and his England</cite>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>–<a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + </ol></li> + <li>dedication of, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>–<a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + <li>distinction between the two parts, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>–<a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> + <li>Elizabethan reputation of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>–<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>–<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>–<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>–<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. <cite>Euphues</cite>)</li> +<li><cite>Euphues and his Ephoebus</cite>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>–<a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> +<li>Euphuism + <ul class="index-sub"> + <li>analysis of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>–<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>–<a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>–<a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + <li>imitators of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>–<a href="#Page_46">46</a></li> + <li>origins of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>–<a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> + <li>Oxford and, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>–<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>–<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>–<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>–<a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + <li>Renaissance and, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>–<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>–<a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> + <li>Spain and, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>–<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>–<a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>–<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>–<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 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 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>–<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 Tórmes</cite>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> +<li>Lee, Sidney, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>–<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. 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>–<a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + <li>compared with Marlowe, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<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>friends of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>–<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>–<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>–<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>–<a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + <li>life, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>–<a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>–<a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>–<a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>–<a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + <li>novelist, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>–<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>–<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>–<a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>–<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>–<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>–<a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>–<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>–<a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>–<a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + <li>prose, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>–<a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>–<a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>–<a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + <li>reputation, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>–<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>–<a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="index"> +<li>Macaulay, G. 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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>–<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. Vere, Edward 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 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. 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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<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>–<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</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_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. 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. 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 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>–<a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>–<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>–<a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>–<a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>–<a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> +<li>Wood, Anthony à, <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 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. 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. 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. 2; Baker, p. 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. 676.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 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. 6. But Baker, pp. 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. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> Baker, p. 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. 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. 436) implies a term of residence there. Baker, p. 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. 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. 6–20, 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. 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., 1870–2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> Child, p. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="label">[19]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="label">[20]</a> Child, p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="label">[21]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="label">[22]</a> Jusserand, p. 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" href="#FNanchor_23_23" class="label">[23]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 402.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" href="#FNanchor_24_24" class="label">[24]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" href="#FNanchor_25_25" class="label">[25]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 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 âge</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. 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. 299.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" href="#FNanchor_29_29" class="label">[29]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 248.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" href="#FNanchor_30_30" class="label">[30]</a> Underhill, p. 339.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" href="#FNanchor_31_31" class="label">[31]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 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. 48, but see Martin Hume, ch. <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. 158, and Martin Hume, p. 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" href="#FNanchor_34_34" class="label">[34]</a> Martin Hume, p. 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. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" href="#FNanchor_36_36" class="label">[36]</a> Underhill, p. 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. 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" href="#FNanchor_38_38" class="label">[38]</a> Craik, vol. <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. <span class="smcap">viii</span>. § 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. 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. 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">Athenæum</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. M. Cat.: "<cite>A looking-glass for the court</cite> … out of +Castilian drawne into French by A. Alaygre; and out of the French into +English by Sir F. Briant."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" href="#FNanchor_45_45" class="label">[45]</a> Huon, p. 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. xxviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" href="#FNanchor_47_47" class="label">[47]</a> Huon, p. 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. C. Macaulay, +in the Introduction to the Globe <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Froissart</cite>, 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' <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. 1855, vol. <span class="smcap">i</span>. p. 403 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. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" href="#FNanchor_52_52" class="label">[52]</a> Bond, vol. <span class="smcap">i</span>. p. 137.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" href="#FNanchor_53_53" class="label">[53]</a> For 18th century v. 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. <span class="smcap">i</span>. p. 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" href="#FNanchor_55_55" class="label">[55]</a> Craik, p. 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. 35.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" href="#FNanchor_57_57" class="label">[57]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 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. 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. <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. <span class="smcap">i</span>. pp. 164–175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" href="#FNanchor_63_63" class="label">[63]</a> Act <span class="smcap">i</span>. Sc. <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 <span class="smcap">iv</span>. 190 (cp. <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 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 <span class="smcap">iii</span>. 130 (cp. <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 100), and Act <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. 288, and ch. <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 <span class="smcap">ii</span>. 1–8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" href="#FNanchor_68_68" class="label">[68]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 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. 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. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" href="#FNanchor_71_71" class="label">[71]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" href="#FNanchor_72_72" class="label">[72]</a> Symonds, p. 407.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" href="#FNanchor_73_73" class="label">[73]</a> <abbr>id.</abbr>, p. 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. 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. 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" href="#FNanchor_76_76" class="label">[76]</a> Cf. Earle, pp. 422, 423.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" href="#FNanchor_77_77" class="label">[77]</a> Earle, p. 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. 60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" href="#FNanchor_79_79" class="label">[79]</a> Raleigh, p. 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. 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" href="#FNanchor_81_81" class="label">[81]</a> Raleigh, p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" href="#FNanchor_82_82" class="label">[82]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" href="#FNanchor_83_83" class="label">[83]</a> Child, p. 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. 146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" href="#FNanchor_85_85" class="label">[85]</a> H. 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. 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. 154–156.</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. 156–159.</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. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" href="#FNanchor_90_90" class="label">[90]</a> <cite>Schoolmaster</cite>, p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" href="#FNanchor_91_91" class="label">[91]</a> <cite>Euphues</cite>, p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" href="#FNanchor_92_92" class="label">[92]</a> Jusserand, p. 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. 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. 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. lxxxviii, places <cite>Endymion</cite> as early as Sept. 1579. Bond, +vol. <span class="smcap">iii</span>. p. 10, attempts to disprove Baker's contention, and in vol. <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p. 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. 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 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. 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. 161.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" href="#FNanchor_102_102" class="label">[102]</a> Gayley, p. lxiv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" href="#FNanchor_103_103" class="label">[103]</a> Symonds, p. 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. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" href="#FNanchor_105_105" class="label">[105]</a> Gayley, p. 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. 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. 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. 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 <span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc. <span class="smcap">iv</span>. 60–85.</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 <span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc. <span class="smcap">ii</span>. ll. 30–60.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" href="#FNanchor_119_119" class="label">[119]</a> Cp. 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>. 85–193.</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. 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. 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. 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. 36, <span class="smcap">ii</span>. p. 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 <span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc. <span class="smcap">iii</span>. 1–14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" href="#FNanchor_126_126" class="label">[126]</a> <cite>Campaspe</cite>, Act <span class="smcap">v</span>. Sc. <span class="smcap">i</span>. 32–44. 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. 265–266.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" href="#FNanchor_129_129" class="label">[129]</a> <cite>Campaspe</cite>, Act <span class="smcap">iii</span>. Sc. <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. 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. 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. 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. 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 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cddceb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f001.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f002.png b/22525-page-images/f002.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2f5b91 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f002.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f003.png b/22525-page-images/f003.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecd957f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f003.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f004.png b/22525-page-images/f004.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5432760 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f004.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f005.png b/22525-page-images/f005.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..be77c50 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f005.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f006.png b/22525-page-images/f006.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..88e6eaa --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f006.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f007.png b/22525-page-images/f007.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4a5eef --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f007.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f008.png b/22525-page-images/f008.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d89ad9c --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f008.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f009.png b/22525-page-images/f009.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f63fcc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f009.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f010.png b/22525-page-images/f010.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..87e4420 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f010.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f011.png b/22525-page-images/f011.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b411820 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f011.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f012.png b/22525-page-images/f012.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb436b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f012.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f013.png b/22525-page-images/f013.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b4f4e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f013.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f014.png b/22525-page-images/f014.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e0fe9e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f014.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/f015.png b/22525-page-images/f015.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..67da037 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/f015.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p010.png b/22525-page-images/p010.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd0c7ae --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p010.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p011.png b/22525-page-images/p011.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1d0c4f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p011.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p012.png b/22525-page-images/p012.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8758e5d --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p012.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p013.png b/22525-page-images/p013.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1d1189 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p013.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p014.png b/22525-page-images/p014.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f57b242 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p014.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p015.png b/22525-page-images/p015.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e45acec --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p015.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p016.png b/22525-page-images/p016.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bf49e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p016.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p017.png b/22525-page-images/p017.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a96be10 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p017.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p018.png b/22525-page-images/p018.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..62f3eff --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p018.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p019.png b/22525-page-images/p019.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e034da2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p019.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p020.png b/22525-page-images/p020.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de925ac --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p020.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p021.png b/22525-page-images/p021.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..87d456f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p021.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p022.png b/22525-page-images/p022.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d4d84b --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p022.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p023.png b/22525-page-images/p023.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4feb0cb --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p023.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p024.png b/22525-page-images/p024.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7426f2e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p024.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p025.png b/22525-page-images/p025.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee18540 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p025.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p026.png b/22525-page-images/p026.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bde44f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p026.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p027.png b/22525-page-images/p027.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bc6d20 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p027.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p028.png b/22525-page-images/p028.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8184ac3 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p028.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p029.png b/22525-page-images/p029.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..136af68 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p029.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p030.png b/22525-page-images/p030.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5777eb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p030.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p031.png b/22525-page-images/p031.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed1c309 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p031.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p032.png b/22525-page-images/p032.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69ba597 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p032.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p033.png b/22525-page-images/p033.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef49f3a --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p033.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p034.png b/22525-page-images/p034.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9312d32 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p034.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p035.png b/22525-page-images/p035.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba6ae32 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p035.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p036.png b/22525-page-images/p036.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5438bb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p036.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p037.png b/22525-page-images/p037.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..28066f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p037.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p038.png b/22525-page-images/p038.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..59b131b --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p038.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p039.png b/22525-page-images/p039.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3628353 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p039.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p040.png b/22525-page-images/p040.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a3a150 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p040.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p041.png b/22525-page-images/p041.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..969c692 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p041.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p042.png b/22525-page-images/p042.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddd4c33 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p042.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p043.png b/22525-page-images/p043.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..267b2da --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p043.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p044.png b/22525-page-images/p044.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..056e61e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p044.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p045.png b/22525-page-images/p045.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a14d8a --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p045.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p046.png b/22525-page-images/p046.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a8ac06 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p046.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p047.png b/22525-page-images/p047.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed57472 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p047.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p048.png b/22525-page-images/p048.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5185d22 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p048.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p049.png b/22525-page-images/p049.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f943675 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p049.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p050.png b/22525-page-images/p050.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..22e1186 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p050.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p051.png b/22525-page-images/p051.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..33cb931 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p051.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p052.png b/22525-page-images/p052.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a21f5a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p052.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p053.png b/22525-page-images/p053.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1fd0041 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p053.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p054.png b/22525-page-images/p054.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1b1703 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p054.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p055.png b/22525-page-images/p055.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c564f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p055.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p056.png b/22525-page-images/p056.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea9a392 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p056.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p057.png b/22525-page-images/p057.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f761e7b --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p057.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p058.png b/22525-page-images/p058.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bb2d9b --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p058.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p059.png b/22525-page-images/p059.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..efa00b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p059.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p060.png b/22525-page-images/p060.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e357f5f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p060.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p061.png b/22525-page-images/p061.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3384f22 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p061.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p062.png b/22525-page-images/p062.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..744be33 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p062.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p063.png b/22525-page-images/p063.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..781c34d --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p063.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p064.png b/22525-page-images/p064.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3212dad --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p064.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p065.png b/22525-page-images/p065.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a86608 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p065.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p066.png b/22525-page-images/p066.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9530aa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p066.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p067.png b/22525-page-images/p067.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de3a2bf --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p067.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p068.png b/22525-page-images/p068.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e09488 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p068.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p069.png b/22525-page-images/p069.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d89cdf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p069.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p070.png b/22525-page-images/p070.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20e87f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p070.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p071.png b/22525-page-images/p071.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..54facd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p071.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p072.png b/22525-page-images/p072.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbfeac9 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p072.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p073.png b/22525-page-images/p073.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f0c34e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p073.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p074.png b/22525-page-images/p074.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a345f68 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p074.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p075.png b/22525-page-images/p075.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..503094c --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p075.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p076.png b/22525-page-images/p076.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c46119 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p076.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p077.png b/22525-page-images/p077.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8669a8b --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p077.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p078.png b/22525-page-images/p078.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..92e2d2d --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p078.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p079.png b/22525-page-images/p079.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7dda24 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p079.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p080.png b/22525-page-images/p080.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac73a47 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p080.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p081.png b/22525-page-images/p081.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2610a3f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p081.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p082.png b/22525-page-images/p082.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..21c7128 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p082.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p083.png b/22525-page-images/p083.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..52e9fa3 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p083.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p084.png b/22525-page-images/p084.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eed4db --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p084.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p085.png b/22525-page-images/p085.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..befe94b --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p085.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p086.png b/22525-page-images/p086.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9e0ffe --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p086.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p087.png b/22525-page-images/p087.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad2eeb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p087.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p088.png b/22525-page-images/p088.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0715ec --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p088.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p089.png b/22525-page-images/p089.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8206c95 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p089.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p090.png b/22525-page-images/p090.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a6cfd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p090.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p091.png b/22525-page-images/p091.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e5b355 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p091.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p092.png b/22525-page-images/p092.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f1de4e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p092.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p093.png b/22525-page-images/p093.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..598f49a --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p093.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p094.png b/22525-page-images/p094.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e39ffd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p094.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p095.png b/22525-page-images/p095.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d88f3e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p095.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p096.png b/22525-page-images/p096.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb0fcfc --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p096.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p097.png b/22525-page-images/p097.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f5fb51 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p097.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p098.png b/22525-page-images/p098.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e8d92f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p098.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p099.png b/22525-page-images/p099.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3442b43 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p099.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p100.png b/22525-page-images/p100.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0401c07 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p100.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p101.png b/22525-page-images/p101.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9074325 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p101.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p102.png b/22525-page-images/p102.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fb7239 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p102.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p103.png b/22525-page-images/p103.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c38eb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p103.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p104.png b/22525-page-images/p104.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5726f4e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p104.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p105.png b/22525-page-images/p105.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4e294e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p105.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p106.png b/22525-page-images/p106.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5770884 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p106.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p107.png b/22525-page-images/p107.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..728ff66 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p107.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p108.png b/22525-page-images/p108.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..95bd821 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p108.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p109.png b/22525-page-images/p109.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..62cce90 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p109.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p110.png b/22525-page-images/p110.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..007597d --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p110.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p111.png b/22525-page-images/p111.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..36fa1ce --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p111.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p112.png b/22525-page-images/p112.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4cf9b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p112.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p113.png b/22525-page-images/p113.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e37058 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p113.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p114.png b/22525-page-images/p114.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e396d6d --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p114.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p115.png b/22525-page-images/p115.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..99e5def --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p115.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p116.png b/22525-page-images/p116.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d795082 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p116.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p117.png b/22525-page-images/p117.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94bd171 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p117.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p118.png b/22525-page-images/p118.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..41e7a54 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p118.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p119.png b/22525-page-images/p119.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8842b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p119.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p120.png b/22525-page-images/p120.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c2e88e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p120.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p121.png b/22525-page-images/p121.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..be7702e --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p121.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p122.png b/22525-page-images/p122.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ac0218 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p122.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p123.png b/22525-page-images/p123.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..342270d --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p123.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p124.png b/22525-page-images/p124.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..191e581 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p124.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p125.png b/22525-page-images/p125.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9eae0af --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p125.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p126.png b/22525-page-images/p126.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c24ca72 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p126.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p127.png b/22525-page-images/p127.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b35b49 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p127.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p128.png b/22525-page-images/p128.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..508d190 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p128.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p129.png b/22525-page-images/p129.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecf5db2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p129.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p130.png b/22525-page-images/p130.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..96a2d9f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p130.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p131.png b/22525-page-images/p131.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..51610df --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p131.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p132.png b/22525-page-images/p132.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfbfc98 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p132.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p133.png b/22525-page-images/p133.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dcf149 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p133.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p134.png b/22525-page-images/p134.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..82a4a60 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p134.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p135.png b/22525-page-images/p135.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa89042 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p135.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p136.png b/22525-page-images/p136.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..293bbcf --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p136.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p137.png b/22525-page-images/p137.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..71b1222 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p137.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p138.png b/22525-page-images/p138.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c1c640 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p138.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p139.png b/22525-page-images/p139.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7345597 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p139.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p140.png b/22525-page-images/p140.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c27566 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p140.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p141.png b/22525-page-images/p141.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da91d5c --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p141.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p142.png b/22525-page-images/p142.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ad8ab2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p142.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p143.png b/22525-page-images/p143.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f264a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p143.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p144.png b/22525-page-images/p144.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bbf5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p144.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p145.png b/22525-page-images/p145.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e31b78f --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p145.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p146.png b/22525-page-images/p146.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6a8e02 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p146.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p147.png b/22525-page-images/p147.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a5ebdd --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p147.png diff --git a/22525-page-images/p148.png b/22525-page-images/p148.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..463ad01 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525-page-images/p148.png 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 Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d4aa87 --- /dev/null +++ b/22525.zip 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) |
