theft. This conscience of mine maketh | bered amongst the finest geniuses of me presume to stand to all trials, either the time, and whom an enthusiastic of accounts or counsel; in the one I editor could describe twenty-six years never used falsehood, nor in the other after his death as "the only rare dissembling. My most humble suit, poet of that time, the wittie, comical, therefore, unto your lordship is that facetiously-quick and unparalleled John my accusations be not smothered and Lyly," should have been suffered to choaked in ye smoke, but that they languish in poverty and hope deferred may be tried in ye fire, and I will stand for thirteen years nay, most probably to the heat;" and much more to the during his whole life—prove how barsame effect. ren was the patronage Elizabeth exWhether or not Lyly succeeded in tended to literary men. Greene, Peele, clearing himself is not known. But he Marlowe, and others less known, but in was already one of the most famous all of whom burned the divine fire of writers of the day. 66 Euphues: the genius, lived in penury and died in Anatomie of Wit," was published in absolute want; and although it may be 1579, and in the following year the urged that these were men of evil and second part, 66 Euphues and his En- licentious lives, no such excuse can be gland," appeared. At the commence- alleged for the neglect of Edmund ment of 1584 he was writing comedies Spenser, or apparently for that of the for the court entertainments, and dur- subject of this memoir. In no age, not ing the next five years produced some even that of the second George, was eight or nine dramatic pieces. But all genius more neglected than under the this time he seems to have been more magnificent reign of Elizabeth. And, famous than fortunate. A petition to indeed, Lord Burleigh treated plays the queen, undated, but probably in- and poetry much as did the "dapper dited about 1590 (Harleian manuscript), George." It was under her muchsets forth how for ten long years he contemned successor that Shakespeare, had solicited, under promises, the ap- Edward Alleyn, and other poets and pointment of master of the revels, and players became men of substance; and how, if it were not speedily granted, that Bacon, who previously could not he must at court suffer shipwreck of obtain advancement, was raised to the his time without hope. That his hum-honors he merited.

ble prayers were not granted is proved But to return to Lyly. No one of by a second petition three years later, the present day would concede to him in which he writes: "My last will will be shorter than my invention but three legacies, patience to my creditors, melancholy without measure to my friends, and beggary without shame to my family. . . . The last and least, that if I be born to have nothing, I may have to pay nothing.”

the position accorded by his contemporaries; only the literary student would now have patience to sit down to the perusal of his writings, which have fallen into the oblivion that awaits all books composed only for the fashion of an age. 66 Euphues" is written in the form of a romance, although it has Whether this second appeal was or little or no story. The hero is an was not more fortunate than the first Athenian gentleman of large estate, is nowhere recorded. The next thir- who, at the opening of the book, jourteen years of his life is a blank, and neys to Naples, where he falls in with a then an entry in the parish register young Neapolitan named Philautus. of St. Bartholomew-the-Less completes So warm is the friendship that springs the story:"1606, Nov. 30, æt 52, John up between them that they lodge toLyllie, gent, was buried." That the gether, eat at one table, sleep in one author of the book so universally read | bed, and read from one book. Philauand admired, that one whom Ben Jon- tus is engaged to be married to Lucilla, son names with Beaumont, Marlowe, the daughter of Don Ferardo, one of and Shakespeare, whom others num-the governors of the city. He intro

Philautus becomes enam

duces his friend to his mistress. Lu- tion to journey to England, where he cilla falls desperately in love with the has heard "of a woman yat in all qualyoung Greek, and engages him in long ities excelleth any man.' At the openconversations upon the nature of love, ing of the second part, "Euphues and much like those to be found in the his England," the hero and Philautus, romances of Mlle. de Scuderi; and after crossing the sea, arrive at Dover, Euphues returns the passion with equal and presently travel on to London. ardor. This brings about a breach be- Here everything is painted couleur de tween the two friends. But Philautus rose, although not without a few satiris quickly avenged when his fickle mis-ical touches, but the usual fulsome flattress as suddenly transfers her affec- tery of the time is given to court and tions to another gentleman, named monarch. Curio, and marries him. After this oured of a lady named Camilla, who is the two injured suitors renew their described as "such an one she was, as friendship, "both abandoning Lucilla almost they all are that serve so noble as abominable. Philautus was earnest a prince; such virgins carry lights beto have Euphues tarry in Naples, and fore such a Vesta, such nymphs, arrows Euphues desirous to have Philautus to with such a Diana." But the lady Athens, but the one was so addicted loves another; and after having comto the court and the other so wedded posed many passionate epistles and to the university that each refused talked endlessly upon the nature of the offer of the other. Yet this they love, Philautus is induced to transfer agreed between themselves, that though his affections to a companion of the their bodies were by distance of place inexorable fair one, the Lady Flavia, severed, yet the conjunction of their who has from the first regarded him minds should neither be separated with favorable eyes. He marries her; by ye length of time, nor alienated while Euphues determines "to sojourn by change of soil." Then follows an in some uncouth place, until time might epistle from Euphues, the title of which turn white salt into fine sugar; for explains the subject: it is called "A surely he was both tormented in body cooling card for Philautus and all fond and grieved in mind." So he betakes lovers." him to the bottom of the Mountain Silixsedra," and so the book ends.

66

The falsehood of Lucilla has produced so deep an impression upon the Both the title and subject of Lyly's young Athenian that he determines famous novel were doubtless suggested "never again to be entangled with by a passage in Roger Ascham's such fond delights," and so, repenting" Schoolmaster" (published in 1570), of his misspent time, he resolves to in which he describes how "to choose give himself up to study and wisdom, a good wit in a child for learning." and thereupon composes a treatise upon He is to be "first euphues." The education. [“ Euphues and his Epho-author then goes on to describe what bus."] This was evidently inspired by he means by the word: "One apt by Roger Ascham's "Schoolmaster;" it is goodness of wit and readiness of will to admirably written and full of excellent instruction for the training of youth. It is worth noting, that in an age in which the rod was used with frightful brutality, Lyly opposed the corporal punishment of children. This treatise is followed by a number of letters, one of which, written to a friend to whom is given the very suggestive name of Atheos, is an eloquent and earnest defence of the Christian religion. The book ends with Euphues' determina

learning; a tongue ready to deliver the meaning of the mind; a voice soft but manlike, a countenance fair and comely, a person tall and goodly," etc. To which description our Euphues exactly corresponds.

John Lyly, however, although he invented the name, did not originate the sentiment which he called euphuism; for the beginning of that curious affectation we must go back to the days of chivalry, to the courts of love, those

curious tribunals presided over by lords | from the rich-born."

This passage

As no description can convey a just idea of Lyly's strange diction, I subjoin a few specimens, and will begin with an extract from one of Camilla's letters to Philautus:

and ladies, patronized by kings, queens, suggests the cause of Shakespeare's and emperors, in which, with all the supposed love of conceits in putting formulas of a court of justice, nice them into the mouths of all classes, questions in regard to love and the from the noble to the clown; he was relations of lovers towards each other but imitating the phraseology of the were discussed and adjudicated. A time. few years previous to the appearance of "The Anatomie of Wit," Du Bartas had produced his “Création du Monde, ou la Semaine," that curious poetic encyclopædia which treats of every created object from the stars to the smallest insect, and which, unless we go back to the writings of the neo-platonists, is one, if not the earliest, specimen of that pedantic jargon employed by Lyly. Just at this period, however, all European literature was infected with the same extraordinary craze; in Italy, Macini, and in Spain, Gongora,

I did long debate with myself, Philautus, whether it might stand with mine honor to send thee an answer, for comparing my place with thy person, we thought thy boldness more than either manners in thee would permit, or I with modesty could suffer. Yet at ye last, casting with myself, yat the heat of thy love might clean be eased with ye coldness of my letter, I thought it good to commit an inconvenience, yat I might prevent a mischief, choosing rather to cut thee off short by rigor, than to give thee any jot of hope by silence. Green sores are to be dressed roughly, least they fester; tetters to be drawn in the beginning, lest they spread; ringworms to be anointed when they first appear, least they compass ye old body, and the assaults of love to be beaten back at first siege, least they undermine at ye second. Fire is to be quenched in ye spark, weeds are to be rooted in ye bud,

abandoned the old classical forms of their languages for mere fantastic verbiage. Both were contemporaries of Lyly. Macini was born in 1569, and was consequently only nine years of age when "Euphues" was written; 1561 is the date of Gongora's birth, which makes him seventeen at the same period. It has been asserted that Lyly was indebted to both these authors for the suggestion of euphuism, an assertion which these dates follies in ye blossom. Thinking this mornrender in the one case impossible, and ing to try thy physic, I perceived thy fraud, in the other exceedingly improbable. inasmuch as the kernel yat should have But strained conceits and pedantic and cooled my stomach with moistness, hath super-refined modes of expression ob-kindled it into cholic, making a flaming fire tained at the English court before where it found but hot embers, converting, Lyly's time; he combined them into a like the spider, a sweet flower into a bitter system, caught the spirit of his age, poison, etc. became its interpreter, and the rage with every person, male or female, who aspired to fashion, or what we Thus, gentlewomen, Philautus resemshould now call the high-cult : "And bleth the viper, who being stricken with a he who spoke not euphuism," says a reed lieth as he were dead, but stricken contemporary, was as little regarded the second time, recovereth his strength; at court as if he could not speak French." Nash, in his introductory epistle to Greene's "Menaphon," comments upon this folly: "I am not ignorant," he says, "how eloquent our gowned age is grown of late, so that every mechanical mate abhorreth the English he was born to, and plucks with a solemn periphrasis his ut vales

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The effect of this epistle upon the rejected lover is thus described:

-

having his answer at the first in ye masque, he was almost amazed, and now again denied, he is animated, presuming thus much upon ye good disposition and kindness of women, that the higher they sit the lower they look, and the more they seem at the first to loathe, the more they love at the last. Whose judgment as I am not altogether to allow, so can I not in some respects mislike.

A short extract from Philautus's | So imitating his ridiculous tricks,

reply to Camilla will suffice to complete They spake and writ all like mere lunatics! these illustrations :

I am not he, Camilla, that will leave the rose because it pricked my finger, or forsake the gold that lieth in the hot fire, for that I burned my hand, or refuse the sweet chestnut for that it is covered with sharp husks. The mind of a faithful lover is neither to be daunted with despite nor affrighted with danger. For as the loadstone, what wind soever blow, turneth always to the north, or as Aristotle's Quadratus, which way soever you turn it, is always constant, so the faith of Philautus is evermore applied to the love of Camilla, neither to be removed by any wind, or rolled with any force. But to the letter. Thou sayest that green wounds are to be dressed roughly least they fester; certainly thou speakest like a good chirurgian, but dealest like one unskilful, for making a great wound, thou puttest in a small tent, cutting the flesh that is sound, before thou cure the place that is sore; striking the vein with a knife, which thou shouldest stop with lint. And so hast thou drawn my tetter (I use thine own term) that in seeking to spoil it in my chin thou hast spread it over my body.

Shakespeare is supposed to have aimed at the absurdities of euphuism in the characters of Armado and Holofernes. The former is described as A man in all the world's new fashions planted,

One

That hath a mint of phrases in his brain; whom the music of his own vain tongue

enchanting har

A man of fire-new words, fashion's own

knight.

But as he is further noted to be "a traveller of Spain," it would seem that the ridicule was directed rather at the affectations of foreign manners than at those of English growth, and the language used by Armado certainly bears very little resemblance to the phraseology of Lyly; 2 while the affectations of Holofernes are the pedantries of the schoolmaster, who, vain of his Latin and learning, despises the knight as being "too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate." "I abhor such fanatical These examples are fair specimens fantasms, such insociable and pointof the style of the entire book; the chief characteristics of which, as the devise companions; such rackers of reader will perceive, are alliteration, orthography, as to speak 'dout,' fine, when he should say doubt; 'det,' forced antitheses, extraordinary, somewhen he should pronounce debt times uncouth, and not over-delicate d, e, b, t; he clepeth a calf, cauf similes, poured forth with astounding half, hauf; neighbour vocatur nebour, prodigality from stores of quaint learn-half, hauf; neighbour vocatur nebour, "" etc.' This passage is curious, as showing, chiefly drawn from the fabulous accounts of the animal, vegetable, and ing the rise of our modern pronunciamineral kingdoms contained in Pliny's Natural History. Both censure and ridicule were freely bestowed upon this jargon by Lyly's contemporaries. Michael Drayton, in one of his elegies, praises Sydney as being the first

tion.

;

Fastidious Brisk, in Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humor," is usually quoted as a satire upon the euphuists; but, if it be so, the imitation is as far

The love of the English for foreign modes was a favorite subject of satire among the wits of the time. Here is a specimen from Lyly's "Euphues in England: ""The attire they use is rather led by the imitation of others than in their own invention, so that there is nothing in England more constant than the inconstancy of attire, now using the French fashion, now the Spanish, then the Morisco gowns, then one thing, then another, insomuch that in drawing of an Englishman ye painter setteth him down naked, having in ye one hand a pair of shears, and in the other a piece of cloth, who having cut his collar after the French guise, is ready to make his sleeve after the Barba

rian manner,"

fetched images of the master are there outdone, but clothed in a rugged, uncouth style that contrasts most unfavorably with the mellifluous flow of the original. Donne was followed by Cowley, who was the last of the euphuists.

Between 1579 and 1636" Euphues passed through ten editions. During the troublous times of the rebellion and the rigid theocracy of the Commonwealth, men's minds were not attuned to such idle fancies, and the roisterers of the Restoration had no sympathy with such refined and sublimated theories of love.

from the original as that of Shake- whose erotic poems the absurdities of speare. Brisk is described as a "fresh euphuism may be said to have culmiFrenchified courtier," which again nated; the quaint conceits and farpoints to a foreign source. Carlo calls him a "nimble-spirited catsos". - an Italian expression of contempt who "dance and do tricks in their discourse, from fire to water, from water to air, from air to earth, as if their tongues did but e'en lick the four elements over, and away." There is, however, little or no attempt to realize these peculiarities in the dialogue assigned to this character. That both Shakespeare and Jonson could have brought their satire close to the original cannot be doubted; why, then, did they purposely shoot wide of the mark? It is a curious fact that we do not remember Just about the time that euphuism to have seen noted before, that none of was on the wane in England the socithe dramatists have attempted a picture | ety of the Hôtel de Rambouillet was in of the female euphuists; surely crabbed its full meridian in France. That the old Ben would have delighted in such précieuse was but the euphuist under a subject. Was euphuism too much another name goes for the saying, and affected by the queen and the court to that the French craze was borrowed as be openly attacked? The reticence of much from the English court as from the poets might be thus explained. the examples of Spain and Italy, must be evident to every person acquainted with the literary history of the time. Antonio Perez, the famous minister of Philip the Second, a man steeped in the literary cultivation of his age and nation, having fallen into disgrace with his royal master, took shelter in England, where he probably made Lyly's acquaintance, but most certainly adopted the fashionable jargon that writer had brought into vogue. Perez was a constant correspondent of the Marquis de Pisani, the father of Catherine de Vivonne, afterwards Duchesse de Rambouillet, and his letters were very models of euphuism. He afterwards passed over to France, became Henry the Fourth's instructor in the Spanish language, and exercised an immense influence upon the literary society of the nation. But even without the interposition of such special agents we have the close relations which subsisted between the two courts to support the theory.

Robert Greene produced two imitations of "Euphues," in his novel entitled "Menaphon: Camilla's Alarm to Slumbering Euphues in his cell at Silixsedra; " and in "Euphues, his Censure to Philautus" (1589). In the former, our author's style is imitated with marvellous fidelity; but the story has nothing to do with the original, or with any of Lyly's characters. The latter is simply a treatise upon the duties of a soldier, and has for its second title "Sophomachia: a Philosophical Combat between Hector and Achilles." Lodge's "Rosalynde," from which Shakespeare took the plot of "As you Like It," is further entitled "Euphues' Golden Legacy, found after his death in his cell at Silixsedra." But after the introduction we have no more of the supposed author, who plays only the part of prologue. That writers of such repute as Greene and Lodge should court public favor by such devices, proves incontestably the high estimation in which Lyly's romance was held. Notable among later imitators of its style was Dr. Donne, in

As a dramatist Lyly was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Francis Meres, in his "Palladis Tamia," 1598.