Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/335

 de Tristibus, wherein shall be seen patience labours and misfortunes,' and suggests that he should be released from the demands of his creditors.

In 1597 Lyly contributed Latin verses in the queen's praise to the 'Ecclesiastes' of his friend Henry Lok [q. v.], and saw through the press three plays in 1597, 1600, and 1601, respectively. 'John Lyllie, gent.' was buried 'in the church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less on 30 Nov. 1606. Nashe describes him as a small man and a confirmed tobacco-smoker. He was married. A son John was baptised at St. Bartholomew's Church on 10 Sept. 1596, and was buried at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, 27 Aug. 1597. Another son John was baptised at St. Bartholomew's, 3 July 1600, and a daughter, Frances, 21 May 1603.

'Euphues,' Lyly's chief work, appeared in two parts. The first, 'Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit,' was licensed to the printer, Gabriel Cawood, on 2 Dec. 1578, and was published the next year. Of this edition a copy, believed to be unique, belongs to Professor Henry Horley, and wants the title-page. A second edition, corrected and augmented, appeared later in 1575. A copy is in the Bodleian Library. The title-page begins; 'Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit. Verse pleasaunt for all Gentlemen to read and most necessarie to remember;' and it is dedicated to Sir William West, Earl de la Warr. Other editions of the first part are dated 1581 (Brit. Mus.), 1585, 1597 (Brit. Mus.), 1607 (ib.), 1613 (ib.), 1617 (ib.), 1623 (ib. ) and 1636 (ib.) The second part, called 'Euphues and his England,' was licensed to Cawood on 24 July 1579, and was twice issued in 1580 as 'Euphues and his England, containing his Voyage and Aduentures, myxed with sundry pretie Discourses of honest Loue, the Discription of the Countrey, the Court, and the Manners of that Isle.' It is dedicated to Edward de Vere, earl of Oxford. A unique copy of the first 1580 edition belongs to Mr. Morley and a unique copy of the second 1580 edition to the Bodleian Library. Later editions are dated 1582, 1585, 1597 (Brit. Mus.), 1603, 1613, 1617, 1623, 1631, and 1636. Editions of the first part, dated 1580, 1626, and 1630, and of the second part dated 1581 are mentioned by Malone; they are not now known to be extant. Careful reprints of the earliest editions of both parts were issued by Professor Arber in 1868, and by Dr. Friedrich Landmann at Heilbronn in 1887.

A Dutch translation appeared at Rotterdam in 1671 ('De vermakelijke Historie, Zeean Landreise van Euphues'), and was reissued at Amsterdam in 1682. A modernised version, entitled 'Euphues and Lucilla, or the False Friend and the Inconstant Mistress' to which is added 'Ephœbus, or Instructions for the Education of Youth,' appeared in London in 1716. A new edition of 1718 was called 'The False Friend and Inconstant Mistress, an instructive Novel, to which is added "Love's Diversion."' Both editions were dedicated to Lord de la Warr.

'Euphues' is a very tedious story, relating the adventures, correspondence, and conversations of a young gentleman of Athens, who gives his name to the work, and of his friend Philautus, a native of Naples. The young men are engaged in the pursuit of a strictly moral training. The scene of the first part is laid in Naples, that of the second part in England. There is practically no action, and the author mainly discusses educational or religious problems, love, and the proper conduct of life. The section on education, called 'Euphues and his Ephœbua,' is directly borrowed from Plutarch on 'Education' (cf., Philosophie, transl. Holland, 1608, pp. 2 sq.) When treating of England, the author introduces some shrewd comments on the extravagances of his contemporaries' fashions of dress. But the leading interest of the book lies in its prose style, which is chiefly characterised by a continuous straining after antithesis and epigram. Lyly, when enforcing bis sententious moralisings, delights in long series of short parallel sentences, all in the same syntactical form, and embodying fantastic similes drawn from natural history or classical mythology. Pliny's 'Natural History' appears to have supplied him with many of his illustrations, as Plutarch supplied him with much of his sentiment. He had at the same time an ear for alliteration, and was liberal in the use of the rhetorical question.

The monotonous structure of his sentences wearies the modern reader. In his own day the novelty of his style was generally acknowledged, and received the name of 'Euphuism.' Its source has been much disputed. There is nothing inherent in Lyly's pedantry to confute the simple theory that it was the unaided outcome of his own ingenuity. The age encouraged experiments in literary forms, and contemporary verse-writers were in the habit of inventing eccentric metres in order to give their readers novel sensations. But Lyly's originality as the inventor of euphuism has been denied. A well-known Spanish writer, Antonio de Guevara, wrote early in the century a book that, like 'Euphues,' discussed the training of young men, and was couched in an affected style, not altogether unlike euphuism. Guevara subsequently enlarged