Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

:XXVII.JOHN LYLY.A.D. 1579.John Lyly, a native of the Weald of Kent, was born probablyin 1553, and died in 1606. He studied at Magdalen College,Oxford, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1573. His nineplays, published between 1584 and 1601, are named 'Alexanderand Gampaspe,' Sappho * and Phao,' ' Endimion,' ' Galathea,''Midas,' Mother ' Bombie,' The ' Woman in the Moon,' The'Maid's Metamorphosis,' and Love's Metamorphosis.' But he ' isbest remembered by his two works named respectively Euphues*the Anatomy of Wit,' first printed in the spring of 1579, and'Euphues and his England,' 1580. He seems also to have beenthe author of the anonymous tract called Pap with 'a Hatchet,'written during the ' Martin Mar-prelate' controversy. The worksof Lyly gave rise to the name of ' Euphuism,' a term applied toa then fashionable pedantic style, and over-strained method ofexpression, of which many examples are to be found in Euphues.''On this account, Lyly's works have been frequently decried andridiculed, but it deserves to be remarked that he sometimes exhibitsstrong conunon sense ; and Charles Kingsley, in his ' WestwardHo,' is right in calling Euphues, 'in spite of occasional tediousncssand pedantry, as brave, righteous, and pious a book asmanneed look into.' I believe it will be difficult for any one to readthe following extract without feeling the better for it ; which is