Euphuism

Euphuism, a term used in English literature to denote an affected and bombastic style of language, fashionable for a short period at the court of Queen Elizabeth and in the literature of the time. The word was formed from the title of the book which brought the style into vogue, the Euphues of John Lyly (q.v.). Euphuism is usually taken to have been an exaggeration of the prevailing Italian taste; but Dr Landmann (Der Euphuismus, Giessen, 1881) has sought to prove that the peculiarities of Lyly's style are directly to be traced to Antonio de Guevara (1490-1545), Spanish court preacher, historiographer, bishop, and moralist. His chief work was an historical romance, based on the life and the meditations of Marcus Aurelius, one English translation of which by Lord Berners appeared in 1531, another by North (as The Dial of Princes) in 1558-67. This work, exceedingly popular in the last-named translation, has the same characteristics of style as Euphuism, which has even been called Guevarism. In Holofernes in Love's Labour's Lost, and in Sir Piercy Shafton in the Monastery, Euphuism is caricatured.