Lyly, JOHN, romance-writer and dramatist, was born in the Weald of Kent about 1553. He became a student of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1569; B.A., 27th April 1573; M.A., 1st June 1575. In Lansdowne MS. 19 is preserved a Latin letter (written in 1574) in which he begs Lord Burghley to help him towards procuring a fellowship at Magdalen College; but the application does not appear to have been successful. He afterwards studied at Cambridge, where he was incorporated M.A. in 1579. Failing to gain preferment at the universities, he followed the court. Among the Harleian MSS. are two undated petitions to Queen Elizabeth, begging that he might be appointed Master of the Revels. In the first he writes: 'I was enterteined yor Matie servant by yor owne grations fauour, strengthened with condicions, that I should ayme all my courses at the Reuells (I dare not saye with a promise, but a hopefull Item to the revercon) for with these 10 yeres I have attended with an unwearied patience, and nowe I knowe not what Crabb took me for an Oyster, that in the midst of yor sunshine of your most grations aspect, hath thrust a stone betweene the shells to eate me alive that onely lue on dead hopes.' The tone of the second letter is even more desponding: 'Thirteen yeres your highnes seruant, but yet nothing. . . . A thousand hopes, but all nothing: a hundred promises, but yet nothing.' He found a patron in Lord Burghley, who gave him some post of trust in his household. In 1589 he took part in the Martin Marprelate controversy, and incurred the enmity of Gabriel Harvey, who described him in Pierce's Supererogation (1593) as 'a mad lad as ever twangd, never troubled with any substance of witt or circumstance of honestie, sometime the fiddle-sticke of Oxford, now the very bable (bauble) of London.' The authors of Athenæ Cantabrigienses (ii. 326) state that he was returned for Aylesbury to the parliament of 19th February, 1592-93; for Appleby, 24th October 1597; and again for Aylesbury, 7th October 1601. In December 1597 he addressed to Secretary Cecil a letter expressing disappointment at not obtaining advancement. From the register of St Bartholomew the Less, London, it appears that he was buried 30th November 1606. He was married, and had children, was short of stature, and very fond of tobacco.
Lyly's most famous work is his Euphues, a romance in two parts. The first part, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit (4to), was published in the spring of 1579; the second part, Euphues and his England, followed in 1580. In court circles the romance was received with great applause. Edward Blount, the publisher, who collected Lyly's plays in 1632, declared: 'Our Nation are in his debt for a new English which hee taught them. . . . All our Ladies were then his Schollers; And that Beautie in Court which could not Parley Euphuesme was as little regarded as shee which now there speaks not French.' In the Monastery Scott drew, in the person of Sir Piercy Shafton, the character of a euphuistic gallant; but the portrait is barely recognisable. One peculiarity of this 'new English' is the constant employment of similes drawn from fabulous stories (of classical and medieval writers) concerning the properties of animals, plants, and minerals. Another is the excessive indulgence in antithesis. Lyly cannot relate the simplest incident without introducing antithetical flourishes and fetching illustrations from bestiaries and herbals. This unnatural style of writing was not Lyly's invention, but was to a large extent modelled (as Professor Landmann has shown) on the example of the Spanish writer Guevara. Lord Berners and others had translated works of Guevara; but the Spaniard's claims were forgotten, and Lyly was regarded as the pattern of refinement. Greene, Lodge, and others set themselves to imitate Euphues, but their affections were seldom so deliberately extravagant as Lyly's. Later the euphuistic style was held up to derision. Drayton speaks scornfully of
Lyly's writing then in use;
Talking of stones, stars, plants, of fishes, flies,
Playing with words and idle similies.
The matter of Euphues is more commendable than the manner. Sound advice is offered on the subject of friendship, love, travel, the nature and education of children, morality, and religion.
Lyly's comedies (which were performed before the queen by children's companies) are more readable than his romance. The earliest, as we learn from the prologue, was The Woman in the Moone, first printed in 1597, but produced in or before 1583. Campaspe and Sapho and Phao were published in 1584; Endimion in 1591; Gallathea and Midas in 1592; Mother Bombie in 1594; and Love's Metamorphosis in 1601. With the exception of The Woman in the Moone, these comedies (on pastoral and mythological subjects) were written in prose. Though they display little dramatic power, they are fanciful and attractive entertainments. Frequently the dialogue is pointed and sparkling. The delightful songs were first printed in the collective edition of 1632; 'Cupid and my Campaspe played' is in modern anthologies.
Lyly's plays were edited by Fairholt in 1858; Euphues by Arber (1868); the Endymion by Mr G. P. Baker (1895). See C. G. Child's Lyly and Euphuism (1894).