- Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, a didactic romance written by John Lyly, was entered in the Stationers’ Register 2 December 1578 and published that same year.
- It was followed by Euphues and his England, registered on 25 July 1579, but not published until Spring of 1580. The name Euphues is derived from Greek (euphuēs) meaning “graceful, witty.” Lyly adopted the name from Roger Ascham’s The Scholemaster, which describes Euphues as a type of student who is “apte by goodnes of witte, and appliable by readines of will, to learning, hauving all other qualities of the mind and partes of the bodie, that must an other day serue learning, not trobled, mangled, and halfed, but sounde, whole, full & hable to do their office” (194). Lyly’s mannered style is characterized by parallel arrangements and periphrases.
- The style of these novels gave rise to the term euphuism.
- Thomas Carlyle made reference to the character in his essay of social criticism, “Signs of the Times” (1829).
- “Be valyaunt, but not too venturous”, from Euphues, is quoted in Jeeves and Wooster when Wooster is playing golf and getting his ball into the rough once too often. In this, he refers to Lyly simply as “The Poet”.
- The story follows a pretty basic romantic comedy plot. Euphues is an Athenian who travels to Naples, where he falls in love with Lucilla, a clever, young woman who is already engaged to Euphues’s friend Philatus. Undaunted by this potential love triangle, Euphues perseveres in his quest for Lucilla, losing both her and his friend. When he is eventually reconciled to Philatus and returns home to Athens, Euphues writes a series of letters on a variety of topics, thus adding an epistolary element to this romance plot. These letters actually seem to have been the greater appeal the novel held, for in them we find the witty and breezy discussion of commonplace or “advice to son” topics that would anchor Elizabethan courtly writing. In this way, the text offers an improvement on Roger Ascham’s more staid The Schoolmaster instructions. In Lyly, we find more an English version of Montaigne’s Essais, as well as a text that demonstrated the refinement and musicality the English language could attain in the hands of skillful and witty rhetorician.
- Plot:
- In the first part Euphues, a young Athenian, visits Naples, where he makes the acquaintance of Philautus, an Italian, and a friendship develops between them.
- Nonetheless, Euphues proceeds to oust Philautus from the affections of Lucilla, to be in turn, ejected by one Curio.
- Euphues and Philautus, after upbraiding one another, unite in holding Lucilla ‘as most abominable’, and part friends, Euphues returning to Greece and leaving behind him a pamphlet of advice to lovers, which he terms A cooling Carde for Philautus’.
- In part two Euphues and Philautus travel to England, where their adventures are less entertaining than at Naples.
- They are largely concerned with the love affairs on which Philautus embarks, in spite of Euphues’ advice to use circumspection in his dealings with English ladies; much is occupied by a discussion on such questions as ‘whether in love be more required secrecie or constancie’.
- Finally, Euphues is recalled to Greece. From Athens Euphues addresses a letter to the ladies of Italy, ‘Euphues’ Glasse for Europe’, in which he describes England, its institutions, its ladies, its gentlemen, and its queen; and a final letter of general advice from Euphues to Philautus completes the work.
- Euphues is famous for its distinctive style, to which it has given the name ‘euphuism‘. Its principal characteristics are the heavy use of antithesis, which is pursued regardless of sense, and emphasized by alliteration and other devices; and of allusions to historical and mythological personages and to natural history drawn from such encyclopedic writers as Plutarch, Pliny, and Erasmus. This has symmetry and balance, the uses of alliterative and antithetical expressions and a rhythmic and harmonious flow of the language. This style, no doubt, appears somewhat exaggerated and artificial, but it has something of an innovation for the English prose-style of the age, lacking both in form and in artistry. Walter Scott satirized euphuism in the character of Sir Piercie Shafton in The Monastery and Charles Kingsley defended Euphues in Westward Ho!
- Lyly’s Euphues is not a great work, but it stands out as a great literary inspiration for the subsequent Elizabethan authors. In fact, in the making of the Elizabethan romances and in the cultivation of an elegant prose-style in the Elizabethan age, Lyly’s romance and euphuistic method are found to have a considerable role. They prove inspiring enough for a number of his contemporaries and immediate followers. The work was enormously popular in its time. But its theme and style remain yet engaging for a modern reader to learn and imitate.
