Euphues: The anatomy of Wit and Euphues and his England - John Lyly edited by Leah Scragg
These courtly expressions of the language of love excited my love of language. Lyly’s two novels published in 1578 and 1580 are largely an exercise in style over content, but oh! what a style: delightful passages of prose tumble over one another in a gushing rhetoric that are witty, clever and delight the senses. There are turgid passages where Lyly is more interested in moralising or keeping his nose clean, but for much of these two books it is Lyly’s wit and language skills that carry the reader through.

The art of conversation is alive and well in Euphues and he makes his conversations into an art form. One of the major themes throughout the novels is youth versus old age and the education of the young. Here is an example of the prose where the youthful Euphues challenges his father:

“Put you no difference between the young flourishing bay-tree and the old withered beech, no kind of distinction between the waxing and the waning of the moon, and the rising and setting of the sun? Do you measure the hot assaults of youth by the cold skirmishes of age. whose years are subject to more infirmities than our youth? We merry, you melancholy; we zealous in affection, you jealous in all your doings; you testy without cause, we hasty for no quarrel, you careful, we careless; we bold, you fearful; we in all points contrary unto you, and you in all points unlike unto us.”

It is clever in that the schematically constructed sentences are designed to enforce opposition to give a duality, a contrast and it delights the senses with the word play, the sound patterning (syllabic repetition, assonance and alliteration). It should be remembered that Lyly was writing for an educated audience, his target group were probably the courtiers and their allies hovering around the court of Queen Elizabeth I. These people would have been educated in typical sixteenth century fashion to appreciate dialect and rhetoric, as scholastic disputations were an essential part of their education. Lyly uses analogies from proverbial wisdom, classical history and mythology to make his points, but intersperses them in such a way that they are not entirely lost on the less classically educated modern reader. If we don’t always understand the references we can still appreciate the word play and are rarely lost because of the multitude of examples used in any one sentence or paragraph.

Lets have some more Lyly: in the second book Euphues friend Philautus is trying to win the hand of Camilla, a virtuous young lady that has given him no encouragement. He takes the opportunity at a masked ball to declare his love for Camilla and she firmly puts him in his place:

“I will end where you begun, hoping you will begin where I end. You let fall your question which I looked for, and picked a quarrel which I thought not of, and that is love. But let her that is disposed to answer your quarrel, be curious to demand your question. And this gentleman, I desire you, all questions and quarrels set apart: you think me as a friend so far forth as I can grant with modesty or you require with good manners; and as a friend I wish that you blow no more this fire of love, which will waste you before it warms me, and make a coal in you before it can kindle in me. If you think otherwise, I may as well use a shift to drive you off, as you did a show to draw me on. I have answered your custom, lest you accuse me of coyness, no otherwise than I might, mine honour saved and your name unknown.”

The Anatomy of Wit is an apt title for the book and it is the wit and style that Samuel Johnson would appreciate and use later in the eighteenth century. I can just imagine him sitting in the Lamb and Flag with his circle of cronies having boned up on John Lyly, making their puns and witticisms. Oscar Wilde’s famous epigrams owe much to Lyly as well and if you enjoy that style of writing then it is worth going back to Lyly who probably took this style as far as it could go.

E M Forster in his Aspects of the Novel identified essential requisites for a novel, which were: story and plot, people, pattern and rhythm and it is worth using those aspects on Lyly’s books as their are many claims that they are the earliest novel books in the English Language. There are earlier claimants for example; Malory’s Le Morte dArthur; yet this was a collection of stories without much discernible pattern and later George Gascoigne’s The Adventures of master F J, but this was part of a collection of poetry. The weakness of Euphues is its lack of story line and plot; there is one, but it is very simple. In the Anatomy of Wit, it is little more than two friends and gentleman courtiers of Naples: Euphues and Philautus’ rivalry for Lucilla whose change of mind from one to the other causes a break in their friendship. The resolution to the story is laid out in a series of letters between the two men and Euphues takes the moral high ground and lectures Philautus with his Cooling Card for Philautus and all Fond Lovers. The book peters out with more lectures on the education of Young men, a missive to The Grave Matrons and Honest Maidens of Italy, a debate between Euphues and the atheist Atheos and finally various letters from Euphues to all and sundry to tie up loose ends. Euphues and his England starts with a reconciled Euphues and Philautus on their way to make a show at Queen Elizabeth’s court in England. It features a succession of stories within stories as Euphues tells the story of Callimachus to Philautus while he is hanging his head over the side of the boat with sea-sickness. It is a good story of a prodigal son which was a popular theme of the times. The two gentlemen arrive in Dover explore the town and seek the road to London. On the way they look for accommodation and stop at the house of Fidus; a beekeeper, there is some suspicion between them, but once this is resolved Fidus tells a story from his own past; when he himself was a courtier and of his love affair with Iffida. The two men eventually make it to London where Euphues is a big hit at court with his wit and manners. Philautus is not so fortunate in that he falls in love with Camilla; a lady in waiting and finds himself out of his depth. This near disastrous love affair leads to Euphues retiring from courtly life and again becoming estranged from Philautus. Again the story is resolved through a series of letters and Philautus and Euphues draw closer together but it ends with Euphues back in Greece and the relationship still not certain. The book ends with a panegyric on England and its wonderful Queen.

John Lyly was one of the first authors not to rely on patronage for his work, but he did rely on his writings to gain himself a position at court. His criticisms of courtiers that ended the first novel is vehemently put to right at the start of the second book where he apologises for any offence caused claiming that he was only criticising courtiers in Italy and Greece. The panegyric to the Queen and her court which ends the second novel cements his position on this issue and there is no dichotomy here, however this is not true of the story telling proper, where during most conversations, the duality and contrasts in the witty ripostes sometimes provides more questions than answers. It certainly adds to the depth within the novel, which might have otherwise been a pretty dull story. Male friendship under attack from heterosexual love, nature versus nurture, education of the young and the duties and position of courtiers are all themes explored through these two works, however no final position is ever apparent while Lyly is writing in his euphuistic style.

His two novels were popular during the 1580’s being reprinted several times and did enough to gain him a position at court, it has been said that his books had an influence on the way courtiers to the queen made use of language and he was certainly revered by his contemporaries, however after this period he went fairly quickly out of fashion and has never really been in fashion since. It would seem to me that Lyly’s so distinctive style of writing would be a hard act to follow and would soon lead to a dead end; for example how far can you take witticism without destroying the purpose of the novel, this to my mind was a problem for Lyly hence the use of the epistolary device to bring some shape and form to his books. There is no doubt that he influenced other writers and for this reason alone it is worth reading him, as well as the fact that their are some purple patches of prose that are a sheer delight to read. 4.5 stars. ( )

This book was neither witty, nor euphuestic (allegedly, it is from here that the word "euphemism" is derived), nor an anatomy of anything, save for extreme unreadability in the first part, a rehashed attempt to expound on Ecclesiastes in the second part, and boring missives in the third. It has renown for being the first English novel, but it is not a novel at all. It's a hodgepodge of excruciating words, it's inconsistent in its narrative, and way too long even at 152 pages. It does not belong on the list of 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die. The honor should be given to whatever English novel is next that was better than this one; an easy bar to clear. ( )