John Lyly

 

John Lyly

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John Lyly (/ˈlɪli/; also spelled Lilly, Lylie, Lylly; born c. 1553–4 – buried 30 November 1606) was an English writer, playwright, courtier, and parliamentarian. He first achieved success with his two books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and its sequel Euphues and His England (1580), and then became a dramatist, writing eight plays which survive, at least six of which were performed before Queen Elizabeth I. Lyly's distinctive and much imitated literary style, named after the title character of his two books, is known as euphuism. He is sometimes grouped with other professional dramatists of the 1580s and 1590s like Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, and Thomas Lodge, as one of the so-called University Wits.[3][4] He has been credited by some scholars with writing the first English novel, and as being 'the father of English comedy'.

John Lyly's writing style was known as euphuism, a style that was popular during the Elizabethan era. It was characterized by the use of alliteration, antithesis, balance, and similes. Lyly's writing also featured wordplay, puns, and proverbs. 

Features of Lyly's writing style:

Lyly's plays were popular in their time and influenced the development of English drama. His writing style was classical, with ornate prose, fantastic similes, and alliteration and antithesis. 

  • Alliteration: The use of multiple words that start with the same letter or sound 
  • Antithesis: The use of balanced sentence structures to create rhetorical effect 
  • Similes: The use of comparisons using the words "like" or "as" 
  • Metaphors: The use of metaphors to create meaning 
  • Proverbs: The use of proverbs to convey moral wisdom 
  • Wordplay: The use of puns and wordplay to showcase wit 
  • Exotic imagery: The use of exotic imagery to create effect 

 

John Lyly was an English writer during the Elizabethan era. His works include prose and plays. Prose Lyly is best known for his two books, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and His England (1580). 

1.     Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit: Published in two parts in 1578 and 1580, this is Lyly's best-known work. It includes the idea that love and war are beyond the rules of fairness.

2.     Campaspe: Lyly's first play, which was based on Life of Alexander by Pliny and Plutarch. It was very successful and went through three editions in one year. 

3.     Sappho and Phao: Lyly's second play, which was based on Aelian and Ovid. It went through two editions immediately. 

4.     The Woman in the Moon: One of Lyly's plays. 

5.     Gallathea: One of Lyly's plays. 

6.     Endymion: One of Lyly's plays. 

7.     Midas: One of Lyly's plays. 

Euphuism, an elegant Elizabethan literary style marked by excessive use of balance, antithesis, and alliteration and by frequent use of similes drawn from mythology and nature. The word is also used to denote artificial elegance.

 

Elizabethan literature

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Elizabethan literature, body of works written during the reign of Elizabeth I of England (1558–1603), probably the most splendid age in the history of English literature, during which such writers as Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Roger Ascham, Richard Hooker, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare flourished. The epithet Elizabethan is merely a chronological reference and does not describe any special characteristic of the writing.

The Elizabethan age saw the flowering of poetry (the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, dramatic blank verse), was a golden age of drama (especially for the plays of Shakespeare), and inspired a wide variety of splendid prose (from historical chronicles, versions of the Holy Scriptures, pamphlets, and literary criticism to the first English novels). From about the beginning of the 17th century a sudden darkening of tone became noticeable in most forms of literary expression, especially in drama, and the change more or less coincided with the death of Elizabeth. English literature from 1603 to 1625 is properly called Jacobean, after the new monarch, James I. But, insofar as 16th-century themes and patterns were carried over into the 17th century, the writing from the earlier part of his reign, at least, is sometimes referred to by the amalgam “Jacobethan.”

 

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