Edmund William Gosse

“ For a comprehension of the nature of Euphuism it is necessary to remember that the object of its invention was to attract and to disarm the ladies by means of an ingenious and playful style, of high artificiality, which should give them the idea that they were being entertained by an enthusiastic adorer, not instructed by a solemn pedagogue, For fifty years the romance of Euphues retained its astonishing popularity. ”

“ Its most prominent feature was an incessant balancing of phrases in chains of antitheses, thus:—“Though the tears of the hart be salt, yet the tears of the boar be sweet, and though the tears of some women be counterfeit to deceive, yet the tears of many be current to try their love” ”

“ In the following passage the typical forms of Euphuism, in its pure and original conditions, are so combined and illustrated as to require no further commentary: “Do we not commonly see that in painted pots is hidden the deadliest poison? that in the greenest grass is the greatest serpent? ”