Euphues

“ It is equally impossible to imagine any one being "enthralled" by Euphues. Admiration, of a kind, must have been the only passion excited by it. In the Arcadia there is a certain charm, but it belongs to the inset verse—to the almost Spenserian visionariness of parts—to the gracious lulling atmosphere of the whole. If it had been published in three volumes, one cannot imagine the most enthusiastic novel-reader knocking up a friend late at night for volume two or volume three. ”

“ The plot of Euphues is extremely simple. The hero, whose name may very possibly have been suggested by a passage in Ascham’s Schoolmaster, is introduced to us as still in bondage to the follies of youth, “preferring fancy before friends, and this present humour before honour to come.” His travels bring him to Naples, where he falls in love with Lucilla, the governor’s light-minded daughter. Lucilla is already pledged to Euphues’s friend Philautus, but Euphues’s passion betrays his friendship, and the old lover finds himself thrown over by both friend and mistress. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The next, hurl'd down into th' abyss of death.
Enter Euphues, Artemia.
Euph. But are you sure 'tis hereabouts he lives?
Ha! who is that? 'Tis he, and in the hands
Of officers! Cousin, the mischief's done
Before we come.
Art. O my dear Eugeny!
Eug. Artemia too! Ah me! she swoons! Help, help!
Look up, my love! There is no fear at all
For me; no danger: all is safe, and full
Of hope and comfort.
Euph. She begins to come
Unto herself again.
Eug. But pray, sir, tell
How came you hither, noble Euphues? ”

“ Shakespeare borrowed his "government of the bees" (Henry V. act i. sc. 2) from Lilly. Euphuês was designed to exhibit the style affected by the gallants of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Thomas Lodge wrote a novel in a similar style, called Euphues' Golden Legacy (1590) .
"The commonwealth of your bees," replied
Euphuês, "did so delight me that I was not a
little sorry that either their estates have not been
longer, or your leisure more; for, in my simple
judgment, there was such an orderly government
that men may not be ashamed to imitate it." ”

“ In observation he is very acute. That Euphues who gives name to his book, is an Athenian youth of rare parts—“well-constituted” as the Greek implies—who has lived long in Italy, and who talks in this strain of the ladies he saw on a visit to England:—
[248]
“The English Damoiselles have their bookes tied to their girdles—not feathers—who are as cunning in the Scriptures as you are in Ariosto or Petrark. ”

“ Both in style and matter Euphues follows Guevara's book, which, in Sir Thomas North's adaptation, bears the title of The Dial of Princes.
The chief characteristics of Euphuism were parallel and assonant antitheses, long strings of comparisons with real or imaginary natural phenomena (borrowed for the most part from Pliny's Natural History) , a partiality for images from antique history and mythology, and a love of alliteration. ”

“ There is, too, almost constant use of the unnatural natural history of Pliny. All this material is bound together by a style which, though it may ultimately be traced to the rounded periods of Cicero, had developed slowly in writers of the Renaissance and the years just before Euphues appeared. George Pettie, for instance, in his Pettie Palace of Pettie His Pleasure, published in 1576, has all the stylistic characteristics of the Euphues except the fabulous natural history. ”

“ Their writings were full of metaphors and figures of speech. The first Euphuists were looked upon as "refiners of speech," and Queen Elizabeth and the ladies at her court did their best to speak as much in the manner of Euphues as they could.
But all men at all times are unconscious Euphuists, in so far as they try to say ugly and unpleasant things in a way which will make them sound pleasant. This tendency in speech is called "euphemism," a word which is made from two Greek words meaning "to speak well." ”

“ So far we have been dealing with euphuistic tendencies only, since in the style of Ascham and his predecessors, alliteration and antithesis are not employed consistently, but merely on occasion for the sake of emphasis. Other marks of euphuism, such as the fantastic embroidery of mythical beasts and flowers, are absent. Even in North's Diall alliteration is not profuse, and similes from natural history are comparatively rare. In George Pettie, however, we find a complete euphuist before Euphues. ”

“ It was not the matter of Euphues, however, so much as the style which made it famous (see Euphuism) . The source of Lyly’s peculiar style has been traced by Dr Landmann (Der Euphuismus, sein Wesen, seine Quelle, seine Geschichte, &c. Giessen, 1881) to the influence of Don Antonio de Guevara, whose Libro Aureo de Marco Aurelio (1529) —a sort of historical romance based upon Plutarch and upon Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, the object of which was to produce a “mirror for princes,” of the kind so popular throughout the Renaissance—became almost immediately popular in England. ”

“ And, when she had finished her discourse, Surius again employs the simile for the purpose of turning a neat compliment, saying, "Lady, if the Tortoise you spoke of in India were as cunning in swimming, as you are in speaking, she would neither fear the heate of the sunne nor the ginne of the Fisher." This is but a mild example of the "unnatural natural philosophy" which Euphues has made famous. An unending procession of such similes, often of the most extravagant nature, runs throughout the book, and sometimes the development of the plot is made dependent on them. ”

“ Such intellectual gatherings were a recognised institution at Florence at this time, being an imitation of Plato's symposium, and Lyly had already attempted, not so successfully as here, to describe one in the house of Lucilla of the Anatomy of Wit.
In every way Euphues and his England is an improvement upon its predecessor. The story and plot are still weak, but the situations are often well thought out and treated with dramatic effect. The action indeed is slow, but it moves; and in the story of Fidus it moves comparatively quickly. ”

“ Ay, sir; you shall command my service when you are ready.
Pol. Now, Euphues, what I did but barely act,
Thy bleeding heart shall feel, loss of a son,
If law can have his course, as who can let it? [429]
I know thou think'st mine dead, and in thy heart
Laugh'st at my falling house; but let them laugh,
That win the prize: things ne'er are known till ended.
[Exeunt Polymetes and Roscio.
Eugenio solus.
Eug. Well, I like my sister's choice; she has taken a man whose very looks and carriage speak him worthy: besides, he is noble, his fortune's [546] sufficient, they both love each other. ”

“ The journey from Naples to London, and the episode of Fidus and Iffida, could have been worked up, in the good old three-volume days, to a most effective second volume. And the picture of the court, with the further loves of Philautus, Camilla, and the "violet" Frances, would supply a third of themselves even if Euphues were left out, though some livelier presentation of his character (which Lyly himself was obviously too much personally interested to make at all clear) would improve the whole immensely. ”

“ As Eusebius, like Clemens of Alexandria, Arnobius, and the other early Christian disputants, had no prejudice in favour of Hellenic mythology, and no sentimental reason for wishing to suppose that the origin of its impurities was pure, he found his way to the very theory of the irrational element in mythology which we propose to offer.
Even to sketch the history of mythological hypothesis in modern times would require a book to itself. ”

“ And she said unto him, “This man is a magician. He came to me when I was alone, and he asked me [to do] what is unseemly to mention, and when I refused him, he smote me with pains.” And the king commanded the soldiers to take Eusebius down from the tree and to bring him to him. And when they had brought him, the king said unto Eusebius, “Why didst thou meditate evilly the doing of a thing which it is not seemly to do against my wife?” And Eusebius said unto the king, “O my lord, dost thou imagine that these words are true? It is unnecessary to talk about it.” ”

“ A mirror—give me a mirror, Eulaeus. By heaven! I do not look much like prison fare—more like a man in whose strong brain there is no lack of deep schemes, who can throttle his antagonist with a grip of his fist, and who is prompt to avail himself of all the spoil that comes in his way, so that he may compress the pleasures of a whole day into every hour, and enjoy them to the utmost! As surely as my name is Euergetes my uncle Antiochus was right in liking to mix among the populace. ”

“ I have followed the view which is almost universal, as Greek authors often do. Every one says that Eupolis, the poet of the old Comedy, was thrown into the sea by Alcibiades on his voyage to Sicily. Eratosthenes confutes this, producing plays exhibited by him after that date. But that is no reason for laughing at Duris of Samos, who is an accurate historian, because he follows a vulgar error. All historians agree that Zaleucus drew up laws for the Locrians. It is not therefore fatal to Theophrastus, if he is called to account for that by your friend Timaeus. ”

“ He maintains a constant ascendency, or if he loses it for a moment, recovers it immediately.
Euelpides—A simple, easy-minded, droll companion, his natural follower and adherent, as the Merry Andrew is of the Mountebank. It will be seen that, like the Merry Andrew, he interposes his buffoonish comments on the grand oration delivered by his master.
Epops—King of the Birds, formerly Tereus king of Thrace, but long ago, according to the records of mythology, transformed into a Hoopoe. He appears as the courteous dignified sovereign of a primitive uncivilised race whom he is desirous to improve ”

“ When Ulysses reached the farmhouse, the swineherd, Eumaeus, was sitting alone in front of his door, making himself a pair of brogues out of the skin of an ox. He was a very honest man, and, though he was a slave, he was the son of a prince in his own country. When he was a little child some Phoenicians came in their ship to his father's house and made friends with his nurse, who was a Phoenician woman. One of them, who made love to her, asked her who she was, and she said that her father was a rich man in Sidon, but that pirates had carried her away and sold her to her master. ”

“ The lost Ulysses to his native reign,
How beat your hearts? what aid would you afford
To the proud suitors, or your ancient lord?"
Philaetius thus: "O were thy word not vain!
Would mighty Jove restore that man again!
These aged sinews, with new vigour strung,
In his blest cause should emulate the young."
With equal vows Eumaeus too implored
Each power above, with wishes for his lord.
He saw their secret souls, and thus began:
"Those vows the gods accord; behold the man!
Your own Ulysses! ”

“ Oh Eugenius, how great must thy soul now become! Earthly life lay at a distance, and in the deep valley before thee, void of all the distortions which we behold in it, from viewing it too near at hand, as the decorative scene when too closely seen is changed from a landscape to a mass of shapeless lines.
The loving pair embraced each other long and tenderly before the Alpine hut, and Eugenius said: "Oh silent eternal heaven, take from us now nothing more!" ”

“ Euph. Me! Has he told you how?
Art. Did you ne'er meet one Theodore at Venice?
Euph. Can this be he?
[Pg 52]
Art. Yes, very well; although
He be old Earthworm's son, and make no shew
At home.
Euph. And have you found out so much worth
In him already?
Art. How do you esteem him?
We women well may err.
Euph. I smell a rat;
And, if my brain fail not, have found out all
Your drifts, though ne'er so politicly carri'd.
Art. I know your brain, cousin, is very good;
But it may fail.
Euph. It comes into my head
What old Sir Argent Scrape told to his lady. ”

“ Then was Ulysses glad, and spake, saying, "Eumaeus, mayest thou be dear to Zeus, for thou hast dealt kindly with me."
And Eumaeus answered: "Eat, stranger, and make merry with what thou hast. The gods give some things, and some things they withhold." ”

“ From their store fill thyself to overflowing with every kind of wisdom and learning. Once admitted to their mysteries thou shalt be utterly ashamed to have been born and to be called a man. I could have wished that Maximus also were here, but he has been dispatched to Ephesus. Of Priscus [64] too I should have said the same, but he also has sailed to Greece. But there remain of my disciples Eusebius and Chrysanthius, and if thou wilt study with them thou wilt cease to harass my old age. ”

“ If that fellow’s dagger breaks he can kill his victim with those teeth, as a fox does a duck, or smash his bones with his fist.”
“But, my lord,” replied Eulaeus dryly and with a certain matter-of-fact gravity to King Euergetes—for he it was who had come with him into the room adjoining Klea’s retreat, “the dry little Egyptian with the thin straight hair is even more trustworthy and tougher and nimbler than his companion, and, so far, more estimable. ”

“ Eusebius, though he will not admit the Apocalypse even into the controverted list, but gives permission to call it spurious, yet qualifies his permission in a manner which almost annihilates the distinctive force of νοθος, and gives the book a claim to rank (if you think good, again) in the controverted list. And this is the impression received by the mind of Lardner, who gives Eusebius fully and fairly, but when he sums up, considers his author as admitting the Apocalypse into the second list. A stick may easily be found to beat the father of ecclesiastical history. ”