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EUPHUISM

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 900 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EUPHUISM , the See also:

peculiar mode of speaking and See also:writing brought into See also:fashion in See also:England towards the end of the reign of See also:Elizabeth by the See also:vogue of the fashionable See also:romance of Euphues, published in 1578 by See also:John See also:Lyly. As See also:early as 1570 See also:Ascham in his Schoolmaster had said that " Euphues " (that is, a See also:man well-endowed by nature, from the Gr. eu, See also:ski?, well, growth) is " he that is See also:apt by goodn,See also:ess of wit, and appliable by readiness of will, to learning, having all other qualities of the mind and parts of the See also:body that must another See also:day serve learning." Lyly adopted this word as the name of the See also:hero of his romance, and it is with him that the vogue of Euphuism began. John Lyly, " always averse to the crabbed studies of See also:logic and See also:philosophy, and his genie being naturally See also:bent to the pleasant paths of See also:poetry," devoted himself exclusively to the service of the ladies, a thing absolutely unprecedented in See also:English literature. He addressed himself to " the gentlewomen of England," and he had the audacity, in that See also:grave See also:age, to say that he would rather see his books " See also:lie shut in a See also:lady', See also:casket than open in a See also:scholar's study." In See also:order to attain this See also:object, he set himself to create a superfine See also:style in writing, and to illustrate this in his compositions. He undertook to produce a pleasurable literature for the boudoir and the See also:bower. Lyly was twenty-six when he published in 1579 the first See also:part of Euphues: the See also:Anatomy of Wit: a second part, entitled Euphues and his England, appeared in 1580. His object was diametrically opposed to that of writers who had striven to instruct, reprove or edify their contemporaries. Lyly, assuming that See also:women only will read his See also:book, says:—" After See also:dinner, you may overlook it to keep you from See also:sleep, or if you be heavy to bring you asleep, for to See also:work upon a full See also:stomach is against physic, and therefore better were it to hold Euphues in your hands, though you let him fall when you be willing to wink, than to sew in a closet and prick your fingers when you begin to read." 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 See also:idea that they were being entertained by an enthusiastic adorer, not instructed by a See also:solemn See also:pedagogue, For fifty years the romance of Euphues retained its astonishing popularity. As See also:late as 1632 the publisher See also:Edward See also:Blount (156o?-1632), recalling the earliest See also:enthusiasm of the public, wrote of John Lyly, " Oblivion shall not so trample on a son of the See also:Muses, and such a son as they called their See also:darling. Our nation are in his See also:debt for a new English which he taught them. Euphues and his England began first that See also:language. All our ladies were then his scholars, and that beauty in See also:Court, which could not parley Euphuism, was as little regarded, as she which, now there, speaks not See also:French." Among those who applied themselves to this " new English," one of the most ardent was See also:Queen Elizabeth herself, who has been styled by J.

R. See also:

Green " the most affected and destestable of euphuists." At the height of the popularity of this See also:strange See also:dialect, it was said by See also:William See also:Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetry (1586), to consist in a See also:combination of " singular eloquence and brave See also:composition of apt words and sentences, in See also:fit phrases, in pithy sentences, in gallant tropes, in flowing speech," while a French poet of the same age calls Lyly a " raffineur " of the English speech; another panegyrist describes him as " alter Tullius," meaning that, in inventing Euphuism, he had introduced into English the refinements of a Ciceronian style. When we put aside these excessive compliments, and no less the attacks from which the style suffered as soon as it began to go out of fashion, we are able to observe merits as well as faults in this very curious experiment. Euphuism did not See also:attempt to render the simplicity of nature. On the contrary, in order to secure refinement, it sought to be as affected, as artificial, as high-pitched as possible. Its most prominent feature was an incessant balancing of phrases in chains of antitheses, thus:—" Though the tears of the See also:hart be See also:salt, yet the tears of the See also: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 "; or this:—" Reject it not because it proceedeth from one which hath been lewd, no more than ye would neglect the See also:gold because it lieth in the dirty See also:earth, or the pure See also:wine for that it cometh out of a homely presse, or the See also:precious See also:stone aetites which is found in the filthy nests of the See also:eagle, or the precious See also:gem draconites, that is ever taken out of the poisoned See also:dragon." This second excerpt, moreover, suggests another of the See also:main characteristics of Euphuism, the incessant use, for purposes of See also:ornament, of similes taken from fabulous records of See also:zoology, or See also:relating to mythical birds, fishes or minerals. This was a feature of the " new English " which was excessively admired, and copied with a senseless extravagance. Instances of it are found on every See also:page of Lyly's books, thus:—" Although the See also:worm entereth almost into every See also:wood, yet he eateth not the See also:cedar-See also:tree; though the stone cylindrus at every See also:thunder-clap See also:roll from the See also:hill, yet the pure sleek stone mounteth at the See also:noise; though the See also:rust See also:fret the hardest See also:steel, yet doth it not eat into the See also:emerald; though See also:polypus See also:change his See also:hue, yet the See also:salamander keepeth his See also:colour "; and so on, ad infinitum. That lady was considered most proficient in euphuism who could keep uplongest these chains of similes taken out of fabulous natural See also:history. See also:Alliteration was also a particular ornament of the euphuistic style, as : " The bavin, though it See also:burn See also:bright, is but a See also:blaze," but the use of this artifice by Lyly himself was rarely exaggerated; for instances of its excess we have rather to turn to his imitators. In the following passage the typical forms of Euphuism, in its pure and See also: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 See also:poison? that in the greenest grass is the greatest See also:serpent ? in the clearest See also:water the ugliest See also:toad? Doth not experience See also:teach us that in the most curious See also:sepulchre are enclosed rotten bones? that the See also:cypress tree beareth a See also:fair See also:leaf, but no See also:fruit? that the See also:ostrich carrieth fair feathers, but See also:rank flesh?

"—and so forth. It will be noticed that these characteristics differ in many respects from the specimens of euphuism which are most See also:

familiar to a See also:modern reader, namely the extravagant speech placed in the mouth of See also:Sir Piercie Shafton in Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott's romance of The Monastery. Scott modelled this See also:character on what he called that " forgotten and obsolete See also:model of folly, once fashionable," Lyly's novel of Euphues, but he had not studied the original to sufficient purpose, and the bombastic ravings of Sir Piercie, who simply talks like a lunatic, have deceived many readers as to the real characteristics of Euphuism. Scott betrays his own See also:error when he says that " the extravagance of Euphuism .. . predominates in the romances of Calprenede and Scuderi," in which it is true that a See also:tone of preposterous gallantry finds a language of its own, but that is not the language of Euphues. What Sir Piercie Shafton talks is a mixture of the style of these French romances, with the ostentation of Sir Fopling Flutter and the extravagances of the Scotch translator of See also:Rabelais. But these various sorts of pretentious eloquence have little or nothing in See also:common with the balanced and conceited style of Euphues. We find that the genuine sort of this See also:kind of superfine conversation was originally called " Euphues," simply, as See also:Overbury speaks of a man " who speaks Euphues, not so gracefully as heartily." The earliest instance of the word " Euphuism " which has been traced occurs in a See also:letter, written by See also:Gabriel See also:Harvey in 1592, when he speaks of a man, who would be See also:smart, as talking " a little Euphuism." See also:Dekker, in the See also:Gull's Hornbook of 1609, uses the word as an See also:adjective, and denounces " Euphuised gentlewomen." When the practice was going out of fashion we find it thus severely stigmatized by See also:Michael See also:Drayton, a poet who had little sympathy with the artificial refinement of Lyly. In an See also:elegy, printed in 1627, Drayton refers to the merit of Sir See also:Philip See also:Sidney, who recalled English See also:prose to sanity, and " did first reduce Our See also:tongue from Lyly's writings then in use, Talking of stones, stars, See also:plants, of fishes, flies, Playing with words and idle similes, As th' English apes and very zanies be Of everything that they do hear and see, So imitating his ridiculous tricks . They spake and See also:writ, all like See also:mere lunatics." This severe censure of Euphuism may serve to remind us that hasty critics have committed an error in supposing the See also:Arcadia of Sidney to be composed in the fashionable See also:jargon. That was certainly not the intention of the author, and in fact the publication of the Arcadia, eleven years after that of Euphues, marks the beginning of the downfall of the popularity of the latter. Sidney's prose, it is true, was extremely ornamented, but it was See also:instinct with romantic See also:fancy, and it affected a chivalrous and florid fulness which was artificial enough, but wholly distinct from the more homely elegance of Euphuism as we have defined it.

The publication of the Arcadia was a severe See also:

blow to the Euphuists. Immediately the ladies began to See also:desert their former favourite, and the object at court became, as See also:Ben See also:Jonson noted, to " observe as pure a phrase and use as choice figures in See also:ordinary See also:conference as any be in the Arcadia." But, in the meantime, Lyly Iliad found in See also:Greene, See also:Lodge, Dickenson, See also:Nicholas See also:Breton and others enthusiastic disciples who had learned all the formulas of Euphuism, and could bring them forth as See also:Joseph See also:Deniker (See also:Anthropology, r9oo) makes a See also:Eurasian See also:group to include such peoples (Ugrians, Turko-See also:Tatars, &c.) as are represented in both continents. Giuseppe Sergi, in his Mediterranean See also:Race (See also:London, 19oi), uses Eurasiatic to denote that variety of man which " brought with it into See also:Europe (from See also:Asia in the later See also:Neolithic See also:period) flexional See also:languages of See also:Aryan or fluently and elegantly as he could himself. Nevertheless the See also:trick wore out, with the See also:taste that it had created, and by the See also:close of the reign of See also:James I. ,Euphuism had become a dead language. Critics have not failed to insist, on the other See also:hand, that a See also:species of Euphuism existed before Euphues was thought of. It has been supposed that a See also:translation of the familiar epistles, or, as they were called, the " See also:Golden Letters," of a See also:Spanish See also:monk, See also:Antonio de See also:Guevara, led Lyly to conceive the extraordinary style which bears the name of his hero. Between 1574 and 1578 Edward Hellowes (fl. 1550--1600) translated into a very extravagant English prose three of the See also:works of Guevara. Earlier than this, in 1557, Sir See also:Thomas See also:North had published a version of the same Spanish writer's Relo, de Principes (The See also:Dial of Princes), a moral and philosophical romance which is not without a certain likeness in See also:plan and language to Euphues. It is extremely difficult to know to what extent these See also:translations, which were not strikingly unlike many other specimens of the ornamented English prose of their period, can be said to be responsible for the See also:production of Euphuism. At all events no one can doubt that it was Lyly who concentrated the peculiarities of mannerism, and who gave to it the See also:stamp of his own remarkable See also:talent.

See Landmann, Der Euphuismus (1881); See also:

Arber's edition of Euphues (1869); R. W. See also:Bond's See also:Complete Works of Lyly (1902); See also:Hallam, See also:Jusserand, S. See also:Lee, passim. (E.

End of Article: EUPHUISM

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EUPION (Gr. eu, well, rhea, fat)

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