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55-526: John Lyly ( / ˈ l ɪ l i / ; born c. 1553–4 – buried 30 November 1606;}} also spelled Lilly , Lylie , Lylly ) was an English writer, playwright, courtier, and parliamentarian. He was best known during his lifetime for his two books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and its sequel Euphues and His England (1580), but is perhaps best remembered now for his eight surviving plays, at least six of which were performed before Queen Elizabeth I . Lyly's distinctive and much imitated literary style, named after

110-627: A daughter Epicaste who became the mother of Homer by Telemachus . Originally from Gerenia , Nestor was an Argonaut , helped to fight the centaurs , and also participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar . He became the King of Pylos after Heracles killed Neleus and all of Nestor's brothers. He was said to have lived three generations by favour of Apollo : the years that the god had taken from Chloris and her brothers, he granted to Nestor. He and his sons, Antilochus and Thrasymedes, fought on

165-486: A deft companion" and "a pert-conceited youth." Here he began his literary career, writing his first book Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit . It was licensed to Gabriel Cawood on 2nd December 1578 and printed that year with a dedication to William West, 1st Baron De La Warr , and a second expanded edition immediately followed in 1579. In the same year Lyly was incorporated M.A. at the University of Cambridge . The Anatomy of Wit

220-714: A dramatist has been very differently estimated, but his dialogue was a great advance in anything that had gone before it, and his nimbleness and wit represents an important step in English dramatic art. Shakespeare's comedies Love's Labour's Lost , A Midsummer Night's Dream , Much Ado About Nothing , As You Like It and Twelfth Night are all seen to have drawn influence from Lyly's work. The only complete collected edition of Lyly's works remains R. Warwick Bond's century old three-volume edition for Oxford University Press, printed in 1902 (reprinted 1967). A single volume edition of The Plays of John Lyly , edited by Daniel A. Carter,

275-569: A further dose of Nestor's rather overwhelming sense of hospitality. Peisistratus readily agrees, although ruefully stating that his father is bound to be furious when he learns of Telemachus's departure. Nestor's advice in the Iliad has also been interpreted to have sinister undertones. For example, when Patroclus comes to Nestor for advice in Book 11, Nestor persuades him that it is urgent for him to disguise himself as Achilles. Karl Reinhardt argues that this

330-404: A l'Histoire de la Renaissance en Angleterre (Cambridge University Press, 1910). Euphues It was followed by Euphues and his England , registered on 25 July 1579, but not published until Spring of 1580. The name Euphues is derived from Greek ευφυής ( euphuēs ) meaning "graceful, witty." Lyly adopted the name from Roger Ascham 's The Scholemaster , which describes Euphues as

385-448: A parliamentary committee about wine casks. In 1594, Lyly was made an honorary member of Gray's Inn in order to attend the lawyers' Christmas Revels, during which, on 28 December, Shakespeare's company famously performed their Comedy of Errors . In 1597, Lyly contributed commendatory verses in Latin to Henry Lok 's verse translation of the book of Ecclesiastes , which Lok dedicated to

440-566: A result of this third petition is unknown. At Elizabeth's death a year later in March 1603, Lyly was granted seven yards of black cloth for her funeral, and his servants four yards. Lyly died of unknown causes in 1606, in the early part of the reign of James I , and was buried on 30 November in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less in London. He was married to Beatrice Browne of Yorkshire, and they had at least four sons and five daughters. The proverb "All

495-553: A single volume dedicated to him, edited by Ruth Lunney, in The University Wits series, published by Ashgate in 2011. The standard modern book-length biography remains G. K. Hunter's John Lyly: The Humanist as Courtier (Routledge & Kegan Paul, & Harvard University Press, 1962). Full transcriptions of most of the documentary evidence concerning Lyly's life were printed in Albert Feuillerat's John Lyly: Contribution

550-497: A solid gold shield. Homer frequently calls him by the epithet "the Gerenian horseman." At the funeral games of Patroclus , Nestor advises Antilochus on how to win the chariot race . Antilochus was later killed in battle by Memnon . In the Odyssey , Nestor and those who were part of his army had safely returned to Pylos , having chosen to leave Troy immediately after plundering

605-594: A sonne of the Muses; And such a sonne, as they called their Darling. He ended his address with: These his plays Crown'd him with applause, and the Spectators with pleasure. Thou canst not repent the Reading of them over : when Old John Lilly, is merry with thee in thy Chamber, Thou shalt say, Few (or None) of our Poets now are such witty Companions : And thanke mee, that brings him to thy Acquaintance. Blount dedicated

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660-528: A total of £20 for the two performances, although it took until 25 November until he finally received the money. In the meantime, Lyly lost control of the theatre around Easter when Sir William More reclaimed the lease, closing it down, and in June, Lyly was briefly jailed in the Fleet Prison for a debt of £9 8s 8d owed to Nicholas Bremers. Patent Rolls show he was quickly released, "for pity's sake", on 10 June, by

715-426: A type of student who is "apte by goodness of witte, and appliable by readiness of will, to learning, hauving all other qualities of the mind and parts of the body, that must an other day serue learning, not troubled, mangled, and halfed, but sound, whole, full & able to do their office" (194). Lyly's mannered style is characterized by parallel arrangements and periphrases . The style of these novels gave rise to

770-576: A wise man; Nestor repeatedly offers advice to the Achaeans that has been claimed to be anachronistic in Homer's time—for example, arranging the armies by tribes and clans or effectively using chariots in battle. Yet at the same time Nestor's advice is frequently ineffective. Some examples include Nestor accepting without question the dream Zeus plants in Agamemnon in Book 2 and urging the Achaeans to battle, instructing

825-441: Is contrary to what Patroclus really originally wanted—in fact, he is only there to receive information on behalf of Achilles about the wounded Machaon. Reinhardt notes that an "unimportant errand left behind by an all-important one ... Patroclus' role as messenger is crucial and an ironic purpose permeates the encounter." Homer offers contradictory portrayals of Nestor as a source of advice. On one hand, Homer describes him as

880-482: Is fair in love and war" has been attributed to Lyly's Euphues . Although the two volumes of Euphues were Lyly's most popular and influential works in the Elizabethan period, it is his plays which are now admired most, for their flexible use of dramatic prose and the elegant patterning of their construction. Eight of Lyly's plays survive in quarto, published during his lifetime in fourteen separate editions, all but

935-496: Is mentioned in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil , Elizabeth's Principal Secretary, dated 4 Feb 1602, where Lyly tells him that: My wife delivered my petition to the Queen, who accepted it graciously, & as I desired referred it to Mr Grevil ... The copy I have sent enclosed, not to trouble your Honour, but only to vouchsafe a view of the particulars, all woven in one, is but to have something What he did in fact receive, if anything, as

990-514: The Odyssey are Nestor's wife Eurydice and their remaining living sons: Echephron, Stratius, Aretus, Thrasymedes and Peisistratus. Nestor also had two daughters named Pisidice and Polycaste . Nestor's advice in the Iliad , while always respected by his listeners due to his age and experience, is always tempered with a subtext of humor at his expense due to his boastfulness , as he is never able to dispense

1045-557: The 1590s, most notably The Entertainment at Mitcham performed on 13 September 1598 at the house of Sir Julius Caesar . Two petitions by Lyly to Queen Elizabeth show that he entered her service at some time in the late 1580s, with hopes of becoming her Master of the Revels, hopes that eventually ended in disappointment. In the first petition he says that: I was entertained your Majestie's servaunt by your own gratious favor ... strengthened with condicions that I should ayme all my courses at

1100-437: The Achaeans in Book 4 to use spear techniques that in actuality would be disastrous, and in Book 11 giving advice to Patroclus that ultimately leads to his death. Yet Nestor is never questioned and instead is frequently praised. Hanna Roisman explains that the characters in the Iliad ignore the discrepancy between the quality of Nestor's advice and its outcomes because, in the world of the Iliad , "outcomes are ultimately in

1155-587: The Earl, and requests a personal interview in order to clear his name. In the same year, he contributed an introductory epistle, John Lyly to the Author his friend , to Thomas Watson 's collection of poems Hekatompathia, or passionate Centurie of Love , also published by Cawood, and which Watson also dedicated to de Vere. In 1583, de Vere secured him the lease of the first Blackfriars Playhouse , where Lyly's first two plays, Campaspe and Sapho and Phao were performed by

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1210-517: The Queen's letters to admit him as fellow at Magdalen College. Although the fellowship was not granted, later letters to Burghley show that their connection continued after he left university. In the Glasse for Europe , in the second part of Euphues (1580), Lyly described how grateful he felt towards him: This noble man I found so ready being but a straunger to do me good, that neyther I ought to forget him, neyther cease to pray for him, that as he hath

1265-1151: The Queen. In 1589, Lyly published a tract in the Martin Marprelate controversy, called Pappe with an hatchet, alias a figge for my Godsonne; Or Crack me this nut; Or a Countrie Cuffe, etc. Though published anonymously, the evidence for his authorship of the tract may be found in Gabriel Harvey 's Pierce's Supererogation (written November 1589, published 1593), in Thomas Nashe 's Have with You to Saffron-Walden (1596), and in various allusions in Lyly's own plays. Lyly sat as an MP in Queen Elizabeth's last four Parliaments, for Hindon in Wiltshire in 1589, for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire twice, in 1593 and 1601, and for Appleby in Westmorland in 1597–98 when he also served on

1320-399: The Queen. In addition to plays, Lyly also composed at least one "entertainment" (a show that combined elements of masque and drama) performed for Queen Elizabeth during her various Progresses through the country; The Entertainment at Chiswick was staged on 28 and 29 July 1602 at the house of Sir William Russell. Lyly has been suggested as the author of several other royal entertainments of

1375-542: The Revells (I dare not say with a promise, but with a hopeful Item to the Revercion) for which these ten yeres I have attended with an unwearyed patience In the second petition, dated 1601, Lyly complains: Thirteen yeres your highnes servant but yet nothing. Twenty friends that though they saye they will be sure, I finde them sure to be slowe. A thousand hopes, but all nothing; a hundred promises but yet nothing. Thus casting up

1430-501: The Splayed Eagle", close by Canterbury Cathedral on either Sun Street or Palace Street. They sold the house fourteen months later, in Jan 1571. In 1571, at the age of 16, Lyly became a student at Magdalen College, Oxford , where he is recorded as having received his bachelor's degree on 27 April 1573, and his master's two years later on 19 May, 1575. In his address "To my very good friends

1485-496: The advice without first spending several paragraphs recounting his own heroic actions in the past when faced with similar circumstances. In the Odyssey , too, Homer's admiration of Nestor is tempered by some humor at his expense: Telemachus, having returned to Nestor's home from a visit to Helen of Troy and Menelaus (where he has sought further information on his father's fate), urges Peisistratus to let him board his vessel immediately to return home rather than being subjected to

1540-611: The author of "a new English", as a " raffineur de l'Anglois "; and, as Edward Blount , one of the publishers of his plays, wrote in 1632, "that beautie in court which could not parley Euphuism was as little regarded as she which nowe there speakes not French". Lyly's prose style was much imitated, for example by Barnabe Rich in his Second Tome of the Travels and Adventures of Don Simonides , 1584; by Robert Greene in his Menaphon, Camilla's Alarum to Slumbering Euphues , 1589; and by Thomas Lodge in his Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie , 1590,

1595-508: The city rather than staying behind with Agamemnon to appease Athena, who was angered by the heinous actions of some of the Greeks (probably Ajax the Lesser). Odysseus 's son Telemachus travels to Pylos to inquire about the fate of his father. Nestor receives his friend's son, Telemachus, kindly and entertains him lavishly but is unable to furnish any information on his father's fate. Also appearing in

1650-905: The collection to Richard, 1st Viscount Lumley of Waterford , writing: It can be no dishonor, to listen to this Poets Music, whose Tunes alighted in the Ears of a great and ever-famous Queene: his Invention was so curiously strung, that Elizaes Court held his notes in Admiration ... For this Poet sat at the Sunnes Table ;: Apollo gave him a wreath of his own Bayes , without snatching. The Lyre he played on, had no borrowed strings ... The greatest treasure our Poet left behind him, are these six ingots of refined invention: richer than Gold. Were they Diamonds they are now yours. Francis Meres placed "eloquent and witty John Lyly" alongside Shakespeare in his list of "the best for comedy amongst us" when describing

1705-422: The gentlemen scholars of Oxford" at the end of the second edition of his Anatomy of Wit , he complains about a sentence of rustication apparently passed on him at some time during his university career, but nothing more is known about either its date or its cause. According to Anthony Wood , while Lyly had the reputation of "a noted wit", he never took kindly to the proper studies of the university: For so it

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1760-516: The hands of the ever arbitrary and fickle gods ... heroes are not necessarily viewed as responsible when things go awry". In the Iliad , people are judged not necessarily in the modern view of results, but as people. Therefore, Nestor should be viewed as a good counselor because of the qualities he possesses as described in his introduction in Book 1—as a man of "sweet words", a "clear-voiced orator", and whose voice "flows sweeter than honey". These are elements that make up Nestor, and they parallel

1815-487: The intervention the Queen herself. A letter written on 30 Oct, 1584 from Oxford to Burghley shows that Lyly was still in de Vere's service, and that Lyly was awkwardly positioned in his loyalty to both men, saying "you sent for Amis my man, and yf he wear absent, that Lylle should come unto yow... I mean not to be yowre ward nor yowre chyld ... and scorne to be offered that injurie, to think I am so weak of government as to be ruled by servants". On 24 November Oxford transferred

1870-502: The inventory of my friends, hopes, promises and tymes, the summa totalis amounteth to just nothing The originals of the two petitions do not survive, but, whatever their success with Elizabeth, after Lyly's death the pair enjoyed the most extensive circulation in manuscript of any Elizabethan-Jacobean dramatist. Forty-six copies of the two letters in post-1620 manuscript miscellanies, anthologies of state correspondence, and letter-manuals, can currently be recorded. A third, now lost, petition

1925-594: The joint company of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's known as Oxford's Boys, before their performances at Court in the presence of the Queen at Whitehall Palace . Campaspe was performed there during the Christmas festivities 1583–84, on "New Year's Day at Night", and Sapho during the pre- Lent festivities on the evening of Shrove Tuesday , 3 March 1584. A warrant issued on 12 March ordered that Lyly be paid

1980-483: The last written in prose: While A Warning for Fair Women (1599) and The Maid's Metamorphosis (1600) have been attributed to Lyly in the past, these attributions have not gained any serious acceptance. Six Court Comedies, the first printed collection of Lyly's plays, was published in duodecimo format by Edward Blount in 1632, the same year that he published the Second Folio of Shakespeare's plays. They appear in

2035-520: The latter was subsequently revived for performance at the second Blackfriars Theatre in 1600–01, this time, as its title page states, by the Children of the Chapel . An eighth play by Lyly, The Woman in the Moon , his only play in verse and first published in 1597, also declares its royal performance but is the only one that does not state the name of the company who performed it. In total, at least six of Lyly's eight known surviving plays were performed before

2090-440: The occasion for Midas since its title page states it was "played... upon Twelfth Day at Night", and this was the only time the company is recorded playing that date. Both Mother Bombie and Love's Metamorphosis must also date from this period 1588–91, each with title pages stating their performance by Paul's Boys, although neither mentions performance before the Queen. After the closure of Paul's Playhouse sometime 1590–91,

2145-563: The plays, 'To the Reader', Blount explained his motivation for publication: I have (for the love I beare to Posteritie) dig'd up the Grave of a Rare and Excellent Poet, whom Queene Elizabeth then heard, Graced, and Rewarded ... A sinne it were to suffer these Rare Monuments of wit, to lye covered in Dust, and a shame such conceipted Comedies, should be Acted by none but wormes. Oblivion shall not so trample on

2200-458: The playwrights of his day in his Palladis Tamia, or Wits Treasury , printed in 1598. Ben Jonson , in his poem "To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr William Shakespeare" printed in the 1623 First Folio , praised Lyly by listing him as one of the best playwrights whom Shakespeare surpassed: "How far thou didst our Lyly outshine, Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line". Lyly's importance as

2255-583: The rental rights of the manor of Bentfield Bury and a nearby wood, both in Stansted Mountfitchet , Essex , to Lyly worth £30 13s 4d a year. Just over a year later, on 3 March 1586, the property's tenants then bought out the rental rights from him for the lump sum of £250. In 1587, Lyly revived his theatrical career, writing for the Children of Paul's at their playhouse adjacent to St Paul's Cathedral , where his plays would be publicly staged first before their subsequent performance at court. Gallathea

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2310-590: The side of the Achaeans in the Trojan War . Though Nestor was already very old when the war began, he was noted for his bravery and speaking abilities. In the Iliad , he often gives advice to the younger warriors and advises Agamemnon and Achilles to reconcile. He is too old to engage in combat himself, but he leads the Pylian troops, riding his chariot; one of his horses is killed by an arrow shot by Paris . He also had

2365-487: The source text for As You Like It . Lyly dedicated his second Euphues novel to Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , who seems to have acted as patron to most of Lyly's literary associates when they left Oxford for London, and it is about this time that Lyly became his private secretary. De Vere was Burghley's son-in-law, and two years later a letter from Lyly to Burghley, dated July 1582, protests against an accusation of dishonesty which had brought him into trouble with

2420-507: The term euphuism . The proverb "All is fair in love and war" has been attributed to Lyly's Euphues . There have been literary references to Euphues as follows: This article about a 16th century novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . Nestor (mythology) In Greek mythology , Nestor of Gerenia ( Ancient Greek : Νέστωρ Γερήνιος , Nestōr Gerēnios )

2475-420: 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 . He has been credited by some scholars with writing the first English novel , and as being 'the father of English comedy'. John Lyly

2530-454: The volume in the following order: Endymion , Campaspe , Sapho and Phao , Gallathea , Midas and Mother Bombie , all first printed 1584–94. The last two of his plays to be published, The Woman in the Moon and Love's Metamorphosis , printed in 1597 & 1601 respectively, were omitted. The collection printed the songs in Campaspe and Gallathea for the first time. In his introduction to

2585-537: The wisdom of Nestor , so he may have the age, that having the policies of Ulysses he may have his honor, worthy to lyve long, by whom so many lyve in quiet, and not unworthy to be advaunced by whose care so many have been preferred. At some point after university Lyly moved to London, finding lodgings at the fashionable residence of the Savoy Hospital on the Strand , where Gabriel Harvey described him as "a dapper &

2640-608: Was William Lily , the grammarian and the first High (or Head) Master of St Paul's School, London . His uncle, George Lily , was a scholar and cartographer, and served as domestic chaplain to Reginald Pole , Archbishop of Canterbury . Lyly was probably educated at King's School, Canterbury , where his younger brothers are recorded as contemporaries of Christopher Marlowe . He was about 15 years old when, in October 1569, his father died. Peter's will made his wife Jane and his son John his joint executors and named "my dwelling house... called

2695-587: Was a legendary king of Pylos . He is a prominent secondary character in Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey , where he appears as an elderly warrior who frequently offers advice to the other characters. The Mycenaean-era palace at Pylos is known as the Palace of Nestor , though there is no evidence that he was an actual person. In the account of Dares the Phrygian , Nestor was illustrated as "... large, broad and fair. His nose

2750-464: Was an instant success, and Lyly quickly followed it with a sequel, Euphues and his England , licensed to Cawood on 24 July, and published in 1580. Like the first, it won immediate popularity. Between them, the two works went through over thirty editions by 1630. As Leah Scragg, their most recent editor, describes them, they would "prove the literary sensation of the age". For a time Lyly was the most successful and fashionable of English writers, hailed as

2805-750: Was born in Kent , England, c. 1553–4, the eldest son of Peter Lyly and his wife, Jane Burgh (or Brough), of Burgh Hall in the North Riding of Yorkshire . He was probably born either in Rochester , where his father is recorded as a notary public in 1550, or in Canterbury , where his father was the Registrar for the Archbishop, Matthew Parker , and where the births of his siblings are recorded between 1562 and 1568. His grandfather

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2860-525: Was likely performed at Greenwich Palace on "New Year's Day at Night" as part of the 1587/88 Christmas revels there, with Endymion following suit at Candlemas on 2nd February, 1588. Paul's Boys performed on three dates during the 1589/90 Christmas season at Richmond Palace, on Sunday after Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Twelfth Day, according to the Council Registers records of payment made for them. The last of these three, 6 Jan 1590, must have been

2915-429: Was long and hooked. He was a wise adviser." Nestor was the son of King Neleus of Pylos and Chloris , daughter of King Amphion of Orchomenus . Otherwise, Nestor's mother was called Polymede . His wife was either Eurydice or Anaxibia ; their children included Peisistratus , Thrasymedes , Pisidice , Polycaste , Perseus , Stratichus , Aretus , Echephron , and Antilochus . In late accounts, Nestor had

2970-757: Was published by Bucknell University Press in 1988. Since then, modern editions of all his plays have been published in The Revels Plays series (Manchester University Press) as follows: In addition, one play has been published in the Revels Student Edition series: His other works have also been published in The Revel Plays Companion Library series: The Revels Plays Companion Library series has also published two book-length studies of his works: A collection of twenty four essays on Lyly, written between 1956 and 2005, has been published in

3025-419: Was that his genius being naturally bent to the pleasant paths of poetry (as if Apollo had given to him a wreath of his own bays without snatching or struggling) did in a manner neglect academical studies, yet not so much but that he took the degrees in arts, that of master being compleated 1575. While at Oxford, Lyly wrote to William Cecil, Lord Burghley , on 16 May 1574, to seek his assistance in applying for

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