e, and from the point of view of Elizabethan
literature most important of all, he was one of our very earliest
dramatists, and without doubt merits the title of Father of English
Comedy.

It is almost impossible to over-estimate his historical importance in
these three departments, and this not because he was a great genius or
possessed of any magnificent artistic gifts, but for the simple reason
that he happened to stand upon the threshold of modern English
literature and at the very entrance to its splendid Elizabethan
ante-room, and therefore all who came after felt something of his
influence. These are the three chief points of interest about Lyly, but
they do not exhaust the problems he presents. We shall have to notice
also that as a pamphleteer he becomes entangled in the famous
_Marprelate_ controversy, and that he was one of the first, being
perhaps even earlier than Marlowe, to perceive the value of blank verse
for dramatic purposes. Finally, as we have seen, he was the reputed
author of some delightful lyrics.

The man of whom one can say such things, the man who showed such
versatility and range of expression, the man who took the world by storm
and made euphuism the fashion at court before he was well out of his
nonage, who for years provided the great Queen with food for laughter,
and who was connected with the first ominous outburst of the Puritan
spirit, surely possesses personal attractions apart from any literary
considerations. We shall presently see reason to believe that his
personality was a brilliant and fascinating one. But such a
reconstruction of the artist[2] is only possible after a thorough
analysis of his works. It would be as well here, however, by way of
obtaining an historical framework for our study, to give a brief account
of his life as it is known to us.

[2] Cf. Hennequin.

"Eloquent and witty" John Lyly first saw light in the year 1553 or
1554[3]. Anthony a Wood, the 17th century author of _Athenae
Oxonienses_, tells us that he was, like his contemporary Stephen Gosson,
a Kentish man born[4]; and with this clue to help them both Mr Bond and
Mr Baker are inclined to accept much of the story of Fidus as
autobiographical[5]. If their inference be correct, our author would
seem to have been the son of middle-class, but well-to-do, parents. But
it is with his residence at Oxford that any authentic account of his
life must begin, and even then our information is very meagre. Wood