scendant in the direct line from the "moral Court
treatise." Something perhaps of the atmosphere of the _novella_ clung
about its pages, but that was only to be expected: Lyly added incident
to the bare scheme of discourses, and for that he had no other models
but the Italians. But Guevara was his real source. Dr Landmann's
verdict, that "Euphuism is not only adapted from Guevara's _alto
estilo_, but _Euphues_ itself, as to its contents, is a mere imitation
of Guevara's enlarged biography of Marcus Aurelius," has certainly been
shown by Mr Bond to be a gross overstatement; yet there can be no doubt
that the _Diall of Princes_ was Lyly's model on the side of matter, as
was Pettie's _Pallace_ on the side of style. Our author's debt to the
Spaniard is seen in a correspondence between many parts of his book and
the _Aureo Libro_, in certain of the concluding letters and discourses,
and in many other ways which Mr Bond has patiently noted[87]. Guevara,
however, was but one among many previous writers to whom Lyly owed
obligations. _Euphues_ was justly styled by its author "compiled," being
in fact a mosaic, pieced together from the classics, and especially
Plutarch, Pliny, and Ovid, and from previous English writers such as
Harrison, Heywood, Fortescue, and Gascoigne; names that indicate the
course of literary "browsing" that Lyly substituted for the ordinary
curriculum at Oxford. To mention all the authors from whom he borrowed,
and to point out the portions of his novel which are due to their
several influences, would only be to repeat a task already accomplished
by Mr Bond[88].

[87] Bond, I. pp. 154-156.

[88] Bond, I. pp. 156-159.

Allowing for all its author's "picking and stealing," _The Anatomy of
Wit_ was in the highest sense an original book; for, though it is the
old moral treatise, its form is new, and it is enlivened by a thin
thread of narrative. The hero Euphues is a young man lately come from
Athens, which is unmistakeably Oxford, to Naples, which is just as
unmistakeably London. Here he soon becomes the centre of a convivial
circle, where he is wise enough to distinguish between friend and
parasite, to discern the difference between the "faith of Laelius and
the flattery of Aristippus." The story thus opens bravely, but the words
of the title-page, "most necessary to remember," are ever present in the
author's mind, and before we have reached the fourth page the sermon is
upon us. For "conscience" att