the
blind god Environment. And without indulging in any abstruse
psychological discussion, but rather looking at the question from a
general point of view, we can understand how an intellect of Lyly's
type, as revealed by the _Euphues_, found its ultimate expression in
comedy. Comedy, as Meredith tells us, is only possible in a civilized
society, "where ideas are current and the perceptions quick." We have
already touched upon this point and later we must return to it again;
but for the moment let us notice that this idea of comedy, though he
would have been quite unable to formulate it in words, was in reality at
the back of Lyly's mind, or rather we should perhaps say that he quite
unconsciously embodied it. He was _par excellence_ the product of a
"social" atmosphere; he moved more freely within the Court than without;
his whole mind was absorbed by the subtleties of language; a brilliant
conversation, an apt repartee, a well-turned phrase were the very breath
of his nostrils; his ideal was the intellectual beau. Add to this
compound the ingredient of literary ambition and the result is a comic
dramatist. Lyly, Congreve, Sheridan, were all men of fashion first and
writers of comedy after. In the author of _Lady Windermere's Fan_ we
have lately seen another example--the example of one whose ambition was
to be "the first well-dressed philosopher in the history of thought."
Poems, novels, fairy stories, he gave us, but it was on the stage of
comedy that he eventually found his true _metier_. "With _Euphues_,"
writes Mr Bond, "we enter the path which leads to the Restoration
dramatists ... and in Lucilla and Camilla we are prescient of Millamant
and Belinda[101]." This is very true, but the statement has a nearer
application which Mr Bond misses. Camilla is the lady who moves under
varied names through all Lyly's plays. The second part of _Euphues_ and
the first of Lyly's comedies are as closely connected psychologically
and aesthetically, as they were in point of time.

[101] Bond, I. p. 161.

SECTION I. _English Comedy before 1580._

But when Lyly's creations began to walk the boards, the English stage
was already some centuries old and therefore, in order to appreciate our
author's position, a few words are necessary upon the development of our
drama and especially of comedy previous to his time.

Though the _miracle_ play of our forefathers frequently contained a
species of coarse humour usually put into the