ished before 1529. Might not Berners therefore have come under
Guevara's influence as early as 1524? We must concede that it is
possible, but, on the other hand, the difficulties in the way of such a
contingency seem almost insuperable. In the first place, if we are to
believe Dr West, Guevara did not begin to write his work before 1518,
and it was not until "some time afterwards" (whatever this may mean)
that it was "surreptitiously copied and printed." It would require a
bold man to assert that a book thus published could be influencing the
style of an English writer as early as 1524. But further it must be
remembered that Berners almost certainly could not read Castilian[51].
Now the earliest known French translation of Guevara is one by Rene
Bertaut in 1531, which Berners himself is known to have used[52].
Therefore, if Berners was already under Guevara's influence in 1524, he
must have known of an earlier French pirated translation of an earlier
pirated edition of the _Libro Aureo_. To sum up; if the euphuistic
tendency in English prose is to be ascribed entirely, or even mainly, to
the influence of Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, we must digest four
improbabilities: (i) that there existed a pirated edition of the book in
Spain _earlier_ than 1524: (ii) that this had been translated into
French, also before 1524, although the version of Bertaut in 1531 is the
earliest French translation we have any trace of: (iii) that Berners
himself had come across this hypothetical French edition, again before
1524: and (iv) that the French translation had so faithfully reproduced
the style of the original, that Berners was able to translate it from
French into English, for the purpose of his prologue to _Froissart_.

[45] Huon, p. 787.

[46] _Froissart_, Globe edition, p. xxviii.

[47] Huon, p. 788.

[48] After writing the above I have noticed that Mr G. C. Macaulay, in
the Introduction to the Globe _Froissart_, writes as follows (p. xvi):
"If nothing else could be adduced to show that the tendency (i.e.
euphuism) existed already in English literature, the prefaces to Lord
Berners' _Froissart_ written before he could possibly have read
Guevara, would be enough to prove it."

[49] There are two extant editions of 1529, (i) published at
Valladolid, from which the words above are quoted, (ii) published at
Enueres, which appears to be an earlier edition. Copies of both in the
British Museum.

[50] Hallam