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Perhaps no dramatist is more out of touch with modern taste than John
Lyly. The ordinary reader, taking up one of his plays by chance, will
probably set it down wearily after the perusal of barely one or two
acts. And yet Lyly excels any of his contemporaries in witty invention,
and is the creator of what has been called High Comedy. His importance,
therefore, in the history of the growth of the drama is considerable.
Nor is his fancy found to be so dull when approached in the right
spirit. True, it requires an effort to step back into the shoes of an
Elizabethan courtier. But the effort is worth making, since the mind, as
soon as it has realized what not to expect, is better able to appreciate
what is offered. The essential requirement is to remember that Lyly the
dramatist is the same man as Lyly the euphuist, and that his audience
was always a company of courtiers, with Queen Elizabeth in their midst,
infatuated with admiration for the new phraseology and mode of thought
known as Euphuism. If we consider the manner in which these lords and
ladies spent their time at court, filling idle hours with compliment,
love-making, veiled jibe and swift retort; if we read our _Euphues_
again, renewing our acquaintance with its absurdly elaborated and
stilted style, its tireless winding of sentences round a topic without
any advance in thought, its affectation of philosophy and classical
learning; if we remember that to speak euphuistically was a coveted and
studiously cultivated accomplishment, and that to pun, to utter caustic
jests, to let fall neat epigrams were the highest ambition of wit; if we
take this trouble to prepare ourselves for reading Lyly's plays, we may
still find them dull, but we shall at least understand why they took the
form they did, and shall be in a position to recognize the substantial
service rendered to Comedy by the author. Lyly's work was just the
application of the laws of euphuism to native comedy, and it wrought a
change curiously similar to the effect of Senecan principles upon native
tragedy, transferring the importance from the action to the words. It
may be remarked that this redistribution of the interest must always be
of great value in the early stage of any literature. The popular taste
for action and incident is sure to be gratified sooner or later; the
demand for elegant and appropriate diction, usually confined to the
cultured few, is more apt to be pass