Chapter VI: Section III: Lyly's Legatees and the relation between Euphuism and the

Renaissance._

The publication of _Euphues_ was the culmination, rather than the origin, of that literary phase to which it gave its name. And the vogue of euphuism after 1579 was short, lasting indeed only until about 1590; yet during these ten years its influence was far-reaching, and left a definite mark upon later English prose. It would be idle, if not impossible, to trace its effects upon every individual writer who fell under its immediate fascination. Moreover the task has already been performed in a great measure by M. Jusserand[61] and Mr Bond[62]. They have shown once and for all that Greene, Lodge, Welbanke, Munday, Warner, Wilkinson, and above all Shakespeare, were indebted to our author for certain mannerisms of style. I shall therefore content myself with noticing two or three writers, tainted with euphuism, who have been generally overlooked, and who seem to me important enough, either in themselves, or as throwing light upon the subject of the essay, to receive attention.

[61] Jusserand, ch. IV.

[62] Bond, vol. I. pp. 164-175.

The first of these is the dramatist Kyd, who completed his well-known _Spanish Tragedy_ between 1584 and 1589, that is at the height of the euphuistic fashion. This play was apparently an inexhaustible joke to the Elizabethans; for the references to it in later dramatists are innumerable. One passage must have been particularly famous, for we find it parodied most elaborately by Field, as late as 1606, in his _A Woman is a Weathercock_[63]. The passage in question, which was obviously inspired by Lyly, runs as follows:

"Yet might she love me for my valiance:
I, but that's slandered by captivity.
Yet might she love me to content her sire:
I, but her reason masters her desire.
Yet might she love me as her brother's friend:
I, but her hopes aim at some other end.
Yet might she love me to uprear her state:
I, but perhaps she loves some nobler mate.
Yet might she love me as her beautie's thrall:
I, but I feare she cannot love at all."

[63] Act I. Sc. II.

Nathaniel Field's parody of this melodramatic nonsense is so amusing that I cannot forbear quoting it. This time the despairing lover is Sir Abraham Ninny, who quotes Kyd to his companions, and they with the cry of "Ha God-a-mercy, old Hieromino!" begin the game of parody, which must have been keenly enjoyed by the audience. Field improves on the original by putting the alternate lines of despair into the mouths of Ninny's jesting friends. It runs, therefore:

"--Yet might she love me for my lovely eyes.
--Ay but, perhaps your nose she does despise.
--Yet might she love me for my dimpled chin.
--Ay but, she sees your beard is very thin.
--Yet might she love me for my proper body.
--Ay but, she thinks you are an arrant noddy.
--Yet might she love me 'cause I am an heir.
--Ay but, perhaps she does not like your ware.
--Yet might she love me in despite of all.
(the lady herself)--Ay but indeed I cannot love at all."

This parody, apart from any interest it possesses for the student of Lyly, is an excellent illustration of the ways of Elizabethan playwrights, and of the thorough knowledge of previous plays they assumed their audience to have possessed. There are several other examples of Kyd's acquaintance with the _Euphues_ in the _Spanish Tragedy_[64], in the other dramas[65], and in his prose works[66], which it is not necessary to quote. But there is one more passage, again from his most famous play, which is so full of interest that it cannot be passed over in silence. It is a counsel of hope to the despairing lover, and assumes this inspiring form:

"My Lord, though Belimperia seem thus coy
Let reason hold you in your wonted joy;
In time the savage Bull sustains the yoke,
In time all Haggard Hawkes will stoop to lure,
In time small wedges cleave the hardest Oake,
In time the flint is pearst with softest shower,
And she in time will fall from her disdain,
And rue the sufferance of your deadly paine[67]."

[64] _Sp. Trag._, Act IV. 190 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 146).

[65] _Soliman and Perseda_, Act III. 130 (cp. _Euphues_, p. 100), and