A History of English Prose FictionTuckerman, Bayard
History
A History of English Prose Fiction
Tuckerman, Bayard
English fiction -- History and criticism
recrimination couched in the most elaborate language. Philautus writes:
Although hereto Euphues, I have shrined thee in my heart for
a trustie friende, I will shunne thee hereafter as a trothless
foe. * * * Dost thou not know yat a perfect friend should be lyke
the Glazeworme, which shineth most bright in the darke? or lyke the
pure Frankencense which smelleth most sweet when it is in the fire?
or at the leaste not unlike to the damaske Rose which is sweeter in
the still than on the stalke? But thou, Euphues, dost rather
resemble the Swallow, which in the summer creepeth under the eues
of euery house, and in the winter leaveth nothing but durt behinde
hir; or the humble Bee, which hauing sucked hunny out of the fayre
flower, doth leaue it and loath it; or the Spider which in the
finest web doth hang the fayrest Fly.
To these bitter reproaches Euphues replies that "Love knoweth no
Lawes," and in support of the proposition cites as many cases from
mythology as he can remember. The faithless Lucilla, however, soon
treats Euphues as she had before treated Philautus, and marries a third
lover whom they both despise. The friends are then once more united,
and lament in each other's arms the folly of Lucilla. A second part of
the work appeared in the following year, in which Euphues and Philautus
are represented on a visit to England. Philautus marries, and Euphues,
after eulogizing the English government, Elizabeth, and all her court,
retires forever "to the bottom of the mountain Silexedra."
The educational essays dispersed throughout the book display a good
sense which even Lyly's style cannot conceal. Ascham and Lyly were
alone in deprecating the excessive use of the rod, and in so doing were
far in advance of the age. Cruelty seems to have been a common
characteristic of the school-teacher. "I knew one," said Peacham, "who
in winter would ordinarily in a cold morning whip his boyes over for no
other purpose than to get himself a heat; another beat them for
swearing, and all the time he swears himself with horrible oathes that
he would forgive any fault save that. * * * Yet these are they that
oftentimes have our hopefull gentry under their charge and tuition, to
bring them (up) in science and civility."[61]
The style which proved so attractive to Elizabeth's courtiers had
three principal characteristics, which the reader will perceive in the
extracts hereafter to be given--a pedantic exhibition of learning, an
excess of similes drawn from natural history, usually untrue to nature,
and a habit of antithesis, which, by constant repetition becomes
exceedingly wearisome. Euphues, wishing to convince his listeners of
the inferiority of outward to inward perfection, pursues the following
argument:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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