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First published in 1962, John Lyly marks a shift from the traditional focus on John Lyly as the originator of the strange stylistic craze called Euphuism, and as the dramatist from whose plays Shakespeare deigned to borrow some of his earliest and least attractive comic devices to an author whose works are excellent in themselves. Critics have suggested that an independent reading of Euphues, and more especially of the plays, reveals an attractive delicacy of wit and a refined power of linguistic filigree quite independent of his influence on others or his capacity to illustrate the curious tastes of our forefathers. The eight plays – his most mature artistic achievements – are analysed in detail to bring out their relation to the tradition of court drama. A final chapter compares Lyly and Shakespeare in an attempt to show in operation the different traditions which the book has discussed. This book will appeal to students of English literature, drama and literary history.

John Lyly is the first collection of essays dedicated solely to the work of this University Wit, celebrity prose writer, and playwright to the court of Elizabeth. Lyly's energy and wit inspired his contemporaries to follow new directions in prose fiction and stage comedy, and his writings still illuminate sixteenth-century culture for the modern reader. The twenty-four essays in this selection include some older classics, but most date from 1990 onwards and reflect current critical concerns with politics and sexuality, class and audience. Both Euphues books and the eight plays receive some detailed attention. The essays are grouped into four sections: Lessons in Wit, Courting the Queen, Playing with Desire, and Performing Lyly. A biographical summary and critical survey are provided in the introduction; other voices and insights are alluded to in the notes and listed in the wide-ranging bibliography.

"Of primary importance for students of Renaissance prose, this edition complements the on-going publication of Lyly's dramatic works in The Revels Plays. The introduction includes a discussion of the relationship between the dramatic and non-dramatic work locating Lyly's plays in a wider context."--BOOK JACKET.

John Lyly, Shakespeare's forerunner in English comedy, wrote eight highly individual plays. This study of the plays, with each chapter devoted to a different play, concentrates on the courtly aspects of Lyly's work - he wrote all but one of his plays for court performance. In particular, it examines the relationship of Lylian drama to royal panegyric, a kind of writing which he did much to establish. However, the plays also present a parody of panegyric, and thus might also be said to have a counter-courtly aspect.