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EUPHUISM AND THE EUPHUISTS. 
By FRED. J. GRANT. November 22nd, 1892. 
Of those who affect to understand euphuism, the most to be 
pitied are those whose acquaintance with the subject is derived 
solely from the ‘‘ Monastery,” by Sir W. Scott. The character 
introduced into that novel expressly to typify the euphuistic 
gallant is far from being a correct representation of the original. 
There is in the Piercie Shafton of the story more than a little of 
what Macaulay would have described as ‘“ the exaggeration of 
fictitious narrative.’’ Much is lost in accuracy without gain to 
the effect. Later in life Sir Walter admitted that the euphuist . 
in the “ Monastery’? was not a well-drawn or humorous 
character of the period. In the spring of 1579 was published a 
work of which the title page read as follows :—‘‘ Kuphues, the 
Anatomy of Wit. Very pleasant for all gentlemen to read and 
most necessary to remember, wherein are contained the delights 
that Wit followeth in his youth by the pleasantness of Love, and 
the happiness he reacheth in age by the perfectness of Wisdom. 
By John Lyly, Master of Art.’ A copy of the second edition is 
in the Bodleian Library. The fourth edition may be seen at 
the British Museum. ‘The work has recently been reproduced as 
vol. 4 of ‘English Reprints.”” From the title of this work the 
term euphuism was derived. But it must not therefore be con- 
cluded that euphuism itself sprang from this book. Lily was 
not the originator of euphuism. He gathered together examples 
of the various affectations and conceits in speech and writing in 
vogue in his age, and worked them up in his remarkable books. 
‘‘ Ruphues’’ was popular, not because it set a fashion, but 
because it followed one. Lyly was an adapter rather than an 
inventor. Foremost in the peculiar features of the euphuistie 
style comes alliteration. But the charming effect of alliteration 
was known to veterans in verse long before the days of “ the fair 
Vestal throned by the West, the Imperial Votaress ’’ who walked 
our land in maiden meditation, fancy free. It was the chief and 
universal characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry 700 years earlier. 
Another striking feature of Lyly’s style—antithesis—was as old 
as St. Paul. Again, classical and mythological allusions and 
multifarious illustrations, such as Lyly used, had been common 
in literature as long as alliteration. Classical references were 
always considered charming in the ages before Science had begun 
to draw the line between credulity and just belief. Then Lyly’s 
inversion of the order of words in parallel or opposed clauses 
(e.g., ‘* by his proper nature a slave, a knave by condition,’’) is 
familiar to students of earlier literatures. The primary origin of 
