54 
But, speaking generally, Spenser scorned the effeminancy of 
language in “ Kuphues,” and adopted a style characteristic of an 
earlier period. Sir Philip Sidney, in his ‘‘ Defence of Poetry,” 
attacks the painted affectation of the English of his time, pouring 
ridicule on the alliterations, the far-fetched words, the similes 
from beasts, or stones, or plants to be found in writers of the 
euphuistic school. Did Shakespeare ever become imbued with 
the euphuistic style? The works of the great dramatist are not 
free from quip and quibble, and play upon words. As with 
Lyly so with Shakespeare, love is the burthen of much of his 
writing. Although much indebted to Lyly, Shakespeare cannot 
be counted among the euphuists. Shakespeare was familiar with 
the novels and plays of the first of the Euphuists, and did not 
disdain to paraphrase some of Lyly’s best passages. In making 
comparison between the works of two men, time is the essence 
of the matter. The whole of Lyly’s works were published some 
years before the wondrous creations of the Stratford player were 
given tothe world. Thesentence in ‘‘ Hamlet ’’ about desperate 
diseases and their relief by desperate appliances ; the remark of 
the Duke in ‘“‘As You Like It”—‘‘ Sweet are the uses of 
adversity ;’’ the weli-known line in ‘ Cymbeline,” telling how 
“ The lark at heaven’s gate sings ;’”’ Hamlet’s speech, ‘‘ Let the 
galled jade wince ;”’ the advice of Polonius to Laertes ;—all these 
Shakespeare borrowed from Lyly. No doubt the audiences to 
whom Shakespeare appealed would easily recognise allusions to 
Kuphues (just as we do to Dickens), and they would greet with 
admiration the first appearance of the magnificent structures 
Shakespeare’s splendid genius had raised from comparatively 
meagre materials. Aithough Shakespeare, in ‘“ Love’s Labour 
Lost,” ridiculed it with an unsparing hand, and Ben Jonson 
pilloried its professors in two of his dramas, ‘ Kuphuism 
flourished all through the reign of Elizabeth and James I. 
Writing in the time of Charles I., Blount said ‘that beauty im 
Court, who could not parley euphuism, was little regarded.” 
Kuphuism, as expounded by its votaries, was French in its 
fretful insistence on detail, where detail was not of the slightest 
consequence, and was oriental in its stress on etiquette and 
punctilio, yet to its study the English youth gave their best 
energies. Its influence is traceable all down the ages. In the 
days of the pedantic James I. the domain of literary affectation 
was extended. The Puritans were not free from euphuism, 
though theirs was ‘‘cast by the heat of zeal in a religious 
mould.’ After the Restoration Spanish dramas of intrigue 
became common on the English stage, and writers in other 
departments of literature were influenced by the French style. 
Antithesis became more strongly marked than ever, but other 
characteristics of euphuism were less noticeable. After the 
