LYLY, LILY, or LILLY, JOHN, was a native of the Weald of Kent. His birth has been referred to the year 1554, on the faith of the entry of his matriculation as a student at Oxford in 1571, which asserts him to have then been seventeen years old. He became Bachelor of Arts in 1573. It appears from one of his prefaces that he was rusticated from Oxford ; and, after having (it is said) studied likewise at Cambridge, he went to London, and spent his life iu literary labour, as a dramatic and miscellaneous writer. Although his writings must for a considerable time have been fashionable at court, he appears to have shared to the full in the poverty and distresses of authorship. He is supposed to have served Lord Oxford, but to have been deprived of his place; and he was long and unsuccessfully an applicant for the office of master of the revels. In one of his petitions to the queen, which has been preserved, he, with melancholy quaint. Eels, describes the history of his life as "Lyly De Tristibus, wherein shall be seen patience, labours, and misfortunes." The time of his death is unknown ; but he must have survived the beginning of the 17th century.
The two most famous of his works bore the following titles : Euphues : the Anatomy of Wit, eerie pleasant for all gentlemen to read, and most necessary to remember : wherein are contained the delyghta that Wit followeth in his youth by the pleaaantnesse of Love, and the happineaae he reapeth in age by the perfeetneese of Wisedome,' 4to, 1579 or 1580: Thrphues and his England ; containing his voyage aud adventures, mixed with sundrie pretie discourses of honest Love, the description of the Countrie, the Court, and the manners of that Isle; delightful to be read, and nothing hurtfull to be regarded; wherein there is small offence by lightnesse given to the wile, and lease occasion of loorienesse proffered to the wanton,' 4to, 1582. He wrote also a lively satirical tract against Martin Marprelate Pap with a Hatchet; alias, a Fig for my Godson; or Crack me this Nut ; or a Country Cuff; that is, a sound Box on the Ear for the Idiot Martin to hold his peace : written by one that dares call a Dog a Dog, 1593. He wee also the author of nine playa still extant : I, Alexander and Campaepe; 1584, 1691; reprinted in Dodeley's vol. n. 2, Sapho and Phao; 1584, 1591. 3, Endimion:
1591; reprinted in Dilke's 'Old Plays,' vol. ii. 4, Galathes,' 1592. 5, 'Midas,' 1592; and 6, 'Mother Bombie,' 1594, 1597 ; both reprinted in Dilke's 'Collection,' vol. i. 7, The Woman in the Moon,' 1597. 8, 'The Maid's Metamorphosis,' anonymous, but generally attributed to Lyly, 1600. 9, Love's Metamorphosis,' 1601; the authorship of which has been doubted.
The first mentioned works of Lyly gave the name of 'Euphuism' to a fashionable style of language, of which, although he certainly did not invent it, he was the most emicent literary cultivator. The 'Euphuism' of Lyly himself was just an exaggerated form of that strained, pedantic, over-elaborated imagery which was prevalent in refined society as well as in literature about the middle of Elizabeth's reign. In his hands it added to the classical pedantry of the day a pedantry of something like science, .consisting in incessant images derived from a half-fabulous system of natural history. Sbakspere's Don launder has sometimes been considered as parleying Euphuism ;' but, aa Mr. Knight has observed, there is a nearer approach to this jargon in much of the language used by the higher personages in the same play. The absurdities of it are burlesqued by Janson in his 'Cynthia's Revels.' Sir Piercie Shafton, in ' The Monastery,' is an unsuccessful attempt at representing the characteristics of Euphuism.
Lyly's dramas are almost everywhere deformed by the same false taste ; yet they exhibit occasional touches of fine fancy, which how ever is shown to greater advantage in some of the short lyrical pieces , interspersed through them. The wit of the dialogue is in some places lively. To success in portraiture of character these plays can make no claim ; and as little can their mythological, pastoral or classical stories be said to possess dramatic interest, or to be treated with dramatic skill. The author's claim to remembrance as s dramatist rests almost wholly on hie position as one of Shakspere'a immediate predecessors ; and on the fact that his plays present, in strong relief, some of the distinctive characteristics of the literary tastes which prevailed in that interesting age.