ption of Francis Bacon, were poets. If, however, an Elizabethan
had been so peculiarly constituted as to wish to stock his library
with contemporary prose only, he could have secured good works in many
different fields. He could, for instance, have obtained (1) an
excellent book on education, the _Scholemaster_ of Roger Ascham
(1515-1568); (2) interesting volumes of travel, such as the
_Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation_, by
Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616); and _The Discovery of Guiana_, by Sir
Walter Raleigh (1552-1618); (3) history, in the important _Chronicles
of England, Ireland, and Scotland_ (1578), by Raphael Holinshed; the
_Chronicle (Annals of England)_ and _Survey of London_, by John Stow
(1525-1604); and the _Brittania_, by William Camden (1551-1623); (4)
biography, in the excellent translation of _Plutarch's Lives_, by Sir
Thomas North (1535-1601?); (5) criticism, in _The Apologie for
Poetrie_, by Sir Philip Sidney; (6) essays on varied subjects by
Francis Bacon; (7) works dealing with religion and faith: (_a_) John
Foxe's (1516-1587) _Book of Martyrs_, which told in simple prose
thrilling stories of martyrs and served as a textbook of the
Reformation; (_b_) Hooker's _Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_, a
treatise on theology; (8) fiction,[1] in John Lyly's _Euphues_ (1579),
Robert Greene's _Pandosto_ (1588), Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcardia_
(1590), Thomas Lodge's _Rosalynde_ (1590), Nashe's _The Unfortunate
Traveler_ (1594), and Thomas Deloney's _The Gentle Craft_ (1597).[2]

Shakespeare read Holinshed, North, Greene, Sidney, and Lodge and
turned some of their suggestions into poetry, which we very much
prefer to their prose. We are nearly certain that Shakespeare studied
Lyly's _Euphues_, because we can trace the influence of that work in
his style.

It was the misfortune of Elizabethan prose to be almost completely
overshadowed by the poetry. This prose was, however, far more varied
and important than that of any preceding age. The books mentioned on
page 123 constitute only a small part of the prose of this period.

Lyly, Sidney, Hooker.--In 1579, when Shakespeare was fifteen years
old, there appeared the first part of an influential prose work, John
Lyly's (1554?-1606) _Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit_, followed in 1580 by
a second part, _Euphues and his England_. Much of Lyly's subject
matter is borrowed, and his form reflects the artificial style then
popular over Europe.

Euph