o to be considered,
for what is proper in Arcadia, or even in Italy, might be quite absurd
in a colder country."]
[Footnote 2: Though not published till 1598, Bartholomew Young's
translation of the "Diana" was made in 1583.]
[Footnote 3: In the epistle To the Gentlemen Readers, prefixed to "A
Margarite of America," he tells us that he read the original of that
story "in the Library of the Jesuits in Sanctum ... in the Spanish
tongue."]
[Footnote 4: Jusserand, "The English Novel in the Time of
Shakespeare," p. 236.]
_Style: Euphuistic._ Nor was Lodge more original in his manner than in
his matter. His style is that of the euphuists. John Lyly's "Euphues,
or the Anatomy of Wit" (1579), and its sequel "Euphues and His
England" (1580), had set a fashion that was destined for the next two
decades to enjoy a tremendous vogue. Lyly's was the first conspicuous
example in English of the attempt to achieve an ornate and rather
fantastic style. The result became known as euphuism, and those who
employed it as euphuists. In its essential features it consists of
three distinct mannerisms: a balance of phrases, an elaborate system
of alliteration, and a profusion of similes taken from fabulous
natural history. Regarding the euphuistic use of balance, Dr. Landmann
says of Lyly's prose:[1] "We have here the most elaborate antithesis
not only of well balanced clauses, but also of words, often even of
sentences.... Even when he uses a single sentence he opposes the words
within the clause to each other."
[Footnote 1: In "Shakspere and Euphuism," _Transactions of the New
Shakspere Society_, 1880-1882.]
Of this balance Lodge's "Rosalynde" affords abundant illustration.
Such a succession of sentences as that on page 7, where each sentence
is composed of balanced clauses, is a striking but by no means unique
example. Usually the contrasted words begin with the same letter or
sound, as in the sentences just cited, where the alliteration appears
to be employed to emphasize the contrast. Often the alliteration
serves merely for ornament, as in the sentence: "It is she, O gentle
swain, it is she, that saint it is whom I serve, that goddess at whose
shrine I do bend all my devotions; the most fairest of all fairs, the
phoenix of all that sex, and the purity of all earthly perfection."
The euphuistic similes were of three kinds. First, there were those
drawn from familiar natural objects, such as, "Happily she resembleth
the rose,
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