d--Sketch of Lyly's life 1

CHAPTER I.

EUPHUISM 10

Section I. The Anatomy of Euphuism 13

Section II. The Origin of Euphuism 21

Section III. Lyly's legatees and the relation between
Euphuism and the Renaissance 43

Section IV. The position of Euphuism in the history of English
Prose 52

CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST ENGLISH NOVEL 64

The rise of the Novel--the characteristics of _The Anatomy of
Wit_ and _Euphues and his England_--the Elizabethan Novel.

CHAPTER III.

LYLY THE DRAMATIST 85

Section I. English Comedy before 1580 89

Section II. The Eight Plays 98

Section III. Lyly's advance and subsequent influence 119

CHAPTER IV.

CONCLUSION 132

Lyly's Character--Summary.

INDEX 143

INTRODUCTION.

Since the day when Taine established a scientific basis for the
historical study of Art, criticism has tended gradually but naturally to
fall into two divisions, as distinct from each other as the functions
they respectively perform are distinct. The one, which we may call
aesthetic criticism, deals with the artist and his works solely for the
purpose of interpretation and appreciation, judging them according to
some artistic standard, which, as often as not, derives its only
sanction from the prejudices of the critic himself. It is of course
obvious that, until all critics are agreed upon some common principles
of artistic valuation, aesthetic criticism can lay no claim to
scientific precision, but must be classed as a department of Art itself.
The other, an application of the Darwinian hypothesis to literature,
which owes its existence almost entirely to the great French critic
before mentioned, but which has since rejected as unscientific many of
the laws he formulated, may be called historical or sociological
criticism. It judges a work of art, an artist, or an artistic period, on
its dynamic and not its intrinsic merits. Its standard is influence, not
power or