gently to
read books? Forsooth for no other cause but that those things are found
written in books that the friends dare not show to the prince[46]." This
is of course far from being the full-blown euphuism of Lyly or Pettie,
yet we cannot but agree with Mr Lee, when he declares that "the
parallelism of the sentences, the repetition of the same thought
differently expressed, the rhetorical question, the accumulation of
synonyms, the classical references, are irrefutable witnesses to the
presence of euphuism[47]." But Mr Lee appeared to be quite unconscious
of the full significance of his discovery. _It means that Berners was
writing euphuism in 1524, five years before Guevara published his book
in Spain._ No critic, as far as I have been able to discover, has shown
any consciousness of this significant fact[48], which is of course of
the utmost importance in this connexion; as, if it is to carry all the
weight that is at first sight due to it, the theory that euphuism was a
mere borrowing from the Spanish must be pronounced entirely exploded.
But it is as well not to be over-confident. Guevara's _Libro Aureo_, his
earliest work, was undoubtedly first published by his authority in 1529,
but there seems to be a general feeling that the book had previously
appeared in pirated form. This feeling is based upon the title of the
1529 edition[49], which describes the book as "_nueuamente reuisto por
su senoria_," and upon certain remarks of Hallam in his _Literature of
Europe_. Though I can find no confirmation for the statements he makes
upon the authority of a certain Dr West of Dublin, yet the words of so
well known a writer cannot be ignored. He quotes Dr West in a footnote
as follows: "There are some circumstances connected with the _Relox_
(i.e. the sub-title of the _Libro Aureo_) not generally known, which
satisfactorily account for various erroneous statements that have been
made on the subject by writers of high authority. The fact is that
Guevara, about the year 1518, commenced a life and letters of M.
Aurelius which purported to be a translation of a Greek work found in
Florence. Having sometime afterwards lent this MS. to the emperor it was
surreptitiously copied and printed, as he informs us himself, first in
Seville and afterwards in Portugal.... Guevara himself subsequently
published it (1529) with considerable additions[50]." From this it
appears that previous unauthorised editions of Guevara's book had been
publ