eet fancies, but now of late (alas) wholly given over to
grief and disgraced by disdain.' &c. The speeches being ended, probably
to the relief of the hearers, the tilting commenced and lasted till
night. It was resumed the next day with some fresh circumstances of
magnificence and a few more harangues:--at length the challengers
presented to the queen an olive bough in token of their humble
submission, and both parties were dismissed by her with thanks and
commendations[89].

[Note 89: Holinshed.]

By whom the speeches for this triumph were composed does not appear; but
their style appears to correspond very exactly with that of John Lilly,
a dramatic poet who in this year gave to the public a romance in two
parts; the first entitled "Euphues the Anatomy of Wit," the second
"Euphues and his England." A work which in despite, or rather perhaps by
favor, of the new and singular affectations with which it was overrun,
obtained extraordinary popularity, and communicated its infection for a
time to the style of polite writing and fashionable speech.

An author of the present day, whose elegant taste and whose profound
acquaintance with the writers of this and the following reign entitle
him to be heard with deference, has favored us with his opinion of
Euphues in these words. "This production is a tissue of antithesis and
alliteration, and therefore justly entitled to the appellation of
_affected_; but we cannot with Berkenhout consider it as a most
_contemptible piece of nonsense_[90]. The moral is uniformly good; the
vices and follies of the day are attacked with much force and keenness;
there is in it much display of the manners of the times; and though as a
composition it is very meretricious and sometimes absurd in point of
ornament, yet the construction of its sentences is frequently turned
with peculiar neatness and spirit, though with much monotony of
cadence." "So greatly," adds the same writer, "was the style of Euphues
admired in the court of Elizabeth, and, indeed, throughout the kingdom,
that it became a proof of refined manners to adopt its phraseology.
Edward Blount, who republished six of Lilly's plays in 1632, under the
title of _Sixe Court Comedies_, declares that 'Our nation are in his
debt for a new English which he taught them. '_Euphues_ and his
_England_,' he adds, 'began first that language. All our ladies were
then his scholars; and that beauty in court who could not parley
Euphuesme, was as littl