John Lyly
Euphuistic prose originator
John Lyly was an English writer of the late 1500s, best known for his prose romance *Euphues* (1578), which gave English the word "euphuism"—an ornate, highly artificial style marked by elaborate antitheses, classical allusions, and balanced sentences.
His comedies influenced Shakespeare.
Lyly is more often referenced than read today.
- ElizabethanOf late 1500s England
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- courtlyRefined and dignified
- witClever, inventive humor
- proseUnversified language
romance · Shakespeare · Queen Elizabeth · comedy · Midas · ornate · style · euphuism · rhetorical · antithesis · alliteration · court · drama · Renaissance · English · Oxford · pastoral · allegory
- British AuthorsCharles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl
- Renaissance PlaywrightsWilliam Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Marlowe, Jonson
- Renaissance WritersWilliam Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Marlowe, Jonson
- Pre-Shakespeare TheaterChristopher Marlowe, morality plays, mystery plays, interludes, Doctor Faustus
- University WitsChristopher Marlowe
- theater historyGreek tragedy, vaudeville, William Shakespeare, Drury Lane, Christopher Marlowe
prose style
John LylyErnest Hemingway
George Orwell · Daniel Defoe · Jonathan Swift · Cormac McCarthy · Samuel Beckett