John Lyly foi um romancista e dramaturgo inglês.
Tornou-se conhecido com a publicação de Eupheus ou A anatomia do espírito, em 1579, romance em que lançou o eufuísmo: combinação exata das palavras, com cadênciam aliterações, antíteses e, eventualmente, a utilização um pouco abusiva das figuras de linguagem.
Na época, e eufuísmo tinha por finalidade mostrar a flexibilidade da língua inglesa, que poderia ser comparada às línguas grega e latina. Esse estilo serviu de modelo para a prosa de shakespereana.
A temática do romance era a colônia italiana em Londres, com ataques ao sistema de educação londrino e também às mulheres. Diante dos protestos dirigidos contra sua primeira obra, Lyly compôs, em 1580, Euphes e a Inglaterra, onde exalta as mulheres inglesas e a Rainha Elizabeth.
Em 1583, Lyly começou a escrever comédias mitológicas, algumas das quais foram representadas na corte pelas crianças do coro da capela real e da Catedral de São Paulo: Alexandre e Campaspe, Safo e Faon , Endimião , Galatéia , A metamorfose do amor e Mídias, A mulher na lua .
Nestas peças, acorbertado por lendas gregas da época clássica, narra acontecimentos da corte inglesa. Em 1589, Lyly foi eleito deputado no Parlamento e reeleito três vezes. até 1601. Publicou também um libelo contra os puritanos: Pappe with a Hatchet, em 1589.
A obra de Lyly é parte fundamental literatura e do teatro da Inglaterra elisabetana.
Wikipedia
“Aquele que perde a sua honestidade já não tem mais nada a perder.”
Knowest thou not that he that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose?
Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit ; And, Euphues and His England - Página 55, de John Lyly, Leah Scragg - Publicado por Manchester University Press, 2003, ISBN 0719064589, 9780719064586 - 358 páginas
“Lette me stande to the maine chance.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 104. Compare: "The main chance", William Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, act i, sc. 1.; Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part ii' canto ii.; John Dryden, Persius, satire vi.
Poem: Cupid and Campaspe.
“A clere conscience is a sure carde.”
Euphues, p. 207, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "This is a sure card", Thersytes, circa 1550.
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 93. Compare: "Jupiter himself was turned into a satyr, a shepherd, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and what not for love", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii, sec ii, mem. i, subs. 1.
“Where the streame runneth smoothest, the water is deepest.”
Fonte: Euphues and his England, P. 287. Compare: "Passions are likened best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb", Sir Walter Raleigh, The Silent Lover.
“I mean not to run with the Hare and holde with the Hounde.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 107. Compare: "To hold with the hare and run with the hound", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. x.
“Goe to bed with the Lambe, and rise with the Larke.”
Fonte: Euphues and his England, P. 229. Compare: "To rise with the lark and go to bed with the lamb", Breton, Court and Country, 1618 (reprint, page 182); "Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed", James Hurdis, The Village Curate.
Fonte: Euphues and his England, P. 289.
“The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 81. Compare: "Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow", Plutarch, Of the Training of Children; "Stillicidi casus lapidem cavat" (translation: "Continual dropping wears away a stone"), Lucretius, i. 314; "Many strokes, though with a little axe,/ Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak", William Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI, act ii, sc. 1.
“How at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
The morne not waking til she sings.”
Cupid and Campaspe, Act v, Sc. 1. Compare: "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gat sings,/And Phœbus 'gins arise", William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act ii, sc. 3.
“There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire.”
Euphues and his Euphœbus, p. 153, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "There is no fire without some smoke", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part ii, Chap. v.
“It seems to me (said she) that you are in some brown study.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 80. Compare: "A brown study", Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation.
“Though the Camomill, the more it is trodden and pressed downe the more it spreadeth.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 46. Compare: "The camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows", William Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4.
“A Rose is sweeter in the budde than full blowne.”
Fonte: Euphues and his England, P. 314. Compare: "The rose is fairest when 't is budding new", Sir Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake, canto iii. st. 1.
“For experience teacheth me that straight trees have crooked roots.”
P. 311 http://books.google.com/books?id=3xRbAAAAMAAJ&q="for+experience+teacheth+me+that+straight+trees+have+crooked+roots"&pg=PA311#v=onepage
Euphues and his England
“Be valyaunt, but not too venturous. Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 39. Compare: "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,/ But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy", William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act i, sc. 3.
“As lyke as one pease is to another.”
Euphues, p. 215, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“He reckoneth without his Hostesse. Love knoweth no lawes.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 84. Compare: "Reckeners without their host must recken twice", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. viii.
“Rather fast then surfette, rather starue then striue to exceede.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 108.
“The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone.”
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 47.
“Maydens, be they never so foolyshe, yet beeing fayre they are commonly fortunate.”
Fonte: Euphues and his England, P. 279.
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 116. Compare: "'T is a world to see", William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act ii, sc. 1.
Fonte: Euphues (Arber [1580]), P. 78. Compare: "Feare may force a man to cast beyond the moone", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. iv.