Be fetch'd alive by furies into hell, Oh! I faint; Devils, come claim your right, and when I am Confin'd within your kingdom, then shall I Out-act you all in perfect villany. [Dies. Phil. Take down his body while his blood streams forth; His acts are past, and our last act is done. Where I'll spin out the remnant of my life Phil. And now, Hortenzo, to close up your I here contract my sister unto thee, And for the barbarous Moor, and his black train, Let all the Moors be banished from Spain. FINIS. JOHN LYLY, OR LILLY. THIS author was born in the Weald of Kent; and in 1569 became a student of Magdalen College, Oxford. "He was afterwards, I conceive," says Wood, "one of the demies, or clerks of that house." He took the degree of B. A. 1573, and M.A. 1575; "at which time he was esteemed in the university a noted wit;" from reasons, however, now unknown, he afterwards removed to Cambridge: from thence he attended court; was noticed by Elizabeth, and for many years flattered himself with the hope of being appointed Master of the Revels. By Wood's computation, which has been universally followed, he was born in 1553; "but," says Mr. Oldys, "I think he was born sooner;" indeed this must have been the case, or he was only thirteen when he first hoped for the appointment above mentioned; as, "in 1576, he wrote his first letter, or petition, to the queen; in 1579 his second letter, shewing he had been thirteen years in expectation of being`appointed Master of the Revels *." Of the time of his decease we are likewise ignorant; Wood says he was alive in 1597. He was author of a work, called "Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit verie pleasant for all Gentlemen to read, and most necessary to remember: wherein are contained the Delyghts that Wit followeth in his Youth, by the Pleasantness of Love, and the Happinesse he reapeth in Age, by the Perfectnesse of Wisdome." The object of this publication was to purify the English language, and it met with very unusual success. Encouraged by the reputation of this work, he, the following year, published "Euphues, or his England, containing his Voyage and Adventures, mixt with sundrie prettie Discourses of honest Love, the Description of the Countrie, the Court, and the Manners of that Isle. Delightful to be read, and nothing hurtful to be regarded: wherein there is small Offence by Lightnesse given to the * MS. notes on Langbaine. |