John Lyly

John Lyly (Lilly or Lylie) (c. 1553 – 1606) was an English writer, best known for his Euphues (1578).

Quotes

Campaspe

O! for a bowl of fat Canary,
Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry.
- Granichus, act I, sc. ii

None is happy but a glutton.
- Manes, act I, sc. ii

For wenches, wine, and lusty cheer,
Jove would leap down to surfeit here.
- Chorus, act I, sc. ii

Campaspe: Were women never to fair, men would be false.
Apelles: Were women never so false, men would be fond.
- Act III, sc. iii

Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses—Cupid paid:
He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
Loses them too; then down he throws
The coral of his lips, the rose
Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);
With these, the crystal of his brow,
And then the dimple of his chin:
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes—
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O Love! has she done this for thee?
What shall, alas! become of me?
- Apelles, act III, sc. v
- Variant: 'to' not 'for', l. 13

What bird so sings, yet so does wail?
Oh, 'tis the ravished nightingale.
"Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu," she cries,
And still her woes at midnight rise.
- Trico, act V, sc. i
- Compare: "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, / And Phœbus 'gins arise."—Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act II, sc. 3
- Variant: 'How' not Now', l. 7

Euphues (Arber [1580])

Be valyaunt, but not too venturous. Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.
- 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

Though the Camomill, the more it is trodden and pressed downe the more it spreadeth.
- P. 46. Compare: "The camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows", William Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV, act ii, sc. 4

The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone.
- P. 47

I cast before the Moone.
- P. 78. Compare: "Feare may force a man to cast beyond the moone", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. iv

It seems to me (said she) that you are in some brown study.
- P. 80. Compare: "A brown study", Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation

The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.
- 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

He reckoneth without his Hostesse. Love knoweth no lawes.
- P. 84. Compare: "Reckeners without their host must recken twice", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. viii

That honourable estate of Matrimony, which was sanctified in Paradise, allowed of the Patriarches, hallowed of the olde Prophets, and commended of al persons.
- P. 86

Did not Jupiter transforme himselfe into the shape of Amphitrio to embrace Alcmæna; into the form of a swan to enjoy Leda; into a Bull to beguile Io; into a showre of gold to win Danae?
- 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

Lette me stande to the maine chance.
- 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

I mean not to run with the Hare and holde with the Hounde.
- P. 107. Compare: "To hold with the hare and run with the hound", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part i, Chap. x

Rather fast then surfette, rather starue then striue to exceede.
- P. 108

Is it not true which Seneca reporteth, that as too much bending breaketh the bowe, so too much remission spoyleth the minde?
- P. 112

It is a world to see.
- P. 116. Compare: "'Tis a world to see", William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act ii, sc. 1

Euphues and His England

Goe to bed with the Lambe, and rise with the Larke.
- 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.

A comely olde man as busie as a bee.
- P. 252

Maydens, be they never so foolyshe, yet beeing fayre they are commonly fortunate.
- P. 279

Where the streame runneth smoothest, the water is deepest.
- 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

Your eyes are so sharpe that you cannot onely looke through a Milstone, but cleane through the minde.
- P. 289

Fishe and gesse in three dayes are stale.
- P. 305/306

I am glad that my Adonis hath a sweete tooth in his head.
- P. 308

For experience teacheth me that straight trees have crooked roots.
- P. 311

A Rose is sweeter in the budde than full blowne.
- P. 314. Compare: "The rose is fairest when 't is budding new", Sir Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake, canto iii. st. 1

Unsorted

Fish and guests in three days are stale.
- Euphues, p. 305

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

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, c. 1550

As lyke as one pease is to another.
- Euphues, p. 215, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Gallathea

Rocks, shelves, and sands and seas, farewell.
Fie! Who would dwell
In such a hell
As is a ship, which drunk does reel,
Taking salt healths from deck to keel?
- All, act I, sc. iv (Boys' Song)

Is any cozened of a tear
Which as a pearl disdain does wear?
Here stands the thief; let her come
Hither, and lay on him her doom.
- Eurota, act IV, sc. ii (Nymphs' Song)

Midas

My Daphne's hair is twisted gold,
Bright stars a-piece her eyes do hold,
My Daphne's brow enthrones the graces,
My Daphne's beauty stains all faces;
On Daphne's cheek grow rose and cherry,
On Daphne's lip a sweeter berry.
- Apollo, act IV, sc. i (A Song of Daphne to the Lute)

Pan's Syrinx was a girl indeed,
Though now she's turned into a reed.
- Pan, act IV, sc. i (Pan's Song)

Cross-gartered swains, and dairy girls,
With faces smug, and round as pearls,
When Pan's shrill pipe begins to play,
With dancing wear out night and day.
- Pan, act IV, sc. i (Pan's Song)

Io, paeans let us sing,
To physic's and to poesy's king
- All, act V, sc. iii (Song to Apollo)

Mother Bombie

O Cupid! Monarch over Kings!
Wherefore hast thou feet and wings?
Is it to show how swift thou art,
When thou would'st wound a tender heart?
Thy wings being clipped, and feet held still,
Thy bow so many would not kill.
It is all one in Venus' wanton school
Who highest sits, the wise man or the fool!
   Fools in love’s college
   Have far more knowledge
To read a woman over,
Than a neat prating lover.
   Nay, 'tis confessed
That fools please women best!
- Silena, act III, sc. iii

Sapho and Phao

My shag-hair Cyclops, come, let's ply
Our Lemnian hammers lustily.
   By my wife's sparrows,
   I swear these arrows
   Shall singing fly
Through many a wanton's eye.
These headed are with golden blisses,
These silver ones feathered with kisses,
   But this of lead
   Strikes a clown dead,
   When in a dance
   He falls in a trance,
To see his black-brow lass not buss him,
And then whines out for death t'untruss him.
So, so: our work being done, let's play:
Holiday! boys, cry holiday!
- Vulcan, act IV, sc. iv (Song, In Making of the Arrows)

Quotes about Lyly

"Be valyaunt, but not too venturous" is quoted in P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and Wooster, when Wooster is playing golf, and getting his ball into the rough once too often. In this, he refers to Lyly simply as "The Poet"

External links

Encyclopedic article on John Lyly on Wikipedia