JOHN LYLY
(1553?-1606)
10. Euphues. | The Anatomy | of Wit. | [10 lines] By Iohn Lylie, Maiſter of Art. | Corrected and augmented. | At London | Printed for Gabriell Cawood, | dwelling in Paules Church-yard. [Colophon] ¶Imprinted at London by | Thomas Eaſt, for Gabrill Cawood, | dwelling in Paules Church- | yard 1581.
The work was licensed "under the hande of the bishopp of London" December 2, 1578, and was printed for Cawood by Thomas Eate, or East, the stationer, without a date, but probably in 1578. Many editions of the famous book have been issued; fifteen are known, dated between 1579 and 1636, but confusion exists chiefly over the first three.
Mr. C. Warwick Bond in his recent edition of The Complete Works of John Lyly, Oxford, 1902, brings forward evidence to prove that two undated copies of Euphues, one belonging to the British Museum and the other to Trinity College, Cambridge, are all that remain of the first edition, whose date of issue he sets at about Christmas time, 1578. A unique Trinity College copy without a date, he thinks was issued about midsummer of the next year; the famous Malone and Morley copies of 1579, he considers belong to a third edition, issued at Christmas; the edition dated 1580 would be fourth and the copy from which our facsimile was taken would belong to a fifth edition. Mr. Bond founds his supposition as to the seasons when the volumes appeared upon the following very interesting preface:
To the Gentlemen Readers.
"I Was driuen into a quandarie Gentlemen," says Lyly, "whether I might ſend this my Pamphlet to the Printer or to the pedler, I thought it too bad for the preſſe, & to good for the packe.... We commonly ſee the booke that at Eaſter lyeth bounde on the Stacioners ſtall, at Chriſtmaſſe to be broken in the Haberdaſhers ſhop, which ſith it is the order of proceeding, I am content this Summer to haue my dooinges read for a toye, that in Winter they may be readye for traſh.... Gentlemen vſe bookes as Gentlewomen handle theyr flowres, who in the morning ſticke thẽ in their heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles. Cheries be fulſome when they be through ripe, becauſe they be plentie, and bookes be ſtale when they be printed in that they be common. In my minde Printers & Tailers are chiefely bound to pray for Gentlemen, the one hath ſo much fantaſies to print, the other ſuch diuers faſhions to make, that the preſſing yron of the one is neuer out of the fyre, nor the printing preſſe of the other any tyme lieth ſtill...."
The address "To my verie good friends the Gentlemen Scholers of Oxford" first appeared with the second edition, to which Lyly made other additions, beside thoroughly revising the text.
The title-page is bordered with a band of type-metal ornaments. Among the initial letters are several of a series, each letter of which represents a child at play. A large tail-piece is repeated several times, and East's mark of a black horse with a white crescent on his shoulder, and the motto Mieulx vault mourir en vertu que vivre en Honcte, is here used for the first time. Some copies dated 1581 have Rowland Hall's mark but no printer's name.