10. Euphues. " The Anatomy " of Wit. " [10 lines] By Iohn Lylie, Mai?ter of Art. " Corrected and augmented. " At London " Printed for Gabriell Cawood, " dwelling in Paules Church-yard. [Colophon] ¶Imprinted at London by " Thomas Ea?t, 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 ?end this my Pamphlet to the Printer or to the pedler, I thought it too bad for the pre??e, & to good for the packe.... We commonly ?ee the booke that at Ea?ter lyeth bounde on the Stacioners ?tall, at Chri?tma??e to be broken in the Haberda?hers ?hop, which ?ith 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 tra?h.... Gentlemen v?e bookes as Gentlewomen handle theyr flowres, who in the morning ?ticke th? in their heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles. Cheries be ful?ome when they be through ripe, becau?e they be plentie, and bookes be ?tale when they be printed in that they be common. In my minde Printers & Tailers are chiefely bound to pray for Gentlemen, the one hath ?o much fanta?ies to print, the other ?uch diuers fa?hions to make, that the pre??ing yron of the one is neuer out of the fyre, nor the printing pre??e of the other any tyme lieth ?till...."

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.

Mr. Henry R. Plomer says of the book in an interesting article on our printer: "The preliminary matter is printed in a very regular fount of Roman, the text in his ordinary fount of Black Letter, and the whole book is distinguished for its clear, regular, and clean appearance."

On July 24, 1579, the stationer Cawood entered for license a second part of Euphues, which he had promised at the end of this volume in the following words:

"I Haue fini?hed the fir?t part of Euphues whome now I lefte readye to cro??e the Seas to Englande, if the winde send him a ?horte cutte you ?hall in the ?econde part heare what newes he bringeth and I hope to haue him retourned within one Summer...."

The book appeared the next year with the title: ¶Euphues and his England. " Containing " his voyages and adventures, myxed with " ?undry pretie di?cour?es of hone?t Loue ... ¶ By Iohn Lyly, Mai?ter " of Arte. " Commend it, or amend it. " By Imprinted at London for Gabriell Cawood, dwelling in " Paules Church-yard. " 1580.

Edward Blount, the stationer, who published Shakespeare's folio works, tells us in a preface to Lyly's Sixe Court Comedies, which he collected and William Stansby printed in 1632, of the sensation Euphues created when it appeared. "Our Nation," he wrote, "are in his (i.e. Lyly's) debt, for a new Engli?h which hee taught them. Euphues and his England began fir?t, that language: All our Ladies were then his Scollers; And that Beautie in court, which could not Parley Euphuei?me, was as little regarded, as ?hee which, now there, ?peakes not French."

Quarto. Black letter and Roman. The fifth edition.

Collation: A-Z, in fours.