16 Facts About John Lyly

John Lyly was an English writer, playwright, courtier, and parliamentarian.

John Lyly first achieved success with his two books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit and its sequel Euphues and His England, and then became a dramatist, writing eight plays which survive, at least six of which were performed before Queen Elizabeth I Lyly's distinctive and much imitated literary style, named after the title character of his two books, is known as euphuism.

John Lyly is sometimes grouped with other professional dramatists of the 1580s and 1590s like Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, and Thomas Lodge, as one of the so-called University Wits.

John Lyly has been credited by some scholars with writing the first English novel, and as being 'the father of English comedy'.

John Lyly was probably born either in Rochester, where his father is recorded as a notary public in 1550, or in Canterbury, where his father was the Registrar for the Archbishop, Matthew Parker, and where the births of his siblings are recorded between 1562 and 1568.

John Lyly's grandfather was William Lily, the grammarian and the first High Master of St Paul's School, London.

John Lyly's uncle, George Lily, was a scholar and cartographer, and served as domestic chaplain to Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1587, John Lyly revived his theatrical career, writing for the Children of Paul's at their playhouse adjacent to St Paul's Cathedral, where his plays would be publicly staged first before their subsequent performance at court.

In total, at least six of John Lyly's eight known surviving plays were performed before the Queen.

In 1589, John Lyly published a tract in the Martin Marprelate controversy, called Pappe with an hatchet, alias a figge for my Godsonne; Or Crack me this nut; Or a Countrie Cuffe, etc.

In 1597, John Lyly contributed commendatory verses in Latin to Henry Lok's verse translation of the book of Ecclesiastes, which Lok dedicated to the Queen.

John Lyly was married to Beatrice Browne of Yorkshire, and they had at least four sons and five daughters.

Eight of John Lyly's plays survive in quarto, published during his lifetime in fourteen separate editions, all but the last written in prose:.

Six Court Comedies, the first printed collection of John Lyly's plays, was published in duodecimo format by Edward Blount in 1632, the same year that he published the Second Folio of Shakespeare's plays.

Ben Jonson, in his poem "To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr William Shakespeare" printed in the 1623 First Folio, praised John Lyly by listing him as one of the best playwrights whom Shakespeare surpassed: "How far thou didst our John Lyly outshine, Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line".

John Lyly's importance as a dramatist has been very differently estimated, but his dialogue was a great advance in anything that had gone before it, and his nimbleness and wit represents an important step in English dramatic art.