John Lyly

John Lyly (c. 1553 – 1606) was an English writer, best known for his Euphues (1579).

Sourced

• 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?
  • Poem: Cupid and Campaspe

• How at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
  The morne not waking til she sings.
  • Cupid and Campaspe, Act v, Sc. 1. Compare: "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gat sings,/And Phœbus 'gins arise", William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act ii, sc. 3.

• 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, circa 1550.

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

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: "'T is 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.

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

• 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.