The second characteristic of the style is the reference of every stated fact to some classical authority, that is to say, the author cannot mention friendship without quoting David and Jonathan, nor can lovers in his book accuse each other of faithlessness without quoting the instance of Cressida or Aeneas.

This appeal to classical authority and wealth of classical allusion is used to decorate pages which deal with matters of every-day experience.

Seneca, for instance, is quoted as reporting "that too much bending breaketh the bow," a fact which might reasonably have been supposed to be known to the author himself.

This particular form of writing perhaps influenced those who copied Lyly more than anything else in his book.

It is a fashion of the more artificial kind of Elizabethan writing in all schools to employ a wealth of classical allusion.