There are many scenes of great beauty and vigor; there is much which represents the manners, of the age, but few persons can now peruse it with pleasure, because of the peculiar affectations of style, and its overload of ornament.

There grew naturally in the atmosphere of the court of a regnant queen, an affected, flattering, and inflated language, known to us as _Euphuism_.

Of this John Lilly has been called the father, but we really only owe to him the name, which is taken from his two works, _Euphues, Anatomy of Wit_, and _Euphues and his England_.

The speech of the Euphuist is hardly caricatured in Sir Walter Scott's delineation of Sir Piercie Shafton in "The Monastery." The gallant men of that day affected this form of address to fair ladies, and fair ladies liked to be greeted in such language.

Sidney's works have a relish of this diction, and are imbued with the spirit which produced it.
DEFENCE OF POESIE .-- The second work to be mentioned is his "Defence of Poesie." Amid the gayety and splendor of that reign, there was a sombre element.