SOURCE: "Wit, Eloquence, and Wisdom in Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit," in Studies in Philology, Vol. LXXXI, No. 3, 1984, pp. 299-324.

In the following excerpt, McCabe describes how Lyly demonstates that Euphues's wit hinders his self-knowledge and is ultimately destructive.

Discussing Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, C. S. Lewis remarks that "it is no kindness to Lyly to treat him as a serious novelist; the more seriously we take its action and characters the more odious his work will appear."¹ The modern reader is inclined to agree, but Lyly's contemporaries might not. Lewis' observations contain a certain amount of truth, but truth of a rather anachronistic kind. Lyly did intend the work to be taken seriously, yet he never set out to produce anything even resembling a modern novel. That his intentions were far different is clear from his subtitle: The anatomy of wit very pleasant for all Gentlemen...