The novelty of John Lilly`s play “Endymion” and translation difficulties of Euphuistic style

Abstract

The novelty of John Lilly`s play «Endymion» and translation difficulties of Euphuistic style are investigated. The focus of Lilly`s interpretation is devoted to an allegory of love of well­known historical characters: the Queen of England Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, an English statesman. Interpreting the antique material about Endymion, Lilly fills the play with a new humanistic content. The distinctive features of the play are following: actualization of the Renaissance realism themes (love, friendship, compassion, fight against evil), allegory and symbolism, a prosaic dialogue, the use of a parallel action in a comedy, the development of the category of wit. An euphuistic style created by Lilly allows to reproduce the peculiarities of the language of aristocratic circles in the late 16­th early 17­th centuries, and the ambiance of the Elizabethan court that`s based on the cult of the monarch, praise of the Queen. Lilly`s merit is creation of a new genre of the court culture – a comedy of masque as early modification of Shakespeare`s lyrical comedies. All basic typical features of the masque as genre are obvious in Lilly`s play: escape to the world of abstraction and symbols, the frequent confusion of the images of ancient mythology and fairy tales, decorative splendor and linguistic expressiveness. The translation difficulties are caused by medieval language peculiarities as well as Lilly's peculiar mannered Euphuistic style.