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

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.