John Lyly (c. 1553/1554 – 1606) was an Elizabethan prose writer, dramatist, poet, and courtier.
Lyly attended King’s School in Canterbury, and Magdalen College at Oxford, earning his BA and MA. The first play he ever published was the prose romance, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578). In 1580, Lyly received control over the Blackfriars Theater. His plays were performed by the Children of Paul’s in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. Lyly served as a member of Parliament for three separate municipalities between 1580-1601. He served on a committee about the wine abuse reformation in 1598. In November of 1606, Lyly passed away from disease and was buried at the St. Bartholomew the Less Churchyard.
Lyly, John