John Lyly: Selected Prose and Dramatic Work, edited by Leah Scragg (Carcanet, £12.95 in UK)

Poor Lyly! He has gone down in Eng. Lit. history as the originator of Euphuism, a style parodied by Shakespeare among others, and for centuries a byword for verbal affectation and sheer tedium. The short novel Euphues; The Anatomy of Wit is printed in full in this volume, and though it may be a museum piece it includes some elegantly latinised writing as well as numerous passages of strained and ornate prose. The plays Campaspe and Gallathea still have a good deal of charm, and the familiar song Cupid and Campaspe from the firstnamed has been an anthology piece for centuries.