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John Lyly (1554-1609) and George Peele (1556-1596) belong to a group of sixteenth-century dramatists known as'university wits'(alongside Nashe, Greene, Lodge, and Marlowe). In this 1968 study, G. K. Hunter assesses the artistic contribution of Lyly and Peele. This essay, in three parts, discusses Euphues the Anatomy of Wit, and Euphues and his England; The Arraignment of Paris, Campaspe, Sapho and Phao, Gallathea and Mother Bombie; The Woman in the Moon, Edward I, The Battle of Alcazar, David and Bethsabe, and The Old Wife's Tale. A volume in the Writers and Their Work series, which draws upon recent thinking in English studies to introduce writers and their contexts. Each volume includes biographical material, an examination of recent criticism, a bibliography and a reappraisal of a major work by the writer.

In this 1962 study, G. K. Hunter seeks to define'the particular kind of excellence [...] in Much Ado, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night.'He finds that the'common element in the different achievements is the power to realize love as a force making for proper happiness and reconciliation over a wide area of human experience, and as a spectrum which shows sanity and eccentricity in their social setting'. A Midsummer-Night's Dream is grouped with them as a play about love, though it'is constructed by contrast rather than interaction'. As is the case with the companion essays in the Writers and Their Work Shakespeare series, the bibliographies follow a uniform plan. They assume that Professor J. R. Brown's bibliography in Shakespeare (No. 58) is available to the reader, and in the main they confine themselves to the plays under immediate consideration. Essays and papers are not ordinarily included in the bibliographies of the Series but, as it is not possible to keep up with Shakespeare studies unless they are added, they are a feature of these Shakespeare essays. The Chronicles: Clifford Leech The Early Comedies: Derek Traversi The Later Comedies: G. K. Hunter The Final Plays: Frank Kermode The Histories: L. C. Knights The Poems: F. T. Prince The Problem Plays: Peter Ure The Roman Plays: T. J. B. Spencer The Great Tragedies: Kenneth Muir A volume in the Writers and Their Work series, which draws upon recent thinking in English studies to introduce writers and their contexts. Each volume includes biographical material, an examination of recent criticism, a bibliography and a reappraisal of a major work by the writer.

First published in 1962, John Lyly marks a shift from the traditional focus on John Lyly as the originator of the strange stylistic craze called Euphuism, and as the dramatist from whose plays Shakespeare deigned to borrow some of his earliest and least attractive comic devices to an author whose works are excellent in themselves. Critics have suggested that an independent reading of Euphues, and more especially of the plays, reveals an attractive delicacy of wit and a refined power of linguistic filigree quite independent of his influence on others or his capacity to illustrate the curious tastes of our forefathers. The eight plays – his most mature artistic achievements – are analysed in detail to bring out their relation to the tradition of court drama. A final chapter compares Lyly and Shakespeare in an attempt to show in operation the different traditions which the book has discussed. This book will appeal to students of English literature, drama and literary history.