Euphuism

Euphuism is an elaborate, highly mannered English prose style named for John Lyly's romance Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and its sequel Euphues and His England (1580), built on balanced antithetical clauses, alliteration, rhetorical questions, and an abundance of similes drawn from natural history, mythology and classical learning. Fashionable at the court of Elizabeth I during the 1580s, euphuistic prose was widely imitated and became, for a time, the dominant courtly prose style in England, prized for its wit and ornamental symmetry even as it drew mockery for its excess, including a famous parody by Shakespeare in the character of Falstaff. The style's rigid patterning fell out of fashion by the 1590s but left a lasting mark on English prose rhythm and left euphuism as a byword for over-elaborate, affected writing.