John Lyly - A Life

John Lyly was born in Kent in 1553 or 1554, the eldest of eight children. As can be imagined accurate records dating so far back of his early life are few and far between. It is most probable that Canterbury, Kent was his actual birthplace. At age sixteen he became a student at Magdalen College, Oxford, and obtained his bachelor's degree in 1573 and his master's two years later. Lyly became the private secretary of Lord Burghley's son-in-law, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, himself a playwr