Traditional, Practical, Entertaining: Two Early English Letter Writing Manuals (original) (raw)

2008, Rhetorica-a Journal of The History of Rhetoric

Two of the most noteworthy and successful vernacular rhetoric manuals printed in sixteenth-century England are actually writing manuals, books on how to compose letters: The Enimie of Idlenesse (1568) translated by William Fulwood, and The English Secretorie (1586), by Angel Day. Both works reflected and influenced tastes and literacy habits in the book-reading public, and reveal a wider range of cultural engagement than has previously been thought. In particular, three facets can be identified as likely to have stirred reader interest. In their theoretical underpinnings, the books offer vernacular learners a connection with both the humanist and dictaminal epistolary traditions that formed the core of prestige, Latin-based education. In their focus on practical letter exchanges that carry familial and social significance for the middle class, exemplified in a large collection of model letters, the books provide means for English speakers to maintain and possibly advance their social status. And in the model letters themselves, readers would have found texts with proto-fictional elements that could be enjoyed as entertainment, particularly of the amatory type. Understanding the varied appeals of these two books helps us fill out the larger picture relating to how vernacular literacy was valued, developed, and applied.

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