In 1586 a book about letter writing called The English Secretary burst upon England as a best seller that defined the genre and remained in print through 9 editions over 50 years. The author, at the time a little-known stationer named Angel Day, used a straightforward formula: instructions on how a particular type of letter should be written, followed by sample letters. While the fussy prose of the instructions emphasized plain words, brevity, and adherence to topic, many sample letters are Pythonesque outpourings that hilariously transport the reader to the farthest pole opposite the prescribed destination. An "Example Consolatorie," to assuage the sorrows of a recent widower, congratulates him on being "rid of a hatefull and very foule encumbrance," supposing his "delight, as wherewith you were continually cloyed by the nightly embracements of so unwieldy a carcasse." In this volume, Robert Brazil reports his research into the life of Angel Day and The English Secretary's broad influence on Elizabethan writers, including Shakespeare. Day was the English Secretary - to Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, to whom every edition was dedicated. Brazil shows evidence that the two men worked together to produce the book, Day being the loyal, practical conduit for the erratic co-contributions of an eccentric genius.
