The English Secretary; or, Methode of Writing Epistles and Letters (1599) With, a Declaration of Such Tropes, Figures, and Schemes, as Either Usually or for Ornament Sake — Reading Companion

that by this meanes hee daylie made of himselfe, returned more glorie to Rome, more firme faith and reuerence, then the forcible progression of all other his fattall ouerthrowes and victories: of so greate and woonderfull reputation is Vertue to all her followers. This beeing so, how can I then say, but in this your action, you haue of your selfe right wel begun, how can I think, but aboue many others you haue therein verie well deserued? Wherein shoulde I augmente your praise if not in that which you haue heereby so well performed, the force, operation, and effect of all which, hath onely consisted in subduing your owne appetite? Great commendation haue you won I must needes confesse, and more then with common worthines haue you in this thinge demeaned your selfe, but (my good Cosen) it is not ynough to haue well begun in a matter, without also therein you doe vse perseuerance. _Hanniball_ knew well how to subdue, but he knew not howe to entertaine his victories. As you haue alreadie in this your resolution gotten great good liking, so behooueth both for the preseruation of what alreadie woone, and to induce a perpetuall increase to the same, that you doe euermore frequente and by earnest and zealous prosecution seeke still to entertaine the fruits thereof. Proceede then a Gods name, and goe on with good lucke in your enterprise, the more harder and greater you finde the difficulty in attaining to _vertue_, the more vehemente shall bee your glorie, and the more honourable the reputation that thereby is pursued. For, what hath a man of all that may be left vnto him in this worlde, whereof to vaunt himselfe, but the memorie of that wherein he hath most worthily trauailed. The rich reape possessions, which when themselues are once passed away, are immediately distributed to others. The pleasures of the worlde are momentarie, and after wee are once deade wee perceiue them no more. Worship, honour and dignitie, perisheth euen in the verie selfe remembrance. The reuenues of the mightie, when life is once fled, are no more to be tendred. Shall wee then for a number of fruitelesse vanities, (the regarde whereof doeth neuer last longer, then whilest wee are in present vse of them) neglect the search of that which is of all others most permanent? No surely. So behooueth not such as your selfe, that of your auncestours haue had so many good encouragements, beseemeth not the remembrance of their excellencies in you alone to bee perished. Tis _vertue_, beleeue me, that procureth _Fame_, and soly _Fame_ that makes men immortall. All other meanes are feeble as the originall from whence they are deriued is vncertaine. At leaste wise, it shall many other waies stande you greatly vppon, to continue this course, in so much as by the æmulation of the vertues of others, you shall thereunto be constrained, besides the loue and regarde that all men haue borne, and euer doe beare to the remembrance of vertue, the expectation of your entirely fauouring and carefull louing friendes, who with greate longing doe attende the prosequution of your woorthinesse, the ill conceite, malice and spite that some haue hadde towardes you, whereby to ouerthrowe the good opinion of your father, who with greater greedinesse than Woolues themselues, with more enuie than the Crocodile, and farre more poyson than the serpent, doe lie in waite but onely to hearken after the newes of your declination, and the dissolued purpose of your good intention. Finally, my dearest and best fauoured kinsman, I doe adiure you, pray you, and as earnestly as I can beeseech you, by the verie pure and entire loue of vertue, whereof you nowe shall become partaker, by the immortall fame thereunto onely awarded, by the care you are bounde and ought to haue of your selfe, by all the kindred that hath tied vs in affinitie together, by all the loues and possible entreatie that I can, you doe persist, continue and remaine firme in this your intended purpose. In pursuite whereof you shall minister vnto your friendes ioy and comforte, to your enemies shame and reproch, to your selfe praise and eternall regarde, and to all sortes of your acquaintance occasion to admire you. Preferring many times my care and earnest affection towards you, with my manifolde greetings vnto your good selfe. I doe bid you farewell. &c.

Of Epistles Responsorie. _Chap. 11._

=For asmuch as the knowledge of letters |Responsorie| are as méete to bee vnderstoode in the ordinarie occasions hereof as any others: I deeme it not amisse amongst the passages of these seuerall titles of Epistles to sorte you foorth also of them some particular Examples, the better in their disposition to enable yᵉ learner as occasion may serue. Touching which, it is to bee vnderstoode that the matter of euerie answere taketh his originall of a letter precéeding, and dependeth principally on the parts thereof. The ordering whereof (except in Letters |Excusatorie| or |Defensorie|) is wholy exempted, the course in those other letters prescribed, and the obseruation in these, is principally to consider on what partes the letter which ought to be answered consisteth or is chiefly grounded. Those, howebeit it behooueth we doe fully answere, yet shall you not (as some ignorant of weldoing haue done) recite in your answere the whole circumstance of the matter charged, |verbatim| in a manner as it is written before you, for that woulde bréede tediousnesse, besides a ridiculous disorder by such meanes frequented, but you shall (if néede so vrge) capitulate the principall partes of euerie seuerall matter charged, and thereupon frame you to answere the points, in sorte as before you, shall be deliuered. Or sometimes not needing any rehersall at all, if the pointes be but fewe, you shall answere onely as the matter you haue in hande is to bée deliuered. Or otherwise in this sorte: |Touching the pointes in your Letter to bee answered: for the first I say, or it is thus or thus, &c. In the second, it is so or so. For the thirde, in this manner or that. Touching the fourth, &c.| And so answere the partes by their number. By which meanes you shall both drawe your selfe to a breuitie therein, and become far more pithie in the matters you haue to write of then otherwise can be expressed. And this béeing sufficient for all matters hereafter, touching these |Responsorie| kindes, we will nowe for the first Example set you downe an answere to the epistle precéeding.=

_An example Responsorie to the last Epistle be- fore remembred._

[Sidenote: _Prosonomasia._]

[Sidenote: _Dichologia._]

[Sidenote: _Allegoria._]

The regard of your exceeding good will, and weight of your aduise and good exhortations (my verie good Cosen) haue mooued me many times to thinke on you, and to thank you for the same, I take no litle comfort of your great good liking of my determination, and that the endeuour therof beareth so forcible allowance at your handes, as to reckon the same in so hie and great accompte, as you doe. I did (I confesse) erre a while, but howe? as a young man, I went astraie I graunt, but not with perseuerance, for I reclaimed my selfe ere I fell, and stoode vpright ere by ouer much weight I slided too far in my purposes, _Errare est humanum, sed persistere belluinum_. The course I haue taken in hand as it was estranged from the opinion of many: so in the prosecutiō thereof, I hope to vse such pursuit, as willingly by declination therein, I meane not to become offensiue to any. Feare you not sir, the account is alreadie set downe, for notwithstanding my greene yeares must yet of force continue their note of imbecilitie: This prerogatiue yet remaineth, that I may as I liste adapt my opinion to grauitie. You shall (good Coosen) doe mee a great pleasure, if as I am partner of your loue and entyre affection, so I may sometymes bee partaker with you of those exercises and sweet pleasures, wherewith your studie is frequented: I meane that with some discourses of yours you will nowe and then remember mee. By expectation whereof, you shall often prouoke mee to aunswere you. Thus assuring my selfe of that I neuer yet distrusted at your handes, your zeale and fidelitie towardes mee; I regarde you as faithfull as I haue euer found you, and so will alwayes account of you, &c.

_An example of an Epistle hortatorie, to the studie of learning._

[Sidenote: _Exordium._]

[Sidenote: _Insinuatiō._]

[Sidenote: _Propositiō._]

[Sidenote: _Merismus._]

[Sidenote: _Procatalepsis._]

[Sidenote: _Synonymia._]

[Sidenote: _Asyndeton._]

[Sidenote: _Paradigma._]

[Sidenote: _Commoratiō._]

[Sidenote: _Ab honesto._]

[Sidenote: _Allegoria._]

[Sidenote: _Synathrismus._]

[Sidenote: _Anthesis._]

[Sidenote: _Etiologia._]

[Sidenote: _Epanodis._]

[Sidenote: _Paramologia._]

[Sidenote: _Epiphonema._]

[Sidenote: _Auxesis._]

[Sidenote: Dignitie and zeale of others.]

[Sidenote: _Auxesis._]

[Sidenote: By example.]

[Sidenote: _Peroratiō._]

It is no little pleasure vnto me, to consider with my selfe my good N. the great trauaile, cost, and paine, dayly employed by your dearest beloued parents, to induce vnto you the precious, and of all other most delicate and sweete pleasure of learning: the value whereof, is without all estimate, and the comfort therein conceiued, in no wise to bee comprehended: the louing regarde of whome, and the most lamentable want of the other, when I doe see you either with some ill fauouring aspect not to incline vnto, or with some more then straunge or vnused tearmes not to account of, I cannot but greeue with my heart, respecting the linke whereby I stand charged to either of you, in so great apparance as I doe to behold the same. True it is, that you are a Gent. that you are heire apparant to large and verie great possessions, that you are (for the yeares you beare) of comely and goodly personage, that you are in all things well accomplished, and euerie way as beseemeth: but yet when I behold this fauour, this comlinesse, these accomplishments, and know you to bee a Gent. and thinke vpon your large ensuing reuenues and possessions, me thinkes there should yet be an ornament of all these, and a thing of farre more goodly shewe, and more surpassing value wanting to the same, that might if it were well entertained ad more glorie vnto all the others, then the waight of the rest were euer able to purchase. For suppose that all these complements of yours are of large price, and verie necessarie, as they are indeede, and such wherewith the state of man is greatly beautified, yet are they all but thinges pertinent vnto the bodie, by force whereof (setting onelie our shape aside) wee doe communicate in euerie thing with beastes, for with them wee liue, wee mooue, wee go, wee eate, and enioie the sensuall appetite of inward or outward abilities. _B_ut by the benefit of learning, of knowledge, of skill, wee make difference of things, and are onely thereby in our selues distinguished from beastes. And if man which is the principal worke of God, was from the beginning a chosen creature indued aboue any others, and therefore poynted to excell and go beyond all others, howe much more needefull shall it bee for euerye one according to such appoyntment to preferre and put forwarde the vse thereof vnto his owne profite. And seeing as well by the ordinance of God, as common vse of reason, whereby we are gouerned and ledde, euerie man is induced to propose vnto himselfe the exercise of thinges that are good and honest, and that the same also among these, which maketh a man nearest to his Creatour in perfection, is of all others the moste to bee desired: howe much auaylable then and importaunt is it to euerie man to bee frequented with learning, the vse whereof freeth him of common ignoraunce, and maketh him capable of the high and loftie mysteries. And if in anie studie whatsoeuer, the reputation of honest and good is to bee sought for, what I pray you then learning, may bee iudged more honest, which hauing with it a certaine kinde of diuine and sacred originall, hath from the beginning of the worlde, beene with all men in greatest price and estimation. What may bee deemed more good then that which from verie Asses and blockes, and (if it were lawfull to say) from bruite men and beastes also themselues maketh distinction, and without the which, there were left vnto vs from such, no place at all of difference. What then that can bee sayde to bee more honest, which draweth a man vppe to the diuine contemplation of the sacred Maiestie, to the knowledge of high and heauenly thinges, of woorthie and honourable vertues, and beeing sequestred by the wante thereof, hee becommeth no otherwise than as a hogge, still groueling on the earth, searching onely wherewith to fill his bellie, neglecting in the meane time the expectation or regarde of any other statelie or eternall Soueraintie. Nowe therefore, if the vse of learning, as the thinge of greatest accompt and most woorthie, is heere sette downe to bee so generallie, commended to all sortes of men, howe much more consonant and agreeing is it then to the reputation of a Gentleman, who by what distaunce so euer hee is measured in capacitie, minde, order, state and gouernment from anie other common or ordinarie person, by so much the more ought hee in all endeuours to aspyre and seek to goe beyond them. For whereas all other men in their seuerall vocations are for the most parte, as it were withdrawne from the speciall notice and eye-marke of all publique administration and gouernement: the Gentl. contrariwise, the more woorthie and noble that hee is in calling, the more neerer is hee to that aduauncement whereunto by nothing so much as learning hee is enabled to bee preferred. For what profitable member can hee bee in such a place, whose ignoraunce is farre greater then his witte, and whose knowledge is lesse then the least of that, whereof hee ought to take notice and experience. And seeing learning is of all other thinges, a store-house so plentifull and precious, as whereof the wiseman maketh his treasure, the poore man his riches, and the wealthy one his pastime and pleasure, shall the Gentleman who in all other thinges, by Nature striueth to bee excellent, bee in the greatest action of all others so carelesse and negligent? Admit that you will heere alledge the tediousnesse of studie, and a certaine impossibilitie almost to attaine thereunto, I must aunswere vnto you againe, that this commeth not of the labour thereof, which to those that willingly aspire to the delicate taste of the same, yeeldeth great facilitie with pleasure to bee receyued: but to a slouthfull and sluggish endeuour and disposition. Far be it therefore (good Sir) that you beeing a Gentleman in all other thinges so towardly, and the sonne of such a one as you are, shoulde with the touch of so great a blemish, bee so throughly stained. So woorthie a discente as whereof you are deriued, such infancie and child-hoode wherein so worthily you haue beene trained, so great loue and charge of parents wherewithe you may bee animated, doe inuite you farre otherwise, and to a more excellent purpose. Let the sweete and yet vnknowne delight thereof prouoke you, the praise and commendation solye to vertue appropriate and belonging, once prick you forward, the honour and aduancement thereby continually happening egge you. And if none of all these preuaile, yet the riches and rewarde farre greater then anie earthly treasure, which are therunto incident, tie you to a desire thereof. Thinke of the worthines of those, who by howe much the more noble they were in birth, by so much the more zealouslie they haue trauelled, not shunning any labour, sweate, tediousnesse, scorning, yea bondage it selfe, whereby to compasse vnto themselues the glorie and rewardes annexed to the dignitie heereof. And if no other remembrance may be sufficient to establish you, regard yet your liuing father and grandfather, the one of whom neglecting his ease and quiet at home, trauailed all Fraunce, Germanie, and Italie, to the intent to attaine vnto the greatnesse of that whereunto you are so hardly perswaded. Neither thinke I that you in whome all other good actions do so plentifully flow, wil herein alone with a little labour be terrified: Wherefore my good N. I eftsoones entreate you againe, and againe, by all the loue you haue ought to your name, fame, parentage and stocke, and by all the expectation that in them, or anie of them, is of your happinesse conceiued, you will proceede in this purpose: the weight whereof besides the commoditie and pleasure redounding to your selfe, shall vnto your parents and all others returne most comfortable and pleasing. All which recommending to your courteous consideration to bee entertained, I doe herewith take my leaue, &c.

_An other example Hortatorie, wherein an honourable Gentleman is egged forward in the profession of Armes, and seruice of his Prince and Country._

[Sidenote: _Exordium._]

Sithence the time of my little abode heere in London being scarce twentie dayes, vnderstanding of the being in town of my La. your mother, I repaired thereupon to her presence to visite her: there did I receiue notice of your being in Ireland, and that vpon your honourable behauiour, and good seruice there done: The L. D. did not onely testifie the same by his owne hand-writing vnto diuers of the priuie Counsell, but also in especiall letters besides commended the weight thereof, vnto the regard of her most excellent Maiestie.

[Sidenote: _Insinuatio_ by praise of the action.]

[Sidenote: _Parenthesis._]

[Sidenote: _Epitheton._]

[Sidenote: _Metaphora._]

I did not a little reioyce to see that in such young yeares wherein commonlie falleth out a contempt of all excellencies, and a fantasticall desyre of counterfeyte vanities, you coulde (besides the common trade and custome of the worlde) addict your selfe wholie vnto so weightie and honourable an exercise, as by laboursome trauaile in the seruice and honour of your Prince and countrie, to put forwarde your selfe so timely. Credite mee, it is not a little pleasing vnto mee to thinke thereon, neither standeth my affection so slender vnto your fathers off-spring, but that I must euer holde the reputation of their weldoing, an aduauncemente to my imaginations, and the sounde of their good successe the verie harmonie of mine inwarde soule.

[Sidenote: _Auxesis._]

It is no newe thing I confesse, euen in these dayes to see a Gentleman honourablie descended as your selfe, and of like worthie education, to attaine vnto learning, to become practised in Armes, to put forward themselues in seruice, but to continue with resolution, to performe it with labour, to atchieue it with valour, to beare it with honour, here is the excellencie, this is the rarenesse, hence springeth the noueltie.

[Sidenote: _Hypotyposis._ vertue hath three entrances.]

[Sidenote: Fortitude.]

[Sidenote: Magnanimitie.]

[Sidenote: Longanimitie.]

_Vertue_ retaining yet her ancient Maiestie, though not pursued as in olde time, with such woonted vehemencie, hath three entraunces, leading directly vnto her beautifull passage, by the portes whereof, whosoeuer is desirous to attaine her, in her purest and most glorious estate, must of necessitie enter. First, _Fortitude_, whereby hee must be enabled to endure whatsoeuer labour and trauell to be imposed, accounting nothing difficult, to the end and sweet rewarde whereof her excellencie is appropriate. Next, _Magnanimitie_, which by a vehement and haughtie desire, reacheth vnto thinges most excellent & of highest and stateliest value, not regarding the hard, tough, & maine force of the passage, with what pursuit soeuer it must bee followed, so be it by such meanes it may be wonne, and the glorie thereunto due, may at last be attained: the reach wherof, tending to the last end and scope of al his determinatiōs, sweetneth all maner of trauel, and induceth therewithal a contempt of whatsoeuer lesse valued or hindering, to the worthines of the same. Then _Longanimity_, enabling by greate constancie with rare and accustomed patience, to awaite and endure the end, neuer giuing ouer vpon whatsoeuer assaults, til the determined scope be by all kind of industry fullie and perfectly furnished.

[Sidenote: _Etiologia._]