In France the impulse of the Renaissance had effects similar, though less notable, to those in Italy. Among the chief early models of French letter-writing are the collections of the letter, of Voiture (d. 1648) and Jean Balzac (d. 1654). Those of Balzac in particular were often reprinted. Pascal soon made use of the form for serious philosophic purposes in the famous Lettres Provinciales (1656-57). It was in the 18th century, however, that French letter-writing became distinguished as one of the forms most representative of the spirit of the age; notable examples are the correspond ence of Voltaire (d. 1778), of Rousseau (d. 1778), of Marianna Alcoforado (d. 1723), of the Marquis du Deffand (d. 1780) and of Madame de Stael (d. 1817). Pursuing the sub ject hastily into the 19th century, we may note such attractive epistolarians as Sainte-Beuve, Prosper Merimee, George Sand, and the broth ers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. The Ger mans have never distinguished themselves strikingly in letter-writing viewed as an art, though from the days of Luther to those of Wagner they have furnished examples of let ters important for their substance. Especially notable for literature is the correspondence of Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn, in the 18th century, and that of Goethe and Schiller. Other interesting epistolarians are Herder, the brothers Schlegel and the brothers Grimm.
Few examples of the letter-writing of Eng land survive from the pre-Elizabethan period, aside from official correspondence in state papers and the like. The outstanding excep tion is the collection of Paston Letters, written by various members of a Norfolk family, be tween 1424 and 1509, and first published (in part) in the late 18th century (not fully until 1875) ; their value is historical, not literary. With the Renaissance the conception of letter writing as a literary art naturally entered Eng land, being marked, for example, by the pub lication of such collections as the Letters of Guevara, translated into English by Edward Hellowes in 1574 and Sir Geoffrey Fenton in 1575 (Fenton added 'Letters of other Authors, Latin, French and Still earlier, in 1568, had appeared William Fullwood's of Idlenesse: Teaching the maner and stile how to endite, compose and write all sorts of Epistles and Letters,) a work which became exceedingly popular and was often reprinted; it included translations of letters by Latin and Italian writers. Of a humbler and more utili tarian character were collections of the °com plete letter-writer° order, such as a work of 1618, probably compiled by Gervase Markham, called 'Conceited Letters, newly laid open: or a most excellent bundle of new wit, wherein is knit up together all the perfections or art of Episteling.) Far more value, of course, attaches to the personal correspondence of cer tain of the great personalities of the period. Thus we have a considerable body of Bacon's letters, first published in 1702 and in subse quent collections, and another of Sir Philip Sidney's; of special interest is the Latin cor respondence of Sidney and Hubert Languet, translated into English in 1845. A minor Elizabethan writer, of no little interest to stu dents of the period, was Gabriel Harvey, who was fond of preserving and publishing his letters; and it is to him we owe the publica tion of some of Spenser's, in a collection called "Letters to and from Edmund Spencer' (1579 80). John Donne's fascinating 'Letters to Sev eral Persons of Honor) written between 1600 and 1630, were published by his son in 1651.
The chief developer of the English letter as a literary form was James Howell, a trav eler, diplomatist and pamphleteer, who in 1645 published the first series of his 'Epistolm Ho charm: Familiar Letters, Domestic and Foreign, Divided into Sundry Sections, partly Historical, Political, These letters were represented as having been addressed to various persons, but appear to have been really of the nature of essays in epistolary form, and they have a place of some significance in the de velopment of the essay in the 17th century. Three later volumes followed, and many re prints. Of the same period are the private letters exchanged by Sir William Temple and his betrothed, Dorothy Osborne; Mistress Os borne's letters represent a delightful blend of propriety and spirited informality. Those of Sir Henry Wotton, diplomatist and man of letters (d. 1639), were published with his other manuscripts in the interesting collection called Wottonianm) (1651). Other collec tions of the same period were 'Loveday's Letters, Domestic and Foreign) published by the writer's son in 1659, and Sir Richard Bul strode's 'Original Letters written to the Earl of Arlington) (1674). The versatile Duchess of Newcastle published in 1664 a fictitious or ideal series called 'Two Hundred and Eleven Sociable Letters) Milton's 'Letters of State,) translated from the Latin, were published by his nephew, Phillips, in 1694; while in 1743 appeared an additional volume, called 'Original Letters and Papers of State . . . found among the Political Collections of Mr. John Milton.
In the 18th century the field of English letters becomes still more rich and varied, though the tendency is by this time toward more and more informality. Most intimate of all the collections are the letters of Swift to Esther Johnson, commonly called the 'Journal to these were written from 1710 to 1713. The chief letter-writer of this age, how ever, was the poet Pope, who returned to the Roman practice • of composing letters which should serve the purpose of the hour and at the same time be preserved as works of epis tolary art. His habit of altering the original
text, and of professing to have addressed other correspondents than the real ones, to gether with the extraordinary duplicity he prac tised in arranging for their publication, form a melancholy story, first fully revealed in our own time in the Elwyn-Courthope 'Life of Two of his correspondents, Lord Bol ingbroke and Lady Mary Montagu, also won separate distinction in the epistolary art. Bol ingbroke's best-known letters are in fact essays on politics or philosophy, addressed to one or another friend,— such as 'Letters on the Study and Use of History,) written about 1735 but published 1752, the 'Letter to Sir William Wyndham,) and various letters to Pope. Lady Montagu solaced a _prolonged residence in Con stantinople by much letter writing, represented by the 'Turkish Letters) of 1716-18, published only after her death. Various other collections were made from manuscripts in the hands of her family and friends, the number of letters in the end reaching some 450. Other ladies, less learned and brilliant than Lady Mary, were nevertheless able to win a reputation as epistolary recorders of court gossip and the like; among the resulting collections are 'Let ters to and from Henrietta, Countess of Suf folk, and her Second Husband, the Hon. George Berkeley, from 1712 to 1767,) and 'Correspond ence between Frances, Countess of Hertford and Henrietta Louisa, Countess of Pomfret, both series being published only in the 19th century. Far more famous were the letters of Lord Chesterfield to his natural son, Philip Stanhope, published in 1774, the year following his lordship's death; these were re printed at intervals for at least a century, being viewed in some quarters as models of advice to the young, in others as shocking ex amples of cynicism and worldliness. Most of the men of letters of this age devoted their leisure to prolific, often brilliant, correspond ence; among those whose letters still well repay the reader are Sterne, Gray, Smollett, Garrick and Cowper. But the prince of the episto larians was Horace Walpole, °trifler and fop,* who devoted the huge leisure of a long life to the most tireless and animated body of cor respondence in our literature. The first volume of his letters appeared in 1798, the year fol lowing his death; subsequent collections in the 19th century have brought the number of let ters beyond 3,000. Frances Burney (later Madame d'Arblay), a lady of the queen's bed chamber and novelist, was a close rival to Walpole in the power of sprightly representa tion of contemporary life; her letters, though primarily of the 18th century, were published with her 'Diary' in 1842,46. With reference to this period it must also be recalled that it was the demand of a publisher for a collection of model letters for the use of young persons of moderate attainments which led Samuel Richardson to embark on his epochal career as epistolary novelist with 'Pamela) (1740) ; and that Gilbert White's (1789), dis tinguished as a classic both in literature and natural history, was made up primarily of per sonal letters addressed to the writer's fellow naturalists, Pennant and Barrington. In the 19th century the art of letter-writing tended to decline, owing to diminished leisureliness of life and the progressive loss of the old courtly dignities and formalities of manner and style. Nevertheless many English men of letters maintained the epistolary tradition among their friends. The chief of these is Charles Lamb, whose letters are inferior to none of the pre ceding era in charm of wit and wisdom; in deed it was through them that he may be said to have practised the art of the familiar essay, in which he stands supreme among the moderns. Other brilliant letter-writers of the century are Byron, De Quincey, Macaulay, Sydney Smith, Edward Fitzgerald, Thackeray and Stevenson; and—in more serious vein — Buskin, George Eliot and Carlyle. The Emer son-Carlyle correspondence is a noble monu ment of philosophic and international friend ship. Besides Emerson, among the Americans, James Russell Lowell and Charles Eliot Norton have won distinction for their letters. Others who have preserved the tradition of the art, even in the days of typewriter and telephone, will doubtless be revealed by time. .
Bibliography.— Roberts, W., 'History of Letter-Writing from the Earliest Period to the Fifth Century) (London 1843) ; Ellis, Henry, 'Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries' (Camden Society Publications, 1843) ; Holcombe, J. P., 'Literature in Letters' (New York 1866) ; Scoones, W. B., 'Four Centuries of English Letters) (London 1880) ; Williams, H., 'English Letter-Writers of the 18th Century) (London 1886) ; Mason, E. T., 'British Letters Illustra tive of Character and Social Life' (New York 1888) ; Rannie, D. W., 'Letter-Writing as a Form of Literature) (pamphlet, Oxford 1895) ; Johnson, R. B., 'Eighteenth Century Letters' (London 1898) ; 'The Gentlest Art) and 'The Second Post,' collections, edited by E. V. Lucas (New York 1907 and 1910) ; Dawson, W. J. and C. W., 'Great English Letter-Writers' (New York 1909). See also a bibliography in a dissertation of the University of Pennsylvania by M. B. Hansche, 'The Formative Period of English Familiar Letter-Writers) (1902).