The Secretary of Ladies and Feminine Friendship at the Court of Henrietta Maria

Abstract

Jerome Hainhofer's English translation of Jacques du Bosque's The Secretary of Ladies, Or a New Collection of Letters and Answers Composed by Moderne Ladies and Gentlewomen (originally published in French in 1635) was entered in the Stationers' Register on 2 August 1638. The word 'secretary' in the title signals generic continuity with Angel Day's The English Secretary (1586; tenth edition 1635). By contrast, this is a collection of letters exchanged between female friends and not a letter-writing manual. Du Bosque claims that the collection will 'make it appear that Letters are not the particular heritage of one sex; and that men are out, when they vant themselves sole Monarchs in the Empire of the sciences'.