Written in Haste: Practical Letters and Everyday Criticism in the Fifteenth Century

Abstract

Abstract: The phrase written in haste is a conventional ending of English letters in the fifteenth century. The formula does reflect the speed of practical uses of literacy. It also, however, is a critical term by which people evaluate their letters against aspirations to write better. The aspiration might concern style, but in haste and the related closing phrase no more also concern the content, extent and frequency of letters. Such phrases engage in a process of criticism which both invites literary critics now to read practical texts slowly and expands the criteria that such criticism might use.