All Things Considered, November 20, 2004 · A new exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., offers a glimpse at correspondences four centuries old. "Letter Writing in Renaissance England," which runs through April 2005, includes letters penned in invisible ink, sealed in wax and embroidery silk, and sent to and from some of the most famous figures in history. NPR's Jennifer Ludden talks with the exhibit's curators about the lost art of letter writing.
'Wit's Interpreter'
John Cotgrave's Wit's Interpreter, published in London in 1655, includes a section on forming ciphers and making invisible ink.
Letter to Elizabeth I
One of the last letters to Elizabeth I from her most intimate favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Twice he puts eyebrows over the double "o" in moost, and by his signature, draws two eyes as an inside joke to the queen, who nicknamed him her "Eyes."
From One Lord to Another
A letter from the Lord Treasurer William Cecil, Lord Burghley to the Lord Admiral of England Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham, August 26, 1588, with the command on the address leaf: "post hast hast hast post hast for lief."
