Dear Sir, or Madam...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 814, 4 March 1955, Page 15

Dear Sir, or Madam...

"DEAR PRUE," wrote Richard Steele to his wife in one of those two or three-line notes he was fond of sending her, "Dear Prue, Sober or not, I am, ever yours, Richard Steele." Most men and women write love letters at some time of their lives, whether despairing or pleading, triumphant, sloppy or sternly practical. Or if they don’t write love letters they write letters of the type, "Dear Sir, ... Yours faithfully"; or those like "This account is now overdue"; or letters which, begin, "Dear Mum, please send seven shillings." Letters, and the art of writing them, are the subject of eight illustrated talks by Professor Ian Gordon, Professor of English at Victoria University College, to be broadcast weekly from 2YC on Tuesdays, beginning March 8, at 9.37 p.m, The talks consist of two on the Love Letter, followed by the Gossip and Family Letter, the Travel Letter, the Public Letter, the Business Letter, the Please do- me-a-favour Letter, and

the Letters for the Letter’s Sake. The talks will subsequently be repeated from the other YC stations. Customs and modes of living may change, language may change, but human nature goes on much the same. "Right reverend and worshipful father, I recommend me unto you. I have received from my uncle a letter and a noble

of gold therein. My housemaster recommends himself to you and he prayeth you to send him the money for my board, for he sayeth you are twenty shillings in his debt. . . ." r) Apparently the cost of living can change, too; that letter was written by a schoolboy in 1478. Letters are also a source of historical material of the type which seldom appears in orthodox history books. For instance, one 15th Century housewife sent her absent husband a shopping list which illustrates why they called it merry England: she wanted some materia] for her hat and for her children’s dresses, almonds and sugar for the kitchen, and two or three poleaxes and some crossbows because it looked as if the neighbours were about to attack the house. A series of letters can tell a dramatic story. "Dear Mr. Browning . . . faithfully yours, and gratefully, Elizabeth B. Barrett"-tthat letter was about literary criticism. "God bless you, my dear |

friend. .. R. Brown-. ing" -so was that one. "May God bless you my own, my precious, I am) all your own. R.B." -that one was not. "On Tuesday, at last, I am with you. Till then, be with me ever, dearest. R.B." — that one was about details of the elopement, and after which there was no need of letters between R. Browning and Elizabeth B. Barrett.