Rules of Use: Language and Instruction in Early Modern England

We take it for granted that we can use words properly – appropriately, meaningfully, even decorously. And yet it is very difficult to justify or explain what makes a particular use "proper." Given that properness is determined by the unpredictable vagaries of unrepeatable contexts, it is impossible to formulate an absolute rule which tells what is proper in every situation.

In its four case studies of texts by Ascham, Puttenham, Mulcaster, and the first English dictionary writers, Rules of U...