| Authorship Notes |
'The Kayes of Counsaile' is one of the earliest English courtly conduct books. It gives conventional moral advice of topics such as 'Dyce', 'Wine and Women', 'Humilitie', and 'Companie and Fellowship'. The text is highly schematic and ornamented using alliteration, proverbs, and elaborate similes, heavily seasoned with classical allusion. Jill Kraye considers it 'strongly influenced by George Pettie's 'The Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure' (1576)', see ODNB. Heron's chapter 'Of Travaile' (pp. 97-124) is in keeping with this pattern. It draws on a long winded procession of classical authors, from Herodotus to Cicero, to give a defense of the practice of travel as both necessary to obtain the commodities of other lands, and good in itself as a means to seek out knowledge. |
