SOURCE: Williamson, George. “Pointed Style after Bacon.” In The Senecan Amble: A Study in Prose Form from Bacon to Collier, pp. 201-03. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1951.

In the following excerpt, Williamson argues that Felltham's Resolves drew upon Senecan style and wit, in both their pithiness and their gravity.

Owen Feltham, who bears the clear imprint of Baconian imitation, speaks of style in his essay ‘Of Preaching’, which was added to his Resolves in 1628. His preferences in style are plainly Senecan:

A man can never speak too well, where he speaks not too obscure. Long and distended clauses, are both tedious to the ear, and difficult for their retaining. A sentence well couched, takes both the sense and the understanding. I love not those cart-rope speeches, that are longer than the memory of man can fathom. … The weighty lines men find upon the stage, I am persuaded, have...