John Cotgrave

[2] The following works by John Cotgrave are recorded:[3] Wit's Interpreter has been described as a "sort of Idler's Vademecum".

As a genre, these works comprise a mass of quotations grouped by subjects such as beauty or sin.

[5] Cotgrave's work contains "memorable extracts from about 250 plays" quoting frequently from John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil, but the most cited were Sir Fulke Greville's Alaham and Mustapha.

[6] In the same work, Cotgrave published a cipher key by Cardinal Richelieu.

In successive editions, more information on the manufacture of secret inks was described.