Nicholas Breton was one of the most prolific writers of the English Renaissance. He wrote in an impressive variety of genres and styles, sometimes with considerable originality. Apparently without academic credentials or social standing, he presumed to educate the powerful and explore issues of theological, philosophical, social, and political importance while also writing popular fiction and poetry. His works are sensible and sensitive; indeed, his homeliness and basic sanity may have been as great a barrier to critical analysis as the sheer quantity of his output and its lack of thematic coherence. His books are about all sorts of things, but it is easy at times to feel that they are about nothing much at all.

Breton was born into an old, established Essex family, probably in the early 1550s. His father, William Breton, died in 1559; his mother, Elizabeth Bacon Breton, seems almost immediately thereafter to have married...