he quotes widely and from contemporary literature including popular writers of the day. francis bacon's "essays" and "the advancement of learning", sandys's "travels", owen's, more's, and john parkhurst's "epigrams", "piers plowman", and richard verstegan's "restitution", with boys' favourite book, joseph sylvester's translation of du bartas's "divine weeks" all feature. boys' works contain proverbs, allusions to the manners and customs of the time, curious words and expressions.