one great service he rendered to English writers that he gave 
currency to direct and simple style.”

     R. W. Chambers confused the later nineteenth century 
cult of oral, colloquial simplicity with the sixteenth century 
practice of the low style in devotional treatises and sermons. 
Thomas More uses the high style in Richard III , and middle style 
for his satire the Utopia , and low style for his devotional work. 
Part of Donne’s sophistication in decorum is a daring use of 
imagery from humble crafts in order to pose the paradoxes of 
the Divine humility of the Incarnation. The purpose here, 
however, is merely to indicate the range and depth of the 
tradition of decorum in the use of language for varied themes. 
For with print it had to be sheered off so that men could “use 
altogether one manner of language.” The need to homogenize 
every kind of situation, in order to get the whole culture in