We do know a few things about the manner in which prose texts were read in the 17th century. Especially in recent years, considerable research has focused on reader response, in contrast to earlier scholarship that concentrated more on ‘what’ was read rather than ‘how’ it was read. The ‘how’ of reading is of particular importance with regard to the 17th century, as indicated by Isabelle Moreau in Seventeenth-Century Fiction (2016): ‘How prose fiction was read is as important to determine as what was read in the first place. The reader's expectations are central to seventeenth-century poetics, and become even more so when considered across generic, linguistic, and geo-political boundaries.’

One thing is clear, however, about reading behaviour in the 17th century: reading at that time was in many ways different from reading today. Individual reading was done in two ways: either silently (possibly while moving the lips and perhaps muttering) or aloud. An example of reading aloud can be found in the diary of David Beck, a schoolmaster from The Hague, who wrote in 1624 that a friend had unexpectedly visited him in the evening: ‘while he heard me read in the Self-strijt for a while’.

Collective reading consisted of either reading to others or being read to. Examples of reading to others can also be found in the diary of David Beck, who wrote about reading his own poems to his family and friends, and about reading aloud from books. To a close friend he recited a ‘part of the book Mespris de la Cour and from the Parfaite amye by A. Herroet’ (two 16th-century texts dedicated to the position of women).

In such cases one person reads aloud, while one or more others listen. In that sense, reading is different from singing, which can be done by several people at once. The effect on the listener may be the same, however. Stories about reading aloud to people who are so impressed that they begin to tremble, cry, faint or lose their minds are well known. A remarkable anecdote that has come down to us from 17th-century reality describes how a woman started laughing so uncontrollably while listening to a story that her contractions began, and within three hours she gave birth to her child.