Swetnam's tract was first published under the pseudonym of Thomas Tel-Troth. In "Mouzell", Speght reveals Swetnam's identity by way of a clever acrostic poem on Swetnam's name; thereafter, his tract was reprinted with his name. His tract is typical of the tradition of misogynist writing at the time; it is full of rowdy jokes, anecdotes and examples of women's lechery, vanity and worthlessness. The conventions of the polemic controversy over women in the English Renaissance are said to be more rhetorically based than ideologically based, as is Swetnam's style; writers participated in a game of wit for their own amusement, rather than a moral or ideological debate.