The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-14


large quantities of material. Hence the writing
of Magma Charta (J2l5l carries us ba,k a
century or more, and indeed 1t is not very much
more modern than that of Domesday. 1t is in
the book text OF the day.
"At this point we are at the root of one of the
chief causes of difficulty to the student of media
val wriung. II all the varied forms which pre-
sent themselves could be catalogued IN one
direct series, could be arranged in single line
on the same plane, as the variations OF archi-
lecture may with slight denections tor local
pecuiarity) be arranged then 1t is probable
that the history of writing would have been
long ago cleared up. But the fact is that
there is more than one style IN use at one
time, so as to be distinct from each
other vet not without bendlngs and
mutual influences. Tue business hand and
the literary hand having once established sepa
rate existence, took their own several lines of
development, along which they travelled at very
different rates of velocity. Tue one described
short course, and performed it very slo WY and
deliberately; the other passed with compai ative
Iap'dity through long succession of phases
SO that in the middle ages, when there was but
one way of multiplyin books, namely, by the
pen, there existed two fashions of written char
acters, rs distinct from each other as our pre-
sent manuscripts from print. The one OF
these was cursive or running hand, and was used
in business, and the other was reserved for lite
rature and the greater acts OF diplomacy.
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
1--WE may assume the middle of the fourteenth
century as the date by whlch the black letter
be attained with pen and ink. But another
field lay before 1t, as we shall presently explain.
1t was the work not of The scribe, but of the
engraver TO bring this character to that clean
cut and deliCately-tpped outline which ls its
distinguishiI perfection. When CaxtOn first
used a fount Of black letter. in l477, It had
already experienced metallic development Of
considerably more than century,
ut was in the fourteenth century that this
character assumed its dominant position as the
most digni6ed of all forms of writing. In the
Oi / became
character for lapldary inscriptions and the le-
gends OF seals. At the beginning of the four
teen,h century this letter had not yet been put
TO this use; at the close of the same century no
other was recognized. Previous TO this tue
character employ ed in epitaphs, seals, and CONS
was the Lombardic capital, which was miro
duced about the time Of If not by, Archbishop
Lanfranc, the whilom Lombard lawyer. Tnts
fine round barbarlc variation of the old Roman
uncial is well known to the eccleslologist in the
lettering on the stoUe coffin slabs Tor that long
period during which the leading words were
rather glS 1cy than htc jdcet. This period closed
in the fourteenth century. In that century,
during which French Welded to English in
courts of law and in literature, aud during
which Latin took the place OF FreuCh in lapi-
dary inscriptions, il also happened that the
Gothic black letter superseded the LombardiC
Roman, in eptaphs aud for the lettering of seals.
WRITING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
"The second volume of the National MSS. is
made up of select documents from the reigus of
Henry VIII and Edward vi, and forms a rich
body OF Illustration for the hand writing used in
this island and on The continent during the first
half of the sixteenth century. The pieces here
gwen are, for the most part in the handwriting
OF persons who are lamiliar 10 US. There are
letters and autographs OF Henry VIII. of Queen
Catherine. Mary Tudor, Cardinal Wolsey, the
Emperor Charles V, Queen Margaret aud James
V, OF Scotland, Anue Boeyn, Cranmer, Lati-
mer, Catherine Parr, Edward vi, Francis ],
Prluce Philip afterwards Philip Ii, of Spain),
Cosmo de Medic the Pnncesses Mary AM
Elizabeth Gustavus Vasa, Lady Jane Grey, and
other names OF the highest distinction in history.
"Tbese documents have a manifold value for
the historical Information they afford, for the
light they throw on the English language. 1t
is not perhaps generally known how great and
even insuperabe, are the difficulties which
tend the investigation OF the mother tongue at
any date prior 10 the eighteenth century,
Almost all the older books which are in our
hands have been so modiied IN the transition
that they are utterly useless for the purposes OF
pathological study. The true Bible OF l6l1 is
one OF our most valuable monuments OF English,
but it is very imperlectly represented speak
ing philooglcally, by the current reprint
OF the authorized Bible. We do not say
this by way of re-echong the blame
the privileged printers for the multitude of little
alterations which have been introduced without
authority into the authorized Bible. The Bible
of l6ll is practically for the bulk of the people
at this day, book written in dead language;
aud the minute renTiut Of that b bic some
twenty years ago, by the authorities OF the Ok.
iOru University fIeSS, FORMED decisive an
swer to all such complaints. But the fact re-
mains, that we have not in our Bible a DlOl
which carries us back TO the English of lGll,
Then, if we go to shakespeare how very few
of the readers OF the national poet have ever
seen a dozen lines written and spelt as he
wrote and spet them! Until quite lately
that is TO say in 1864, when hr. Booth gave us
his pretty reprint of the folio OF 1923, and still
later when Day & Son brought out the hand
some fac-simile of the hrst folio, executed in
photoiithography aportlon OF which folio was
copied by photozincography, as we understand,
at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton,
the original English of Shakespeare was abso-
lutely Inaccessible to the student who did not
happen to live within reach OF one of the great
libraries. To this we may add further, that
every extract that was made from a writer of
the sixteenth century, or earlier, was more or
less modified when it assumed the form of IL
quotation.
FRANKIsH HANDWRITING.
"The calgraphy OF the Franks is not
much less distinct and characteristic than that
OF the AnglO-SaXOn manuscripts. And as the
one wac called Saxon, after the foremost of
the races and nations which used this msuar
sty lie, so the other is 'Frankish' only in IA Ike
sense, as 1t was in fact the writing of the whole
northwest or Gothic part Of the continent. The
Cottonlan manuscript Of the 'Helland,' or old
Saxon Harmony of the Gospels, is in this hand.
Ihe alphabet OF this style is figured in the
first volumes of HiCkes' 'Thesaurus,' in plate
prefXed 10 his Grammatical bTaRcO- IbeOtjscn.
This is the penmanship of the whole old High
German literature. This Fraukish writing was
in nearer relationship 10 Rome than was the
Saxon, The true distinction would perhaps be
that the FrankiSh drew its descent from PaDal
Rome and the Saxon rom Imperial Rome, Tue
Frankl h Handwriting underwent in the tenth
century sensible modification, which made
1t more Roman in IFS character. This change
took place about that juncture in history at
which we cease TO talk Of Franks aud -Gauls,
and begin to speak of the 'French.I IL pOrrps-