definition for: #rescuethepress

This tag will explore handwriting in the eighteenth century commencing with instructions on how to hold a pen. Reflections will be relayed on how to manually write a book, also the process of editing and publishing it, leading to a discussion on what would have been considered a suitable genre and appropriate story-line.

How to write with a pen - Hold your pen lightly, grip it not too hard,/ And with due care your copy well regard, / Join every letter to its next with care, / And let the stroke be admirably fair./ Keep a light hand and smoothly glide along, / Ascending line and downward strokes are strong, / Let graceful Beauty in each line appear, / And fee the front and do not excel the rear, / Majestic grace, both beautiful and strong, / Doth, or else ought to every line belong / No roughness at the edge should ever be seen, / But all the letters should be smooth and clean./ On Care depends the Beauty of each line, / For that alone will make your art to shine./ Praise is deserved by the careful hand, / But for the unthinking does correction stand. / Quit yourself nobly with a prudent Care, / Of clumsy writing and of blots beware. / Remember strictly what the art enjoins, / Equal fiz'd letters, and as equal lines, / Small letters must of equal height be seen, / The fame of great, both beautifully clean, / Time and delight will easy make the Task! / Delight, delight's the only thing Last! / Vain are the hopes of those who think to gain, / This noble treasure without taking Pain, / Whilst idle drones supinely dream of Fame, / The industrious actually do get the fame. / Xemplar lines are Writing's surest Law, / Precepts may lead us, but examples draw. / Youth is the time for progress in all Arts; / Then use your Youth to gain the noblest parts,/ Zeal for attainment of each art will prove, / One means of purchasing the general Love.