AnnaNeale1

This tag seeks to start a conversation thread about the history of writing and writing technologies. The topics covered will extend from the art of handwriting to instructions on how to write an eighteenth century book and there will be discussion around what is appropriate subject matter and genre for the era.

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.

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.