2 Charles William Wallace 



modified Gothic hand used by most men of Shakespeare's time, 

 while four, from the French, are in slightly gothicized Roman. 

 This is a fair proportion of Gothic and Roman writing among 

 the contemporary records of English archives. Although a score 

 or more of different scribes are represented, there is greater 

 uniformity in the characters used than in handwritings of today, 

 and the script is generally easier to read than that of many of the 

 letters that come to me from all parts of the world. The native 

 English hand of Shakespeare's time, a modified inheritance from 

 the ancestral Anglo-Saxon, was essentially Gothic. That hand 

 rather than the invading and little used Roman was taught in all 

 the schools. Scholars and their university proteges mainly con- 

 stituted the small number of men who wrote the Roman. Those 

 who understand the practices and requirements in schools, uni- 

 versities, and business life of Germany of today with reference 

 to these two scripts have a fair basis for judging earlier English 

 conditions. 



In presenting these records, I have chosen to introduce each of 

 the three sets with a very brief notion of their nature. But the 

 items of fact must be gleaned from the documents themselves. 

 Brief explanatory head-notes in brackets accompany many of 

 the documents. 



As there is no uniformity of spelling in the originals, so there 

 is none in the present print. No more is there a uniformity in the 

 use of signs of contraction in the originals, and the consequent 

 dissimilar expansions here. The printing of all signs would have 

 required special type. Instead, therefore, italics are used to 

 show the expansion of a shortened form. Latin words are gen- 

 erally spelled out in full, even when no sign was used. But in. 

 the body of a document, when a contracted form is retained, it 

 means that the original was written without sign. Short " s " 

 has been substituted, as usual, for long " f ". While these devices 

 of typography are far from ideal, this explanation will make 

 their uses clear. It is hoped that the reader may find that the aim 

 throughout to represent the original faithfully has been attained. 



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