What's A "ladies'-Hand"?

[GabrielleDuVent]

 

18^th Century Copperplate Handwriting by Sherwood Carter History

Copperplate evolved in the earliest part of the 18th century due to a need for an efficient commercial hand in England. The "secretary hand" (a cursive variety of Gothic minuscule), the "mixed hand", and the more elegant Italian cancellaresca testeggiata had given way to something plainer and more practical. Two varieties of a new "copperplate" style became common: "round hand," the bolder of the two, was considered appropriate for business use, and "Italian," a lighter and narrower form, was considered the ladies' hand.

 

 

The father may have wished the daughter to be educated to become a ladies companion and with writing to match this position.

 

Quote

"She started the pen in an elephantine march across the sheet. It was a splendid round, bold hand of her own conception, a style that would have stamped a woman as Minerva's own in more recent days. But other ideas reigned then: Henchard's creed was that proper young girls wrote ladies'-hand – nay, he believed that bristling characters were as innate and inseparable a part of refined womanhood as sex itself." (20.14)

 

Elizabeth-Jane's handwriting is very masculine – it's what was described in those days as "round-hand." She taught herself to write and did an excellent job by almost anyone's standards. But back in the day, most people thought that a proper, upper-class young lady should write in "ladies' hand," which was a fancier-looking (and harder to read) script. - http://www.shmoop.com

 

 

 

Makes more sense now. I guess we can chalk up Henchard's disapproval to his own ignorance, not Lizzy-Jane's.

 

How times have changed, because in Rebecca, Rebecca is exalted above the narrator as more refined and educated, and she has a very bold handwriting with a rather distinctive R. To quote:

 

"I picked up the book again, and this time it opened at the title-page, and I read the dedication. "Max - from Rebecca. May 17th," written in a curious, slanting hand... the name Rebecca stood out black and strong, the tall and sloping R dwarfing the other letters."

[Vendome]

Gabrielle

 

Do not forget the main resource in answering your question, i.e. the sage of all knowledge - the fat bloke down the pub.

Buy him a pint and he'll give you the definitive answer of ladies' hand and wax lyrical on Hardy's writings.

[GabrielleDuVent]

Gabrielle

 

Do not forget the main resource in answering your question, i.e. the sage of all knowledge - the fat bloke down the pub.

Buy him a pint and he'll give you the definitive answer of ladies' hand and wax lyrical on Hardy's writings.

 

I hate buying people drinks, though. I feel especially mean and want to drink it myself, even when I don't drink. Is it worth the investment, do you reckon?

[Vendome]

 

I hate buying people drinks, though. I feel especially mean and want to drink it myself, even when I don't drink. Is it worth the investment, do you reckon?

 

It sure is worth the cost of a pint, to get the fat bloke's opinion. You always win an argument by tacking onto the end of any sentence, "Well the fat bloke in the pub told me."

 

N.B. You may have to stretch to a packet of peanuts for him as well, if he's feeling peckish.

[GabrielleDuVent]

 

It sure is worth the cost of a pint, to get the fat bloke's opinion. You always win an argument by tacking onto the end of any sentence, "Well the fat bloke in the pub told me."

 

N.B. You may have to stretch to a packet of peanuts for him as well, if he's feeling peckish.

 

If he's feeling peckish, good for him, he can go hungry. He's fat, he can afford to lose the weight.

 

Yes, I am the picture of charity.

[Vendome]

 

If he's feeling peckish, good for him, he can go hungry. He's fat, he can afford to lose the weight.

 

Yes, I am the picture of charity.

 

Best buy him the peanuts Gab, he might start eating you.

[GabrielleDuVent]

 

Best buy him the peanuts Gab, he might start eating you.

 

Here is my response:

 

Edited June 20, 2013 by GabrielleDuVent

[Vendome]

 

Here is my response:

 

 

ooh, I dunno Gab.

The fat bloke in the pub will eat anything. (Apart from salad.)

[GabrielleDuVent]

Are salads fat-bloke wards in pubs? Never did I know!

[Vendome]

Salad is Kryptonite to the fat bloke down the pub.