Shakespeare Handwritten In Cursive Italic

[caliken]

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.116 written in Cursive Italic with a Pelikan fountain pen fitted with a Richard Binder fine Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm, the writing is at a slope angle of 8 degrees and the x height is 2.5mm.

 

Edited October 9, 2014 by Ken Fraser

[Lyander0012]

Beautiful work! Easy on the eyes, but still full of character. As always, thank you very much for sharing, Mr. Fraser! I'm not much one for Shakespeare (sorry, the archaic English he used was difficult for me to decipher, haha), but this is indeed a beautiful passage.

[jadehawk]

  On 10/9/2014 at 12:47 PM, Ken Fraser said:

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.116 written in Cursive Italic with a Pelikan fountain pen fitted with a Richard Binder fine Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm, the writing is at a slope angle of 8 degrees and the x height is 2.5mm.

 

Very nice!! I wish I could do that!.. Thank you for sharing

[dragos.mocanu]

Beautiful...simply beautiful.

[Cryptos]

Very, very nice!

 

@Kevin, Flow is everything in poetry, but because a lot of poems start each line with a capital it can throw people off the correct rhythm. Of course, if English is your second language then that will certainly complicate things quite a bit! Not criticising or anything. However, there is not a single word in that poem that I have not used over the past couple of weeks. Archaic it most certainly is not! Although the sentence construction is more formal than what we are used to using today.

Edited October 9, 2014 by Cryptos

[caliken]

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.104 written in Upright Cursive Italic with a Pelikan fountain pen fitted with a Richard Binder fine Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm and the x height is 2.5mm.

 

[caliken]

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.97 handwritten in Cursive Italic with a Manuscript fountain pen fitted with a Medium Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm, the writing is at a slope angle of 13 degrees and the x height is 3mm.

 

Edited October 12, 2014 by Ken Fraser

[caliken]

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.117 handwritten in Cursive Italic with a Manuscript fountain pen fitted with an Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm, the writing is at a slope angle of 17 degrees and the x height is 3.5mm.

 

Edited October 12, 2014 by Ken Fraser

[caliken]

Kevin : jadehawk : dragos.mocanu : Cryptos

 

Thank you all for your comments.

 

Ken

Edited October 14, 2014 by Ken Fraser

[roddyjen]

  On 10/9/2014 at 12:47 PM, Ken Fraser said:

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.116 written in Cursive Italic with a Pelikan fountain pen fitted with a Richard Binder fine Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm, the writing is at a slope angle of 8 degrees and the x height is 2.5mm.

I don't know exactly why this is the case, but somehow it's even more pleasant to read good poetry when it's transcribed in a lovely hand (like yours, Ken). Maybe it's the immersive, nostalgic factor? That is, perhaps I "feel" the poem more deeply because the handwriting transports me to the time-period and/or the actual desk of the poet? It's a lovely experience-- thank you, Kevin!

 

P.S.Speaking of being transported to the poet's time, here's a fascinating comparison of sonnet 116 as read in the modern English dialect of today vs the dialect of Shakepeare's time. (This has nothing to do with fountain pens, but I hope you'll find it interesting nonetheless.)

 

http://youtu.be/Qabr7nyHpVc

[kbrede]

Very nice work! I really enjoy seeing the results of various nibs.

Thanks,

Kent

[torstar]

:thumbup:

[Sammyo]

  On 10/9/2014 at 12:47 PM, Ken Fraser said:

This is Shakespeare Sonnet no.116 written in Cursive Italic with a Pelikan fountain pen fitted with a Richard Binder fine Italic nib and filled with Aurora black ink. The paper was Mondi smooth 100gsm, the wing is at a slope angle of 8 degrees and the x height is 2.5mm.

My brother read this at our wedding reception, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Would you mind if I printed this out? Your font suits it well and looks right to me. So many would lean to spencerian, but my heart lies with italics. I feel that within it's clarity, the truth of the poems message of clear and true love can be seen better.

[fountainpenlady]

  On 1/14/2015 at 3:20 PM, torstar said:

:thumbup:

I agree, several of my favorites. Shakepeare, his sonnets, handwritten in cursive italic, icing on the cake.

Edited March 2, 2015 by fountainpenlady

[caliken]

  On 3/2/2015 at 3:00 AM, Sammyo said:

My brother read this at our wedding reception, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Would you mind if I printed this out? Your font suits it well and looks right to me. So many would lean to spencerian, but my heart lies with italics. I feel that within it's clarity, the truth of the poems message of clear and true love can be seen better.

Please feel free to print it out....I'm glad that you like it.

 

Ken

[Maurizio]

This is just beautiful Ken. Thank you for posting this, and for your ongoing contributions to the FPN, and for giving we italic enthusiasts an ideal towards which to strive, And thank you also for providing the details of pen, ink, paper, x-height & slope.

 

Sonnet 117, written with a Manuscript pen, demonstrates that in the hands of an artisan great things can be done with humble (inexpensive) tools.

 

 

 

I've come late to this particular forum. I see now that the forums have grown so much that "calligraphy" has be split into 2 areas with this one focusing on italics ("edged pen") as opposed to Copperplate & Spencerian in the other forum, though its name is still a generic "calligraphy discussions".

[Nightjar]

Copying these sonnets and imitating your hand is a great way of learning to write this script, thank you @caliken

[Johnny Appleseed]

  On 3/2/2015 at 3:00 AM, Sammyo said:

Would you mind if I printed this out? Your font suits it well and looks right to me. So many would lean to spencerian, but my heart lies with italics. I feel that within it's clarity, the truth of the poems message of clear and true love can be seen better.

Expand  

That is fitting. Will himself used a Secretary Hand, but the “Italian” or “Roman” hand - essentially an italic- was increasingly popular at the time. Original scripts for dramas often used an italic for stage directions and names, and secretary hand for the dialogue. Poets after Shakespeare usually used italic. Spencerian was a specific 19th century hand, but the round hands that preceded it weren’t popular till the 18th Century - so an Italic would be quite period correct!

 

(and, to be a little pedantic, “Fonts” refers to printing type, which was then adopted by Apple into computer use. Handwriting styles are “Hands.”)

[inkstainedruth]

A number of years ago guy I used to know once walked up to me at an SCA event a bit worried because one of the award scrolls he had done for that event had been written in Secretary Hand and he was afraid the person reading the scroll out would NOT be able to read it.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth