[1] See "The Paston Letters," edited by Sir JOHN FENN; and LODGE'S
authentic and valuable Collection.
[2] George Chalmers' "Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare
Papers," 94.--See on this subject in "Curiosities of Literature,"
art. "Orthography of Proper Names." [Also a note on the orthography
of Shakspeare's name, in an Essay on that Poet, in a future page of
the present volume.]
[3] "An Orthographie, composed by J(ohn) H(art), Chester Herald,"
1569. A book of extreme rarity. A copy at Horne Tooke's sale was sold
for 6_l._ 6_s._ It is in the British Museum.
[4] "Bullokar's Booke at large for the Amendment of Orthographie for
English Speech," &c. &c., 1580, 4to; republished in 1586.
[5] "The first part of the Elementarie, which entreateth chieflie of
the _right writing of our English Tong_," 1582, 12mo.
[6] In this copious extract from Mulcaster's little volume, we have a
specimen of the unadulterated simplicity of the English language. I
have only modernised the orthography for the convenience of the
reader, but I have not altered a single word.
[7] The second work of our Phonographer is entitled "The New Art of
Spelling, designed chiefly for Persons of Maturity, teaching them to
Spell and Write Words by the Sound thereof, and to Sound and Read
Words by the Sight thereof,--rightly, neatly, and fashionably, &c.,"
by J. Jones, M.D., 1704.
I give a specimen of his words as they are written and as they are
pronounced--
VISIBLE LETTERS. CUSTOMARY AND FASHIONABLY.
Mayor Mair.
Worcester Wooster
Dictionary Dixnary
Bought Baut.
"All words", he observes, "were originally written as sounded, and
all which have since altered their sounds did it for ease and
pleasure's sake from
the harder to the easier \
the harsher to the pleasanter > sound."
the longer to the shorter /
[8] The Grammar prefixed to Johnson's Dictionary, curiously
illustrated by the notes and researches of modern editors, will
furnish specimens of many of these abortive attempts.
[9] When we began to drop the letter K in such words as _physic_,
_music_, _public_, a literary antiquary, who wrote about 1790,
observed on this new fashion, that "forty years ago no schoolboy had
dared to have done this with impunity." These words in older English
had even another superfluous letter, being _physicke_, _musicke_,
_publicke_. The modern mode, notwithstanding its prevalence, must be
considered anomalous; for other words ending with the consonants _ck_
have not been shorn of their final _k_. We do not write _attac_,
_ransac_, _bedec_, nor _bulloc_, nor _duc_, nor good _luc_.
The appearance of words deprived of their final letter, though
identically the same in point of sound, produces a painful effect on
the reader. Pegge furnishes a ludicrous instance. It consists of
monosyllables in which the final and redundant _k_ is not
written,--"_Dic_ gave _Jac_ a _kic_ when _Jac_ gave _Dic_ a _knoc_ on
the _bac_ with a _thic stic_." If even such familiar words and simple
monosyllables can distract our attention, though they have only lost
a single and mute letter, how greatly more in words compounded,
disguised by the mutilation of several letters.
[10] A most serious attempt was made a few years ago to establish
English spelling by sound. A journal called the _Fonetic Nuz_ (_sic_
to give the idea of the pronunciation of the word _News_) was
published, and Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" printed with a type
expressly cast for the novel forms. The ruin of the projector closed
the experiment.--ED.