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HANDWRITING 557
whim*, the notion ofthe survival ofthe fittest is only acceptable
with large qualifications. The very reasons we advance for the
triumph ofthe Caroline minuscule make it difficult to explain
the vogue ofthe Gothic script for three whole centuries. At all
times handwriting has been influenced by the taste of indivi'
dual scribes, and also like the history of costume by the
vagaries offashion. We shall do well, then, to think ofit as an
art, governed by rules of course, but still as an activity of
have de^
individuals some ofwhom, did we but know it, may
cisi its vely changed history. Wise men only date undated maniv
scripts within very wide limits, and even so, provisionally. But
caution, too, can be carried too far for no subject better illus^
trates the blind operation of conflicting tendencies in history.
Against the virtue of legibility must always be set the urge for
greater speed in writing. The need to be easily intelligible
is off'
set by the tendency to contract the writing, either to save
space
or
the labour of the scribe. Most curious of all is the wellxattested
instinct to raise writing to the status ofa 'mystery*, which in the
past has given rise to scripts of deliberate intricacy, and lingers
on in the prescriptions written by our doctors. The same
motives, allied with others, explain the revival of Latin in the
public administration at the Restoration, and the retention of
Law French well into the eighteenth century.
WORKS FOR REFERENCE
DENHOLM^YOUNG, N. Hanlwritmg m Englml tmd Wales (Cardiff, 1954).
GRIEVE, HILDA E. P. Some Examples of English Handwriting (Cbelmsfbrd, 1949);
More Exmpks &f English Handwriting (Cbelmsfbrd, 1950).
JENKINSON, H. The Later Court Hands m England (Cambridge, 1927).
JOHNSON, CHARLES, and JENKINSON, H. Cwrt Hand Illustrated (Oxford, 1914).
KENYON, F. G. Bwks and Readers In Ancient Greece ana* Urne (Oxford, 1932).
LOWE, E. A. Cwtices Latm Antiquwres. Parts i-vi (Oxford, 1934-53); 'Hand'
writing", in Tbe Legacy vftbe MiMk Ages> ed. C* G. CRUMP and E. F. JACOB
(Oxford, 1926).
STEFFENS, FRANZ. Latciwsche Pektograpbie, 2nd ed. (Fribourg, 1907; French ed^
R. COULON, 1908-10).