olde english

[PaulaToo]

A couple of bits of paper with some old writing on, found in a book.
Anyone else would have slung it in the bin.
It takes a RootsChatter to stop and try to read what it says, and more RootsChatters to try to interpret it and find its meaning and time of origin...

I love this board!

[harewoodhouse]

I found  the norman ault book on the net
http://www.openlibrary.org/details/elizabethanlyric008142mbp
found the francis drake poem (104).....but alas it says it is by Anon  and the poem about the Queen is not in it at all

[Little Nell]

the heading for the Frances Drake poem reads if I am not mistaken
"Upon Sir Frances Drakes return from his voyage (about the world ?) and the queen knighting him", ...

I read it as "meeting" him - I expected it to be knighting but there was no way I could make the letters I can see read that.

Thanks for the Argus eyes - I really couldn't make sense of that at all!  Now I can see that so easily!

Nell

[Musicman]

Thanks for the Argus eyes - I really couldn't make sense of that at all!  Now I can see that so easily!

Nell

What a difference those 100 eyes made!  # 'I can see clearly now' 

[Siamese Girl]

It's very difficult to date secretary hand as it was used for such a long time - I'd guess whoever copied it out had a day job connected to the legal profession.

.... at least you can rule out Victorian with the last two lines" 

Carole

[harewoodhouse]

Hi Nell
do you think it could mean pierce out the eyes...as they were very into poking out the eyes of the enemy back then...just a thought

[Little Nell]

do you think it could mean pierce out the eyes

erm, no - I can't see the letters 'e' and 'r' in the word which begins 'p'.  I do see 'ss'

The next word may begin with 'r' and seems to end with 't'

I could hazard a guess, but I can't see the letter 'g' - but there agains maybe the spelling was off   

Nell

[harewoodhouse]

   one of those she-wees would of come in handy then...haha

[Michael J]

Hi Nell,

You've made a great job of deciphering those two poems, I should imagine your eyes were getting rather tired towards the end.

do you think it could mean pierce out the eyes

erm, no - I can't see the letters 'e' and 'r' in the word which begins 'p'.  I do see 'ss'

The next word may begin with 'r' and seems to end with 't'

I could hazard a guess, but I can't see the letter 'g' - but there agains maybe the spelling was off   

Nell

I'm pretty sure the next word begins with the letter 'o' - compare that with the two o's in 'Proud Pope' in the line below. The next letter is a 'u', compare it with that in 'But' at the start of the line; and the final letter is t as at the start of the next word

What appears to be the dot of an 'i' is more likely to be an ink blob - there are quite a few of those all the way through.

Whoever wrote these must have used a quill - are they difficult to use?

Regards Michael.