The Truro cordwainers' play: a "new" eighteenth-century Christmas play - Research article: focus on traditional drama

Folklore, April, 2003 by Peter Millington

An examination of the original manuscript reveals the following. It is written on four sheets of hand-made Pott-sized paper (15 inches x 12.5 inches), which were folded in half for writing [3]. The paper has a circular Britannia watermark [4]. Such watermarks are common in papers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and they often have a countermark giving the manufacturer's name and/or date. In this case there is no clear indication of the manufacturer or date, except perhaps the presence of the letter "H" within the watermark frame. If this is the initial of the manufacturer's name, it may represent J. Holyoak, who was active in the period 1780-1800 (Churchill 1935), but this requires confirmation by a paper historian.

The handwriting is in a generally well-formed sloping hand, starting large at the beginning of the manuscript, but becoming more compact towards the end. The smudgy appearance of the manuscript seems to be the result of wear and tear. However, there are several handwriting errors, most of which appear as more specific smudges where there have been attempts at erasure by wiping or washing off the ink (rather than simple crossing out). Capitalisation is often omitted or used erratically, except for names. This is particularly noticeable with the word "I," which nearly half the time is not capitalised, although for some reason it tends to be consistently capitalised or not capitalised on any given page. Punctuation is totally absent except for initials in actors' names and a couple of rare apostrophes. The lines are laid out as prose, although there are a few attempts at verse format on the early pages, and sentences run on without a break. The text is, however, broken up by speech designations. Spelling is often non-standard and reflective of dialect pronunciation in an unaffected fashion. There can therefore be no doubt that the scribe was a dialect speaker.

The style of handwriting has many similarities with that of the 1780 Revesby manuscript (Preston et al. 1976). There are loops on the ascenders and descenders, except for lower case "t" letters and some "d" letters, which are straight. Also, the ascenders on most lower case "d" letters curve backwards with a prominent hook, similar to the "d" letters in the Revesby manuscript. The long "s" is used in double "s" ligatures, but nowhere else. This is essentially limited to the speech designations for "Henry Crossman," as the only other occurrence of "ss" is in the word "bless" within the text itself.

The manuscript reveals that it was prepared by someone who was used to writing. It may be unfair to describe the writer as illiterate, although the non-standard spelling of even common words does suggest a limited education. Having said that, the lack of capitalisation and punctuation is not unusual in an eighteenth-century manuscript (Preston and Smith 1999, v), and spelling practices were more flexible. The use of the long "s" was also common in the eighteenth century, falling from use in the early nineteenth century.