As we count-down the days to Father's Day, we are sharing some Handsome Gift ideas which might tickle your father's fancy. Some dads like hunting and fishing. Others like tinkering under-the-hood. Some dads cultivate plants. And other dads like to read Shakespearean sonnets and plays.
There are six known signatures of William Shakespeare surviving—signatures written in his own hand. These are found on legal documents such as a court deposition, the purchase of a home, the mortgage on that house, and his Last Will and Testament. No two (of these six) signatures are spelled the same way:
Willm Shakp
William Shaksper
Wm Shakspe
William Shakspere
Willm Shakspere and
By me William Shakespeare
Other writers have spelled his name Shakspeare, Shackspeare, Shak-speare, Shak-fpeare, Shake-speare, Shakefpeare, Shakefpere. Shagsper, and Saxpere.
It was common practice in Elizabethan times for names to be spelled in multiple ways—usually based on how a name sounded. "Shakespeare"—the way we spell it today—was always the most common version of his name and the spelling which was used on his First Folio, the definitive printed collection of his plays (published in 1623, after his death in 1616).
In the era of Romantic literature (roughly 1790 to 1850), the preferred spelling became "Shakspeare"—scholars believing this the most authentic spelling, the one The Bard would have used himself. On his tomb, in The Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-on-Avon, his name is spelled "Shakspeare." His wife, Anne Hathaway, lies in the tomb beside his. Her grave is marked "wife of William Shakespeare."
It was not until the Twentieth Century that the spelling of his name became "regularized" to "Shakespeare," the most common variant of the many spellings found in the 460 years since his birth.
The cast spelter sculpture, shown here, was made in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, perhaps while "Shakspeare" was the spelling en-vogue. The statue is nicely-modeled and well-cast—finished with traces of a light green verdigris patina. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
More Handsome Gifts for Father's Day tomorrow and in the days to come.
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