Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Writing School-Master, 1620











This comes from a workbook written by John Davies for teaching children how to write in fancy Renaissance script. I, however, have taken a nice manual about penmanship and dragged it through the mud. But I do like the idea of a Ben Jonson figurine...I think couples would have fought over that during a break-up.

p.s. -- I've done makeovers of Rimbaud and Coleridge that are pretty spectacular over at Literary Makeovers!!!

4 comments:

Doug said...

There are pretty fierce legal battles over who gets to keep engagement rings after a break-up, so if people are willing to bother with things like that I would imagine ownership of a Ben Jonson figurine could be a heavily litigated issue.
Maybe if Sarah could start producing Ben Jonson figurines now, I could specialize in Jonson figurine law and get in on the ground floor of a developing field.
As it is, if I ever get my hands on one of these Ben Jonson flasks, Meg and I are going to have to sign a pre-nup.
www.goantiques.com/scripts/images,id,708881.html

Sarah Redmond said...

Wow...Ben Jonson kitsch is more horrifying than I had imagined. He's a tough sell, and is in desperate need of a literary makeover.

meghan said...

Can I please point out that, yet again, Doug is doing SERIOUS internet research to bolster his LOLcomments?

Doug said...

The Ben Jonson flask wasn't serious internet research.

Did you know that a federal court in Vermont upheld the firing of a female professor (who claimed gender discrimination) on the basis of the college's sole claim that she wasn't conversant enough in Donne and Jonson?

THAT is serious internet research.

The moral of the story? Don't take a job teaching in Vermont unless you're ready to get serious about elegies.