THE TEACHING, PRACTICE, AND LITERATURE OF SHORTHAND.

SHORTHAND SYSTEMS.

Although some forms of abbreviated or word writing were undoubt edly practised in the earliest times among the Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks, yet no positive proof of the existence of a true system of shorthaud is found previous to the year 60 B. c. At that time Marcus Tullius Tiro, the freedman, namesake, and friend of Cicero, invented a system of "notæ," which, with various additions by Seneca and others, was commonly taught in schools, became a part of the education of emperors, and was extensively practised for several centuries. Owing to the general use of wax tablets among the early Romans, our knowledge of the system is mainly derived from manuscripts written after its popularity had declined. The characters, derived from the letters of the alphabet and variously modified to represent words, were numbered by thousands. Through the Middle Ages the art seems to have been entirely neglected.

Modern shorthand dates from the revival of learning in the reign of Elizabeth, "the Augustan age of literature," as it has been aptly termed, when Dr. Timothe Bright, once rector of Methley, in Yorkshire, and the author of several medical and other works,1 issued a small treatise on the subject, entitled "Characterie An Arte of shorte, swifte, and secrete writing by Character Inuented by Timothe Bright, Doctor of Phisike Imprinted at London by I. Windet, the Assigne of Tim. Bright, 1588 Cum priuilegio Regiae Maiestatis. Forbidding all other to print the same." This was dedicated "To the Most high and mightie Prince Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, Queene, Defender of the Faith, &cc." "Cicero," he said, "did account it worthie his labor, and no less profitable to the Roman common weale (Most gratious Soueraigne) to inuent a speedie kinde of wryting by Character, as Plutarch reporteth in the life of Cato the yonger. This invention was increased afterwards by Seneca; that the number of characters grue to 7,000. Whether through iniurie of time, or that men gaue it over for tediousness of learning, nothing remaineth extant of Cicero's inuention at this day. Upon consideration of the great vse of such a kinde of writing, I haue inuented the like: of fewe Characters, short and easie, euery Character answering a word: My Inuention meere English, without precept,

1 1 Hygieina; Medicina therapeuticæ pars, 1583; De dyscrasia corporis humani, London, 1583; In physicam G. A. Scribonii animadversiones, 1584; A treatise on melancholie, London, 1586; De sanitate tuenda et restituenda, 1588; An abridgement of the booke of Acts &c., London, 1589.

Title, with other valuable data, courteously furnished by Edward B. Nicholson, esq. librarian of the Bodleian Library.

or imitation of any. The uses are diuers: Short, that a swifte hande may therewith write orations, or publike actions of speach, vttered as becometh the grauitie of such actions, Verbatim. Secrete as no kinde of wryting like. And herein (besides other properties) excelling the wryting by letters and Alphabet, in that, Nations of strange languages, may hereby communicate their meaning together in writing, though of sundrie tonges."1

After rehearsing his reasons for dedicating his "Characterie" to the Queen, Bright adds: "If it may be so happy as to injoye the influence of your Maiesties fauoure and good liking, I doubt not, but it will growe up, be embraced, and yeeld profitable fruit unto many, & I myself thereby shal have atteined for my particular respect, that which in a lower degree, many shal enjoy the vse of this my inuentio, which I hope (be it said with modestie) wanteth little to equall it, with that olde deuise of Ciceroes, but your Maiesties alowance, & Ciceroes name."2

3

The only copy of this work of which positive information can be obtained is in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford. The descriptions of the volume in the several histories of the art are so meagre and inaccurate that a brief statement of the method may be interesting. For this we are indebted to Mr. Edward Pocknell, of London, the author of Legible Shorthand, who has recently prepared a paper on this subject for presentation before the Shorthand Society. The system was not alphabetic in the sense in which that term is commonly understood. The author alludes to the signs as alphabetical, however, and in his "Characterie Table" each alphabetical group of words is represented by signs identical at their beginnings. Thus all words beginning with A were composed of a perpendicular stroke, the signification of the words depending on an addition at the base. There were four slopes that could be given to each letter and twelve ways of varying the base, so that forty-eight words could be written under each letter of the alphabet when necessary, though this was seldom done. For instance, under A in the "Characterie List" are twenty-four words, under B forty, and under c (which includes K and q) the full quota of forty-eight, each separate part having also its own alphabetical arrangement, doubtless to assist the memory. The alphabetical signs are the following:

176 175 1 p p q y ĭ q p q p q

A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R

T U.

The character for c represents also K and Q; that for I, J and Y; and U, V and W.

1 Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books. By the Rev. William Beloe. London, 1807, vol. I, pp. 223 and 224.

* Ibid., p. 225.

3 This belonged to the celebrated collector, Mr. Douce. Another copy was in 1856 in the possession of Mr. Benjamin Hanbury, of Brixton. See Notes and Queries, second series, vol. II, p. 394.

The following twelve words will show the twelve terminal marks applied to the perpendicular form of the letter A:

These terminal marks are also used with the horizontal and sloping forms of the letters.

The list of "Characterie" words numbers 537, all of which must be committed to memory. By applying a particular mark, generally a dot, to one side or the other of a "Characterie" word the signification will be changed from the one originally appropriated to it to a synonymous word or one of exactly contrary meaning, according to position. To assist the reader to determine what are to be regarded as synonymous words "A Table of English Words" or dictionary is appended, and beyond this another list called "Appellative Words" is given, containing groups of “particular” words under a "general" word, the latter being written with a distinguishing mark to denote the "particular" word intended.

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Bright, like every succeeding author, advocated to some extent writ ing by sound. "A word of the same sound," he says, "though of dif ferent sense, is written with the same, as 'faste,' for abstinence from meat, for swiftness,' and for sureness;' so if it much differ not," &c. He relied upon grammar and the context, and would write "a virtue man" for "a virtuous man," &c. The same sign as a termination rep resented "ship" and "hood," for you would not, he says, read neighborship or friendhood. A dot on the right hand side of a character indicated the plural and converted the signs for "age" and "this" to "ages" and "these," &c.; a dot on the left changed the sign for "have" into "had" and "do" into "did," and so on; and a negative word was expressed by the sign for the positive word with a stroke across it. Purely arbitrary characters represented a number of the more common words and phrases.

In 1590, Peter Bales,' a teacher of penmanship, issued The Writing Schoolmaster, a volume containing three books in one, the first teaching Swift Writing; the second, True Writing; and the third, Faire Writing. The first was entitled "The art of Brachygraphy, that is

1 It is possible that Bales used and practised a system of shorthand for several years previous to the publication of his work on the art. His exploits with a pen were remarkable. Holinshed describes one of his performances as a 66 'rare peece of worke and almost incredible, brought to passe on the tenth of August, 1575" This consisted in writing "within the compasse of a penie, in Latine, the Lord's praier, the Creed, the 10 Commandements, a praier to God, a praier for the Queene, his posie, his name, the daie of the moneth, the yeare of our Lord, and the reigne of the Queene." On August 17, following, "He presented the same to the Queene's Majestie, at Hampton Court, in the head of a ring of gold couered with christall; and presented therewith an excellent spectacle by him deuised, for the easier reading thereof: wherewith Hir Majestie read all that was written therein with great admiration, and commended the same to the Lords of the Council and the Ambassadors: and did wear the same many times upon hir finger."

to write as fast as a man speaketh treatably, writing but one letter for a word." Another edition was issued in 1597.

In 1602 the following volume was printed for Cuthbert Burbie, at London: "The Art of Stenographie, Teaching by plaine and certaine Rules, to the capacitie of the meanest, and for the vse of all professions, The way of Compendious Writing. Wherevnto is annexed a very easie direction for Steganographie, or, Secret Writing." This work, although it has long been in the possession of the Bodleian Library, seems to have received no attention from writers on the history of shorthand, and nothing further concerning it can be learned. It is humiliating to confess that the use of so valuable an art among English speaking people during three centuries has developed little of a satisfactory or reliable nature regarding its origin and early practice. It is hoped that the labors of the Shorthand Society of London will do much to dispel this mist, the material necessary for such a work being entirely inaccessible to the American student.

To John Willis, a bachelor of divinity, belongs the honor of the invention of what is regarded as the first English stenographic alphabet. His system, issued in 1602 and based upon the orthography of the language, was called "Spelling Characterie" to distinguish it from those previously published, in which each character represented an entire word.

"From this period to the present day," says the inventor of phonography, Isaac Pitman, "the history of shorthand is little more than the repetition of the titles of the various systems that have appeared." While no history is attempted in these pages, it may be proper to refer the reader at this juncture to the bibliography appended, which, together with the series of alphabets and the chronological list of authors and works here given, embraces the most important data for such a historical statement.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN AUTHORS AND ANONYMOUS WORKS.

The following list includes the names of those who have issued systems of shorthand or text books on the art in the English language, with anonymous works of the same character. The dates given are those of the earliest authentic publication, and when the time of issue is not printed on the title page what is known or believed to be the date is given in parentheses.

William Holdsworth and William Al- George Nicholson. 1806.

other writers The Bodleian Library has a

copy to which the date 1784 is assigned. Whether this is really the first or a subsequent edition is unknown.