{"id":457,"date":"2018-04-01T15:53:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T15:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/?page_id=457"},"modified":"2025-05-28T09:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T09:40:21","slug":"making-the-book-of-fortunes-calligraphy-using-sixteenth-and-seventeenth-century-styles-els-van-den-steen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/making-the-book-of-fortunes-calligraphy-using-sixteenth-and-seventeenth-century-styles-els-van-den-steen\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Making the Book of Fortunes: 16th Century Calligraphy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Els Van Den Steen\u2019s students worked on individual pages for the \u2018Book of Fortunes,\u2019 a crucial prop in Lady Mary Wroth\u2019s play Love\u2019s Victory<\/em> (1617). The shepherd and shepherdess characters take it in turn to choose verses from the book which tell their \u2018fortunes\u2019 in love. This game of choosing fortunes from a book was popular on the continent, where Wroth and her family spent time. Calligraphy students transcribed these early versions of horoscopes from the play alongside other contemporary lyrics on love and fortune, using an early modern Italic hand like that of Lady Mary Wroth in her manuscripts.<\/p>\n

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The course is officially held at Kent Adult Education Centre in Sevenoaks and Maidstone. Els Van Den Steen will visit Penshurst Place on April 17th to showcase the work of her students to Professor Alison Findlay and students of Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School who are working on Lady Mary Wroth’s\u00a0Love’s Victory.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lady Mary Wroth, her father Robert Sidney, her aunt Mary Sidney Herbert and her uncle Sir Philip Sidney all wrote love lyrics and sonnets.<\/p>\n

In total fifteen of Els’s Adult Education students have each written a text for the Book of Fortunes: ten from her Sevenoaks\u00a0classes and five from her Maidstone classes. Els Van Den Steen\u2019s regional Kent-based calligraphy group, the Cinque Ports Scribes, will also be write some additional calligraphy (riddles and songs).<\/p>\n

For the Book of Fortunes Els’s students were inspired by the\u00a0Italic hand\u00a0of the Italian\u00a0writing masters from the 16th century: Arrighi, Tagliente and Palatino. This is also the hand that influenced the writing in England at the time Lady Mary Wroth wrote her play Love’s Victory.\u00a0<\/em>As the quill was the\u00a0writing tool used during the Renaissance, they also incorporated some\u00a0quill cutting during the lessons.<\/p>\n

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The Book of Fortunes in the play draws on a tradition of lyrics relating love and fortune, such as the Deveonshire Manuscript Poem (c.\u00a01530s and early 1540s)<\/p>\n

Ons me thought fortune me kiste
\nand bad me aske what I thought best
\nand I shulde have yt as me liste
\ntherewith to set my herte in reste<\/p>\n

I asked nought but my dere herte
\nto have for evermore my owne
\nthen att an end were my smarte
\nthen shulde I nede no more to mone<\/p>\n

yet for all that a stormy blaste
\nhathe overtornid this goodlye daye
\nand fortune semid at the laste
\nthat to her promis she saide naye<\/p>\n

but like as on out of dispaire
\nto soden hope reviuid I
\nnow fortune showith her self so faire
\nthat I content me wondreslye<\/p>\n

my most desire my hand may reche
\nmy will is alwaye at my hande
\nme nede not long for to beseche
\nher that hathe powre me to commande<\/p>\n

what erthelye thing more can I crave
\nwhat wolde I wishe more at my will
\nno thing on erthe more wold I have
\nsave that I have to have it still.<\/p>\n

for fortune hathe kepte her promis
\nyn graunting me my most desire
\nof my sufferunce I have redresse
\nand I content me with my hire<\/p>\n

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Extract from A compendious dittie wherin the state of mans lyfe is briefely touched<\/em> (1547)<\/p>\n

For flatterers seeke where fortune dooeth dwell,
\nAnd whan that she lowreth, thei bid theim farewell.
\nThe poore doeth theim curse as ofte as thei want.
\nIn hauyng so muche to make it so scant.
\nTheir children sometymes doo wisshe theim in graue,
\nThat thei myght possesse that rychesse thei haue.
\nAnd that whiche thei wyn with trauayle and stryfe,
\nOftentymes (as we see) doeth coste theim their life.
\nLo these bee the fruites that rychesse bryngeth foorth,
\nWith many other mo, whiche be no more woorth.
\nFor moneie is cause of murder and thefte,
\nOf batayle and bloudshed, whiche wold god wer left,
\nOf rauine, of wronge, of false wytuesse bearyng,
\nOf treason conspired, and eke of forswearyng.
\nAnd for to be shorte and knyt vp the knot,
\nFewe mischieves at all that monie maketh not.<\/p>\n

Reprinted in John Hall, Certayne Chapters of the Proverbes of Solomon drawen into meter by Thomas Sternholde, late grome of the kynges Magesties robes<\/em> (1550)<\/p>\n

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John Skelton (c. 1460 – 1529)<\/p>\n

GO, pytyous hart, rasyd with dedly wo,
\nPersyd with payn, bleding with wondes smart,
\nBewayle thy fortune, with vaynys wan and blo.
\nO Fortune vnfrendly, Fortune vnkynde thow art,
\nTo be so cruell and so ouerthwart,
\nTo suffer me so carefull to endure,
\nThat wher I loue best I dare not dyscure !
\nOne there is, and euer one shalbe,
\nFor whose sake my hart is sore dyseasyd ;
\nFor whose loue, welcom dysease to me !
\nI am content so all partys be pleasyd :
\nYet, and God wold, I wold my payne were easyd !
\nBut Fortune enforsyth me so carefully to endure,
\nThat where I loue best I dare not dyscure<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Extract from John Gower, De Confessione Amantis<\/em> (1532)<\/p>\n

Touchyng of loue and his fortune
\nThe whiche me lyketh to commune
\nAnd pleynly for to telle it out To them that louers be aboute
\nFro poynt to poynte I woll declare
\nAnd wryten of my wofull care
\nMy wofull day my wofull chaunce
\nThat men mowe take remembraunce<\/p>\n

Father: There ben truantes in suche a wyse
\nThat lacken hert, whan best were
\nThey speken of loue, and right for feare
\nThey waxen dombe, and dare not telle
\nwithout sowne, as dothe the belle
\nwhiche hath no clapper for to chyme
\nAnd ryght so they, as for the tyme
\nBen herteles without speche
\nOf loue, and dare nothynge eseche
\nAnd thus they lese, and wynne nought<\/p>\n

Son: My father I am all beknowe
\nThat I haue ben one of the slowe
\nAs for to telle in loues cas
\nMyn herte is yet, and euer was
\nAlthough the worlde shuld al to breke
\nSo fearful, that I dare not speke
\nOf what purpose that I haue nome
\nwhan I towarde my lady come
\nBut lette it passe and ouer go<\/p>\n

Father: My sonne do no more so
\nFor after that a man pursueth
\nTo loue so fortune seweth
\nFul ofte, and yeueth her happy chance
\nTo hym, whiche maketh continuance
\nTo preye loue, and to beseche
\nAs by ensample I shall the teche.<\/p>\n

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About Els Van Den Steen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Els Van Den Steen has taught calligraphy in Adult Education for more than 15 years. She is a member of the Cinque Ports Scribes<\/a> and she exhibits her work with this group. She gained a CLAS Diploma of Calligraphy in 1997.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Els Van Den Steen\u2019s students worked on individual pages for the \u2018Book of Fortunes,\u2019 a crucial prop in Lady Mary Wroth\u2019s play Love\u2019s Victory (1617). The shepherd and shepherdess characters take it in turn to choose verses from the book which tell their \u2018fortunes\u2019 in love. This game of choosing fortunes from a book was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"nosidebar-page.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-457","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7IR4b-7n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/457\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/shakespeare-and-his-sisters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}