Image 5.
Excerpts, "A funerall Elegie on Sr. Thomas Isham Barronet"
([August,
1681]). Signed "Ephelia"
Portland MS
PwV 336, University of Nottingham Library
From the
author's Poems by Ephelia (second printing, 1993)
A 17th-century
specimen of Pen, Ink, and Evidentiary Document
Comparing the signature of Lady Mary Villiers from a pre-Restoration financial agreement, copied just below, certain characteristics are apparent between the script in the "Isham" autograph, above, and Lady Mary's signature: (i) the strong horizontal link between "o" and "n" in "on" in line 1 of the "Isham" and in (see the second excerpt above) "expression" in line 8, as compared to "on" in "Richmond"; (ii) "nd" in "mankind," line 12 of the second excerpt of the "Isham" poem, above, and "nd" in "Richmond"; and (iii) several presentations of the final looped "d" in both specimens.