The following article, originally submitted to the Zoss list, is reprinted here with slight editorial changes. It raises interesting questions about whether William Shakespeare had, or made plans to have, a fountain pen. The sonnet in question, if it is indeed Shakespeare's, would be grounds for pre-emptively concluding that he was fountain-pen capable. I'm sure that both pen aficionados and Shakespeare scholars will want to weigh in.
BG

The Bard's Lost Sonnet to a Fountain Pen?
Ottawa, October 10, 2003

The Jamais Taum Classical Library was the epicentre today of lively and sometimes verbally violent scholarly debate. The dispute turned on whether William Shakespeare could have used, and perhaps even invented, the fountain pen.

Triggering the dispute was the discovery of what may be a long-lost sonnet by the Bard. The image of the poem was imprinted on the shellacked underside of an old box, apparently transferred by centuries of resting on top of the poem itself. It was discovered late last year by post-doctoral student and librarian Bernard Glassman,. Shakespeare scholars and writing instrument specialists gathered this weekend at the library to debate the authenticity of the poem, calling it, by turns, a fabulous discovery, a silly joke and an outright fraud.

"I was just tidying up some old wooden boxes of Shakespeare ephemera," Glassman said, "when something inspired me to empty one of the boxes and flip it over." What Glassman found on the underside of the box, etched in the shellac, was the imprint of a poem. "There was no actual sheet of paper, or vellum, only the mirror image of a poem. At first, I didn't even recognize it as writing. When I held it to a mirror, I knew it was not only writing, it looked a lot like Shakespeare's writing."

All in attendance seemed to agree that it was a Shakespearean sonnet in form, but there the agreement ended. Pen scholars were either excited or openly derisive at the suggestion that the fountain pen might have been invented more than 300 years earlier than previously believed.

"If this is true, even if it isn't Shakespeare's, this is pretty momentous stuff," said one attendee, whose nametag merely read "Mortensen," but who was called "a major pen guru" by her colleagues at the conference.

But what of the poem itself? Even to this reporter's untrained eye, it was clearly a draft. Lines and whole sections have been crossed out, visible in the digitally enhanced photograph circulated to attendees. Here is what those present largely agreed to be the author's intended final version:

Thou art so like a fountain penne my love;
Mine eyes gaze rapt upon thy flexy tines.
Thy nibbe is smoother far than silk'n glove
And naught may match the boldeness of thy lynes.

Like darkest inke, yet diamant bryte thine eyes;
Thy body shimmers in thy satine cloake;
Tho' tight I hold thee, I'm the one who sighes,
As words fly out from thee with ev'ry stroke.

I can not rest until we flow as one,
To meet whatever future Fate contrives.
Our poem shall pour forth from sun to sun
As, pen in hand, we two write out our lives.

And whether we 'scribe many wordes or fewe
I'll write those wordes with no one else but you.
W.S.

Bernard Glassman is a fountain pen collector who participates on several pen chat forums.
Bernard lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, teaches a course in emerging media at Harvard, and is a consultant in health communication technology. He is the owner of 3AM Communications.
Readers who may choose to contribute their commentary or insights on this newly discovered sonnet should submit their material immediately to the Editor editor@pentrace.com