The poem below has been "set" in a copy of an eighteenth century typeface in order to show how a Mother Goose rhyme from an eighteenth century book would have looked. Notice that the lower case "s" resembles a lower-case f, but without the cross stroke. This letter was called a "long s" and existed in English typography from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Later typographers sought to "correct" the irregular letter spacing and uneven lines of the individual characters, which now seem to endow books of seventeenth and eighteenth century America with an individualistic, hand-made, and authentic feel. The typograpical products of the computer, with its ability to reproduce precisely identical letters, cannot duplicate the sense of personality inhering to rougher-hewn technological products.
I do not like thee Doctor Fell,
The reason why, I cannot tell.
But this I know and know full
well,
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.
*Note, unless you already have this unusual typeface in your computer, you must download, unzip and install the .zip file of the typeface "18th century" below. Afterwards, you must reload or refresh this page; you should see the change instantly. You will then experience the flavor of an early rhyme in the semblance of America's earliest typography.