The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #45263 Message #2751085
Posted By: Jim Dixon
23-Oct-09 - 11:35 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Greenfleeves with an F (Flanders & Swann)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Greenfleeves with an F (Flanders & Swann)
I hope you realize the "scholarship" wasn't mine; I merely copied and pasted it.
I was skeptical, too, about the footnote about the f-shaped s. I believe the actual rule was that the f-shaped s was never used as the LAST letter of a word, which your example "fupports" illustrates.
Furthermore, only the lower-case s was shaped (somewhat) like an f, therefore, if a word was capitalized, it would be spelled with an ordinary capital S. Perhaps this is what misled the original commentator.