Verse
(1) Poems by Sir John Beaumont
An act of Contrition (‘When first my reason, dawning like the day’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 105-6.
BeJ 1
Copy, here beginning ‘When first my reason dawned like the day’.
In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks). In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning ‘Expect noe more: this latest line containes’). c.1627.
This MS collated in Sell.
An Act of Hope (‘Sweet Hope is soveraigne comfort of our life’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 109.
Against abused Love (‘Shall I stand still, and see the world on fire’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 115-18.
BeJ 3
Copy, subscribed ‘John Beaumount’.
In: A folio verse miscellany, 148 leaves (foliated 161-206), once bound (reversed) with an independent miscellany (Huntington, HM 198, Part I), rebound with this MS (in continuous form without inversion) in 1832 (by Charles Lewis). Including 59 poems by Donne (and second copies of six poems), in probably six professional secretary hands: A (ff. 1r-25v, 82r-129r); B (ff. 26r, 42v-7v, 49r-63r, 63v-79r, 130r-48r); C (ff. 27r-36v, 41r-2v; with occasional corrections possibly in hand B); D (ff. 37r-40v); E (ff. 63r-v); and F (f. 129v). c.1620-33.
Scribbling includes the name ‘Meriall Tracy’ (on f. 148v). Later owned by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), bibliographer and antiquary; by Edward King (1795-1837), Viscount Kingsborough, antiquary; and by Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector (his library, lot 624). Sotheby's, 17 July 1917 (Huth sale), lot 5873.
Recorded in IELM, I.i (1980), as the ‘Haslewood-Kingsborough MS (II)’: DnJ Δ 26. Discussed in C.M. Armitage, ‘Donne's Poems in Huntington Manuscript 198: New Light on “The Funerall”’, SP, 63 (1966), 697-707.
A complete microfilm is at the University of Birmingham, Shakespeare Institute (Mic S 15). Betagraph of the watermark in f. 43 in Ted-Larry Pebworth, ‘Towards a Taxonomy of Watermarks’, in Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks, ed. Daniel W. Mosser, Michael Saffle and Ernest W. Sullivan, II (London, 2000), pp. 229-42 (p. 240).
This MS collated in Sell.
Against inordinate love of Creatures (‘Ah! who would love a creature? who would place’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 114-15.
Against the desire of greatnesse, thoughte Mr John Beaumonts (‘Thou woldst be greate and to that heighte wouldst rise’)
First published in Sell (1974), pp. 178-80.
BeJ 5
This MS collated in Sell.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, largely in a single predominantly secretary hand, with some later additions and annotations, 188 leaves, in quarter-morocco. Transcribed from British Library Add. MS 25303 and perhaps associated likewise with the Inns of Court. Including 23 poems by Carew and three of doubtful authorship. c.1620s-30s.
Later owned by William Pickering (1796-1854), publisher. Sotheby's, 13 May 1856 (Pickering sale), lot 258.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the ‘Pickering MS’: CwT Δ 11.
copied from add 25303 and same j beaumont poems. check out.
BeJ 6
Copy. headed ‘Againste the desire of greatnesse thoughte Mr John Beamonts’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, almost entirely in a single neat secretary hand, the first page formally inscribed ‘To the righte honoble: the Lorde Thomas Darcy Viscount Colchester’ (c.1565-1640, Viscount Colchester from 1621 to 1626), 191 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Including 27 poems (and second copies of two poems) by Thomas Carew and three of doubtful authorship. c.1620s.
This MS largely transcribed in British Library, Add. MS 21433. The hand occurs also in British Library, Harley MS 3910, between ff. 112v and 120v, and is possibly associated with the Inns of Court.
Scribbled inscriptions including (f. 1r) ‘Mr John Bowyer’; (f. 2r) ‘Jeronomus ffox’; and (f. 3r) ‘William Ralph Baesh’.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the ‘Colchester MS’: CwT Δ 13.
Edited from this MS in Sell.
BeJ 7
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘J: B:’.
In: A folio composite volume of separate MSS of verse and some prose, in various secretary and italic hands, written over an extended period, with a table of contents (f. 3r-v), 186 leaves. Comprising papers of the Skipwith family of Cotes, Leicestershire, including 60 poems by John Donne (and one Problem), the text related in part to the ‘Edward Smyth MS’ (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew. c.1620-50.
Including poems ascribed to William Skipwith (? Sir William Skipwith, d.1610, or his grandson, William, or possibly a cousin, William Skipwith, of Ketsby, Lincolnshire, fl.1633); to Sir Henry Skipwith (fl.1609-52); and to Thomas Skipwith, and several poems by Donne's friend Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627), to whom a branch of the Skipwith family was related by marriage. Later owned by Robert Sherard (1719-99), fourth Earl of Harborough. Sotheby's, 10 June 1864, lot 605, to Boone.
This MS is the ‘curious folio volume’ lent to John Nichols (1745-1826) by ‘the late Lord Harborough’ and cited in Nichols's account of the Skipwith family in his History of Leicestershire, 4 vols (1795-1815), III, part i (1800), 367.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) and II.i (1987), as the ‘Skipwith MS’: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, ‘Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby’, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp.pp. 171-2).
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 8
Copy in: An octavo verse miscellany, in several largely italic hands, closely written, 148 leaves (plus blanks), in modern quarter morocco gilt. Probably compiled by university or inns of court men. c.1620s-30s.
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 9
Copy, untitled, suscribed ‘J B’.
In: A folio verse miscellany, including 35 poems by Donne, in several hands, written from both ends, 30 leaves (plus stubs of ten extracted leaves), damp-stained, in modern boards. The text related to the ‘Skipwith MS’ (DnJ Δ 21). c.1620-33.
Inscribed name (f. 8r) of ‘Edward Smyth’ and (along margin of f. 11v) ‘in Mr Templers’. Among the collections of John Patrick (1632-95), religious controversialist.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the ‘Edward Smyth MS’: DnJ Δ 45.
The answer of Metrodorus (‘In ev'ry way of life, true pleasure flowes’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 86.
At the end of his Majesties first yeere. Sonnet first (‘Your Royall Father James, the Good and Great’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 137-8.
Bosworth Field (‘The Winters storme of Civill Warre I sing’)
First published in Bosworth-feeld: with A Taste of the Variety of other poems, left by Sir John Beavmont, Baronet, ed. Sir John Beaumont the Younger (London, 1629). Grosart, pp. 23-63. Sell, pp. 66-83.
BeJ 13
A formal copy, in a single semi-calligraphic hand, in roman and italic scripts, on 16 small quarto leaves, in contemporary vellum. Evelyn Papers Vol. CCCCXCVI, of John Evelyn (1620-1706), diarist and writer, of Wootton House, Surrey, and his family, also incorporating papers of his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, Bt (1605-83), diplomat, and his family. Formerly preserved at Christ Church, Oxford. Acquired March 1995. c.1612-29.
Formerly Evelyn MS 107. According to a note on the fly-leaf by William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector, the MS was presented by Lady Evelyn to her relation Mrs Hugh Bisshopp (d.1826), sister-in-law of Lord De La Zouche, and afterwards owned by her housekeeper Mrs Hales, who gave it on 7 July 1826 to William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector.
BeJ 14
Copy, ascribed to ‘J: B:’.
In: A folio volume comprising four works, all in one secretary hand, 93 leaves (plus 115 blanks), in contemporary calf (rebacked). Early 17th century.
Inscription (f. 1r) ‘Samvell Sandys’.
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 15
Copy, on 31 quarto leaves. In a probably professional secretary hand, without title-page but headed ‘Bosworth Field’. First half of 17th century.
Bookplate of Marsden J. Perry.
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 16
Copy, in a cursive secretary hand, with interlineations and corrections in another hand, 24 quarto pages, imperfect, unbound. Early-mid-17th century.
Possibly the MS in Thorpe's ‘Catalogue of upward of fourteen hundred manuscripts’ (1836), item 8; later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1782-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9519.
An Epigram concerning Mans life, composed by Crates, or Posidippus (‘What course of life should wretched mortals take?’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 86.
An Epithalamium to my Lord Marquesse of Buckingham, and to his faire and vertuous Lady (‘Severe and serious Muse’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 138-9.
An Epithalamium upon the happy marriage of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles, and our gracious Lady Queene Mary (‘The Ocean long contended (but in vaine)’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 136-7.
In spirituall comfort (‘Enough delight, O mine eternall good!’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 108-9.
Juvenal's Tenth Satire (‘In all the Countries, which from Gades extend’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 159-70.
BeJ 23
Copy, headed ‘Juuenal’, slightly cropped at top and bottom.
In: the MS described under BeJ 7. c.1620-50.
This MS collated in Sell.
My Lord of Buckinghams welcome to the King at Burley (‘Sir, you have ever shin'd upon me bright’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 139-40.
BeJ 24
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘J. B’.
In: the MS described under BeJ 7. c.1620-50.
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 25
Copy, headed ‘By ye: Duke att ye Kings coming to Burley’.
In: An oblong octavo verse miscellany, in a neat mixed hand up to p. 78, the remainder in later hands, 116 pages, in 19th-century half-leather marbled boards, with remains of crimson velvet. c.1630[-1700s].
Once owned by Elizabeth Herrick (1684-1745) and her brother William Herrick (1689-1773). Formerly among the papers of the Herrick family, of Beaumanor.
This MS discussed in J.A. Taylor, ‘Two Unpublished Poems on the Duke of Buckingham’, RES, NS 40 (May 1989), 232-40.
Of Sicknesse (‘The endes of Sicknes, Health or Death declare’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 113.
Of Sinne (‘What pensill shall I take, or where begin’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 110-11.
Of Teares (‘Behold what Rivers feeble nature spends’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 110.
Of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady (‘Whoe is shee that ascends so high’)
First published by F. G. Kenyon in The Athenaeum (1889), p. 524.i Sell, pp. 177-8.
BeJ 29
Copy, here beginning ‘Whoe is that attends so high’.
In: the MS described under BeJ 1. c.1627.
Edited from this MS in Kenyon and in Sell.
Of the miserable state of Man (‘Is man, the best of creatures, growne the worst?’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 111-13.
Of the Transfiguration of our Lord (‘Yee that in lowly valleyes weeping sate’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 100-1.
Of true Greatnesse: to my Lord Marquesse of Buckingham (‘Sir, you are truely great, and every eye’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 140-2.
Of true Liberty (‘He that from dust of worldly tumults flies’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 113-14.
On Ascension day (‘Ye that to heav'n direct your curious eyes’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 101.
BeJ 35
Copy, headed ‘Jo: Bea: / On Ascension day’ and here beginning Yee yt to starrs direct your curious eyes. With other verse, on the two inner pages of an independent pair of conjugate folio leaves accompanying the MS of Thomas Pestell's poems.
This MS collated in Sell.
On the death of so many good People slaine by the fall of a floore att a Catholike Sermon in Black Friers (‘Mann hath noe safe defence noe place of rest’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 158-9.
Sonnet second (‘About the time when dayes are longer made’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 138.
To my Lord Marquess of Buckingham. Concerning the Academ of Honor [1621] (‘My Lord the hart that loves you must have leave’)
First published in Ethel M. Portall, ‘The Academ Roial of King James I’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 1915-1916, pp. 189-208. Sell, pp. 176-7.
BeJ 38
A formal copy in a neat roman hand, headed ‘Verses written by the euery-way noble, my dearest freind, or your Graces worthie kinsman, JOHN BEAVMONT, esquire, concerning the Academ roial, or College of HONOR’, and subscribed ‘Your Grace had Sr William Alexanders uerses to the same purpose at Royston: and all worthie men are most willing to concurr, and assist therein under your name’, on one side of a single folio leaf. c.1620s.
In: A folio guardbook of separate state papers, in various hands, 271 leaves (but some removed to MS Tanner 89*).
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 39
Copy, subscribed ‘John Beaumont’.
In: A folio volume of verse and prose, much relating to the Marquess of Buckingham and to a proposed Royal Academy, in a single rounded hand, 36 leaves (plus blanks), in modern mottled calf gilt. c.1620s.
Edited from this MS in Sell.
To the immortall memory of the fairest and most vertuous Lady, the Lady Clifton (‘Her tongue hath ceast to speake, which might make dumbe’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 154-6.
BeJ 40
Copy, in the italic hand of Sir Henry Goodyer's, subscribed ‘J B’, endorsed ‘An Elegye of my La Clifton’, on three pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves. c.1620.
In: A folio composite volume of miscellaneous papers in verse and prose, in various hands and paper sizes, 170 leaves, mounted on guards, in modern half-morocco. Including eleven poems by John Donne, three of them (ff. 10r-14v, 55r, 76r-7r) in the italic hand of his friend Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627); ff. 95r-8r in the same hand as the Leconfield MS (DnJ Δ 5) and constituting part of what was probably a quarto MS ‘book’ of Donne's satires; f. 132r-v constituting a set of six verse epistles by Donne, the text related to the Westmoreland MS (DnJ Δ 19). Early-mid-17th century.
From the ‘Conway Papers’ belonging chiefly to Sir Edward Conway, Baron Conway of Ragley, later Viscount Killultagh and Viscount Conway of Conway Castle (c.1564-1631), and to his son, Edward, second Viscount Conway (1594-1655). Later owned by John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), politician and writer, and presented 10 January 1860.
Cited in IELM, I.i, as the ‘Conway MS’: DnJ Δ 40. Cited as A23 by editors. Facsimile of f. 62r in Michael Roy Denbo, ‘Editing a Renaissance Commonplace Book: The Holgate Miscellany’, in New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, III, ed. W. Speed Hill (Tempe, AZ, 2004). pp. 65-73 (p. 71).
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 41
Copy, subscribed ‘ffinis J B.’
In: the MS described under BeJ 7. c.1620-50.
This MS collated in Sell.
To the Prince (‘In ev'ry man a little world we name’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 135-6.
Upon the death of the most noble Lord Henry, Earle of Southampton, 1624 (‘When now the life of great Southampton ends’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 156-8.
Upon the two great Feasts of the Annunciation and Resurrection falling on the same day, March 25. 1627 (‘Thrice happy day which sweetlie doth combyne’)
First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 98-9.
BeJ 46
Copy, headed ‘Vpon the two greate Feasts of the Incarnation and Resurrection falling on the same Day: March: 25: i627’.
In: the MS described under BeJ 1. c.1627.
This MS collated in Sell.
(2) Poems of Uncertain Attribution
The Crowne of Thornes (‘I sing of thornes transform'd in bloody springs’)
A poem in twelve books, unpublished. Sir John Beaumont is recorded by Anthony Wood as having written a poem of this title in eight books. The present poem has been dated after 1625 and also attributed to Robert Clarke (d.1675), a Carthusian monk, of Nieuport, Flanders.
For discussions of authorship, see Sell, pp. 333-5, and references in his ‘The Handwriting of Sir John Beaumont and the Editing of His Poems’, HLQ, 33 (1969-70), 284-91.
BeJ 47
Copy, in two hands, a neat roman hand (ff. 1r-84v) and a predominantly secretary hand (ff. 85r-145r), the latter also appearing in tipped-in verses in a scribal copy of Robert Clarke's Christiados Libri 18 (British Library, Egerton MS 3875). c.1625-30.
In: A tall folio composite volume of MSS, including Latin verse variously attributed to Sir John Beaumont's son Francis (the Jesuit) and to the monk Robert Clarke (d.1675) of Nieuwpoort, in several hands, 191 leaves, in old mottled leather. c.1660.
Acquired from Quaritch, 11 July 1888.
This MS, and its attributions, discussed in Sell, pp. 333-5, et al. Facsimile examples in DLB, vol. 121, Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, First Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester (Detroit, 1992), pp. 32 and 34.
Epitaphe (‘Tis not a safe conjecture more or lesse’)
First published (?) in Sell (1974), p. 181.
‘Gazer reade and take to harte’
First published (?) in Sell (1974), p. 181.
To my Lorde Marques of Buckingham (‘To say to you my good Lord, I might refraine’)
First published (?) in Sell (1974), pp. 180-1.
BeJ 52
Copy, headed ‘To a yong lord at Court 1623’.
In: A quarto volume of poems by Thomas Pestell (1586-1667), poet and clergyman, in a single Roman hand, 47 pages, in later calf. Entitled Perotti poemata varia, sed e multis pauca selectoria. c.1637.
Edited from this MS in Sell.
BeJ 53
Copy, here beginning ‘To say to hym good Lorde I might refraine’, subscribed ‘J Beamont’.
In: the MS described under BeJ 5. c.1620s-30s.
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 54
Copy, headed ‘To my Lorde Marques of Buckhinha’, subscribed ‘John Beamont’.
In: the MS described under BeJ 6. c.1620s.
This MS collated in Sell.
BeJ 55
Copy, here beginning ‘To say to him good lord I might refraine’, subscribed ‘John Beaumont’.
In: the MS described under BeJ 8. c.1620s-30s.
This MS collated in Sell.
Dramatic Works
The Theatre of Apollo
First published. as The Theatre of Apollo an entertainment written by Sir John Beaumont in 1625, ed. W.W. Greg (London, 1926).
BeJ 56
A fair copy, in a calligraphic hand, on 12 small folio leaves, rectos only. Originally prepared for presentation to James I, who died on 27 March before the entertainment was performed, and afterwards presented to Charles I (but never performed). [December 1624-March 1625].
Letters
Letter(s)
*BeJ 57
Autograph letter signed by Beaumont, to George Hastings, fifth Earl of Huntingdon, from Grace Dieu, 26 January 1617[/18]. 1618.
Recorded by H.C. Schulz, with a complete facsimile, in HLQ, 33 (1969-70), pp. 283, 307 and 308.
*BeJ 58
Autograph letter signed by Beaumont, to Sir Gervase Clifton, on a pair of conjugate folio leaves, from Grace Dieu, 18 November 1625. 1625.
Recorded in HMC, Various Collections, Vol. VII (1914), p. 291.
Documents
Document(s)
BeJ 59
A document, in a professional secretary hand, signed by John Beaumont (probably the poet), a receipt for £5 for a half-year's rent of the parsonage house in Sheepshed, 17 October 1626. 1626.
Recorded by H.C. Schulz, with a facsimile, in HLQ, 33 (1969-70), pp. 283 and 308.