Verse
‘Amarillis was full fayre, the goodliest mayde was she’
First published in Sargent (1935). Sargent, No. X, pp. 192-5. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 303-5. EV 1870.
DyE 1
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis: E: Dier’.
In: A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf. c.1586-91.
This volume is edited in Cummings, who suggests that the compiler is Sir John Finett (1571-1641), of Fordwich, Kent: hence it is often cited as ‘The John Finett miscellany’. The hands do not appear to be his, however, and this attribution is questionable.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 2
Copy, in a secretary hand, in double columns, untitled, on the third page of two conjugate folio leaves. Late 16th century.
In: A folio composite volume of verse and academic plays, in English and Latin, in various hands, 493 leaves, now in two volumes, foliated 1-250 and 251-493 respectively. Partly compiled by Archbishop Sancroft.
Edited from this MS in Sargent.
DyE 3
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘FYNIS DYER’.
In: A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt. Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.
DyE 4
Copy, in a small mixed hand, untitled, subscribed ‘G: Dier’.
In: An octavo composite miscellany of verse and prose, in several secretary, italic and mixed hands, 190 leaves (irregularly numbered), in contemporary limp vellum. c.1580s-1615.
Inscribed (inside front and rear covers) ‘Robert Thornton’ and ‘William Sherida / Wm Sheridan.’
‘Amidst the fayrest mountayne topps’
First published in The Oxford University and City Herald (4 July 1812). Sargent, No. IV, pp. 182-3. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 309-11. EV 1901.
DyE 5
Copy in: An octavo verse miscellany, compiled by the writer Robert Codrington (1602-65) of Magdalen College, Oxford, 360 pages (including stubs of extracted leaves on pp. 297-328 and blanks, plus index), in contemporary calf. Including 16 poems by Carew and 13 poems (plus one of doubtful authorship) by Strode. Written in three hands: i.e. A (Codrington's hand, including his own poems) on pp. 1-283, 349-55; B on pp. 284-9; and C on pp. 289-348, 356-60; dated (pp. 1-22) ‘Anno Dom: 1638’ and ‘The 30th of May. 1638’. c.1638.
Acquired from Blackwell's, 1962.
Cited in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Codrington MS’: CwT Δ 7 and StW Δ 7.
DyE 6
Copy, subscribed ‘qd Mr Dier’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, in a single hand, 114 leaves, bound with a printed exemplum of Thomas Watson's <GREEK> or Passionate Centurie of Love (London, [1581?]). Compiled by John Lilliat (c.1550-c.1599). c.1590s.
This MS volume printed in full, with facsimile examples, in Liber Lilliati: Elizabethan Verse and Song (Bodleian MS Rawlinson Poetry 148), ed. Edward Doughtie (Newark, DE, 1985).
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.
‘As rare to heare as seldome to be seene’
First published in The Phoenix Nest (London, 1593), p. 75. Sargent, No. IX, p. 191. May, Courtier Poets, p. 309. EV 2856.
DyE 8
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Mr Dier’.
In: the MS described under DyE 1. c.1586-91.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 9
Copy in: A quarto verse miscellany, in an accomplished mixed hand throughout, with headings or incipts in engrossed lettering, 194 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco. c.1596-1601.
This MS volume discussed in Katherine K. Gottschalk, ‘Discoveries concerning British Library MS Harley 6910’, MP, 77 (1979-80), 121-31.
This MS collated in Sargent.
DyE 10
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘fynis DY’ [i.e. Dyer].
In: the MS described under DyE 3.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.
DyE 11
Copy in: An oblong quarto verse miscellany, in three accomplished secretary hands, xvi + 52 pages (including blanks), being a fragment of a larger volume, now mounted in an album, in russia gilt. c.1590-1600s.
Inscribed (on an affixed slip of paper) ‘Anne Cornwaleys her booke’ [i.e. probably Anne Cornwallis (d.1635), who on 30 November 1610 became Countess of Argyll]; (p. 34) ‘Ed Philips his Book 1740’; ‘Robert Thomas not his Book 1740’; (p. [xvi]); ‘Sam: Lysons’ [i.e. Samuel Lysons (1763-1819), antiquary]. Afterwards owned by Benjamin Heywood Bright (1787-1843), book collector. Bright sale, Part II (18 June 1844), to Thorpe. Then owned by Dr Thomas Russell and his son the Rev. John Fuller Russell (1813-84), ecclesiastical historian (who has signed the MS ‘John F. Russell’ on p.[i]); by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), literary scholar and book collector, and then in the Warwick Castle Library. Formerly Folger MS 1.112.
Discussed in William H. Bond, ‘The Cornwallis-Lysons Manuscript and the Poems of John Bentley’, Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway, Giles E. Dawson, and Edwin E. Willoughby (Washington, DC, 1948), pp. 683-93, and in Arthur F. Marotti, ‘Folger MSS V.a.89 and V.a.345: Reading Lyric Poetry in Manuscript’, in The Reader Revealed, ed. Sabrina Alcorn Baron, et al. (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, 2001), pp. 44-57.
‘Before I dy faire dame of me receave my last adieu’
First published in Wagner (1935), pp. 467-8. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 295-6. EV 3510.
DyE 12
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘fynys. DY’.
In: the MS described under DyE 3.
Edited from this M S in Wagner (1935) and in May, Courtier Poets.
‘Divide my times, and rate my wretched howres’
First published in The Phoenix Nest (London, 1593), p. 88. Sargent, No. II, pp. 177-9. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 297-9. EV 5400.
A Fancy (‘Hee that his mirth hath loste, whose comfort is dismaid’)
First published, in a garbled version, in Poems by the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Benjamin Ruddier (London, 1660), pp. 29-31. Sargent, No. V, pp. 184-7. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 290-2. EV 8529.
DyE 15
Copy, untitled.
In: A small quarto colume of state papers and verse, in a closely written hand, i + 170 pages, badly affected by ink seepage. c.1620s-37.
Edited from this MS in Sargent.
DyE 16
Copy, with alterations, untitled, subscribed ‘E. dier’.
In: the MS described under DyE 1. c.1586-91.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 17
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, subscribed ‘finis qt Dier’, on the first two pages of two conjugate folio leaves. Late 16th-early 17th century.
In: the MS described under DyE 2.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 20
Copy, headed ‘Bewayling his exile he singeth thus’.
In: A quarto miscellany of verse and some prose, 63 leaves, partly mounted on guards, in modern quarter-calf on marbled boards. Compiled by Henry Stanford (d.1616), household tutor to the Paget and Carey families, including George Carey, second Lord Hunsdon. c.1581-1612.
A complete transcription of this volume in Steven W. May, Henry Stanford's Anthology: An Edition of Cambridge University Library Manuscript Dd. 5.75 (New York, 1988).
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets, and in May, Stanford, pp. 72-5 (no. 95).
DyE 21
Copy, headed ‘Inglishe Dyare’. Followed (ff. 6r-7r) by ‘Marrayis Dyare’, subscribed ‘quod Murradius’. c.1612.
In: A folio volume comprising two MSS bound together, the first (iii + 323 leaves) a 15th-century MS of John Lydgate's Destruction of Troy, the second (v + 82 leaves, including blanks) a verse miscellany in various hands, in modern quarter-calf on marbled boards. The volume owned and possibly partly compiled by Sir James Murray, of Tibbermure, or by someone in his household, dated at the end ‘anno 1612 ye 24 of Maij’.
Inscriptions including ‘Marie Moorray wt my hand’,‘Kathrin Morton with my hand’, and ‘Capitane James Lyell’.
Cambridge University Library, MS Kk. 5. 30 , Item 2, f. 5r-v.
DyE 22
Copy, on a flyleaf of an unfoliated book of Elizabeth Crown leases. Late 16th century.
DyE 23
Copy, untitled.
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).
DyE 25
Copy, headed ‘A complaynt of one forsaken of his love’.
In: A verse miscellany, including 55 poems which have been attributed to Wyatt (one copied twice) as well as his Penitential Psalms, in several hands, originally compiled by, or for, John Harington of Stepney (1520?-82) and continued by his son, Sir John Harington of Kelston (1560-1612), whose hand occurs frequently in the MS, imperfect, once comprising 228 leaves of which 145 remain. Mid-late 16th century.
This volume described, and the full text edited, with facsimile examples of ff. 53r and 66v, in Hughey. Also discussed in Ruth Hughey, ‘The Harington Manuscript at Arundel Castle and Related Documents’, The Library, 4th Ser. 15 (1934-5), 388-444.
A transcript of the whole MS made c.1810 for George Frederick Nott is in the British Library, Add. MS 28635.
The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle, MSS (Special Press), ‘Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz.’, ff. 106v-7r.
‘Fancy farwell, that fed my fond delight’
First published in Bernard M. Wagner, ‘New Poems by Sir Edward Dyer’, RES, 11 (1935), 466-71 (p. 470). May, Courtier Poets, p. 312, among ‘Poems possibly by Dyer’. EV 6219.
DyE 26
Copy of a shortened and variant v ersion of the first stanza only.
In: the MS described under DyE 9. c.1596-1601.
DyE 27
Copy, subscribed ‘FINIS. H O Dyer’.
In: the MS described under DyE 3.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.
DyE 28
Copy, untitled, in the cursive italic hand of Henry Colling.
In: MS verses written in late 16th-century hands in a late 15th-century rubricated MS of tracts relating to Scottish expeditions of Edward I up to the reign of Richard II, 64 folio leaves of parchment, in calf. c.1596.
Owned and inscribed, with the date 2 December 1596, by Henry Colling (1565-1628), of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, who matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, and was connected by marriage to the Hervey family of Ickworth. Other contemporary names relating to Bury inscribed (ff. 63v-4r) including William Penninge, George Dove, Henry Couelle, and Frances Frodge.
Discussed, with facsimile examples, in Hilton Kelliher, ‘Unrecorded Extracts from Shakespeare, Sidney and Dyer’, EMS, 2 (1990), 163-87.
Edited from this MS in Kelliher, p. 177, with a facsimile of f. 46v as Plate 2, p. 176.
‘I woulde it were not as it is’
First published in Sargent (1935). Sargent, No. III, pp. 180-1. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 299-300. EV 10542.
DyE 29
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis Mr Dier’.
In: the MS described under DyE 1. c.1586-91.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 32
Copy, untitled.
In: the MS described under DyE 20. c.1581-1612.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.
DyE 33
Copy in: the MS described under DyE 20. c.1581-1612.
‘My mynde to me a kyngdome is’
First published, as two poems (one comprising stanzas 1-4, 6 and 8. the other stanzas 9-12) in a musical setting, in William Byrd, Psalmes, Sonets & Songs (London, 1588). Sargent, No. XIV, pp. 200-1. The uncertain authorship of this poem and its textual history are discussed in Steven W. May, ‘The Authorship of “My mind to me a kingdom is”’, RES, NS 26 (1975), 385-94. EV 15376.
DyE 35
Copy of an eight-stanza version, headed ‘Off Ane Contented Mynd’.
In: A small quarto commonplace book, of ballads, proverbs and poems, in a single hand. Compiled by Andrew Melville (1593-1640), Doctor in the Song School of Aberdeen in 1621-36. c.1621-40.
Owned in 1886 by John Anderson, London.
Selectively edited in Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Andrew Melville, ed. William Walker (Aberdeen, 1899).
Edited from this MS in Walker, pp. 56-7.
Aberdeen University Library, MS 28, [unspecified page numbers].
DyE 36
Copy of a 44-line version, untitled, headed in a later hand ‘On Contentment’. Early 17th century.
In: A quarto composite volume of miscellaneous state tracts, speeches, and verse, in various largely professional hands, iv + 413 leaves (including a thirty-page index and some blanks), in half-calf (rebacked). Transcribed from the Yelverton papers chiefly belonging to Sir Christopher Yelverton (1535?-1612), Sir Henry Yelverton (1566-1629), and their family.
Owned in 1679 by Narcissus Luttrell (1657-1732), annalist and book collector.
DyE 37
Copy, headed ‘Sorte contentus ani’.
In: A duodecimo notebook of verse and prose, comprising 131 interleaves in a printed exemplum of John Sansbury's Ilium in Italiam (Oxford, 1608), in contemporary calf (rebacked), blind-stamped ‘S. S.’ on the upper cover. Owned in 1619, and probably compiled, by Simon Sloper (b.1596/7), of Magdalen Hall, Oxford. c.1620s-30s.
Bought from Parker, of Oxford, 2 April 1889, by Percy Manning and bequeathed by him in 1917.
DyE 38
Copy of the incipit, in a musical setting by William Byrd (1539/43-1623), composer.
In: An oblong quarto countertenor music part book, ii + 322 pages, in contemporary vellum. c.1570s-80s.
‘I. P.’ on the cover.
DyE 39
Copy of the 48-line version, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis E Dier’.
In: the MS described under DyE 1. c.1586-91.
Edited from this MS in Sargent.
DyE 40
Copy, untitled.
In: A quarto miscellany of largely religious ballads, in one or possibly more cursive secretary hands, 60 leaves, in modern half black morocco. c.early 1600s.
Later owned by Benjamin Heywood Bright (1830-84), merchant and author. Sotheby's, 18 June 1844 (Bright sale), lot 188.
This MS collated in Sargent.
DyE 41
Copy, in a secretary hand, in double columns, with slightly cropped heading ‘A true [ ? ] of a contented mynd’.
In: A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, in possibly several hands, a cursive secretary hand predominating, ii + 77 leaves, imperfect, in contemporary limp vellum, within modern reversed calf. Owned and possibly compiled by Richard Waferer, of Buckinghamshire (name on ff. 43r and 76v). c.1597-1628.
Also inscribed (f. ii) with names of ‘Marth: Waferer’ and Walter Jesson.
DyE 42
Copy, headed ‘A sweete and pleasant Sonnet Intituled: My minde to me a kingdome is / to the tune of In Creete’.
In: A small quarto volume of 80 English ballads and songs, in probably two variable secretary hands, transcribed from edited black-letter broadsides, iii + 162 leaves, originally foliated 98-257, imperfect, lacking the original first 97 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf gilt. This volume edited in full in The Shirburn Ballads, ed. Andrew Clark (Oxford, 1907), with facsimile examples opposite pp. 236, 246 and 272. c.1609-16.
Inscribed (f. 59r) ‘Edwarde Hull’, possibly the main scribe of the MS. Also variously inscribed ‘Thomas Sturgies is the right Oner of this booke’ and the names of Edward Sturgis, Thomas Manton, Richard Manton, Richard Halford, William Halford, Dorothy Halford, William Wagstaffe and Thomas Wagstaffe. Later in the library of the Parker family, Earls of Macclesfield, at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire. Acquired 30 March 2007.
Clark, No. XXVIII (pp. 113-15).
DyE 44
Copy of the last stanza, untitled and here beginning ‘My wealth is health and pfect ease’.
In: A quarto composite volume of miscellaneous tracts, poems and other papers, in various hands, 329 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Fols 1r-82r comprise a separate collection of verse and some prose, possibly in a single predominantly secretary hand with some variants of style, the first leaf (f. 1) inscribed in another hand ‘Poems by Wm: Browne of the Inner-Temple Gent &c / 1650’, this possibly applying to the poems up to f. 62v, which is subscribed ‘ffinis W Browne’. c.1637-50.
This volume comprising Parts 1-3, 5, 8-13, of what was formerly a single composite volume but is now bound in three volumes.
Inscribed (f. 280v) ‘Philip Butler his book’.
DyE 45
Copy, in a musical setting, in the secretary hand of Thomas Fowke (name above), untitled.
In: A folio volume of music and verse, in several secretary and italic hands, 46 leaves (plus numerous blanks), in 19th-century half brown calf on marbled boards. Early 17th century.
Inscriptions including (f. 1v) ‘Richard Shinton his booke Witnis Thomas ffowke’; (f. 40r, in a court hand) ‘Thomas Shinton of Woluerhamt’; (f. 42v) ‘Richard Shinton this Booke did owe. And John Congreue the Same doth know / 1633’, ‘Richard Congreve’, ‘Jane Hart is my name’; and (f. 44v) ‘Martha Congreve’, and ‘Elizabeth Congreve Writ this’. Purchased from Thomas Rodd, bookseller, 13 April 1844.
DyE 46
Copies, of the incipit or first few lines only, in a musical setting.
In: A set of five oblong quarto partbooks of vocal and instrumental music, respectively Cantus, Altus, Tenor, Quintus, and Additional, in two or more neat secretary and italic hands, respectively 177, 183, 181, 170, and 172 leaves (plus blanks), each in contemporary calf with initials ‘I M’ stamped in gilt within modern half dark red morocco. Early 17th century.
Puttick and Simpson's, 25 June 1849, lot 599.
DyE 47
Copy of the incipit only, in a musical setting by William Byrd.
In: An oblong folio volume of musical works, the lyrics almost entirely in a single neat italic hand, with (ff. 1r-2r, 99r-v) a table of contents, 99 leaves, in contemporary brown calf, both covers stamped in gilt ‘Edwardvs Paston’. c.1611.
Sotheby's, 28 November 1882.
DyE 48
Copies of the first stanza (in i) and of the incipit only (in iii-iv), in a musical setting by William Byrd, untitled.
In: A set of four oblong quarto musical partbooks, for (i) Superius, (ii) Altus, (iii) Medius, and (iv) Bassus, (the second originally from another set, and lacking a fifth, Tenor part), largely in a single neat italic hand, repectively 66, 49, 62, and 63 leaves, each volume in contemporary blind-stamped calf within modern half red morocco. Early 17th century.
Inscribed (i, f. 63r, and elsewhere in ii and iv) ‘Sum è Libris Stephi Aldhouse de Maslaske [Norfolk] Annoque Dom 1669’. Puttick & Simpson's, 2 March 1866, lot 134.
British Library, Egerton MSS 2009-2012, (i, iii-iv) ff. 55v-6r.
DyE 49
Stanzas 5 and 7, beginning ‘Some haue too much yett still do craue’, added in MS in a secretary hand to the musical setting on sig. D 2v in a printed exemplum of William Byrd, Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of sadnes and pietie (London, 1588), a quarto in modern cloth. c.1588.
DyE 50
Copy, in double columns, untitled.
In: A folio miscellany of verse and prose, largely in a single secretary hand, i + 48 leaves, in a vellum wrapper bearing 15th- or 16th-century rubricated Latin text within modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. c.1590s.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 51
Copy, headed ‘True Content’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one rounded hand, with later additions in other hands, 169 pages, in a marbled wrapper. c.1710-30s.
Among papers of the Knatchbull family, Barons Brabourne, of Mersham-le-Hatch, Kent.
DyE 52
Copy of the opening stanzas, in a musical setting by William Byrd, untitled.
In: A folio volume of largely vocal music, mainly in a single secretary hand, 120 pages, in mottled calf. Early 17th century.
Complete facsimile in Jorgens, VI (1987).
Facsimile of this MS in DLB, vol. 172, Sixteenth-Century British Non-Dramatic Writers. Fourth Series, ed. David A. Richardson (Detroit, 1996), p. 22.
DyE 53
Copy, in a musical setting.
In: A set of five music part books, begun by Robert Dow. c.1580s-1600.
DyE 54
Copy, untitled.
In: A quarto miscellany of both bawdy and religious verse and some prose, in several hands, 94 leaves (including a number of blanks), in modern quarter-calf marbled boards. Mid-late 17th century.
Inscribed ‘Charles Shuttleworth His Booke Anno 1691’. Peter Murray Hill, London, sale catalogue No. 82 (1962), item 33.
DyE 55
Copy, headed ‘A sonet said to bee fyrst written by ye L ver.’ [i.e. by Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford].
In: A formal folio miscellany of verse and prose, in several neat secretary and italic hands, including pen-and-ink drawings, 127 leaves, in modern vellum boards. Entitled (f. 1r) in a secretary hand ‘A Book of the Coppies of Letters Libells & ovther In ventions of men, gatherid to gether, to none ovther ende, but to beholde the strainge mvtabilitye of Tyme A. B.’, and compiled by members of the Bateman family, including Antyne Bateman. c.1580s.
Sotheby's, 28 March 1906, and 31 January 1956, lot 408. Dobell's sale catalogue of Autograph Letters etc. No 10.
DyE 56
Copy, headed ‘In praise of a contented minde’. c.1600.
In: A folio composite volume of largely state and parliamentary papers, in several professional secretary hands, 202 leaves, in red morocco gilt. Including (f. 3r-v) Elizabethan verses inscribed ‘Thomas Aldwell me possidet’ and (ff. 4r-81r) a formulary of political and legal documents and precedents, in several hands, largely compiled by Francis Alford, MP (c.1530-92).
This MS text collated in Sargent. Part I edited from this MS in Steven W. May, ‘The Authorship of “My Mind to me a Kingdom is”’, RES, NS. 26 (1975), 385-94 (pp. 391-3); in May, ‘The Poems of Edward DeVere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford and of Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex’, Studies in Philology, 77, No. 5 (Early Winter 1980), as Poem II possibly by the Earl of Oxford; and in May, Courtier Poets, pp. 283-4 (among ‘Poems possibly by Oxford’).
DyE 57
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, on a single folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. Early 17th century.
In: A box of unbound and unnumbered legal and miscellaneous papers.
DyE 58
Copy, in a cursive secretary hand, untitled, on the first two pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves, endorsed ‘A Song’, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. c.1620s-30s.
In: the MS described under DyE 57.
DyE 59
Copy, untitled.
In: A folio verse miscellany, containing 89 poems, including 43 by Donne, in several hands (ff. 21r-62r in a single accomplished secretary hand), 69 leaves, in paper wrappers. The text of the poems by Donne derived from the same source as the Lansdowne MS (British Library, Lansdowne MS 740) and related in part to the Haslewood-Kingsborough MS II (Huntington, HM 198, Part II). c.1620-5.
Formerly among the muniments of the Earl of Dalhousie (descendant of the Maule and Ramsay families), of Brechin Castle, on deposit in the Scottish Record Office [now National Archives of Scotland] (GD45/26/95/1). Sotheby's, 20 July 1981, lot 490.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the the ‘Dalhousie MS I’: DnJ Δ 11. Complete reduced facsimile and transcription in The First and Second Dalhousie Manuscripts: Poems and Prose by John Donne and Others: A Facsimile Edition, ed. Ernest W. Sullivan, II (Columbia, 1988). Also discussed by Ernest W. Sullivan, II in ‘Donne Manuscripts: Dalhousie I’, John Donne Journal, 3/2 (1984), 204-19; in ‘“And, having done that, Thou hast done”: Locating, Acquiring, and Studying the Dalhousie Manuscripts’, in The Donne Dalhousie Discovery: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Acquisition and Study of the John Donne and Joseph Conrad Collections at Texas Tech University, ed. Ernest W. Sullivan II and David J. Murrah (Lubbock, TX, 1987), pp. 1-10; and in ‘The Renaissance Manuscript Verse Miscellany: Private Party, Private Text’, in New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, ed. W. Speed Hill (Binghamton, 1993), pp. 289-97.
Facsimiles of f. 15v in DLB, vol. 121, Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, First Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester (Detroit, 1992), p. 13, and of f. 42r in Sotheby's sale catalogue and in Peter Beal, A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450-2000 (Oxford, 2008), p. 431, Illus. 91. A complete microfilm of the MS is in the National Archives of Scotland.
Sullivan suggests that the miscellany derives from sources preserved by members of the Earl of Essex's circle, their most likely ‘conduit’ to the Dalhousie family being John Ramsay (1580-1626), Viscount Haddington and Earl of Holderness.
DyE 60
Copy in: MS.
Described in N&Q, March 1850, p. 355.
This MS collated (from the N&Q article) in Sargent.
DyE 61
Extract, inscribed in a folio printed exemplum of William Tyndale, The Whole Workes of W. Tyndall, John Frith, and Doct. Barnes, Three Worthy Martyrs (London, 1572), in contemporary calf. Early 17th century.
Bloomsbury Book Auctions, sale catalogue No. 563 (6 April 2006), lot 196.
DyE 62
Copy of eleven-stanza version, on two separate quarto leaves of verse paginated 45-48. Headed ‘A sweet & pleasant Sonnet, entituled, My Mind to me a Kingdom is. -- The Tune is, In Crete &c.’, subscribed in another hand ‘Harmony By Dr. Sartin’. Mid-18th century.
The Song in the Oak (‘The man whose thoughts against him doe conspire’)
First published in The Queenes Maiesties entertainment at Woodstocke (London, 1585), pp. C2-C3. Sargent, No. VI, p. 188. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 288-9. EV 23394.
Sonnet (‘Prometheus, when first from heuen hie’)
First published in The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia, 3rd edition (London, 1598). Sargent, No. I, p. 176. May, Courtier Poets, p. 302. EV 19124.
DyE 66
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis Mr Dier’.
In: the MS described under DyE 1. c.1586-91.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 67
Copy, here beginning ‘Prometheus first from heaven high’.
In: Copy of Arcadia, i + 247 folio leaves, imperfect, in 17th-century panelled calf (rebacked). Probably in three secretary hands: A, ff. 1r-183v, 197r to the bottom of f. 240v; B, ff. 184r-92v; C, ff. 193r-6v, bottom of f. 240v to 246r. c.1580s.
DyE 70
Copy in: Copy of Arcadia (the ‘Clifford MS’), in a single professional secretary hand, 229 folio leaves, in contemporary limp vellum. Late 16th century.
Inscribed (f. [iir]) ‘Arthur trogmorton’ and ‘Henry Clifford’. Hodgson's, 13 December 1906, to Dobell. Later owned by William Augustus White (1843-1927), American banker and collector. Acquired in 1940.
DyE 72
Copy, subscribed ‘E. D.’
In: An unbound sheaf of six folio leaves of poems, in a neat secretary hand, in double columns. Among papers of Adam Ottley (1685-1752), Registrar of the diocese of St David's, Wales, and formerly in Pitchford Hall, Shropshire. c.1580s.
This MS discussed. with facsimile examples, in Peter Beal, ‘Poems by Sir Philip Sidney: The Ottley Manuscript’, The Library, 5th Ser. 33 (1978), 284-95. See also correspondence with Jean Robertson in The Library, 6th Ser. (June 1980) and (June 1981).
National Library of Wales, Pitchford Hall (Ottley) English Literary MSS (uncatalogued), B B1, f. 3r.
‘The lowest trees haue topps, the ante her gall’
First published in A Poetical Rapsody (London, 1602). Sargent, No. XII, p. 197. May, Courtier Poets, p. 307. EV 23336.
DyE 73
Copy, headed ‘Cant 23’ and here beginning ‘The lowest shrubs haue topps, the ant her gall’.
In: A folio verse miscellany, ii + 65 leaves, in contemporary vellum. Entitled Miscentur seria iocis. 1647. Elegies, Exequies, Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs Satires and other Poems, a formal compilation entirely in the hand of the Yorkshire antiquary John Hopkinson (1610-80). 1647.
From the library of Cecil Brent, FSA. Sold by P.J. & A.E. Dobell, January 1938.
DyE 75
Copy, headed ‘A louers conceipt’.
In: A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, in three or more hands, probably compiled principally by a member of New College, Oxford, 163 pages, in calf-backed marbled boards. c.1620s-30s.
The name ‘George Brown’ inscribed on p. 14. Inscribed on p. i by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector ‘Feb 13. 1790. I this day purchased this Manuscript Collection of Poems, at the sale of Mr Brander's books, at the exorbitant price of Ten Guineas. EMalone’.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 76
Copy, subscribed ‘Incerto. Sir Edward DIER’.
In: the MS described under DyE 6. c.1590s.
Edited from this MS in Sargent.
DyE 77
Copy of the first stanza, headed ‘On the same’ [i.e. love] and here beginning ‘The lowest shrubs have tops, the Ant her gall’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, predominantly in a single hand, vi + 98 leaves, in calf. Probably compiled by a member of New College, Oxford. c.1630s.
Some tipped-in notes by Richard Rawlinson.
DyE 78
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘7o: Semp: 1618. / Smithshall / Verses given as I suppose by Mr Lea to Laut; intimating that secret loue speakes little’, with Powle's addition ‘but sithence I did vnderstande that they weare. Sr. W. Rawleighs verses to Queene Elisabeth,: in the beginninge of his fauoures’.
In: A folio compendium or entry book of state letters and other documents and memoranda, in various secretary and italic hands, 231 leaves (including numerous blanks), in modern half-calf. Compiled over a period, and partly written, by Sir Stephen Powle (c.1553-1630), Clerk of the Crown.
Edited from this MS in The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh: A Historical Edition, ed. Michael Rudick (Tempe, Arizona, 1999), No. 40, p. 110. Collated in Sargent.
DyE 79
Copy, headed ‘A Louer’.
In: A duodecimo verse miscellany, in generally small mixed hands, ii + 40 leaves, in 19th-century embossed black leather. c.1640s.
Later owned by Thomas Rodd (1796-1849), bookseller; by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector; and by the Rev. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), antiquary and book collector. Sotheby's, 21 August 1858 (Bliss sale), lot 190.
This MS text collated in Sargent.
DyE 80
Copy in: A tall folio volume, comprising a transcript of ‘Dr Harington's Manuscript No. 2’: i.e. of The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle, MSS (Special Press), Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz. (the ‘Arundel-Harington MS’). c.1810.
Owned by the Rev. George Frederick Nott (1767-1841), literary editor.
Typed and MS notes relating to this volume made in the 1920s by Professor Hyder Edward Rollins (1889-1958) are in Harvard MS Eng 1613.
This MS collated in Sargent.
DyE 82
Copy, with the stanzas reversed, here beginning ‘Where waters smoothest run...’.
In: the MS described under DyE 9. c.1596-1601.
This MS collated in Sargent.
DyE 84
Copy, headed in the margin ‘The effects of Loue’.
In: A quarto miscellany of verse and some prose, in at least seven secretary and italic hands, 118 leaves (plus some blanks), currently disbound. Possibly compiled by one or more persons connected with the Inns of Court. c.1600-1620s.
Later in the library of the Rev. Richard Farmer, FSA (1735-97), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, literary scholar. Lot 8055 in the sale of his library by Thomas King, 7 May to 16 June 1798. Probably owned afterwards by James Crossley (1800-83), author and book collector. Formerly Chetham's MS 8012.
The volume edited by Alexander B. Grosart as The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS. being a Commonplace Book in the Chetham Library, Manchester, temp. Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, Chetham Society, vols 89 and 90 (Manchester, 1873).
Grosart, I, 89. This MS collated (from Grosart's edition) in Sargent.
DyE 85
Copy, headed ‘A Louer’.
In: An octavo verse miscellany, compiled by an Oxford man, possibly a member of Christ Church, pp. 1-202 in a single minute hand, written over a period, with a few later additions (including two lines on p. 7) by other hands; pp. 202-19 containing entries in later hands up to 1789, in half-calf on marbled boards, pp. 77-84 detached in the 19th century and now separately bound as Folger MS V.a.152. Including twelve poems (plus one of uncertain authorship) by Corbett and 30 poems by Strode (one of them in V.a.152) plus one of doubtful authorship. c.late 1630s [-1789].
Later sold by Thomas Thorpe. Afterwards owned by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89) (and No. 27 in his Catalogue of Shakespeare Reliques (Brixton Hill, 1852)) and subsequently in the library of Lord Warwick at Warwick Castle. Formerly Folger MS 1.27.
Cited in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Thorpe-Halliwell MS’: CoR Δ 7 and StW Δ 17. Complete microfilm at the University of Birmingham, Shakespeare Institute (Mic S 23).
DyE 86
Copy, headed ‘A Louers conceipt’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany (originally in two separate volumes), including eleven poems by Donne, chiefly in two hands, probably associated with the University of Oxford, 98 leaves, one of the original vellum covers now incorporated in modern red morocco. Mid-17th century.
Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Stephen Wellden’ and ‘Abraham Bassano’ and (f. 98r) ‘Elizabeth Weldon’. Later owned by William John Thoms (1803-85), writer, antiquary and librarian. Sotheby's, 11 February 1887 (Thoms sale), lot 1092. Also owned by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89). Formerly Folger MS 452.4.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the ‘Welden MS’: DnJ Δ 49.
DyE 87
Copy in: An octavo miscellany of verse and prose, closely written in possibly several minute predominantly secretary hands, 291 leaves (ff. 212-16 bound out of order after f. 24), in modern calf. c.1640s.
Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Joseph Hall’ (not the bishop). Later owned by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger, who has entered in pseudo-17th-century secretary script copies of various ballads on ff. 39r-41r, 107v-79r, 181r-v, 227r-8v, 243r-6r, as well as adding foliation (1-284) before the more recent foliation (1-291, used below). Quaritch's sale catalogue ‘of English Literature’ (August-November 1884), item 22350, Collier's transcript of the MS made c.1860 being item 22352. Formerly Folger MS 2071.7.
Discussed, with facsimile examples, in Giles E. Dawson, ‘John Payne Collier's Great Forgery’, SB, 24 (1971), 1-26.
DyE 88
Copy of an 18-line version, headed ‘A lovers conceipt’.
In: An octavo verse miscellany, predominantly in two very small hands (A: ff. 1r-44v; B: ff. 44v-87v), with further verse and prose pieces in other hands on ff. 88r-121r, written from both ends, associated with Oxford, possibly New College, and probably afterwards with the Inns of Court, 155 leaves (including 33 blanks), in modern black morocco elaborately gilt. Including 23 poems by Strode (and second copies of two poems) and one poem of doubtful authorship. c.1630s.
Including (ff. 98r-100r) a letter by one ‘Pet[er] Wood’. Inscribed (ff. 90r-1r), ‘Thease verses I borroed to write out of John Sherly [d. 1666] a booke seller in litle Brittaine, 28th of March 1633’. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9235. Sotheby's, 21 February 1938, lot 243.
Cited in IELM II.ii (1993), as the ‘Wood MS’: StW Δ 21. Discussed in C.F. Main, ‘New Texts of John Donne’, SB, 9 (1957), 225-33.
DyE 90
Copy in: the MS described under DyE 25. Mid-late 16th century.
The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle, MSS (Special Press), ‘Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz.’, f. 144v.
DyE 91
Copy in: An octavo verse miscellany, in various hands, including seventeen poems by Carew, a title-page inscribed ‘A book of Verses / Seria mixta Jocis’, c.260 pages, in calf blind-stamped ‘V/I F 1667’. References to ‘Westminster Drollerie’ (which was not published until 1671) added on pp. 1 and 242. c.1667-8.
Inscribed on the title-page ‘Frendraught Legi’: i.e. by James Crichton (d.1674/5), second Viscount Frendraught. Bookplate of Thomas Fraser Duff (1830-77), of Woodcote, Oxfordshire. Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 9 April 1987, lot 272 (with a facsimile of p. 131 in the sale catalogue), sold to Quaritch.
DyE 92
Copy, untitled, here beginning ‘The smallest trees haue topps ye Ant her gall’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, 180 pages, in three secretary hands, in contemporary limp vellum. Probably compiled by a member of an Inn of Court. c.1630.
Bookplate of William Horatio Crawford, of Lakelands, Cork, book collector. Formerly Rosenbach 186.
DyE 93
Copy, headed ‘Loue’, here beginning ‘The lowest shrubs haue tops, ye Ant her gall’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, including fifteen poems by Donne, with a title-page ‘Miscellanies Or A Collection of Diuers Witty and pleasant Epigrams, Adages, poems Epitaphes &c for the recreation of ye ouertravelled sences: 1630 Robert Bishop’, in a single mixed hand, probably associated with the University of Oxford, 306 pages, in old calf. c.1630.
Owned and probably compiled by Robert Bishop. Later owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9549. A.S.W. Rosenbach's sale catalogue, English Poetry to 1700 (1941), item 187.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the ‘Bishop MS’: DnJ Δ 59. Edited in David Coleman Redding, Robert Bishop's Commonplace-Book: An Edition of a Seventeenth Century Miscellany (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1960) [Mic 60-3608].
DyE 94
Copy, headed ‘The Generality of Love’ and here beginning ‘The smallest Trees have tops ye Ante her gall’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, in several hands (one predominating up to p. 167), probably associated with Oxford, 436 pages (pp. 198-9 and 269-70 skipped in the pagination, and including many blanks and an index) and numerous further blank leaves at the end, in modern black morocco gilt. Including 14 poems by Carew, 13 poems by Corbett and 25 poems (plus one poem of doubtful authorship) by Strode. c.1650.
Scribbling on the first page including the words ‘Peyton Chester…’.
Cited in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Osborn MS I’: CwT Δ 38; CoR Δ 14; StW Δ 29.
DyE 95
Copy, headed ‘On few words’ and here beginning ‘The lowest shrubs haue tops ye ant her gall’.
In: A sextodecimo verse miscellany, written from both ends in several hands (two principal ones on ff. 6r-40r, 41r et seq. respectively), 102 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf, with remains of metal clasps. Including 45 poems by Strode and three poems of doubtful authorship. c.1630s.
Formerly Box 22, item II.
Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993) as the ‘Osborn MS II’: StW Δ 30.
‘Oh that most rare brest, chrystalin syncere’
First published in William Byrd, Psalmes, Sonets & Songs (London, 1588). May, Courtier Poets, p. 311. EV 17616.
DyE 96
Copy of the incipit, in a musical setting by William Byrd.
In: the MS described under DyE 38. c.1570s-80s.
DyE 97
Copies, in a musical setting by William Byrd, the full text in the first MS, incipits only in the rest.
In: the MS described under DyE 53. c.1580s-1600.
Edited from the first MS in May, Courtier Poets.
‘Wher one woulde be ther not to be’
First published in Sargent (1935). Sargent, No. VIII, p. 190. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 296-7. EV 30272.
DyE 98
Copy, subscribed ‘finis Dier’.
In: the MS described under DyE 11. c.1590-1600s.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.
Books and Manuscripts Owned by Dyer
Dee, John. General and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation (London, 1577)
DyE 99
Dyer's exemplum of the volume, the binding with a central gilt medallion lettered ‘To the R. W. M. Edw. Dyer Esquyer 1577’. Dyer, a friend of Dee and who may have paid for the printing of this book, is praised in Dee's dedicatory verses. 1577.
Inscribed on a flyleaf ‘Marmaduke Harte’. Bookplate of John Fane, eleventh Earl of Westmorland, 1856. Bernard Quaritch, sale catalogue no. 83 (1887), item 1037. Later owned by John Scott (d.1903). Bookplate of the Scott Library, Institution of Naval Architects, 1930. Christie's, 4 December 1974, lot 131.
Recorded in R.J. Roberts, ‘John Dee's Corrections to His “Art of Navigation”’, The Book Collector, 24/1 (Spring 1975), 70-5.
Florio, John. ‘Giardino di recreatione’
See British Library, Add. MS 15214.
Fraunce, Abraham. ‘The Sheapheards Logike...Together with twooe general discourses, the one touchinge the prayse and ryghte vse of Logike, the other concernynge the comparison of Ramus his Logike with that of Aristotle’
See British Library, Add. MS 34361 (FrA 2, FrA 4, FrA 5).