Verse
On the Marriage of the Prince and Princess of Orange (‘Hail happy Warrior! whose Arms have won’)
See LeN 1-6.
Song (‘You told me you lou'd me’)
A song of two ten-line strophes, which might conceivably be one of Lee's incidental compositions, or perhaps a song introduced in a production of one of his plays. Unpublished.
LeN 0.5
Copy, headed ‘Song by Mr Lee’.
In: A long, narrow, ledger-size composite miscellany of poems on affairs of state, 112 pages (some misnumbered and pp. 45-6 excised), in 19th-century calf gilt. A compendium of several separate collections of poems, each with its general heading, including nineteen poems by the Earl of Rochester, copied in a single hand, that of Robert Mylne (1643?-1747), antiquary. c.1680s-1700s.
Recorded and selectively collated in Vieth and in Walker. Recorded in IELM, II.ii as the Edinburgh MS: RoJ Δ 6.
To the Prince and Princess of Orange, upon Their Marriage (‘Hail, happy Warriour! hail! whose Arms have won’)
First published, possibly as a broadside, 1677 [no exemplum known]. 85-line version in Examen Poeticum: being the Third Part of Miscellany Poems (London, 1693), pp. 168-74. Stroup & Cooke, II, 553-4. Earlier, 65-line version, headed ‘On the Marriage of the Prince and Princess of Orange’ and beginning ‘Hail happy Warrior! whose Arms have won’, published in Poems on Affairs of State, Vol. III (London, 1704). Stroup & Cooke, II, 555-6.
LeN 1
Copy of the 65-line version, headed ‘On ye Marriage of the Prince & Princess of Orange’ and beginning ‘Hail happy Warrior Whose arms have Won’.
In: A folio volume of chiefly poems and prose on affairs of state, in several hands, one predominating, 165 leaves, in old reversed calf. Compiled by John Greene, of King's Lynn, Norfolk (probably the John Greene who was Mayor there in 1709). c.1720.
Sotheby's, 23 December 1958, lot 224.
LeN 2
Copy of the 85-line version, headed ‘On the Prince and Pricess of Orange’ and beginning ‘Haile happy Warriour whose Armes have won’.
In: A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, 151 pages (plus 128 blank pages), with a table of contents (f. 1*r), in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. End of 17th century.
LeN 3
Copy of the 85-line version, headed ‘To the prince & princess of Orange upon their Marriage by Mr: Nat Lee’ and beginning ‘Hail, happy Warriour! hail! Those Arms have won’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one hand, with additions by others, written from both ends, material at the reverse end dated 1708-9, ii + 114 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf. Inscribed (f. [iir]), probably by the compiler, ‘Ex Libris Georgij Wright [b.1685/6] Sti Johannis Collegis Cantabrigiensis Alumni, Decimo quarto Junij. Annoq. Domini 1703’. c.1703-9.
Also inscribed (f.[iir]) ‘Mrs Frances Wright 1708’. A postal address on f. 95r (rev.) reads: ‘Direct to Margtt Borrett att Mrs. Borretts In Kirkby=stephen Westmoorland p brough bag _ These’.
Recorded in IELM, II.ii, as the Wright MS: WaE Δ 12.
LeN 4
Copy of the 85-line version, headed ‘To the Prince and Princess of orrange’ and beginning ‘Hail happy Warriour! whose Armes haue won’.
In: A folio miscellany of poems chiefly on affairs of state, entitled A Collection of Poems, including 27 poems by Rochester (all ascribed to him), xii + 299 pages (plus a number of blanks), including a table of contents, in contemporary calf (rebacked). In a single professional hand but for a few later additions at the very end (pp. 295-8, with some pages tipped-in). c.1690s.
Recorded in IELM, II.ii as the Harvard MS: RoJ Δ 7.
LeN 5
Copy of the 85-line version, headed ‘To ye Pr: & Princess of Orange. By Mr N: Lee’ and beginning ‘Hail happy warior, hail whose Arms have won’.
In: A formal folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, including eleven by Rochester and Sodom, as well as apocryphal items, probably in a single professional hand, 444 leaves (including a six-leaf index). c.1690s.
Cited in IELM, II.ii as the Vienna MS: RoJ Δ 12. Discussed in Rudolf Brotanek, ‘Beschreibung der Handschrift 14090 (Supplement 1776) der Nationalbibliothek in Wien’, in Festschrift der Nationalbibliothek in Wien (Vienna, 1926), 145-62. Recorded and selectively collated in Vieth and in Walker.
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 14090, ff. 91v-3r.
LeN 6
Copy of the 85-line version, headed ‘To the Prince and Princesse of Orange. By Mr Nat: Lee’ and beginning ‘Hail happy Warriour! Hail! whose Armes have won’.
In: A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, in two volumes: Vol. I, including twelve poems by Rochester and Sodom, as well as apocryphal item, spp. 1-461 (plus index); Vol. II, pp. 462-842 (with irregularities of pagination). This MS is closely related to Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 14090. c.1690s-1700.
Later owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor, who records that £50 ‘was given by Perry, for these 2 volumes’.
Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as the Dyce MS: RoJ Δ 15.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Dyce MS 43 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.37-38), pp. 168-71.
Dramatic Works
Caesar Borgia. Son of Pope Alexander the Sixth, Act IV, scene i, lines 1-12. Song (‘Blush not redder than the Morning’)
First published in London, 1680. Stroup & Cooke, II, 65-145 (p. 117). Musical setting of the epithalamium by Thomas Farmer first published in Choice Ayres and Songs…The Third Book (London, 1681).
LeN 7
Copy of the Epithalamium to Borgia and Bellamira, headed ‘Song in Cæsar Borgia’.
In: A small quarto miscellany of chiefly Restoration songs and ballads, many from plays, in one or more small hands, 48 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary brown calf. Folios 1r-32r copied c.1686-8 in a single hand; ff. 33v-48r copied c.1688-94 in four other hands. c.1686-94.
Later owned by Sir Francis Freeling, first Baronet (1764-1836), postal administrator and book collector. Evans (Sotheby's), 25 November 1836 (Freeling sale), lot 1156. Acquired from Leo S. Olschki, 6 November 1986.
LeN 8
Copy, untitled.
In: A folio formal verse miscellany, comprising c.406 poems, many of them song lyrics, in various neat hands, compiled probably over a period, 8 blank leaves (pp. [i-xvi]) + 10 unnumbered pages of poems (pp. [xvii-xxvi]) + 9 numbered pages (pp. 1-9) + ff. [9v]-151v + 12 leaves at the end blank but for a poem on the penultimate page (f. [11v]), in contemporary calf gilt. Once erroneously associated with Thomas Killigrew (1612-83), whose hand does not appear in the volume. Mid-17th century-c.1702.
Inscribed (f. [ir]) ‘Sr Robert Killigrew / 1702’. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9070. Sotheby's, 19 May 1897, lot 455.
Discussed, with a facsimile example, in Nancy Cutbirth, ‘Thomas Killigrew's Commonplace Book?’, Library Chronicle of the University of Texas at Austin, NS No. 13 (1980), 31-8.
University of Texas at Austin, Ms (Killigrew, T) Works B Commonplace book, p. [xxiv].
The Duke of Guise
Written by Lee and Dryden.
See DrJ 259.4-249.7.
The Massacre of Paris, Act V, scene i, lines 17-29. Song (‘Thy Genius, lo, from the sweet Bed of rest’)
First published in London, 1690. Stroup & Cooke, II, 1-63 (p. 48). Musical setting by Henry Purcell published in A Collection of Songs Set to Musick by Mr. Henry Purcell & Mr. John Eccles (London, 1696). The song published separately [1697?] (Wing L881).
LeN 9
Copy of Genius's song, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, headed ‘A Song in ye Play calld ye Massacre in Paris’.
In: A folio songbook, largely in one hand, written from both ends, vi + 241 pages including blanks(Part I: pp. 1-207; Part II: pp. 1-34), in contemporary panelled calf gilt (rebacked). Early 18th century.
Inscribed (Part I, p. [iii]) ‘Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini April 8th 1721’; ‘John Ladds Book October the 9 in the year of our Lord 1764’; and (Part II, p. 2) ‘Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini 1717 November Undecimo Die’; ‘Thomas Lea Southgate, Gipsy Hill, Kent’; and ‘Johannes Gilbert A. M. Coll. Christ. Cantab.’ Puttick & Simpson's, 1890. Formerly Folger MS 1634.4.
Mithridates King of Pontus
First published in London, 1678. Stroup & Cooke, I, 285-365.
LeN 10
Copy, transcribed from a printed source and prepared as an acting version at one of the English Roman Catholic colleges in Douai.
In: MS volume of plays, used for amateur staging by one of the English colleges in Douai. 1694/5.
This MS discussed in A.L. McLeod, ‘The Douai MS. of Lee's “Mithridates”’, N&Q, 205 (February 1960), 69-70, and in Ann-Mari Hedbäck, ‘The Douai Manuscript Reexamined’, PBSA, 73 (1979), 1-18.
Bibliothèque Municipale, Douai, France, MS 787, ff. 210r-51r.
Oedipus
By Nathaniel Lee and John Dryden. First published in London, 1679. Stroup & Cooke, I, 367-449. California edition of Dryden's works, XIII (1962), 114-215.
LeN 10.3
Comments on the play.
In: A folio miscellany, owned and probably compiled by one ‘P. D’, 123 leaves, the first entry dated ‘Ap. 18. 1687’. 1687-9.
Discussed, with extracts, in G. Blakemore Evans, ‘A Seventeenth-Century Reader of Shakespeare’, RES, 21 (1945), 271-9.
Quoted in Blakemore Evans, p. 278.
LeN 10.5
Extracts.
In: An octavo compilation of extracts from plays and poems, in a single italic hand, written on rectos only from both ends (the two sections, 48 leaves each, virtually identical), 96 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf, remains of clasps. Late 17th century.
Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.
LeN 10.8
Extract, six lines beginning ‘To you Good Gods, I make my last Appeal’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, in a single possibly female hand, 36 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Mid-18th century.
Inscribed (f. 36r) ‘M Lowthers Jun:’, by a member of the Lowther family, Baronets and later Earls of Lonsdale.
This MS recorded in California, XIII, 584.
The Princess of Cleve, I, i, 4-15. Song (‘All other Blessings are but Toyes’)
First published in London, 1689. Stroup & Cooke, II, 147-227 (p. 157). Musical setting of the song by William Turner first published in Choice Ayres and Songs…The Fourth Book (London, 1683).
The Rival Queens: or, The Death of Alexander the Great
First published in London, 1677. Stroup & Cooke, I, 211-83.
LeN 11.6
Extracts.
In: A quarto commonplace book of extracts illustrating specified topics, largely in a single cursive hand, entitled Miscellanea Tragica Theatrical Index of Sentimts. & Descriptions Vol. 7, 244 pages (including blanks, plus a seven-page index and further blanks), in quarter crushed morocco on marbled boards. Inscribed ‘W. Harte 1726’: i.e. by Walter Harte (1709-41), compiler of the MS, which also has his bookplate. c.1726.
LeN 11.8
Copy of Roxana's speech, beginning ‘Away, begone and give a Whirlewind room’, headed ‘A Description of passion in its purity without mixture of Reason from Nath: Lees Alexander’. c.1730.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, in possibly one neat rounded hand, entitled ‘A Collection of Miscellany Poems on Different Subjects To which is subjond pastorals by Mr Philips 1730’, ii + 37 leaves, in half-calf marbled boards. 1730.
LeN 11.9
Extract.
In: A quarto account book of George Downing relating to legal matters, subsequenty used as a commonplace book by a member of the Willes or Lovell families, 80 pages. 1785-9 [-c.1800].
LeN 12
Copy of a musical score for an ‘operatic’ version of the play, Acts II-V, the music by Daniel Purcell (c1670-1717) and Gottfried Finger (c.1655-1730), headed ‘The Musick In the Opera of the Rivall Queens’.
The music is chiefly incidental music, songs or choruses near the beginning or end of the four last acts; the libretto is partly Lee's original verses, partly new verses (by the politician Anthony Henley (d.1711), according to John Le Neve in 1713). c.1695-1701.
In: A large folio composite volume of English operas. c.1695-1701.
This version discussed in Peter Beal, The Fortunes of Alexander: A Stage History of Nat Lee's ‘The Rival Queens: or, The Death of Alexander the Great’ (unpub. Ph.D. diss., 4 vols, University of Leeds, 1973), I, 314-31; IV, Addenda, p. i.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, MU MS 87, pp. 99-165 (ff. 45v-77r).
—— Act V, scene i, lines 1-20. Song (‘Is Innocence so void of cares’)
The song published, in Daniel Purcell's setting and as ‘Sung by Mr Pate’, in A Collection of the Choicest Songs & Dialogues Composd by the Most Eminent Masters of the Age (London, [1715?]), pp. 86-7. Stroup & Cooke, I, 272.
LeN 13
Copy of the song by the Spirits of Queen Statira and Darius at the opening of the last act, untitled.
In: A quarto miscellany of verse, mathematical exercises, religious texts, and musical scores, written from both ends in various hands, unpaginated, mostly blank pages, in contemporary calf gilt. c.1713.
Owned in 1713 by one Millicent Rasby, whose name occurs repeatedly. Among the papers of the Elmhirst family of Houndhill, Worsbrough Bridge, Yorkshire.
Sophonisba
First published in London, 1675. Stroup & Cooke, I, 73-144.
LeN 13.5
Extract from Act I, headed ‘The interview of Hannibal and Scipio’ and beginning ‘Han. Are you the cheif whom men fam'd Scipio call...’.
In: A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, predominantly in a single non-professional hand, iv + 214 pages, in contemporary calf. Inscribed (p. 211) ‘I ended this book Novr. 13th 1723’. c.1723.
Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt 15, pp. 88-91.
Theodosius: or, The Force of Love
First published, with some of Henry Purcell's music as an appendix, in London, 1680. Stroup & Cooke, II, 229-314.
LeN 14
Copy of the opening chorus (I, i, 1-5: ‘Prepare, prepare! the Rites begin’) and the Priests' chorus (I, i, 321;70: ‘Canst thou, Marina, leave the World’), in musical settings by Purcell.
In: A folio volume of songs and musical works, chiefly by Henry Purcell, 49 leaves. End of 17th century.
LeN 14.5
MS, described as ‘a play “The Force of Love”, with the actors in the original cast’, with ‘corrections and authority’ by Charles Killigrew (1655-1724/5), Master of the Revels. c.1680.
Later owned by S. George Christison. Puttick & Simpson's, 19 December 1850, lot 316, to Oliver.
—— Song after the First Act (‘Now, now the Fight's done, and the great God of War’)
Stroup & Cooke, II, 251.
LeN 15
Copy of the song, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell.
In: An oblong quarto music book, 39 leaves. Used apparently from 1673 by one Elizabeth Henthorne, who ‘Aprell the 9: 1700: began to learn the flute’. c.1670s-80s.
—— Act III, scene ii, lines 1-20. Song. (‘O, Chrysostom! look down and see’)
Stroup & Cooke, II, 267-8.
LeN 16
Copy of the Votaries' chorus.
In: A folio verse miscellany, in vellum. Late 17th century?
Inscribed on the front cover ‘William Turner his booke, 1662’ and, on the rear paste-down ‘Catherine Gage's Booke’: i.e. Catherine Gage, Lady Aston (d.1720). Formerly among the papers of the Aston family, of Tixall, Staffordshire.
Poems selectively edited from this MS (as his ‘Third Division: Poems Collected by the Right Honourable Lady Aston’) in Arthur Clifford, Tixall Poetry (Edinburgh, 1813), pp. 107-205.
Edited from this MS, as ‘The Royal Nun’, in Arthur Clifford, Tixall Poetry (Edinburgh, 1813), pp. 166-8.
Untraced Tixal MSS, Tixall MS 3, [unspecified page numbers].
—— Song [after the Third Act] (‘Hail to the Mirtle Shade’)
Published separately, as ‘Love's boundless Power, or The Charmed Lovers' Happiness Compleated’, [in London], 1680 (only known exemplum in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres). Stroup & Cooke, II, 276-7 (with Purcell's setting, II, 311-12).
LeN 17
Copy in: A quarto miscellany of chiefly amatory verse, in several hands, i + 132 leaves. Partly in Scottish dialect, one poem by ‘mr. W. Turner’. Early 18th century.
LeN 18
Copy in: the MS described under LeN 0.5. c.1680s-1700s.
LeN 18.5
Copy, headed ‘A Song’.
In: An octavo verse miscellany, predominantly in a single hand, written from both ends, the contents collected over a period but not entered in chronological order, 171 leaves, in contemporary panelled calf. Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Benj: Coles At Great Forster's. near Egham. In Surrey. owns this book MDCCXXXII’ and the miscellany evidently compiled by Coles. A similar inscription on f. 31r rev. dated ‘3d. Jany 1740/1’. c.1729-41.
Inscribed (f. iiv) ‘purchased by R Brown, for a valuable consideration of Benjamin Coles Anno 1754. August 8th’. Later owned by James Langlands and, in 1965, by Mrs V.J. Dawson, of Southan, Gloucestershire.
Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt. 24, f. 1r-v rev.
—— V, i, 31-57. Song after the Fourth Act (‘Ah Cruel bloody Fate’)
Published separately, as ‘The True Lovers' Tragedy’, [in London], 1680. Stroup & Cooke, II, 295 (with Purcell's setting, II, 313-14).
LeN 19
Copy of the song, headed ‘A ballitt Song's’.
In: the MS described under LeN 17. Early 18th century.
LeN 20
Copy of the song, headed ‘A song. 1680’ and with an additional stanza.
In: A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, with a title-page, 385 pages numbered 858-1243 (pp. 914-29, 966-7, 981-2, 995-6, 1023-4, 1041-2, 1083-4, 1135-6, and 1173-6 excised), in 17th-century calf. In non-professional hands, the miscellany entitled A Collection of Witt and Learning…consisting of verses, poems, songs, sonnetts, Ballads, Lampoons, Libells, Dialouges...from the year 1600, to this present year: 1677. c.1681.
Formerly Osborn MS Chest II, Number 14.
Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Lee
Extracts
LeN 21
Extracts from works by Lee, chiefly The Rival Queens.
In: the MS described under LeN 3. c.1703-9.
Edinburgh University Library, MS Dc. 3. 76, ff. 60v-1v, 70v.