Verse
Petition to King James (‘A harmless game raised merely for delight’)
First published in Edward Capell, The School of Shakespeare, III (London, [1780]), p. 31. Bullen, I, lxxxiii. A Game at Chesse, ed. R.C. Bald (Cambridge, 1929), p. 166. Oxford Middleton, p. 1895.
MiT 1
Copy, here beginning ‘A hormless game: royd only for delight’ and preceded by a note on the success and suppression of A Game at Chess, inscribed in an exemplum of the first printed edition of that play. c.1625?
Edited from this MS in Capell, and, with a facsimile, in Samuel A. Tannenbaum, ‘“A Middleton Forgery”’, PQ, 12 (1933), 33-6. Tannenbaum considered this MS a forgery (perhaps by George Steevens), but see Bernard M. Wagner, ‘“A Middleton Forgery”’, PQ, 14 (1935), 287-8.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Dyce 6561 (No. 1) (Pressmark Dyce 25.D.42).
MiT 2
Copy, headed ‘On the author of the play called ye game at chesse’.
In: An octavo verse miscellany compiled by an Oxford University man, i i + 37 leaves, in later half-calf. c.1630s.
Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.
This MS collated in Wagner, PQ, 14 (1935), 288.
MiT 3
Copy, headed ‘The petition of poet Midleton Author of ye Game at Chess, to King Iames’.
In: A folio composite volume of verse, in various hands, i + 250 leaves. Collected by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729). Some pages in the hand of Richard Rawlinson.
Edited from this MS in Wagner, PQ, 14 (1935), 288. Facsimile in Oxford Middleton, p. 1895.
MiT 4
Copy of an eight-line version, headed ‘Verses sent to King James’, subscribed ‘T. M’.
In: A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, chiefly in one mixed hand, 77 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Compiled by Sir Thomas Dawes (knighted 1639). c.1623-30.
Purchased on 4 July 1873 from William Carew Hazlitt (1834-1913), bibliographer and writer.
Edited from this MS in Geoffrey Bullough, ‘“The Game at Chesse”: How it Struck a Contemporary’, MLR, 49 (1954), 156-63 (p. 163); in A Game at Chess, ed. J.W. Harper (London, 1966), p. xvii; and in Oxford Middleton, with a facsimile on p. 1895.
MiT 4.5
Copy of an eight-line version, headed ‘to ye Kinge / Middletons Verses who was comitted to ye Fleet for ye play called the ‘Game at chess’’.
In: A small quarto verse miscellany, including some thirty poems by Donne, in several hands, associated with the Inns of Court, with a 19th-century title-page, ‘A Collection of Original Poetry, written about the time of Ben: Johnson, qui ob. 1637’ and erroneously annotated ‘Chiefly in the Autograph of Dr. Donne Dean of St. Paul's’.67 pages (plus index). c.1614-25.
Later owned by Sir John Simeon, third Baronet, MP (1815-70); by Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-85), first Baron Houghton, author and politician, and by his son, Robert Offley Ashburton Milnes, afterwards Crewe-Milnes (1858-1945), first Marquess of Crewe, politician. Sotheby's, 22 July 1980, lot 585, to Quaritch.
Recorded in IELM, I.i (1980), as the ‘Monckton Milnes MS’: DnJ Δ 63. Briefly discussed in Sir John Simeon, ‘Unpublished Poems of Donne’, Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society, 3 (London, 1856-7), No. 3, and, with selected collations, in Grierson (II, cix et passim). A complete set of photographs of the MS is in the British Library, RP 2031.
On the death of that great master in his art and quality, painting and playing, R[ichard] Burbage (‘Astronomers and star-gazers this year’)
First published in John Payne Collier, New Facts regarding the Life of Shakespeare (London, 1835), p. 26. Bullen, VII, 413. Oxford Middleton, p. 1889.
MiT 5
Copy, subscribed ‘Tho: Middleton’.
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].
Edited from this MS in Collier, and in Oxford Middleton, with a facsimile, p. 1889.
To the worthily accomplished Master William Hammond (‘This--which nor stage nor stationer's stall can show’)
Oxford Middleton, p. 1896.
See MiT 16.
Dramatic works
Blurt, Master-Constable
First published in London, 1602. Bullen, I, 1-98. This play is not now generally attributed to Middleton.
MiT 6
Exemplum of the first edition (1602) with the text of the missing leaves H2 and H3 supplied in MS, probably transcribed from a promptbook, a quarto in vellum boards gilt. In the secretary hand of a professional scribe associated with the playhouse and also responsible for ChG 12.5, HyT 5, and a verse miscellany in the British Library, Add. MS 33998. c.1620s-30s.
From the library of the Mostyn family, at Mostyn Hall, near Holywell, Flintshire.
This MS discussed, with a facsimile, in James G. McManaway, ‘Latin Title-Page Mottoes as a Clue to Dramatic Authorship’, The Library, 4th Ser. 26 (1945-6), 28-36, reprinted in McManaway, Studies in Shakespeare, Bibliography, and Theater (New York, 1969), 55-66.
MiT 7
Extracts.
In: The greater part of a quarto commonplace book of extracts, compiled by Edward Pudsey (1573-1613), iii + 104 leaves, in 19th-century green morocco gilt. Four leaves of this commonplace book are in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21. c.1604-9.
Owned in 1615-16 by one ‘Bassett’ and in the 1880s by Richard Savage. At the Neligan sale, 2 August 1888, lot 1098. Bought by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), and his sale 4 July 1889, lot 1257.
All the Shakespearian texts except Othello were edited from this MS in Richard Savage's Shakespearean Extracts (1887). The MS also edited in Juliet Mary Gowan, An Edition of Edward Pudsey's Commonplace Book (c.1600-1615) (unpublished M. Phil., University of London, 1967). It was then found that the miscellany lacked several of its original leaves, including extracts from six plays by Shakespeare. These leaves were rediscovered in 1977 among Savage's papers at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21, and the Othello extracts identified by Gowan. The MS also discussed in J. Rees, ‘Shakespeare and “Edward Pudsey's Booke”, 1600’, N&Q, 237 (September 1992), 330-1, and in Fred Schurink, ‘Manuscript Commonplace Books, Literature, and Reading in Early Modern England’, HLQ, 73/3 (2010), 453-69 (pp. 465-9), with a facsimile of f. 31r on p. 467.
This MS discussed in Juliet Gowan, ‘Edward Pudsey's Booke and the Authorship of Blurt Master Constable’, RORD, 8 (1965), 46-8 (where Dekker's authorship of the play is argued).
—— I, ii, 209-16. Song (‘What meat eats the Spaniard?’)
Bullen, I, 24.
MiT 8
Copies of the incipit only, in a musical setting, untitled.
In: A set of six oblong quarto part-books of principally vocal music, largely in a single italic hand, each volume in modern half-morocco. Early 17th century.
Edited from these MSS in Andrew J. Sabol, ‘Two Songs with Accompaniment for an Elizabethan Choirboy Play’, SR, 5 (1958), 149-59.
British Library, Add. MS 17786-91, (i, ii, iii, iv, vi) f. 13v; (v), f. 9v.
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, IV, i, 162-72, 174-9. Song (‘Cupid is Venus' only joy’)
First published in London, 1630. Bullen, V, 1-115 (pp. 80-1). Edited by R.B. Parker (London, 1969), (pp. 84-5). Oxford Middleton, pp. 912-58 (p. 943). An eleven-line version of lines 1-9 of this song occurs in More Dissemblers besides Women (I, iv, 89-99).
MiT 9
Copy of the Welshwoman's song, in a musical setting, untitled.
In: An oblong folio songbook, the lyrics in two or more secretary and italic hands, 44 leaves, in contemporary vellum within brown calf gilt, stamped with the initials ‘A. B.’, now within modern half red morocco. c.1630.
Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Richard Elliotts his Booke’ and ‘William Wilkins 1743’. The cover initials ‘A. B.’ conjecturally attributed to Adrian Batten (1591-1637), composer. Puttick & Simpson's, 30 June 1873.
Facsimile of ff. 2r-26v in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 1 (New York & London, 1986).
This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 144-6. See also Cutts, ‘The Music for A Chaste Maid in Cheapside’, Appendix II in Parker, pp. 84-5, 128-37.
MiT 10
Copy, in a musical setting.
In: A folio songbook, largely in a single secretary hand, with poems and (reversed) culinary and medical receipts in later hands at the end, imperfect or incomplete, now 27 leaves, lacking half the songs listed in a ‘Table’ at the end. c.1620s-30s.
The original cover inscribed ‘Ann Twice her booke’. Inscribed on the first page ‘My Cosen Twice Leftte this Booke with me...which is to be returne to her AGhaine...’. Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author.
A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, ‘“Songs Vnto the Violl and Lute” -- Drexel Ms. 4175’, Musica Disciplina, 16 (1962), 73-92.
This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 144-6, and in Parker, pp. 84-5, 128-37.
New York Public Library, Music Division, Drexel MS 4175, No. xxiiii.
MiT 11
Copy, in a musical setting.
In: the MS described under MiT 10. c.1620s-30s.
This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 144-6, and in Parker, pp. 84-5, 128-37.
New York Public Library, Music Division, Drexel MS 4175, No. lvi.
A Fair Quarrel
First published, as written by Middleton and William Rowley, in London, 1617. Bullen, IV, 153-276. Edited by R.V. Holdsworth (London, 1974). Edited by George R. Price (London, 1977). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1212-49.
MiT 12
An exemplum of the second printed edition (1622) with the text of the missing leaf (sig. K4) supplied in MS. 17th century.
The Family of Love
First published in London, 1608. Bullen, III, 1-120. This play is not now generally attributed to Middleton.
MiT 13
An exemplum of the printed edition of 1608 with the text of the various missing leaves (title-page, address to the reader, prologue, parts of A3 and A4, I3 and the epilogue on I4) supplied in MS. 17th century.
A Game at Chess
First published in London, [1625]. Bullen, VII, 1-136. Edited by R.C. Bald (Cambridge, 1929) and by J.W. Harper (London, 1966). An ‘early form’ in Oxford Middleton, pp. 1779-1824, with a ‘later form’ on pp. 1830-85.
*MiT 14
Autograph copy, including the Prologue, Epilogue, and Induction, entitled ‘A GAME at CHESSE. by T. Middleton’, with two lines deleted on f. 10v, iv + 49 quarto leaves, in contemporary vellum gilt. [1624].
Edited from this MS in Bald.
Facsimile pages in Bald, facing p. 34; in Harper, p. 1; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XCIV(a); in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 54; in IELM, I.i (1980), Facsimile XXVII, p. 342; in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 219; in Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood (London & New York, 2006), p. 172; and in Oxford Middleton, pp. 1780 and 1791.
*MiT 15
Partly autograph fair copy, on 54 quarto leaves (plus three blanks), including the Prologue, in contemporary vellum gilt. Principally in a professional secretary hand, with the title-page (f. 1r), folios 21v-2r, 46r-54v (including the Epilogue), and two or three corrections elsewhere in Middleton's hand, as well as possibly the boxing of speakers' names in pencil or lead point; the Latin oration on f. 45r in another scribal hand. [1624].
This MS collated in Bald and in Harper. Discussed in George R. Price, ‘The Huntington MS of A Game at Chess’, HLQ, 17 (1953-4), 83-8, and in T.H. Howard-Hill, ‘The Bridgewater-Huntington MS of Middleton's Game at Chess’, Manuscripta, 28 (1984), 145-56.
Facsimile pages in Bald, facing pp. 27 and 39; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XCIV(c); and in Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood (London & New York), p. 173.
*MiT 16
Copy of an abridged version, xii + 70 quarto leaves. In the hand of Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, with Middleton's autograph verse dedication ‘To the worthily accomplished Master William Hammond’ (‘beginning This--which nor stage nor stationer's stall can show’) subscribed ‘T. M.’ 1624.
Once owned by one ‘J. Pepys’. Sold by C.J. Stewart, bookseller, c.1860-70.
This MS collated and two scenes printed in Bald. Recorded in Harper.
Facsimile pages in Bald, facing p. 33; in F.P. Wilson, ‘Ralph Crane, Scrivener to the King's Players’, The Library, 4th Ser. 7 (1926-7), 194-215 (plate V); in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XCIV(b); and in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 220. Facsimile of the verses to Hammond on p. vii in Oxford Middleton, p. 1896.
*MiT 17
Copy, 77 quarto pages, in two professional secretary hands, one on pp. 3-63, 68-72 (with some deterioration of script on p. 55), the other on pp. 63-7, with a title-page in Middleton's hand ‘A Game at Chesse As it was Acted Nine Dayes together Compos'de by Tho: Middleton’, including the Induction and an Epilogue, in contemporary vellum gilt. [1624].
This MS discussed in R.C. Bald, ‘A New Manuscript of Middleton's “Game at Chesse”’, MLR, 25 (1930), 474-8, and in Susan Zimmerman, ‘The Folger Manuscripts of Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chesse: A Study in the Genealogy of Texts’, PBSA, 76 (1982), 159-95. Recorded in Harper.
Facsimiles of the title-page in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XCIV(d-e); Heather Wolfe, The Pen's Excellencie: Treasures from the Manuscript Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 90.
*MiT 18
Copy of an early version, in the hand of Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, on 93 small quarto pages (plus two blanks with 19th-century annotations), in addition to a title-page ‘A Game att Chesse’ dated ‘August 13o, Anno Dni, 1624’, cropped by a binder, in modern boards. Including the Induction but without an epilogue, with one annotation (p. 32) in Middleton's hand and with a few corrections, deletions and stage directions added in black ink probably also by Crane. 1624.
Inscribed (on title-page) ‘Mervyn Archdall’ [i.e. The Rev. Mervyn Archdall (1723-91), of Dublin.
This MS doscussed in R.C. Bald, ‘An Early Version of Middleton's “Game at Chesse”’, MLR, 38 (1943), 177-80, and in Susan Zimmerman, ‘The Folger Manuscripts of Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chesse: A Study in the Genealogy of Texts’, PBSA, 76 (1982), 159-95. Recorded in Harper.
Facsimile examples in James G. McManaway, ‘The Authorship of Shakespeare’, Studies in Shakespeare, Bibliography, and Theater (New York, 1969), 175-210 (p. 203); Heather Wolfe, The Pen's Excellencie: Treasures from the Manuscript Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 92.
MiT 19
A fair copy, made by Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, with a title-page ‘1624 A Game att Chesse By Tho: Middleton’, on 53 quarto leaves, in modern quarter green crushed morocco on cloth gilt. 1624.
This MS collated in Bald; facsimile of p. 21 in Wilson, The Library, 4th Ser. 7 (1926-7), 194-215 (plate IV).
MiT 19.5
Extracts.
In: An octavo commonplace book of extracts from various authors, some under headings, compiled by William Sancroft (1617-93), Archbishop of Canterbury, written from both ends, iv + 558 pages (the majority blank), in contemporary vellum. Late 17th century.
Hengist, King of Kent. or The Mayor of Queenborough
See MiT 22-23.
An Invention for the Service of the Right Honourable Edward Barkham, Lord Mayor
Performed in 1622 (see Bentley, IV, 883). First published. in Bullen, VII (1886), 369-78. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1446-7.
MiT 20
Copy, in two styles of secretary script (a formal one up to f. 83r, a plainer one thereafter), probably the same hand, with a title-page ‘An Invention performed for the Service of ye Right honorable Edward Barkeham, L. Major. of the Cittie of London: At his Lps. Enterteinement of the Aldermen his Brethren, and the honble and worthie Guests: (At his House assembled & ffeasted) In the Easter Hollidajes: 1622 / Written by Tho. Middleton’, on i + eight octavo leaves, imperfect at corners, in a contemporary vellum wrapper. 1622.
In: A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 135 leaves, in red morocco.
Stamped ‘Conway Papers’: i.e. from the collections of Edward Conway (c.1564-1631), first Viscount Conway, politician, of Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, and his son Edward (1594-1655), second Viscount Conway, politician and book collector.
Edited from this MS in Bullen.
MiT 20.5
Copy of MiT 20, with missing lacunae supplied, on rectos only of seven octavo leaves.
Also stamped ‘Conway Papers’. 19th century.
In: the MS described under MiT 20.
The Lady's Tragedy
Generally known as The Second Maiden's Tragedy. Edited by W.W. Greg, Malone Society Reprints (Oxford, 1909). Oxford Middleton, pp. 839-906.
Variously attributed, including to George Chapman in Leonora Leet Brodwin, ‘Authorship of The Second Maiden's Tragedy: A Reconsideration of the Manuscript Attribution to Chapman’, SP 63 (1966), 51-77; this attribution dismissed in Anne Lancashire, ‘The Second Maiden's Tragedy: Chapman Reconsidered and Rejected’, ELN, 14 (1977), 174-82.
MiT 20.8
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, including some inserted slips of alterations and additions, with corrections and stage directions in two other hands (one possibly a prompter), the MS submitted by the King's Men to the Master of the Revels Sir George Buc, with his further deletions and annotations, his licence inscribed by him at the end (‘This second Maydens tragedy (for it hath no name inscribed) may wth the reformations bee acted publikely. 31 octobr. 1611. / G. Buc.’), with later inscriptions ‘Goff'[?]’, George Chapman and ‘By Will Shakspeare’,
In: A folio volume of plays and songs, in several hands, 88 leaves, in russia.
Later owned by John Warburton, FSA (1682-1759), Somerset Herald and antiquary, including his list of manuscript plays that he says he once owned and which were burned by a servant.
This MS and Warburton's list discussed in W.W. Greg, Collected Papers, ed. J.C. Maxwell (Oxford, 1966), pp. 48-74 (‘The Bakings of Betsy’).
Facsimile examples of ff. 48r, 54r, 55v-6v in Greg's edition, after p. xiii.
A Mad World, My Masters
First published in London, 1608. Bullen, III, 247-359. Edited by Standish Henning (London, 1965). Oxford Middleton, pp. 417-51.
MiT 21
Extracts transcribed from the edition of 1608.
In: A folio composite miscellany of verse and prose, compiled entirely by William Drummond, 403 leaves, in 19th-century calf gilt. c.1606-14.
Among the working papers and collections of William Drummond of Hawthornden: Hawthornden Vol. VII.
The Mayor of Queenborough
First published in London, 1661. Bullen, II, 1-115. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1451-87. Generally known as Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Queenborough.
MiT 22
Copy, including Prologue and Epilogue, in a professional cursive mixed hand, with some corrections in another hand, actors' names and stage symbols suggesting transcription from a prompt-book, title subscribed at the end (f. 250v) ‘Finis / Hengist King off Kent’, 46 folio leaves, foliated [205]-250, cropped by a binder, in modern quarter green morocco. c.1640s.
Formerly part of the ‘Lambarde volume’ of MS plays once owned by W.L. Lambarde, of Bradbourne Hall, Sevenoaks, Kent. Hodgson's, 19 June 1924, lot 528, to Major Barrett. Purchased by Folger from Frank Marcham, bookseller.
Edited from this MS, with four pages of facsimiles, by R.C. Bald as Hengist, King of Kent: Or The Mayor of Queenborough (New York & London, 1938); see also C.J. Sisson's review in MLR, 34 (1939), 261-2. Edited principally from this MS in Oxford Middleton. Facsimile of ff. 221v-2r in Oxford Companion, p. 1030.
MiT 23
Copy, in a cursive and somewhat flourished mixed hand, entitled on the front paper wrapper ‘Hengist King of Kent or the Maior of Quinburrugh’, subscribed (f. 43r) ‘Finis / Hengist King of Kent’, with (f. 1r) a ‘Chorus’ (Dramatis Personæ) and (f. 44v) an epilogue, 43 folio leaves, in a paper wrapper within modern quarter-morocco. Among the collections of the Duke of Portland, of Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire. c.1640s-50s.
This MS collated in Bald (with two pages of facsimiles), where it is incorrectly stated that this MS and MiT 22 are in the same hand. Edited by Grace Ioppolo, as Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Queenborough, Malone Society Reprints, 167 (Oxford, 2003). Collated in Oxford Companion, pp. 1033-61.
More Dissemblers besides Women, I, iv, 89-95, 98-9. Song (‘Cupid is Venus' only joy’)
First published in Two New Playes (London, 1657). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1037-73 (pp. 1045-6).
See MiT 9-11.
The Nice Valour
Now generally attributed to Middleton. See B&F 11.5-153.
The Widow, III, i, 22-37. Song (‘I keep my horse, I keep my whore’)
First published in London, 1652. Bullen, V, 117-235 (pp. 168-9). Edited by Robert T. Levine (Salzburg, 1975). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1078-1123 (pp. 1098-9).
MiT 24
Copy of Latrocinio's song, headed ‘Thee Highe Lawyers Song in the playe called the Widdowe’.
In: A large folio composite verse miscellany, chiefly folio, partly quarto, 243 pages, in contemporary calf. Including 18 poems by Carew and two of doubtful authorship, compiled by Nicholas Burghe (d.1670), Royalist Captain during the Civil War and one of the poor Knights of Windsor in 1661 (references to ‘I Nicholas Burgh’ occurring on ff. 165r, with the date ‘3d of June 1638’, and 166r, and his name partly in cipher on other pages); predominantly in his hand, with some later additions in other hands. c.1638.
Afterwards owned by Elias Ashmole (1617-92), astrologer and antiquary.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the ‘Burghe MS’: CwT Δ 1.
MiT 25
Copy, headed ‘On A purse-Taker’.
In: A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, in a single neat largely italic hand, 155 leaves, in modern half-morocco. c.1630.
The table of contents (f. 155v) subscribed ‘Margrett Bellasys’, possibly the daughter of Thomas Belasyse (1577-1652), first Viscount Fauconberg of Henknowle. The front endpaper later inscribed ‘The pieces which I have extracted for “The Specimens” are, Page 91, 211, 265’: i.e. possibly by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), editor of Specimens of the British Poets first published in 1809. Afterwards owned by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector. Evans (Sotheby's), 29 February 1836 (Heber sale, Part VIII), lot 13.
This MS recorded in Bullen, V, 168(n) (misprinted as ‘Add. 10319’).
MiT 26
Copy, in a musical setting by William Lawes, untitled.
In: A folio songbook, almost entirely in a single rounded italic hand, with (ff. 3r-7v) a table of contents, 113 leaves, in 19th-century half dark red morocco. Compiled by Edward Lowe (c.1610-82), organist and composer (his signature f. 2v). c.1654-70s.
Arms of Eleanor Bursh on a seal affixed to f. 56r. Later owned and annotated in pencil by Thomas Oliphant (1799-1873), music editor and cataloguer.
A complete facsimile of this volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 5 (New York & London, 1986).
Printed from this MS and collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 57, 153-4.
MiT 27
Copy in: A quarto verse miscellany, including (ff. 113r-15r) copies of, or brief extracts from, 30 poems by Donne (plus two apocryphal poems), in a single hand, transcribed from the 1635 or 1639 edition of Donne's Poems, headed ‘Donnes quaintest conceits’ in several hands, 156 leaves (plus blanks), in modern black morocco gilt. Late 17th century.
Once owned by Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725) and afterwards among the collections of Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford (1689-1741).
Cited in IELM I.i (1980) as the ‘Harley Rawlinson MS’: DnJ Δ 64.
The Second Maiden's Tragedy
See MiT 20.8.
Wit at Several Weapons
Now generally attributed to Middleton. See B&F 191.5.
The Witch
First published in London, 1778. Bullen, V, 351-453. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1129-64.
MiT 28
Copy, in the hand of Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, x + 102 pages. Entitled ‘A Tragi-Coomedie, called the Witch: long since acted by his Maties Seruants at the Black-Friers. Written by Tho. Middleton’. c.1619-27.
Once owned by Benjamin Griffin (1680-1740), actor and playwright; by Lockyer Davis (1717-91), London bookseller; by Major Thomas Pearson; by George Steevens (1736-1800), literary editor and scholar (bought at the Pearson sale, 1787, lot 3872); and by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector (bought at the Steevens sale, 20 May 1800).
Edited from this MS, with facsimile pages, by W.W. Greg and F.P. Wilson, Malone Society (Oxford, 1950). This MS discussed in Bentley, IV, 903-5, and, with a facsimile of one page, in F.P. Wilson, ‘Ralph Crane, Scrivener to the King's Players’, The Library, 4th Ser. 7 (1926-7), 194-215. Facsimiles of the first page of text also in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 213, and of the title-page in Oxford Companion, p. 63. See also Paul Mulholland, ‘Notes on Several Derivatives of Crane's Manuscript of Middleton's The Witch’, PBSA, 78 (1984), 75-81, which includes (p. 77) a facsimile of p. 24 of the transcript of this MS made by George Steevens (now Folger MS D.a.47) for the edition of 1778.
—— II, i, 131-7. Song (‘In a maiden-time profest’)
Bullen, V, 386. Malone Society edition, p. 25, lines 590-7. Oxford Middleton, p. 1141.
MiT 29
Copy of a three-strophe version of Isabella's song in a musical setting by Robert Johnson (as edited by John Wilson), untitled.
In: A large folio volume of songs in musical settings by John Wilson (1595-1674), composer and musician, vi + 214 leaves (plus some blanks), gilt-edged, in contemporary black morocco elaborately gilt, lettered on each cover ‘DR. / I.W’, with silver clasps. Possibly Wilson's formal autograph MS or else in the hand of someone similarly associated with Edward Lowe (c.1610-82). c.1656.
Complete facsimile in Jorgens, Vol. 7 (1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, ‘Seventeenth Century Lyrics: Oxford, Bodleian, MS. Mus. b. 1’, MD, 10 (1956), 142-209.
This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 7, 122-3.
MiT 30
Copy, headed ‘Songe’.
In: A small octavo verse miscellany, written from both ends, predominantly in a single hand in variant styles (ff. 1v-79v, 80r, 88v-96v, 119r-117r rev.), with additions in later hands (ff. 97r-104v, 116v-106r rev.), 164 leaves, in modern half red morocco. Inscribed (f. 1v, in a court hand) ‘Daniell Leare his Booke’, ‘witnesse William Strode’, and (f. 164r) ‘Mr Daniell Leare eius Liber’: i.e. compiled chiefly by Daniel Leare, a distant cousin of the poet William Strode, probably at Christ Church, Oxford, before he entered the Middle Temple in 1633. c.1633 [-late 17th century].
This suggestion, by Mary Hobbs, is supported by entries in the Caution Book of 1625-41 at Christ Church, where Strode is found (p. 22) paying £10 as college security for Leare and where Leare signs (p. 23) on this sum's repayment by Dr Fell on 13 May 1633. Forey suggests (p. lxxix) that he was the Daniell Leare of St Andrews, Holburne, whose will was proved in 1652; but it is more likely that he was the Daniel Leare to whom Henry King, Dean of Rochester, leased property at Chatham on 19 July 1655 (National Archives, Kew, SP 18/99/61). Daniel Leare's wife, Dorothy, was a member of the Hubert family with whom King was associated by virtue of the marriage of his sister Dorothy.
The volume includes 12 poems by Donne; 15 poems (plus a second copy of one and three of doubtful authorship) by Carew; 20 poems (plus two of uncertain authorship) by Corbett; and 84 poems (plus second copies of eight poems, four poems of doubtful authorship and some apocryphal poems) by Strode, the texts being closely related to, and in part probably transcribed from, the ‘Corpus MS’ of Strode's poems (StW Δ 1).
Inscribed also ‘John Leare’ (probably Daniel's younger brother); (f. 1r) ‘Anthony Euans his booke’ (who married Daniel Leare's niece Dorothy Leare in 1663); (f. 1v) ‘Alexander Croke his Book 1773’; and (f. 164v) ‘John Scott’ (who matriculated at Christ Church in 1632). Rimell & Son, 9 November 1878.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), and II.i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Leare MS’: DnJ Δ 41, CwT Δ 15, CoR Δ 4, and StW Δ 10.
Discussed in Mary Hobbs, An Edition of the Stoughton Manuscript (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1973), pp. 185-90; in her ‘Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellanies and their Value for Textual Editors’, EMS, 1 (1989), 192-210 (pp. 189-90); and in her Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellany Manuscripts (Aldershot, 1992), passim, with facsimile examples of ff. 79-80 facing p. 87.
MiT 31
Copy, in a musical setting by Robert Johnson.
In: A folio music book, containing 327 songs, in three largely secretary hands, with a ‘Cattalogue’ of contents, 229 leaves. Owned (in 1659) and partly compiled by the composer John Gamble (d.1687), with some misnumbering. c.1630s-50s.
Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author. Acquired in 1888.
A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 10 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in Charles W. Hughes, ‘John Gamble's Commonplace Book’, M&L, 26 (1945), 215-29.
This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 7, 122-3.
New York Public Library, Music Division, Drexel MS 4257, No. 32.
—— III, iii, 39-72. Song (‘Come away, come away, Hecate’)
Bullen, V, 416-18. Malone Society edition, pp. 57-9, lines 1331-71. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1152-3.
MiT 32
Copy of the witches' song in a musical setting possibly by Robert Johnson.
In: A music book partly compiled by John Bull (c.1562-1628). Early 17th century.
This MS printed and collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 11-13, 123-4.
MiT 33
Copy, in a musical setting possibly by Robert Johnson.
In: the MS described under MiT 10. c.1620s-30s.
This MS edited and collated in Cutts, ‘The Original Music to Middleton's The Witch’, SQ, 7 (1956), 203-9, and in Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 8-10, 123-4. Facsimile in Oxford Companion, p. 155.
New York Public Library, Music Division, Drexel MS 4175, No. liiii.
Your Five Gallants
First published in London, 1607. Bullen, III, 121-245. Edited by C. Lee Colgrave (New York, 1979). Oxford Middleton, pp. 597-635.
Documents
Subscription
*MiT 35
Middleton's autograph subscription (‘Thomas Midleton: Queen's’) upon matriculating at The Queen's College, Oxford, 7 April 1598. 1598.
In: Subscription Register. 1581-1615.
Facsimile in IELM, I.ii (1980), Plate XXVII(b), p. 342
Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Middleton
Extracts
MiT 36
Copy in: A large untitled folio anthology of quotations chiefly from Elizabethan and Stuart plays, alphabetically arranged under subject headings, in a single mixed hand, in double columns, 900 pages (lacking pp. 1-4, 379-80, 667-8, 715-20 and 785-8), including (pp. 893-7) an alphabetical index of some 351 titles of plays, in modern boards. This is the longest known extant version of the unpublished anthology Hesperides or The Muses Garden, by John Evans, entered in the Stationers' Register on 16 August 1655 and subsequently advertised c.1660, among works he purposed to print, by Humphrey Moseley. Another version of this work, in the same hand, dissected by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), is now distributed between Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Halliwell-Phillipps, Notes upon the Works of Shakespeare, Folger, MS V.a.75, Folger, MS V.a.79, and Folger, MS V.a.80. c.1656-66.
Formerly MS 469.2.
This MS identified in IELM, II.i (1980), p. 450. Discussed, as the ‘master draft’, with a facsimile of p. 7 on p. 381, in Hao Tianhu, ‘Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden and its Manuscript History’, The Library, 7th Ser. 10/4 (December 2009), 372-404 (the full index printed as ‘Catalogue A’ on pp. 385-94).