Verse
(1) Poems by Oxford
‘A Croune of Bayes shall that man weare’
First published in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 3 (pp. 26-7). E V 23490.5.
OxE 1
Copy, headed ‘78. The complaint of a louer, wearing Blacke & Tawnie’, beginning with the second stanza (‘The more I followed on’), and subscribed ‘E. O.’
In: Transcript of The Paradise of Dainty Devises (London, 1577), iii + 162 quarto leaves (ff. 119-62 blank), mainly on rectos only, in contemporary vellum boards. Made largely by William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and printseller (ff. 116-18 in two other hands). 1777.
Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.
This MS collated in May, Poems.
‘Even as the waxe doeth melt, or dewe consume awaie’
First published, headed ‘His mynde not quietly setled, he writeth this’ and subscribed ‘E. O.’, in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 2 (p. 26). May, Courtier Poets, p. 271. EV 5884.
OxE 2
Copy, headed ‘84. His mind not quietly setled, he writeth this’ and subscribed ‘E. Ox.’
In: the MS described under OxE 1. 1777.
This MS collated in May, Poems.
‘Feyne would I singe but fury makes me frette’
Published in May, Poems, No. 10 (pp. 32-3). May, Courtier Poets, p. 277. EV 6027.
OxE 3
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, on the second page of two conjugate folio leaves. Late 16th-early 17th 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 May.
‘Framd in the front of forlorne hope, past all recoverie’
See OxE 6.
‘Fraud is the front of fortune past all recovery’
First published, headed ‘His good name being blemished, he bewayleth’ and subscribed ‘E. O.’, in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). A variant version beginning ‘Framd in the front of forlorne hope, past all recoverie’, in May, Poems, No. 4 (pp. 27-8), and in May, Courtier Poets, pp. 272-3. EV 7038.
OxE 6
Copy, headed ‘34. His good name being blemished, he bewayleth’, here beginning ‘Framd is the front of forlorne hope, past all recoverie’, and subscribed ‘E. O.’
In: the MS described under OxE 1. 1777.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.
‘I am not as I seme to bee’
See EsR 15.
‘If care or skill could conquere vaine desire’
First published, headed ‘Beyng in love, he complaineth’ and subscribed ‘M. B.’, in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 6 (pp. 29-30). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 274-5. EV 10667.
OxE 7
Copy, headed ‘81. Being in loue he complaineth’ and subscribed ‘E.O.’
In: the MS described under OxE 1. 1777.
This MS collated in May, Poems.
‘Love compared to a tennis playe’
See OxE 23-28.
‘The Lyvely Larke stretcht forth her wynge’
First published, headed ‘The iudgement of desire’ and subscribed ‘E. O.’, in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 8 (pp. 30-1). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 275-6. EV 23217.
OxE 8
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis Earle of Oxforde’.
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 collated in May.
OxE 9
Copy, untitled.
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.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. This MS collated in May.
OxE 10
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
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.’
This MS collated in May.
‘The more I followed on’
See OxE 1.
‘The tricklyng teares that fales along my cheeks’
First published, as ‘A louer reiected, complaineth’ and subscribed ‘E. O.’, in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 9 (pp. 31-2). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 276-7. EV 24528.
OxE 11
Copy, headed ‘82. A louer reiected, complaineth’ and subscribed ‘E.O.’
In: the MS described under OxE 1. 1777.
This MS collated in May.
‘Weare I a kinge I coulde commande content’
First published in John Mundy, Songs and Psalmes composed into 3. 4. and 5. parts (London, 1595). May, Poems, No. 16 (p. 37). May, Courtier Poets, p. 281. EV 28428.
OxE 12
Copy, in a mixed hand, untitled.
In: A quarto volume of verse and dramatic works, in Latin and English, in three hands, one italic hand predominating, 102 leaves, in old calf (rebacked). Inscribed in pencil as poems by William Gager, of Christ Church, Oxford, and Chancellor of Ely. c.1590-early 17th century.
Later owned by The Rev. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), antiquary and book collector. Sotheby's, 21 August 1858 (Bliss sale), lot 122.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.
OxE 13
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 May.
OxE 14
Copy, as ‘By ye Earle of Oxforde’.
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).
The Grosart text collated in May.
OxE 15
Copy, untitled, in a professional secretary hand, subscribed ‘Vere finis’.
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.
This MS collated in May.
‘What cunning can express’
First published, as ‘The Sheepheards commendation of his Nimph’ and subscribed ‘E. O.’, in The Phoenix Nest (London, 1593). May, Poems, pp. 35-7. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 280-1. EV 28545.
OxE 16
Copy of an untitled version beginning ‘What sheppard can express’, subscribed ‘Erle of Oxenforde’.
In: A folio volume of historical collections, largely in a single small hand, with an Index (ff. 2r-5v), 178 leaves, in leather gilt. Compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1600s.
According to two long notes (ff. 6r, 178v) by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), herald and antiquary, identifying the hand as Kniveton's, the MS was ‘after possest by the Lord Chaworth [i.e. George Chaworth (d.1639), first Viscount Chaworth] who gaue this & severall other books to Doctor Thoreton of Carcolston in the County of Nottingham whose grandson Robert Sherard gave this & 8o others’ in Kniveton's handwriting to Le Neve, 21 March 1712.
‘When werte thow borne desyre?’
First published, as ‘Of the birth and bringing vp of desire’, subscribed ‘E. of Ox.’, in Brittons Bowre of Delights (London, 1591). May, Poems, No. 11 (pp. 33-4). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 277-8. EV 30058.
OxE 17
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis. Earle of Oxenforde’.
In: the MS described under OxE 8. c.1586-91.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 18
Copy, untitled, in an italic hand.
In: the MS described under OxE 16. c.1600s.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 19
Copy, here beginning ‘When were ye born...’.
In: the MS described under OxE 13. c.1596-1601.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 20
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis LO. OX.’
In: the MS described under OxE 9.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.
OxE 21
Copy, in the hand of Dorothy Wilde, inscribed in a printed exemplum of Sidney's Arcadia (London, 1593), sig. T4v. 1645.
OxE 22
Copy, here beginning ‘When were you born, Desire?’.
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.
Edited from this MS in Hughey, I, No. 189, pp. 237-8. Collated in May.
The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle, MSS (Special Press), ‘Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz.’, f. 144r-v.
‘Wheras the Harte at Tennysse playes and men to gaminge fall’
First published in John Cotgrave, Wits Interpreter (London, 1655). May, Poems, No. 13 (p. 35). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 279-80. EV 30349.
OxE 24
Copy in: An octavo volume of verse and related notes compiled by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), bibliographer and antiquary, for his Lyrical Gleanings published in 1817. c.1817.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 25
Copy, subscribed ‘FINIS. therle of Ox.’
In: the MS described under OxE 9.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 26
Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘When as the hand at Tennis playe’.
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 May.
OxE 27
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Loue compared to a Tennis playe’, subscribed ‘Made by the Earle of Oxeforde’.
In: the MS described under OxE 10. c.1580s-1615.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.
OxE 28
Copy, headed ‘Of playing at Tenis by Sr E: D:’.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, including seventeen poems by Donne and fifteen by Strode, the main part in a single hand, 334 pages (but pp. 3-4 extracted, and including a later index). Possibly compiled by one ‘W: H:’: i.e. probably William Holgate (1618-46), of Queens' College, Cambridge, with late 17th-century additions apparently made by other members of the Holgate family, of Saffron Walden and Great Bardfield, Essex. c.1630s [-late 17th-century].
Owned in the early 18th century by John Wale, who supplied the index on pp. 330-3. Owned before 1927 by Col. W.G. Carwardine-Probert, of Bures, Suffolk (descendant of the Holgate family).
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the ‘Holgate MS’: DnJ Δ 58. Briefly discussed in W.G.P., ‘Verses by Francis Beaumont’, TLS (15 September 1921), p. 596, and in E.K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, 2 vols (Oxford, 1930), II, 222-4. Also discussed, with facsimiles on pp. 68 and 70 of pp. 181 and 13, 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. For facsimile pages see DnJ 2931 and ShW 25. Complete microfilm in the Essex Record Office (T/A 98).
This MS collated in May.
‘Who taught the first to sighe alas my Harte?’
First Published in The Tears of Fancie, Or, Loue Disdained (London, 1593). May, Poems, No. 15 (p. 37). May, Courtier Poets, p. 281. EV 31001.
‘Wing'de with desyre, I seeke to mount on hyghe’
May, Poems, No. 12 (pp. 34-5). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 278-9. EV 31543.
OxE 33
Copy of the incipit, in a musical setting.
In: An oblong quarto volume of lute music and verse, the latter written across the width of the page with the spine upwards, in several hands over a period, including that (the later poems) of Thomas Tanat, 192 pages (plus blanks), in contemporary blind-tooled calf. c.1590-1669.
From the library of the Ormsby-Gore family, Barons Harlech, of Brogyntyn (or Porkington), Oswestry, Shropshire. Inscribed (p. 1) ‘Robert Parry’.
This volume edited as The Brogyntyn Lute Book, ed. Robert Spencer and Jeffrey Alexander (Kilkenny, 1978).
OxE 34
Copy, untitled.
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].
This MS collated in May.
(2) Poems Possibly by Oxford
‘If woemen coulde be fayre and yet not fonde’
First published in Brittons Bowre of Delights (London, 1591). May, Poems, No. III (pp. 40-1). May, Courtier Poets, p. 284. EV 11604.
OxE 35
Copy, untitled, here beginning ‘If woemen coulde be fayre and yet not loude’, subscribed ‘Finis ye Earle of Oxenforde’.
In: the MS described under OxE 8. c.1586-91.
OxE 36
Copy, headed ‘The follie of men’.
In: A folio composite volume of verse and some prose, in various hands, v + 179 leaves, in early 18th-century half-calf.
With a few additions in Rawlinson's hand.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 37
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘FINIS RW’.
In: the MS described under OxE 9.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 38
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.
OxE 39
Copy, in a musical setting, here beginning ‘If women could be fair and never fond’.
In: A set of five music part books, begun by Robert Dow. c.1580s-1600.
OxE 40
Copy, untitled.
In: A quarto booklet of verse, ff. 1r-10r in a cursive secretary hand, additions afterwards in other hands, sixteen leaves (ff. 12-13 stubs), unbound. Early 17th century.
Owned in 1781 by the Rev. John Williams (1760-1826), of Llanrwst.
OxE 41
Copy in: A duodecimo verse miscellany, including (ff. 12r-43r) 63 sonnets by Henry Constable, 117 leaves, in brown morocco. c.1620.
Later owned by a Mr Brackman, of Kent. Given by Alderman Bristow, bookseller of Canterbury, to a Mr Todd on 19 November 1800. Afterwards owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor.
Cited by editors as the Todd MS.
This MS collated in May.
Victoria and Albert Museum, Dyce MS 44 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.39), f. 116v.
‘I do increase their wandring wits, till that I dim their sight’
May, Poems, No. IV (pp. 41-2).
See also ‘In Pescod time when hownd to horne gives eare while Bucke is kild’: OxE 43-44.
‘In Pescod time when hownd to horne gives eare while Bucke is kild’
Largely by Thomas Churchyard. First published, headed ‘A matter of fonde Cupid, and vain Venus’, in his A pleasaunte Laborinth called Churchyardes Chance (London, 1580). May, Poems, No. IVa and IV (pp. 41-2). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 284-6. EV 12112.
‘My mynde to me a kingdome is, such perfect joye therin I finde’
May, Poems, No. II (pp. 39-40). EV 15376.
See DyE 35-63.
‘Sittinge alone upon my thought in melancholye moode’
May, Poems, No. I (pp. 38-9). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 282-3. EV 20459.
OxE 45
Copy, headed ‘Verses made by the earle of Oxforde’ [‘and Mrs Ann Vauesor’deleted].
In: the MS described under OxE 8. c.1586-91.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 47
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Vavaser’.
In: the MS described under OxE 15. c.1590-1600s.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.
OxE 48
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Verses made of ye Earle of Oxeforde, And Mris Ann Vauesor’.
In: the MS described under OxE 10. c.1580s-1615.
This MS collated in May.
OxE 49
Copy, headed ‘The best verse that ever th'autor made’ and subscribed ‘E. Veer. count d'Oxford’.
In: the MS described under OxE 22. Mid-late 16th century.
Edited from this MS in Hughey, I, No. 179, pp. 215-16. Collated in May.
The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle, MSS (Special Press), ‘Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz.’, f. 130v.