Verse
Amoretti. Sonnet I. (‘Happy ye leaues when as those lilly hands’)
First published in Amoretti and Epithalamion ([London], 1595). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 191-232 (p. 195).
SpE 1
Copy, headed ‘A sa mistresse’, written in two scribal hands on a blank page. In a printed exemplum of The Faerie Queene, Books I-III, first issue without the complimentary sonnet to Lord Burghley (London, 1590). c.1590s?
Bearing an inscription in Greek meaning ‘the author to himself’ and therefore possibly owned by Spenser himself. Other early inscriptions including ‘D: S:’, ‘T: B:’, ‘mr john borlace gave mee this booke 1630’; ‘sum e libris G. Coxe’;‘Eliza: Morgan her Booke’; ‘S: Byrch’, and ‘Gul: N[ ] Coll Rega’. Owned before 1907 by Sir Israel Gollancz (1863-1930), and in 1929 by Dr Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach (1876-1952), bookseller, collector and scholar. Owned in 1946 by Frank H. Hogan. Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 23-4 April 1946 (Hogan sale, Part 3), lot 156, to Ray Hartz. A. Hime, Idyllwild, California, sale catalogue 8 (1983), item 26. Sotheby's, New York, 11 October 1991 (Richard Manney sale), lot 285.
This MS (formerly but no longer thought to be autograph) edited, with A. Judson's discussion, in Minor Poems, II, 419-20. Edited also in the 1991 Sotheby's sale catalogue. Facsimile in Flower & Munby, English Poetical Autographs, p. 3.
For some of the sale history of this volume, see Edwin Wolf 2nd and J.F. Fleming, Rosenbach (London, 1960), pp. 433, 540.
—— Sonnet VIII (‘More then most faire, full of the liuing fire’)
Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 198.
SpE 2
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Finis Mr 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.
Edited from this MS in L. Cummings, ‘Spenser's Amoretti VIII: New Manuscript Versions’, SEL, 4 (1964), 125-35 (p. 127).
SpE 3
Copy, in Lawes's musical setting, untitled.
In: A large folio volume of autograph vocal music by Henry Lawes (1596-1662), ix + 184 leaves, in modern black morocco gilt. Comprising over 300 songs and musical dialogues by Lawes, probably written over an extended period (c.1626-62) in preparation for his eventual publications, including settings of 38 poems by Carew, fourteen poems by or attributed to Herrick, and fifteen by Waller. Mid-17th century.
Bookplates of William Gostling (1696-1777), antiquary and topographer; of Robert Smith, of 3 St Paul's Churchyard; and of Stephen Groombridge, FRS (1755-1832), astronomer. Later owned, until 1966, by Miss Naomi D. Church, of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Formerly British Library Loan MS 35.
Recorded in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Henry Lawes MS’: CwT Δ 16; HeR Δ 3; WaE Δ 11. Discussed, with facsimile examples, in Pamela J. Willetts, The Henry Lawes Manuscript (London, 1969). Facsimiles of ff. 42r, 78r, 80r, 84r, 111r and 169r in The Poems and Masques of Aurelian Townshend, ed. Cedric C. Brown (Reading, 1983), pp. 59, 60, 62, 64, 66 and 117. Also discussed in Willa McClung Evans, Henry Lawes: Musician and Friend of Poets (New York and London, 1941), and elsewhere. A complete facsimile of the volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 3 (New York & London, 1986).
Facsimile of this MS in Willa McClung Evans, Henry Lawes (New York & London, 1941), p. 67.
SpE 4
Copy of lines 1-4, 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.
Printed from this MS in Cummings, p. 129.
SpE 5
Copy, untitled.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, written in two styles of hand (A: ff. 2r, after first six lines, to 64v; B: ff. 2r, first six lines, 64v-91v, 92v-4r), possibly both in the same hand, with an Index (ff. 93r-4r), 94 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Including 22 poems (plus two of doubtful authorship) by Carew, 13 poems by King, and 24 poems (plus one of doubtful authorship) by Strode, and probably associated with Christ Church, Oxford. c.1633.
Inscribed names including (f. 93v, in court hand) ‘ffrancis Baskeruile’: i.e. probably the Francis Baskerville who married Margaret Glanvill in 1635 and was in 1640 MP for Marlborough, Wiltshire. Other scribbling including (f. 1r) accounts referring to Wanborough, Wiltshire; (f. 9v) ‘Elizabeth White’; (f. 54v) ‘William Walrond his booke 1663’; (f. 92r) accounts dated 1658; and (f. 94r) ‘John Wallrond’. Later owned by Sir Hans Sloane, Bt (1660-1753), physician and collector.
Recorded in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Baskerville MS’: CwT Δ 20, KiH Δ 10, StW Δ 13. Facsimile examples of ff. 55r and 68r in Mary Hobbs, Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellany Manuscripts (Aldershot, 1992), Plate 6, after p. 86.
Printed from this MS in Cummings, pp. 128-9.
SpE 6
Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘More fayr then most fair full of the lyving fyre’.
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 Cummings, p. 128. May, Stanford, pp. 124-5 (No. 197).
SpE 7
Copy, inscribed in a printed exemplum of Fulke Greville, Certaine Learned and Elegant Workes (London, 1633). Late 17th century.
Formerly in the library at Warwick Castle. Christie's, 2 July 1969, lot 58, to Harchards.
This MS noted by W. Hilton Kelliher in BMQ, 34 (1969-70), 120.
—— Sonnet XXIII (‘Penelope for her Vlisses sake’)
Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 204.
SpE 7.5
Copy, in an italic hand. Early-mid-17th century.
In: A quarto composite volume of verse, state letters and culinary recipes, in English and French, in various hands, 136 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.
Inscribed (f. 2r) ‘Fane Chambrelaine’.
—— Sonnet LXIIII. (‘Coming to kisse her lyps, (such grace I found)’)
Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 221-2.
SpE 7.8
Copy, in an italic hand, untitled. Early-mid 17th century.
In: the MS described under SpE 7.5.
SpE 7.9
Copy, headed ‘In Dominam’.
In: An octavo commonplace book of verse and prose, in two or more secretary hands, 41 leaves, in a recycled illuminated vellum music document. Inscribed (ff. 1r, 2r) ‘Samuell Watts’. Early 17th century.
Among the papers of the Sanford family. Formerly DD/SF 3970.
Complaints
Poems from this work are recorded individually.
The Faerie Queene
Books I-III first published in London, 1590. Books IV-VI published in London, 1596. Variorum, Vols I-VI.
SpE 8
Extracts. The first extract headed in the margin ‘the first booke of the fareie Queene Containing ye legend of ye knight of ye red Crossse or of holinesse’, comprising the Preface to Book I (here beginning ‘Lo I the man, whose muse whilom did mask’) and Canto I, stanzas 1-5 (here beginning ‘A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine’), in an italic hand, followed (on pp. 3-4) by Canto IV, stanzas 46-51 (here beginning ‘With gentlye words he gan her fairly greet’) and Canto V, stanzas 1-32 (here beginning ‘The noble heart yt harbors vertuous thought’), in double columns, in another predominantly italic hand, on all four pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves. Mid-17th century.
William Pickering, ‘Catalogue of biblical...manuscripts and...curious books’ (1834), item 37. Rodd sale catalogue, 4 February 1850, lot 731, to James Orchard Halliwell [-Phillipps].
SpE 8.2
Quotations from Book IV, Canto II, stanzas 31-5.
In: MS of a revised version of the continuation of Chaucer's Squire's Tale by John Lane (fl.1620). 1630.
SpE 8.5
Quotations from Book IV, Canto II, stanzas 31-5. 1615.
In: MS of the continuation of Chaucer's Squire's Tale by the poet John Lane (fl.1600-30). 1615.
SpE 8.8
Brief quotations in a letter by Dr William Balam (1651-1726).
In: A folio composite volume of letters, in various hands, to Dr Francis Turner (1637-1700), Bishop of Ely, i + 377 leaves, 1678-90.
SpE 9
Extracts, in an italic hand, untitled, including Book III, Canto IX, stanza 20, here beginning ‘And Philomell yt knowes full well’. Early-mid-17th century.
In: A folio composite volume of verse, written by or relating to members of the Fairfax family, in various hands and paper sizes, 156 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
In Cochran's sale catalogue for 1837. Purchased from H. Bohn, 26 September 1840.
SpE 9.2
Copy of the four introductory stanzas and Book I, Canto 1, stanzas 1-8, in a neat secretary hand, in double columns, on both sides of a single folio leaf, supplying missing text in a printed exemplum of The Faerie Queen: The Shepheards Calendar: Together with the Other Works of Englands Archpoet Edm. Spenser (London, 1611, second issue), in contemporary dark olive morocco gilt. c.1620.
Five photocopy pages of this MS and volume are in the British Library, RP 6132.
SpE 9.5
Series of extracts, including Book I, Canto IX, stanza 35; Book II, Canto VI, stanza 3; Canto VII, stanzas 40-1; Canto XI, stanzas 21-2; Canto XII, stanza 70; Book III, Canto XII, stanza 11; Book IV, Canto I, stanzas 20-2, 24; Canto X, stanza 16; and Book VI, Canto VII, stanzas 41 and 43, variously headed ‘description of death’, ‘danger’, ‘Dispair’, ‘discord’, and ‘disdain’.
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. 8-9, 51, 60, 64-72.
SpE 9.8
Quotations from Book IV, Canto II, stanzas 31-5. 1615.
In: MS of the continuation of Chaucer's Squire's Tale by John Lane (fl.1620). 1616.
SpE 9.9
Copy of Book 5, Canto 8, stanza 1, and Book 6, Canto 11, stanza 1.
In: the MS described under SpE 7.9. Early 17th century.
SpE 10
Copy of Book IV, Canto IX, stanza 2, here beginning ‘All naturall affection soone doth cesse’, in a neat predominantly secretary hand, quoted in an undated autograph letter by Francis Beaumont (d.1624), Master of the Charterhouse, to Lady Anne Newdegate, on three pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves, folded and addressed. Spenser's ‘honest verses’ are cited, says Beaumont, because ‘Mr. Spensers opinion’, on the duel between love and honour, ‘so rightlie’ agrees with ‘that which nature had taught mee before as the same might be thought to have bene drawne out of his discipline.’ c.1611.
Among papers of the Newdegate family, Viscounts Daventer, of Arbury Hall, Nuneaton.
This letter edited in Lady Newdigate-Newdegate, Gossip from a Muniment Room (London, 1897), p. 132. See also T.W. Baldwin, ‘The Three Francis Beaumonts’, MLN, 39 (1924), 505-7.
Iambicum Trimetrum (‘Vnhapie Verse, the witnesse of my vnhappie state’)
First published in Two Other, very commendable Letters [of Spenser and Gabriel Harvey] (London, 1580). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 267.
SpE 11
Copy, untitled.
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. 185, p. 234.
The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle, MSS (Special Press), ‘Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz.’, f. 142r.
Mother Hubberds Tale
See SpE 14-20.
Muiopotmos: or The Fate of the Butterflie (‘I sing of deadly dolorous debate’)
First published (with a separate title-page dated 1590) in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 157-73.
SpE 12
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
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 recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687; described in The Poetical Works of Spenser, ed. E. de Sélincourt, III (Oxford, 1910), pp. xviii-xix.
SpE 12.5
Extract, lines 15-16, beginning ‘And is there then’.
In: A folio manuscript, comprising two works by William Scott, MP (c.1570-1612), the first (ff. 1r-50r), in a professional calligraphic italic hand, with corrections and alterations partly in Scott's own hand, entitled The Modell of Poesye Or The Arte of Poesye drawen into a short or Summary Discourse; the second (ff. 51r-76r), partly autograph and partly scribal, Scott's translation into English verse of part of Guillaume de Saluste, seigneur du Bartas's La Sepmaine ou Création du monde, imperfect. Including, besides quotations from poems, references to other works by Spenser and Samuel Daniel. c.1595-1600.
Formerly preserved at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, seat of the Lee family, Viscounts Dillon.
This MS discussed in Stanley Wells, ‘By the placing of his words’, TLS, 26 September 2003, pp. 14-15.
SpE 13
Copy, including the prose dedication to Lady Carey.
In: A transcript of Complaints made from the edition of 1591, neatly copied in one or more accomplished hands in variant styles of italic and secretary, with title-pages in facsimile imitation of the printed edition. In an octavo volume of 96 leaves also containing (ff. 80r-96v) three other English and Latin texts in other hands, in contemporary limp vellum (rebacked). c.1591.
Inscribed inside the front cover ‘Scudamore’ and on the main title-page (f. 1r) ‘Her: Leek’. Donated in 1940 by Owen D. Young.
Prosopopoia: or Mother Hubberds Tale (‘It was the month, in which the righteous Maide’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 103-40.
SpE 14
Copy, ascribed to ‘Edward Spencer’ (changed in red ink to ‘Edmund Spencer’).
In: A quarto verse miscellany, made up from a larger book, 184 leaves, stubs of some excised leaves, in green boards. Compiled by John Ramsay (b.1578), of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and the Middle Temple. c.1596-1633.
Name (inscribed several times) of Thomas Russell. Given in 1724 by Robert Cook of Bokenham to Francis Blomefield (1705-52), Norfolk topographer, and with Blomefield's bookplate, 1736. Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.
SpE 15
Extracts, ranging from line 353 to line 659, wrongly headed ‘The Ruines of Time’ and here beginning ‘And now the ffox, had gotten him a gowne’, apparently transcribed from a MS source.
In: A quarto verse miscellany, in several hands, ff. 2r-26r in a single secretary hand, ff. 26r-40v in yet another, with later additions near the end dated 1653, 60 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary vellum. c.1596 [-1653].
Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Anthonie Babingtonn of warrington’, with the date ‘1596’, and ‘Roger Wright me possidett ex dono Henerici fratrie Meo’. Later owned and annotated by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer. Signature and bookplate of F.W. Cosens, FSA (1819-89), of Clapham Park, book collector. Sotheby's, 25 July 1890 (Cosens sale), lot 50. Purchased from Jarvis & Son, 15 June 1891.
Identified in Ringler, PQ (1975), as the ‘Quarto MS’ from which Percy derived the texts of three poems by Breton edited in his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). Substantial extracts from it edited in Grosart's edition of Breton (1879). Also briefly discussed in P.M. Buck, Jr., ‘Add MS. 34064 and Spenser's Ruins of Time and Mother Hubberd's Tale’, MLN, 22 (1907), 41-6, and in Robertson's edition of Breton, pp. liv-lv.
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 recorded in Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 687-8; first collated in P.M. Buck, Jr., ‘Add. MS 34064 and Spenser's Ruins of Time and Mother Hubberd's Tale’, MLN, 22 (1907), 41-6.
SpE 15.5
Copy, in a small cursive secretary hand, headed ‘Mother Hubbardes tale’, a slip with a copy of lines 1-6 in the same hand also pasted on f. 1r. c.1590s-early 17th century.
In: A quarto composite volume of state and miscellaneous papers, in several hands, 115 leaves, with an Index (ff. 68r-77r), in modern quarter crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.
SpE 16
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
SpE 17
Copy, including the prose dedication to Lady Compton and Mounteagle.
In: the MS described under SpE 13. c.1591.
SpE 18
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Mother Hubbards tale’, dated (f. 1r) ‘5 die Junij 1607’, iv + 16 folio leaves, formerly in half-morocco marbled boards (detached). 1607.
Later owned by the Rev. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), antiquary and book collector. Sotheby's, 21 August 1858 (Bliss sale), lot 207. Afterwards owned by Alexander Balloch Grosart (1827-99), literary scholar and theologian, and by Dr Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia bookseller and scholar. Booklabel of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr (1906-90), American businessman and collector. Christie's, 11-12 June 1980 (Houghton sale), lot 439, with a facsimile of the first page in the sale catalogue, Plate 39. Purchased from Quaritch, 19 January 1989.
Collated in The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Edmund Spenser, ed. Alexander B. Grosart, 9 vols (privately edited, 1882-4), III, 148-52: see Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 688.
SpE 19
Extracts, beginning at line 713, in a secretary hand.
In: A folio composite volume of state letters, tracts, and verse, collected by, and mostly in the hand of, William Parkhurst (fl.1604-67), Sir Henry Wotton's secretary in Venice and later Master of the Mint, including various works in verse and prose attributed to Donne, chiefly in a scribal hand, partly in Parkhurst's hand, 373 leaves (including blanks), in old calf.
Among the papers of the Finch family of Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland. Mistakenly reported by Grierson and Logan Pearsall Smith to have been destroyed in a fire at Burley c.1908.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the ‘Burley MS’: DnJ Δ 53. Recorded in HMC, 7th Report (1879), Appendix, p. 516. A complete microfilm of the MS is at the University of Sheffield, Microfilm 737.
A neat transcript of parts of the Burley MS (including principally poems on ff. 255r-v, 278v, [279r]-288v, 342v-3r, 294r-300r, 301r-8v), made before 1908, on 35 leaves, is in the Bodleian, MS Eng. poet. c. 80.
Leicestershire Record Office, DG. 7/Lit. 2, ff. 318r-v, 320v.
SpE 20
Copy, incomplete.
In: An octavo miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, probably associated with Cambridge, densely written from both ends in a minute hand, paginated 11-264 (plus blanks), in contemporary calf. Mid-17th century.
Sotheby's, 15 February 1928, lot 500. Maggs's sale catalogue No. 550 (1931), item 310.
Ruines of Rome: by Bellay (‘Ye heauenly spirites, whose ashie cinders lie’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 141-54.
SpE 21
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
First published in Complaints (London, 1591); Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 141-54. This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
The Ruines of Time (‘It chaunced me on day beside the shore’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 35-56.
SpE 23
Extracts, ranging from line 183 to line 572, headed ‘Another’, here beginning ‘It is not longe, since these two eies behelde’, apparently transcribed from a MS source.
In: the MS described under SpE 15. c.1596 [-1653].
This MS recorded in Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 687-8. First collated in P.M. Buck, Jr., ‘Add. MS 34064 and Spenser's Ruins of Time and Mother Hubberd's Tale’, MLN, 22 (1907), 41-6.
SpE 23.5
Copy of lines 36-42.
In: MS of John Shrimpton's History of St Albans. c.1640.
SpE 24
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
SpE 25
Copy, including the prose dedication to the Countess of Pembroke.
In: the MS described under SpE 13. c.1591.
SpE 26
Extracts, in a secretary hand, beginning at line 43.
In: the MS described under SpE 19.
Leicestershire Record Office, DG. 7/Lit. 2, ff. 317r-v, 319r-v.
SpE 27
Copy, beginning at stanza 24 (‘But me no man bewaileth, but in game’); imperfect, lacking the first part and a title.
In: the MS described under SpE 20. Mid-17th century.
SpE 27.1
Copy of a version of II, 17-22, beginning ‘Life have I worn out thrice thirty years’.
In: A small (?sextodecimo) notebook comprising chiefly religious poems and prayers, written from both ends, 94 leaves, in contemporary calf. c.1715.
Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt. 84, f. 18r.
The Shepheardes Calender
First published in London, ‘1579’. Variorum, Minor Poems, vol. I, 1-120.
SpE 27.2
MS of Theodore Bathurst's Latin translation of the January and February eclogues, with a one-page dedication to Thomas Neville, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in a neat italic hand, on seven octavo leaves. Early 17th century.
In: A quarto composite volume of state and miscellaneous papers, in Latin and English, in various hands, 137 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
SpE 27.3
Copy of an anonymous Latin translation of the April Eclogue, in a neat roman hand, headed ‘Hymnus Pastoralis in laudem serenissime Reginæ Elizabethæ: ex Anglico sermone in Latinu traductus’ and beginning ‘Nymphe, candidulæ Nymphæ, sub flumine sancto’.
In: A quarto composite volume of state tracts and verse, in Latin and English, in various hands, 128 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf gilt.
Recorded in Leicester Bradner, ‘The Latin Translations of Spenser's Shepheardes Calender’, MP, 33 (1935-6), 21-6 (p. 26n).
SpE 27.4
MS of a Latin version by Theodore Bathurst (c.1587-1652), Latin poet and clergyman, beginning ‘Forte puer (nec enim titulo potiore misellus’), bound with a printed exemplum of Spenser's work (1597 edition). Early 17th century.
Discussed in Leicester Bradner, ‘The Latin Translations of Spenser's Shepheardes Calender’, MP, 33 (1935-6), 21-6.
SpE 27.5
MS of a Latin version by Theodore Bathurst (c.1587-1652), Latin poet and clergyman, beginning ‘Forte puer (nec enim titulo potiore misellus’),in two or more neat italic hands, on interleaves each facing the relevant printed text, in an exemplum of The Shepherds Calender (London, 1597), a quarto in 19th-century calf. Early 17th century.
SpE 27.6
Copy of Bathurst's Latin version, in a neat italic hand, on 71 pages of interleaves in an exemplum of the 1597 small quarto printed edition of Spenser's poem. Early 17th century.
Inscribed at the end ‘Edm: Withypoll’ [?]. Formerly bound with Ben Jonson's exemplum of George Chapman's Seven Bookes of the Iliades (London, 1598), which is now British Library C.39.d.46.
SpE 27.7
MS, possibly autograph, of a Latin version by Theodore Bathurst (c.1587-1652), Latin poet and clergyman, beginning ‘Forte puer (nec enim titulo potiore misellus’), bound with a printed exemplum of Spenser's work (1597 edition). Early 17th century.
Discussed in Leicester Bradner, ‘The Latin Translations of Spenser's Shepheardes Calender’, MP, 33 (1935-6), 21-6.
SpE 27.8
MS of a Latin version by Theodore Bathurst (c.1587-1652), Latin poet and clergyman, beginning ‘Forte puer (nec enim titulo potiore misellus’, inscribed ‘Authore Mro Batters’.
In: A quarto volume of verse and dramatic works, associated with Cambridge University, in several hands, a small italic hand predominating, 88 leaves, in contemporary calf, once with metal clasps. c.1620s.
Inscribed (f. [ir]) ‘Fra: Corbet’ and (f. 88v) ‘1626 Ja: Rolfe’.
Theodore Bathurst's Latin version was made c.1608 and published in the 1653 edition of Spenser's poems.
SpE 27.9
MS of a Latin version by John Dove (1561-1618), in a neat hand, bound with an exemplum of the printed edition of Spenser's work (1579). Dedicated to William James, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and to Martin Heton, Sub-dean. c.1584.
Unpublished. Discussed in Leicester Bradner, ‘The Latin Translations of Spenser's Shepheardes Calender’, MP, 33 (1935-6), 21-6.
SpE 27.91
MS of a Latin version by Theodore Bathurst (c.1587-1652), Latin poet and clergyman, beginning ‘Forte puer (nec enim titulo potiore misellus’, with a draft dedication to Samuel Harsnet, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, in bathurst's hand, bound with a printed exemplum of Spenser's work (1579 edition). c. 1608-16.
Written between c.1608 and 1616. Published in the 1653 edition of Spenser's poems. Discussed in Leicester Bradner, ‘The Latin Translations of Spenser's Shepheardes Calender’, MP, 33 (1935-6), 21-6.
SpE 27.92
MS of a Latin version by Theodore Bathurst (c.1587-1652), Latin poet and clergyman, beginning ‘Forte puer (nec enim titulo potiore misellus’), in various hands, with later corrections, 42 quarto leaves (including numerous blanks), formerly bound with a printed exemplum of Spenser's work (1597 edition), in morocco. Early 17th century.
The Nassau, II, 1824, lot 1141. Afterwards in the libraries of Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector (Heber sale, Part IV, 1834, lot 632), and of William Henry Miller, MP (1789-1848), of Britwell Court, Burnham, Buckinghamshire (Britwell sale, 1924, lot 721).
The Teares of the Muses (‘Rehearse to me ye sacred Sisters nine’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 59-79.
SpE 29
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
SpE 30
Copy, including the prose dedication to Lady Strange.
In: the MS described under SpE 13. c.1591.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
SpE 31
Copy, headed ‘Musarum Lachrymae Dominae Strange dedicatae’.
In: the MS described under SpE 20. Mid-17th century.
To the right honourable the Earle of Northumberland (‘The sacred Muses have made alwaies clame’)
First published in The Faerie Queene, Books I-III (London, 1590). Variorum, III, 191.
SpE 32
Copy of Spenser's dedicatory sonnet (in Book III of The Faerie Queene) in a 19th-century hand.
In: An octavo miscellany of verse and prose, in English, Latin and Greek, predominantly in a single hand, with 19th-century additions (pp. 195 onwards, at least partly from earlier MS sources), 279 pages, in contemporary calf. c.1644 (and later).
Inscribed (f. [ir]) ‘William Han: 1644’, probably by the academic compiler.
Virgils Gnat (‘We now haue playde (Augustus) wantonly’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
SpE 33
Copy (including the dedication beginning ‘Wrong'd, yet not daring to expresse my paines’), transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
First published in Complaints (London, 1591); Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
SpE 34
Copy, including the verse dedication to the late Earl of Leicester (beginning ‘Wrong'd, yet not daring to expresse my paine’).
In: the MS described under SpE 13. c.1591.
The Visions of Bellay (‘It was the time, when rest soft sliding downe’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 179-85.
SpE 36
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
The Visions of Petrarch (‘Being one day at my window all alone’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 186-8.
SpE 38
Copy in: Transcript principally of Sir John Davies's Nosce Teipsum, in a single hand, 44 quarto leaves, in modern leather gilt. Mid-17th century.
Among the papers of Lord Robert Montagu, MP, and probably descended from Oliver St John (1598?-1673). Purchased 27 June 1863.
SpE 39
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
Visions of the worlds vanitie (‘One day, whiles that my daylie cares did sleepe’)
First published in Complaints (London, 1591). Variorum, Minor Poems, II, 174-8.
SpE 40
Copy, transcribed from Complaints (London, 1591).
In: the MS described under SpE 12. c.1596-1601.
This MS recorded in Minor Poems, II, 678, 687.
Prose
A Brief Note of Ireland
First published in The Complete Works Verse and Prose of Edmund Spenser, ed. Alexander B. Grosart ([Manchester], 1882-4), I, 537-55. Spenser's authorship of this brief tract is now generally rejected: see Jean Brink's discussion of the MSS in ‘Appropriating the Author of The Faerie Queene: The Attribution of the View of the Present State of Ireland and A Brief Note of Ireland to Edmund Spenser’, in Soundings of Things Done: Essays in Early Modern Literature in Honor of S. K. Heninger, Jr., ed. Peter E. Medine and Joseph Wittreich (Newark, Delaware, 1997), 93-136.
SpE 42
Copy, in the hand of Sir Dudley Carleton (1573-1632), Viscount Dorchester, diplomat, inscribed in a later hand ‘A briefe discourse of Ireland, by Spencer’. 1598.
In: A folio composite volume of state letters and tracts relating to Ireland, in various hands, 280 leaves, in green morocco.
Edited from this MS in Variorum, Prose Works (ed. Rudolf Gottfried), pp. 233-45. Complete facsimile in Jean R. Brink, ‘Appropriating the Author of The Faerie Queene: The Attribution of the View of the Present State of Ireland and A Brief Note of Ireland to Edmund Spenser’, in Soundings of Things Done: Essays in Early Modern Literature in Honor of S. K. Heninger, Jr., ed. Peter E. Medine and Joseph Wittreich (Newark, Delaware, 1997), 93-136 (pp. 117-28).
SpE 43
Copy of part of the third section, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Certaine notes to be considered of in the recoveringe of the Realme of Irelande’. 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.
Facsimile in Jean R. Brink, ‘Appropriating the Author of The Faerie Queene: The Attribution of the View of the Present State of Ireland and A Brief Note of Ireland to Edmund Spenser’, in Soundings of Things Done: Essays in Early Modern Literature in Honor of S. K. Heninger, Jr., ed. Peter E. Medine and Joseph Wittreich (Newark, Delaware, 1997), 93-136 (pp. 134, 136)
SpE 44
Copy of part of the third section, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Certen poinctes to be considered in the recovering of of Ireland’, docketed at the top ‘Spensers discours breifly of Irelande’, on one side of a long ledger-size leaf. Early 17th century.
In: A folio composite volume of state tracts, papers and speeches, in various hands, 215 leaves, in modern morocco gilt.
This MS collated in Variorum. Facsimile in Jean R. Brink, ‘Appropriating the Author of The Faerie Queene: The Attribution of the View of the Present State of Ireland and A Brief Note of Ireland to Edmund Spenser’, in Soundings of Things Done: Essays in Early Modern Literature in Honor of S. K. Heninger, Jr., ed. Peter E. Medine and Joseph Wittreich (Newark, Delaware, 1997), 93-136 (p. 133).
A View of the Present State of Ireland
First published in Sir James Ware, The Historie of Ireland (Dublin, 1633). Variorum, Prose Works (ed. Rudolf Gottfried), pp. 39-231.
Spenser's authorship of this ‘View’ is generally accepted, especially in light of the comparable views about Ireland in The Faerie Queene. A cautionary note about authorship is sounded, however, in Jean R. Brink, ‘Constructing the View of the Present State of Ireland’, Spenser Studies, 11 (1994), 203-28; in her ‘Appropriating the Author of The Faerie Queene: The Attribution of the View of the Present State of Ireland and A Brief Note of Ireland to Edmund Spenser’, in Soundings of Things Done: Essays in Early Modern Literature in Honor of S.K. Heninger, Jr., ed. Peter E. Medine and Joseph Wittreich (Newark, Delaware, 1997), 93-136. See also, inter alia, Andrew Hadfield, ‘Certainties and Uncertainties: By Way of Response to Jean Brink’, Spenser Studies, 12 (1998), 197-202, and Jean R. Brink, ‘Spenser and the Irish Question: Reply to Andrew Hadfield’, Spenser Studies, 13 (1999), 265-6.
SpE 45
Copy, in a professional hand, the tract dated ‘1596’, c.70 folio pages, the title on the wrapper subscribed ‘E. S.’ Early 17th century.
From the archives of the Trumbull family, later Earls of Downshire, of Easthampstead Park, Berkshire. Formerly Berkshire Record Office, Trumbull Add. MS 11(b). Sotheby's, 14 December 1989, lot 233.
SpE 45.5
Brief notes from the printed edition of 1633.
In: A small octavo composite notebook, in a small cursive hand, in Lation and English, 219 leaves, in 19th-century half morocco. Compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735), Bishop of St Asaph, ecclesiastical historian, scholar and book collector, in preparation for his Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (1748). Early 18th century.
Donated by John Loveday.
SpE 46
Copy, closely written in a non-professional secretary hand, iv + 64 leaves (plus five blanks), in quarter-calf marbled boards. With a lengthy title-page (f. ivr), ‘Ireland's survey, or A Historical Dialogue & View of ancient & modern times...with many other matters...worthy of observation to ye Judicious Reader...’ and headed (f. 1r) ‘A View of ye prsent state of Ireland, by way of Dialogue’. 1596-early 17th century.
Among the collections of Richard Gough, FSA (1735-1809), antiquary and topographer, and inscribed by him (f. 1r) ‘R. G. ex lib. G. Scott, 1781’.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 47
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, on 115 quarto leaves, in contemporary vellum, traces of green silk ties. Entitled (f. ir) ‘A discourse touching the prsent state of Ireland wrytten dialoug wise by mr Edmunde Spenser Ao 1596’ and then headed ‘A Vewe of the prsente state of Ireland discoursed by waye of a dialogue betwene Eudoxus and Irenius’. Prepared for intended publication in 1598; with a note at the end from the Warden of the Stationer's Company to the Secretary, ‘Mr. Collinges I pray enter this Copie for mathew Lownes to be prynted when he do bringe other authorytie. Thomas Man’. c.1596-98.
Inscribed names on front pastedown of ‘Johes: panton Lincoln’ and ‘Richard Bagnett his Booke’ and, on f. 1r, ‘Jo: Panton 1596’.
Entered in the Stationers' Register under the date 14 April 1598. This MS collated in Variorum. Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 42. Edited from this MS in Rudolf Brand Gottfried, ‘A View of the Present State of Ireland by Edmund Spenser: The Text of Bodleian MS Rawlinson B 478’: see Dissertation Abstracts International, 49, No. 7 (January 1989), p. 1809A.
SpE 48
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, 94 leaves, slightly imperfect, in leather gilt. c.1596-early 17th century.
Signature (f. 1r) of Sir Arthur Chichester (1563-1625), Lord-Deputy of Ireland in 1604-13. Payne & Foss's sale catalogues in 1843, item 219; 1845, item 154; and, 1 May 1857, item 349.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 49
Copy, in a single professional hand up to the penultimate leaf, the last page (f. 97r) in another secretary hand, possibly replacing a lost leaf in the MS and dated at the foot ‘10 die Maij. ao dni 1598’. c.1598.
In: A quarto composite volume of MS and printed tracts relating to Ireland, in four hands, 108 leaves, in modern quarter crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 51
Formal copy, in a professional secretary hand, with frequent engrossed lettering, with a preliminary rubric headed ‘The effecte of the discourse’, subscribed ‘Lately made by E. S.’ and dated ‘1596’, 53 folio leaves, in modern half morocco gilt. 1596-early 17th century.
SpE 52
Copy, closely written on 86 quarto leaves (plus 25 blanks), in reversed calf. In at least three secretary hands, subscribed ‘Finis. 1596. E. S.’ 1596-early 17th century.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 53
Copy, on 100 quarto leaves, in a single predminantly secretary hand, subscribed ‘Finis Anno Dni: 1590’. 1596-early 17th century.
In: A small quarto volume comprising two tracts bound together, in different hands, rebound in modern quarter-calf on marbled boards.
The old cover inscribed ‘Geo Davenport 1652’.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 53.5
Copy, on 109 folio leaves of vellum, in contemporary velvet. In a professional secretary hand, with an elaborate title-page, ‘A veiw and perfect Discouerie / of the presente state of Irelande [...&c.]’, incorporating a partly engrossed dedication ‘To the moste excellent / highe and mightie prince James: by Gods / especiall grace, Kinge of Englande, / Scotland, ffraunce and Ireland, / my. moste gratious, and / dreade soueraigne’. c.1604-6.
SpE 54
Copy, in at least two secretary hands, apparently transcribed from SpE 63, subscribed ‘Ao. Di. 1597’.
In: A thick folio volume of state letters and tracts, a number relating to Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, in several largely secretary hands, 271 leaves, in contemporary calf (rebacked). Early 1600s.
Inscribed (front pastedown) ‘Die veneris. Julij: 1o 1601. per me Richardu Greenen’ and ‘Thomas Scott’; (f. 3r) ‘G. Scott’; (f. 271v) ‘Thomas Scott’, ‘Thomas Payne’, ‘Willm Scott’. Bookplate ‘Ex Libris Chambrun-Longworth’. Formerly Folger MS 6185.1
This volume discussed in James G. McManaway, ‘Elizabeth, Essex, and James’, in Elizabethan and Jacobean Studies Presented to Frank Percy Wilson (Oxford, 1959), pp. 219-30 (p. 221 et seq.).
Formerly Folger MS 6185. Collated in Variorum.
SpE 55
Copy, in one or more secretary hands, 198 quarto pages, in contemporary vellum. Docketed on the first page of text ‘This booke was written by Edward [corrected in black ink to Edmund] Spencer Clarke of the Counsell of the province of Monster in Ireland in ano 1596’. 1596-early 17th century.
Given by William Moore.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 56
Copy; in a single secretary hand, iv + 63 quarto leaves, together with the anonymous ‘A Breviate of ye Getting of Irelande and the Decaye of the same’ in another secretary hand on i + 25 leaves at the reverse end, in contemporary limp vellum. 1596-early 17th century.
Once owned by Richard Towneley (1629-1707), of Towneley Hall, near Burnley, Lancashire. Later owned by William Horatio Crawford, of Lakelands, Cork, 19th-century book collector, and by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. (1906-90), American businessman and collector. Christie's, 11-12 June 1980 (Houghton sale Part II), lot 440, to H.D. Lyon.
Collated in Variorum. Recorded in De Ricci, Supplement, p. 201. A set of negative photocopies is in the Folger, PR 1405 87.
SpE 57
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, 94 quarto leaves (including fourteen pages of notes), in contemporary limp vellum. c.1596-1600s.
Frank B. Benger, Leatherhead, Surrey, sale catalogue 10 (1940s?), item 1. Later owned by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr (1906-90), American businessman and collector. Christie's, 12 June 1980 (Houghton sale, Part II), lot 441, to Clarke, with a facsimile of the first page in the sale catalogue as Plate 40, facing p. 116.
SpE 58
Copy, on iii + 95 quarto leaves (varying slightly in size), in contemporary limp vellum gilt, with traces of ties. Closely written in a single secretary hand, with a title-page in italic and secretary scripts added later, ‘A vewe of the present / state of Irelande, / discoursed / by way of a dialogue / betweene / Eudoxius & Irenius / E. S.’, and with a now separated index in a different cursive secretary hand on two conjugate quarto leaves. c.1596-early 1600s.
Edited from this MS in Variorum. The cockatrice watermark illustrated in Jean R. Brink, ‘Appropriating the Author of The Faerie Queene: The Attribution of the View of the Present State of Ireland and A Brief Note of Ireland to Edmund Spenser’, in Soundings of Things Done: Essays in Early Modern Literature in Honor of S. K. Heninger, Jr., ed. Peter E. Medine and Joseph Wittreich (Newark, Delaware, 1997), 93-136 (p. 98).
SpE 59
Copy, in several professional secretary hands, subscribed ‘finys 1596: E: S:’, 111 quarto leaves, in contemporary limp vellum. 1596-early 17th century.
This MS collated in Variorum.
SpE 60
Copy, in a single professional secretary hand but for a title dated ‘Ano. Eliz. 39.’ [1596/7] (f. iir) in other hands, subscribed ‘finis 1597 :E: S:’, with addition ‘phaps Edmund Spenser’, iv + 100 quarto leaves, in contemporary limp vellum gilt. c.1597-1625.
Inscriptions including (f. iir) ‘Covel's writing’, (f. ivr) ‘Bartho: ?Tanham’ or ‘?Canham’, ‘?J. C L’, and ‘? yesecyke Anno: Domine / 1625’. Later No. 74 in the library of the Rev. Dr Cox Macro (1683-1767), antiquary. Afterwards owned by John Henry Gurney, MP (1819-90), of Keswick Hall, Norfolk, banker, politician and ornithologist.
Recorded in HMC, 12th Report, Appendix IX (1891), p. 123. Collated in Variorum. Facsimile of the last page in Sotheby's sale catalogue, 31 March 1936, lot 200.
SpE 61
Copy, in a single professional secretary hand, unascribed. c.1596-early 17th century.
In: the MS described under SpE 42.
Edited from this MS in Grosart and in Variorum.
A pencil transcript probably of this MS, made by or for Caesar Litton Falkiner (1863-1908), is preserved at Trinity College, Dublin (MS 1789).
SpE 62
Copy, in a single secretary hand, unascribed, subscribed ‘Finis 1596’, 141 folio pages, the first leaf imperfect, in half-vellum marbled boards. c.1596-early 17th century.
Owned by James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, scholar. Formerly MS E.3.26.
Edited from this MS in Ware's edition of 1633. Collated in Variorum.
SpE 63
Copy in six or seven cursive secretary hands, on 76 folio pages (pp. 23-6, 59-68 of slightly smaller size), possibly a rapidly produced piecemeal production, disbound. 1597-early 17th century.
Once owned by Sir Henry St George (1581-1644), Garter King of Arms. Bought in 1852 by Sir Thomas Phillipps (part of Phillipps MS 13761). Hofmann & Freeman, sale catalogue 21, item 80. A set of photocopies is in the British Library, RP 207.
SpE 63.5
In a single secretary hand, but for the heading in italic: ‘This booke here followinge (called A veiwe of the present state of Ireland) was made by mr Spencer, in the time that Sr Willm Russell knight was lord deputie of Irelande [i.e. Sir William Russell (c.1558-1613), Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1594-7]. Anno domini [no date]/ A veiwe of the prsente state of Ireland discoursed by waye of A Dialogue betweene Eudoxus & Irenivs’.
In: A folio volume of state and religious tracts and letters, chiefly relating to Ireland, in various predominantly secretary hands, c.240 pages, in contemporary vellum, worn. c.early 1600s.
Inscribed on p. 1 ‘Anne Holland Booke’ [possibly the daughter of Richard Holland (c.1598-1661), lawyer and MP in Lancashire, and wife of Edward Kenyon (c.1630-68), rector of Prestwich near Manchester]. Later owned by Lloyd Tyrell-Kenyon (1917-93), fifth Baron Kenyon, of Gredington, Shropshire, President of the National Portrait Gallery, and then by Martin Schoyen, of Oslo and London, manuscript collector (his MS 2198). Quaritch's sale catalogue (Summer 1996), item 24.
A microfilm of this volume is in the British Library, RP 6317.
SpE 64
A précis of Spenser's arguments, in a small neat secretary hand, headed ‘Spensers discourse of Ireland termed Irelands good’ and beginning ‘1. The cause of Tyrons and the rests Rebellion in Ulster was the new Countyinge of Monahon…’
In: An octavo miscellany of ecclesiastical, legal and political tracts and notes, with later additions, 103 pages (plus some blanks), in contemporary vellum. Early 17th century [to 1788].
Once owned by Thomas Smethurst and, later, by Thomas Madocks, mariner. Owned in 1713-88 by William Billington, of Preston Gubbals, Shropshire, son of John Billington. Scribbling on pastedown and flyleaves also including the name ‘Anne Pilling’. Later purchased from John Salkeld by A.F. Norwood. Donated in 1974 by E.R. Lewis.
Printed Books and Manuscripts Owned or Inscribed by Spenser
Lotichius, Petrus. Poëmata (Leipzig, 1576)
SpE 64.5
Printed exemplum once bound with SpE 65 and SpE 64.8 and probably also once owned by Spenser.
More, Sir Thomas. La Description de l'Isle d'Vtopie ov est comprins le Miroer des republicques du monde [trans. Jean le Blond] (Paris, 1550)
See HvG 131.
Sabinus, Georgius. Poemata (Leipzig, [1563?])
SpE 64.8
An octavo printed volume, formerly bound with an exemplum of Poëmata Petri Lotichii II (see SpE 65 and SpE 64.5) in 18th-century sheepskin, now in modern quarter red morocco on marbled boards. This volume bears on the title-page Spenser's motto ‘Immerito’ and the last blank leaf (now separated as Folger, MS X.d.520) bears Spenser's autograph copies of a letter and two Latin poems.
The title-page inscribed ‘Donu amiciss. viri Johannis Capelli’. Label of J. Fazakerley of Eton, 1773. Also label of Coxe (sale by King, July 1816). Formerly Folger MS 1752.1.
Discussed in Lee Piepho, ‘Spenser's Books’, TLS, 5 January 2001, p. 15.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene (London, 1590)
See SpE 1.
Turler, Jerome. The Traveiler...divided into two Bookes. The first conteyning a notable discourse of the maner and order of traveiling oversea, or into straunge and forein Countreys. The second comprehending an excellent description of the most delicious Realme of Naples in Italy (London, [1575])
See HvG 162.
Miscellaneous
Document(s)
*SpE 65
Transcript in Spenser's italic hand, of a letter in Latin from Erhardus Stibarus to Erasmus Neustetter, from Monte Pesentano, 1553, and of two Latin poems, ‘Joannes de Sylva ad Lotichium’ and ‘Fr. Artifex Athensis’, on a single leaf. Originally blank leaf sig. m8 in a printed exemplum of Georgius Sabinus, Poemata (Leipzig, [1571]) (see SpE 64.8) and now separate, the top edge slightly cropped.
Facsimiles in IELM, I.ii (1980), Facsimile XXX (p. 525), and in Heather Wolfe, The Pen's Excellencie (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 131. Edited and discussed with facsimiles in Lee Piepho, ‘Edmund Spenser and Neo-Latin Literature: An Autograph Manuscript on Petrus Lotichius and His Poetry’, SP, 100 (2003), 123-34.
Commendatory verses on Spenser
SpE 66
MS of a fourteen-line commendatory poem on The Faerie Queene, headed ‘Will: Justice:’, beginning ‘I thought no lesse but that some power divine’, and subscribed ‘Upon the Author At his bookes of the ffayery Queenes first comeinge to the presse, written by a prissoner’.
In: Unbound folder of MS verse. Collected by David Laing (1793-1878), Scottish antiquary, collector and librarian.
Edited and discussed, with a facsimile, in Joseph Black, ‘“Pan is Hee”: Commending The Faerie Queene’, Spenser Studies, 15 (2001), 121-34, where it is suggested that the author might be the poet Thomas Watson (1555/6-92). This attribution is supported in D. Allen Carroll, ‘Thomas Watson and the 1588 MS Commendation of The Faerie Queene: Reading the Rebuses’, Spenser Studies, 16 (2002), 104-24, with another facsimile on p. 118.
SpE 67
A six-line commendatory poem, beginning ‘Heroicke Muse (Distyld from Joue aboue’, inscribed in an italic hand at the foot of p. 600 of an exemplum of The Faerie Queene (London, 1590). c.1600.
Edited and discussed, with facsimiles in A.E. Coldiron, ‘The Widow's Mite and the Value of Praise: Commendatory Verses and an Unrecorded Marginal Poem in LSU's Copy of The Faerie Qveene 1590’, Spenser Studies, 21 (2006), 109-31.
Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse concerning Edmund Spenser
One of the earliest critiques of Spenser, beginning ‘Whosoever will deliver a well grounded opinion and censure of any learned man...’. First published in E.W. Bligh, Sir Kenelm Digby and his Venetia (London, 1932), pp. 277-80.
SpE 68
Digby's autograph MS of the tract, ‘That I wrote att Mr [Thpmas] May his desire’, with deletions and revisions, untitled.
In: A tall folio composite volume of papers of Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-65), natural philosopher and courtier, in various hands and paper sizes, 205 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco. Mid-late 17th century.
Volume XLIV of the Middleton Papers, acquired by the descendants of Dr Owen Wynne (fl.1680s), clerk in the Secretary of State's office.
SpE 69
Copy in: A small quarto volume of tracts and papers, in a professional semi-calligraphic secretary hand, with rubrication, 143 leaves, bound with Harley MS 7375, in modern black morocco gilt. c.1630.
Sir Kenelm Digby's Observations on the 22 Stanza in the 9th. Canto of the 2d. book of Spensers Faery Queen
One of the earliest commentaries on The Faerie Queene, including quotations, dated 13 June 1628, addressed to Sir Edward Stradling, and beginning ‘My much honored freind, I am too well acquainted with the weaknes of my abillities...’. First published in London, 1643. Variorum, II, 472-8.
SpE 70
Copy, headed ‘A learned exposition of certaine of Spencers verses written by sir Kenelme Digby...’. Early 17th century.
In: A folio volume of state tracts, in various hands, 209 leaves.
One of the volumes donated in 1727 by Thomas Perrott, of St John's College, Oxford.
SpE 71
Copy in: A folio volume of letters and state papers, in various professional hands, one secretary hand predominating, with a table of contents, 354 leaves, in black leather gilt. c.1630s.
SpE 72
Copy in: A quarto volume of state letters, in several hands, 543 pages, in calf gilt. Mid-17th century.
Once owned by John Hopkinson (1610-80), Yorkshire antiquary, of Lofthouse, near Leeds, and comprising Volume 44 of the Hopkinson MSS. Signed bookplate of Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), book collector, of Eshton Hall, West Yorkshire. Subsequently owned by her step-father Matthew Wilson.
This volume (when unnumbered) recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 300.
SpE 73
Copy in: A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in several professional secretary hands, with (ff. 1r-12v) a ‘Tabula’ of contents, 315 leaves (including blanks), in old calf gilt.
Stamped crest on the cover of the Finch family, Earls of Winchilsea.
SpE 74
Copy in: A quarto miscellany of verse and some prose, predominantly in a single secretary hand, written from both ends, 179 leaves, in 19th-century half blue morocco gilt. c.1640s.
Inscribed (f. 179r) ‘This is Sr. Thomas Meres [or ? Maiors] Book’: i.e. probably Sir Thomas Meres (1634-1715), of Kirton, Lincolnshire. Later bookplate of the Rev. John Curtis. Purchased from Mrs Ann Austin Curtis 12 October 1889.
SpE 75
Copy in: A folio composite volume of state letters, in vavious professional hands, 194 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. Early-mid-17th century.
SpE 76
Copy, 15 folio leaves, bound (as ff. 280r-94r) with Sloane MSS 15-19. Mid-17th century.
SpE 77
Copy, headed ‘Sr Kenelm Digbys remarks on Spencers Fairy Queen’, on 13 quarto leaves, bound with Harley MS 4153. c.1630.
SpE 77.5
Copy, on 27 pages.
In: A composite volume of twenty tracts, in 19th-century half-calf.
Not available for examination for conservation reasons.
SpE 78
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, subscribed ‘Kenelme Digby’ and dated 13 January 1628[/9]. c.1629-32.
In: A folio composite volume of state tracts and letters, in various hands and paper sizes, 257 leaves (plus blanks), in 19th-century diced calf gilt. Volume 8 of the papers of Sir John Eliot (1592-1632), politician, and partly in his hand.
Among the papers of the Eliot family, Earls of St Germans, of Port Eliot, Cornwall.
Recorded (as Vol. 1) in HMC, 1st Report (1870), Appendix, p. 42.
SpE 79
Copy in: A folio volume of state letters, in several professional secretary hands, with a lengthy ‘Tabula’ of contents, xxx + 558 pages, in old vellum boards. c.1637.
Recorded in HMC, 6th Report, Part I (1877), p. 306.
SpE 80
Copy, headed ‘Sr: Kenelme Digbies Letter to Sr: Edward Stradlinge...abord his shipp’, on 26 pages.
In: A quarto volume of state letters, in a single professional hand, xxvi + c.955 pages (misnumbered around pp. 895-6), including a table of contents (and plus numerous blanks), in contemporary calf gilt, remains of ties. c.1630s.
SpE 81
Copy, headed ‘Sr Kenolme Digby to Sr Ed: Stradling...’ [etc.], subscribed ‘Kellam Digbie’.
In: A folio volume of state letters and papers, in several professional secretary hands, 1050 pages (plus a 24-page ‘Tabula’ of contents at the end), in calf. c.1630s.
Formerly MS F. 2. 20.
First published in London, 1643; the text is printed in Variorum, II, 472-8.
SpE 82
Copy in: A folio volume of transcripts of state letters, in a single professional hand, 209 pages plus a three-page table of contents, in vellum. c.1630s.
Later owned by the antiquary Michael Lort (1725-90). Bookplate of Edmund Turner. Sotheby's, 24 October 1972, lot 383, to Alan Thomas.
SpE 83
Copy in: A small quarto volume of state letters and papers, in a single secretary hand, 704 pages, in quarter-calf boards. With a letter by James Gairdner (1828-1912), historian, returning this volume to Edward William Cox (1809-79), lawyer and publisher, 20 January 1886. Mid-17th century.
Gift of Mr Roland L. Redmond, 1942.
Supplement of The Faerie Queene
Unpublished.
SpE 84
MS of an anonymous ‘Supplement of The Faery Queene in three Bookes. Wherein are allegorically described Affaires both military and ciuill of these times’, with a dedication probably to Charles I, in an italic hand, in nine ‘Bookes’, subscribed ‘This was finished Anno Dni. 1633’, 376 folio leaves, some pages excised, in modern quarter-calf marbled boards. Written apparently by Ralph Knevett (1600-71). c.1635.
Tresham letter
SpE 85
Autograph letter signed by Sir Thomas Tresham, to a Catholic friend, about Spenser's Mother Hubberds Tale, 19 March 1591. 1591.
Discussed in Richard Peterson, ‘Spurting Froth upon Courtiers’, TLS (16 May 1997). Edited and discussed, with facsimiles, in Richard Peterson, ‘Laurel Crown and Ape's Tail: New Light on Spenser's Career from Sir Thomas Tresham’, Spenser Studies, 12 (1998), 1-35.
Readers' Annotated Exempla of Spenser's Works
The Faerie Queene (London, 1590)
SpE 86
Containing copious notes, comments and glosses on the allegorical significance of the poem written probably in 1597 by John Dixon of Hilden, near Tonbridge, Kent. c.1590.
The annotations are edited by Graham Hough in The First Commentary on The Faerie Queene (privately printed, 1964) and selections also published in TLS (9 April 1964,), p. 294.
SpE 87
Containing annotations by Sir Thomas Posthumous Hobby (1566-1641). Late 16th-early 17th century.
Discussed in the anonymous ‘MS Notes to Spenser's “Faerie Queene”’, N & Q, 202 (December 1957), 509-15, and in Alastair Fowler, ‘Oxford and London Marginalia to “The Faerie Queene”’, N & Q, 206 (November 1961), 416-18.
SpE 88
Early annotations in a printed exemplum. c.1590s-early 17th century.
Discussed in the anonymous ‘MS Notes to Spenser's “Faerie Queene”’, N&Q, 202 (December 1957), 509-15, and in Alastair Fowler, ‘Oxford and London Marginalia to “The Faerie Queene”’, N&Q, 206 (November 1961), 416-18.
SpE 89
Early annotations in a printed exemplum. c.1590s-early 17th century.
Discussed in the anonymous ‘MS Notes to Spenser's “Faerie Queene”’, N&Q, 202 (December 1957), 509-15, and in Alastair Fowler, ‘Oxford and London Marginalia to “The Faerie Queene”’, N&Q, 206 (November 1961), 416-18.
SpE 90
Printed exemplum owned and inscribed by Sir Edward Hoby (1560-1617), diplomat, with some annotations. c.1590.
Also ownership inscription of A.H. Eccles, of Brasenose College, Oxford, 1765. Sotheby's, 24 July 1995, lot 36.
Photocopies of eight pages are in the British Library, RP 6030.
The Faerie Queene (London, 1596)
SpE 91
Containing a reader's annotations. c.1596-early 17th century.
Discussed in the anonymous ‘MS Notes to Spenser's “Faerie Queene”’, N & Q, 202 (December 1957), 509-15, and in Alastair Fowler, ‘Oxford and London Marginalia to “The Faerie Queene”’, N& Q, 206 (November 1961), 416-18.
SpE 92
Containing copious contemporary manuscript annotations in an unidentified hand. c.1600.
Later owned by Charles Wesley (1707-88), founder of Methodism.
Recorded in BC, 15 (Summer 1966), p. 159.
SpE 93
A printed exemplum, with a reader's annotations in a mixed hand, subscribed ‘G. T.’ First half of 17th century.
The annotations discussed in A.P. Riemer, ‘An Annotated Copy of The Faerie Queene’, Sydney Studies in English, 9 (1983-4), 107-8.
The Faerie Queen [&c.] (London, 1617)
SpE 94
A folio with MS annotations in Latin. 1617.
Discussed in the anonymous ‘MS Notes to Spenser's “Faerie Queene”’, N & Q, 202 (December 1957), 509-15, and in Alastair Fowler, ‘Oxford and London Marginalia to “The Faerie Queene”’, N & Q, 206 (November 1961), 416-18.
SpE 95
A printed exemplum containing copious annotations by Ben Jonson. 1617.
Once owned by the Dering family, baronets, of Surrenden, Kent. Puttick & Simpson's, 13 July 1865 (Dering sale, 3rd day), lot 754. Sold by Quaritch in 1980.
Extensively discussed and illustrated in James A. Riddell and Stanley Stewart, Jonson's Spenser: Evidence and Historical criticism (Pittsburgh, 1995); and see also their ‘Jonson Reads “The Ruines of Time”’, SP, 87 (1990) 427-55. The Wormesley Library (Maggs Bros & Pierpont Morgan Library, 1999), No. 42.
SpE 96
An exemplum once owned and annotated by Ralegh's wife, Bess Throckmorton (1565-1647) and by their son, Carew (1605-66). Later owned by Sir Walter Oakeshott, FBA (1903-87), Oxford college head. Mid-late 17th century.
Discussed in Walter Oakeshott, ‘Carew Ralegh's Copy of Spenser’, The Library, 5th Ser. 26 (1971), 1-21, although the claim that pencil notes against passages referring to Ralegh (illustrated in the article) were probably made by Ralegh himself is untenable.
SpE 97
Exemplum of the printed edition of 1617 with a series of annotations in margins and on interleaves, as well as a MS account of Spenser, in the hand of James Callander (c.1721-89), Scottish antiquary. c.1749.
The title-page inscribed with the name John Hope (possibly Lord Craighall). Bookplate of Sir JamesColquhoun of Luss. Quaritch's sale catalogue of English Books, April 2010, item 69, with a facsimile example.
Works (London, 1611)
SpE 98
Containing annotations by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor. Mid-late 18th century.
Discussed in John Manning, ‘Notes and Marginalia in Bishop Percy's Copy of Spenser's Works (1611)’, N&Q, 229 (June 1984), 225-7.
Works (London, 1677)
SpE 99
Exemplum of the 1677 edition of Spenser's works owned and annotated by Matthew Prior (1664-1721), poet and diplomat. Late 17th century.
Discussed in William Leigh Godschalk, ‘Prior's Copy of Spenser's Works (1677)’, PBSA, 61 (1967), 52-5.
Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Spenser
Extracts
SpE 100
Extracts from Spenser's works, including the ten dedicatory sonnets as well as most of the commendatory verses in The Faerie Queene, extracts from Book I, Canto 1, and Gurney's verse comments on this and Spenser's Complaints.
In: A small folio volume of estate and personal records and of verse written by Henry Gurney (1549-1616), lord of the Manor of Great Ellingham, Norfolk, including his comments on other writers and inventory of his books, ii + 239 leaves. c.1570s-1608.
This MS discussed in Steven W. May, ‘Henry Gurney, A Norfolk Farmer, Reads Spenser and Others’, Spenser Studies, 20 (2005), 183-223.
SpE 101
Copy in: A quarto volume entitled ‘Miscellany Poems, By Severall Hands. Collected by B. Cumberlege’, in various hands or styles of script, with occasional pen-and-ink drawings and use of coloured inks, xiv + 195 pages, including a table of contents, in later calf. c.1703.
Bookplate of Frederick Lewis Gay, of Brookline, Massachusetts, 1916.
SpE 102
Extracts, headed ‘Verses taken out of Mr Edmond Spenser's works’.
In: A large quarto miscellany of verse extracts, comprising 182 entries, in a single cursive hand varying in style, 115 unnumbered leaves (plus 26 blanks), in contemporary calf. Entitled (f. [1r]) ‘A Collection of Miscellany Poems from the Greatest Poets, both Ancient and Modern That i have Read, & here place for my own entertainment, to diuert Malincolly Thoughts, & to assist My Memory, That was neuer Good at no Time:’. Late-17th century.
From the library at Newburgh Priory, Yorkshire.
SpE 103
Extracts, including from The Faerie Queene and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, on numerous pages throughout the volume.
In: An octavo commonplace book, with entries under headings, in a single cursive hand, 512 pages (plus numerous blanks), in vellum boards. c.1705.