MS 266
Copy, possibly in two hands, lacking the dedicatory epistles, with a late-17th-century reader's note ascribing the work to John Harris, 119 quarto pages (plus blanks), in leather. Early 17th century.
MrT 79: Sir Thomas More, Ro. Ba.'s Life of Sir Thomas More
This MS collated in Hitchcock & Hallett and described, pp. xv-xvi.
A life of More written in 1599, possibly by Robert Basset (1574-1641), of Devon, a zealous Catholic and kinsman of More: see Andrew Breeze, ‘Sir Robert Basset and The Life of Syr Thomas More’, N&Q, 249 (September 2004), 263. The work first published in Christopher Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (London, 1839). Edited, as The Lyfe of Syr Thomas More Sometymes Lord Chancellor of England, by Elsie Vaughan Hitchcock and P.E. Hallett (EETS, London, 1950).
MS 270
A folio volume of historical tracts, in several secretary hands, 167 pages, in modern purple calf. c.1609-20s.
Bequeathed by Dr George Coningsby, 1766.
pp. 1-146
• CvG 5: George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey
Copy, headed ‘The Life of Cardinal Wolsey written by Mr Banister his gentlem-ushr’, subscribed ‘Vpon the 30th day of June towards the evening in ye yeere of Christ. 1609. I began to copie out this booke, & vpon the 0. 3. day of July next following I ended it. R b' t Sprakeling’.
First published in George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Visions, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 2 vols (Chiswick, 1825). The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, EETS, orig. ser. 243 (London, New York and Toronto, 1959).
pp. 151-2
• RaW 825: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)
Copy of a letter by Ralegh, to James I, 1603.
pp. 165-7
• RaW 739: Sir Walter Ralegh, Speech on the Scaffold (29 October 1618)
Copy, headed ‘The tenor of Sir Wat. Raleigh his speech at his death’.
Transcripts of Ralegh's speech have been printed in his Remains (London, 1657). Works (1829), I, 558-64, 691-6. VIII, 775-80, and elsewhere. Copies range from verbatim transcripts to summaries of the speech, they usually form part of an account of Ralegh's execution, they have various headings, and the texts differ considerably. For a relevant discussion, see Anna Beer, ‘Textual Politics: The Execution of Sir Walter Ralegh’, MP, 94/1 (August 1996), 19-38.
MS 336
A quarto notebook in Latin and English, in a single neat hand, written from both ends, 35 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt. Compiled by Nicholas Crouch (c.1618-90), bursar of Balliol College and notary. Late 17th century.
f. 7r
• PsK 351.5: Katherine Philips, Syndænia (‘Soe to be good, that all men shall confesse’)
Copy.
Edited from this MS in Sant & Brown. Discussed. with a facsimile, in Elizabeth H. Hageman and Andrea Sununu, ‘“More Copies of it abroad than I could have imagin'd”: Further Manuscript Texts of Katherine Philips, the “Matchless Orinda”’, EMS, 5 (1995), 127-69 (pp. 132-5).
First published in Patricia M. Sant and James N. Brown, ‘Two Unpublished Poems by Katherine Philips’, ELR, 24, No. 1 (Winter 1994), 211-28 (p. 226).
ff. 7v-8v
• PsK 214.5: Katherine Philips, Lucasia (‘Not to obleige Lucasia by my voice’)
Copy, untitled, with the name ‘Syndænia’ throughout in place of ‘Lucasia’.
This MS recorded in Sant & Brown. Also discussed in Elizabeth H. Hageman and Andrea Sununu, ‘“More Copies of it abroad than I could have imagin'd”: Further Manuscript Texts of Katherine Philips, the “Matchless Orinda”’, EMS, 5 (1995), 127-69 (pp. 132-5).
First published in Poems (1664), pp. 64-8. Poems (1667), pp. 34-5. Saintsbury, pp. 527-8. Thomas, I, 103-5, poem 27.
f. 9r-v
• PsK 217.5: Katherine Philips, ‘Mad: I doe not these few Lines indite’
Copy, untitled.
Edited from this MS in Sant & Brown. Facsimile in Elizabeth H. Hageman and Andrea Sununu, ‘“More Copies of it abroad than I could have imagin'd”: Further Manuscript Texts of Katherine Philips, the “Matchless Orinda”’, EMS, 5 (1995), 127-69 (p. 134).
First published in Patricia M. Sant and James N. Brown, ‘Two Unpublished Poems by Katherine Philips’, ELR, 24, No. 1 (Winter 1994), 211-28 (pp. 227-8).
f. 10r
• PsK 496: Katherine Philips, To the Right Honobl. Alice, Countess of Carberry, at her enriching Wales with her presence (‘Madam, / As when the first day dawn'd, man's greedy ey’)
Copy, headed ‘To Alicia Count: of Carbery Coming into Wales’.
This MS collated in Thomas, where it is suggested (I, 46) that Crouch's source was probably Francis Finch (‘Palaemon’), who was for a time a gentleman commoner of Balliol. Recorded in Sant & Brown.
First published in Poems (1664), pp. 31-3. Poems (1667), pp. 16-17. Saintsbury, pp. 516-17. Thomas, I, 84-5, poem 13.
ff. 10v-11r
• PsK 243: Katherine Philips, On Mr Francis Finch (the excellent Palemon) (‘This is confest presumption. for had I’)
Copy, headed ‘In nobilem Palæmonem’.
This MS collated in Thomas, where it is suggested (I, 46) that Crouch's source was probably Francis Finch (‘Palaemon’), who was for a time a gentleman commoner of Balliol. Also collated in Mambretti's 1979 dissertation and recorded in Sant & Brown.
First published in Poems (1664), pp. 146-50. Poems (1667), pp. 72-3. Saintsbury, pp. 549-50. Thomas, I, 143-5, poem 52.
f. 14r
• SeC 49: Sir Charles Sedley, To Celia (‘As in those Nations, where they yet adore’)
Copy, headed ‘On Mrs. Mar: Nappe’, subscribed ‘Sr. Ch: sidley’.
First published in The New Academy of Complements (London, 1671). Miscellaneous Works (London, 1702). The Works of the Honourable Sir Charles Sedley, Bat (2 vols, London, 1722), I, 62-3. Sola Pinto, I, 22.
MS 354
A memorandum book and miscellany, in long narrow ledger-format, in neat secretary hands, partly rubricated, 248 (plus eight unnumbered) leaves, imperfect at the end, in contemporary vellum. Entitled ‘A Boke of dyueris tales and balettes and dyuersis Reconynges &c.’ and inscribed ‘Iste liber pertineth Rycardo Hill, servant with M. Wynger, alderman of London’. Compiled largely by Richard Hill (b.c.1490), citizen and grocer of London, free of the Company of Merchant Adventurers. c.1520.
A deleted inscription (p. 178) ‘Iste liber partinet John Stokes’. Notes on farming matters dated 1731 including the name ‘Robert Tombs’.
ff. 104r-6r
• MrT 2: Sir Thomas More, Fortune Verses
Copy of More's verses on Fortune (in 37 stanzas), headed ‘The words of ffortune to ye people’.
Edited from this MS in Songs, Carols, and other Miscellaneous Poems, ed. Roman Dyboski, EETS, ES 101 (London, 1907-8), pp. 72-80, and primarily from this MS in Yale, Vol. I, with a facsimile of f. 104r on p. 30.
The Fortune Verses first published, in a 313-line version, including a ‘Prologue’ beginning ‘As often as I consydre, these old noble clerkes’; ‘The wordes of Fortune to ye people’ beginning ‘Myne high estate power & auctoryte’; ‘To them that tristith in ffortune’ beginning ‘Thow that arte prowde of honour, shape or kynne’, and ‘To them that seketh ffortune’ beginning ‘Who so deliteth to prove & assay’, in The Boke of the fayre Gentylwoman...Lady Fortune (London, [1556?]). Yale, Vol. 1, pp. 31-43. The texts of this poem are also discussed in Hubertus Schulte Herbrüggen, ‘Sir Thomas Mores Fortuna-Verse’, Lebende Antike Symposion für Rudolf Sühnel (Berlin, 1967), 155-72.
ff. 175r-6r
• MrT 3: Sir Thomas More, The Lamyntacyon off Quene Elyzabeth (‘Ye that put your trust & confydence’)
Copy.
Edited from this MS in Songs, Carols, and other Miscellaneous Poems, ed. Roman Dyboski, EETS, ES 101 (London, 1907-8), pp. 97-9.
First published, as A ruful lamentacyon, in Workes (London, 1557). Yale, Vol. 1, pp. 9-13.
ff. 199v-200r
• DuW 181: William Dunbar, To the City of London (‘London, thou art of townes A per se’)
Copy, headed ‘ye treatise of London made at Mr. Shaa table when he was mayre’.
Edited from this MS in Songs, Carols, and other Miscellaneous Poems, ed. Roman Dyboski, EETS ES 101 (London, 1907-8), pp. 100-2. The text corrected from this MS in Mackenzie (pp. 230-1).
Mackenzie, No. 88, pp. 177-8.
700.a.20 (1)
Autograph annotations and marginalia.
*HvG 167: Gabriel Harvey, [Von Hutten, Ulrich, et al.]. Duo Volumina Epistolarum Obscurorum Virorum, ad D.M. Ortui Gratium, Attico lepore referta; denuo excusa & a mendis repurgata ([Rome], 1570)
Stern, p. 238.
700. a.20(2)
Autograph annotations and marginalia.
*HvG 24: Gabriel Harvey, [Anon.]. De generibus ebriosorum, et ebrietate vitanda [n.p., n.d.]
Stern, p. 240.
PRT. 670. a. 13
A composite volume of five printed almanacs, includings almanacs by Gresham (1603) and by Dove (1637 and 1640), the volume also containing notes in unidentified hands.
Formerly owned by Mrs S.L. Barnard, of Cave Castle, East Yorkshire. Sotheby's, 23 June 1925, lot 345, with a facsimile example in the sale catalogue.
[no pages indicated]
• *EvJ 222: John Evelyn, Diary
Autograph notes, entered c.1636-7, partly deleted and rewritten c.1660, in two printed almanacs: Jonathan Dove, A New Almanacke and Prognostication (Cambridge, 1636) and Thomas Langley, A New Almanack and Prognostication (Cambridge, 1637). c.1636-60.
This MS discussed in de Beer, I, 48, and the notes edited, I, 75-7, with a facsimile example after p. 76. A facsimile example is also in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 62.
First published in selections in Bray (1818). The text for the period from 4 October 1699 to 1706 first published as a serialisation in Abinger Monthly Record, I (1889), pp. 7-8, 20,32, 48, 64, 76. II (1890), pp. 15-16, 31-2, 44, 60, 79-80, 96, 116, 132, 148, 167-8, 184, 199-200. III (1891-3), pp. 15-16, 31-2, 44, 60, 76, 92, 107-8, 127-8, 147-8, 167-8, 191-2, 215-16, 235-6, 251-2, 271-2, 291-2, 311-12, 328, 343-4, 364, 393-6, 414-28, 439-58. The Diary first published in full (but for missing pages) in de Beer (1955).