The Marquess of Bath, Longleat House

MS 50

A medieval MS, inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Liber Willi: Browne. 1612’. 1612.

BrW 257.8: William Browne of Tavistock, Higden, Ranulf. Polychronicon

Edwards, No. 16.

MS 64

Copy, with other tracts, in an octavo volume. Late 16th century?

LeC 1: Anon, Leicester's Commonwealth

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 184.

First published as The Copie of a Leter, Wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige, to his Friend in London, Concerning some talke past of late betwen two worshipful and graue men, about the present state, and some procedinges of the Erle of Leycester and his friendes in England ([? Rouen], 1584). Soon banned. Reprinted as Leycesters common-wealth (London, 1641). Edited, as Leicester's Commonwealth, by D.C. Peck (Athens, OH, & London, 1985). Although various attributions have been suggested by Peck and others, the most likely author remains Robert Persons (1546-1610), Jesuit conspirator.

MS 73

A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in various hands.

Owned in 1704 by Sir Thomas Thynne, first Viscount Weymouth (1640-1714).

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 184.

item 1 (pp. 1-13)

ClE 56: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Articles of High Treason and other hainous misdemeanours agst Edward, Earle of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, exhibited by Earl of Bristol, 10 July 1663

Copy. Late 17th century.

item 5

SeC 115: Sir Charles Sedley, A modest Plea for Some Excises at this time, in order to the avoyding of a Land Tax, for the yeare 1694

Copy, subscribed ‘Sr. Charles Sidley Barrt.’ and dated 1695, on 33 folio pages. c.1700.

This MS recorded in HMC, 3rd report (1872), Appendix, p. 184, and in Sola Pinto, Life, p. 303.

Unpublished tract beginning ‘The present Necessity of raising vast and unpresidented Sumes of Money...’.

MS 114

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands.

pp. 342-76

RaW 640: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Discourse touching a Marriage between Prince Henry and a Daughter of Savoy

Copy.

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 185.

A tract beginning ‘There is nobody that persuades our prince to match with Savoy, for any love to the person of the duke...’. First published in The Interest of England with regard to Foreign Alliances, explained in two discourses:...2) Touching a Marriage between Prince Henry of England and a Daughter of Savoy (London, 1750). Works (1829), VIII, 237-52. Ralegh's authorship is not certain.

MS 124a

A folio volume comprising a journal of the embassy to Sweden in 1653-4 by Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-75), lawyer and politician, with related documents, partly in his hand, partly in several other hands. c.1654.

ff. 178v-80r

MaA 46.5: Andrew Marvell, A Letter to Doctor Ingelo, then with my Lord Whitlock, Ambassador from the Protector to the Queen of Sweden (‘Quid facis Arctoi charissime transfuga coeli’)

Copy, in a formal italic hand, headed ‘Anglo suo Marvellius’, on four folio pages.

This MS edited, reproduced in facsimile, and discussed in Edward Holberton, ‘The Textual Transmission of Marvell's “A Letter to Doctor Ingelo”: The Longleat Manuscript’, EMS, 12 (2005), 233-53.

First published in Miscellaneous Poems (London, 1681). Margoliouth, I, 104-7. Lord, pp. 240-3 (with translation pp. 243-7). Smith, pp. 261-4, with English translation (pp. 265-6).

A version of lines 1-70, with an additional unknown couplet, as copied by Jean Scheffer (1621-79) from Marvell's original ‘Letter’ (a copy owned in 1751 by Jean Etienne Bernard (1718-93)), was printed in Jean Arckenholtz, Memoires concernant Christine, reine de Suede (Amsterdam, 1751-60), II, Appendix XXXVIII, pp. 68-70: see Hilton Kelliher, ‘Marvell's “A Letter to Doctor Ingelo”’, RES, NS. 20 (1969), 50-7.

MS 252A

Copy of the complete translation, made by Henry Aytoun with the help of Thomas Bellenden, completed ‘1545 2° february’. 1546.

DoG 7: Gavin Douglas, Virgil's Aeneid (‘Lawd, honour, praysyngis, thankis infynyte’)

This MS collated in Coldwell and described I, 99-100.

First published, as The xiii Bukes of Eneados of the famose Poete Virgill, London, 1553. Edited, as Virgil's Æneid Translated into Scottish Verse by Gavin Douglas, by David F.C. Coldwell, 4 vols, STS 3rd Ser. 30, 25, 27, 28 (Edinburgh & London, 1957-64).

MS 259

A quarto verse miscellany, neatly written in possibly several italic hands, perhaps connected with Christ Church, Oxford. Mid-17th century.

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 189.

ff. 1r, 2r

CoA 189: Abraham Cowley, To a Lady who desired a Song of Mr. Cowley, he presented this following (‘Come, Poetry, and with you bring along’)

Copy, in a flourished italic hand, headed ‘A Song’ and subscribed ‘Abrah. Cowley’.

First published in Poems by Several Hands (London, 1685). At the end of Sylva in Works (London, 1711). Waller, II, 489.

Musical setting by John Blow published in The Banquet of Musick (London, 1688).

ff. 4r-28r

WaE 403: Edmund Waller, The Passion of Dido for Aeneas (‘Meanwhile the Queen fanning a secret fire’)

Copy, in a flourished italic hand, preceded (f. 3r-v) by ‘The Argument of the Fourth booke of Virgill's Aeneis’ in prose, headed ‘The History of Aeneas & Dido's Love translated out of the Fourth Booke of Virgill By Mr Godolphin’, subscribed at the end in another hand ‘Sid. Godolphin Ed. Waller Esqes’.

First published complete, by Humphrey Mosley, as The Passion of Dido for Aeneas, as it is incomparably exprest in the Fourth Book of Virgil, Translated by Edmund Waller and Sidney Godolphin Esqrs (London, 1658), where it is stated that the translation was ‘done (all but a very little) by …Mr. Sidney Godolphin’. Complete text in The Poems of Sidney Godolphin, ed. William Dighton (Oxford, 1931), pp. 31-55. Godolphin was responsible for the first 454 lines. Waller for the next 131 lines (455-585), beginning ‘All this her weeping sister does repeat’ which might possibly be his revision of part of Godolphin's translation of the whole. while the last 113 lines (586-699, beginning ‘Aurora now, leaving her watry bed’) are unassigned but probably also Godolphin's. The portion definitely by Waller is reprinted separately in Waller's Poems (London, 1664), pp. 185-92, and reprinted in Thorn-Drury, II, 29-33.

ff. 30r-2r

WaE 154: Edmund Waller, Of a War with Spain, and a Fight at Sea (‘Now, for some ages, has the pride of Spain’)

Copy, headed ‘On the Admirall's taking & destroying the Spanish Silver-fleet wherein was a Marquesse & his family’.

First published as a broadside (London, 1658). Revised version in Samuel Carrington, History of the Life and Death of Oliver, Late Lord Protector (London, 1659). Poems (London, 1664). Thorn-Drury, II, 23-7.

See also WaE 765.

ff. 35r-7r

OrR 6: Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill and Earl of Orrery, To Mr. Cowley on his Davideis (‘When to the World thy Muse thou first didst show’)

Copy, on rectos only, in a cursive italic hand, headed ‘To Mr Cowley on his Davideis’, subscribed ‘Ld Brohill’.

Edited from this MS in Ted-Larry Pebworth, ‘The Earl of Orrery and Cowley's Davideis: Recovered Works and New Connections’, MP, 76, No. 2 (November 1978), 136-48.

First published in Poems, by Several Persons (Dublin, 1669) [apparently unique existing exemplum in Folger C6681.5].

ff. 38r-41r

CoA 122: Abraham Cowley, Ode. Upon occasion of a Copy of Verses of my Lord Broghills (‘Be gon (said I) Ingrateful Muse, and see’)

Copy, on rectos only, subscribed ‘Abr. Cowley’.

First published in Poems, by Several Persons (Dublin, 1663). Verses, Lately Written upon several Occasions (London, 1663). Waller, I, 406-9.

f. 44r-v

WaE 553: Edmund Waller, To My Lady Morton, on New-Year's Day, 1650. At the Louvre in Paris (‘Madam! new years may well expect to find’)

Copy, with deletions, as by ‘Mr Waller’.

First published as a broadside (London, 1661). Poems (London, 1664). Thorn-Drury, II, 6-7.

f. [56r]

CwT 1246.5: Thomas Carew, A Louers passion (‘Is shee not wondrous fayre? but oh I see’)

Copy, headed ‘Mr Lewis to his loue’.

First published, as ‘The Rapture, by J.D.’, in Robert Chamberlain, The Harmony of the Muses (London, 1654), pp. 3-4 [unique exemplum in the Huntington edited in facsimile by Ernest W. Sullivan (Aldershot, 1990)]. Cupids Master-Piece (London, [?1656]). Dunlap, p. 192.

f. [57v]

CwT 722.5: Thomas Carew, A Song (‘Aske me no more whether doth stray’)

Copy.

First published in a five-stanza version beginning ‘Aske me no more where Iove bestowes’ in Poems (1640) and in Poems: by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent. (London, 1640), and edited in this version in Dunlap, pp. 102-3. Musical setting by John Wilson published in Cheerful Ayres or Ballads (Oxford, 1659). All MS versions recorded in CELM, except where otherwise stated, begin with the second stanza of the published version (viz. ‘Aske me no more whether doth stray’).

For a plausible argument that this poem was actually written by William Strode, see Margaret Forey, ‘Manuscript Evidence and the Author of “Aske me no more”: William Strode, not Thomas Carew’, EMS, 12 (2005), 180-200. See also Scott Nixon, ‘“Aske me no more” and the Manuscript Verse Miscellany’, ELR, 29/1 (Winter 1999), 97-130, which edits and discusses MSS of this poem and also suggests that it may have been written by Strode.

f. [60r-v]

CwT 44.5: Thomas Carew, The Comparison (‘Dearest thy tresses are not threads of gold’)

Copy, untitled.

First published in Poems (1640), and lines 1-10 also in Wits Recreations (London, 1640). Dunlap, pp. 98-9.

f. [60v]

CwT 235.8: Thomas Carew, A flye that flew into my Mistris her eye (‘When this Flye liv'd, she us'd to play’)

Copy, headed ‘Vpon a Flye’.

First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, pp. 37-9. Musical setting by Henry Lawes published in The Treasury of Musick, Book 2 (London, 1669).

MS 260

A notebook compiled by William Burton (1609-57), Leicestershire antiquary. c.1630s-40s.

passim

CmW 209: William Camden, Extracts

MS 261

A quarto verse miscellany, in Latin and English, written from both ends, 181 pages. Compiled by, and principally in the hand of, William Burton (1609-57), antiquary. c.1637-46.

p. 36

WyT 302.5: Sir Thomas Wyatt, ‘Tagus, fare well, that westward with thy stremes’

Copy.

First published in Songes and Sonettes (London, 1557). Muir & Thomson, p. 82.

pp. 1-2 rev.

CwT 526: Thomas Carew, On sight of a Gentlewomans face in the water (‘Stand still you floods, doe not deface’)

Copy, headed ‘Thomas Cary. Upon a Gentlewomans face represented in ye River, as in a mirrour’.

First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, p. 102.

p. 7 rev.

StW 820: William Strode, Song (‘I saw faire Cloris walke alone’)

Copy.

First published in Walter Porter, Madrigales and Ayres (London, 1632). Dobell, p. 41. Forey, pp. 76-7. The poem also discussed in C.F. Main, ‘Notes on some Poems attributed to William Strode’, PQ, 34 (1955), 444-8 (pp. 445-6), and see Mary Hobbs, ‘Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellanies and Their Value for Textual Editors’, EMS, 1 (1989), 182-210 (pp. 199, 209).

pp. 8-9 rev.

WoH 40.8: Sir Henry Wotton, The Character of a Happy Life (‘How happy is he born and taught’)

Copy, headed ‘Vita Beata...’.

First published in Sir Thomas Overbury, A Wife, 5th impression (London, 1614). Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), pp. 522-3. Hannah (1845), pp. 28-31. Some texts of this poem discussed in C.F. Main, ‘Wotton's “The Character of a Happy Life”’, The Library, 5th Ser. 10 (1955), 270-4, and in Ted-Larry Pebworth, ‘New Light on Sir Henry Wotton's “The Character of a Happy Life”’, The Library, 5th Ser. 33 (1978), 223-6 (plus plates).

pp. 9-10 rev

BcF 39: Francis Bacon, ‘The world's a bubble, and the life of man’

Copy, headed ‘Vita Misera. Ill. D. Fr. Baconus’.

First published in Thomas Farnaby, Florilegium epigrammatum Graecorum (London, 1629). Poems by Sir Henry Wotton, Sir Walter Raleigh and others, ed. John Hannah (London, 1845), pp. 76-80. Spedding, VII, 271-2. H.J.C. Grierson, ‘Bacon's Poem, “The World”: Its Date and Relation to certain other Poems’, Modern Language Review, 6 (1911), 145-56.

pp. 39-40 rev.

DaW 77: Sir William Davenant, E're long we must be cold (‘Cold, cold my Love, & wrap't in stubborne sheetes’)

Copy, ascribed to ‘D'Avenant’.

Unpublished. Ascribed to ‘D'Avenant’ by William Burton, but perhaps only because reminiscent of Davenant's song ‘My lodging it is on the Cold ground’ (Gibbs, p. 267).

pp. 41-2 rev.

WaE 745: Edmund Waller, ‘While I listen to thy voice’

Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘Eliz. Fowler’.

First published in Workes (1645). Thorn-Drury, I, 127. A musical setting by Henry Lawes published in Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1653).

MS 287

Copy, in a professional hand, on 64 folio pages. Late 17th century.

HaG 14: George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, The Character of a Trimmer

This MS recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 189. Collated in Foxcroft (as ‘MS D’) and in Brown, I, 345-96.

First published, ascribed to ‘the Honourable Sir W[illiam] C[oventry]’, in London, 1688. Foxcroft, II, 273-342. Brown, I, 178-243.

Devereux Papers, Vol. VII

A small quarto volume of state tracts and letters, in a single professional secretary hand, 149 leaves, in contemporary vellum. Early 17th century.

ff. 1r-100r

LeC 2: Anon, Leicester's Commonwealth

Copy, with a title-page.

First published as The Copie of a Leter, Wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige, to his Friend in London, Concerning some talke past of late betwen two worshipful and graue men, about the present state, and some procedinges of the Erle of Leycester and his friendes in England ([? Rouen], 1584). Soon banned. Reprinted as Leycesters common-wealth (London, 1641). Edited, as Leicester's Commonwealth, by D.C. Peck (Athens, OH, & London, 1985). Although various attributions have been suggested by Peck and others, the most likely author remains Robert Persons (1546-1610), Jesuit conspirator.

ff. 147v-9r

EsR 189: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Essex's Arraignment, 19 February 1600/1

Copy.

Dudley Papers, Vol. 2

Composite volume of papers.

f. 187

*PeM 10: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, [c.15 August 1578]. 1578.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 285.

ff. 202r-3v

*HvG 9: Gabriel Harvey, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Harvey, to the Earl of Leicester, from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 24 April 1579.

Recorded in E.M. Tenison, Elizabethan England, Vol. V (1936), p. 152, n. 1.

Dudley Papers, Vol. 3

A folio composite volume of state and miscellaneous papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 209 leaves.

ff. 37r-8r

ElQ 126: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Answer to the Commons' Petition that she Marry, January 28, 1563

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed in another hand ‘Q: Elizth: speech in Parliament’, on three pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves. Late 16th century.

This MS cited in Hartley.

Beginning ‘Williams, I have heard by you the common request of my Commons...’. First published (from a lost MS) in Nugae Antiquae, ed. Henry Harington (London, 1804), I, 80-3. Hartley, I, 94-5. Collected Works, Speech 5, pp. 70-2. Selected Works, Speech 3, pp. 37-41.

Harley Papers, Vol. I

A folio composite volume of state and miscellaneous papers, in various hands.

f. 159v

ShW 104: William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

Drawing of a scene and the text of speeches by Tamora, Titus and Aaron (I, i, 104-20; V, i, 125-44; I, i, 121, 125), on a single leaf, signed ‘Henricus Peacham’ and endorsed in another hand ‘Henrye Peachams Hande 1595’; the text possibly not in the same hand as the drawing but perhaps copied later from the First Folio (1623). c.1595-c.1630.

This MS discussed in E. K. Chambers, ‘The First Illustration to “Shakespeare”’, The Library, 4th Ser. 5 (1924-5), 326-30, and in John Dover Wilson, ‘“Titus Andronicus” on the Stage in 1595’, SS, 1 (1948), 17-22. Other discussions include G. Harold Metz, ‘Titus Andronicus: A Watermark in the Longleat Manuscript’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 36/4 Winter 1985), 450-3; René Breier, ‘The Longleat Manuscript: Tamora's Great Belly’, ELN, 35/3 (March 1998), 20-2; Herbert Berry, ‘The Date on the “Peacham” Manuscript’, Shakespeare Bulletin, 17/2 (Spring 1999), 5-6; and Richard Levin, ‘The Longleat Manuscript and Titus Andronicus’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 53/3 (Fall 2002), 323-40.

Facsimiles also in Chambers; in W. Moelwyn Merchant, Shakespeare and the Artist (London, 1959), facing p. 16; in S. Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (Oxford, 1975), p. 122; in DLB, vol. 62, Elizabethan Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 302; in William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume, ed. Catherine Loomis, DLB, 263 (Detroit, 2002), p. 43; and elsewere.

First published in London, 1594.

Portland Papers, Vol. I

A folio composite volume of state letters and documents, in various hands, 238 leaves.

ff. 173r-85v

FaE 4.3: Edward Fairfax, To my noble frend mr huntington (‘Godfrey of Bulloigne & his great wonders’)

Extracts from the first canto. Early-mid-17th century.

Six verses, unpublished.

f. 191r-v

RaW 498: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘When first this circell Round, this buildinge faire’

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Certaine hellish verses devysed by that Athiest and traitor Rawley as yet is sayd viz’, subscribed ‘finis R. W / als’, on both sides of a single folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packet, endorsed ‘Verses written by Sr Walter Rawleye 1603’. Early 17th century.

Edited from this MS in HMC, 2nd Report (1871), Appendix, p. 52, and in Jean Jacquot, ‘Ralegh's “Hellish Verses” and the “Tragicall Raigne of Selimus”’, MLR, 48 (1953), 1-9.

First published as part of the anonymous play The First Part of the Tragicall Raigne of Selimus (London, 1594). Listed but not printed in Latham, p. 173. Rudick, No. 28, pp. 67-9.

f. 192r-v

RaW 498.5: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘When first this circell Round, this buildinge faire’

Copy, in an italic hand, probably transcribed from RaW 498, on both sides of a single folio leaf. Mid-late 17th century.

First published as part of the anonymous play The First Part of the Tragicall Raigne of Selimus (London, 1594). Listed but not printed in Latham, p. 173. Rudick, No. 28, pp. 67-9.

f. 206r-v

RaW 826: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Ralegh, to Winwood, in a secretary hand, on a single folio leaf. c.1620.

f. 211r

*DnJ 4111: John Donne, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Henry, Prince of Wales, originally accompanying a presentation exemplum of Pseudo-Martyr (London, 1610). 1610.

Edited in Hayward, pp. 462-3.

Portland Papers, Vol. XIII

MS volume of correspondence.

f. 171r-v

WyW 9: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 22 March 1705/6. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 14-15, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 205-6. An adapted extract from the letter edited by Pope in The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, Vol. II (London, 1729), and in Letters of Mr. Pope (London, 1735). Reprinted in Summers II, 227.

f. 172r-v

WyW 10: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 11 November 1707. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 29-30, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 206-7. An adapted version edited by Pope in The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, Vol. II (London, 1729), and in Letters of Mr. Pope (London, 1735). Reprinted in Summers II, 229-30.

f. 173r-v

WyW 11: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 6 December 1707. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 34,6, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 207-8.

f. 174r-5r

WyW 12: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, from Shrewsbury, 19 January 1707/8. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 38-40, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 208-10.

f. 176r-v

WyW 13: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 13 November 1708. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 52-4, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 210-11.

ff. 177r-8r

WyW 14: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 19 February 1708/9. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 54-6, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 211-13. An adapted and abridged version (redated ‘Feb. 19, 1706/7’) edited by Pope in The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, Vol. II (London, 1729), and in Letters of Mr. Pope (London, 1735). Reprinted in Summers II, 228-9.

ff. 179r-80r

WyW 15: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 17 May 1709. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 58-9, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 213-14. An abridged version edited by Pope in The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, Vol. II (London, 1729), and in Letters of Mr. Pope (London, 1735). Reprinted in Summers II, 235.

ff. 180v-1r

WyW 16: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of Wycherley's letter to Alexander Pope, 23 May 1709. Early 18th century.

Edited from this copy in Sherburn, I, 61-2, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 214-15.

ff. 182r-3r

WyW 17: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 14 June 1709. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 64-6, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889, misdated ‘June 4’) in Summers, II, 215-17.

f. 184r-v

WyW 18: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, from London, 14 February 1709[/10]. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 78-9, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 217-18.

ff. 185r-6r

WyW 19: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 1 April 1710. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 79-80, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 218-19. A slightly abridged version edited by Pope in The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, Vol. II (London, 1729), and in Letters of Mr. Pope (London, 1735). Reprinted in Summers II, 238-9.

f. 187r-v

WyW 20: William Wycherley, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Wycherley, to Alexander Pope, 27 April 1710. Early 18th century.

Edited in Sherburn, I, 84-5, and (from W.J. Courthope's printed transcript of 1889) in Summers, II, 219-20. A slightly abridged version edited by Pope in The Posthumous Works of William Wycherley, Vol. II (London, 1729), and in Letters of Mr. Pope (London, 1735). Reprinted in Summers II, 240.

Portland Papers, Vol. XVII

A folio composite volume of verse MSS, in various hands, 185 leaves.

f. 2r

DoC 5: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, The Advice (‘Phyllis, for shame let us improve’)

Copy, headed ‘Song - by ye E. of Dorset’ [‘upon Ms Waldegrave by whom he had a Daughter that was Lady Shannon’added in another hand], with other poems, on two conjugate folio leaves.

First published in Westminster Drollery (London, 1671). Harris, pp. 77-8.

f. 13r

RoJ 498: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, To My More than Meritorious Wife (‘I am, by fate, slave to your will’)

Copy, on one page of two conjugate folio leaves. Early-mid-18th century.

First published in The Museum: or, The Literary and Historical Register, Vol. III, No. 31 (23 May 1747), p. 156. Vieth, p. 23. Walker, p. 121. Love, p. 31.

ff. 13r-15v

RoJ 650: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Letter(s)

Copy of twelve letters by Rochester, on two pairs of conjugate small folio leaves. Early-mid-18th century.

ff. 21r-2r

DoC 28: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, A Ballad by the Lord Dorset when at Sea (‘To all you ladies now at land’)

Copy, in a stylish professional hand, headed ‘Lord Dorset[s Ballad added in a second hand] at Sea [in ye Dutch War added in second hand] An Old Song [deleted] not Printed’, on three pages of two conjugate folio leaves. Early 18th century.

First published as a broadsheet [1664? no exemplum extant]. Songs [1707?]. Old Songs [1707?]. Harris, pp. 65-8.

f. 77r-v

RoJ 593: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Upon Nothing (‘Nothing! thou elder brother even to Shade’)

Copy, in a cursive italic hand, subscribed ‘By ye E--R--’, on the first two pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves, endorsed on f. 78v ‘R. upon Nothing’. Early 18th century.

First published, as a broadside, [in London, 1679]. Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 118-20. Walker, pp. 62-4. Harold Love, ‘The Text of Rochester's “Upon Nothing”’, Centre for Bibliographical and Textual Studies, Monash University, Occasional Papers 1 (1985). Love, pp. 46-8.

ff. 105v-7v

MaA 158: Andrew Marvell, A Dialogue between the Two Horses (‘Wee read in profane and Sacred records’)

Copy, in a neat italic hand, headed ‘A Dialogue between Woolchurch & Charing-Cross Horses’, on leaves forming part of a folio verse miscellany. Early 18th century.

First published in The Second Part of the Collection of Poems on Affairs of State (London, 1689). Margoliouth, I, 208-13, as ‘probably Marvell's’. POAS, I, 274-83, as anonymous. Rejected from the canon by Lord.

ff. 115v-113r rev.

ClE 125: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Letters to the Duke of York and the Duchess of York

Copy of the two letters, the second dated ‘April 3d 71’. Early 18th century.

Letters by Clarendon to his daughter Anne (who died on 31 March 1671 before the letter arrived) and to her husband, the Duke of York (later James II), on the occasion of her conversion to Roman Catholicism. The original letters, which received particular attention by his contemporaries because of their subject matter, are not known to survive.

These were first published in Two Letters written by…Edward Earl of Clarendon…one to His Royal Highness the Duke of York, the other to the Dutchess, occasioned by her Embracing the Roman Catholic Religion (London, [1680?]) and were reprinted in State Tracts (1689), in An Appendix to the History of the Grand Rebellion (Oxford, 1724), pp. 313-24, and elsewhere.

Portland Papers, Vol. XXIII

A composite folio volume of papers chiefly relating to the Clifford family, largely in a single hand, apparently that of Margaret Cavendish Harley Bentinck (1715-85), Duchess of Portsmouth, 117 leaves, erratically numbered. Late 18th century.

ff. 29r-30v

DaS 62: Samuel Daniel, Letter(s)

Copy, in a modern hand, of a letter by Daniel to Margaret, Dowager Countess of Cumberland, [late] February 1615/16.

Possibly made from a volume of transcripts of letters belonging to descendants of the Clifford family. 1616.

Edited from this MS in Pitcher, Brotherton MS, pp. 168-9.

ff. 74r-9r, 80r-117r

CdA 5: Lady Anne Clifford, Journals

Copy of Lady Anne Clifford's journals for 1603 and 1616-19, in the hand of Margaret Cavendish Harley Bentinck (1715-85), Duchess of Portsmouth, 117 folio leaves.

Edited from this MS in Acheson, pp. 41-189, and the handwriting identified, pp. 37-8, with a facsimile of f. 80r on p. 24.

Prior Papers, Vol. VIII

A quarto composite volume of letters and papers, in various hands, 448 pages. Among the papers of Matthew Prior (1664-1721), poet and diplomat.

p. 313

DrJ 83: John Dryden, Lines on Tonson (‘With leering Looks, Bullfac'd, and Freckled fair’)

Copy, untitled, quoted in a letter by Richard Powys to Matthew Prior, introduced by the statement ‘Sr. Godfrey Kneller hath drawn at length the Picture of your freind Jacob Tonson, which he shewed Mr. Dryden, who desired to give it a touch of his Pensill, and underneath it writt these three verses’, dated 14 July 1698. 1698.

This MS quoted in HMC 58, Bath III (1908), pp. 238-9; thence in Kinsley, IV, 2084.

First published (quoted) in William Shippen, Faction Display'd. A Poem (London, 1704). Kinsley, IV, 1766. Hammond, V, 26.

Prior Papers, Vol. XXIX

A folio composite volume of verse MSS and papers, in various hands, 147 leaves. Among the papers of Matthew Prior (1664-1721), poet and diplomat.

f. 47r

DoC 161: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, On Mrs. Anne Roche when she Lost Sir John Daws (‘Like a true Irish merlin that has lost her flight’)

Copy, in the neat italic hand of Matthew Prior's secretary, Adrian Drift, headed ‘Epigram’. c.1700s.

This MS collated in Wright & Spears and in Harris.

First published in The Roxburghe Ballads, ed. J. Woodfall Ebsworth, V (Hertford, 1885), p. 219. The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1971) II, 778 (among ‘Works of Doubtful Authenticity’). Harris, pp. 101-2.

f. 57r

DoC 162: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, On Mrs. Anne Roche when she Lost Sir John Daws (‘Like a true Irish merlin that has lost her flight’)

Copy, in an unidentified hand, untitled, docketed at the top ‘Transcribed D’, on a single oblong-octavo leaf, once folded as a letter or packet. c.1700s.

Edited from this MS in Wright & Spears. Collated in Harris.

First published in The Roxburghe Ballads, ed. J. Woodfall Ebsworth, V (Hertford, 1885), p. 219. The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1971) II, 778 (among ‘Works of Doubtful Authenticity’). Harris, pp. 101-2.

Seymour Papers, Vol. V, p. 241

Autograph letter signed by Daniel, to James Kirton, 20 May 1608. 1608.

*DaS 60: Samuel Daniel, Letter(s)

Edited in the Rev. Canon Jackson, ‘Longleat Papers No. 4’, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 18 (1879), 257-85 (pp. 273-4), and in Sellers, pp. 52-3.

Seymour Papers, Vol. V, p. 243

Autograph letter signed by Daniel, to James Kirton, 31 May 1608. 1608.

*DaS 61: Samuel Daniel, Letter(s)

Edited in the Rev. Canon Jackson, ‘Longleat Papers No. 4’, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 18 (1879), 257-85 (pp. 274-5), and in Sellers, p. 53.

Thynne Papers, Vol. VI

A folio composite volume of papers.

f. 311r

*PeM 13: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Letter(s)

A brief letter by the Countess of Pembroke, in the hand of an amanuensis, with her autograph subscription and signature, to John Thynne, 1 October 1595. 1595.

Edited, with a facsimile, in Steven W. May, ‘Two Unpublished Letters by Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke’, EMS, 9 (2000), 88-97.

Thynne Papers, Vol. VII

A folio composite volume of papers.

f. 280r

*PeM 25: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Letter(s)

Letter by the Countess of Pembroke, in the hand of an amanuensis, with her autograph subscription and signature, to Sir John Thynne, 27 September 1603. 1603.

Edited, with a facsimile, in Steven W. May, ‘Two Unpublished Letters by Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke’, EMS, 9 (2000), 88-97.

Thynne Papers, Vol. XXVII

A folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers. Papers of the Rev. George Harbin (c.1665-1744), historical writer and librarian to Sir Thomas Thynne (1640-1714), first Viscount Weymouth, at Longleat House, including (ff. 38r-60v) 23 quarto leaves of poems and letters by Rochester in a single hand. Early 18th century.

Inscribed (several times) ‘Alex: Malet’: i.e. the Rev Alexander Malet, Harbin's nephew and executor, a later note stating that the Marquess of Bath purchased part of the papers from Malet's descendant, Sir Alexander Malet, in 1873. Another inscription (f. 37r) reads: ‘Some of Dr Harbin's Papers obtained from Mr. Waller of Fleet St by J.E. Jackson, after the sale of the Papers by Puttick & Simpson April 1874’.

Cited in IELM, II.ii, as the Harbin MS: RoJ Δ 9.

[unspecified page numbers]

RoJ 11.1: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, An Allusion (‘The freeborn English Generous and wise’)

Copy.

Edited from tis MS in Love.

First published in The Genius of True English-men (London, 1680). Love, p. 55 (21-line version) and pp. 257-8 (30-line version). Also attributed to Robert Wolseley.

ff. 38r-43r

RoJ 141: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, A Letter from Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country (‘Chloe, In verse by your command I write’)

Copy.

First published, as a broadside, in London, 1679. Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 104-12. Walker, pp. 83-90. Love, pp. 63-70.

ff. 43r-4v

RoJ 488: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, To Love (‘O Love! how cold and slow to take my part’)

Copy.

Edited in part from this MS in Love.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 35-7. Walker, pp. 49-50. Love, pp. 12-13.

f. 44v

RoJ 558: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Upon His Leaving His Mistress (‘Tis not that I am weary grown’)

Copy, headed ‘To Cælia for Inconstancy. Song’.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 81. Walker, p. 37. Love, pp. 17-18.

f. 45r

RoJ 387: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘Give me leave to rail at you’)

Copy, headed ‘Song by severall Hands / Mrs Whorton’; the text followed (f. 45r-v) by Lady Rochester's ‘answer’.

First published (first stanza only) in Songs for i 2 & 3 Voyces Composed by Henry Bowman [London, 1677]. Both stanzas in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). The second stanza only (beginning ‘Kindness has resistless Charms’) also in Valentinian (London, 1685). Vieth, pp. 10-11. Walker, pp. 20-1. Love, p. 18.

Some texts accompanied by Lady Rochester's ‘Answer’ to the poem (beginning ‘Nothing adds to love's fond fire’), her autograph of which is in University of Nottingham, Pw V 31, f. 15r. It is edited in Vieth, p. 10; in Walker, pp. 21-2, 154; in Kissing the Rod, ed. Germaine Greer et al. (London, 1988), pp. 230-2; and in Love, pp. 18-19.

f. 45v

RoJ 417: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘Phyllis, be gentler, I advise’)

Copy.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 32. Walker, p. 36. Love, pp. 19-20.

f. 46r

RoJ 496: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, To My More than Meritorious Wife (‘I am, by fate, slave to your will’)

Copy.

First published in The Museum: or, The Literary and Historical Register, Vol. III, No. 31 (23 May 1747), p. 156. Vieth, p. 23. Walker, p. 121. Love, p. 31.

ff. 46r-9r

RoJ 651: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Letter(s)

Copy of eight letters by Rochester.

f. 49v

RoJ 442: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘What cruel pains Corinna takes’)

Copy, headed ‘Song’.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 31. Walker, p. 20, as ‘To Corinna. A Song’. Love, p. 20, as To Corinna.

f. 50r

RoJ 625: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Woman's Honor (‘Love bade me hope, and I obeyed’)

Copy, headed ‘Woman Honour. Song’.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 14. Walker, pp. 22-3. Love, p. 21.

f. 50v

RoJ 464: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Submission (‘To this moment a rebel, I throw down my arms’)

Copy, headed ‘Song’.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 15. Walker, pp. 18-19. Love, p. 22, as Song.

f. 51r

RoJ 397: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘How happy, Chloris, were they free’)

Copy.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 83-4. Walker, pp. 39-40, and the version ‘How perfect Cloris, and how free’ on pp. 40-1, and in Love, pp. 23-4. See also David Vieth, ‘A Textual Paradox: Rochester's “To a Lady in a Letter”’, PBSA, 54 (1960), 147-62 (and sequel in Vol. 55 (1961), 130-3).

For the even later version of this lyric, see RoJ 482.

f. 51v

RoJ 173: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Love and Life (‘All my past life is mine no more’)

Copy, headed ‘Song Love & Life’.

First published in Songs for i 2 & 3 Voyces Composed by Henry Bowman [London, 1677]. Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 90. Walker, p. 44. Love, pp. 25-6.

ff. 51v-2r

RoJ 95: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Fall (‘How blest was the created state’)

Copy, headed ‘Song The Fall’.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 86. Walker, p. 26. Love, p. 26.

f. 52r-v

RoJ 452: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘While on those lovely looks I gaze’)

First published in A New Collection of the Choicest Songs (London, 1676). Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 12-13. Walker, pp. 43-4. Love, pp. 26-7.

ff. 52v-3v

RoJ 185: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Mistress (‘An age in her embraces passed’)

Copy, headed ‘Song’.

Edited in part from this MS in Love.

First published in Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, pp. 87-8. Walker, pp. 29-30. Love, pp. 27-9, as Song.

ff. 53v-4v

RoJ 1: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Advice (‘All things submit themselves to your command’)

Copy.

First published in A Collection of Poems, Written upon several Occasions, By several Persons (London, 1672). Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, pp. 18-19. Walker, pp. 16-17. Love, pp. 8-9.

ff. 54v-5r

RoJ 68: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Discovery (‘Celia, the faithful servant you disown’)

Copy, here beginning ‘Caelia yt faithfull servant you disown’.

First published in A Collection of Poems, Written upon several Occasions, By several Persons (London, 1672). Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, pp. 17-18. Walker, pp. 15-16. Love, pp. 10-11.

f. 55v

RoJ 368: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, A Song (‘Absent from thee, I languish still’)

Copy.

Edited in part from this MS in Love.

First published in Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, pp. 88-9. Walker, pp. 38-9. Love, p. 29.

ff. 56r-7r

RoJ 45.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, A Dialogue between Strephon and Daphne (‘Prithee now, fond fool, give o'er’)

Copy, incomplete, beginning at stanza 5 ‘(Love like other little boys’).

First published in Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, pp. 7-9. Walker, pp. 12-14. Love (two versions), pp. 300-1, as ‘[Epigram on Samuel Pordage]’, among ‘Impromptus’.

f. 57v et seq.

RoJ 11.2: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, An Allusion (‘The freeborn English Generous and wise’)

Copy.

First published in The Genius of True English-men (London, 1680). Love, p. 55 (21-line version) and pp. 257-8 (30-line version). Also attributed to Robert Wolseley.

ff. 58v-9r

RoJ 79: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, An Epistolary Essay from M.G. to O.B. upon Their Mutual Poems (‘Dear friend, I hear this town does so abound’)

Copy, headed ‘Part of an Epistolary Essay from M:G: to G:B: upon ye Mutuall poems’ and here beginning ‘Dr Friend, It seems ys town does so abound’.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 144-7. Walker, pp. 107-9. Love, pp. 98-101.

f. 60r

RoJ 403: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘Injurious charmer of my vanquished heart’)

Copy.

First published, in a truncated version headed ‘The Expostulation’, in Female Poems On Several Occasions. Written by Ephelia, 2nd edition (London, 1682). Valentinian (London, 1685), Act IV, scene ii, p. 42. Vieth, p. 160. Walker, p. 28. Love, p. 16.

f. 60v

RoJ 104.1: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Grecian Kindness (‘The utmost grace the Greeks could show’)

Copy. of lines 1-4, headed ‘Song / A young Lady to her Antient Lover’.

First published in Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, p. 53. Walker, p. 19. Love, p. 17.

f. 60v

RoJ 458.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, A Song of a Young Lady to Her Ancient Lover (‘Ancient person, for whom I’)

Copy of lines 1-4, headed ‘Song / A young Lady to her Antient Lover’.

First published in Poems, &c. on Several Occasions (London, 1691). Vieth, pp. 89-90. Walker, pp. 32-3. Love, p. 30.

Whitelocke Papers, Parcel II, item 9

Autograph additions (some substantial), in mixed italic and secretary scripts, on several pages (notably Nos 11 and 12) in papers of Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-75), politician, concerning the preparations, expenses and staging of Shirley's masque The Triumph of Peace by the Inns of Court on 3 and 13 February 1633/4.

*ShJ 208: James Shirley, Document(s)

Shirley's additions were identified by I.A. Shapiro: see his letter in TLS (8 August 1986), p. 865. Facsimile of a page in No. 11, a stage arrangement entirely in Shirley's hand, in Trois Masques à la Cour de Charles Ier d'Angleterre, ed Murray Lefkowitz (Paris, 1970), Plate VIII, and, also, very reduced, in I.A. Shapiro, ‘The Melbourne MS’, TLS (8 August 1986), p. 865. A microfilm of the MSS is at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London (XR 54, reel 15).

Whitelocke Papers, Vol. X, f. 220

Copy of a petition by Davenant, to the Council of State, from the Tower, [1650]. 1650.

DaW 134: Sir William Davenant, Letter(s)

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 192. Cited in Nethercot, p. 279.

Whitelocke Papers, Vol. XII, ff. 41r-2v

Letter by Milton to Bulstrode Whitelocke, entirely in the hand of an amanuensis, 12 February 1651/2. 1652.

MnJ 77: John Milton, Letter(s)

Edited in J. Milton French, ‘A New Letter by John Milton’, PMLA, 49 (1934), 1069-70; in Columbia, XII, 326-7; in LR, III, 172-3; and in Yale, IV, Part 2, 846-7.

[unspecified shelfmark]

Copy. c.1633.

ShJ 216: James Shirley, A breif expression of the delight apprehended by the Authour att the seeing of the Solemne triumphs of the gent of the Innes of Court riding with the Masque presented before his Matie: Feb: 3, 1633 (‘Now did Heavens Charioteer, the great daies Starr’)

Recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1874), Appendix, p. 236.

The first line sometimes reading ‘Now did Oceanus Charioteer, the great daies Starr’.

[unspecified shelfmark]

Printed exemplum inscribed by Camden, recording its presentation to him by Abraham Ortelius (1527-98), geographer. Late 16th century.

*CmW 118.5: William Camden, Buchanan, George. Rerum Scoticarum historia (Edinburgh, 1582)

Facsimile of the inscribed title-page in [John Collins], A Short Account of the Library at Longleat House, Warminster, Wilts (Sotheby's, 1980), p. 21.