Bedfordshire Record Office

J 1268

Copy of a version, on two folio leaves.

BcF 228.2: Francis Bacon, Objections against the Change of the Name of England into the Name of Britain

Written 25 April 1604. To be published in the forthcoming The Oxford Francis Bacon.

J 1424

Copy. Late 17th century.

ClE 57: 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

Among the papers of the St John family, of Bletsoe.

J 1425

A volume of Commons debates about Clarendon's impeachment, in 1667, 182 pages. Late 17th century.

ClE 95: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Impeachment Proceedings against Clarendon in 1667

Bookplate of William, Lord St John (d.1720).

Articles of Treason exhibited in Parliament against Clarendon, 14 November 1667 published in London, 1667. The Proceedings in the House of Commons touching the Impeachment of Clarendon 1667 published in London, 1700.

J 1583

Fragment of what was probably a substantial folio volume of poems, including many by Donne, in a single predominantly italic hand. Comprising three mutilated pairs of conjugate leaves, unquired but once sewn together, with contemporary pagination from [42] to 53, containing eleven poems by Donne, some subscribed ‘J. D.’ c.1620-33.

Among the papers of the St John family, of Bletsoe, Bedforshire, which, among other connections, was related to the Egerton family by the marriage in 1623 of Oliver St John (1603-42) to Arabella, daughter of the first Earl of Bridgewater

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the ‘St John MS’: DnJ Δ 35.

f. 1r

DnJ 1136: John Donne, Epitaph on Himselfe. To the Countesse of Bedford (‘That I might make your Cabinet my tombe’)

Copy of the six-line epistle only, untitled, on p. [42], imperfect.

First published in Poems (London, 1635). Grierson, I, 291-2. Milgate, Satires, p. 103. Shawcross, No. 147.

f. 1r

DnJ 2368: John Donne, Negative love (‘I never stoop'd so low, as they’)

Copy, headed ‘The Nothi[ng]’ on p. [42], imperfect.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 66. Gardner, Elegies, p. 56. Shawcross, No. 74.

f. 1v

DnJ 2013: John Donne, Loves Deitie (‘I long to talke with some old lovers ghost’)

Copy on p. [43], imperfect and lacking title.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 54. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 47-8. Shawcross, No. 64.

f. 2r

DnJ 2049: John Donne, Loves diet (‘To what a combersome unwieldinesse’)

Copy of lines 13-30, here beginning ‘If he wrunge from m[e]e a tea[re ]’, on p. 44, imperfect.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 55-6. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 45-6. Shawcross, No. 65.

ff. 2r-3v

DnJ 1178: John Donne, An Epithalamion, Or mariage Song on the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine being married on St. Valentines day (‘Haile Bishop Valentine, whose day this is’)

Copy, on pp. 44-[47], imperfect and lacking title.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 127-31. Shawcross, No. 107. Milgate, Epithalamions, pp. 6-10. Variorum, 8 (1995), pp. 108-10.

ff. 3v-4r

DnJ 700: John Donne, The Comparison (‘As the sweet sweat of Roses in a Still’)

Copy, untitled, on pp. [47-8], imperfect.

First published, as ‘Elegie’, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 90-2 (as ‘Elegie VIII’). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 5-6. Shawcross, No. 9. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 51-2.

f. 4r-v

DnJ 3737: John Donne, A Valediction: forbidding mourning (‘As virtuous men passe mildly away’)

Copy, headed ‘Valediction’, on pp. [48]-49, imperfect.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 49-51. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 62-4. Shawcross, No. 31.

ff. 4v-5r

DnJ 3848: John Donne, A Valediction: of weeping (‘Let me powre forth’)

Copy, headed ‘[ ]n, of teares’, on pp. 49-50, imperfect.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 38-9. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 69-70. Shawcross, No. 58.

f. 5r-v

DnJ 3820: John Donne, A Valediction: of the booke (‘I'll tell thee now (deare Love) what thou shalt doe’)

Copy, headed ‘3 Valediction’, on pp. 50-[51], imperfect.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 29-32. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 67-9. Shawcross, No. 52.

f. 6r-v

DnJ 3790: John Donne, A Valediction: of my name, in the window (‘My name engrav'd herein’)

Copy, headed ‘4. Valediction of glasse’, on pp. 52-3, imperfect.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 25-8. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 64-6. Shawcross, No. 49.

f. 6v

DnJ 1975: John Donne, Loves Alchymie (‘Some that have deeper digg'd loves Myne then I’)

Copy of lines 1-10, headed ‘5th: Mummy’ on p. 53, imperfect and lacking ending.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 39-40. Gardner, Elegies, p. 81. Shawcross, No. 59.

L 31/340

A booklet of six folio leaves. Late 17th century.

Among papers of the Earls de Grey, of Wrest Park, Bedfordshire.

ff. [2r-5v]

WaE 382: Edmund Waller, A Panegyric to my Lord Protector, of the present Greatness, and joint Interest of His Highness, and this Nation (‘While with a strong and yet a gentle hand’)

Copy, as ‘By E. W. Esq.’

First published London, 1655. The Second Part of Mr. Waller's Poems (London, 1690). in The Maid's Tragedy Altered (London, 1690). Thorn-Drury, II, 10-17.

[no item number]

WaE 767: Edmund Waller, To Sacharissa on her having shewed me a paper of her own Writing Under the Name of Amoret (‘Oh How Vain, how Weak is Art’)

Copy, headed ‘Transcribed from Waller To Sacharissa on her having shewed me a paper of her own Writing Under the Name of Amoret’, on three pages of a pair of conjugate quarto leaves.

Apparently unpublished.

[no item number]

CoA 11: Abraham Cowley, Anacreontiques. II. Drinking (‘The thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain’)

Copy, headed ‘Drinking. Out of Mr Cowley's Anacreontiques’, on a pair of conjugate quarto leaves.

First published in Wits Interpreter (London, 1655). Among Miscellanies in Poems (London, 1656). Waller, I, 51. Sparrow, p. 50.

Musical setting by Silas Taylor published in Catch that Catch Can: or the Musical Companion (London, 1667). Setting by Roger Hill published in Select Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1669).

No. 23

PsK 26: Katherine Philips, Arion on a Dolphin to his Majestie in his passadge into England (‘Whom doth this stately navy bring?’)

Copy, headed ‘Tryon on a Dolphin or his Maiestyes passage to England’, with corrections in another hand, subscribed in the main hand ‘Mrs Phillips the author of these verses’ and docketed in the second hand ‘Vpon his sacred Majesties Charles Charles ye 2d happy passage to England [on deleted] [Mris Phillipps deleted] May 29 1660 by Mris Phillips’, on three pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves.

First published, as ‘Arion to a Dolphin, On his Majesty's passage into England’, in Poems (1664), pp. 5-9. Poems (1667), pp. 3-5. Saintsbury, pp. 508-9. Thomas, I, 71-3, poem 3.

No. 25

MaA 322: Andrew Marvell, The Second Advice to a Painter (‘Nay, Painter, if thou dar'st design that fight’)

Copy, in double columns, on the first two pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves.

First published in Directions to a Painter…Of Sir Iohn Denham ([London], 1667). POAS, I, 34-53. Lord, pp. 117-30. Smith, pp. 332-43. Recorded in Osborne, pp. 28-32, as anonymous.

The case for Marvell's authorship supported in George deF. Lord, ‘Two New Poems by Marvell?’, BNYPL, 62 (1958), 551-70, but see also discussion by Lord and Ephim Fogel in Vol. 63 (1959), 223-36, 292-308, 355-66. Marvell's authorship supported in Annabel Patterson, ‘The Second and Third Advices-to-the-Painter’, PBSA, 71 (1977), 473-86. Discussed also in Margoliouth, I, 348-50, and in Chernaik, p. 211, where Marvell's authorship is considered doubtful. A case for Sir John Denham's authorship is made in Brendan O Hehir, Harmony from Discords: A Life of Sir John Denham (Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1968), pp. 212-28.

P 11/28/2

TW 1145

Copy of texts relating to Ralegh's execution, in a single secretary hand, on an unbound pair of conjugate folio leaves. c.1620.

Among the papers of the Trevor Wingfield family and possibly deriving from the papers of the Boteler family of Biddenham.

ff. [1r-2v]

RaW 740: Sir Walter Ralegh, Speech on the Scaffold (29 October 1618)

Copy, untitled.

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.

f. [2v]

RaW 11: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Euen such is tyme which takes in trust’

Copy, untitled, with a sidenote ‘At Sr Walter Rawleighs deathe’.

First published in Richard Brathwayte, Remains after Death (London, 1618). Latham, p. 72 (as ‘These verses following were made by Sir Walter Rauleigh the night before he dyed and left att the Gate howse’). Rudick, Nos 35A, 35B, and part of 55 (three versions, pp. 80, 133).

This poem is ascribed to Ralegh in most MS copies and is often appended to copies of his speech on the scaffold (see RaW 739-822).

See also RaW 302 and RaW 304.

TW 1158

A single unbound folio leaf of MS verse. Mid-17th century.

Among the papers of the Trevor Wingfield family and possibly deriving from the papers of the Boteler family of Biddenham.

[item 1]

CoA 137: Abraham Cowley, Prologue to the Guardian (‘Who says the Times do Learning disallow?’)

Copy.

First published, under the pseudonym ‘Francis Cole’, in The Prologue and Epilogue to a Comedie, presented, at the Entertainment of the Prince His Highnesse, by the Schollers of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, in March last, 1641 (London, 1642). Waller, I, 31-2 (and II, 161). Autrey Nell Wiley, ‘The Prologue and Epilogue to the Guardian’, RES, 10 (1934), 443-7 (pp. 444-5).

See also CoA 68-81.

[item 2]

CoA 68: Abraham Cowley, The Epilogue [to the Guardian] (‘The Play, great Sir, is done. yet needs must fear’)

Copy.

First published, under the pseudonym ‘Francis Cole’, in The Prologue and Epilogue to a Comedie, presented, at the Entertainment of the Prince His Highnesse, by the Schollers of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, in March last, 1641 (London, 1642).Printed (with the first line: ‘The Play is done, great Prince, which needs must fear’) in The Guardian (London, 1650). Waller, I, 32 (and II, 242). Autrey Nell Wiley, ‘The Prologue and Epilogue to the Guardian’, RES, 10 (1934), 443-7 (pp. 444-5).

See also CoA 137-52.