Add. MS 40060
A quarto miscellany of verse, chiefly poems on affairs of state, in a single cursive rounded hand, i + 88 leaves, in modern half black morocco. c.1701-12.
Anonymous note of purchase in London (f. i) on 17 November 1701. Presented by Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard, Bt, 7 May 1921.
ff. 32v-3v
• VaJ 5: Sir John Vanbrugh, To a Lady More Cruel than Fair (‘Why d'ye with such Disdain refuse’)
Copy, headed ‘To a Lady more Cruel than Fair by Mr. Vanbrook on Lady S’, subscribed ‘Nov: 1703’.
First published, ascribed to ‘Mr Vanbrook’, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part (London, 1704), pp. 245-6.
f. 66v
• DoC 157: 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, headed ‘A Prophecy by the E of Dorset found amongst his papers upon Mrs Roch having been contracted in Ireland and the Match after broke off’.
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.
ff. 84v-6r
• DoC 25: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, A Ballad by the Lord Dorset when at Sea (‘To all you ladies now at land’)
Copy of a variant version, headed ‘A Ballad Made by the Late Earl of Dorset in the Dutch Warrs revived and Adapted to the present Time’, subscribed ‘March: 1710/11’.
This MS collated in Harris.
First published as a broadsheet [1664? no exemplum extant]. Songs [1707?]. Old Songs [1707?]. Harris, pp. 65-8.
Add. MS 40176
Copy of an early version of 185 epigrams by Crashaw, in a single italic hand, with (f. 1r) Crashaw's autograph title-page ‘Sacroru Epigramatum Liber’ and (ff. 2r-4v) his signed autograph prose dedication to ‘Amplissimi et ornatissimi nominis viro, Custodi nostro dignissimo, custodiam caelestem’ [i.e. Benjamin Laney (1591-1675)], Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, on 59 octavo leaves, in contemporary vellum gilt. c.1630s.
The first page later inscribed ‘James Andrew-Ashford’. Sotheby's, 14 February 1922, lot 424, to Quaritch, as ‘The Property of a Gentleman A well-known collector’, erroneously described as autograph throughout, with facsimiles in the sale catalogue of ff. 2r, 3v (signature only) and 32r.
The dedication first pub. in Martin (1927); Martin (1957), pp. 2-3. The MS collated in Martin and described, with a facsimile of Crashaw's signature, pp. liv-lvii. Facsimiles of part of the dedication also in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XCIX(d-e) and (of ff. 2v-3r) in IELM, II.i (1987), Facsimile XIa, after p. xxii.
ff. 4r-14v, 16r-59v
• *CrR 337: Richard Crashaw, Epigrammatum sacrorum liber
Copy of an early version of the 179 epigrams by Crashaw subsequently published in 1634.
First published in Cambridge, 1634. Martin, pp. 5-64.
f. 6r
• CrR 403: Richard Crashaw, joh. 19. In Sepulchrum Domini (‘Jam cedant, veteris cedant miracula saxi’)
Copy.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published in Waller (1904), p. 309. Martin, p. 353.
f. 8v
• CrR 416: Richard Crashaw, Mat. 6. 29. Videte lilia agrorum - nec Solomon &c. (‘Candide rex campi, cui floris eburnea pompa est’)
Copy.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published in Waller (1904), p. 310. Martin, p. 354.
f. 15r
• CrR 352: Richard Crashaw, Apocal. xii. 7 (‘Arma, viri! (aetheriam quocumque sub ordine pubem’)
Copy, headed ‘Revel: 12.7/Et factum est praelium in caelo / Michael et Angeli ejus. &c.’.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published in Grosart, II (1873), 231-2. Martin, pp. 355-6.
f. 15v
• CrR 346: Richard Crashaw, Act 17. In Atheniensem merum (‘Ipsos naturae thalamos sapis, imaque rerum’)
Copy.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published in Waller (1904), p. 312. Martin, p. 356.
f. 15v
• CrR 400: Richard Crashaw, Joh. 15. Ego vitis vera (‘Credo quidem. sed & hoc hostis te credidit ipse)’)
Copy.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published in Waller (1904), p. 312. Martin, p. 356.
f. 18r
• CrR 414: Richard Crashaw, Mat. 4. Christus à daemone vectus (‘Ergò ille, Angelicis ô sorcina dignior alis’)
Copy.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published in Waller (1904), p. 311. Martin, p. 355.
Add. MS 40629
A large folio guardbook of state letters and papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 219 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.
Volume V of the Cassiobury Papers donated by Adela, Countess of Essex, comprising papers of the Capel family, Earls of Essex, of Cassiobury House, Watford, Hertfordshire.
ff. 126r-7r
• HoH 1: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, In Obitum potentissimæ principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotorum Reginæ (‘Si generis splendor raræ si gratia formæ’)
Copy of a 42-line version, in an italic hand, with a lengthy title, subscribed ‘H N gemesis’, with five unrelated Latin verses added at the end in another hand, on two conjugate small folio leaves. c.1600s.
A version first published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623).
Add. MS 40711
A letterbook, belonging to Sir George Oxenden, president of the East India Company.
ff. 13v-14r
• BuS 10: Samuel Butler, Letter(s)
Copy of a letter by Butler, about Hudibras, to Sir George Oxenden, president of the East India Company, 19 March 1662/3, originally accompanying a corrected presentation printed exemplum of the First Part of the poem.
The original letter cannot be found among Oxenden papers in the Centre for Kentish Studies, the Folger, and the India Office. 1663.
Edited, with related correspondence in the letter-book, in Ricardo Quintana, ‘The Butler-Oxenden Correspondence’, MLN, 48 (1933), 1-11, and also in Hudibras, ed. John Wilders (Oxford, 1967), pp. 450-1.
Add. MS 40757
A composite volume of miscellaneous papers, in verse and prose, mainly in the hands of the Rev. Dr Philip Francis (1708-73), writer and translator, and his son Sir Philip Francis (1740-1818), politician and political writer, 477 leaves. Mid-18th century.
f. 268r
• WaE 89.8: Edmund Waller, ‘Go, lovely Rose’
Copy of a version.
First published, as ‘On the Rose’, in Wits Recreations (London, 1645). Workes (1645). Thorn-Drury, I, 128. Setting by Henry Lawes published in The Second Book of Ayres, and Dialogues (London, 1655).
f. 314r
• CoR 562.5: Richard Corbett, To his sonne Vincent Corbett (‘What I shall leave thee none can tell’)
Copy.
First published in Certain Elegant Poems (London, 1647). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, p. 88.
Add. MS 40838
A folio volume of state papers and speeches, in a single professional mixed hand, 56 leaves, in half dark red morocco. Volume LXVIII of the Vernon Papers, collected principally by James Vernon (1646-1727), government official and politician, and his son Edward (1684-1757), Admiral. Presented by T.S. Vernon Cocks. c.1630s.
ff. 24r-7r
• BcF 311: Francis Bacon, A Device to Entertain the Queen at Essex House, 17 November 1595
Copy of five speeches.
First published in Letters, Speeches &c. of Francis Bacon, ed. Thomas Birch (London, 1763). Spedding, VIII, 378-86. Probably written partly by the Earl of Essex, partly by his secretariat, including Bacon. See The Poems of Edward De Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, and of Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex, ed. Steven W. May, Studies in Philology, 77, No. 5 (Early Winter 1980), pp. 88-90, and Paul E.J. Hammer, ‘Upstaging the Queen: the Earl of Essex, Francis Bacon and the Accession Day celebrations of 1595’, in The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque, ed. David Bevington and Peter Holbrook (New York & Cambridge, 1998), pp. 41-66.
ff. 27v-30r
• RaW 753: Sir Walter Ralegh, Speech on the Scaffold (29 October 1618)
Copy of a version headed ‘A Memoriall of what passed concerning Sir Wa: Rawleighs execution who was beheaded in the old Pallace at Westminster October. 29 1618’, subscribed ‘written by mr Al: S. to the L. A:’: i.e. possibly by Sir Thomas Aylesbury, Bt (1579/80-1658), patron of mathematics, to Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral, whom Aylesbury served as secretary.
See also RaW 803.
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. 30v
• RaW 36: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Euen such is tyme which takes in trust’
Copy, headed ‘By Sir Walter Rawleigh a little before he was ledd from the Gatehouse’.
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.
ff. 31r-6r
• RaW 870: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)
Copy of four letters by Ralegh, to Sir Robert Carr, to James I (2), and to Winwood.
ff. 36v-48v
• RaW 549: Sir Walter Ralegh, Apology for his Voyage to Guiana
Copy, headed ‘Sir walter Rawleighs Apologie’.
A tract beginning ‘If the ill success of this enterprise of mine had been without example...’. First published in Judicious and Select Essays and Observations (London, 1650). Works (1829), VIII, 477-507. Edited by V. T. Harlow in Ralegh's Last Voyage (London, 1932), pp. 316-34.
ff. 49r-51r
• RaW 710.9: Sir Walter Ralegh, Short Apology for his last Actions at Guiana
Copy, headed ‘An Addition to Sr: Walter Rawleighs Apologie’.
Ralegh's letter of 1618 to his cousin George, Lord Carew of Clopton (beginning ‘Because I know not whether I shall live...’). First published in Judicious and Select Essays (London, 1650). Edwards, II, 375 et seq. Youings, No. 222, pp. 364-8.
Add. MS 41063
A square-shaped folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers, in various hands, 143 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
f. 87r
• ShW 77: William Shakespeare, Pericles
Several brief quotations, in a secretary hand, on a duodecimo-size slip of paper, once used as a bookmark. Early 17th century.
First published in London, 1609.
f. 87r
• ShW 81: William Shakespeare, Richard III
Several brief quotations, in a secretary hand, on a duodecimo-size slip of paper, once used as a bookmark. Early 17th century.
First published in London, 1597.
Add. MS 41161
Copy, in the neat italic hand of an amanuensis, with Lady Fanshawe's autograph corrections, deletions and revisions, as well as two prayers in her hand (ff. 1v, 121r-22v), and her inscription (f. 1r) ‘Transcrib'd this present May 1676 Ann ffanshawe’, with tipped-in slips of paper in a later hand transcribing heavily deleted passages, incomplete, breaking off at St Stephen's Day [in January] 1671[/2], vii + 124 tall folio leaves, in contemporary red leather gilt. 1676.
*FaA 1: Ann, Lady Fanshawe, The Memoirs of Ann, Lady Fanshawe
Bookplate of John Fanshawe, of Parsloes, Dagenham, Essex, either the father (d.1689) or the son (d.1699). Owned in 1907 by Evelyn John Fanshawe, of Parsloes. Sotheby's, 29 July 1924, lot 322.
Edited from this MS in the edition of 1907 (including facsimiles of the first page of the MS and the cover) and in Loftis.
First published as Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, wife of the Right Hon. Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart,...Written by herself, ed. Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (London, 1829). Edited also as The Memoirs of ann Lady Fanshawe, wife of the Right Honble. Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart., ed. Herbert Charles Fanshawe (London & New York, 1907), and in The Memoirs of Anne, Lady Halkett and Ann, Lady Fanshawe, ed. John Loftis (Oxford, 1979), pp. 89-192.
Add. MS 41204
Copy of the complete text, in a single professional secretary hand, untitled, with a later title (f. iir, supplied by Thomas Martin) Sr. Philip Sydneys Arcadia A Romance, &c. In Prose & Verse..., 190 leaves, in modern half calf. Late 16th century.
SiP 95: Sir Philip Sidney, The Old Arcadia
Inscribed (f. ir) ‘Tho: Martin’: i.e. Thomas Martin (1697-1771), antiquary and collector. Martin sale, 1772, lot 270, and 1773, lot 4543. Later inscribed (f. iir) ‘I bought this Book out of the Collection of the Late Antiquary Mr Martin of Palsgrave Suffolk / Charles Brietzcke 18th May 1774’: i.e. Charles Brietzcke (fl.1756-95), Deputy Clerk of the Signet. Donated by Miss Mary E. Davies, of Wedderburn House, Hampstead, on 18 May 1925.
This MS (the ‘Davies MS’) collated in Robertson and the poems collated in Ringler. Described in Ringler, p. 526.
The unfinished revised version of Arcadia (the ‘New Arcadia’) first published in London, 1590. The original version (the ‘Old Arcadia’) first published in Feuillerat, IV (1926). The complete Old Arcadia edited by Jean Robertson (Oxford, 1973). The poems edited in Ringler, pp. 7-131.
Add. MS 41498
Copy of 66 poems from Arcadia and two prose passages from Book II, in a single professional hand, untitled, 38 leaves, with two staves of music at the end, in contemporary vellum, within modern quarter-vellum. Inscribed on the original cover ‘Swr Henry Lee delivered being champean to the qwen delivered to my lord cwmberland by willeam Simons’: i.e. delivered to George Clifford (1558-1605), third Earl of Cumberland, courtier and privateer, and then owned by Sir Henry Lee (1530-1610), of Ditchley, Oxfordshire, the Queen's Champion. Presented by Harold Arthur Lee-Dillon (1844-1932), seventeenth Viscount Dillon, CH, antiquary. Late 16th century.
SiP 96: Sir Philip Sidney, The Old Arcadia
This MS (the ‘Lee MS’) collated in Robertson and the poems collated in Ringler. Described in Ringler, pp. 527-8.
The unfinished revised version of Arcadia (the ‘New Arcadia’) first published in London, 1590. The original version (the ‘Old Arcadia’) first published in Feuillerat, IV (1926). The complete Old Arcadia edited by Jean Robertson (Oxford, 1973). The poems edited in Ringler, pp. 7-131.
Add. MS 41499A
A folio volume of entertainments presented by Sir Henry Lee and others, before Queen Elizabeth, in a single secretary hand, 22 leaves, imperfect and badly damp-stained, in modern half-morocco. c.1600.
Evidently once owned by Sir Henry Lee (1530-1610), of Ditchley, Oxfordshire, the Queen's Champion. Presented by Harold Arthur Lee-Dillon (1844-1932), seventeenth Viscount Dillon, CH, antiquary, together with his transcript of the greater part of the MS (now Add. MS 41499B).
ff. 4r-5v
• GaG 5: George Gascoigne, The Tale of Hemetes the Heremyte
Copy of the English version, imperfect, lacking the beginning.
First published (English and Latin) in Synesius, Bishop of Cyrene, A Paradoxe ([London], 1579). Cunliffe, II, 473-510. In the dedicatory epistle Gascoigne specifically disclaims authorship of the English version, which originally formed part of the royal entertainment at Woodstock in September 1575 and was probably written by Robert Garrett, Reader in Rhetoric at St John's College, Oxford.
Add. MS 41613
A tall folio volume of state tracts and papers, in several formal roman and secretary hands, i + 229 leaves, in contemporary leather gilt. c.1620s.
Book-stamp on cover of Henry Percy (1564-1632), ninth Earl of Northumberland (the ‘Wizard Earl’). Formerly Leconfield MS 115, at Petworth House, Sussex. Sotheby's, 23-24 April 1928 (Leconsfield sale), lot 149.
Recorded in HMC, 6th Report (1877), Appendix, p. 311.
ff. 37r-47r
• BcF 117: Francis Bacon, Certain Articles or Considerations touching the Union of England and Scotland
Copy, in a neat roman hand, as ‘by Sr ffrancis Bacon Knight’.
First published in Resuscitatio, ed. William Rawley (London, 1657). Spedding, X, 218-34.
ff. 52r-78r
• BcF 752: Francis Bacon, The Use of the Law
Copy, in a neat roman hand, headed in the margin ‘A discourse of the Laws of England’.
The use of law... anon
A discourse beginning ‘The use of the Law consisteth principally in these two things...’. Spedding, VII, 459-504 (and discussed pp. 302, 453-7). Probably by Sir Robert Forster (1589-1663), judge.
ff. 220r-9r
• RaW 1084: Sir Walter Ralegh, Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander
Copy, in a roman hand, including an introductory address to James I, untitled, subscribed ‘John Keymer’. c.1620s-30s.
A tract addressed to the monarch and beginning ‘According to my duty, I am emboldened to put your majesty in mind, that about fourteen or fifteen years past...’. First published, as by Sir Walter Ralegh, in London, 1653. Works (1829), VIII, 351-76.
Written by John Keymer (fl.1584-1622). See Adolf Buff, ‘Who is the author of the tract intitled “Some observations touching trade with the Hollander”?’, ES, 1 (1877), 187-212, and Lefranc (1968), p. 64.
Add. MS 41616
A folio composite volume, comprising three independent MSS, in different hands, i + 55 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.
Book-stamp on cover of Henry Percy (1564-1632), ninth Earl of Northumberland (the ‘Wizard Earl’). Formerly Leconfield MS 69 at Petworth House, Sussex. Sotheby's, 23 April 1928 (Leconsfield sale), lot 28.
Recorded in HMC, 6th Report (1877), Appendix, p. 307.
ff. 1r-24r
• CaW 87: William Cartwright, The Royal Slave
Copy, in a neat roman hand, with a few corrections in a different ink, with a title-page ‘The Royall Slaue A Tragicomedy / Scene Sardes / Acted before the King at Oxford’, including the Prologue to the King and Queen (here beginning ‘From my Devotions younder am I come’) and Epilogue to them (here beginning ‘Those solemn Triumphs of the Persian Court’), lacking the opening of Act V, scene vii.c.1636-8.
This MS collated in Evans.
First performed at Christ Church, Oxford, 30 August 1636. First published in Oxford, 1639. Evans, pp. 193-253.
Add. MS 41803
A folio composite volume of state papers for 1660-85 of Charles Middleton (1649/50-1719), second Earl of Middleton, Jacobite Secretary of State, in various hands, 338 leaves. Volume I of the Middleton Papers, descended from Dr Owen Wynne, secretary in the Secretary of State's Office.
ff. 2r-5r
• ClE 134: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Letters to the Duke of York and the Duchess of York
Copy.
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.
Add. MS 41804
A folio composite volume of state papers for 1685-87 of Charles Middleton (1649/50-1719), second Earl of Middleton, Jacobite Secretary of State, in various hands, 318 leaves. Volume II of the Middleton Papers, descended from Dr Owen Wynne, secretary in the Secretary of State's Office.
f. 28r
• *SeC 128: Sir Charles Sedley, Letter(s)
Autograph letter signed by Sedley, to Charles, second Earl of Middleton, [c.29 July 1685]. 1685.
Add. MS 41836
A folio composite volume containing a series of c.124 letters signed by Etherege, to Charles, second Earl of Middleton, Secretary of State, nearly all from Ratisbon, 263 leaves, in modern half-morocco, 25 September/5 October 1685 to 14/24 April 1687. Volume XXXIV of the Middleton Papers, descended from Dr Owen Wynne (fl.1680s), clerk in the Secretary of State's Office. 1685-7.
*EtG 127: Sir George Etherege, Letter(s)
Discussed in Sybil Rosenfeld, ‘Sir George Etherege in Ratisbon’, RES, 10 (1934), 177-89. Selected letters edited in Bracher. Reduced facsimile of a letter of 31 January/10 February 1686/7 on ff. 232r-3v) in Peter Barber, Diplomacy: The World of the Honest Spy (London, 1979), p. 84.
Add. MS 41837
A folio composite volume containing a series of c.124 letters by Etherege, nearly all to Charles, second Earl of Middleton, Secretary of State for the Northern Department, a few addressed to his secretary Dr Owen Wynne or to P. Valckenier, chiefy autograph and signed, some in the hand of Etherege's secretary Hugo Hughes and including a few copies of other letters and dispatches, from Ratisbon, 263 leaves, in modern half-morocco, April 1687 to October 1688. Volume XXXV of the Middleton Papers, acquired by the descendants of Dr Owen Wynne (fl.1680s), clerk in the Secretary of State's office. 1687-88.
*EtG 128: Sir George Etherege, Letter(s)
Discussed in Sybil Rosenfeld, ‘Sir George Etherege in Ratisbon’, RES, 10 (1934), 177-89. Selected letters edited in Bracher.
Add. MSS 41840
A folio composite volume of copies of c.122 diplomatic reports and newsletters, many as from Vienna, in secretarial hands, evidently sent by Etherege to Charles, second Earl of Middleton, Secretary of State for the Northern Departmen, as originally enclosures with Etherege's letters (British Library, Add. MS 41836 and British Library, Add. MS 41837), including (between ff. 204r and 249v) eight reports in Etherege's own hand, 291 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Volume XXXVIII of the Middleton Papers, acquired by the descendants of Dr Owen Wynne (fl.1680s), clerk in the Secretary of State's office. 1684-7.
*EtG 129: Sir George Etherege, Letter(s)
Add. MSS 41841
A folio composite volume of copies of diplomatic reports and newsletters, many as from Vienna, in secretarial hands, evidently sent on by Etherege to Charles, second Earl of Middleton, Secretary of State for the Northern Department, as originally enclosures with Etherege's letters (British Library, Add. MS 41836 and British Library, Add. MS 41837), one letter (f. 26r) docketed in Etherege's hand ‘From my Lord Dangan to me’, 394 leaves, in modern half-morocco. Volume XXXIX of the Middleton Papers, acquired by the descendants of Dr Owen Wynne (fl.1680s), clerk in the Secretary of State's office. 1687-8.
*EtG 130: Sir George Etherege, Letter(s)
Add. MS 41845
An octavo composite notebook of extracts, chiefly in one cursive hand, 95 leaves, in half dark red morocco.
Volume XLIII of the Middleton Papers, acquired by the descendants of Dr Owen Wynne (fl.1680s), clerk in the Secretary of State's office.
ff. 1r-47r
• BcF 54.925: Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning
Abridgement of The Advancement of Learning. c.1700.
First published, as The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the proficience and aduancement of Learning, diuine and humane, in London, 1605. Spedding, III, 253-491. Edited by Michael Kiernan, The Oxford Francis Bacon, Vol. IV (Oxford, 2000).
Add. MS 41846
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.
ff. 108r-11r
• SpE 68: Edmund Spenser, Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse concerning Edmund Spenser
Digby's autograph MS of the tract, ‘That I wrote att Mr [Thpmas] May his desire’, with deletions and revisions, untitled.
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.
Add. MS 41996
A large folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 128 leaves, mounted on guards, in modern half red morocco.
Presented by F. Stevens, FSA.
f. 18r
• HeR 296: Robert Herrick, Advice to a Maid (‘Love in thy youth fayre Mayde bee wise’)
Copy, closely written in a minute mixed hand, untitled, on the first page of two conjugate octavo leaves probably extracted from a verse miscellany.
This MS collated in Martin.
First published, in a musical setting, in Walter Porter, Madrigales and Airs (London, 1632). Martin, p. 443 (in his section ‘Not attributed to Herrick hitherto’). Not included in Patrick.
Add. MS 42518
Autograph signature, dated 1598, and copious annotations. Including (f. 422v) Harvey's celebrated comment: ‘The younger sort takes much delight in Shakespeares Venus & Adonis, but his Lucrece, & his tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, haue it in them, to please the Wiser sort.’ c.1598.
*HvG 50: Gabriel Harvey, Chaucer, Geoffrey. The woorkes of our antient and lerned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer, newly printed (London, 1598)
Inscribed ‘E Libris Tho: Dromore 1782’: i.e. by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor. Bookplate of Thomas Millington, of Gosfeild Hall, Essex.
This volume recorded and the annotations discussed in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Memoranda on the Tragedy of Hamlet (1879), p. 46; in Moore Smith, pp. viii-xii; and in Stern, p. 206.
Add. MS 42609
A folio composite volume comprising two MSS of a work by Francis Bacon, in different hands, 52 leaves, in modern half brown morocco. Volume XXIV of the papers of the Brockman family, of Beachborough, Newington-next-Hythe, Kent, and related families. c.1616.
ff. 1r-25r
• BcF 101: Francis Bacon, Arguments of Law. The Argument on the Writ De Non precedendo Rege Inconsulto
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, slightly imperfect at the top edges and the heading largely torn away. c.1620.
First published in Collectanea juridica, ed. F. Hargrave, I (London, 1791), pp. 168-213. Spedding, VII, 681-725.
ff. 26r-52v
• BcF 102: Francis Bacon, Arguments of Law. The Argument on the Writ De Non precedendo Rege Inconsulto
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, as by ‘Sr ffrancis Bacon knight’, incomplete. c.1620.
First published in Collectanea juridica, ed. F. Hargrave, I (London, 1791), pp. 168-213. Spedding, VII, 681-725.
Add. MS 42612
A folio composite volume of verse, in various hands, 73 leaves. Volume XXVII of the Brockman papers, of the Brockman family of Beachborough, Newington-next-Hythe, Kent. c.1733.
f. 8r
• MkM 6: Mary Monck, Verses Wrote on her Death-Bed at Bath, to her Husband, in London (‘Thou, who dost all my worldly thoughts employ’)
Copy.
Twenty-two lines, first published, introduced ‘The following verses were wrote by her (as I am inform'd) on her death-bed at Bath, to her husband in London’, in George Ballard, Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain (Oxford, 1752), pp. 418-22.
Add. MS 43772
A tall folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 81 leaves, mounted on guards, in modern half red morocco.
Presented by the Rt Hon. Godfrey L. T. Locker-Lampson, PC, MP (1875-1946), politician, 13 October 1934.
ff. 3r-22v
• WoH 262.2: Sir Henry Wotton, A Parallel between Robert Earl of Essex and George Duke of Buckingham
Copy, in a professional predominantly secretary hand, on twenty folio leaves. c.1630s.
First published in London, 1641. Edited by Sir Robert Egerton Brydges (Lee Priory Press, Ickham, 1814).
Add. MS 44848
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.
f. 22r-v
• LyJ 19: John Lyly, A petitionary letter to Queen Elizabeth
Copy, headed ‘A petitionary letter from John Lilly to Queen Elizabeth’. c.1620s-30s.
Beginning ‘Most Gratious and dread Soveraigne: I dare not pester yor Highnes wth many wordes...’. Written probably in 1598. Bond, I, 64-5. Feuillerat, pp. 556-7.
f. 23r-v
• LyJ 43: John Lyly, A second petitionary letter to Queen Elizabeth
Copy, headed ‘Another Letter from John Lilly to Queen Elizabeth’. c.1620s.
Beginning ‘Most gratious and dread Soveraigne: Tyme cannott worke my peticons, nor my peticons the tyme...’. Written probably in 1601. Bond, I, 70-1. Feuillerat, pp. 561-2.
ff. 38v-46v, 80v-2v, 83v-91r, 97r-100v, 105r-v, 170v-1r
• BcF 583: Francis Bacon, Letter(s)
Copies of numerous letters by Francis Bacon, to Essex, Sir Robert Cecil, Northumberland, Sir John Davies, James I, Southampton, Sir Edward Coke, Ellesmere, Buckingham, Tobie Mathews, Queen Elizabeth, and others. c.1620s-30s.
ff. 46v-52r
• BcF 180: Francis Bacon, Considerations touching the Queen's Service in Ireland
Copy, in a professional secretary hand. c.1620s-30s.
First published in Remaines (London, 1648). Spedding, X, 46-51.
ff. 91v-3r
• BcF 447: Francis Bacon, Bacon's Humble Submissions and Supplications
Copy. c.1620s-30s.
The Humble Submissions and Supplications Bacon sent to the House of Lords, on 19 March 1620/1 (beginning ‘I humbly pray your Lordships all to make a favourable and true construction of my absence...’); 22 April 1621 (beginning ‘It may please your Lordships, I shall humbly crave at your Lordships' hands a benign interpretation...’); and 30 April 1621 (beginning ‘Upon advised consideration of the charge, descending into mine own conscience...’), written at the time of his indictment for corruption. Spedding, XIV, 215-16, 242-5, 252-62.
ff. 135r-43v
• SpE 73: Edmund Spenser, Sir Kenelm Digby's Observations on the 22 Stanza in the 9th. Canto of the 2d. book of Spensers Faery Queen
Copy.
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.
ff. 164r-9v
• RaW 871: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)
Copies of six letters by Ralegh, to Winwood, James I (2), Lady Ralegh (2), and Sir Robert Carr, in a professional secretary hand. c.1620s-30s.
f. 167v
• RaW 37: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Euen such is tyme which takes in trust’
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Verses found in Sr Walter Raleighs Bible in the Gatehowse’. c.1620s-30s.
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.
f. 200r-v
• AndL 75: Lancelot Andrewes, Letter(s)
Copy of a letter by Andrewes to his Archdeacon, 15 August 1622.
Published in Cabala (London, 1663), p. 112. Reprinted in LACT, Minor Works (1854), pp. xlix-l.
f. 230v
• HlJ 20: Joseph Hall, Episcopal Admonition, Sent in a Letter to the House of Commons, April 28, 1628
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘Doctr: Josua Hall Bishope of Exeter his Lettre to the Lower howse of Parliamente’. c.1620s-30s.
See HlJ 17-30.
ff. 267r-9v
• RaW 754: Sir Walter Ralegh, Speech on the Scaffold (29 October 1618)
Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘The speech of Sr. Walter Rawleigh at his death, Anno Dnj. 1605’. c.1620s-30s.
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.
ff. 289r-91r
• ClE 59: 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, followed (ff. 191v-4v) by related parliamentary proceedings.
ff. 291v-4v
• ClE 104: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Impeachment Proceedings against Clarendon in 1667
Copy.
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.
ff. 295r-7r
• ClE 74: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, The Humble Petition and Address of Clarendon in 1667
Copy.
Petition beginning ‘I cannot express the insupportable trouble and grief of mind I sustain...’. Published as To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled: The Humble Petition and Address of Clarendon, [in London, 1667?] and subsequently reprinted widely, sometimes under the title News from Dunkirk-house: or, Clarendon's Farewell to England Dec 3 1667.
Add. MS 44963
An octavo miscellany of verse, academic exercises and other material, in English and Latin, almost entirely in a single hand, 134 leaves, in contemporary vellum. Inscribed by the compiler (f. 133v) ‘Anthony Scattergood His booke’: i.e. Anthony Scattergood (1611-87), theologian, of Trinity College, Cambridge. Volume XXXII of the Scattergood papers. c.1632-40.
Also inscribed (f. 130v) ‘Elisabeth Scattergood her Booke 1667/8’. Booklabel of Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector.
f. 9v
• StW 791: William Strode, Song (‘I saw faire Cloris walke alone’)
Copy, headed ‘On a Gentlewoman in a Snow’, here originally beginning ‘I saw my Mistresse walke alone’ and changed to ‘I saw Faire Chloris walke alone’, also originally subscribed ‘incerti Authoris’ and then changed to ‘Stroud, Ox.’.
Edited from this MS in Herbert J. Davis, ‘Dr. Anthony Scattergood's Common-place Book’, Cornhill Magazine, 54 (1923), 679-91 (p. 690). The text with a sidenote referring to a Latin version of the poem on p. 29 (i.e. f. 19).
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).
f. 9v
• JnB 484: Ben Jonson, To Doctor Empirick (‘When men a dangerous disease did scape’)
Copy, headed ‘To Dr Emperig’.
Edited from this MS in Poetical and Dramatic Works of Thomas Randolph, ed. W.C. Hazlitt (London, 1875), p. 655.
First published in Epigrammes (xiii) in Workes (London, 1616). Herford & Simpson, VIII, 31.
f. 9v
• RnT 475: Thomas Randolph, Epigram (‘Heavens decreed, before the world begun’)
Copy.
Published, and attributed to Randolph, in Hazlitt, II, 655. Parry, p. 219. Rejected from the canon in Thorn-Drury, p. xxii.
f. 10r
• JnB 436: Ben Jonson, Song. That Women are bvt Mens shaddowes (‘Follow a shaddow, it still flies you’)
Copy, headed ‘Women are bvt mens shadowes’.
First published in The Forrest (vii) in Workes (London, 1616). Herford & Simpson, VIII, 104.
f. 10r
• RnT 476: Thomas Randolph, ‘Here lyeth a Horse, that died but’
Copy, with a deleted ascription to ‘T. Randolph’.
Edited from this MS in Cornhill Magazine.
First published, anonymously, in Wit's Recreations (London, 1640). Cornhill Magazine, 54 (1923), 684.
ff. 11r-12r
• RnT 550: Thomas Randolph, Upon the Burning of a School (‘What heat of learning kindled your desire’)
Copy, headed ‘Verses on the burning of the Schoole of Castlethorp in York-shire’.
Published in Wit and Drollery (London, 1661), ascribed to ‘T. R.’. Usually anonymous in MS copies and the school variously identified as being in Castlethorpe or in Batley, Yorkshire, or in Lewes, Sussex, or elsewhere.
f. 12r-v
• KiH 57: Henry King, The Boy's answere to the Blackmore (‘Black Mayd, complayne not that I fly’)
Copy, headed ‘The Boy's answer’.
First published in The Academy of Complements (London, 1646). Poems (1657). Crum, p. 151. The text almost invariably preceded, in both printed and MS versions, by (variously headed) ‘A Blackmore Mayd wooing a faire Boy: sent to the Author by Mr. Hen. Rainolds’ (‘Stay, lovely Boy, why fly'st thou mee’). Musical settings by John Wilson in Henry Lawes, Select Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1669).
f. 12v
• CwT 173: Thomas Carew, Disdaine returned (‘Hee that loves a Rosie cheeke’)
Copy, headed ‘On a gentlewoman’.
First published (stanzas 1-2), in a musical setting, in Walter Porter, Madrigales and Ayres (London, 1632). Complete in Poems (1640). Dunlap, p. 18. Musical setting by Henry Lawes published in Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1653).
f. 13r
• FeO 28: Owen Felltham, A Farewell (‘When by sad fate from hence I summon'd am’)
Copy, headed ‘On a Lovers absence’.
This MS cited in Pebworth & Summers.
First published in Lusoria (London, 1661). Pebworth & Summers, p. 18.
ff. 13r-14r
• RnT 501: Thomas Randolph, On the Banishment of Cambridge Lasses (‘Come, let us study, for those glorious lookes’)
Copy.
Unpublished? Tentatively attributed to Randolph in Moore Smith (1927), p. 113.
f. 14v
• CwT 823: Thomas Carew, Song. Celia singing (‘Harke how my Celia, with the choyce’)
Copy, headed ‘Upon the curious playing, & singing of a gentlewoman’.
First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, p. 38.
f. 16r-v
• CwT 522: Thomas Carew, On sight of a Gentlewomans face in the water (‘Stand still you floods, doe not deface’)
Copy, headed ‘A Lover to a Brooke, by wch sate his Mistresse’.
First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, p. 102.
f. 20r
• KiH 440: Henry King, My Midd-night Meditation (‘Ill busy'd Man! why should'st thou take such care’)
Copy, headed ‘On man's curiositie to prolong his daies’.
First published, as ‘Man's Miserie, by Dr. K’, in Richard Chamberlain, The Harmony of the Muses (London, 1654) [apparently unique exemplum in the Huntington, edited in facsimile by Ernest W. Sullivan (Aldershot, 1990), pp. 5-6]. Poems (1657). Crum, pp. 157-8.
f. 20r
• CwT 415: Thomas Carew, Lips and Eyes (‘In Celia's face a question did arise’)
Copy.
This MS recorded in Hazlitt, p. 6.
First published in Poems (1640) and in Wits Recreations (London, 1640). Dunlap, p. 6.
f. 20r-v
• CwT 273: Thomas Carew, A flye that flew into my Mistris her eye (‘When this Flye liv'd, she us'd to play’)
Copy, headed ‘An Elegie on a Flie’.
This MS recorded in Hazlitt, p. 48.
First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, pp. 37-9. Musical setting by Henry Lawes published in The Treasury of Musick, Book 2 (London, 1669).
f. 21r
• StW 326: William Strode, On a Butcher marrying a Tanners daughter (‘A fitter Match hath never bin’)
Copy.
First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1636). Dobell, p. 119. Forey, p. 18.
f. 21v
• CoR 739: Richard Corbett, Nonsence (‘Like to the thund'ring tone of unspoke speeches’)
Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘Like to ye silent Tone of unspoke speeches’.
First published in Witts' Recreations Augmented (London, 1641). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 95-6.
ff. 21v-2r
• WoH 86: Sir Henry Wotton, On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia (‘You meaner beauties of the night’)
Copy, headed ‘To ye Q of Bohemia’ and here beginning ‘Ye meaner Beauties of ye night’.
First published (in a musical setting) in Michael East, Sixt Set of Bookes (London, 1624). Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), p. 518. Hannah (1845), pp. 12-15. Some texts of this poem discussed in J.B. Leishman, ‘“You Meaner Beauties of the Night” A Study in Transmission and Transmogrification’, The Library, 4th Ser. 26 (1945-6), 99-121. Some musical versions edited in English Songs 1625-1660, ed. Ian Spink, Musica Britannica XXXIII (London, 1971), Nos. 66, 122.
f. 22r
• CoR 610: Richard Corbett, To the Ladyes of the New Dresse (‘Ladyes that weare black cypresse vailes’)
Copy, headed ‘Dr Corbet's verses to ye Ladies & Gentlewomen of ye Newdresse’.
First published in Witts Recreations (London, 1640). Certain Elegant Poems (London, 1647). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, p. 90.
This poem is usually followed in MSS by ‘The Ladyes Answer’ (‘Blacke Cypresse vailes are shrouds of night’): see GrJ 14.
ff. 26r-30r
• RnT 439: Thomas Randolph, Oratio praevaricatoria Thomae Randolphi. 1632
Copy in two hands, with corrections possibly in a third hand, the concluding poem beginning ‘Jam sileat [Jac]k drum, sileat miracula Tom thum’, on two conjugate quarto leaves and two conjugate folio leaves, imperfect. c.1632.
Formerly Chist Church Evelyn Collection MS 301.
First published in Hazlitt (1875), II, 671-80.
f. 27v
• GrJ 27: John Grange, ‘Black cypress veils are shrouds of night’
Copy, headed ‘The Ladies answere’.
An ‘Answer’ to Corbett's ‘To the Ladyes of the New Dresse’ (CoR 595-629), first published in Witts Recreations (London, 1640). The Poems of Richard Corbett, ed. J.A.W. Bennett and H.R. Trevor-Roper (Oxford, 1955), p. 91. Listed as by John Grange in Krueger.
ff. 22v-6r
• RnT 438: Thomas Randolph, Oratio praevaricatoria Thomae Randolphi. 1632
Copy of a humorous Latin oration as Praevaricator mocking M.A. candidates' declamations at the Cambridge Commencement of July 1632, ascribed to ‘Th: Rand: T: C:’ and beginning ‘Dne Procancellarie, veneranda capita, viri, fratres, & patres, & tota juventus Attica, ego plurimum salvere jubeo Prae=varicatorem…’, with a concluding poem beginning ‘Jam sileat Jack drum, taceat miracula Tom Thumb’.
Edited from this MS in Hazlitt.
First published in Hazlitt (1875), II, 671-80.
f. 36v
• HrJ 194: Sir John Harington, Of a pregnant pure sister (‘I learned a tale more fitt to be forgotten’)
Copy of a ten-line version, headed ‘On a Puritan maide’ and here beginning ‘A Puritan maide by one of hir societie’.
First published (13-line version) in The Epigrams of Sir John Harington, ed. N.E. McClure (Philadelphia, 1926), but see HrJ 197. McClure (1930), No. 413, p. 315. Kilroy, Book IV, No. 80, p. 239.
f. 37v
• RaW 462: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Say not you love, unless you do’
Copy, headed ‘Sr Walter Ralegh & a Lady’.
Edited from this MS in Hazlitt (1870) and in Rudick, No. 38, p. 106.
First published in Inedited Poetical Miscellanies, 1584-1700, ed. W.C. Hazlitt ([London], 1870), p. [179]. Listed but not printed in Latham, p. 174. Rudick, No. 38, p. 106.
f. 38r
• DnJ 1760: John Donne, A lame begger (‘I am unable, yonder begger cries’)
Copy, headed ‘On a cripple’ and here beginning ‘I can nor go, nor stand, ye cripple cries’.
Printed from this MS in Herbert J. Davis, ‘Dr. Anthony Scattergood's Commonplace Book’, CM, 54 (1923), 679-91 (p. 690).
First published in Thomas Deloney, Strange Histories (London, 1607), sig. E6. Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 76. Milgate, Satires, p. 51. Shawcross, No. 88. Variorum, 8 (1995), pp. 7 (as ‘Zoppo’) and 10.
f. 39r
• DaJ 181: Sir John Davies, On the Deputy of Ireland his child (‘As carefull mothers doe to sleeping lay’)
Copy, headed ‘An other of ye same’ [i.e. an Infant being dead].
First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1637), p. 411. Krueger, p. 303.
f. 40r
• CaE 15: Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland, An Epitaph upon the death of the Duke of Buckingham (‘Reader stand still and see, loe, how I am’)
Copy of the six-line epitaph.
This MS recorded in Akkerman.
A six-line (epitaph) version is ascribed to ‘the Countesse of Faukland’ in two MS copies. In some sources it is followed by a further 44 lines (elegy) beginning ‘Yet were bidentalls sacred and the place’. The latter also appears, anonymously, as a separate poem in a number of other sources. The authorship remains uncertain. For an argument for Lady Falkland's authorship of all 50 lines, see Akkerman.
Both sets of verse were first published, as separate but sequential poems, in Poems or Epigrams, Satyrs (London, 1658), pp. 101-2. All 50 lines are edited in Akkerman, pp. 195-6.
ff. 93v-4v
• RnT 209: Thomas Randolph, On six maids bathing themselves in a River (‘When bashfull day-light now was gone’)
Copy, headed ‘On 6 Cambridge Maids bathing themselves by Queen's Coll: Jun. 15th. 1629. by T. Randph.’.
This MS collated in Thorn-Drury.
First published in Poems, 2nd edition (1640). Thorn-Drury, pp. 138-40. Davis, pp. 56-62.
f. 95r
• StW 1020: William Strode, A Sonnet (‘My Love and I for kisses played’)
Copy, untitled.
First published in A Banquet of Jests (London, 1633). Dobell, p. 47. Forey, p. 211. The poem also discussed in C.F. Main, ‘Notes on some Poems attributed to William Strode’, PQ, 34 (1955), 444-8 (p. 446-7).
ff. 122v-3v
• ClJ 22: John Cleveland, A Dialogue between two Zealots, upon the &c. in the Oath (‘Sir Roger, from a zealous piece of Freeze’)
Copy, added in an unidentified secretary hand, headed ‘A Dialogue between two Zelotes ccerning &c. in the Oath’. Mid-17th century.
First published in Character (1647). Morris & Withington, pp. 4-5.