MSS 1
A collection of papers of the actor Edward Alleyn (1566-1626).
article 68
• *MsP 39: Philip Massinger, Document(s)
Autograph additions by Massinger, and also by Robert Daborne, to a letter by Nathan Field to Philip Henslowe, probably in July 1613. 1613.
Facsimile examples in Cruickshank, Philip Massinger (Oxford, 1920), facing p. 4, in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XIII(b); and in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977), II, No. 68.
article 102
• *MsP 40: Philip Massinger, Document(s)
Massinger's signature on a bond between Massinger and Daborne on the one part and Henslowe on the other, 4 July 1615. 1615.
Facsimiles in Irvine E. Gray, ‘Philip Massinger: An Archival Problem’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 2 (1960-4), 319-21 (fig. b), and in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977), II, 102.
article 108
• DkT 49: Thomas Dekker, Letter(s)
Autograph letter signed by Dekker, to Edward Alleyn, 12 September 1616. 1616.
Facsimiles in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate IX(b); in Jones-Davies, facing p. 64; and in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (2 vols, London, 1977), II, 108-9.
article 109
• DkT 50: Thomas Dekker, Letter(s)
Letter in a scribal hand and signed by Dekker, to Edward Alleyn, [c.1616]. c.1616.
Facsimile in Jones-Davies, facing p. 56.
article 135
• *JnB 319: Ben Jonson, Martial. <Epigram XLVII, Book X.> (‘The Things that make the happier life, are these’)
Autograph, on a folio leaf also containing WoH 2.
Edited from this MS in Collier and in Herford & Simpson. Edited and discussed in Anthony Miller, ‘The Text of Ben Jonson's Translation of Martial, Epigrams, X.xlvii’, ELN, 21/2 (December 1983), 8-10. Facsimiles in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977), II, 135, and in The Henslowe Papers Supplement: The Theatre Papers, in honour of Dr D.M. Owen, ed. Masayuki Yamagishi (Kyoto, Japan, 1992), article 35.
First published in John Payne Collier, Memoirs of Edward Alleyn (London, 1841), p. 54. Herford & Simpson, VIII, 295.
article 136
• WoH 2: Sir Henry Wotton, The Character of a Happy Life (‘How happy is he born and taught’)
Copy, in the hand of Ben Jonson, on a folio leaf also containing JnB 319.
Edited (inaccurately) from this MS in John Payne Collier, Memoirs of Edward Alleyn (London, 1841), p. 53. Edited, with a facsimile, in Pebworth. Also collated in Hannah and recorded in Main. Other facsimiles in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977), II, 136; in The Henslowe Papers Supplement: The Theatre Papers, ed. Masayuki Yamagishi (Kyoto, 1992), article 136, p. 135 and plates.
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).
article 138
• GrR 9: Robert Greene, Orlando Furioso
The part of Orlando, in the hand of a playhouse scribe, with additions probably made by the actor Edward Alleyn (1566-1626), probably used for a performance by Lord Strange's company in February 1591/2, imperfect.
This MS collated in Grosart. Edited, with facsimile pages, in Two Elizabethan Stage Abridgements: The Battle of Alcazar and Orlando Furioso, ed. W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1922), and in Greg, Dramatic Documents, I, 176-87, & Vol. II.
A complete facsimile in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977), II, in endpocket. Facsimile examples also in Elizabethan Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers, DLB 62 (Detroit, 1987), pp. 87, 411.
First published in London, 1594. Grosart, XIII, 111-98. Edited by W.W. Greg and R.B. McKerrow, Malone Society (Oxford, 1907). For a discussion of the text, see Michael Warren, ‘Greene's Orlando: W.W. Greg Furioso’, in Textual Formations and Reformations, ed. Laurie E. Maguire and Thomas L. Berger (Newark & London, 1998), pp. 67-91.
MSS 7
The folio ‘diary’ and account book of Philip Henslowe (c.1555-1616), theatre financier, 238 leaves. 1592-1609.
Formerly Alleyn Papers MS VII.
ff. 31r, 101r, and 114r
• *DkT 54: Thomas Dekker, Document(s)
Dekker's autograph entries for 19 December 1599, 30 January 1598/9, and 5 May 1602. 1599-1602.
Facsimiles in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plates IX(a), VII(b), and X(c). Facsimile of Dekker's signature for 19 December 1599 in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 43.
f. 31r
• *DrM 77: Michael Drayton, Document(s)
A signed autograph receipt by Drayton, 21 January 1598/9.
Facsimiles in Greg, Plate VIII(a); in Bernard H. Newdigate, Michael Drayton and his Circle (Oxford, 1961), facing p. 106; in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 42; and in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977).
f. 90r
• *ChG 32: George Chapman, Document(s)
A statement of Chapman's debt to Henslowe of £10 10s, in the hand of Robert Shaa, and signed by Chapman, 24 October 1598. 1598.
Facsimiles in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XII(a); in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 41; in The Henslowe Papers, ed. R.A. Foakes (London, 1977); and in Cummings, p. 105.
MSS 18, article 8, ff. 114r-16r
Three leases of Edward Alleyn signed as witnesses by Massinger and Robert Daborne. c.1615-23.
*MsP 41: Philip Massinger, Document(s)
Formery Alleyn Papers, Vol. II, No. 8, ff. 114r-16r
MSS 29
Copy, in the same professional secretary hand as in British Library, Harley MS 4685, 36 folio leaves. Early 17th century.
RaW 1072: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Military Discourse
A treatise beginning ‘Forasmuch as in every doubtfull and questionable matter, it is familiar and common amongst men to be diverse...’. First published in London, 1734. It was probably written by Sir Thomas Wilford (1541-1601?), or possibly by Sir Francis De Vere or Nathaniel Boothe. See Lefranc (1968), pp. 64-5.
MSS 94, item 3
An autograph(?) fifteen-line inscription, presenting a volume, probably The Crowne of all Homer's Worckes, to Sir Albertus Morton, on what is now a detached flyleaf only, the book itself being lost. c.1624.
*ChG 19: George Chapman, Chapman, George. The Crowne of all Homer's Worckes Batrachomyomachia (London, [1624?])
Inscribed on the verso ‘Thomas Marsh his booke’, with a draft letter apparently by him. Once owned by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger.
Facsimile in Cummings, p. 219.