MS Z 3. 5. 21
An octavo composite miscellany of verse and prose, in several secretary, italic and mixed hands, 190 leaves (irregularly numbered), in contemporary limp vellum. c.1580s-1615.
Inscribed (inside front and rear covers) ‘Robert Thornton’ and ‘William Sherida / Wm Sheridan.’
ff. 11v-14v
• DyE 24: Sir Edward Dyer, A Fancy (‘Hee that his mirth hath loste, whose comfort is dismaid’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled.
First published, in a garbled version, in Poems by the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Benjamin Ruddier (London, 1660), pp. 29-31. Sargent, No. V, pp. 184-7. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 290-2. EV 8529.
ff. 15r-17r
• DyE 4: Sir Edward Dyer, ‘Amarillis was full fayre, the goodliest mayde was she’
Copy, in a small mixed hand, untitled, subscribed ‘G: Dier’.
First published in Sargent (1935). Sargent, No. X, pp. 192-5. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 303-5. EV 1870.
f. 17v
• SiP 36: Sir Philip Sidney, Certain Sonnets, Sonnet 15 (‘Like as the Dove which seeled up doth flie’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Vppon the Deuise of a seeled Doue Wth these of Petrarch…’.
This MS collated in Ringler.
Ringler, p. 144.
f. 17v
• SiP 130: Sir Philip Sidney, Old Arcadia. Book II, No. 17 (‘My sheepe are thoughts, which I both guide and serve’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled.
This MS collated in Ringler and in Robertson.
Ringler, p. 39. Robertson, p. 197.
f. 18r
• SiP 50: Sir Philip Sidney, Certain Sonnets, Sonnet 23 (‘Who hath his fancie pleased’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘To the tune of Wyllielm Van Nassaw, &c.’.
This MS collated in Ringler.
Ringler, pp. 151-2.
ff. 18v-19v
• SiP 46: Sir Philip Sidney, Certain Sonnets, Sonnet 22. The 7. Wonders of England (‘Neere Wilton sweete, huge heapes of stones are found’)
Copy, in a secretary hand.
This MS collated in Ringler.
Ringler, pp. 149-51.
f. 19v
• SiP 42: Sir Philip Sidney, Certain Sonnets, Sonnet 19 (‘If I could thinke how these my thoughts to leave’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled.
This MS collated in Ringler.
Ringler, pp. 147-8.
f. 20r
• OxE 27: Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, ‘Wheras the Harte at Tennysse playes and men to gaminge fall’
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Loue compared to a Tennis playe’, subscribed ‘Made by the Earle of Oxeforde’.
Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.
First published in John Cotgrave, Wits Interpreter (London, 1655). May, Poems, No. 13 (p. 35). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 279-80. EV 30349.
f. 20v
• OxE 48: Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, ‘Sittinge alone upon my thought in melancholye moode’
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Verses made of ye Earle of Oxeforde, And Mris Ann Vauesor’.
This MS collated in May.
May, Poems, No. I (pp. 38-9). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 282-3. EV 20459.
f. 22r
• RaW 494: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘The state of Fraunce as nowe it standes’
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated in May.
First published in A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1808), III, 78. Listed but not printed in Latham, p. 172. Rudick, No. 30, p. 71. EV 24294.
f. 25r
• CoH 94: Henry Constable, To his mistris curteously intertayning him after hard & disgratious words. (‘My hope laye gasping on his dying bedd’)
Copy, in a predominantly secretary hand, unascribed.
Edited from this MS in Dowden and in Grundy.
First published in Edward Dowden, ‘An Elizabethan MS. Collection: Henry Constable’, Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature, 1, No. 1 (March 1898), 3-4. Grundy, p. 180.
f. 25r
• CoH 37: Henry Constable, Of the discouragement he had to proceed in loue through the multitude of his Ladies perfections and his owne lownesse. sonet 5. (‘When youre perfections to my thoughts appeare’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto decinoue’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 119.
f. 25r-v
• CoH 53: Henry Constable, Sonet 2. (‘Ladye in beautye and in favoure rare’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS colated in Grundy.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto decimo’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 123.
f. 25v
• CoH 69: Henry Constable, Sonet 5. (‘Myne eye with all the deadlie sinnes is fraught’)
Copy of a probably early version, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy and printed in full (as a possible ‘first draft’), pp. 175-6.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto vndeci’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, pp. 175-6.
f. 26r
• CoH 160: Henry Constable, To the Q: vpon occasion of a booke he wrote in an answer to certayne obiections against her proceeding in the Low countryes. Sonet 3. (‘The loue wherewith youre vertues chayne my sprite’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘To hir maiesty for a pface to his booke’, unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published in Park (1812). Grundy, p. 139.
f. 26r
• CoH 143: Henry Constable, To the Countesses of Cumberland and Warwicke sisters. Sonet 3. (‘Yow sisters Muses doe not ye repine’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘To ye most honorable Ladyes the Countesses of Comb. & War. sisters’, here beginning ‘Yee sister Muses doe not ye repine’, unascribed.
This MS collated and variant lines 9-14 printed in Grundy, pp. 146-7.
First published in Francis Davison, A Poetical Rhapsody (London, 1602). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 146.
f. 26v
• CoH 163: Henry Constable, To the same Ladyes in imitation of Petrarch, riminge only with two wordes in eight significations. (‘In Eden grew many a pleasant springe’)
Copy, in a seccretary hand, unascribed.
Edited from this MS in Dowden and in Grundy.
First published in Edward Dowden, ‘An Elizabethan MS. Collection: Henry Constable’, Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature, 1, No. 1 (March 1898), 3-4. Grundy, p. 181.
f. 26v
• CoH 43: Henry Constable, Of the slander enuye giues him for so highlye praysing his Mistrisse. Sonet 7. (‘Falselye doth envie of youre prayses blame’)
Copy of a version beginning ‘ffalse the report, & vniust is ye blame’, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated and the variant lines (1-8, 13-14) edited in Grundy, pp. 128-9.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto tredeci’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 128.
f. 27r
• CoH 98: Henry Constable, To my Ladie Rich. Sonet 6. (‘O that my songe like to a ship might be’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published in Park (1812). Grundy, p. 150.
f. 27v
• CoH 153: Henry Constable, To the K. of Scots whome as yet he had not seene. Sonet (‘Bloome of the rose I hope those hands to kisse’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘To the kinge of Scotts’, unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published in Park (1812). Grundy, p. 140.
f. 27v
• CoH 26: Henry Constable, Of his Ladies vayle wherewith she covered her. Sonet: 3. (‘The fouler hydes as closely as he may’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘To his Ladye wearing a vaile ouer hir heade’, unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto deciotto’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 132.
f. 27v
• CoH 90: Henry Constable, To his Ladies hand vpon occasion of her gloue which in her absence he kissed. Sonet 2. (‘Sweet hand the sweet (yet cruell) bowe thow art’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘To his Ladyes hand’, unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto vinti’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 131.
ff. 27v-8r
• CoH 79: Henry Constable, The thyrd 7 of seuerall occasions and accidents happening in the life tyme of his loue Of his Mistrisse vpon occasion of her walking in a garden. Sonet 1. (‘My Ladies presence makes the roses red’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published, as ‘Sonnetto decisette’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 130.
f. 28r
• CoH 60: Henry Constable, Sonet 3. (‘My reason absent did myne eyes require’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, here beginning ‘Reason absent did mine eyes require’, unascribed.
This MS collated in Grundy
First published, as ‘Sonnetto dodeci’, in Diana (London, 1592). Park (1812). Grundy, p. 173.
f. 28r-v
• CoH 2: Henry Constable, A calculation of the natiuitye of the Ladie Riches daughter borne vpon friday in the yeare 1588, comonly call'd the yeare of wonder. Sonet 6. (‘Fayre by inheritance, whom borne we see’)
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘A Sonet in manner of a calculation on ye natiuitye of a yonge Ladye borne on a friday, in this yeare. 1588’, subscribed ‘H. C.’
This MS collated in Grundy.
First published in Diana (London, 1592), sig. D3r. Park (1812). Grundy, p. 157.
f. 28v
• OxE 10: Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, ‘The Lyvely Larke stretcht forth her wynge’
Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.
This MS collated in May.
First published, headed ‘The iudgement of desire’ and subscribed ‘E. O.’, in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 8 (pp. 30-1). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 275-6. EV 23217.
f. 30v
• RaW 134: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Fortune hath taken thee away my love’
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, untitled and unascribed.
Edited from this MS in L.G. Black, ‘A Lost Poem by Queen Elizabeth I’, TLS (23 May 1968), p. 535, and in Rudick, No. 15C, p. 21.
Six lines cited in George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (London, 1589). Latham, p. 9. The full text first published as a broadside in London, 1592 (?): see TLS (12 September 1968), p. 1032. This poem is related to the song “Fortune my foe”: see TLS, 30 May 1968, p. 553. Rudick, Nos 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D (four versions, pp. 19-22), followed by the Queen's answer (p. 23: see ElQ 38).
ff. 93v, 95r-109v
• CoH 164: Henry Constable, A short vew of a large examinatio of Cardinsall Allen his trayterous iustificatio of Sr W. Stanley and Yorck
Copy of a title and part of a treatise, in a small italic hand, headed ‘A short vew of a large examinatio of Cardinsall Allen his trayterous iustificatio of Sr W. Stanley and Yorck, written by mr H. Const. and this gathered out of his own draught’, including an incomplete dedication ‘To my uerry Louing freand Samuell Ghilbart his hand and seale’, and a heading ‘Caput.4. Of the Lawfulnes of the Warrs (The only causes of lawfull Warrs in Flaunders)’.
ff. 114v-23v, 178r-[190v]
• CmW 7.5: William Camden, Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha
A chronological summary of the work, in a small mixed hand, headed ‘Camdeni Elizabetha: Apparatus’.
Part I (to 1589) first published in London, 1615. Parts I-II (to 1603) published in Leiden, 1625-7.
f. 126r
• RaW 276: Sir Walter Ralegh, On the Life of Man (‘What is our life? a play of passion’)
Copy, here beginning ‘What is or life? it is a play of passion’, subscribed ‘Rawley’.
Edited from this MS in Rudick, No. 29A, p. 69, and in his PQ, 83 article. Recorded in Latham, p. 144.
First published, in a musical setting, in Orlando Gibbons, The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets (London, 1612). Latham, pp. 51-2. Rudick, Nos 29A, 29B and 29C (three versions, pp. 69-70). MS texts also discussed in Michael Rudick, ‘The Text of Ralegh's Lyric “What is our life?”’, SP, 83 (1986), 76-87.
[no shelfmark]
An exemplum of the three-volume printed Oxford edition of 1707 with annotations by Jonathan Swift. c.1707.
ClE 157: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion
Swift's annotations edited in The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis, 14 vols (Oxford, 1939-66), V, 295-320.