Case 3A 869
A printed exemplum of the London edition of 1628 bearing Wither's autograph thirteen-line presentation inscription to Edmund Prideaux, Attorney General, dated 16 June 1656, the duodecimo volume in later calf gilt. 1656.
WiG 45: George Wither, Britains Remembrancer (London, 1628)
Booklabels of Herschel V. Jones and Louis H. Silver.
The inscription edited and discussed in Norman E. Carlson, ‘A George Wither Presentation Copy’, N&Q, 222 (December 1977), 535-6.
Case MS fF 45919. 37
A folder of twelve unbound folio letters and documents.
item 5
• ClE 151: Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Letters to the Duke of York and the Duchess of York
Copy of the two letters, in a professional italic hand, on all four pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet. Late 17th 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.
Case MS fJ 5452. 634
Copy, complete with dedicatory epistle to Queen Elizabeth, in a single professional secretary hand, 253 folio leaves (plus seven blanks), in contemporary calf gilt. Late 16th-early 17th century.
HoH 81: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, A dutiful defence of the lawful regiment of women
Inscribed inside the front cover ‘Baker & Leigh Aug: 77’. Bookplate of Alfred Cock. His sale, 11 July 1898, lot 598, to Maggs.
An unpublished answer to, and attack upon, John Knox's ‘railing invective’ against Mary Queen of Scots, First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558). Written, Howard claims in his Dedication, some thirteen years after he was asked to do so by a Privy Councillor [i.e. c.1585-90]. The Dedication to Queen Elizabeth beginning ‘It pricketh now fast upon the point of thirteen years (most excellent most gratious and most redoubted Soveraign...’; the main text, in three books, beginning ‘It may seem strange to men of grounded knowledge...’, and ending ‘...Sancta et individuae Trinitati sit omnis honor laus et gloria in secula seculorum. Amen.’
Case MS fY 682 A3
Copy of Book I, with dedicatory epistle and verses to Queen Elizabeth, in an italic hand, inscribed (f. 17v) in another hand ‘Elizeis A Latin Poem on Queen Elizabeth’, seventeen folio leaves (plus four blanks), in later calf gilt. Early 17th century.
AlW 136: William Alabaster, Elisæis (‘Virgineum mundi decus, augustamque Britannae’)
Later owned by The Rev. Richard Farmer, FSA (1735-97), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, literary scholar. His sale, 7 May-16 June 1798, lot 8029, to Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector. Sotheby's, 1836 (Heber sale, Part XI), lot 109, to Thomas Thorpe. His ‘Catalogue of upward of fourteen hundred manuscripts’ (1836), item 8. Bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9027. Sotheby's, 1893 (Phillipps sale), lot 2, to J. Dixon; probably resold at Sotheby's, 1910, lot 293, to Maggs. Donated in January 1914 by Professor Frederic Ives Carpenter.
This MS collated in O'Connell and the dedicatory epistle and dedicatory verses edited from this MS. Photostats of the MS are in the Folger PR 1405 A4.
Of Alabaster's unfinished epic ‘Apotheosis poetica’, written probably in 1588-91 and celebrating the reign of Queen Elizabeth, only Book I survives. The text is preceded by a dedicatory prose epistle to the Queen and by eight lines of dedicatory verse to her beginning ‘Qua sinuat tellus viridans immania terga’. First published, with an English prose translation, as The Elisæis of William Alabaster, ed. and trans. Michael O'Connell, Studies in Philology, 76, No. 5 (Early Winter 1979), 77 pp.
Case MS fY 1565. W95
Autograph MS of the Second Part of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania, in two folio volumes. 1621.
Inscribed inside the front cover of Vol. I ‘Charles Morgan’.
The MS as a whle
• *WrM 12: Lady Mary Wroth, The Second Part of The Countess of Montgomery's Urania
Autograph manuscript, closely written in her italic hand with frequent revisions, comprising two ‘books’ in two folio volumes, the first untitled but with the colophon ‘heer ends the first booke, of the secound part of the Countess of Mountgomeries Vrania’, the second volume headed ‘The secound booke of the secound part of the Countess of Montgomerys Vrania’, the pages numbered by Wroth according to bifolium (so each of her ‘foll’ numbers represents four pages), the first volume 67 leaves (plus blanks), the second volume 62 leaves (plus blanks), both in later half-calf marbled boards. 1621.
Edited from this MS in Roberts's edition, with facsimiles of Vol. I, ff. 1r, 15r, 35r, and Vol. II, ff. 1r, 22r, and 62r, after p. xliv. Facsimile of Vol. I, f. 1r also in Roberts, Poems, p. 81, and facsimile examples in Carolyn Ruth Swift, ‘Feminine Identity in Lady Mary Wroth's Romance Urania’, in Women in the Renaissance, ed. Kirby Farrell, Elizabeth H. Hageman, and Arthur F. Kinney (Amherst, 1988), 154-174 (pp. 156-7).
Edited by Josephine Roberts; completed by Suzanne Gossett and Janel Mueller (Tempe, Arizona, 1999). Poems alone edited in Roberts, Poems, and in Pritchard, pp. 200-20.
f. [10r-v] (‘foll. 5’, pp. [3-4])
• PeW 21: William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, ‘Had I loved but at that rate’
Copy, in Lady Mary Wroth's hand, untitled, here beginning ‘Had I loued butt at thus rate’, with one line deleted.
Edited from this MS in Roberts's editions and in Pritchard, p. 201.
Krueger, pp. 53-4, among ‘Poems Attributed to Pembroke in Manuscripts’. Edited, as a ‘Poem Possibly by William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke’, in The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, ed. Josephine A. Roberts ([revised paperback edition], Baton Rouge and London, 1983).
Case VM 1579 F23f
Copy of a version beginning ‘Sweet are the thoughts yt harbour full content’, on a leaf tipped into a music part-book. c.1600.
GrR 0.8: Robert Greene, Song (‘Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content’)
The book inscribed by Conyers D'arcy (1570-1653/4), of Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire.
This MS recorded in David Greer, ‘Manuscript Additions in “Parthenia” and Other Early English Printed Music in America’, Music & Letters, 77 (May 1996), 169-82 (p. 177).
First published in Greenes Farewell to Folly (London, 1591).
MS Y 184. 18
A quarto formal anthology of verse, in a single neat rounded hand, arranged by genre, entitled ‘A Collection of Serious Humorous and Affectionate Poems’, 131 leaves, on rectos only, in modern cloth. Early 18th century.
f. 80r
• RoJ 234: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, On Rome's pardons (‘If Rome can pardon sins, as Romans hold’)
First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 161-2. Walker, pp. 127-8, among ‘Poems Possibly by Rochester’. Love, p. 247, among Disputed Works.
f. 104r
• KiH 80: 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).
MS Y 185. E49
Case Y 642. I85
Some annotations in an italic hand, probably Harvey's, on sigs Biiiiv-[Bvr], C2v and C4v, as well as underlinings, but not signed by him, in a. small octavo, in later calf gilt. Late 16th century.
*HvG 113: Gabriel Harvey, Isocrates. The Doctrinal of Princes made by the noble Oratour Isocrates, & translated out of Greke into Englishe by Syr Thomas Eliot knight (London, [1534])
Evidently the ‘Oration of Isocrates to King Nicocles -- By Sir Thomas Eliot’, lacking title-page, owned and recorded in Thomas W. Jones's list of 1854 in University of London, Senate House Library, MS 289.
Case Y 682. H25
An annotation (f. 5r) probably in Harvey's hand, with various underlinings, and the initials ‘GH’ in a flourished hand on the title-page, in a small quarto, in modern cloth. Late 16th century.
*HvG 103: Gabriel Harvey, Harvey, Gabriel. Gabrielis Harveii Valdinatis; Smithus; vel Musarum Lachrymæ: Pro obitu Honoratissimi viri, atque hominis multis nominibus clarissimi, Thomæ Smithi, Equitis Britanni, Maiestatisque Regiæ Secretarij. Ad Gualterum Mildmaium, Equitem Britannum, & Consiliarium Regium (London, 1578)
Stern, p. 219.
Case Y 712. C27495
Copious autograph annotations and marginalia, as well as underlinings, signed on the title-page ‘Gabrielis Harueij’ and ‘gabrielharuey, 1572’, a note by him on the penultimate page dated ‘1580’, in a quarto volume, in modern morocco gilt. 1572-80.
*HvG 48: Gabriel Harvey, Castiglione, Baldassare. The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio; divided into foure bookes. Very necessary, and profitable for yonge Gentilmen, and Gentilwomen, abiding in Court, Palace, or Place; done into Englyshe by Thomas Hoby (London, 1561)
Booklabel of Louis H. Silver.
Stern, pp. 205-6.
Case Y 712. G939
Autograph signature ‘Gabriel Harvey’ (deleted) on the title-page, a marginal annotation on sig. D4r, and some underlinings, in a quarto volume, in contemporary limp vellum. c.1581.
*HvG 97: Gabriel Harvey, Guazzo, S. Stefano. The Civile Conversation of M. Steeven Guazzo written first in Italian, and nowe translated out of French by George Pettie, devided into foure books (London, 1581)
Stern, pp. 217-18. Discussed in Kirsty Cochrane, ‘A Civil Conversation of 1582: Gabriel Harvey's Reading of Guazzo’, AUMLA, 78 (November 1992), 1-28.
MS Y 1845. 7
A folio verse miscellany, in possibly several hands, one italic hand predominating, largely in double columns and written from both ends, on sixteen leaves of vellum, in modern stiff paper wrappers. Compiled by members of the family of Peter Chamberlen, M.D. (1601-83), Royal Physician, possibly by his son Paul (1635-1717). c.1690s.
Sold c.1851-2 by Thomas Thorpe Jr to Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 12399. Sotheby's, 1895 (Phillipps sale), lot 906, to Ridler. Bookplate of Professor Frederic Ives Carpenter.
f. [14r rev.]
• BcF 41.2: Francis Bacon, ‘The world's a bubble, and the life of man’
Copy, in an italic hand, headed ‘Lord Verulam of the World’.
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.
MS ZW 645. K29
Autograph calligraphic MS, on vellum, on rectos only, ii + 21 leaves (79 x 105 mm.), in contemporary calf gilt. A presentation MS, a New Year's Gift to Elizabeth Pierrepoint (d.1621), second wife of the courtier Thomas Erskine (1566-1639), Baron Erskine of Dirleton and later Earl of Kellie, with a prose Dedication to her in English, in a number of styles of script, with colour and gold decoration and figures. 1 January 1605/6.
*InE 29: Esther Inglis, [Proverbs] A New Yeeres Guift for the Right Honorable and Vertuous Lady the Lady Arskene of Dirltoun. Of the hand writing and limming of mee Esther Inglis, the 1. of Iannuar, 1606
Scribbled initials ‘A. C.’ on the penultimate leaf. Sold by Maggs (1928). Sotheby's, 6 July 1932, lot 489. Tregaskis, Caxton Head catalogues No. 1005 (1931?), item 89, and 1027 (1932), item 8. Afterwards owned, and bequeathed in 1953, by Alfred E. Hamill.
Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 23 (pp. 52-3). Facsimiles of pp. 7 and 12 in Robert Williams, ‘A Moon to Their Sun: Writing Mistresses of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, Fine Print, 11, No. 2 (April 1985), 88-98 (Plates 4 and 5 on p. 92). Also described in the online Perdita Project.
Selections from an English translation of the Book of Proverbs in the Bible.
MS ZW 645. K292
Autograph calligraphic MS, on rectos only, i + 76 leaves (95 x 135 mm.), in contemporary calf gilt. A presentation MS to Monsieur de Hayes (? Sir Thomas Hayes, d.1617, Lord Mayor of London), with a prose Dedication to him in French, in various styles of script, with colour and gold decoration and figures. 1607.
*InE 47: Esther Inglis, [Quatrains de Pybrac] Les Quatrains du Sr. de Pybrac dediez a tresnoble et treshonorable Seigneur, Monseigneur de Hayes, pour ses estrennes 1607 Escrit et illumine, par moy Esther Inglis
Later owned by J. Adams (19th-century) and later by Mrs Florence Edwards (Sotheby's, 14 July 1952, lot 131).
Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 31 (pp. 60-1). Also described in the online Perdita Project.
Quatrains in French by Guy du Faur, Sieur de Pybrac (1529-84), first published in 1576.
Wing MS fZW 5451. 001C
A folio miscellany of chiefly religious verse, in a calligraphic hand adopting various secretary and italic scripts and decorative motifs, in black and red ink, on fifteen leaves (plus three blanks), in modern quarter-morocco. In a hand associated with one Henry Feilde. c.1630s.
f. 3r
• BrW 4.7: William Browne of Tavistock, ‘Behold, O God, in rivers of my tears’
Copy, set out in patterned formation, untitled and here beginning ‘Beholde O God IN Riuers of my Teares’.
First published in Brydges (1815), pp. 4-5.
f. 6v
• TiC 42: Chidiock Tichborne, Tichborne's Lament (‘My prime of youth is but a frost of cares’)
Calligraphic copy, with decorative roundels, headed ‘Chidiok Tichbourne verses which he made in the Tower before his execucon ’.
First published in the single sheet Verses of Prayse and Joy Written Upon her Maiesties Preseruation Whereunto is annexed Tychbornes lamentation, written in the Towre with his owne hand, and an answer to the same (London, 1586). Hirsch, pp. 309-10. Also ‘The Text of “Tichborne's Lament” Reconsidered’, ELR, 17, No. 3 (Autumn 1987), between pp. 276 and 277. May EV 15464 (recording 37 MS texts). For the ‘answer’ to this poem, see KyT 1-2.
f. 14v
• BcF 41.3: Francis Bacon, ‘The world's a bubble, and the life of man’
Calligraphic copy, headed ‘The Worlde’, on one side of a folio leaf.
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.