Osborn MS b 150
An octavo miscellany of verse and prose, in English, Latin and Greek, predominantly in a single hand, with 19th-century additions (pp. 195 onwards, at least partly from earlier MS sources), 279 pages, in contemporary calf. c.1644 (and later).
Inscribed (f. [ir]) ‘William Han: 1644’, probably by the academic compiler.
pp. 139-42
• StW 1163: William Strode, To Sir Jo. Ferrers (‘Gold is restorative. How can I then’)
Copy, headed ‘To Dr Cl:’.
First published in Dobell (1907), pp. 88-9. Forey, pp. 200-1.
pp. 195-6
• DnJ 323.8: John Donne, The Baite (‘Come live with mee, and bee my love’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in William Corkine, Second Book of Ayres (London, 1612). Grierson, I, 46-7. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 32-3. Shawcross, No. 27.
p. 196
• DnJ 209.5: John Donne, The Apparition (‘When by thy scorne, O murdresse, I am dead’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 47-8. Gardner, Elegies, p. 43. Shawcross, No. 28.
pp. 197-9
• DnJ 3930.5: John Donne, The Will (‘Before I sigh my last gaspe, let me breath’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 56-8. Gardner, Elegies, pp. 54-5. Shawcross, No. 66.
pp. 199-200
• DnJ 3411.8: John Donne, To Sr Edward Herbert, at Julyers (‘Man is a lumpe, where all beasts kneaded bee’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 193-5. Milgate, Satires, pp. 80-1. Shawcross, No. 140.
p. 201
• DnJ 3308.5: John Donne, To Mr S.B. (‘O Thou which to search out the secret parts’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 211. Milgate, Satires, pp. 66-7. Shawcross, No. 124.
pp. 201-2
• DnJ 3227.5: John Donne, To Mr B.B. (‘Is not thy sacred hunger of science’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 212-13. Milgate, Satires, pp. 67-8. Shawcross, No. 126.
pp. 202-4
• LoR 45.5: Richard Lovelace, To Althea, From Prison. Song (‘When Love with unconfined wings’)
Copy.
First published in Lucasta (London, 1649). Wilkinson (1925), II, 70-1. (1930), pp. 78-9. Thomas Clayton, ‘Some Versions, Texts, and Readings of “To Althea, from Prison”’, PBSA, 68 (1974), 225-35. A musical setting by John Wilson published in Select Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1659).
pp. 204-5
• CoA 44.6: Abraham Cowley, Claudian's Old Man of Verona (‘Happy the man, who his whole time doth bound’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, ascribed to ‘Ab: Cowley Esqre’.
First published, among Essays in Verse and Prose, in Works (1668), p. 135.
pp. 205-6
• WoH 131: Sir Henry Wotton, On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia (‘You meaner beauties of the night’)
Copy, headed ‘On His Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia By Sir Henry Wootton. Kt’, in a 19th-century hand.
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.
pp. 206-7
• CoR 583.5: Richard Corbett, To his sonne Vincent Corbett (‘What I shall leave thee none can tell’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Certain Elegant Poems (London, 1647). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, p. 88.
pp. 208-13
• MaA 49.5: Andrew Marvell, The Nymph complaining for the death of her Faun (‘The wanton Troopers riding by’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Miscellaneous Poems (London, 1681). Margoliouth, I, 23-6. Smith, pp. 69-701.
pp. 215-16
• OtT 4: Thomas Otway, The sixteenth Ode Of the second Book of Horace (‘In Storms when Clouds the Moon do hide’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Miscellany Poems (London, 1684). Ghosh, II, 447-8.
p. 218
• DrW 23: William Drummond of Hawthornden, Son (‘My Lute, bee as thou wast when thou didst grow’)
Copy in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Poems ([Edinburgh?, 1614?]). Kastner, I, 60.
p. 218
• DrW 26: William Drummond of Hawthornden, Son (‘Sleepe, Silence Child, sweet Father of soft Rest’)
First published in Poems ([Edinburgh?, 1614?]). Kastner, I, 7.
p. 222
• SaG 22: George Sandys, A Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David (‘That man is truly bless'd who never strays’)
Copy of Psalm 148, here beginning ‘Ye who dwell above the skies’, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in London, 1636. Hooper, I, 91-195; II, 195-310.
Some of Henry Lawes's musical settings published in A Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems (London, 1638). Musical settings by Henry and William Lawes also published in Choice Psalmes Put into Musick for Three Voices (London, 1648).
p. 262
• HaW 30.5: William Habington, To Seymors, The house in which Vastara lived (‘Blest Temple, haile, where the Chast Altar stands’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 37.
p. 263
• WoH 257.7: Sir Henry Wotton, ‘Rise oh my soul wth: thy desires to heauen’
Copy, in a 17th-century hand, subscribed ‘Sr: Henery Wotton’, on a single page laid-down.
First published in Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), p. 537, subscribed ‘Ignoto’, among ‘Poems Found among the Papers of S. H. Wotton’.
pp. 264-5
• HaW 8.5: William Habington, To Castara, Inquiring why I loved her (‘Why doth the stubborne iron prove’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, ascribed to ‘Habington’.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 17-18.
pp. 265-6
• HaW 5.5: William Habington, To Castara (‘Forsake with me the earth, my faire’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To Castara By the same’.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 63.
pp. 266-7
• HaW 24.8: William Habington, To Castara, Weeping (‘Castara! O you are too prodigall’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To Castara Weeping by the same’.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 66.
pp. 267-8
• HaW 33.5: William Habington, To the Moment last past (‘O wither dost thou flye? Cannot my vow’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To the Moment last past By the same’.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 89.
pp. 268-70
• HaW 1.8: William Habington, Domine labia mea aperies. David (‘No monument of me remaine’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘Domine Labia Mea Aperis David By the same’.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 117-18.
pp. 270-2
• HaW 1.5: William Habington, Deus Deus Meus. David (‘Where is that foole Philosophie’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 135-6.
p. 273
• HaW 24.5: William Habington, To Castara. Vpon thought of Age and Death (‘The breath of time shall blast the flowry Spring’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand.
First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 72.
p. 274
• StW 867.5: William Strode, Song (‘Keepe on your maske, yea hide your Eye’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To a Ladie putting off her Veil. I retrieved from Lawes' Ayres for three voices. p: 19 by Dr Bliss from his Wood's Athenae, vol 3. p: 152’.
First published, in a musical setting by Henry Lawes, in Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1653). Wits Interpreter (London, 1655). Dobell, pp. 3-4. Forey, pp. 88-9.
pp. 275-6
• KiH 146.5: Henry King, The Dirge (‘What is th' Existence of Man's Life?’)
Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘From Dr. King's very rare volume of poems. 1657. The Dirge (p: 147)’.
First published in Poems (1657). Crum, pp. 177-8.
p. 277
• SpE 32: Edmund Spenser, To the right honourable the Earle of Northumberland (‘The sacred Muses have made alwaies clame’)
Copy of Spenser's dedicatory sonnet (in Book III of The Faerie Queene) in a 19th-century hand.
First published in The Faerie Queene, Books I-III (London, 1590). Variorum, III, 191.
Osborn MS b 166
Copy, in a professional hand, with a table of contents, on 144 folio leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf. With a title-page (f. [ir]), ‘Whether the Kinge of England by his Prerogative may sett Impositions, loanes or Privy Seales without Assent of Parliament’, the main text headed (f. 5r) ‘An Argument vpon the question of Impositions, devided into sundry Chapters, By Sir John Davies Knight one of his Mats; learned Councell in Ireland’. c.1620s.
DaJ 279: Sir John Davies, The Question concerning Impositions
Inscribed (f. [ir]) ‘E Milton / 26. dec. 1723’. Sotheby's, 9 December 1971, lot 101.
A treatise, with dedicatory epistle to James I, comprising 33 chapters, beginning ‘The Question it self is no more than this, Whether the Impositions which the King of England hath laid and levied upon Merchandize, by vertue of his Prerogative onely...’. First published in London, 1656. Grosart, III, 1-116.
Osborn MS b 173
A quarto miscellany, in a single mixed hand, 105 pages, in 17th-century calf. Mid-17th century.
ff. 1r-22r (first series)
• DaJ 238.8: Sir John Davies, A Discourse of Law and Lawyers: with Appendix of Cases
Copy, headed ‘La abridgmt del primer report des cases et matters en Ley resolue et ajudge en Ireland per Sr. John Dauys chyualer Atturnie generall dell Roy, en cest realme’.
A compilation, beginning with ‘Trin. 2. Iacobi en Leeschecquer. Le Case de Praxiet’, the main part an epistlolary tract by Davies to Lord Ellesmere. First published as Le Primer Report des Cases en Matters en Ley (Dublin, 1615). Grosart, II, 243-357.
Osborn MS b 180
Copy, on 21 folio leaves, disbound. In the hand of the ‘Feathery Scribe’, with his cropped annotation about charges made by him, and with reader's corrections. c.1630.
CtR 34: Sir Robert Cotton, An Answer made by Command of Prince Henry, to Certain Propositions of Warre and Peace
Sold by W.H. Robinson, 1952.
Described in Beal, In Praise of Scribes, pp. 69, 251-2 (No. 80), with a facsimile of the annotation on p. 71.
A treatise beginning ‘Frames of Policy, as well as works of Nature, are best preserved from the same grounds...’., written in 1609. First published London, 1655. Also published as Warrs with Forregin Princes Dangerous to oyr Common-Wealth: or, reasons for Forreign Wars Answered (London, 1657); as An Answer to such Motives as were offer'd by certain Military-Men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect Arms more than Peace... (London, 1665); and as A Discourse of Foreign War (London, 1690).
Osborn MS b 188
A duodecimo commonplace book, in two hands, compiled by Jane Truesdale and her father, including extracts from various authors, 178 leaves, in old leather. c.1672-94.
A facsimile of f. 64r in Victoria E. Burke, ‘Materiality and Form in the Seventeenth-Century Miscellanies of Anne Southwell, Elizabeth Hastings, and Jane Truesdale’, EMS, 16 (2011), 219-41 (p. 233).
ff. 47r-63r
• ClE 154: 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.
Osborn MS b 197
An octavo verse miscellany, including 13 poems by or attributed to Herrick, almost entirely in a single small predominantly italic hand, 250 pages (plus numerous blanks), originally in contemporary calf, but now disbound. Inscribed four times on a flyleaf ‘Tobias Alston his booke’: i.e. probably Tobias Alston (1620-c.1639) of Sayham Hall, near Sudbury, Suffolk. His half-brother Edward (b.1598) was a contemporary of Herrick at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, while his cousin, Edward Alston, later President of the College of Physicians, was a contemporary of Herrick at St John's College, Cambridge, some of the other contents also relating to Cambridge, besides some relating to Suffolk. The date 1639 occurs on p. 241, and pp. 243-50 contains verses written in two later hands (to c.1728) and some prose pieces written from the reverse end. c.1639 [-c.1728].
Names inscribed on a flyleaf including Henry Glisson (later Fellow of the College of Physicians); Thomas Avral(?); Horace Norton; Henry Rich; and James Tavor (Registrar of Cambridge University). Later owned by one John Whitehead, and by Dr Mary Pickford. Sotheby's, 27 June 1972, lot 309.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the ‘Alston MS’: HeR Δ 7. A complete set of photocopies of the MS is in the British Library, RP 772. Facsimile of pp. 6-7 in Sotheby's sale catalogue (see HeR 176, HeR 405) where the MS is described at some length. See also letters by Peter Beal and Donald W. Foster in TLS (24 January 1986), pp. 87-8.
pp. 1-2
• HeR 335: Robert Herrick, King Oberon his Cloathing (‘When the monethly horned Queene’)
Copy, headed ‘King Oberons Apparell’ and subscribed ‘Sr. Simmion Steward’.
First published, as ‘A Description of the King of Fayries Clothes’ and attributed to Sir Simeon Steward, in A Description of the King and Queene of Fayries (London, 1634). Musarum Deliciae (London, 1656), p. 32. Attributed to Herrick in Hazlitt, II, 473-7, and in Norman K. Farmer, Jr., ‘Robert Herrick and “King Oberon's Clothing”: New Evidence for Attribution’, Yearbook of English Studies 1 (1971), 68-77. Not included in Martin or in Patrick. See also T.G.S. Cain, ‘Robert Herrick, Mildmay Fane, and Sir Simeon Steward’, ELR, 15 (1985), 312-17.
pp. 2-5
• HeR 189: Robert Herrick, Oberons Palace (‘Full as a Bee with Thyme, and Red’)
Copy, without the preliminary lines.
First published, with eight preliminary lines beginning ‘After the Feast (my Shapcot) see’, in Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, pp. 165-8. Patrick, pp. 222-5.
pp. 6-7
• HeR 176: Robert Herrick, Oberons Feast (‘A Little mushroome table spred’)
Copy, complete with the preliminary lines.
Facsimile in Sotheby's sale catalogue (hardback), 27 June 1972, lot 309, facing p. 55.
First published complete, with six preliminary lines beginning ‘Shapcot! To thee the Fairy State’, in Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, pp. 119-20. Patrick, pp. 161-3. An earlier version, entitled ‘A Description of his Dyet’, published in A Description of the King and Queene of Fayries (London, 1634). Martin, pp. 454-5.
pp. 7-8
• HeR 405: Robert Herrick, Upon a Cherrystone sent to the tip of the Lady Jemmonia Walgraves eare (‘Lady I intreate yow weare’)
Copy, in double columns.
Facsimile of p. 7 in Sotheby's sale catalogue (hardback), 27 June 1972, lot 309, facing p. 55.
First published in Delattre (1912), 519-21. Martin, pp. 417-18. Patrick, pp. 547-8.
p. 8
• HeR 5: Robert Herrick, The admonition (‘Seest thou those Diamonds which she weares’)
Copy, headed ‘A songe. R: H.’ and here beginning ‘Seest thou those Jewells...’.
First published in Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, pp. 130-1. Patrick, p. 177.
pp. 8-10
• HeR 199: Robert Herrick, The parting Verse, or charge to his supposed Wife when he travelled (‘Go hence, and with this parting kisse’)
Copy, headed ‘His chardge to his wife’ and here beginning ‘Goe & with this parting kisse’.
First published in Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, pp. 174-6. Patrick, pp. 233-5.
p. 10
• HeR 55: Robert Herrick, The Curse. A Song (‘Goe perjur'd man. and if thou ere return’)
Copy.
First published in Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, p. 49. Patrick, p. 69. Musical setting by John Blow published in John Playford, Choice Ayres and Songs (London, 1683).
pp. 10-11
• HeR 366: Robert Herrick, Parkinsons shade to the house of Mr Pallauicine takeing his death ill (‘Will you still lament and rayse’)
Copy.
First published in Martin (1956), pp. 422-3. Patrick, p. 556.
pp. 11-13
• HeR 356: Robert Herrick, Mr Hericke his daughter's Dowrye (‘Ere I goe hence and bee noe more’)
Copy, headed ‘R: Hericks daughters dowrie’.
First published in Hazlitt (1869), II, 436-9. Martin, pp. 407-9. Patrick, pp. 539-42.
pp. 13-16
• HeR 307: Robert Herrick, The Descripcion: of a Woman (‘Whose head befringed with bescattered tresses’)
Copy.
First published in Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces (London, 1645). Hazlitt, II, 433-6. Martin, pp. 404-6. Patrick, pp. 549-51.
pp. 16-19
• HeR 44: Robert Herrick, A Country life: To his Brother, Master Thomas Herrick (‘Thrice, and above, blest (my soules halfe) art thou’)
Copy, headed ‘Mr. Hericks Countrey life’.
First published in Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, pp. 34-8. Patrick, pp. 50-3.
pp. 20-2
• HeR 359: Robert Herrick, Mr Robert Hericke his farwell vnto Poetrie (‘I have behelde two louers in a night’)
Copy, headed ‘R: Hericks farwell to poetry’.
First published in Hazlitt (1869), II, 439-42. Martin, pp. 410-12. Patrick, pp. 543-5.
p. 23
• DaW 29: Sir William Davenant, For the Lady, Olivia Porter. A present, upon a New-yeares day (‘Goe! hunt the whiter Ermine! and present’)
Copy, headed ‘To ye wife of Mr Endemion Porter’ and subscribed ‘Tho: Carewe’.
First published in Madagascar (London, 1638). Gibbs, p. 43.
pp. 25-6
• RaW 452: Sir Walter Ralegh, The passionate mans Pilgrimage (‘Giue me my Scallop shell of quiet’)
Copy, headed ‘Sr W: Ralegs Pilgrimage’.
First published with Daiphantvs or The Passions of Loue (London, 1604). Latham, pp. 49-51. Rudick, Nos 54A, 54B and 54C (three versions, pp. 126-33).
This poem rejected from the canon and attributed to an anonymous Catholic poet in Philip Edwards, ‘Who Wrote The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage?’, ELR, 4 (1974), 83-97.
pp. 26-7
• HrG 302.8: George Herbert, Ad Autorem Instaurationis Magnae (‘Per strages licet autorum veterúmque ruinam’)
Copy, headed ‘In Autorem Instaurationis Magnæ’ and subscribed ‘Geo: Herbert’.
First published in James Duport, Ecclesiastes Solomonis (Cambridge, 1662). Hutchinson, p. 435. McCloskey & Murphy, with a translation, pp. 166-7.
pp. 27-30
• DnJ 1187: 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.
First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 127-31. Shawcross, No. 107. Milgate, Epithalamions, pp. 6-10. Variorum, 8 (1995), pp. 108-10.
p. 30
• PeW 282: William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, A Song (‘Draw not too near’)
Copy.
Poems (1660), pp. 116-17, superscribed ‘P.’. Listed in Krueger's Appendix I: ‘Spurious Poems in the 1660 Edition’ as possibly by Strode. Authorship unknown.
pp. 31-2
• DnJ 1242: John Donne, The Expostulation (‘To make the doubt cleare, that no woman's true’)
Copy, headed ‘An Elegie’.
First published, as ‘Elegie’, in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 108-10 (as ‘Elegie XV’). Gardner, Elegies, pp. 94-6 (among her ‘Dubia’). Shawcross, No. 22. Variorum, 2 (2000), pp. 369-70.
pp. 34-6
• CoR 92: Richard Corbett, An Elegie Upon the death of his owne Father (‘Vincent Corbet, farther knowne’)
Copy, headed ‘Dr. Corbetts Epitaph on his Father’.
First published (omitting the last four lines) in Certain Elegant Poems (London, 1647). Published with the last four lines in Poëtica Stromata ([no place], 1648). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 67-9.
p. 36
• JnB 422.5: Ben Jonson, On the Vnion (‘When was there contract better driuen by Fate?’)
Copy, here beginning ‘Was euer contract driuen by better fate?’
First published in Epigrammes (v) in Workes (London, 1616). Herford & Simpson, VIII, 28.
pp. 37-8
• DrM 35: Michael Drayton, The Cryer (‘Good Folke, for Gold or Hyre’)
Copy, untitled.
First published, among Odes with Other Lyrick Poesies, in Poems (London, 1619). Hebel, II, 371.
p. 39
• CoR 550: Richard Corbett, On the Lady Arabella (‘How doe I thanke thee, Death, & blesse thy power’)
Copy, headed ‘The lady Arrabells Epiyaph’ and subscribed ‘Sr: W Rawleigh’.
First published in Poëtica Stromata ([no place], 1648). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, p. 18.
pp. 40-3
• EaJ 36: John Earle, Bishop of Worcester and Salisbury, An Elegie, Upon the death of Sir John Burrowes, Slaine at the Isle of Ree (‘Oh wound us not with this sad tale, forbear’)
Copy.
First published in Parnassus Biceps (London, 1656), pp. 12-16. Extract in Bliss, pp. 225-6. Edited in James Doelman, ‘John Earle's Funeral Elegy on Sir John Burroughs’, English Literary Renaissance, 41/3 (Autumn 2011), 485-502 (pp. 499-502).
p. 44-5
• WoH 132: Sir Henry Wotton, On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia (‘You meaner beauties of the night’)
Copy, here beginning ‘You violetts that doe first appeare’ and subscribed ‘Sr Hen: Wotton’.
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.
p. 49
• WoH 48: Sir Henry Wotton, The Character of a Happy Life (‘How happy is he born and taught’)
Copy, untitled and subscribed ‘Sr Hen: Wootten’.
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).
pp. 49-51
• BmF 82: Francis Beaumont, An Elegy on the Lady Markham (‘As unthrifts groan in straw for their pawn'd beds’)
Copy.
First published in Poems (London, 1640). Dyce, XI, 503-5.
pp. 51-2
• MoG 50: George Morley, An Epitaph upon King James (‘All that have eyes now wake and weep’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epitaph on the death of king James by Georg: Morley’ and here beginning ‘You that have eyes now walke & weepe’.
A version of lines 1-22, headed ‘Epitaph on King James’ and beginning ‘He that hath eyes now wake and weep’, published in William Camden's Remaines (London, 1637), p. 398.
Attributed to Edward Fairfax in The Fairfax Correspondence, ed. George Johnson (1848), I, 2-3 (see MoG 54). Edited from that publication in Godfrey of Bulloigne: A critical edition of Edward Fairfax's translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, together with Fairfax's Original Poems, ed. Kathleen M. Lea and T.M. Gang (Oxford, 1981), pp. 690-1. The poem is generally ascribed to George Morley.
pp. 52-3
• CwT 300: Thomas Carew, A flye that flew into my Mistris her eye (‘When this Flye liv'd, she us'd to play’)
Copy, headed ‘On being suspected by his Mistresse To shew his witt rather upon pea-meditation, then extempory, was by her inioynd to speake somthing concerning a fly which lay dead before him which he thus perform'd’, and subscribed ‘Tho. Carewe’.
First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, pp. 37-9. Musical setting by Henry Lawes published in The Treasury of Musick, Book 2 (London, 1669).
p. 57
• WoH 197.5: Sir Henry Wotton, Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton's Wife (‘He first deceased. she for a little tried’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epitaph on two louers who beinge Espoused dyed before they were marryed’ and here beginning ‘She first deceased; he for a little tryde’.
First published as an independent couplet in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1636). Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), p. 529. Hannah (1845), p. 44. The authorship is uncertain.
This couplet, which was subject to different versions over the years, is in fact lines 5-6 of a twelve-line poem beginning ‘Here lye two Bodyes happy in their kinds’, which has also been attributed to George Herbert: see HrG 290.5-290.8.
p. 58
• HoJ 144: John Hoskyns, Epitaph of the parliament fart (‘Reader I was born and cried’)
Copy, headed ‘The farts Epitaph in the parliament house’.
p. 59
• JnB 305: Ben Jonson, The Houre-glasse (‘Doe but consider this small dust’)
Copy, headed ‘Vpon an Howerglasse’ and subscribed ‘Ben. Johnson’.
First published in John Benson's 4to edition of Jonson's poems (1640) and in The Vnder-wood (viii) in Workes (London, 1640). Herford & Simpson, VIII, 148-9.
p. 59
• HlJ 3.92: Joseph Hall, On Queene Elizabeths Armes (‘The lyon is the Forrest kinge’)
Copy of the poem, preceded by a two-line Latin epigram, and followed by six lines headed ‘Explaynd’ and beginning ‘The lyon awe, the flower her faire estate’, the whole subscribed ‘Jos: Hall’.
p. 65
• DaJ 33.5: Sir John Davies, In Curionem (‘The great archpapist learned Curio’)
Copy.
First published in Krueger (1975), pp. 182-3.
pp. 65-8
• BmF 55: Francis Beaumont, An Elegy on the Death of the Virtuous Lady, Elizabeth Countess of Rutland (‘I may forget to eat, to drink, to sleep’)
Copy, headed ‘An Elegie on the death of the Countesse of Rutland’ and subscribed ‘Francis Beaumont’.
First published in Sir Thomas Overbury, A Wife, 11th impression (London, 1622). Dyce, XI, 507-11.
pp. 69-72
• CoR 54: Richard Corbett, A Certaine Poeme As it was presented in Latine by Divines and Others, before his Maiestye in Cambridge (‘It is not yet a fortnight, since’)
Copy.
First published in Poëtica Stromata ([no place], 1648). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 12-18.
Some texts accompanied by an ‘Answer’ (‘A ballad late was made’).
p. 99
• HrJ 185: Sir John Harington, Of a Precise Tayler (‘A Taylor, thought a man of vpright dealling’)
Copy, headed ‘A reformed Taylor’.
First published in 1618, Book I, No. 20. McClure No. 21, pp. 156-7. Kilroy, Book I, No. 40, pp. 107-8.
pp. 99-102
• HoJ 87: John Hoskyns, The Censure of a Parliament Fart (‘Downe came graue auncient Sr John Crooke’)
Copy, headed ‘A fart censured in the lower House of Parliamente’ and here beginning ‘Puffinge comes down, graue Auncient Sr John Crooke’.
Attributed to Hoskyns by John Aubrey. Cited, but unprinted, as No. III of ‘Doubtful Verses’ in Osborn, p. 300. Early Stuart Libels website.
p. 103
• DnJ 1776: John Donne, A lame begger (‘I am unable, yonder begger cries’)
Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘I cannot goe, nor stande, yon beggar cryes’.
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.
p. 111
• HrJ 219: Sir John Harington, Of a word in welch mistaken in English (‘An English lad long Woode a lasse of wales’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epigram’.
Kilroy, Book IV, No. 38, p. 224.
p. 117
• WrM 38: Lady Mary Wroth, To Pamphilla from the father-in-law of Seralius (‘Hermophradite in show, in deed a monster’)
Copy.
Twenty-six lines of verse by Lord Denny fiercely attacking Wroth's published romance and prompting her verse retaliation (WrM 4). First published in Josephine A. Roberts, ‘An Unpublished Literary Quarrel concerning the Suppression of Mary Wroth's “Urania” (1621)’, N&Q, 222 (December 1977), 532-5.
pp. 119-21
• CoR 370: Richard Corbett, A letter To the Duke of Buckingham, being with the Prince of Spaine (‘I've read of Ilands floating, and remov'd’)
Copy, headed ‘Dr Corbetts letter to the Duke of Buckingham being in Spaine’.
First published in Certain Elegant Poems (London, 1647). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 76-9.
pp. 123-5
• FlJ 15: John Fletcher, Upon An Honest Man's Fortune (‘You that can look through heaven, and tell the stars’)
Copy, untitled and subscribed ‘John Fletcher’.
First published, appended to The Honest Man's Fortune, in Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1647). Dyce, III, 453-6.
pp. 132-4
• JnB 566.5: Ben Jonson, Christmas his Masque, lines 71-8, 93-101, 172-9, 182-245. Song (‘Now God preserve, as you well doe deserve’)
Copy, headed ‘Ben: Johnsons Masque Before the Kinge’.
pp. 143-4
• CwT 1153: Thomas Carew, To T.H. a Lady resembling my Mistresse (‘Fayre copie of my Celia's face’)
Copy, untitled.
First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, pp. 26-7.
pp. 150-1
• HeR 114: Robert Herrick, The fare-well to Sack (‘Farewell thou Thing, time-past so knowne, so deare’)
Copy, headed ‘In prayse of sacke’.
First published in Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces (London, 1645). Hesperides (London, 1648). Martin, pp. 45-6. Patrick, pp. 62-3.
p. 152
• CwT 720: Thomas Carew, Secresie protested (‘Feare not (deare Love) that I'le reveale’)
Copy, untitled.
First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, p. 11. Musical setting by Henry Lawes published in The Second Book of Ayres and Dialogues (London, 1655).
See also Introduction.
p. 156
• StW 263: William Strode, A Necklace (‘These Vaines are Natures Nett’)
Copy, headed ‘On A Necklace’.
Photocopy of this MS in the British Library (RP 772).
First stanza first published in Wits Interpreter (London, 1655), Part II, p. 386. Second stanza (‘Loe on my necke…’) first published in Poems…by William Earl of Pembroke…[and] Sr Benjamin Ruddier, [ed. John Donne the Younger] (London, 1660), p. 100. Complete in Dobell, p. 45. Forey, p. 35.
p. 156
• StW 431: William Strode, On a Gentlewoman who escapd the marks of the Pox (‘A Beauty smoother then an Ivory plaine’)
Copy, headed ‘On a Gentlewoman iniuried by ye pox’.
First published in Wits Interpreter (London, 1655), Part II, p. 272. Dobell, p. 49. Forey, p. 15.
pp. 156-7
• StW 299: William Strode, On a blisterd Lippe (‘Chide not thy sprowting lippe, nor kill’)
Copy.
First published in Parnassus Biceps (London, 1656). Dobell, pp. 28-9. Forey, pp. 92-3.
pp. 163-5
• CoR 162: Richard Corbett, An Elegie Upon the death of the Lady Haddington who dyed of the small Pox (‘Deare Losse, to tell the world I greiue were true’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epitaph on the Lady Haddington’ and subscribed ‘Corbett’.
First published in Certain Elegant Poems (London, 1647). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 59-62. The last 42 lines, beginning ‘O thou deformed unwomanlike disease’, in Parnassus Biceps (London, 1656), p. 48.
pp. 165-7
• CoR 109: Richard Corbett, An Elegy Upon the death of Queene Anne (‘Noe. not a quatch, sad Poets. doubt you’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epitaph on Q. Anne’.
First published in Poëtica Stromata ([no place], 1648). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 65-7.
pp. 167-8
• HrG 304.5: George Herbert, Aethiopissa ambit Cestum Diuersi Coloris Virum (‘Qvid mihi si facies nigra est? hoc, Ceste, colore’)
Copy, subscribed ‘Georg: Herbert’. The text followed by an answer, ‘Cestae ad Aethiopissam responsio’ (beginning ‘Vota precesq tuas negro signato lapillo’) also ascribed to ‘Georg: Herbert’.
This MS not recorded in Hutchinson.
First published in James Duport, Ecclesiastes Solomonis (Cambridge, 1662). Hutchinson, p. 437. McCloskey & Murphy, with a translation, pp. 170-1.
pp. 169-73
• CwT 1290: Thomas Carew, The Visit of the Nine Goddesses
Copy, headed ‘The Maske: of Sr. John Crofts at the Kings being entertained there, Anno. Domi’.
Edited from this MS in McGee.
Of uncertain authorship. A masque apparently performed at Little Saxham, Suffolk, in the early 1620s. First published, and tentatively attributed to Carew, in C.E. McGee, ‘“The Visit of the Nine Goddesses”: A Masque at Sir John Croft's House’, ELR, 21 (1991), 371-84 (pp. 380-4).
p. 174
• WiG 12.2: George Wither, The Author's Resolution in a Sonnet (‘Shall I wasting in despair’)
Copy, untitled.
First published in Fidelia (London, 1615). Sidgwick, I, 138-9. A version, as ‘Sonnet 4’, in Faire-Virtue, the Mistresse of Phil'Arete, generally bound with Juvenilia (London, 1622). Spenser Society No. 11 (1871), pp. 854-5. Sidgwick, II, 124-6.
For the ‘answer’ attributed to Ben Jonson, but perhaps by Richard Johnson, see Sidgwick, I, 145-8, and Ben Jonson, ed. C.H. Herford and Percy & Evelyn Simpson, VIII (Oxford, 1947), 439-43. MS versions of Wither's poem vary in length.
pp. 180-1
• JnB 652: Ben Jonson, The Gypsies Metamorphosed, Song (‘Cock-Lorell would needes haue the Diuell his guest’)
Copy, headed ‘The diuells Banquett’ and subscribed ‘Finis Ben: Johnson’.
Herford & Simpson, lines 1061-1125. Greg, Burley version, lines 821-84. Windsor version, lines 876-939.
pp. 186-7
• JnB 10: Ben Jonson, A Celebration of Charis in ten Lyrick Peeces. 4. Her Triumph (‘See the Chariot at hand here of Love’)
Copy.
First published (all ten poems) in The Vnder-wood (ii) in Workes (London, 1640). Herford & Simpson, VIII, 131-42 (pp. 134-5). Lines 11-30 of poem 4 (beginning ‘Doe but looke on her eyes, they do light’) first published in The Devil is an Ass, II, vi, 94-113 (London, 1631).
pp. 208-10
• BmF 95: Francis Beaumont, A Funeral Elegy on the Death of the Lady Penelope Clifton (‘Since thou art dead, Clifton, the world may see’)
Copy, headed ‘An elegy upon the death of Penelope the late Lady Clifton’ and subscribed ‘Fra: Beaumont’.
First published in Poems (London, 1653). Dyce, XI, 511-13.
p. 211
• WiG 38: George Wither, George Withers Close Prisoner writte with a cole on a wall, thes verses (‘Though I am shutt from freinds, & penne, & Inke’)
Copy, subscribed ‘Finis G. Withers’.
Six lines, unpublished.
The title recalls the sub-heading, ‘Writ on three fair Trenchers, with a Piece of Char-Coal’, of A Declaration of Major George Wither, Prisoner in the Tower of London, published in 1662.
p. 212
• RaW 541: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Wrong not, deare Empresse of my Heart’
Copy, subscribed ‘Finis: Lo: Wal.’.
First published in Wits Interpreter (London, 1655), printed twice, the first version prefixed by ‘Our Passions are most like to Floods and streames’ (see RaW 320-38) and headed ‘To his Mistresse by Sir Walter Raleigh’. Edited with the prefixed stanza in Latham, pp. 18-19. Edited in The English and Latin Poems of Sir Robert Ayton, ed. Charles B. Gullans, STS, 4th Ser. 1 (Edinburgh & London, 1963), pp. 197-8. Rudick, Nos 39A and 39B (two versions, pp. 106-9).
This poem was probably written by Sir Robert Ayton. For a discussion of the authorship and the different texts see Gullans, pp. 318-26 (also printed in SB, 13 (1960), 191-8).
p. 213
• EsR 13: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, ‘Happy were Hee could finish foorth his Fate’
Copy, headed ‘Verses made by the Earle of Essex’.
This MS collated in May, pp. 124-5.
May, Poems, No. 7, p. 47. May, Courtier Poets, p. 254. EV 8176.
p. 219
• BrW 229: William Browne of Tavistock, On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke (‘Underneath this sable herse’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epitaph on ye death of Mary Countess of Pembroke’.
First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623), p. 340. Brydges (1815), p. 5. Goodwin, II, 294. Browne's authorship supported in C.F. Main, ‘Two Items in the Jonson Apocrypha’, N&Q, 199 (June 1954), 243-5.
p. 219
• CoR 728: Richard Corbett, Upon the Same Starre (‘A Starre did late appeare in Virgo's trayne’)
Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘The star that sits in Charles his wayne’.
First published in Bennett & Trevor-Roper (1955), p. 65.
p. 234
• CwT 763: Thomas Carew, A Song (‘Aske me no more whether doth stray’)
Copy of a parody of the poem, untitled.
First published in a five-stanza version beginning ‘Aske me no more where Iove bestowes’ in Poems (1640) and in Poems: by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent. (London, 1640), and edited in this version in Dunlap, pp. 102-3. Musical setting by John Wilson published in Cheerful Ayres or Ballads (Oxford, 1659). All MS versions recorded in CELM, except where otherwise stated, begin with the second stanza of the published version (viz. ‘Aske me no more whether doth stray’).
For a plausible argument that this poem was actually written by William Strode, see Margaret Forey, ‘Manuscript Evidence and the Author of “Aske me no more”: William Strode, not Thomas Carew’, EMS, 12 (2005), 180-200. See also Scott Nixon, ‘“Aske me no more” and the Manuscript Verse Miscellany’, ELR, 29/1 (Winter 1999), 97-130, which edits and discusses MSS of this poem and also suggests that it may have been written by Strode.
p. 237
• CwT 233: Thomas Carew, An Excuse of absence (‘You'le aske perhaps wherefore I stay’)
Copy, untitled.
First published in Hazlitt (1870), p. 28. Dunlap. p. 131.
p. 237
• PeW 141: William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, Amintas (‘Cloris sate, and sitting slept’)
Copy.
First published in [John Gough], Academy of Complements (London, 1646), p. 170. Poems (1660), p. 104, superscribed ‘P.’. Listed in Krueger's Appendix I: ‘Spurious Poems in the 1660 Edition’.
p. 244
• MkM 17: 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.
p. 246
• WaE 325: Edmund Waller, On a Girdle (‘That which her slender waist confined’)
Copy in a later hand, headed ‘Upon a girdle’. Late 17th century.
First published in Workes (1645). Thorn-Drury, I, 95.
p. 250
• WaE 655.5: Edmund Waller, To Vandyck (‘Rare Artisan, whose pencil moves’)
Copy of lines 5-8, headed ‘Waller to Vandike’ and here beginning ‘The heedless lover does not know’. c.1728.
First published in Workes (1645). Thorn-Drury, I, 44-5.