William Habington

Verse

Poems by Habington

Cupio dissolvi. Paule (‘The soule which doth with God unite’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 147-9.

HaW 1

Copy in: A miscellaneous collection of MS verse, ‘totally unconnected with each other, and written on backs of letters, or other scraps of paper’. 17th century.

Formerly among the papers of the Aston family, of Tixall, Staffordshire.

Selectively edited (as his ‘Fourth Division: Miscellaneous Poems’) in Arthur Clifford, Tixall Poetry (Edinburgh, 1813), pp. 207-324.

Edited from this MS in Arthur Clifford, Tixall Poetry (Edinburgh, 1813), pp. 254-5.

Untraced Tixal MSS, Tixall MS 4, [unspecified item number].

Deus Deus Meus. David (‘Where is that foole Philosophie’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 135-6.

HaW 1.5

Copy, in a 19th-century hand.

In: 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.

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, pp. 270-2.

Domine labia mea aperies. David (‘No monument of me remaine’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 117-18.

HaW 1.8

Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘Domine Labia Mea Aperis David By the same’.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, pp. 268-70.

On Master John Fletchers Dramaticall Poems (‘Great tutelary Spirit of the Stage!’)

First published in Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1647). Allott, pp. 158-9.

HaW 2

Copy, headed ‘On Fletcher’.

In: A verse miscellany. c.1674.

Owned by Henry Bracegirdle, of Merton College, Oxford, and in 1674 by one Hugh Massey.

King's College, Cambridge, Hayward Collection, H. 11. 13, f. [26v].

The Song in the fourth Act (‘Fine young folly, though you were’)

See HaW 45-49.

To a Tombe (‘Tyrant o're tyrants, thou who onely dost’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 16.

HaW 3

Copy in: An octavo verse miscellany, in a single informal hand, a member of St John's College, Oxford, i + 99 leaves, in half-vellum marbled boards. Including 19 poems by Habington and (ff. 8r-21r, 28v) 21 poems by Katherine Philips transcribed from a edited source. Late 17th century.

Later owned by Richard Rawlinson (1690-1755).

Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as ‘Rawlinson MS I’: PsK Δ 6.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 91r.

To a Wanton (‘In vaine faire sorceresse, thy eyes speake charmes’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 16.

HaW 4

Copy, headed ‘To a wanton woman’, on a single quarto-sized leaf.

In: A composite volume of verse, i + 126 leaves. Collected by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), herald and antiquary. Late 17th century.

Given to the library in 1954 by N.R. Ker.

Bodleian, MS Eng. poet. d. 152, f. 20r.

To Castara (‘Doe not their prophane Orgies heare’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 14-15.

HaW 5

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 88v.

To Castara (‘Forsake with me the earth, my faire’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 63.

HaW 5.5

Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To Castara By the same’.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, pp. 265-6.

To Castara (‘What can the freedome of our love enthrall’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 75.

HaW 6

Extract, comprising the last couplet (beginning ‘Wealths but opinion who thinkes others more’), untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 90v.

To Castara. A Sacrifice (‘Let the chaste Phoenix from the flowry East’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 11.

HaW 7

Copy, headed ‘Sacrifice’.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in two styles of italic, the last poem (f. 93v) added in a later hand, 93 leaves (plus ten blanks), in modern quarter-morocco gilt. Including 14 poems by Donne, six poems (plus one of doubtful authorship) by Carew, ten poems by Habington and 13 poems (plus one of doubtful authorship) by Randolph. Owned and possibly compiled by Arthur Capell (1631-83), second Earl of Essex, whose name is inscribed in red ink (1*), in a similar roman hand to that on ff. 1r-19r. He married (1653) Elizabeth Percy (1636-1718), daughter of Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland; she was therefore the great niece of Habington's mother-in-law, Eleanor Percy, sister of the ninth Earl of Northumberland. Mid-17th century.

Later among the collections of Robert Harley (1661-1724), first Earl of Oxford, and his son, Edward (1689-1741), second Earl of Oxford.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) and II, i-ii (1987-93), as the ‘Capell MS’: DnJ Δ 43, CwT Δ 17, and RnT Δ 3. Discussed in Geoffrey Tillotson, ‘The Commonplace Book of Arthur Capell’, MLR, 27 (1932), 381-91.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 164.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 49r-v.

To Castara, Complaining her absence in the Country (‘The lesser people of the ayre conspire’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 30.

HaW 8

Copy, headed ‘On Castara's absence in the Country’.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 90r.

To Castara, Inquiring why I loved her (‘Why doth the stubborne iron prove’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 17-18.

HaW 8.5

Copy, in a 19th-century hand, ascribed to ‘Habington’.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, pp. 264-5.

To Castara, Intending a journey into the Country (‘Why haste you hence Castara? can the earth’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 27.

HaW 9

Copy, headed ‘Intending a journey’.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 172.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 54r-v.

HaW 9.5

Copy, headed ‘To his Mrs intending a journey into the country’.

In: A sextodecimo pocket miscellany, ff. 3r-53r in a single hand, other hands and scribbling on ff. 1r-2r, 54v, 87v-90v, 90 leaves in all (including blanks ff. 55r-87r), in contemporary calf, with remains of clasps. Including 12 poems by Carew. c.1650s.

Inscribed ‘Richard Archard his booke Amen 1650’; ‘Richard Archard his penn Amen 1657’; ‘to Mr Satars[?] towads the Casting of ye lead 1657’; ‘Tho: Wise’; ‘John Smith of halmortaine and I…went to Thornebury’; and ‘Edward Watt’. Bookplate of William Harris Arnold.

Cited in IELM, II.i, as the ‘Archard MS’: CwT Δ 24.

Folger, MS V.a.124, ff. 12v-13r.

To Castara, Looking backe at her departing (‘Looke backe Castara. From thy eye’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 29.

HaW 10

Copy, untitled, in a musical setting.

In: A folio songbook, 121 leaves (including c.20 blanks and an index), in contemporary calf (rebacked). Including ten poems by Carew and twelve poems by or attributed to Herrick, in musical settings, predominantly in a single hand (ff. 2r-63v, 92r-9r, 100r, with a change of style on ff. 64r-5v and in the index probably by the same hand), with 18th-century additions on ff. 81v-7v, 89r-v and 145v-53r, and scribbling elsewhere. c.1640s-60s.

Later owned by Colonel W.G. Probert, of Bevills, Bures, Suffolk. Sold by Quaritch in 1937.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the ‘Probert MS’: CwT Δ 4, HeR Δ 1. Discussed and analysed in John P. Cutts, ‘A Bodleian Song-Book: Don. C. 57’, M&L, 34 (1953), 192-211. Also briefly discussed in George Thewlis, ‘Some Notes on a Bodleian Manuscript’, M&L, 22 (1941) 32-5, and in Willa McClung Evans, ‘Shakespeare's “Harke Harke ye Larke”’, PMLA, 60 (1945), 95-101 (with a facsimile of f. 78r). A facsimile of the volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 6 (New York & London, 1987).

This MS collated in John P. Cutts, ‘A Bodleian Song-Book: Don. C. 57’, M&L, 34 (1953), 192-211 (p. 210).

Bodleian, MS Don. c. 57, f. 94r.

HaW 11

Copy, in a musical setting by William Webb.

In: A folio music book, containing 327 songs, in three largely secretary hands, with a ‘Cattalogue’ of contents, 229 leaves. Owned (in 1659) and partly compiled by the composer John Gamble (d.1687), with some misnumbering. c.1630s-50s.

Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author. Acquired in 1888.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 10 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in Charles W. Hughes, ‘John Gamble's Commonplace Book’, M&L, 26 (1945), 215-29.

New York Public Library, Music Division, Drexel MS 4257, No. 246.

To Castara, Looking upon him (‘Transfix me with that flaming dart’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 18-19.

HaW 12

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 89r.

HaW 13

Copy, headed ‘To his Mrs looking on him’.

In: the MS described under HaW 9.5. c.1650s.

Folger, MS V.a.124, f. 11r-v.

To Castara, Melancholly (‘Were but that a sigh a penitentiall breath’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 69.

HaW 14

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 91r.

To Castara, Of his being in Love (‘Where am I? not in Heaven: for oh I feele’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 13.

HaW 15

Copy, headed ‘Of his being in Love’.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 88v.

HaW 16

Copy, headed ‘Of being in Love’.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 165.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 52v.

To Castara. Of the chastity of his Love (‘Why would you blush Castara, when the name’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 50.

HaW 16.5

Copy, headed ‘To his Mrs of the chastity of his love’.

In: the MS described under HaW 9.5. c.1650s.

Folger, MS V.a.124, f. 12v.

To Castara, Softly singing to her selfe (‘Sing forth sweete Cherubin (for we have choice)’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 15.

HaW 17

Copy, headed ‘To Castara singing softly to her self’.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 89r.

HaW 18

Copy, headed ‘Mrs. Singing’.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 166.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, ff. 52v-3r.

To Castara, Vpon a trembling kisse at departure (‘Th'Arabian wind, whose breathing gently blows’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 28.

HaW 19

Copy, untitled.

In: A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, in several hands, written from both ends, 84 leaves, in contemporary calf. Probably compiled principally by an Oxford University man. c.1630s-40s.

Names inscribed on rear flyleaf and paste-down ‘Elizabeth hosman’ and ‘William Blois’.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 142, f. 16r.

HaW 20

Copy, headed ‘On a trembling kisse at parting’.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 172.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 53r.

HaW 20.5

Copy, headed ‘Vpon a trembling kisse at departure’.

In: the MS described under HaW 9.5. c.1650s.

Folger, MS V.a.124, f. 13r.

To Castara, Vpon Beautie (‘Castara, see that dust, the sportive wind’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 68.

HaW 21

Copy in: An octavo miscellany of verse and university exercises, including twelve poems by Carew, in a single hand, compiled by Edward Natley, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, 165 leaves (including many blanks), in calf (rebacked). c.1635-44.

Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 2592. Sotheby's, 10 June 1896 (Phillipps sale), lot 960. Owned in 1896 by George Thorn-Drury, KC (1860-1931), literary scholar and editor. Acquired in 1950 from H.F.B. Brett-Smith, Oxford literary scholar and editor.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the ‘Natley MS’: CwT Δ 6.

Bodleian, MS Eng. poet. f. 25, fol. 19v.

HaW 22

Copy, headed ‘Upon Beuty’ and here beginning ‘Doe you not see that dust, the sportive winde’.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 90v.

To Castara, Vpon the death of a Lady (‘Castara weepe not, though her tombe appeare’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 63-5.

HaW 23

Extract, comprising lines 4-6 (beginning ‘Death is the sea, & we like Rivers flow’), untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 90r.

HaW 24

Copy, headed ‘An Elegie made by Mr: William Abington vpon the death of the Lady Venetia Digby; directed to his wife Mrs: Lucy Herbert (the Lord Powis his daughter) vnder the name of Castara’.

In: A quarto volume of elegies on Venetia Digby, in a semi-calligraphic roman hand (but for subsequent scribbling in another hand on f. 13v and pagination from 1 to 48), 24 leaves, lacking a final leaf, in 19th-century half morocco. Evidently a formal MS made by or for Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-65), natural philosopher and courtier, of the poems sent to him after the death of his wife Venetia (née Stanley) on 30 April/1 May 1633. [1633].

Purchased from J. Salkeld, 13 January 1877.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 182.

British Library, Add. MS 30259, ff. 21r-2v.

To Castara. Vpon thought of Age and Death (‘The breath of time shall blast the flowry Spring’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 72.

HaW 24.5

Copy, in a 19th-century hand.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, p. 273.

To Castara, Weeping (‘Castara! O you are too prodigall’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 66.

HaW 24.8

Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To Castara Weeping by the same’.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, pp. 266-7.

To Castara, Where true happinesse abides (‘Castara whisper in some dead mans eare’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 62.

HaW 25

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 90v.

To Cvpid, Vpon a dimple in Castara's cheeke (‘Nimble boy in thy warme flight’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 24.

HaW 26

Copy, untitled, in a musical setting.

In: the MS described under HaW 10. c.1640s-60s.

This MS collated (no variants) in John P. Cutts, ‘A Bodleian Song-Book: Don. C. 57’, M&L, 34 (1953), 192-211 (p. 207).

Bodleian, MS Don. c. 57, f. 60r.

To Cvpid. Wishing a speedy passage to Castara (‘Thankes Cupid, but the Coach of Venus moves’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 32.

HaW 27

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 90r.

To Roses in the bosome of Castara (‘Yee blushing Virgins happie are’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 12.

HaW 28

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 88r.

HaW 29

Copy, headed ‘Rose in Hur bosome’.

In: the MS described under HaW 19. c.1630s-40s.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 142, f. 23v.

HaW 30

Copy, headed ‘Roses in her besom’.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 164.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 23v.

To Seymors, The house in which Vastara lived (‘Blest Temple, haile, where the Chast Altar stands’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 37.

HaW 30.5

Copy, in a 19th-century hand.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, p. 262.

To the Dew, In hope to see Castara walking (‘Bright Dew which dost the field adorne’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 38.

HaW 31

Copy, headed ‘To the dew’.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 174.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, ff. 54v-5r.

To the Honourable, G.T. (‘Let not thy grones force Eccho from her cave’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 81-2.

HaW 32

Copy, in Constance Fowler's hand, subscribed ‘M M W H’.

In: A quarto miscellany of recusant verse, many of the 65 poems relating to the circle of the Catholic Aston family, in three hands, 200 leaves (including five preliminary blanks, and ff. 53r-135v are blank), in contemporary leather gilt. Compiled principally by Constance Fowler (d.1664), daughter of the diplomat Walter Aston, Baron Aston of Forfar (1584-1639), of Tixall and Colton, Staffordshire, her roman hand responsible for ff. 6r, 8r-15v, 24v-34v, 46v-52v, 136r-9r, 143v-59r, and 182v-95v. The second, predominantly secretary hand, responsible for fourteen poems on ff. 7r-v, 16r-24r, and 35r-46r, is that of Constance's sister Gertrude Thimelby (1617-68). The third hand, on ff. 196r-200v, is that of Constance's brother-in-law Sir William Pershall. c.1635-50s.

William H. Robinson, sale catalogue (1925), item 472.

This volume discussed, with a complete first-line index and a facsimile of f. 25r, in Jenijoy La Belle, ‘The Huntington Aston Manuscript’, The Book Collector, 29 (Winter 1980), 542-67. See also Jenijoy La Belle, ‘A True Love's Knot: The Letters of Constance Fowler and the Poems of Herbert Aston’, JEGP, 79 (1980), 13-31. The complete volume edited in The Verse Miscellany of Constance Aston Fowler: A Diplomatic Edition, ed. Deborah Aldrich-Watson (Tempe, Arizona, 2000), with a facsimile of f. 28v on p. lxiv.

Aldrich-Watson, pp. 124-5. This MS recorded in Allott, pp. lxi, 188; see also Jenijoy La Belle, ‘The Huntington Aston Manuscript’, BC, 29 (Winter 1980), 542-67 (p. 558).

Huntington, HM 904, ff. 152v-3v.

To the Honourable my much honoured friend, R.B. Esquire (‘While you dare trust the loudest tongue of fame’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 16-17.

HaW 33

Extract, comprising lines 7-10 (beginning ‘Virtue & vallue more’), untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 88v.

To the Moment last past (‘O wither dost thou flye? Cannot my vow’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 89.

HaW 33.5

Copy, in a 19th-century hand, headed ‘To the Moment last past By the same’.

In: the MS described under HaW 1.5. c.1644 (and later).

Yale, Osborn MS b 150, pp. 267-8.

To the right honourable the Countesse of Ar (‘Wing'd with delight (yet such as still doth beare)’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 19-20.

HaW 34

Copy, headed ‘To the Hon: Ann Countess of Ar:’.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 88v.

To the Right Honourable, the Lady, E.P. (‘Your judgement's cleere, not wrinckled with the Time’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 41-2.

HaW 35

Extract, comprising lines 7-16 (beginning ‘Possession makes us pore, should we obtain’), untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 89v.

To the Right Honourable, the Lord P. (‘The reverend man by magicke of his prayer’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 72-3.

HaW 36

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 91v.

To Vaine hope (‘Thou dreame of madmen, ever changing gale’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 74.

HaW 37

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 91r.

Vpon Castara's departure (‘Vowes are vaine. No suppliant breath’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 40.

HaW 38

Copy, untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 174.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 55r-v.

HaW 38.5

Copy, headed ‘vpon his Mrs departure’.

In: the MS described under HaW 9.5. c.1650s.

Folger, MS V.a.124, f. 14r.

Vpon Castara's frowne or smile (‘Learned shade of Tycho Brache, who to us’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, p. 20.

HaW 39

Copy of a garbled version, untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

Printed from this MS in Geoffrey Tillotson, ‘The Commonplace Book of Arthur Capell’, MLR, 27 (1932), 381-91 (p. 386); recorded in Allott, p. 169.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 54r.

Vpon Cupid's death and buriall in Castara's cheeke (‘Cupids dead. Who would not dye’)

First published in Castara (London, 1634). Allott, pp. 24-5.

HaW 40

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 3. Late 17th century.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 65, f. 89v.

HaW 41

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 19. c.1630s-40s.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 171.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 142, f. 16r.

HaW 42

Copy in: the MS described under HaW 7. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Allott, p. 171.

British Library, Harley MS 3511, f. 53r-v.

Poems of Doubtful Authorship

On Castaraes sittinge on Primrose banks (‘See how the little Starrs in Azure nights’)

First published in Norman Ault, A Treasury of Unfamiliar Lyrics (London, 1938), p. 166. Allott, p. 160.

HaW 43

Copy, in Constance Fowler's hand.

In: the MS described under HaW 32. c.1635-50s.

Aldrich-Watson, pp. 50-1. Edited from this MS also in Ault and in Allott. See also Jenijoy La Belle, ‘The Huntington Aston Manuscript’, BC, 29 (Winter 1980), 542-67 (pp. 560-1).

Huntington, HM 904, f. 27v.

Upon Castaries and her sisters goinge Afoote in the Snow (‘The Heauens knowinge that the tedious way’)

First published in Allott (1948), p. 160.

HaW 44

Copy, in Constance Fowler's hand.

In: the MS described under HaW 32. c.1635-50s.

Aldrich-Watson, p. 54. Also edited from this MS in Allott. See also Jenijoy La Belle, ‘The Huntington Aston Manuscript’, BC, 29 (Winter 1980), 542-67 (pp. 563-4).

Huntington, HM 904, f. 28v.

Prose

The Historie of Edward the Fourth, King of England

First published in London, 1641.

HaW 44.5

Extracts, headed ‘The Life of Edward ye 4th by Habinton’.

In: A folio volume of ‘Collections out of the Histories of England. 1670’, extracted from printed sources, in a single hand, 87 leaves, in mottled leather gilt. c.1670.

British Library, Sloane MS 273, ff. 7v-11r, 58r-63r.

Dramatic Works

The Queene of Arragon. The Song in the fourth Act (‘Fine, young folly, though you were’)

First published, anonymously, in London, 1640. The song, in a musical setting by William Tompkins, published in John Playford, Select Musicall Ayres, and Dialogues, Book III (London, 1653). Allott, p. 152.

HaW 45

Copy, headed ‘To his Mistrisse’.

In: A quarto verse miscellany and masque, in at least three hands, written from both ends, i + 123 leaves, in contemporary calf. Mid-late 17th century.

Including (f. 1r) an anagram on Frances Pawlett. Inscribed in red ink (f. 123v) ‘Egigius Frampton hunc librum jure tenet non est mortale quod opto: 1659’: i.e. by Giles Frampton, who is perhaps responsible for some of the later poems. Also inscribed [?]‘R. N. 1663’. Some later notes in the hand of Richard Rawlinson.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 84, f. 66r rev.

HaW 46

Copy, untitled.

In: the MS described under HaW 19. c.1630s-40s.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 142, f. 46r-v.

HaW 47

Copy of stanzas 1-4, headed ‘Sonnetto’.

In: A duodecimo verse miscellany, in several small non-professional hands, 88 leaves, imperfect at the beginning. c.1630s-40s.

This MS collated in Allott, p. 203.

British Library, Egerton MS 923, f. 83r-v.

HaW 48

Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘Fine young folly if you are’.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, including (ff. 113r-15r) copies of, or brief extracts from, 30 poems by Donne (plus two apocryphal poems), in a single hand, transcribed from the 1635 or 1639 edition of Donne's Poems, headed ‘Donnes quaintest conceits’ in several hands, 156 leaves (plus blanks), in modern black morocco gilt. Late 17th century.

Once owned by Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725) and afterwards among the collections of Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford (1689-1741).

Cited in IELM I.i (1980) as the ‘Harley Rawlinson MS’: DnJ Δ 64.

British Library, Harley MS 3991, f. 32v.

HaW 49

Copy, untitled.

In: A sextodecimo miscellany of verse and topographical prose, probably in a single small cursive hand, 78 leaves, written from both ends, Part I foliated 1r-33r, Part II foliated 1r-45r, in old calf. c.1650s-60s.

Inscribed (Part I, f. 1r) ‘Mr John Oldhams Booke’ [i.e. the poet John Oldham (1653-83)]. Inscribed (Part II, f. 1r) ‘James Bateman’ [(b.1633/4) of Christ's College, Cambridge], and ‘Robert Pierrepont’ [either the son of Col. Francis Pierrepont, M.P. (d.1659), or the third Earl of Kingston (1650/1-82), of Holme-Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, Oldham's patron]. Formerly Folger MS 621.1.

Described in F.P. Hammond, ‘A Commonplace Book owned by John Oldham’, N&Q, 224 (December 1979), 515-18.

Folger, MS V.a.169, Part II, f. 20r-v.

HaW 49.5

Extracts.

In: A large untitled folio anthology of quotations chiefly from Elizabethan and Stuart plays, alphabetically arranged under subject headings, in a single mixed hand, in double columns, 900 pages (lacking pp. 1-4, 379-80, 667-8, 715-20 and 785-8), including (pp. 893-7) an alphabetical index of some 351 titles of plays, in modern boards. This is the longest known extant version of the unpublished anthology Hesperides or The Muses Garden, by John Evans, entered in the Stationers' Register on 16 August 1655 and subsequently advertised c.1660, among works he purposed to print, by Humphrey Moseley. Another version of this work, in the same hand, dissected by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), is now distributed between Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Halliwell-Phillipps, Notes upon the Works of Shakespeare, Folger, MS V.a.75, Folger, MS V.a.79, and Folger, MS V.a.80. c.1656-66.

Formerly MS 469.2.

This MS identified in IELM, II.i (1980), p. 450. Discussed, as the ‘master draft’, with a facsimile of p. 7 on p. 381, in Hao Tianhu, ‘Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden and its Manuscript History’, The Library, 7th Ser. 10/4 (December 2009), 372-404 (the full index printed as ‘Catalogue A’ on pp. 385-94).

Folger, MS V.b.93, passim.

HaW 50

Copy of the song, untitled.

In: A folio formal verse miscellany, comprising c.406 poems, many of them song lyrics, in various neat hands, compiled probably over a period, 8 blank leaves (pp. [i-xvi]) + 10 unnumbered pages of poems (pp. [xvii-xxvi]) + 9 numbered pages (pp. 1-9) + ff. [9v]-151v + 12 leaves at the end blank but for a poem on the penultimate page (f. [11v]), in contemporary calf gilt. Once erroneously associated with Thomas Killigrew (1612-83), whose hand does not appear in the volume. Mid-17th century-c.1702.

Inscribed (f. [ir]) ‘Sr Robert Killigrew / 1702’. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9070. Sotheby's, 19 May 1897, lot 455.

Discussed, with a facsimile example, in Nancy Cutbirth, ‘Thomas Killigrew's Commonplace Book?’, Library Chronicle of the University of Texas at Austin, NS No. 13 (1980), 31-8.

University of Texas at Austin, Ms (Killigrew, T) Works B Commonplace book, f. 57v.

Letters

Letter(s)

*HaW 51

Autograph letter signed by William Habington, to his mother, 22 May [1640?]. 1640.

In: A folio composite volume of papers of William Habington's father, the antiquary Thomas Habington (1560-1647), collections principally for his Miscellaneous Antiquities of Worcestershire, v + 397 leaves, in reversed calf.

Bookplate of Charles Lyttelton (1714-68), Bishop of Carlisle.

Edited in John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington (Worcestershire Historical Society No. 5, 2 vols, 1895-9), I, 18. Edited, with a reduced and somewhat indistinct facsimile, in Allott, p. xxxiii and frontispiece. Facsimiles in IELM, II.i (1987), Facsimile XX, after p. xxiv, and in DLB 126: Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, Second Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester (Detroit, 1993), p. 141.

Society of Antiquaries, MS 145, f. 337v.

*HaW 52

Autograph letter signed by Habington, to Lady Herbert, endorsed as received 1 February 1645/6.

National Archives, Kew, PRO 30/53/7/37-38.

*HaW 53

Autograph letter signed by Habington, to a male member of the Herbert family (? William Herbert), from Lloydyarth, 9 November [no year]. c.1640s.

Formerly Powis (1959 deposit), Series II, Bundle XXIII, No. 79.

National Library of Wales, Herbert of Cherbury Manuscripts and Papers P2/1/8/4.