Bellot Papers, Box 11/22
A notebook of verse remains of Butler, copied in a professional hand, with corrections and insertions in the hand of the lawyer William Longueville (1639-1721), on c.20 folded folio leaves, in marbled wrappers. Late 17th-early 18th century.
BuS 8: Samuel Butler, Remains
Evidently owned by the librarian Robert Thyer (1709-81), and among papers of the Thyer, Hale, Killer and Bellot families. Bequeathed by Professor Hugh Hale Bellot, 1969.
Discussed in David Parkes, ‘Documents relating to Samuel Butler (1613-1680)’, N&Q, 238 (September 1993), 324-5.
English MS 202
A folio volume of legal and historical tracts and verse, largely in one formal hand employing variant secretary, roman and court scripts, with a few later additions by others, 78 leaves, in 19th-century calf. Compiled by one Robert Hassall, who signs and dates many of the texts as ‘wrytten...per me’. c.1583-1608.
Inscribed on a flyleaf ‘J H Lecke / Carden Park / Chester / Found at Carden 1886 and rebound 1886’.
ff. 58v-9v
• EsR 305: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Essex's speech at his execution
Copy of a verse account of Essex's speech and execution, in double columns, headed ‘Vppon the death of Robert Deuereux late Erle of Essex attaynted of treason’ (beginning ‘Swete Englands pride is gone’), subscribed ‘Finis. 29 die Decembr: 1606’, among other verses relating to him including (f. 60r-v) ‘A Lamentable mone of a Souldier for the losse of his derely beloued Lorde’ (beginning ‘Gallants all come mourne with me’) which is subscribed ‘Finis tertio die Octobris 1601’.
Generally incorporated in accounts of Essex's execution and sometimes also of his behaviour the night before.
English MS 293
A folio composite volume of state tracts and parliamentary papers, in three secretary hands and one court hand, 132 leaves (foliated 147-245 plus 33 leaves), disbound.
ff. 177r-87v
• CtR 89: Sir Robert Cotton, A Breife Abstract of the Question of Precedencie between England and Spaine: Occasioned by Sir Henry Nevill the Queen of Englands Ambassador, and the Ambassador of Spaine, at Calais Commissioners appointed by the French King...
Copy, in a probably professional secretary hand, as ‘Collected by Robert Cotton Esquire at the Comandement of her matie:’, imperfect, lacking the ending. Early 17th century.
Tract, relating to events in 1599/1600, beginning ‘To seek before the decay of the Roman Empire...’. First published in London, 1642. Cottoni posthuma (1651), pp. [73]-‘79’ [i.e. 89].
English MS 347/220
Autograph letter signed, to Sir Henry Thompson, from Westminster, 19 December 1674. 1674.
MaA 553: Andrew Marvell, Letter(s)
Formerly owned by T. S. Raffles.
Recorded in HMC, 6th Report, Part I (1877), Appendix, p. 473. Margoliouth, II, 335-6. A facsimile, once owned by Margoliouth, is in Bodleian, MS Facs. d. 119, in ff. 127-40.
English MS 410
An octavo miscellany of verse and some prose, in several italic and mixed hands, written probably over a period from both ends, 72 leaves, in contemporary vellum. c.1630s-40s.
f. 17r
• JnB 595: Ben Jonson, Epicoene I, i, 92-102. Song (‘Still to be neat, still to be drest’)
Copy of the song, in a rounded italic hand, untitled.
First published in London, 1616. Herford & Simpson, V, 139-272.
f. 20r
• RaW 271: Sir Walter Ralegh, On the Life of Man (‘What is our life? a play of passion’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, untitled.
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.
f. 21r
• JnB 417.8: Ben Jonson, On the Vnion (‘When was there contract better driuen by Fate?’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘De vnione Brittanniæ’, here beginning ‘Was ever contract better driven by fate?’.
First published in Epigrammes (v) in Workes (London, 1616). Herford & Simpson, VIII, 28.
f. 21r
• RaW 144: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Hir face, Hir tong, Hir wit’
Copy of the first stanza, in a predominantly italic hand, untitled.
This MS collated in Doughtie, Lyrics from English Airs, p. 450.
First published in Brittons Bowre of Delights (London, 1591). Latham, p. 80. Rudick, No. 11, pp. 14-15. This poem was perhaps written jointly by Ralegh and Sir Arthur Gorges: see Lefranc (1968), p. 95.
f. 22r
• StW 332: William Strode, On a Butcher marrying a Tanners daughter (‘A fitter Match hath never bin’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand.
First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1636). Dobell, p. 119. Forey, p. 18.
f. 22r
• StW 1032: William Strode, A Sonnet (‘My Love and I for kisses played’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘Vpon playing with his mistresse’.
First published in A Banquet of Jests (London, 1633). Dobell, p. 47. Forey, p. 211. The poem also discussed in C.F. Main, ‘Notes on some Poems attributed to William Strode’, PQ, 34 (1955), 444-8 (p. 446-7).
f. 22v
• RaW 474: Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘Say not you love, unless you do’
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘A ladyes speech to her suitour’.
First published in Inedited Poetical Miscellanies, 1584-1700, ed. W.C. Hazlitt ([London], 1870), p. [179]. Listed but not printed in Latham, p. 174. Rudick, No. 38, p. 106.
f. 22v
• GrF 43: Fulke Greville, Mustapha, IV, iv, 116-117 (‘Mischiefe is like the Cockatrices eyes’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘On treason’, here beginning ‘Treason is like a Basilis'cus eye’.
Bullough, II, 118.
f. 22v
• HrJ 268.5: Sir John Harington, Of Treason (‘Treason doth neuer prosper, what's the reason?’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, following directly on from GrF 43.
First published in 1615. 1618, Book IV, No. 5. McClure No. 259, p. 255. This epigram also quoted in a letter to Prince Henry, 1609 (McClure, p. 136). Kilroy, Book III, No. 43, p. 185.
f. 23v
• KiH 78: Henry King, The Boy's answere to the Blackmore (‘Black Mayd, complayne not that I fly’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘His answer’, following (f. 23r) ‘A black maid to her lover’.
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).
f. 28v
• B&F 163: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Queen of Corinth, III, ii. Song (‘Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘Carmen consolatorium’, here beginning ‘Weepe no more, sigh, nor groane’.
First published in Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1647). Dyce, V, 393-486 (p. 448). Bowers, VIII, 10-93, ed. Robert K. Turner (p. 57).
ff. 28v-9r
• MoG 34: George Morley, An Epitaph upon King James (‘All that have eyes now wake and weep’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘On the death of king James’.
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.
f. 29v
• B&F 184: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Valentinian, V, ii, 13-22. Song (‘Care-charming Sleep, thou easer of all woes’)
Copy of the song, in a predominantly italic hand, headed ‘When prince Henry on his death bed could not sleepe’.
Dyce, V, 297. Bullen, IV, 302. Bowers, IV, 360-1.
f. 31r-v
• CwT 718: Thomas Carew, Secresie protested (‘Feare not (deare Love) that I'le reveale’)
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand.
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.
ff. 32v-3r
• BcF 38: Francis Bacon, ‘The world's a bubble, and the life of man’
Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, untitled.
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.
English MS 521
A quarto verse miscellany, in a single hand, entitled (p. 1, in engrossed lettering) ‘Thos. Walker Book of Miscellanies 1712’, 252 pages (jumping from p. 56 to 61), in modern half dark green morocco. Compiled by Thomas Walker (b.1682), of Mosley, near Ashton under Lyne, Greater Manchester, including (pp. 105-6, 203) verses by him to his parents etc., dated 1720/1-27). c.1712-27.
Later owned by Sir Charles Bradbury (his sale December 1864, lot 2819, to Haywood, thence bought by Sir Thomas Baker. Bernard Halliday, bookseller of Leicester, February 1930.
p. 23
• HlJ 3.6: Joseph Hall, On his Majestyes Death & his Incomparable Booke (‘Soe falls that stately Coedar, while it stood’)
Copy.
First published, as ‘An Epitaph upon King Charles 1st’, in Eikon Basilike (1649), p. 312.
pp. 35-6
• RnT 170.5: Thomas Randolph, In praise of Woemen in Generall (‘He is a Parricide to his mothers name’)
Copy, under a general heading ‘Randolphs Poems’.
First published in Poems, 2nd edition (1640). Thorn-Drury, pp. 141-3.
pp. 43-4
• RnT 121.5: Thomas Randolph, An Epithalamium to Mr. F. H. (‘Francke, when this Morne the harbinger of day’)
Copy, beginning at line 47 (‘O bless them both! Let their affections meet’), headed ‘An Epithalamion or Wedding Song per Tho: Randolph’.
First published in Poems (1638). Thorn-Drury, pp. 71-5.
p. 46
• RoJ 217.2: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, On Rome's pardons (‘If Rome can pardon sins, as Romans hold’)
Copy, headed ‘E. Rochester. On Romes Pardon’.
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.
pp. 47-8
• HrJ 69.5: Sir John Harington, A good answere of a Gentlewoman to a Lawyer (‘A vertuous Dame, that saw a Lawyer rome’)
Copy, headed ‘A Caution agt Travelling Husbands’.
First published in 1618, Book III, No. 39. McClure No. 240, pp. 248-9. Kilroy, Book IV, No. 90, p. 224.
pp. 54-6
• DoC 326.97: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, On the Day of Judgment (‘The day of wrath that dreadful day’)
Copy, as ‘per Buckhurst’.
Unpublished?
p. 69
• RoJ 409.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song (‘Love a woman? You're an ass!’)
Copy, headed ‘Satyr upon Women by ye Earl of Rochester’.
First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, p. 51. Walker, p. 25. Love, p. 38, as ‘Love to a Woman’.
p. 236
• EtG 7.5: Sir George Etherege, Ephelia to Bajazet (‘How far are they deceived who hope in vain’)
Copy, headed ‘An Epistle from Ephelia to Bajazet: A Satyr: by ye Earl of Rochester’.
First published in Female Poems On several Occasions: Written by Ephelia (London, 1679). Thorpe, pp. 9-10. Harold Love's edition of Rochester (1999), pp. 94-5.
pp. 238-40
• RoJ 609.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, A Very Heroical Epistle in Answer to Ephelia (‘Madam. / If you're deceived, it is not by my cheat’)
Copy.
First published in the broadside A Very Heroical Epistle from My Lord All-Pride to Dol-Common (London, 1679). Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 113-15. Walker, pp. 112-14. Love, pp. 95-7.
pp. 241-2
• BeA 15.8: Aphra Behn, On the Death of the late Earl of Rochester (‘Mourn, Mourn, ye Muses, all your loss deplore’)
Copy, headed ‘Another on the Death of the Late Earl of Rochester. & in part. p. Mrs. Bhenn. Behn.’
First published in Miscellany, Being A Collection of Poems By several Hands (London, 1685). Todd, Works, I, No. 53, pp. 161-3.
English MS 522
A folio volume of parliamentary debates in 1627/8-9, in several professional secretary hands, 351 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt, with traces of ties.
Bookplate of the Earl of Aylesford, Packington, Warwickshire. Bernard Halliday, Leicester, sale catalogue 1930, item 568.
f. 76r
• HoJ 348: John Hoskyns, Speech in the House of Commons, 2 April 1628
Copy of a seven-line summary, ascribed to ‘Serieaunt Hoskins’.
Speech, beginning (in a brief summary) ‘That knowing our own rights we might be better enabled to give...’.
ff. 81r-3v
• RuB 72: Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Speech in the House of Commons, 28 April 1628
Copy, headed ‘Sr Beniamine Ruddiers speech 28 Aprill 1628’.
Speech beginning ‘We are here upon a great business...’. Yale 1628, III, 127-9 and 133-4. Variants: III, 138-9, 141, 143, and 161. Variant version in Manning, pp. 126-8.
ff. 84v-5v
• HlJ 25.8: Joseph Hall, Episcopal Admonition, Sent in a Letter to the House of Commons, April 28, 1628
Copy, headed ‘The Buishop of Exceters lre sent to the house of Commons 28 Aprill 1628’.
See HlJ 17-30.
ff. 268r-70v
• RuB 102: Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Speech in the House of Commons, ?22 May 1628
Copy, headed ‘Sr: Beniamin Ruddierds speech to the Committee for Religion’.
Speech beginning ‘I did not think to have spoken...’. First published, as Sir Benjamin Rudierd His speech in Behalfe of the Clergie and of Parishes destitute of Instruction through want of Maintenance, Oxford, 1628. Manning, pp. 135-8. Yale 1628, III, 17-19, where it is dated probably 21 April 1628.
English MS 875
A quarto volume of state and miscellaneous tracts, two by women, in a single predominantly secretary hand, one ‘EA’, 274 leaves, in contemporary calf (rebacked), with traces of clasps. 1631-9.
Later owned by the Rev. Dr Cox Macro (1683-1767), antiquary (his No. 98), and then by the Gurney family of Norfolk. Sotheby's, 31 March 1936 (Gurney sale), lot 159.
ff. 7r-86r
• MrT 102: Sir Thomas More, William Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘EA. 16. Septemb: 1631’.
First published in London, 1626. Edited, as The Lyfe of Sir Thomas Moore, knighte, written by William Roper Esquire, by Elsie Vaughan Hitchcock (EETS, London, 1935).
ff. 88r-199v
• LeC 64: Anon, Leicester's Commonwealth
Copy, with full title and date ‘1584’, subscribed ‘ffinis./31. August 1633. EA’, with the meditation from Job on f. 200r-v, subscribed ‘ffinis. 1 Sept 1633. EA.’, inscribed in the margin by a reader (f. 88r) ‘This is the same bock with that intitul'd Leicesters Common wealth wrote by Father Robart Parsons’.
First published as The Copie of a Leter, Wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige, to his Friend in London, Concerning some talke past of late betwen two worshipful and graue men, about the present state, and some procedinges of the Erle of Leycester and his friendes in England ([? Rouen], 1584). Soon banned. Reprinted as Leycesters common-wealth (London, 1641). Edited, as Leicester's Commonwealth, by D.C. Peck (Athens, OH, & London, 1985). Although various attributions have been suggested by Peck and others, the most likely author remains Robert Persons (1546-1610), Jesuit conspirator.
Legh of Lyme Correspondence, Box 3
An unbound collection of manuscript newsletters, written chiefly in 1679-87, sent to Richard Legh, MP (d.1687), of Lyme Hall, near Disley, Cheshire.
[unnumbered item, at the end]
• MaA 516.5: Andrew Marvell, His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament, 13 April 1675
Copy, in a professional cursive hand, untitled, on three pages of two conjugate folio leaves, sent as a letter, the fourth page with the address panel ‘These Mr Legh att his house Lime in Chesshire / Deliver’, with red wax seals, slightly imperfect, frayed at the edges. 1670s.
A mock speech, beginning ‘I told you last meeting the winter was the fittest time for business...’. First published, and ascribed to Marvell, in Poems on Affairs of State, Vol. III (London, 1704). Cooke, II, Carmina Miscellanea, pp. 36-43. Grosart, II, 431-3. Augustine Birrell, Andrew Marvell (London, 1905), pp. 200-2. Discussed in Legouis, p. 470, and in Kelliher, pp. 111-12.
R16270
An exemplum signed by Cotton on the title-page (now partly erased). Late 17th century.
*CnC 175: Charles Cotton, Davenant, Sir William. The Works of Sr William D'avenant Kt (London, 1673)