First published, as An Elegie by F. B., in Certain Elegies, Done by Sundrie Excellent Wits (London, 1618). Dyce XI, 505-7.
Copy, untitled.
Facsimile of this MS in the Scolar Press facsimile of the 1640 edition of Thomas Carew, Poems (Menston, 1969).
A folio volume of poems, in a single accomplished hand, 61 leaves (plus stubs of fifteen extracted leaves), imperfect, in quarter-vellum.
Including 49 pems by Thomas Carew and one of doubtful authorship.
Later owned by F. Wyburd who, according to W.C. Hazlitt (1870, p. xv), obtained it about three years ago of a dealer at Knightsbridge
. Owned c.1927 by P.J. Dobell, who sold it in 1936.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Wyburd MS
:
Copy, untitled.
A verse miscellany, i + 25 leaves.
Owned before 1959 by the Lingard-Guthrie family.
Copy.
A folio verse miscellany, entirely in the professional secretary hand of the Feathery Scribe
, containing some 76 poems, including eleven by Donne, later inscribed (erroneously) Sir John Haringtons Poems Written in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
, 56 leaves, in contemporary vellum.
From the library of Richard Rawlinson (1690-1755), nonjuring bishop and topographer.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Rawlinson MS
:
Copy, untitled, on both sides of a single folio leaf, apparently enclosed originally with a letter by Sir Charles Cavendish to the Countess of Shrewsbury, from Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, 17 April 1614 (on f. 189: ...but mak som notes that may lye by yow and at your pleasure yow may pervse them...
). 1614.
Edited from this MS in Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, Biography, and Manners, 3 vols (London, 1791), III, 394-6.
A folio composite volume of original letters and documents.
Copy, subscribed ffra: Be:
.
A quarto verse miscellany, almost entirely in a single neat secretary hand, the first page formally inscribed To the righte honoble: the Lorde Thomas Darcy Viscount Colchester
(c.1565-1640, Viscount Colchester from 1621 to 1626), 191 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
Including 27 poems (and second copies of two poems) by Thomas Carew and three of doubtful authorship.
This MS largely transcribed in
Scribbled inscriptions including (f. 1r) Mr John Bowyer
; (f. 2r) Jeronomus ffox
; and (f. 3r) William Ralph Baesh
.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Colchester MS
:
Copy, headed A Letter to the Countesse of Rutland
, subscribed F B
.
Edited from this MS in Joshua Eckhardt, Manuscript Verse Collectors and the Politics of Anti-Courtly Love Poetry (Oxford, 2009), pp. 176-7.
A folio composite volume of separate MSS of verse and some prose, in various secretary and italic hands, written over an extended period, with a table of contents (f. 3r-v), 186 leaves.
Comprising papers of the Skipwith family of Cotes, Leicestershire, including 60 poems by John Donne (and one Problem), the text related in part to the Edward Smyth MS
(
Including poems ascribed to William Skipwith (? Sir William Skipwith, d.1610, or his grandson, William, or possibly a cousin, William Skipwith, of Ketsby, Lincolnshire, fl.1633); to Sir Henry Skipwith (fl.1609-52); and to Thomas Skipwith, and several poems by Donne's friend Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627), to whom a branch of the Skipwith family was related by marriage. Later owned by Robert Sherard (1719-99), fourth Earl of Harborough. Sotheby's, 10 June 1864, lot 605, to Boone.
This MS is the curious folio volume
lent to John Nichols (1745-1826) by the late Lord Harborough
and cited in Nichols's account of the Skipwith family in his History of Leicestershire, 4 vols (1795-1815), III, part i (1800), 367.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) and II.i (1987), as the Skipwith MS
:
Copy, untitled.
A quarto verse miscellany, including 18 poems by Donne, in several hands over a period (the predominant secretary hand on ff. 1r-35v, 45v-63r), written from both ends, 91 leaves, in later green morocco.
Inscribed (f. 1r) E Libris Richardo Glovero pharmacopol. Londinense pertinantibus
, the date 1638
possibly added in a different hand. The name William Allen
on f. 77v among scribbling. Inscribed (f. 1v) by a later owner, apparently for Mr Thorpe
, I was informed by the bookseller of whom I bought this book; that it belonged formerly to a literary gentleman who lived in Burton Crescent and who died about six months ago. 3rd Augt. 1835
.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Glover MS
:
Copy, untitled.
A folio composite volume of state and miscellaneous tracts and papers, in various hands, in modern red morocco gilt.
Copy, subscribed ffr: B
.
This MS collated in Dyce.
An octavo verse miscellany, in several largely italic hands, closely written, 148 leaves (plus blanks), in modern quarter morocco gilt.
Probably compiled by university or inns of court men.
Copy, headed To the countesse of Rutland
.
An independent quarto verse miscellany, including 47 poems by Donne, in two secretary hands.
Constituting ff. 230r-99v in a quarto composite volume of verse and prose, in various hands, 308 leaves, in modern half green morocco gilt.
Among the collections of Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford (1661-1724), and his son, Edward, second Earl of Oxford (1681-1741), and acquired in 1722 from the bookseller Nathaniel Noel (fl.1681-c.1753).
Cited in IELM I.i as the Harley Noel MS
:
Copy, untitled, subscribed F: B:
.
A large quarto volume of verse and prose, in several hands, a cursive mixed hand predominating on ff. 1r -51, 53r-8v, with a later addition dated 1694 on f. 78r, 82 leaves, in modern half green morocco.
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, including 50 poems by Donne, in a single neat secretary hand except for ff. 70r-2r, which are in another secretary hand.
Comprising folios 57r-137v in a quarto composite volume of MSS, in various hands, 173 leaves, in 19th-century leather gilt.
Later owned by Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725), Yorkshire antiquary and topographer. Among the collections of William Petty (1737-1805), first Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Shelburne.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Lansdowne MS
: Manuscripts in Quarto
in the list at the end of Thoresby's Ducatus Leodensis, 2nd edition (Leeds, 1816), Appendix, p. 85.
Copy, untitled.
A quarto verse miscellany, written in two styles of hand (A: ff. 2r, after first six lines, to 64v; B: ff. 2r, first six lines, 64v-91v, 92v-4r), possibly both in the same hand, with an Index (ff. 93r-4r), 94 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
Including 22 poems (plus two of doubtful authorship) by Carew, 13 poems by King, and 24 poems (plus one of doubtful authorship) by Strode, and probably associated with Christ Church, Oxford.
Inscribed names including (f. 93v, in court hand) ffrancis Baskeruile
: i.e. probably the Francis Baskerville who married Margaret Glanvill in 1635 and was in 1640 MP for Marlborough, Wiltshire. Other scribbling including (f. 1r) accounts referring to Wanborough, Wiltshire; (f. 9v) Elizabeth White
; (f. 54v) William Walrond his booke 1663
; (f. 92r) accounts dated 1658; and (f. 94r) John Wallrond
. Later owned by Sir Hans Sloane, Bt (1660-1753), physician and collector.
Recorded in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the Baskerville MS
:
Copy, subscribed F: B:
.
A quarto verse miscellany, in one or more secretary hands, with (ff. 244r-54r) a first-line index, 254 leaves, in modern half-morocco, poems on ff. 34v and 242v dated 1637.
Including 91 poems and some prose works by John Donne and fourteen poems by Thomas Carew.
Among the collections of Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (1776-1839), first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham, largely derived from the collection of the antiquary Thomas Astle (1735-1803), which in turn chiefly derived from Astle's father-in-law, the Essex historian Philip Morant (1700-70) (see
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) and II.i (1987), as Stowe MS II
: Stowe MS
:
Copy, untitled but superscribed Francis Beaumont
.
A quarto miscellany of English and Latin verse and prose, largely in a neat secretary hand, 91 leaves, in limp vellum.
Among the papers of the Gell family, of Hopton Hall, Derbyshire, including those of the Parliamentary commander and MP Sir John Gell, first Baronet (1593-1671). Formerly D258/60/26a.
Copy, headed To ye Couns. of Rutlande
, subscribed F. B.
A folio composite miscellany of verse, prose, and dramatic works, in several hands, an independant unit on ff. 88r-111r, in a single hand, containing, inter alia, twenty poems by Donne, 117 leaves (plus seventeen blanks), in contemporary vellum, with remains of ties.
Inscribed (f. 134v) Anthony Methuen
. Later owned by members of the Wyndham family, including probably the Henry Penruddocke Wyndham (1736-1819), topographer. Sotheby's, 11 April 1872, lot 1331, to David Laing.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Laing MS
:
Copy, untitled, transcribed from
A folio volume of 143 poems by Donne, plus his Paradoxes and Problems, in a single neat hand, 270 pages (plus a three-page index), in contemporary calf.
Transcribed from Dublin MS I
:
Acquired in 1895 from Bernard Quaritch by Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), American professor and art historian. Formerly MS Nor 4503.
Recorded in IELM as the Norton MS:
Copy, headed To the Countess of Rutland. ff. B.
A small octavo miscellany of 76 poems by Donne, together with a few poems by others dating up to 1627, in a single italic hand, occasionally marking the end of poems with one or more quatrefoils, 102 leaves (foliation jumping from 55 to 57), gilt-edged, in 19th-century dark green leather gilt.
Inscriptions including (f. 6r) Hannah Lewis Junr
; Thomas Turner his Book
(three times, ff. 8r, 14v, 48v, dated 1750
, 58
and 1760
); (f. 12r) Edmund Baxter att Mrs Nortons
; (ff. 20r, 59v) John Jones
; (f. 40r) Jon: Pryse 1729
; (f. 59v) Robt. Was
[?]; and (f. 79r) Edmund Baxter 1729
. Later owned by Edward Vernon Utterson (1776-1856), of Shanklin and Ryde, Isle of Wight, artist, literary antiquary and book collector. Sotheby's, 24 April 1852 (Utterson sale), lot 1317, sold to Lelly
. Then owned by Sir John Simeon, third Baronet (1815-70), M.P. Sotheby's, 3 March 1871 (Simeon sale), lot 638, to Pickering. Quaritch's sale catalogue No. 436 (1930), item 576. Formerly MS Nor 4620.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Utterson MS
:
Copy, headed fletcher: to ye Countes of Rutland
.
A folio verse miscellany, 206 pages (plus blanks), rebound in 1832 (by Charles Lewis) with an independent miscellany (
Including 52 poems by Donne (many on pp. 64-109, 167-74 initialled L.C. [? Lord Chancellor], as are some poems by others), 11 poems by Carew, ten poems by Corbett, and 11 poems by or attributed to Herrick, in a single neat hand throughout; the poems dating up to 1637.
Later scribbling and inscriptions including the names Edw Denny
[presumably Edward Denny (1569-1637), Baron Denny of Waltham and first Earl of Norwich], Charles Cocks
, Edward Randolphe
and (on p. 162) Thomas Cassy
. Later owned by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), bibliographer and antiquary (sold in the Haslewood sale, London, 1833, lot 1329, to Thorpe); by Edward King (1795-1837), Viscount Kingsborough, antiquary (his sale in Dublin, 1 November 1841, item 624); and by Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector (his library catalogue, 1880, IV, pp. 1159-64), and sold at Sotheby's, 17 July 1917 (Huth sale), lot 5873.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) and II.i (1987), as the Haslewood-Kingsborough MS (I)
:
Copy, headed To the Countesse of Rutland
.
A folio verse miscellany, 148 leaves (foliated 161-206), once bound (reversed) with an independent miscellany (
Including 59 poems by Donne (and second copies of six poems), in probably six professional secretary hands: A (ff. 1r-25v, 82r-129r); B (ff. 26r, 42v-7v, 49r-63r, 63v-79r, 130r-48r); C (ff. 27r-36v, 41r-2v; with occasional corrections possibly in hand B); D (ff. 37r-40v); E (ff. 63r-v); and F (f. 129v).
Scribbling includes the name Meriall Tracy
(on f. 148v). Later owned by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), bibliographer and antiquary; by Edward King (1795-1837), Viscount Kingsborough, antiquary; and by Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector (his library, lot 624). Sotheby's, 17 July 1917 (Huth sale), lot 5873.
Recorded in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Haslewood-Kingsborough MS (II)
:
A complete microfilm is at the University of Birmingham, Shakespeare Institute (Mic S 15). Betagraph of the watermark in f. 43 in Ted-Larry Pebworth, Towards a Taxonomy of Watermarks, in Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks, ed. Daniel W. Mosser, Michael Saffle and Ernest W. Sullivan, II (London, 2000), pp. 229-42 (p. 240).
Copy, untitled.
A folio volume of state letters and poems, 65 pages.
Once belonging to the Sotheby family of London and Ecton Hall, Northamptonshire.
Copy, untitled.
A folio verse miscellany, including 26 poems (plus two of doubtful authorship) by Thomas Carew and poems by Henry King, in several hands, 92 leaves, plus an inserted gathering of eleven leaves after f. 82v (ff. [82a-82k]), but including stubs of some extracted leaves (ff. 74-8, 94-5), in contemporary vellum.
Inscribed To my euer honored good Cosen Sr John Reresby Barronett these prsent
: i.e. presented to Sir John Reresby, first Baronet (1611-46), royalist, of Thribergh Hall.
Among the muniments of Lord Mexborough, descended from the Savile family formerly of Methley Hall, near Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Formerly MX 237.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Mexborough MS
:
Copy.
An oblong octavo verse miscellany, in a neat mixed hand up to p. 78, the remainder in later hands, 116 pages, in 19th-century half-leather marbled boards, with remains of crimson velvet.
Once owned by Elizabeth Herrick (1684-1745) and her brother William Herrick (1689-1773). Formerly among the papers of the Herrick family, of Beaumanor.
This MS discussed in J.A. Taylor, Two Unpublished Poems on the Duke of Buckingham, RES, NS 40 (May 1989), 232-40.
Copy, headed To the Countess of Rutland:
, subscribed ffinis: F: B:
.
A quarto verse miscellany, including seventeen poems by Donne and fifteen by Strode, the main part in a single hand, 334 pages (but pp. 3-4 extracted, and including a later index).
Possibly compiled by one W: H:
: i.e. probably William Holgate (1618-46), of Queens' College, Cambridge, with late 17th-century additions apparently made by other members of the Holgate family, of Saffron Walden and Great Bardfield, Essex.
Owned in the early 18th century by John Wale, who supplied the index on pp. 330-3. Owned before 1927 by Col. W.G. Carwardine-Probert, of Bures, Suffolk (descendant of the Holgate family).
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Holgate MS:
Copy.
A folio verse miscellany, containing 89 poems, including 43 by Donne, in several hands (ff. 21r-62r in a single accomplished secretary hand), 69 leaves, in paper wrappers.
The text of the poems by Donne derived from the same source as the Lansdowne MS (
Formerly among the muniments of the Earl of Dalhousie (descendant of the Maule and Ramsay families), of Brechin Castle, on deposit in the Scottish Record Office [now National Archives of Scotland] (GD45/26/95/1). Sotheby's, 20 July 1981, lot 490.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the the Dalhousie MS I
: And, having done that, Thou hast done
: Locating, Acquiring, and Studying the Dalhousie Manuscripts, in The Donne Dalhousie Discovery: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Acquisition and Study of the John Donne and Joseph Conrad Collections at Texas Tech University, ed. Ernest W. Sullivan II and David J. Murrah (Lubbock, TX, 1987), pp. 1-10; and in The Renaissance Manuscript Verse Miscellany: Private Party, Private Text, in New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, ed. W. Speed Hill (Binghamton, 1993), pp. 289-97.
Facsimiles of f. 15v in DLB, vol. 121, Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, First Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester (Detroit, 1992), p. 13, and of f. 42r in Sotheby's sale catalogue and in Peter Beal, A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450-2000 (Oxford, 2008), p. 431, Illus. 91. A complete microfilm of the MS is in the National Archives of Scotland.
Sullivan suggests that the miscellany derives from sources preserved by members of the Earl of Essex's circle, their most likely conduit
to the Dalhousie family being John Ramsay (1580-1626), Viscount Haddington and Earl of Holderness.
Copy, probably transcribed from
Facsimile of f. 26r also in Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, First Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester, DLB, 121 (Detroit, 1992), p. 320.
A folio verse miscellany comprising 56 poems, including 29 by Donne, in several hands (two predominating), 34 leaves, mounted on guards, in modern cloth.
Much of the volume (including 24 poems by Donne on ff. 15r-31v) evidently transcribed from the Dalhousie MS I (
Inscribed (f. 1r) with the date 28 September 1622 and, in possibly a child's hand (f. 1v), Andrew Ramsey
. Formerly among the muniments of the Earl of Dalhousie (descendant of the Maule and Ramsay families), of Brechin Castle, on deposit in the Scottish Record Office (GD45/26/95/2). Sotheby's, 20 July 1981, lot 491, and 12 December1982, lot 49.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Dalhousie MS II
:
Facsimiles of f. 10v in Sotheby's sale catalogue, and of ff. 20v and 26r in DLB, vol. 121, Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, First Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester (Detroit, 1992), pp. 320-1. Complete microfilms of the MS are in the National Archives of Scotland and in the Brirish Library, RP 2441.
Copy, untitled.
A folio collection of verse containing 143 poems by Donne and his Paradoxes and Problems, in a single predominantly italic hand (except for two poems on f. 104r-v, added afterwards by two other italic and secretary hands), the main scribe also probably responsible for the Puckering MS
(
Old pressmark MS G. 2. 21.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Dublin MS (Part I):