Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Sir John Beaumont

c.1584–1627

Introduction

Verse

Sir John Beaumont, though much less known than his brother, the playwright Francis Beaumont, was a prolific poet and possibly the author of an entertainment, The Theatre of Apollo (BeJ 56), written in 1625 but not published until 1926. His most celebrated poem is Bosworth Field, which survives in five contemporary manuscript copies (BeJ 12-16) and was posthumously published by his son, John, in 1629. This same edition saw the first publication of a number of shorter poems by Beaumont, which otherwise had had only limited manuscript circulation, as is witnessed by the relatively modest number of copies of poems by him in manuscript miscellanies known today.

The only recorded collection of Beaumont's poems in manuscript is British Library Stowe MS 960, sixteen leaves containing twenty-two of his poems and an anonymous memorial poem on him at the end, a collection probably made shortly after his death in 1627. Among other features of interest, this manuscript contains the unique known text of the poem On the death of so many good People slaine by the fall of a floore att a Catholike Sermon in Black Friers (BeJ 36), a poem that was originally printed in the 1629 edition of Bosworth Field, but which, for presumably political reasons, was cut out of every exemplum of that edition. Similar considerations presumably led to the exclusion in that edition of Beaumont's poem Of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady, for which, again, the Stowe MS provides the unique text (BeJ 29).

The Canon

The canon of Beaumont's shorter poems accepted for present purposes is that established in Sell. He includes three poems of uncertain authorship (BeJ 48, BeJ 50, BeJ 52), to which may be added the lengthy and still unpublished religious poem The Crowne of Thornes (BeJ 47), which he accepts as a work definitely by Beaumont, who is recorded as having written a poem of that title in eight books. Given the manuscript's association with the Carthusian writer Robert Clarke, however, the authorship of the extant twelve-book poem must remain open to debate.

Letters and Documents

Only two evidently autograph letters signed by Beaumont are hitherto known to survive (BeJ 57-58). Indeed, they are the only recorded examples of his handwriting but for his possible signature on a receipt (BeJ 59). Other letters by Sir John Beaumont, such as three written from Madrid, Grace Dieu, and London, in 1635-37, to Sir Gervase Clifton (University of Nottingham Library, Clifton MSS Cl C 25-27), were presumably written by his eldest son, John.

Abbreviations

  • Bosworth-field (1629) — Bosworth-field: with a taste of the variety of other poems, left by Sir John Beaumont … Set forth by his sonne, Sir John Beaumont, Baronet (London, 1629).
  • Grosart — The Poems of Sir John Beaumont, Bart., ed. The Rev. Alexander B. Grosart (The Fuller Worthies Library, for private circulation, 1869).
  • Sell — The Shorter Poems of Sir John Beaumont: A Critical Edition, ed. Roger D. Sell (Abo, 1974).

Verse

(1) Poems by Sir John Beaumont

An act of Contrition ('When first my reason, dawning like the day')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 105-6.

BeJ 1

Copy, here beginning When first my reason dawned like the day.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 7v-8r) | Catalogue
An Act of Hope ('Sweet Hope is soveraigne comfort of our life')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 109.

BeJ 2

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 12v-13r) | Catalogue
Against abused Love ('Shall I stand still, and see the world on fire')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 115-18.

BeJ 3

Copy, subscribed John Beaumount.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: A folio verse miscellany, 148 leaves (foliated 161-206), once bound (reversed) with an independent miscellany (Huntington, HM 198, Part I), rebound with this MS (in continuous form without inversion) in 1832 (by Charles Lewis).

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).

c.1620-33

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): DnJ Δ 26. Discussed in C.M. Armitage, Donne's Poems in Huntington Manuscript 198: New Light on The Funerall, SP, 63 (1966), 697-707.

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).

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks F through M (HM 198, Part II ff. 97v-9r)
Against inordinate love of Creatures ('Ah! who would love a creature? who would place')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 114-15.

BeJ 4

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Against the desire of greatnesse, thoughte Mr John Beaumonts ('Thou woldst be greate and to that heighte wouldst rise')

First published in Sell (1974), pp. 178-80.

BeJ 5

This MS collated in Sell.

copied from add 25303 and same j beaumont poems. check out.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, largely in a single predominantly secretary hand, with some later additions and annotations, 188 leaves, in quarter-morocco.

Transcribed from British Library Add. MS 25303 and perhaps associated likewise with the Inns of Court. Including 23 poems by Carew and three of doubtful authorship.

c.1620s-30s

Later owned by William Pickering (1796-1854), publisher. Sotheby's, 13 May 1856 (Pickering sale), lot 258.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Pickering MS: CwT Δ 11.

BeJ 6

Copy, headed Againste the desire of greatnesse thoughte Mr John Beamonts.

Edited from this MS in Sell.

In: 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 British Library, Add. MS 21433. The hand occurs also in British Library, Harley MS 3910, between ff. 112v and 120v, and is possibly associated with the Inns of Court.

c.1620s

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: CwT Δ 13.

BeJ 7

Copy, untitled, subscribed J: B:.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

BeJ 9

Copy, untitled, suscribed J B.

In: A folio verse miscellany, including 35 poems by Donne, in several hands, written from both ends, 30 leaves (plus stubs of ten extracted leaves), damp-stained, in modern boards.

The text related to the Skipwith MS (DnJ Δ 21).

c.1620-33

Inscribed name (f. 8r) of Edward Smyth and (along margin of f. 11v) in Mr Templers. Among the collections of John Patrick (1632-95), religious controversialist.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Edward Smyth MS: DnJ Δ 45.

The answer of Metrodorus ('In ev'ry way of life, true pleasure flowes')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 86.

BeJ 10

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
At the end of his Majesties first yeere. Sonnet first ('Your Royall Father James, the Good and Great')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 137-8.

BeJ 11

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Bosworth Field ('The Winters storme of Civill Warre I sing')

First published in Bosworth-field: with a taste of the variety of other poems, left by Sir John Beaumont, ed. Sir John Beaumont the Younger (London, 1629). Grosart, pp. 23-63. Sell, pp. 66-83.

BeJ 12

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

BeJ 13
A formal copy, in a single semi-calligraphic hand, in roman and italic scripts, on 16 small quarto leaves, in contemporary vellum.

Evelyn Papers Vol. CCCCXCVI, of John Evelyn (1620-1706), diarist and writer, of Wootton House, Surrey, and his family, also incorporating papers of his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, Bt (1605-83), diplomat, and his family. Formerly preserved at Christ Church, Oxford. Acquired March 1995.

c.1612-29

Formerly Evelyn MS 107. According to a note on the fly-leaf by William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector, the MS was presented by Lady Evelyn to her relation Mrs Hugh Bisshopp (d.1826), sister-in-law of Lord De La Zouche, and afterwards owned by her housekeeper Mrs Hales, who gave it on 7 July 1826 to William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector.

BeJ 14

Copy, ascribed to J: B:.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: A folio volume comprising four works, all in one secretary hand, 93 leaves (plus 115 blanks), in contemporary calf (rebacked).
Early 17th century

Inscription (f. 1r) Samvell Sandys.

BeJ 15
Copy, on 31 quarto leaves.

In a probably professional secretary hand, without title-page but headed Bosworth Field.

First half of 17th century

Bookplate of Marsden J. Perry.

This MS collated in Sell.

BeJ 16
Copy, in a cursive secretary hand, with interlineations and corrections in another hand, 24 quarto pages, imperfect, unbound.
Early-mid-17th century

Possibly the MS in Thorpe's Catalogue of upward of fourteen hundred manuscripts (1836), item 8; later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1782-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9519.

An Epigram concerning Mans life, composed by Crates, or Posidippus ('What course of life should wretched mortals take?')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 86.

BeJ 17

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
An Epithalamium to my Lord Marquesse of Buckingham, and to his faire and vertuous Lady ('Severe and serious Muse')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 138-9.

BeJ 18

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

BeJ 19

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
BeJ 20
Copy, in a hand similar to that of Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627), headed An epithalamion to my Lo of Buck: and his La:.
National Archives, Kew (SP 14/115/34*r)
An Epithalamium upon the happy marriage of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles, and our gracious Lady Queene Mary ('The Ocean long contended (but in vaine)')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 136-7.

BeJ 21

Copy.

Thi MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 4v-5v) | Catalogue
In spirituall comfort ('Enough delight, O mine eternall good!')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 108-9.

BeJ 22

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Juvenal's Tenth Satire ('In all the Countries, which from Gades extend')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 159-70.

BeJ 23

Copy, headed Juuenal, slightly cropped at top and bottom.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

My Lord of Buckinghams welcome to the King at Burley ('Sir, you have ever shin'd upon me bright')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 139-40.

BeJ 24

Copy, untitled, subscribed J. B.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

BeJ 25

Copy, headed By ye: Duke att ye Kings coming to Burley.

In: 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.
c.1630[-1700s]

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.

Of Sicknesse ('The endes of Sicknes, Health or Death declare')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 113.

BeJ 26

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Of Sinne ('What pensill shall I take, or where begin')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 110-11.

BeJ 27

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Of Teares ('Behold what Rivers feeble nature spends')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 110.

BeJ 28

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady ('Whoe is shee that ascends so high')

First published by F.G. Kenyon in The Athenaeum (1889), p. 524. Sell, pp. 177-8.

BeJ 29

Copy, here beginning Whoe is that attends so high.

Edited from this MS in Kenyon and in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 8v-9r) | Catalogue
Of the miserable state of Man ('Is man, the best of creatures, growne the worst?')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 111-13.

BeJ 30

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 11v-12v) | Catalogue
Of the Transfiguration of our Lord ('Yee that in lowly valleyes weeping sate')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 100-1.

BeJ 31

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Of true Greatnesse: to my Lord Marquesse of Buckingham ('Sir, you are truely great, and every eye')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 140-2.

BeJ 32

Copy, subscribed J. B.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

BeJ 33

Copy, headed Of the true greatnesse of my Lord Marquesse of Buckingham.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Of true Liberty ('He that from dust of worldly tumults flies')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 113-14.

BeJ 34

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
On Ascension day ('Ye that to heav'n direct your curious eyes')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 101.

BeJ 35
Copy, headed Jo: Bea: / On Ascension day and here beginning Yee yt to starrs direct your curious eyes.

With other verse, on the two inner pages of an independent pair of conjugate folio leaves accompanying the MS of Thomas Pestell's poems.

This MS collated in Sell.

On the death of so many good People slaine by the fall of a floore att a Catholike Sermon in Black Friers ('Mann hath noe safe defence noe place of rest')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 158-9.

BeJ 36

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Sonnet second ('About the time when dayes are longer made')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, p. 138.

BeJ 37

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
To my Lord Marquess of Buckingham. Concerning the Academ of Honor [1621] ('My Lord the hart that loves you must have leave')

First published in Ethel M. Portall, The Academ Roial of King James I, Proceedings of the British Academy, 1915-1916, pp. 189-208. Sell, pp. 176-7.

BeJ 38 c.1620s

A formal copy in a neat roman hand, headed Verses written by the euery-way noble, my dearest freind, or your Graces worthie kinsman, JOHN BEAVMONT, esquire, concerning the Academ roial, or College of HONOR, and subscribed Your Grace had Sr William Alexanders uerses to the same purpose at Royston: and all worthie men are most willing to concurr, and assist therein under your name, on one side of a single folio leaf.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: A folio guardbook of separate state papers, in various hands, 271 leaves (but some removed to MS Tanner 89*).
To the immortall memory of the fairest and most vertuous Lady, the Lady Clifton ('Her tongue hath ceast to speake, which might make dumbe')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 154-6.

BeJ 40 c.1620

Copy, in the italic hand of Sir Henry Goodyer's, subscribed J B, endorsed An Elegye of my La Clifton, on three pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: A folio composite volume of miscellaneous papers in verse and prose, in various hands and paper sizes, 170 leaves, mounted on guards, in modern half-morocco.

Including eleven poems by John Donne, three of them (ff. 10r-14v, 55r, 76r-7r) in the italic hand of his friend Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627); ff. 95r-8r in the same hand as the Leconfield MS (DnJ Δ 5) and constituting part of what was probably a quarto MS book of Donne's satires; f. 132r-v constituting a set of six verse epistles by Donne, the text related to the Westmoreland MS (DnJ Δ 19).

Early-mid-17th century

From the Conway Papers belonging chiefly to Sir Edward Conway, Baron Conway of Ragley, later Viscount Killultagh and Viscount Conway of Conway Castle (c.1564-1631), and to his son, Edward, second Viscount Conway (1594-1655). Later owned by John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), politician and writer, and presented 10 January 1860.

Cited in IELM, I.i, as the Conway MS: DnJ Δ 40. Cited as A23 by editors. Facsimile of f. 62r in Michael Roy Denbo, Editing a Renaissance Commonplace Book: The Holgate Miscellany, in New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, III, ed. W. Speed Hill (Tempe, AZ, 2004). pp. 65-73 (p. 71).

BeJ 41

Copy, subscribed ffinis J B.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 (DnJ Δ 45); also 15 poems (and second copies of two) by Henry King; and 19 poems (and two of doubtful authorship) by Carew.

c.1620-50

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: DnJ Δ 21; CwT Δ 14; KiH Δ 8. Also described in Mary Hobbs's thesis, pp. 119-29 (see KiH Δ 6). For Sir William Skipwith and his literary connections, see James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (esp. pp. 171-2).

BeJ 42

Copy, lacking 16 lines.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 10v-11v) | Catalogue
To the Prince ('In ev'ry man a little world we name')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 135-6.

BeJ 43

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
Upon the death of the most noble Lord Henry, Earle of Southampton, 1624 ('When now the life of great Southampton ends')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 156-8.

BeJ 44

This MS collated in Sell.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, largely in a single predominantly secretary hand, with some later additions and annotations, 188 leaves, in quarter-morocco.

Transcribed from British Library Add. MS 25303 and perhaps associated likewise with the Inns of Court. Including 23 poems by Carew and three of doubtful authorship.

c.1620s-30s

Later owned by William Pickering (1796-1854), publisher. Sotheby's, 13 May 1856 (Pickering sale), lot 258.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Pickering MS: CwT Δ 11.

BeJ 45

Copy.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 British Library, Add. MS 21433. The hand occurs also in British Library, Harley MS 3910, between ff. 112v and 120v, and is possibly associated with the Inns of Court.

c.1620s

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: CwT Δ 13.

Upon the two great Feasts of the Annunciation and Resurrection falling on the same day, March 25. 1627 ('Thrice happy day which sweetlie doth combyne')

First published in Bosworth-field (1629). Sell, pp. 98-9.

BeJ 46

Copy, headed Vpon the two greate Feasts of the Incarnation and Resurrection falling on the same Day: March: 25: i627.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: Manuscript of poems by Sir John Beaumont, 16 folio leaves (including 2 blanks).

In a professional (but sometimes inaccurate) secretary hand; the contents including (f. 15v) a ten-line poem on Beaumont (beginning Expect noe more: this latest line containes).

c.1627
The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 960 ff. 14v-15r) | Catalogue

(2) Poems of Uncertain Attribution

The Crowne of Thornes ('I sing of thornes transform'd in bloody springs')

A poem in twelve books, unpublished. Sir John Beaumont is recorded by Anthony Wood as having written a poem of this title in eight books. The present poem has been dated after 1625 and also attributed to Robert Clarke (d.1675), a Carthusian monk, of Nieuport, Flanders.

For discussions of authorship, see Sell, pp. 333-5, and references in his The Handwriting of Sir John Beaumont and the Editing of His Poems, HLQ, 33 (1969-70), 284-91.

BeJ 47 c.1625-30

Copy, in two hands, a neat roman hand (ff. 1r-84v) and a predominantly secretary hand (ff. 85r-145r), the latter also appearing in tipped-in verses in a scribal copy of Robert Clarke's Christiados Libri 18 (British Library, Egerton MS 3875).

This MS, and its attributions, discussed in Sell, pp. 333-5, et al. Facsimile examples in DLB, vol. 121, Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, First Series, ed. M. Thomas Hester (Detroit, 1992), pp. 32 and 34.

In: A tall folio composite volume of MSS, including Latin verse variously attributed to Sir John Beaumont's son Francis (the Jesuit) and to the monk Robert Clarke (d.1675) of Nieuwpoort, in several hands, 191 leaves, in old mottled leather.
c.1660

Acquired from Quaritch, 11 July 1888.

Epitaphe ('Tis not a safe conjecture more or lesse')

First published (?) in Sell (1974), p. 181.

BeJ 48

Copy, subscribed J B.

Edited from this MS in Sell.

In: 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 British Library, Add. MS 21433. The hand occurs also in British Library, Harley MS 3910, between ff. 112v and 120v, and is possibly associated with the Inns of Court.

c.1620s

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: CwT Δ 13.

BeJ 49

Copy, headed Epitath, subscribed J. B.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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.

c.1620s-30s
'Gazer reade and take to harte'

First published (?) in Sell (1974), p. 181.

BeJ 50

Copy, untitled, subscribed JB.

Edited from this MS in Sell.

In: 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 British Library, Add. MS 21433. The hand occurs also in British Library, Harley MS 3910, between ff. 112v and 120v, and is possibly associated with the Inns of Court.

c.1620s

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: CwT Δ 13.

To my Lorde Marques of Buckingham ('To say to you my good Lord, I might refraine')

First published (?) in Sell (1974), pp. 180-1.

BeJ 52

Copy, headed To a yong lord at Court 1623.

Edited from this MS in Sell.

In: A quarto volume of poems by Thomas Pestell (1586-1667), poet and clergyman, in a single Roman hand, 47 pages, in later calf.

Entitled Perotti poemata varia, sed e multis pauca selectoria.

c.1637
BeJ 53

Copy, here beginning To say to hym good Lorde I might refraine, subscribed J Beamont.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, largely in a single predominantly secretary hand, with some later additions and annotations, 188 leaves, in quarter-morocco.

Transcribed from British Library Add. MS 25303 and perhaps associated likewise with the Inns of Court. Including 23 poems by Carew and three of doubtful authorship.

c.1620s-30s

Later owned by William Pickering (1796-1854), publisher. Sotheby's, 13 May 1856 (Pickering sale), lot 258.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Pickering MS: CwT Δ 11.

BeJ 54

Copy, headed To my Lorde Marques of Buckhinha, subscribed John Beamont.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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 British Library, Add. MS 21433. The hand occurs also in British Library, Harley MS 3910, between ff. 112v and 120v, and is possibly associated with the Inns of Court.

c.1620s

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: CwT Δ 13.

BeJ 55

Copy, here beginning To say to him good lord I might refraine, subscribed John Beaumont.

This MS collated in Sell.

In: 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.

c.1620s-30s

Dramatic Works

The Theatre of Apollo

First published as The Theatre of Apollo an entertainment written by Sir John Beaumont in 1625, ed. W.W. Greg (London, 1926).

BeJ 56
A fair copy, in a calligraphic hand, on 12 small folio leaves, rectos only.

Originally prepared for presentation to James I, who died on 27 March before the entertainment was performed, and afterwards presented to Charles I (but never performed).

[December 1624-March 1625]
The British Library: Royal MSS (Royal MS 18 A. LXX)

Letters

Letter(s)
*BeJ 57
Autograph
Autograph letter signed by Beaumont, to George Hastings, fifth Earl of Huntingdon, from Grace Dieu, 26 January 1617[/18].
1618

Recorded by H.C. Schulz, with a complete facsimile, in HLQ, 33 (1969-70), pp. 283, 307 and 308.

*BeJ 58
Autograph
Autograph letter signed by Beaumont, to Sir Gervase Clifton, on a pair of conjugate folio leaves, from Grace Dieu, 18 November 1625.
1625

Recorded in HMC, Various Collections, Vol. VII (1914), p. 291.

Documents

Document(s)
BeJ 59
A document, in a professional secretary hand, signed by John Beaumont (probably the poet), a receipt for £5 for a half-year's rent of the parsonage house in Sheepshed, 17 October 1626.
1626

Recorded by H.C. Schulz, with a facsimile, in HLQ, 33 (1969-70), pp. 283 and 308.

Contents