See
William Congreve
1670–1729
Introduction
Autograph Literary Manuscripts
Only two literary autograph manuscripts by Congreve are known to have survived, both poems and both now in the Bodleian Library (*
Letters
Of his personal autograph letters, over seventy have been recorded in modern times, of which number thirty-four may survive in the originals. Nearly all of these have been edited in Hodges, Letters and 73 letters are printed in McKenzie, III, 136-88.
By far the greatest number of surviving letters by Congreve are addressed to his friend Joseph Keally (1672/3-1713) of Kilkenny. For the established facts about Keally, see notably Kathleen M. Lynch, Congreve's Irish Friend, Joseph Keally, PMLA, 53 (1938), 1076-87, and her A Congreve Gallery (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), pp. 23-36. Congreve is known to have written at least forty-four letters to Keally between 28 September 1697 and 29 October 1712. This correspondence evidently remained with Keally's descendants at least until 1789, when all but one (Hodges, No. 46) of the letters were published in Literary Relics by George-Monck Berkeley, who was the great-grandson of Rebecca Monck Forster, Keally's sister-in-law. At some time after 1789 the collection was dispersed. At present the originals of thirty-three of the letters are untraced and their text is known only from Berkeley (i.e. Hodges, Letters, Nos. 3, 6-8, 10, 12-14, 17-22, 24-8, 30-4, 36, 39, 40, 42, 45, 47-50).
The remaining eleven letters to Keally are given CELM entries (*
There are at least thirty-one letters by Congreve to other correspondents, of which number twenty-three are probably preserved in the originals and are given CELM entries (*
Congreve's letters known only from early printed sources (Hodges Nos. 110, 112, 115, 118, 124, 132, 144, and 146) include literary
correspondence with John Dennis and Catharine Trotter (including his observations on humour in comedy). These may be supplemented by the dedications he wrote for his various works and publications. The latter are addressed to such figures as Queen Anne, the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Montagu, Lord Clifford of Lanesborough, Charles Montagu and Mrs Katharine Levenson and are reprinted in Hodges, Letters, Nos. 84, 103-7, 116, 122 and 125. Between 1692 and 1728, Congreve also wrote five formal verse epistles to John Dryden, Charles Montagu (Earl of Halifax), Sir Godfrey Kneller and Sir Richard Temple (Viscount Cobham): see Dobrée, pp. 199-200, 252-3, 289-90, 323-6 and 400-2 (also
An unspecified letter by Congreve was in an album of letters offered at Sotheby's, 17 February 1890 (Alexander Foote sale), lot 285. Two unspecified letters by Congreve, in a collection of sixty miscellaneous letters, were sold at Christie's, 5 November 1945 (Tonson/Clinton Baker sale), lot 193.
A letter allegedly by Congreve the poet, both undated and unsigned, addressed to [Mr Whistler], was formerly in the now widely dispersed collection of Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727-1805), once owned by the Rev. W. Sneyd of Keele Hall, Staffordshire. It was briefly described in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 289. The letter, not recorded by Hodges, contains a discussion of poetry, with references to Whitehead, Whistler, Dick Iago, Dodsley and Hammond. It would accordingly appear to date from later in the 18th century, well after Congreve's death.
Documents
A number of other documents of a financial or business nature are known to have been written or signed by Congreve. The majority comprise receipts for payment. Some are of special interest in so far as they relate to transactions with Congreve's publisher Jacob Tonson (and son), a few also throwing light on Congreve's early relations with the ageing Poet Laureate, John Dryden. Most of these miscellaneous documents have been recorded by Hodges (Letters), although a few have managed to elude his indefatigable searches and it is possible that other examples will come to light in due course. These documents are given CELM entries (
For Hodges's document No. 61, Dryden's contract with Tonson for his edition of Virgil witnessed by Congreve, see Dryden, *
It should be noted — as Hodges himself frequently does — that William Congreve the dramatist has often been confused with various other members of his family bearing the same name (such as his cousin, Colonel William Congreve (1670-1746), some of whose papers are preserved at Yale and in the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds). Thus the authenticity of certain of the documents recorded in CELM, whose present location is uncertain, must remain unconfirmed.
Congreve's Library
A further source for examples of Congreve's signature is certain of the books from his library. On 27 January 1728/9, in a letter to his nephew, Jacob Tonson described Congreve's collection of Books
as very genteel & well chosen
and worth buying. He added: I think there are in [those] books several notes of his own or corrections & everything from him will be very valuable
(Hodges, Library, p. 9). Congreve's library was bequeathed in 1729 to his mistress Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, who subsequently passed it on to their daughter, Mary. In 1740 Mary married Thomas Osborne, fourth Duke of Leeds, and the library remained at their seat, Hornby Castle in Yorkshire, until its dispersal, prior to the demolition of the house, in 1930. Several manuscript lists of the family library at Hornby survive, but one, preserved in the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds, was identified by Hodges as being an eighteenth-century list specifically of Congreve's books: see Hodges, Library (facsimiles of the first and fourth pages of the manuscript catalogue appearing as his frontispiece and facing p. 26). In this forty-four-page catalogue — which is also edited, arranged in alphabetical order, in McKenzie, III, 479-542 — are recorded the titles of 659 books (some composite) dating from 1515 to 1728. Either in part or in its entirety, Congreve's library was incorporated in the thousands of books sold by the eleventh Duke of Leeds in June 1930, in a series of sales at Sotheby's (on 2-4 June) and at Hornby Castle itself (lots 1097-1294 in the seven-day sale arranged by Knight, Frank & Rutler). Only a very few of the books were identified as Congreve's in the sale catalogues and indeed most of those books sold at Hornby were not individually specified at all.
Of those titles that are mentioned in the 1930 sale catalogues, nearly seventy correspond with titles given in the early manuscript catalogue and are therefore likely to represent books from Congreve's library. These are indicated in Hodges, Library. Some twenty-five years after the Leeds sales, Hodges was able to locate — or at least record the recent existence of — some sixteen volumes (some of which were mentioned in the sale catalogues, others not). Of those volumes, twelve bear Congreve's signature. A further five volumes, currently untraced, are specifically described in the sale catalogues as bearing Congreve's signature, although, of course, many others may actually have been signed. The signed volumes traced by Hodges include Congreve's exempla of: the Shakespeare First Folio, 1623 (formerly in the Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection, Lt. 1, SHA; sold at Christie's, 28 November 1990, lot 115, and now in Meisei University, Tokyo); John Oldham, Works, 1686 (Yale, IjoL1 c 684b); Aristophanes, Comedies, 1692 (Boston Public Library); Homer, 1606 (Pierpont Morgan Library); Terence, Comedies, 1694 (University of Tennessee: a facsimile of the signed title-page appearing in Hodges, Library, facing p. 100); and other books recorded by Hodges as being at the University of Tennessee, at Yale, and in the possession of the Rev. J.F. Gerrard and E.S. de Beer. One of the latter's volumes inscribed by Congreve — John Raymond's An Itinerary contayning a voyage, made through Italy (London, 1646) — is now in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
A few items that Hodges failed to locate may briefly be mentioned. Congreve's signed exemplum of Thomas Randolph, Cornelianum dolium (London, 1638), evidently corresponding to Hodges, Library, No. 112, is now in the library of the
Those recorded in the 1930 sales catalogues as containing Congreve's signature include his exempla of Thomas Otway's plays; Henry Purcell, Orpheus Britannicus (1698-1702); Sir Richard Fanshawe's translation of Camoens, Lusiad (1655); and Stow's Survey of London (1637). Other volumes mentioned in the early manuscript catalogue include works by Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson, Chaucer, Cowley, Dryden, Donne, Hobbes, Thomas Killigrew, Milton, Newton, Prior, Pope, Spenser, Swift, Suckling, Shadwell, Voltaire and Wycherley. There is also record, not mentioned by Hodges, of Congreve's signed exemplum of Robert Boyle's Some Considerations touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures (London, 1663), sold at Sotheby's, 15 June 1846 (William Upcott sale), lot 119.
It is also known that Congreve presented at least three exempla of his Works (3 vols, London, 1710) to friends. One was sent to Joseph Keally (see his letter of 9 November 1710: Hodges, Letters, No. 42). Another, inscribed to Anthony Henley, was recorded by J. Isaacs in Congreve's Library, TLS (2 September 1949), p. 569. Yet another bears an inscription by Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (december 1710. given me by mr Congreve S. Marlborough
). This is now in the library of Robert S Pirie, New York.
Manuscript Copies
Of those manuscript copies of original works by Congreve given CELM entries, the majority — copied chiefly in miscellanies and compilations dating from the eighteenth century — were almost certainly transcribed from printed sources. There are a few notable exceptions. While no authorial manuscripts are preserved of any of those dramatic works (especially The Way of the World) on which Congreve's reputation rests, a single document among King's Bench records in the National Archives, Kew, allows for a brief glimpse of what was probably the original acting version of his early comedy Love for Love. Over a dozen lines spoken by Sir Sampson Legend or his son Ben, in a substantially different version from the published text, are cited in an indictment against stage profanity (see the objectionable expressions were in Congreve's original manuscript
. No further contemporary documentary sources throw light on the text of Congreve's plays other than the various printed editions, which themselves incorporate authorial revisions (for a notable instance, see, for example, David D. Mann, Congreve's Revisions of The Mourning Bride, PBSA, 69 (1975), 526-46). The full score of Congreve's opera The Judgment of Paris, possibly in the hand of the composer Daniel Purcell (
One of the very few poems by Congreve to achieve some degree of manuscript circulation before publication, beyond the confines of his private friends and acquaintances, is his Letter to Viscount Cobham. In his octavo edition of 1729, Edmund Curll claimed: The following Epistle…is here printed from a Manuscript of the Author, with which I was obliged by a person of the first Rank; the Public having been notoriously abused, by a very erroneous Copy, surreptitiously obtained by one Lewis in Covent-Garden and vended under the Cover of A. Dodd and E. Nutt
(Summers, IV, 219). Several contemporary copies of this poem (textually closer to Curll's version than to Lewis's) are recorded (told me of Copies that were dispersed of the Pastoral & likely to be printed so we have thought fit to prevent 'em & print it our selves
(Hodges, Letters, No. 69). In the published edition (1703), in the prefatory remarks To the Reader
, Congreve explains further: These verses had been Printed soon after they were written if they had not been design'd rather privately to Condole, than publickly to Lament…But, by some Accident, many Copies of 'em have been dispersed, and one, I was informed, had been shewn to a Bookseller. So that it was high time for me to prevent their appearing with more Faults than their own
(Summers, IV, 67). One of these unauthorized Copies
is among the Duke of Portland's collections (
Verse Canon
The canon of Congreve's poetry has not been established conclusively, although the main body (most of which Congreve incorporated in his Works (1710)) is clear enough. Except for the two poems discussed above (
Yet further poems have been ascribed to Congreve in manuscript sources, whether legitimately or otherwise. These have not been given separate entries, but may be briefly listed as follows:
- 1. A Ballad on the Victory at Oudenarde (
Ye Commons and Peers
) - First published anonymously, as Jack Frenchman's Lamentation (London, 1708). McKenzie, II, 469-71 (headed
Jack French-Man's Defeat
). Anonymous in Poetical Miscellanies, The Sixth Part (published by Jacob Tonson, London, 1709). Reprinted, and a case for Congreve's authorship (based on contemporary references) argued, in William Congreve: A Sheaf of Poetical Scraps, ed. Dragosh Protopopesco, 2nd edition (Bucharest, [1925]), pp. 24-9, and also in Dobrée, pp. 381-3. Variously attributed to Swift, Congreve and Prior, butthere seems no reason to assume the author was a major poet
(D.F. Foxon, English Verse 1701-1750, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1975), p. 382, J1-J5). See also the text and discussion in The Poems of Jonathan Swift, ed. Harold Williams, 3 vols (Oxford, 1937), III, 1078-82. A manuscript copy, headedThe Frenchman's Lamentation An Excellent New Song to the Tune of I'll tell the Dick
, dated July 1708 and ascribed toMr Congreve
, is in an early 18th-century verse miscellany (also containing other verses by Congreve) in theBritish Library (Add. MS 40060 , ff. 71v-3v). An anonymous copy is in theBritish Library (Add. MS 30162 , ff. 26v-30). Another copy is inLeeds University Library, Brotherton Collection (MS Lt 11 , pp. 143-6), and a four-page octavo copy endorsedMr Prior's Ballad upon ye Victory at Oudenard 1708
, was owned in 1937 by Harold Williams. - 2. The History and Fall of the Conformity-Bill (
God bless our Gracious Sovereign Anne
) - Published in A New Collection of Poems Relating to State Affairs, from Oliver Cromwel To this present Time (London, 1705), pp. 557-61. The text in Alexander Pope's exemplum of this publication (British Library, C. 28. e. 15) is annotated by him
Certainly written by Mr Congreve
. Attributed to Arthur Maynwaring (who, like Congreve, was a member of theOrder of the Toast
orPunch Club
) in John Oldmixon, The Life and Posthumous Works of A. Maynwaring (London, 1715), p. 40.A manuscript copy, dated January 1703/4 and subscribedCertainly written by Mr. Congreve
, is in theBritish Library (Add. MS 40060 , ff. 41r-5r). The poem is ascribed to Robert Wisdom inBodleian (MS Locke. c. 32 , f. 44r) andBritish Library (Add. MS 7122 , f. 6r). Anonymous copies are in Bodleian (MSS Rawl. D. 360, f. 62r; Rawl. poet. 169, f. 29r; Firth b. 21, f. 51r), and elsewhere. - 3. The Oath of the Tost (
By Bacchus and by Venus Swear
) - A manuscript copy, ascribed to
Mr Congreve
, is inBritish Library (Add. MS 40060 , f. 7r). It is edited from this manuscript and attributed to Congreve in W.J. Cameron, John Dryden and Henry Heveningham, N & Q, 202 (May 1957), 199-203. - 4. A Satyr Against Love (
After the Rebel Lucifer was driv'n
) - First published, as
Revis'd and Corrected by Mr. Congreve
, in London, 1703. Reprinted and discussed in John Barnard, Did Congreve write A Satyr Against Love?, BNYPL, 68 (1964), 308-22. In the prefatory remarksTo the Reader
in The Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas (1703), Congreve specifically disowns this poem:[he] does assure the Reader he never saw or heard of any such Verses before they were so Printed, viz. without either the Name of the Author, Bookseller or Printer, being Publish'd after the Manner of a Libel
(Barnard, op. cit., p. 310; Summers, IV, 67).A manuscript copy of the first forty-seven lines, ascribed toMr. Congreve
(written at the end of a manuscript medical treatise) is in theBritish Library (Sloane MS 3996 , f. 46r-v). It is edited from that source, and assigned to Congreve, by Dragosh Protopopesco in TLS (8 November 1923) and in William Congreve: A Sheaf of Poetical Scraps, 2nd edition (Bucharest, [1925]), pp. 21-3, and also in Dobrée, pp. 378-9. It is almost certainly not by Congreve. - 5. The Mulcibers, who in the Minories sweat
- Attributed to Congreve (
what Congreve said about Aurelia
) in a letter byClarina
published in Addison and Steele's The Guardian, No. 85 (18 June 1713).A manuscript copy in a verse miscellany compiled by Thomas Axton (b.1699/1700) of Trinity College, Cambridge (c.1718-22) is in theBodleian (MS Rawl. poet. 116 , f. 119v). - 6. On the Union (
Whilst rich in brightest red the blushing rose
) - Translation of a Latin poem, published in 1707 (Foxon R 304). Assigned to Nicholas Rowe in his Poems (1714).A manuscript copy, as
By Mr Congreve
, is among the Gibson manuscripts inLeeds University Library, MS Lt. 87 , f. 82r.
Dramatic Works
A few eighteenth-century promptbooks of Congreve's plays survive and are discussed notably in Edward A. Langhans, Eighteenth Century British and Irish Promptbooks: A Descriptive Bibliography (New York, Westport, Conn., & London, 1987), pp. 30-4. Two examples from the collection of prompt-books given by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps to the Morrab Library, Penzance, were sold at Sotheby's on 27 May 1964. Lot 669 was a marked-up 18th-century prompt-copy of The Old Batchelour (1693), now in Edinburgh University Library (JA 275), while lot 674 was a similar prompt-copy of The Double-Dealer (2nd edition, [1707]), now in Edinburgh University Library (JA 274). Complete photocopies of these two prompt-books are in the University of Texas (Prompt Books Box 1). Other prompt-books of this kind no doubt survive elsewhere. Eighteenth-century editions of Congreve's plays that are, in effect, printed acting copies are discussed in Emmett L. Avery, Congreve's Plays on the Eighteenth-Century Stage (New York, 1951), pp. 161-70. The manuscript of a play by Alexander Dalrymple adapted in 1795 from Congreve's novel Incognita is in the Bodleian (MS Don. e. 55).
A manuscript of a prologue and epilogue for a private performance of Congreve's The Mourning Bride (1697) is at Yale (Osborn MSS File 19022). The performance was given, probably by Thomas Betterton's Lincoln's Inn Fields company, for George, Earl of Berkeley, and his wife Elizabeth on their 51st anniversary.
Miscellaneous
An unlocated manuscript miscellany allegedly containing a number of Poems by William Congreve
was offered for sale in P.J. Dobell's catalogue Literature of the Restoration (1918), item 1285, where it is described as a Commonplace Book
also including Poems by Charles Gildon and…the poems of Boetius, made English by ye Right Honble. Richard Ld. Viscount Preston, printed 1695
.
Unspecified pieces
by Congreve and others are reported to have been in a late 17th-century small octavo commonplace book
once owned by the Hertfordshire solicitor and historian Reginald L. Hine (1883-1949). This was sold at Sotheby's, 12 December 1977, lot 110, to Quaritch.
An exemplum of Edmund Gosse's Life of William Congreve (1888) annotated by George Thorn-Drury, KC (1860-1931), literary scholar and editor, is in the Bodleian Library (Thorn-Drury d. 49).
Abbreviations
- Berkeley
- George-Monck Berkeley, Literary Relics (1789).
- Davis
- The Complete Plays of William Congreve, ed. Herbert Davis (Chicago and London, 1967).
- Dobrée
- The Mourning Bride, Poems, & Miscellanies by William Congreve, ed. Bonamy Dobrée (London [1928]).
- Hodges, Letters
- William Congreve: Letters & Documents, collected and edited by John C. Hodges (London, 1964).
- Hodges, Library
- John C. Hodges, The Library of William Congreve (New York, 1955).
- Hodges, Man
- John C. Hodges, William Congreve the Man (New York and London, 1941).
- Summers
- The Complete Works of William Congreve, ed. Montague Summers, 4 vols (London, 1923).
- McKenzie
- The Works of William Congreve, ed. D.F. McKenzie, prepared for publication by C.Y. Ferdinand, 3 vols (Oxford, 2011).
Verse
See
See Introduction.
See
First published in Works (London, 1710). Summers, IV, 142-3. Dobrée, pp. 285-7. McKenzie, II, 370-1.
Copy of lines 49-64, headed Character of a Jilt
and beginning Peculiar therefore is her Way
.
A quarto commonplace book of verse extracts, 340 pages (including blanks), in a small neat hand.
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, in three hands, written from both ends, 342 pages (pp. 108-302 blanks), in contemporary boards.
First published in John Dryden, The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (London, 1693 [i.e. 1692]). Summers, IV, 10-22. Dobrée, pp. 254-69. McKenzie, II, 337-47.
Copy.
A folio composite volume of verse, in various hands, i + 250 leaves.
Collected by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729). Some pages in the hand of Richard Rawlinson.
Copy.
Transcript of The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus (London, 1693
[i.e. 1692]), without the prefatory matter, in a single neat hand, 364 quarto pages, in contemporary calf.
Bookplates of Johannes Winckley, of Preston, and of F.W. Cosens, FSA (1819-89), of Clapham Park, book collector. Bought in Calcutta in 1843 by Alexander Gardyne (1801-85), author. Sotheby's, 1889 (Gardyne sale), lot 0000. Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.
First published in The Way of the World (London, 1700). Summers, III, 78. Davis, p. 479. McKenzie, II, 224-5.
Copy, in a professional rounded hand, on two pages in a pair of conjugate folio leaves, possibly once folded as a letter or packet.
A folio guardbook of verse MSS, in various hands and paper sizes, including (ff. 1r-9r) a quarto booklet of sixteen poems by Donne in a single neat italic hand, 54 leaves, in modern brown morocco gilt.
Among papers of the Herbert family, of Powis Castle, including particularly papers of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1582?-1648). Acquired in 1916.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Herbert MS
:
Four untitled quatrains. First published in D. F. McKenzie, A New Congreve Literary Autograph, Bodleian Library Record, 15/4 (April 1996), 292-9. McKenzie, Works, II, 466.
Autograph MS, with revisions in line 11, on one side of a single quarto leaf, once folded as a letter or packet.
Once owned by James Baker. Sotheby's, 26 May 1855, lot 16, to Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-85), first Baron Houghton, author and politician. Christie's, 29 June 1995, lot 327.
Edited from this MS and discussed in McKenzie. Facsimile in his article Another Congreve Autograph Poem for the Bodleian, Bodleian Library Record, 16/5 (April 1999), 399-410 (p. 402).
A version of the first eight lines first published, as the last two stanzas of The Reconciliation, in Works (London, 1710). Summers, IV, 141. Dobrée, p. 241. McKenzie, II, 322. The 16-line version first published in Hodges, Man (1941), p. 88 (with the suggested title A Complaint to Pious Selinda).
Autograph draft of a 16-line version, with revisions, on a single octavo leaf.
Later owned by Roger W. Barrett, Chicago lawyer. Simon Finch, Rare Books Ltd, sale catalogue (1998), item 29, with facsimile.
Edited from this MS in Hodges, Man, p. 88 (with a facsimile following). Facsimiles also in IELM, II.i (1987), Facsimile VII, and in DLB, vol. 84, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists. Second Series, ed. Paula R. Backscheider (Detroit, 1989), p. 77. Edited and discussed, with a facsimile, in D.F. McKenzie, Another Congreve Autograph Poem for the Bodleian, Bodleian Library Record, 16/5 (April 1999), 399-410.
First published in Charles Gildon, Miscellany Poems upon Several Occasions (London, 1692). Examen Poeticum…The Third Part of Miscellany Poems [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1693). Summers, IV, 3-4. Dobrée, pp. 235-7. McKenzie, II, 315-17.
Copy.
A quarto composite miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, in several hands, 11 + 109 leaves.
Owned in 1812 by Miss Elizabeth Mansel. Given to Henry Gough, of Redhill, who presented it to the Bodleian in December 1884.
A quarto verse miscellany, 153 leaves.
Copy.
A folio verse miscellany, entitled The Muse's Magazine, or Poeticall Miscelanies, in two parts
, in a single hand, 189 leaves.
Including 27 poems by Cowley; eleven poems by Katherine Philips, evidently derived from printed sources; 10 poems by Rochester, as well as apocryphal items; twelve poems by Sedley, plus one of doubtful authorship; and 15 poems by Waller, evidently derived from printed sources.
A note on a flyleaf relating to the bookseller John Dunton (1659-1733): John Dunton His Book, for which Mr. Corbet at ye Addisons Head, accepted One Half Guinea in full Payment for it, as Witness my Hand, Hannah Rakley
. A note on f. 1: Since I had transcrib'd this whole Book, I met with some state Poems of these later times, mostly since K. George's Accession to the Crown [1714] which I have here inserted, as a supplement to these state Poems which make a part of this Collection by themselves
. Date at the end of the volume: 1718
, and some notes on a flyleaf dated 1724
.
The Mr. Corbet
from whom Dunton purchased this MS was evidently the bookseller Thomas Corbett (fl. 1705-43), who ran his business at the Addison's Head, next to the Rose Tavern, without Temple Bar, from 1719 until his death in 1743. Neither Dunton nor Corbett are known to have used this MS for publication purposes.
Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as the Dunton MS
:
For John Dunton's career, see Stephen Parks, John Dunton and the English Book Trade: A Study of His Career with a Checklist of His Publications (New York & London, 1970).
Copy.
This MS discussed and partly collated in J.A.V. Chapple, Manuscript Texts of Poems by the Earl of Dorset and William Congreve, N&Q, 209 (March 1964), 97-100.
A folio volume of 124 poems by Charles Cotton (with second copies of three poems), including a few poems by others, 258 pages.
Including a commendatory poem by Ralph Rawson (pp. 1-3), two poems by Thomas Bancroft (pp. 99, 182-3) and a poem by Edmund Waller (Posthumus
, who is described as copying poems at Cotton's dictation (…tibi versiculos recito, Tu Posthume, scribis…sunt tua scripta…
). The poems are written in several hands over a considerable period. Cotton's amanuensis (Posthumus
) appears on pp. 1-3, 5-107 (pp. 86-107 in a less formal style), corrections in Cotton's autograph appearing notably on pp. 34 and 39. Unidentified Amanuensis A is on pp. 107-40; Amanuensis B on pp. 140-73, 182-8; Amanuensis C (viz. almost certainly William Fitzherbert) on p. 155 (last stanza), 173-81, 188-98, 216, 217-45 (the signature WF
and date 1660
appearing on p. 216 and the signature WF
, the inscription Vivat Poeta
and date Jan. 14 1666
on p. 244); Amanuensis D on pp. 199-216; and Amanuensis E on p. 210 (two stanzas only). Three further hands (F, G, H) are responsible for poems by the Earl of Dorset (C. Port
(viz. a member of the Porte family of Ilam into which William Fitzherbert's daughter, Mary, married in 1683/4).
The MS originally contained four further leaves bearing two more poems by Cotton, which are now detached and separately located: see
Inscriptions and scribbling on the flyleaf and an end-leaf (p. 258) include Cotton's autograph signature Charles Cotton
written twice and the inscriptions Elizabeth Fitzherbert
; Madam Barterenia
; madam ursenia
; Cathrine Cotton
(i.e. Cotton's second daughter); Madam M Fitzherbe[rt]
; Frances Fitz:Herbert may ye 23 (8i),
; Mercia Fitzherbert. March ye: 3d: 3d: 1687
; M.B. 1688
; I Port his Booke
; C: Port
; Carolus sine sanguine vicit Laus Deo. 29 May 1660
; Aug 12 [66
; and Mr. D-ell upon my cousin Milwards suit at Staff
. Thus the MS almost certainly came into the hands of the family of Cotton's friend and neighbour William Fitzherbert, of Tissington, Derbyshire, who was evidently Amanuensis C (WF
).
The MS also passed through the hands of Ralph Rawson, who inscribed on pp. 1-3 an Ode to his dear and honor'd Patron, Mr. Charles Cotton
. It later passed through Puttick & Simpson's, 1 July 1856, lot 1526; was owned in 1860 by the editor Llewellynn Jewitt (1816-86) and, in 1878, by the eleventh Duke of Devonshire (d.1891). It was at some stage priced by Mr. Pickering
at ten guineas.
Cited in IELM, II.i (1987) as the Derby MS
. Often erroneously described as being in Cotton's hand throughout, this MS is the collection recorded in Nicolas (1836), I, clxviii & cxcvi. Recorded by Llewellynn Jewitt in The Reliquary, 1 (October 1860), 121, and by Thomas Bateman in Notes on a Few of the Old Libraries of Derbyshire, and their existing remains, The Reliquary, 1 (January 1861), 167-74 (p. 169). Engraved facsimiles of two pages of the MS, apparently supplied by Jewitt, now in a grangerized exemplum of Cotton's The Wonders of the Peake (1683) prepared by William Bemrose in 1866, in Derby Central Library (9714). A selective transcript of the MS made in the 19th century is in Derby Central Library (9469).
The MS was not known to Beresford in 1923. It was rediscovered and recorded in Ernest M. Turner, Cotton's Poems, TLS (22 January 1938), p. 60 (and see also Beresford's reply on 29 January). Discussed and described in Turner (1954), pp. 317-34, 430-44 (with facsimiles of two pages); in Chapple, pp. 201-29; in Buxton, passim (with selected collations and some poems edited from the MS); in Parks (with a facsimile of p. 4 of the MS on p. 24; in J.A.V. Chapple, Manuscript Texts of Poems by the Earl of Dorset and William Congreve, N&Q, 209 (1964), 97-100; and in Alvin I. Dust, The Derby MS Book of Cotton's Poems and Contentation
Re-Considered, SB, 37 (1984), 170-80.
Copy, headed An Imitation of Horace by Mr: Congreve
.
A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one hand, with additions by others, written from both ends, material at the reverse end dated 1708-9, ii + 114 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf.
Inscribed (f. [iir]), probably by the compiler, Ex Libris Georgij Wright [b.1685/6] Sti Johannis Collegis Cantabrigiensis Alumni, Decimo quarto Junij. Annoq. Domini 1703
.
Also inscribed (f.[iir]) Mrs Frances Wright 1708
. A postal address on f. 95r (rev.) reads: Direct to Margtt Borrett att Mrs. Borretts In Kirkby=stephen Westmoorland p brough bag _ These
.
Recorded in IELM, II.ii, as the Wright MS:
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, in a single hand, 416 pages, in contemporary vellum boards.
Copy.
An octavo miscellany, in English and Latin, in a single hand, 141 leaves (ff. 124v-41v blank), in contemporary calf.
Bought from P.J. and A.E. Dobell, in 1922, by Reginald L. Hine (1883-1949), solicitor, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
First published in John Dryden, Love Triumphant. or, Nature will Prevail (London, 1694). Summers, IV, 34. Dobrée, pp. 375-6. McKenzie, II, 462. Musical setting by Henry Purcell published in Thesaurus Musicus, Book II (London, 1694).
Copy.
A quarto miscellany of chiefly amatory verse, in several hands, i + 132 leaves.
Partly in Scottish dialect, one poem by mr. W. Turner
.
First published, in a musical setting by John Eccles and attributed to Congreve, in a broadsheet (1698). Works (London, 1710). Summers, IV, 74. Dobrée, p. 284 (as Amoret). McKenzie, II, 369.
Also attributed to Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset: see The Poems of Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, ed. Brice Harris (New York and London, 1979), pp. 182-3.
Copy, the poem here dated 1696
, inscribed afterwards By E D
and corrected in another hand.
This MS recorded in Harris.
A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in two or more professional hands, 303 leaves, in modern black morocco gilt.
In two parts: Part I on ff. 1r-149r (followed by blanks and then an index on ff. 150-1); Part II, on ff. 152-302 (with an addition in another hand on f. 303), entitled A Collection of the most choice and Private Poems, Lampoons &c from the withdrawing of the late King James 1688 to the year 1701 Collected by a Person of Quality.
A note of payment (f. 1r) for purchase on 25 March 1703. Owned by Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford (1661-1724).
Cited in IELM, II.i, as the Harley MS
:
Copy, here dated 1696 and as By: E Dorset
.
This MS recorded in Harris.
A large folio composite miscellany of poems generally on affairs of state, in one or more professional hands, 289 leaves, in half crushed morocco on marbled boards.
Copy, subscribed Congreve
.
A folio verse miscellany, in possibly two neat rounded hands, 366 pages plus a five-page index, dated at the end Finis August ye. 6th 1717
.
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one hand, with additions by others, written from both ends, material at the reverse end dated 1708-9, ii + 114 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf.
Inscribed (f. [iir]), probably by the compiler, Ex Libris Georgij Wright [b.1685/6] Sti Johannis Collegis Cantabrigiensis Alumni, Decimo quarto Junij. Annoq. Domini 1703
.
Also inscribed (f.[iir]) Mrs Frances Wright 1708
. A postal address on f. 95r (rev.) reads: Direct to Margtt Borrett att Mrs. Borretts In Kirkby=stephen Westmoorland p brough bag _ These
.
Recorded in IELM, II.ii, as the Wright MS:
Copy, in a professional hand, untitled, on a single octavo leaf.
An unbound bundle of verse MSS, in various hands.
Among the family archives of Lord Braybrooke, of Audley End, Essex.
Copy, the poem here dated 1696/7, subscribed By E of Dorset
(deleted), then in a different ink Mr Congreve
, inscribed at the side Lady Fitzhardys Daughter
.
This MS recorded in Harris.
A tall folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in professional hands, 257 leaves, in modern calf gilt.
In three sections each with its own title-page.
First section: A Collection of Poems and Lampoons &ca Not yet Printed
.
Second section (f. 102r): A Collection of Choice Poems, Satyrs, & Lampoons From 1672 to 1688 Never printed
.
Third section (f. 146r): A Collection of Poems. From 1688 to 1699. 1703/4
.
Copy, the poem here dated 1697, with a note Lady Fitzhardys Daughter
.
This MS recorded in Harris.
A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, entitled A Collection Of the choicest Poems, Satyrs, and Lampoons from the beginning of the late Revolution in 1688 to 1698
, x + 336 pages plus index.
Probably once owned by the Heveningham family. Among the manuscripts of the Coke family, Earls of Leicester, including collections of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), lawyer and politician.
Recorded in HMC, 9th Report (1883), Appendix.
Copy, headed Amoret
.
A quarto verse miscellany, in three hands, written from both ends, 342 pages (pp. 108-302 blanks), in contemporary boards.
Copy, headed A hugh and cry after fair Amoret. 1696 By E. D--t
.
A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single neat hand, entitled A Collection of the most choice and Private Poems, Lampoons &ca. from the withdrawing of the late King James 1688 to the year 1701. Collected by a person of Quality
, 298 pages (plus blanks), in contemporary calf.
From the library of the Cowper family of Panshanger, Hertfordshire, and possibly once belonging to Sarah Cowper (née Holled, 1644-1720), Lady Cowper, and her husband Sir William Cowper, MP (1639-1706).
Copy, as By Mr: Congreve
, the poem dated in the margin 1696/7
.
A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, entitled A Collection of Poems and Lampoons &ca Not yet Edited, in a single professional rounded hand (the same as in
Copy, as By the E. of Dorset
, the poem dated 1696
.
This MS recorded in Haris; transcript by G. Thorn-Drury in Bodleian, MS Eng. poet. e. 50, p. 75.
A tall folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in probably a single professional rounded hand, with (ff. 3r-5r) a Table
of contents, 152 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf.
Bookplate of Sir William Augustus Fraser, Bt (1826-98), of Ledeclune and Morar.
Copy, untitled, on a single leaf, addressed on the verso To the Right Honourable The Countess of Panmure
and folded as a letter.
Among papers of the Earl of Dalhousie.
Copy, untitled, with other verses, on one side of a folio leaf, addressed on the verso to The Right Honabl The Earle of Panmure
, folded as a letter, with a black wax seal.
Among papers of the Earl of Dalhousie.
First published in Charles Gildon, Miscellany Poems (London, 1692). Dobrée, pp. 237-9. McKenzie, II, 318-20.
Copy, as By Mr Congreve
.
An octavo miscellany, in English and Latin, in a single hand, 141 leaves (ff. 124v-41v blank), in contemporary calf.
Bought from P.J. and A.E. Dobell, in 1922, by Reginald L. Hine (1883-1949), solicitor, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
See Introduction.
First published in Examen Poeticum…The Third Part of Miscellany Poems [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1693). Summers, IV, 28-32. Dobrée, pp. 228-33. McKenzie, II, 307-12.
Copy.
A quarto composite miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, in several hands, 11 + 109 leaves.
Owned in 1812 by Miss Elizabeth Mansel. Given to Henry Gough, of Redhill, who presented it to the Bodleian in December 1884.
Copy.
An octavo miscellany, principally in two hands, written from both ends, 177 pages, in contemporary calf.
Compiled by Samuel Estwick (c.1657-1739), minor canon at St Paul's and sacrist and rector of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, London. Inscribed on p. 101 Rob: Fysher Decemb: 30th 1713
.
First published in Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1704). Summers, IV, 79. Dobrée, pp. 284-5. McKenzie, II, 369.
Copy, untitled.
A miscellany of verse and prose, entitled Miscellanies, many pages excised.
Compiled by one Thomas Phillibrown of London.
Once owned by J.L. Lawford. Given to the library on 5 October 1901 by Mrs Green, of Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire.
Copy.
A folio verse miscellany, in possibly two neat rounded hands, 366 pages plus a five-page index, dated at the end Finis August ye. 6th 1717
.
Copy, headed Song by Mr. Congreve
.
A duodecimo verse miscellany, in a largely secretary hand, 222 pages, in calf.
First published, as Of Improving the Present Time, London, 1729. Summers, IV, 177-8. Dobrée, pp. 400-2. McKenzie, II, 486-8.
See also
Copy, in a neat probably professional hand, headed Albi nostrorum Sesmonum Candide Judex &c
, subscribed in a different hand Augst ye 24th 1728
, on three pages of two conjugate folio leaves, endorsed S:B: Augt: 24th:-1728
. c.1728.
A tall folio composite volume of verse and miscellaneous papers, in various hands, mounted on guards, 185 leaves, in modern half morocco.
Purchased at H.B. Rays sale, 26 July 1856, lot 1033.
Copy, in a neat italic hand, headed Mr Congreve to Lord Cobham 1728.
, on three folio pages.
Mullocks Auction Ludlow, 23 August 2007, lot 270.
Photocopies of this MS are in the British Library, RP 9244 (i).
Copy, headed An Epistle from Mr. Congreve at Bath to Lord Cobham at Stowe. Augt. 24. 1728
.
A quarto miscellany of poems chiefly on affairs of state, in a single neat rounded hand, including (ff. 126r-9v) a list of contents, 129 leaves, in half brown morocco.
Inscribed (f. 1r) The following Collection has been the Employment of some leisure Hours; several of the Pieces have since appear'd in Print...
.
Presented by Edward Gilbertson, 9 May 1885.
Copy, in double columns, subscribed sent to my Ld Cobham in a letter from Bath 24 August 1728
, in a letter (ff. 31r-2v) by George Grenville to his brother Richard (who was Lord Cobham's nephew and heir), written from London, 19 March 1728/9.
Edited from this MS in Descriptions of Lord Cobham's Gardens at Stowe (1700-1750), ed. G.B. Clarke, Buckinghamshire Record Society, 26 (1990), pp. 24-7.
A large square-shaped folio composite volume of letters, in various hands and paper sizes, 188 leaves, mounted on guards.
Correspondence of George Grenville (1712-70), Treasurer of the Navy, First Lord of the Admiralty and Chancellor of the Exchequer, his wife Elizabeth, and his brother Richard Temple-Grenville (1711-79), Earl Temple, First Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Privy Seal.
Sotheby's, 7 November 1972.
Copy of lines 1-56, in a neat hand, headed Verses by Congreve on Lord Cobham's Gates at Stowe
, incomplete, on three pages of two conjugate folio leaves, stained. c.1728-40s.
Probably owned by Sir William Petty's younger son, Henry, first Earl of Shelburne (d.1751), of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
A tall folio composite volume of miscellaneous papers, chiefly verse, in various hands and paper sizes, iii + 262 leaves, mounted on guards, in brown morocco gilt.
Vol. L of the Petty Papers, owned principally by Sir William Petty (1623-87), natural philosopher and administrator in Ireland.
Formerly owned by the Earl of Shelburne, Bowood House (Petty Papers, Vol. 2).
Copy, headed Albi nostrum Sermonum Candide Judex. An Epistle to my Lord Cobham, by Mr Congreve
, subscribed in a different hand Note this is one of the last Copies of Verses Mr. Congreve wrote before he died
.
A folio miscellany of poems chiefly on affairs of state, in a single neat hand, i + 131 leaves, in half black morocco gilt.
Copy, headed Albi, nostrorum Sermonum Candide Judex, Hor. An Epistle to my Lord Cobham. By Mr. Congreve
, subscribed Note, This is one of the last copies of Verses Mr. Congrev[e] wrote before he died. Harleian MS. N°. 7318, on four pages of two conjugate folio leaves.
This MS recorded in HMC, 2nd Report (1871), Appendix, p. 16.
Copy, in a neat hand, headed A Letter to Lord Cobham, from the late Mr. Congreve, a little before he dy'd
, on three pages of an unbound pair of conjugate quarto leaves.
Among papers of Sir Harry Pope Blount (1702-57) and Anne, Lady Blount (d.1716), of Tyttenhanger, Hertfordshire. Later among the papers of the Earl of Caledon, of Caledon Castle, Northern Ireland, and formerly preserved in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (D2433/D7/13).
Published in Works (1710). McKenzie, II, 465.
Copy, headed The Message, By W. C.
An octavo miscellany, in English and Latin, in a single hand, 141 leaves (ff. 124v-41v blank), in contemporary calf.
Bought from P.J. and A.E. Dobell, in 1922, by Reginald L. Hine (1883-1949), solicitor, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
Copy, in a neat hand, headed Mr. Congreve to Lord Cobham In imitation of Horace / Albi nostrorum sermonum Candide judex
, on three pages of two conjugate folio leaves.
An unbound bundle of miscellaneous papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 66 items.
Among papers of the Fane family, Earls of Westmorland, of Apethorpe.
Copy.
Among the papers of the Ryder family, Earls of Harrowby.
First published in 1695. Summers, IV, 39-44. McKenzie, II, 279-85.
Copy, headed Shade
.
A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, predominantly in a single non-professional hand, iv + 214 pages, in contemporary calf.
Inscribed (p. 211) I ended this book Novr. 13th 1723
.
The last four lines (beginning For vertue now is neither more nor less
) constituting the last four lines of Letter to Viscount Cobham, first published in London, 1729. The first four lines apparently unpublished but for the facsimile noted below.
See
Copy of an eight-line poem, subscribed W Congreve/Bath 24 Augst 1728
, on a single oblong octavo leaf.
Later in the autograph collection of James Fraser Gluck (1852-97), New York State lawyer and library curator.
Facsimile of this MS (erroneously supposed to be autograph) in Frederick G. Netherclift, The Hand-Book to Autographs (London, 1862), No. 13.
Summers, IV, 148-51. McKenzie, II, 406-9.
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, in three hands, written from both ends, 342 pages (pp. 108-302 blanks), in contemporary boards.
Copy, headed Of Pleasing: An Epistle to Sr Rd. T---e
, written lengthways down the pages.
An octavo verse miscellany, entitled Poems & Verses on Several Occasions, MDCCXXVI
, in a mainly single hand, 66 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary green vellum boards.
The title-page inscribed Anna. Rogers. Junr: 1768
.
Discussed in Paul Hammond, Some Eighteenth-Century Texts and Adaptations of Rochester in Leeds MS Lt 110, EMS 18 (2013), 173-179.
See
First published in Examen Poeticum…The Third Part of Miscellany Poems [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1693). Summers, IV, 33. Dobrée, pp. 234-5. McKenzie, II, 313-14.
Copy.
A quarto composite miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, in several hands, 11 + 109 leaves.
Owned in 1812 by Miss Elizabeth Mansel. Given to Henry Gough, of Redhill, who presented it to the Bodleian in December 1884.
First published in London, 1706. Summers, IV, 82-91. Dobrée, pp. 335-41. McKenzie, II, 419-23.
Copy, in a neat hand, headed To the Queen, on the victorious Progress of her Majesty's Arms under the Conduct of the Duke of Marlborough. A Pindaric Ode. By Mr Congreve
, on three folio blank pages of printed pamphlets dated 1713-14.
A composite volume of printed Oxford verse.
Once owned by Falconer Madan (1851-1935), librarian and bibliographer.
Copy, headed By Mr Congreve
.
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.
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.
Copy.
A quarto volume of Miscellanea Latina et Anglicana
, compiled by Edward Southwell (d.1760), Secretary of State for Ireland.
Thomas Osborne, Catalogue of the libraries of...several gentlemen (1748), item 248.
Copy, headed On Mrs. Br-girdles..p Congreve
, here beginning Pious Melinda goes to prayers
.
Written with other verses on an endpaper in an exemplum of John Sheffield, Marquess of Normanby, The Temple of Death, 2nd edition (London, 1695).
Sotheby's, 27 May 2004 (John Brett-Smith sale), lot 105, unsold.
Copy, headed Song
.
An octavo verse miscellany, 186 pages, in contemporary calf.
See
First published in Examen Poeticum…The Third Part of Miscellany Poems [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1693). Summers, IV, 25-7. Dobrée, pp. 225-8. McKenzie, II, 303-6.
Copy.
A quarto composite miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, in several hands, 11 + 109 leaves.
Owned in 1812 by Miss Elizabeth Mansel. Given to Henry Gough, of Redhill, who presented it to the Bodleian in December 1884.
Copy.
An octavo miscellany, principally in two hands, written from both ends, 177 pages, in contemporary calf.
Compiled by Samuel Estwick (c.1657-1739), minor canon at St Paul's and sacrist and rector of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, London. Inscribed on p. 101 Rob: Fysher Decemb: 30th 1713
.
First published in Works (London, 1710). Summers, IV, 72-3. Dobrée, pp. 275-6. McKenzie, II, 359-60.
Copy, in a probably professional rounded hand, on the rectos of two conjugate quarto leaves.
A tall folio composite volume of chiefly verse MSS, in various hands and paper sizes, 91 leaves, mounted on guards, in half red morocco.
At least some individual items here were later owned by Sir Thomas Osborne (1632-1712), first Earl of Danby, Marquess of Carmarthen and Duke of Leeds, politician. Sotheby's, 6-10 April 1869 (Leeds sale), including lot 725, item 10.
First published in The Way of the World (London, 1700). Summers, III, 12-13. Davis, p. 393. McKenzie, II, 101-2.
Copy, in a professional rounded hand, headed Prologue. To Mr Congreves New Comedy call'd the way of the World. Spoke by Mr Betterton
, on two pages in a pair of conjugate folio leaves, possibly once folded as a letter or packet.
A folio guardbook of verse MSS, in various hands and paper sizes, including (ff. 1r-9r) a quarto booklet of sixteen poems by Donne in a single neat italic hand, 54 leaves, in modern brown morocco gilt.
Among papers of the Herbert family, of Powis Castle, including particularly papers of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1582?-1648). Acquired in 1916.
Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Herbert MS
:
See
First published in Works (London, 1710). Summers, IV, 75. Dobrée, p. 241 and McKenzie, II, 322 (both as Absence and beginning Ah! what Pains, what racking Thoughts he proves
). Musical setting by Henry Purcell published in The Works of Henry Purcell, XXV (London, 1928), pp. 4-8.
Copy, headed A song
and here beginning Ah! wt pains, wt racking thoughts he proves
.
A folio verse miscellany, in possibly two neat rounded hands, 366 pages plus a five-page index, dated at the end Finis August ye. 6th 1717
.
Copy, in a musical setting by Purcell, here beginning Ah! what pains, what rackin thoughts
.
A volume of autograph music by Henry Purcell.
Copy, headed Absence
, on rectos only.
An octavo verse miscellany, entitled Poems & Verses on Several Occasions, MDCCXXVI
, in a mainly single hand, 66 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary green vellum boards.
The title-page inscribed Anna. Rogers. Junr: 1768
.
Discussed in Paul Hammond, Some Eighteenth-Century Texts and Adaptations of Rochester in Leeds MS Lt 110, EMS 18 (2013), 173-179.
First published in Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1704). Summers, IV, 77. Dobrée, p. 244. McKenzie, II, 324.
Copy in a musical setting, untitled, in a quarto booklet of songs (1r-11v).
A large folio composite volume of music, iii + 107 leaves, in half-calf marbled boards.
Later owned by Mr. E. Goddard, Portland Place, London, and by T. W. Bourne.
First published in Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1704). Summers, IV, 75. Dobrée, pp. 239-40. McKenzie, II, 320.
Copy, subscried Congreve
.
A folio verse miscellany, in possibly two neat rounded hands, 366 pages plus a five-page index, dated at the end Finis August ye. 6th 1717
.
First published in Poetical Miscellanies: The Fifth Part [by John Dryden et al.] (London, 1704). Summers, IV, 78. Dobrée, p. 245. McKenzie, II, 326.
Copy, headed A Song by Mr Congreve
, deleted.
A large folio verse miscellany, headed (p. 1) Poems on Severall Occasions
, 298 pages, in contemporary calf (rebacked).
Copy.
A duodecimo verse miscellany, in a largely secretary hand, 222 pages, in calf.
First published, as A Song set by Mr. Henry Purcell, the Words by Mr. Congreve, in The Gentleman's Journal (January 1692/3), pp. 27-8. Thomas Southerne, The Maid's Last Prayer, or, Any, Rather than Fail (London, 1693). Summers, IV, 24. Dobrée, p. 243. McKenzie, II, 323-4. The Works of Henry Purcell, XX (London, 1916), pp. 82-3.
For the song by Etherege with the same opening line, see
Copy.
A quarto miscellany of chiefly amatory verse, in several hands, i + 132 leaves.
Partly in Scottish dialect, one poem by mr. W. Turner
.
Copy, headed An answer to a friend for loving a common Jilt
.
This MS collated in Hammond, Robinson, p. 306.
A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, entitled A Booke of Paragrafts
, including 22 poems by Rochester, 445 pages plus stubs of extracted leaves (originally 463 numbered pages and now lacking pp. 59-68, 147-54 and parts of pp. 155-8), with a two-leaf index; in contemporary red morocco.
In professional hands: A, pp. 1-194; B, in a different style and probably a different hand, pp. 195-432; C, probably yet another hand, with additions on pp. 75, 90, 102, 125, 142, 175, 195, and pp. 433-63.
Inscribed (on stubs and endpapers) matt Calihan
, To Cpt Robinson att Capt Eloass [Elwes] near ye Watch house in Marlburhroagh street
, For Capt. Robinson at his Lodginges in Charing Cross
. Christie's, 27 June 1979, lot 16.
Various commissioned officers named Robinson are recorded in Charles Dalton, English Army Lists and Commission Registers, 1661-1714 (6 vols, London, 1892-1904): see esp. I, 276. The volume was most probably owned by Charles Robinson of the King's Regiment of Foot Guards, who became Captain and then Lieutenant-Colonel in 1688 and was killed at Namur in 1695. A member of the same regiment in 1684 was the purveyor of MS lampoons Captain Lenthal Warcup. The Captain Eloass
mentioned in one inscription was possibly William Elwes, who served as a Lieutenant in Viscount Colchester's Regiment of Horse, c.1692-4, and as a Captain in Lord Windsor's Regiment of Horse in 1702.
Cited in IELM, II.ii, as the Robinson MS:
First published in London, 1703. Summers, IV, 67-71. Dobrée, pp. 276-81. McKenzie, II, 361-6.
Copy, in a neat hand, on seven pages in a quarto booklet of six leaves, once folded as a letter or packet.
Summers, IV, 45.2. McKenzie, II, 376.
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, in three hands, written from both ends, 342 pages (pp. 108-302 blanks), in contemporary boards.
Copy, headed To a Candle
.
An octavo verse miscellany, entitled Poems & Verses on Several Occasions, MDCCXXVI
, in a mainly single hand, 66 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary green vellum boards.
The title-page inscribed Anna. Rogers. Junr: 1768
.
Discussed in Paul Hammond, Some Eighteenth-Century Texts and Adaptations of Rochester in Leeds MS Lt 110, EMS 18 (2013), 173-179.
First published in Dryden's Miscellany (London, 1694). Summers, IV, 103. McKenzie, II, 367-8.
Copy, headed To Cynthia weeping & not Speaking by Mr Congreve / Elegy
.
An octavo verse miscellany, chiefly translations of classical texts, predominantly in one clear hand up to p. 151, with additions in other hands over a period, written from both ends, 273 pages (plus a number of blanks), in half-calf marbled boards.
Copy.
A quarto verse miscellany, in three hands, written from both ends, 342 pages (pp. 108-302 blanks), in contemporary boards.
First published in John Dryden, The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (London, 1693 [i.e. 1692]). Charles Gildon, Miscellany Poems upon Several Occasions (London, 1692). Summers, IV, 23-4. Dobrée, pp. 252-3. McKenzie, II, 335-6.
Copy.
A folio composite volume of verse, in various hands, i + 250 leaves.
Collected by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729). Some pages in the hand of Richard Rawlinson.
Copy, subscribed W: Con:
.
A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, relating to history and classical literature, in possibly a single hand with variation over a period, 160 pages, in modern cloth.
Inscribed (p. 156), probably by the compiler, Richard Oram his Booke Annoque Domini 170[].
Copy, subscribed Will: Congreve
.
Transcript of The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus (London, 1693
[i.e. 1692]), without the prefatory matter, in a single neat hand, 364 quarto pages, in contemporary calf.
Bookplates of Johannes Winckley, of Preston, and of F.W. Cosens, FSA (1819-89), of Clapham Park, book collector. Bought in Calcutta in 1843 by Alexander Gardyne (1801-85), author. Sotheby's, 1889 (Gardyne sale), lot 0000. Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.
First published in Works (1710). Summers, IV, 144-5. McKenzie, II, 372-3.
Copy, headed To Sleep. an Elegy
, on rectos only.
An octavo verse miscellany, entitled Poems & Verses on Several Occasions, MDCCXXVI
, in a mainly single hand, 66 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary green vellum boards.
The title-page inscribed Anna. Rogers. Junr: 1768
.
Discussed in Paul Hammond, Some Eighteenth-Century Texts and Adaptations of Rochester in Leeds MS Lt 110, EMS 18 (2013), 173-179.
Copy.
Three quarto volumes of verse, 164, 155 and 145 leaves respectively, in later vellum.
Compiled by Colonel Gabriel Lepipre.
First published, in a musical setting, in Henry Purcell, Orpheus Britannicus (London, 1698), Book I, p. 112. The Works of Henry Purcell, XXII (London, 1922), pp. 120-4. Dobrée, p. 376. McKenzie, II, 466-7.
Copy in a musical setting by Henry Purcell.
A folio MS music book.
Copy, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, headed The Words by Mr Congreve
.
A folio songbook, largely in one hand, written from both ends, vi + 241 pages including blanks(Part I: pp. 1-207; Part II: pp. 1-34), in contemporary panelled calf gilt (rebacked).
Inscribed (Part I, p. [iii]) Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini April 8th 1721
; John Ladds Book October the 9 in the year of our Lord 1764
; and (Part II, p. 2) Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini 1717 November Undecimo Die
; Thomas Lea Southgate, Gipsy Hill, Kent
; and Johannes Gilbert A. M. Coll. Christ. Cantab.
Puttick & Simpson's, 1890. Formerly Folger MS 1634.4.
Copy, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, untitled.
An oblong quarto songbook, in one or possibly two hands, with a table of contents, vi + 128 pages, in contemporary blind-stamped calf.
Owned, and possibly compiled, by William Knight (1684-1739), vicar choral (from 1712) and subchanter (from 1722) at York Minster.
First published in Charles Gildon, Miscellany Poems upon Several Occasions (London, 1692). Summers, IV, 7-9. Dobrée, pp. 222-4 (as on Mrs. Arabella Hunt, Singing. Irregular Ode). McKenzie, II, 300-2.
Copy, headed On Mrs Arabella Hunt singing by Mr Congreve
.
A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one hand, with additions by others, written from both ends, material at the reverse end dated 1708-9, ii + 114 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf.
Inscribed (f. [iir]), probably by the compiler, Ex Libris Georgij Wright [b.1685/6] Sti Johannis Collegis Cantabrigiensis Alumni, Decimo quarto Junij. Annoq. Domini 1703
.
Also inscribed (f.[iir]) Mrs Frances Wright 1708
. A postal address on f. 95r (rev.) reads: Direct to Margtt Borrett att Mrs. Borretts In Kirkby=stephen Westmoorland p brough bag _ These
.
Recorded in IELM, II.ii, as the Wright MS:
Copy, headed Upon A Lady's singing Pindarick Ode; By Mr Congreve
.
An octavo verse miscellany, in several generally italic hands, written originally on rectos only, the versos used by later hands, i + 112 leaves (ff. 93-5 excised), in old calf (rebacked).
Including 26 poems by Thomas Carew and one of doubtful authorship.
Inscribed (inside the front cver) Tho: Jesson His Book 1694
; (ff. ir, 5v) S Harriott 1740
, and a poem (f. 37v) subscribed Sarah Harriott
.
Recorded in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Jesson MS:
Copy.
An octavo miscellany, in English and Latin, in a single hand, 141 leaves (ff. 124v-41v blank), in contemporary calf.
Bought from P.J. and A.E. Dobell, in 1922, by Reginald L. Hine (1883-1949), solicitor, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire.
Copy, untitled, on a single sheet, endorsed in the hand of Thomas Coke, minister of Queen Anne, Mr. Congreves verses on Mrs Hunt
.
A large folio composite volume of verse MSS, in various hands and paper sizes, 160 leaves, mounted on guards.
Volume XXXIIIA (Series III) of the papers of Sir John Coke (1563-1644), Secretary of State, and his family.
Purchased from the Marquess of Lothian, of Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, 14 July 1987.
Copy, headed On Mrs. Arabella Hunt singing a Pindarique Ode By Mr. Congrave
.
A quarto verse miscellany, in probably a single mixed hand varying over a period, entitled in another hand Recueil Choisi De Pieces fugitives En Vers Anglois, 214 pages, in modern calf.
Afterwards owned by Charles de Beaumont, the Chevalière d'Éon (1728-1810). Later owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872): Phillipps MS 9500. In the Shakespearian Library of Marsden J. Perry (1850-1935), industrialist, banker, and art and book collector, of Providence, Rhode Island. American Art Association, New York, 11-12 March 1936.
First published in Misery's Virtues Whet-stone Reliquiae Gethinianae, 3rd edition (London, 1703). Summers, IV, 60-1. Dobrée, pp. 250-1. McKenzie, II, 332-3.
Copy, as by Mr Congreve
, in a quarto verse miscellany (occupying ff. 84r-117v). Early 18th century.
A tall folio composite volume of verse and some prose, chiefly translations from Latin, in various hands and paper sizes, 133 leaves, mounted on guards, in half red morocco.
Volume XVIII of papers of the families of Browne, Mariett and West, of the manor of Alscot, in Preston-on-Stour, Gloucestershire.
Portions once owned by Henry Jackson (1586-1662), Hooker's first editor; by Anthony Wood (1632-95), Oxford antiquary; by Thomas Coxeter (1689-1747); and probably by James West, FRS, FSA, MP (1703-72), politician and antiquary.
Prose
First published in London, 1692. McKenzie, III, 1-62.
MS of a dramatic adaptation of Congreve's novel by Alexander Dalrymple, partly in his hand.
Copy, in a small cursive hand, with a dedication To The Honoured and Worthily Esteemed Mrs Katharine Leveson
signed Cleophil
and a Preface to the Reader
,131 octavo pages, in contemporary olive-green morocco gilt.
Initials E: B
on the spine. Sotheby's, 27 May 2004 (John Brett-Smith sale), lot 119, to Bayntun-Coward.
Dramatic Works
First published in London, 1694. Summers, II, 1-77 (p. 31). Davis, pp. 117-204 (p. 143). McKenzie, I, 125-245 (p. 157). Musical setting by Henry Purcell published in Thesaurus Musicus (London, 1694). The Works of Henry Purcell, XVI (London, 1906), pp. 207-10.
Copy in a musical setting by Henry Purcell.
A folio MS music book.
Copy, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, headed A Song in ye Double Dealer
.
A folio songbook, largely in one hand, written from both ends, vi + 241 pages including blanks(Part I: pp. 1-207; Part II: pp. 1-34), in contemporary panelled calf gilt (rebacked).
Inscribed (Part I, p. [iii]) Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini April 8th 1721
; John Ladds Book October the 9 in the year of our Lord 1764
; and (Part II, p. 2) Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini 1717 November Undecimo Die
; Thomas Lea Southgate, Gipsy Hill, Kent
; and Johannes Gilbert A. M. Coll. Christ. Cantab.
Puttick & Simpson's, 1890. Formerly Folger MS 1634.4.
Copy, in a musical setting by Purcell.
A volume of autograph music by Henry Purcell.
Copy, untitled.
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.
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.
First published in London, 1701. Summers, III, 79-86. Dobrée, pp. 187-95. McKenzie, II, 227-35.
A large square-shaped folio full score of the opera by Daniel Purcell, the lyrics in a single cursive italic hand, 54 leaves (the last one vellum), in modern half red morocco.
Bookplate of Robert Smith, of St Paul's Churchyard. Puttick & Simpson's, 24 April 1873.
MS, finely written
, folio.
Once owned by the Rev. W.E. Buckley. Sotheby's, 16 April 1894, lot 306.
Summers, p. 82. McKenzie, II, 231.
song by Venus
Copy of the song, untitled.
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.
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.
Summers, p. 85. McKenzie, II, 234.
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.
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.
Summers, III, 83-4. Dobrée, p. 192. McKenzie, II, 232.
Copy of Juno's song in an anonymous musical setting, untitled, in a quarto booklet. of songs (ff. 1r-11v).
A large folio composite volume of music, iii + 107 leaves, in half-calf marbled boards.
Later owned by Mr. E. Goddard, Portland Place, London, and by T. W. Bourne.
Copy of Juno's song in a musical setting, untitled.
A quarto songbook, compiled by an Oxford University man, ii + 32 leaves, imperfect, in modern calf.
Copy of Juno's song, in an anonymous musical setting.
A folio music book, i + 49 leaves.
First published in London, 1695. Summers, II, 79-171. Davis, pp. 208-316. McKenzie, I, 247-391.
Extracts from an early acting text of the play, as performed on 26 December 1700 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, on two skins of vellum.
This MS discussed and extracts printed in T.C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, The Text of Congreve's Love for Love, The Library, 5th Ser. 30 (1975), 334-6.
Official enrolled copy of an indictment of Thomas Betterton's company for profane or obscene expressions.
Summers, II, 130. Davis, pp. 258-9. McKenzie, I, 311.
Copy of the song, in a non-professional hand, headed Song mr Congreve
, with other verses, on one side of a single long folio leaf.
A folio composite volume of verse MSS, in various hands, 171 leaves, in half brown morocco.
Collected by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), Norroy King of Arms and antiquary, his brother Oliver, and Thomas Martin (1697-1771), of Palgrave, Suffolk, antiquary and collector.
Copy, untitled.
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.
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.
Summers, II, 141. Davis, pp. 274. McKenzie, I, 332-3.
Copy of the ballad, the text accompanied by a Latin version by R.D.
.
A miscellany of English and Latin verse and university orations, 196 leaves, in vellum.
Compiled by William Parry (1687-1756?), Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford
Later owned by Falconer Madan (1851-1935), librarian and bibliographer, and given to the library in 1938 by F.F. Madan.
Copy of the ballad, in a musical setting by John Eccles.
A folio music book, ii + 262 pages.
Copy of a Latin translation of the ballad, headed A Soldier and a Sailor &c. By Mr. Congreve. Put into Latin by <space> To the same Tune
and beginning Miles, Navigator
.
A large folio composite miscellany of poems generally on affairs of state, in one or more professional hands, 289 leaves, in half crushed morocco on marbled boards.
First published in London, 1693. Summers, I, 155-255 (p. 186). Davis, pp. 28-113 (pp. 59-60). McKenzie, I, 47-48. Musical settings of the two songs by Henry Purcell published in [first song] Joyful Cuckoldom (London, [1690s]), and [second song] Orpheus Britannicus (London, 1698). The Works of Henry Purcell, XXI (London, 1917), pp. 33-4, 35-7.
Copy of the song, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell.
A folio music book, ii + 262 pages.
Copy, headed A Song
.
A duodecimo miscellany of song lyrics, in one small hand up to f. 10r, a second ungainly hand on ff. 10v-11v, eleven leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf.
Purchased from Mr Crumpton, 14 April 1877.
Copy of the song, in a musical setting by Purcell.
A volume of autograph music by Henry Purcell.
Copy, untitled.
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.
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.
Summers, I, 194. Davis, p. 71. McKenzie, I, 64.
Copy of the song, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell.
A folio songbook, largely in one hand, written from both ends, vi + 241 pages including blanks(Part I: pp. 1-207; Part II: pp. 1-34), in contemporary panelled calf gilt (rebacked).
Inscribed (Part I, p. [iii]) Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini April 8th 1721
; John Ladds Book October the 9 in the year of our Lord 1764
; and (Part II, p. 2) Liber Georgij Forman Anno Domini 1717 November Undecimo Die
; Thomas Lea Southgate, Gipsy Hill, Kent
; and Johannes Gilbert A. M. Coll. Christ. Cantab.
Puttick & Simpson's, 1890. Formerly Folger MS 1634.4.
First published in Works (London, 1710). Summers, III, 87-110. Dobrée, pp. 155-86. McKenzie, II, 237-68.
Copy of the opera as Alter'd from the Semele of William Congreve Set to Musick by George Frideric Handel
, with some corrections in Handel's own hand, on 31 quarto pages.
This being the MS submitted to the official licenser before the production at Covent Garden on 10 February 1744.
First published in London, 1700. Summers, III, 1-78 (p. 45). Davis, pp. 389-479 (p. 434). McKenzie, II, 95-225 (pp. 162-3).
See also
Copy of the first couplet of the song, in a musical setting by John Eccles.
This MS recorded in John P. Cutts, An Unpublished Purcell Setting, M&L, 38 (1957), 1-13 (p. 11).
A tall folio songbook, largely in a single cursive hand, written from both ends, i + 133 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary reversed calf.
The cover inscribed The Song-Book [of Mr. Montriot added in another hand].
Formerly among Lord Leigh's muniments at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire. Christie's, 16 October 1985, lot 139.
Letters
Autograph letter signed, to Edward Porter, from Ilam, [21 August 1692].
Hodges, No. 1. McKenzie, III, 136 (Letter 1). Facsimile in T.J. Brown, English Literary Autographs XXI, The Book Collector, 6 (Spring 1957), facing p. 61.
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Joseph Keally, from London, 21 August 1692.
Hodges, No. 2. Complete facsimile in Kathleen M. Lynch, A Congreve Gallery (Cambridge, Mass. 1951), after p. 32.
Autograph letter signed, to Jacob Tonson, [from Tunbridge], 12 August 1693.
Christie's, 17 December 1907 (Tonson sale), lot 153, to Sotheran.
Hodges, No. 57. McKenzie, III, 137 (Letter 2).
Copy of Congreve's letter to Jacob Tonson, [from Tunbridge], 12 August 1693.
A quarto volume of transcripts by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector, of letters to Jacob Tonson, copied from the originals in the possn. of Willm. Baker, Esqre
, 143 pages (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum.
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Jacob Tonson, [from Tunbridge, 15 August 1693].
Sotheby's, 29 June 1925 (Tonson sale), 3rd day, lot 772.
Hodges, No. 58, pp. 91-2. McKenzie, III, 137-8 (Letter 3).
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Jacob Tonson, 20 August 1695.
Sotheby's, 29 June 1925 (Tonson sale), 3rd day, lot 773.
Hodges, No. 62, p. 98. McKenzie, III, 141-2 (Letter 6).
Copy of Congreve's letter to Jacob Tonson, 20 August 1695.
A quarto volume of transcripts by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector, of letters to Jacob Tonson, copied from the originals in the possn. of Willm. Baker, Esqre
, 143 pages (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum.
Autograph letter signed, to Edward Porter, from Calais, 11 August 1700.
Hodges, No. 4. McKenzie, III, 146-7 (Letter 11).
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed, to Mrs Edward Porter, from Rotterdam, 27 September 1700.
Hodges, No. 5. McKenzie, III, 147-8 (Letter 12).
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed, to John Drummond, from London, 15 January 1700/1.
Hodges, No. 67. McKenzie, III, 149-50 (Letter 14).
Autograph letter signed, to John Drummond, from London, 10 April 1701.
Hodges, No. 68. McKenzie, III, 153 (Letter 17).
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, from London, 7 June 1701.
Hodges, No. 9. McKenzie, III, 154 (Letter 18).
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, from London, 4 December 1702.
Sotheby's, 14 March 1976, lot 326.
Hodges, No. 11, p. 25. Facsimile in British Literary Autographs, Series I, ed. Verlyn Klinkenborg et al. (New York, 1981), No. 68.
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Jacob Tonson, from London, 1 July 1703.
Christie's, 17 December 1907, lot 154.
Hodges, No. 69. McKenzie, III, 155-6 (Letter 21). Facsimiles in Maggs's sale catalogue No. 317 (November-December 1913), item 3341 (Plate XI), and in Hodges, p. 109.
Copy of Congreve's letter to Jacob Tonson, from London, 1 July 1703.
A quarto volume of transcripts by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector, of letters to Jacob Tonson, copied from the originals in the possn. of Willm. Baker, Esqre
, 143 pages (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum.
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Joseph Keally, from London, 20 June 1704.
Hodges, No. 15. McKenzie, III, 160-1 (Letter 26).
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, from London, 30 April 1706.
Hodges, No. 23. McKenzie, III, 165 (Letter 33). Facsimile in Sotheby's sale catalogue, 16 March 1937, lot 479.
Formerly British Library, Loan MS 60/2, item 7(5).
A folio composite volume of autograph letters.
Volume II of the Charnwood Autograph Collection, formed by Dorothea Mary Roby Benson (d.1942), wife of Godfrey Rathbone, first Baron Charnwood.
Formerly Loan MS 60/2.
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Joseph Keally, from London, 7 February 1707/8.
Hodges, No. 29. McKenzie, III, 169 (Letter 39).
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, from London, 2 March 1707[/8].
Owned in December 1989 by Clive Farahar & Sophie Dupré, booksellers, Calne, Wiltshire.
Berkeley, pp. 355-7. Hodges, No. 30. McKenzie, III, 169-70 (Letter 40).
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Joseph Keally, from London, 9 November 1708.
Hodges, No. 35. McKenzie, III, 172-3 (Letter 45).
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Joseph Keally, from London, 23 May [1709].
Hodges, No. 37. McKenzie, III, 173-4 (Letter 47).
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, [from London, March or April 1710].
Samuel J. Davey's sale catague of Historical Documents and Autograph Letters
(1899), item 127.
Hodges, No. 38, p. 55. McKenzie, III, 174 (Letter 48). Facsimile in British Literary Autographs, Series I, ed. Verlyn Klinkenborg et al. (New York, 1981), No. 68.
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, from Richmond, 6 June [1710].
Owned in December 1989 by Clive Farahar & Sophie Dupré, booksellers, Calne, Wiltshire.
Berkeley, pp. 371-2. Hodges, No. 39. McKenzie, III, 175 (Letter 49).
Autograph letter signed (WC
), to Joseph Keally, from London, 10 August 1710.
Bonhams, 22 November 2011, lot 221, with a facsimile in the sale catalogue.
McKenzie, III, 175 (Letter 50).
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Joseph Keally, from London, 15 December 1710.
Hodges No. 43. McKenzie, III, 176 (Letter 52).
Autograph letter signed, to Joseph Keally, from London, 5 July 1711.
Hodges, No. 46. McKenzie, III, 177-8 (Letter 54).
A composite volume of letters and papers, chiefly collected by George Berkeley (1685-1753), Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, philosopher.
Volume VIII of the Berkeley Papers.
Autograph letter signed, to Edward Porter, [from Stowe, Buckinghamshire], 1 January [1714?].
Hodges, No. 51. McKenzie, III, 180 (Letter 59). Facsimiles of the first page in Hodges, Man, facing p. 88, and in T.J. Brown, English Literary Autographs XXI, The Book Collector, 6 (Spring 1957), facing p. 61.
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed, to Edward Porter, [from London, 1714?].
Hodges, No. 52. McKenzie, III, 181 (Letter 60).
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed, to Mrs Edward Porter (?), 9 August [1717?].
Hodges, No. 53.
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed, to the Secretary of the Board of Trade, from Ashley, 5 October 1717.
Hodges, No. 83. McKenzie, III, 182 (Letter 62)
A summary in official minutes of a petition by Congreve to the Board of Trade, 9 February 1717/18.
Hodges, No. 86.
Autograph letter signed, to Edward Porter, from Ashley, Thursday [November 1718?].
Hodges, No. 54 (dated [1717-19]). McKenzie, III, 182-3 (Letter 63).
A composite volume of miscellaneous and historical letters and papers, collected by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian.
Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, from Wotton, 9 August 1719.
Hodges, No. 88. McKenzie, III, 183-4 (Letter 65).
A composite volume of letters, chiefly to Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle.
Autograph letter signed, to Alexander Pope, from Ashley, [late summer 1719?].
Hodges, No. 133. McKenzie, III, 184 (Letter 66).
A volume of papers of Alexander Pope, principally the autograph manuscript of part of his translation of Homer's Iliad, 233 leaves.
Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, [November 1719?].
Hodges, No. 134. McKenzie, III, 184-5 (Letter 67). Facsimile in Richard Garnett & Edmund Gosse, English Literature: An Illustrated Record, 4 vols (London, 1903), III, 165.
A composite volume of letters, chiefly to Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle.
Autograph letter signed, to Alexander Pope, from Surrey Street, 20 January [1719/20?].
Hodges, No. 135. McKenzie, III, 185 (Letter 68).
A volume of papers of Alexander Pope, principally the autograph manuscript of part of his translation of Homer's Iliad, 233 leaves.
Autograph letter signed by Congreve, to Alexander Pope, 23 June [1720?].
Hodges, No. 137. McKenzie, III, 185-6 (Letter 69).
Autograph letter signed, to John Palstock, 10 February 1722/3.
Sotheby's, 18 July 1991, lot 175, to Henry
, with a facsimile in the sale catalogue.
Autograph letter signed, to Jacob Tonson, on one side of an octavo leaf, 8 August 1723.
Hodges, No. 91. McKenzie, III, 186 (Letter 70).
Copy of Congreve's letter to Jacob Tonson, 8 August 1723.
A quarto volume of transcripts by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector, of letters to Jacob Tonson, copied from the originals in the possn. of Willm. Baker, Esqre
, 143 pages (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum.
Autograph letter signed, to Humphrey Morice, from Surrey Street, 22 November 1726.
Hodges, No. 96. McKenzie, III, 186-7 (Letter 71).
Autograph letter signed, to Humphrey Morice, from Surrey Street, 7 February 1726/7.
Hodges, No. 97. McKenzie, III, 187 (Letter 72).
Document(s)
Counterpart of the contract between Dryden and Jacob Tonson for his translation of Virgil (see
A petition to Lords of the Treasury, signed by Congreve and others [from London, 1698].
Hodges, No. 64.
A promissory note by Jacob Tonson to Dryden concerning his Fables, two copies, both signed as witness by Congreve, 20 March 1698/9.
Sotheby's, 29 June 1925 (H. Clinton Baker sale), lot 787.
Hodges, No. 66, p. 103.
Agreement for the Duke of Newcastle to have free access to the new Haymarket Theatre, in a professional hand, signed and subscribed by Vanbrugh, also signed by William Congreve, 8 May 1704 (endorsed 9 May).
Recorded in HMC, 13th report, Appendix, Part II: Portland II (1893), p. 185. Register, No. 1768.
A folio composite volume of letters, 1696-1708, in various hands and paper sizes, 260 leaves, in modern half-morocco.
Vere & Cavendish Papers, recorded in HMC, PortlandII, pp. 110-235.
Receipt to Jacob Tonson, signed by Congreve, 27 June 1709.
Hodges, No. 75. Facsimile in a sale catalogue (? Maggs), item 4402, Plate X.
A receipt for money received from John Dominick Nardvice, signed Wm Congreve
, on one side of an oblong quarto leaf, 27 July 1710.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. ix.
A grangerized exemplum of Volume II of Thomas Davies's Memoirs of the Life of David Garrick (London, 1780), 453 pages, the leaves all mounted in a double-folio-size guardbook, in modern black morocco elaborately gilt.
Receipt to Mr Grigsby, signed by Congreve, 14 August 1716.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. ix. Edited in Hodges, Man, p. 99.
Receipt to Mr Grigsby, signed by Congreve, 13 September 1716.
Recorded in Hodges, Man, p. 99.
An authorization to pay a dividend on South Sea stock to Thomas Snow, signed by Congreve, from London, 2 October 1716.
In the autograph collection of Count Grigory Vladimirovich Orlov (1777-1826), acquired when he visited England in 1821.
Recorded by M.P. Alexeyev in British Manuscripts in Russia, TLS (21 September 1946), p. 456.
A document signed by Congreve, to John Warner, 23 November 1716.
In an extra-illustrated exemplum of Joseph Spence's Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, edited by Samuel Weller Singer (London, 1820), tipped in after page 10.
A receipt for a South Sea dividend, signed by Congreve, March 1717.
Sotheby's, 26 October 1916, Lot 105, to Tregaskis.
Copy of a document signed by Congreve empowering Thomas Snow to accept on Congreve's behalf £5 00 of South Sea Company stock, 30 March 1717.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. ix.
An authorization to sell stock, signed by Congreve, 26 April 1717.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. ix.
A large quarto composite volume, comprising c.230 letters of British poets, 234 leaves (including blanks), in 19th-century half-calf.
Assembled in 1824 by William Upcott (1779-1845), antiquary and autograph collector.
Among collections of Captain Montagu Montagu, RN (d.1863).
A receipt to Bernard Lintott for the first volume of Pope's Homer, signed by Congreve, 1 June 1717[?].
Recorded in Hodges, as dated 1715, Letters, p. ix. Edited in Hodges, Man, p. 106.
A receipt to John Warner, signed by Congreve, 11 March 1717[/18].
A receipt, signed by Congreve, 17 October 1718.
Recorded in the catalogue of the R.B. Adam Library (1929), III, 70. Subsequently in the collection of Donald and Mary Hyde (Lady Eccles).
An assignment of money to William Lowndes, signed by Congreve, 4 June 1719.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. ix.
A receipt to John Warner & Co, signed by Congreve, December 1719.
Sotheby's, 25 July 1978, lot 363, and 14 March 1979, lot 327. Maggs's sale catalogues No. 1021 (1981), item 43, and No. 1126 (August 1991), item 48.
Receipt, signed by Congreve, 29 March 1720.
Sotheby's, 11 March 1908, lot 343, to Scott.
A receipt to Mr Craiggs, signed Wm Congreve
, on a narrow oblong strip of paper, 18 June 1720.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. x.
A receipt to John Warner, signed by Congreve, 27 October 1720.
A receipt signed by Congreve, to Charles Lockyer, 16 November 1721.
Formerly Evelyn MS 3, No. 85. Hodges, p. x.
A folio composite volume of letters, in various hands.
Volume DXVI of the Evelyn Papers.
Formerly Evelyn MS 3.
A receipt to John Warner, signed by Congreve, 16 November 1721.
Recorded (with the date erroneously cited as 21 November 1721) in Hodges, Letters, p. x.
A receipt to Charles Lockyer, signed by Congreve, 15 February 1721/2.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. x. Edited in Hodges, Man, p. 99.
An authorization for Thomas Snow to receive Congreve's latest dividend on South Sea stock, 9 July 1722.
Laid in a printed exemplum of Congreve's Works (3 vols, London, 1761), sold at Sotheby's, New York, 14 December 1988, lot 73.
An autograph receipt signed by Congreve, for a South Sea Company dividend of £96 from Thomas Snow and John Pattock, 14 October 1723.
Sotheby's, 16 July 1984, lot 27, to John Wilson. Maggs's sale catalogue No. 1449 (2011), item 46.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. x.
A receipt to Thomas Snow and John Paltock, in connection with a south Sea annuity, signed by Congreve, 15 May 1724.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. x.
A receipt for South Sea dividends, signed by Congreve, 27 November 1724.
Sotheby's, 29 October 1962, lot 227, to Hamilton.
A receipt to John Warner & Co, signed by Congreve, December 1724.
Owned in 1964 by Samuel Loveman, Bodley Book Shop, New York.
Recorded in Hodges, Letters, p. x.
Authorization to Charles Lockyer for payment of South Sea dividends to Anne Congreve, signed by Congreve, and others, 26 February 1725/6.
Hodges, Letters, No. 94, with a facsimile.
An Exchequer warrant, signed by Congreve, 30 March 1727.
Sotheby's, 23 April 1923, lot 188, to Manning.
An Exchequer warrant, signed by Congreve, 6 April 1727.
Sotheby's, 20 November 1903, lot 279, to Barker. Possibly the same document sold at Sotheby's, 19 February 1930, lot 402, to Dobell.
A registered copy of Congreve's last will and testament, made 26 February 1725/6, proved 3 February 1728
.
Hodges, Letters, No. 148, pp. 254-8.
Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Congreve
Some twelve lines of extracts from Congreve on the subjects of Pleasure
and Youth
.
A quarto verse miscellany, largely in one hand, with additions by others, written from both ends, material at the reverse end dated 1708-9, ii + 114 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf.
Inscribed (f. [iir]), probably by the compiler, Ex Libris Georgij Wright [b.1685/6] Sti Johannis Collegis Cantabrigiensis Alumni, Decimo quarto Junij. Annoq. Domini 1703
.
Also inscribed (f.[iir]) Mrs Frances Wright 1708
. A postal address on f. 95r (rev.) reads: Direct to Margtt Borrett att Mrs. Borretts In Kirkby=stephen Westmoorland p brough bag _ These
.
Recorded in IELM, II.ii, as the Wright MS: