Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

John Lyly

1554–1606

Introduction

Letters and Documents

There are eight notable autograph manuscripts by Lyly, all of them letters (*LyJ 6-13). Two other letters by him which do not survive in the originals, both petitions to Queen Elizabeth, possibly written in 1598 and 1601, enjoyed, posthumously, the most extensive circulation in manuscript of any Elizabethan-Jacobean dramatist (LyJ 14-59). Forty-six copies of the two letters, in post-1620 manuscript miscellanies, anthologies of state correspondence, and letter-manuals, can currently be recorded.

Two other original documents bearing Lyly's signature were discovered by William Urry at Canterbury Cathedral (*LyJ 61, *LyJ 64), among other documents relating, in part, to the public house The Splayed Eagle, and including two title deeds signed in 1581 by the author's mother, Jane Lyly (LyJ 62, LyJ 63). For other documents relating to Lyly, see Eccles, pp. 86-8.

The Verse and Dramatic Works Canon

There are very few extant literary manuscripts relating to Lyly. Bond prints (III, 434-502) a large number of poems which he tentatively attributes to Lyly on stylistic grounds, many of them preserved in manuscript sources. Since a number of his attributions (e.g. poems by Sidney) are plainly erroneous, however, and since they are all in any case purely conjectural, these poems are not included in CELM.

Bond's attribution to Lyly of various entertainments should also be viewed with scepticism. The Entertainment at Elvetham (Bond, I, 431-52) is the work of various writers: see Harry H. Boyle, Elizabeth's Entertainment at Elvetham: War Policy in Pageantry, Studies in Philology, 68 (1971), 146-66; John P. Cutts, An Entertainment for Queen Elizabeth, 1591, Studies in Medieval Culture, 4 (1974), 554-60; and Nicholas Breton, BrN 61-76. For the authorship of the Gardner's and Molecatcher's speeches on the Queen's visit to Theobald's in May 1591 (British Library, Egerton MS 2623, ff. 15-19; edited in Bond I, 417-19), see W.W. Greg, A Collier Mystification, Review of English Studies, I (1925), 452-4. For the Sonet At the Tilt Yard, Nov. 17, 1590 (Bond, I, 411-12), see George Peele, PlG 10-21. The Lord of Combrlande's Speeche to ye Queene, upon ye 17 day of November, 1600 (Bond, I, 415-16) has also been ascribed to Davies, but remains anonymous.

What Bond entitles Speeches to Queen Elizabeth at Quarrendon: August, 1592 (I, 453-70) and conjecturally assigns to Lyly on stylistic grounds (I, 526-7) is a collection of speeches probably belonging to devices presented by Sir Henry Lee but not necessarily on one occasion, or in August 1592, or at Quarrendon: see Chambers, III, 404-7. These speeches were printed in William Harper, Masques: Performed before Queen Elizabeth (Chiswick, 1820), from manuscript copies in a historical collection made by Henry Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire. For the fate of Ferrers's manuscripts, see Elizabeth K. Berry, Henry Ferrers an early Warwickshire antiquary 1550-1633, Dugdale Society Occasional Papers, No. 16 (Oxford, 1965). These masques were probably among the eight volumes of Ferrers's papers that were destroyed in a fire at Birmingham Reference Library in 1879. The same speeches occur, together with other related speeches not known to Bond, in a collection of entertainments connected with Sir Henry Lee and formerly preserved at Lee's home, Ditchley Hall, Oxfordshire; it is now in the British Library (Add. MS 41499A, ff. 2, 12-16). Two of the speeches appear in a collection in the Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 43, ff. 298-300v) ascribed to Dr [Richard] Edes (1555-1604), the Queen's chaplain. One of the speeches in this text is collated in The Phoenix Nest 1593, ed. Hyder Edward Rollins (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), p. 137 et seq. The lost Ferrers collection contained three other short pieces which Bond printed (I, 412-14) from Harper's 1820 volume and attributed to Lyly: A Cartell for a Challeng, Sir Henry Lee's Challenge before the Shampanie, and The Supplication of the Owld Knight. These pieces too occur in the Lee collection (Add. MS 41499A, ff. 1-2), and there is more reason to associate them with Lee than with Lyly: see Chambers, III, 404-5.

In addition to extracts from plays printed as Lyly's in the seventeenth century, the entries in CELM include two further entertainments. One (LyJ 2) is clearly ascribed to him in the manuscript source; the other (LyJ 3) is anonymous but has been attributed to Lyly by Leslie Hotson.

Abbreviations

Bond
The Complete Works of John Lyly, ed. R. Warwick Bond, 3 vols (Oxford, 1902; reprinted 1967).
Feuillerat
Albert Feuillerat, John Lyly (Cambridge, 1910).

Prose

Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit

First published in London, 1578. Bond, Vol. I. Edited by Leah Scragg, in Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and his England (Manchester, 2003), pp. 25-150.

LyJ 0.1 c.1600

Extracts, headed Euph..

A quarto composite volume of state and miscellaneous papers, in several hands, 115 leaves, with an Index (ff. 68r-77r), in modern quarter crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

LyJ 0.2

Extracts.

An octavo commonplace book of verse and prose, in two or more secretary hands, 41 leaves, in a recycled illuminated vellum music document.

Inscribed (ff. 1r, 2r) Samuell Watts.

Early 17th century

Among the papers of the Sanford family. Formerly DD/SF 3970.

Somerset Heritage Centre (DD/SF/10/5/1 ff. 3 r-v, 5r-v, 6v, 8r, 19r-v, 24v, 28r-v, 29v, 30v-1r, 35v)

Dramatic Works

Campaspe

First published in London, 1584. Bond, II, 313-60.

LyJ 1

Extracts.

The greater part of a quarto commonplace book of extracts, compiled by Edward Pudsey (1573-1613), iii + 104 leaves, in 19th-century green morocco gilt.

Four leaves of this commonplace book are in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21.

c.1604-9

Owned in 1615-16 by one Bassett and in the 1880s by Richard Savage. At the Neligan sale, 2 August 1888, lot 1098. Bought by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), and his sale 4 July 1889, lot 1257.

All the Shakespearian texts except Othello were edited from this MS in Richard Savage's Shakespearean Extracts (1887). The MS also edited in Juliet Mary Gowan, An Edition of Edward Pudsey's Commonplace Book (c.1600-1615) (unpublished M. Phil., University of London, 1967). It was then found that the miscellany lacked several of its original leaves, including extracts from six plays by Shakespeare. These leaves were rediscovered in 1977 among Savage's papers at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21, and the Othello extracts identified by Gowan. The MS also discussed in J. Rees, Shakespeare and Edward Pudsey's Booke, 1600, N&Q, 237 (September 1992), 330-1; in Juliet Gowan, One Man in His Time: The Notebook of Edward Pudsey, Bodleian Library Record, 22 (2009), 94–101; in Fred Schurink, Manuscript Commonplace Books, Literature, and Reading in Early Modern England, HLQ, 73/3 (2010), 453-69 (pp. 465-9), with a facsimile of f. 31r on p. 467; and in Tom Lockwood, At Mr Marston’s Request: Edward Pudsey and the Inns of Court, N&Q, 63 (September 2016), 450-3.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. MSS, a through d (MS Eng. poet. d. 3 f. 86v)
The Entertainment at Chiswick

First published in Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Mitcham, ed. Leslie Hotson (New Haven, 1953).

LyJ 2

Copy, in an italic hand, of two speeches by an Angler, headed At Sr William Russels howse at Cheswick, the second speech headed At her Mats: departure, subscribed John: Lilly, on one side of a single folio leaf, the verso with a (deleted) address panel To the Right Worshipfull Roger Wilbraham Esquior Mr of Requestes geve these, and once folded as a letter.

[1602]

Edited from this MS in Hotson.

An Entertainment at Harefield

See DaJ 290-297.

The Entertainment at Mitcham

An entertainment, on 12 September 1598, just possibly by Lyly. First published in Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Mitcham, ed. Leslie Hotson (New Haven, 1953).

LyJ 3

Copies of parts of the entertainment: ff. 253r-62v, in a cursive secretary hand, on quarto leaves, endorsed by Caesar The 2. speeches dialogue wise to Q. Elizabeth at my howse at Mitcha 13. Sept. 1598; f. 233r, in a professional secretary hand, endorsed (f. 234v) in another hand A copy of the supplication deliuered to her Maty At D. Cæsars howse, 12. Septeb. 1598; f. 281r, Greek and Latin verses in a roman hand, endorsed by Caesar (f. 281v) The dite of the greak song, before the Qs maty at mine howse at Mitcha.

Edited from these MSS in Hotson.

A large folio composite volume of state and legal papers, in various hands, 486 leaves, in half brown morocco.

Papers of Sir Julius Caesar (1558-1636), Master of the Rolls.

Sale of Julius Caesar's MSS, December 1757, lot 73. Bookplate of Horace Walpole (1717-97), fourth Earl of Orford, author, politician and patron. Strawberry Hill sale, 30 April 1842, lot 155.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 10000 through 14999 (Add. MS 12497 ff. 233r, 253r-62v, 281r-v)
Loves Metamorphosis

First published in London, 1601. Bond, III, 289-332.

LyJ 4

Extracts.

The greater part of a quarto commonplace book of extracts, compiled by Edward Pudsey (1573-1613), iii + 104 leaves, in 19th-century green morocco gilt.

Four leaves of this commonplace book are in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21.

c.1604-9

Owned in 1615-16 by one Bassett and in the 1880s by Richard Savage. At the Neligan sale, 2 August 1888, lot 1098. Bought by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), and his sale 4 July 1889, lot 1257.

All the Shakespearian texts except Othello were edited from this MS in Richard Savage's Shakespearean Extracts (1887). The MS also edited in Juliet Mary Gowan, An Edition of Edward Pudsey's Commonplace Book (c.1600-1615) (unpublished M. Phil., University of London, 1967). It was then found that the miscellany lacked several of its original leaves, including extracts from six plays by Shakespeare. These leaves were rediscovered in 1977 among Savage's papers at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21, and the Othello extracts identified by Gowan. The MS also discussed in J. Rees, Shakespeare and Edward Pudsey's Booke, 1600, N&Q, 237 (September 1992), 330-1; in Juliet Gowan, One Man in His Time: The Notebook of Edward Pudsey, Bodleian Library Record, 22 (2009), 94–101; in Fred Schurink, Manuscript Commonplace Books, Literature, and Reading in Early Modern England, HLQ, 73/3 (2010), 453-69 (pp. 465-9), with a facsimile of f. 31r on p. 467; and in Tom Lockwood, At Mr Marston’s Request: Edward Pudsey and the Inns of Court, N&Q, 63 (September 2016), 450-3.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. MSS, a through d (MS Eng. poet. d. 3 f. 86v)

Letters by Lyly

Letter(s)
LyJ 5 1574

A Latin epistle by Lyly, to Lord Burghley, in a professional hand, 16 May 1574.

Edited in Bond, I, 13-14, and in Feuillerat, pp. 522-3.

A folio composite volume of papers of William Cecil, Lord Burghley.

The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 19 f. 31r)
*LyJ 6 1582
Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to Lord Burghley, July 1582.

Edited in Bond, I, 28-9, and in Feuillerat, pp. 529-31. Facsimile in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XVII.

A folio composite volume of state papers.

The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 36 ff. 192r-3r)
*LyJ 8
Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cecil, 22 December 1597.

1597

Edited in Bond, I, 68-9.

National Archives, Kew (SP 12/265/61 (ff. 128r-9))
*LyJ 10
Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cecil, 9 September 1598.

1598

Edited in Bond, I, 392-3, and in Feuillerat, pp. 557-8.

*LyJ 12
Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cecil, 4 February 1602/3.

1603

Edited in Bond, I, 75. Facsimile in Bond, III, frontispiece.

*LyJ 13 1605
Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cotton, damaged by fire, 30 April 1605.

Edited in Bond, p. 395 and in Feuillerat, p. 564. Facsimile in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XVIII(a).

A folio composite volume of letters, chiefly to Robert Cotton, in various hands.

The British Library: Cotton MSS (Cotton MS Julius C. III f. 246r)
A petitionary letter to Queen Elizabeth

Beginning Most Gratious and dread Soveraigne: I dare not pester yor Highnes wth many wordes.... Written probably in 1598. Bond, I, 64-5. Feuillerat, pp. 556-7.

LyJ 14

Copy.

A small quarto colume of state papers and verse, in a closely written hand, i + 170 pages, badly affected by ink seepage.

c.1620s-37
Bodleian Library, Ashmole Collection (MS Ashmole 781 p. 76)
LyJ 15

Copy.

A folio volume of letters and state papers, in various professional hands, one secretary hand predominating, with a table of contents, 354 leaves, in black leather gilt.

c.1630s
Bodleian Library, Tanner Collection (MS Tanner 82 f. 23r-v)
LyJ 16

Copy.

A folio compendium or entry book of state letters and other documents and memoranda, in various secretary and italic hands, 231 leaves (including numerous blanks), in modern half-calf.

Compiled over a period, and partly written, by Sir Stephen Powle (c.1553-1630), Clerk of the Crown.

Bodleian Library, Tanner Collection (MS Tanner 169 f. 69r)
LyJ 17

Copy.

A quarto volume of letters and state papers, in a secretary hand, xii + 209 pages (plus blank pp. 211-472, 475-6), in contemporary calf.

c.1620s-30s

Owned in the 17th century by William Goswell, his friend James Bedford, and Gerard Langbaine [? Gerard Langbaine (1608/9-58), head of Queen's College, Oxford]. Also inscribed (f. 376) Amy Wigmore.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS University College 152 pp. 2-3)
LyJ 18

Copy.

A quarto volume of state letters, in several hands, 543 pages, in calf gilt.

Mid-17th century

Once owned by John Hopkinson (1610-80), Yorkshire antiquary, of Lofthouse, near Leeds, and comprising Volume 44 of the Hopkinson MSS. Signed bookplate of Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), book collector, of Eshton Hall, West Yorkshire. Subsequently owned by her step-father Matthew Wilson.

This volume (when unnumbered) recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 300.

Bradford Archives (32D86/44 pp. 16-18)
LyJ 19 c.1620s-30s

Copy, headed A petitionary letter from John Lilly to Queen Elizabeth.

A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in several professional secretary hands, with (ff. 1r-12v) a Tabula of contents, 315 leaves (including blanks), in old calf gilt.

Stamped crest on the cover of the Finch family, Earls of Winchilsea.

LyJ 20

Copy, headed A petitionary letter from Jo: Lilly to Queene Elizabeth.

A small folio volume of state letters, in a probably professional secretary hand, ii + 114 leaves, in half-morocco.

c.1625-30s

Later owned by John Locker (1693-1760), barrister and literary editor. Bought at his sale in 1764 by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian (whose signature on f. iir is actually dated 26 September 1763).

LyJ 21

Copy.

This MS collated in Bond.

A folio composite volume of state and antiquarian tracts and letters, in various professional hands, including the Feathery Scribe, 336 leaves.

In the collection of Francis Hargrave (1740/1-1821), legal writer. Inscribed by him on f. [iv] F. Hargrave A gift made to me this day by my friend George Hardinge Esquire [(1743-1816), judge and writer]. F. H. 16. July 1789.

Described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 232 (No. 40).

The British Library: other MSS (Hargrave MS 225 ff. 36r-7r)
LyJ 23

Copy.

Edited from this MS in Feuillerat and in Bond.

A folio composite volume of state tracts, 285 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco gilt.

In various professional hands, including that of the Feathery Scribe.

Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 242-4 (No. 57).

LyJ 24

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed A peticon of John Lilly to the Queenes Matie.

This MS collated in Bond.

A folio composite volume of state papers, tracts and speeches, in several secretary hands and paper sizes, 89 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

LyJ 25

Copy.

A small folio volume of state tracts and papers, in one or more probably professional hands.

c.1620s-30s

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, pp. 203-4.

The Marquess of Bute (D 18 item 24 (ff. 52r-v))
LyJ 26

Copy.

A verse miscellany, in long narrow format, 66 leaves (including a number of blanks), in later calf.

Largely in one neat secretary hand; a second hand on ff. 58v-9r, and a third on f. 66r. Compiled chiefly by a University of Cambridge man.

c.1630s

Once owned by F.W. Cosens, FSA (1819-89), of Clapham Park, book collector. Bequeathed in 1894 by Samuel Sandars, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Discussed in Ted-Larry Pebworth and Claude J. Summers, Recovering an Important Seventeenth-Century Poetical Miscellany: Cambridge Add. MS 4138, TCBS, 7 (1978), 156-69 (pp. 160-1). A 19th-century transcript of much of this MS is in the Bodleian, MS Firth d. 7, ff. 60r-9r.

LyJ 27

Copy, headed A peticion of John Lillie to ye queenes Maiestie.

Recorded in Bond.

A folio miscellany, begun as a commonplace book and then used for transcribing state papers, letters and verses, in several hands, 560 pages (including numerous blanks), in quarter-calf marbled boards.

Early-mid-17th century

Inscribed (p. i), probably in the late 17th century, John Peck His Book.

LyJ 28

Copy.

An octavo verse miscellany, including fourteen poems by Donne, almost entirely in a single hand, 33 leaves (plus six blanks), in contemporary vellum.

c.1630

Possibly associated with the Inns of Court. Later used, and annotated in the margin, by William Fulman (1632-88), Oxford antiquary.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the Fulman MS: DnJ Δ 36. Formerly Bodleian MS CCC 327.

Corpus Christi College, Oxford (MS 327 ff. 24r-5v)
LyJ 29

Copy.

A folio volume of state letters, speeches and verse, in a single neat italic hand.

c.1620s

Among the papers of the Fuller family of Brightling Park. Possibly once owned by Ambrose Trayton of Lewes, Esquire of the Body to James I and Charles I.

East Sussex Record Office (RAF/F/13/1 f. 36r)
LyJ 30

Copy, headed A Petitionary Letter from Jo: Lyllie to Queene Elizabeth.

This MS recorded in Bond.

A folio volume of state letters, in several professional secretary hands, with a lengthy Tabula of contents, xxx + 558 pages, in old vellum boards.

c.1637

Recorded in HMC, 6th Report, Part I (1877), p. 306.

Lord Egremont, Petworth House (HMC MS 61 pp. 23-5)
LyJ 31

Copy, headed A Petitionarie Letter from John Lillie to Queene Elizabeth.

A quarto volume of state letters, in a single professional hand, xxvi + c.955 pages (misnumbered around pp. 895-6), including a table of contents (and plus numerous blanks), in contemporary calf gilt, remains of ties.

c.1630s
LyJ 32

Copy, headed A Petitionarie Letter from John Lillie to Queene Elizabeth.

A folio volume of state letters and papers, in several professional secretary hands, 1050 pages (plus a 24-page Tabula of contents at the end), in calf.

c.1630s

Formerly MS F. 2. 20.

LyJ 33

Copy, headed A Petitionarie Letter from John Lillie to Queene Elizabeth.

A folio volume of transcripts of state letters, in a single professional hand, 209 pages plus a three-page table of contents, in vellum.

c.1630s

Later owned by the antiquary Michael Lort (1725-90). Bookplate of Edmund Turner. Sotheby's, 24 October 1972, lot 383, to Alan Thomas.

LyJ 34

Copy, headed A Peticon made by John Lilly to the Qs. Matie.

A folio volume of state papers and tracts, in a professional cursive secretary hand, 346 leaves, in red morocco gilt.

c.1620s-30s
Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 36 f. 78r)
LyJ 35

Copy.

A small quarto volume of state letters and papers, in a single secretary hand, 704 pages, in quarter-calf boards.

With a letter by James Gairdner (1828-1912), historian, returning this volume to Edward William Cox (1809-79), lawyer and publisher, 20 January 1886.

Mid-17th century

Gift of Mr Roland L. Redmond, 1942.

The Pierpont Morgan Library (MA 1162 pp. 19-21)
LyJ 36

Copy.

A quarto verse miscellany, in several hands (one predominating up to p. 167), probably associated with Oxford, 436 pages (pp. 198-9 and 269-70 skipped in the pagination, and including many blanks and an index) and numerous further blank leaves at the end, in modern black morocco gilt.

Including 14 poems by Carew, 13 poems by Corbett and 25 poems (plus one poem of doubtful authorship) by Strode.

c.1650

Scribbling on the first page including the words Peyton Chester….

Cited in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the Osborn MS I: CwT Δ 38; CoR Δ 14; StW Δ 29.

Yale, Osborn MS b 200 through end (Osborn MS b 200 pp. 82-4)
A second petitionary letter to Queen Elizabeth

Beginning Most gratious and dread Soveraigne: Tyme cannott worke my peticons, nor my peticons the tyme.... Written probably in 1601. Bond, I, 70-1. Feuillerat, pp. 561-2.

LyJ 37

Copy.

A small quarto colume of state papers and verse, in a closely written hand, i + 170 pages, badly affected by ink seepage.

c.1620s-37
Bodleian Library, Ashmole Collection (MS Ashmole 781 p. 77)
LyJ 38

Copy.

A folio volume of letters and state papers, in various professional hands, one secretary hand predominating, with a table of contents, 354 leaves, in black leather gilt.

c.1630s
Bodleian Library, Tanner Collection (MS Tanner 82 f. 24r-v)
LyJ 39

Copy, headed Mr Lillyes peticon to the Queene. 1601: about the tyme of my Ld of Essex followers fall.

Edited from this MS in Bond, I, 378, and in Feuillerat.

A folio compendium or entry book of state letters and other documents and memoranda, in various secretary and italic hands, 231 leaves (including numerous blanks), in modern half-calf.

Compiled over a period, and partly written, by Sir Stephen Powle (c.1553-1630), Clerk of the Crown.

Bodleian Library, Tanner Collection (MS Tanner 169 f. 69r)
LyJ 40

Copy.

A quarto volume of letters and state papers, in a secretary hand, xii + 209 pages (plus blank pp. 211-472, 475-6), in contemporary calf.

c.1620s-30s

Owned in the 17th century by William Goswell, his friend James Bedford, and Gerard Langbaine [? Gerard Langbaine (1608/9-58), head of Queen's College, Oxford]. Also inscribed (f. 376) Amy Wigmore.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS University College 152 pp. 4-5)
LyJ 41

Copy.

A quarto volume of state letters, in several hands, 543 pages, in calf gilt.

Mid-17th century

Once owned by John Hopkinson (1610-80), Yorkshire antiquary, of Lofthouse, near Leeds, and comprising Volume 44 of the Hopkinson MSS. Signed bookplate of Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), book collector, of Eshton Hall, West Yorkshire. Subsequently owned by her step-father Matthew Wilson.

This volume (when unnumbered) recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 300.

Bradford Archives (32D86/44 pp. 18-20)
LyJ 42

Copy, headed To Queene Elizabeth. Another Letter to Queen Eliz. from Jo: Lilly.

A small folio volume of state letters, in a probably professional secretary hand, ii + 114 leaves, in half-morocco.

c.1625-30s

Later owned by John Locker (1693-1760), barrister and literary editor. Bought at his sale in 1764 by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian (whose signature on f. iir is actually dated 26 September 1763).

LyJ 43 c.1620s

Copy, headed Another Letter from John Lilly to Queen Elizabeth.

A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in several professional secretary hands, with (ff. 1r-12v) a Tabula of contents, 315 leaves (including blanks), in old calf gilt.

Stamped crest on the cover of the Finch family, Earls of Winchilsea.

LyJ 43.5

Copy.

This MS collated in Bond.

A folio composite volume of state and antiquarian tracts and letters, in various professional hands, including the Feathery Scribe, 336 leaves.

In the collection of Francis Hargrave (1740/1-1821), legal writer. Inscribed by him on f. [iv] F. Hargrave A gift made to me this day by my friend George Hardinge Esquire [(1743-1816), judge and writer]. F. H. 16. July 1789.

Described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 232 (No. 40).

The British Library: other MSS (Hargrave MS 225 ff. 37r-8v)
LyJ 45

Copy.

Edited from this MS in Bond.

A folio composite volume of state tracts, 285 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco gilt.

In various professional hands, including that of the Feathery Scribe.

Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 242-4 (No. 57).

LyJ 46

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed John lillies second peticon to the Queene.

This MS collated in Bond.

A folio composite volume of state papers, tracts and speeches, in several secretary hands and paper sizes, 89 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

LyJ 47

Copy.

Recorded in Bond.

A small folio volume of state tracts and papers, in one or more probably professional hands.

c.1620s-30s

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, pp. 203-4.

The Marquess of Bute (D 18 item 24 (ff. 52v-3r))
LyJ 48

Copy.

A verse miscellany, in long narrow format, 66 leaves (including a number of blanks), in later calf.

Largely in one neat secretary hand; a second hand on ff. 58v-9r, and a third on f. 66r. Compiled chiefly by a University of Cambridge man.

c.1630s

Once owned by F.W. Cosens, FSA (1819-89), of Clapham Park, book collector. Bequeathed in 1894 by Samuel Sandars, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Discussed in Ted-Larry Pebworth and Claude J. Summers, Recovering an Important Seventeenth-Century Poetical Miscellany: Cambridge Add. MS 4138, TCBS, 7 (1978), 156-69 (pp. 160-1). A 19th-century transcript of much of this MS is in the Bodleian, MS Firth d. 7, ff. 60r-9r.

LyJ 49

Copy, headed John Lillies second peticon.

This MS recorded in Bond.

A folio miscellany, begun as a commonplace book and then used for transcribing state papers, letters and verses, in several hands, 560 pages (including numerous blanks), in quarter-calf marbled boards.

Early-mid-17th century

Inscribed (p. i), probably in the late 17th century, John Peck His Book.

LyJ 50

Copy.

An octavo verse miscellany, including fourteen poems by Donne, almost entirely in a single hand, 33 leaves (plus six blanks), in contemporary vellum.

c.1630

Possibly associated with the Inns of Court. Later used, and annotated in the margin, by William Fulman (1632-88), Oxford antiquary.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the Fulman MS: DnJ Δ 36. Formerly Bodleian MS CCC 327.

Corpus Christi College, Oxford (MS 327 ff. 24r-5v)
LyJ 51

Copy.

A folio volume of state letters, speeches and verse, in a single neat italic hand.

c.1620s

Among the papers of the Fuller family of Brightling Park. Possibly once owned by Ambrose Trayton of Lewes, Esquire of the Body to James I and Charles I.

East Sussex Record Office (RAF/F/13/1 f. 36r)
LyJ 52

Copy, headed Another Letter to Queene Elizabeth from Jo: Lillie.

A folio volume of state letters, in several professional secretary hands, with a lengthy Tabula of contents, xxx + 558 pages, in old vellum boards.

c.1637

Recorded in HMC, 6th Report, Part I (1877), p. 306.

Lord Egremont, Petworth House (HMC MS 61 pp. 25-7)
LyJ 53

Copy, headed Another Letter to Quene Eliz: from John Lilly.

A quarto volume of state letters, in a single professional hand, xxvi + c.955 pages (misnumbered around pp. 895-6), including a table of contents (and plus numerous blanks), in contemporary calf gilt, remains of ties.

c.1630s
LyJ 54

Copy, headed Another Letter to Queene Elizabeth from John Lillie.

A folio volume of state letters and papers, in several professional secretary hands, 1050 pages (plus a 24-page Tabula of contents at the end), in calf.

c.1630s

Formerly MS F. 2. 20.

LyJ 55

Copy, headed Another letter to Queene Elizabeth from John Lilly.

A folio volume of transcripts of state letters, in a single professional hand, 209 pages plus a three-page table of contents, in vellum.

c.1630s

Later owned by the antiquary Michael Lort (1725-90). Bookplate of Edmund Turner. Sotheby's, 24 October 1972, lot 383, to Alan Thomas.

LyJ 56

Copy, headed Another of the same mans Peticons.

A folio volume of state papers and tracts, in a professional cursive secretary hand, 346 leaves, in red morocco gilt.

c.1620s-30s
Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 36 f. 78r-v)
LyJ 57

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed John Lillyes peticon to Q: Elizabeth, on one side of a single folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packet.

c.1620s-30s
LyJ 58

Copy.

A small quarto volume of state letters and papers, in a single secretary hand, 704 pages, in quarter-calf boards.

With a letter by James Gairdner (1828-1912), historian, returning this volume to Edward William Cox (1809-79), lawyer and publisher, 20 January 1886.

Mid-17th century

Gift of Mr Roland L. Redmond, 1942.

The Pierpont Morgan Library (MA 1162 pp. 21-2)
LyJ 59

Copy.

A quarto verse miscellany, in several hands (one predominating up to p. 167), probably associated with Oxford, 436 pages (pp. 198-9 and 269-70 skipped in the pagination, and including many blanks and an index) and numerous further blank leaves at the end, in modern black morocco gilt.

Including 14 poems by Carew, 13 poems by Corbett and 25 poems (plus one poem of doubtful authorship) by Strode.

c.1650

Scribbling on the first page including the words Peyton Chester….

Cited in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the Osborn MS I: CwT Δ 38; CoR Δ 14; StW Δ 29.

Yale, Osborn MS b 200 through end (Osborn MS b 200 pp. 82-4)

Document(s)

Document(s)
LyJ 60

A record of John Lyly's name cited as witness (but not in his hand) to a receipt for money granted by the ecclesiastical court to the Cambridge student Edward Braine, in a diocesan licence register, 20 July 1570.

1570

Recorded in William Urry, John Lyly and Canterbury, Thirty-third Annual Report of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral (April 1960), 19-25 (p. 24).

Canterbury Cathedral (DCb/LR/1, f20)
*LyJ 61
Autograph

An indenture for the sale of The Splayed Eagle in Canterbury, signed by both John Lyllye and his mother, Jane, 10 January [1570/1].

1571

Discovered by William Urry among the archives at Canterbury Cathedral. Formerly Boteler MSS 116a.

Recorded in William Urry, John Lyly and Canterbury, Thirty-third Annual Report of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral (April 1960), 19-25 (p. 24).

LyJ 62

A title deed relating to the sale of The Splayed Eagle in Canterbury, signed by Jane Lyly.

1581

Discovered by William Urry among the archives at Canterbury Cathedral. Formerly Boteler MSS 116b.

Recorded by Urry in John Lyly and Canterbury, Thirty-third Annual Report of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral (April 1960), 19-25 (p. 24).

LyJ 63

A title deed relating to the sale of The Splayed Eagle in Canterbury, signed by Jane Lyly.

1581

Discovered by William Urry among the archives at Canterbury Cathedral. Formerly Boteler MSS 116c.

Recorded by Urry in John Lyly and Canterbury, Thirty-third Annual Report of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral (April 1960), 19-25 (p. 24).

*LyJ 64
Autograph

A quitclaim from John Lyly to his mother, signed in an italic script Per me Joanne Lilie (or Liliu), 3 October [1581].

1581

Discovered by William Urry among the archives at Canterbury Cathedral. Formerly Boteler MSS 116e.

Recorded in William Urry, John Lyly and Canterbury, Thirty-third Annual Report of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral (April 1960), 19-25 (p. 24).

Editorial papers
LyJ 65

A collection of papers of the editor Richard Warwick Bond (1857-1943), including numerous notebooks, papers and collections relating to his edition of John Lyly.

1794-1953

Contents