Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford

1550–1604

Introduction

Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, was notorious in his own time for his eccentric and sometimes outrageous behaviour. Today he is largely remembered as one in the lengthy list of unlikely candidates proposed by amateur scholars as author of the works of Shakespeare.

Oxford did, however, write more than competent lyrical poems, and evidence of his contemporary reputation as a poet, or at least as a literary arbiter, lies in the twenty-eight or so printed books dedicated to him by the likes of John Lyly, Thomas Watson, Arthur Golding, and Anthony Munday. Even Edmund Spenser incorporated a compliment to him near the end of The Faerie Queene (1590).

The Canon

Oxford's poems evidently had limited circulation in manuscript and some were gathered in contemporary and later miscellanies, both manuscript and printed. From the attributions given in these sources it is possible to form a provisional canon of some twenty poems by him, although even then five are less than certain (OxE 35-49). One of them has traditionally been attributed to Sir Edward Dyer (DyE 35-62), and yet another (OxE 45-49) is also found attributed to Oxford's mistress, Anne Vavasor.

For present purposes, the canon established by Steven May is accepted, including (with the exception of the poem relegated to Dyer) his category of Poems Possibly by Oxford.

Letters and Documents

Oxford also wrote (not given entries here) a considerable number of letters, as well as signing various legal and other documents. In his comprehensive biography Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Liverpool, 2003), Alan H. Nelson lists (pp. 487-9) seventy-seven extant letters and memoranda by Oxford, most of them autograph and dating from 1563 onwards, including two draft legal interrogatories and twenty-seven letters and memoranda specifically relating to his protracted and unsuccessful attempts to acquire the pre-emption of tin-mining in Cornwall and Devon. These and numerous other documents by or relating to Oxford cited by Nelson are found principally in the British Library; National Archives, Kew; archives of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House; and the Huntington Library. Some of these and various other relevant documents are cited in Daphne Pearson, Edward de Vere (1550-1604): The Crisis and Consequences of Wardship (Aldershot, 2005), with (pp. [240-1]) facsimile examples of two documents signed by Oxford now in the Cornwall Record Office and Essex Record Office. A facsimile example of an autograph letter by Oxford to Lord Burghley, June 1581, in British Library, Lansdowne MS 33, f. 13r, is in Petti, English Literary Hands (1977), No. 28. No doubt many other such documents will come to light in due course, not least in sale catalogues, of which relatively recent examples would include those for Phillips, 19 October 1989, lot 145; Sotheby's, 13 December 2001, lot 232; and Bonhams, 17-18 December 2002, lot 772; 24 June 2003, lot 179; and 28 September 2004.

Abbreviations

May, Courtier Poets: Steven W. May, The Elizabethan Courtier Poets (University of Missouri, 1991).

May, Poems: Steven W. May, The Poems of Edward DeVere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford and of Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex, Studies in Philology, 77, No. 5 (Early Winter 1980).

Verse

(1) Poems by Oxford

'A Croune of Bayes shall that man weare'

First published in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 3 (pp. 26-7). E V 23490.5.

OxE 1

Copy, headed 78. The complaint of a louer, wearing Blacke & Tawnie, beginning with the second stanza (The more I followed on), and subscribed E. O.

This MS collated in May, Poems.

Transcript of The Paradise of Dainty Devises (London, 1577), iii + 162 quarto leaves (ff. 119-62 blank), mainly on rectos only, in contemporary vellum boards.

Made largely by William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and printseller (ff. 116-18 in two other hands).

1777

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce e. 16 ff. 93r, 94r)

'Even as the waxe doeth melt, or dewe consume awaie'

First published, headed His mynde not quietly setled, he writeth this and subscribed E. O., in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 2 (p. 26). May, Courtier Poets, p. 271. EV 5884.

OxE 2

Copy, headed 84. His mind not quietly setled, he writeth this and subscribed E. Ox.

This MS collated in May, Poems.

Transcript of The Paradise of Dainty Devises (London, 1577), iii + 162 quarto leaves (ff. 119-62 blank), mainly on rectos only, in contemporary vellum boards.

Made largely by William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and printseller (ff. 116-18 in two other hands).

1777

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce e. 16 ff. 100r, 101r)

'Feyne would I singe but fury makes me frette'

Published in May, Poems, No. 10 (pp. 32-3). May, Courtier Poets, p. 277. EV 6027.

OxE 3 Late 16th-early 17th century

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, on the second page of two conjugate folio leaves.

Edited from this MS in May.

A folio composite volume of verse and academic plays, in English and Latin, in various hands, 493 leaves, now in two volumes, foliated 1-250 and 251-493 respectively.

Partly compiled by Archbishop Sancroft.

Bodleian Library, Tanner Collection (MS Tanner 306 Vol. I, f. 115v)

OxE 4

Copy, subscribed Earle of Oxenforde.

A folio composite volume of verse and academic plays, in English and Latin, in various hands, 493 leaves, now in two volumes, foliated 1-250 and 251-493 respectively.

Partly compiled by Archbishop Sancroft.

Bodleian Library, Tanner Collection (MS Tanner 306 Vol. I, f. 193r)

'Framd in the front of forlorne hope, past all recoverie'

See OxE 6.

'Fraud is the front of fortune past all recovery'

First published, headed His good name being blemished, he bewayleth and subscribed E. O., in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). A variant version beginning Framd in the front of forlorne hope, past all recoverie, in May, Poems, No. 4 (pp. 27-8), and in May, Courtier Poets, pp. 272-3. EV 7038.

OxE 6

Copy, headed 34. His good name being blemished, he bewayleth, here beginning Framd is the front of forlorne hope, past all recoverie, and subscribed E. O.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.

Transcript of The Paradise of Dainty Devises (London, 1577), iii + 162 quarto leaves (ff. 119-62 blank), mainly on rectos only, in contemporary vellum boards.

Made largely by William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and printseller (ff. 116-18 in two other hands).

1777

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce e. 16 ff. 43r, 44r)

'I am not as I seme to bee'

See EsR 15.

'If care or skill could conquere vaine desire'

First published, headed Beyng in love, he complaineth and subscribed M. B., in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 6 (pp. 29-30). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 274-5. EV 10667.

OxE 7

Copy, headed 81. Being in loue he complaineth and subscribed E.O.

This MS collated in May, Poems.

Transcript of The Paradise of Dainty Devises (London, 1577), iii + 162 quarto leaves (ff. 119-62 blank), mainly on rectos only, in contemporary vellum boards.

Made largely by William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and printseller (ff. 116-18 in two other hands).

1777

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce e. 16 ff. 97r, 98r)

'Love compared to a tennis playe'

See OxE 23-28.

'The Lyvely Larke stretcht forth her wynge'

First published, headed The iudgement of desire and subscribed E. O., in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 8 (pp. 30-1). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 275-6. EV 23217.

OxE 8

Copy, untitled, subscribed Finis Earle of Oxforde.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

This volume is edited in Cummings, who suggests that the compiler is Sir John Finett (1571-1641), of Fordwich, Kent: hence it is often cited as The John Finett miscellany. The hands do not appear to be his, however, and this attribution is questionable.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 f. 14v)

OxE 9

Copy, untitled.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. This MS collated in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 67r)

OxE 10

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled and unascribed.

This MS collated in May.

An octavo composite miscellany of verse and prose, in several secretary, italic and mixed hands, 190 leaves (irregularly numbered), in contemporary limp vellum.

c.1580s-1615

Inscribed (inside front and rear covers) Robert Thornton and William Sherida / W^m Sheridan.

Marsh's Library, Dublin (MS Z 3. 5. 21 f. 28v)

'The more I followed on'

See OxE 1.

'The tricklyng teares that fales along my cheeks'

First published, as A louer reiected, complaineth and subscribed E. O., in The Paradyse of Daynty Deuises (London, 1576). May, Poems, No. 9 (pp. 31-2). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 276-7. EV 24528.

OxE 11

Copy, headed 82. A louer reiected, complaineth and subscribed E.O.

This MS collated in May.

Transcript of The Paradise of Dainty Devises (London, 1577), iii + 162 quarto leaves (ff. 119-62 blank), mainly on rectos only, in contemporary vellum boards.

Made largely by William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and printseller (ff. 116-18 in two other hands).

1777

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce e. 16 ff. 98r, 99r)

'Weare I a kinge I coulde commande content'

First published in John Mundy, Songs and Psalmes composed into 3. 4. and 5. parts (London, 1595). May, Poems, No. 16 (p. 37). May, Courtier Poets, p. 281. EV 28428.

OxE 12

Copy, in a mixed hand, untitled.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets.

A quarto volume of verse and dramatic works, in Latin and English, in three hands, one italic hand predominating, 102 leaves, in old calf (rebacked).

Inscribed in pencil as poems by William Gager, of Christ Church, Oxford, and Chancellor of Ely.

c.1590-early 17th century

Later owned by The Rev. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), antiquary and book collector. Sotheby's, 21 August 1858 (Bliss sale), lot 122.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 20000 through 24999 (Add. MS 22583 f. 95v)

OxE 13

Copy.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto verse miscellany, in an accomplished mixed hand throughout, with headings or incipts in engrossed lettering, 194 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.

c.1596-1601

This MS volume discussed in Katherine K. Gottschalk, Discoveries concerning British Library MS Harley 6910, MP, 77 (1979-80), 121-31.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 6000 through 6999 (Harley MS 6910 f. 140v)

OxE 14

Copy, as By y^e Earle of Oxforde.

The Grosart text collated in May.

A quarto miscellany of verse and some prose, in at least seven secretary and italic hands, 118 leaves (plus some blanks), currently disbound.

Possibly compiled by one or more persons connected with the Inns of Court.

c.1600-1620s

Later in the library of the Rev. Richard Farmer, FSA (1735-97), Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, literary scholar. Lot 8055 in the sale of his library by Thomas King, 7 May to 16 June 1798. Probably owned afterwards by James Crossley (1800-83), author and book collector. Formerly Chetham's MS 8012.

The volume edited by Alexander B. Grosart as The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS. being a Commonplace Book in the Chetham Library, Manchester, temp. Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, Chetham Society, vols 89 and 90 (Manchester, 1873).

Chetham's Library, Manchester (Mun. A.4.15 f. 55r (p. 84))

OxE 15

Copy, untitled, in a professional secretary hand, subscribed Vere finis.

This MS collated in May.

An oblong quarto verse miscellany, in three accomplished secretary hands, xvi + 52 pages (including blanks), being a fragment of a larger volume, now mounted in an album, in russia gilt.

c.1590-1600s

Inscribed (on an affixed slip of paper) Anne Cornwaleys her booke [i.e. probably Anne Cornwallis (d.1635), who on 30 November 1610 became Countess of Argyll]; (p. 34) E^d Philips his Book 1740; Robert Thomas not his Book 1740; (p. [xvi]); Sam: Lysons [i.e. Samuel Lysons (1763-1819), antiquary]. Afterwards owned by Benjamin Heywood Bright (1787-1843), book collector. Bright sale, Part II (18 June 1844), to Thorpe. Then owned by Dr Thomas Russell and his son the Rev. John Fuller Russell (1813-84), ecclesiastical historian (who has signed the MS John F. Russell on p.[i]); by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), literary scholar and book collector, and then in the Warwick Castle Library. Formerly Folger MS 1.112.

Discussed in William H. Bond, The Cornwallis-Lysons Manuscript and the Poems of John Bentley, Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway, Giles E. Dawson, and Edwin E. Willoughby (Washington, DC, 1948), pp. 683-93, and in Arthur F. Marotti, Folger MSS V.a.89 and V.a.345: Reading Lyric Poetry in Manuscript, in The Reader Revealed, ed. Sabrina Alcorn Baron, et al. (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, 2001), pp. 44-57.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 1 through 99 (MS V.a.89 p. 7)

'What cunning can express'

First published, as The Sheepheards commendation of his Nimph and subscribed E. O., in The Phoenix Nest (London, 1593). May, Poems, pp. 35-7. May, Courtier Poets, pp. 280-1. EV 28545.

OxE 16

Copy of an untitled version beginning What sheppard can express, subscribed Erle of Oxenforde.

A folio volume of historical collections, largely in a single small hand, with an Index (ff. 2r-5v), 178 leaves, in leather gilt.

Compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn.

c.1600s

According to two long notes (ff. 6r, 178v) by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), herald and antiquary, identifying the hand as Kniveton's, the MS was after possest by the Lord Chaworth [i.e. George Chaworth (d.1639), first Viscount Chaworth] who gaue this & severall other books to Doctor Thoreton of Carcolston in the County of Nottingham whose grandson Robert Sherard gave this & 8^o others in Kniveton's handwriting to Le Neve, 21 March 1712.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 4000 through 4999 (Harley MS 4286 f. 71v rev.)

'When werte thow borne desyre?'

First published, as Of the birth and bringing vp of desire, subscribed E. of Ox., in Brittons Bowre of Delights (London, 1591). May, Poems, No. 11 (pp. 33-4). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 277-8. EV 30058.

OxE 17

Copy, untitled, subscribed Finis. Earle of Oxenforde.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 f. 15v)

OxE 18

Copy, untitled, in an italic hand.

This MS collated in May.

A folio volume of historical collections, largely in a single small hand, with an Index (ff. 2r-5v), 178 leaves, in leather gilt.

Compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn.

c.1600s

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 4000 through 4999 (Harley MS 4286 f. 57v rev.)

OxE 19

Copy, here beginning When were ye born....

This MS collated in May.

A quarto verse miscellany, in an accomplished mixed hand throughout, with headings or incipts in engrossed lettering, 194 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.

c.1596-1601

This MS volume discussed in Katherine K. Gottschalk, Discoveries concerning British Library MS Harley 6910, MP, 77 (1979-80), 121-31.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 6000 through 6999 (Harley MS 6910 f. 145r)

OxE 20

Copy, untitled, subscribed Finis LO. OX.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 ff. 18v-19r)

OxE 21

Copy, in the hand of Dorothy Wilde, inscribed in a printed exemplum of Sidney's Arcadia (London, 1593), sig. T4v.

1645

The Folger Shakespeare Library, Printed books (STC 22540, copy 1)

OxE 22

Copy, here beginning When were you born, Desire?.

Edited from this MS in Hughey, I, No. 189, pp. 237-8. Collated in May.

A verse miscellany, including 55 poems which have been attributed to Wyatt (one copied twice) as well as his Penitential Psalms, in several hands, originally compiled by, or for, John Harington of Stepney (1520?-82) and continued by his son, Sir John Harington of Kelston (1560-1612), whose hand occurs frequently in the MS, imperfect, once comprising 228 leaves of which 145 remain.

Mid-late 16th century

This volume described, and the full text edited, with facsimile examples of ff. 53r and 66v, in Hughey. Also discussed in Ruth Hughey, The Harington Manuscript at Arundel Castle and Related Documents, The Library, 4th Ser. 15 (1934-5), 388-444.

A transcript of the whole MS made c.1810 for George Frederick Nott is in the British Library, Add. MS 28635.

The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle (MSS (Special Press), Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz. f. 144r-v)

'Wheras the Harte at Tennysse playes and men to gaminge fall'

First published in John Cotgrave, Wits Interpreter (London, 1655). May, Poems, No. 13 (p. 35). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 279-80. EV 30349.

OxE 23

Copy.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 f. 106r)

OxE 24

Copy.

This MS collated in May.

An octavo volume of verse and related notes compiled by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), bibliographer and antiquary, for his Lyrical Gleanings published in 1817.

c.1817

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 18000 through 19999 (Add. MS 19269 ff. 202v-3r)

OxE 25

Copy, subscribed FINIS. therle of Ox.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 35r)

OxE 26

Copy, untitled and here beginning When as the hand at Tennis playe.

This MS collated in May.

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

Including 59 poems by Donne (and second copies of six poems), in probably six professional secretary hands: A (ff. 1r-25v, 82r-129r); B (ff. 26r, 42v-7v, 49r-63r, 63v-79r, 130r-48r); C (ff. 27r-36v, 41r-2v; with occasional corrections possibly in hand B); D (ff. 37r-40v); E (ff. 63r-v); and F (f. 129v).

c.1620-33

Scribbling includes the name Meriall Tracy (on f. 148v). Later owned by Joseph Haslewood (1769-1833), bibliographer and antiquary; by Edward King (1795-1837), Viscount Kingsborough, antiquary; and by Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector (his library, lot 624). Sotheby's, 17 July 1917 (Huth sale), lot 5873.

Recorded in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Haslewood-Kingsborough MS (II): DnJ Δ 26. Discussed in C.M. Armitage, Donne's Poems in Huntington Manuscript 198: New Light on The Funerall, SP, 63 (1966), 697-707.

A complete microfilm is at the University of Birmingham, Shakespeare Institute (Mic S 15). Betagraph of the watermark in f. 43 in Ted-Larry Pebworth, Towards a Taxonomy of Watermarks, in Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks, ed. Daniel W. Mosser, Michael Saffle and Ernest W. Sullivan, II (London, 2000), pp. 229-42 (p. 240).

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks F through M (HM 198, Part II f. 45r)

OxE 27

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed Loue compared to a Tennis playe, subscribed Made by the Earle of Oxeforde.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.

An octavo composite miscellany of verse and prose, in several secretary, italic and mixed hands, 190 leaves (irregularly numbered), in contemporary limp vellum.

c.1580s-1615

Inscribed (inside front and rear covers) Robert Thornton and William Sherida / W^m Sheridan.

Marsh's Library, Dublin (MS Z 3. 5. 21 f. 20r)

OxE 28

Copy, headed Of playing at Tenis by S^r E: D:.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto verse miscellany, including seventeen poems by Donne and fifteen by Strode, the main part in a single hand, 334 pages (but pp. 3-4 extracted, and including a later index).

Possibly compiled by one W: H:: i.e. probably William Holgate (1618-46), of Queens' College, Cambridge, with late 17th-century additions apparently made by other members of the Holgate family, of Saffron Walden and Great Bardfield, Essex.

c.1630s [-late 17th-century]

Owned in the early 18th century by John Wale, who supplied the index on pp. 330-3. Owned before 1927 by Col. W.G. Carwardine-Probert, of Bures, Suffolk (descendant of the Holgate family).

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Holgate MS: DnJ Δ 58 and StW Δ 22. Briefly discussed in W.G.P., Verses by Francis Beaumont, TLS (15 September 1921), p. 596, and in E.K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, 2 vols (Oxford, 1930), II, 222-4. Also discussed, with facsimiles on pp. 68 and 70 of pp. 181 and 13, in Michael Roy Denbo, Editing a Renaissance Commonplace Book: The Holgate Miscellany, in New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, III, ed. W. Speed Hill (Tempe, AZ, 2004). pp. 65-73. For facsimile pages see DnJ 2931 and ShW 25. Complete microfilm in the Essex Record Office (T/A 98).

The Pierpont Morgan Library (MA 1057 p. 134)

'Who taught the first to sighe alas my Harte?'

First Published in The Tears of Fancie, Or, Loue Disdained (London, 1593). May, Poems, No. 15 (p. 37). May, Courtier Poets, p. 281. EV 31001.

OxE 29

Copy, untitled, subscribed Finis Earle of Oxenforde.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 f. 16v)

OxE 30

Copy, untitled, subscribed Ball.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 70v)

'Wing'de with desyre, I seeke to mount on hyghe'

May, Poems, No. 12 (pp. 34-5). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 278-9. EV 31543.

OxE 31

Copy, untitled.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 ff. 48v-9r)

OxE 32

Copy, subscribed FINIS. Lo. Ox.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 ff. 52v-3r)

OxE 33

Copy of the incipit, in a musical setting.

An oblong quarto volume of lute music and verse, the latter written across the width of the page with the spine upwards, in several hands over a period, including that (the later poems) of Thomas Tanat, 192 pages (plus blanks), in contemporary blind-tooled calf.

c.1590-1669

From the library of the Ormsby-Gore family, Barons Harlech, of Brogyntyn (or Porkington), Oswestry, Shropshire. Inscribed (p. 1) Robert Parry.

This volume edited as The Brogyntyn Lute Book, ed. Robert Spencer and Jeffrey Alexander (Kilkenny, 1978).

National Library of Wales (Brogyntyn MS I. 27 p. 133)

OxE 34

Copy, untitled.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto verse miscellany, including fifteen poems by Donne, with a title-page Miscellanies Or A Collection of Diuers Witty and pleasant Epigrams, Adages, poems Epitaphes &c for the recreation of y^e ouertravelled sences: 1630 Robert Bishop, in a single mixed hand, probably associated with the University of Oxford, 306 pages, in old calf.

c.1630

Owned and probably compiled by Robert Bishop. Later owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9549. A.S.W. Rosenbach's sale catalogue, English Poetry to 1700 (1941), item 187.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the Bishop MS: DnJ Δ 59. Edited in David Coleman Redding, Robert Bishop's Commonplace-Book: An Edition of a Seventeenth Century Miscellany (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1960) [Mic 60-3608].

The Rosenbach Museum & Library, numbers 1000 through end (MS 1083/16 pp. 262-3)

(2) Poems Possibly by Oxford

'If woemen coulde be fayre and yet not fonde'

First published in Brittons Bowre of Delights (London, 1591). May, Poems, No. III (pp. 40-1). May, Courtier Poets, p. 284. EV 11604.

OxE 35

Copy, untitled, here beginning If woemen coulde be fayre and yet not loude, subscribed Finis y^e Earle of Oxenforde.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 f. 16r)

OxE 36

Copy, headed The follie of men.

This MS collated in May.

A folio composite volume of verse and some prose, in various hands, v + 179 leaves, in early 18th-century half-calf.

With a few additions in Rawlinson's hand.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 150 through 199 (MS Rawl. poet. 172 f. 6v)

OxE 37

Copy, untitled, subscribed FINIS RW.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 33v)

OxE 38

Copy of the incipit only, in a musical setting by William Byrd.

An oblong folio volume of musical works, the lyrics almost entirely in a single neat italic hand, with (ff. 1r-2r, 99r-v) a table of contents, 99 leaves, in contemporary brown calf, both covers stamped in gilt Edwardvs Paston.

c.1611

Sotheby's, 28 November 1882.

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (Add. MS 31992 f. 36v)

OxE 39

Copy, in a musical setting, here beginning If women could be fair and never fond.

A set of five music part books, begun by Robert Dow.

c.1580s-1600

Christ Church, Oxford (MS Mus. 984 No. 94)

OxE 40

Copy, untitled.

A quarto booklet of verse, ff. 1r-10r in a cursive secretary hand, additions afterwards in other hands, sixteen leaves (ff. 12-13 stubs), unbound.

Early 17th century

Owned in 1781 by the Rev. John Williams (1760-1826), of Llanrwst.

National Library of Wales (NLW MS 473 B f. 7r)

OxE 41

Copy.

This MS collated in May.

A duodecimo verse miscellany, including (ff. 12r-43r) 63 sonnets by Henry Constable, 117 leaves, in brown morocco.

c.1620

Later owned by a Mr Brackman, of Kent. Given by Alderman Bristow, bookseller of Canterbury, to a Mr Todd on 19 November 1800. Afterwards owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor.

Cited by editors as the Todd MS.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 44 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.39) f. 116v)

'I do increase their wandring wits, till that I dim their sight'

May, Poems, No. IV (pp. 41-2).

See also In Pescod time when hownd to horne gives eare while Bucke is kild: OxE 43-44.

OxE 42

Edited from this MS in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 51r)

'In Pescod time when hownd to horne gives eare while Bucke is kild'

Largely by Thomas Churchyard. First published, headed A matter of fonde Cupid, and vain Venus, in his A pleasaunte Laborinth called Churchyardes Chance (London, 1580). May, Poems, No. IVa and IV (pp. 41-2). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 284-6. EV 12112.

OxE 43

Copy, headed A dreame.

This MS cited in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 ff. 51r-3r)

OxE 44

Copy, untitled, with an addition by Edward de Vere, subscribed FINIS. p Ox.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 51r)

'My mynde to me a kingdome is, such perfect joye therin I finde'

May, Poems, No. II (pp. 39-40). EV 15376.

See DyE 35-63.

'Sittinge alone upon my thought in melancholye moode'

May, Poems, No. I (pp. 38-9). May, Courtier Poets, pp. 282-3. EV 20459.

OxE 45

Copy, headed Verses made by the earle of Oxforde [and M^rs Ann Vauesor deleted].

This MS collated in May.

A quarto miscellany chiefly of verse, largely in a single secretary hand, compiled by a Cambridge student, vii + 130 leaves, in later calf.

c.1586-91

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 85 f. 11r)

OxE 46

Copy, subscribed A. Vauasoure.

This MS collated in May.

A quarto composite verse miscellany, comprising three miscellaneous MSS in different hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Fols 11r-78r, largely in a single secretary hand, comprising a verse miscellany compiled by the antiquary St Loe Kniveton, of Gray's Inn. c.1585-90s.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7392 f. 63r)

OxE 47

Copy, untitled, subscribed Vavaser.

Edited from this MS in May, Courtier Poets. Collated in May, Poems.

An oblong quarto verse miscellany, in three accomplished secretary hands, xvi + 52 pages (including blanks), being a fragment of a larger volume, now mounted in an album, in russia gilt.

c.1590-1600s

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 1 through 99 (MS V.a.89 p. 13)

OxE 48

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed Verses made of y^e Earle of Oxeforde, And M^ris Ann Vauesor.

This MS collated in May.

An octavo composite miscellany of verse and prose, in several secretary, italic and mixed hands, 190 leaves (irregularly numbered), in contemporary limp vellum.

c.1580s-1615

Inscribed (inside front and rear covers) Robert Thornton and William Sherida / W^m Sheridan.

Marsh's Library, Dublin (MS Z 3. 5. 21 f. 20v)

OxE 49

Copy, headed The best verse that ever th'autor made and subscribed E. Veer. count d'Oxford.

Edited from this MS in Hughey, I, No. 179, pp. 215-16. Collated in May.

Mid-late 16th century

A transcript of the whole MS made c.1810 for George Frederick Nott is in the British Library, Add. MS 28635.

The Duke of Norfolk, Arundel Castle (MSS (Special Press), Harrington MS. Temp. Eliz. f. 130v)

Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford

Introduction

The Canon

Letters and Documents

Abbreviations

Verse

(1) Poems by Oxford

(2) Poems Possibly by Oxford

Contents