Thomas Shadwell

1640/2–1692

Introduction

Thomas Shadwell — Dryden's perhaps unfairly pilloried MacFlecknoe — was a Restoration dramatist of some stature who has left a substantial body of works, including a small number of authorial manuscripts. Shadwell's handwriting was neither sufficiently distinctive, nor sufficiently uniform throughout his career, to be immediately recognizable. Nevertheless, it seems possible to establish a certain number of clearly authentic examples by way of a bench mark.

Letters and Documents

There are at present eight recorded autograph letters by Shadwell (*SdT 43-51). The last six of these display a similar cursive style of hand. But there are certain palaeographical differences — including a tendency to loop ts and fs — in the two earliest letters, unpublished exercises in doggerel verse which have something of the nature of youthful, if relatively formal, jeux d'esprit. Even so, there is no question but that they were indeed written by Thomas Shadwell the future dramatist.

These letters may be supplemented by a few surviving business and legal documents signed by Shadwell (SdT 52-63). Again, there is no question but that these documents all bear the hand of Thomas Shadwell the dramatist, although the uniform style of signature found in the first four displays some difference of character to the signatures found in all the other items mentioned, including a forward-leaning looped d, a vigorously angular epsilon e, and a peculiar decorative flourish at the end of the surname.

Shadwell's Handwriting

These differences of style indicate a certain flexibility of handwriting on Shadwell's part, a tendency to vary the formation of his script in different circumstances or at different times of his life. This must be borne in mind when considering those literary manuscripts recorded below which were almost certainly written, annotated or used by him and which derive from the collection of his patron the Duke of Newcastle, with whom Shadwell evidently shared some measure of literary collaboration as James Shirley had done earlier. The cursive but regular script seen in a copy of a Prologue to John Banks's tragedy Vertue Betray'd (*SdT 15) conforms sufficiently well to Shadwell's most familiar style of hand to leave little doubt that this manuscript is entirely autograph. On the other hand it is not altogether surprising that earlier commentators were slightly hesitant to pronounce as autograph the neatly written copy of a Prologue or Epilogue to a revival of Newcastle's old comedy The Country Captain (*SdT 14). This shows occasional variant letter forms, although this too was probably produced by the same hand. Demonstrable differences of style increase when it comes to two important extant manuscripts of plays by Shadwell — The Humorists (*SdT 26) and The Sullen Lovers (*SdT 33) — both evidently given by the playwright himself to Newcastle (though only the latter bears a presentation inscription). A single hand, but this time adopting a rapid cursive style, with occasional peculiar letter forms (such as a curious secretary h and a two-stroke Greek e), is found revising and annotating both these manuscripts (which are otherwise written by two different professional scribes). Despite the differences, the interposing hand is very probably that of the author himself and similarities of various letter forms (such as a peculiarly elaborate three-stroke majuscule N) can be discerned in certain of the other examples of Shadwell's handwriting.

In the light of all these examples it is possible to adduce at least one other example of Shadwell's hand: namely the inscription For the L^d Chamberlain written in the dedication exemplum of his Bury-Fair (*SdT 23.3). What would appear to be virtually a companion volume is another exemplum of this edition allegedly inscribed by Shadwell on the flyleaf For y^e Countess of Dorsett (*SdT 23.4). Quite possibly other presentation volumes of plays by Shadwell survive. One, for instance, may be the exemplum of Shadwell's Psyche (London, 1675) which, though lacking any inscription, may have been presented to the play's dedicatee, the Duke of Monmouth, in view of its elaborate black morocco gilt and silver binding by the Queen's Binder D. This volume was sold at Christie's, 11 June 1980, lot 412, to Kraus, with an illustration of the binding as Plate 30.

The Canon of Verse and Dramatic Works

John Ross's article, Addenda to Shadwell's Complete Works: A Checklist, N&Q, 220 (June 1975), 256-9, is a useful supplement to Summers's version of the canon. Ross draws attention to yet another manuscript associated with both Newcastle and Shadwell: that of Newcastle's comedy The Humorous Lovers in the British Library, Harley MS 7267. Newcastle's play was posthumously published in 1677 and Shadwell is known to have been paid £22 for seeing this and another of Newcastle's plays through the press. It is tempting to think that Shadwell might have had something to do with this manuscript, but there is no sign of his actual handwriting. Ross does plausibly suggest, however, that Shadwell may have been responsible for the crudely Jonsonesque prologue[s] and epilogue (which do not appear in the edition of 1677): see SdT 0.5, SdT 15.2 and SdT 20.5.

A few other poems attributed to Shadwell on uncertain authority have also been given entries below (SdT 1-23.2).

Dramatis Personæ

Edward A. Langhans, in New Restoration Manuscript Casts, Theatre Notebook, 27 (1972-3), 149-57, records several early manuscript casts for plays by Shadwell, namely:

for The Virtuoso in an exemplum of the 1676 edition in the Clark Library, Los Angeles.
for The Libertine in an exemplum of the 1676 edition in Boston Public Library, Massachusetts.
for Epsom-Wells in an exemplum at the University of Pennsylvania.
for both Epsom-Wells and The Virtuoso as recorded from uncertain sources in a notebook by George Thorn-Drury, KC (Bodleian, MS Eng. misc. f. 84, p. 50).

Robert D. Hume, in Manuscript Casts for Revivals of Shadwell's The Libertine and Epsom-Wells, Theatre Notebook, 31 (1977), 19-22, records manuscript casts in exempla of The Libertine (London, 1676) and Epsom-Wells (London, 1704) at the University of Cincinnati.

An eighteenth-century prompt-book of The Squire of Alsatia (London, 1699), from the collection of prompt-books given by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps to the Morrab Library, Penzance, was sold at Sotheby's, 27 May 1964, lot 699, to Rota, and is now at the University of Texas at Austin (Prompt Books Box 1 No. 197): see Edward A Langhans, Eighteenth-Century British and Irish Promptbooks: A Descriptive Bibliography (New York, Westport, Conn., & London, 1987), pp. 139-40. A microfilm of the prompt-book is in Edinburgh University Library (Mic. P. 310).

J.P. Collier's transcripts of Cupid and Death from the edition of 1653; of The Triumph of Beauty from the edition of the Poems (1646); and of A Contention for Honour and Riches from the edition of 1633, are at Harvard, MS Eng 785.

Musical Settings

Other manuscript sources relating to Shadwell's plays, which have not been given separate entries below, are of musical settings by Henry Purcell for stage revivals in the late 1680s and 1690s.

Purcell's song beginning Leave these useless [or worthless] arts in loving was evidently introduced into a production of Epsom-Wells. First published in Thesaurus Musicus (London, 1693), it occurs in various manuscript songbooks, including Purcell's own autograph score (Guildhall Library, Gresham College Purcell MS) and manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (MU. MS 120), in the Folger (MS V.b.197, Part I, p. 59), and in the privately owned Naki Collection in Japan.

Purcell's song The cares of Lovers then alarm (with words apparently by Peter Motteux) was evidently introduced into Shadwell's Timon of Athens, the Man-Hater (1678). This setting was published in Deliciae Musicae, Book II (London, 1695), and extant manuscript copies include one in the Folger (MS V.b.197, Part I, p. 41).

Yet further contributions by Purcell include a Masque in Timon of Athens (see SdT 35-39) and various songs and incidental music in The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island. Shadwell's version of the latter was first published in 1674 (Summers, II, 183-269), but Shakespeare's play was subject to multiple adaptations and revisions, including those by Davenant and Dryden, and precise authorship of respective songs is less than clear. For numerous manuscript copies of Purcell's songs for both The Tempest and Timon of Athens, with some discussion of the subject, see Franklin B. Zimmerman, Henry Purcell: An Analytical Catalogue (London & New York, 1963), Nos 631 (pp. 333-8) and 632 (pp. 338-44).

One of the songs set by Purcell in The Tempest, the Devil's song at the end of Act II (Arise, arise! ye subterranean winds), is also found in a setting by Pietro Reggio in a manuscript songbook compiled in part by Giovanni Felice Sances (c.1600-79), Kapellmeister to the Emperor Leopold I, and by the composer Henry Bowman. This manuscript is now in the British Library (Egerton MS 2960, ff. 52v-3r). This song and/or other music by Henry Purcell for The Tempest are in the British Library (Add. MSS 19759, ff. 10v-11v; 22099; 29396, f. 111r; 31450; 33234, f. 38r-v; 37074; and 62667, ff. 4r-50r); Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 9129); and elsewhere.

Purcell's most celebrated contribution to Shadwell's stage works remains his music for songs in Acts IV and V of the 1692 revival of The Libertine (1676), most especially for the song and chorus of the Shepherds and Shepherdesses, Nymphs and Shepherds come away (Summers, III, 7-93 (pp. 76-7)). First published in Orpheus Britannicus, Book I, 2nd edition (London, 1706), Purcell's setting occurs in numerous late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century manuscript songbooks, including manuscripts in the Bodleian; British Council Library; British Library (including Add. MSS 31447, ff. 148r-51v; 62666, ff. 55v-62r, and 62669, ff. 4v-12v); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Folger (MS W.b.540, pp. 1-17 fourth series; W.b.533); Royal College of Music; and elsewhere. For details, see Zimmerman, op. cit., No. 600 (pp. 274-5). One of the manuscript copies of the Song of Devils in Act V (Prepare, prepare, new Guests draw near), which is normally ascribed to Purcell, is docketed in British Library, Add. MS 22100, ff. 103-5, as being by M^r Turner. Other manuscripts of Purcell's music in The Libertine include British Library, Add. MS 62669, and Folger MS W.b.535, pp. 61-87.

Miscellaneous

Notes on Shadwell by William Oldys (1696-1761) are written in his exemplum of Gerard Langbaine, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (Oxford, 1691), now in the British Library (C.28.g.1, pp. 442-53). They are cited in Summers, I, xxiii, xcvii. The eight-page autograph manuscript of Robert Southey's life of Shadwell is at Yale (Gen MSS 298 Box 1, folder 62). A set of Shadwell's Dramatic Works (4 vols, 1720 edition) annotated by George Thorn-Drury, KC (1860-1931), literary scholar and editor, is in the Bodleian (Thorn-Drury e. 16-19).

Abbreviations

Danchin: The Prologues and Epilogues of the Restoration 1660-1700, ed. Pierre Danchin, 7 vols (Nancy, c.1981-8).
Summers: The Complete Works of Thomas Shadwell, ed. Montague Summers, 5 vols (London, 1927).

Verse

Epilogue to The Humorous Lovers ('Oh Gentlemen, our Witts hopes is forlorne')

Probably by Shadwell. First published in Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, I (1981), pp. 236-7.

SdT 0.5

MS of the Epilogue.

Edited from this MS in Danchin.

MS of the Duke of Newcastle's comedy The Humorous Lovers.

Late 17th century

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7267 f. 44r)

Epilogue [to The Tempest] ('When feeble Lovers Appetites decay')

First published, and attributed to Shadwell, in William J. Lawrence, Did Thomas Shadwell Write an Opera on The Tempest?, Anglia, 27 (1904) 205-17 (pp. 213-14). Summers, II, 269. Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, II, 595-6.

Authorship uncertain.

SdT 1

Copy on pp. [2-3] of two conjugate folio leaves.

Edited from this MS in Lawrence, in Summers, and in Danchin.

A folio guard book of miscellaneous MSS, 95 leaves, in 19th-century black morocco gilt.

Collected by John Payne Collier (1789-1883).

Sotheby's, 16-28 November 1885 (Ellis sale).

The British Library: Egerton MSS (Egerton MS 2623 ff. 54v-5)

'It was I assure you with the greatest Surprize'

See SdT 43.

A Letter from Mr. Shadwell to Mr. Wicherley ('Inspir'd with high and mighty Ale')

First published in Poems on Affairs of State…Part III (London, 1698). Summers, V, 227-9.

For Wycherley's Answer, see WyW 1-4.

SdT 2

Copy.

A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, largely in a single professional hand (up to f. 372r), with later additions on ff. 372r-203r(c.1738-45), 203 leaves, in contemporary speckled calf (rebacked).

c.1700 [-1745]

Once owned by C. Stuteville (inscribed f. 2r) and later, c.1880, by the Grimston family and by the Byrom family, of Kilnwick Hall, East Yorkshire. Bought from E.L.G. Byrom in 1921.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. MSS, a through d (MS Eng. poet. c. 18 ff. 9r-11r)

SdT 3

Copy of lines 3-24, untitled and here beginning Ale that makes Tinker mighty Witty.

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 &c^a 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.

Early 1700s

The Folger Shakespeare Library, Miscellaneous manuscripts (MS M.b.12 f. 6v)

SdT 4

Copy, subscribed T. S.

A large folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, probably in several hands, one professional hand predominating, with (ff. 1r-2r) a Table of contents, 200 leaves, in contemporary blind-stamped calf.

c.1695

Bookplate of William, Earl of Craven (1608-97), soldier and Privy Counsellor, of Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire.

University of Nottingham (Pw V 46 ff. 4r-6r)

SdT 5

Copy.

A formal folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, including eleven by Rochester and Sodom, as well as apocryphal items, probably in a single professional hand, 444 leaves (including a six-leaf index).

c.1690s

Cited in IELM, II.ii as the Vienna MS: RoJ Δ 12. Discussed in Rudolf Brotanek, Beschreibung der Handschrift 14090 (Supplement 1776) der Nationalbibliothek in Wien, in Festschrift der Nationalbibliothek in Wien (Vienna, 1926), 145-62. Recorded and selectively collated in Vieth and in Walker.

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (Cod. 14090 ff. 15r-16v)

SdT 6

Copy.

Edited from this MS in Summers.

A folio miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, in two volumes: Vol. I, including twelve poems by Rochester and Sodom, as well as apocryphal items, pp. 1-461 (plus index); Vol. II, pp. 462-842 (with irregularities of pagination).

This MS is closely related to Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 14090.

c.1690s-1700

Later owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor, who records that £50 was given by Perry, for these 2 volumes.

Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as the Dyce MS: RoJ Δ 15.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 43 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.37-38) pp. 16-20)

An Ode for Queen Mary's Birthday. April 30, 1691 ('Welcome, welcome, glorious Morn')

First published, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, in The Works of Henry Purcell, Vol. XI, Birthday Odes for Queen Mary, Part I (London, 1902), pp. 72-116. Summers, V, 369-70.

SdT 7

Copy, in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, headed Queen's Birth=day Song 1691.

A large folio volume of vocal music by Henry Purcell (1659-95), in a neat italic hand, 151 leaves, in 19th-century half dark red morocco.

c.1700

Bookplate of Julian Marshall (1836-1903), music and print collector and writer. Acquired from him 10 July 1880; 26 March and 9 April 1881.

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (Add. MS 31447 ff. 112r-29v)

SdT 8

Copy in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, headed Queen's Birth-day Song 1691.

This MS the Buckingham Palace MS. recorded in Summers, V, 410.

A large quarto volume of odes in musical settings by Henry Purcell, in a single neat hand, 112 leaves (plus blanks), in half red morocco on marbled boards.

Early 18th century

Inscribed (f. 1r) J Kent.

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (RM 24. e. 8 ff. 1r-32r)

Ode on the Anniversary of the Queen's Birth ('Now does the glorious Day appear')

First published in Poems on Affairs of State, The Second Part (London, 1697). Summers, V, 345-6. Published in a musical setting by Henry Purcell in The Works of Henry Purcell, Vol. XI, Birthday Odes for Queen Mary, Part I (London, 1902), pp. 1-35.

SdT 9

Copy in a musical setting by Henry Purcell.

A folio volume of vocal compositions largely by Henry Purcell, 126 leaves.

End of 17th century

Once owned by James Pears. Bought at the Dr Samuel Arnold sale 24 May 1803 by W. Russell. Puttick & Simpson's, 22 December 1869, lot 613.

Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Mus. c. 28 ff. 19r-39r)

SdT 10

Copy in a musical setting by Henry Purcell, untitled and the first line here initially given as How does ye Glorious day Appear, in an unidentified hand.

This MS the Buckingham Palace MS. recorded in Summers, V, 410.

Purcell's predominantly autograph folio Score Booke Containing Severall Anthems w^th. Sy[m]phonies.

c.1690

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (R.M. 20. h. 8 ff. 116v-106r rev.)

On the British Princes In Imitation of his most excellent Style ('Of all great Nature fated vnto witt')

First published in A.J. Bull, Thomas Shadwell's Satire on Edward Howard, RES, 6 (1930), 312-15.

SdT 11

Copy, subscribed Tho. Shadwell.

Edited from this MS in Bull.

A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single neat hand, iv + 248 pages, imperfect at the end, in contemporary calf.

Compiled by an Oxford University man.

End of 17th century

Sold by J.W. Jarvis & Sons, 5 December 1888.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. e. MSS (MS Eng. poet. e. 4 pp. 195-6)

SdT 12

Copy, headed In Imitation of his most excellent style, subscribed T Shadwell.

A duodecimo miscellany of verse, on affairs of state etc., and prose, including Latin academic exercises, in a single small hand, compiled by an Oxford University man, written from both ends, iii + 87 leaves, in old morocco.

c.1670s

Bookplate of Arthur Ashpitel, FSA, and bequeathed by him 1869.

Society of Antiquaries (MS 330 ff. 37v-8r)

'Our Poet's ill aduis'd perhaps you'l say'

See SdT 15.

A Poem on His Majesty's Happy Accession to the Crown ('Sweet as short Slumber to a troubled Mind')

First published in Poems on Affairs of State…Part III (London, 1698). Summers, V, 353-8.

SdT 13

Copy, including dedicatory epistle satirically attributed to John Dryden, subscribed This Mock-Apology and Poem are said to be writ by M^r Shadwel.

A quarto miscellany of largely Jacobite poems on affairs of state, x + 187 leaves, in red morocco gilt.

c.1688-91

Later owned by F.W. Cosens (1819-89), book collector. Sotheby's, 25 July 1890 (Cosens sale), in lot 93. Afterwards owned by William Hayman Cummings, FSA (1831-1915), singer and musical antiquary. Among the collections of Sir Charles Harding Firth (1857-1936), historian.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Firth e. 6 ff. 95v-104v)

Prologue or Epilogue to The Country Captain ('A Good Play cannot properly be sed')

First published in Welbeck Miscellany No. 2: A Collection of Poems by Several Hands, never before published, ed. Francis Needham (Bungay, Suffolk, 1934), p. 50. Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, IV, 739-40.

*SdT 14

Autograph

Autograph fair copy, on the first page of an unbound pair of conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet.

c.1690

Edited from this MS in Needham and in Danchin.

University of Nottingham (Pw V 370)

Prologue to John Banks's Vertue Betrayd: or, Anna Bullen ('Our Poet's ill aduis'd perhaps you'l say')

First published in Welbeck Miscellany No. 2: A Collection of Poems by Several Hands, never before published, ed. Francis Needham (Bungay, Suffolk, 1934), pp. 48-9.

*SdT 15

Autograph

Autograph, untitled, on two pages of an unbound pair of conjugate quarto leaves, once folded as a letter or packet.

c.1682

Edited from this MS in Needham.

University of Nottingham (Pw V 371)

Prologue to The Humorous Lovers ('Oh it is Joy, great Sums now wee shall wyn')

Probably by Shadwell. First published in Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, I (1981), pp. 233-5.

SdT 15.2

MS.of the Prologue.

Edited from this MS in Danchin.

MS of the Duke of Newcastle's comedy The Humorous Lovers.

Late 17th century

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7267 f. 3r-v)

Prologue to the Oxford Scollers at the Act there, 1671 ('Your civil kindness last year shown')

Attributed to Shadwell by W.J. Lawrence in Oxford Restoration Prologues, TLS (16 January 1930), p. 43, but though misreading a manuscript ascription to J. S. as to T .S. Published in Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, II, 414-16. Not by Shadwell.

SdT 15.4

Copy, ascribed to J. S.

A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single neat hand, iv + 248 pages, imperfect at the end, in contemporary calf.

Compiled by an Oxford University man.

End of 17th century

Sold by J.W. Jarvis & Sons, 5 December 1888.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. e. MSS (MS Eng. poet. e. 4 pp. 176-7)

SdT 15.6

Copy, unascribed.

A folio composite volume of verse, 208 leaves.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 1 through 49 (MS Rawl. poet. 19 f. 146)

SdT 15.8

Copy, ascribed to J. S..

c.1670s

Bookplate of Arthur Ashpitel, FSA, and bequeathed by him 1869.

Society of Antiquaries (MS 330 f. 45r)

Prologue to The Tempest ('Wee, as the ffathers of the stage have said')

First published, and attributed to Shadwell, in William J. Lawrence, Did Thomas Shadwell Write an Opera on The Tempest?, Anglia, 27 (1904), 205-17 (pp. 212-13). Summers, II, 196. Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, II, 593-4.

Authorship uncertain.

SdT 16

Copy on the first (pp. [1-2]) of two conjugate folio leaves.

Edited from this MS in Lawrence, in Summers, and in Danchin.

A folio guard book of miscellaneous MSS, 95 leaves, in 19th-century black morocco gilt.

Collected by John Payne Collier (1789-1883).

Sotheby's, 16-28 November 1885 (Ellis sale).

The British Library: Egerton MSS (Egerton MS 2623 f. 54r-v)

The Protestant Satire ('How wise and happy are we grown of late')

First published in A Collection of Poems on Several Occasions, Written in the Last Century (London, 1747). Poems on Affairs of State: Augustan Satirical Verse, 1660-1714, Vol. III: 1682-1685, ed. H.W. Schless (New Haven, 1968), pp. 511-40, where the poem is attributed to Shadwell.

SdT 17

Copy of a version of lines 1-188 in two hands in a small quarto verse miscellany.

Lines 1-188 edited from this MS in POAS.

A folio guard book of miscellaneous MSS, 95 leaves, in 19th-century black morocco gilt.

Collected by John Payne Collier (1789-1883).

Sotheby's, 16-28 November 1885 (Ellis sale).

The British Library: Egerton MSS (Egerton MS 2623 ff. 83r-6v)

Satyr to his Muse ('Hear me dull Prostitute, worse than my Wife')

First published in London, 1682. Summers, V, 263-72.

SdT 18

Copy.

A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, in a single professional hand, 82 pages (plus numerous blanks), in vellum boards.

c.1680s

University of Nottingham (Pw V 45 pp. 51-60)

SdT 18.5

Extract.

An octavo book of jests and verse compiled by William Sancroft (1617-93), Archbishop of Canterbury, vi + 374 pages (pp. 72-306 blank), in contemporary calf.

c.1682-91

Bodleian Library, Sancroft MSS (MS Sancroft 53 p. 59)

SdT 19

Copy.

c.1690s

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (Cod. 14090 ff. 206r-12v)

SdT 20

Copy, here ascribed to M^r Sommers.

This MS is closely related to Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 14090.

c.1690s-1700

Later owned by Alexander Dyce (1798-1869), literary scholar and editor, who records that £50 was given by Perry, for these 2 volumes.

Cited in IELM, II.ii (1993), as the Dyce MS: RoJ Δ 15.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce MS 43 (Pressmark Dyce 25.F.37-38) pp. 395-407)

Second Prologue to The Humorous Lovers ('I'm soe taken, I know not what to say')

First published in Danchin, Prologues and Epilogues, I (1981), pp. 233-6.

SdT 20.5

Edited from this MS in Danchin.

MS of the Duke of Newcastle's comedy The Humorous Lovers.

Late 17th century

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 7000 through end (Harley MS 7267 f. 4r)

Song ('Bright was the morning cool the Air')

First published in Thomas D'Urfey, A New Collection of Songs and Poems (London, 1683). Summers, V, 383. The poem probably by D'Urfey and the musical setting perhaps by Shadwell: see D.M. W[almsley], A Song of D'Urfey's Wrongly Ascribed to Shadwell, RES, 4 (1928), 431.

SdT 21

Copy of a song here ascribed to M^r Shadwell, in a musical setting.

Edited from this MS in D.M. Walmsley, Two Songs Ascribed to Thomas Shadwell, RES, 1 (1925), 350-2, and in Summers, with a facsimile after p. 384.

A folio songbook, in several hands, one italic hand predominating, with (f. 1v) a list of contents, 46 leaves, in modern half red morocco.

Inscribed (f. 1r), possibly by the compiler, Charles Campelman his book June y^e 9. 1681 (God give him grace 1682 added in another hand).

c.1681 -1700s

Sotheby's, 20 January 1854, lot 1138.

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (Add. MS 19759 f. 20r)

SdT 22

Copy, untitled and here beginning Bright was y^e morning Clear y^e Aire.

This MS collated in Walmsley, loc. cit., and in Summers, V, 410-11.

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.

c.1700s

Purchased from Mr Crumpton, 14 April 1877.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 30000 through 34999 (Add. MS 30303 f. 5r)

Song ('Fools for themselues will Treasure prize')

First published in Summers (1927), V, 384.

Of doubtful authorship.

SdT 23

Copy of a song here ascribed to M^r Shadwell, in a musical setting, untitled.

Edited from this MS in D.M. Walmsley, Two Songs Ascribed to Thomas Shadwell, RES, 1 (1925), 350-2, and in Summers, with a facsimile after p. 384.

A folio songbook, in several hands, one italic hand predominating, with (f. 1v) a list of contents, 46 leaves, in modern half red morocco.

Inscribed (f. 1r), possibly by the compiler, Charles Campelman his book June y^e 9. 1681 (God give him grace 1682 added in another hand).

c.1681 -1700s

Sotheby's, 20 January 1854, lot 1138.

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (Add. MS 19759 f. 17v)

'Tho it's very unlucky oft times to delay'

See SdT 44.

To…Signior Pietro Reggio… ('If I could write with a Poetick fire')

Summers, V, 239-41.

SdT 23.1

Extracts.

See Summers, V, 239-41.

An octavo book of jests and verse compiled by William Sancroft (1617-93), Archbishop of Canterbury, vi + 374 pages (pp. 72-306 blank), in contemporary calf.

c.1682-91

Bodleian Library, Sancroft MSS (MS Sancroft 53 pp. 40-1)

Upon a late fall'n Poet ('A sad mischance I sing alas')

SdT 23.2

Copy, as suppos'd to be Written by M^r Shadwell.

This MS recorded in David Vieth, Attribution in Restoration Poetry (1963), p. 486, as otherwise unrecorded.

A quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state, entitled Songs & Verses - Upon severall occasions, 406 pages (but pp. 35-44, 63-6, 77-86, 115-32, 153-8, 161-84, and 195-212 excised).

Including 30 poems by Rochester (and probably others by him on missing leaves); pp. 1-392 in a single professional hand (that also responsible for Princeton, RTC01 No. 34); pp. 392-406 in a second hand.

c.1680

Inscribed on the title-page Hansen: i.e. very probably the diplomat Friedrich Adolphus Hansen, who visited England in September 1680 in the entourage of Charles, electoral Prince Palatine. Owned, in 1951 by Dr A.S.W. Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia book dealer, collector and scholar.

Cited in IELM, II as the Yale MS: RoJ Δ 16. The MS was identified by David M. Vieth as an independent scribal transcript of the copy-text used for the first edition of Poems on Several Occasions By the Right Honourable, the E. of R— (Antwerp [i.e. London], 1680): see Attribution, pp. 56-100, and The Text of Rochester and the Editions of 1680, PBSA, 50 (1956), 243-63. Discussed extensively, and Hansen identified, in Harold Love, Scribal Texts and Literary Communities: The Rochester Circle and Osborn b. 105, SB, 42 (1989), 219-35. Facsimile of p. 62 in Vieth (1968), frontispiece. Recorded and selectively collated in Vieth (1968) and in Walker.

Yale, Osborn MS b 100 through Osborn MS b 149 (Osborn MS b 105 pp. 328-39)

Dramatic Works

Bury-Fair

First published in London, 1689.

*SdT 23.3

Autograph

The dedication exemplum of the first edition (London, 1689), inscribed by Shadwell on a flyleaf For the L^d Chamberlain: i.e. for the play's dedicatee Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset.

c.1689

Inscribed on a flyleaf M:C:, probably denoting Dorset's second wife (whom he married in 1685) Lady Mary Compton. Later in the library of Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector. Sotheby's, 10 November 1834 (Heber sale, Part III), lot 3210. Afterwards in the Britwell Court Library, at Burnham, Buckinghamshire, founded by William Henry Miller, MP (1789-1848) and maintained by Samuel Christie Miller, MP (1810-89). Then in the libraries of Frank Brewer Bemis (1861-1935), Boston banker and book collector, and of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr (1906-90), American businessman and collector. Christie's, 11 June 1980 (Houghton sale, Part II), lot 414. Pickering & Chatto, sale catalogue No. 652 (January 1984), item 358, where the inscription is reproduced in facsimile.

Estate of Robert S Pirie, New York ([Shadwell volume])

*SdT 23.4

Autograph

Exemplum of the first edition (London, 1689), allegedly inscribed by Shadwell on a flyleaf For y^e Countess of Dorsett.

c.1689

Later in the library of the Duke of Beaufort. Pickering & Chatto's sale catalogue for 1902, item 4905, and their A Catalogue of Old and Rare Books (c.1910?), item. 2503.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Shadwell volume])

Bury-Fair. Song: I sent a fish

First published in London, 1689. Jocular lines by Oldwit. Versions published in Ben Jonson, ed. Herford and Simpson, VIII (Oxford, 1947), pp. 424-5.

SdT 23.5

Copy of Oldwit's jocular verses, in a version beginning In a dish came fish.

A transcript of two 17th-century verse MSS, the second a miscellany, 195 large quarto pages, in calf gilt.

19th century

Once owned by F.W. Cosens, FSA (1819-89), of Clapham Park, book collector. Sotheby's, 25 July 1890 (Cosens sale), in lot 136. Among the collections of Sir Charles Harding Firth (1857-1936), historian.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Firth d. 7 f. 167r)

SdT 23.6

Copy of Oldwit's jocular verses, in a version beginning In a dish came fish.

A duodecimo verse miscellany, in a largely secretary hand, 222 pages, in calf.

c.1705

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS c 189 p. 63)

Epsom-Wells

First published in London, 1673. Summers, II, 95-182.

SdT 23.7

An extract, the closing couplet of Act IV, beginning I to my husband scorn to be a slave.

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.

c.1680s-90s

Inscribed (on stubs and endpapers) matt Calihan, To C^pt Robinson att Ca^pt Eloass [Elwes] near y^e Watch house in Marlbur^hroagh street, For Cap^t. 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: RoJ Δ 8. Discussed with facsimiles of pp. 1-10 in Paul Hammond, The Robinson Manuscript Miscellany of Restoration Verse in the Brotherton Collection, Leeds, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 18 (1982), 275-324 [cited in entries as Hammond, Robinson]. Facsimiles of p. 1 also in Christie's sale catalogue, Plate 1, after p. 48, and in The Brotherton Collection University of Leeds: Its contents described with illustrations of fifty books and manuscripts (Leeds, 1986), p. 17. Selectively collated in Walker.

Leeds University Library, Brotherton Collection (MS Lt 54 p. 122)

Epsom-Wells, Act III, scene i. Song ('Oh, how I abhor')

Summers, II, 95-182 (pp. 139-40).

SdT 24

Copy of the Fiddler's song, untitled and subscribed y^e song in Epsom Wells.

A quarto notebook of verse and prose, including Ball family letters and accounts, the greater part in one hand, written from both ends, 44 leaves, in contemporary limp vellum.

Late 17th century

The name Will Ball inscribed twice on f. 5r and a copy of his father's will dated 17 November 1647 on ff. 11v-12r

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, other shelfmarks (MS Rawl. B. 35 f. 38r rev.)

SdT 25

Copy of the Fiddler's song, in a musical setting by Robert Smith, untitled.

A folio songbook, almost entirely in a single rounded italic hand, with (ff. 3r-7v) a table of contents, 113 leaves, in 19th-century half dark red morocco.

Compiled by Edward Lowe (c.1610-82), organist and composer (his signature f. 2v).

c.1654-70s

Arms of Eleanor Bursh on a seal affixed to f. 56r. Later owned and annotated in pencil by Thomas Oliphant (1799-1873), music editor and cataloguer.

A complete facsimile of this volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 5 (New York & London, 1986).

The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (Add. MS 29396 ff. 104v-6r)

SdT 25.5

Copy of the Fiddler's song, in a non-professional hand, on a flyleaf in an exemplum of Abraham Cowley's Works, 4th edition (London, 1674).

c.1674-78

The leaf variously inscribed Planford or Clanford, y^e guift of m^r John Mould of Lond. 1678, and [?] S. A. Janford Aug 4 1857.

Estate of Robert S Pirie, New York ([Shadwell song])

The Humorists

First published in London, 1671. Summers, I, 175-255. Edited by Richard Perkin (Dublin, 1975).

*SdT 26

Autograph

Copy, in a professional hand, as by Thomas Shadwell 1670, with a few autograph revisions and additions, including a several-line insertion on p. 15, 87 folio pages, in modern half-morocco.

c.1670

Edited in part from this MS in Perkin.

University of Nottingham (Pw V 33)

The Humorous Lovers

A comedy by Sir William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, in which Shadwell may have had a hand. First published in London, 1677.

Letters

Letter(s)

*SdT 43 c.1650s-60s

Autograph

Autograph doggerel verse epistle signed by Shadwell, to William Trumbull, beginning It was I assure you with the greatest Surprize, undated.

Facsimile of the first page in Sotheby's sale catalogue The Trumbull Papers (14 December 1989), lot 62. Facsimile in IELM, II.ii (1993), Facsimile XI, after p. xxi.

A folio composite volume of correspondence chiefly of Sir William Trumbull, in various hands, 197 leaves.

Volume CCCI of the Trumbull Papers.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 60000 through end (Add. MS 72542 ff. 98r-9r)

*SdT 44 c.1650s-60s

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, addressed to William Trumbull (Will Trumbull Esq^r a gallant Young Spark / To be left at his house in Easthamsted Park), a doggerel verse epistle beginning Tho it's very unlucky oft times to delay, undated.

A folio composite volume of correspondence chiefly of Sir William Trumbull, in various hands, 197 leaves.

Volume CCCI of the Trumbull Papers.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 60000 through end (Add. MS 72542 ff. 100r-1r)

*SdT 45

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to the Earl of Craven, 21 December [1676?].

1676

Edited in William J. Burling, A New Shadwell Letter, Modern Philology, 83 (1985), 168-71. Facsimile in an unspecified sale catalogue, item 37.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osb MSS File 13412)

*SdT 46

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, 24 January 1682/3.

1683

Recorded in HMC, 4th report (1873), Appendix, p. 280. Edited in Summers, V, 401.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 C109/1)

*SdT 47

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to Henry Cavendish, second Duke of Newcastle, from London, 31 January 1687[/8].

Edited in Francis Needham, A Letter of Shadwell's, TLS, 23 October 1930, p. 866.

University of Nottingham (Pw 1 248)

*SdT 48

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to James Butler, second Duke of Ormonde, 5 November 1688.

1688

Recorded in HMC, Ormonde, NS, Vol. VIII (1920), p. 8. Edited in Summers, I, ccvi., and V, 402.

National Library of Ireland (MS 2454, ff. 263r-4r, 267r)

*SdT 49

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, from Chelsea, 19 January 1691[/2].

1692

Formerly in the Sackville archives of Lord De La Warr at Knole Park, Kent, and entrusted to Montague Summers by Lord Sackville before 1927.

Recorded in HMC, 4th report (1873), Appendix, pp. 280-1. Edited in Summers, I, ccxxix-ccxxx, and V, 403, with a facsimile as frontispiece of Vol. V.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Shadwell letter])

*SdT 50

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, from Chelsea, 2 May 1692.

1692

Recorded in HMC, 4th report (1873), Appendix, p. 281. Edited in Summers, I, ccxxx-ccxxxi, and V, 404.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 C109/3)

*SdT 51

Autograph

Autograph letter signed by Shadwell, to Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, 10 September 1692.

1692

Edited in Brice Harris, Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset: Patron and Poet of the Restoration, Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 26, Nos. 3-4 (Urbana, 1940), p. 158.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 C109/2)

Documents

Document(s)

SdT 52

A receipt for specified documents delivered to Shadwell on 26 April 1664, signed by Shadwell, 30 April 1664.

1664

Later in the collection of Alfred Morrison (1821-97), manuscript and art collector. Colbeck, Radford & Co. [i.e. Dobell], sale catalogues The Ingatherer, No. 14 (1931), item 163, and No. 36 (May 1934), item 159.

Recorded, with a facsimile of the signature, in Catalogue of the Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents formed between 1865 and 1882 by Alfred Morrison, 6 vols ([London], 1883-92), VI, 113.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Shadwell document])

*SdT 53

Autograph

An indenture for the transfer of manors in Surrey from Francis Howard to Sir George Couthopp, signed by Shadwell as a witness, 16 April 1673.

1673

Sotheby's, 18 July 1973, lot 165. Formerly Gen. MSS. Misc. No. AM 21354.

Princeton (CO140, box 44)

*SdT 54

Autograph

An autograph list of purchases by Shadwell, 12 March 1676[/7].

1677

The Pierpont Morgan Library (MA 1259)

*SdT 55

Autograph

A financial statement relating to the payment of £50 to John Rogers and his wife Anne, signed by Shadwell, 14 May 1678.

1678

Puttick & Simpson's, 4 June 1878, lot 244.

Haverford College (Charles Roberts Autograph Letters Collection, MS Coll. 115)

*SdT 56

Autograph

A receipt signed by Shadwell, acknowledging payment of a quarterly pension of £10, 13 August 1688.

1688

Recorded in John Ross, Addenda to Shadwell's Complete Works: A Checklist, N & Q, 220 (June 1975), 256-9.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 A189/5)

*SdT 57

Autograph

A receipt signed by Shadwell, acknowledging payment of a quarterly pension of £10, 24 November 1688.

1688

Recorded in John Ross, Addenda to Shadwell's Complete Works: A Checklist, N & Q, 220 (June 1975), 256-9.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 A189/6)

*SdT 58

Autograph

A receipt signed by Shadwell, acknowledging payment of a quarterly pension of £10, 10 August 1689.

1689

Recorded in John Ross, Addenda to Shadwell's Complete Works: A Checklist, N & Q, 220 (June 1975), 256-9 (p. 258). Edited in Brice Harris, Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset: Patron and Poet of the Restoration, Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, Vol. 25, Nos. 3-4 (Urbana, 1940), p. 124.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 A190/5 (15))

SdT 59

A receipt signed by Shadwell, acknowledging payment of a quarterly pension of £10, 12 December 1689.

1689

Recorded in John Ross, Addenda to Shadwell's Complete Works: A Checklist, N & Q, 220 (June 1975), 256-9.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 A190/9)

*SdT 60

Autograph

A signed receipt acknowledging payment of a quarterly pension of £10, 23 December 1689.

1689

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 A190/5 (79))

*SdT 61

Autograph

A possibly autograph receipt signed by Shadwell, acknowledging payment of £5, 24 November [no year].

c.1689

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone (U269 A190/8)

Will

*SdT 62

Autograph

Shadwell's last will and testament, entirely autograph and signed by him, [1690], proved 13 December 1692.

Edited in Summers, I, ccxxxv-ccxxxvi, with a complete unfolding facsimile after p. ccxxx. It is is accompanied by a probate deposition signed by Ellenor Leigh on 13 December 1692, certifying that Shadwell wrote the Will between Bartholomew=tide and Michaelmas 1690. This is edited in Summers, I, ccxxxv (where it is misdated 3, December), with an unfolding facsimile before p. ccxxxi.

1690

National Archives, Kew (PROB 10/1238)

SdT 63

A registered copy of Shadwell's last will and testament, proved 13 December 1692.

1692

National Archives, Kew (PROB 11/412/231)

Thomas Shadwell

Introduction

Letters and Documents

Shadwell's Handwriting

The Canon of Verse and Dramatic Works

Dramatis Personæ

Musical Settings

Miscellaneous

Abbreviations

Verse

Dramatic Works

Letters

Documents

Contents