Cyril Tourneur

1575?–1626

Introduction

Cyril Tourneur is known to have written a few plays and other works, but his reputation is largely based on The Revenger's Tragedy, a play which, however, is now widely accepted as written by Thomas Middleton. There are no known manuscripts of this or of any play by Tourneur except for some brief early extracts from The Atheist's Tragedy (ToC 7); nor is there any known specimen of Tourneur's handwriting.

Eight early copies have been located of the Character of Salisbury (ToC 2-6.5). This prose piece was attributed by Logan Pearsall Smith to Sir Henry Wotton because of its presence in the Burley MS (ToC 2), but was assigned to Tourneur by Allardyce Nicoll. Tourneur's authorship is supported by ascription in three of the manuscripts, whereas it is nowhere assigned to Wotton, and only part of the Burley MS is transcribed from Wotton's papers. One other item, a poem overlooked by Nicoll, may be tentatively added to the canon on the evidence of the ascription in a manuscript source (ToC 1).

Some music which has been thought to belong to Tourneur's lost play The Nobleman is preserved in the British Library (Add. MSS 10444, ff. 30v, 82, and 38539, f. 19): see Nicoll, pp. 25, 257-8, and Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 31-3, 138-9. However, it seems unlikely that this music has any connection with such a play but is rather for dances performed by a nobleman in a masque: see Four Hundred Songs and Dances from the Stuart Masque, ed. Andrew J. Sabol (Providence, Rhode Island, 1978), No. 106.

A printed exemplum of the 1929 edition of The Works of Cyril Tourneur edited by Allardyce Nicoll (1894-1976), with his extensive revisions in pencil and ink intended for a new edition which was never completed, was offered in Quaritch's sale catalogue English Literary Manuscripts, Inscribed and Annotated Books (2007), item 61.

Abbreviations

Nicoll: The Works of Cyril Tourneur, ed. Allardyce Nicoll (London, [1929]).

Verse

On the death of a child but one year old ('How can Heaven's voyage, long or hard appear?')

First published in A. B. Grosart, Literary-Finds in Trinity College, Dublin, and Elsewhere, Englische Studien, 26 (1899), 1-19 (pp. 16-17).

ToC 1

Copy, subscribed Cecill Turner.

Edited from this MS in Grosart.

A folio verse miscellany, including 15 poems by Donne, f. 162r-v in a rounded italic hand, ff. 164r-74v in a slightly erratic italic hand, ff. 175r-279v in a neat formal italic hand (also responsible for the index on ff. 2r-11v), this miscellany constituting ff. 162r-279v of a single folio volume containing also Part I (DnJ Δ 15), ii + 279 leaves in all (lacking one or more leaves at the end), in old blind-stamped calf (rebacked).

c.1630s

Formerly MS G. 2.21.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Dublin MS (II): DnJ Δ 61.

Trinity College, Dublin, numbers 800 through end (MS 877, [Part II] f. 257r)

Prose

The Character of Robert Earl of Salisbury

A character, beginning He came of a parent, that counselled the state into piety, honour and power..., and dedicated to Lady Theodosia Cecil. First published in Logan Pearsall Smith, The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton (Oxford, 1907), II, 487-9. Nicoll, pp. 259-63.

ToC 2

Copy, in the hand of William Parkhurst, unascribed.

This MS recorded in Nicoll, pp. 330-6 (but not seen by him).

A folio composite volume of state letters, tracts, and verse, collected by, and mostly in the hand of, William Parkhurst (fl.1604-67), Sir Henry Wotton's secretary in Venice and later Master of the Mint, including various works in verse and prose attributed to Donne, chiefly in a scribal hand, partly in Parkhurst's hand, 373 leaves (including blanks), in old calf.

Among the papers of the Finch family of Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland. Mistakenly reported by Grierson and Logan Pearsall Smith to have been destroyed in a fire at Burley c.1908.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Burley MS: DnJ Δ 53. Recorded in HMC, 7th Report (1879), Appendix, p. 516. A complete microfilm of the MS is at the University of Sheffield, Microfilm 737.

A neat transcript of parts of the Burley MS (including principally poems on ff. 255r-v, 278v, [279r]-288v, 342v-3r, 294r-300r, 301r-8v), made before 1908, on 35 leaves, is in the Bodleian, MS Eng. poet. c. 80.

Leicestershire Record Office (DG. 7/Lit. 2 ff. 1r-2v)

ToC 2.5 c.1620

Copy, in a neat professional hand, entitled The Character of Robert; late Earle of salisburie lord high Treasurer of England &c, with a dedication To the most vnderstanding, and the most worthie ladye The ladye Theodosia Cecyll; &c, and subscribed Cyrill Tourneur, in the form of a small 16-leaf booklet (4 x 3 inches).

Edited from this MS in Pearsall Smith and in Nicoll.

A quarto composite volume of historical tracts and papers, in various hands, viii + 618 pages, in calf.

Evans, 16 November 1842 (George Chalmers sale), lot 1647. Afterwards owned by James Orchard Halliwell (from 1872 Halliwell-Phillipps) (1820-89), literary scholar and book collector. J.W. Jarvis & Son, sale catalogue No. 59 (July 1889), item 181.

Bodleian Library, Eng. hist. MSS (MS Eng. hist. e. 28 pp. 436^b-436^gg)

ToC 3 c.1620s

Copy, in the hand of Ralph Starkey, headed The character of Robart Earle of Salesburye Lord high Treasurer of Englande &c: written by m^r william Turneur and dedicated to the most vnderstanding and y^e most worthie Ladye the Ladie Theodosia Cecyll Dated an^o <blank>, subscribed Guil: Tourneur.

Edited from this MS in Nicoll, pp. 259-63.

A folio volume of state papers and tracts, in various professional hands, 396 leaves (plus blanks), in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

Chiefly in the hand of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), antiquary, and also including the Feathery Scribe.

Later owned by Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Bt, MP (1602-50), diarist and antiquary.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 1 through 999 (Harley MS 36 ff. 394r-6v)

ToC 3.5

Copy, in the hand of the Feathery Scribe, with the dedication to Lady Theodosia Cecil, as Written by M^r: William Turnour and subscribed Guil: Tourneur.

A folio volume of state letters and tracts, in two professional secretary hands, predominantly that of the Feathery Scribe, 334 leaves, plus an index in an italic hand (f. 375r), in modern half vellum on marbled boards.

Sotheby's, 4 July 1955 (André de Coppet sale), lot 950, to Maggs. Formerly Folger MS Add. 35.

Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 262-5 (No. 108).

The Folger Shakespeare Library, Miscellaneous manuscripts (MS G.b.9 ff. 145v-9r)

ToC 4.5

Copy of an early version, in a small secretary hand, headed The Character of the late Erle of Salisbury, subscribed Jerill Turner, on three pages of an unbound pair of conjugate quarto leaves, once folded as a letter or packet.

With two letters about the MS, one of them by Allardyce Nicoll to Mrs Clifton, 22 June 1929.

c.1612-20s

Among papers of the Clifton family, of Clifton Hall, Nottinghamshire.

This MS recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1873), Appendix, p. 361, and HMC 55, Various Collections, Vol. VII (1914), p. 265. Edited in Nicoll, pp. 297-8.

University of Nottingham (Cl LP 45)

ToC 5 c.1612-20s

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed The Character of Robert late Earle of Salisburie, Lord Heigh Treasurer of England &c., unascribed, on three quarto leaves (plus a blank).

This MS collated in Nicoll, pp. 330-6.

A folio guardbook of independent Jacobean state papers, stamped foliation 1-129.

National Archives, Kew (SP 14/69 ff. 75r-7r (item 59))

ToC 6

Copy, in the hand of the Feathery Scribe, as Written by m^r: Serill Turneur and Dedicated to the most vnderstandinge, and the most worthie Ladie, the Ladie Theodosia Cecill: Dated, an^o [blank], subscribed Serill Tourneur:.

This MS recorded (but not seen) in Nicoll, pp. 330-6. Beal, In Praise of Scribes, p. 250 (No. 77.2).

A folio volume of four tracts, the first three of them in the professional secretary hand of the Feathery Scribe, 83 leaves, in modern half-vellum marbled boards.

c.1625-40

Mostyn MS 262 (MS 56 in 1744), from the library originally founded by Sir Thomas Mostyn (1535-1617) at Mostyn hall, near Holywell, Flintshire, and maintained by Sir Roger Mostyn (1567-1642) and his son Sir Roger Mostyn, first Baronet (1625?-90). Later in the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), psychologist, linguist, and book collector.

Recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1874), Appendix, p. 361. Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 250 (No. 77).

University College London (MS Ogden 36 ff. [65r-9r])

ToC 6.5

Copy, in a neat predominantly italic hand, headed The Character of Robert Late Earle of Salisbury, unascribed.

A folio commonplace book of tracts and verses, in several hands, begun 1 October 1639, written from both ends, 35 leaves from the front, 241 pages (plus numerous blanks) at the reverse end, in old calf gilt.

Compiled by, and partly in the rugged italic hand of, Francis Russell, MP (1593-1641), fourth Earl of Bedford, politician.

c.1639

Recorded in HMC, 2nd Report (1871), Appendix, p. 1.

The Duke of Bedford, Woburn Abbey (HMC MS No. 25 ff. [5r-7v])

Dramatic works

The Atheist's Tragedy

First published in London, 1611. Nicoll, pp. 173-255.

ToC 7

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.