John Webster

A printed exemplum of Sir Thomas Overbury, A Wife, 9th impression (London, 1616).

A printed exemplum of Sir Thomas Overbury, A Wife, 9th impression (London, 1616).

A quarto miscellany of extracts from plays and historical works, with comments on them, entitled Excerpta quædam per A. W. Adolescentem, in a single cursive predominantly italic hand, 119 leaves, in modern quarter-morocco.

Entirely in the hand of the Rev. Abraham Wright (1611-90), of St John's College, Oxford, author.

For facsimile examples, see ShW 71 and ShW 44.

An octavo commonplace book of extracts from various authors, some under headings, compiled by William Sancroft (1617-93), Archbishop of Canterbury, written from both ends, iv + 558 pages (the majority blank), in contemporary vellum.

A quarto miscellany of extracts from plays and historical works, with comments on them, entitled Excerpta quædam per A. W. Adolescentem, in a single cursive predominantly italic hand, 119 leaves, in modern quarter-morocco.

Entirely in the hand of the Rev. Abraham Wright (1611-90), of St John's College, Oxford, author.

For facsimile examples, see ShW 71 and ShW 44.

A quarto volume, in two hands.

274 leaves, unnumbered.

Comprising:

[Part I, ff. 12r-168r], five sermons, the first four by Donne, in the hand of Knightley Chetwode, son of Richard Chetwode, of Chetwode, Buckinghamshire, and Oakley, Staffordshire. 1625/6.

[Part II, ff. 1r-78r rev.], a verse miscellany, produced when the original blank pages were later filled from the reverse end, probably by one Katherine Butler. 1696.

Described in Potter & Simpson, I, 41-2.

An oblong folio songbook, the lyrics in two or more secretary and italic hands, 44 leaves, in contemporary vellum within brown calf gilt, stamped with the initials A. B., now within modern half red morocco.

Facsimile of ff. 2r-26v in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 1 (New York & London, 1986).

A folio songbook, largely in a single secretary hand, with poems and (reversed) culinary and medical receipts in later hands at the end, imperfect or incomplete, now 27 leaves, lacking half the songs listed in a Table at the end.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, Songs Vnto the Violl and Lute—Drexel Ms. 4175, Musica Disciplina, 16 (1962), 73-92.

A folio songbook, in a single secretary hand, some items misnumbered, 144 leaves.

Generally cited as the Earl Ferrers MS. Collated in Cutts, Drexel Manuscript 4041, Musica Disciplina, 18 (1964), 151-202. A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 9 (New York & London, 1987).

A folio songbook, largely in a single secretary hand, with poems and (reversed) culinary and medical receipts in later hands at the end, imperfect or incomplete, now 27 leaves, lacking half the songs listed in a Table at the end.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, Songs Vnto the Violl and Lute—Drexel Ms. 4175, Musica Disciplina, 16 (1962), 73-92.

A quarto verse miscellany, pp. 13-244 in a single largely roman hand, the remainder in varying styles in one or more other hands (up to c.1655), probably associated with Oxford University, 541 pages (of which pp. 1-12, 87-8 have been extracted and pp. 251-68, 334, 400, 410-540 are blank, with stubs of other extracted leaves at the end), in contemporary brown calf.

Including 15 poems (plus one of uncertain authorship) by Corbett and 57 poems (plus a second copy of one poem and four poems of doubtful authorship) by Strode.

Cited in IELM, II.i-ii (1987-93), as the Dobell MS: CoR Δ 8 and StW Δ 18. Discussed in Bertram Dobell in The Athenaeum, No. 4475 (2 August 1913), p. 112. A complete microfilm is at the University of Birmingham, Shakespeare Institute (Mic S 23).

A sextodecimo pocket miscellany, ff. 3r-53r in a single hand, other hands and scribbling on ff. 1r-2r, 54v, 87v-90v, 90 leaves in all (including blanks ff. 55r-87r), in contemporary calf, with remains of clasps.

Including 12 poems by Carew.

Cited in IELM, II.i, as the Archard MS: CwT Δ 24.

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.

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.

A quarto miscellany of extracts from plays and historical works, with comments on them, entitled Excerpta quædam per A. W. Adolescentem, in a single cursive predominantly italic hand, 119 leaves, in modern quarter-morocco.

Entirely in the hand of the Rev. Abraham Wright (1611-90), of St John's College, Oxford, author.

For facsimile examples, see ShW 71 and ShW 44.

A few minor MS corrections in an exemplum of the printed quarto edition of 1612.

These corrections recorded in Lucas, I, 276 et seq.

Exemplum of the quarto edition of 1612 with numerous minor MS annotations consisting of alterations of directions, punctuation or spelling, the deletion or insertion of single words, underlinings, and the insertion of act or scene numbers, in 19th-century half-calf on marbled boards.

A quarto commonplace book of extracts illustrating specified topics, largely in a single cursive hand, entitled Miscellanea Tragica Theatrical Index of Sentim^ts. & Descriptions Vol. 7, 244 pages (including blanks, plus a seven-page index and further blanks), in quarter crushed morocco on marbled boards.

Inscribed W. Harte 1726: i.e. by Walter Harte (1709-41), compiler of the MS, which also has his bookplate.

An exemplum of the printed edition of Cresacre More's Life of Sir Thomas More (London, 1642) copiously annotated by Charles, second Baron Stanhope of Harrington (1593-1675).

Discussed, with a facsimile page, in G.P.V. Akrigg, The Curious Marginalia of Charles, Second Lord Stanhope, in Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway, Giles E. Dawson, and Edwin E. Willoughby (Washington, DC, 1948), pp. 785-801.