Downing College, Cambridge

Bowtell Collection, MS Wickstede Thesaurus, Part II

A folio volume of tracts and letters, many relating to Cambridge affairs, partly compiled by I. Wickstede, mayor of Cambridge. Early 17th century.
ff. 25v-7r
DaJ 114: Sir John Davies, Verses given to the Lord Treasuer upon Newyeares Day upon a Dosen of Trenchers, by Mr. Davis ('Longe have I servd in Court, yet learned not all this while')

Copy of the series of twelve poems.

This MS collated in Krueger and in Doughtie, pp. 596-601. Described in Krueger, p. 439.

First published as Yet other 12. Wonders of the World never yet published in Francis Davison, A Poetical Rhapsody (London, 1608). Doughtie, Lyrics from English Airs, pp. 381-4. Krueger, pp. 225-8.

f. 40r
RaW 919: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s) ('')

Copy of a letter by Ralegh.

ff. 46r-7r
CoR 42: Richard Corbett, A Certaine Poeme As it was presented in Latine by Divines and Others, before his Maiestye in Cambridge ('It is not yet a fortnight, since')

Copy.

First published in Poëtica Stromata ([no place], 1648). Bennett & Trevor-Roper, pp. 12-18.

Some texts accompanied by an Answer (A ballad late was made).

ff. 106v-7v
DrW 117.29: William Drummond of Hawthornden, For the Kinge ('From such a face quois excellence')

Copy.

Often headed in MSS The [Five] Senses, a parody of Patrico's blessing of the King's senses in Jonson's Gypsies Metamorphosed (JnB 654-70). A MS copy owned by Drummond: see The Library of Drummond of Hawthornden, ed. Robert H. Macdonald (Edinburgh, 1971), No. 1357. Kastner printed the poem among his Poems of Doubtful Authenticity (II, 296-9), but its sentiments are alien to those of Drummond: see C.F. Main, Ben Jonson and an Unknown Poet on the King's Senses, MLN, 74 (1959), 389-93, and MacDonald, SSL, 7 (1969), 118. Discussed also in Allan H. Gilbert, Jonson and Drummond or Gil on the King's Senses, MLN, 62 (January 1947), 35-7. Sometimes also ascribed to James Johnson.

f. 115v
BcF 609: Francis Bacon, Letter(s) ('')

Copy of a letter by Bacon.