Bodleian Library, Eng. th. MSS

MS Eng. th. c. 71

Merton MS.

A folio miscellany of sermons, state papers and theological works, including (ff. 53-171) 16 sermons by Donne, in a single hand; the first item (ff. 1-5) a sermon by John King, Bishop of London (1559?-1621), xii + 177 leaves (including blanks), in contemporary calf gilt.

c.1620s.

Once owned by one H.F.; later owned by John Payne Collier (1789-1883) and (before 1960) by Wilfred Merton. This large folio volume can now be identified as owned by, if not in the hand of, one Henry Feilde, whose calligraphic script, elaborate layout, and occasional bindings stamped H.F. can be identified in many other MSS.

Described in Potter & Simpson, I, 33-6 (with apparently unwarranted doubts about Collier's ownership). Facsimile examples in Potter & Simpson, X, 425-8, and John Donne, exhibition catalogue compiled by Robert S Pirie (Grolier Club, New York, 1972), facing p. 16.

ff. 52v-9v
DnJ 4009: John Donne, A Sermon of Valediction at my going into Germany, at Lincoln's Inn, April 18, 1619, on Ecclesiastics 12.1 ('')

Copy, headed Do Donns Farewell Sermon preach'd at Lincolnes Inne when he went to the K: of Bohemia 1619.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson. Facsimiles of f. 52v is in Potter & Simpson, X, 426, and in John Donne, exhibition catalogue compiled by Robert S Pirie (Grolier Club, New York, 1972), facing p. 16.

First published in XXVI Sermons (London, 1661), No. 19. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 11, pp. 235-49.

ff. 60-5
DnJ 4045: John Donne, Sermon preached to the Nobility, on Luke 23.24 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 34. Potter & Simpson, V, No. 12, pp. 231-44.

ff. 66-72
DnJ 4014: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn [January 30, 1619/20], on John 5.22 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 12. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 15, pp. 311-24.

ff. 72v-6v
DnJ 4018: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn [the evening of January 30, 1619/20], on John 8.15 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 13. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 16, pp. 325-34.

ff. 78-84v
DnJ 4024: John Donne, Sermon preached at Whitehall, April 30, 1620, on Psalms 144.15 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in LXXX Sermons (London, 1640), No. 74. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 2, pp. 73-90.

f. 86v
DnJ 4123: John Donne, Letter(s) ('')

Copy of a letter by Donne, to Susan Vere, Countess of Montgomery, [1619].

The original letter (now lost) apparently enclosed a copy of Donne's Sermon of Valediction preached at Lincoln's Inn on 18 April 1619 (not Donne's sermon on Matthew 21.44 as was thought by Potter & Simpson). The letter was published in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour (London, 1651).

ff. 87r-93v
DnJ 4005: John Donne, Sermon preached February 21 [1618/19], on Matthew 21.44 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 35. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 8, pp. 180-96.

ff. 95-101v
DnJ 4001: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn [spring or summer, 1618], on Psalms 38.9 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in the 1921 facsimile of the Dowden Sermons MS (see DnJ 4002). Potter & Simpson, II, No. 6, pp. 144-63.

ff. 103-9
DnJ 4035: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn, on Colossians 1.24 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 16. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 16, pp. 332-47.

ff. 110-15
DnJ 4023: John Donne, Sermon preached at Whitehall, March 3, 1619/20, on Amos 5.18 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in LXXX Sermons (London, 1640), No. 14. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 18, pp. 348-63.

ff. 116-22
DnJ 3998: John Donne, Sermon preached at Denmark-House, December 14, 1617, on Proverbs 8.17 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in XXVI Sermons (London, 1661), No. 18. Potter & Simpson, I, No. 5, pp. 236-51.

ff. 123-9
DnJ 4028: John Donne, Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, February 16, 1620/21, on I Timothy 3.16 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in XXVI Sermons (London, 1661), No. 4. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 9, pp. 206-24.

ff. 130-7v
DnJ 4047: John Donne, Sermon preached to the Earl of Carlisle, and his Company, at Sion [1622?], on Mark 16.16 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in LXXX Sermons (London, 1640), No. 76. Potter & Simpson, V, No. 13, pp. 245-67.

ff. 139-45
DnJ 4040: John Donne, Sermon preached at Whitehall, March 8, 1621/22, on I Corinthians 15.26 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in LXXX Sermons (London, 1640), No. 15. Potter & Simpson, IV, No. 1, pp. 45-62.

ff. 146-9v
DnJ 4022: John Donne, Sermon preached at Sir Francis Nethersole's Marriage [shortly before February 12, 1619/20], on Genesis 2.18 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 2. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 17, pp. 335-47.

ff. 150-5v
DnJ 4032: John Donne, Sermon preached at the marriage of Mistress Margaret Washington, May 30, 1621, on Hosea 2.19 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 3. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 11, pp. 241-55.

ff. 156-71
DnJ 4042: John Donne, Sermon preached at the Spittle, upon Easter Monday, 1622, on II Corinthians 4.6 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in XXVI Sermons (London, 1661), No. 25. Potter & Simpson, IV, No. 3, pp. 89-131.

MS Eng. th. e. 14

A quarto volume chiefly of sermons, compiled by one Jeremy Allen, xii + 630 pages. c.1630.

Owned in 1784 by E. Dolben, as a gift of his cousin the Rev. James Afflick. Acquired from Bull & Auvache, August 1893.

pp. 597-617
BcF 64: Francis Bacon, An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of England ('')

Copy.

A tract beginning It is but ignorance if any man find it strange that the state of religion (especially in the days of peace) should be exercised.... First published as A Wise and Moderate Discourse concerning Church-Affaires ([London], 1641). Spedding, VIII, 74-95.

MS Eng. th. e. 50

Volume of autograph prose. Centuries of Meditation.

8°, 91 leaves (including three or four blank pages, a portion of f. 87 excised, plus 50 blanks at the end [ff. 91v-141v]; volume of autograph prose meditations and twelve poems by Thomas Traherne, in fair copy and with autograph revisions, in numbered sections, dedicated to an unnamed lady (the friend of my best friend); inscribed on a flyleaf (f. 3) Centuries of Meditation.

Lettered on the spine MSS. of Henry Vaughan Silurist; subsequently owned, apparently in 1870, by Alexander Grosart (1827-99), who reacquired it in 1896 after its rediscovery in London by William T. Brooke; afterwards acquired by Bertram Dobell (1842-1914).

Recorded in IELM as TrT Δ 2. Edited from this MS (in part: most of the verse and some prose extracts) in Dobell (1903), and (in full) in Dobell (1908); in Margoliouth, I, 1-232; Ridler, pp. 165-372. Facsimile examples in Margoliouth, I, frontispiece; English Poetical Autographs, ed. Desmond Flower and A.N.L. Munby (London, 1938), p. 12; Louis L. Martz, The Paradise Within: Studies in Vaughan, Traherne and Milton (New Haven, 1964), facing p. 68; and Croft, Autograph Poetry, I, 55. Complete microfilm in the Library of Congress.

f. 2
*TrT 217: Thomas Traherne, This book unto the friend of my best friend

Autograph, with revisions.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published in Dobell (1908), p. 2. Margoliouth, I, 2. Ridler, p. 166.

f. 27v
*TrT 142: Thomas Traherne, Even as the Sea within a finit Shore

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published in Dobell (1908), p. 86. Margoliouth, I, 61. Ridler, p. 219. These two lines are related to lines 7-8 of His Power Bounded, Greater is in Might (TrT 151).

f. 42v
*TrT 156: Thomas Traherne, If God as verses say a Spirit be

Autograph translation from Cato, headed Si Deus est Animus sit pura Mente Colendus.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published in Dobell (1908), p. 140. Margoliouth, I, 99. Ridler, p. 253.

f. 47r-v
*TrT 74: Thomas Traherne, The Approach ('That Childish Thoughts such Joys inspire')

Autograph, untitled but headed Upon those Pure and Virgin Apprehensions which I had in my Infancy, I made this Poem.

Edited from this MS in Dobell (1908), pp. 159-60; in Margoliouth, I, 112-13; and in Ridler, pp. 264-6.

First published in Dobell (1903), pp. 30-2. Margoliouth, II, 36, 38, 40. Ridler, pp. 21-2.

f. 50v
*TrT 160: Thomas Traherne, In Making Bodies Lov could not Express

Autograph, with revisions.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as [The Soul's Glory], in Dobell (1903), pp. 119-20. Dobell (1908), pp. 171-2. Margoliouth, I, 121. Ridler, pp. 272-3.

f. 51
*TrT 151: Thomas Traherne, His Power Bounded, Greater is in Might

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as [Finite yet Infinite] in Dobell (1903), p. 121. Dobell (1908), p. 173-4. Margoliouth, I, 122-3. Ridler, p. 274.

f. 52r-v
*TrT 187: Thomas Traherne, On News ('News from a forrein Country came')

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors. Facsimiles in Croft, Autograph Poetry, I, 55 (as two separate pages complete with prose), and in English Poetical Autographs, ed. Desmond Flower and A.N.L. Munby (London, 1938), p. 12 (verse only rearranged as a single page).

First published in Dobell (1903), pp. 122-4. Dobell (1908), pp. 177-9. Margoliouth, I, 125-7. Ridler, pp. 276-8. This poem is a variant version of TrT 180.

f. 56
*TrT 1: Thomas Traherne, A life of Sabbaths here beneath!

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as [The Triumph], in Dobell (1903), pp. 125-6. Dobell (1908), pp. 195-6. Margoliouth, I, 138-9. Ridler, p. 288.

f. 56v
*TrT 211: Thomas Traherne, Sin!

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as [The Only Ill], in Dobell (1903), pp. 127-8. Dobell (1908), pp. 197-8. Margoliouth, I, 139-40. Ridler, pp. 289-90.

ff. 56v-7
*TrT 197: Thomas Traherne, The Recovery ('Sin! wilt Thou vanquish me!')

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published in Dobell (1903), p. 129. Dobell (1908), p. 198. Margoliouth, I, 140. Ridler, p. 290.

ff. 60-1
*TrT 162: Thomas Traherne, In Salem dwelt a Glorious King

Autograph, with revisions.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as [The Glory of Israel], in Dobell (1903), pp. 130-3. Dobell (1908), pp. 212-15. Margoliouth, I, 150-3. Ridler, pp. 299-301.

f. 69
*TrT 120: Thomas Traherne, Could but the Crow in lonely Silence Eat

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published in Dobell (1908), p. 248. Margoliouth, I, 175. Ridler, p. 322.

MS Eng. th. e. 51

Thomas Traherne's MS Meditations and Devotions on the festivals of the Church: Church Year-Book.

8°, 114 leaves (plus 29 blanks [ff. 114-42]); volume of autograph prose meditations and poems composed by Thomas Traherne and others, in fair copy and with autograph revisions, on nineteen occasions of the Church calendar from Easter to All Saints' Day (representing probably half of the meditations for a complete Church year); including (f. 112v) Traherne's autograph copy of George Herbert's To all Angels and Saints (see HrG 265); with additions intermittently throughout the MS (notably passages on ff. 15, 16, 17, 79, 113) in another, unidentified, cursive hand in darker ink, and with some additions on f. 24v only in the hand of Philip Traherne (written before his departure for Smyrna c.September 1670).

c.1660-74.

Later owned by Alexander Grosart (1827-99) and acquired in the Grosart sale at Sotheby's, 11 December 1899, probably in one of the lots of miscellaneous theological MSS (Nos. 385, 443, 446, 463 or 464), by Bertram Dobell (1842-1914); [ante September 1870].

Recorded in IELM as TrT Δ 3. The three sets of verse on ff. 13v-14, 30, 84v edited from this MS in Dobell (1903). Edited in full in Ross, Vol IV, pp. 7-311, with facsimiles of ff. 31r and 24v on pp., 3-4. Facsimile example in Dobell (1903), frontispiece. Discussed, and the contents listed, in Margoliuth, I, xvii-xx (where the MS is tentatively dated 1673); in Ridler, pp. 155-7; and in Carol L. Marks, Traherne's Church Year-Book, PBSA, 60 (1966), 31-72.

ff. 13v-14
*TrT 224: Thomas Traherne, Unto the Spring of Purest Life

Autograph.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as Aspiration, in Dobell (1903), pp. 134-7. Margoliouth, II, 200-2. Ridler, pp. 155-7.

f. 30
*TrT 118: Thomas Traherne, Com Holy Ghost Eternal God!

Autograph translation of the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus.

Edited from this MS by editors.

First published, as [Supplication], in Dobell (1903), p. 138. Margoliouth, II, 202. Ridler, pp. 157-8.

f. 84v
*TrT 154: Thomas Traherne, An Hymne upon St Bartholomews Day ('What Powerfull Spirit livs within')

Autograph, with revisions.

Edited from this MS by editors. Facsimile in Dobell (1903), frontispiece.

First published in Dobell (1903), pp. 139-40. Margoliouth, II, 202-3. Ridler, pp. 157-8.

f. 112v
HrG 265: George Herbert, To all Angels and Saints ('Oh glorious spirits, who after all your bands')

Copy in the hand of Thomas Traherne.

This MS not recorded in Hutchinson.

First published in The Temple (1633). Hutchinson, pp. 77-8.

MS Eng. th. e. 102

Dowden Sermons MS.

4°, 231 pages; volume of eight sermons by Donne in a single hand, with an anonymous sermon and notes added (pp. 215-31) in another hand.

c.1620s-30s.

Owned before 29 May 1683 by the Gregge family (? Thomas Grege or William Gregge (d.1690) of London) of Ilkeston Park, Derbyshire; later owned by Edward Dowden (1843-1913) (and sold at Hodgson's, 16 December 1913, lot 55) and (before 1960) by Wilfred Merton.

Described in Potter & Simpson, I, 36-8, and X, 425, 427. For information about Ilkeston Park see Edwin Trueman and R. Westland Marston, History of Ilkeston (Ilkeston, 1899).

pp. 1-25
DnJ 4006: John Donne, Sermon preached February 21 [1618/19], on Matthew 21.44 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 35. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 8, pp. 180-96.

pp. 24-49
DnJ 4015: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn [January 30, 1619/20], on John 5.22 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 12. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 15, pp. 311-24.

pp. 51-66
DnJ 4019: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn [the evening of January 30, 1619/20], on John 8.15 ('')

Copy, headed The Sermon on the Eveninge of the same day.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Six Sermons (Cambridge, 1634). Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 13. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 16, pp. 325-34.

pp. 67-95
DnJ 4010: John Donne, A Sermon of Valediction at my going into Germany, at Lincoln's Inn, April 18, 1619, on Ecclesiastics 12.1 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in XXVI Sermons (London, 1661), No. 19. Potter & Simpson, II, No. 11, pp. 235-49.

pp. 97-121
DnJ 4036: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn, on Colossians 1.24 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in Fifty Sermons (London, 1649), No. 16. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 16, pp. 332-47.

pp. 123-50
DnJ 4025: John Donne, Sermon preached at Whitehall, April 30, 1620, on Psalms 144.15 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in LXXX Sermons (London, 1640), No. 74. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 2, pp. 73-90.

pp. 151-81
DnJ 4002: John Donne, Sermon preached at Lincoln's Inn [spring or summer, 1618], on Psalms 38.9 ('')

Copy.

This MS reproduced in facsimile as Sermon on Psalm xxxviii.9 (London, privately printed, 1921). Edited from this MS in Evelyn M. Simpson, A Study of the Prose works of John Donne (Oxford, 1924), pp. 321-39. Collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in the 1921 facsimile of the Dowden Sermons MS (see DnJ 4002). Potter & Simpson, II, No. 6, pp. 144-63.

pp. 183-212
DnJ 4029: John Donne, Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, February 16, 1620/21, on I Timothy 3.16 ('')

Copy.

This MS collated in Potter & Simpson.

First published in XXVI Sermons (London, 1661), No. 4. Potter & Simpson, III, No. 9, pp. 206-24.