Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield

  • MS, shelf RZZ 3, case B. II

    A quarto miscellany of religious verse and prose, dedicated to Thomas Knyvett, including (pp. 90-3 passim) thirteen sonnets by William Alabaster headed Certaine of Arabasters his meditations. Anno 1597, compiled by Peter Mowle, of Attleborough, Norfolk, 179 leaves, in contemporary calf stamped P.M.

    c.1592-1606.

    Inscribed Peter Mowld Junior oweth this Booke Witnesse Edmond Mould Anno 1605. Formerly MS E. 3. 11 (Shelf RNN3).

    Described in McDonald, pp. 29-33. Discussed in Earle Havens, Notes from a Literary Underground: Recusant Catholics, Jesuit Priests, and Scribal Publication in Elizabethan England, PBSA, 99 (December 2005), 505-38 (p. 529 et seq.)

    • AlW 22 pp. 90-3 passim
      No description or publication history available.

      Sonnets, p. 11 (No. 21).

      William Alabaster, Upon Christ's Saying to Mary Why Weepest Thou? ('I weep two deaths with one tears to lament')
    • AlW 34 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 15 (No. 27).

      William Alabaster, Of the Reed that the Jews Set in Our Saviour's Hand (1) ('Conceive a Lamb that should a kingdom weigh')
    • AlW 35 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Guiney and in Sonnets.

      First published, as On the Reed of Our Lord's Passion, in Louise Imogen Guiney, Recusant Poets: with a selection from their work, vol. 1 (1938), p. 348. Sonnets, p. 15 (No. 28).

      William Alabaster, Of the Former Argument (2) ('Long time hath Christ, long time I must confess')
    • AlW 36 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 16 (No. 29).

      William Alabaster, The Spitting Upon Our Saviour ('What art, what hand can draw the next disgrace')
    • AlW 37 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 16 (No. 30).

      William Alabaster, Upon the Crucifix (1) ('Before thy Cross, O Christ, I do present')
    • AlW 38 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 17 (No. 31).

      William Alabaster, Upon St. Paul to the Corinthians ('Behold a conduit that from heaven doth run')
    • AlW 79 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 28 (No. 50).

      William Alabaster, To His Sad Friend ('Can my restraint, which worketh me delight')
    • AlW 80 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 29 (No. 51).

      William Alabaster, Captivity Great Liberty to the Servants of God ('Unbalanced irresolution')
    • AlW 114 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      This MS collated in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 38 (No. 68).

      William Alabaster, A Morning Meditation (1) ('Mine eyes are open, yet perceive I nought')
    • AlW 117 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      This MS collated in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 38 (No. 69).

      William Alabaster, Of the Motions of the Fiend ('With heat and cold I feel the spiteful fiend')
    • AlW 120 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      This MS collated in Sonnets.

      First published in Bertram Dobell, The Sonnets of William Alabaster, Athenaeum, No. 3974 (26 December 1903), pp. 856-8. Sonnets, p. 39 (No. 70).

      William Alabaster, A Morning Meditation (2) ('The sun begins upon my heart to shine')
    • AlW 123 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      This MS collated in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 39 (No. 71).

      William Alabaster, The Difference 'twixt Compunction and Cold Devotion in Beholding the Passion of Our Saviour ('When without tears I look on Christ, I see')
    • AlW 131 pp. 90-3 passim

      Copy.

      Edited from this MS in Sonnets.

      Sonnets, p. 42 (No. 76).

      William Alabaster, An Invective Against Calvin ('Satan, the emperor of blind-born night')
    • SoR 304 pp. 100-8

      Copy.

      This MS collated in Trotman and in Brown, Two Letters.

      Epistle, beginning In children of former ages it hath been thought so behooveful a point of duty.... First published as An Epistle of a Religious Priest unto his Father in A Short Rule of Good Life ([London?, 1596-7?]). Trotman, pp. 36-64. Brown, Two Letters, pp. 1-20.

      Robert Southwell, S.J., Catholic Saint, An Epistle unto his Father (22 October 1589)
    • SoR 267.91 pp. 109-24

      Copy, headed Sartaine moste holsome & necessarie considerations, or meditations verye meete and convenyent (for all degrees) and att all tymes to be duelye considered of and had in Rememberance To wthdrawe our affections from this vaine & wicked worlde, to ye desire of Heauen and heauenlye thinges....

      This MS discussed, with a facsimile of p. 110, in Nancy Pollard Brown, Paperchase: The Dissemination of Catholic Texts in Elizabethan England, EMS, 1 (1989), 120-43 (pp. 125-70.

      First published, as By R: S. The author of S. Peters complaint, in London, 1606. The poem is more commonly ascribed to Philip Howard (1557-95), first Earl of Arundel, Catholic Saint, with whom Southwell was acquainted (see McDonald, pp. 6-7, 121-2). EV17760.

      Robert Southwell, S.J., Catholic Saint, A Foure-fold Meditation: of the foure last things ('O wretched man, which louest earthlie thinges')
    • SoR 198 pp. 138-56

      Copy, complete with The Author to the Reader.

      This MS collated in Brown.

      First published London, 1595. Brown, pp. 75-100.

      Robert Southwell, S.J., Catholic Saint, Saint Peters Complaint ('Launche foorth my Soul into a maine of teares')
  • [unspecified shelfmark]

    A printed exemplum of St Augustine, De civilitate Dei, ed. J.L. Vives (Basle, 1512 [i.e. 1522]), with MS poems by More.

    Mid-16th century.

    Formerly in the Sacristy Library of the Catholic Church of SS Peter and Paul, Lower Brailes, Warwickshire. Inscribed J. Ball, Thomas Brudenell est possessor [i.e. probably Thomas Brudenell (1578-1663, first Earl of Cardigan] and George Brudenell [i.e probably George Brudenell (1685-1732), third Earl of Cardigan].

    This volume recorded in Yale, Volume 3, Part II, p. 67.

    • MrT 13.4 a rear flyleaf

      Copy, in an italic hand.

      Facsimile in Yale, Volume 3, Part II, after p. 303.

      More's epitaph for his own tomb, an addendum to Epigrammata. 278. Yale, Volume III, Part 2, pp. 302-3, with English translation.

      Sir Thomas More, Epigrammata. 278 [addendum]. Aliud eiusdem Distichon eodem conscriptum tempore ('Qui memor es Mori, longæ tibi tempora vitæ')
    • MrT 12.9 a rear flyleaf

      Copy, in an italic hand.

      Facsimile in Yale, Volume 3, Part II, after p. 303.

      More's verses punning on his own name. First published in Doctissima D. Thomæ Mori...Epistola (Louvain, 1568). Yale, Vol. 3, Part II, pp. 302-3, with English translation.

      Sir Thomas More, Epigrammata. 278. Tetrastichon ab ipso conscriptum triennio antequam mortem oppeteret ('Moraris, si sit spes hic tibi longa morandi')
    • MrT 13.9 a rear flyleaf

      Copy, in an italic hand.

      Facsimile in Yale, Volume 3, Part II, after p. 303.

      Yale, Volume III, pp. 304-5, with English translation.

      Sir Thomas More, Epigrammata. 280 ('Misisti mihi quae legenda legi')
    • MrT 5.2 a rear endleaf

      Copy, in a secretary hand.

      Facsimile in Yale, Volume 3, Part II, after p. 303.

      First published in Workes (London, 1557), p. 1432. Yale, Vol. 1, p. 45.

      Sir Thomas More, Lewes ye Loste Lover ('Ey flatteringe fortune, looke thow neuer so faire')
    • MrT 1.5 a rear flyleaf

      Copy, in a secretary hand.

      Facsimile in Yale, Volume 3, Part II, after p. 303.

      First published in Workes (London, 1557), p. 1433. Yale, Vol. 1, p. 46.

      Sir Thomas More, Davy the Diser ('Longe was I ladye lucke your seruynge man')