Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 5000 through 5999

  • Harley MS 5106

    Copy of 34 Essays, in a professional secretary hand, with a title-page in engrossed lettering The Writings of Sr ffrancis Bacon Knt: the Kinges Sollicitor Generall in Moralitie Policie and Historie, 29 leaves (plus numerous blanks), slightly imperfect (f. 16), in modern black morocco gilt.

    With alterations in a cursive secretary hand (notably on ff. 13r, 29r), those on f. 27r (inserted word properties) and f. 20r (nine-line insertion in the margin) probably in Bacon's hand.

    [c.1607-12].

    This MS partly collated and one essay (Of Seditions and Troubles) edited from it in Spedding, VI, 535-91. Discussed in Kiernan, pp. lxii, lxxi-lxxvii, with a facsimile of f. 20r as frontispiece.

    A complete transcript made by John Payne Collier (1789-1883) is in the University of London Library, MS 291.

    • *BcF 203
      Autograph
      No description or publication history available.

      Ten Essayes first published in London, 1597. 38 Essaies published in London, 1612. 58 Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall published in London, 1625. Spedding, VI, 365-591. Edited by Michael Kiernan, The Oxford Francis Bacon, Vol. XV (Oxford, 2000).

      Francis Bacon, Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral

  • Harley MS 5110

    An independent quire of seven folio leaves containing three satires by Donne, in two hands, headed Jhon Dunne his Satires Anno Domini 1593, on ff. 95r-101v.

    In a folio composite volume of verse, drama and orations, in various hands, 149 leaves, in modern half morocco gilt.

    Early 17th century.

    Inscribed by Wanley (ff. 1r and 95r) with date of his acquition for the Harley library, 16 October. 1725. Among the collections of Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford (1661-1724), and his son, Edward, second Earl of Oxford (1689-1741).

    Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Harley Satires MS: DnJ Δ 31.

    • ElQ 247 f. 9r

      Copy of the Latin version, in a secretary hand, the heading with dates anno 1597 vl 1598.

      Beginning Oh quam decepta fui: Expectaui Legationem tu vero querelam, mihi adduxisti..., in Autograph Compositions, pp. 168-9. An English version, beginning O how I have been deceived! I expected an embassage, but you have brought to me a complaint..., in Collected Works, Speech 22, pp. 332-4.

      Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Latin Rebuke to the Polish Ambassador, Paul de Jaline, July 25, 1597
    • ElQ 234 f. 9r-v

      Copy, in a secretary hand, headed Oratio Rne Elizabeth ad academicos Oxonienses Sabita 28. Septem 1592.

      Beginning Merita et gratitudo sic meam rationem captiuam duxerunt..., in Autograph Compositions, pp. 163-5. An English translation, beginning Merits and gratitude have so captured my reason..., in Collected Works, Speech 20, pp. 327-8.

      Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Latin Speech to the Heads of Oxford University, September 28, 1592
    • ElQ 93 f. 10r

      Copy, in a secretary hand, headed A praier of the Quene after the Launchinge to sea of thenglysh Navye by the augst hes therle of Esex in June 1596. ao R...38.

      Beginning Most omnipotent Maker and Guider of all our world's mass, that only searchest and fathomest.... Collected Works, Prayer 38, pp. 425-6. Selected Works, Prayer 4, pp. 254-6 (as For the success of the expedition against Spain, June 1596).

      Queen Elizabeth I, On the Sailing of the Cadiz Expedition, May 1596
    • DnJ 2746 ff. 96r-7r

      Copy, in a mixed hand, untitled.

      This MS collated in Grierson; recorded in Milgate and in Shawcross.

      First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 145-9. Milgate, Satires, pp. 3-6. Shawcross, No. 1.

      John Donne, Satyre I ('Away thou fondling motley humorist')
    • DnJ 2776 ff. 97v-9r

      Copy, almost entirely in a mixed hand, the last line (f. 99r) in a probably professional italic hand, headed in the margin Sat. 2da.

      This MS collated in Grierson; recorded in Milgate and in Shawcross.

      First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 149-54. Milgate, Satires, pp. 7-10. Shawcross, No. 2.

      John Donne, Satyre II ('Sir. though (I thank God for it) I do hate')
    • DnJ 2808 ff. 99r-100v

      Copy, in a probably professional italic hand, headed in the margin Sat. 3. Of Religion.

      This MS collated in Grierson; recorded in Milgate and in Shawcross.

      First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 154-8. Milgate, Satires, pp. 10-14. Shawcross, No. 3.

      John Donne, Satyre III ('Kinde pitty chokes my spleene. brave scorn forbids')

  • Harley MS 5111

    A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in various hands, 122 leaves (plus blanks), in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

    In various professional hands, including that of the Feathery Scribe.

    Inscribed by Wanley (f. 1r and elsewhere) with date of accession into the Harley library 16 October 1725. In the Harley Library, formed by the politician and book collector Robert Harley (1661-1724), first Earl of Oxford, and his son Edward (1689-1741), second Earl of Oxford; the volume docketed 16 October 1725, a year after the library was moved from Brampton Bryan to London.

    Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 244-5 (No. 59).

    • FeO 79 ff. 1r-13r

      Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed Touching the Lowe Countries. c.1630s.

      This MS discussed in Van Strien.

      First published as Three Monethes observation of the low Countries especially Holland by a traveller whose name I know not more then by the two letters of J:S: at the bottome of the letter. Egipt this 22th of Jannuary (London, 1648). Expanded text printed as A brief Character of the Low-Countries under the States. Being three weeks observation of the Vices and Vertues of the Inhabitants... (for Henry Seile: London, 1652).

      Owen Felltham, A Brief Character of the Low-Countries
    • *CtR 17 ff. 14r-35r
      Autograph

      Notes, partly autograph, largely in the hand of an amanuensis, headed by Cotton Common places for you to observe in the reading over of the storyes of England, partly relating to war and invasion and relating to this tract.

      A treatise beginning Frames of Policy, as well as works of Nature, are best preserved from the same grounds...., written in 1609. First published London, 1655. Also published as Warrs with Forregin Princes Dangerous to oyr Common-Wealth: or, reasons for Forreign Wars Answered (London, 1657); as An Answer to such Motives as were offer'd by certain Military-Men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect Arms more than Peace... (London, 1665); and as A Discourse of Foreign War (London, 1690).

      Sir Robert Cotton, An Answer made by Command of Prince Henry, to Certain Propositions of Warre and Peace
    • RaW 1090 ff. 36r-42v

      Copy.

      A tract addressed to the monarch and beginning According to my duty, I am emboldened to put your majesty in mind, that about fourteen or fifteen years past.... First published, as by Sir Walter Ralegh, in London, 1653. Works (1829), VIII, 351-76.

      Written by John Keymer (fl.1584-1622). See Adolf Buff, Who is the author of the tract intitled Some observations touching trade with the Hollander?, ES, 1 (1877), 187-212, and Lefranc (1968), p. 64.

      Sir Walter Ralegh, Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander
    • ClE 11.5 ff. 53r-72v

      Copy, in a professional secretary hand, entitled The Difference: and: disparitye, Betwene the Estates, and Condicons, of George Duke of Buckingham; and Robte Earle of Essex, the title-page only in the hand of the Feathery Scribe, the rest in another professional hand.

      First published in Reliquiae Wottonianae (London, 1651), where it is ascribed to Sir Henry Wotton. First ascribed to Clarendon in the third edition (1672). First published separately as The characters of Robert Earl of Essex … and George Duke of Buckingham (London, 1706). Reprinted in An Appendix to the History of the Grand Rebellion (London, 1724), pp. 247-71, and in A Collection of several Valuable Pieces of Clarendon (2 vols, London, 1727), I, 247-71.

      Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, The Difference and Disparity betweene the Estates and Condicions of George Duke Buckingham and Robert Earle of Essex
    • WoH 272 ff. 94r-116v

      Copy, in a professional secretary hand. c.1620s-30s.

      First published in London, 1641. Edited by Sir Robert Egerton Brydges (Lee Priory Press, Ickham, 1814).

      Sir Henry Wotton, A Parallel between Robert Earl of Essex and George Duke of Buckingham

  • Harley MS 5141

    A folio composite volume of three tracts, each in a different hand, 110 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

    The second item (ff. 46r-81r) given in 1719 by John Anstis (1669-1744), antiquary, to Robert Harley (1661-1724), first Earl of Oxford, politician and book collector.

    Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 245 (No. 60).

    • NaR 8 ff. 46r-81r

      Copy, in the hand of the Feathery Scribe, beginning at the sixth character, on 71 folio pages, imperfect, lacking the first part.

      Fragmenta Regalia (or, Observations on the late Q. Elizabeth, her Times and Favorites), first published in London, 1641. Edited by John S. Cerovski (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., etc., 1985).

      Sir Robert Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia

  • Harley MS 5176

    A folio composite volume of state tracts, papers and speeches, in various hands, in modern leather gilt.

    Including some papers owned or annotated by Sir Robert Cotton.

    • CtR 18 ff. 25r-46r

      Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with a title-page in another hand, A discourse of Peace shewing that Peace is more fitting for the State and realme of England, than Warre, unascribed.

      A treatise beginning Frames of Policy, as well as works of Nature, are best preserved from the same grounds...., written in 1609. First published London, 1655. Also published as Warrs with Forregin Princes Dangerous to oyr Common-Wealth: or, reasons for Forreign Wars Answered (London, 1657); as An Answer to such Motives as were offer'd by certain Military-Men to Prince Henry, inciting him to affect Arms more than Peace... (London, 1665); and as A Discourse of Foreign War (London, 1690).

      Sir Robert Cotton, An Answer made by Command of Prince Henry, to Certain Propositions of Warre and Peace
    • ElQ 170 ff. 96v-7r

      Copy of Version I, in a professional italic hand, headed A bille deliuered by her Matie vnto my Ladie Bacon to be deliuered by her highnes commaundemente vnto my Lo: Keeper. Late 16th-early 17the century.

      This MS cited in Hartley.

      First published in Simonds D'Ewes, The Journalls of All the Parliaments during the Raign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1682), pp. 113-17.

      Version I. Beginning I love so evil counterfeiting and hate so much dissimulation that I may not suffer you depart.... Hartley, I, 174-5 (Separate version). Collected Works, Speech 10, pp. 105-6 (Version 1). Selected Works, Speech 6, pp. 47-51.

      Version II. Beginning My lords and others, the Commons of this Assembly, although the lord keeper hath, according to order, very well answered in my name.... Hartley, I, 172-3. Collected Works, Speech 10, pp. 107-8 (Version 2).

      Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech Dissolving Parliament, January 2, 1567
    • ElQ 139 f. 97r-v

      Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed A speach vsed by her Matie vnto my Lord Keeper in the Parliament howse in the ende of a Session.

      Edited principally from this MS in Hartley (Text ii).

      First published in Simonds D'Ewes, The Journalls of All the Parliaments during the Raign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1682), pp. 107-8.

      Beginning Since there can be no duer debt than princes' words.... Hartley, I, 114-15 (2 texts). Collected Works, Speech 6, pp. 79-80. Selected Works, Speech 4, pp. 42-4.

      Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Answer to the Lords' Petition that she Marry, April 10, 1563, delivered by Lord Keeper Nicholas Bacon

  • Harley MS 5191

    A folio composite volume of tracts and miscellaneous papers, in several hands, 32 leaves, in a vellum wrapper comprised of an Elizabethan indenture, within a modern quarter crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

    • HoJ 64 ff. 17r-18v

      Copy of a 144-line version, in a secretary hand, headed Of a ffart that was lett in the lower house of Parliamt 1607. Early 17th century.

      Attributed to Hoskyns by John Aubrey. Cited, but unprinted, as No. III of Doubtful Verses in Osborn, p. 300. Early Stuart Libels website.

      John Hoskyns, The Censure of a Parliament Fart ('Downe came graue auncient Sr John Crooke')
    • RnT 554 ff. 31v-2r

      Copy.

      Published in Wit and Drollery (London, 1661), ascribed to T. R.. Usually anonymous in MS copies and the school variously identified as being in Castlethorpe or in Batley, Yorkshire, or in Lewes, Sussex, or elsewhere.

      Thomas Randolph, Upon the Burning of a School ('What heat of learning kindled your desire')

  • Harley MS 5202

    A quarto volume of tracts relating to Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, in a professional cursive secretary hand, 72 leaves, in old calf gilt within modern quarter-morocco.

    c.1600s.
    • EsR 281 ff. 33v-6v

      Copy, headed The true Copie in substance of Robert Devereux lat Earle of Essex his behevior speache and preyer at the tyme of his execution wthin the Tower of london 1600.

      Generally incorporated in accounts of Essex's execution and sometimes also of his behaviour the night before.

      Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Essex's speech at his execution
    • EsR 119 ff. 37r-72r

      Copy.

      First published, addressed to Anthony Bacon, as An Apologie of the Earle of Essex, against those which jealously and maliciously tax him to be the hinderer of the peace and quiet (London, [1600]), but immediately suppressed. Reprinted in 1603.

  • Harley MS 5219

    Autograph, headed To compare the strength of two swords that presse each other, on six quarto pages of text plus two folding leaves of partly annotated diagrams; an initial blank leaf with an attached slip inscribed Henry Duke of Newcastle his booke 1676; the verso of the blank inscribed by William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle, The Mathematicall Demonstration off The sorde.

    c.1640s.

    Edited from this MS in Raylor, with facsimile examples.

    • *HbT 61
      Autograph
      No description or publication history available.

      First published in Timothy Raylor, Thomas Hobbes and The Mathematical Demonstration of the Sword, The Seventeenth Century, 15/2 (Autumn 2000), 175-98.

      Thomas Hobbes, The Mathematical Demonstration of the Sword

  • Harley MS 5353

    A duodecimo diary and notebook of extracts, in a single small secretary hand, 133 leaves, dated from January 1601/2 to April 1603, in modern quarter crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

    Compiled by John Manningham (c.1575-1622), lawyer, of the Middle Temple.

    The Diary edited by John Bruce, Camden Society 99 (London, 1868). The Diary of John Manningham of the Middle Temple 1602-1603, ed. R.P. Sorlien (Hanover, NH, 1976). Facsimiles of f. 12r in DLB, vol. 62, Elizabethan Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 318, and of f. 29v in The British Inheritance: A Treasury of Historic Documents, ed. Elizabeth Hallam and Andrew Prescott (London, 1999), p. 44.

    • AndL 12.9 f. 21v et seq.

      Manningham's notes on the sermon as heard by him.

      This MS discussed in P.J. Klemp, John Manningham's Diary and a Lost Whit-Sunday Sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, Studies in Bibliography, 54 (2001), 137-55.

      Unpublished.

      Lancelot Andrewes, Sermon preached at Westminster, Whit-Sunday, 23 May 1602, on John 16: 7
    • HoH 34 ff. 32r-3r

      Extracts, headed Notes out of a copie of a letter written by way of dedication of charles the 5th: his instructions to his sonne Phillip: Translated out of Spanish: and sent to her matie by L: H: Howard [E: of Arundell deleted].

      An unpublished translation of a suppositious work, supposed (but unlikely) to be Charles V's instructions to his son Philip II, which was circulated in MS in 16th-century Europe and published in Spanish in Sandoval's Life of Charles V (1634). An Italian translation in MS was presented to James VI by Giacomo Castelvetro between 1591 and 1595 and is now in the National Library of Scotland (MS Adv. 23. I. 6): see The Works of William Fowler, ed. H.W. Meckle, James Craigie and John Purves, III, STS 3rd Ser. 23 (Edinburgh, 1940), pp. cxxvii-cxxx, and references cited in The Basilicon Doron of King James VI, ed. James Craigie, II, STS, 3rd Ser. 18 (Edinburgh, 1950), pp. 63-9. A quite different translation was published as The Advice of Charles the Fifth … to his Son Philip the Second (London, 1670).

      Howard's translation, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, was allegedly written when he had been more than twelve years out of the Queen's favour [? in the early 1590s]. The Dedication begins If the faithful Cananite of whom we read in the holy writ …; the main text begins I have resolved (most dear son) to come now to the point …, and ends … to proceed in such a course as prayers may second your purposes. Sanctae Trinitati, &c.

      Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, A Copy of the last instructions which the Emperor Charles the Fifth gave to his son Philip before his death translated out of Spanish
    • DaJ 142 f. 46r

      Copy, headed An epitaph vpon a bellowe maker, here beginning Here lyes Jo: Potterell, a maker of bellowes, subscribed in a different ink B: J:. October 1602.

      This MS recorded in Osborn.

      A version, ascribed to John Hoskyns, first published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1605). Krueger, p. 303. Edited in The Life, Letters, and Writings of John Hoskyns 1566-1638, ed. Louise Brown Osborn (New Haven & London, 1937), p. 170.

      Sir John Davies, An Epitaph ('Here lieth Kitt Craker, the kinge of good fellowes')
    • RaW 345 f. 83r

      Copy, headed Sr wa Rawly made this rime vpon the name of a gallant one Mr Noel, followed by Noels answere/ Raw Ly (The foe to the stomacke, and ye word of disgrace). December 1602.

      Edited from this MS in Latham and in Rudick, No. 19B, p. 29.

      First published, as The Answer to A Riddle (Th'offence of the stomach, with the word of disgrace), in Works (1829), VIII, 736. Latham, pp. 47-8. Rudick, Nos 19A, 19B and 19C (three versions, pp. 28-9).

      Sir Walter Ralegh, 'The word of deniall, and the letter of fifty'
    • DaJ 293 f. 95r-v

      Copy of 16 lots and an extract from the prose dialogue betwee[n]e the bayly and a dary mayd, headed Somme of the lotteries wch were the last Sumer at hir Mties, being wth the L. Keeper. February 1602/3.

      This MS (the lots) collated in Krueger, pp. 207-14.

      The fullest text of what are taken to be the extant portions of the Entertainment at Harefield, 31 July-2 August 1602, is edited in The Complete Works of John Lyly, ed. R. Warwick Bond (Oxford, 1902), I, 491-504, where it is suggested that probably the prose and the Mariner's song were written by Lyly and the rest chiefly by Davies (see I, 534-5). Krueger, following Grosart, accepts the prose too as Davies's (see Krueger, pp. 409-11). It is argued that Davies probably wrote all of the Harefield entertainment in Gabriel Heaton, Writing and Reading Royal Entertainments (Oxford, 2010), pp. 100-16.

      Sir John Davies, An Entertainment at Harefield
    • DnJ 4085 f. 101r-v

      Copy of parts of Paradox II (That Women ought to Paint) and Paradox X (That a Wise man is known by much laughing), together with extracts from two paradoxes beginning Hee that weepeth is most wise and To keepe sheepe, the best lyfe. February 1602/3.

      These extracts printed and discussed and the two anonymous paradoxes attributed to Donne in R.E. Bennett, John Manningham and Donne's Paradoxes, MLN, 46 (1931), 309-13.

      Eleven Paradoxes and ten Problems first published in Juvenilia: or Certaine Paradoxes and Problemes (London, 1633). Twelve Paradoxes and seventeen Problems published in Paradoxes, Problems, Essayes (London, 1652). Two more Problems published in 1899 and 1927 (see DnJ 4073, DnJ 4089). Twelve Paradoxes and eighteen Problems reprinted in Paradoxes and Problemes by John Donne (London, 1923). Twelve Paradoxes (Nos XI and XII relegated to Dubia) and nineteen Problems (No. XI by Edward Herbert) edited in Peters.

      John Donne, Paradoxes and Problems
    • DnJ 1762 f. 118r

      Copy, headed Of a beggar that lay on the ground / Dun, here beginning He can nor goe nor sitt nor stand the beggar cryes. March 1603.

      Printed from this MS in The Diary of John Manningham, ed. John Bruce, Camden Society 99 (London, 1868), p. 156; recorded in Milgate.

      First published in Thomas Deloney, Strange Histories (London, 1607), sig. E6. Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 76. Milgate, Satires, p. 51. Shawcross, No. 88. Variorum, 8 (1995), pp. 7 (as Zoppo) and 10.

      John Donne, A lame begger ('I am unable, yonder begger cries')

  • Harley MS 5420

    A quarto volume comprising two works by Francis Bacon, in one or more professional italic and mixed hands, 54 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary red velvet gilt.

    Early 17th century.

    Bookplate of Arthur Hewes Esq.

    • BcF 57 ff. 1r-42r

      A formal copy, ending The rest was not perfected.

      First published in Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, ed. William Rawley (London, 1629). Spedding, VII, 1-36. Edited by Michael Kiernan, The Oxford Francis Bacon, Vol. VIII (Oxford, 2012), pp. 183-206.

      Francis Bacon, Advertisement touching a Holy War
    • BcF 232.6 ff. 53r-54v

      Copy, in a stylish italic hand

      Spedding, XIV, 358-64.

      Francis Bacon, Offer to the King of a Digest to be made of the Laws of England

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