The British Library: Cotton MSS

Cotton MS Appendix L

A volume of state letters and papers.

f. 169r

DrW 177.91: William Drummond of Hawthornden, On a noble man who died at a counsel table (‘Vntymlie Death that neither wouldst conferre’)

Copy of a version headed ‘1608. An Epitaph one the death of Thomas Sackuile Lord Buckhurst Earle of Dorset & Lord Treasurar of England who died Suddainly at the Counsell table at whitehall 19th. Aprilis 1608 as he was Speaking in his owne Cause against Sir John Lawson Knight’, beginning ‘Immodest death, that wouldst not once Conferre’.

First published in Kastner (1931), II, 285. Often found in a version beginning ‘Immodest death, that wouldst not once conferre’. Of doubtful authorship: see MacDonald, SSL, 7 (1969), 116.

Cotton MS Caligula A. 11

A quarto volume of medieval poems, 280 leaves.

f. 286v

SuH 70.5: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘When ragyng love with extreme payne’

Copy of lines 1-2, jotted in a 16th-century hand, the first line recopied in a 17th-century hand.

First published in Songes and Sonettes (London, 1559). Padelford, No. 13, pp. 63-4. Jones, pp. 1-2.

Cotton MS Caligula B. 1

A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.350 leaves.

f. 29r-v

*DoG 12: Gavin Douglas, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Lord Dacre, from Perth, 21 January 1515. 1515.

Edited in Small, I, xli-xlii, and in Fraser, IV, 72.

f. 313r

*LiD 13: Sir David Lindsay, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to the Scottish Secretary, from Antwerp, 23 August 1531. 1531.

Edited in Hamer, IV, 255, and, with a facsimile of the signature, in The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, ed. David Laing, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1879), I, xxiv-xxvi. Edited and discussed in Janet Hadley Williams, ‘“Of officiaris serving thy senyeorie”: David Lyndsay's diplomatic letter of 1531’, in A Palace in the Wild: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Scotland (Leuven, 2000), pp. 125-40. Facsimile also in IELM, I.ii, Facsimile XXIV (p. 312).

Cotton MS Caligula B. II

A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.385 leaves.

f. 374

*DoG 10: Gavin Douglas, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Adam Williamson, from Perth, 18 January 1514/15. 1515.

Edited in Small, I, xxxvi-xxxix, and in Fraser, IV, 68-70.

ff. 373r-4v

*DoG 11: Gavin Douglas, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Adam Williamson, 21 January 1514/15, enclosing Douglas's letter of 18 January (DoG 10). 1514/15.

Edited in Small, I, xxxix-xli, and in Fraser, IV, 70-1.

Cotton MS Caligula B. VI

A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.520 leaves.

f. 203r

*DoG 13: Gavin Douglas, Letter(s)

A joint letter by Douglas and Robert Cockburn, Bishop of Ross, to Cardinal Wolsey, in the hand of an amanuensis and signed by the two bishops, from Abbeville, France, 27 June 1517. 1517.

Edited in Small, I, lxxxiv, and in Fraser, IV, 75 (dated 1518).

f. 246r-v

*DoG 16: Gavin Douglas, Letter(s)

Letter, to Cardinal Wolsey, in the hand of an amanuensis and signed by Douglas, from London, 1 January 1522. 1522.

Edited in Small, I, xcix-c, and in Fraser, IV, 83-4.

f. 506r

*DoG 17: Gavin Douglas, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Cardinal Wolsey, from London, 6 January ‘1522’. 1522.

Edited in Small, I, ci, and in Fraser, IV, 84-5. Facsimile in IELM, I.ii (1980), Facsimile XI (p. 4).

Cotton MS Caligula C. IX

A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, over 600 leaves.

pt ii, ff. 626v-7r

*HoH 2: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, In Obitum potentissimæ principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotorum Reginæ (‘Si generis splendor raræ si gratia formæ’)

Autograph fair copy of a 42-line version, subscribed ‘Finis. H. N. gemens’, docketed ‘Inscriptions upon the Queene of Scotts tombe’.

Edited from this MS in Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, IX (1585-88), pp. 314-15.

A version first published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623).

Cotton MS Caligula D. I

A folio composite volume of state papers and tracts, many relating to Mary Queen of Scots, in various hands, 439 leaves, imperfect (corners damaged by the fire of 1732). Early 17th century.

ff. 37r-84v

PtG 3.5: George Puttenham, An Apology or True Defence of Her Majesty's Honourable and Good Renown

Copy, headed ‘[A di]scourse plainlie prooueinge that [a]swell the Sentence of death latelie given against the vnfortunate Ladie Marie late Queene of Scotts as also the execution of the same Sentence were hoble: iust necessarie and Lawfull’, here beginning ‘There hathe not happened since the memorie of man…’.

Edited from this MS in Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots 1547-1603, ed. William K. Boyd, Vol. IX. 1586-1588 (1915), No. 330 (pp. 356-8). This MS selectively collated in Camden Society edition; recorded in Willcock & Walker, p. xxiii (n). An 18th-century transcript of this MS is in British Library, Harley MS 4647, ff. 143v-63v.

A treatise on the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, beginning ‘There hath not happened since the memorie of man…’. First published, as ‘A Justification of Queene Elizabeth in relation to the Affaire of Mary Queene of Scottes’, in Accounts and Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, ed. Allan J. Crosby and John Bruce, Camden Society, 93 (1867), pp. 67-134.

Cotton MS Caligula E. XI

A folio composite volume of state letters, in various hands, 170 leaves.

f. 84r

*CoH 173: Henry Constable, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Constable to Dr Bagshaw in Paris, from Kingston, 9 January ‘1604’, endorsed ‘Copy of a lre fro Mr H Constable to Dr. Bagshaw. 1603’. 1604.

Cotton MS Caligula E. XII

A folio composite volume of state tracts and paperc, in various hands, c.470 leaves in all, now bound in two volumes, damaged by the fire of 1732.

Part I, ff. 25r-31r

SiP 192.8: Sir Philip Sidney, A Letter to Queen Elizabeth touching her Marriage with Monsieur

Copy in the hand of the merchant and antiquary Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), on thirteen folio pages (part of a single section: ff. 17r-32v), imperfect. c.1600s-28.

This MS cited in H.R. Woudhuysen, ‘A crux in the text of Sidney's A Letter to Queen Elizabeth’, N&Q, 229 (June 1984), 172-3. Beal, In Praise of Scribes, No. 13, with facsimile example Plate 71.

First published in Scrinia Caeciliana: Mysteries of State & Government (London, 1663) and in Cabala: sive Scrinia Sacra (London, 1663). Feuillerat, III, 51-60. Duncan-Jones & Van Dorsten, pp. 46-57.

This work and its textual transmission discussed, with facsimile examples, in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), Chapter 4, pp. 109-46 (with most MSS catalogued as Nos 1-37, with comments on their textual tradition, in Appendix IV, pp. 274-80).

Cotton MS Cleopatra A. IV

A quarto volume of antiquarian collections of Camden, 126 leaves; one page (f. 119v) dated 1580, another (f. 100v) dated 1581. c.1580s.

The MS as a whole

*CmW 145: William Camden, Collectanea

Autograph Latin notes and antiquarian collections of Camden, including material used for Britannia, 126 leaves; one page (f. 119v) dated 1580, another (f. 100v) dated 1581.

f. 11r

TiC 18: Chidiock Tichborne, Tichborne's Lament (‘My prime of youth is but a frost of cares’)

Copy of lines 1-11, imperfect.

First published in the single sheet Verses of Prayse and Joy Written Upon her Maiesties Preseruation Whereunto is annexed Tychbornes lamentation, written in the Towre with his owne hand, and an answer to the same (London, 1586). Hirsch, pp. 309-10. Also ‘The Text of “Tichborne's Lament” Reconsidered’, ELR, 17, No. 3 (Autumn 1987), between pp. 276 and 277. May EV 15464 (recording 37 MS texts). For the ‘answer’ to this poem, see KyT 1-2.

Cotton MS Cleopatra C. III

A quarto composite volume of antiquarian papers, c. c.402 leaves. Collected by Francis Thynne (1545?-1608), Lancaster Herald

ff. 67v-87v, 179v, 199v-201

LeJ 79: John Leland, The Itinerary of John Leland [Other transcripts and extracts]

Extracts from Part II transcribed by Francis Thynne, Lancaster Herald (1545?-1608) (ff. 67v-87v); 17 December 1589; with a few other miscellaneous notes from the Itinerary (ff. 179v, 199v-201).

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xii.

ff. 301-19v

LeJ 21: John Leland, Collectanea [Stow transcript]

Extracts transcribed by John Stow.

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xii.

Cotton MS Cleopatra E. I

A folio composite volume of state and antiquarian tracts and papers generally relating to the history of the Church in Great Britain, including a few original papers delivered by the Society of Antiquaries, in various hands, 312 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt (earlier vellum bound-in).

ff. 2v-4v

CtR 325: Sir Robert Cotton, Of the Antiquity of the Christian Religion in this Island, By Sir Robert Cotton Nov. 29th 1604.

Copy, in a professional italic hand, untitled but docketed ‘Sr. Robert Cotton / Nouemb 1604 / Antiquity of Christian Religion in this Island’; probably the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries. 1604.

Tract beginning ‘Consent of all authors and pregnant circumstances manifest that Austyn the monk...’. First pub in Hearne (1771), II, 155-60.

ff. 13r-14r

CmW 89: William Camden, Of the Antiquity of the Christian Religion in this Island

Copy in the hand of an amanuensis, untitled, endorsed ‘Mr Camden’; probably the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries. c.1604.

A tract beginning ‘For the profession of Christian Religion in this ysle...’. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 165-7.

Cotton MS Cleopatra E. IV

A folio composite volume of state letters, in various hands, c.410 leaves.

f. 167r

*BaJ 42: John Bale, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Bale, to Thomas Cromwell, [c.January 1536/7]. c.1537.

Edited in McCusker (1942), pp. 12-13. Facsimile in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XXXI(a-b).

f. 260r

*ElT 13: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, [Autumn, 1536]. 1536.

Wilson, pp. 30-2, with a facsimile on p. x. Facsimile also in Henry VIII Man and Monarch, ed. Susan Doran (British Library, 2009), p. 254.

Cotton MS Cleopatra E. VI

A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, largely relating to the dissolution of the monasteries, in various hands, c.395 leaves.

f. 254r

*ElT 12: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, [6 March 1535/6]. 1536.

Wilson, pp. 26-8.

Cotton MS Cleopatra F. VI

A folio composite volume of state papers and tracts chiefly relating to Crown revenues, in various largely professional hands, 367 leaves (and additions), in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘A Collection made by Sr Robert Cotton for his Maties Seruice in time of Extremytie’. A list of contents (f. 2v) is in the hand of Sir William Dugdale (1605-86), antiquary and herald.

passim

*CtR 529: Sir Robert Cotton, Miscellaneous

Autograph or partly autograph drafts, including memoranda on ‘Means to repair the kinges Estate’ (ff. 66r-70v), on ‘Resumption of Graunts’ (ff. 125r, 127v), and on ‘Subsidies’ (f. 213r-v). c.1600s-14.

ff. 3r-38r

*CtR 14: Sir Robert Cotton, An Answer made by Command of Prince Henry, to Certain Propositions of Warre and Peace

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with some possibly autograph insertions and marginal instructions (such as ‘Leave a space’), headed ‘An Answere to such motiues as were offered by certen mylitary men to prince Henry to incite him to affect Armes mor then Peace mad at his highnes command by R. C. B his humble seruant’, signed by him (f. 3r) ‘Robertus Cotton Bruceus’, dated at the beginning ‘Aprill. 1609’, and subscribed ‘Ro. Cotton. 1609’. 1609.

The copy text for the first (1655) abd subsequent printed editions.

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).

ff. 41r-51r

*CtR 316: Sir Robert Cotton, Means to repayr the kings Estate 1612 Jacob Rex collected by Sr Robert Cotton for the Earl of Northampton

Copy, possibly a composite of more than one MS; the first part (ff. 41r-3v) almost entirely in a professional secretary hand, with copious marginal annotations in the hand of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton; a second professional hand on ff. 44r-5v, and 51r; the first scribe again on ff. 46r-49r; a third secretary hand on ff. 46r-9v, and signed and dated at the end by Cotton himself ‘Ro. Cotton 1612. Sept. 25’. 1612.

A tract or compilation beginning ‘Hen: the 4. ao. 12. when the revenues and profittes of the Kingdome...’. Unpublished?

ff. 84r-7v, 93r-4v

*HoH 8: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Abatements nowe in beinge: or to be verie shortlie vppon the Marryage of the Lady Elizabeth to the Counte Pallatyne of the Rhine, Anno 1613: and otherwise ffor the kings Bennifitt

Autograph MS, under headings of categories of proposed ‘Abatements’ and ‘Improvementes’, docketed in another hand (f. 84r) ‘Considerations of the Kings present Estate by the Earl of Northampton in his own hand’.

A tract beginning ‘By the bestowing of my La Eliz. grace and after hir grace shall be settled...’. Unpublished?

Cotton MS Cleopatra F. VII

MS.

f. 293

*DnJ 4108: John Donne, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Donne, to Sir Robert Cotton, [1602?]. 1602.

Edited in Gosse, I, 123-5. Facsimiles in Facsimiles of Royal, Historical, and Literary Autographs in the British Museum (1899), plate 93, and in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 44.

Cotton MS Faustina C. VII

A folio composite volume of historical papers, chiefly relating to the University of Oxford, in various hands, 221 leaves, in modern morocco gilt.

ff. 215r, 216r-v

ElQ 232: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Latin Speech to the Heads of Oxford University, September 28, 1592

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, subscribed ‘Regina dixi 1593’, on the recto of a single folio leaf; together with an untitled English translation, beginning ‘Youre desertes and gratitude do Alter mye purpose...’, in a different secretary hand, on both sides of another folio leaf. c.1593.

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.

Cotton MS Faustina E. 1

A folio composite volume of heraldic tracts and papers, in various hands, 292 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco gilt.

passim

*CmW 146: William Camden, Collectanea

At least some of the items here belonged to Camden, including several notes, drafts, patents and a letter in his hand, inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Collections of Mr Camdens Relating to Hauralds at arms with sevll. Originall pattents’. Late 16th-early 17th century.

ff. 104r-9v

*HoH 23: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, A brief discourse of the right use of giving arms

Part of an autograph draft of the work, here beginning ‘out of the riche mine of Peru betweene a glass...’, the sequence out of order, imperfect. Early 17th century.

An unpublished treatise on heralds and the office of Earl Marshal. Beginning with the heading ‘Of the first Institutions and function of Heralds and the proues that make for them’; the text beginning ‘It cannot as I suppose seeme strange to men of vnderstanding in recordes of historie...’, and ending ‘...and the gratitude of persons that are soubbl . will dispence exceptions of base men yt are mutinous.’ The tract has also been attributed to Ralph Brooke.

ff. 182r-4v

HoH 27: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Concerning the painters of Armes and others

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed in the margin ‘My Lord of Northampton concerning the painters of Armes and others’. [1604-14].

An official proclamation or letters patent of James I, evidently written by Howard, beginnining ‘Whereas many disorders haue of late bin vsed in the Raigne of our sister Queene Elizabeth of happie memory...’. Unpublished?

passim

*HoH 113: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Annotations

Lord Henry Howard's autograph annotations or docketing on various documents in professional hands on heraldic matters, including (ff. 94r-6r)‘Copy of Mr Camdens deputation to mr N Charles Lancaster Herauld, for Visitting in his province’; (ff. 225r-6v) ‘Embeaselinge of Recordes and bookes out of the office’; (ff. 227r-8v) ‘Office of Armes’; and (f. 234r-v) ‘Rules or articles’.

Cotton MS Faustina E. V

A folio composite volume of original papers of the Society of Antiquaries, in various hands, 221 leaves, in modern half-morocco on cloth boards gilt.

ff. 6r-7v

*CtR 209: Sir Robert Cotton, A Discovre of Lawfvllnes of Combats to be performed in the presence of the King, or the Constable and Marshall of England. Written...1609

Autograph draft, with deletions and revisions, headed ‘of Single Combat’, on two folio leaves; delivered 22 May 1601. c.1609.

Tract beginning ‘Where difference could not be determined...’. Cottoni posthuma (1651), pp. [59]-[71]. Hearne (1771), II, 172-80.

f. 31r-v

CmW 92: William Camden, Of the Antiquity, Office and Privilege of Heralds in England

Copy in the secretary hand of an amanuensis, untitled and here beginning ‘Since civility...’, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries on 28 October 1601.

A tract beginning ‘Among all civil nations...’. First published in Hearne (1720), pp. 85-9. Hearne (1771), I, 52-4.

f. 35r

*CtR 319: Sir Robert Cotton, Of the Antiquity and Office of Herald in England

Autograph draft, with deletions and revisions, on one side of a single folio leaf; possibly the paper delivered on an unspecified date to the Society of Antiquaries. c.1600s.

Tract beginning ‘The office, by opinion of Vigener and Tillet is older than the name...’.

First published, as anonymous, in Hearne (1720), pp. 93-6. Hearne (1771), I, 57-8.

f. 57r

*AndL 63: Lancelot Andrewes, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Andrewes, to Abraham Hartwell, from Lambeth, 30 November 1604. 1604.

Edited in LACT, Minor Works (1854), pp. xli-xlii. Facsimile in IELM, I.i (1980), p. 5.

f. 60r-v

*CmW 95: William Camden, Of the Diversity of Names of this Island

Autograph fair copy, with revisions, on one side of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered 29 June 1604.

A tract beginning ‘That which the Poet said of Italy...’. First published in Hearne (1720), pp. 149-53. Hearne (1771), I, 90-3.

f. 95r-v

*CmW 69: William Camden, Of the Antiquitye of Armes in England

Autograph fair copy, headed ‘The Antiquitie of Armes in England. Armes’, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered 2 November 1598.

A tract beginning ‘Armes, in their generall signification for ensigns of honor...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 170-1. This tract was later developed into the essay Armories (see CmW 45-6).

f. 105r-v

*CmW 90: William Camden, Of the Antiquity of thye Name of Duke in England

Autograph fair copy, headed ‘Duke’, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered 25 November 1598.

Facsimile of f. 105r in IELM, I.i (1980), Facsimile VII, p. 148.

A tract beginning ‘We have receaved this worde duke from the Frenche...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 177-9.

f. 117r

*CmW 55: William Camden, The Etymology, Antiquity, and Privileges of Castles in England

Autograph fair copy, headed ‘Castles’, on the recto of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered on 15 May 1599.

A tract beginning ‘Castellum according to the grammarians is deduced, as a diminutive, from castles...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 191-2.

ff. 119r-20r

*CtR 266: Sir Robert Cotton, The Etymologie, Antiquity and Privilege of Castles. By Sir Robert Cotton

Autograph draft, with deletions and revisions, on three pages of two folio leaves, endorsed ‘Mr Cotton’.

Tract beginning ‘This question maketh in it self aptly three parts...’. First pub in Hearne (1720), pp. 166-73. Hearne (1771), I, 100-5.

f. 123r-v

*CtR 321: Sir Robert Cotton, Of the Antiquity, Etymology, and Privilege of Towns, By Sir Robert Cotton. 23. Junii 42 [1600]

Autograph draft, with deletions and revisions, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered on 23 June 1600.

Tract beginning ‘For the first branch of this question, the antiquity of Towns...’.

First published in Hearne (1720), pp. 174-7. Hearne (1771), I, 105-7.

f. 124r-v

*CmW 68: William Camden, Of the Antiquity, Etymology, and Privilege of Towns

Autograph fair copy, headed ‘Townes’, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered 23 June 1599.

A tract beginning ‘As the desire of defence against injuries of the aire was the first motive of building cottages...’. First published, ascribed to Joseph Holland, in Hearne (1771), I, 192-4.

f. 135r-v

*CtR 318: Sir Robert Cotton, Of Dimension of land, By Sir Robert Cotton

Autograph draft, with deletions and revisions, n both sides of a single folio leaf.

Tract beginning ‘This word measure is by some defined to be quicquid pondere...’. First published in Hearne (1720), pp. 178-81. Hearne (1771), I, 107-9.

f. 148r-v

CmW 71: William Camden, Of the Antiquity of Ceremonies used at Funerals in England

Copy, in the secretary hand of an amanuensis, headed ‘Funeralles’, on both sides of a folio leaf, docketed ‘Camd.’; the paper delivered 30 April 1600.

A tract beginning ‘Whereas there was an identity of religion and manners among the auncient Gaules...’. First published, ascribed to James Ley, in Hearne (1771), I, 209-11.

f. 158r-v

*CmW 97: William Camden, Of the Variety and Antiquity of Tombes and Monuments

Copy in the cursive secretary hand of an amanuensis, headed in Camden's hand ‘Tombes, and Monuments’, on both sides of a single folio leaf, endorsed ‘Mr Clarencieux’; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries on 7 June 1600.

A tract beginning ‘From the beginning there hath been amongst men an especial regard...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 222-3.

ff. 162r-v, 165v

*CmW 67: William Camden, Of Epitaphes

Copy in the secretary and italic hand of an amanuensis, with autograph additions, including (f. 165v) an unpublished autograph epitaph of four lines (beginning ‘John Bell Brokenbrow liyys vndr this stean’) belonging to this essay, on three folio pages, docketed ‘Camd’; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries on 3 November 1600.

A tract beginning ‘Among all funeral honours, epitaphes have alwayes bene most respected...’. First published in Hearne (1771), I, 228-32. This essay developed from CmW 51.

f. 162v

HoJ 255: John Hoskyns, Vppon on of the Mayds of Honor to Queen Elizabeth (‘Here lies, the lord haue Mercie vppon hur!’)

Copy, in the hand of William Camden, headed ‘Vpon one Margarett Radcliffe I found theise Verses’, written along the length of a margin.

First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623), p. 349. Osborn, No. VII (p. 170).

ff. 168r-71v

*DaJ 243: Sir John Davies, On the Antiquity and selected Variety of Epitaphs in England

Autograph draft, untitled, quoting several epitaphs, on four folio leaves; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries on 3 November 1600.

This MS recorded in Krueger, pp. xli-xlii(n).

Essay beginning ‘An Epitaph is a monument of the dead...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 238-45.

See also DaJ 125.

f. 171r

*DaJ 125: Sir John Davies, An Epitaph (‘Here lieth Kitt Craker, the kinge of good fellowes’)

Autograph, headed ‘The epitaph of the bellowes maker is in every mans mouth’ and here beginning ‘Heers lies old Craker a Maker of Bellowes’, written along the length of a margin, quoted in DaJ 243). [1600].

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.

f. 171r

HoJ 256: John Hoskyns, Vppon on of the Mayds of Honor to Queen Elizabeth (‘Here lies, the lord haue Mercie vppon hur!’)

Copy, in Sir John Davies's hand, introduced as ‘the newest pleasant Epitaph that I know’.

First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623), p. 349. Osborn, No. VII (p. 170).

f. 171r

HoJ 149: John Hoskyns, An Ep: one a man for doyinge nothinge (‘Here lyes the man was borne and cryed’)

Copy, here beginning ‘He that lies heer was borne & cried’.

First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1605). Osborn, No. XII (p. 171).

f. 198r-v

*CmW 94: William Camden, Of the Antiquity, Variety, and Reason of Motts

Copy, in the secretary hand of an amanuensis, with autograph additions, docketed ‘Cam’, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered 28 November 1600.

A tract beginning ‘Motts as we use the worde nowe...’. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 266-7.

f. 213r

*CtR 323: Sir Robert Cotton, Of the antiquity of motts and words, with Arms of Noblemen and Gentlemen of England

Autograph fair copy, on one side of a single folio leaf, docketed ‘Cott’. c.1600s.

Tract beginning ‘If I strait this question, to the common acceptance, my discourse must be...’. First published in Hearne (1720), pp. 182-5. Hearne (1771), I, 110-12.

Cotton MSS Faustina F. I-XI

Autograph papers, bound in eleven folio volumes, comprising various drafts, revised fair copies, and related fragments. Volumes I-III, for 1587 and 1591 (c.753 leaves); Vols IV-V, for 1558-82 (c.385 leaves); Vols VI-VII, for 1589-1603 (c. 288 leaves); Vols VIII-IX, for 1589-1603 (c.264 leaves), and containing various additions and revisions in the hand of Francis Bacon, with Camden's further revisions after 18 May 1620; Vol. X (c.242 leaves) comprising various fragments. Early 17th century.

*CmW 1: William Camden, Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha

Bacon's additions here edited and discussed in The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. James Spedding et al., VI (London, 1858), 349-64.

Part I (to 1589) first published in London, 1615. Parts I-II (to 1603) published in Leiden, 1625-7.

Cotton MS Galba B. I

MS.

f. 163r

CmW 178: William Camden, Document(s)

Grant(s) of arms by Camden as Clarenceux King of Arms.

Cotton MS Galba C. VI, Part I

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 189 leaves, gilt edged, damaged by the fire of 1732, in modern brown crushed morocco gilt. [1577].

ff. 51r-4r

SiP 169: Sir Philip Sidney, Certain notes concerning the present state of the Prince of Orange and the provinces of Holland and Zeeland, as they were in the month of May 1577

Copy, in a secretary hand, docketed in another hand (f. 51r) ‘Belgia 1577 May’.

Edited from this MS and attributed to Sidney in Osborn, Young Philip Sidney, pp. 482-90. Also discussed by Osborn in TLS (30 April 1970), pp. 487-8.

First published in Baron Kervynde Lettenhove, Relations politiques des Pays-Bas et de l'Angleterre sous le règne de Philippe II, Vol. IX (Brussels, 1890).

MS Galba D. XII

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 338 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

f. 139r

ElQ 104: Queen Elizabeth I, On the Sailing of the Azores Expedition, July 1597

Copy, headed ‘A prayer mayd by the Queenes < > for the prosperos successe of the Journy begonn <> 15<>’, on one side of a quarto leaf, damaged by the fire of 1732.

This MS cited in Selected Works.

Beginning ‘O God, All-maker, Keeper, and Guider, inurement of thy rare-seen, unused and seld-heard-of goodness...’. Collected Works, Prayer 39, pp. 426-7. Autograph Compositions, pp. 104-5. Selected Works, Prayer 5, pp. 257-9.

Cotton MS Julius B. XII

A folio volume of historical collections up to the time of Henry VIII, in professional secretary hands, 316 leaves, in modern half brown morocco on cloth boards gilt.

ff. 50v-1r

SkJ 22.5: John Skelton, Verses Presented to King Henry VII (‘O moste famous noble king! thy fame doth spring and spreade’)

Copy, untitled, with two introductory lines beginning ‘Englande now Roioysse fore Ioyous may thou bee’, in a herald's chronicle of ceremonial events in the reign of Henry VII.

Edited from this MS in Green.

Canon, D 57, p. 18. First published in Elias Ashmole, The Institutional Laws and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (London, 1672). Dyce, II, 387-8. Discussed and Skelton's authorship rejected in Richard Firth Green, ‘The Verses Presented to King Henry VII: A Poem in the Skelton Apocrypha’, ELN, 16 (1978), 5-8.

Cotton MS Julius B. XIII

14th century MS with Leland's autograph annotations.

ff. 48r-173r

*LeJ 96: John Leland, Giraldus Cambrensis. De instructione principium

This probably the MS referred to in John Bale, Index Britanniae scriptorum, ed. R. Lane Poole and M. Bateson (Oxford, 1902), p. 425.

Cotton MS Julius C. III

A folio composite volume of letters, chiefly to Robert Cotton, in various hands.

f. 153

*DnJ 4104: John Donne, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cotton, 20 February 1601/2. 1602.

Edited in Gosse, I, 109. Facsimiles in Derek Parker, John Donne and his World (London, 1975), p. 35, and in Hilton Kelliher and Sally Brown, English Literary Manuscripts (British Library, London, 1986), No. 13, p. 25.

f. 154

*DnJ 4110: John Donne, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Donne, to [Sir Robert Cotton]. 24 January 1609/10. 1610.

Facsimile in Gosse, I, facing p. 108.

f. 174r

*FloJ 7: John Florio, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Florio, probably to Sir Robert Cotton, 11 March 1600[/1]. 1601.

Edited in Yates, pp. 218-19. Facsimile example in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate LXXVIII(d).

f. 222r

*JnB 751: Ben Jonson, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cotton, [c.1635]. c.1635.

Edited in Herford & Simpson, I, 215. Facsimile in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XXIII(c).

f. 246r

*LyJ 13: John Lyly, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cotton, damaged by fire, 30 April 1605. 1605.

Edited in Bond, p. 395 and in Feuillerat, p. 564. Facsimile in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XVIII(a).

f. 280r

*NaT 19: Thomas Nashe, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed (the signature now obliterated), to William Cotton, MP [c.September 1596]. 1596.

Edited in McKerrow, V, 192-6, with a facsimile example as frontispiece. Facsimiles also in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XX(a-c), and in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 33.

Cotton MS Julius C. V

A folio composite volume of letters sent to William Camden by numerous correspondents, with some of his replies, 394 leaves (plus a later table of contents), in modern crushed morocco gilt.

f. 23r

AlW 137: William Alabaster, ‘Jana reciprocornis, origo mensis et anni’

Copy, in a stylish italic hand, untitled, subscribed ‘Gulielmus Allab<>’, on one side of a half-folio leaf, dated in the top corner 1583, slightly imperfect. 1583.

Edited from this MS in Sutton.

Sutton, pp. 2-3 (No. I), with translation.

f. 393r

HrE 36.5: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, In Answer to the Verses of Guit for the Pucelle d'Orleans, quasi extempore (‘Quod nequiere viri, potuit si fæmina, quid ni’)

Copy of the elegiac distich, headed ‘Anglus’, and six elegiac couplets headed ‘Respons. Gallo supradicto qui Joanna[m] Aurelian[am] Virginem et plenam Deo fuisse contendit’ and beginning ‘Define, Galle, tuam tandem jactare Bubulcam’.

These verses follow in the MS a text of François Duiet's epigram in praise of Joan of Arc to which they are a response.

First published in Occasional Verses (1665). Moore Smith, pp. 89-90.

Cotton MS Julius C. VI

A folio composite volume of Leland's works, c.257 leaves. c.1535-45.

ff. 1r-89v

*LeJ 12: John Leland, Antiquitates Britanniae

Autograph, imperfect and lacking a title.

Unpublished. Discussed in T. C. Skeat, ‘Two “Lost” Works by John Leland’, EHR, 65 (1950), 505-8.

ff. 90r-103r, 104r-7v

LeJ 40: John Leland, Collectanea [Other transcripts and extracts]

Extracts.

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xii.

ff. 192-232, and passim after f. 90

LeJ 80: John Leland, The Itinerary of John Leland [Other transcripts and extracts]

Copy of Part I, with a few other extracts in another hand.

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xii.

ff. 233r-43r

LeJ 26: John Leland, Collectanea [Burton transcript]

Extracts transcribed by William Burton for John Selden and Sir Robert Cotton.

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xii.

Cotton MS Julius C. IX

A folio composite volume of state papers and tracts, in several hands, 151 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

passim

*CtR 530: Sir Robert Cotton, Miscellaneous

Autograph notes and drafts, including notes on ff. 87r-91v, 94r-100v, 131r-2v; a scribal copy of a letter to James I on f. 78r beginning ‘It was a custome amonge the Romans (Most high most mighty) that such officers...’.

ff. 107r-19r

*CtR 80: Sir Robert Cotton, A Breife Abstract of the Question of Precedencie between England and Spaine: Occasioned by Sir Henry Nevill the Queen of Englands Ambassador, and the Ambassador of Spaine, at Calais Commissioners appointed by the French King...

Autograph working notes and drafts, docketed on the outer wrapper ‘Proceding of England befor France and Spayne Fragments’, followed (on ff. 120r-1r) by a copy of a tract on precedency in a professional secretary hand.

Tract, relating to events in 1599/1600, beginning ‘To seek before the decay of the Roman Empire...’. First published in London, 1642. Cottoni posthuma (1651), pp. [73]-‘79’ [i.e. 89].

ff. 122r-30r

*CtR 81: Sir Robert Cotton, A Breife Abstract of the Question of Precedencie between England and Spaine: Occasioned by Sir Henry Nevill the Queen of Englands Ambassador, and the Ambassador of Spaine, at Calais Commissioners appointed by the French King...

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with some annotations in Cotton's hand, headed ‘A breife treatise of the question of precædency betwixt England and Spaine deuided into seuerall chapters’, here beginning ‘All Predence is of duety to the worthier...’, subscribed ‘finis Rob: Cotton’.

Tract, relating to events in 1599/1600, beginning ‘To seek before the decay of the Roman Empire...’. First published in London, 1642. Cottoni posthuma (1651), pp. [73]-‘79’ [i.e. 89].

Cotton MS Julius F. VI

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 468 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on roan boards. End 16th-early 17th century.

This volume discussed and printed in part, with facsimile examples, in F. Haverfield, ‘Cotton Iulius F. VI Notes on Reginald Bainbrigg of Appleby, on William Camden and on some Roman Inscriptions’, Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, NS 11 (1911), 343-78.

passim

*CmW 147: William Camden, Collectanea

Autograph notes in Latin by Camden, including verses (ff. 4r, 311r), various notes on coins, Scottish topography, Roman inscriptions in Northern England, war with Spain, &c, and a draft letter and draft dedication in his hand or in the hands of his amanuenses or correspondents with autograph additions, some notes probably relating to Britannia; a few autograph ‘Epitaphia Camdeni’, on f. 430r-v dating between 1604 and 1611 c.1604-11.

ff. 17r-18v

*CtR 1: Sir Robert Cotton, Abstract of a Book in Defence of Mary Queen of Scots

Autograph draft, with revisions, headed ‘An abstract of a Book wrighten in defence of the Scotts Q Honor deliuered on December 1571 by D Harpsfield and Weston then in the Flete to sergent Barram and Mr Soliciter Bromely and now remaineth with my Lord of Salesbury Principall Secretary .1610.’, on two folio leaves. 1610.

Unpublished.

ff. 67v, 158v-60v

BcF 228.5: Francis Bacon, Objections against the Change of the Name of England into the Name of Britain

Copy of a version of Bacon's first report.

Written 25 April 1604. To be published in the forthcoming The Oxford Francis Bacon.

f. 78v

RaW 728.12: Sir Walter Ralegh, Ralegh's Arraignment(s)

The beginning of a copy only of Ralegh's arraignment in 1618, lacking the rest.

Accounts of the arraignments of Ralegh at Winchester Castle, 17 November 1603, and before the Privy Council on 22 October 1618. The arraignment of 1603 published in London, 1648. For documentary evidence about this arraignment, see Rosalind Davies, ‘“The Great Day of Mart”: Returning to Texts at the Trial of Sir Walter Ralegh in 1603’, Renaissance Forum, 4/1 (1999), 1-12.

ff. 164r-6v

BcF 151: Francis Bacon, Certain Observations made upon a Libel published this present year, 1592

Copy of part of the fourth and sixth sections, in a small secretary hand, headed ‘Touching the proceedings betweene Spaine and England’ and ‘certaine true generall notes Vppon the actions of the Lo. Burghley’, on three quarto leaves. c.1592-early 1600s.

This MS collated in Spedding.

A tract beginning ‘It were just and honourable for princes being in war together, that howsever they prosecute their quarrels...’. First published in Resuscitatio, ed. W. Rawley (London, 1657). Spedding, VIII, 146-208.

A letter to M. Critoy, Secretary of France, c.1589, ‘A Letter on the Queen's religious policies’, was later incorporated in Certain Observations made upon a Libel, and first published in Cabala, sive scrinia sacra (London, 1654), pp. 38-41.

For the Declaration of the True Causes of the Great Troubles (also known as Cecil's Commonwealth), the ‘Libel’ that Bacon answered, see RaW 383.8.

f. 440r

HoH 117: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Will

Copy of Howard's last will and testament. c.1614.

Cotton MS Julius F. X

A composite folio volume of antiquarian and state papers, by Camden and others, in various hands, 197 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. Largely comprising notes and materials either written by Camden or used by him for his various works. c.1580s-90s.

passim

*CmW 148: William Camden, Collectanea

Various autograph or partly autograph historical notes and memoranda, on possibly as many as 50 leaves, chiefly in Latin, including extracts from Tacitus and other Roman authors; topographical material (dated 1580) used for Britannia (including ff. 119r-v); copies of epitaphs (ff. 116r-17r); matter relating to Camden and George Buchanan; and a clothes bill for November 1578-July 1580. c.1580s-90s.

Certain of the contents of this MS noted in Haverfield (see CmW 147), pp. 350, 378.

ff. 29r-49v

CmW 59: William Camden, Grave Speeches, and wittie Apothegmes of woorthie Personages of this Realme in former times

Copy of 551 apothegms, including two which were to appear in Grave Speeches, in the secretary hand of an amanuensis, untitled.

A tract beginning ‘Twenty yeares since, while I: Bishop...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 177-235.

ff. 53r-66v

*CmW 58: William Camden, Grave Speeches, and wittie Apothegmes of woorthie Personages of this Realme in former times

Copy of 267 apothegms, including 110 which were to appear in Grave Speeches, in thesecretary hand of an amanuensis with autograph corrections and revisions, headed ‘Witty aunsweres & saienges of Englishmen’.

A tract beginning ‘Twenty yeares since, while I: Bishop...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 177-235.

ff. 103r, 157v-9v, 163r-4v

LeJ 14: John Leland, Antiquitates Britanniae

Extracts from Leland's autograph MS (LeJ 12) transcribed by William Camden. c.1580s-90s.

This MS recorded in Skeat, p. 506.

Unpublished. Discussed in T. C. Skeat, ‘Two “Lost” Works by John Leland’, EHR, 65 (1950), 505-8.

f. 115r-v

HoJ 272: John Hoskyns, [Epitaph on Anne, Countess of Oxford] (‘Anna soror soror Anna suæ charissima Elisæ’)

Copy, in a fine italic hand (the same hand as in HoJ 00).

Osborn, No. XVI (pp. 184-8).

Cotton MS Julius F. XI

A folio composite volume of genealogical, historical and antiquarian tracts and papers, in various hands, 323 leaves, in modern half crushed calf on cloth boards gilt. Largely comprising notes and materials either written by Camden or used by him for his various works, particularly Remaines.

Names inscribed (f. 207r) ‘Bryan Tukerson’ and ‘George Wiseman’.

passim

*CmW 149: William Camden, Collectanea

Various historical notes and memoranda, autograph or partly autograph, chiefly in Latin, a number relating to Remaines, including genealogical trees (ff. 42r-61v), astronomical texts, verse (some on Sir Henry Goodyer the Elder, f. 85r, and on Sir Nicholas Bacon, f. 87r), and (f. 220r) notes relating to Britannia. c. Late 1590s.

ff. 64r, 73r-104v

CmW 51: William Camden, Epitaphes

Incomplete early draft, partly autograph. This draft essay also developed into the essay Of Epitaphes (see CmW 67).

A tract beginning ‘Great hath bene the care of burial euen since the first times...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), [Part ii], pp. 27-59. Hearne (1771), I, 310-54. This draft essay was also developed into the essay Of Epitaphes (see CmW 67).

f. 98r

DaJ 139: Sir John Davies, An Epitaph (‘Here lieth Kitt Craker, the kinge of good fellowes’)

Copy, in a secretary hand, here beginning ‘Heer lyeth John Croker a maker of bellowes’.

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.

f. 99r

HoJ 198: John Hoskyns, Of the B. of London (‘I was the first that made Christendom see’)

Copy.

Osborn, No. XIX (p. 189).

f. 100r

DaJ 226.5: Sir John Davies, An other Epitaph: of one who died with the Maple Buttons (‘Heere lieth Dick Dobson iwrapped in molde’)

Copy.

First published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1637), p. 412. Krueger, p. 304.

ff. 107r-12r

*CmW 49: William Camden, Christian Names

Draft, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘Names called in Latine Nomina quasi Notamina...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 28-39.

ff. 112-20v

*CmW 113: William Camden, Usual Christian names

Draft, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘Araon, Heb. a Teacher...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 40-75.

ff. 121r-35r

*CmW 107: William Camden, Surnames

Draft, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘Surnames given for difference of families, and continued as hereditary...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 89-139.

ff. 136r-9r

*CmW 21: William Camden, Allusions

Copy of an early version, here beginning ‘The busie witt of man continually workinge hath wrought out of names…’, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘I will now present vnto you a few extracts out of names...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 140-5.

See also CmW 102.1.

ff. 139r-40r

*CmW 102: William Camden, Rebus, or Name-devises

Draft, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘Many approoved customes, lawes, maners, fashions, and phrases...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 146-9.

ff. 141r-2r

*CmW 22: William Camden, Anagrammes

Copy, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘The onely Quint-essence that hitherto the Alchimy of wit coulde draw out of names...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 150-7.

ff. 143v-4r

*CmW 105: William Camden, A second Discourse touching the Earl Marshals of England

Autograph draft; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries 3 November 1603.

A tract beginning ‘Some learned men which have discoursed of offices and magistracies...’. First published, as De origine & dignitate Comitis Marescalli Angliae, in Camdeni epistolae (London, 1691), Appendix, pp. 93-6. Hearne (1771), II, 327-30.

ff. 265r-7v

*CmW 56: William Camden, The Excellencie of the English tongue by R.C. of Anthony Esquire to W.C.

Copy of Richard Carew's essay as incorporated by Camden in Remaines, in the hand of an amanuensis with a few autograph alterations by Camden.

A tract beginning ‘It were most fitting (in respect of discretion) that men should first weigh matters...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1614), pp. 36-44.

ff. 268v, 269r-71r

*CmW 64: William Camden, Money

Draft, partly autograph, of a short later version.

A tract beginning ‘It is a receaued opinion that in most auncient ages there was onely batterie...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1614), pp. 196-210.

f. 290r

CmW 103: William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke concerning Britaine

Autograph rough draft of the title-page, here addressed to Fulke Greville, with a list of contents.

First published, dedicated to Sir Robert Cotton, in London, 1605. 2nd edition (with additions) London, 1614. 3rd edition (with a few further additions) London, 1623. Edited by R.D. Dunn (Toronto, Buffalo & London, 1984).

For individual essays in Remaines, see under separate titles.

ff. 291v-7v

*CmW 48: William Camden, Britaine

Draft, partly autograph, of parts of the essay, headed ‘England’; also containing material for what became the essay The inhabitants of Britaine.

A tract beginning ‘Whereas I have purposed in all this Treatise to confine my selfe...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 1-6.

ff. 298r-300r

*CmW 62: William Camden, The Languages

Draft, partly autograph, headed ‘English tounge’ and here beginning ‘From Englishmen we will now procede to the English tounge…’.

A tract beginning ‘From the people we will now proceede to the languages...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 12-28.

ff. 300v, 319v-22r, 323r

*CmW 63: William Camden, The Languages

Autograph rough draft of passages belonging to the essay.

A tract beginning ‘From the people we will now proceede to the languages...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 12-28.

ff. 301v-3r

*CmW 44: William Camden, Apparell

MS, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘No doubt but after the creation, mankinde went first naked...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1614), pp. 230-7.

ff. 303v-6v

*CmW 47: William Camden, Artillarie

Draft, partly autograph.

A tract beginning ‘If euer the witte of man went beyond it selfe, it was in the inuention of Artillarie...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1614), pp. 238-42.

ff. 306v-7r

*CmW 101: William Camden, Printinge

Copy of a draft, in a neat italic and secretary hand.

Edited from this MS, with a complete facsimile, in Dunn's article (1986).

A brief unpublished and unfinished essay beginning ‘As gunnes were inuented to destruction so shortly after was the arte of printings found...’, originally intended for inclusion in Remaines. First published in R.D. Dunn, ‘Fragment of an unpublished Essay on Printing by William Camden’, British Library Journal, 12/2 (Autumn 1986), 145-9.

f. 307r

HrJ 14: Sir John Harington, Orlando Furioso (‘Of Dames, of Knights, of armes, of loves delight’)

Copy of Book IX, stanzas 24-5 (beginning ‘For first he is of limbs and bodie strong’), and Book XI, stanzas 19-24, in a professional hand.

First published in London, 1591. Edited by Robert McNulty (Oxford, 1972). Printed and manuscript exempla discussed in Gerard Kilroy, ‘Advertising the Reader: Sir John Harington's “Directions in the Margent”’, English Literary Renaissance, 41/1 (Winter, 2011), 64-110.

See also HrJ 22, HrJ 243.

ff. 307v-10r

*CmW 65: William Camden, Money

Copy, partly autograph, of a short early version, here beginning ‘In most auncient ages there was onely batterie or chaunge of wares…’.

A tract beginning ‘It is a receaued opinion that in most auncient ages there was onely batterie...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1614), pp. 196-210.

f. 313r-v

CmW 104: William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke concerning Britaine

Autograph rough draft of the dedication (without the name of the addressee).

First published (addressed to Sir Robert Cotton) in Remaines (London, 1605).

First published, dedicated to Sir Robert Cotton, in London, 1605. 2nd edition (with additions) London, 1614. 3rd edition (with a few further additions) London, 1623. Edited by R.D. Dunn (Toronto, Buffalo & London, 1984).

For individual essays in Remaines, see under separate titles.

ff. 313v-14r, 315r

*CmW 91: William Camden, Of the Antiquity of thye Name of Duke in England

Autograph draft of an early version, headed ‘Duke’ and here beginning ‘This word Duke we have receaued from the french…’.

A tract beginning ‘We have receaved this worde duke from the Frenche...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 177-9.

f. 314v

*CmW 110: William Camden, The Title of Baron

Autograph draft notes for an early paper on the title of baron, untitled.

An unpublished tract beginning ‘Whether the title of a Baronie brought into a familie wch afterward is invested with an Earledom...’.

ff. 315v-16v

*CmW 108: William Camden, Surnames

Autograph list of names relating to the essay.

A tract beginning ‘Surnames given for difference of families, and continued as hereditary...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 89-139.

ff. 317r-18r

CmW 70: William Camden, Of the Antiquitye of Armes in England

Autograph rough draft, here beginning ‘Wheras Armories or Armes do as silent names distinguish families…’.

A tract beginning ‘Armes, in their generall signification for ensigns of honor...’. First published, as an anonymous work, in Hearne (1771), I, 170-1. This tract was later developed into the essay Armories (see CmW 45-6).

f. 318v

*CmW 60: William Camden, The inhabitants of Britaine

Autograph draft of the opening paragraph, untitled.

A tract beginning ‘As all the Regions with the whole worlds frame...’. First published in Remaines (London, 1605), pp. 7-12.

See also CmW 48.

Cotton MS Nero B. I

A folio composite volume of state papers relating primarily to England and Portugal from the middle ages to the 16th century, in various hands.

f. 13 1r

WiT 3: Thomas Wilson, Speech(es)

Copy of a long Latin oration on English commercial grievances delivered by Wilson on 30 October 1567 in his embassy to the King of Portugal, attested by Edward Wilson, notary public, with related papers.

npublished?.

Cotton MS Nero D. VII

A late 14th-century codex, in Latin, 157 folio leaves, bearing Sir Robert Cotton's inscription ‘Liber ex dono viscomitis sti Albani 1623’. c.1623.

BcF 674: Francis Bacon, Lives of the Abbots of St Albans

Cotton MS Otho E. VII

A folio volume of warrants and other letters, tracts and state papers, in various hands, c.327 leaves.

f. 208r

RaW 879: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)

Copy, imperfect, badly burnt. Early 17th century.

This MS recorded in Latham & Youings

Cotton MS Otho E. IX

A folio composite volume of state papers and tracts relating to Admiralty matters principally during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 458 leaves, badly damaged by the fire of 1732, in modern crushed morocco gilt. In various largely professional hands, including (ff. 56r-7v, 336r-8r) that of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), merchant and antiquary.

f. 209r

ElQ 92: Queen Elizabeth I, On the Sailing of the Cadiz Expedition, May 1596

Copy, headed ‘Her maties. pryuat meditation vpon ye present expedition, sent from Sr Robt Cecyll to ye Gnalls of her Higes Army, at Plymouth inclosed in this lre heerevnder written’, on one side of a single small quarto-size leaf, with a scribbled endorsement in a different hand ‘Praier of her Matie vpo ye expeditio anents Spaine Ao 96’. c.1596.

This MS cited in Selected Works.

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’).

ff. 336r-8r

EsR 117: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Apology

Copy, headed ‘The Earle of Essexe Appollegy for his proceedinges at Cales’, in the hand of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), merchant and antiquary; imperfect. c.1610s-20s.

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.

Cotton MS Otho E. XI

A folio composite volume of state papers chiefly relating to military and defence matters, in various largely professional hands, 426 leaves, damaged by the fire of 1732, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

ff. 377r-81v

RaW 695: Sir Walter Ralegh, On the Conduct of the War

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘Discou[rse] < >’, beginning ‘Whosoeu attendeth ye approach [? of an Invador]….attendeth allso his tyme...’, subscribed ‘Wal: Rauleigh’, very imperfect. c.1596-early 17th century.

Edited from this MS in Lefranc (1955).

First published in Pierre Lefranc, ‘Un inédit de Ralegh sur la conduite de la guerre (1596-1597)’, EA, 8 (1955), 193-211. Recorded in T.N. Brushfield, A Bibliography of Sir Walter Ralegh (Exeter, 1908), No. 249, as ‘A Discourse on the Defence of a Country, the conduct of a Fleet and Army, &c.’.

Cotton MS Tiberius D. IX

A large calligraphic MS, with coloured maps and drawings, transcribed by one Gaspar Aloisius in 1543, 92 folio leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt. No trace of Ralegh's hand, but probably the MS mentioned in Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625) as the ‘originall...reported to have beene bought by Sir Walter Raleigh, at sixtie pounds, and by him caused to be done into English, out of the Portugall’ (Glasgow edition (1905-7), VII, 236). Ralegh himself refers in The History of the World (II. iii. 8) to ‘the report of Castro, a principal Commander under Gama (which Discourse I gave Mr. Hacluit to publish)’. The possibility that Ralegh's friend, Sir Robert Cotton, could have owned a second (and obviously very expensive) contemporary Portuguese copy of this rare work is perhaps remote, whereas, on the contrary, some of Ralegh's MSS (e.g. RaW 692 and RaW 726) are known to have passed into Cotton's collection. 1543.

RaW 1036: Sir Walter Ralegh, Roteiro de Dom. Joham de Castro, da viagee que os Portugueses fizeram desa India ate Soez

The text corresponds fairly closely with the English translation printed by Purchas (Glasgow edition, VII, 236-309), a translation ‘which yet in part was done, as I thinke, and many marginall notes added by Sir Walter Raleigh himselfe’.

Cotton MS Tiberius E. VIII

A folio composite volume of historical, heraldic and antiquarian papers, c.316 leaves, imperfect.

ff. 237r-54v

LeJ 22: John Leland, Collectanea [Stow transcript]

Extracts transcribed by John Stow, headed ‘Excerpta ex Lelando de libris, quos ille reperit in biblothecis Monasteriorum’, imperfect..1576.

Cotton MS Titus A. XXIV

A quarto composite volume of historical papers and some verse, c.256 leaves.

f. 80r

SuH 40: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘Marshall, the thinges for to attayne’

Copy, here beginning ‘My frende the thinges for to attayne’. Mid-16th century.

This MS recorded in Rollins, II, 150.

First published at the end of Book III in William Baldwin, A treatise of Morrall phylosophye (London, 1547/8). Songes and Sonettes (London, 1557). Padelford, No. 41, p. 94. Jones, pp. 34-5.

The texts discussed in J.M. Evans, ‘The Text of Surrey's “The Meanes to Attain Happy Life”’, N&Q, 228 (1983), 409-11; in W.D. McGaw, ‘The Text of Surrey's “The Meanes to Attain Happy Life” -- A Reply’, N&Q, 230 (December 1985), 456-8; and in A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Surrey's Martial Epigram: Scribes and Transmission’, EMS, 12 (2005), 74-82.

f. 83r

SuH 34: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘Laid in my quyett bedd, in study as I weare’

Copy of lines 1-12.

Edited from this MS in Hughey, Arundel, II, 91-2; recorded in Rollins, II, 157.

First published in Songes and Sonettes (London, 1557). Padelford, No. 43, pp. 95-6. Jones, pp. 23-4.

Cotton MS Titus B. I

A folio composite volume of state letters, in various hands, c.560 leaves.

ff. 376r-7

*ElT 5: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, 8 December 1532. 1532.

Wilson, pp. 11-15. Facsimile page in Lehmberg, facing p. 32.

Cotton MS Titus B IV

A folio composite volume of state papers relating to treasury and revenue matters, 394 leaves, in modern crushed morocco gilt. In various largely professional hands, including (ff. 332r-5v) that of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), merchant and antiquary.

ff. 100r-4r, 178r-9r

*HoH 98: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Commonplace book or collectanea

Autograph list of ‘Abatementes’ and, on two conjugate quarto leaves, of details of the ‘Juell howse’. c.1612.

Cotton MS Titus B. V

A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in various hands, 420 leaves.

ff. 231r-44v

RaW 1087: Sir Walter Ralegh, Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander

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.

Cotton MS Titus B. VIII

A folio composite volume of state papers and tracts, generally relating to voyages and naval matters, in various professional hands, 388 leaves (but see RaW 726), in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

ff. 162r-75r

*RaW 726: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Journal of Ralegh's Second Voyage to Guiana

Ralegh's autograph journal compiled on his last voyage to Guiana. 19 August 1617 to 13 February 1617/18. Now bound separately.

Facsimile examples in Facsimiles of Royal, Historical and Literary Autographs in the British Museum (1899), plate 28; Walter Oakeshott, ‘Carew Ralegh's Copy of Spenser’, The Library, 5th Ser. 26 (1971), 1-21 (plate V(d-e)); Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 49.

First published in The Discoverie of...Guiana, ed. Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, Hakluyt Society, 1st Ser. 3 (London, 1848), 177-208.

ff. 226r, 228r

*RaW 692: Sir Walter Ralegh, Of the Art of Warre by Sea

Two autograph sets of notes in preparation for the work, comprising two draft versions of a list of fifteen chapter headings, the first version beginning ‘The antiquitie of sea fight & in what vessels’, the second version headed ‘The pface’ and beginning ‘The Antiquitie of sea fight, & their weapons in elder times’, on two trimmed folio leaves.

Edited from this MS in Lefranc (1968), pp. 597-8.

No complete text of this treatise is known. Fragments first published in Lefranc (1968), pp. 597-9. Youings, No. 227, pp. 375-6.

ff. 352r-7v

*CmW 98: William Camden, On Ralph Brooke's Catalogue and Succession (1619)

Autograph draft of part of a critique of Ralph Brooke, York Herald, A Catalogue and Succession of the Kings, Princes, Dukes, Marquesses, Earles, and Viscounts of this Realme of England, since the Norman Conquest, to the present yeare, 1619 (London, 1619); untitled and here beginning ‘In the Catalogue of the Earles of Arundell First he maketh Roger Montgomery to be Earle of Belesmo…’.

Unpublished.

ff. 386r-8r

*UdN 5: Nicholas Udall, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed by Udall, to a patron (? Sir Thomas Wriothesley), undated. Early-mid-16th century.

Edited, with facsimile examples, in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XXXII(a-b). Edited also in Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men, ed. Sir Henry Ellis, Camden Society 23 (London, 1843), pp. 1-7, and in Nicholas Udall's Roister Doister, ed G. Scheurweghs, Materials for the Study of the Old English Drama, NS 16 (Louvain, 1939), pp. xxv-xxxii.

Cotton MS Titus B. XII

A folio composite volume of state papers relating to Ireland, in various hands, c.666 leaves.

ff. 564r-5r

*SiP 180: Sir Philip Sidney, Discourse on Irish Affairs

Autograph, untitled, imperfect, lacking the ending. [1577].

Edited from this MS in Feuillerat and in Duncan-Jones & Van Dorsten. Facsimile of f. 564r in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 115.

First published in Feuillerat, III (1923), 46-50. Duncan-Jones & Van Dorsten, pp. 8-12.

Cotton MS Titus C. I

A folio composite volume of antiquarian tracts and documents, including original papers of the Society of Antiquaries, in various hands, 485 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

f. 21r-v

*DaJ 244: Sir John Davies, Of the Antiquity, Authority and Succession of the High Steward of England

Autograph draft, with revisions, inscribed at the top ‘Mr. Dauys’, on both sides of a single folio leaf; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries (? on 4 June 1603).

Essay beginning ‘I think the office to be ancient...’. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 35-7. Grosart, III, 283-8.

f. 22r-v

*CmW 33: William Camden, The Antiquity, Authority, and Succession of the High Steward of England

Copy, in the hand of an amanuensis, with a passage added at the end in Camden's minute italic hand, headed ‘Steward of England’; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries (? on 4 June 1603).

A tract beginning ‘Whom we call in English steward, in Latine is called seneschallus...’. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 38-40.

f. 32r-v

*CtR 239: Sir Robert Cotton, A Discourse Of the Offyce of the Lord Highe Connstable of England, written by Sr: Robte Cotton, knight, and Baronett

Autograph(?) fair copy, the heading partly cropped, signed ‘RO: Cotton’; the paper delivered on an unspecified date to the Society of Antiquaries. c.1600.

Tract beginning ‘Yff wee curiouslye will looke the Roote of this question...’. Hearne (1771), II, 65-7.

ff. 44r-7r

CmW 27: William Camden, The Antiquity and Office of the Earl Marshall of England

Copy, in a neat secretary hand, subscribed ‘William Camden’.

A tract beginning ‘Such is the vncertainety of etimologyes...’ and sometimes entitled in manuscripts ‘The Etymology, Antiquity and Office of the Earl Marshall of England’. First published, as ‘Commentarius de etymologia, antiquitate, & officio Comitis Marescalli Angliae’, in Camdeni epistolae (London, 1691), Appendix, pp. 87-93. Hearne (1771), II, 90-7.

ff. 47v-50r

CtR 56: Sir Robert Cotton, The Antiquitye and Offyce of Earle Marshall of England, Written by Sr Robte Cotton, knight, and Baronett

Copy, in a neat secretary hand, subscribed ‘Robertus Cotton’.

Tract beginning ‘The plentye of this discourse, the last question of Highe Connstables, whereto...’. Hearne (1771), II, 97-103.

ff. 55r-6v

*DaJ 242: Sir John Davies, Of the Antiquity and Office of the Earl Marshal of England

Autograph draft, with revisions, on two trimmed folio leaves; the paper delivered on an unspecified date to the Society of Antiquaries. c.1600.

Essay beginning ‘I do not hold this office in England to be more ancient than the Conquest...’. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 108-11. Grosart, III, 288-92.

ff. 66r-99v

*HoH 22: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Antiquitas Mariscalli

Autograph drafts on the subject of the Earl Marshall, under the running heading ‘Antiquitas Mariscalli’.

An unpublished discourse beginning ‘Ever during the minoritie of the heir of the erle marshall by enheritance the King gaue the office his Paten An 25 H5...’.

f. 140r-v

*CtR 221: Sir Robert Cotton, A Discourse Of the Antiquitye, and Offyce of the Earle Marshall of England, written by Sr Robte Cotton, knight, Att the request of the Lord Henrye Howard, Earle of Northampton [25 November 1602]

Autograph copy, with a few revisions, of the dedicatory epistle to Northampton, signed ‘Robert Cotton’ and dated 25 November 1602.

A dedicatory epistle beginning ‘Sir, Yor small tyme, I must Ballance, wth as sclendr Aunswere...’ followed by a tract beginning ‘Because the Jurisdiction att the Comon Lawe was vncertayne...’.

ff. 164r-7r

CtR 210: Sir Robert Cotton, A Discovre of Lawfvllnes of Combats to be performed in the presence of the King, or the Constable and Marshall of England. Written...1609

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, untitled, headed in another hand ‘Duellum’, subscribed ‘R. Cotton B. 1609’. 1609.

Tract beginning ‘Where difference could not be determined...’. Cottoni posthuma (1651), pp. [59]-[71]. Hearne (1771), II, 172-80.

ff. 168r-9v

DaJ 245: Sir John Davies, Of the Antiquity, Use, and Ceremony of Lawful Combats in England

Draft, in a professional secretary hand, with extensive autograph additions in another cursive secretary hand (? Davies's), the inscription ‘Mr Davis’ cropped at the top of the first page, and inscribed at the top left ‘Pascæ 1601’; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries (? on 22 May 1601).

Paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries, beginning ‘Our Question is of the antiquity and manner of lawful combats...’, dated 22 May 1601. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 180-7. Grosart, III, 293-302.

f. 170r-v

DaJ 252: Sir John Davies, [Of the Antiquity, Use and Ceremony of Lawful Combats in England] Of the Same

Copy, in a professional hand, untitled, docketed in a small italic hand at the top left ‘Mr Dauis Combatts’, imperfect at the end; the paper delivered to the Society of Antiquaries (? on 22 May 1601).

Essay beginning ‘I supposed, and so it falleth forth amongst this learned assembly...’, dated 22 May 1601. First published in Hearne (1771), II, 187-90. Grosart, III, 303-6.

ff. 206r-312v

*HoH 91: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Pars Prima Tractatus de Dvellis Inchoata Febrvarii 27 AD 1613

Autograph MS, with copious revisions, in two sections, dated at the end ‘Finitu Febr 26’. 26-27 February 1613.

An unpublished treatise beginning ‘Wise men haue obserued man times that beside the weakenesse of originall attaint ...’.

ff. 358r-66r

*HoH 61: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Duello Foiled

Copy, in a professional italic and secretary hand, with a few autograph sidenotes and annotations by Howard, entitled ‘Dvello Foil'd’, with a dedication (f. 359r) to ‘my uery good Lord’.

A discourse, with a dedicatory epistle to ‘my very good Lord’, beginning ‘Reasons moving me to write this thing which handleth not the whole matter...’, the tract beginning ‘The two parties between whom this single fight was appointed...’. Published in Thomas Hearne, A Collection of Curious Discourses written by Eminent Antiquaries (London, 1771), II, 223-42, where it is attributed to Sir Edward Coke. It is not certain whether this tract is by Howard or simply annotated by him as a reader.

ff. 428r-49r

*HoH 92: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, The Reformation of the College of Arms

Autograph draft, with copious deletions and revisions, headed ‘Certaine Rules to be prescribed and euer obseruid for the reformation of all abuses and corrupiones that haue crepte into the office of Armes and for preuentio of all meanes which maie bringe in the like herafter’. c.1610.

Unpublished tract, beginning ‘Beinge taught by experience that inwarde and ciuile strif betwene the kinges at armes...’.

Cotton MS Titus C. IV

A folio composite volume of tracts and papers relating to duelling, the majority in the hand of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, including (ff. 479r-85r) two letters to Howard and (ff. 486r-8r) a tract on a challenge by the Earl of Northumberland to Sir Francis Vere in the hand of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), antiquary, 488 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt. c.1613-14.

Discussed in Fredson Thayer Bowers, ‘Henry Howard Earl of Northampton and Duelling in England’, Englische Studien, 71 (1936-7), 350-5.

ff. 1r-2v

*HoH 95: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, The Suppression of Duels

Autograph, with revisions, docketed ‘Demaundes of the Kinge’.

An unpublished memorandum headed ‘certain humble petitions to be obteined by the Ks assent before anie regulare and iuste orderes can be set downe for the suppression of duellos and challengis’, relating to James I's proclamation against private challenges and combats issued 4 February 1613/14.

ff. 3r-397v

*HoH 99: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Commonplace book or collectanea

Effectively one of Howard's autograph miscellaneous compilations or commonplace books, relating chiefly to duels, his entries, mainly in English, under a series of Latin headings, beginning with ‘Mendacium’.

ff. 398r-435v

*HoH 53: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, A Discourse of Duels [II]

Copy, in the accomplished secretary hand of one of Howard's principal amanuenses, with his autograph sidenotes, untitled.

An unpublished discourse beginning ‘It hath bene ancientlie obserued by men of great experience in precedent times...’.

ff. 436r-78v

HoH 55: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, A Discourse of Duels [III]

Copy of the discourse, in a professional secretary hand, untitled, a reference to ‘the Duke of Norffolke my grand father’ occurring on f. 478r.

An unpublished discourse beginning ‘My firste care and endeauore (as appeareth by the first parte of this discourse against Duelloes)...’.

Cotton MS Titus C. VI

A folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers principally in the hand of Lord Henry Howard, including some letters to him and some parliamentary speeches, 585 leaves, in 19th-century morocco gilt. c.1580s-1614.

f. 207r-v

*HoH 3: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, In Obitum potentissimæ principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotorum Reginæ (‘Si generis splendor raræ si gratia formæ’)

Autograph fair copy of a 42-line version, with revisions, headed ‘In Obitum potentissimæ principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotoum Reginæ Franciæ dotariæ et coronæ Anglicanæ hæredis indubitata atque proximæ memoriæ suæ celebritati deuotissimus carmen lugubre posuit’, as by ‘Henricus Northampt comes’. c.1604-14.

A version first published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623).

f. 208r-v

*HoH 4: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, In Obitum potentissimæ principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotorum Reginæ (‘Si generis splendor raræ si gratia formæ’)

Autograph fair copy of the 42-line version, with some deletions, headed ‘In Obitum pijssimæ potentissimæque Principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotoru Reginæ Franciæ Dotariæ et iure successionis Anglicanæ regni hæredis proximæ...carmen lugubri posuit’, as by ‘Henr. Howardus comes Northamptoniæ’. c.1604-14.

Probably edited from this MS in The Works of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey and of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, ed. George Frederick Nott, 2 vols (London, 1815), pp. 472-4 (the MS erroneously cited as ‘Cotton, Titus, B. VI. p. 174’).

A version first published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623).

f. 209r-v

*HoH 5: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, In Obitum potentissimæ principis D Mariæ Stuartæ Scotorum Reginæ (‘Si generis splendor raræ si gratia formæ’)

Autograph fair copy of a 36-line version, with some revisions, headed ‘In obitum potentissimæ principis Mariæ Stuartæ Scotoru Reginæ Franciæ Dotariæ et iure successionis Angliæ hæredis indubitatææ atque proximæ’, unascribed. c.1604-14.

A version first published in William Camden, Remaines (London, 1623).

ff. 213-486r, 494r-523r, 579r-83r

*HoH 100: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Commonplace book or collectanea

A substantial series of autograph drafts and entries, in English and Latin, most of it under commonplace-book-type headings (‘Regum institutio’, ‘Reges non subiectj legibus’, ‘Arma contra Principes’, ‘Status Popularis’, ‘Facetiæ’, ‘Inuentio’, ‘Pro Bello Argumeta’, etc.), incorporating possibly drafts for an intended treatise on monarchy. c.1604-14.

ff. 410r-11v

ElQ 306: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Final Speech before Parliament, December 19, 1601

Copy, in the italic hand of Lord Henry Howard (later Earl of Northampton), headed ‘Q Eliz speech in parlament’ and, in the margin, ‘The Q last speche’, on two trimmed conjugate folio leaves. c.1601-14.

Edited from this MS in Hartley and in Collected Works. Cited in Heisch. Discussed, with facsimile examples, in Leah S. Marcus, ‘The Veil of Manuscript’, Renaissance Drama, NS 30 (1999-2001), 115-31, where it is erroneously stated that the MS ‘is not in Northampton's own hand’.

Version I. Beginning ‘Before your going down at the end of the Parliament, I thought good to deliver unto you certain notes...’. Hartley, III, 278-81. Collected Works, Speech 24, pp. 346-51 (Version 1).

Version II. Beginning ‘My lords, we have thought it expedient in this general assembly to let you know out of our own mouth...’. Collected Works, Speech 24, pp. 351-4 (Version 2).

ff. 526r-75v

*HoH 90: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, A Formulary of Psalms and Prayers

Autograph drafts of psalms and prayers.

Unpublished.

ff. 535r-6v

SoR 165.5: Robert Southwell, S.J., Catholic Saint, Of the Blessed Sacrament of the Aulter (‘In paschall feast the end of auncient rite’)

Copy, in a professional hand, subscribed ‘W: S.’, on a pair of conjugate folio leaves.

First published as ‘The Christians Manna’ in S. Peters Complaint and Saint Mary Magdalens Fvnerall Teares ([St Omers], 1616). Brown, pp. 26-8.

Cotton MS Titus C. VII

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 248 leaves, in modern crushed morocco gilt.

ff. 53v-4r

ElQ 165: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech Dissolving Parliament, January 2, 1567

Copy of Version II, in a professional secretary hand.

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).

ff. 59v-61v

BcF 149: Francis Bacon, Certain Observations made upon a Libel published this present year, 1592

Copy of the third section, ‘Of the Proceedings against the pretended Catholicks, whether they haue been violent or moderate and necessarie’. Early 17th century.

This MS collated in Spedding.

A tract beginning ‘It were just and honourable for princes being in war together, that howsever they prosecute their quarrels...’. First published in Resuscitatio, ed. W. Rawley (London, 1657). Spedding, VIII, 146-208.

A letter to M. Critoy, Secretary of France, c.1589, ‘A Letter on the Queen's religious policies’, was later incorporated in Certain Observations made upon a Libel, and first published in Cabala, sive scrinia sacra (London, 1654), pp. 38-41.

For the Declaration of the True Causes of the Great Troubles (also known as Cecil's Commonwealth), the ‘Libel’ that Bacon answered, see RaW 383.8.

f. 68r-v

EsR 276: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Essex's speech at his execution

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, untitled. Early 17th century.

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

ff. 85r-92v

RaW 728.125: Sir Walter Ralegh, Ralegh's Arraignment(s)

Copy of Ralegh's arraignment in 1603.

Accounts of the arraignments of Ralegh at Winchester Castle, 17 November 1603, and before the Privy Council on 22 October 1618. The arraignment of 1603 published in London, 1648. For documentary evidence about this arraignment, see Rosalind Davies, ‘“The Great Day of Mart”: Returning to Texts at the Trial of Sir Walter Ralegh in 1603’, Renaissance Forum, 4/1 (1999), 1-12.

f. 93r

RaW 730: Sir Walter Ralegh, Ralegh's Second Testamentary Note

Copy of Ralegh's list of points in his own defence, beginning ‘I did neuer receive Advise from my Lord Carew to make any escape…’ and subscribed ‘Att my Death. W: Raleigh’. c.1620.

Published in The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, ed. Thomas Birch (London, 1751), II, 280-1; Works (1829), VIII, 563. Printed from this MS in Edwards (1868), II, 494-5.

Ralegh's note, 1618, denouncing false allegations, beginning ‘I did never receive advise from my Lord Carew to make any escape, neither did I tell ytt Stukeley...’. First published in The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, ed. Thomas Birch (London, 1751), II, 280-1. Edwards (1868), II, 494-5.

ff. 96r-7r

RaW 570: Sir Walter Ralegh, Apology for his Voyage to Guiana

Three-page abstract of the tract, headed ‘Out of the Apologie of Sr Walter Ralegh after his unfortunate sucesse in Guiaiana. 1618’ and here beginning ‘My ill success was not without example…’.

A tract beginning ‘If the ill success of this enterprise of mine had been without example...’. First published in Judicious and Select Essays and Observations (London, 1650). Works (1829), VIII, 477-507. Edited by V. T. Harlow in Ralegh's Last Voyage (London, 1932), pp. 316-34.

f. 98r

RaW 880: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Ralegh, to Sir Robert Carr.

f. 141r-v

ElQ 233: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Latin Speech to the Heads of Oxford University, September 28, 1592

Copy, in a professional roman hand, headed ‘Queene Elizabeth her Oration made to the Vniuersity of Oxford. 1592’. Early 17th century.

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.

f. 200r-v

HoH 9: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Abatements nowe in beinge: or to be verie shortlie vppon the Marryage of the Lady Elizabeth to the Counte Pallatyne of the Rhine, Anno 1613: and otherwise ffor the kings Bennifitt

Copy. Early 17th century.

A tract beginning ‘By the bestowing of my La Eliz. grace and after hir grace shall be settled...’. Unpublished?

Cotton MS Titus C. X

A folio composite volume of historical documents, in various hands, 139 leaves, in modern half-morocco cloth boards gilt.

passim

*CmW 149.5: William Camden, Collectanea

Various autograph papers by Camden, including: (f. 2r) his draft Latin epitaph, or Memoriæ, on Mary Queen of Scots, probably 1612; (ff. 36v, 40r-3v, 46r) his notes on various religious houses; (between ff. 46r and 64v) his annotations to genealogies; (ff. 74r-6v) his notes on Mary Queen of Scots; (ff. 77v-103v) his annotations to a chronological list (in another hand) of events in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and (f. 126r-v) his notes on revenues of Spain.

Cotton MS Titus C. XVIII

Copy, in a neat predominantly italic script, untitled, on 29 quarto leaves. Early 17th century.

HoH 20: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Answer to John Stubbs's ‘Gaping Gulf’

Owned and signed on the first page (‘Ro. Cotton Bruceus’) by Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), antiquary and politician.

This MS recorded in Berry, pp. lix-lxi.

An untitled rebuttal of John Stubbs's tract The Discovery of a Gaping Gulf (1579) which attacked the proposed Alençon marriage. Beginning ‘Dutiful affection to my native country enforceth me at this present to disclose my opinion and conceit...’ and ending ‘...to perform agreeable service to Her Majesty and the state I would rest, with sword in hand, ready to make adventure of the loss of my life.’ First published in John Stubbs's Gaping Gulf with Letters and Other Relevant Documents, ed. Lloyd E. Berry (Charlottesville, 1968), pp. 153-94.

Cotton MS Titus D. IV

An octavo composite volume comprising three independent MSS in different hands, 138 leaves.

ff. 1r-14v

MrT 6: Sir Thomas More, Epigrammata. 19-23 (‘Si qua dies unquam, si quod fuit Anglia tempus’)

Copy of five Latin epigrams (Yale Nos. 19-23), with a prose preface, in a formal roman hand, with rubrication and illumination, on vellum throughout, written for the coronation of Henry VIII on 24 June 1509, the MS evidently presented to the King. 1509.

Edited from this MS in Bradner & Lynch (1953), pp. 15-24. Yale, Volume 3, Part I, pp. 100-116. Facsimile of ff. 12v-13r in Henry VIII Man and Monarch, ed. Susan Doran (British Library, 2009), p. 63. Facsimile examples in Yale, Vol. 3, Part II, after p. 107.

Yale, Vol. 3, Part II, pp. 100-17, with English translations.

Cotton MS Titus D. X

An octavo volume, comprising two works in separate hands, the first an anonymous ‘Angliæ descripto & historia’ up to 1546 (ff. 1r-100v), 194 octavo leaves, in old calf gilt (rebacked).

ff. 101r-94v

*BaJ 11: John Bale, Collectiones

Autograph compendium of notes and extracts chiefly relating to the Carmelite order, including extracts from John Baconthorpe, Liber sententiarum, and Philippus Riboti, De gestis Carmelitarum, inscribed at the beginning in a later hand ‘Collectiones Johis Balei manu propri...ano 1570 die. 23. Aprilis’. c.1548-60.

Unpublished (complete). Brief extracts from this MS printed in Monumenta historica Carmelitana. Recorded and discussed in Davies, p. 237 (xviii); in McCusker (1942), pp. 101-2; and in Fairfield, p. 164.

Unpublished.

Cotton MS Titus F. 1

A folio volume of transcripts of parliamentary rolls during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from 1558 to 1587, in various professional hands, including that of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), antiquary, 295 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt. c.1620s.

f. 83r-v

ElQ 137: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Answer to the Lords' Petition that she Marry, April 10, 1563, delivered by Lord Keeper Nicholas Bacon

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘A Speach deliuered by her Matie: vnto the Lord Keeper Sr Nichas Bacon in presence of ye vpper house of Parliamt’.

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. 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.

f. 115v-16r

ElQ 166: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech Dissolving Parliament, January 2, 1567

Copy of Version 2, untitled, with introduction ‘...Then the Queene standinge said’.

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).

ff. 121v-2r

ElQ 167: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech Dissolving Parliament, January 2, 1567

Copy of Version 2, untitled, with introduction ‘...Then the Queene standinge said’.

Edited from this MS in Hartley (pp. 172-3) and (as Version 2) in Collected Works.

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).

f. 129v

ElQ 175: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech Opening the 1571 Parliament, April 2, 1571

Copy, untitled, with introduction ‘...she spake a fewe words to this effect’.

Edited from this MS in Collected Works. Collated in Hartley.

Brief speech beginning ‘My right loving lords and you all, our right faithful and obedient subjects, we in the name of God....’. First published in Simonds D'Ewes, The Journalls of All the Parliaments during the Raign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1682), p. 137. Hartley, I, 195. Collected Works, Speech 11, pp. 108-9.

f. 152v

*WiT 4: Thomas Wilson, Speech(es)

Copy of a parliamentary speech by Wilson, against vagabonds, April 1571.

npublished?.

ff. 163r-4v

WiT 5: Thomas Wilson, Speech(es)

Summary of a speech in parliament by Wilson against usury, April 1571.

npublished?.

Cotton MS Titus F. II

A folio volume of transcripts of parliamentary rolls during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from 1588 to 1601, in various professional hands, 202 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. Early 17th century.

ff. 98v-9v

ElQ 240: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech at the Closing of Parliament, April 10, 1593

Copy of the English Version 1, with a lengthy introduction by the original parliamentary scribe, who could not hear most of the speech but learned from others ‘the cheife substance of her oration’.

Edited from this MS (as Version 1) in Collected Works. Recorded in Hartley.

First published (Version II) in John Stow, Annales; or a General Chronicle of England (London, 1601), pp. 1272-3.

Version I. Beginning ‘This kingdom hath had many noble and victorious princes...’. Hartley, III, 173-5. Collected Works, Speech 21, pp. 328-30 (Version 1)

Version II. Beginning ‘My Lords and you, my Commons of the Lower House, were it not that I know no speeches presented by any other...’. Hartley, III, 28-9. Collected Works, Speech 21, pp. 330-2.

Cotton MS Titus F. III

A folio composite volume of state and historical tracts, in various hands, 333 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

ff. 309r-23v

DaS 33: Samuel Daniel, A Breviary of the History of England

Copy, in the hand of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), merchant and antiquary, headed ‘A Breuiarie of the historie of England, from William .i. intitled the Conqueror’. c.1620s.

This MS discussed in Gottfried.

First published (from a MS ‘found in the Library of a Person of High Quality’) as An Introduction to a Breviary of the History of England with the Reign of King William the I, ascribed to Sir Walter Ralegh (London, 1693). Works of Sir Walter Ralegh (Oxford, 1829), VIII, 509-37. Daniel's probable authorship discussed in Rudolf B. Gottfried, ‘The Authorship of A Breviary of the History of England’, SP, 53 (1956), 172-90, and in William Leigh Godshalk, ‘Daniel's History’, JEGP, 63.1 (1964), 45-57.

Cotton MSS Titus F. VII-VIII

Autograph early draft, bound in two volumes, c.162 and 15 folio leaves. [1579-80].

*CmW 8: William Camden, Britannia

First published in London, 1586, with additions in 1607 and successive editions.

Cotton MS Titus F. IX

Autograph later draft, c.89 folio leaves. c.1600s.

*CmW 9: William Camden, Britannia

First published in London, 1586, with additions in 1607 and successive editions.

Cotton MS Titus F. XI

A composite volume of historical and antiquarian notes and papers, 67 quarto leaves. Perhaps all compiled by Camden and partly in his hand, used for Britannia and other works; one page (f. 7r) dated 1603. Late 16th-early 17th century.

*CmW 150: William Camden, Collectanea

Cotton MS Vespasian A. XXV

A quarto composite volume of prose works, verse and ballads, in various hands, 205 leaves, partly on vellum, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

Inscribed (f. 2r) Henry Savile: i.e. ? Henry Savile (1568-1617), of Banke, manuscript collector, and ‘Ex dono John Anstis Arm.’: i.e. John Anstis (1669-1744), Garter King of Arms, antiquary.

ff. 132v-3v

HyJ 11: John Heywood, ‘Long haue I bene a singynge man’

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, subscribed ‘finis mr Haywoode’. Mid-16th century.

Edited from this MS in Collier. Collated in Milligan.

First published in John Payne Collier, The History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakespeare: and Annals of the Stage to the Restoration (London, 1831), I, pp. 70, 72. Milligan, pp. 275-7. Possibly written by John Redford.

Cotton MS Vespasian B. XV

A quarto composite volume of state and antiquarian papers, in various hands, c.126 leaves.

f. 40

LeJ 41: John Leland, Collectanea [Other transcripts and extracts]

A list of witnesses from eight or nine old charters, copied ‘ex Lelando’, probably from the Collectanea.

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xiv.

MS Vespasian C. XIII

A folio composite volume of state papers and tracts, largely relating to relations with Spain, 452 leaves, in half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. In various hands, including that of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), merchant and antiquary (ff. 23r-v, 135r-42r, 169r-70v, 331r-v. 449r-52v).

ff. 307r-11v

RaW 659.5: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Discourse touching a War with Spain, and of the Protecting of the Netherlands

Copy, in a secretary hand, endorsed (f. 312v) ‘Ra. warr and peace’.

A tract addressed to James I and beginning ‘It belongeth not to me to judge whether the king of Spain hath done wrong to the Netherlands...’. First published in Three Discourses of Sir Walter Ralegh (London 1702). Works (1829), VIII, 299-316.

ff. 401r, 402r

*HoH 111: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Notes on the Jews

Autograph memorandum, on the rectos of two folio leaves, one headed ‘Reasons against permission of the Judias’, the other headed ‘Reasons for the Judias’.

Cotton MS Vespasian C. XIV

A folio composite collection of state letters and papers, in various hands, now divided into two volumes, the first (A-J) 336 leaves, the second (L-W) 332 leaves, both in modern half-morocco gilt.

Volume I, ff. 24r-5v

WyT 441: Sir Thomas Wyatt, Document(s)

A formal tabling of Wyatt's financial accounts as ambassador to Spain, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘Sir Thomas Wyatts Rekonyng’, from 12 March 1536/7 onwards, on two conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a packet. c.1538.

Cotton MS Vespasian E. VIII

A quarto composite volume of heraldic and other historical papers, in various hands, 187 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.

passim

*CmW 151: William Camden, Collectanea

Various autograph papers by Camden, including (on ff. 75v-113r, 126v-67, 185v-7r) an Anglo-Saxon-Latin vocabulary, a list of Saxon places and names, various Latin notes, material connected with Greek, and words and phrases from Homer's Iliad (dated 10 October 1592). c.1590s-1600s.

ff. 75r-95r, 126v-31v, 161v-7v, 182v-3v, 185r

CmW 14: William Camden, Institutio Graecae grammatices compendiaria

Autograph drafts for Camden's Greek grammar.

First published in London, 1595. Reprinted in facsimile by the Scolar Press (Menston, 1969).

ff. 169r-78r

PtG 1: George Puttenham, Partheniades (‘Gracious Princesse, Where princes are in place’)

Copy of the sequence of seventeen poems, in a predominantly italic hand, with eleven lines at the foot of f. 170r in two other hands, headed ‘The principall addresse in nature of a New yeares gifte, seeminge therebye the Author intended not to have his name knowne’, the word ‘Parthe:’ written in the margin against each poem, on nineteen quarto pages. Late 16th-early 17th century.

Edited frpom this MS in Haslewood and also in W.R. Morfill, Ballads from MSS. (Ballad Society Publications, 1873), II, 72-91.

A sequence of seventeen poems which were apparently written for intended presentation to Queen Elizabeth as a New Year's gift (c.1577-8). Extracts first published in The Arte of English Poesie (London, 1589). First published complete in Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poesy, ed. Joseph Haslewood, 2 vols (London, 1811-15), I, xviii-xxxviii.

This sequence would appear to correspond to ‘One oth[e]r lyttle booke of Certeyne meeters Wryten in hon[o]r of her ma[jes]t[i]e[s] name in p[ar]chem[en]t bound w[i]th greene leaves’ recorded in Katherine Paulet's 1578 inventory of Puttenham's goods seized by her husband John Paulet at Puttenham's lodgings in the Whitefriars [in February 1577/8].

Cotton MS Vespasian F. IX

A folio composite volume of state and antiquarian papers, in various hands, a list of contents (f. 1r-v) in the hand of William Dugdale, 276 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

ff. 187v-96r

*HoH 101: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Commonplace book or collectanea

Series of autograph entries, in English and Latin, on narrow ledger-format leaves, under Latin subject headings and largely relating to naval matters (‘Naues’, ‘Howe Carried’, ‘M Thesaur’, etc.).

ff. 198r-9r

*LeJ 56: John Leland, The Itinerary of John Leland

Autograph fragment, comprising three pages of text on two quarto leaves taken from one of Leland's MS volumes of the Itinerary, beginning ‘I redde yn an olde booke of Rameley that such a yere dyed Thomas Broyerton Edward the firstes sune...’. c.1535-43.

Edited from this MS in Smith, I, 327-9.

First published in Oxford, 1710-12, ed. Thomas Hearne, 9 vols.

Cotton MS Vitellius A. XVI

A quarto volume, in one or more professional secretary hands, 213 leaves, on vellum throughout, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. Comprising (ff. 2r-208v) a ‘chronicle of England, containing the remarkable passages of what happened; together with the mayors and sheriffs of London, from A° 1215 to A° 1509’, with other historical texts on ff. 209r-13v. Early 16th century.

ff. 200r-1r

DuW 182: William Dunbar, To the City of London (‘London, thou art of townes A per se’)

Copy, untitled.

Edited from this MS in Mackenzie.

Mackenzie, No. 88, pp. 177-8.

Cotton MS Vitellius B. XXI

A folio composite volume of state letters, in various hands, c.212 leaves.

ff. 58r-9

*ElT 6: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Autograph letter signed, to the Duke of Norfolk, 14 March ‘1532’. 1532.

Wilson, pp. 2-5.

Cotton MS Vitellius C. I

A folio composite volume of state papers, relating to the Marches of Wales, in various hands, c.303 leaves. Early 17th century.

ff. 151r-7r

BcF 92: Francis Bacon, Arguments of Law. The Arguments on the Jurisdiction of the Council of the Marches

This MS recorded in Spedding.

Spedding, VII, 567-611.

Cotton MS Vitellius C. IX

A folio composite volume of historical MSS, c.325 leaves.

ff. 233r-4v, 240r-5v

*LeJ 18: John Leland, Collectanea

A list of books in monastic libraries, together with extracts from Latin poets and other writers, partly autograph, partly in a professional hand, imperfect. c.1535-45.

This MS recorded in Smith, V, xiv.

First published in J. Lelandi antiquarii de rebus Britannicis collectanea, ed. Thomas Hearne, 6 vols (Oxford, 1715; 2nd. edition London, 1770; 3rd edition London, 1774).

ff. 246r-51v

LeJ 12.5: John Leland, Antiquitates Britanniae

Copy of parts of the work, probably from a transcript by John Stow. Late 16th century.

Unpublished. Discussed in T. C. Skeat, ‘Two “Lost” Works by John Leland’, EHR, 65 (1950), 505-8.

Cotton MS Vitellius C. XVI

A folio composite collection of state papers and tracts, chiefly relating to matrimonial matters, in various hands, c.538 leaves, now bound in two volumes (ff. 1-302, and ff. 303-538).

Part I, ff. 204r-6r

AndL 20.5: Lancelot Andrewes, A Discourse against Second Marriage after Divorce

Copy, untitled, slightly imperfect.

First published in LACT, Minor Works (1854), pp. 106-10.

ff. 390v-4v

RaW 1104: Sir Walter Ralegh, The Present Stat of Thinges as they now Stand betweene the three great Kingedomes, Fraunce, England, and Spaine

Copy, ascribed to Ralegh.

A tract beginning ‘These three great kingdoms as they now stand are to be compared to the election of a king of Poland...’. First published in Lefranc (1968), pp. 590-5, and discussed pp. 586-90. The attribution to Ralegh subsequently doubted by Professor Lefranc (private communication). If the tract dates from 1623, as appears in one MS, it could not have been weitten by Ralegh.

Part II, ff. 395r-403v

RaW 652: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Discourse touching a Match between the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince of Piedmont

Copy, imperfect.

A tract beginning ‘To obey commandment of my lord the prince, I have sent you my opinion of the match lately desired by the duke of Savoy...’. First published in The Interest of England with regard to Foreign Alliances, explained in two discourses: 1) Concerning a match propounded by the Savoyan, between the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince of Piedmont (London, 1750). Works (1829), VIII, 223-36. Ralegh's authorship is not certain.

Part II, ff. 529r-38r

RaW 628: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Discourse touching a Marriage between Prince Henry and a Daughter of Savoy

Copy, headed ‘A Politique discourse by way of Disput about ye happiest mariage for ye Noble Prince Henry written by Sr Arthure Gorge in An°. 1611’, the ascription emended to ‘by Sr Walter Rauleghe’, imperfect.

This MS formerly divided between Vitellius C. XVI and XVII but now united.

A tract beginning ‘There is nobody that persuades our prince to match with Savoy, for any love to the person of the duke...’. First published in The Interest of England with regard to Foreign Alliances, explained in two discourses:...2) Touching a Marriage between Prince Henry of England and a Daughter of Savoy (London, 1750). Works (1829), VIII, 237-52. Ralegh's authorship is not certain.

ff. 541r-5r

RaW 653: Sir Walter Ralegh, A Discourse touching a Match between the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince of Piedmont

Second copy, imperfect.

A tract beginning ‘To obey commandment of my lord the prince, I have sent you my opinion of the match lately desired by the duke of Savoy...’. First published in The Interest of England with regard to Foreign Alliances, explained in two discourses: 1) Concerning a match propounded by the Savoyan, between the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince of Piedmont (London, 1750). Works (1829), VIII, 223-36. Ralegh's authorship is not certain.

Cotton MS Vitellius C. XVII

ff. 382r-7r

SiP 229: Sir Philip Sidney, The Manner of Sir Philip Sidney's Death

Copy.

Edited principally from this MS in Duncan Jones and Van Dorsten.

An account, probably by George Gifford. Duncan-Jones and Van Dorsten, pp. 166-72.

ff. 439r-40r

RaW 710.21: Sir Walter Ralegh, Short Apology for his last Actions at Guiana

Copy, imperfect.

Edited from this MS (erroneously believed to be the original letter) in Edwards (No. CLX).

Ralegh's letter of 1618 to his cousin George, Lord Carew of Clopton (beginning ‘Because I know not whether I shall live...’). First published in Judicious and Select Essays (London, 1650). Edwards, II, 375 et seq. Youings, No. 222, pp. 364-8.

Cotton MS Vitellius E. X

A folio volume of miscellaneous tracts and verse, 272 leaves, imperfect from fire damage, each leaf mounted.

Inscribed (f. 2v) by John Stow (1524/5-1605), London historian.

ff. 208r-25v

SkJ 5: John Skelton, Garlande of Laurell (‘Arectyng my syght towarde the zodyake’)

Copy; in a professional hand, with some additions and corrections in another hand, imperfect, lacking about three fifths of the text. c.1495-1523.

This MS collated in Dyce. Partly edited from this MS, and collated, in John Skelton, The Book of the Laurel, ed. F.W. Brownlow (Newark, Delaware, 1990), with facsimiles of ff. 209r and 218v on pp. 19 and 27.

Canon, C27, p. 9. First published in an incomplete version [London], 1523. Complete in Pithy pleasaunt and profitable workes of maister Skelton (London, 1568). Dyce, I, 361-427. Scattergood, pp. 312-58. Edited by F.W. Brownlow, as John Skelton: The Book of the Laurel (Newark, Delaware, 1990).

Cotton Charter IV.38 (2)

Autograph draft, with revisions, on both sides of a single folio leaf, erroneously dated at the top ‘1563’ and docketed at the end ‘All this Letter was the Queenes owne hand and the draught she framed her selfe’, now mounted in a booklet guard-book of fifteen state papers. 1567.

*ElQ 164: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech Dissolving Parliament, January 2, 1567

Formerly Cotton MS Titus F. 1, f. 92.

Edited from this MS (as a ‘Separate version’) in Hartley (pp. 174-5), (as Version 1) in Collected Works, with a facsimile on p. 104, and in Selected Works. Printed in Autograph Compositions, pp. 40-2. Cited in Heisch. A facsimile of the first page in Andrew Prescott, English Historical Documents (British Library, 1988), p. 42.

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).