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Manuscripts

Chester mystery cycle : [manuscript]

1 of 329

Description: ff. 6-150v. [Chester Mystery Cycle]. Incipit: Ego sum alpha et omega i, primus et novissimus. I god moste of maiestye/ in whom begininge none may bee. Explicit: therfore excuse you withowten were/ I may not well I wysse. Deo gratias. This ys the laste of all the xxiiiitie pageantes and playes, played by the xxiiites craftesmen of the Cyttie of Chester wrytten in the yeare of our lord god 1591 and in the xxxiiiith yeare of the reigne of our sovereigne Ladye queene Elizabeth, whom god preserve for ever Amen. Finis. [added in a different script:] By me Edward Gregorie scholler at Bunburye the yeare of our lord god 1591. Rubric: Drapers Playe. Incipit pagina secunda qualiter deus docuit mundum, Deus. English. IMEV 716. R. M. Lumiansky and D. Mills, eds., The Chester Mystery Cycle. EETS ss 3 (London 1974) , using this manuscript as the base text, collated against the 5 other manuscripts; HM 2 described in the introduction, pp. xii-xiv and in the notes, pp. 533-47. See also The Chester Mystery Cycle: a reduced facsimile of Huntington Library MS 2 with an introduction by R. M. Lumiansky and D. Mills (San Marino and the University of Leeds 1980). Other complete editions of the Chester cycle, including the Banns, by T. Wright for the Shakespeare Society (1843-47) and by H. Deimling and Dr. Matthews for EETS es 62, 115 (1892, 1916) ; for a list of the partial editions, see Lumiansky and Mills, EETS ss 3, pp. xli-xlii . This manuscript lacking the first 5 leaves (as shown by contemporary foliation); the missing text (the Banns and Play 1) supplied in HM 2 on the introductory ff. I-XII from London, Brit. Lib., Harley 2013 in the nineteenth century.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: [1591]
Call number: mssHM 2
Provenance: Written in England, the earliest known complete manuscript of this text, in 1591 according to the explicit on f. 150v. Art. 1, with the date "4 June 1600" on f. I and the name "Georgium Bellin" on f. IV verso, was copied from Harley 2013 in the nineteenth century. Below the explicit on f. 150v, in a more formal script, possibly by a different person, but difficult to see clearly due to discoloration from a reagent, another note with the same date of 1591 and the name of the copyist (?), "By me Edward Gregorie scholler at Bunburye the yeare of our lord god 1591." But see also Lumiansky and Mills, xi, xvi n. 18. Also on f. 150v, ca. 1600, the name "Richarde Gregorie" twice; on f. 41, s. XVII, "John Egerton esq.," probably not one of the first three Earls of Bridgewater, all of whom bore that name, but rather another member of the Egerton family, who possessed properties in Cheshire. J. Payne Collier in the 1831 edition of his History of English Dramatic Poetry, 2:227 states that the manuscript had been "only very recently" discovered and that it had come into the possession of J. B. Nichols, esq., F.S.A. (presumably John Bowyer Nichols, 1779-1863, of The Gentleman's Magazine) from an unnamed gentleman of Cheshire; Nichols' name is omitted in the 1879 edition. It was first suggested by W. W. Greg, "Bibliographical and Textual Problems of the English Miracle Cycles," The Library 5 (1914) 170 that the modern transcription from Harley 2013 on ff. I-XII (paper watermarked 1829) was supplied by J. Payne Collier, presumably meaning that Collier obtained the transcription or had it done, rather than copying it himself, as the script does not resemble other examples of Collier's handwriting in the Huntington Library. By 1836, when Collier printed the Antichrist pageant (art. 23) in his Five Miracle Plays, the manuscript had passed into the collection of the Duke of Devonshire; it was temporarily mislaid and not available to H. Deimling for his 1892 edition. Listed in the typescript "Alphabetical Handlist of the Titles of the Kemble-Devonshire Collection of English Plays," compiled 1906-07, vol. 1, p. 92.
Restrictions: RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
Dimensions: 196 x 293 mm
Associated people: Gregorie, Edward,
Associated organization: Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Find out more: View in the Huntington Digital Library(Opens in new tab); View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

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