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Manuscripts

Game at chesse : manuscript, 1624

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  • Poems and problems : manuscript, approximately 1622-1632

    Poems and problems : manuscript, approximately 1622-1632

    Manuscripts

    A collection of 123 poems by John Donne, plus his Paradoxes, Problems and characters; together with individual poems by others such as Ben Jonson, Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, John Hoskyns, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Henry Wotton and Henry Constable. Paper, 194 leaves (leaves 141r-61v and 185v-194v blank). Two blank leaves inserted following leaf 1. Two blank endleaves bound in at end. In a single, neat, predominantly roman hand (entries on ff. 105v-15r in a less neat cursive hand), and with various corrections or emendations throughout possibly in another hand, written circa 1622-32. Binding: contemporary vellum, with initials "F. B.[i.e. Frances Bridgewater]" in gilt on front cover surrounding a smudged watercolour central oval on front cover. Fragments of leaves from an unidentified manuscript used along hinges. In case.

    mssEL 6893

  • Processional : [manuscript]

    Processional : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 3-86; f. 86v, blank. Processional. Latin; English. Printed by J. W. Legg, ed., The Processional of the Nuns of Chester. Henry Bradshaw Society 18 (London 1899) from this manuscript. ff. 3-4, Material added in a later hand; f. 3v, Antiphon and response for the Consecration of Virgins; ff. 4v-6v, blank; ff. 7-70, Processions for the temporale and the sanctorale combined, ending with the procession for the dedication of a church; ff. 70v-71, Christmas carol; ff. 71v-72, On shere thursday this antym, Domine iesus postquam cenavit; ff. 72-76v, Prayers to follow compline, prayers to the Trinity, the Cross, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin, All Saints, for peace, for the king, 8 prayers for the dead, a prayer to the Cross, and 2 prayers to the Virgin; ff. 76v-78, Benedictions for the nocturns and benedictions of the Virgin for the nocturns; f. 78r-v, Of our lady antyms (Beata dei genitrix; Descendi in ortum meum; Virgo hodie fidelis); f. 79r-v, Rex seculorum quem laudat universa substancia rerum followed by 2 antiphons; f. 80, Antiphons to the Virgin; ff. 80-85v, Prayers in English; f. 86, Added prayer in Latin.

    mssEL 34 B 7

  • Entertainment at Ashby: manuscript, 1607

    Entertainment at Ashby: manuscript, 1607

    Manuscripts

    A partly autograph presentation manuscript by John Marston of the masque presented for the family of Henry Hastings, fifth Earl of Huntingdon. Staged at the family seat at Ashby, Leicestershire, in 1607, the show is devised as pastime for a visit by the Earl's mother-in-law, Alice Spencer, dowager Countess of Derby. Binding: gold-tooled vellum. Paper, 15 quarto leaves; main text written probably in a single professional hand, in alternating italic and secretary scripts. The dedication (f. 1r) and all of ff. 14r-15r in Marston's hand, as are probably occasional deletions, corrections and additions throughout the text. Written in 1607. Also includes a tipped-in a separate manuscript of verses relating to Lady Derby and Lady Huntingdon (beginning "As this ys endelesse, endelesse be yor ioyes"), in a secretary hand, subscribed 'W: SK:' [i.e. William Skipton], on the first two pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves.

    mssEL 34 B 9

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    "A Game at Chesse" by Thomas Middleton

    Manuscripts

    Official, semi-official, and personal papers of six generations of the Egerton family, particularly those accumulated by Sir Thomas Egerton, 1540?-1617, Baron Ellesmere and Viscount of Brackley, Solicitor-General (1581-1592), Attorney-General (1592-1594), Lord Keeper (1596-1603), and Lord Chancellor (1603-1617); Sir John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, 1579-1649, President of the Council of Wales (1631-1649); John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, 1622-1686, Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (1660-1686); John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, 1646-1701, President of the Board of Trade (1696-1699), First Lord of Admiralty (1699-1701), Speaker of the House of Lords (1697 and 1700); John Scrope Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, 1681-1745, a Whig courtier under Anne and George I, and Francis, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, 1736-1803

    EL 34/B/17

  • Book of Hours, use of Châlons-sur-Marne : [manuscript]

    Book of Hours, use of Châlons-sur-Marne : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-77v. [Book of Hours]: f. i r-v [added 16th c.]: Prayer to the Virgin; ff. 1-6v: Calendar in French; ff. 7-8v, 10-11: Pericopes of the Gospels (and on f. 11r-v, continuation of the responsorial prayer from f. i verso); ff. 13-14v: Obsecro te; ff. 40, 39, 41-43, 23, 12, 20-22, 27, 15, one leaf missing, 30, 25-26, 34, one leaf missing, 9, 16, two leaves missing, 19, one leaf missing, 35-36, one leaf missing, 37-38, one leaf missing; 24, two leaves missing, 29: Hours of the Virgin, apparently use of Châlons-sur-Marne; ff. 44-54v: Penitential psalms and litany; f. 54r-v: prayer added, 16th c., in the same hand as on f. i r-v: [M]ediatrix ..., [A]uxiliatrix ..., [R]eparatrix ...; ff. 31-32, 17-18, 33, 28, 55-71v: Office of the Dead, use of Châlons-sur-Marne; ff. 72-77v: Prayers in Latin and French to the Virgin with a woman as suppliant; f. 77r-v: completion of prayer from f. 54v: [I]lluminatrix ..., [A]lleluiatrix ...

    mssHM 1265

  • Tenures : [manuscript]

    Tenures : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-10v. [Old Tenures]. Incipit: //Tenir en pure villenage est a faire tout. Explicit: a sa partie que a luy fuist aliene et si//. French. Old Tenures, beginning defectively, continuing beyond the 1521 Pynson edition with a section on Rent annuell and a series of short definitions, Suyt service through Tenauntz en comen, which ends defectively. On ff. ii, notes, s. XVII, in Latin referring to another legal text by page number; once a separate sheet, evidently tipped in after the volume entered the Bridgewater collection: a note on the verso, "Loose leaf in T 3 8," misreading the early Bridgewater pressmark, "I.3/8.". f. 11. [Carol]. Incipit: hey noyney I wyll loue our ser Iohn & I loue eny/ o lord so swett ser Iohn dothe kys/ at euery tyme when he wolde pley. Explicit: with praty plesure For to assay/ Furres of the Fynest with other thynges. English. IMEV 2494. R. H. Robbins, ed., Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Centuries (Oxford 1955) 20-21 from this manuscript, and R. L. Greene, ed., The Early English Carols (Oxford 1977) 278 from this manuscript. The burden is repeated in the margin of f. 73v in a different form, "hey troly loly hey troly loly I must loue our sur Iohn & I loue eny o lord.". f. 11v; f. 12r-v blank but for indenture. [Sir Thomas Wyatt] [Poem]. Incipit: I must go walke þe woed so wyld/ & wander here & there/ in dred & dedly fere. Explicit: but when your bewty I do thynk/ & all For lowe off on. English. IMEV 1333. Robbins, ed., Secular Lyrics, pp. 14-15 with the 4 stanzas from this manuscript; stanzas 1-2, 4-5 of the 15 stanzas in K. Muir and P. Thomson, eds., Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt (Liverpool 1969) 150-52. Stanza 1 repeated on f. 108v, stanzas 2 and 4 repeated on f. 107v, and the first 4 lines of stanza 2 also on f. 109. ff. 13-132; f. 132v blank except for pentrials. [Sir Thomas Littleton] Tenures. Incipit: Tenant en Fee simple est celuy qi ad terres ou tenementz a tener a luy et a sez heures a toutz iours. Explicit: plus tost aviendra a la certeynte et a la conusaunce de la ley. Lex plus laudatur quando racione probatur. Expliciunt nove tenure secundum Lyteltoun. French. T. E. Tomlins, ed., Lyttleton, his treatise of tenures in French and in English (London 1841).

    mssEL 34 B 60 (EL 1160)