Add MS 73541

GEORGE HERBERT: 'Musae Responsoriae', with other poems, mostly in Latin; circa 1618-1620. Copies. The main item in this collection is the series of forty epigrams (ff. 6-18v) that Herbert wrote in reply to a poem composed by the Scots presbyterian Andrew Melville as a protest against the hostile reception given by the English Universities to the Millenary Petition of 1604. The Sapphic ode 'Pro supplici Euangeliorum Ministrorum in Anglia . . . Anti tami-Cami-Categoria', a text of which is prefixed (ff. 1-5) to Herbert's sequence, was first printed in 1620. Herbert's reply is introduced by three sets of verses (ff. 6, 6v) addressed to James I, Prince Charles and Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester (1618). It was first printed posthumously, under the title 'Herberti Musae Responsoriae ad Andreae Melvini Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoriam' in James Duport's Ecclesiastes Solomonis, Cambridge, 1662, from a text communicated to him by William Dillingham. The manuscript texts, which incorporate many minor variants and are imperfectly and irregularly numbered, also incorporate as does Duport the anagram on the name 'Roma' that occurs in Herbert's collection 'Lucus'. The sequence is followed (ff. 19, 19v) by three Latin pieces addressed to Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, celebrating the publication of his Novum Organum in Oct. 1620. Except for that beg. 'Quis iste tandem', first issued in Emmanuele Tesauro's Caesares, Oxford, 1637, these also were first issued in Duport's volume. They are followed (f. 20) by some presentational verses in English, beg. 'My Lord a Diamond to me you sent', along with a text of their presumed enclosure 'Aethiopissa ambit Cestrum diuersi coloris virum'. The English verses were first printed from the present manuscript in John Fry's Bibliographical Memoranda, Bristol, 1816, pp. 188, 189. The final item, Herbert's meditation 'In natales et Pascha concurrentes' (f. 20v), probably composed on 3 Apr. 1618, is preceded by some complimentary verses headed 'Wren cum chirothecis', beg. ' Candida amicitiae nascentis pignora, sed quae . . .'. All but the last are collected in The Works of George Herbert, ed. F. E. Hutchinson, Oxford, 1941, in texts from which the present manuscript exhibits numerous minor variants.

Paper: ff. iv + 20. 183 x 140 mm. Collation irregular: i², ii-iii⁸, iv², first and final gatherings consisting of non-conjugate leaves, with guards visible on first. 19th-century binding of dark brown calf, with gilt dentelles. Spine of five raised bands with gilt legend 'georg. herberti epigram. Stamp reading 'bound by f. bedford' at head of front paste-down (f. i). Modern cataloguer's note in pencil on back flyleaf (f. iv). Watermark of bunch of grapes within crowned posts with initials 'NLM' at base. Text transcribed in a single contemporary hand, until f. 6v between vertical ruled margins. Word 'last' pencilled vertically on final page (f. 20v) in 19th-cent hand. Note, possibly before 1816, on first flyleaf (f. iii) reads 'The Latin Poems of George Herbert in his own hand writing' and 'The English Poem to Ld. Bacon & the one "Wren cum chirothecis" appear not to have been printed. Formerly owned by B. H. Bright (sale-cat., 7 July 1845, lot 1728) and advertised by the booksellers Rodd (Cat. of 1846, p. 62) and Cochrane (Cat. of 1846, lot 'Melvin'). Ownership-inscription (f. iii), dated 1850, of the publisher William Pickering. Armorial bookplate (f. ii) of Robert, Marquess of Crewe, after 1911, pasted on front flyleaf.