Add MS 68942

EDMUND SPENSER: 'Mother Hubberds tale'; circa 5 June 1607. Copy. This text of Spenser's satirical allegory, published as 'Prosopopoeia: or, Mother Hubberd's Tale' in Complaints (1591), comprises 1362 verses rather than the 1388 of the printed version, from which also its readings differ extensively. It was summarily collated by A. B. Grosart in The complete works . . . of Edmund Spenser, III, (1884), pp. 148-152, but remained unavailable to later editors. Other near-contemporary manuscript copies or extracts, for the most part incorporating variants from the published text, are Bodleian Douce 280, ff. 22-34v; British Library Add. 34064, ff. 33v-35, Harley 677, ff. 87-104, and Harley 6910, ff. 2*-20; and Harvard Eng. 266, ff. 38-58. The first page (f. 1) is inscribed at the head '5 die Junii 1607:', and at the foot with a copy of a mock epitaph in Latin on Rosamund Clifford, mistress of King Henry II, beg. 'Hic iacit [sic] in tumba rosa mundi non rosa munda'. This distich, a further manuscript version of which occurs on sig. H3v of Bodleian Malone 354, a copy of Daniel's Delia and Rosamond augmented (1594), was printed in William Camden's Remaines concerning Britain (1636), p. 372. Formerly owned by the Rev. Philip Bliss (see printed entry from Sotheby's sale-cat., 21 Aug. 1858, lot 207, laid down on f.i), and by Arthur A. Houghton (see Christie's sale-cat., 12 June 1980, lot 439, and bookplate on f. i). Purchased from Quaritch, 19 Jan. 1989.

Paper; ff. iv+16. 310 x 200mm. On receipt at the British Library the collation ran i1, ii2, iii10, iv1, v2 (2 a stub). The text of the poem, which is copied in a Secretary hand, incorporates catchwords on all but two pages (ff. 2, 14), with an Italic running-title on the first twelve pages (ff. 2-7v) and pagination on the first eleven (ff. 2-7) only. Numeration of the verses has been added in pencil at some later date. The leaves were at one time secured by stabbing along the inner edge. Various markings, including unidentified booksellers' codes, are pencilled on the front paste-down (f. i verso) and on ff. ii and iii verso. Watermark: a pot. Former half binding of morocco and marbled paper now separately preserved in the red morocco slip-case made during Arthur A. Houghton's ownership by Rivière and Son.