Add MS 53723

HENRY LAWES MUSIC MANUSCRIPT: songs by Henry Lawes, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (d.1662); circa 1626-1662. Autograph. The manuscript, which contains 325 songs, was originally compiled in chronological order, with a few items entered subsequently on blank lower leaves. Besides the music, the volume is important as a collection of English poetry. For a detailed discussion, see P. J. Willetts, The Henry Lawes Manuscript (1969), where the contents of the manuscript are listed with early music publication details, incipits of text and a bibliography. There is a contemporary index to the songs, ff. 1-2v. A portrait of Lawes engraved by William Faithorne the elder is inserted, f. viii. The portrait was a frontispiece to Lawes' Ayres and Dialogues (1653). The texts of some of the poems are printed in J. Wardroper, Love and Drollery (1969). Provenance

of the MS. is described in detail in Willetts, pp. 31-32, and summarised as

follows: (a) the Rev. William Gostling (d.1777), Canon of Canterbury. Bookplate, f. ii. Gostling was the son of the Rev. John Gostling, singer and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal;- (b) acquired by Sir John Hawkins at the sale of Gostling's music library (sale-cat. 26 May 1777, lot 59);- (c) owned? by Dr Philip Hayes, Professor of Music at Oxford (d.1797). See memoranda, f. i;- (d) initials 'J.C.', dated 1802, occur ff. 150v, 151, 153v, 161, 167;- (e) Robert Smith, of 3 St Paul's Churchyard; early 19th cent. Bookplate, f. v. Memoranda by Smith, who placed the Faithorne print in the volume, occur ff. iii, vii;- (f) Stephen Groombridge, astronomer and President of the Glee Club (d.1832). Bookplate,

f. vi;- (g) owned? by Edward Francis Rimbault, composer; 1847;- (h) Rev. Henry Richard Cooper Smith, Rector of Basingstoke, circa 1900. In 1949 the MS. was deposited in the British Museum on indefinite loan (Loan MS. 35) by the residuary legatees of Miss E. K. Church after failing to reach its reserve at Hodgson's, sale-cat. 22 April 1949, lot 495. Purchased 12 Feb. 1966.

Paper; ff. ix+184. Contemporary pagination 1-371 through ff. 3-177v: pp. 21 follows 19, 49 repeated, 64 repeated, 184-185 lacking (stub remains). 200 follows 189, 333 follows 322. 376 x 250 mm. Boards of original binding, covered in brown leather, blind-ruled, are stored with the MS.