Stowe MS 272

This volume's original vellum cover has been retained, bearing on the front and back the arms and name of Richard St George (1554/5-1635), herald. The cover (f. 1r) also has written on it in a 17th century hand the contents as:

'The Title of Scotland to the Crown of England by John Lisle Bishop of Ross in Scotland';

'Certaine proverbs or Aphorismes of King James';

'Meditations of the passion of Christ in verse by Mr Tashe'.

The book falls into two broad sections. The first (ff. 2r-54r) is a manuscript copy of Bishop John Leslie's A treatise towching the right, title, and interest of the most excellent Princess Marie, Queene of Scotland, and of the most noble king Iames, her Graces sonne, to the succession of the croune of England ([Rouen], 1584 [printed by G. L'Oyselet]) (1584), published at Rouen and printed by G. L'Oyselet (STC: 15507; ESTC: S108494), but without the tabular genealogy or marginal notes. It is written in a late 16th or early 17th hand. The paper size is larger than that which follows.

The rest of the volume, ff. 55r-76v, is in another distinctive, perhaps slightly shaky hand. It includes devotional poetry, anagrams and aphorisms of James I. From internal evidence, this section can be dated to between 1621 and St George's death in 1635. One dedicatory page, partly crossed out, is to Dorothy Lady Fowler, who had married Sir Thomas Fowler in 1621 (f. 55r) whilst an anagram on the name of Frances, Countess of Hertford refers to it given to 'my Lord Duke' three months before the Earl of Hertford's death, which happened in April 1621. This section is evidently in the hand of the poet and anagrammatist George Tashe: it is the same hand as anagrams presented by Tashe to Princess Elizabeth and Frederick, Elector Palatine, where he described himself as formerly page to King James's father Lord Darnley (The National Archives, SP 14/72, ff. 121r-v). The initials 'G: T:' appear three times in the course of the manuscript: at the beginning (in the dedicatory page) and at the end of first devotional poem (ff. 56r-65r), and on the verso of that page. He evidently wrote that poem.

'A Meditation of the Passion' (ff. 74r-76r) can be identified as the work of William Austin (c. 1587-1634), which circulated in manuscript before its posthumous publication as "Parasceue for Good Friday" in William Austin, Devotio Augustiniae Flamma, or, Certaine devout, godly and learned meditations (London: John Legat and Ralph Mab, 1635), 122-5 (STC 972; ESTC: S122180). This and the accompanying 'His Epitaph' stand apart physically from the rest of Tashe's section, being written on a different-sized paper. There is a scribal copy of Austin's poems, by Ralph Crane, in British Library, Add MS 34752.

Authorship of the Characters and verses (ff. 72r-73v) and 'His Epitaph' (f. 76v) is uncertain.

Contents:

ff. 2r-54r: 'A treatise touchinge the right, title, and interest of the moste excellente princesse Marie, Queene of Scotland, and of the moste noble Kinge James, her Graces sonne, to the succession of the crowne of Englande . . . compiled and published before in Latine and after in Englische by the right reuerend father in God John Lessey [Lesley], Bysshop of Rosse . . . An. 1584.'

f. 55r: Dedication to Dorothy Lady Fowler: her name is crossed out, but the phrase 'All Correspondence to her worthiest wishes' and the initials "G: T:" have been left in. This dedication belongs to the poem that follows.

ff. 56r-65r:. [George Tashe,] 'Heavenly and divyne meditations, or the blessed wishes of a blessed soule', beginning 'What should I wishe? For on the earth.'

f. 65v: Crossed out three lines.

ff. 66r: Anagrams on 'Francis, Countesse Hertforde' (i.e. Frances, 3rd wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl), and 'Edovardus Cocus' (Sir Edw. Coke).

f. 67r: Dedication to Sir Richard St. George, 'the knowne lover and favourer of all virtue and learning'. This probably belongs with the aphorisms and characters which follow.

ff. 68r-71v: Aphorisms of King James I.

ff. 72r-73r: Three 'Characters' of Avarice and Prodigality (f.72r), of the Romish Catholic (f. 72v.) and of the Atheist (f. 73r). The last two are in prose and verse.

f. 73v: Sets of couplets, headed 'The first of every one of thes two lynes following, were written by the french Preists, in a windowe of the guard-Chamber at St James'.

ff. 74r-76r: [William Austin,] ;A Meditation of the Passion'. In the heading, between the words of the title, has been pasted a small print of Christ on the Cross.

f. 76v: 'His Epitaph': verses on Christ in the Tomb, beginning, 'Within this Rocke the Rocke Himself is Leyde'.