Stowe MS 961

Volume containing 102 poems by John Donne, poet and Church of England clergyman (1572–1631), with others by Francis Beaumont, Ben Jonson, John Hoskyns, Henry Constable and William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke.

ff. 1r-3r John Donne, ‘Satyre II’. Copy titled ‘Satyre’, beginning ‘Sir though (I thanke God for it) I doe hate’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

ff. 3v-5v John Donne, ‘Satyre I’. Copy titled ‘Satyre’, beginning ‘Away thou Changlinge Motlie Humorist’. Subscribed with an inverted ‘P’.

ff. 6r-10v John Donne, ‘Satyre IV’. Copy titled ‘Satyre’, beginning ‘Well: I may now receive and die my Sinne’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

ff. 11r-15v John Donne, ‘Obsequies on the Lord Harrington Brother to the Ladie Lucie Countesse of Bedforde’. Beginning ‘Faire Soule which was’t, not only as all Soules bee’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

ff. 16r-17r John Donne, ‘To the Countesse of Bedforde’. Beginning ‘Honour is soe Sublime Perfection’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

f. 17v John Donne, ‘Epitaph on Himselfe. To the Countesse of Bedford’. Copy titled ‘To the Countesse of Bedforde’, beginning ‘That I might make your Cabinet my Tombe’.

ff. 18r-18v John Donne, ‘To the Countesse of Bedforde’. Beginning ‘Reason is your Soules left hande faith hir right’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 19r-20r Francis Beaumont, ‘An Elegy on the Lady Markham’. Copy titled ‘A funerall Elegie upon the Deathe of the Ladie Markham’, beginning ‘As unthrifts grieve in strawe for there pawnd Beds’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

ff. 20v-21r John Donne, ‘A Funerall Elegie upon the Death of the Ladie Markham’. Beginning ‘Man is the worlde, and Death the Ocean’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 22r-23v John Donne, ‘A Letter to the Lady Carey, and Mistress Essex Riche, from Amyens’. Copy titled ‘To the Ladie Carey’, beginning ‘Here, here, wher that all Saints invoked are’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 24r-24v John Donne, ‘To his Mistris Going to Bed’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Come Madame, Come all rest my powers defie’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 25r-25v John Donne, ‘Change’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Althoughe thy hande, and faith and good works too’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 26r-26v John Donne, ‘Oh, let mee not serve so, as those men serve’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘O let me not serve soe, as those men serve’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 27r-27v John Donne, ‘Lovers infinitenesse’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘If yet I have not all thy Love’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 28r-29r John Donne, ‘The Perfume’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Once, and but once founde in thy Companie’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 29v-30r John Donne, ‘Loves Warre’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Till I have peace with thee, warr other men’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 30v-31v John Donne, ‘On his Mistris’. Copy titled ‘Elegie on his Mistres, desiringe to be disguisd, and to goe like a Page, with him’. Beginning ‘By our first strange, and fatall Enterview’.

ff. 31v-32r John Donne, ‘The Comparison’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘As the Sweet Sweat of Roses in a still’.

ff. 32v-33v John Donne, ‘The Expostulation’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘To make the doubt cleere that no woman’s true’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 34r-35r John Donne, ‘A Funerall Elegie upon the Death of Mistress Boulstred’. Beginning ‘Language, thou art too narrowe, and too weake’. Subscribed ‘P’.

ff. 35v-36v John Donne, ‘Elegie on Mistress Boulstred’. Beginning ‘Death, I recant, and say, unsaide by mee’. Subscribed ‘P’.

f. 37r John Donne, ‘The Autumnall’. Copy titled ‘Elegie Autumnall on the Ladie Shandoys’, beginning ‘No Springe, nor Summer Beautie hath such Grace’.

ff. 38r-43r John Donne, ‘Eclogue 1613. December 26’. Copy beginning ‘Unseasonable man, statue of Ice’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

ff. 43v-45v John Donne, ‘An Epithelamion or mariadge Songe, on the Ladie Elisabeth and Fredericke Count Palatine being maried on St Valentines Day’. Copy beginning ‘Haile Bishop Valentine, whose day this is’.

ff. 46r-47v John Donne, ‘Epithalamion made at Lincolnes Inne’. Copy titled ‘Epithalamion on a Citisen’, beginning ‘The Sun beames in the East are Spred’.

ff. 48r-49v John Donne, ‘Loves Progress’. Copy titled ‘Elegie on Loves Progresse’, beginning ‘Who ever loves, if he do not propose’.

ff. 50r-51v John Donne, ‘His parting from her’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Since she must goe and I must mourne, come night’.

ff. 52r-52v John Donne, ‘Jealosie’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Fond woman which wouldst have thy husband dye’.

ff. 53r-53v John Donne, ‘The Anagram’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Marry, and Love thy Flavia for she’.

f. 54r John Donne, ‘The good-morrow’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘I wonder by my troth, what thou and I’.

f. 54v John Donne, ‘Loves growth’. Copy titled ‘Springe’, beginning ‘I scarce beleive my love to be so pure’.

ff. 55r-55v John Donne, ‘Loves Deitie’. Beginning ‘I longe to talke with some olde lovers Ghoste’.

f. 55v Poem titled ‘Fragment’, beginning ‘Beleeve not him, whom Love hath lefte so wise’.

f. 56r John Donne, ‘Loves Usury’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘For every houre that thou woo’t spare me nowe’.

f. 56v John Donne, ‘A Feaver’. Beginning ‘Oh doe not dye for I shall hate’.

f. 57r John Donne, ‘The Funerall’. Beginning ‘Who ever comes to shrowde me doe noe harme’.

f. 57v John Donne, ‘The Flea’. Beginning ‘Marke but this flea, and marke in this’.

f. 58r John Donne, ‘Loves Alchymie’. Copy titled ‘Mummy’, beginning ‘Some that have deeper dig’d Loves mine then I’.

ff. 58v-59r Poem titled ‘To Livia’, beginning ‘Deare Love continewe nice, and Chaste’. Elsewhere ascribed to John Roe.

f. 59v John Donne, ‘Witchcraft by a picture’. Copy titled ‘Picture’, beginning ‘I fixe mine eye on thine and there’.

ff. 60r-60v John Donne, ‘The Canonization’. Copy titled ‘Canonizatio’, beginning ‘For Godsake holde your tongue, and let me love’.

f. 61r John Donne, ‘A Valediction: of weeping’. Copy titled ‘A Valediction of teares’, beginning ‘Let me powre forthe’.

f. 61v John Donne, ‘Ayre, and Angells’. Beginning ‘Twice or thrise had I lov’d thee’.

f. 62r John Donne, ‘The Apparition’. Beginning ‘When by thy Scorne O Murdres I am dead’. Subscribed ‘P A’.

f. 62v Poem titled ‘Sonnett’, beginning ‘Madam that flea that Crept betweene your brests’.

f. 63r John Donne, ‘The Dreame’. Beginning ‘Deare Love, for nothinge lesse then thee’.

ff. 63v-64r John Donne, ‘A letter to Rowland Woodwarde’. Beginning ‘Like one who in hir third widdowehood doth professe’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

ff. 64v-65v John Donne, ‘The Extasie’. Beginning ‘When, like a pillowe on a Bed’.

ff. 66r-66v John Donne, ‘To Sir Henry Wotton’. Beginning ‘Here’s no more newes, then virtue I may aswell’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

f. 67r John Donne, ‘The Anniversarie’. Copy titled ‘Ad Liviam’, beginning ‘All kinges and all theire favorites’.

ff. 67v-68r John Donne, ‘The Will’. Copy titled ‘Testamentum’, beginning ‘Before I sighe my last gaspe, let me breathe’.

ff. 68v-69r John Donne, ‘A letter to Sir Edwarde Harbert’. Beginning ‘Man is a lumpe, where all Beasts kneaded bee’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

f. 69v John Donne, ‘The Expiration’. Copy titled ‘Valedictio’, beginning ‘So so; leave of this last lamentinge Kisse’.

f. 69v Ben Jonson, ‘The Houre Glasse’. Beginning ‘Doe but consider this small Dust’.

ff. 70r-71r William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, ‘A Paradox of a painted face’. Beginning ‘Not kisse? by Jove I must, and make impression’. Subscribed ‘A P’.

f. 71v John Donne, ‘Song’. Copy titled ‘Sonnett’, beginning ‘Stay oh Sweete, and doe not rise’.

f. 71v John Donne, ‘Breake of day’. Untitled copy, beginning ‘Tis true tis Day, what thoughe it bee?’.

ff. 72r-72v John Donne, ‘Farewell to Love’. Beginning ‘Whilst yet to prove’.

f. 73r John Donne, ‘The Baite’. Copy titled ‘Songe’, beginning ‘Come live with me and be my Love’.

f. 73v John Donne, ‘To Mr T.W.’ Copy titled ‘A Letter’, beginning ‘At once from hence, my lines and I depart’.

f. 74r John Donne, ‘The Message’. Copy titled ‘Songe’, beginning ‘Sende home my longe strayd eyes to me’.

ff. 74v-75r John Donne, ‘Songe’. Beginning ‘Sweetest Love, I doe not goe’.

f. 75v John Donne, ‘Songe’. Beginning ‘Goe, and catch a fallinge starr’.

f. 76r John Donne, ‘The triple Foole’. Copy titled ‘Songe’, beginning ‘I am two fooles I knowe’.

ff. 76v-77r John Donne, ‘The broken heart’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘He is starke mad, who ever sayes’.

f. 77v John Donne, ‘Sonnet. The Token’. Copy titled ‘Ad Lesbiam’, beginning ‘Send me some token, that my hope may live’.

f. 77v John Donne, ‘Antiquary’. Copy titled ‘Epigram’, beginning ‘If in his study Hamon hath such Care’.

f. 78r John Donne, ‘The Indifferent’. Copy titled ‘Songe’, beginning ‘I can love both faire and browne’.

f. 78v John Donne, ‘The Legacie’. Copy titled ‘Songe’, beginning ‘When I dyde last, and Deare I dye’.

f. 79r John Donne, ‘A Lecture upon the Shadow’. Copy titled ‘Shaddowe’, beginning ‘Stande still and I will reade to thee’.

f. 79v Ben Jonson, ‘Poetaster’. Extract from Act II, Scene II, titled ‘Sonnett’, beginning ‘If I freely may discover’.

f. 80r John Donne, ‘The Paradox’. Untitled copy, beginning ‘No Lover Saith I Love, nor any one’.

f. 80v John Hoskyns, ‘Absence’. Untitled copy, beginning ‘Absence heare my pretestation’.

f. 81r John Donne, ‘Elegie on the L.C.’ Copy titled ‘Funerall Elegie’, beginning ‘Sorrowe which to this house scarce knew the way’.

f. 81v John Donne, ‘His Picture’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Here, take my picture, thoughe I bid farewell’.

ff. 82r-82v John Donne, ‘The Sunne Rising’. Copy titled ‘Ad Solem’, beginning ‘Busie olde foole, unruly Sunne’.

f. 82v Poem titled ‘Song’, beginning ‘Love bred of Glances twixt amorous eyes’.

ff. 83r-83v John Donne, ‘Loves diet’. Copy titled ‘Amoris Dieta’, beginning ‘To what a cumbersome unwildenes’.

f. 84r John Donne, ‘The Dreame’. Copy titled ‘Picture’, beginning ‘Image of hir, whom I love more then shee’.

ff. 84v-85r John Donne, ‘A Valediction forbidding mourning’. Copy titled ‘Upon the partinge from his mistris’, beginning ‘As virtuous men passe mildely away’.

f. 85v John Donne, ‘Communitie’. Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Good we must love, and must hate ill’.

ff. 86r-86v John Donne, ‘To Mr T.W.’ Copy titled ‘Ad amicum’, beginning ‘All haile Sweet Poet more full of more stronge fire’.

f. 86v John Donne, ‘The Prohibition’. Untitled copy, beginning ‘Take heede of lovinge me’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

f. 87r John Donne, ‘Twicknam Garden’. Beginning ‘Blasted with Sighes, and surrounded with teares’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 87v-88r John Donne, ‘To Mistress M.H.’ Copy titled ‘Elegie’, beginning ‘Mad paper stay, and grudge not here to burne’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 88v-89r John Donne, ‘The Blossoms’. Beginning ‘Little thinckst thou poore flowre’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 89v-90r John Donne, ‘The Relique’. Beginning ‘When my Grave is broke up againe’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

f. 90v John Donne, ‘The Dampe’. Beginning ‘When I am Dead and Doctors know not why’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

f. 91r John Donne, ‘The Primrose’. Beginning ‘Upon this Primrose hill’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 91v-92v John Donne, ‘A Valediction of my name, in the window’. Copy titled ‘Upon the ingravinge of his name with a Diamonde in his mistris windowe when he was to travaile’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 93r-94r John Donne, ‘To Sir Henry Wotton’. Beginning ‘Sir more then Kisses letters mingle Soules’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 94v-96r John Donne, ‘The Bracelet’. Copy titled ‘The Bracelett: To a ladie, whose Chaine was lost’. Beginning ‘Not that in Coullor, it was like thy hayre’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

f. 97r John Donne, ‘Thou hast made me and shall thy worke decay?’ Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 97r John Donne, ‘As due by many titles I resigne’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 97v John Donne, ‘O might those sighes and teares returne againe’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 97v John Donne, ‘Father, (part of his double interest)’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 98r John Donne, ‘O my blacke Soule now thou art summoned’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 98r John Donne, ‘This is my Playes last Sceane; here heaven’s apart’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 98v John Donne, ‘I am a little worlde made cunninglie’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 98v John Donne, ‘At the rounde earths imagined Corners blowe’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 99r John Donne, ‘If poisonous mineralls, or if the Tree’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 99r John Donne, ‘If faithfull Soules be alike glorifide’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 99v John Donne, ‘Deathe be not proude thoughe some have called thee’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

f. 99v John Donne, ‘Wilt thou love God as he thee? then digest’. Copy under the general title ‘Divine Meditations’.

ff. 100r-100v John Donne, ‘Good Fryday: 1613’. Beginning ‘Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and thn in this’.

f. 101r Henry Constable, ‘On the Blessed Virgin, Marie: Sonnett’. Beginning ‘In that, O Queene of Queenes, the Birth was free’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 101v-103r John Donne, ‘La Corona’. Sonnet sequence titled ‘The Crowne’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 103v-104r John Donne, ‘The Annuntiation and Passion’. Copy titled ‘Upon the Annuntiation and Passion fallinge upon one Day: Anno 1608’. Beginning ‘Tamely fraile flesh abstaine to day; to day’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 104v-108v John Donne, ‘The Litanie’. Copy titled ‘A Letanie’, beginning ‘Father of heaven and him by whome’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

f. 109r John Donne, ‘A Hymne to God the Father’. Copy titled ‘Christo Salvatori’, beginning ‘Wilt thou forgive that Sin where I begun’.

ff. 109v-110r John Donne, ‘A Hymne to Christ, at the Authors last going into Germany’. Copy titled ‘At the Seaside, goinge over weth the Lorde Doncaster. 1619’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 110v-111r John Donne, ‘Hymne To God, my God in my sicknes’. Beginning ‘Since I am comminge to that holy roome’. Subscribed with a decoration resembling ‘JP’.

ff. 112v-114r ‘The Table’: Index of poems, arranged alphabetically by first line.

Decoration: pen decorations in the form of grapes.