Add MS 33739

This text is a manuscript copy of a work of Catholic political polemic, probably published in Rouen in 1584, possibly by George Flinton or by Georges L'Oyselet. It was published as The copie of a leter, wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige, to his friend in London, concerning some talke past of late betwen two worshipful and graue men, about the present state, and some procedinges of the Erle of Leycester and his friendes in England. Conceyued, spoken and publyshed, wyth most earnest protestation of al duetyful good wyl and affection, towardes her most excellent Ma. and the realm, for whose good onely it is made common to many. It is better known by the title by which it was informally known as early as 1586, and under which it was republished in 1641: 'Leicester's Commonweath'. It presented a secular case, attacking Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as a corrupt and corrupting force within the English state, and also presenting the case for Mary, Queen of Scots keeping her place within the succession and the case for tolerating Catholics. Its authorship was unknown (the attribution to the Jesuit Robert Parsons has not lasted). The modern edition identifies the authors as a circle of English lay Catholic exiles in Paris, chief amongst them Charles Arundell, Leicester's Commonwealth: The Copy of a Letter Written by a Master of Arts of Cambridge (1584) and related documents, ed. by D.C. Peck (Athens, OH, and London: Ohio State Press, 1985), esp. pp. 5-32.

This a scribal copy, probably from the late 16th-century, but possibly from the early 17th-century. Leicester's Commonwealth, ed. by D.C. Peck, pp. 222-227, has identified 57 manuscript copies of varying quality (but amongst them 44 complete texts). This is one of 17 complete texts in the British Library alone (it also holds two imperfect copies and two sets of extracts). The printed book itself was rapidly suppressed, but Peck concludes that all these are copies either from the book itself or from an intermediate manuscript. The title-page (f. 2r) follows the text of the original printed book, only tweaking it to remove an error. The book spoke of a dialogue between two worshipful and grave gentlemen; as the dialogue is actually between three people a Scholar, a Lawyer and a Gentleman this manuscript loses the 'two'.

This manuscript has at the end of the main text (f. 103v) 'finis L: D:'. At the end of the postscript. 'A godlie and profitable meditcaionn of the 28 Chapter of Jobe' (on the fate of wicked men), f. 104v, is a Latin conclusion not in the original, 'Laus et honor soli Deo'. beneath which (possibly in another hand, certainly in another ink) is an overtly Catholic injunction to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which again is not in the original printed text. Also noted there is the more common name of the piece, 'Lesters commonwealth' and a name L: Duneidis': both are evidently the hand of the scribe of the main text. The 19th-cataloguer suggested 'Duneides' might be a Latinate version of 'Downes', which might link it to the manuscript's first named owner.

At the back (f. 105v) is an inscribed name: 'Frauncis' (or 'Fraunces') Downes. This may be Francis Downes of Wardley Hall, Lancashire (1606-1648), MP for Wigan in 1624 and 1625: the son of a Catholic mother who openly declared his Catholicism in the early 1630s.

There are on ff. 1r, 104v, 105r, brief historical comments from 18th and 19th centuries; f. 1r. also contains what looks like the sales catalogue of the books of one of its owners, John Watson (1725-1783) was Rector of Stockport, and on the inside of the cover (f. i verso) is the label of the bookseller and bookbinder Ford (William Ford, 1771-1832) of St Ann's Square, Manchester, which carried the motto, 'Binding neatly executed'.

Contents:

ff. 1r, 104v. 105r: Historical notes.

f. 2r: Title-page.

ff. 3r-104v: The text.