Harley MS 3910

Octavo verse miscellany of Latin and English poems by various authors, in several hands. Many of the texts are presented in parallel Latin and English versions. Compiled c. 1620s-30s and probably associated with a university or inns of court.

Contents:

• ff. 1r-3v: ‘Lidford Journey’. First line: ‘I oft have h’ard of Lidford Lawe’. By William Browne of Tavistock.
• f. 4r: ‘On mrs. E. P’. First line: ‘Nature in this small volume was about’. By William Browne of Tavistock.
• ff. 8r-10v: ‘Dr. Lawes [deleted] his foolish invective against the p[ar]l[i]ament for proceeding to censur his Lord Verlam:’. First line: ‘When yee awack dull Brittons and behould’. By William Lewes.
• f. 11r-v: ‘In Hen Com North’. First line: ‘The great Arch papist learned Curio’. By Sir John Davies.
• ff. 15v-16v: ‘Ad Comitissam Rutlandiae’. First line: ‘Madam so may my verses pleasing be’. Subscribed ‘ffr: B’. By Francis Beaumont.
• f. 17r: First line: ‘Good madam Fowler doe not troble mee’. By Francis Beaumont.
• ff. 17v-18v: ‘An Elegie’. First line: ‘Come fates I feare you not, all whome I owe’. By John Donne.
• ff. 19r-20r: ‘An Elegie on the death of Penelope the faire & virtuous Lady Clifton’. First line: ‘Since thou art dead (Clifton) the world may see’. Subscribed ‘Fr Beamont last’. By Francis Beaumont.
• ff. 20v-21v: ‘A Paradox on a painted face by my lo: of Cuntfolower Mr Baker’. First line: ‘Do I not know those balls of blushing red’ [first 4 lines and half of line 12 deleted]. By William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
• f. 22r-v: ‘An Elegie to the Lady Bedford’. First line: ‘You that one she, & you yt doble shee’. By John Donne.
• ff. 22v-23r: ‘Earle of Pembroke’. First line: ‘If her disdayne least change in you can move’. By William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
• f. 23r-v: ‘Answer by Ben: Rudyard’. First line: ‘Tis love breeds love in mee & cold disdayn’. By William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
• f. 23v: ‘Peregrine’. First line: ‘In your faire cheeks two pitts ther lye’. By Thomas Carew.
• f. 24r: ‘Epitath’. First line: ‘Tis not a safe coniecture more or lesse’. Subscribed ‘J. B.’. By Sir John Beaumont.
• f. 24r-v: First line: ‘Gazer read, & take to harte’. Subscribed ‘J. B.’. By Sir John Beaumont.
• f. 28r-v: ‘On Sr walter Raleigh. by w. R’. First line: ‘I will not weep, for 'twere as great synne’. By Henry King.
• f. 30r: First line: ‘You yt can spare a teare from yo[u]r own fates’. Subscribed ‘Doctor Andrews’. Attributed to Richard Andrews.
• ff. 33v-35r: ‘An Elegie upon the Lady Haddington’. First line: ‘Deare loss, to tell the world I greiue were true’. Subscribed ‘A R C’. By Richard Corbett.
• ff. 38v-39r: ‘Satires’. First line: ‘Telle mee O Nympthes why doe you’. By Sir John Davies.
• ff. 46r-47r: ‘Against desier of greatnes thought mr John Beamonts’. First line: ‘Thou wouldst be great and to that hight wouldst rise’. By Sir John Beaumont.
• f. 48r-v: ‘An elegie on the death of Mr Nicolas Hare Esq.’. First line: ‘Let bloode, co-education, love, consent’. Subscribed ‘Hen: Reynolds’. By Henry Rainolds.
• f. 49r-v: ‘To my lord Marckes of Buckingam’. First line: ‘To saye to him good lord I might refraine’. Subscribed ‘John Beamont’. By Sir John Beaumont.
• f. 50r: ‘Christo Saluatori’. First line: ‘Wilt thou forgive that sine, whear I begun’. By John Donne.
• f. 50v: ‘Upon the Lady Arabella’. First line: ‘How doe I thanke thee death, and bles the hour’. By Richard Corbett.
• f. 51r: First line: ‘Georgii More de Filiae’. An epitaph for Ann Donne, by John Donne.
• f. 51v: First line: ‘Bella inter geminos, plusquam civilia fratres’. Subscribed ‘Allablaster’. By William Alabaster.
• f. 52r: First line: ‘Between two bretheren civil wars and wors’. Subscribed ‘Hugh Holland’. A translation of Alabaster's Latin poem on f. 51v by Hugh Holland.
• f. 52v: First line: ‘Paule, tuas, coram, cur fundis, Rege querela’. Subscribed ‘R A’. Possibly attributed to Richard Andrews.
• f. 53r: First line: ‘Paul Why to Caesar dost thou nowe appeal’. Subscribed ‘W: A:’. Possibly attributed to W. Austin.
• ff. 53v-54v: ‘A Paradox. That the sicke ar in bettar state then the Whole’. First line: ‘You whoe admire yo[u]rselues, becaus’. Subscribed ‘George Herbert’. By George Herbert.
• f. 54v: ‘Hoskins conualescens ad Giffordu[m] medicinae Doctorem et suum’. First line: ‘Docte Jacoboru[m] decimas Gifforde meorum’. By John Hoskyns.
• f. 55v: ‘Uppon Mr Henry Boling an epitaph by R C’. First line: ‘If gentelnes could tame the fates or wit’. By Richard Corbett.
• f. 55v: ‘In eundem’. First line: ‘Tis soe: hees dead, and If to speackt againe’. Subscribed ‘Brian Duppa’.
• f. 57r: ‘In eundem Audoenum Joh. Hoskins’. First line: ‘Non expers salis ambulator audi’. By John Hoskyns.
• ff. 58r-59r: ‘To my Lord Admiralls mr Alesbury vppon the Comet R Corbet’. First line: ‘My brother, and mutch more hadst thou ben mine’. By Richard Corbett.
• ff. 59v-60r: First line: ‘Diana Cecill That rare beauty thou dost sh[ow]’. Subscribed ‘Sr Ed: Harbert’. By Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
• f. 60r: ‘Uppon Mompesson overunning the parlament’. First line: ‘Fly not Mompesson sinc thear Is noe Inn’. Subscribed ‘Sr Rob: Cotton’. By Sir Robert Cotton.
• ff. 61v-64v: ‘An Execration on Volcan’. First line: ‘Any why to me this, thou lame Lord of fire?’. Subscribed ‘Ben: Johnson’. By Ben Jonson.
• f. 65r-v: ‘At the Tombe of Sr Albertus Morton the Teares of a freind’. First line: ‘Silence in truth, would speake my sorrow best’. By Sir Henry Wotton.
• ff. 66r-73r: ‘A ffunerall Elegie one a reverend Divine. by T: D:’. First line: ‘What neede I speake or write his praise, whose name’.
• ff. 75v-99r: A selection of Latin texts presented in parallel with English translations. Including: extracts from Horace, ‘Odes’ 2.3, 2.14, 2.15, 3.3, 3.23, 4.9; Seneca, ‘Thyestes’, ‘Medea’, ‘Agamemnon’ and ‘Phaedra’ (‘Hyppol’); Boethius, ‘De Consolatione Philosophiae’ 1 metrum 4, 3 metrum 6; as well as neo-Latin material.
• ff. 102v-109v: A selection of Latin texts presented in parallel with English translations. Including: Catullus, 63; Horace ‘Odes’ 4.7; Martial 9.17, 10.47, 11.40.
• f. 112r: ‘Epitath one ye Countesse of Pemb:’. First line: ‘Vnderneath this marbell hearce’. By William Browne of Tavistock.
• ff. 112v-113r: ‘By the Earle of Pemb:’. First line: ‘Victorious beauty though yo[u]r eyes’. By Aurelian Townshend.
• ff. 113v-117r: ‘Ex Libro secundo Famiani Stradae prolu: sexta’. First line: ‘Iam sol a medio pronus deflexerat orbe’. By William Strode. Presented in parallel with an English translation beginning ‘Now the declininge Sun gan downward bende’.
• f. 118v: ‘De Ignatij Loyolae Apotheosi’. First line: ‘Qui fuit ante sacer, sanctus nunc incipit esse’. By Raphael Thorius. Erroneously attributed to John Donne.
• ff. 119v-120v: ‘One Prince Henery an Elegy by Sr Ed: Her:’. First line: ‘Must hee be ever dead? Cannot wee add’. By Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
• ff. 121r-122r: ‘G H To ye Queene of Bohemia’. First line: ‘Bright soule, of whome if any countrey knowne’. By George Herbert.
• ff. 123r-146v: Latin and English poems on the death of Thomas Murray, secretary to Charles, Prince of Wales.