Harley MS 6054

A quarto notebook of verse and prose in English, Latin and French, in various hands. Probably partly compiled by Edmund Killingworth of Winchester College and New College, Oxford (see Kelliher). The manuscript is made up of the remains of 2 notebooks. The first notebook (ff. 1-11) contains miscellaneous notes mainly relating to Roman history and ecclesiastical law, and includes at ff. 2r-5r a section entitled ‘Collectiones quædā ex Romanorum Antiquitatibus 1676 lib 1’. The second notebook (ff. 12-50) is another miscellaneous collection of primarily English and Latin verse, consisting mainly of epigrams, distichs, epitaphs, translations of contemporary English verse into Latin, and classical and neo-Latin verse into English. Much of the material relates to political and current affairs of the late 17th century, and many of the items appear to be school exercises.

Contents includes:

• f. 12v: ‘Englishd by philips of ye bedchamber’. First line: ‘Lorrain you stole by fraud you got Burgundy’. By John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.
• f. 13r: ‘Sanazarius upon Venice’. First line: ‘Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis’. By Jacopo Sannazaro.
• f. 13r: ‘In Belgas’. First line: ‘Tellurem fecere Dii, sua littora Belgæ’. By Archibald Pitcairne, in imitation of the above. [Written vertically across the page.]
• f. 15r: Latin letter addressed by Edmund Killingworth to his brother.
• f. 15v-17r: ‘Qui mihi Liliense Burlesq[ue] Redditum’. First line: ‘Qui mihi Combibulus puer es, cupis atq[ue] jocari’. A burlesque on William Lilly’s ‘Qui mihi discipulus’.
• f. 18r: ‘Epigr: in Martialis libro I Ad Aeliam’. Followed by a ‘Translation’. First line: ‘If I remember Aelias teeth were four’.
• f. 21v: First line: ‘Rector beate caelitum’. By Marcantonio Flaminio.
• f. 21v: ‘Ps: CII’. First line: ‘Exaudi genitor sanctre meas preces’. By George Buchanan.
• f. 23r: ‘An Elegy on ye Visct Dundee’. First line: ‘Ultime Scotorum, potuit quo sospite solo’. By Archibald Pitcairne.
• f. 23r: ‘Translated’. First line: ‘Thou last of all that’s brave, to whom alone’.
• f. 23r: ‘Aliter’. First line: ‘O last & best of Scotts, wo didst maintain’. By John Dryden, a translation of Pitcairne’s poem above.
• f. 24r: ‘Cleveland’. First line: ‘Had Cain bin Scot God wld have changd his doom’. By John Cleveland. Lines 63-4 of ‘The Rebel Scot’, followed by 7 Latin translations ‘Translated by Mr Redman several wayes’.
• f. 25r: ‘Englished by Ld Roscommon’. First line: ‘Time sensibly al things impairs’. By Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon. An extract from his translation of Horace’s Ode 3.6, which precedes it.
• f. 24v: ‘In Denhams Coopers Hill’ [lines 189-192]. First line: ‘O may I flow like thee, and may thy stream’. By Sir John Denham. Followed by a Latin translation ‘Trans’d by ye same Redman’.
• f. 27r: ‘By Mr Dreyden spoke by his son wn at Westmr schollr’. First line: ‘Juno tonat lingua sed fulmine Jupitr urget’. Attributed to John Dryden.
• f. 32v: ‘on the Death of the D of R: by J. Elyot’. First line: ‘are all diseases dead or will death saie’. By Francis Bacon.
• f. 34v: ‘An Epitaph upon the late Lord Chancelor’. First line: ‘Im'odest death that woul'st not once confer’. Attributed to William Drummond of Hawthornden.
• f. 35v: ‘Epit: on H: Savile by ye Ld Buckhurst, over a bottle upon Savils bragging of his mighty performances wth ye ladies’. First line: ‘Under ye stone’. By Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset.
• f. 35v: ‘E: of Rochestr’. First line: ‘Love ye most generous passion of ye mind’. By John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.
• f. 36r: ‘Hudibras’. First line: ‘So learned Taliacotius from’. By Samuel Butler. An extract, followed by a Latin translation.