Jests and poems, compiled c.1595, with later additions c. 1595-1660.

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arithmetic.

Accounts.

Hove (England).

East Sussex (England).

Somerset (England).

Oxford (England).

London (England).

Bristol (England).

Frome (England).

Clarke, Elizabeth.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Summary:

The first scribe probably began compiling the manuscript when he was a student at the University of Oxford in the late 1580s or early 1590s. Sometime after this a second hand added accounts, and another hand, Elizabeth Clarke's, added some poetry (probably after 1651, the date of the first publication of her chosen poem). Another seventeenth-century owner of the manuscript was Katherine Hordinant (or possibly ffordinant; i.e. Fordinant).

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:MS X.d.177

The jests and poems were probably compiled by a student at Oxford. Elizabeth Clarke might be a descendent of that student, or of another hand who has written accounts which seem to have a Somerset origin. On fol. 8r the first scribe refers to himself as being 23 in the thirty-seventh year of Elizabeth I's reign, which is approximately 1595. Elizabeth Clarke's additions to the manuscript are two verses of a song first printed in 1651, but which also circulated in manuscript. Folger Shakespeare Library MS X.d.177 is a collection of poems, jests, and accounts compiled by three hands. It is in several sections. Prose jests appear on fol. 1r, along with signatures of later owners. Fols 1v-2v are blank. Fol. 3r is headed "Trifles" and consists of poems and extracts, some in Latin, while fol. 3v returns to jests. A new section consisting of accounts, and a new hand, begin on fol. 4r rev. A few accounts are listed on fol. 4r rev., while fol. 4v rev. consists of sums. Fol. 5 is blank and is actually two uncut leaves, still attached along the top edge. Most of those two leaves are missing; perhaps the compiler of the accounts tore them while he or she was trying to cut them apart and so abandoned those pages. Fols 6r-7v contain more accounts. Fol. 8r switches back to verse in the first hand. Fol. 8v rev. consists of verse in another hand, that of Elizabeth Clarke. A tenth folio existed at one time but is now missing. There is a stub between fols 7 and 8. The manuscript is unbound and consists of two gatherings stitched together: one of six leaves (fols 1-5; i.e. including the uncut leaf) and one of four, though the penultimate leaf is missing (fols 6-8). Creases on the leaves indicate that the manuscript was once stored folded in quarters. Perhaps this ignominious means of storage can be explained by the content of the manuscript: much of what the first hand has compiled is bawdy and not appropriate for grand binding or proud display. Or perhaps the volume was mistreated not because of perceived impropriety but because it was seen as merely a source of blank paper (for accounts, and then for later poetry). It is rather impressive that such a slight volume should have survived. The Folger purchased the volume in May 1922 from E. Williams, of Hove in East Sussex, who had purchased it from Colonel Sandlord, a descendant of the Clarkes of Chipley, Somerset (Seymour De Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1935-40), number 1072.1, p. 367). There are three main hands in the manuscript. The first compiler has written jests, poems, and extracts on fols 1r, 3r-v, and 8r. These include satirical accounts of priests, law courts and the court, pastoral love poetry, and obscene stories. The references to Oxford (particularly Brasenose College and Carfax) and the smattering of Latin suggest that these pages are the work of a student. One jest describes a student outsmarting a cook (fol. 3v, msItem 3). At the bottom of fol. 8r he writes "finis in the three & twentith yeare of my age. Tricestimo septimo Elizabethe." This suggests that he was 23 years of age in the thirty-seventh year of Elizabeth I's reign, about 1595. It is unlikely that he still would have been an undergraduate at that age, so perhaps the verse and jests date from a few years earlier. The University of Oxford was known as a major centre for poetry circulation and miscellany compilation, particularly in the first half of the seventeenth century. The second hand in the manuscript has compiled accounts on fols 4r rev. and 6r-7v. That hand may have also written the sums on fol. 4v rev. He (or she) probably began writing the accounts on fol. 6r, where he has written a heading, and added the accounts on fol. 4r rev. as an afterthought. These accounts note the amounts of money spent by the scribe for arrangements concerning a funeral for someone who died on May 29 (no year). Two churches are mentioned, St. Dunstan's and the Temple Church, both of which could be London locations. On the other hand three towns within 50 miles of each other are also mentioned: Bristol (in that town he paid for the scrivener's bill at the Bear, and he paid the shoemaker for his brother's shoes), Frome (he paid the farrier's fee), and Babcary (he gave someone, possibly the shoemaker, money to give to Hugh Young at the church in Babcary). These three locations favour a Somerset origin for the accounts. The third hand in the manuscript appears on fol. 8v rev. Elizabeth Clarke flipped the manuscript over and wrote on the final page, making it a new first page. She wrote her name at the top of the page and two verses from a poem that was first printed in Thomas Stanley'sPoems of 1651, where it is headed "Song By M.W.M.". Galbraith Miller Crump, who edited Stanley's works in 1962, suggests Walter Montagu or Walter Moyle as possible candidates for the authorship of the poem. This poem was later published in many songbooks and miscellanies (see msItem 6 for a list), including in Henry Lawes'sThe treasury of musick in 1669, and it appeared in Henry Bold'sLatine Songs, with their English, and Poems, with Latin translation, in 1685. The poem also enjoyed a circulation in manuscript (see Crum W339). Elizabeth Clarke has also signed the first folio, one that contains sometimes very licentious jests, four times. Katherine Hordinant (or possibly ffordinant; i.e. Fordinant), presumably another later owner, has signed that page once. It is striking to see these female names beside some very male, and even at times misogynist, material.