Elizabethan Poetry in Manuscript

An Edition of British Library Harley MS 7392(2)

Edmondes Jessica

This volume presents the first printed edition of a late sixteenth-century poetic miscellany and provides invaluable insight into understanding the literature of the period. Its owner and principal scribe, Humfrey Coningsby, drew on texts circulating in manuscript , predominantly by contemporary writers of the time – including Philip Sidney, Edward Dyer, Arthur Gorges, Walter Ralegh, Elizabeth I, the Earl of Oxford, Nicholas Breton, George Peele, and Thomas Watson. Coningsby also added at least two of his own compositions, along with anonymous poems not found in any other manuscripts or printed books. This edition preserves the appearance, spelling, and punctuation of the original manuscript while expanding antiquated contractions to provide an easily readable text. Textual notes appear on the page, and in-depth contextual notes and word glosses are provided in the commentary section. The analyses add to our knowledge of early modern manuscript culture and literary manuscript transmission, and a substantial introduction provides context for the compilation of the anthology.

About the Author

Humfrey Coningsby (1567-1610) was heir to a manor in Neen Sollars, Shropshire and belonged to the branch of an ancient family whose members had once been Barons of Coningsby in Lincolnshire. He was a great traveller, setting off on his last journey, bound for Venice, in 1610 and, as the tomb memorial records, "was never after seene by any of his aquaintance on this side, the seas, or beyond, nor any certainty known of his death, wher, when, or how". Jessica Edmondes works in the collections management department at the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford.

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