Harington, John, Sir. Epigrams

Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada (suppl.): 4455
Folger bibliographic ID: 226671
Folger call number: V.a.249
Folger holdings ID: 258174
Accession Number: 4455

Harington's autograph revision of the numbers brings the order of the poems in line with a companion manuscript, British Library Add. MS 12049, which Harington seems to have used as a draft, possibly as early as 1600, and continued to revised after 1605. The numerical revisions highlight the structure of forty theological poems, one on every "tenth Stanze" (III.94), which underpins the whole collection

General notes

[4], 257, 256-266 p Poems listed in Folger index of first lines Seventeen of the poems printed in Alcilia in 1613 (STC 4275); 116 (with some false divisions and double numbering) printed by John Budge in 1615 (STC 12775) and 346 epigrams in four completely re-shuffled books in 1618 (STC 12776). The 1618 edition was followed by Budge in 1625 (STC 12777), George Miller in 1633 (STC 12778), bound with Orlando Furioso, 3rd ed., 1634 (STC 748), and by Norman Egbert McClure in 1930. Harington's original and deliberate structure, order, word-play and spelling are not represented in these editions. Kilroy's edition (2009) used Folger MS V.a.249 as copy text, restoring order and adding three politically subversive poems omitted from Book I (I, 86, 87 and 93), but included in British Library Add. MS 12049 Several epigrams printed for the first time in English Literary Renaissance, 14 (1984), 148. See also, Studies in Bibliography, 40 (1987), 101 Bound, like Cambridge University Library Adv. b.8.1 (a presentation copy of 52 of the epigrams to Harington's wife and mother-in-law), by McDurnan Gospels Bindery (possibly John Bateman) Paper: first eleven quires were manufactured by Hans Dürr (owned Upper Schliefe mill in St. Albantal, Basel, 1604-1635); last six quires came from the mill of Nicholas Lebé, Troyes Also available as a digital reproduction

Publications

Epigrams of Sir John Harington / [introduced and edited by] Gerard Kilroy. Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2009 "The pen's excellencie" : treasures from the manuscript collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library / compiled and edited by Heather Wolfe. Seattle : Distributed by University of Washington Press, 2002, p. 106

Exhibited

Washington, D.C., Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004. Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution (catalog entry 74) Washington, D.C., Folger Shakespeare Library, 2001-2002. The Reader Revealed (catalog entry 71)

Extended title: Epigrams 1605

Lanterns Prayer

author: Harington, John, Sir, 1560-1612
associated with: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1594-1612
scribe: Combe, Thomas, active 1593-1614
associated with: James I, King of England, 1566-1625