A Newly Discovered Seventeenth-century Sonnet

Abstract

On the final blank page of a 1607 book of Spanish plays, Las Comedias del Famoso Poeta Lope de Vega Carpio, in the library of Audley End House, near Cambridge, is a hand written sonnet. It is unsigned. This library contains books dating back to the sixteenth century, some of which belonged to the Neville family and their friends, in particular to Thomas Hoby1 (1530–66), Mary Sidney2 (1561–1621) and Henry Neville3 (1562–1615). Henry Neville could read Spanish: he negotiated with the Spanish when in France as ambassador 1599–1600 and was considered for the role of ambassador to Spain in 1604. He also had a documented interest in theatre. The book therefore may have been his. However, the sonnet is not by this Henry Neville as the handwriting is different from all samples of his hand. On viewing the sonnet, Katherine Duncan-Jones’ opinion was that it most likely dated from the late 1620s to the early 1640s. The poem does not appear in any first-line index4 and as far as it has been possible to ascertain it has not previously been studied nor its authorship identified. First a modernized transcription.