British Library Manuscript Research Articles

Old English Transciption of the Latin Hagiography of Saint Aegidius: Language and Rhetoric

The article analyzes the methods of transcribing an anonymous Latin hagiography of St. Aegidius (British Library manuscript Tiberius Div, volume 2, 84v-87r, late eleventh century) by an anonymous author of an Old English hagiography of the same saint (mid-twelfth-century manuscript, Corpus Christi College Cambridge C 303). Errors in manuscript CCCS 303 show that the scribe copied an earlier Old English text of the eleventh century, not always understanding it well. But overall, the twelfth-century manuscript retains most of the features consistent with the norm of the eleventh-century Wessex dialect. The lexicon of the Old English text includes a number of Latin loanwords, as well as one word of Scandinavian origin. Some deviations from the written norm in phonetics and morphology show the influence of colloquial speech. The emphasis on the omnipotence of God and on the saint’s close personal contacts with God, not so noticeable in the Latin version, leads to an expansion of St. Aegidius’ epithets compared to the Latin source. The changes in the method of narration concern the rejection of ancient rhetorical techniques, primarily rhetorical questions; the replacement of historical details; and the expansion of Gospel allusions. At the same time, the Old English narrative is characterized by an increase in the emotional mood and dramatization of the story, including through the introduction of monologues and dialogues.

The Five Wits in English Medical Literature, 1375-1600

The five wits were an important component of culture in the Middle Ages, and passages dealing with the bodily wits occur frequently in early vernacular medical literature (1375- 1600). Our aim is to relate these texts to their readers to detect how the commonplace was presented to various audiences. We shall apply two lines of research. First, we shall discuss the linguistic realizations with qualitative discourse analysis. The data come from two digital corpora, Middle English Medical Texts (Taavitsainen, Pahta and Mäkinen 2005) and Early Modern English Medical Texts (Taavitsainen et al. 2010), compiled from edited versions. The scope of these passages is wide, ranging from theoretical treatises of natural philosophy and surgery to compendia and practical adaptations in recipes and remedybooks. Second, we provide case studies on the underlying manuscript reality by philological methods and study the same or related passages in some Cambridge and British Library manuscripts. The analysis showcases the importance of going back to the versions that reached the medieval audiences for the dissemination of medical knowledge in the early periods.

From lexical collation to significant omissions and paraphrases: New evidence for refining relations within the Prick of Conscience Group-IV Manuscripts

Abstract: The Prick of Conscience is known to have survived in 97 manuscripts of the Main Version, 19
 of the Southern Recension, and about 50 short extracts. An initial collation of one lexical item in the 97
 extant copies of the Main Version and subsequent comparison of another 109 items in 54 of these copies
 allow for identifying parallel variant readings throughout the poem’s almost 10,000 lines. Those variants
 often transcend the word level affecting the line, the couplet, or more extensive passages. This paper
 contributes to refining textual relations within the Group-IV family of the work by showing distinct
 variance common to Dublin, Trinity College, 157 (D.4.11) (MV 21), London, Sion College, Arc. L. 40.
 2/E. 25 (MV 49), and Shrewsbury, School, III (Mus. III. 39) (MV 95). Apart from unfolding and expanding
 the extent of the relationship pointed out by Lewis & McIntosh (1982), this research also proves that the
 hitherto unsubclassified London, Lambeth Palace, 492 (MV 48) is another member of the subgroup. To
 illustrate how the proposed subset relates to a version closer to the presumed original and other Group-IV
 witnesses, readings from the following London, British Library manuscripts are also provided for reference:
 Cotton Galba E. IX (MV 27); Harley 4196 (MV 34); Egerton 657 (MV 29); Additional 22283 (MV 40).

Integrasi Hukum Islam Di Kerajaan Demak Abad XVI M

: The transfer of government from Majapahit to Demak at the end of the 15th century, as well as a transition from the Hindu era to the Islamic era, also gave birth to social, political, cultural, and legal transformations. The pattern of the penetration of Islam into peaceful Javanese culture, or penetration pacifique, has shown integration in all fields. Integration creates a stable and equilibrium condition. The question that then arises is how Demak produces laws that are able to create such stable conditions. It is important to do this on the fiber Suryangalam legal text of the Demak era. The purpose of this study is to identify the Serat Suryo Alam manuscript, explore Islamic law legislation in the text, and explain how the Islamic kingdom of Demak carried out social engineering to realize a just and peaceful society. Then to answer the problem, philological and historical methods are used, while the analysis uses content analysis with Talcott Parson's integration theory. This study concludes that: 1) the Suryo Alam manuscript is a legal text that can be found in the digitization of British Library manuscripts, 2) this manuscript contains legal, material, and judicial sources at the same time, and 3) social engineering can be measured by the stages of adaptation of Hindu and Islamic law, with the Trirasa Goal of efforts, legal integration, and efforts to maintain the law in people's social lives or latency. This stage gave birth to an equilibrium society of tata titi tentrem gemahripah loh jinawi kartaraharja.

Prudentius’ Mnemonic Images in a Twelfth CenturyPsychomachiaManuscript

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mnemonic qualities of the images and subtitles of the forty-six illustrations of the twelfth century Psychomachia in Cotton MS Titus D XVI. This will be accomplished using as a reference the earliest manuscripts. Our hypothesis departs from the idea that: if some visual elements remained after three centuries, it would have been because of their importance and relationship with the text and the learning process. These were not mere aesthetic qualities. By the end of the fifth century, Prudentius wrote the Psychomachia. This allegorical poem depicts the battle between virtues and vices within the Christian’s soul. According to Mary Carruthers, Prudentius wrote a vivid allegory in which he applied mnemonic images’ rules. The ninth-century manuscripts’ miniaturists were very careful to keep all the vigorous features described in the verses. Later copies posse fewer images, but most of them retained the mnemonic qualities described by the poet and illustrated in the oldest codices. The British Library manuscript, Cotton MS Titus D XVI, is an example of this.

Humanist Diplomat in Early 16th Century Hungary: Hieronymus Balbus

The article investigates new sources, Western European, mainly English diplomatic reports – several being so far unknown for Hungarian scholarship, or, if known, not examined in this regard – e.g. held at the British Library Manuscript Collection to shed light on Hungarian-Ottoman relations at the eve of the fall of the “shield of Christendom”, Belgrade in 1521. The article follows the mission of Hieronymus Balbus, an Italian at the diplomatic personnel of Jagiellonian Hungary, in 1521 to the Habsburg, Tudor and Valois courts. Balbus’s diplomatic workings – through the embassy to the Emperor (Charles V in Worms and Brussels), a peace conference at Calais and Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII, King of England – has not been adequately seen in Hungarian historiography, and some of his letters and political activity ranging from Bruges, Worms, Calais, London and Cologne has not so far been mapped, yet new insights can be given for the understanding of Louis II’s diplomatic efforts during the stress of the siege and loss of Belgrade in 1521. The investigation is largely based on Balbus’s dispatches – which has not survived in Hungarian archival material but were preserved in the reports of English envoys of his activity, to the maker of Tudor policy, Chancellor Wolsey. The correspondence of Balbus provides valuable information on the administration of Louis II, about its relationship with the Turks and the Emperor. The leaders of Hungarian diplomacy did not lack astuteness and “had a clear picture” about the international power relations. The government experimented with alternatives, provided they did not receive any aid from the Habsburgs: they were willing to go as far as making an alliance with not only the English, but even with the Emperor’s enemies, the Valois. In 1521, despite the powerful Habsburg dominance, Hungarian foreign politics did have some room to manoeuvre.

Galen’s Simples in Syriac

This article discusses the direct and indirect evidence for the transmission of Galen’s Simples in Syriac. It is suggested that it is likely that Sergius translated all eleven books, and that he did so as part of a translation project that by far exceeded the Alexandrian Galenic syllabus. Sergius probably did not distinguish between books 1-5 and 6-11 in the same way that unayn did, but instead considered all eleven books to be a coherent whole that moved from generalities to specifics. It is further suggested that the transmission of Galen’s Simples in two parts was something specific to the demands of the market in ninth-century Baghdad. The prestige of Sergius’s translation continued even into and beyond the period of Ḥunayn, suggesting that unayn’s influence was more limited than is often supposed, possibly due to sectarian reasons, especially Ḥunayn’s Nestorianism. In this context, the significance of the British Library manuscript only containing books 6-8 is reconsidered, as well as how the significance of Galen’s own proems may have changed over time.

Francis Bacon’s Contribution to Shakespeare: A New Attribution Method by Barry R. Clarke

Reviewed by: Francis Bacon’s Contribution to Shakespeare: A New Attribution Method by Barry R. Clarke MacDonald P. Jackson (bio) Barry R. Clarke. Francis Bacon’s Contribution to Shakespeare: A New Attribution Method. New York and Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2019, xxix + 310, pp. $271.00; $58.99. isbn: 978-0-367-13782-3 (HB); isbn: 978-0-367-22544-5 (PB). To quote the summary inside the front cover, this book advocates a “paradigm shift . . . away from a single-author theory of the Shake-speare work towards a many-hands theory.” There must, however, be few “orthodox scholars” who nowadays believe that every play in the First Folio of 1623 is by Shakespeare alone. It is widely accepted that playwrights besides Shakespeare contributed to 1 Henry VI (Thomas Nashe and at least one other), Titus Andronicus (George Peele), Timon of Athens (Thomas Middleton), and Henry VIII or All Is True (John Fletcher), and also to Pericles (George Wilkins) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (Fletcher), both excluded from the Folio. The New Oxford Shakespeare more controversially detects Marlowe’s hand in all three Parts of Henry VI and argues for minor adaptation by Middleton of Macbeth, Measure for Measure, and All’s Well That Ends Well. It names Shakespeare as part- author of Edward III and (most contentiously of all) Arden of Faversham, each published in anonymous quartos. Clarke knows most of this (47–48), but his “many hands” include more contributors to more plays, and he rejects current attributions to “single authors” even of scenes and sequences believed to make up their shares in a play-script. Before elaborating, I should explain that Clarke calls “the man from Stratford” “Shakspere,” reserving “Shakespeare” for the published works (xviii), while, to no obvious purpose, the hyphenated “Shake-speare” also appears sporadically. Hence the variant spellings in my quotations from Clarke’s book. Within wording of my own the traditional “Shakespeare” is used. [End Page 364] Regarding the famous “upstart crow” allusion in Greene’s Groats-Worth of Wit as indicating that Shakespeare “was a play broker” who claimed as “all his own work” other men’s plays to which he had merely “added lines,” Clarke finds the writing of Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, Christopher Marlowe, and Anthony Munday in 3 Henry VI (91) and states that its “O tiger’s heart wrapp’d in a woman’s hide!” (Riverside, 1.4.137) “might be the only line that we can be sure Shakspere ever wrote” (88). He sees signs of Nashe and, as reviser, Thomas Heywood in The Comedy of Errors; of Nashe and, as possible revisers, Heywood and Thomas Dekker, in Love’s Labor’s Lost; and of Francis Bacon in both those comedies plus Twelfth Night and The Tempest (126, 141, 163, 187). Clarke discloses that some years ago he held the view that the Shakespeare canon was created by “Francis Bacon . . . alone under the pseudonym Shakespeare” (8 n.5), and a large part of the present book is occupied with rehearsing the standard anti-Stratfordian arguments. We are told, for instance, that “The extant documents for the actor William Shakspere reveal him to be an entrepreneur in the London theatre world, as well as a money-lender, a dealer in malt, and a property speculator. However, there is no evidence that he had access to the books that are known to have provided background material for some of the Shakespeare plays” (13); further, apart from “six surviving William Shakspere signatures, which are inconsistent, there is no record of his handwriting. No original Shakespeare manuscript for a sonnet or play has ever been found” (22). Clarke concedes that no autograph manuscripts exist of plays or poems by several other writers of the time, but, oddly, includes in his list two playwrights for whom they do: Heywood (The Captives and The Escapes of Jupiter) and Middleton (A Game at Chess). Like most anti-Stratfordians, he makes no attempt to rebut the case, which in my view is overwhelming, that “Hand D’s” insurrection scene added to the British Library manuscript play Sir Thomas More was both conceived and penned by Shakespeare. Clarke tortures the sense of passages in the Parnassus plays...

PREFACE

I would like to thank the many people who helped in the preparation of this volume. I must thank Dr Patrick Zutshi, Cambridge University Archivist, for his kind permission to edit the volume for publication as well as the staff in the Cambridge University Library Manuscripts Room, Rare Books Room and Official Publications Room, the Seeley History Library at Cambridge, the British Library Manuscripts Room staff, and the staffs of the old Public Record Office at Chancery Lane and the National Archives at Kew. My doctoral supervisor, the late Sir Geoffrey Elton, was a great source of encouragement in plumbing the vast Cecil archives and related state papers, and the administration of the Principal Secretariat. The late Wallace MacCaffrey, a great friend and examiner, was always willing to discuss finer points on Burghley at the tea room of the Library and I miss him very much. The late Patrick Collinson was, in a real sense, the inspiration behind this publication. He saw that the manuscript materials relating to the Cecils’ transfer of power could be better worked through in an edition of these papers than by a traditional monograph. He called the volume the ‘spine’ of the work of father and son.

Melchor Cano and the Spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola: The Censura y parecer contra el Insituto de los Padres Jesuitas

The leading critic in Spain of the early Society of Jesus and its founder was the Dominican theologian Melchor Cano, who believed that the spirituality of Ignatius and his companions was a form of illuminism. During the 1550s he set out his reasons for thinking this in his Censura y parecer contra el Insituto de los Padres Jesuitas, a document he intended to show to the pope. It survives in a number of manuscripts, one of them in the British Library in London. The present article traces the history of the text, which was long considered lost, and examines its portrayal of Ignatius, the Spiritual Exercises, and the Society. It concludes with a critical edition of the British Library manuscript.

‘INSPIRE US GENIUS OF THE DAY’: REWRITING THE REGENT IN THE BIRTHDAY ODE FOR QUEEN ANNE, 1703

ABSTRACTIn 1701–1702 writer and poet Peter Anthony Motteux collaborated with composer John Eccles, Master of the King's Musick, in writing the ode for King William III's birthday. Eccles's autograph manuscript is listed in the British Library manuscript catalogue as ‘Ode for the King's Birthday, 1703; in score by John Eccles’ and is accompanied by a claim that the ode had already reached folio 10v when William died, requiring the words to be amended to suit his successor, Queen Anne. A closer inspection of this manuscript reveals that much more of the ode had been completed before the king's death, and that much more than the words ‘king’ and ‘William’ was amended to suit a succeeding monarch of a different gender and nationality. The work was performed before Queen Anne on her birthday in 1703 and the words were published shortly afterwards. Discrepancies between the printed text and that in Eccles's score indicate that no fewer than three versions of the text were devised during the creative process. These versions raise issues of authority with respect to poet and composer. A careful analysis of the manuscript's paper types and rastrology reveals a collaborative process of re-engineering that was, in fact, applied to an already completed work. This article explores the problems of textual versus musical authority embodied in the ode and the difficulties faced by its creators in reworking a piece originally celebrating a foreign male war-hero for a female British queen during a period of political and religious fragility.

Necromancing Theurgic Magic: A Reappraisal of the Liber iuratus Extracts and the Consecration Ritual for the Sigillum Dei in an Early Modern English Grimoire

A manuscript in the British Library, Sloane 3853, is an Early Modern magical miscellany containing substantial extracts from a work of medieval ritual magic called the Liber iuratus Honorii or Sworn Book of Honorius. Sloane 3853 has generally been neglected as a source for the Swork Book, since other British Library manuscripts have better and more complete copies. This article argues that extracts from another text known to be included in the miscellany - the Ars notoria - in fact have the Sworn book as a proximate source. Focusing on the ways the Sworn Book is adapted and used, and especially on the vernacularized instructions given for the Sigil of God, the article goes on to trace how Sloane 3853 reflects the interests of its scribe, who focused on quick and straightforward spirit conjurations, ignoring the larger ritual context of the Sworn Book, in keeping with an interest in practical necromancy.

Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France

Tracy Adams's monograph sets out to situate Christine de Pizan's writings within the context of the feud that opposed the Orleanists, or Armagnacs, and the Burgundians. Her study proceeds chronologically through six chapters together encompassing the period from 1393 to 1418. Each chapter begins with a summary of the political events of the period in focus, and turns to Christine's works in a second part. Throughout, Adams shows that Christine maintained the position of the Orleanist side of the conflict, debunking the myth that she showed Burgundian allegiances in her writings. After a first chapter that introduces the background to the feud and Christine's family involvement with the royal court, the second sets out the start of the feud between Philip of Burgundy and Louis of Orleans. It continues with a discussion of Christine's early love poetry, in which Adams shows that the complex situations of the lovers often mirror the complicated loyalties at court. Chapter 3 examines the multiple factors that opposed the dukes of Burgundy and Orleans from 1401 to 1404, and traces Isabeau of Bavaria's increasing role as mediator and her involvement in politics. The second half of the chapter analyses how a number of Christine's writings in this period engage with the oppositions between the two dukes, and bolster Isabeau's authority. (This includes a discussion of the Epistre Othea, which surprisingly makes no mention of BnF fr. 606, a manuscript of this text, composed for Louis of Orleans.) Adams thus controverts the long-held view that over the course of her writerly career Christine moved from composing frivolous poetry to more serious, politically inclined works. Chapter 4 describes the ascendance of Jean of Burgundy, and Isabeau's central role in negotiating peace between him and Louis. Adams's reconfiguration of the Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du bon roy Charles V le sage in this chapter is particularly valuable: Christine has been seen as supporting the Burgundian side of the conflict in this text, but Adams shows that, although the work was commissioned by the duke of Burgundy, she in fact warns the readers against Jean, and Burgundian politics are overtly criticized. Chapter 5 then traces the period from the peace treaty to the eve of Louis's murder. Here, the discussion of several of Christine's works highlights the underlying tensions reflected therein, and the fact that Christine protected herself by intervening only covertly in the conflict. Finally, Chapter 6 opens with the assassination of Louis, and follows the feud as it widens to become the Armagnac–Burgundian conflict. As Isabeau loses political power, the compilation of the famous British Library manuscript, Harley 4431, is seen as reflecting the queen's retirement from politics. Adams states in her Introduction that she hopes her study will open further perspectives on Christine's works. This clear and thorough narrative of Christine's engagement with the conflict will be of value to historians and literary scholars alike, and will certainly accomplish the author's aim.

Measure for Measure: Prophetic History, Qur'anic Exegesis, and Anti-Sunnī Polemic in a Fāṭimid Propaganda Work (BL Or. 8419)

The acephalous British Library manuscript Or. 8419 is currently catalogued as a qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ or compilation of Islamic narratives about the prophets. However, an examination of its contents reveals that although it does focus on the various prophets – including Muḥammad himself – and their missions, the text is more accurately characterised as Ismāʿīlī taʾwīl, a commentary on Qur'anic passages that draws parallels between the struggles of the prophets of the past and the persecution of the Shīʿa in the present. The central argument of the text is that while the Shīʿī Imāms and their supporters continue the legacy of the prophets and their virtuous followers in the past, the majority of the Muslim community has gone astray just as the Jews and Christians did before them, especially in their denial of the claims of the ahl al-bayt. Various indications in the text suggest that it was produced as propaganda supporting the claims of the Fāṭimids at an early juncture in the dynasty's history, possibly during the reign of the first caliph-Imām, al-Mahdī.

Berkeley's Doctrine of Mind and the “Black List Hypothesis”: A Dialogue

AbstractClues about what Berkeley was planning to say about mind in his now‐lost second volume of the Principles seem to abound in his Notebooks. However, commentators have been reluctant to use his unpublished entries to explicate his remarks about spiritual substances in the Principles and Dialogues for three reasons. First, it has proven difficult to reconcile the seemingly Humean bundle theory of the self in the Notebooks with Berkeley's published characterization of spirits as “active beings or principles.” Second, the fact that Berkeley did not publish his Notebooks insights on mind has led some to claim that he later rejected his early views. Third, many of the Notebooks entries on mind have a ‘+’ sign next to them, which has been understood for decades to comprise a Black List of views about which Berkeley had doubts or subsequently rejected. In my dialogue, I describe how Berkeley's “congeries” account of mind (1) differs from Hume's bundle theory in a way that complements Berkeley's published remarks and (2) undercuts the claim that he later rejected his early views. Most importantly, (3) I show how a careful analysis of the British Library manuscript of the Notebooks refutes the Black List hypothesis.

Introducing DEx: A Database of Dramatic Extracts

Introducing DEx:A Database of Dramatic Extracts Laura Estill (bio) Early modern readers and playgoers often kept commonplace books and miscellanies, where they would copy poems, aphorisms, letters, recipes, accounts, and any number of things—including selections from plays. Although a renewed interest in miscellanies has produced valuable digital tools, including Adam Smyth's An Online Index of Poetry in Printed Miscellanies (1640-1682), the Folger Shakespeare Library's Union First Line Index of English Verse, 13th-19th Century, and Abigail Williams's forthcoming Digital Miscellanies Index, these resources often focus on print and poetry. Laura Estill's DEx: A Database of Dramatic Extracts will fill this gap by helping scholars find selections from plays copied into manuscripts.1 By offering transcriptions of these dramatic extracts, DEx will contribute to the ongoing opening of the archives facilitated by the digital turn. DEx builds on and complements Peter Beal's monumental Index of English Literary Manuscripts and forthcoming online Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700 by offering transcriptions and comparison to printed texts and also listing extracts from works by anonymous or lesser-known authors, such as Peter Hausted or William Peaps. Though we may overlook lesser-known plays and playwrights, early modern readers did not make the same distinction: consider Archbishop Sancroft (1617-93), who collected excerpts from Quarles's The Virgin Widow alongside quotations from Shakespeare and Fletcher. Extant manuscript evidence suggests that the phenomenon of copy selections from English plays began around the 1590s; as such, DEx focuses on seventeenth-century manuscripts. Although dramatic extracting continued in the Restoration, at the moment DEx catalogs only extracts from plays written and published before the closure of the theaters in 1642. That is to say, DEx includes manuscripts from the late seventeenth century that contain extracts from earlier works, such as BL MS Lansdowne 1185, which is a manuscript with eighty pages of Shakespearean extracts copied around 1700. The first iteration of DEx will allow users to search dramatic miscellanies, those manuscripts comprised primarily of selections from plays. Extant dramatic miscellanies contain thousands of extracts from dozens of early modern plays. [End Page 128] DEx users will be able to search and browse by playwright, by play, and by manuscript. The results will be displayed as a transcription with, where possible, act, scene, and line references and links to scholarly online editions of the plays, such as the Internet Shakespeare Editions, which will allow scholars to easily see the extract in the context of the full play. Scholars will also be able to sort results by folio number and click to the description of the manuscript from its repository (for instance, the British Library's Manuscripts Catalogue), to get a sense of the extract in its manuscript contexts. DEx's bibliography page will indicate all the sources used, including early modern print and manuscript as well as modern scholarly editions. DEx will also include a page of links to resources for manuscript study.2 DEx will offer full-text searching so that scholars can search the database by keyword or subject. DEx is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) database that includes transcriptions encoding using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). The transcriptions in DEx include original manuscript spellings and abbreviations with regularizations and expansions, which increases the usability of the full-text search: for instance, a search for "country" will also bring up results for "countrie" and "countrey." Manuscript compilers often changed the dramatic extracts they copied. DEx will allow users to compare the manuscript version of an extract to a print counterpart. For instance, one mid-seventeenth compiler took "'Tis a favour her betters sue for" (from J. W.'s The Valiant Scot [1637]) and changed it to "Thy bed is a favor betters sue for." Examples like this abound in seventeenth-century manuscripts—early modern readers had no compunction about adapting and altering dramatic extracts. Although the first release of DEx catalogs seventeenth-century dramatic miscellanies that contain extracts from Renaissance plays, in the future it could be expanded to include more manuscripts, such as commonplace books and verse miscellanies, extracts from Restoration plays, and eighteenth-century manuscripts. DEx will evolve as further dramatic extracts are discovered, more...

‘Intolerable Flippancy’: The Arnot Robertson V. Mgm Libel Case (1946–1950) and The Evolution of BBC Policy on Broadcast Film Criticism

This article examines the ultimately unsuccessful libel case brought by the novelist and BBC film critic E. Arnot Robertson against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The action followed a letter the film company sent to Robertson’s employer in 1946, asserting she was ‘out of touch’ with public taste, excluding her from their press screenings and requested the broadcaster’s assistance in preventing her from reviewing further MGM films on air. Robertson charged the film company with libelling her professional competence and imperilling her earnings. This article explores the origins and outcomes of the ensuing three-year legal dispute. Drawing on trade journals, law reports, press coverage and BBC records, the article considers the contrasting models of the ‘audience’ underpinning the wider conflict between the film trade and the ‘quality’ critics. It explores the role of BBC policy and ‘broadcast style’ in making radio criticism a flashpoint and traces the specific circumstances that led the two parties into court. Finally, it considers the lasting legal and cultural consequences of the case. Turner (Robertson) v. MGM redefined the legal meaning of ‘fair comment’, it reshaped BBC policy on broadcast criticism, and shifted the consensus on what constituted responsible and professional criticism – making wit a less respectable critical tool.

‘Ye that pasen by pe Weiye’: time, topology and the medieval use of Lamentations 1.12

Lamed. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus! quoniam vindemiavit me, ut locutus est Dominus, in die irae furoris sui. Lamed. O all ye that pass by t...

Was Southampton a Poet? A Verse Letter to Queen Elizabeth [with text

AbstractThis essay investigates the authorship of “The Earle of Southampton prisoner, and condemned. to Queen Elizabeth,” a 74‐line poem found in British Library Manuscript Stowe 962. Supposedly composed by Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, this poem appears to be a scribal copy of a verse epistle pleading for the Queen's mercy after Southampton was convicted for treason with the Earl of Essex following his 1601 uprising. Because references in the poem point to its author's awareness of intimate details of Southampton's career, health, and writing style, relevant matters from his life prior to Elizabeth's commutation of his death sentence are considered. The manuscript context for the only known copy of this poem is explored, for the miscellany's high level of accuracy regarding attributions enhances the likelihood that this ascription to Southampton is accurate. (L. M. C.)

A Holograph Copy of Thomas Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes

A Holograph Copy of Thomas Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes Linne R. Mooney The focus of this article is the British Library manuscript Royal 17 D.XVIII, a copy of Thomas Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes. I here argue first, on paleographic, codicological, and linguistic grounds, that this manuscript is written by the hand of the author Thomas Hoccleve; second, that the text of the Regiment in this manuscript represents a revised version of the poem written in 1412–13, in which the author had made alterations reflecting the changed circumstances of himself, of his dedicatee, Henry of Derby, and of the country a year or two after the completion and first dissemination of the poem; and third, that this manuscript was in fact the copy given to John of Lancaster, later duke of Bedford, to whom a balade written at the end may be addressed. British Library, Royal 17 D.XVIII: A Hoccleve Holograph We have more identified examples of Thomas Hoccleve’s handwriting than of any other vernacular English medieval writer: three manuscripts of his own literary works, two and a half leaves of a copy of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, documents written in his daily work as a Clerk of the Office of the Privy Seal, and a formulary he wrote for that office.1 The [End Page 263] formulary survives as British Library, Additional 24062, a volume of 201 parchment leaves, mostly written by Hoccleve in an informal, loose cursive version of his hand but also, as I shall argue below, containing one quire that includes examples of his neater, more formal, hand.2 The manuscripts of his literary work, recently published in a facsimile by the Early English Text Society, are Durham University Library, Cosin V.iii.9, folios 13–95, and Henry E. Huntington Library MSS 111 and 744, folios 25–68v.3 Ian Doyle and Malcolm Parkes identified Hoccleve as one of the five scribes who wrote the Cambridge, Trinity College R.3.2, copy of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis (his contribution, folios 82r–84r);4 and more tentatively as one of the correctors for Adam Pinkhurst’s copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the National Library of Wales, Peniarth 392D, the so-called Hengwrt manuscript (his corrections on folios 83v, 138v, and 150), besides a number of documents written in the course of his work as a Clerk of the Office of the Privy Seal.5 I recently published a list of Privy Seal documents written by Hoccleve’s hand, ranging from his earliest years in that office until a time within a year of his death in 1426.6 In the introduction to the facsimile of Hoccleve’s holograph literary works, John Burrow and Ian Doyle comment that the three manuscripts reproduced in the facsimile contain “all the poems currently attributed to him . . . [w]ith the important exception of Hoccleve’s major work The Regiment of Princes, of which no holograph copy is known.”7 I here put forward an argument that a holograph of the Regiment does survive, British Library, Royal 17 D.XVIII, which has not previously been recognized as being written by Hoccleve’s hand.8 [End Page 264] The manuscript Royal 17 D.XVIII has been overlooked by scholars for a number of reasons: first, it and most manuscripts of the Regiment have remained in the shadow of the two sumptuously prepared manuscripts of the poem generally agreed to be original presentation copies, British Library MSS Arundel 38 and Harley 4866; second, it was dated to the quarter-century after Hoccleve’s death by J. A. Burrow in his 1994 biography of Hoccleve;9 third, the hand of this manuscript differs somewhat in general aspect from that of the accepted Hoccleve holographs, as I will discuss further below. The identification of Hoccleve’s hand in Royal 17 D.XVIII depends upon many factors: paleographical, codicological, and linguistic. Appendix A below lists and illustrates the characteristics of Hoccleve’s handwriting that have been identified in manuscripts already attributed to him: the holograph manuscripts, the formulary, and his two-and-a-half-folio stint in Trinity College R.3.2. These characteristic letter forms also occur...