John Donne and the Conway Papers A Biographical and Bibliographical Study of Poetry and Patronage in the Seventeenth Century Daniel Starza Smith University College London Supervised by Prof. H. R. Woudhuysen and Dr. Alison Shell ii John Donne and the Conway Papers A Biographical and Bibliographical Study of Poetry and Patronage in the Seventeenth Century This thesis investigates a seventeenth-century manuscript archive, the Conway Papers, in order to explain the relationship between the archive’s owners and John Donne, the foremost manuscript poet of the century. An evaluation of Donne’s legacy as a writer and thinker requires an understanding of both his medium of publication and the collectors and agents who acquired and circulated his work. The Conway Papers were owned by Edward, first Viscount Conway, Secretary of State to James I and Charles I, and Conway’s son. Both men were also significant collectors of printed books. The archive as it survives, mainly in the British Library and National Archives, includes around 300 literary manuscripts ranging from court entertainments to bawdy ballads. This thesis fully evaluates the collection as a whole for the first time, including its complex history. I ask three principal questions: what the Conway Papers are and how they were amassed; how the archive came to contain poetry and drama by Donne, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton and others; and what the significance of this fact is, both in terms of seventeenth-century theories about politics, patronage and society, and modern critical and historical interpretations. These questions cast new light on the early transmission of Donne’s verse, especially his Satires and verse epistles. The Conway Papers emphasise the importance of Donne’s closest friends – such as Sir Henry Goodere, George Gerrard and Rowland Woodward – in the dissemination of his poetry. The manuscripts help define Donne’s earliest readership and establish why his writing was considered valuable cultural capital. Examining the transmission of these manuscripts from the poet to his readers, I present new arguments about Donne’s role in a gift economy, and demonstrate how his writings were exchanged as symbols of intellectual amity between patrons and clients. iii Contents and Illustrations VOLUME I Acknowledgements v Abbreviations and Conventions vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 An Introduction to the Conway Family 17 Chapter 2 The Conways and Culture: Writers, Patrons and Collectors 52 Chapter 3 ‘Some are indeed very curious’: Defining the Conway Papers 97 Chapter 4 John Donne and the Conway Papers: Satires, Verse Epistles and 134 Sir Henry Goodere I. The Satires 136 II. Six Verse Epistles 145 III. Sir Henry Goodere 165 Chapter 5 Textual Transmission and Court Patronage 197 Conclusion Patronage and Manuscript Circulation 240 List of Works Cited 253 VOLUME II – APPENDICES 1 John Donne to Sir Edward Conway, 7 December 1624 298 2 Conway Family Trees 300 3 Frances, Lady Pelham’s Poem 304 4 The Elder Edward Conway’s Booklist of 1610 (SP 14/57/114B) 305 5 Poems About or Dedicated to the Elder Edward Conway 334 6 Conway Papers that Exist Only in Modern Copies 338 7 The Conway Papers Satires: An Attempt at Recreation 340 iv 8 Gift Book from Mary Sidney to the Elder Henry Goodere 348 9 Schema of Textual Relations for LovInf 349 10 Goodere’s Borrowings from Donne 352 11 Literary Manuscripts in the Conway Papers 361 12 Selected Manuscripts from the Conway Papers 373 ILLUSTRATIONS 1 Sir Edward Conway (the elder), attrib. Michiel Jansz van Miereveldt. 58 Copyright The Weiss Gallery, London 2 Anon., ‘Greate Brittaines Noble and worthy Councell of War’, 74 engraving, 1624 3 Edward, second Viscount Conway, wash portrait after painting by 80 Van Dyck. Reproduced courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 4 Book-stamp of Edward, second Viscount Conway 91 5 Green-edged paper used by George Gerrard 103 6 Conway Papers stamp 126 7 Details, Conway Papers verse letters manuscript 150-2 8 Details, Sir Henry Goodere’s handwriting 178 9 Details, ‘para-Goodere’ hand 179-80 10 Details, TNA, SP 14/145/12-12X 225-7 11 Donne and Goodere’s scribal habits compared 359-60 v Acknowledgements Research for this PhD has taken me from Aberdeen to Armagh, Canterbury to Conwy, Paris to Plymouth; to Baton Rouge, Boston, Los Angeles and New York; and to local record offices in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire. I have incurred many debts of gratitude along the way, which I am pleased to record here. My work would not have been possible without funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I have received generous travel awards from the Henry E. Huntington Library, the English Department and Graduate School of University College London, the John Donne Society and the Bibliographical Society. The Malone Society, the Bibliographical Society and the Central Research Fund of the University of London paid for the digitisation of the Conway library catalogue in Armagh Public Library, whose Board of Trustees kindly granted me permission to work with the document. The Marquess of Hertford graciously permitted me to visit his private library at Ragley Hall in search of lost manuscripts. Lord Egremont generously allowed me to consult and publish material at Petworth. The Duke of Northumberland granted permission to consult British Library microfilms of manuscripts at Alnwick Castle. I am grateful to staff at all the libraries I have visited for their help and patience, especially the British Library and the Huntington. Ian Gadd and Laurel Peterson kindly consulted material for me at the Folger and Beinecke libraries, respectively. Hugh Adlington argues in the Oxford Handbook of John Donne that the academic community is one of the best resources available to a researcher, and my footnotes will attest to the extensive expert advice I have received. The assistance and encouragement of the following individuals has been particularly welcome: Nadine Akkerman, Brenda Collins, Lara Crowley, James Daybell, Joshua Eckhardt, Helen Hackett, Johanna Harris, James Knowles, Eric Langley, Tim Langley, Peter McCullough, Sonia Massai, Margaret Maurer, Alexander Samson, Jeanne Shami, Richard Todd and, especially, Arnold Hunt. Alison Shell’s rigorous criticism and infectious enthusiasm have greatly invigorated the later stages of my thesis. Susan Wiseman and Michelle O’Callaghan facilitated a symposium I organised for the London Renaissance Seminar on the Conway family, whose participants presented fascinating papers that have informed my own work: Barra Boydell, vi Pauline Croft, Gabriel Heaton and Ann Hughes. Many members of the John Donne Society have given me useful advice and timely criticism along the way. Dennis Flynn and Gary Stringer have been unfailingly generous since I first contacted them in 2007, and my work has benefited enormously from their feedback and mentorship, and the resources they have made available to me. The many respects I pay to Peter Beal’s scholarship will, I hope, be abundantly clear throughout this thesis; it remains to acknowledge his thoughtful personal interventions in my research. My most significant intellectual debt is to Henry Woudhuysen, who first introduced me to the study of book history and early modern manuscripts during my MA, and who has supported and scrupulously challenged me every step of the way since then. Antony Blackburn-Starza, Tori Hunt, Alison Knight, Olivia Smith and Sophie Taylor have been great friends and intelligent debaters over the years, as has Edward J. Kelly, whose Latin, logic and ability to untangle rhetorical muddles have helped improve each chapter. The courage and friendship of Nina Douglas have been sources of profound inspiration. Kate Mossman will know how grateful I am to her for so much. FFS were instrumental; NMG, accidental but not incidental. The late Barry Duesbury introduced me to Donne at school, and is remembered with affection. The memory of Steve Stuart, whose many achievements continue to amaze me, also lives on. My deepest thanks go to my parents, Adrian and Arleta, for a lifetime’s encouragement and for always setting me such high standards – with special appreciation to my mother for all the different drafts she has read with such patience and attention. Any mistakes that remain after all this help are entirely and deservedly my responsibility. vii Abbreviations and Conventions Common Abbreviations For full details of these works, see List of Works Cited, p. 253. Add. MS British Library (BL), Additional Manuscript Bald, Life R. C. Bald, John Donne: A Life Bod. Bodleian Library, Oxford BL British Library, London Carleton to Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain 1603-1624: Jacobean Letters, Chamberlain ed. Maurice Lee, Jr. CCEd Clergy of the Church of England Database CRL Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham CSPD Calendar of State Papers Domestic CUL Cambridge University Library DnJ John Donne entry in Index (see below) fMS Folio manuscript GEC G. E. C[ockayne], The Complete Peerage Handbook The Oxford Handbook of John Donne, eds. Jeanne Shami, Dennis Flynn and M. Thomas Hester Harl. MS British Library (BL), Harleian Manuscript HEH Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California Herford Ben Jonson, Ben Jonson, eds. C. H. Herford, Simpson and and Simpson E. Simpson, 11 vols. HMC Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, subsequently divided by volume: Salisbury (9) Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Hon. The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., Preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire Skrine (16) Eleventh Report, Appendix, Part I. The Manuscripts of Henry Duncan Skrine, Esq., Salvetti Correspondence Cowper (23) The Manuscripts of the Earl Cowper, K.G., Preserved at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire Portland (29) Report on the Manuscripts of his Grace the Duke of Portland, K.G., Preserved at Welbeck Abbey viii Buccleuch and Queensberry (45) Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, K. G., K. T., Preserved at Montagu House, Whitehall Various (55) Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections Downshire (75) Report on the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire, Preserved at Easthampstead Park, Berks.