A Semi-Diplomatic Transcription of Selections from the John Ward Diaries, vol. 10 (1663-1665), V.a.293
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This article features a semi-diplomatic transcription of an opening from Folger Shakespeare Library manuscript V.a.293. Edited by Elizabeth Tavares and Hudson Vincent, selections were transcribed and edited by Andrew Bozio, Loren Cressler, Bethany Donovan, Matthew Harrison, John Hertz, Chris Klippenstein, Julie Park, Alicia Petersen, Kelly Rafey, Melanie Rio, Geneva Smith, Elizabeth Tavares, Hudson Vincent, Wesley Viner, and Sydnee Wagner, who participated in the Mellon Summer Institute in English Paleography at the Folger Shakespeare Library in June 2019.
Introduction
This edition continues the work of previous Institutes in developing a vocabulary of Ward’s scribal practices, thematic investments, and the material conditions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century diarists. For a brief overview of John Ward, the manuscript’s provenance and general physical description, see A Semi-Diplomatic Transcription of Selections from the John Ward Diaries, vol. 9 (1662-1663), V.a.292. This includes notable features of the hand; see John Ward's Latin for a compilation of his Latin words and abbreviations. The following pertains specifically to fol. 105v and 106r.
Quirks of Hand
John Ward’s hand is current, often messy, and sometimes careless. His hand is mixed; primarily exhibiting secretary features, it also includes idiosyncratic Italic minuscule “c”s and “r”s. Ward’s minuscule “h” has a bowled-body that lies on the base lines. Adjacent minuscule “t”s are usually fused together in what appears to be a single heavy downstroke. His hook-like minuscule “e” often appears if the letter is terminal, though he also uses the two-stroke secretary “e.” Minuscule “o”s and “a”s are often indistinguishable. His minuscule “f” employs a dramatic headstroke, his majuscules have dramatic descenders, and his majuscule “C”s are double-length. Contrary to secretary script conventions, Ward uses italic majuscule “J”s. Superfluous macrons appear throughout, though they should be distinguished from tilde marks that signify expansions. The hand exhibits an infrequent use of brevigraphs. Ward frequently uses hashed line fillers, often to break entry sections.
Textual Conventions
Original spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have been maintained. All abbreviations have been expanded, with supplied letters italicized and brevigraphs silently removed. Superscript letters and interlineal insertions have been silently lowered. John Ward’s diaries are written in small volumes measuring one hundred forty-seven-by-ninety millimeters, and as a consequence the typical line may be only four or five words long. For ease of reading, we have opted not to preserve this original lineation, and instead demonstrate the organization and material experience of the book by preserving Ward’s indentation to distinguish between each entry.
Transcription
[fol. 105v]
Vicount Brackley married to my Lord James Cranfeilds daughter: the wedding was most sumptuous, the Arch-Bishop himself married them att my Lord of Bridgwaters owne house the Wedding was kept 4 days, all this was attested by Mr. Cuttler of the Temple who is Nephew to my Lord of Bridgwater:[1]
- Remember to inquire whether there is such a Book as Strong of the will of man and buy itt if possible:[2]
Remember to buy a prettie Large Mappe of London:[3]
- Remember to by Hardy vppon John:[4]
Remember to buy a Common prayer Book ready bond:[5]
- Rx take 5 Raisins and out with the Kernels and lay them in honie, and eat them good against Coughs and phtisick:[6]
Tapestrie and Arras are all one as the woman in Long-Lane told mee when I went to buy the Curtaines:/[7]
[fol. 106r]
Remember to buy Saunderson de Juramento,[10] to ask my Brothers advise about Hebrews:[11]
- To buy Carpets, Cushions, Bays, some sweetmeats and the like and to see Bishop Andrews his sermon on Luke 2:10–11:[12]
Whether or no wee had any thing to doe in Guiney till the Conclusion of the Match betwixt vs and portugal att which time itt became deliuered to vs:[13]
- Remember Cyperus grass[14] and make vse of itt in Infusion in drinks for Mris. Rawlins and others:
The Monks doe not vse Monks Rhubarb or patience but the Round leavd sort:[15]
- It is a general Rule as Ned Morgan told mee that when you plant plants you cut the Tops of them as short as may bee, so they will grow much better:
There are before Bauhinuses pinax the Names of all the Authors; out of which hee took the pinax,[16] and Dr. How[17] said hee had all those Authors in his studie except 3 or 4: and that 300 li was offerd only for his Botanical Books: but this was his humor, that hee neuer would Returne any Book that hee borrowed:
Footnotes
- ↑ John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater (1646–1701) married Elizabeth Egerton [née Cranfeild] (1647/8–1670), “[the] daughter and heir of James Cranfield, second earl of Middlesex, and Anne, daughter and coheir of Edward Bouchier, earl of Bath, on 17 November 1664 at Bridgwater House, Barbican, in London; she died on 3 March 1670 aged twenty-two. They had one son, who died young.” The archbishop of Canterbury in office at the time of the wedding was Gilbert Sheldon (1598–1677).
- ↑ A treatise shewing the subordination of the will of man unto the will of God by that eminently godly, able, and faithfull minister of Christ (1657) by William Strong (d.1654).
- ↑ One candidate for the map referenced here could be Wenceslaus Hollar’s c.1647 map of London, of which the west central map-portion survives (Folger MAP L85c no.29). It has been proposed that Hollar’s map originally measured five-by-ten feet and offered a bird’s-eye view of every building in London––a “Large” map indeed. For more information on this, or other candidates for Ward’s map, see James Howgego’s Printed Maps of London, circa 1553–1850 (Folkestone: Dawson, 1978). If current, Ward’s map would depict London shortly before the Great Fire of 1666, for which he later produced a paralleled etching comparing the city immediately before and after the “sad calamite” (Folger MAP L85c no.1).
- ↑ The first general epistle of St. John the Apostle, unfolded and applied (1656/1659) by Nathaniel Hardy (1618–1670). Ward could be referring here to The First Part published in 1656, The Second Part published in 1659, or both parts.
- ↑ The Church of England printed a revised version in 1662. See The book of common-prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches (1662).
- ↑ Wheezing or any of the various diseases characterized by this, such as asthma or bronchitis (OED).
- ↑ Long-Lane was home to a cloth fair adjacent to Smith Field in Aldersgate Ward, just outside the north wall of London (MoEML).
- ↑ Possibly in reference to Thomas Pierson (c.1573–1633), a Church of England clergyman, who would have been dead by the time of this entry by Ward.
- ↑ According to Charles Severen, editor of an 1839 edition of the diaries, Ward’s brother was the Reverend Thomas Ward, rector of Stow-on-the-Wold of Gloucestershire, named as sole executor in his brother’s will. See Diary of the Rev. John Ward, A. M., Vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon, Extending from 1648 to 1679, 24.
- ↑ Robert Sanderson (1587–1663), De Iuramento seven lectures concerning the obligation of promissory oathes (1655) was a series of lectures delivered in Latin at Oxford and translated into English for printing. Sanderson was bishop of Lincoln from 1660 until his death in 1663.
- ↑ The topical similarities between De Iuramento and the biblical book of Hebrews suggest that Ward has used a non-standard tilde here to indicate the insertion of an “s,” thus making this a reference to the book of Hebrews rather than the language of Hebrew.
- ↑ A sermon preached before His Maiestie at White-Hall, on Tuesday the 25. of December, being Christmas day, by the Bishop of Elie His Maiesties almoner (1610). Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626) was Bishop of Winchester and dean of the Chapel Royal at the time of his death. His sermons were printed throughout the seventeenth century. Here is Luke 2:10–11 in the Authorized Version (KJB), verses typically part of the Christmas season of the Anglican liturgical calendar: “And the Angel said vnto them, Feare not: For behold, I bring you good tidings of great ioy, which shall be to all people. / For vnto you is borne this day, in the citie of Dauid, a Sauiour, which is Christ the Lord.” For a facsimile of the relevant page from the 1611 printing, see KJB Online.
- ↑ This is a reference to the marriage of King Charles II and the Portugese princess Catherine of Braganza. After “announcing at the opening of parliament on 8 May 1661 his intention to marry Catherine, and signing a marriage treaty on 23 June 1661,” Charles II married the Portuguese princess in Portsmouth on May 21, 1662. See ODNB (subscription required), for more information on the marriage.
- ↑ Cyperus rotundus (coco-, red-, or purple-grass) is a species of sedge native to Africa, central Europe, and southern Asia with several medicinal purposes, including as an antibacterial to prevent tooth decay; to treat bruises and carbuncles; moisturize skin; and improve digestion. The plant name of “cypress” indicated a broad range of flora early modern England. John Tanner’s The hidden treasures of the art of physick (1659) defines this as “a Tree now frequently in our Gardens: its Natural Soyl is the Eastern-Countries, and the Northern parts of America” (LEME).
- ↑ Monk’s rhubarb, also known as “Garden patience,” is not a true rhubarb. The term can refer to multiple species of dock. Here, it presumably refers to Rumex patientia. The “Round leavd sort” is likely one of the species known as “bastard rhubarb” or “Great round-leav’d Dock.” For early modern accounts of these plants, see Thomas Johnson’s revised and expanded edition of John Gerard’s The herball, or, Generall historie of plantes (1633), Book 2, pp. 308–309, Nicholas Culpeper’s The English Physitian (1652) pp. 108–109, or Stephen Blake’s The compleat gardeners practice (1664), pp. 117–18. Culpeper states that the latter plant is “more effectual for both inward and outward Diseases” (p. 209).
- ↑ Bauhinuses refers to Swiss botanist and anatomist Gaspard Bauhin (1560–1620) who published influential works on botany, including Phytopinax, seu enumeratio plantarum ab herbariis nostro secolo descriptaruum, cum earum differentiis... (1596) and Pinax theatri botanici, seu Index in Theophrasti, Dioscoridis, Plinii, et botanicorum qui a seculo scripserunt opera (1623). Bauhin’s Pinax theatri botanici, mentioned here by Ward, described six thousand species of plants. Linnaeus used many of the names of genera that Bauhin developed, which are still in use today.
- ↑ Dr. William How (1620–1656), botanist and author of Phytologia britannica (1650). Dr. How’s annotated copy of his Phytologia survives at Magdalen College, Oxford.