Lady Carey's Meditations, & Poetry, ... As also the late Thomas Lord Fairfax's Relation of his Actions in the late Civil Wars. Together With his Grace the Duke of Buckingham's Verses upon the Memory of the late Thomas Lord Fairfax
Language: English
Context and purpose
This is a presentation manuscript compiling the mid-seventeenth-century works of Lady Mary Carey and Lord Thomas Fairfax, copied by Charles Hutton in 1681. Lady Carey's original autograph manuscript is now in private hands; Fairfax's original manuscript is now at the Bodleian Library, Fairfax MS 36. It is arranged in two sections: the first comprising Carey's conversion narrative, her meditations, her poetry, and one elegy authored by her husband, George Payler; the second comprising Fairfax's memoirs of the civil wars, and Buckingham's elegy on Fairfax. Both authors had Yorkshire connections. The earliest of Carey's texts is dated 1649; the latest 1657 (all these dates agree with the autograph manuscript). The manuscript, therefore, presents exemplary female and male models of piety and parliamentarianism. Its copying at a later date for this purpose is significant in terms of the negotiation of private and public with regard to women's writing in the period. Ostensibly private texts authored by Carey-elegies on the deaths of children, records of religious experience-are read and adopted for the public construction of female spirituality and political ideology.
The manuscript is copied in Hutton's hand throughout; corrections are remarkably rare. His writing and presentation imitates contemporary print, to the extent of consistently using long 's' throughout. The poems by Carey and Payler are highlighted by the scribe: they are copied vertically, from the bottom of the page to the top. He makes a point of authenticity, signalling that his text of Fairfax is "from his owne Hand this being a true Copy of it" (p. 28 [fol. 131v])-these memoirs were not to be published in print until 1699.
Physical description
The manuscript is an octavo, of 172 folios (not 166 fols., as the Bodleian Catalogue states-see Foliation, below), in contemporary binding. The pages are gilt-edged. There are few blank leaves: at fol. 1v (verso of the titlepage); fol. 164r (between the end of Fairfax's memoirs and the beginning of Buckingham's elegy); and at fols. 167r-172v (to the end of the manuscript). Pagination begins three times: at the beginning of Carey's dedicatory letter to her husband; at the beginning of Carey's works; at the beginning of Fairfax's works.
The manuscript is ruled in the same black ink as that which transcribes the texts: double-ruled lines parallel to the spine (forming the left margin); then double-ruled lines across the top and bottom of the pages.
The manuscript is transcribed throughout by Charles Hutton.
Form:
Octavo
Support:
Paper of a single stock throughout.
Watermark: Strasburg Lily. Very similar, although perhaps not exactly identical, to Churchill, 401, 1625.
Extent: 172 folios181115
Layout:
All the pages are ruled in the same black ink as the texts: double-ruled lines parallel to the spine (forming the left margin); then double-ruled lines across the top and bottom of the pages. The exceptions occur at the beginning and end of the manuscript, fols. 1v and 172r-v. Catchwords occur at the bottom of each page.
The Payler/Carey poems are highlighted by being copied vertically, from the bottom to the top of the pages.
Hands:
Charles Hutton transcribed the entire manuscript, with the exception of three short insertions into the Buckingham elegy in a later hand. Hutton's handwriting in this manuscript imitates print; rounded, squat letters, with consistent use of long 's'. Hutton uses square brackets, converted to round brackets in this catalogue entry. Generally, Hutton makes no corrections, but at p. 104 [fol. 58v], l.10, an ilegible cancellation has been replaced with " reclaimed me" above the line; and at p. 168 [fol. 90v], "o these spirituall mercies" has been struck through and replaced with "oh! these 6 speciall mercies".
Binding:
The binding is contemporary, hard-backed. Both sides of the cover are etched in gilt: tracing a rectangle along the edges; and then imprinting another rectangular panel in the centre, with decoration at each of its four points. The spine is now broken. The pages themselves are gilt-edged.
Cover measurements are: 186.5mm x 120mm. The spine is 28mm.
Foliation:
The manuscript is paginated by the scribe, Hutton, in three sections. The first section-Carey's dedicatory letter to her husband-is paginated 1-10. The second section-Carey's works-is paginated 1-222. The third section-Fairfax's works and Buckingham's elegy on Fairfax-is paginated 1-108. These three paginations are consecutive and completely accurate. Neither the titlepage folio nor the final folio of the manuscript are paginated.
The manuscript is unfoliated. Accordingly, this cataloguer has inserted the correct folio references in square brackets, following the pagination as given in the manuscript.
Additions:
The inside pastedown bears a number of shelfmarks: '(14037)'; 'Ms Rawl Misc. 1244'; then '1244' was struck through and replaced with '1185'; then '1185' was struck through and replaced with 'D. 1308'. Finally, the current shelfmark, 'Ms. Rawl. D. 1308' is written underneath these.
Provenance
There is no information available in the Bodleian Library about the manuscript's provenance or acquisition. However, it is most likely that Hutton copied it from Carey's (and Fairfax's) autograph originals. Francis Meynell, in his 1918 edition of Carey, records how he found the autograph manuscript: "A manuscript Note Book of the time of the Commonwealth, written in very charming characters, bound in contemporary covers of blue velvet, was lately found by Ev. M. in the sixpenny pile of a bookstall". This autograph manuscript, which belonged to Dame Alice Meynell in 1988, is currently owned by Germaine Greer. Fairfax's original manuscript is currently at the Bodleian Library, Fairfax MS 36.
Administrative information
Manuscript viewed on 14-15 March 2005.
Autograph manuscript viewed in 2001 by Faith Lanum.
Availability of surrogates
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