Paris’s Choice (1670) by Charles Davenant: A Seventeenth-Century Play Preserved in a University Manuscript Miscellany

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse and discuss a seventeenth-century University play, Paris’s choice by Charles Davenant, and provide bibliographical information about the only manuscript copy extant. The piece has been preserved in a miscellany of poems and songs, MS Rawlinson poetical 84, held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. Based on its contents, the miscellany seems to have been compiled at New College, Oxford, and it may have been originated by a member of the Paulet family. The manuscript then came into the possession of an Oxford student named Giles Frampton, who was at Balliol College at the same time as Charles Davenant. The manuscript play is preceded by a sort of title-page, featuring a cast of actors and the date 1670, which might be the date of the original performance. Whereas the MS Rawlinson poet. 84 has drawn the interest of some scholars, Paris’s choice has hitherto received minor attention. Thus, this paper contains a detailed description of the miscellany, a discussion of its compilation and ownership, the play’s context of composition and stage history and a semi-diplomatic transcription of the play-text. My study is intended to contribute to our knowledge of Charles Davenant’s literary production and will also be relevant to scholars working on the contents of the miscellany or on university amateur drama.

Introduction

Our understanding of seventeenth-century English drama has benefitted from the burgeoning interest in manuscript culture in recent years, which has resulted in revised methodological approaches to scholarly editions, informative case-studies of early dramatic composition, performance, and reception, and an expansion of the corpus of dramatic manuscripts. In Early modern playhouse manuscripts and the editing of Shakespeare (2012), Paul Werstine challenged some of the methodological principles of the new bibliography and its fundamental categories of dramatic manuscripts (Greg’s differences between foul paper manuscripts and prompt books).¹ He provided insight into playhouse practices in Shakespeare’s time by drawing on extant dramatic manuscripts and annotated quartos,² and argued for varied possibilities for the nature of printers’ copies: “authorial MS, MS by a theatrical scribe, or MS by a non-theatrical scribe” (231). A further revision of editorial practices was put forward by James Purkis in Shakespeare and manuscript drama (2016). Purkis discussed the composition of theatrical texts and their revision for performance, with an emphasis on collaborative dramatic writing, by examining palaeographical evidence in sixteenth and seventeenth-century manuscripts.³ More recently the collection of essays edited by Tamara Atkin and Laura Estill, Early British drama in manuscript (2019), has shed light on manuscript plays by addressing questions pertaining to dramatic composition, performance and reception, as well as presenting technological advances in the study of these texts.⁴

Furthermore, a number of scholars have broadened the formerly relatively stable corpus of plays, showing that the field of seventeenth-century manuscript plays is copious and deserves further study: some recent incorporations are two plays by Cosmo Manuche, The banished shepherdess (c. 1659–1661) and The feast (1664); Thomas Heywood’s The destruction of Hierusalem; Feniza or the ingeniouse mayde (c. mid-1660 s), possibly by George Digby, second earl of Bristol; Aphra Behn’s The Dutch lady (c. 1670 s); and a manuscript fragment of an undated play by Sir Thomas Higgons.⁵ To this list, a lesser-known piece by a minor author can be added: Charles Davenant’s Paris’s choice (1670), whose sole witness is the MS Rawlinson poetical 84, a miscellany of English and Latin poems and songs held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University.

These specimens of playtexts bears testimony to the survival of manuscript culture in the seventeenth century and its relevance long after the spread of the printed book. The printed medium did not absorb the manuscript format, the latter being preferred in certain contexts. The manuscript miscellany, for instance, played a major role in the transmission of poetry, since most poems first appeared in manuscript collections including compositions by an assortment of authors (Love 5, 1993). At the universities, for example, miscellanies were passed from reader to reader and readers could contribute to them by simply copying a text which might interest the target audience.⁶ As pointed out by Harold Love and Arthur Marotti (2003), in colleges “the quill maintained its primacy” well into the seventeenth century and “literary works... continued throughout to be circulated primarily in handwritten copies”.⁷ Certainly, some early modern university students would find it more problematic—and expensive—to have access to a printing press than to compile a manuscript miscellany. Scribal circulation had the advantage of making the texts available to readers at a shorter time span, even before the work in question was fully completed.

As a matter of fact, some sixteenth and seventeenth-century poems remained unpublished and others were printed in relatively corrupt forms, hence the value of manuscript miscellanies for textual editors and researchers on the copying and circulation of poetry.⁸ In addition, the selection of texts in miscellanies is indicative of the general preferences of certain milieux—which makes them fruitful for a reassessment of the literary canon—and may even bear political significance.⁹ A comparison of the texts copied by a single contributor to a miscellany can be informative of how poems and literary texts were compiled and transmitted within coteries.

Charles Davenant’s Paris’s choice (1670) seems to have been composed and performed while Davenant studied at Oxford. The text can cast light on Restoration university plays, a dramatic subgenre which has generally been left outside the time scope of early modern university drama studies. In fact, the two most comprehensive projects of transcription of dramatic activity linked to the universities, Alan H. Nelson’s Records of Early English Drama: Cambridge (1989) and John R. Elliott, Jr, et al.’s Records of Early English Drama: Oxford (2004), contain texts dated before 1642.¹⁰ One of the few critical editions of post-Restoration university drama is Joshua Barnes' The academie, dated 1675, by Alan Swanson (2011). Research on university and other forms of amateur drama is a flourishing field, but most scholars do not taken into consideration the second half of the seventeenth century.¹¹

With the aim of contributing to the study of manuscript transmission and amateur university play production, in this article I provide information on the Bodleian MS Rawlinson poet. 84, a discussion of Paris’s choice, its plausible context of composition and stage history, and a semi-diplomatic transcription of the play-text. My transcription and analysis can be of interest to the fields of textual studies, authorship and play composition, and early modern theatre history.

The Manuscript and the Copyist of Paris’s Choice

Charles Davenant was born into one of the leading families of the Restoration theatrical scene: he was the eldest son of Sir William Davenant by his third wife, Henrietta Maria du Tremblay (Hoppit, 2006). Davenant Junior is known to have followed in his father’s footsteps only briefly before turning to political economy. He wrote a dramatic opera, Circe, which was staged by the Duke’s Company in May 1677 at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London (Van Lennep, 1960, 256–257). This is the only piece by Charles Davenant included in catalogues of Restoration drama and related bibliographies. Paris’s choice is listed in none of the main registers of seventeenth-century play production: Nicoll’s A History of English drama (1952), Harbage’s Annals of English drama, or Van Lennep’s The London stage.¹² The play is nonetheless mentioned in Madan’s nineteenth-century descriptive catalogue of the Bodleian manuscripts, Waddell’s doctoral thesis on Davenant’s works on politics and economics (1954), and Larson’s recent monograph on early modern songs.¹³

The miscellany, Bodleian MS Rawlinson poet. 84, has been studied by manuscript scholars. It appears multiple times in Beal’s Index of English literary manuscripts, 1450–1700 Beal, P. et al. (1980–1993) under the works of different authors, those of Charles Davenant’s not being included. Based on internal evidence, Beal claims that the manuscript was tied to the Paulet family and that it came into the possession of “one Egigius Frampton” in 1659 (see, for instance, 1.1.93). Hobbs has analysed its contents and the inclusion of these in other early seventeenth century manuscript miscellanies, concluding that the collection was gathered at New College, Oxford (Verse miscellany manuscripts 1992, 90).¹⁴ The link to the Paulets is based on the inclusion of an anagram on the name Francis Pawlet, who might have been the originator of the miscellany. Perhaps this was Francis Poulett, son to John, Baron Poulett, who enrolled at Exeter College on April 20th, 1632 (Foster, 1891 3: 1188), a date concordant with the contents of the volume.¹⁵ Moreover, the manuscript contains a poem by William Cartwright celebrating Lady Powlet’s needlework (“To the right vertuous the ladie Elizabeth Powlet,” f. 90v-r rev.), although her identity remains unknown.¹⁶ The identification of the compiler is hindered by the presence of two dated signatures on the last page, which most probably point to other owners and contributors of the miscellany: one is by Giles Frampton, dated 1659, and the other by a certain “R. N.,” dated 1663 (f. 123v).¹⁷ Significantly, both Frampton and Davenant were students at Balliol College (Oxford), even possibly at the same time according to the information provided in Clark’s lists (which is based on the Registers and Bursars’ Books of Balliol College). Frampton was admitted in August 1661 and Davenant in July 1671, but Frampton’s name occurs on Clark’s Lists until 1672.¹⁸

Fig. 1

MS Rawlinson poetical 84, folio 123v. Signatures by Giles Frampton and “R. N.” This item is reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

The miscellany can be considered a fair copy, for most texts are neatly copied, and insertions and errors are rare. It is written from both ends, although with several blank leaves in the middle, in at least four different hands. These are seventeenth-century secretary and mixed hands, which suggests that several scribes contributed to the collection, most probably at different stages, for some pages contain texts written in several hands, as if another had filled the space left by the first (examples of this can be found in ff. 1r-v, 9r, 10v, 23r-v, 22v, 39r, 43r, 46r, 49r and 123r).¹⁹ Hand A writes a rapid, careless seventeenth-century mixed hand and is responsible for a flyleaf with a fragment of a poem on the inside of the front cover and the texts on ff. 1r-v, 4v-7v, 9r-10r, 22r-24v, 37r-40v, 43r, 44r-47v, 49r, 122v and 123r. He filled in the blanks left by hand B, even those in the margins, such as on f. 10r. Hand A uses common abbreviations and, even though his handwriting seems hasty, the texts are neat and written in straight lines. Hand B, who seems to have been the first contributor, copied the largest number of texts, from f. 1r-4r, 46r-120v.²⁰ He writes in a late secretary hand and a round italic for headlines, with ornate capital letters. There are no abbreviations and the texts are also neat and the lines straight. Hand C uses a careful seventeenth-century mixed hand that looks almost professional and is responsible for the text of Paris’s choice. The lines are straight, the writing is neat and abbreviations are limited. He contributed the texts on ff. 8r-44v and left some blank spaces in some pages which were filled in by hand A (ff. 9r-v). Hand D intervenes only once in the volume (f. 121r.) and writes a late secretary hand (See Fig. 2). The text is clean, except for a few corrections and insertions, but it has been crossed out. The inside of the back cover contains a flyleaf by Richard Rawlinson, who writes in a round hand, and Giles Frampton wrote at least a short inscription on f. 123r (Fig. 3, 4).

Fig. 2

MS Rawlinson poetical 84, folio 121v. Hand D. This item is reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Fig. 3

MS Rawlinson poetical 84, folio 4v. Hand A. This item is reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Fig. 4

MS Rawlinson poetical 84, folio 2r. Hand B. This item is reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

The text of Paris’s choice is copied on ff. 33v-29r and it is surrounded by other contemporary texts in the same hand (hand C’s). The handwriting is neat and clean: insertions and deletions are brief and scarce, although abbreviations become more frequent towards the end, as if the writer was eager to finish the task. Therefore, it seems that the text was not written from scratch but copied. The play-text is preceded by a sort of title-page, featuring a cast of actors, the name of the author and the date 1670, which might be the date of composition.²¹ When copying other texts (for example, when reproducing the two other dramatic texts, The humours of Monsieur Galliard and Jenkin’s love-course and perambulation) hand C does not provide a date. Given the inclusion of a cast of actors, one of them being Davenant himself and the other names coinciding with students at Oxford, it is likely that Paris’s choice was produced for a university festivity not long after this date. The dating is also consistent with the biographical facts known about Giles Frampton.

Fig. 5

MS Rawlinson poetical 84, folio 33v. Hand C. This item is reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

We may wonder if hand C corresponds to Charles Davenant himself, although it would seem rather surprising that he had such an expertise in the use of the quill at the age of thirteen. An examination of his correspondence did not prove determinant, since all his extant letters date from the 1700s. Figure 6 shows Davenant’s final salutation and signature of a letter sent to his son in 1703 (Lansdowne MS 773/1, 1703; British Library), in which the letters e in “affectionate,” “father” and “Davenant” are characterised by a curving stroke going upwards, similar to a flourish. However, this distinctive feature does not appear in the name “Davenant” written on the first page of Paris’s choice (Fig. 5). Yet, even if these hands seem very different from one another, the large time span separating the texts needs to be taken into account.²²

Fig. 6

Lansdowne MS 773/1, folio 6v. Letter from Charles Davenant to his son Henry Davenant, dated February 1st, 1703. This item is reproduced by permission of the British Library, London

All aspects considered, a plausible hypothesis regarding the provenance of Bodleian MS Rawl. poet. 84 and the identity of its contributors is that the miscellany was started by Francis Poulett sometime after 1632, then owned by Giles Frampton, an Oxford student, who later handed it down to “R. N.”²³ The fact that Frampton coincided with Davenant at Balliol college accounts for the inclusion of Paris’s choice, its copyist being Frampton, Davenant himself or someone else. What is certain is that in February 1728 the manuscript came into the hands of Richard Rawlinson, who bequeathed it to the Bodleian Library at some point during his lifetime or after his death with the rest of his collections in the mid-1750s.²⁴

The Contents of the Manuscript

The Bodleian MS Rawlinson poet. 84 is “predominantly New College in its contents” (Hobbs, Verse miscellany manuscripts 1992, 90), for it comprises poems by several alumni, such as John Selden, Ralph Bathurst, Dr. Alexander Gill and the earl of Clarendon. It also contains an elegy (“To the eternall memory of that patterne of puritie of life, charitye, candour, & learning, the most infinitely lamented Mr Humphry May Lately fellow of Wiston Coll.,” f. 99v-r rev.) by Thomas Flatman, who was a student at Winchester College (22nd September 1649) and New College (11th September 1654), and an anonymous translation of the Anacreontea 35 set to music by William King, organist of New College (‘Cupid once a-weary grown,’ f. 27v).²⁵ Some texts are concerned with events related to the college, such as a fragment entitled “On the wall in New Colledge cloyster” (f. 1v) and the anonymous “On the bells of New Colledge in Oxon. lately were molded, and from 5 turn’d into eight” (f. 105v rev.).²⁶ The texts which were included in printed collections were first issued in the mid-1650 s and 1660 s. A small proportion of poems were published in the 1630 s and 1640 s, although they were easily accessible in the following decades. Other poems allude to events which took place in the first half of the seventeenth century, such as the assassination of the duke of Buckingham in 1628 (f. 70r rev.; ff. 74r-73v rev.), or the execution of the marquess of Montrose in 1650 (ff. 109v-r rev.), while others can be dated to the second half of 1660 s, for instance, a poem praising the Lady Frances Stuart, duchess of Richmond, and the prologue to the anonymous play The four hours’ adventure (1663).²⁷

The copyist of Davenant’s Paris’s choice, hand C, was one of the major contributors to the miscellany. His handwriting first appears on f. 8r, although it sometimes coexists with a different hand in subsequent folios, for example on ff. 9r-v, and 10r (see Fig. 7). Some of the texts that he copied are related by date or content, which reinforces the hypotheses of the dating of the play and the ownership of the manuscript. Davenant’s play is followed by several poems, although the ink of these texts is slightly faded when compared to the play, which suggests that they might have been copied at a different time. The first poem—which is on f. 28v—is Waller’s “To a Lady” (‘Nothing lies hid from radiant eyes’).²⁸ Waller’s poem is contemporary with Davenant’s play and it was first printed in 1668, although the version in Bodleian MS Rawl. poet. 84 presents minor differences.²⁹ This poem is followed by a brief extract from a pastoral dialogue of unknown author (‘Welcome, sweet deity whose irradiant eyes’). The third text is Thomas Flatman’s elegy, “To the eternall memory of that patterne of puritie of life” (‘Weep Reader! And begone, cease gazeing here’).

Fig. 7

Bodleian MS Rawlinson poetical 84, folio 10r. Hand A and C. This item is reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Two other texts by unknown authors are copied in the same hand on f. 28r, an anagram on Edward Seymour (‘Exact must be y^e art whose fancy can’) and a catch (‘In a season all oppressed’). As for the texts that precede Paris’s choice, these are three unknown poems all appearing on f.34r and the third occupying the upper part of f.33v too: “A prophesy y^t was lately founde written in a plate of brases in Tolestoone in Kent” (‘When Britton bold of Spanish race’), “Written over y^e whispering place at Glocester church” (‘Doubt not but God who sits on high’) and “A call to death” (‘Come, come y^u King of terrors, for I crave’). Hand C is also responsible for the translation of the Anacreontea 35, and this is its only known copy.

As for the texts copied by other hands, it is worth mentioning one by hand A headed “A song by Charles Davenant” (‘If Cupid e’er my heart doth steal’, on ff. 22v-23r), this being the only known copy.³⁰ The same hand is responsible for a poem (‘Go, turn away your cruel eyes’, f. 123r), which is inscribed “I, Captaine Cooke, Mrs Barbara Syms,” this also being the sole witness. Moreover, a poem on ff. 39r-40v is entitled “Mrs Ba. Syms’s song” (‘Doe thy worst spitefull Love’), which was also set to music by Captain Cooke. Captain Henry Cooke was master of the Children of the Chapel Royal until his death in 1672 and Henry Purcell was among his pupils (Dennison and Wood, 2021). Cooke had formerly collaborated with Sir William Davenant in The siege of Rhodes (1656), for which he composed the score, together with Henry Lawes, Matthew Locke, Charles Coleman and George Hudson. The inclusion of these songs by Captain Cooke, together with the text of Paris’s choice and the song by Davenant, suggests that the copyist (hand C) was familiar with the production of both of them and might have been close to them too. In fact, since these are the only extant copies of the texts, hand C might have obtained them from the authors, or from someone close to them.

The Play

Paris’s choice is a comic play representing the judgement which triggered off the abduction of Helen and the War of Troy. The piece is brief: the text occupies less than five complete pages and the first is intended as a title-page. It is written for the most part in verse (in rhyming couplets), except for the first scene and part of the last one, which are in prose and have a more comical and sarcastic tone.³¹ Young Davenant shows a concern for balance as regards the number of characters: there are seven main characters and fourteen secondary characters. The first include Paris, three goddesses (Juno, Pallas and Venus) and three gods (Jupiter, Vulcan, and Momus). The second group comprises eight cyclops, Cupid, the three Graces, and the cup-bearers of the gods, Ganymede and Hebe. The role of the latter in the plot is minimal: they appear only for the final scene and they are given no speeches. The cyclops sing a song (whose lyrics are included in the text) and dance to it, and they are afterwards joined by the other secondary characters.

Although the play contains no explicit division into acts or scenes, according to the stage directions and the changes in time and setting, Paris’s choice can be divided in three acts plus the epilogue. In the first act, the incident which initiates the main conflict is introduced: when asked about the deafening sounds, Vulcan explains to Momus that the goddesses Juno, Pallas and Venus are quarrelling about who is the most beautiful. The entrance of Jupiter and the goddesses brings about a change from prose to verse. Juno requests that Jupiter be the judge, hoping that, being his wife, he will choose her. But the father of the gods refers the decision to someone who can be impartial and instructs Momus to take the goddesses to Mount Ida so that Paris can judge.

The second act introduces the rising action. It opens with the appearance of the youthful Paris, who is daunted by the task conferred upon him. One after another each goddess attempts to influence his decision by offering him special gifts. Juno endeavours to captivate him with the prospect of overwhelming dominance: “the powerfulst Monarchs shall not dare oppose / to wear the yoke which Paris shall impose” (f. 31v). Pallas tries to tempt him with wisdom: she will reveal to him “the unknown nature of the Gods” and “the cause Neptune does eb [sic] and flow: / problems which mortals never could resolve” (f. 31r). Finally, Venus’s turn comes: she wittily begins her speech by pointing to the pains that the offerings of the others will cause Paris: “wise men and kings their joyes / can fearcely taste … The one is troubled with perpetuall fear of looseing what already by his sword / He has attain’d … What profitts wisedome? … wise men the more they know, they thinck they know less than before” (f. 31r-30v). Then she lures him with the love of Helen, “the fayrest Nymph great nature ere hath form’d” (f. 30v). The climax comes without delay: Paris makes his choice by weighing, not the enticement of the goddesses’ rewards, but rather their prospective reprisals. He decides to award the golden ball to Venus, out of fear that she would blind him and, as he observes: “make me captive to a face by time Ruined; the subject of the poet’s rime” (f. 30v).

The third and final act presents the denouement and takes place in Vulcan’s forge. Vulcan is overjoyed by Paris’s verdict, because the fact that his wife has been preferred over the goddesses indicates his own superiority: “why not Vulcan before all the gods?” (f. 30r), he argues. He prepares an entertainment to celebrate this triumph: once he has gathered his guests, the cyclops sing and dance. Then, at Venus and Jupiter’s request, Cupid, the three Graces, Ganymede and Hebe join them and they all dance. The epilogue is spoken by Momus in the company of Vulcan, who was acted by Charles Davenant himself. It is intended to propitiate the audience through humour. Indeed, Momus apologises in Vulcan’s name explaining that “his verses like himself are lame” (f. 29r), “lame” meaning “halting,” but also alluding to the characterisation of the god as limping in Homer’s works.

Davenant is faithful to the myth, although he makes certain changes in the plot and the characters for comical purposes. One of these concerns the role of the messenger of the gods, which in Davenant’s version is not given to Hermes but Momus, the Greek god of mockery and sarcasm. The substitution is quite significant since Momus and Vulcan are the prime sources of amusement and laughter: through them, the author conveys a combination of epigrammatic humour building on mythology and wordplay. In addition to the joke at the expense of Vulcan in the epilogue, this can be illustrated briefly by the manner in which Momus refers to the goddesses in the first scene:

Vulcan. Why there’s Juno the Queen of heaven.

Momus. Oi[,] there is a thundering tongue indeed. Shee’l spit fire and lightening as scoulds use

to doe. But who is there besides?

Vulcan. That’s Pallas too.

Momus. What! Jove’s brain-born-bratt, the Goddess of war. Does she let her squibs and crackers

flie about here? But are there noe more?

Vulcan. Yes, there’s my monkey too, the Goddess of beauty forsooth.

Momus. What[!] That sea-born-salt-salatious-flutt? Vulcan[,] you two agree like fire and water,

what didst it mean to take such a hollow bubble, a frothy-foaming-slutt? Her birth shews

what her beauty is a mere bubble, toucht and ‘tis broken, but let it pass, what is this noise

among ‘em? (f. 33r)

The association between Juno and thunder plays on her relationship with Jupiter, while the jokes on Pallas and Venus rely on their mythological births. These instances show that knowledge of classical mythology is presupposed on part of the audience (which at the time was relatively common among the educated), and the misogynistic humour was certainly intended for a male audience.

Davenant’s Paris’s choice has been labelled a “masque” in the descriptions of the MS Rawlinson poet. 84 (the Summary catalogue and CELM) and also by Larson, probably on account of its mythological setting and the inclusion of a dancing scene at the end.³² However, this term does not match the humour and tone of Paris’s choice, and a number of factors point to a university play instead. Davenant’s piece lacks a solemn message of intellectual or political significance aimed at celebrating and reinforcing royal authority. Even though there is a speech in which the image of the powerful conquering monarch is evoked, with stress on the political and intellectual significance of royal authority, and another praising the superiority of reason over corporeal passions,³³ these discourses are contradicted by Paris’s decision, for he refuses Juno’s offering to dominate any opposing army, as well as Pallas’s, who tries to win him with universal wisdom. In the end, love and desire triumph over political ambition, power, wealth, and wisdom, and the denouement is not moralising, but comic in intention. Paris’s decision to appoint Venus as the winner of the contest is made out of fear of public ridicule: he fears that the goddess of love will subject him to mockery, making him choose an old, ugly woman for a wife. Furthermore, the play does not feature a character representing authority, for the one who could have assumed this role, Jupiter, chooses to delegate it to Paris, as a means to avoid the potential consequences of his decision. Neither is there textual evidence pointing to a lavish entertainment featuring impressive scenery. In fact, some of the more complex scenes and changes of setting have been eliminated, such as the journey to Mount Ida. The settings are limited to three spaces: Vulcan’s forge (Act 1), Mount Ida (Act 2) and the Parnassus (Act 3), where the trial takes place. Moreover, stage directions are minimal, which seems to point to a lack of an elaborate scenery, and there are no indications about the choreography of the final dancing scene.

The differences become more evident if we compare Davenant’s play to an earlier masque on the same mythological subject: George Peele’s The arraignment of Paris, which was written for the Children of the Chapel and performed at court before Queen Elizabeth between 1581 and 1584. Peele’s play, written in rhyming couplets, combines mythological and pastoral elements to represent the legend of the judgement of Paris and was intended to celebrate the queen’s beauty and virtue. In Peele’s work, Paris’s decision prompts Juno and Pallas to accuse him of unfair bias and they take him to trial before the Roman gods. However, the debate cannot be resolved and Paris is sent to Troy to his tragic destiny. In the final scene, the dispute is referred to Diana, who evades the choice by awarding the golden apple to the nymph Eliza, who represents the queen herself. The play culminates with Diana’s encomium of the queen, which is charged with patriotic themes: the praise of the monarch, the greatness of her kingdom or the legendary link between England and Troy. By choosing Eliza as the solver of the discord, Queen Elizabeth is portrayed as the guarantor of order and the protector of her subjects. Peele’s masque includes a more numerous cast than Davenant’s, with twelve gods and goddesses, thirteen minor divinities, eight mortals and several secondary characters; the action takes place in Mount Ida, and is divided into five acts and multiple scenes. The play includes dancing, music, songs, lyrical interludes, set speeches, and the tone is more elevated, with a language filled with “rhetorical flourishes and metaphorical adornments” (Clemen, 2011: 264). Peele resorts to this mythological episode to introduce an ethico-political debate through allegories of love, power and chivalry, and produces a nationalist discourse: “Elizabeth’s new Troy reverses the tragic doom of the old because her chastity embodies that national inviolability against which it had been Paris’ crime to transgress” (Butler, 1990: 133). The differences between Peele’s and Davenant’s versions of this mythological episode are manifold, to the extent that it may be doubted that Davenant resorted to Peele’s masque as a direct source.

Davenant’s Paris’s choice is a hybrid play: despite the mythological subject, the inclusion of songs and a dance, the type of humour is more consistent with university drama and it seems to be based on a tradition different from masques. Most college plays were influenced by Italian neoclassical comedy and their purpose was to educate and entertain. Davenant’s piece includes several features to delight an audience of university men—the songs, the dancing, the combination of light and witty humour, the mythological allusions—, while offering elements of an exemplary discourse, despite the fact that in the end the hero acts against reason, moved by desire and the prospect of loving the most beautiful woman.

Even though the legend of Troy was widely known in educated circles through different versions and adaptations, based on the subject and the tone of the play, Davenant may well have used Lucian’s The judging of the goddesses as his main source. The satirist from Samosata (ca. 120–190 CE) approached the subject with sardonic humour, exposing human faults and follies through mythological characters who are deprived of their supernatural grandeur and instead become the target of general ridicule. Following criticism of the gods by major authors, such as Homer, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, Lucian seeks to amuse his readers with lively dialogue and absurd behaviours, which he combines with some touches of mythological culture (see MacLeod, 1991: 10–14).³⁴ Davenant resorts to similar literary strategies: the Olympian gods are portrayed with human frailties (the goddesses, for instance, are envious, proud and malicious), the dialogue is filled with puns (as the previous examples show), the mythological subject is treated with novelty—for, even if Lucian offers a model, Davenant displays originality to some extent by reworking a classical episode and resorting to irreverence.

Davenant introduces a number of changes, possibly due to theatrical necessities. The first comic scene in which Momus and Vulcan complain about the noise of the gossiping, with the comic references to the English having “codpieces good enough” (f. 33r) and the puns on the birth of the goddesses, is Davenant’s invention. In Lucian’s original, the story begins when Jupiter (Zeus) asks Hermes to fetch Paris to make his judgment, whereas in Davenant’s play Momus is the one who suggests choosing Paris as judge. In the original, Paris is chosen for similar reasons: he is “handsome … and also well schooled in all that concerns love,” “ingenuous and unsophisticated” (385). Overall, the humour of Davenant’s piece is less coarse and cleverer: for instance, Paris does not ask the goddesses to undress to inspect them individually before making his decision. The reasons argued by the goddesses to tempt Paris are similar, although Davenant expands on the details of Hera’s (Juno) and Athena’s (Pallas) offerings, but not on Aphrodite’s (Venus). In Lucian, the goddess of love elaborates on the description of Helen of Sparta, mentioning that she was the daughter of Leda and Zeus, that as a girl she had been captured by Theseus and then was married to Menelaus; Aphrodite even reassures Paris that, with the help of the gods of love and desire, Helen will fall in love with him and agree to elope. Paris only chooses Aphrodite once the goddess has promised him to help him seduce Helen and the dialogue ends abruptly with Paris giving her the apple.

Despite the differences in the plot and tone, it is possible that Davenant relied on a French contemporary translation of Lucian’s Dialogues by Perrot d’Ablancourt (1654), which contains the episode.³⁵ The first editions of Lucian’s writings in English are Jasper Mayne and Francis Hicks’s, which were printed jointly in 1664, but The judgement of the goddesses is not included.³⁶Lucian’s works became widely available after the first edition of 1496 and particularly after Aldine’s version of his dialogues in 1503. The latter was used by Erasmus and Sir Thomas More for their Latin translations (albeit incomplete) and it had an influence on their own pieces, such as Erasmus’s Praise of folly (1511) and Colloquies (1522–1533) and More’s Utopia (1516). Davenant may well have read Lucian’s dialogue in a translation or an English adaptation and was most likely well familiarised with Greek themes and myths, given its influence on seventeenth century literature and his later literary production.³⁷

The Performance

Internal evidence suggests that the play was produced at Oxford in the early 1670s. First, the text indicates that Davenant composed it in the year 1670 and that the author himself played the role of Vulcan. Given that he matriculated in Oxford only a year later and that all the characters (even the goddesses) were performed by men, it must have been a university production.³⁸ It seems likely that Davenant wrote Paris’s choice for academic purposes, perhaps for a university occasion. At the universities, there were revelling traditions, which included the staging of plays and masques, sometimes as part of a Christmas feasting (Butler, 1990: 152). Other occasions for such entertainments were royal visits, but these were not very frequent.

Although the scope of Davenant’s studies at Oxford cannot be determined because he left without taking a degree, he was a resident student at Balliol for four years and he was able to obtain an LL.D. from Cambridge, by incorporation from Oxford (Hoppit, 2006). The writing of Paris’s choice may have been the product of a course assignment, as the study of the humanities was an important requirement for students in civil law: according to the university statutes, before starting the study of law, students had to apply themselves for two years “to logic, moral philosophy, and politics, and other humane literature” (Ward, 1845:115). John Elliott explains that, even though drama had no formal faculty at Oxford, art students were compelled to write a play in order to obtain their BA (180).³⁹ These plays were quasi-curricular in colleges such as Christ Church, whose undergraduates were required to give annual performances of two comedies and two tragedies, one of each pair in Latin and the other in Greek. As Elliott (1995) argues, these plays “reflected the humanist conception of the practical value that drama was thought to have in the training of young men for public life, either in the church or the state” (180). The educational function of drama consisted in broadening the skills of preachers, orators and statesmen in the classical style.

The inclusion of the actors’ names suggests that Davenant’s piece was acted, most probably on one of the two annual festive occasions for which plays were written and produced by students in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as described by Elliott. The first of these social events were the festivities for the Christmas holidays which took place in the colleges and served to occupy the students, given that travel was difficult and even limited by the colleges’ rules (Elliott, 1995: 182).⁴⁰ There is evidence in the text of Paris's choice to support this hypothesis, such as the song of the cyclops, which deals with the need for rest. What is more, another of the names in the cast, John Parks (Pallas), is listed as a student at Balliol college in the early 1670s. Therefore, it is possible that Davenant’s play was intended for a holiday celebration that took place at Balliol between 1671 and sixteen 1673, although five names in the cast remain unidentified.⁴¹

The second occasion for amateur dramatic entertainments, yet more ambitious and ceremonial than the first, were official royal visits. At such times, Elliot explains, “actors … were usually drawn from all the colleges combined” (184). There are no records of royal visits to Oxford in the 1670s, at least officially, but when the search for the actors in Paris’s choice is enlarged beyond Balliol, two other names can be identified: William Langston (Juno) and William Smith (Jupiter). According to Foster’s Alumni Oxonienses, Langston matriculated at Christ Church in June 1673 (2: 622). The identity of William Smith is more difficult to ascertain due to the commonness of the name: out of the many William Smith in Foster’s records, there is one student at University College who obtained his BA in 1672 (4: 1383–1384). Perhaps theatre performances casting students from different colleges could be organised under other circumstances, and not necessarily for an official visit of the monarch.

Considering his family’s tight links to the theatre, it is only to be expected that young Charles Davenant should have taken an interest in drama and aspired to imitate his father. In fact, before becoming a political economist, he wrote an English opera inspired on a Greek legend, Circe. Given the emphasis on the study of the humanities and the writing of drama at Oxford, Davenant seized the opportunity to cultivate his literary interests by writing a short play and songs. The writing of Paris’s choice gave him the chance to explore Greek mythology and adapt it to a different context by introducing theatrical features (dialogues, dance and music) and modifying its humour and tone to suit the taste of his audience. Moreover, Davenant participated actively in his creation by playing one of the main characters, which for sure gave him a fuller perspective of writing and staging a spectacle, which he later used only six years later in his more developed work Circe (1677).

Transcription of Charles Davenant’s Paris’s Choice (1670)

In the following semi-diplomatic transcription, original scribal abbreviations are retained; i/j and u/v have been regularised; ff at the beginning of a word is transcribed as F. Square brackets show editorial additions, noting folio numbers, and occasionally clarifying an odd spelling or punctuation. Minuscule letters at the beginning of a sentence have been replaced with the corresponding majuscule without using brackets. A limited number of editorial notes have been added. The line numbers are editorial: these restart at the beginning of each scene and include stage directions. The act and scene number is indicated at the first line of each scene.

[f. 33v]
Paris’s Choice
Dramatis personae
Jupiter	Will. Smith
Momus	Tho. Fothergill
Vulcan	Charles D’Avenant
Paris	Nich. Cutler
Juno	Will. Langston
Pallas	John Parks
Venus	Rich. Fothergill
Cyclopes octo	3 Graces
Ganymede	Hebe
Cupid
Composed by—Charles D’Avenant son to Sr. Will. D’Avenant (Anno Ætatis 13) 1670
[f. 33r]
ACT I, SCENE 1 A noise within		1
Juno. [Within] Your beauty shall not carry it away soe Pallas. [Within] Nor shall ye imperious Queene of heaven have it Venus. [Within] Wit and fair words shall not bear away ye bet
Enter Momus and Vulcan Momus. Heigh day, what’s this noise within? Are all the Cyclopian hammers danceing a jigg on ye Anvill?		5
Vulcan. Yes[,] yes. They are at worke this morning, and the knaves shall worke hard. ‘Tis for ye English, we are makeing headpieces for them. ‘Tis a nation alwayes well armed, but they want headpeices, I’me sure they have codpeeces good enough, but yts not ye matter		10
Momus. What is’t then? Vulcan. ‘Tis a Gossiping Momus. In ye name of Lucina what a gossiping! All the Jew’s trumps, rattles, and drums in
Bartholomew fair42 make not halfe soe much noise, as you shall heare at a gossiping. I had rather heare all ye bells in ye city rung backwards, than to heare a company of gossip’s clappers ring their rounds, but who are at this gossiping? Vulcan. Why there’s Juno ye Queen of heaven Momus. Oi[,] there is a thundering tongue indeed. Shee’l spit fire and lightening as scoulds use to doe. But who is there besides?		15 20
Vulcan. That’s Pallas too Momus. What! Jove’s brain-born-bratt, ye Goddess of war. Does she let her squibs and crackers flie about here? But are there noe more? Vulcan. Yes, there’s my monkey too, ye Goddess of beauty forsooth
Momus. What[!] That sea-born-salt-salatious-slutt?43 Vulcan[,] you two agree like fire and water, what didst it mean to take such a hollow bubble, a frothy-foaming-slutt? Her birth shows what her beauty is a mere bubble, toucht and ‘tis broken, but let it pass, wht is this noise among ‘em? Vulcan. Why, over a cup of claret44 and an orange [f. 32v] there arose a contention who should have ye orange		25 30
Momus. The tempest of their tongues is able to shake every orange and lemmon from all the trees in Spain, but here is another kind of noise [Exeunt]
ACT I, SCENE 2 Enter Jupiter w th a golden ball. 45 Juno, Pallas and Venus Juno. We all great Jove! doe here attend our Fate And humbly soe impartiall judgement wait: Whose beauty most excells. Speake. I disdain		1
That doubt should in thy thoughts soe long remain: I’me ye same Juno still. I’me still as faire As when my beauty did thy heart ensnare Jupiter. O Ate46 now seweer revenge does take And we too late may vain repentance make		5
For our neglecting her, shee here has shown In heaven a discord whch is fatall grown: Each thincks ye ball unto her beauty due Here a perpetuall discord they renew[.] O Pride, o Discord, where doe you not reign?		10
O wht is Earth, if heaven such ills contain To thinck yt of her right I question make Each swells. Momus[,] what course is best to take? Momus. If Momus may his counsell give to Jove, If stars may teach our Titan how to move:		15
Let not this cause be pleaded at thy throne, The judgement, O great God!, refer to one Whose choise they cannot old affection call, Who as less beautious are deny’d ye ball: For they who are rejected though it be		20
Most just, will call thy choyce partiality Or hate, yt sex soe blinded is with pride Jupiter. But who this mighty matter must decide? Where’s there an equall judge, in princes courts I will not search, justice ne’er there resorts:		25
Poor cottages are vertuous thrones, ‘tis there Shee reignes, there all her due observers are: In Ida’s47 pleasant meadow’s [sic] there remains A noble youth, in whome sweet vertue reignes: [f. 32r] Who is descended from ye Ancient race		30
Of Ilus,48 in his heart noe vice has place[,] But like pure crystal from all spotts ‘tis free In him I more than common justice see: And least my judgement should displeasure move In any deity, I from above remove		35
This cause, yee Highborn Goddesses to earth That noble youth who does derive his birth From Priamus,49 your judge I make: repare To Ida, where by ye Maternall care Of Hecube50 he is plac’d to avoid a grave,		40
Which he would give, who 1rst him being gave: And in his hands this fatall subject lay Of all their strife Momus. I yr commands obey		45
Exeunt Jupiter, Momus, Pallas and Venus. Juno manet Juno. A mortal is our judge, poor mortall minds Are weake, ye love of gold them closely binds: Unto our wills and I will tempt with gold This youth, but those of noble minds are cold To all such low desires, in servile soules Though averice, all piety controlls: Noe, in his heart I will ambition raise[,] The happiness of Monarchs I will praise: Ambition has deceiveing shows of joy,		50 55
By whch it will allure, but sure destroy With hope of reigning, I his youthfull minde Will charme what e’r by Neptune is confinde, And Neptune too, shall his possession be, I’le promise him, if he’ll confer on me		60
The prize [Exit Juno]		65
ACT II. SCENE 1 Enter Momus and Vulcan. Paris Paris. What sent for me, has Jove ordain’d? That I should judge a difference maintaind By 3 such Goddesses: my youthfull minde		1
Will err, alas! Ye glorious sight will blinde [f. 31v] My eyes, o star from whence all others doe Derive their light, and heards their vertue, who Dost by thy entring in our world revive Those whome alone thy presence kept alive:		5
At whose approach all plants all hearts rejoyce Inspire me with thy wisedome[,] guide my choise Let it be just, as thee Enter y e 3 goddesses Momus. Looke Paris here		10
The Goddesses in person now appear [Exeunt Momus and Vulcan] Juno. Thou sees, O Trojan youth how much great Jove Knows and esteemes thy justice. From above He here does send us, wth commands yt thou Shouldst judge this difference, ‘tis now, ‘tis now		15
O youth, ye justice soe esteemed, must Appear, O be but to thy judgement just And to my beauty, dearest boy, create Mee Ms of ye ball: sweet youth thy fate Depends on me, dear boy, adjudge to me		20
That Globe, ye greater, thy reward shall bee With toyle and sweat others attain to Crowns, But scepters shall be yeilded at thy frowns: Greatness has this of strange, it renders those Conquerd who never yet, beheld their Foes:		25
That people shall be counted rash yt dare Armed against thy conquering hand appear: The powerfulst Monarchs shall not dare oppose, To wear ye yoke, whch Paris shall impose: To all ye Earth princes shall say their crowns		30
Are but the creatures of thy smiles or Frowns Palas. These promises are powerfull charmes to blind O noble youth, thy too ambitious minde: They their intended opperation have, But absolute conquest in a soul soe brave		35
They cannot yet obtain, noe they alone Are truly kings, who can dispise a throne [f. 31r] He may be said to reigne who in his soule His base and lustfull passions can controll All men are kings, their wills their subjects are,		40
Their fancy is an empire greater farr Than all poor earthly Monarchies if they Knew but to teach these subjects to obey: Man in himselfe has all man should desire They search when they at empires doe aspire		45
Things much below themselves, if men can reigne entirely over ye world, which they contain Within themselves, all earthly kings may say That power does far exceed ye power wch they Bear hear on earth. O lift thy princely minde		50
From such mean objects, and let nobler finde Roome, youth in thy heroick heart, and then Aspire to yt which differs Gods from men Aspire to wisedome, noble youth reject Those glories, which with blood man must protect:		55
Let earthly glories, Paris, objects be Of thy contempt, strive ye high heavens to see, The unknown nature of ye Gods to know, And what’s ye cause Neptune does eb [sic] and flow: problems wch mortalls never could resolve,		60
But thou wth ease these ridles shalt dissolve For if thy voice pronounces me most fair To thee all nature’s secrets I’le declare Venus. Fayre youth weigh but ye pleasure and ye pain Pallas and Juno’s promises containe,		65
Yule finde alas ye pain doth counterpoyse All ye delight; wise men and kings their joyes Can fearcely taste, they’re mingled soe wth care The one is troubled wth perpetuall fear Of looseing wth already by his sword		70
He has attain’d, ambition can afford His minde noe rest, it quicketh his desire Still to new battles, it doth rayse afire, In his great heart, whch nothing can asuage But victims to his proud ambitious rage:		75
What profitts wisedome? Mortalls all yt yee know, does alas! but teach you yt yee bee [f. 30v] Still ignorant, still fooles, wise men ye more They know, they thinck they know less than before: They know alas! there are 1000 arts		80
Which are and will be hid from humane hearts, For if yw Gods should treble humane dayes Man hath in shew not time his mind to raise, To perfect wisedome; Paris[,] come[,] agree With those who attribute ye name to me		85
Of fayrest: youth, let others break their sleepe To view wch course ye lamps of heaven keep Trojan[,] let ye ambititous toyle and sweat And become nothing, striveing to be great I’le make thee master of a treasure farr		90
Great yn those mortalls esteeme most deare A treasure able to subdue ye hearts of ye most stubborn kings, by pleaseing arts: The fayrest Nymph51 great nature ere hath form’d Shall yield her fort, wn ‘tis by Paris storm’d:		95
Great Monarchs shall, while ages wayt in vain For favours wch my Paris shall obtain At ye first view- Paris. Sheapherd yu must create One of these 3 protectress of thy Fate,		100
2 I must needs refuse, if I reject Pallas and Juno, I must ne’re expect That Juno will unrip my mother earth To shew me where hott Phoebus52 does give birth To fatall gold: nor will shee make me Lord		105
Of all ye earth, Tritonia53 won’t afford Me wisedome and I shall a stranger bee To all her mistryes of philosophy, Both weake revenges, but shall I deny Great Cupid[’]s Mother in whose hand doth bye		110
My heart this Aple, this unworthy prize? What would she doe? alas shee’d blinde my eyes And make me captive to a face by time Ruin’d; ye subject of the poets rime When joyn’d shee’d me unblinde, and I should see		115
Her wither’d beauty, this alas would be A soare revenge my thincks my heart doth quake To thinck on’t; Aphrodite, ‘tis you I make [f. 30r] Posessor of this ball, ‘tis you my eyes Doe represent most worthy of ye prize		120
Man may wth patience poverty endure, But tell me (wise spectators) wher’s a cure For his grin’d minde, since hee’s constraind to wear The stincking nosegay in his bosome? where Can he have any rest? alas yt place		125
Is darke enough to hide ye sad disgrace [Exeunt]		130
ACT III, SCENE 1 Enter Momus and Vulcan Vulcan. Your approach is as seasonable as Venus was to Mars! Momus. Come[,] come[,] Vulcan[.] Exalt ye horne, Vulcan, thou are conqueror, but whts ye matter?		1
Vulcan. Why, you must entreat ye rejected Goddesses yt they would not take Paris’s judgement soe much in dudgeon, wht need they care for gold? is not one ye Mistris of Mynes, and ye other Mistris of ye Elixar, wch (as men say) turns all things into gold[?] But I thinck beauty is ye true Elixar, for it has turn’d many a Gallants 1000 acres of land into gold		5
Momus. Well, I’le endeavour to appease their rage Vulcan. And tell e’m I desire their company at my forge. But acquaint ym yt it is not to furnish them with thunderbolts, to revenge them on ye young Trojan’s head, but to shew them such sport, as ye flames of my Anvill can make them		10
ACT III, SCENE 2 Enter Momus, Jup r , Juno, Pallas and Venus Vulcan. Your welcome, your welcome: ist soe sweet lipps [Speaking to Venus] hast gott ye golden ball[?] Well[,] beauty wth an invisible engine draws gold to it wn it pleaseth. ‘Tis a very Hocus Pocus, if it see a golden ball in any hand, presto, it’s gone, she has it presently: well done Paris, soe, wise and judicious Paris: I’le make ye English noe more headpieces, thou shalt lend ‘em thine, twill fitt ‘em best, and I’le make thee better armour, yn I made for Thetis her son54; Well, Venus has won ye ball by her beauty, and were not I lame, I’de play wth all ye gods at football fort; Jove[,] I defy thee, now I’le make noe more thunderbolts for Jove, nor for any; but myselfe, and some peculiar friends, yt love to shoot them quickly: Is not Vulcan’s wife prefer’d before all ye Goddessees [?] Why not Vulcan before all ye Gods: for if ye man such praises have, ye consequence is good: but I love noe rimming, come ‘tis a day of joy and triumph [f. 29v] and dance. Wee’l have musick and danceing in remembrance of this golden ball shall be called balls for ever.- Ho! Brontes, styropes, Harpes, Pyrachmon Poliphemus55		1 5 10 15
Enter 8 Cyclops Vulcan. Come, come yo Rogues, let hands and hammers rest bestir yr heeles, dance till ye Stygian sweat fall from yy brows, and make a shower on Earth. Villains, know your dame, yr dame Venus has wone ye golden prize. You yt are smiths be sure to gett smugg wives, they’le bring in gold apace		20
A song y e Cyclops sing 1. What if we toyle wht if we sweat		1
wht if we suffer Aetnas56 heat Chor. We’ve this recruit wch if denyde hammer and irons layed aside 2. Phoebus wn he has run his course must rest to bath each weary horse:		5
Nature derids ye dark and light men worke each day, and sleep each night Chor. We’ve this & 3. What can subsist wth out some rest Kings must themselves sometimes devest		10
Of all their care, or doubtless they quickly will pass from men to clay Chor. We’ve this & 4. May we compare great things wth small ye schoole and schollars needs must fall:		15
Unless as well as Phoebus they after their toyle have leave to play Chor. We’ve this & They dance w th hammers and blackjacks after w ch Venus speakes [Venus.] ‘Tis fitt yt I contribute what lyes in me		20
To please you all: Vulc. [,] you shall not be Sole recreator here, I’ve my plott too To please this company as well as you: Where are those 3 wch should on beauty wayt? Which wn I want men purchase, at a rate		25
Too deare: their Mistresees, let ym appear Thalia,57 Euphrosine,58 be present here And you Aglaia59 and you my Cupid too [f. 29r] Appear, whts beauty when she wanteth you? Jupiter. Let Ganymede and Hebe joyne wth these		30
Enter Cupid, 3 Graces, Ganymedes, Hebe and dance Vulcan, we give you thancks Vulcan.... You’d better please poor Vulcan if you will engadge all here to doe ye same wth you, t’would cure his fear		35
The Epilogue Spoken by Momus and Vulcan [Momus.] Sure Vulcan, yu hast made another chaine, wch doeth deceive our sight yet does retain These wise spectators here or surely they to see this silly thing, would never stay		1
Yet sometimes men are pleasd to fix their eyes in shows, to laugh at their absurdityes: ‘Tis yt retains you here, you’le say. I know Vulcan has basely hamerd out this show And yt his verses like himselfe are lame,		5
or that they halt, who can your censur’s blame? Yet pardon our poore Vulcan if you finde too many things ill wrought, let each be blinde To see his faults, I’le tell him in pure love (instead of makeing thunderbolts for Jove)		10
He must invent an engine to refine, his verses and his witt and make ym shine, With greater gloss, before he doth appeare againe before such judges as are here. Finis		15

Concluding Remarks

Davenant’s Paris choice evidences that academic drama continued to be a vital tradition in Restoration Oxford, as a means to add a humanist background to the training of young men for public life. These texts circulated in manuscript among close friends and students, bearing testimony to a rich academic literary culture, which in many cases went beyond the boundaries of Oxford. Even though Davenant would only write one piece for the professional stage, it is relevant to know that he had acquired some experience in playwriting during his years in Oxford, and that his first attempt was also based on an episode of Greek mythology. Despite the evident differences between the contexts of performance of both plays, the staging of Paris choice undoubtedly provided Davenant with inside knowledge of play-production, on which he could rely later on when taking over his father’s theatre before finally turning to politics.

This comical adaptation of the judgment of Paris was performed sometime possibly at Balliol College as part of the Christmas festivities. The evidence collected from Clark’s lists and Foster’s Alumni regarding the students’ names in the cast allows us to tentatively date the performance during the academic year 1673–1674, if the William Langston identified is the one matriculated at Christ Church in June 1673. The text was copied in a manuscript miscellany owned in the 1660 s by Giles Frampton, another student of Balliol, and it was perhaps begun by Francis Poulett in the 1630s. The contents of Bodleian MS Rawl. poet. 84 deal with public affairs and persons, some on Oxford subjects, which further suggest that it was compiled at Oxford for a college readership.

The relevance of this manuscript also lies in the inclusion of other texts that were not in general circulation (that is, they do not appear in other manuscripts and some of these were not printed, either), such as Davenant’s song (‘If Cupid e’er my heart doth steal’), and Henry Cooke’s poems (‘Go, turn away your cruel eyes’ and ‘Doe thy worst spitefull Love’). Since two of these texts were authored by Charles Davenant, it appears that he was close to the copyist and he may well have provided him with the texts.

Davenant’s Paris choice is a minor play which nonetheless combines a rich variety of traditions (Greek mythology, masques, university plays). It is all the more valuable for Restoration theatre studies to have access to an author’s first attempt at playwriting and more importantly one written at such a young age. The comparison of this short piece with his opera Circe will certainly provide a rich insight into the development of Davenant’s dramatic and spectacular skills. Since the digitalization of early modern manuscripts is understandably being carried out progressively, I have intended to make this text accessible to a wider number of scholars with the hope of facilitating its examination and the potential finding of intertexts. The discussion of this case study, its context of textual production and performance, may well coincide (or contrast) with further analyses of similar texts and perhaps ultimately result in a broader understanting of seventeenth-century manuscript drama.

Appendices

Appendix A

Bibliographical description

Bodleian MS Rawlinson poetical 84

A quarto verse miscellany, including fragments from plays and an unpublished hybrid play, which combines features of masques and university drama. The manuscript was originally a blank “paper book” (not a collection of loose papers bound together) and is bound in contemporary calf. Mid-late seventeenth century. Fols. 123 paginated. Foliation seems to be modern, for it has been added in the top right-hand corner on ff. 1–11, and then upside down in the bottom left-hand corner on ff. 12–123. Despite the changes in the format, foliation is continuous, except for f. 53, which is numbered “52b”. Paper. 7 ^3/4 in. (196 mm) × 6 ^1/8 in. (155 mm). Binding size: 195 mm x 150 mm. Page size: 185 mm × 145 mm., containing approximately 30 lines. Good condition, except for a torn page (fol. 121). Several hands, for the most part in late secretary (ff. 2r-7v, 22r-23v, 36v-39r, 44r-120v), some mixed and rounded (ff. 8r-21v, 24r-36r, 39r-43r), and also in italic (f. 1). An anagram on Francis Paulet (f. 1r), and two signatures on f. 123v, one by Giles Frampton, dated 1659, and the other by a certain “R. N.,” dated 1663. Annotation by Richard Rawlinson on a flyleaf attached to the inner cover, dated 14. Feb. 1727/8.

Contents: the description of the manuscript’s contents in the table below is partially based on the identification of the texts provided in Beal’s CELM (1998) and Madan’s Summary catalogue (1895:299–300). The first lines of the poems in the miscellany have been searched in the Union first line index.

Folio	Hand	Title	First line
f. 1r	B	“Anagrams.” Francis Paulet
f. 1v	B	Catulus. Epigr. 3 “De passere mortuo Lesbia.”	‘Lugete, O Veneres, Cupidinesque’
f. 1v	A	“On ye wall in New Colledge Cloyster.”
ff. 2v-4r	B	“To A Freinde of His in Love, Composed by Mrs. B. P.”	‘Nay start not (Sr) for know to you I came’
ff. 4v-7v	A	“The Fourth Advice to a Painter.” [By Andrew Marvell]	‘Draw England ruin’d, by wt given before’
ff. 8r-9r	C	“A song.”	‘Ld Oliver’s gone to ye dogs’
f. 9r-v	A	“ye list of weomen”
f. 10r-v	C	“On ye return of King Charles 2d.” [By Ann Lee]	‘If witt may be ye Childe of chance & rise’
ff. 10v-11r	C	“Composed by Ann Lee”	‘The storm is past, & yo some clouds appear’
ff. 15r-12r rev	C	Jenkins Lovecourse & perambulation. [By James Shirley. Printed in The wits or sport upon sport, London, 1662]
ff. 20r-15v rev	C	The humours of Monsieur Galliard. [Printed in The wits or sport upon sport, London, 1662]
ff. 19v-18v rev	C	“The Nine Unworthies of Dorsetshire.”	‘I cannot forgett these unworthy blades yet’
ff. 20r-19v rev	C	“A true and perfect relation of a bold and fancy beedle, who beeing upon ye watch on Sunday ye 22 of Febr. was kild by 3 dukes.”
f. 21r	C	[A song from John Dryden’s The conquest of Granada. Part II. Act IV]	‘How unhappy a lover am I’
ff. 21r-20v rev	C	“A song.” [Printed in Choice ayres, songs and dialogues, London, 1675. Music set by Pelham Humphrey]	‘I pass all my hours in a shady old grove’
f. 21v-r	C	“A song. Will. Humble”	‘Veiw ye propriety of love’
ff. 22r-23v	A	“A song by T. Flatman.” [“The batchelors song.” Printed in Poems and songs by Thomas Flatman, London, 1686]	‘Like a dog wth a bottle ti’d fast to his tayle’
ff. 23r-22r rev	A	“A song by Charles Davenant”	‘If Cupid e’er my heart doth steal’
ff. 24r-23v rev	C	“A song” [The swimming lady, or a wanton discovery. Printed in The Bagford ballads, Hertford, 1878]	‘Upon ye 24 of May’
f. 24v rev	C	“A prologue to ye designed play of ye 4. hours adventure.”	‘Can ye adventures of 4 h thrive’
f. 24v rev	C	“Epilogue.”	‘They’re all departed, substitute in me’
f. 25v-r rev	C	“A song.”	‘Ask not fair Ladyes, aske not why’
ff. 26r-25v rev	C	“A song.”	‘I once saw Phoebus in his mid-day shine’
ff. 27r-26v rev	C	“A song.”	‘Come lay aside yr sporting’
f. 27v-r rev	C	“A song.”	‘Whensoever France I see’
f. 27v rev	C	“A song.”	‘Cupid once a-weary grown’
f. 28r rev	C	“A catch.” [Printed in John Wilson’s Cheerful ayres or ballads, London, 1660]	‘In a season all oppressed’
f. 28r rev	C	Edward Seymor: Anngr. “We doe rise armed.”	‘Exact must be ye art whose fancy can’
f. 28v rev	C	“To the eternall memory of that Patterne of Puritie of Life, charitye, Candour, & Learning, The most infinitely Lamented Mr Humphry May Lately fellow of Wiston Coll.”	‘Weep Reader! And begone, cease gazeing here’’
f. 28v rev	C	Untitled	‘Welcome, sweet deity whose irradiant eyes’
f. 28v rev	C	“On Madame Stuart now Dutchess of Richmond.” [By Edmund Waller. Printed in Poems, London, 1668]	‘Nothing lies hid from radiant eyes’
ff. 29r-28v rev	C	“A song.”	‘Since you will needes my heart posess’
ff. 33v-29r rev	C	Paris’s choise... Composed by Charles D’Avenant, son to Sr Will. D’Avenant (Anno Ætatis 13) 1670
ff. 34r-33v rev	C	“A Call to Death.”	‘Come, come yu King of terrors, for I crave’
f. 34r rev	C	“Written over ye whispering place at Glocester Church.” [By Maurice Wheeler]	‘Doubt not but God who sitts on high’
f. 34r rev	C	“A prophesy yt was lately founde written in a plate of brases in Tolestoone in Kent.”	‘When Britton bold of Spanish race’
f. 34v rev	C	“Upon Edw. E. of Clarindon late Ld Chancelor of England.”	‘Pride, Lust, Ambition & ye peoples hate’
ff. 35r-34v rev	C	“Found upon Mr. Rylies table sometimes Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Camebridge when he hanged himselfe.”	‘Pardon sweet Christ my blasphemy’
f. 35 v-r rev	C	“A song.” [By Abraham Cowley, The Incurable. Printed in The mistresse, London, 1668]	‘I tried if books would cure my love but found’
f. 36r-35v rev. rev	C	“Answer”	‘When my Charles he first ador’d me’
ff. 36r-35v rev	C	Untitled [‘Carolus 2o in Barbaram Comitissam de Castlemaine’. In BL Add. 18,220. Printed in The new academy of complements erected for ladies, London, 1671]	‘When Aurelia first I courted’
ff. 38v-36v rev	A	“A song.”	‘What creature can be, more pleasant than me’
f. 39r	A	“A Mrs B. Syms’s song.” By Captain Cooke	‘Do thy worst spiteful love’
f. 39v-r rev	C	“An Answer to ye French declaration.”
f. 40r	C	“A song” [By Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Printed in A description of the king and queene of fayries, London, 1634]	‘Hence, all you vain delights’
ff. 41r-40r	C	“A song” [Henry King, My midd-night meditation]	‘I’ll busied man why dost yu take such care’
f. 41v-r rev	C	“A song.”	‘Surely now I’me out of danger’
f. 42r	C	“A song.”	‘Chloris, lett my passion everr’
f. 42v	C	“A song.”	‘Fayrest though you are wise’
f. 43r	C	“A song.” [By Jordan Thomas. Printed in Ayres and dialogues, London, 1659]	‘Love! noe, I am not such a foe’
ff. 44r-43 v rev	A	Verses Given to the Lord Treasuer upon Newyeares Day upon a Dosen of Trenchers, by Mr. Davis (“The mayde,” “The lawyer,” “The divine,” and “The souldier”)
f. 45 r rev	A	“Vale dixit Amori.”
f. 45 r rev	A	“La Maison est miserable et Meschante.”
f. 45 r rev	A	“An Epitaph on a Laidy.”
f. 45v rev	A	“On Prince Charles.”
ff. 46r-45v rev	B	“Ad Amicus.”
ff. 47v-46r rev	B	“A songe” (“The Old Roundhead and the New Turncoate”)
ff. 49r-46r rev	B	“The Repulse.”	‘Disdain thou art a God for nothing Lesse’
ff. 51v -49r rev	B	“Apollo’s Second Sessions.”
ff. 52r-51v rev	B	“To the Right Honorable Thomas Earle of Southampton.” “Upon The session of the Treasureship to him.”	‘The King to whom your great worth best is known’
f. 52v rev	B	“In Mortem Sanctissimi Iuvenis Dm. mi Smyth hujus Collegy Ruondam scholaris nuper Defuncti.”
ff. 54r-53r rev	B	“Lydford law.” [By William Browne of Tavistock]	‘I oft have heard of Lydford Law’
ff. 55r-54v rev	B	“Gill upon Gill.” [By Alexander Gill. Printed in The loves of Hero and Leander, a mock poem, London, 1653]	‘Sir, did you me this epistle send’
ff. 56r-55v rev	B	“On Dr Gill Mr of Pauls school.”	‘In Paul’s churchyard in London’
ff. 57v-56v rev	B	“A song.”
ff. 58r-57v rev	B	“On Oliver Cromwell.”	‘Here in this narrow room is hurl'd’
f. 58v-r rev	B	“A Fancy.” [By Sir Walter Raleigh. Printed in The phoenix nest, London, 1595]	‘Calling to mind mine eye went long about’
ff. 59r-58v rev	B	“An Invitation to his Mrs to Come & fish.” [“The bait.” By John Dryden]	‘Come Live with mee, and bee my Love’
ff. 59v-60v rev	B	“The Crowne of a hatt drunke in.”
ff. 60r-59v rev	B	“On a strange Gentlewoman passing by his Window.”
f.60v-r rev	B	“To his son Vincent Corbett on his birthday Nov 10 1630, being then 3 yeeres of age.” [By Richard Corbett. Printed in Poems, London, 1647]	‘ne:What I shall leave thee, none can tell,’
f. 60v rev	B	“On the death of Mistress Mary Prideaux.”
ff. 61r-60v rev	B	“On the Princes Birth.” [“Epigram on the Prince’s birth.” By Ben Jonson]	‘And art thou borne, brave babe? Blest be the day’
ff. 62r-63v rev	B	“An Elegye on Mrs. Fa: Allen of Gloster Hall.”	‘What Life so learned, and so long but thine’
ff. 62r-64v rev	B	“On Francis Lord Veridam to the Parliament.”	‘When you awake dull Britons and behold’
ff. 65v-64v rev	B	“On the death of Sr Jn Walter: L: cheife Baron.” [By William Strode]	‘Farewell example, living rule farewell;’
ff. 66r-65v rev	B	“A Song.” [By Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Printed in A description of the king and queene of fayries, London, 1634]	‘Hence, all you vaine delights’
f. 66r rev	B	“To his Mistrisse.” [By William Habington. Song in The queen of Aragon, Act IV, 1640]	‘Fine, young, folly though you were’
ff. 67v-66v rev	B	“On the Death of the Learned Mr. Jo. Selden: By Ralph Bathurst.” [Printed in Dryden’s Examen poeticum, London, 1693]	‘So fell the sacred Sybil when of old’
ff. 68r-67v rev	B	“Ænigma.”
f. 68v-r rev	B	“A Prophesie.” [By Sir Walter Raleigh]	‘Before the sixth day of the next new year’
f. 69r rev	B	“On Dr. Price being Vice-chancelour,” 1621	‘Now listen, braue Oxonians’
f. 69r rev	B	“On Dr. Price being Vice-chancelour,” [sic]	‘Now grant (great god of love) that I may still’
f. 69v rev	B	“Contended Love”	‘And if not I what Lover else some Sing’
ff. 70r-69v rev	B	“An answer to the Last foregoing verses in the disgrayce of Women.”	‘Blest be that heavenly power that brought to light’
f. 70r rev	B	“In Obitum Ducis Buckingham G. Villiers.” “Lost Principis Nativitatem cum Rex deo gratias egeret.”
f. 70v-r rev	B	“In Dispraise of Women.” [By Guliford]	‘Oh heavenly powers, why did you bring to light’
ff.71r-70v rev	B	“The Birth of a Woman.”	‘There is a thing a kind of foolish creature’
f. 71v-r rev	B	“The Answer.”	‘The warlike king did wonder when he spied’
ff. 72r-71v rev	B	“On the Parliament 1628” [Richard Corbett, Against the opposing the Duke in Parliament, 1628]	‘The wisest king did wonder when he spied’
f. 72v rev	B	“On Sr Walter Raleighs shame.” [By Alexander Nowell]	‘An ill stomack and the word of disgrace’
f. 72v rev	B	“King James on the blazeing starr: Octo: 28: 1618.” [By James I]	‘You men of Britain wherefore gaze you so’
f. 73 r rev	B	“On Tobacco takers.”	‘Our gallants of tobacco well esteem’
f. 73 r rev	B	“The Praise of Tobacco.”	‘Nature's idea physic's rare perfection’
f. 73r rev	B	“The answers.”	‘The King of kings’
f. 73v rev	B	“Clavell To King Charles.” [By John Clavell]	‘I that so oft have robbed, am now bid stand’
ff. 74r-73v rev	B	“Verses Directed to Jon. Felton, the murderer of the Duke of Buckingham.”	‘Immortal man of glory! Whose brave hand’
f. 74r rev	B	“Upon the Duke of Buckingham’s funeral.”	‘Behold an obsequy without annoy’
f. 74r rev	B	“Upon the Duke of Buckingham’s death.”	‘The shepherd's struck, the sheep are fled’
ff. 74v-r rev	B	“On the Death of the Prince Palatenes Eldest Son.”	‘Be drowned all eyes in tears for drowned he lies’
ff. 76r-75r rev	B	“A Poets Farewell to his Threed bare cloake.” [By Thomas Jordan]	‘Cloak (if I so may call thee) though thou art’
ff. 79v-76r rev	B	“Momus elenchicus, or a light come off upon that serious piece of drollery presented by the Vice chancellor of Oxon. vnto the Lord Protector.” [By Thomas Ireland]	‘Strike up my dull muse and twang me a ditty’
ff. 80v-79v rev	B	“To Julia to expedite Hir promise.” [By John Cleveland]	‘Since 'tis my doom, Love's undershrieve’
ff. 81v-80r rev	B	“On Humane inconstancy.”	‘The world's a tennis court, man is the ball’
ff. 82r-81v rev	B	“On a Scratch on a Ladys arme.”	‘How came the streaks of red, here where pure white’
ff. 83r-82r rev	B	“Englands Jubilee.”	‘We sing of Athens, and another of Greece’
f. 83v rev	B	“On Princesse Elizabeth borne The night before new yearesdaye.” [By John Cleveland]	‘Astrologers say Venus the same star’
f. 83v rev	B	“On a gentlewoman that died in the night snow falling in the morning'” [By John Cleveland]	‘Oft shall you see the heavens so black you'd think’
ff. 84r-83v rev	B	“On ye Parting with a Freinde on The way.”	‘The horses at their sudden turning thus’
f. 85r rev	B	“Clevelands Poems: On Mr Edward King drowned in the Irish seas.” [By John Cleveland]	‘Whilst Phoebus shines within our hemisphere’
f. 85r rev	B	“On a Gentlewoman that had The Small Pox.” [By William Strode]	‘A beauty smoother than an ivory plain’
f. 85r-84v rev	B	“On a one eyd Boy borne of a one eyd Mother.”	‘A half blind boy born of a half blind mother’
f. 85r rev	B	“On the Death of a Childe.”	‘As careful mothers will to bed soon lay’
f. 85v-r rev	B	“Vpon a Fly drowned in a Ladys Eye.” [“The Amorous Fly.” By Thomas Carew. Printed in Poems, London, 1640]	‘When this fly lived she used to play’
ff. 86-85v rev	B	“On a Kisse.”	‘What thing is that, that’s neither felt no seen’
f. 86r rev	B	“The Reply” [By Henry King]	‘Black maid complain not that I fly’
f. 86v rev	B	“A Lover on his Mistriss being Let blood.”	‘Fond man that canst believe her blood’
ff. 87r-86v rev	B	“A Lover to his Mistress.” [By William Strode]	‘I’ll tell you how at first the rose grew red’
f. 87v-r rev	B	“To his Letter” [“A Letter Impos’d.” By William Strode]	‘Go happy paper by command’
ff. 88r-87v rev	B	“Vpon the Queens Departure.”	‘Chloris since thou art fled away’
f. 88r rev	B	“Vpon The Queen comeing over.”	‘See where my Chloris comes in yonder bark’
ff. 89v-88v rev	B	“Vpon Occasion of an invitation to a Wedding.” [By John Vaughan. Printed in Wit restored, London, 1658]	‘Why fair vow-breaker, hath thy sin thought fit’
f. 90v-r rev	B	“On my Lady Powletts needle worke.” [By William Cartwright]	‘Could we judge here, most virtuous Madam, then’
ff. 91v-90v rev	B	“Vpon General pieces of Worke in ye Dukes gallery at Yorke house.” [By Dr. William Lewis]	‘View this large gall’ry fac’d with mats and say’
ff. 92v-91v rev	B	“On the Praise of a grey Eye.” [By William Strode]	‘Look how the russet morn exceeds the night’
f. 92v rev	B	“On a Gentlewoman that Sung, and Playd upon a Lute.” [By William Strode]	‘Be silent you still music of the spheres’
ff. 93v-92v rev	B	“To my Mistresse in absence.” [By Thomas Carew]	‘Though I must live here, and by force’
f. 93v rev	B	“A Lovers Song” [“A lovers passion.” By Thomas Carew]	‘Is she not wondrous fair? But oh, I see’
ff. 94r-93v rev	B	“On his Picture by Randolph” [By Thomas Randolph. Printed in Poems, London, 1638]	‘When age hath made me what I am not now’
f. 94r rev	B	“On Dreames.” [By John Hoskyns]	‘You nimble dreams with cobweb wings.’
f. 94r rev	B	“Troy Anag. Ryot.”	‘Ryot it is for Troy an Anagram.’
ff. 95v-94r rev	B	“To the same Gentlewoman after Hir Husband Had Taken her away, sent with a payre of gloves.”	‘Go happy gloves, and kiss those hands whose touch’
ff. 95v-96r rev	B	“A chast Wooer to a marryed Gentlewoman who was forsaken by her husband before he bedded her, and remayrred foure years a widow, wife and virgin.”	‘Just as the amorous fly with fond desire’
ff. 97v-96r rev	B	“To the Lady Naper Upon the death of hir childe.”	‘Madam! Although I cannot think my verse’
f. 97v-r rev	B	“Ad Passerem Lesbia.”
f. 98r-97v rev	B	“Ad Lesbiam: Catulus.”
f. 98 v-r rev	B	“Valediction Amori.”
f. 99r-98v rev	B	“Carmen Funebre sacratum memoria Domini Samuelis West.”	‘Farewell (dear saint) go tell the better world’
f. 99v-r rev	B	“To the eternall memory of that Patterne of Puritie of Life, charitye, Candour, & Learning, The most infinitely Lamented Mr Humphry May Lately fellow of Wiston Coll.”	‘Weep (reader) and be gone, cease gazing here’
f. 100v-r rev	B	“Vpon the raked Bedlams, & spotted Beasts wee see in Covent garden.” [Attributed to Sir William Spring in BL Add. 18220]	‘Who Bess! She ne'er was half so vainly clad,’
f. 101v-r rev	B	“The Mountebanke.”	‘Ye men of high and lower rank’
ff. 103v-102r rev	B	“Made against, Bartholomew Fayres day 5 8 dialogue wise between Concord, discord, & Time.”
f. 104r rev	B	“A song.”
ff. 105r-104v rev	B	“On the bells of New colledge in Oxon. lately were molded, and from 5 turn’d into eight.”	‘Oh that I were (as th'nightingale) all voice’
f. 105v rev	B	“A song.”	‘Prithee why do we stay’
ff. 106r-105v rev	B	“A Song by A Cowley” [Anacreontiques. II. “Drinking.” Printed in Wits interpreter, London, 1655]	‘The thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain’
f. 106r rev	B	“On a blinkeing Poett.”	‘He nine ways looks, and needs must learned be’
f. 106r rev	B	“A prison.”	‘This is a place of care, and yet no place to thrive’
ff. 106v-105r rev	B	“A Song.” [By Thomas Flatman]	‘Did you hear of the news (oh the news) how it thunders’
ff. 107v-106r rev	B	“A Song.” [By Thomas Flatman]	‘Naked I came when I began to be’
f. 107r rev	B	“To Hs: Ar: perswadeing Ce: to sigh on.” [By T. Francis]	‘From the deep entrails of a gloomy cave’
f. 107v-r rev	B	“A Song by S. W.”	‘From the deep dungeon of the infernal cave’
ff. 107v rev	B	“A Song.” [By Thomas Flatman]	‘Not to the hills where cedars move’
ff. 108r-107v rev	B	“The Resolve.” [By Thomas Flatman]	‘What though the sky be clouded o’er’
f. 108r	B	“A Recipe” [By Francis Andrewes]	‘A learned prelate of this land’
f. 108v-r rev	B	“A song.”	‘Pox on 'em all these mistresses must be’
ff. 109r-108v rev	B	“A song.”	‘Great god of wine’
ff. 109v-r rev	B	“On the death of the Marquesse of montrosse executed at Edinburgh.”	‘Nor must he fall, nor shall his merits lie’
ff. 111r-109v rev	B	“A Letter from Mr. Crashaw to the Countess of Denbigh, Against Irresolution and Delay in Matters of Religion.” [By Richard Crashaw]	‘What heaven-besieged heart is this’
f. 111r rev	B	“A Paraphrase upon part of the 19o. chapter of Job.”	‘I know that my Redeemer lives’
f. 112v-r rev	B	“A doomsday thought.” [By Thomas Flatman]	‘Judgment two syllables can make’
ff. 113r-112v rev	B	“Meditations on death.” [By Thomas Flatman]	‘Oh that Day’
f. 113v-r rev	B	“To the Lady Isabella Thynn on Her exquisite Cutting trees in paper” [“Of a tree cut in paper.” By Edmund Waller]	‘Fayre hand that canst on virgin paper write’
ff. 114r-113v rev	B	“A new yeares gift to the Countesse of Moorton (Formerly Lady del: Keith; and first of all the Lady Villiers) on her stealing away into France with the Kings younger daughter disguis’d in the habitt of a milke-mayde” [Edmund Waller, “To my Lady Morton, on New-Year’s day, 1650. At the Louvre in Paris”]	‘Madam, new years may well expect to find’
f. 114v rev	B	“On Felton (who murtherd the Duke of Buckingham at portsmouth) hanging in chaynes.”	‘Here uninterred, suspends, though not to save’
ff. 115r-104v rev	B	“On an arbour standing in the midst of a maze the walkes of which were made of fruite trees and graveled underfoot the arbor loverd with burch; and furnished with chayres and a table.”	‘Such is the world, a greater maze, wherein’
f. 115r rev	B	“On The renouned Cantidere.”	‘Tell me no more of drums, swords, pistols, spears’
ff. 115v-116r rev	B	“Juris consulei admonitio.”
f. 116v rev	B	“A Bastard.”	‘To whom the people father is’
f. 116v rev	B	“Epitaphui in quondam fenem, 1663.”	‘What I was that are ye’
f. 116v rev	B	“Epitaphuim Chronogramaticon, 1630.”
ff. 116r-115v rev	B	“In Laviniam.”	‘In the nonage of a winter’s day’
ff. 116v-r rev	B	“The daughter of Henry the 7: marryed the King of Scotts. The Lilly.”	‘For virtue rarest’
ff. 116v rev	B	“The Union.”	‘The white rose, and the red, long time did strive’
ff. 117r-116v rev	B	“The Kings Highway.”	‘Call it no more the king's highway the king’
f. 117v-r rev	B	“On the death of the Learned Mr Selden.”	‘I come, I come, the messenger of death’
ff. 118r-117v rev	B	“To his honoured Parents.”	‘Custom has taught the peasents to present’
f. 118v-r rev	B	“To the memory of the reverend Dr. Fell. Deane of christ church.”	‘Come let’s discharge affection, once let’s try’
ff. 120r-119v rev	B	“In obitum viri doctissimus Joh: Selden.”
f. 120v rev	B	“In obitum Domina Elizabetha Coventey.”
f. 120v rev	B	“Viro plurimum reverendo domino I. C. Maecenati suo longe dignissimo.”
f. 121r rev	D	Untitled text in Latin
f. 122r rev	B	“A song by Pym’s ghost to the Parliament.”	‘What means my sister’s eye so oft to pass’
f. 122v rev	B	“Quales emb: p. 37.” [By Francis Quarles]	‘Tell me you brainsick lovers that can prize’
f. 122v rev	B	“Quales Emb: p. 182.” By Francis Quarles]	‘Foresight of future torments is the way’
f. 122v rev	B	“Cowley”	‘Set to the sun a dial which doth pass’
f. 122v rev	B	“Bren: de oculo”	‘Well done Tom Sipsmith mayst thou never dye’
f. 123r	A	Untitled	‘Hey ho! Care, I prithee be gone from me’
f. 123v	A	“Per Captain Cooke Mrs. Barbara Syms”	‘Go turn away your cruel eyes’
Inside cover	A	Untitled	‘Man is a foolish pamphlet, full of lies’

Appendix B