Sir John Harington's Manuscripts in
Italic
by
R. H. Miller
Thanks to P. J. Croft's intricate analysis of Harington's secretary
hand,[1] it is now possible not only
to affirm his identification of that hand but to show also that three italic
manuscripts of works by Sir John Harington have been erroneously
identified as autograph. The manuscripts in question are (1) Cambridge
Adv. b. 8. 1, a text of 52 epigrams bound in with a copy of his translation
of Orlando Furioso (1591) and presented to his
mother-in-law,
Lady Jane Rogers, dated Dec. 19, 1600; (2) Folger Library V.a.249, a
relatively complete text of Harington's epigrams, dated June 19, 1605; (3)
British Library Royal 17 B xxii, a presentation copy of Harington's
Supplie or Addicion to the Catalogue of Bishops, dated
February 18, 1608. These manuscripts are described in Peter Beal,
Index of English Literary Manuscripts, I (1980), ii, items HrJ
21, HrJ 22, and HrJ 328, respectively, where they are also listed as
autograph.[2] They also appear to be the only
manuscripts of Harington's work that are predominantly in the italic hand.
Although italic appears frequently in his other manuscripts, they are
predominantly in secretary hand.
In his work on Harington's secretary hand, Croft was able to
distinguish that hand from at least two scribal hands. What is additionally
significant is that what I will call the Croft secretary autograph appears
exclusively in tandem with a distinctive italic quite different from that of the
three manuscripts noted above, all of which appear to be in the same hand.
This Croft italic hand is also consistent with Harington's italic signatures.
The consistency of this hand and the Harington signature allows for further
substantiation of Croft's conclusions about Harington's secretary hand and
also allows us to identify the three italic manuscripts in question as being
in a scribal hand.
Two manuscripts in the Croft secretary provide clear examples of
Harington's autograph italic. They are B.L. Add. 18920 (Beal HrJ 8), the
famous autograph manuscript of the Orlando translation (c.
1590-91), where the head stanzas and marginalia are in italic, and Bodl.
Rawl. B. 162 (Beal HrJ 326), Harington's autograph text of his A
Short View of the State of Ireland (dated April 20, 1605), where
Latin verses appear in italic embedded in the secretary hand of the text.
Additional examples can be found in other Harington autograph manuscripts
and in his letters. As can be seen from these examples, Harington's italic
is a somewhat insecure hand, not as refined as that of a professional scribe
nor as assured as his elegant secretary hand. It is characterized by some
ligation between the minuscules, lines that show compression of words and
letters, and heavily clubbed ascenders and curled descenders. Overall, it has
a rather erect, slightly tremulous character.[3]
This italic hand appearing in the Croft secretary autograph is also
identical to Harington's signature, of which many examples exist.[4] An example is given below, from
the
manuscript of the epigrams presented to Lady Rogers, one of the italic
manuscripts in question here: only the date and signature in this specimen
are autograph.
The signature shows the distinctive tremor, the erect quality of the
letters. Especially noticeable is the minuscule t, which is
narrow
and tall, as it is also in the Croft specimens. The example shows clearly the
contrast between the scribal italic of the text of the letter and Harington's
date and signature, which is discussed in more detail below.
A comparison of the above italic examples from the Croft secretary
autograph and those from the three italic manuscripts shows the same
difference between the two hands as is found in the letter to Lady Rogers.
Limitations of space prevent reproduction of more than a sampling of
specimens from these manuscripts, but those who consult them will find
numerous examples that bear out my identification. Harington's clubbed
ascenders and curled descenders contrast with the broadly stroked ones of
the italic manuscripts. Harington's italic shows again more verticality in the
angle of the script and a narrower width to minuscules, particularly in the
n and m, and the taller t. Capitals
also
are less elegantly shaped in Harington's autograph. The three italic
manuscripts in question also contain, to a greater or lesser degree,
Harington's autograph corrections in italic, which can be identified with
ease, and which provide vivid contrasts between the scribal hand and
Harington's.[5]
Only a few examples occur in Cambr. Adv. b. 8. 1 and Fo. V.a.249, but
Harington's hand is readily identifiable.
Only the title here is in autograph. Contrast can be seen most clearly
in the forms of the d, f, and t.
The phrase "from Bathe" in line 4 of the title is autograph. This same
alteration also appears in the poem as it is given in Fo. V.a.249, p.
45.
The corrections in B.L. Royal 17 B xxii are more frequent and
provide more contrast between the firm scribal italic and Harington's
deteriorating italic as it appeared in late 1607-early 1608, when he had
already begun to suffer from ill health, four years before his death.[6] The tremulous lighter stroke, the
more
erect script, the taller t, are all quite evident. The scribe
apparently
left lacunae throughout the text for Harington to fill, usually for a quote or
a name. Some were filled, others not.
After the word "Seneca" Harington's script begins, "agaynst Iuvenile
consilium privatum <odium> comodum inuesta odium." In the last
line the interpolated word "parcial" can be distinguished as autograph. This
is only one of many examples of Harington's overlay of the scribal text
with his own revisions throughout the manuscript. Hardly a page is bare of
some small notation in his hand.
The question naturally occurs, If this is not Harington's italic, then
whose is it? The regular hand appears to be that of Croft's scribe A, which
can be seen in both its secretary and italic forms in sections of B.L. Add.
46370 (Beal HrJ 32), a copy also of the Catalogue of
Bishops,
where it is embedded in scribe A's secretary hand. Examples of scribe A's
secretary hand are given in Croft, "Harington's Manuscript," Plates 4 and
6, but they show very little of his italic.
Here one can see in the italic passages the firm scribal hand,
characterized by a calligraphic, broad stroke to the letters, especially in the
ascenders and descenders, that is identical to that of the three italic
manuscripts in question here.
This new identification of the italic handwriting for the Harington
texts allows us to understand better the nature and role of these manuscripts
in the development of the texts of the epigrams and of the Catalogue
of Bishops, though the implications of it are not major so far as
these
texts are concerned. The two italic manuscripts of the epigrams, Cambr.
Adv. b. 8. 1 and Fo. V.a. 249, appear to be intermediate in the developing
text of those poems, as B.L. Add. 12049 (Beal HrJ 20), an earlier
manuscript than either of these, contains autograph revisions that postdate
either Cambr. Adv. b. 8. 1 or Fo. V.a.249 and thus represents a later state
of the text. So far as is known, B.L. Royal 17 B xxii remains Harington's
final, but not autograph, version of his Catalogue of Bishops
as
he wanted it preserved and as he oversaw its preparation for presentation
to Prince Henry. However, the identification of Harington's italic hand
through his signature and its exclusive
presence within the Croft secretary autograph further confirms Croft's
identification of that hand and clears up the confusion in the earlier
discussions of the Harington manuscripts by Greg and also by Ruth
Hughey.[7]
Notes