TY - JOUR
AU - Higgins, Ben
AB - Abstract This essay provides a case study of an otherwise-unknown clerical library from the 1640s that includes a copy of a Shakespeare folio alongside a few other literary works, including John Donne's Poems (1633). The essay offers a biography of the library's owner, a sketch of the library as a whole, and concludes by considering the unusual status of the Shakespeare folio in this collection. An appendix transcribes the inventory in which the library is catalogued. In this collection of around 200 books, the Shakespeare folio was the sole book of drama (either vernacular or classical). James Marsh is thus an outlier in what we know about early folio-ownership and the discovery of his library expands our understanding of the contexts in which Shakespeare was owned and read. The clergyman Dr James Marsh (1593-?1645), who was royal chaplain to Charles I, an ally of Archbishop William Laud, and briefly the president of Sion College, died without settling his debts. Post mortem, his creditors descended on his household in St Dunstan in the West, Fleet Street, and they created an inventory of Marsh's belongings which survives today in the archives of that parish.1 As well as documenting the interior of Marsh's house, the inventory also includes a list of the books in Marsh's library: a collection of somewhere around two hundred titles comprising mostly religious commentary together with some learned books and a few important titles of vernacular English literature. The discovery of Marsh's library, which is presented in this article, contributes new evidence of seventeenth-century book ownership to a vibrant field of scholarship on private libraries in the early-modern period.2 As well as developing our understanding of seventeenth-century private libraries, the inventory is also relevant to literary history. Marsh owned a copy of ‘Shackspeers playes’, which is catalogued in the inventory under the heading ‘Lib in fol’. This makes the manuscript one of a very few documents to record ownership of a Shakespeare folio (a copy of either the first edition of 1623 or the second of 1632) in the context of a private collection. In addition to the Shakespeare folio, the library's other holdings include two printed works by John Donne: a copy of Pseudo-martyr (1610), and of the Poems (1633). This article provides a biography of Marsh before examining his library. It then addresses the presence of the Shakespeare folio within that library and transcribes the inventory. James Marsh The discovery of the contents of Marsh's book collection is a useful prompt to assess what can be discovered about the owner of this library, who is not currently well known to either ecclesiastical or literary historians. Parish records show that Marsh was born in London in 1593, baptised on 24 August in the church of St Vedast, Foster Lane, the son of Robert Marsh of Hendon, a grocer.3 Robert Marsh died in 1602 and distributed his estate among ten children: six from his first marriage, and four, including James, who was the youngest of all his siblings, from his second. According to Robert's will, the family owned property on Aldersgate Street and land in Shoreditch, Hendon, Uxbridge, and in the village of Hogston, Buckinghamshire. As the youngest child, James did not get much from his father's bequests.4 James went up to Oxford when he was sixteen and matriculated at St Mary Hall in 1610.5 He graduated BA in July 1612, and was elected a probationer fellow of Merton College in 1613, under the wardenship of Henry Savile. Marsh's association with Merton lasted most of his life, and it may have been to this college that he eventually returned shortly before his death. When he arrived in 1613 the college was initially a peaceful and scholarly place, but across Oxford a growing faction of Arminianism was rebelling against a Calvinist majority, and these religious fault-lines were to shape Marsh's own theological beliefs. The choice of college may have been a legacy of Marsh's older brother, Nicholas, another Merton fellow, whose will of 1612 includes a clause that wrangles a place for his brother in exchange for forgiving a college debt.6 During his time in college, James served several minor posts, including holding a grammar lectureship, before proceeding MA in 1617.7 Several prominent names appear among his college peers from this time, including that of the diplomat Isaac Wake and the clergyman and book owner Griffin Higgs, who later supplied a salary for a college librarian and donated his own collection to Merton's library.8 There is not much to be gleaned about Marsh's activities during these college years, though like many university scholars he tried his hand at poetry. Three Latin poems by Marsh appear in a book of Oxford verses that commemorate the death of Henry Savile in 1622.9 The three poems are standard panegyrics which eulogize Savile's contributions to the state and to scholarship, and mourn the inability of future ages to produce a figure who might rival his worth. They sit in the collection beside verses by Higgs, as well as other poems by Oxford contemporaries Robert Burton and William Strode. In 1623 Marsh was incorporated MA at Cambridge, though his fellowship at Merton continued. In 1629, by then a senior fellow, Marsh gave a welcome speech to Charles I and Henrietta Maria on their visit to Merton on 27 August.10 One of Marsh's surviving letters mentions the speech briefly: to morrow the King & Queene come ouer to see the Colledges in their way to Abindon, & intend to repose themselues for a while with us, which is like to cost the Coll: a banquett, & my selfe a speach, which at this time being to be done, I must take leave of you11 No copies of the speech survive, but it is referenced in a contemporary letter that suggests Marsh should have begun to write it sooner. The Merton mathematician Peter Turner mentioned a few days later that he was ‘not greedy to gett a Copy’ of Marsh's royal welcome, and gave the following underwhelming review to a correspondent: whilest he indeaoured to accommodate him selfe to the garbe of the Court, in auoyding some pedantlyke Cento's of Phrases, his \forsaken/ Genius tooke that revenge on him, which it doth commonly upon such as are not constant to theire owne Genius.12 T urner's sentence construction is unwieldy, but his meaning is clear: in seeking to please his courtly audience, Marsh tried overly hard to avoid dry scholarly quotations or maxims (the ‘centos of phrases’, Turner mentioned), and he presumably strived for a more witty and nimble tone. Turner's assessment suggests that Marsh handled his moment badly. Regardless, Marsh was awarded his doctorate in June 1630, and elected to the living of Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire in the same year. Following the death of John Donne in March 1631, Marsh was also made vicar of St Dunstan in the West. It was at this time, too, that he acquired the post of royal chaplain extraordinary, which allowed him to maintain a foothold at court and to hold multiple livings at the same time.13 Further livings in Chingford, Essex, and Cuckfield, Sussex, followed in 1632 and 1638 respectively, and he was made archdeacon of Chichester in 1639, and cathedral chancellor in 1642. Finally, Marsh was appointed the president of Sion College in 1643, but he served only a few months in post before the changing religious and political climates of the nation ended his professional advancement.14 Marsh spent a long time in Oxford, and the university's intellectual and theological environment must have had an impact on his own beliefs. The university was loyal to the Crown, and there is pride in Marsh's account of his forthcoming royal speech. In that same letter he describes with pleasure the recent knighting of Merton's warden, Nathanael Brent, by Charles I at Woodstock.15 Also telling is the presence of a further Latin poem by Marsh in a sAecond Oxford anthology that was printed in 1630 to celebrate the birth of Charles II.16 The poem is a straightforward occasional piece including a recusatio and celebration of the birth, and it provides further evidence of Marsh's Royalist tendencies. It may also be significant in terms of Marsh's status that, for this second publication, his work appears closer to the front of the volume (his was the seventeenth contribution, whereas in the 1622 volume it was the fifty-fourth). As a young man, Marsh arrived at Oxford just as the influence of William Laud began to spread, and by the 1630s Marsh was embroiled in the controversy generated by the reforms Laud had instituted in revising the university statutes. Both the puritan controversialist William Prynne, and later the antiquary Anthony Wood, noted that Marsh and Peter Turner were singled out for mockery in an anti-Arminian poem that circulated around Oxford in September of 1632, written to attack Laud soon after his election to the university chancellorship in 1630.17 The verse satire, entitled ‘The Academi- call Army of Epidemicall Arminians’, was remembered by Prynne in 1646: About September 1632. there were some Satyricall Verses scattered abroad in Oxford against the Arminians, thus intituled. The Academicall Army of Epidemi- call Arminians: To the tune of the Souldieur; wherein Doctor Corbet Doctor Duppa, Doctor Iackeson, Doctor Marsh, Doctor Turner with others, of the Arminian faction were mentioned, and Bishop Laud as their Generall[.]18 The Oxford fellows mentioned include the university vice-chancellor Brian Duppa (1589-1662), who served under Laud's chancellorship, Thomas Jackson (1578-1640), dean of Peterborough, and Richard Corbett (1582-1635), bishop of Oxford, in addition to Marsh and Turner. The poem was destroyed where it was found, but a witness in a miscellany now in the Bodleian survives to show the student body mocking the Arminians in various ways: for a lack of theological spine; for dangerous views on predestination that aligned them with atheists; and for their dress sense. Some of the allusions are easy to decipher, but it is not clear which stanza refers to Marsh. There is a possible wordplay on his name in the seventh stanza which describes the ‘march’ of the Arminians, and continues with a reference to a royal speech: Twas so confusd a thing That it doth ring As loud as his speech before the King Where hee calld our Statuta Inepta & Stolida And them Disdained as rescissa.19 Laud was in the process of changing Oxford's statutes at this time, and Marsh may have used his royal speech to advocate for these reforms. Laud's own notes on the affair show that he understood the poem to contain personal invective against Marsh, even if today much of the abuse is obscure.20 The poem places Marsh among the Laudian faction at Oxford, and links him with Brian Duppa, who can also be found patronizing Marsh's appointment to the vicarage of Cuckfield, and who probably helped Marsh to secure the roles of archdeacon and chancellor of Chichester. University links between Duppa and Marsh were strengthened by Marsh's second marriage, which was to Duppa's sister-in-law. Soon after the death of his first wife, Marsh married Elizabeth, the daughter of Nicholas Killingtree of Longham, Norfolk (among the items of furniture listed in the inventory is a chest engraved ‘E. K.’).21 Killingtree's other daughter, Jane, married Brian Duppa in 1626. The links between these families of Marsh and Duppa survived well into the seventeenth century: years after Marsh's death Duppa performed the marriage ceremony for Marsh's first daughter, Frances, and her husband William Turner in February 1655. Duppa's correspondence reveals he had doubts about the match, but that he was affectionate towards ‘Franck Marsh’ and concerned about her future22 Both Duppa and his wife Jane also left substantial bequests to the widowed Elizabeth Marsh in their wills.23 These familial ties lie behind Duppa's quiet promotion of Marsh's ecclesiastical career, and the cultivation of a useful ally in the bishop's programme to entrench Arminianism across Sussex.24 Marsh's book collection to some extent records his Laudian beliefs. As Andrew Cambers has noted, it can be dangerous to associate the doctrines of a clergyman's books with his own beliefs, but Marsh did own a core of clearly Arminian tracts that reflect his Oxford milieu, such as Richard Thomson's long-suppressed treatise on justifying grace, the Diatriba de Amissione.25 Fig. 1 Open in new tabDownload slide Signature of Dr James Marsh in 1629: BL MS Add. 78186, fol. 25r. Fig. 1 Open in new tabDownload slide Signature of Dr James Marsh in 1629: BL MS Add. 78186, fol. 25r. Fig. 2 Open in new tabDownload slide Signature of Dr Marsh in 1640: WSRO Par 301/7/2, fol. 15r. By courtesy of the Vicar of Cuckfield and with acknowledgements to the County Archivist. Fig. 2 Open in new tabDownload slide Signature of Dr Marsh in 1640: WSRO Par 301/7/2, fol. 15r. By courtesy of the Vicar of Cuckfield and with acknowledgements to the County Archivist. I have discovered little about Marsh's life after he left Oxford in the early 1630s. A near contemporary later reported that he spent his summers in Sussex at Cuckfield, and moved through London and Chichester for the rest of the year.26 The St Dunstan's inventory presented below, which in its full version records household goods as well as books, shows that Marsh maintained a residence in that parish, well-equipped enough to suggest it was his main base. There is nothing to suggest he kept much presence in Cuckfield. A manuscript of that parish notes that Marsh was inducted on 22 September 1638, and continued there till 1643, ‘when he was putt out by the Long Parliament, & Mr Greenhil made Vicar in his room, who was before his Curate all his time’.27 In the Cuckfield parish book of vestry meetings Marsh's signature appears only once, in April 1640, and a fairly threadbare inventory of the vicar's goods drawn up in 1639 suggests no sustained presence.28 Marsh's Royalist convictions landed him in difficulty shortly after the Assembly of Divines was convened in the summer of 1643. On ii July 1643 the Commons sent for Marsh ‘as a delinquent’, and sequestered his livings, including the vicarage of St Dunstan's. That October, Parliamentary authorities removed Marsh from his post as the president of Sion College.29 Marsh died shortly afterwards, though there are varying accounts of when and where. Anthony Wood, in his Fasti Oxonienses, stated that Marsh died and was buried at St Dunstan in the West in 1643. However this suggestion, later repeated by White Kennett, was not necessarily the case: Marsh's living at St Dunstan was removed in 1643 but his name does not appear among the burial records of that parish from this time.30 Alternatively, the Alumni Cantabrigienses records that he ‘died abroad before 1646’, without offering an authority.31 A clergyman writing in 1705 gave a different account again, rep orting that Marsh moved to join the king in Oxford and died there shortly after. Of Marsh's livings, the clergyman wrote that he ‘was deprived being formally sequestered I think, or at least forced to quitt them and to goe to Oxford to the King, where he dyed’.32 Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria both spent much of their time in Merton College after the queen arrived in Oxford in July 1643, and it was probably here, sometime between 1643 and 1645, that Marsh died. An Oxford death for Marsh is made more likely by the fact that, in September 1645, his widow sought a permit from Parliament to travel to Oxford ‘concerning her late husband's estate’.33 Marsh is not listed in the burial register of Merton Chapel for the 1640s, though Wood notes that a register from this time was stolen: when the Queen lay in Mert. Coll., which was from the year 1643 to 1646, there were divers marriages, christnings and burialls carefully regestred in a privat register by Mr. John Gurgany, one of the chaplaynes of Mert. Coll.; but about the time of the surrender of Oxon. the said register among other books were stolen out of his window in his chamber […] by the soldiers and quite lost.34 Marsh's Library The inventory featuring Marsh's booklist appears in a folio manuscript volume in the parish archives of St Dunstan in the West. Around half the inventory consists of household goods. The volume in which the list appears contains copies of legal documents related to the parish, most of which are dated between 1560 and 1640. Comprising 363 leaves, it is headed ‘Regester of all thevidences perteyninge to the Church’.35 Marsh's inventory was made as part of a debt collection. The headnote explains that Marsh owed £40 to three others on his death and that this money was sought from Marsh's with. On the verso of folio 361 is a brief statement from Richard Wotton, gentleman of the Middle Temple, in which he cedes his part of Marsh's goods to his ants, Francis Kemp and Robert Meade. Wotton's statement is dated 2 May 1648, but it states that the inventory was made at an earlier stage of the claim, presumably after Marsh's death in 1643×45. The fact that this account of the churchman's books was drawn up for financial reasons may explain why the records become less detailed once they reach the smaller formats of octavo and duodecimo. For all folios, most of the quartos, but only some of the octavos, the scribe included the author's name and a few words to identify the title. Unfortunately there are no details supplied about the estimated values of the books. list of books begin s on the verso of folio 362 under the heading, ‘A note of the Bookes in Master: Sparkes handes’ (George Sparkes, a churchwarden of St Dunstan in the West, took possession of Marsh's library after his departure). The manuscript then lists 185 volumes, though the total number of books is hidden behind descriptive entries such as ‘A parcell of old Pamphelettes in the Bagg’, and ‘A parcell of old sticht bookes’, which show the common habit of early-modern booklists of massing together items that were deemed to be less important. There are three such ambiguous entries, and a further five entries that do provide the number of a group of books and their format, but do not give a title or an author (‘Twentie Bookes old in 8°: & 12’). A reasonable guess puts the size othe entire library at between 200 and 220 books: a good-sized clerical library for this time.36 The contents of the library are discussed in more detail below, but it reflects what we might expect of a mid-seventeenth-century cleric: reformed religious commentary and continental humanism feature prominently, while the majority of the library is in Latin or occasionally Greek. Most of the books were printed on the continent, and there is very little English literature. Fig. 3 Open in new tabDownload slide Nicholas Marsh donation inscription. Merton College shelfmark 24.G.21. With permission of the Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford. Fig. 3 Open in new tabDownload slide Nicholas Marsh donation inscription. Merton College shelfmark 24.G.21. With permission of the Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford. Some of this library was acquired from Marsh's older brother Nicholas, whose will left ‘unto my brother James Marshe all my bookes (except those before bequeathed)’.37 The ‘those before bequeathed’ refers to three books that Nicholas gave to Merton College library: a 1549 copy of Quintilian's De institutione oratoria, a text on metaphysics by the Jesuit philosopher Francisco Suarez, and a three-volume set of the Workes of the Cambridge theologian William Perkins, printed in 1608. Of these three gifts, only one certainly remains in Merton's library. The college's 1549 copy of Quintilian bears an inscription on its title page reading: Liber Collegij de Merton. Ex dono Nicolai Marsh, eiusdem Collegij quondam Socij. Anno Domini. 1612.38 Above the inscription is a motto, ‘Adspes hortamur’, (we encourage towards hopes’ and ‘we are encouraged towards our hopes’).39 The other two gifts mentioned in Nicholas's will are more difficult to track down.40 The library contains several other features of interest. Marsh owned seven books by the Heidelberg theologian David Pareus, including a copy of the commentary on Romans which was burned on public bonfires in Oxford and London by order of the Crown in 1622.41 Marsh's possession of several works by Pareus despite the prohibition supports the contemporary view of letter-writer John Chamberlain, that burning these books had little effect on their popularity. Richard Thomson's suppressed Arminian treatise, the Diatriba de Amissione, first printed in Leiden in 1616, has already been mentioned; elsewhere in the library was an untitled work by the Franciscan controversialist Christopher Davenport, identified in the inventory by his religious name, ‘Sancta Clara’. Davenport was admitted to Merton in 1613, the same year as Marsh, and after spending time at the English College in Douai returned to England in the early 1630s and cultivated a relationship with the king. The unidentified work in question is perhaps a copy of his Deus, natura, gratia, published in 1634 and dedicated to Charles I. There are also two editions of Lucan's poem, De bello civili, and the particular interest which Marsh had in this work may be linked to the political tensions of the late 1630s and early 1640s. In three places the list records a version of a title which suggests the inventory may have been written by a scribe listening to another read out abbreviated titles of books, perhaps looking at fore-edges. In each case, the Latin words ‘diatriba’ or ‘diatribe’ were transcribed as the seemingly meaningless ‘de Attribe’ (‘Meades de Atribe’; ‘Puteani de Attribe’; ‘Tompson de Attribe’). Like many other ministers, Marsh also kept several ‘paper Bookes’, meaning his manuscript works: sermon notes, and perhaps a repository for such centos as were mentioned in Peter Turner's comments on Marsh's speech. The way in which the books are described reveals some details about how Marsh stored his library. The books may have been moved out of Marsh's house before the inventory was made, so their order in the list may not reflect their original arrangement. That being said, the list is organised primarily by format, with sections for leather folios, quartos, octavos, vellum folios, and miscellanea, and this seems likely to reflect the way the books were organised in Marsh's home. At one point ‘5 shelves for Bookes’ are listed among the furniture, as well as ‘one Case for bookes’ and ‘six shelves with a shutter’, which may have been a further bookcase within a cupboard. Marsh also seems to have kept some of his smaller books in bags and parcels. Three entries on the list record ‘A parcell of old Pamphelettes in the Bagg’, a ‘parcell of old sticht bookes’, presumably meaning a group of stab-stitched titles, and finally, ‘In a little white bagge stitch & bound bookes’. This final entry shows a group of books in a bag that were both bound (either in leather or vellum), and stab-stitched (probably with a simple paper wrapper). It is unusual to find both types of binding kept together, and presumably Marsh here did not see the binding as something that should determine separate storage: cheaply bound books with a stitched paper binding were kept with books housed in more expensive bindings. The compiler's identification of both styles—and so the preservation of a distinction between them—demonstrates his awareness of their different values. Together these three entries provide intriguing insight into a range of storage methods. Fig. 4 Open in new tabDownload slide Detail of the manuscript page, showing the two braces. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Vicar and Churchwarden of the Guild Church of St Dunston in the West, Fleet Street, London. Fig. 4 Open in new tabDownload slide Detail of the manuscript page, showing the two braces. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Vicar and Churchwarden of the Guild Church of St Dunston in the West, Fleet Street, London. Relatedly, in two places on the manuscript there is notation that may suggest the composition of two of the bindings. Under the heading ‘ffol vellum’ are two braces, the first of which joins a copy of Edward Fairfax's translation of Torquato Tasso's Godfrey of Bulloigne with a copy of Richard Hooker's Of the Laws of Eccelesiastical Policy. There is no obvious textual link here beyond the format of each work, though editions of both were published and sold by the stationer Matthew Lownes in 1600 (for Fairfax) and between 1611 and 1622 (for Hooker). The second bracket joins a copy of ‘Bertas in 4° veil’ (likely a copy of the popular devotional poetic work the Divine Weeks of Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas) with ‘6 more old English bookes’ and ‘Donnes Pseudo martre’. That this latter entry singled out Donne's 1610 polemic Pseudo-martyr, rather than grouping it with the unnamed ‘old English bookes’, grants that work particular status, and may record Donne's importance to his parish after his death—personal relations come to life in the dry register of the booklist. If my reading of the braces is correct, then this volume, in binding Donne's work with du Bartas, created a Sammelband with a suggestive mixture of religious literary styles, and prompts questions about what the six other English books were. Shackspeers playes The entry for ‘Shackspeers playes’ appears towards the start of Marsh's list as one of eight folio titles, and the three manuscript ‘paper Bookes’, found beneath the heading ‘Lib in fol’. It seems likely that these folio volumes were bound in leather, given that there is a separate heading for vellum folios on the same page. It is not clear whether the entry refers to the first edition of Shakespeare's works, published in 1623, or the second, which appeared in 1632, but either way the book is a surprising find in this inventory. What we know of the early ownership of Shakespeare's folios has been mostly pieced together through isolated instances of provenance: a name jotted on an endpaper or an entry noted in an account book or donors’ book. Only rarely are we able to situate folio-ownership in a wider reading context. The sole example given by the Folger Library's ongoing Private Libraries in Renaissance England (PLRE) project, for instance, is that of the two folios owned by the courtier Sir Edward Dering (1598-1644), much of whose book collection was documented in his accounts.42 In his discussion of early folio- ownership, Anthony West notes some related instances. One of these is the copy gifted to Hereford Cathedral in around 1626, though the library here was formed from a series of bequests rather than any one collector's interests. Another copy of a Shakespeare folio is said to have been recorded in the catalogue of the library of the second Earl of Bridgwater, however. West was unable to track this reference down.43 Marsh's inventory therefore provides valuable evidence of a Shakespeare folio being part of a reader's discrete collection. When looked at as part of his library, one thing that stands out about Marsh's Shakespeare folio is how unusual it seems amid a collection defined primarily by other interests. The main topics are reformed theology together with a wider variety of learned writing—most of it in Latin (about sixty- eight per cent of the titles that have been identified are in Latin; twenty-six per cent are in English). While the massed entries make it impossible to speak about the full contents of the library with certainty, it seems that Marsh owned no other work of printed drama, whether a professional English stage play or a work of classical drama in Greek or Latin. Comparing Marsh's library to other collections from this time shows that owning just a single book of drama was relatively unusual. One example can be found in the account books of the Norfolk gentleman John Buxton (1608-1660). Buxton's accounts record his book purchases between 1627 and 1631, and they include the intriguing entry of 1627, noted by David McKitterick, which records that Buxton paid six shillings ‘for the changing of Shak-spheares works for on that is perfect’.44 Unlike Marsh, however, Buxton's collecting habits demonstrate a wider context for his interest in the Shakespeare folio. The four years of accounts show he bought around fifty playbooks as well as a range of English poetry including work by Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, and Edmund Spenser, and he also acquired poetry in miscellany volumes such as Englands Helicon. There seems to have been a broad category of ‘English literature’ in Buxton's collection, though the exact place of playbooks and drama within this category is a matter for debate. Similarly, Edward Dering bought at least 221 playbooks between 1619 and 1624.45 Other known early owners also acquired their Shakespeare folio within a context of interest in drama: Charles I owned quarto play- books alongside his copy of the Second Folio, including a volume of ‘Shakespeare apocrypha’ containing eight playbooks attributed to Shakespeare.46 As Lukas Erne has discussed, Edward Conway (1594-1665), 2nd Viscount Conway, was another early owner of a Shakespeare Folio whose two libraries, in Ireland and in London, held at least 349 ‘English playes’.47 The library of Robert Sidney (1595-1677), the second Earl of Leicester, at Penshurst Place was yet another collection that, in about 1654, contained a copy of a Second Folio alongside the 1640 folio Workes of Ben Jonson, the 1647 folio Comedies and Tragedies of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, the little 1632 duodecimo Sixe Court Comedies of John Lyly, and many other editions of individual playbooks.48 Most strikingly, the recent discovery of what was probably John Milton's copy of the First Folio presents us with a fascinating example of Shakespeare being actively read by a literary author in ways that are currently being evaluated by Jason Scott- Warren and Claire Bourne.49 In each of these instances, ownership of a Shakespeare folio sits within a wider interest in literary forms. Of course, the aristocratic libraries mentioned above are not representative of wider reading habits, but there is some evidence from smaller private libraries that points to similar conclusions. The PLRE database, which contains over three hundred booklists from the Tudor and early Stuart periods, highlights the dangers of generalizing about the habits of early-modern book owners, but searching for ownership of an English playbook reveals the same trend: where a reader owned an English playbook—whether of a folio collection like that of Shakespeare or Ben Jonson, or of an individual quarto—their book collection also contains other dramatic forms, either vernacular or classical or both, and the collection often also contains a broader interest in vernacular poetry. There is only one collection in PLRE which contains a Shakespeare folio (that of Edward Dering), but there are fourteen booklists which contain professional English playbooks by any author, and every one of these contains at least one other book of either classical or English drama.50 A majority of these collections contain multiple works of English drama and often other literary forms. The booklist of the member of parliament Sir Roger Townshend (d. 1636), for example, which contained 286 titles, included five English playbooks, as well as several titles of Latin drama and some English poetry. The collection of about four hundred books owned by the court official Richard Stonley (d. 1600) featured two English playbooks and several works of classical drama, along with vernacular literary works by William Painter, George Gascoigne, Thomas Lodge, and Robert Greene among others. The inventory of the cleric and scholar Walter Brown (d. 1613) recorded six English playbooks and eight books of Latin drama, together with work by Painter, Edmund Spenser, and Geoffrey Chaucer. In other words, while there are some smaller libraries that contain only a few works of drama (and of course many libraries without any such books), ownership of a book of English drama is generally an indication that the reader in question has a broader interest in both classical and vernacular drama, and often in other vernacular literary forms. What seems noteable about Marsh's library is the standalone status of Shakespeare as the sole dramatic book. There are just a few other titles that show a wider interest in literary forms. Marsh did own a copy of Donne's Poems, and here the circumstances of this book's publication may be relevant. Marsh owned a copy of the only early quarto edition, published in 1633 by John Marriot from his retail premises in St Dunstan's Churchyard, just a few years after Marsh arrived as vicar.51 Donne's religious polemic Pseudo-martyr, mentioned above for its Sammelband status, may not qualify as straightforwardly literary, but a book that does is Edward Fairfax's translation of Torquato Tasso, Godfrey of Bulloigne. Noted on the list as a folio, this latter work was either a copy of the edition of 1620, or that of 1624 which was published by the King's Printer John Bill at the personal request of Charles I.52 The only remaining literary text was the work by Du Bartas, published several times in quarto in translation in England from 1595, and in Marsh's library possibly bound with Pseudo-martyr, as mentioned. The outlying appearance of Donne's poems is perhaps easier to understand than the presence of the Shakespeare folio: as vicar of St Dunstan's Marsh had a professional stake in Donne's legacy, and Marriot's edition of 1633 was marketed as a memorializing collection: ‘POEMS, By J. D. with elegies on the authors death’.53 Donne's reputation as both a preacher and a poet brought him into Marsh's sphere of interest (though it is odd that Marsh seems not to have owned any of Donne's printed sermons, several editions of which had been published in the 1620s). Marsh's standing among the clergy provides one context through which to understand his ownership of Shakespeare. Writing specifically about the First Folio, Jean-Christophe Mayer has noted the book's surprising early appeal to churchmen. John Cosin, later to become the bishop of Durham, bought a copy in ‘the late 1620s or early 1630s’, and John Hacket, later bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, probably owned another copy in about 1630.54 A third copy may have been owned by Thomas Longe, vicar of Eynsham, Oxfordshire, between 1617 and 1641.55 Intriguingly, both Cosin and Hacket, like Marsh, were Royalists with connections to the Crown. Cosin fled to France in 1644 with other of the king's supporters, and served as chaplain to Queen Henrietta's court, while Hacket was made a royal chaplain in 1625. Scholars have discussed the appeal of Shakespeare's writing across the political spectrum during the Civil Wars, and while evidence for the relationship between political allegiance and book ownership here is slim, it is noticeable that Marsh, as the fourth known clergyman to own a folio, was another Royalist. One figure who may have influenced Marsh's interest in Shakespeare is the stationer John Smethwick, who was a member of the publishing syndicates behind both the First and Second Folios, and who worked from a premises in St Dunstan's Churchyard between 1602 and 1641. That Marsh and Smethwick knew one another is certain, because the stationer served in various parish offices, including that of churchwarden, and the signatures of both men are found witnessing vestry meetings during the 1630s.56 In 1631, the year that Marsh arrived in St Dunstan's, Smethwick published two Shakespeare quartos, Love's Labour's Lost and The Taming of the Shrew, the release of which may have been intended to stoke the market for Shakespeare's writing as the printing of the Second Folio moved towards completion. Neither title was the most obvious choice with which to create excitement for Shakespeare, but Smethwick's decision was determined by the rights he had inherited from the stationer Nicholas Ling in 1607, and perhaps also by the state of the market: The Taming of the Shrew had never previously been published in quarto, and the only previous quarto edition of Love's Labour's Lost dated from 1598.57 Perhaps a convivial relationship between a stationer interested in publishing Shakespeare and that stationer's new parish vicar influenced Marsh's acquisition. Two of the remaining members of the publishing syndicate which financed the Second Folio were also parishioners of the same church: the stationers Richard Meighen and Richard Hawkins. Meighen kept multiple shops in the legal district at this time, including one in St Dunstan's Churchyard that was next door to that of Smethwick.58 Richard Hawkins worked in Chancery Lane between 1613 and at least 1634, and his will identifies him as a St Dunstan's parishioner.59 It may be that Marsh's presence in this social and professional milieu influenced the development of his book collection. Ultimately, what might Marsh's inventory tell us about the reception of Shakespeare's folio? We cannot draw broad conclusions about readership from this single booklist, but one of the principal ways in which Marsh's inventory could augment our understanding of Shakespeare is by showing that early editions of his work were not only acquired by those with a sustained interest in vernacular literary forms, but also by those with little other discernible regard for printed drama, whose libraries were otherwise uninterested in the London stage. The clue about the leather binding of this folio copy is relevant here: unless Marsh acquired his book secondhand and so inherited the binding, the leather suggests Marsh considered Shakespeare worth the cost of the more durable option. The only other literary folio, Fairfax's translation of Tasso, was bound in vellum, and possibly collected with the copy of Hooker in a way that would save on the costs of purchasing a separate binding. Something made Shakespeare worth acquiring for Marsh, against the grain of his other reading habits. Perhaps Shakespeare, before Marsh's death, had become a significant enough author that owning a copy of his folio works could unify those with intellectually and culturally divergent tastes. Marsh also shows that the reception of this book was not only confined to the readership profile scholars have typically understood of a wealthy nobleman, or of a commoner of standing with an established interest in vernacular literary forms.60 His library reveals that the folio was also owned by readers whose interests were largely theological and occasionally learned, such as the astronomical writing of Christopher Clavius or the legal analysis of Hugo Grotius, and so Marsh shows that, as Emma Smith has argued, the ownership of Shakespeare folios was contingent, and each instance of ownership has its own authenticity to be explored if we are to assemble any wider understanding of the reception of Shakespeare's work.61 The broader history of reading, in this analysis, moves towards the various histories of individual readers. The fate of Marsh's folio is unclear. After his death the preacher's books, together with the household furniture listed in the inventory, were probably given to the creditors named in the headnote: Francis Kemp and Robert Meade. The latter was a stationer who lived and worked in St Dunstan in the West, and perhaps he acquired Marsh's library for its resale value. Nowhere in Rasmussen and West's bibliographic catalogue is the name Marsh recorded in connection with any copy of the First Folio. If any brave soul sets out to achieve something similar for the Second Folio, perhaps Marsh's name will resurface. APPENDIX Conventions This is a semi-diplomatic transcription. The lineation has been retained, with interlineal insertions marked using \ /. Raised letters have been lowered. Throughout, the terminal ‘-es’ graph is replaced with ‘-es’; terminal ‘-j’ has been replaced with ‘-i’; and the ‘-ff’ graph is replaced with ‘F’. The thorn character is replaced with ‘th’. Untranscribed portions (such as sections of the inventory that feature household goods) are marked with an ellipsis. English contractions have been expanded and italicized. Latin contractions are retained, and signalled with a point, except where the scribe has already signalled the contraction with a colon. Identification Conventions Titles are given in abbreviated versions. Doubt about a title is indicated with a question mark. When a title has evolved across editions, the more commonly found title is supplied. If a likely city of publication has been identified, its modernized name is provided; otherwise, where possible, either ‘Britain’ or ‘Continent’ is given; and where it has not been possible to narrow down a place of publication any further, ‘Britain or Continent’ is used. Dates of publication are provided where they have been discovered. Multiple possible editions of different dates are indicated with a date range in the form of 1641-1646, where the two dates are those of the first and last possible editions, or no date is given. An asterisk indicates that a particular edition has been identified with some confidence, and in such cases, if the book was published in Britain, an ESTC identification number is supplied. In one case (Gregor Bersmann's 1589 edition of Lucan), a USTC number has been given. [fol. 362r] An Inventorie of the goodes and Chattells late of James Marsh doctor of Diuinitie deceased, which vpon an Account of debt Comenced in the Compter in Woodstreete in the Cittie of London in the names of Francis Kemp Gentleman Richard Wotton Gentleman and Robert Meade Plaintiffes against Elizabeth Marsh widdow late wife and administratrix of the goodes and Chattells of the said James Marsh vpon a Bill of a debt obligatorie for payment of Fortie poundes due by the said James Marsh in his lifetime vnto the said Francis Kemp Richard Wotton and Robert Meade, were attached. Vppon which seuerall attachmentes made in the names of the said Francis Kemp Richard Wotton and Robert Meade of the goodes and Chattells \late/ of the said James Marsh hereafter specified then in the seuerall handes and possessions of Andrew Pearne Clarke and George Sparkes, two seuerall Judgmewtes were obteyned in the Sheriffes Courte in Guildhall London for the goodes and Chattells so attached as aforesaid / […] [fol. 362v begins] […] A note of the Bookes in Master: Sparkes handes Lib. in fol. / Gregory of Nazianzus ?Opera (Paris, 1630) Grossius vpon the Gospells / Hugo Grotius, Annotationes in Novum Testamentum (Continent, 1641-46) Perkins his workes 2d volume / William Perkins, The workes of that famous and worthie minister of Christ (Britain, 1608-31) Grossius de iure Belli / * Hugo Grotius, De ivre belli ac pacis (Amsterdam, 1631). Gowges workes / * William Gouge, The workes of William Gouge (London, 1627, ESTC S92733). Shackspeers playes / William Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies (London, 1623-32). Cottens Concord not the best / Clement Cotton, unidentified edition of his Concordances (London, 1622-35) Davenant vpon the Collossians / John Davenant, Expositio epistolae D. Pauli ad Colossenses (Cambridge, 1627-39). Three paper Bookes / Bookes in quarto / Parrevs vpon the Appocolipps / David Pareus, In diuinam Apocalypsin (Continent, 1618-22) Idem vpon the Romans / David Pareus, In divinam ad Romanos (Continent, 1613-20) Idem vpon Genesis / David Pareus, In Genesin Mosis commentarius (Continent, 1609-15) Labati Apparratus 2 volumes / Francisco Labata, Apparatus concionatorum (Continent, 1615-30) Idem Loci Comunes / Francisco Labata, Loci communes ad conciones (Continent, 1621-27) Lexicon Theolog. Alstenstagii / Johann Altenstaig, Lexicon theologicum (Continent, 1579-1619) Corpus ivre Canon. / Corpus iuris canonici Meades de Atribe / * Joseph Mede, Diatribe (London, 1642, ESTC R20480) Anastatius Sinatus / Anastasius Sinaita, unidentified [(Continent) Crakenthorpe Contra Spalateus / * Richard Crakanthorpe, Defensio ecclesiae Anglicanae (London, 1625, ESTC S117449) Alstedii Casis Theolog. Johann Alsted, Theologia casuum (Hanover, 1621-30) Vorsti Anti Bellarmin. / * Conrad Vorst, Anti-Bellarminus contractus (Hanover, 1610) - Amica dupedcati / * Conrad Vorst, ?Amica duplicatio (Gouda, 1617) Sancta Clara / Christopher Davenport (Francis a Sancta Clara) ?Deus, natura, gratia (Lyons, 1634-35) Iamblicvs / lamblichus of Chalcis, unidentified (Continent) Symachee Epistol^ / Quintus Symmachus, Epistolarum ad diversos (Continent) Clavis in Sacra bosco / Christopher Clavius, In sphxram loannis de Sacra Bosco (Continent, 1570-1618) Prestone i volume / ?John Preston (1587-1628) or ?Thomas Preston (1563-1640) Boyses Autum parte / John Boys, The autumne part (London, 1612-16) Bilsons Christes Assention / Thomas Bilson, ?The effect of certaine sermons (London, 1599) Zabarilla Phesica / Jacopo Zabarella, Commentarii in magni Aristotelis libros physicorum (Continent, 1601-22) Rivett on the Psal. / Andre Rivet, Commentarius in psalmorum propheticorum (Continent, 1626-45) Lambin in Horatium / Denis Lambin, Q Horatius Flaccus (Continent, 1561-1605) Roffensus against Bellarmyne / * John Buckeridge, De potestate papa (London, 1614, ESTC S106075) [End of first column] Parevs in Mathevm / David Pareus, Theologi archipalatini In S. Matthai evangelium commentarius (Oxford, 1631) Sidonius Epistells / Sidonius Apollinaris, unidentifed edition of letters (Continent) Peraldus suma. vert. / Guilelmus Peraldus, Summae virtutum ac vitiorum (Continent) Bayii institution. / Jacques de Bay, Institutionum religionis christianae (Continent, 1620-26) Donnes Poem / * John Donne, Poems, by J. D. (London, 1633, ESTC S121864) Slater on the Thessilonians / William Sclater, An exposition with notes upon the Thessalonians (London, 1619-38 Cattaloge of Bushopps / Francis Godwin, A catalogue of the bishops of England (London, 1601-25 Ruiuus de Anima Antonius Ruvio, Commentarii in libros Aristotelis (Continent, 1613-26) Bookes in 8 ° / lawrentii Annotu. / ?Lorenzo Valla, ?ln Novum Testamentu annotationes (Continent) Puteani de Attribe / Erycius Puteanus, Amoenitatum humanarum diatribae xii (Oxford and Continent, 1615-40) Or: Encomium ovi, de summo et unico naturae miraculo diatriba (Louvain, 1615) Parrevs in Plautum / Johann Pareus, Lexicon Plautinum (Continent, 1614-34) Geffinii Etheica / * Oberti Giphanii, Commentarii in decem libros Ethicorum Aristotelis (Frankfurt, 1608) Musculus loci Comvnes / Wolfgang Musculus, Loci communes (Continent) Parrevs Contra Bellarm. / David Pareus, ?Ad Roberti cardinalis Bellarmini (Continent) Scotus Greek grammar / Alexander Scot, Universa grammatica Graeca (Continent, 1555-1614) Perionii Phisica / Joachim Perion, ?Aristotelis eorum qua Physica sequuntur (Continent) Bersman in Lucan / * Gregor Bersmann ed., Lucan, De bello civili (Leipzig, 1589, USTC 673212) Farnabye in Lucan / Thomas Farnaby ed., Lucan, De bello ciuili (London and Frankfurt, 1618-24) Caranus Suma Consil. / Bartolome Carranza, Summa conciliorum et Pontificum (Continent, 1546-1641) Flaccus / Unidentified: ?Horace Tompson de Attribe / Richard Thomson, Diatriba de Amissione (Leiden, 1616-18) Salmatus de modo vsular. / * Claude Saumaise, De modo usurarum (Leiden, 1639) Alexander ab Alexandro / Alexander ab Alexandro, ?Genialium dierum libri sex (Continent, 1532-1626) Canii Lo: Comunes / ?Melchor Cano, ?De locis theologicis libri duodecim Navarij Encaridion / Mart^n de Azpilcueta, Enchiridion (Continent, 1574-1625) Tylenii Syntag. / Daniel Tilenus, Syntagma disputationum theologicarum (Continent, 1607-22) Macrobus Saternalii / Macrobius, Saturnalia (Continent) Rulandi Synon. / Martin Ruland the elder, Synonyma (Continent, 1563-1627) Diogenes Lyertius / Diogenes Laertius, De vita et moribus philosophorum (Continent). Cassiodorus / Flavius Cassiodorus Champnes de vocat. Ministr. / Anthony Champney, De vocatione ministrorum tractatus (Paris, 1618) Meighen in Virgill / Johannes a Meyen, ?Publii Virgilii Maronis (Continent, 1576-1630) Pareus de gra. / David Pareus, ?Roberti Bellarmini Liber unus De gratia (Continent, 1612-14) Lambert in Senten. / ?Lambert Schenckel, ?Flores et sententiae insigniores (Continent, 1599-1615) ?Lambert Daneau, ?ln Petri Lombardi librum primum Sententiarum (Geneva, 1580) Victoria Antiquitatis / ?Winiam Chalmers, ?Antiquitatis de novitate victoria (Fastemburgi, 1634) with 44 old bookes in 8 °: more / Fol. vellum / Godfrey of Bulloine   Edward Fairfax trans., Torquato Tasso, Godfrey of Bulloigne (London, 1600 or 1624) Hookers Pollicie   Richard Hooker, Of the lawes of ecclesiastical politie (London, 1593-1639) Bertas in 4° vellum with   Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas, ?Du Bartas his diuine weekes (London, 1605-13) 6 more old English bookes Donnes Pseudo martre * John Donne, Pseudo-martyr (London, 1610, ESTC S109984) Bilson of Christes subiection Thomas Bilson, The true difference betweene Christian subiection (Britain, 1585-86) Twentie Bookes old in 8°: & 12 / A parcell of old sticht bookes In a lictle white bagge stitch & bound bookes [fol. 362v ends] [fol. 363' begins] Twentie eight bookes 4° vellum / A parcell of old Pamphelettes in the Bagg / Twelve Smale Pamphelettes bound / The goodes attached in Master Pearnes handes / In Master Pearnes Studie / Imprimis 5 shelves for Bookes / […] In the Hall vnder Mr Pearnes Studdy Item one presse bedsted & Cord one presse of deal for Cloathes, & one Case for books / six shelves with a shutter / My thanks to the Revd Melanie Marshall, David Pearson, Tiffany Stern, and Henry Woudhuysen for their comments on this paper in draft, as well as the two anonymous readers whose careful suggestions improved this article. Footnotes 1 Register of all the Evidences: London Metropolitan Archives [hereafter LMA], P69/DUN2/D/001/MS02983, fols. 362r-363r. 2 The study of early-modern private libraries has been championed by scholars such as Sears Jayne, Elisabeth Leedham-Green, and David Pearson, and continues with ongoing projects such as the Folger Library's Private Libraries in Renaissance England database: <https://plre.folger.edu/>. For an introduction to early modern libraries, see: T he Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, 1: To 1640 ed. by Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Webber (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). For booklists and inventories, see Malcolm Walsby, ‘Booklists and their Meaning’, in Documenting the Early Modern Book World: Inventories and Catalogues in Manuscript and Print, ed. by Natasha Constantinidou and Malcolm Walsby (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 1-24 3 Willoughby A. Littledale, The Registers of St Vedast, Foster Lane, and of St Michael le Quern, London (London: Harleian Society, 1902), p.21. 4 Will of Robert Marshe: The National Archives [hereafter TNA], PRO, PROB 11/100/307. James was given £50, and his part of a customary one-third share of his father's estate that was divided between the four of his children who had not yet come of age. For further details about the Marsh family see Joseph Jackson Howard, The Vistation of London Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635, 2 vols (London: The Harleian Society, 1883), II, 81; George E. Cokayne, ‘Some Notice of Various Families of the Name of Marsh’, The Genealogist New Series, 16 (1899), 2–7. 5 Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714, Vol. III (Oxford: Parker and Co, 1891), p.973. The University of Oxford Archives holds no further information on Marsh beyond Foster's summary. 6 The debt was forgiven with the proviso that ‘within Eighteene monethes next after my deceasse [the college should] prouide and procure a postmasters place in Merton Colledge aforesaied’; Will of Nicholas Marsh, TNA, PRO, PROB 11/120/394. Nicholas Marsh matriculated, like James, at St Mary Hall in 1604 before moving to Merton in 1607. He died in 1612, ‘deeply lamented’ in the college according to one nineteenth-century historian: George Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College, with Biographical Notices of the Wardens and Fellows, Oxford Historical Society, 4 (1885), p. 278. 7 J. R. L. Highfield, Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 1603–1660, Oxford Historical Society, n.s., 41 (2006), pp.98, 99, et passim. 8 For more on Higgs, who served as college bursar with Marsh in 1618, see: G. H. Martin and J. R. L. Highfield, A History of Merton College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp.191, 376-77; also P. S. Morrish's two complementary works, Dr. Higgs and Merton College Library: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Book-Collecting and Librarianship (Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 1988) and Bibliotheca Higgsiana: A Catalogue of the Books of Dr. Griffin Higgs (1589-1659), Oxford Bibliographical Society, Occasional Publication, 22 (1990). 9 Ultima linea Savilii (1622, STC 19025), with Marsh's verses at sig. E1v-E3r. My thanks to Henry Woudhuysen for this reference. 10 Highfield, Registrum Mertonensis, p.185; John Gutch, ed., The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, in Two Books: By Anthony a Wood, 2 vols (Oxford: printed for the editor, 1796), 11, 367-68. 11 James Marsh to Christopher Browne, 29 August 1629, BL MS Add. 78186, fol. 25r. Here and throughout this article when manuscript evidence is cited, ‘y’ has been transcribed as ‘th’, raised letters have been lowered, and contractions have been supplied and italicized. The letter concerned Browne's son, Richard (1605–1683), who had recently left Marsh's tutelage at Merton for Gray's Inn. Richard Browne was later knighted and became a diplomat loyal to both Charles I and Charles II. 12 Peter Turner to Christopher Browne, 9 September 1629, BL MS Add. 78186, fol. 26r. 13 Notice of Dispensation, BL MS Sloane 856, fol. IIv; Abstracts of Dispensation Rolls, BL MS Add. 39535, fol. ior. See also ‘James Marsh (CCEd Person ID 78200)’, in The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835 < http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk>. Charles I had 124 chaplains in extraordinary in July of 1641. Their duties of occasional royal preaching, Kenneth Fincham notes, enabled them to hold multiple livings and gather contacts at court: ‘The roles and influence of household chaplains, c. 1600 — c. 1660’, in Chaplains in Early Modern England: Patronage, Literature, and Religion, ed. by Hugh Adlington, Tom Lockwood, and Gillian Wright (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013) pp. 11–35 (pp. 14-16). 14 Marsh's brief tenure and the troubled circumstances of his departure may explain why he does not feature in the Sion College Library Book of Benefactors (Lambeth Palace Library, MS Sion L40.2/E64). 15 The pride with which Marsh discusses Brent's knighthood may inform Turner's harsh view of Marsh's speech. Many senior fellows at Merton, including Turner, believed Brent was a corrupt warden who badly mismanaged college funds, and probably took a dim view of Brent's allies: Martin & Highfield, History of Merton College, pp. 200-04. 16 Britanniae Natalis (1630, STC 19032), with Marsh's contribution at sig. B1r-v. My thanks to Henry Woudhuysen for alerting me to this reference. 17 Gutch, History and Antiquities, pp.382–83. See also Falconer Madan, Oxford Books: A Bibliography of Printed Works Relating to the University and City of Oxford or Printed or Published There, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895–1931), 11, 119. 18 William Prynne, Canterburies Doome (1646, Wing P3917), sig. Aa2v. 19 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet e. 97, p. 129. 20 John Bruce and William Douglas Hamilton, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I, 23 vols (London: HMSO, 1858-97), XVIII, 534; PRO, SP 16/499, fol. 166v. 21 Marsh's first wife was another Elizabeth—the daughter of Sir John Davies of Pangbourne, Berkshire. Elias Ashmole records the inscriptions of Elizabeth and her daughter Frances Marsh on a gravestone in St Nicholas Church in Hurst, Berkshire: ‘M. S. Elizabeths Marsh, Uxoris Jacobi Marsh, S. T. D. fili^ Johannis Davisii, de Pangborne, in agro Bercensi, Equitis, quae obiit 21 Nov. Anno Salutis, 1634. Francisca Turner, e puerperio matri funesto nata superstes Officii pariter ac doloris Monumentum posuit, Anno 1663.’; The Antiquities of Berkshire, 3 vols (London: E. Curll, 1719), 11, 410. On Marsh's second marriage, see J. Challenor Smith, ‘Bishop Duppa's Wife’, The Genealogist, n.s., 4 (1887), 116-18. 22 The Correspondence of Bishop Brian Duppa and Sir Justinian Isham, 1650–1660, ed. by Gyles Isham, Northamptonshire Record Society, 17 (1955), pp. 108–09. 23 ibid. 200–01. 24 Anthony Fletcher, A County Community in Peace and War: Sussex 1600–1660 (London: Longman, 1975), pp. 78, 81–83. 25 Andrew Cambers, Godly Reading: Print, Manuscript and Puritanism in England, 1580–1720 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp.127–28. On Thomson and the impact of his treatise, see Paul Botley, Richard ‘Dutch' Thomson, c.1569–1613: The Life and Letters of a Renaissance Scholar (Leiden: Brill, 2016), esp. pp. 129–37 26 Robert Middleton to Robert Clavel, 8 June 1705, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Walker c. 1, fol. 196r. 27 Vicar's Book of Cuckfield Parish, West Sussex Record Office [hereafter WSRO], Par 301/7/3, fol. 13r. 28 Parish Book of Cuckfield, WSRO, Par 301/7/2, fol. 15r; Vicar's Book, fol. 99v. Marsh is also mentioned as a trustee of the Cuckfield Grammar School in a Bargain and Sale document of 1641: WSRO, Par/301/25/13. 29 Ernest Pearce, Sion College and Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913), pp. 108–09. 30 Anthony Wood, Fasti Oxonienses, or Annals of the University of Oxford, 3rd edn, ed. with continuations by Philip Bliss, 4 vols (London: Rivington, Lackington, et al., 1815), 1, 456–57; Bishop Kennett's Collections 1641–1660, BL MS Lansdowne 985, fol. 52r. The parish accounts of St Dunstan in the West record no burial charge for James Marsh between June 1643 (the last date that his presence in a vestry meeting is confirmed by his signature) and March 1644 (which is one month after his successor as vicar, Andrew Pearne, was appointed): Churchwardens Accounts of St Dunstan in the West, LMA, P69/DUN2/B/011/MS02968/003. 31 John Venn and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900, 2 pts in 10 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922–54), pt 1, 111, 144. 32 Robert Middleton to Robert Clavel, 8 June 1705, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Walker c.1, fol. 196r. 33 ‘House of Commons Journal Volume 4: 4 October 1645’, in Journal of the House of Commons, IV: 1644–1646 (London: HMSO, 1802), p. 298; ‘House of Lords Journal Volume 7: 15 September 1645, and 23 September 1645’, in Journal of the House of Lords, VII: 1644 (London: HMSO, 1767–1830), pp. 580, 590. 34 Alan Bott, The Monuments in Merton College Chapel (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964), pp. 3–4. Thanks to Julian Reid, archivist at Merton, for his assistance in checking the chapel records. 35 The modern binding housing the manuscript probably dates from 20 June 1932, which is stamped inside the upper board. The manuscript is now LMA, P69/DUN2/D/001/MS02983. 36 Arnold Hunt notes that the largest clerical library of the early seventeenth century was that of William Crashaw and ran to around four thousand printed books and two hundred manuscripts: ‘Clerical and Parish Libraries’, in Cambridge History of Libraries, pp. 400-19 (p.408). Crashaw's was ‘a wholly exceptional collection’, and more common were clerical libraries such as that of Isaac Lowder (d. 1612) at just over seventy volumes. Of course, Marsh might have kept other books elsewhere, but I have found no further evidence of his books in the library and archives of Chichester Cathedral, nor in Merton College, nor in the other parishes he occupied. 37 Will of Nicholas Marsh, Fellow of Merton College, PRO, PROB 11/120/394, fol. 378r. 38 Quintilian, De institutione oratoria (Paris: Oudin Petit, 1549), Merton College shelfmark 24. G. 21. 39 The passive form of ‘hortor’ is unusual, but is attested: P. G. W. Glare, The Oxford Latin Dictionary Second Edition, with corrections, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 1, 885. My thanks to the Revd Melanie Marshall. 40 Merton's library has a 1608 copy of Perkins's three-volume set, The workes of that famous and worthie minister of Christ (STC 19649), which matches the description in the will (‘Perkyns his workes in three volumes’), but there is no provenance mark to show it was owned by Nicholas. Similarly, Merton no longer owns a copy of Suarez's Metaphysicarum—though it did own a copy until at least 1674: Catalogus impressorum librorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae (Oxford: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1674), Merton College shelfmark 121. D. 12, leaf facing sig. Aa1r. 41 Jeanne Shami, John Donne and Conformity in Crisis in the Late Jacobean Pulpit (Cambridge: Brewer, 2003), pp. 45–48; Ian Gadd, ‘The University and the Oxford Book Trade’, in History of Oxford University Press, I: Beginnings to 1780, ed. by Ian Gadd (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 549–68 (p. 561). 42 Laetitia Yeandle, ‘Sir Edward Dering, ist bart., of Surrenden Dering and his “Booke of Expences” 1617–1628’. The Kent Archaeological Society Papers, 20. Published online at http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/authors/o20.pdf. For discussion of Dering's book collection in relation to his Shakespeare folios, see Emma Smith, Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 1–18. On the ownership of printed drama more broadly at this time, see Heidi Brayman Hackel, ‘“Rowme” of Its Own: Printed Drama in Early Libraries’, in A New History of Early English Drama, ed. by John D. Cox and David Scott Kastan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 113–30. 43 Anthony West, The Shakespeare First Folio: The History of the Book, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1, 3–6. 44 David McKitterick, ‘“Ovid with a Littleton”: The Cost of English Books in the Early Seventeenth Century’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 11 (1997), 184–234 (p.215). 45 Yeandle, ‘Sir Edward Dering’. 46 Lukas Erne, Shakespeare and the Book Trade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 206. 47 ibid. p. 207. 48 Germaine Warkentin, Joseph L. Black, and William R. Bowen, T he Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place Circa 1665 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), p. 28. 49 Jason Scott-Warren, ‘Milton's Sakespeare?’ on the Centre for Material Texts website (https://www.english.cam.uk/cmt/), entry of 9 September 2019. See also Claire M. L. Bourne, ‘Vide Supplementum: Early Modern Collation as Play-Reading in the First Folio’, in Katherine Acheson, ed., Early Modern English Marginalia (New York: Routledge, 2018), pp. 195–233. 50 Elisabeth Leedham-Green's Books in Cambridge Inventories, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), is of little help here, because it records very little English literature, and no work by Shakespeare or other obvious contemporaries such as Jonson or Fletcher. This is partly explained by the focus of that work on Cambridge scholars, and by the fact that most of its inventories date from pre-1590. 51 The subsequent edition of 1635, also published by Marriot, was an octavo. It is possible that the compiler of Marsh's inventory was not always meticulous about their judgement of format. 52 Charles I's request is mentioned in John Bill's dedicatory epistle (Torquato Tasso, Godfrey of Boulogne, trans. Edward Fairfax [1624, STC 23699] sig. l2r). 53 John Donne, Poems, by J. D. (1633, STC 7045), sig. A2r. 54 Jean-Christophe Mayer, ‘Early Buyers and Readers’, in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's First Folio, ed. by Emma Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp.103–19 (p.io6). See also Mayer, Shakespeare's Early Readers: A Cultural History from 1590 to 1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). 55 ‘West 129’: Eric Rasmussen and Anthony West, The Shakespeare First Folios: A Descriptive Catalogue (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 521–23. 56 Vestry Minute Book 1558–1663, St Dunstan in the West, LMA, P69/DUN2/B/001/MS03016/001. 57 Edward Arber, A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640 AD, 5 vols (London: privately printed, 1875–94), 111. 365. 58 A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475–1640, 2nd rev. edn by W. A. Jackson, F. S. Ferguson, and Katharine F. Pantzer, 3 vols (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1976–91), 111, 117. See also Scavengers’ Rate Assessments, St Dunstan in the West, LMA, P69/DUN2/C/001/MS03783, fol. 10v. 59 Pollard and Redgrave, Short-Title Catalogue, 111, 80; Will of Richard Hawkins, PRO, PROB 11/169/9. 60 West, History of the Book, p. 6. 61 Smith, First Folio, pp. 18–23. © The Author 2021; all rights reserved This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - The Library of James Marsh, DD (1593-?1645), with ‘Shackspeers playes’ and ‘Donnes Poem’
JF - The Library
DO - 10.1093/library/22.1.33
DA - 2021-03-16
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-library-of-james-marsh-dd-1593-1645-with-shackspeers-playes-and-mAzp06HE19
SP - 33
EP - 56
VL - 22
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DP - DeepDyve
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