NOTES ON PRYNNE'S BREVIATE, BY ARCHBISHOP LAUD.

I have two Queries to propose; but before I can do so effectually, it is necessary to enter into an explanation and statement of facts, which may be considered as Notes conveying information which will, I anticipate, prove new and interesting to many readers of "N. & Q."

On the 2nd of September, 1644, Archbishop Laud, then a man of more than threescore years and ten, but still with intellect vigorous, active, and unimpaired by age or trouble, appeared at the bar of the House of Lords, to recapitulate in one address the various points of his defence, which had been made at intervals during the six months previous, as the trial had gone on, from time to time, since the 12th of the preceding March. On coming to the bar, he was for the moment staggered by seeing, in the hands of each of his judges, a blue book, containing, as he had just learnt, great part of his own most secret memoranda and most private thoughts, extracted by the bitterest of his opponents out of his Diary and MS. book of devotions. This was Prynne's Breviate of the Life of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury; extracted (for the most part) verbatim out of his own Diary, and other writings, under his own hand.

"So soon as I came to the bar," (this is his own account,) "I saw every Lord present with a new thin book in folio, in a blue coat. I heard that morning that Mr. Pryn had printed my Diary, and published it to the world, to disgrace me. Some notes of his own are made upon it. The first and the last are two desperate untruths, beside some others. This was the book then in the Lords' hands, and I assure myself, that time picked for it, that the sight of it might damp me, and disinable me to speak. I confess I was a little troubled at it. But after I had gathered up myself, and looked up to God, I went on to the business of the day, and thus I spake."

History of Troubles and Trial, c. xlii. pp. 411, 412.

In his defence he turned this circumstance, and the use previously made of his Diary and Devotions during the course of his trial, very happily to account. After speaking of the means which had been used to frame the charges against him, how he had been "sifted to the very bran," he says:

"My very pockets searched; and my Diary, nay, my very Prayer Book taken from me, and after used against me; and that, in some cases, not to prove, but to make a charge. Yet I am thus far glad, even for this sad accident. For by my Diary your Lordships have seen the passages of my life; and by my Prayer Book, the greatest secrets between God and my soul: so that you may be sure you have me at the very bottom. Yet, blessed be God, no disloyalty is found in the one; no Popery in the other."

Ibid. c. xliii. p. 413.

The recapitulation over, the Archbishop was remanded to the Tower, and prosecuted the work on which he had been long engaged, The History of his Troubles and Tryal: intending, when that was finished, to publish a reply to this Breviate. His words are:

"For this Breviate of his, if God lend me life and strength to end this (the History) first, I shall discover to the world the base and malitious slanders with which it is fraught."

Ibid. c. xx. p. 254.

His life was not spared to do more than carry on that History to the day preceding the passing of the bill of attainder by the Lords, three months after the publication of the Breviate. Thus it ends:

"And thus far had I proceeded in this sad history by Jan. 3, 1644-45. The rest shall follow as it comes to my knowledge."

Ibid. c. xlvi. p. 443.

Wharton adds this note:

"Next day the Archbishop, receiving the news that the bill of attainder had passed the House of Lords, broke off his history, and prepared himself for death."

He was beheaded the 10th day of the same month, January 1645.

The information I have to communicate, after this long preface, is, that a copy of this book of Prynne's, with marginal notes by the Archbishop, made apparently in preparation for the answer which he contemplated, is still extant; and I shall be thankful to any of your readers who can give any further information on the subject.

In this copy the notes are only a transcript from those made by the Archbishop; and partly, perhaps, owing to the narrow margin of Prynne's book, we have to regret that they are not more ] copious; but, such they are, they are of value, as throwing new light on some points of history; and they appear not to have been known to any of the biographers of Laud, or to those who, as Archbishop Sancroft and Wharton, sought most carefully after his literary remains.

The volume of which I speak is the property of an Institution at Warrington, "The Warrington Museum and Library," to which it was presented by Mr. Crosfield, of Fir Grove, Latchford, at the time of the library being established, in 1848, having been bought by his father at a book-stall in Manchester some years previously.

A transcript of the notes is now before me; which the Committee of the Museum have, with great liberality, allowed to be made for the edition of the Archbishop's works now publishing in The Anglo-Catholic Library. The readiness which they have shown to impart the benefit of their collection, and the kindness with which the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Marsh, has given a full and accurate account of the MS. information, and himself transcribed the notes, deserve the most public acknowledgment.

That the notes in this volume are not written by the Archbishop is proved decisively, not only by the handwriting, but by the following note on Prynne's translation of the Diary, at p. 9. last line,—"I, whiles others were absent, held the cup to him," on which the following is the note:—

"In yt Breviate in which ye Archbp. has made [his notes], 'tis printed city, and in this place he has [written] 'In my diary 'tis calicem. Note that....'"

Owing to the edge of the paper being worn, some parts of the note are lost; they have been conjecturally filled up by the words in brackets.

On the title-page is written, in a hand cotemporary with the transcript:

"Memorand. Mr. Prynn presented this worke of his to the Lds. Sep. 2nd, 1644, ye same day that ye poor Archbp. was to make his recapitulation, divers Lords holding it in their hands all the while, &c."

And beneath this, apparently in the same hand, is written:

"This I suppose was written by Mr. Dell, secretary to Archbp."

It is inferred that this memorandum had been made by Mr. Dell on the Archbishop's copy, and transcribed together with the notes.

Now the Queries I have to make are these three:

1. Whether any copies of Prynne's Breviate are extant, having, in the last line of the ninth page cited above, the misprint city for cup?[1]

2. Whether any information can be given which may lead to the discovery of the copy containing the original notes of the Archbishop, of which the Warrington copy is a transcript?

3. Whether any allusion to the fact of the Archbishop having made such notes is made by any cotemporary writer? Antony Wood, Wharton, and Heylin do not mention it.

In respect to the second Query, I presume to ask every one who has access to a copy of Prynne's Breviate to look into it, and see whether it contains MS. marginal notes. I do so, because in so many cases copies of works stand in their places in libraries unopened, and with contents unknown; the knowledge of their special value having perhaps been possessed by some curious collector or librarian, but not being noted down, having died with him: and the owner of the volume, should it be found, will receive his reward in the consciousness of possessing a treasure, such as it is, which before he knew not of—some of the last writing of a great man, imprisoned and anticipating death, who was engaged in vindicating himself from misrepresentation and calumnies, part of which had adhered to his memory till these notes came to light.

For the identification of that volume, should it be found, and for the information of your readers, I will transcribe the first paragraph of the Breviate, with the Archbishop's marginalia:

"Hee was borne at Redding in Barkshire, October 7, 1573, of poore (a) and obscure (b) parents, in a cottage (c), just over against the (d) Cage: which Cage since his comming to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury, upon complaint of Master Elveston (that it was a dishonour the Cage should be suffered to stand so neare the house, where so great a royall Favourite and Prelate had his birth) was removed to some other place; and the cottage (e) pulled downe, and new-built by the Bishop."

(a) "All this, if true, is no fault of mine."

(b) "My father had born all offices in ye town save ye mayoralty."

(d) "The Cage stood two streets off from my father's house all his life time, and divers years after, as many yet living know. By whom it was remov'd into yt street, and why out again, I know not."

(e) "No one stick of ye cottage was pulled down by me."

The passage which concludes the notes on p. 35. is unfortunately maimed by the wearing away of the edges of the leaves; it is as follows:—

... "And as I hope for comfort in my Saviour this is true ... uncharitable conclusion, my life is in ye hands of God ... blessed be His name. But let not Mr. Pryn call for Blood...."

It should be added that the volume has been formerly in the hands of some one who took an interest in the Archbishop's history, as a few notes in a handwriting of the last century are inserted on slips in various parts of the volume, chiefly passages from the Diary "maliciously omitted by Prynne."

The writer of this notice has not the means of identifying the hand by which these more recent notes, or the transcript of those of the Archbishop, were written; but will take this occasion of suggesting what has often appeared to him a great desideratum in literature—that is, a collection of fac-similes of the autographs of distinguished people, whether literary or public characters; not merely their signatures, which are found in existing collections of autography, but passages sufficiently long to aid in identifying their ordinary writing, and, if possible, taken from writing made at different periods of their lives. With the improvements of mechanical skill which we enjoy, such works might be afforded at a much cheaper rate than formerly, and would, it is conceived, command a remunerating sale.

It remains only to add, that information on the points about which inquiry is made may be communicated through the medium of the "N. & Q.," or by letter to the Rev. James Bliss, Ogborne St. Andrew, near Marlborough, who is engaged in editing the works of Archbishop Laud; and who would be glad to receive any information with respect to unpublished letters or papers of the Archbishop.

C. R. O.

[1] [It is clear there have been two editions of Prynne's Breviate, both printed in the year 1644. The copy in the King's Library, at the British Museum, contains the misprinted word city, but is corrected in the Errata, at the bottom of p. 35.; whereas the copy in the Grenville Library has it correctly printed cup, and the list of Errata is omitted.—ED.]