[VII. HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED POEMS.]
METAPHRASE OF SOME OF THE PSALMS, &c.
NOTE.
The Manuscript Volume from which the following hitherto unpublished Poems are taken, is the property of David Laing, Esq., LL.D., Edinburgh, who purchased it, or perhaps obtained it in exchange many years ago from the Rev. John Jamieson, D.D., author of the "Scottish Dictionary" and other learned works—a scholar of full learning and to be held in honour in many respects. It was parted with to his like-minded friend as containing the hitherto unprinted 'Psalms,' &c., by Sir John Davies; but no memorial remains to ascertain the quarter from whence Dr. Jamieson obtained the Volume. Mr. Laing states that, if anything was said at the time on the subject, it has escaped his recollection; and this cannot be wondered at, as it must have been from thirty to forty years ago.
Along with eminent Experts I have carefully compared this Manuscript with undoubted holographs of Sir John Davies, preserved in Her Majesty's State Paper Office (State Papers: Domestic. James I. Vol. 173. No. 54: Oct. 18, 1624, etc., etc.) and among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum—the former being preferable as being of the same year-date with ours: and I feel constrained to pronounce it throughout non-autograph. There are at least FIVE handwritings in the volume—as more particularly described in locis: but none bears a resemblance to Sir John Davies'. The Manuscript, therefore, belongs to a class that abounds at the Period, viz, a Scribe's transcript and which closely resembles that of MS. Speeches and other writings of Davies preserved among the Harleian MSS. This is further, in accord with Sir John Davies' practice, as appears by 'The Egerton Papers' of Mr. Collier, (Camden Society, 1840, I Vol. 40.) where in a letter to Ellesmere (pp. 410-16) he apologizes for his own 'ill hand' and substitutes his 'man's.' The evidence for Davies' authorship of these Poems is EXTERNAL and INTERNAL.
(a) The existence of the 'Metaphrase of the Psalms'—which composes the greater portion of the Manuscript—has long been on record. Thus Anthony-a-Wood in his Athenæ states "Besides the before-mentioned things (as also Epigrams, as 'tis said) which were published by, and under the name of Sir John Davies, are several MSS. of his writing and composing, which go from hand to hand, as (I) Metaphrase of several of K. David's Psalms...." (edn. Bliss ii., 403.) The original of the Psalms' MS. was in possession of Sir John's own daughter, the Countess of Huntingdon, as I found in the Carte MSS. Bodleian, Oxford.
The others are MSS.—some in part since published—which Wood describes as formerly in the Library of Sir James Ware, and then in that of the Earl of Clarendon.
(b) The handwriting of the Manuscript is exactly correspondent with that of its date '1624.' It is uniform from Psalm I. to L.