Another personal allusion is found in his address to the "Ladyes of Founthill" in his native Wilts.
(e) The "Verses sent to the Kinge with ffiges" is inscribed "by Sir John Davis" and the "Elegiacal Epistle" which immediately follows these 'Verses' naturally closes a Volume containing the compositions of our Worthy. 'Davis' is his own spelling in the 1608 edition of 'Nosce Teipsum,' and in Davison's 'Rhapsody.'
(f) Exclusive of the 'Psalms'—the Davies' authorship of which admits of no doubt—the other Poems have Sir John Davies' characteristics in choice of subjects and style, and specific wording, as above. 'Elegie' is herein used as in the title-page of 'Nosce Teipsum.'
The Manuscript is a thin folio of forty-one leaves and one page: but verso of 35th leaf consists of Memoranda headed "The State of England before the Conquest, briefely. By Henry, Lord Hastings, amongst his Notes found": and leaves 36 and 37 and page 38 (verso blank) contain 'Notes' on "William Bastarde, the Norman Conquerour of England." The former is in a handwriting different from all the rest: the latter the same as the Poems that follow "Part of an Elegie in prayse of Marriage." There are a number of contemporary and of more recent blank leaves. It is bound in dark calf, with tooled ornament in the centre.
In preparing this Manuscript for the Press, my anxious endeavour has been faithfully to reproduce the original: only I have extended the contractions 'wh and wch' for 'with' and 'which' and 'or. yr' for 'our' and 'your' and the like. I have somewhat modified the capitals: but in the Divine names (nouns and pronouns) and impersonations, have employed capitals. The punctuation of the Manuscript is almost nil: I have adopted present usage on a uniform principle; and also the apostrophe of the possessive case, &c. Only one point perplexed me a little, viz. the sign of the plural. At the period a peculiar form represented 'es' as denoting plural, but examination showed our Manuscript as using it with 'e' immediately before. Hence it is apparent the Scribe used it arbitrarily. My rule has been to represent it simply by 's' for our plural, except in the cases—pointed out where they occur—in which 'es' as an additional syllable is required for the rhythm. Throughout, the orthography is literally preserved: and besides six collations of my transcript with the Original, by myself, I have had the advantage of a minute comparison by my experienced and erudite friend, the late John Bruce, Esq., of London, and in part by W. Aldis Wright, Esq., M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. So that our first publication of the Manuscript may be relied on as absolutely true to the Original. It may be added that I have adhered to the order in which the several Poems are given, with the single exception of placing the anonymous very noticeable 'Elegiacal Epistle' on the death of Davies last. The two short pieces that precede it in our Volume, occupy in the MS. the closing page, which is a kind of fly-leaf.
I feel assured that every admirer of Sir John Davies will agree with me that a deep debt of gratitude is due to Mr. Laing for his generous consent to have the Manuscript included in our editions of the 'Poems.' Independent of the interest attaching to their illustrious authorship the 'Psalms' seem to me to possess rare merits, being as a whole strikingly faithfull to the Original, and not para-phrastic—hence Anthony-a-Wood's 'Metaphrase'—simple yet picturesque, 'smooth' but melodious, and in every quality infinitely superior to the attempts of Bacon, Jeremy Taylor, Rous, and others. Some of the Versions must find a place in the Church's Psalmody and Hymnology.
I must not omit to acknowledge the courteous attention of Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt in informing me of the existence and ownership of the Manuscript. Anything further requiring to be said, will be found in the footnotes. G.