'Madam, althowe I have differred writtyng in your booke,
I am no lesse your frend than you do looke.
'Kateryn the Quene KP.'
Other inscriptions are inserted by Margaret Queen of Scotland, Mary Countess of Lennox and mother of Lord Darnley, and by the Countess of Southampton's daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Anne.
James Button, Esq., of the county of Worcester, gave, on March 28, a curious relic of the ancient language of Cornwall, being three Miracle-Plays of the Creation, the Passion, and the Resurrection, in Cornish, contained in a MS. on vellum, small folio, eighty-three leaves, written in the fifteenth century; now numbered Bodl. 791. A copy on paper of the Play of the Creation, written by John Jordan in 1611, is also in the Library, numbered Bodl. 219, which appears to have come from the library of King James I, having the royal crown stamped on the parchment cover, with the initials I.K. A second modern copy has also been recently presented (in 1849) by Edwin Ley, Esq., of Bosahan, Cornwall, which is accompanied by a translation by John Keigwyn, made in 1695. The dramas were printed in two volumes at the University Press, with a translation, notes, and glossary, by Mr. Edwin Norris, in 1859.
Some MSS. were given about this time by the three sons of Rich. Colf, D.D., and in 1618 twenty Greek volumes by Cecil, Earl of Exeter.
[67] The gift is omitted in the Benefaction-Register, apparently because it was a rule not to record donations of single volumes [Reliquiæ Bodl. pp. 91, 283]; consequently several books of the greatest value are omitted.
[68] George Herbert expresses the same idea at the end of his Church Porch:—
'If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains;
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.'