This sonnet occurs in the following form in a manuscript miscellany of the first part of the seventeenth century,—
In laudem musice et opprobrium contemptorii ejusdem.
1.
Musicke to heare, why hearest thou musicke sadly?
Sweete wth sweetes warre not, joy delights in joy ;
Why lovest yu that wch thou receavest not gladly.
Or els receavest wth pleasure thine annoy?
2.
If the true concord of well tuned soundes
By unions maried, doe offend thy eare,
They doe but sweetlie chide thee, whoe confoundes
In singlenes a parte wch thou shouldst beare.
3.
Marke howe one stringe, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each on each by mutuall orderinge,
Resemblinge childe, and syer, and happy mother,
Wch all in one this single note dothe singe:
Whose speechles songe, beeinge many, seeming one.
Singe this to thee, Thou single shalt prove none.
W. Shakspeare.
Frederick J. Furnivall thought he'd discovered the copy and presented his finding in an article entitled “An Early Ms. Copy of Shakspere’s Eighth Sonnet” in The Academy, December 1880.2
AN EARLY MS. COPY OF SHAKSPERE's EIGHTH SONNET.
London: Dec. 17, 1880.
In the Additional MS. 15,226, a little miscellany of poems, &c., in the British Museum, is a copy of Shakspere's eighth sonnet, in a hand which Prof. S. R. Gardiner and I think to be of the earlier part of James I.'s reign, and having some various readings. Though these may be of little or no value, yet Shakspere students may be glad to see them, and I accordingly send you a transcript of the sonnet.
These early MS. copies are very rare. The present one may have been printed before, but I have not seen the print, and it is not noticed in the Cambridge Shakspere.
Before the article went to press he'd been informed that Halliwell had priority.
Furnivall did us the favor of specifying the manuscript for his copy as British Library Additional MS. 15226. He also printed his text with a number of Halliwell's orthographic modernizations restored to the original.
MS 15226 would not seem to be publicly available in digital facsimile. The description in the Folger Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450–1700 (CELM) is followed by a particularly spare catalog of the contents.
Add. MS 15226
An octavo miscellany of verse and prose, in several largely secretary hands, written from both ends over a long period, 149 leaves, in modern half blue morocco. c.1627-c.1673.
The secretary hands suggest entries could have been made during the 16th century, before italic became the norm. But some of the works copied are said to be copied from books published as late as 1637 when a partial version of “An Epitaph upon King James” (f. 26r) was published in William Camden's Remaines. Being only partial would suggest that the copyist could have had his original from any time after March of 1625.
Hyder Rollins surely saw 15226 before he assigned it “ later than 1640”.3 Raymond Alden has it “probably dating (according to Dr. C. W. Wallace) from the period of the Commonwealth”.4
Of course, the “several” hands suggests more than one owner probably over a period of time. The Latin title and identification of Shakespeare as author are of particular interest. We've already noticed that some of the extremely rare manuscript copies of the sonnets had titles that seem to have pre-dated the 1609 published copy. None of them, however, were attributed any author. The attribution here strongly suggests the copy was taken from 1609 Sonnets directly or at second-hand.
Several of the items listed in the CELM description have Latin titles that are not original to the associated work. The song ‘Hence, all you vain delights’ (f. 28v-9r) from Beaumont and Fletcher's, The Nice Valour, for a particular example, is entitled “In laudem Melancholie”. The song was first published in A Description of the King and Queene of Fayries (London, 1634). The little information available concerning Add. MS. 15226 suggests that one of the owners of the manuscript book was in the habit of providing his own Latin titles. It is unlikely that the title here for Sonnet 8 was ever in more general circulation or ever applied by Shakespeare. The text is otherwise so close to the 1609 that there can be little doubt that this was the copyist's source.
Of the rare number of manuscript copies of poems attributed to Shakespeare, this copy of Sonnet 8 attracts the least attention. Likely because the text is so close to the poem as published in 1609.
1Halliwell, James O. The Works of Shakespeare (1865). 433.
2 “An Early Ms. Copy of Shakspere’s Eighth Sonnet” in The Academy, Vol. 28. December 1880. 462.
3Rollins, Hyder. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. The Sonnets. (1944). I.23n.
4Alden. Raymond Macdonald. The Sonnets of Shakespeare (1916). 33.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
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- Sonnet 130: Shakespeare's Reply to a 1580 Poem by Thomas Watson. September 7, 2024. “Interesting to see our Derek Hunter debating with Dennis McCarthy, at the North group,...”.
- Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”
Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the V.G.S. Oxfordian Shakespeare Poetry Page for many poems by Shakespeare together with historical context.
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