[Commonplace book]

F. 23r digitized at high resolution.

Manuscript, in various hands, of a collection of several hundred primarily lighthearted or satirical poems on the subject of women and love. In addition to such titles as On a maidenhead; Choice of mistress; How to chose a wife; A hater of women; and On a blacke wench, the manuscript includes six anagrammatic poems on the names of six women under the title The virgin knott of honor, written by Francis Lenton and presented to the Earl of Dorset; and Shakespeare's second sonnet (f. 54v). The collection also contains numerous songs, including On a freind's absence and A parallel betwixt bowling and preferment; as well as a substantial number of poems on death, such as On the death of a twinne; On a death's head thought to be a virgins when twas taken out of the grave; Upon the death of Sir William Candish; and On one that died of the small pox. Dos-a-dos, the manuscript contains enigmas and epigrams.