Friday, December 7, 2018

New Transcription of Henry Neville Letter! - 15 Sept 1608

If you're a Henry Neville aficionado, you've seen this in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series, 1603-1610, Page 456 for 1608:


Such a tantalizing but brief summary! Well, an anonymous benefactor has transcribed this letter for the greater good of the Neville research community:

S[i]r, I am much ashamed of the errors which were redoubled
towards you yesterday. First by my self in forsaking you
And next by my people, in their yll attending you.
My hope was to have killed our deere in time to have re
turned to you to dinner, But when I saw he had car[-]
ryed us out as farre as Cramborne, and that yt was
not possible for me to com back in time, I thought
yt as good to stay out his death, presuming of their
discrecion at home, not to have stayed your dinner
for me. But I perceave errors yo[u] not single but
one commontly begets another, as bad, if not worse
then my self. I pray you pardon both; ?Con[-]
fession and contrition you have already, which are two
parts of penance. The third, satisfaction, sall be
when ?a ?hon, you will ?Injorne yt. And so hoping,
and desyring to heere, that your comming abroade
yesterday, did you no other harme, but the losse of
your dinner, I commend me hartyly unto you, and
rest

Evermore at your commande
Henry Nevill

We can draw lots of connections between this and Shakespeare's works, but I think I like this one best, compare to bold sentence above:

He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds hot 
blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot 
thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love. Troilus and Cressida, 3.1

Here is the source image. I strongly feel that if the Neville community can work together to share research materials and findings, definitive proof will be discovered in short order.

Update 1/26/2019: John O'Donnell offers a different reading of some of these lines:  A couple of corrections to the transcription of Neville's letter: …But I perceave errors go not single but one commonly begets another, as bad, yf not worse then yt self…The third, satisfaction, shall be when & how, you will Injoine yt…


2 comments:

  1. A couple of corrections to the transcription of Neville's letter: …But I perceave errors go not single but one commonly begets another, as bad, yf not worse then yt self…The third, satisfaction, shall be when & how, you will Injoine yt…

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! I have update the post with your reading.

    ReplyDelete