The Northumberland Manuscript has confounded researchers for over a century. The flyleaf has the name of William Shakespeare written on it several times as well as the names of two Shakespeare plays (Richard II and Richard III) and a quote from Rape of Lucrece. Visit the Folger Library Website for a high res facsimile. Also read this book from 1904 which offers a detailed description of the flyleaf and included documents. This article from the Lost Plays Database also has a lot of valuable information.
The Odd Handwriting on the Northumberland Manuscript Flyleaf
The flyleaf seems to have been written between 1594-1597. The name "Nevill" appears to be written twice on the top left and the Neville family motto "ne vile velis" is also written twice, once as a scribble and once prominently Therefore, it has long been suggested that the collection of manuscripts might have belonged to Henry Neville. Here are the two names and the prominent motto. They are very hard to read, but appear to be in the same handwriting. (Note, this is not Henry Neville's signature. He signed his name in italic, not like this, though it still appears to be his handwriting):
Interestingly, if you look carefully, it appears that the names might actually say "Nevills". It could be that Henry Neville wrote it that way to mark his ownership of the manuscripts. It looks clearer if you invert the colors on the image (I did this using the "Invert" feature on the GIMP photo-editing software). I have underlined the possible "s" in red; the letter looks very much like a current-day"6":
Here are some similar word-final "s" letters from Neville's handwriting to compare:
Look at these enhanced images from retroreveal.org of the second, clearly "Nevill". It really seems like there is an "s" at the end, suggesting perhaps ownership:
A large umber of scribbles and pen trials cover the flyleaf. Through my archival research, I have found many correspondences between these scribbles and the handwriting of Henry Neville. This is new evidence not examined or presented by anyone previously, as far as I know. I believe this provides strong reason to believe Henry Neville may have, in fact, done the scribbles on the flyleaf.
William Shakespeare and the contents of the Northumberland Manuscript
This handy chart from the 1904 book shows the major words and phrases found on the flyleaf. There are also many letters and incomplete words scribbled every which way on the paper.
This gives you a sense of how it actually looks with the scribbles (visit the Folger Library Website for the much higher resolution facsimile I have used in this analysis):
The name "Francis Bacon' is also written several times. The flyleaf seems to have covered several manuscripts written by Bacon. Not only was Francis Bacon the first cousin of Henry Neville's wife Anne Killigrew Neville, Francis Bacon's older half-sister Elizabeth Bacon was Henry Neville's stepmother. Neville was also close to the Sidney family. So the the inclusion of manuscripts by Francis Bacon and Philip Sidney would also be consistent with his ownership.
Henry Neville's Handwriting
Though almost all of the writing on the flyleaf is in a standard secretary hand, it varies a great deal in terms of letter forms. Henry Neville's handwriting *also* was a standard secretary hand that varied a great deal within those norms. As far as I can tell, he could write in at three different styles. I will call them: "draft or cursive secretary hand," "formal secretary hand," and "super formal secretary hand". He also could write in italic and his signature is always in italic.
Here is an excellent example of his formal secretary hand in a letter from 1600 to Robert Cecil:
And here is an example of his draft or cursive secretary hand from 1594 (read the transcription):
Here are examples of his italic signature:
Henry Neville also appears to have been able to write in a super formal secretary hand. We have about a dozen examples of this style. It is similar to his formal secretary hand, except for a few letter forms that are different. For instance, "I", "e", and "h" are written differently.
This letter from 1600, from Henry Neville to Robert Cecil, is reproduced here with permission of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House. The letter concerns John Thorpe, the architect. It is described in this Calendar of Manuscripts at Hatfield House as a "holograph" letter, meaning it was written by Henry Neville himself, not just signed by him. This is an excellent example of the "super formal" style.
Here is a draft letter from 1599 that has some of the same characteristics as this "super formal secretary hand"; it might even be considered a fifth category, "draft super formal secretary hand":
See these examples below of "Right Honorable" which Henry Neville often wrote at the beginning of letters to William Cecil (Lord Burghley) and Robert Cecil. What is important to note is how he varies the "h" at the beginning of "honorable" and in the word "right". The examples on the right from 1594-1600 show his formal style "h" and the ones on the left show the more informal. The "e" at the end of "honorable" also shows a formal/informal variation. Note how consistent these are despite this point of variation:
In February 1601, Henry Neville wrote a letter to Robert Cecil right before being arrested for the Essex Rebellion. We have both the draft and the final version. I have created this comparison to demonstrate, first, that Henry Neville could write with a very practiced secretary hand. Second, how much his handwriting could vary. If you compare these carefully, they are certainly by the same person, and are consistent with Henry Neville's handwriting over a 20+ year period:
Variation in Henry Neville's Handwriting
Henry Neville varied his handwriting substantially and to an unusual degree. See these two examples of "Thomas" written in his formal secretary hand in 1594. He writes the capital T two different ways in the same word in the same letter on the same page:
Here he varies the "e" in the same word in the same letter on the same page:
See how he varies even the spelling of the style of the place he lived, Billingbear, in two letters a year apart (1594/1595) to the same person (Thomas Windebank). At first it might even seem like the handwriting of two different people, but if you look carefully, he has only modified the style of specific letters (the initial letter and "e") and the spelling of the first letter. Everything else is the same.
The profound variation in handwriting style is what makes the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf so strange. To quote the Lost Plays Database, "The title [Asmund and Cornelia] appears again in a different hand (although possibly by the same scribe) to the left of this list." There are many "hands" on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf, but that doesn't mean necessarily that there were multiple scribes. The same is true for Henry Neville letters, which are written in several different hands, but only one scribe. (Note, though, we do also have examples where other people wrote out his letters and he only signed them, particularly his secretaries Ralph Winwood and John Packer.)
Look at these pen trials. He writes the word "them" in three completely different ways with different "t" and different "h" and different "e" letters. The word "selves" is written with an "e" that looks like an epsilon; this is very unusual in Henry Neville's letters, but it is something that occurs on the Northumberland Manuscript. He even appears to write the number "3" three different ways. This style of playing with letter forms is demonstrated in other places and is clearly demonstrated on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf. This is one of the most important keys to unraveling its mysteries:
At the National Archive there is a sample of Henry Neville's handwriting where he writes the name "willaston". The "will" portion of that name is remarkably similar to three examples of how "william" written on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf. Here is the letter in question. Henry Neville wrote some notes on the back of the letter when he was ambassador to France.
There are several references to a Mr. Willaston in Winwood's Memorials; he was involved in delivering letters for Neville and perhaps money as well. What's important however is how closely the "will" of his name matches the "will" on the Northumberland Manuscript. The "w", the "i", and the double-"l" all seem like very close matches. Compare Examples 1-4 with Henry Neville's Example B.
We also have an example of Henry Neville writing his son's name "william" in 1601, Example A above (see below) and in Example C in 1612.
There is a great deal of variation in all of these samples, from the flyleaf and in Neville's handwriting. For instance, the double-"l" is differs in all six of the above examples. But there is a clear consistency overall.
You can compare these other examples from Neville's letters. The variation in the Northumberland Manuscript is matched with Neville's variations:
Henry Neville signed his name in italic and often wrote capital "N" with a similar italic letter. However, I have found a capital "N" from a letter he wrote to Robert Cecil in April 1602 which matches quite closely the examples on the flyleaf:
honorificabiletudine
The flyleaf has the word "honorificabiletudine" written on it. This is of particular interest because the play Love's Labour's Lost has the word "honorificabilitudinitatibus" in it.
The letter forms of "honorificabiletudine" match very closely the forms found in the 1600 letter to Robert Cecil reproduced above. The "ho" matches Neville's super formal style as does the "a" and the "b". the "d" is similar to his normal formal style, though he varies his "d" greatly in different documents. The rest of the letters are consistent with Neville's handwriting.
I encourage people to analyze the letter forms carefully for themselves and come to their own conclusions. It seems to me that the handwriting is largely consistent.
Compare these examples from a 1594 letter. It is an extremely close match:
The letter "f" in the middle of the word "honorificabiletudine" is in a different style than the rest of the word. I have found several quite close examples.
This note, written on the back of a draft letter, shows the variety of styles Henry Neville employed. The italic "f" in "certificate" is close to the "f" in "honorificabiletudine":
Or compare this "f" in "pacificus":
Here is another comparison with a letter from 1600:
Comparing "h"
Here is one "h" from a letter Henry Neville wrote in 1600 with "h" written on the front and back covers of the manuscript. These seem like remarkably close matches.
Comparing "your"
First, look how closely this "yo" from the flyleaf matches this closing from a letter from 1594. It's almost a precise match:
The word "your" also occurs many times on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf, both oriented right-side up or upside down. There is a great deal of variation among the examples. I have compared it with three letters written in Henry Neville's "super formal style". The light-colored samples of "your" below are from those letters. The dark letters are the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf. They seem very consistent, including the flourish found in the top right sample from the Manuscript (flourishes are found throughout the manuscript of a similar style):
To emphasize this point, compare these two examples of "your" pay very close attention to the flourish coming off the y and the ligature connecting to the o. This is a very close match.
And here is another match from another letter:
Here are all of the "your" examples I could find on the flyleaf one the left with the examples from Neville's letters on the right.
For comparison, here are six different examples of "your" written by people with typical secretary hand in the same period (around 1600). As far as I can tell, a large majority of writers of the period abbreviated "your" in letters, but Henry Neville almost always wrote it out. As you can see above, it is written out many times on the flyleaf as well. Here are some control samples to compare:
Capital "I" on the Back of the Manuscript
There is a curious capital "I" on the back cover of the manuscript that is quite different from the other capital "I" letters found on the front. Henry Neville usually didn't write capital "I" that way. In his collection of letters from his time as ambassador to France, he appears to have copied a letter in French. The handwriting is clearly his, though there are some variations from his normal writing -- including this capital "I" which seems like a close match for the Northumberland Manuscript.
"the" scribbles
If you turn the flyleaf upside down, there are several examples of "th" or "the" scribbled. Here is the section of the document, turned upside down, which has the scribbles:
And here is a comparison with Henry Neville's letters. I have put the closest matches to the left of each example from the flyleaf. Please examine these very closely. The correspondences are extraordinary. It is extremely unlikely that two separate individuals would be demonstrating the exact same variability in their handwriting in this way. This is extremely strong evidence that Henry Neville made these scribbles, especially since his name and family motto are written on the flyleaf:
"z"
On the back of the flyleaf is the letter "z" and this from a document Henry Neville wrote in 1600 in France is a remarkably close match along with three examples from a copy of a French letter written by Neville in his own hand:
"places"
If you look at the flyleaf upside down, there is a word that begins with "pl" and appears to say "places". It seems to be almost an exact match from a letter to Robert Cecil on May 1598. There is an example of "pl" that is an exact match with the writing on the flyleaf:
Their/Than
This comparison of "their" and perhaps "than" from the Northumberland Manuscript shows clearly how Henry Neville's handwriting varied but how it is unmistakably the same as the manuscript. Neville wrote the "t" with and without a base, and he wrote "e" two different ways as we have discussed previously. But the consistency across time and the similarity with the Northumberland Manuscript is obvious:
"Thomas"
We have the name "Thomas" on the manuscript at least six times. Once as part of "Thomas Nashe" (top left in the image below) and fully and partially in many scribbles. Compare to the super formal handwriting from Neville's 1594 letter. The other examples are from letters Neville wrote to Thomas Windebank and have the less formal "h", which seems to be the form used in the flyleaf. This is a particularly nice example since we have four separate examples from Neville's letters. It's all a bit hard to read, and there is a great deal of variability, but it's obviously a very close match.
Below is a third "Thomas" on the flyleaf. To the right I have an example from a 1594 letter. The capital "T" is obviously different, but compare the flyleaf "T" with the "T"s in the examples above. The rest of the name is quite a close match. The "h" used on this example on the flyleaf is the same formal "h" in this example from Neville's 1594 letter:
"and"
These three scribbles of "and" are very useful. The first two were written upside-down on the flyleaf and the third right side up. Below that is an "nd" from another word on the flyleaf. Here I compare them with the "and"s in one formal letter from 1594 and two formal letters from 1599. This shows clearly just how much Henry Neville's handwriting could vary just within one letter. Compare the three samples from the flyleaf which also vary, but the commonalities are clear. The writing and scribbles on the flyleaf vary in the exact same ways Henry Neville's handwriting varied.
Compare to the four ways Neville wrote "and" in this document from 1591. The handwriting is italic instead of secretary hand, but you can see the variation of Neville's handwriting within a single document:
"hon/hom"
Henry Neville began his letters to Robert Cecil with "Right Honnorable", so we have many examples of that. There is a scribble "hom" on the flyleaf written in very clear and dark ink (perhaps as part of "Thomas"). It is an obvious match for Neville's handwriting. This is Neville's less formal way of writing an "h":
Here is another very similar example from the flyleaf that is an extremely close match for the rest:
Capital A
This example from the back of the flyleaf seems quite distinctive and remarkably similar to Neville's handwriting. This is more of a stylized "A" than Neville usually wrote:
Here is an example from the front of the flyleaf that seems to match Neville's handwriting extremely well:
The capital letter "I" (equivalent to "J") occurs at least five times on the front of the manuscript. Here is one of the closest matches of the five:
Here are complete comparisons with the 5 capital "I" letters. I think that two of them may be in someone else's handwriting, I begin to explore this in Part 4.
"many"
This is a very strong comparison with Neville's 1594 letter. Every letter matches, the "a" is particularly distinctive. There is always going to be some variability in handwriting, but the styles exhibited in the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf match the styles of handwriting Henry Neville used -- and look similar. That is the most important point here.
"M"
Compare this "M" with the huge flourish to these three samples from two of Henry Neville's letters. The flourish is missing from the ones from the letters but otherwise seems to be a close match:
"fee taile shall"
This is difficult to read. The first word appears to be "fee" with an italic "f" and secretary hand "ee". The second word and third words are almost definitely "taile" and "shall" in secretary hand, though is not clear if they were meant to be read together.
According to Rastell's 1595 An Exposition of Certain Difficult and Obscure Words, "fee tail" is "where land is given to a man and his heirs of his body begotten." Henry Neville was personally concerned with issues like this, since some land was left to him in this manner and he intended to leave land to his children in this manner.
The "shall" on the flyleaf extends down very far with a bold straight line. This is exactly how Henry Neville wrote the word. This match is extremely strong, especially the third on the bottom:
"wher..."
This word is written by itself in the top corner of the flyleaf. It begins "wher". Compare to Neville's 1601 draft letter "whereby". The letter formation is almost exactly the same, especially the shape of the "h", the line going from the bowl of the "h" to the "e", and the line from the "e" to the "r" which are also very close matches, as well as the line extending out of the "r".
Self
I have found two examples of "self" or "self" written on the flyleaf. These examples from Neville's letters seem to be extremely close matches. Remember, we are comparing letters with scribbles, so there is bound to be a certain amount of variation. Also remember, Neville himself varied his writing a great deal.
The Quote from Rape of Lucrece
One of the most interesting aspects of the flyleaf is a quote written out which almost exactly matches a line from Rape of Lucrece. The handwriting is different from most of the other handwriting on the flyleaf. It seems to read: "revealing day through euery crany peepes and". Lucrece has almost exactly the same line: "Revealing day through every cranny spies, And"
In some ways this is similar to Henry Neville's draft handwriting and in some respects it seems to differ. The way "peepes" is written matches almost exactly the way he writes "p" and double-"e", though he varies both a great deal from context to context. Here are some samples, I am comparing the "e" on the left and the "p" on the right:
Conclusion
What can we conclude from this analysis? It's is a good start at establishing that Henry Neville did, indeed, write the scribbles on the Northumberland Manuscript. Please see Part 2 of this article offers substantial new evidence that Henry Neville made scribbles exactly like those found on the Northumberland Manuscript Flyleaf.
Bonus Material - Many More Comparisons
This example of "ing" from the back of the flyleaf seems very consistent with this letter from 1594 and 1598:
The name "ffrancis" and "ffrancis Bacon" is written several times on the flyleaf. Compare this example with the word "ffrance" in a 1599 draft letter from Henry Neville. Seems like quite a close match except the "r" which differs:
Look at this "g". The match is stunning. Plus the angular "p". These are from the back of the flyleaf.
The "fo" seems like a good match, these are five different letters over a 10 year period:
"loving(e)"
The flyleaf has an "e" at the end and a very exaggerated "v" but you can see the clear similarities, particularly with the "in" that looks like an "m" and the loop on the "g". The formation of the "lo" is also identical:
Most
Here is how Henry Neville wrote "most" over time. The angle of the "S" is almost exactly the same in all the examples and they all show a ligature between the "s" and "t" which is a characteristic of Neville's handwriting in general. Close match for the two examples here from the flyleaf. (Note: Neville wrote "most" differently in his "super formal" letters.)
Capital R
The "R" in "Rychard" seems like a close match, though it's hard to see:
This is a little easier to see the details:
by
This looks like a close match. Neville's way of writing the word seems to be quite consistent.
"K"
This K seems like a particularly good match with this example from 1594.
We can also compare the "b". Remember we are comparing a scribble with formal letters, but the handwriting is obviously consistent in style:
Compare these two examples of "my lord" from the flyleaf with these 1594 examples of Henry Neville's writing, all taken from a single letter. Seems like a very close match.
"But"
From the back of the flyleaf, here is the word "But" twice. The writer appears to be practicing it or doing some other type of pen trial. Here are two examples, one from 1594 and just the letter "B" from 1600. Seems very consistent. It's important to note that this is only one of many ways that Henry Neville wrote a capital B. The Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf also shows many variations on the style of the capital B.
Here are examples from the 1590 letter that are even better:
And this example of "pen trials" from the back of a 1599 note makes the point even more clearly:
"Earle"
The flyleaf has the word "Earle" written on it at least three times, one right side up and twice upside down, the top example is from Neville's letter to the Earl of Dorset in 1606:
Capital "S"
The flyleaf has the word "Shakespeare" written on it many times with a capital "S" as well as some examples of capital "S" written by themselves. Sometimes it's hard to tell if an "S" is even intended since the letter forms vary so wildly. The scribe was obviously playing around with letter forms intentionally. I have collected five definite "S" letters and compared them with Neville's handwriting. Neville varied his "S" a great deal especially in draft letters. There is an extraordinary correspondence here in the variation of forms:
The Second "ne vile velis"
There is a second "ne vile velis" written just above the first one. It is a little hard to see, but it is unmistakably there, and it is noted in the chart below:
This shows how close the two mottos are to each other:
Acknowledgments
Thank you to John O'Donnell for his helpful discussions and transcription skills.
Brenda James and William Rubinstein suggested that Henry Neville wrote the text on the Northumberland Manuscript flyleaf in their 2005 book Truth Will Out. John Casson also did extensive research on the watermarks and handwriting of the manuscript, though I differ with much of his analysis. See this article.
The 10th Duke of Northumberland’s Will Trust retains sole ownership of the images on the Folger Library Website.
