Seventeenth-century Women's Literature.

an autograph book of literary texts in verse and prose written entirely in the large, rounded, amateurish hand of Dorothy Calthorpe (later Harvey), whose semi-calligraphic signature and inscriptions appear on the upper paste-down ("Dorothy Calthorpe" in gold ink), on the first page ("A red marble Chappel Erected by my hand Dorothy Calthorpe Jun 20 1684" with a drawing of a chapel, all in red ink), and on the last page ("Dorothy Calthorpe I begane this booke Janewary the 20 in the yeare 1672" in black ink), c.175 pages, 8vo, written throughout right to the edge of the page, with occasional flourishes and decorative features at borders, the last four pages of text heavily deleted, stubs of two excised leaves, later inscription on upper endpaper "Anne L'Estrange Sa Livre Mars. 27 1738", contemporary speckled calf, slightly rubbed, 1672-1684



[together with:] The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New. London: Henry Hills and John Field, 1660, 8vo, dorothy calthorpe's bible, inscribed by her in black ink on first blank page ("Dorothy Harvey her Booke Giuen me by my uncell Nicholas Jun 15 1686"), numerous engraved plates, text in double columns, ruled in red throughout, later inscriptions including "Katharine Tracy" and "Thomas Potter" and others relating to members of the Middleton and other families in 1836 and 1860, contemporary black morocco panelled in gilt, spine gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, extremities rubbed

Removed from Shrubland Park, Suffolk

Further Property from Shrubland Park, including a selection of Old Master Paintings and Drawings, will be offered for sale at Shrubland this coming September (please see the back of this catalogue for further details)

[Bible, 1660:] Herbert 669

contents of the manuscript

fol [3r-4r] "Philismena to Philander" (40 lines of verse, in rhymed couplets, beginning "tis not Philander that I disallow")

fol [4v-6r] "Philander to Philismena" (62 lines of verse, in rhymed couplets, beginning "oh glorious conquest infenetly aboue")

fol [6v-7v] "In commendations of a country Life it being so innocent" (32 lines of verse, in rhymed couplet beginning "oh how I hate the tumults of a Citty")

fol [7v-14r] "A Discription of the Garden of Eden" (an imaginative prose account)

fol [14v-62r] "A Short History of the Life and Death of S^r Ceasor Dappefer / or els a pleasent histtory of Jewlious: and Dorinda the truth of it was so Lately represented that some of those worthy persons are still liueing and ownes what: is here repated" (prose narrative, dated at the end "1677", followed by three pages of explanation about the "designe of this Littell Memoise", which was "to giue a true relation of my owne famely" under assumed names)

fol [62v-87v] "A Castell in the aire or the pallace of the man in the moon" (prose, a religious meditation in the first person, apparently lacking ending on one of two excised leaves)

fol [88r-89v] "Philismena to Philander" and half of "Philander to Philismena" again, written from the reverse end and heavily deleted with a series of swirling loops

dorothy calthorpe

The writer of this manuscript signs herself up to 1684 as "Dorothy Calthorpe" and then in 1686 (in her bible) as "Dorothy Harvey", presumably by what was then her married name. She was evidently a member of the Calthorpe family, branches of which have resided in various parts of Suffolk and, to a lesser extent in Norfolk, for many generations. The family archives of Lord de Saumarez, of Shrubland Park, where the present volumes were found, contain, for instance (HA 93/2/3111-3112), two court rolls of 1610 and 1611 relating to Matilda, wife of Christopher Calthorpe, and to the manor of Ditchingham. They also contain (SA 6/5) a series of genealogical papers relating c.1653-1709 to the Harvey family of Wickham Skeith. A certain Rev. Calthorpe Harvey of Cockfield is recorded elsewhere in 1734, and it is possible that the family was connected to the Herveys, Marquesses of Bristol, of Ickworth. No record of Dorothey Harvey (neé Calthorpe) herself, however, is as yet known.

She herself explains that the lengthy prose narrative in the middle of the volume (with the heroine Dorinda) is based on her own family ("from my grandfather to my fathers death"), with the names changed, which at least offers a clue to her identity.

Writing probably when a relatively young lady, in a characteristically large hand, with idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation, as well as her own style of decorative fillers, she neatly copies out what are obviously her own compositions in verse and prose, ranging from pastoral and moral love poems to semi-autobiographical narratives and somewhat fanciful religious meditations, evidently influenced by her reading of 17th-century romances as well as more edifying literature. Her conceit on the first page implying that this book is a kind of "Chappel" may have been inspired by George Herbert's The Temple. It is also interesting that in one poem [on fol 6r] she should cite approvingly a celebrated satire by the Earl of Rochester:

...his actions folly and his judgments weake
all that he dos the Laws of reason breake
great Rochesters Satyre ag^st man being true
Inuoluing all of mortall race but you...

Although essentially amateur in nature and obviously intended only for her own use or for that of her immediate family, the texts are nevertheless not without imagination. They have an immediacy and freshness, and her "voice" is clear and distinct.

...here in this trankquillity Liued Adam and Eve all the walkes wher paued with amber and the beds of flowers flanked with mother pearle the grasse liked Like green silke and seaverell golde fountains poureing out all sorts of rich wins and rocks runing all kind of coole and pleasent drinkes and curious arbors...and at the ends of all the walks stood braue status of Angells from head to foot in golde and in the midell of it stood a most delicatt aggett rock running orange flower watter in great plentty and birds of parridise singing and flying continually about...

...thus then Letts Liue and Loue w^thout a thought
that may not to the eares of Saints be brought
teaching our Earthly parts still to submit
to whatsoere our minds and soules thinke fitt:
And Lett no more be to our bodies meant
then Loue the house for itts inhabitant
so to the world shall our example proue
vertue consistent is with greatest Loue.

dorothy calthorpe's writings are entirely unpublished. the present unrecorded manuscript introduces a new source and a new personality to the canon of seventeenth-century female writers.