Chapter IV: Description of the Mss

=MS. Aubr. 6=: a volume chiefly of folio leaves; written mostly in February 1679/80; now marked as containing 122 leaves (some pages blank), but having also a few unfoliated slips. Aubrey's own short title to it was:--

'Σχεδιάσματα. Brief Lives, part i.,'

and, in his pagination, it contained eighty-six leaves. A rough index of its contents, by him, is found as foll. 8-10: and there he gives the names of several persons whose lives he intended to write, but has not included in this volume. Some of these are found elsewhere, especially in MS. Aubrey 8; but a few[10] are not discoverable in any MS. of his biographical collections--e.g., Richard Alcorne; <Samuel> Collins, D.D.; Richard Blackbourne, M.D.; <John> Flamsted[11]; Sir John Hoskins; James Rex; James, duke of Monmouth[12]; Peter Ramus; Benjamin Ruddier; captain <Edward> Sherburne; captaine Thomas Stump[13]; Richard White. Possibly Aubrey never wrote the missing lives; but it must be remembered (1) that he cut some leaves out of his MS. himself (see in a note to the life of Richard Boyle, earl of Cork); (2) that Anthony Wood cut out of MS. Aubr. 7 forty pages at least, containing matters 'to cut Aubrey's throat,' i.e. reflections on politics, where the lives of James R. and Monmouth may well have been.

One point about this MS. which deserves mention is that, in these lives, Aubrey, in his hope to supply data for crucial instances in astrology, is careful to give the exact nativity wherever he can. His rule is thus laid down by himself in MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 12ᵛ, in a note attached to the nativity of his friend Sir William Petty:--

'Italian proverb--

"E astrologia, ma non é Astrologo,"

i.e. we have not that science yet perfect; 'tis one of the _desiderata_. The way to make it perfect is to gett a supellex of true genitures; in order wherunto I have with much care collected these ensuing[14], which the astrologers may rely on, for I have sett doune none on randome, or doubtfull, information, but _from their owne mouthes_: quod N. B.'

Another point is, that Aubrey very frequently gives the coat of arms, in trick or colour. In some cases, no doubt, he did this from having seen the arms actually borne in some way by the person he is writing about; but in other cases he merely looked up the name in a 'Dictionary of Arms,' and took the coat from thence, thus nullifying his testimony as to the actual pretensions to arms of those he writes about. All coats he mentions have, however, been given in the text or notes.

Prefixed to the volume[15] are two notes in which Aubrey explains its origin and destination.

(A)--MS. Aubr. 6, fol.[16] 2:--

'_Tanquam tabulata naufragii_,
Sum Johannis Aubrii, R.S.S.
Febr. 24, 1679/80.

My will and humble desire is that these minutes, which I have hastily and scriblingly here sett downe, be delivered carefully to my deare and honoured friend Mr. Anthony à Wood, antiquary, of Oxford.--

Ita obnixe obtestor,

JO. AUBREY.

Ascenscione Domini,

correptus lipothymiâ, circiter 3 P.M.

1680.'

(B)--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 12:--

'To my worthy friend Mr. ANTHONIE à WOOD,

Antiquarie of Oxford.

SIR!

I have, according to your desire, putt in writing these minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occurr'd to my thoughts or as occasionally I had information of them. They may easily be reduced into order at your leisure by numbring them with red figures, according to time and place, &c. 'Tis a taske that I never thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me, sayeing that I was fitt for it by reason of my generall acquaintance, having now not only lived above halfe a centurie of yeares in the world, but have also been much tumbled up and downe in it which hath made me much[17] knowne; besides the moderne advantage of coffee-howses in this great citie, before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their owne relations, or societies. I might add that I come of a longaevous race, by which meanes I have imped some feathers of the wings of time, for severall generations; which does reach high. When I first began, I did not thinke I could have drawne it out to so long a thread.

I here lay-downe to you (out of the conjunct friendship[18] between us) the trueth, and, as neer as I can and that religiously as a poenitent to his confessor, nothing but the trueth: the naked and plaine trueth, which is here exposed so bare that the very _pudenda_ are not covered[19], and affords many passages that would raise a blush in a young virgin's[20] cheeke. So that after your perusall, I must desire you to make a castration (as Raderus[21] to Martial) and to sowe-on some figge-leaves--i.e., to be my _Index expurgatorius_.

What uncertainty doe we find in printed histories? they either treading too neer on the heeles of trueth that they dare not speake plaine, or els for want of intelligence (things being antiquated) become too obscure and darke! I doe not here repeat any thing already published (to the best of my remembrance) and I fancy my selfe all along discourseing with you; alledgeing those of my relations and acquaintance (as either you knew or have heerd of) _ad faciendam fidem_: so that you make me to renew my acquaintance with my old and deceased friends, and to _rejuvenescere_ (as it were) which is the pleasure of old men. 'Tis pitty that such minutes had not been taken 100 yeares since or more: for want wherof many worthy men's names and notions[22] are swallowd-up in oblivion; as much of these also would [have[23] been], had it not been through your instigation: and perhaps this is one of the usefullest pieces[24] that I have scribbeld.

I remember one sayeing of generall Lambert's, that "the best of men are but men at the best": of this, you will meet with divers examples in this rude and hastie collection. Now these _arcana_ are not fitt to lett flie abroad, till about 30 yeares hence; for the author and the persons (like medlars) ought to be first rotten. But in whose hands must they be deposited in the mean time? advise me, who am,

Sir,
Your very affectionate friend
to serve you,

JOHN AUBREY.

London,
June 15,
1680.'

=MS. Aubr. 7=: a folio volume of twenty-one leaves (several pages blank), of which two[25] only belong to the original MS.

The original title may be conjectured to have been:

'Σχεδιάσματα. Brief Lives, part ii.,'

and it possibly contained some letters, like those in the preceding volume, which made Wood think it was given to him.

On fol. 1, is a note describing the make-up of the volume:--

'Aubrey's Lives: fragments of part ii.--These scattered fragments collected and arranged by E. M. Sep. 1792.' A note (in Dr. Philip Bliss's hand?) says that E. M. is Edmund Malone.

In this, as in the other Aubrey MSS., Dr. Bliss has made several slight notes, both in pencil and ink, with a view to his edition.

The mutilation of the MS. was the crime of Anthony Wood, to whom it had been sent. Two conjectures may be hazarded--either that Wood did this in order to paste the cuttings into his rough copy of his projected _Athenae_, and so save transcription; or, more probably, that he was so thoroughly alarmed by the threat of Lord Clarendon's prosecution of himself (Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, iv. 1-46), that he destroyed the papers containing Aubrey's sharp reflections on various prominent personages[26]. But whatever the pretext, Aubrey was, naturally, very grieved at his unjustifiable conduct. In a letter to Wood, dated Sept. 2, 1694 (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 155), he writes:--

'You have cutt out a matter of 40 pages out of one of my volumnes, as also the index. Was ever any body so unkind?--And I remember you told me comeing from Hedington that there were some things in it that "would cutt my throat." I thought you so deare a friend that I might have entrusted my life in your hands and now your unkindnes doth almost break my heart.'

When Aubrey had the volume back in his own hands, he wrote in it[27] the following censure:--

'Ingratitude! This _part the second_ Mr. Wood haz gelded from page 1 to page 44 and other pages[28] too are wanting wherein are contained trueths, but such as I entrusted nobody with the sight of but himselfe (whom I thought I might have entrusted with my life). There are severall papers that may cutt my throate. I find too late _Memento diffidere_ was a saying worthy one of the sages. He hath also embezill'd the index of it--quod N. B. It was stitch't up when I sent it to him.

Novemb. 29, 1692.'

=MS. Aubr. 8=: a folio volume, containing 105 leaves: it contains two distinct MSS., bound together.

The first part of the MS. (foll. 1-68 in the present marking) might have been entitled:--

'Σχεδιασματα. Brief Lives, part iii.'

On fol. 1 and fol. 3, the short title actually written by Aubrey is:--

ʻ♄
Pars iiiᵗⁱᵃ

1681

ᴊᴬʼ

i.e. the symbol for Saturn, the patron of antiquarian studies, and Aubrey's monogram. On fol. 4 Aubrey has a very elaborate title, showing the destination of the MS.:--

'Auctarium vitarum a ᴊᴬ collectarum, anno Domini 1681.

_Tanquam tabulata naufragii._

John Aubrey, R.S.S.

Le mal est que la vive voix meurt en naissant et ne laisse rien
qui reste apres elle, ni formant point de corps qui subsiste en
l'air. Les paroles ont des aisles; vous scavez l'epithete[29]
qu'Homère leur donne, et un poëte Syrien en a fait un espece
parmy les oiseaux; de sorte que, si on n'arreste pas ces
fugitives par l'ecriture, elles eschappent fort vistement à la
memoire.

_Les Oeuvres diverses du sieur de Balzac_, page 43.

Ornari res ipsa nolit contenta doceri.--HORAT

For Mr. Anthony Wood at Oxford.'

A slip by Anthony Wood, pasted here, shows that Aubrey recalled the MS., probably to make additions to it:--

'Mr. AUBREY,

I beseech you as you have been civill in giving this book to me at Oxon in Sept. 1681, so I hope when you have done with it you'l returne every part of it againe to your servant,

ANT. WOOD.'

As originally made up, this 'Auctarium' contained four leaves at the beginning (for an index[30]), and leaves foliated 1-38 (of which 12 and 13 are now[31] missing).

The second part[32] of the MS. extends over foll. 69-103 in the present marking.

Aubrey, on fol. 69, writes the title:--

'An Apparatus for the lives
of our English mathematical writers
by
Mr. John Aubrey, R.S.S.
March 25, 1690.'

As originally made up, this treatise consisted of one leaf (for an index[33]) and pages marked 1-46 (of which pp. 31-38 are now missing).

The history of this treatise is fully set out by Aubrey in some notes in it and in the other MSS.:--

1. It was suggested by Richard Blackburne.

MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 8ᵛ:--'Dr. <Richard> Blackbourn would have me putt out in print the lives of our English mathematicians together.'

2. It had been partly anticipated by Selden and Sherburne.

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 70:--'My purpose is, if God give me life, to make an _apparatus_, for[34] the lives of our English Mathematicians; which when I have ended, I would then desire Mr. Anthony Wood to find out one that is master of a good Latin stile, and to adde what is[35] already in his printed booke[36] to these following[37] minutes.

'I will not meddle with our own writers[38] in the mathematicks before the reigne of king Henry VIII, but prefix those excellent verses of Mr. John Selden (with a learned commentary to them) which are printed before a booke intituled <Arthur> Hopton's _Concordance of yeares_[39] scilicet:--

* * * * *'

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69:--'Sir Edward Shirbourn, somewhere in his translation and notes upon Manilius, has enumerated our English mathematicians, and hath given short touches of their lives--which see.'

3. The first step towards it would be to pick out the mathematicians from the lives already written by Aubrey.

MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 51ᵛ:--'I would have the lives of John Dee, Sir Henry Billingsley, the two Digges (father and sonne), Mr. Thomas Hariot, Mr. <Walter> Warner, Mr. <Henry> Brigges, and Dr. <John> Pell's, to be putt together.--As to the account of Mr. Hariot, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Brigges, I recieved it from Dr. Pell.'

=MS. Aubr. 9=: a folio, containing fifty-five leaves, and in addition several printed papers.

The title is found on fol. 28 (as now marked) of the MS.:--

'Supplementum vitae Thomae Hobbes,
Malmesburiensis,
1679/80

* * * * *

HOBBI[40] jucunda senectus,
Cujus erant mores qualis facundia, mite
Ingenium.--

JUVENAL, _Sat._ IV. v. 81.

Extinctus amabitur.--

HORAT. _Epist._ I. lib. 2.

I. A.'