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  • Appendix 3

At the top of an otherwise blank page in the Cambridge University Orator’s Book (p. 532), are the lines reproduced below by the kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library:


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In Latin, the lines read:

Franciscus Nethersole Oratorio munere cessit 19 Jan. 1619 Procancellario Revo Dno Dre Scott. Procuratoribusque Mr Roberts & Mro Mason. eidem successit Georgius Herbert.

We translate this into English as:

Francis Nethersole left the office of Orator on January 19, 1619/1620 under the tenure of the Reverend Scott, Lord Doctor, as Vice Chancellor and under Mr. Roberts and Master Mason as Procurators. George Herbert succeeded the aforementioned.

Robert Scott was Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University (Master of Clare College) from 1619–20. At the time of this entry, Mason was Senior Proctor and Roberts was Junior Proctor, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Referring to Roberts as “Mr.” (an English abbreviation) would be odd, since he held an M.A. Perhaps Herbert accidentally left out the final vowel of the common abbreviation for the ablative Magistro (“Master”). The abbreviation “Dno” signifies either Domino or Divino, the former seen “occasionally in dedications of the period” (James Doelman, email, April 20, 2020). [End Page 95] Doctore Divino (the Divine Doctor) would also be possible. “Dre”abbreviates Doctor.

Note the resemblances between the hand in this rare signature page and that of Letter 18 to Lancelot Andrewes and the Latin poems in the Williams manuscript. For instance, compare cessit and successit in the signature page (ll. 1 and 3) with possit in Letter 18 (l. 8). Herbert sometimes uses the Greek “e.” Compare the “e” in negotiis in the signature page with that of the same word in Letter 18 (l. 4).

The signature’s date raises the question of whether the faculty vote two days later (Summers 32) was pro forma. [End Page 96]

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