Osborn a5

          Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel (1557-1595), The Pathe to Paradise
     (also known as The Foure-Fould Meditation). England; ca. 1600. Paper.
     iv + 27 ff. 221 x 145 mm. 1 column, 18 lines (three 6-line stanzas per
     page).

          I (6), II-V (4), VI (5). Catchwords on every page.

          Italic script. The title page has crosses in gold ink surrounding
     the name of Mary Yeate. The top cross bears the scroll with "INRI" and
     the names Jesus and Maria to either side. Bound in nineteenth-century
     paper boards. The margins of eight leaves have been repaired.

          The title page has the name Mary Yeate. Pasted in before the title
     page is a slip which reads, "The Rev. Charles Churchill, Halifax, Nova
     Scotia, requests your acceptance of this manuscript found on board a
     vessel wrecked off the coast of Bermuda." Charles Churchill was a
     Wesleyan minister and the author of a book of missionary experiences,
     published in 1845. Bequest of James M. Osborn, 1976.

          Comment: After the Introduction of 216 lines (6 ff.), the poem
     begins "O wretched man which louest earthlie thinges ..." This poem is
     A Foure-Fould Meditation, which has been attributed to Robert Southwell
     but is now regarded as the work of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel. In
     Folger MS. Z.e.28, the poem is described as "written against Christmas:
     1587." The origin of the introduction is unknown. See comments to
     Osborn. a.6.


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