1 See: Evans, Joan, A History of the Society of Antiquaries (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar; Richard Dowling, 'A Descriptive Account of Edmund Bolton's Academ Roial under James 1’ (unpubl. Ph.D. diss., Harvard, 1954); E. M. Portal, ‘The Academ Roial of King James 1,’ Proceedings of the British Academy (1915-16), pp. 198-208.

2 The most readily available text of Hypercritica, first printed by Antony Hall in 1722 but written in 1621, is that in Vol. iof Spingarn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century (repr. Bloomington, Ind., 1957). A full bibliography of Bolton's works may be found in my unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, ‘Edmund Bolton, Critic, Antiquary, and Historian: A Biographical and Critical Study, with an Edition of Hypercritica’ (Stanford, 1962).

3 Journals of the House of Lords, Beginning Anno Decimo Octavo, Jacobi Regi 1620, III, 36-37, Monday, 5 March 1620.

4 In Nero Caesar Bolton writes against Tacitus’ advocacy of popular rebellion against evil monarchs, arguing that even so wicked a ruler as Nero provides no excuse for such rebellion. The relevance to Jacobean politics is clear; though the implied parallel between James and Nero may seem somewhat tactless, it does not appear to have prevented James from approving of the book.

5 B.M. MS. Royal 18A. LXXI., f. 3^V. References to this MS. will be given hereafter by folio number in parentheses, e.g. (f. 3^V), in my text. cf. Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry, ed. Geoffrey Shepherd (London, 1965), p. 101.

6 To show how he intends such works should be viewed, Bolton repeats a story from Sallust, who recorded that he had heard some of the worthiest men of Rome affirm that 'when they beheld the images of their ancestors, their mindes were most vehemently set on fire, to doe noblie, and not for that the wax, or workmanship had any such force inherent, but for that the remembrance of their deeds encreased that flame in their heroick hearts.’ (f. 6^r)

7 Sidney, Apology, p. 105. Hereafter cited in text, e.g. (Apology, p. 105). Sidney's views on history may also be studied in a letter to Robert, his brother, written in 1580. (Works, ed. Albert Feuillerat [Cambridge, 1923], III, 130-132.) Sidney there states suspicions about the truth of the historian's narratives, especially the speeches and the disclosures of causes and counsels, asserting that the historian is often ‘A poet in painting forth the effects, the motions, the whisperings of the people, which though in disputation one might say were true, yet who will marke them well shall fmde them taste of a poeticall vaine'. Shepherd's introduction to the edition cited of the Apology also contains a very useful discussion of Sidney's attitude toward history (pp. 36-42).

8 F. 8^r. For works referred to see notes to the text of The Cabernet Royal. A similar opinion of the respective merits of true and feigned narrations may be found in Richard Brathwait's The Schollers Medley (London, 1614). Brathwait asserts that 'Stories should be true, or at least resemble truth, because by so much, they are more pleasing, by how much they resemble truth the nearer’ (p. 67). He is, however, like Bolton, willing to admit some feigned narrations: ‘All Relations feigned are not to be excluded, for many Poeticall Narrations there be which comprehend in them a wonderful sharpness of judgement, pregnancy of Invention, and a great measure of Discretion' (p. 31). Homer is particularly praised. In the expanded version of the Schollers Medley, published in 1638 as A Survey of History, Brathwait also praised Barclay's Argenis as a 'History which puts on the face of things really done; yet merely shadowing Persons of State, under borrowed names', (p. 216.) Cf. Bolton's assertion about allegory in Argenis, Cahanet Royal (f. 8^V).

9 Bolton in fact asserts that if the justification of poetic fictions as allegory was good enough for the ancients, it should be good enough for us. (f. 7^V.)

10 For a concise introduction to the Renaissance quarrel among the arts, see Shepherd's introduction to the Apology. The definitive study of the debate during the Renaissance in Italy may be found in Bernard Weinberg, A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1961).

11 Under these two topics, Bolton probably made a point of his own efforts to ‘perfect' the ancient history of Britain. Hypercritica is an essay suggesting the way to achieve such a history, asserting especially the usefulness of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historic! Britonum for that purpose. In Nero Caesar Bolton had used coins for historical evidence, particularly in his attempts to prove that London was a thriving metropolis in the time of the Caesars. The leaf bearing these topics belonged in the discussion of coins in the Cabanet.

12 Notes for the life of Tiberius mentioned here are found in the same MS. as Bolton's collections for Nero Caesar (B.M. MS. Harleian 6521). The entry here suggests that he had written the Tiberius, but it was never published and the MS. does not appear to be extant.

1 Poetics, 9.1451b.

2 An Aethiopian Historic was translated into English as early as 1569 (by Thomas Underdowne). Further editions in 1587, 1606, and 1622 suggest its popularity. Abraham Fraunce also rendered part of it in hexameters in The Countess of Pembrokes Ivy church (1591).

3 John Barclay's Argenis was published in Paris in 1621, with further editions following yearly until 1627.

4 The Countess of Montgomery is Lady Mary Wroth, her ‘late uolumn', The Countess of Montgomeries Urania (London, 1621). Richard Brathwait's assertions about topical allegory in Argenis were noted above.

5 Bolton here quotes, with his own modification, Cicero's definition of history (De Oratore, II: ix). His substitution of'metropolis of ciuil wisdome’ for Cicero's magister vitae reflects the specific purposes of the Cabanet. Almost every other writer on history before Bolton had also quoted this passage. Sidney ironically places it in the mouth of his 'dryasdust’ historian ﹛Apology, p. 105).

6 Bolton had good reason to praise Cotton, for he was one of that tribe of antiquarians and historians who benefitted from Cotton's library. Several letters from Bolton to Cotton are extant, including one supporting Cotton during his troubles over the Essex marriage (B.M. MS. Cotton Julius C. III. ff. 28-32).