Bodleian Library MS Eng. Poet. d.49

This chapter examines one of the most important manuscripts connected with Andrew Marvell: Bodleian Library Eng. Poet d.49, a hybrid manuscript which has influenced many editors. It argues that interpretation of this manuscript has been controversial because many interpreters have failed to notice the way in which it has been subject to a variety of reframings and repurposings. The result, the chapter argues, is that its identity has been layered, with a miscellany imposed upon what was originally a corrected and amplified version of the printed sheets of Marvell’s 1681 Miscellaneous Poems. It also argues that the original purpose of the manuscript can still be usefully discerned beneath the layers. The chapter also discusses a number of other Marvell manuscripts.