Probably a long shot, but I’m on the trail of Dame Helen Branch (or possibly Helena/Helenae) who died – in her nineties – on 10 April 1594 and was buried in St Mary Abchurch in London.

A pamphlet was published containing a poem celebrating her virtues. (Infuriatingly short on detail, as such things usually are.) It is titled A Commemoration of the life and death of the Right worshipfull and vertuous Lady Dame Helen Branch, late wife to the Right Worshipfull Knight Sir John Branch, sometime Lord Maior of the famous Cittie of London, &c. and can even be found on the web here.

It is curious that the poem seems to be widely attributed; to Joshua Sylvester, and to John Phillip[s], also here.

Yet the original pamphlet, which I was holding in my hands today, has a closing signature “W. Har.” – and it is hard to see how you can get either of those names from that. The ODNB says it was written by a William Herbart or Herbert, but not the most famous one of those?! Another source says it was a Sir William Harvey.

Her second husband, Sir John Branch, a draper, was mayor 1580-81.

Her first husband had been a John Mynors, who may have been (if he was a fair bit older than her) the John Mynors who in Lincolns Inn in the Trinity Term of 1494 was, with William Fyllyff and Richard Eryington, fined “for not keeping or preparing the moots for two days as they ought, when divers Benchers were prepared to hear the moots”. (These were formal disputations.) He may have some connection with a composer, William Bryd.

Her father was William Nicolson, her mother Joan.

In the back of the pamphlet is what looks to me like contemporary handwriting recording what seems to have been the epitaph on her tomb, mostly in Latin, but with a bit of English. There’s mentioned in that a Robin? Nicolson, also “JOHANNIS DIINORS” and “CVIBERTI BVCKLE”.

I’d be eternally grateful to anyone who can shed any more light on her life; if I get time tomorrow I’ll probably try to transcibe the handwritten bits in the pamphlet (although working from handwritten Latin IS a challenge.) I’d also welcome any suggestions for other directions of research; I’ve got a few threads, but they are pretty thin.

It is not that history repeats itself, exactly, just that the same debates come up again and again. So it was that when “English literature” was just getting established in the 16th century, there was a concerted struggle over whether poetry should rhyme.

“But the question of rhyme was nor simply a small technical question about the following of ancient models. It was a fundamental element in the definition of poetry itself and the question of its relationship to the other half of the liveral arts, the quadrivium, those arts concerned with measure and proportion. The opponents of rhyme — among whom we may principally number William Webbe and Thomas Campion, along with Ascham himself — all acknowledge the close relationship of poetry to rhetoric, or eloquence in general, and thereby agree that poetry has been a principal source of civil order.” (in Kinney (ed) The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600, CUP, p. 42)

Webbe was seeking “the means, which we yet want, to discern between good writers and bad, but perhaps also challenge from the rude multitude of rustical rhymers, who will be called poets, the right practice and orderly course of true poetry.” (From A Discourse of English Poetry, 1586, quoted p. 265.)

Looking at some of the rhymes I’m working on now, I kind of wish that they’d won at the time, rather than blank verse having had to wait until the 20th century to win out.

Three of the four pamphlets I’m looking at that are “elegies” for Dame Helen Branch (who died aged 90 in 1594) give her burial date. One doesn’t, which has led me to think that it is likely to have been the earlies, produced before the funeral.

But it has the following lines …

The yeare was fifteene hundreth, ninetie foure,
And grateful Abchurch hath her bones in store.

Now does “in store” suggest something temporary? There were – for reasons on which I am unclear – 18 days between her death and her funeral. (The only possibly explanation I have is that London had been hit by massive, exceptional storms in the weeks before her death, which might have disrupted things?)

Or is it “in store” just because it rhymes with “foure”?

There may be no answer to this, but I am open to suggestions…

Today, at the British Library, I think I really, finally, after a couple of days of flailing around, finally worked out how to approach this simply and systematically. (With a lot of thanks to my commenter Clanger, who sent me in many of the right directions.) So, in case this is of use to anyone else (and for my own future reference), here it is:

Imagine you’ve just found, say in a catalogue, a pamphlet or broadside from the 16th or 17th century that you want to know more about, but all you’ve got at this time is probably an extended title. (And a secondary literature search indicates no one has written anything on it.)

Walk through the rather gloomy doors of the Rare Books Reading Room at the BL, then:

1. Search the English Short Title Catalogue, which is available online at the BL, and I believe most decent uni libraries, to find out particularly where copies are held. There is also a print version. (This will also provide lots more technical data – write it all down, it may make some sense eventually.)

2. If somewhere accessible to you, it is best to get the pamphlet itself, as the actual artefact will tell you more than any copy. (Handwritten annotations often don’t come out on copies.) However, if a trip to the US to consult one pamphlet is out of the question – and lots of them are in America – see if it has been microfilmed (which all of the ones I’ve encountered have been.)

3. But stop – don’t get out the microfilm without checking Early English Books Online – a completely separate database (don’t you wish it was linked to the Short Title Catalogue). All of the microfilmed Early English Books 1475-1650 are on this – taken from the microfilm, but far easier to handle, and to print … (even at the ridiculous BL price of 20p a sheet.)

4. To find out more, try checking the Register of the Company of Stationers (ed. Arber), which is on Open Access in the rare books reading room. (The above two databases may only be available in there too – not sure about that.)

5. If you are trying to find an author only identified by initials, try The Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English literature by Samuel Halkett and John Laing.

(If you are wondering what I’ve been researching there is a listing here.)

Looks simple, doesn’t it. But my search was complicated by the fact that the BL’s copy of Monodia appeared to have been printed with another work by the same author, The Sacrifice of Isaac which was first printed two years earlier. (And it appears that the person who put the stamps on it when it entered the BL thought so too.) The numbering of the leaves of the printing runs A3, A5 etc, then the next item starts B1 etc. And the font and general style seems to be identical.

But it is catalogued separately, and the only other known copy, in the Huntington, has a different call number and also appears separate. I finally solved the mystery by looking at the EEBO image of Isaac, which shows the numbering of it starts at B because there are eight pages of prefatory matter – a letter to the reader, to two of his “beloved friendes” (for which, I think read patrons), and a stray sonnet. These have leaf numbering with “As”.

(Leaf numbering, BTW, means that each sheet has its own number, rather than each side, and it usually seems to start with a letter, followed by a number.)

So now I’ve got lots of info, and a whole heap of new research questions.

There’s one I’m hoping anyone who’s read this far might be able to help me with, specifically the following woodcut image, which is found on both of the elegies of Helen Branch printed by Thomas Creede.

Not quite sure how that is going to come out, so to describe it, the image is of an apparently naked woman holding an open book, wearing a crown over long hair flowing down her back, and striding right foot forward. Behind her is a cloud from which descends a hand holding a sheath of hay/brush (?) that is almost running down her back, or perhaps striking her. The Latin around it reads: Viressit Vvlnere Veritas.

It may be that this is used on other Creede books, maybe all – that’s one of Monday’s projects, but I’d still like to know what it shows…

I’d also love if anyone could point me in the direction of a work dealing with woodcuts and other decorations (fancy letters etc) of these books and pamphlets …!