Workdiary 4 ('A Diurnall Miscellaneous Collection, Begun March the 25th 1648/9')

Content: Moralistic and literary aphorisms in English from 1649, many from an early version of Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill's, chivalric romance, Parthenissa (first part published in 1651; later completed in 1669)

General Information

• Creation: From March 1649
• Hands: Robert Boyle (all entries)
• Source: BP 8, fols. 118-22; BP 3, fol. 146r
• Languages: English (all entries)
• Length: BP 3, fol. 146r: 6 entries, unnumbered; BP 8, fols. 118-22: 252 entries, unnumbered (see below for explanation of the relation between these two pages
• Format: Folded large foolscap sheets, apparently no longer conjugate
• Note 1: The title and first few entries of this workdiary on BP 8, fol. 118 were deleted, presumably by Boyle himself. A replacement first page, which contains many differences from fol. 118, is found on BP 3, fol. 146r. A transcript of this replacement page is here provided first, followed by the complete text of BP 8, fols. 118-22, including the replaced first page. The editors distinguish the six entries found on BP 3, fol. 146r from those in the regular numbered series in BP 8, fols. 118-22 by suffixing them with the letter A, in contrast to the first six entries in BP 8, which are suffixed with B. There are only two entries which appear in both first pages, i.e. the first two entries of each. Thus 1A and 2A correspond with 1B and 2B, but the remaining entries whose editorial numbers are suffixed by 'A' or 'B' differ from one another.
• Note 2: The entries on BP 8, fols. 118-22 are written both in the main body and in the remaining left-hand margin of each page. The entries in the margin are written parallel to the long edge of the page. Notes in the transcription indicate where the marginal entries and those in the body of the page begin and end. In general, each page is self-contained, that is, there is no run-over of text between pages. The only exception is the very first page, where the last entry in the body of the page on fol. 118 does carry over into the body of the page on fol. 118v. In the transcription, we present the entries on the main body of the page first, followed by those in the margin, assuming that this is the order in which the entries were recorded. For fol. 118 there is a note to the last entry of the body of the page indicating where in the entry the page turn to fol. 118v occurs. The remainder of fol. 118v is then given after the remaining marginal entries of fol. 118 are presented.