George Carleton, *Heroici characteres* (1603), and Henry Neville

Topic: George Carleton, Heroici characteres (1603), and Henry Neville

1. Verified Sourced Facts

• The book has now been located as an Internet Archive / EEBO image witness:
• Archive.org item
• Archive identifier: bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_heroici-characteres-ad-_carleton-george-bp_1603
• The local downloaded PDF from that witness is:
• heroici_characteres_1603.pdf
• The local rendered PNGs for the Neville dedicatory poem are:
• high-03.png
• high-04.png
• high-05.png
• A working transcription of the Neville pages is saved here:
• transcription.md
• A working transcription plus translation is saved here:
• neville_dedicatory_poem_transcription_translation.md
• A local image witness of the 1603 title page reads:

“HEROICI CHARACTERES. / AD / ILLVSTRISSI- / MVM EQVITEM, / Henricum Nevillum. / Avtore, / Georgio Carletono. / OXONIÆ, / Excudebat Iosephus Barnesius. 1603.”

• A local image witness of the opening poem page reads:

“AD ILLVSTRISSIMVM EQVI- / tem HENRICVM NEVILLVM.”

• The Folger catalog record states:

“Heroici characteres. : Ad illustrissimum equitem, Henricum Nevillum. Autore, Georgio Carletono.”

• The same Folger record states:

“Oxoniae : Excudebat Iosephus Barnesius, 1603.”

• The same Folger record states:

“Pollard, A.W. Short-title catalogue ... (STC), 4636”

• The same Folger record states:

“English short title catalogue (ESTC), S107511”

• The same Folger record states:

“Poems on Queen Elizabeth, James I, Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, and Sir Philip Sidney.”

• Falconer Madan’s The Early Oxford Press describes the book under 1603 as:

“Carleton, George. HEROICI CHARACTERES. | AD | ILLVSTRISSI-|MVM EQVITEM, | Henricum Nevillum. | Autore, | Georgio Carletono.”

• Madan gives the contents as:

“p. (1) title: (3-5) Latin poetical dedication to sir Henry Nevill: 1-48, the work.”

• The Archive.org/OCR search of the full book found explicit Neville references only on the title page and the dedicatory heading/opening pages. A later Henricum hit appears to concern another historical Henry, not Henry Neville.

2. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

• The local Twitter thread file twitter_George_Carleton.md includes the June 24, 2021 note:

“This book published by Joseph Barnes of Oxford in 1603 is extremely important. You see, it was written by George Carleton and dedicated to Henry Neville.”

• The same thread links this 1603 book with Joseph Barnes’s Oxford printing and contrasts it with Carleton’s later 1624 Astrologomania publication context. Keep these as separate books:
• Heroici characteres (Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1603; STC 4636)
• Astrologomania (London/Oxford publication context, 1624; separate packet)

3. Quoted Source Text

1603 title page

• “HEROICI CHARACTERES. / AD / ILLVSTRISSI- / MVM EQVITEM, / Henricum Nevillum. / Avtore, / Georgio Carletono. / OXONIÆ, / Excudebat Iosephus Barnesius. 1603.”

1603 poem to Henry Neville

• “AD ILLVSTRISSIMVM EQVI- / tem HENRICVM NEVILLVM.”

Neville dedicatory poem: opening and close

The dedicatory poem begins:

“Si tibi (nobilium o soboles illustris avorum,) / Optando Deus obtulerit discrimine nullo / Turbatam, ac dubia sine sollicitudine vitam / Eligeres: non tu optares per vota quietem / Fortunae nimium nec blandimenta beatae: / Nec discrimina vitares, sed crimina vitae.”

Working translation:

“If God, son of illustrious noble ancestors, were to offer you the choice, without any trial, of a troubled life free from anxious uncertainty, you would not wish for repose merely by prayer, nor for the too-flattering caresses of happy Fortune. You would avoid not the dangers of life, but its crimes.”

The poem closes:

“Quin contra murmura vatum / Tu clypeo defende tuum. Cantata per orbem / Et sine vate sibi per se celeberrima gesta / Heroum, sat erit nostram tentasse Camoenam.”

Working translation:

“Rather, defend the murmurs of poets with your shield. Since the deeds of heroes, sung throughout the world and celebrated in themselves even without a poet, are famous enough, it will be enough that I have tried my Muse.”

Interpretation of the Neville-specific passage

• The opening three-page Latin verse is the only explicit Henry Neville section identified in the book.
• It is not merely a prose dedication. It is a poetical dedication directly addressed to Neville.
• The poem praises Neville’s noble ancestry, constancy, endurance under adversity, and future restoration.
• It frames adversity through moral and providential language:
• noble spirits are formed by danger;
• virtue is purified like gold in a furnace;
• patience conquers oppression;
• Joseph in prison is used as the central biblical analogue;
• light after clouds marks the hoped-for reversal.
• The book as a whole is formally addressed to Neville, but the remaining main text consists of heroic poems on Elizabeth I, James I, Essex, and Philip Sidney, not additional direct Neville poems.

Transcription status

• Current status: working transcription, not yet a final diplomatic edition.
• Most readings are secure from the Archive.org/EEBO microfilm image.
• Two readings remain insecure:
• Page 3: the word in the line currently transcribed Quos deus evectos ad celsa negotia mittit appears corrected or overwritten; the exact reading should be checked against a better image.
• Page 4: the word after Nobilitate animi is heavily obscured/corrected; the local working file marks [promeritus?] as a grammatical but not fully secure reading.
• For interpretation and translation, the overall sense is secure. For quotation in a scholarly apparatus, use the working transcription with these caveats or obtain a better witness.

4. Citations

• Carleton, George. Heroici characteres. Ad illustrissimum equitem, Henricum Nevillum. Autore, Georgio Carletono. Oxoniae, Excudebat Iosephus Barnesius, 1603. STC 4636. ESTC S107511. Folger record.
• Carleton, George. Heroici characteres. Ad illustrissimum Equitem H. Nevillum. 1603. Internet Archive / Early English Books, 1475-1640 image witness. Archive.org item.
• Folger catalog electronic record: Heroici characteres [electronic resource] : Ad illustrissimum equitem, Henricum Nevillum. EEBO reproduction of Huntington copy; Early English books, 1475-1640; 1060:19. Folger EEBO record.
• Madan, Falconer. The Early Oxford Press: A Bibliography of Printing and Publishing at Oxford, “1468”-1640. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895. See 1603, no. 3. Project Gutenberg text.
• National Library of Australia catalog record for the EEBO electronic reproduction: NLA record 8206788.

5. Notes on Access

• Direct source-download packet for this project:
• source_downloads/carleton_heroici_1603
• Files in that packet:
• heroici_characteres_1603.pdf: full Archive.org PDF.
• high-03.png, high-04.png, high-05.png: high-resolution rendered PNGs for the three Neville dedicatory poem pages.
• transcription.md: corrected working transcription of the three Neville pages.
• neville_dedicatory_poem_transcription_translation.md: working transcription and translation with notes.
• The 1603 title page and poem-page witnesses used here come from local tweet-media image captures:
• 1603 title page image
• 1603 poem opening image
• Additional local images of the 1603 poem survive here:
• poem continuation image 1
• poem continuation image 2
• Astrologomania (1624) is a separate Carleton book and is handled in its own packet:
• astrologomania_1624_george_carleton_john_chamber_thomas_vicars.md