Ffeil Brogyntyn MS II.10 [RESTRICTED ACCESS]. - Dramatic Dialogues,

Three dramatic Protestant dialogues translated into English, [c. 1540], by Robert Radcliffe of Jesus College, Cambridge, from the Latin Dialogi Aliquot of the French humanist and rhetorician Jean Tixier de Ravisi (Ravisius Textor), in a presentation manuscript for Henry VIII, with dedications: 'vnto oure moste Christian kynge supreme heed of the Chirche of Englande, and of oure happye remembrance, kynge henry the, viii' (p. 1); 'Your gracys humble subiect, Robert Radcliff professre of Artes, and schole maist[er] of Jesus Collegg in Cambrygg' (p. 89); the gift may be connected with Radcliffe's attempts to gain favour at court (cf. his letter, 1540, to Thomas Cromwell in Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, 23 vols (London, 1862-1932), xvi (1898), 204 (no. 400)). Little else is known of Robert Radcliffe; he cannot be identified with the dramatist Ralph Radcliffe (c. 1519-1559), who was schoolmaster, 1546-1559, at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and is mentioned in John Bale, Scriptorum Illustrium Maioris Brytanniæ Catalogus, 2 vols (Basel, 1557-9, repr. Farnborough, 1971), I (1557), 700-701, and ibid., Index Britannniae Scriptorum (Cambridge, 1990), pp. xxxi, 332-334.
A note by Lord Harlech, November 1917, requesting prompt return of the volume, is attached inside front cover. Ancilliary materials relating to the (spurious) authorship of the manuscript are filed separately; they include four letters, 1917-1930, from Reginald L. Hine, Hitchin, and one, 1931, from Robin Flower, British Museum, to Lord Harlech, together with a press-cutting from The Morning Post, 1 September 1930 (Brogyntyn MS II.10a).