ABSTRACT
Four months after his wife Isabella’s death, Sir Thomas Hervey returned to one of her favorite books, Symon Patrick’s The Hearts Ease, or A Remedy Against All Troubles (1671). Patrick’s consolatory discourse for those grieving impressed on its readers that death is “First, Common; Secondly, Necessary; Thirdly, Good,” and counselled “against immoderate sorrow.” 1 The Herveys’ much-used copy of this small book is marked with extensive Latin manuscript commentary. On the flyleaf, one hand has written “Isabella Hervey, read in October 1686.” Two interleaved manuscript lines in darker ink begin “O decus atque dolor.” A tremulous third hand at the bottom of the page reads “This was my most pious, chast, and charitable mothers Book. Bristol.” 2
