Introduction

Misogonus is extant in a unique manuscript, held by the Huntington Library in California. Since there are no contemporary references to Misogonus, no evidence for authorship outside the manuscript itself, it seems reasonable to proceed on the assumption that one of the six names in the manuscript is the author’s. Presumably, therefore, Misogonus was written by Anthony Rudd, Laurentius Bariona, Thomas Rychardes, Thomas Warde, W. William, or John York. Only one sort of definite internal evidence for authorship is available to a modern reader in the Misogonus manuscript. Misogonus contains a number of Northern words, several of them specifically Yorkshire in origin. Misogonus is not mentioned in the literature of the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries, and the manuscript itself was lost until the early nineteenth century, when, following its discovery, John Payne Collier caused a transcript to be prepared for him.