Titlepage: Lexicon Tetraglotton, / AN / English-French-Italian-Spanish / DICTIONARY: / WHEREUNTO IS ADJOINED / A large NOMENCALTURE of the proper Terms / (in all the four) belonging to several Arts and Sciences, to Recreations, to / Professions both Liberal and Mechanick, &c. / Divided into Fiftie two SECTIONS; / [rule] / With another Volume of the Choicest / PROVERBS / [etc.] / LONDON, Printed by J. G. for Samuel Thomson at the Bishops head / in St. Pauls Church-yard. 1660.

    James Howell (1593/4-1666) was born in Carmarthenshire; his father was a curate and his elder brother Thomas was to become Bishop of Bristol. He attended Jesus College, Oxford, 1610-1613, then worked for Sir Robert Mansell as a steward in his glass factory in London. In 1617, he was commissioned to travel into Europe to find skilled workmen and materials for the factory. He travelled from Amsterdam, to Paris and St Malo, then on to Barcelona and Alicante, spending a year in Spain, finally reaching Venice in the autumn of 1618. After sending two workmen back to Mansell, Howell stayed on in Italy on his own, visiting the major cities, then back through the Alps arriving back in England late in 1620. After an illness for which he was treated by William Harvey, he went to the court of Spain to sue on behalf of an English merchant vessel seized by the court of Sardinia; while there, Charles and Buckingham arrived on their mission to marry the king off the the spanish princess; the failure of the court caused his own mission to be unsuccessful and he returned. Turning down a fellowship at Jesus, he became secretary to Lord Scrope which led to a parliamentary seat for Yorkshire in 1627. Various appointments and missions brought him into close personal contact with Jonson, Carew, Herbert of Cherbury, Kenelm Digby through the 1630s. On 30 August 1642 he was sworn in as Clerk to the Council. In November he was arrested and sent to the Fleet where he stayed 8 years.

    Having already published Dodona's Grove and the Instructions for Travel, he spent his yeas in prison writing. At the Restoration, Howell was among those who hoped that Charles would reward them for their loyal suffering -- in February 1661 he was finally appointed Historiographer Royal at a salary of oe200.

    For the life, see DNB and Joseph Jacob's edition of Howell's Familiar Letters (1892).

    Howell published a number of items in 1660, but his verses "Upon his Majesties Return, With the Dukes of York and Glocester" did not appear until 1663, in Payne Fisher's edition of James Howell's POEMS / On several / CHOICE and VARIOUS / SUBJECTS. / Occasionally Composed / By An Eminent Author. / [rule] / Collected and Published / BY Sergeant-Major P. F. / [rule] LONDON: / Printed by Ja: Cottrel; and are to be sold by / S. Speed, at the Rain-bow in Fleetstreet, / near the inner Temple-gate. 1663. [L=1076.f.14] contains the following verses, which are reprinted in the 1664 edition (really a reissue with new tp):

Upon his Majesties Return,
With the Dukes of York and Glocester.


THe Stars of late Eccentrick went
Out of the British Firmament,
But now they are fix'd there again,
And all concentred in Charles wain;
Where, since just Heaven did them restore,
They shine more glorious then before.


Long may they glitter in that Sky
With Beams of new Refulgency;
May great Apollo from his Sphear
Encrease their light, and motions chear,
So that old Albion may from thence
Grow younger by their Influence.


May no ill-boding Blazing Star,
No Northern Mist, or Civil War,
No lowring Planet ever raign
Their lustre to obscure again,
But may whoole Heav'n be fair and cleer,
And every Star a Cavalier.

pp. 118-119.

    The above verses do not appear to have been printed in 1660: I have not located them in Howell's edition of Cotgave's French and English Dictionary (1660), or The Parly of Beasts (1660), or Divers Historicall Discourses of the late Popular Insurrections in Great Britain (1661), or Philanglus; Som Sober Inspections Made into the Cariage and Consults of the Late-long Parlement (1660), or A Brief Account of the Royal Matches (1662)

    TRY: A Cordial for the Cavaliers (1661) Wing=H3058A at MH only; Sober Inspections into those Ingredients that went to ...the Cordial (1661) Wing=H3118 at Leeds; CH, MH

   The dedicatory epistle to Charles in the Lexicon ends with Howell's version of Grebner's prophecy concerning Charles:

   It remains now that I implore your Majesties Royall Goodnes to cast some gracious influences upon this large peece of Industry, which, in regard it is of a publique concernment, and tending to the Honor of the English Nation as well as of the Language, being associated by the Civill'st Toungs of Christendom (wherein your Majesty is so well vers'd as also in the nature of the peeple) I thought fit to cast at your Majesties feet as a Sacrifice of my tru Allegeance; And humbly take leave to conclude with the famous prophecy of Grebner a great Modern Mathematician, whose pr'ditions are so highly cryed up all Europe over (in regard that divers of Them are already fulfill'd). Among which This signall prognostique relating to these Northwest Islands is found, which ends thus. Carolus . . . Carolo erit major Magno Carolo, Charles from Charles shall be greater then Charles the Great; put thus to run on feet.

A Carolo Carolus, si quid pr'sagia Veri
Contineant, Magno major erit Carolo.

Charles son of Charles, if Prophecies contain
Som Truth, shall greter be then Charlemain.

Quarto Nonas          So prayeth,
Maii, 1660.


The Loyall'st of your Majesties
      Vassalls,
       and
  Votaries,
          Howell.

    Note: Howell's source may have been A brief Description of the future History of Europe (1650), where Grebner's ms is given "Interea, unus e stirpe Caroli ... eritque Carolo magno major" (sig A4), but there were numerous printed versions of Grebner, including The Lord Merlins prophecy Concerning the King of Scots (London: G. Horton, 1651) William Lilly, in his notorious Monarchy or no Monarchy in England. Grebner his Prophecy (1651), argued "That England shall no more be Governed by KINGS, or that this PARLIAMENT shall be subdued by any of the Issue or Race of the late KING" (p. 66), basing his argument on what he claimed to be the true transcription and meaning of various prophecies in refutation of false copies and readings. He reports that Paul Grebner presented Elizabeth with a prophecy of the future history of Europe in 1582 that was deposited in Trinity College, Cambridge. A corrupt version was issued in 1648 (sig. A2) and a second in 1650 as The future History of Europe cf below) both aimed at encouraging Scottish Presbyterians in their struggle against parliament.
In Lilly's transcription of Grebner, Howell's lines do not appear, but the following do:

   Et sic Š Carolo Magnus Carolus regnans fit, qui magno successu & fortuna septentrionalibus populis dominabitur. (p. 21)

which Lilly translates:

   And then from a Charles a great Charles shall obtaine the Scepter, who with great successe and prosperity shall reigne over the Northerne parts of the World. (p. 22)

   Lilly subsequently declares: "By what I have delivered out of many reverend mens Prophecies, I onely evince thus much: That the late King Charles is not the Lyon of the North; or that his Sonne, the present King of Scotland is that Charles, or that Eagle which the Wise Men of former times Prohesied of; or that he shall act either such wonderfull Deeds in War or Peace, as the admirers of Grebners false Printed Prophecy would fasten upon him." (p. 64).

   See too:A brief Description of the future History of Europe, from Anno 1650 to An. 1710. Treating principally Of those grand and famous Mutations yet expected in the World, as, The ruine of the Popish Hierarchy, the final annihilation of the Turkish Empire, the Conversion of the Eastern and Western Jews, and ther Restauration to the ancient inheritances in the holy Land, and the FIFTH MONARCHY of the universall Reign of the Gospel of Christ upon Earth. With principal passages upon every of these, out of that famous Manuscript of PAUL GREBNER extant in Trinity-Colledge Library in Cambridge. Composed upon the Occasion of the young KINGS Arrival into Scotland, to shew what will in probability be the Event of the present Affairs in ENGLAND and SCOTLAND. 1650. O=Ash.538(8) probably Lilly's own copy.