Do I not know a great man's power and might,
In spite of innocence can smother right,
Colour his villainies to get esteem,

And make the honest man the villain seem?
I know it, and the world doth know 'tis true,
Yet I protest if such a man I knew,
That might my country prejudice, or thee,
Were he the greatest or the proudest he,
That breathes this day; if so it might be found
That any good to either might redound,
I, unappalled, dare in such a case
Rip up his foulest crimes before his face,
Though for my labour I were sure to drop
Into the mouth of ruin without hope.

He grieves only that he had been hitherto “ so sparing"

of his censure

I'd have my pen so paint it where it traces,

Each accent should draw blood into their faces,
And make them, when their villainies are blazed,
Shudder and startle as men half-amazed,

For fear my verse should make so loud a din,

Heaven hearing might rain vengeance on their sin.

The last line is an example of a Scriptural truth, most felicitously and appropriately applied. This satire bears a close resemblance in several expressions, and in its general tone, to passages in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, of which a surreptitious edition appeared in 1603.

The most accomplished courtier of the Augustan age could not have exceeded the graceful elegance of the following lines to James :—

While here my muse in discontent doth sing
To thee, her great Apollo, and my king;
Imploring thee by that high, sacred name,

By justice, and those powers that I could name :
By whatsoe'er may move, entreat I thee,
To be what thou art unto all, to me.

Wither's liberation from prison has been generally attributed to the influence of this satire; but Mr. Collier

very properly observes, that he could never learn on what authority the assertion rested. Certainly not on the authority of Wither himself; and it is scarcely reasonable to suppose that a poem of so much severity should have obtained a remission of the punishment awarded to a milder and even less obnoxious composition. I am induced, by a passage in the fourth book of the Emblems, to ascribe his release to the friendly interposition of the Earl of Pembroke, who he tells the successor to the title (Philip), when the king, "by others misinformed," took offence at "his free lines,"

found such means and place,

To bring and reconcile me to his grace,
That therewith-all his majesty bestowed
A gift upon me which his bounty showed,
And had enriched me, if what was intended*,
Had not by othersome been ill befriended.-

And in the Scholler's Purgatory he stated, many years earlier, that as soon as he had an opportunity to justify his honest intentions, and to give reasons for his questionable expressions, he was restored to the "common liberty," as he persuaded himself, with the good favour of the King and of all those that restrained him↑.

*Yet I confess that the following passage, from Salt upon Salt, does not countenance this belief:

Thou hast, moreover, from the menacing
And dreadful wrath of an incensed king,
Delivered me without a mediator,

Or back receding in the smallest letter,
From truths averred.

It is impossible to reconcile the conflicting statements respecting Wither's liberation. Taylor, in the Aqua Muse, asserted that he was released against his will, and that when they subsequently met, after having "used complimental courtesy," Wither advised him, in order to improve his fortune, to write satires and get imprisoned as he had done. It is not likely that the Water-poet had any grounds for this declaration. A man who came out of jail a beggar, could hardly be said to have improved his condition.

It would appear that Wither's imprisonment originated with the Privy Council, for he expresses his belief that his sufferings were unknown to "that honourable Council which committed him."

The gift bestowed upon him by the king, was the patent for his Hymns and Songs of the Church. The origin of this privilege Wither has explained. "For before I had license to come abroad again into the world, I was forced to pay expenses so far beyond my ability, that ere I could be clearly discharged, I was left many pounds worse than nothing, and to enjoy the name of liberty, was cast into a greater bondage than before. Wherefore, coming abroad again into the world, accompanied thither with those affections which are natural to most men, I was loth (if it might conveniently be prevented) either to sink below my rank, or to live at the mercy of a creditor. And, therefore, having none of those helps, or trades, or shifts, which many others have to relieve themselves withal, I humbly petitioned the king's most excellent Majesty, (not to be supplied at his, or by any projectment to the oppression of his people,) but that, according to the laws of nature, I might enjoy the benefit of my own labours, by virtue of his royal privilege. His Majesty vouchsafed my reasonable request with addition of voluntary favour, beyond my own desire*."

The publication of the Hymns and Songs of the Church did not take place until some years after.

He had also a share in the Shepherd's Pipe, which

The king's patent bears date the 17th day of February, 1622-3. "James, by the grace of God. To all and singular printers, booksellers. Whereas our well-beloved subject George Withers, gentleman, by his great industrie and diligent studie hath gathered and composed a book, entituled Hymnes and Songes of the Church, by him faithfullie and brieflie translated into lirick verse, which said booke being esteemed worthie and proffitable to be incerted in convenient manner and due place into everie English Psalme-book in meeter; we give and grant full and free licence, power, and privilege unto the said George Withers, his executors and assigns, onelie to imprint, or cause to be imprinted, for the term of fifty and one years, &c. Witness ourself at Westminster the 17th day of February, reg. 20, 1622-3."-Rymer's Fadera, v. xvii. 454, where the patent is printed at length. It also states that the privilege was given for Wither's further encouragement in such his endeavours."

forms a meet companion to the Shepherd's Hunting. This beautiful poem, printed in 1614, has always been assigned to Browne; but it is attributed to Wither in the edition of his works published in 1620, and we have his own testimony in the Fides Anglicana, that it was "composed jointly by him and Mr. William Browne." Roget is clearly intended to represent Wither, and Willie, Browne. Warton alludes to the Shepherd's Pipe, and ascribes to Browne the publication of Occleve's version of the Story of King Darius's Legacy to his Three Sons, in the Gesta Romanorum. The poem is contributed by Roget, already pointed out as the pastoral name of Wither, and in a note at the end of the first eclogue, it is said, "as this shall please, I may be drawn to publish the rest of his works, being all perfect in my hands." Occleve has been called the disciple of Chaucer; and it will presently be seen, from the assistance furnished to the Rev. Willian Bedwell, in his antiquarian pursuits, by Wither, that he was considered a man of exquisite judgment in that kind of learning.” We may be justified, therefore, in awarding to him the merit of the publication of this old poem.

The Shepherd's Pipe opens with Willie's consolation of his friend Roget.

Roget, droop not, see the spring
Is the earth enamelling,
And the birds on every tree
Greet this morn with melody:

Hark how yonder thrustle chants it,
And her mate as proudly vaunts it.
See how every stream is drest
By her margin, with the best
Of Flora's gifts, she seems glad
For such brooks such flowers she had
All the trees are quaintly tyred
With green buds of all desired;
And the hawthorn, every day,
Spreads some little show of May.

Yet in all this merry tide,
When all cares are laid aside,
Roget sits as if his blood
Had not felt the quick'ning good
Of the sun, nor cares to play
Or with songs to pass the day,
As he wont. Fye, Roget, fye,
Raise thy head, and merrily
Tune us somewhat to thy reed.
See our flocks do freely feed:
Here we may together sit,
And for music very fit

Is this place; from yonder wood
Comes an echo shrill and good.
Twice full perfectly it will,
Answer to thine oaten quill.

ROGET.

Ah, Willie, Willie, why should I
Sound my notes of jollity?
Since no sooner can I play
Any pleasing roundelay,
But some one or other still
'Gins to descant on my quill,
And will say, by this he me
Meaneth in his minstrelsy.

Can any one doubt, after reading these lines, that the poem was partly written by Wither?

The verses in which Roget commends the story of Occleve are exceedingly fanciful and elegant; but Warton was correct in saying that the eulogy was undeserved.

'Tis a song not many swains
Singen can, and though it be
Not so deckt with nicety

Of sweet words full sweetly chused,

As are now by shepherds used;
Yet if well you sound the sense,
And the moral's excellence,