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the great scholar's early attentions. "You have not," he says, in the epistle, "been precious to me without a cause; for I, being one of those who preposterously begin to write before they learn, you might justly enough have reputed me worthy of contempt only, when I was first presented to your acquaintance. Nevertheless, (perceiving, it may be, that the affections of my heart were sound, though the fruits of my brain were defective,) you vouchsafed me a friendly and a frequent familiarity; whereby I got opportunities both to rectify my judgment, and increase my understanding in many things."

Of the acquaintance of Selden, the most learned linguist and antiquarian of the age, he might well be proud. Selden's intimate friendship and kindly sympathy with the poets of his time, are beautiful traits in his character. He had a heart open to the pastoral sweetness of William Browne, and to the learned visions of Ben Jonson, as well as to the more dear and familiar studies of Spelman, of Camden, and of Cotton. He did not realize the observation of Livy, that by long meditation upon antiquity, the mind itself becomes antique. Lord Clarendon, in this case no partial witness, said that "his humanity, courtesy, and affability, were such that he would have been thought to have been bred in the best Courts." Selden was also something of a rhymer, and Sir John Suckling introduced him in the Session of the Poets, but his metrical talents were chiefly employed in recommending the works of his friends. From so numerous a body of associates he must have experienced frequent interruption; and Aubrey informs us that he had a slight stuff, or silk kind of false carpet, to cast over the table where his papers lay, when a stranger came in, so that he "needed not to displace his books or papers.'

"

Wither's version was not made from the original, but from the Latin translations of N. Ellebodius and G. Valla,

and though not strictly literal, embodies the sense of the author with considerable force and perspicuity.

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Our poet's restlessness would not permit him to become mere Corydon." In 1639 he was Captain of Horse in the expedition against the Scots, and Quarter-Master of his regiment under the Earl of Arundel. His patron, Robert, Earl of Essex, was Lieutenant-General of Infantry in the same army. The troops, were, however, soon disbanded, and the poet returned for another season to more peaceful and congenial occupations.

In 1641 appeared the Haleluiah, or Britain's Second Remembrancer, a collection of Sacred Poems composed, we are told by the author, "in a three-fold volume." The first containing "hymns occasional; the second, hymns temporary; the third, hymns personal." This book, now as scarce as the first Remembrancer is common, I have not seen; but copious extracts have been given from it, by Wither himself, in the Fragmenta Prophetica; by Sir Egerton Brydges, in the Censura Literaria; and by Mr. Dalrymple, in his selections from the Juvenilia. The enthusiastic terms in which that critic eulogizes the Haleluiah, are scarcely supported by the specimens adduced. The Hymns were originally written and collected with the praiseworthy object of making those "vain songs less delighted in," which were then becoming so numerous that pious meditations were "nigh quite out of fashion.” But the "carnal profaneness" of some, and the religious sullenness of others, rendered the poet's endeavours of little effect. He relates, however, one anecdote respecting them, too interesting to be omitted. One of his friends, highly approving of the attempt, distributed many copies of the collection at his own expense, and among others to a person of quality" associated with the pleasures and fashion of the age. Though received at first with contempt, the work, as Wither subsequently understood, produced a most

beneficial change in the feelings and life of the individual.

The poet's devoted attachment to his own wife may have suggested the sentiments of the poem for Anniversary Marriage Days—

Lord, living here are we

As fast united yet,

As when our hands and hearts by Thee
Together first were knit.

And in a thankful song

Now sing we will Thy praise,
For that Thou dost as well prolong
Our loving, as our days.

The frowardness that springs
From our corrupted kind,

Or from those troublous outward things,
Which may distract the mind;
Permit not thou, O Lord,
Our constant love to shake;
Or to disturb our true accord,

Or make our hearts to ache.

The 37th Hymn, part 3-" For a Widower, or a Widow, deprived of a loving yoke-fellow," deserves to be quoted entire. The simple pathos of this stanza will be felt by every heart:

The voice which I did more esteem

Than music in her sweetest key:
Those eyes which unto me did seem
More comfortable than the day:
Those now by me, as they have been,
Shall never more be heard or seen:
But what I once enjoyed in them,
Shall seem hereafter as a dream.

"For an Anniversary Funeral Day," and "An Occasional Hymn when we first awake in the Morning," are also very graceful and pleasing compositions. Pope, it is not improbable, had the following verses from the Sunday Hymn in his recollection when he composed his Universal Prayer:

Discretion grant me so to know

What Sabbath-rites Thou dost require,
And grace my duty so to do,

That I may keep Thy law entire.
Not doing what should not be done,
Nor ought omitting fit to do.

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With the Haleluiah, the poetical life of Wither may be considered to have terminated. He ceased to gaze such sights as youthful poets dream," and his remaining years were worn out in petulant complaints, in penury, and in sorrow. He continued, indeed, to pour out his rhymes upon every occasion with a fertility age could not exhaust, and a perseverance no peril could restrain; but the sweetness of his Shepherd's Pipe was lost for ever. Poetry fled from the discordant din of politics and fanaticism, to pitch her tent in some more peaceful spot; and if she ever revisited the scenes she had left, it was under a cloud, pervious only to the eyes of her few remaining followers. Gladly would I pass over this dreary period of our poet's history; a period of surpassing grief and agony to many, of turbulence and disquiet to all. But it was Wither's evil fortune to be actively engaged in the earlier part of the civil war, and the biographer is obliged to follow him through the sad narrative of that stormy epoch.

Dr. Heylin, in his History of the Presbyterians, tells a story of Wither's conduct at this time, so indicative of profane and sacrilegious impiety, that I confess myself unable to give it credit. Heylin says, "that Martin, then member for Berks., having commanded the Sub-dean of Westminster to bring him to the place where the Regalia were kept, made himself master of the spoil; and, having forced open a great iron chest, took out the crown, the robes, the swords, and sceptre, belonging anciently to King Edward the Confessor, and used by all our kings at their inaugurations, with a scorn greater than his lusts and

the rest of his vices, he openly declares that there would be no further use of these toys and trifles, and in the folly of that humour invests George Wither (an old Puritan Satyrist) in the royal habiliments, who, being thus crowned and royally arrayed (as right well became him), first marched about the room with a stately garb, and afterwards, with a thousand apish and ridiculous actions, exposed these sacred ornaments to contempt and laughter. Had the Abuse been Stript and Whipt, as it should have been, the foolish fellow might have passed for a prophet, though he could not be reckoned for a poet*."

Heylin, though an upright and bold-spirited man, was a most intemperate and prejudiced writer. Educated under a zealous Puritan, Mr. Neubury, he was, nevertheless, a most intolerant enemy of the sect. The History of the Presbyterians, it should also be remembered, was written under circumstances tending to deepen every feeling of animosity. The destruction of his incomparable library, the loss of his preferment, and the untimely death of his friend and patron, Archbishop Laud, were sufficient to arouse all the bitterness of his nature. It is not impossible that during Heylin's residence at his living at Arlesford, which was almost immediately adjoining the birthplace of Wither, some cause of dissension might have arisen between the poet and himself.

The acquaintance of the profligate Harry Martin, as he was usually called, could confer no honour upon any man; yet even in his case, the injustice of party-spirit may have blinded the observer's eyes to the good qualities he really possessed. His character, as drawn by Aubrey, who says that he was not at all covetous, humble, and always ready in the house to take the part of the oppressed," cannot be reconciled with the monster-form under which he is generally portrayed.

*Hist. of Presb. p. 452, ed. 1672.

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