Upon the first breaking out of the war, Wither is said, by Anthony Wood, to have sold his estate, and raised a regiment for the service of the Parliament. This ac count, which has been adopted by all subsequent writers, even including Brydges and Park, is at variance with the truth. Wither was rarely withheld from an expression of his own deserts and sacrifices, and he says, in the Field Musings, when speaking of the cause of the Parliament,According to my fortune and my place, I therefore furthered it. And again in the same page,— Where I then lived, I was the first of those If he had sold his estate, he would have taken care to inform the public of the circumstance. Having been appointed commander of the troop raised in his neighbourhood, his first employment was to march into Kent, in "order to secure the malignants there from attempting anything against the State." These are the words of a very violent and scurrilous pamphlet, in which the poet's military and private character is attacked with a bitterness of hostility sufficient to invalidate the writer's claim to truth or correctness. Wither's quarters were at Maidstone, and that he discharged his new duties with no small activity is proved by the following resolution from the Journal of the House of Commons, January 5, 1642. "Whereas the county of Kent hath advanced several sums of money upon the propositions, which they have sent to the Treasurers in Guildhall, London, and have this day also delivered in plate amounting to good value to the Treasurers aforesaid. It is this day ordered by the Commons House of Parliament, that three hundred and twenty-eight pounds six shillings be forthwith imprest by the said treasurers to the Committees of Kent, or any two of them, towards the payment of the arrears due to Captain Withers his troop, now residing in that county." During his sojourn in Kent, according to the libellous pamphleteer already noticed, Wither did not forget his farm in Surrey, and selected for his own use some "brave horses" from the property of the Royalists. This accusation is in some measure corroborated by the testimony of another writer, professing to entertain an exalted opinion of the poet's "spiritual irradiations," but at the same time charging him with having executed some things in the county of Kent "beyond the sense" of the sentiments expressed in Britain's Remembrancer. In those days of mental fever, the best men must have frequently erred; and the stubborn, though gentle-hearted poet, was not likely to be more immaculate than his companions. He did not continue many month in Kent. In October, 1642, he was appointed Governor of Farnham Castle, in Surrey, which had been recently occupied for the King by Sir John Denham. The military skill of the rival poets seems to have been equal, but Wither attempted to cast the odium resulting from his desertion of the place upon his employers, who neglected to supply him with the means of defence. Finding the popular feeling still against him, in the early spring of 1643, he put forth A Shield and Shaft against Detraction, and pronounced every person who accused him of acting in a manner derogatory to the character of a gentleman, “a fool, a coward, a villain, or all." During the civil war, hard words were dealt as freely as hard blows, and the poet was not singular in the energy of his style. We shall find a greater far, even Milton, indulging his anger in a similar strain. Wither, who, according to his own account, was the first in Surrey who had taken arms for the Parliament, was also the first who suffered in its behalf. His farm at Wanborough, a village about four miles from Guildford, was plundered by the royalists. Edward Browne, in his 33. Pathetical Apology for Book-making, dated from London, in December, 1642, says, "Captain George Wither hath my certificate, but I fear he is so perplexed because his house near Guildford, in Surrey, was plundered by the king's cavaliers, that he can find no spare time to sign it." This event took place, it is probable, towards the beginning of January, 1642, for we discover from the Journals of the House of Commons that an order from the Committee of Safety for immediate payment to Wither of 3281. 6s. out of the coinage of plate, was issued, January 6, 1642.3 He estimated his loss at 20007., and several attestations upon oath were laid before the Parliament verifying this statement. Few poets have possessed a dwelling so richly stored with provisions of every description. He enumerates, among other articles, a thousand weight of cheese, nearly eight hundred weight of butter, six or seven hogsheads of beer and cider, of the whole of which the house was entirely pillaged. Having obtained the order of Parliament to indemnify himself upon the property of his plunderers*, one of whom was the poet Denham, then * Journal of the House of Commons, February 9, 1642. Whereas, Mr. Denham, High Sheriff of the County of Surrey, Captain Hudson, Captain Brednoxe, Mr. Jo. Tichborne, and others, did, in a hostile manner, enter into the house and grounds of Captain George Wither, and did from thence carry and take away all his books and writings, with his goods and household-stuff, cattle, sheep, corn, and hay, and his teams, to the value of at least 2000., as appeareth by an inventory of the particulars taken and estimated by his neighbours and others. It is therefore, this day ordered, by the Commons' House of Parliament, that the said Captain George Wither be authorized by this House to repair himself for his said losses out of the estates of the said Sheriff and Captains, and such other persons who were accessory unto, or actually spoilers and plunderers of the estate of the said Captain Wither; or out of the goods and estates of such persons that are actually in arms against the Parliament. And that wheresoever the said Captain Wither doth find any of the goods or estates belonging to any of the said persons aforesaid, that he do seize the same and take it into his custody for his relief, as aforesaid. VOL. I. M high-sheriff of the county, he lost no time in seizing upon the goods of "Master Denham and Master Tichborne." Both of these estates, however, were at the time untenanted, and the "goods which were Master Denham's," were, by an order of some sequestrators, taken out of Wither's hands, and put into the possession of Denham's wife, who, "as do many other delinquents," the poet indignantly complained, found much more favour than he "did who had been ever faithful to the State." "For when my wife and children," he continues, "had been cruelly driven out of their habitation, and robbed of all they had, by her husband and his confederates, and when, by virtue of the forementioned order, I justly entered upon the house of the said Denham, purposing to harbour my said wife and children therein, Mistress Denham, having long before deserted the house, and left there only some tables, with such-like household-stuff, was, upon false suggestions, put again, by order, into possession of the house, because, as her charitable patron alleged, she was a gentlewoman, big with child, and had a fancy to the place*." Aubrey has given a rambling account of this occurrence. "In the time of the civil war, Geo. Withers, the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate of the Parliament, in whose cause he was a captain of horse. It happened that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in danger of his life, having written severely against the king. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired his Majesty not to hang him, for that while G. W. lived, he should not be *"Ordered that the humble petition of Anne, the wife of John Denham, Esq., be referred to the examination of the Committee of this House for sequestration, or any three of them; and that in the mean time they shall have full power to deliver unto her child-bed linen and such other necessaries as they shall see fit."-Journals of the House of Commons, 11th May, 1643. the worst poet in England*." It seems likely that our poet's captivity took place after the battle of Edge-hill, on the 23rd of October, 1642, for we learn from Clarendon, that a very considerable number of the Parliament's cavalry officers were taken after that engagement *. A similar act of malicious kindness was performed by Henry Martin, when he saved the life of Sir William Davenant; but in Denham's request there was a bitterness that spoke of the lost fields at Egham. The name of Denham frequently recurs in the life of Wither. At this time his talents were not in much repute, although the Sophy, which gave rise to Waller's witty saying, that he broke out, like the Irish rebellion, threescore thousand strong, when nobody suspected it, was published in 1642+, and, according to Aubrey, "did take extremely." Soon after the battle of Edge-hill, his well-known poem of Cooper's Hill is said to have been printed at Oxford, "on a sort of brown paper, for there they could get no better." But this story, which has been always unhesitatingly credited, is not reconcileable with the fact of an edition of the poem having been published in London, by Thomas Walkley, in August, 1642. The poetical fortune of Denham offers a singular contrast to that of his rival. While Wither has been long forgotten, except by a few students of our old poetry, the works of Denham have been carefully examined, and his life written by one who touched nothing he did not adorn. Yet Johnson, it must be confessed, was too favourable in his estimate of the poet's genius; his claim to the invention of a species of poetry, to which the great critic has *M. Lefevre-Couchy, the writer of the article on Wither in the Biographie Universelle, remarks on this anecdote, with pleasing simplicity, Wither ne fut donc pas pendu. + History of the Rebellion, 4to. ed., Oxford, vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 77. Aubrey says it came out in 1640. I suppose he meant it was acted in that year. |