George received his early education in the neighbouring village of Colemore, under John Greaves, a celebrated schoolmaster "of those parts," whose merits the young poet honoured in an epigram annexed to Abuses Stript and Whipt, and regretted his inability to do more than repay,

In willingness, in thanks, and gentle words, the affectionate interest and care of the tutor.

His father appears to have been in opulent circumstances, for, many years after, the poet spoke of the easy luxury of his youthful days:

When daily I on change of dainties fed,
Lodged, night by night, upon an easy bed,
In lordly chambers, and had wherewithall,
Attendants forwarder than I to call,

Who brought me all things needful; when at hand,
Hounds, hawks, and horses were at my command,
Then choose I did my walks on hills or vallies,
In groves near springs, or in sweet garden allies:
Reposing either in a natural shade,

Or in neat harbours, which by art were made,
Where I might have required, without denial,
The lute, the organ, or deep sounding vial,
To cheer my spirits; with what else beside
Was pleasant, when my friends did thus provide,
Without my cost or labour.

Britain's Remembrancer, canto 3. In the spring of 1603, Wither was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford*, and entered under John Warner, after

the family, Wither Bramstone, Esq., was residing in the adjoining parish of Deane. "Wither's family," Southey writes to Sir Egerton Brydges, April 8, 1830, "is now inosculated with a branch of mine. My late uncle Mr. Hill, married a sister of Mr. Bigge Wither, of Manidown, and the children of that marriage are now my wards."

*Not 1604, as Wood, Park, Ritson, &c., assert. Wither's own words are, that he was sent to Oxford

The very spring before I grew so old,
That I had almost thrice five winters told.

Abuses Whipt and Stript.

Of James Wither, son of John Wither, of Manydown, who died in 1627, at the age of 28, a Fellow of New College, Oxford, a memorial is placed within the cloisters, near the chapel.

wards Bishop of Rochester, a sound logician, and a good and ripe scholar. He confessed in later times, that if he had not reaped all the advantages of a collegiate education, it was not because he had been "ill entered:" he left the school of Greaves, no stranger to "Lilly's Latin, or Camden's Greek." His poetical talents were speedily developed. While at Magdalen College he is thought to have composed the graceful Love-Sonnet printed in Ritson's Ancient English Songs. Mr. Park has questioned the genuineness of this poem; but Ritson attributed it to Wither, upon the authority of Hearne, of whom Dr. Bliss has remarked, with great truth, that he rarely affirms anything without sufficient reason. That the song was written at college, is proved by the allusions to the academical costume, and the summer excursions to Medley, a large house between Godstow and Oxford, very pleasantly situated just by the river," and rendered still more attractive to the poetic mind by the visits of the fair and unfortunate Rosamond. This house has long been removed.

66

Anthony Wood insinuates that our poet acquired a little learning at the University, "with much ado."

Wither, who rarely concealed either his errors or his virtues, afterwards confessed, that upon his arrival at "the English Athens," he "fell to wondering at each thing he saw," and passed a month in noting the palaces, temples, cloisters, walks, and groves. The "Bell of Osney," and "old Sir Harry Bath," and the forest of Shotover were not forgotten. In the midst of those agreeable occupations, he never "drank at Aristotle's well." But at length he says, the kind affection of his tutor

From childish humours gently called me in,
And with his grave instructions did begin
To teach; and by his good persuasion sought
To bring me to a love of what he taught.

He found it easier to "practise at the tennis-ball" than

to comprehend the mysteries of logic; his understanding was confused by the rules of "old Scotus, Seton, and new Keckerman." This state of stupor continued a considerable time, and it was not until Cynthia "had six times lost her borrowed light," that being ashamed to find himself outstripped by every little ignorant "dandiprat," he devoted his mind in earnest to master the difficulty. A little determination will accomplish great things. He soon felt his "dull intelligence" begin to open, and was astonished to discover that he

-perceived more

In half an hour, than half a year before.

These pleasing occupations were soon to be interrupted. Wither had been at Oxford about two years, and was beginning to love a College-life, when he was suddenly removed by his friends, and taken home "to hold the plough." He alludes to this unwelcome change in Abuses Whipt and Stript, where he speaks of returning in discontent to "the beechy shadows of Bentworth*." But he held the plough with no willing hand, and much of his time seems to have been occupied in wandering about the pleasant country around Alton, whose neighbourhood has been invested with a peculiar interest by the reputed partiality of Spenser, who, in this "delicate sweet air" is said to have "enjoyed his Muse and writ good part of his versest." In the sequestered grassy lanes of Bentworth, a poet might dream away the summer-hours in the serenest meditations. But Wither's sojourn at home was imbit

* But now ensues the worst-I setting foot
And thus digesting learning's bitter root,
Ready to taste the fruit; then when I thought
I should a calling in that place have sought,

I found that I, for other ends ordained,
Was from that course perforce to be constrained.

Abuses Whipt and Stript, p. 5.

+ According to Aubrey, who received the information from his friend,

Mr. Samuel Woodford, who lived near Alton.

tered by the officious interference of friends, who continually urged his relations to apprentice him to " some mechanick trade." To escape from these new-found crocodiles, as he calls them, he came to London, and resolved to try his fortune at Court. Wither was now only eighteen years old, a fact I have ascertained from the 22nd emblem of the first book, in which he says—

My hopeful friends, at thrice five years and three,
Without a guide (into the world alone)

To seek my fortune did adventure me.

And many hazards I alighted on

The emblem, of which these verses form a partial illustration, represents the choice of Hercules, and tells the story with considerable spirit. In the middle of the picture stands the ardent youth; on the right hand is seated Wisdom, with flowing beard and open book; and on the left is Vice, with one hand lifting the "painted vizard” from her face, so as to give a glimpse of the deformity of her features, and by her side lie a skull and cross-bones, the insignia of Death.

Soon after his arrival in the metropolis, he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, and appears to have formed an early intimacy with William Browne, the pastoral poet, who belonged to the Inner Temple. "But his geny," says Anthony Wood, "hanging after things more smooth and delightful, he did at length make himself known to the world (after he had taken several rambles therein) by certain specimens of poetry, which being dispersed in several hands, he became shortly after a public author.' Of these rambles we have no account, but it is probable that he visited Ireland and Scotland; for in the list of his works we find, Iter Hibernicum, or an Irish Voyage*, and

* In Wither's Catalogue of his books is A Discourse concerning the Plantations of Ulster, in Ireland. Prose. Wood says this was printed, but it has not reached us.

VOL. I.

H

Iter Boreale, or a Northern Journey. These MSS. were lost, we are told by Wither, when his house was plundered, or by some other accident, and Wood was in error, therefore, in saying that they had been recovered, and "printed more than once*."

"The

The untimely death of Prince Henry, in 1612, was the theme of universal grief and lamentation. world here," wrote Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, " is much dismayed at the loss of so hopeful and likely a prince all of a sudden." Poetic garlands, without number, were showered upon his hearse. Bishop Hall lamented the "unseasonable death of his sweet master, Prince Henrie;" and Drayton, W. Browne, Chapman, Donne, Sylvester, Heywood, Webster, Drummond of Hawthornden, Wither, and others, added their tribute of rhyme to the general elegy. The offering of Wither was one of the most interesting, both in tone and expression, and breathes an affectionate sincerity, rarely found in poems of this description. When Prince Henry, during the King's visit to Oxford, in 1605, "sat in the midst of the upper table," in the Hall of Magdalen College, Wither, then an undergraduate, formed one of the throng ranged along the sides.

The 32nd elegy offers a favourable specimen. The body of the Prince, it should be remembered, was embalmed, and carried in the funeral procession:

Then as he past along you might espy

How the grieved vulgar, that shed many a tear,
Cast after an unwilling parting eye,

As loth to lose the sight they held so dear.

When they had lost the figure of his face,

Then they beheld his robes, his chariot then,

Which being hid, their look aimed at the place,

Still longing to behold him once again;

Among Wither's lost works is a prose tract, entitled, "Pursuit of Happiness, being a character of the author's extravagances and passions in his youth."