"I did, as other idle freshmen do, 2 From such pursuits, and "the Tennis-ball," at which he "achieved some cunning," his tutor (whether Warner or some other) summoned him to work. Wood says he "made some proficiency with much ado in Academical learning.' Wither tells us that at first he was "gravelled" by the terms and words employed in "the Logick Art"; but that, feeling ashamed to remain dumb while "other little dandiprats" held disputation, he made an effort, and "perceived more In half an hour, than half a year before." But before he could " "acquire the low'st degree," some cause-perhaps a change in his father's prosperity-called him home "to hold the plough." This, I take it, occurred about 1605; for "at thrice five years and three" (i. e. 1606) Wither went to London. Possibly he spent a year under "Bentworth's beechy shadows" in the interval, and to this period is to be assigned the composition (or, at the 1 The "Bell of Osney" is the famous "Big Tom" of Christ Church, originally at Osney Abbey. "Aristotle's Well," afterwards called Brumann's, is, or was, a real well, now covered up, in Hayfield Road; Willmott and other biographers have construed the expression metaphorically. There was also a "Plato's Well.' 2 The composition of the song "I loved a lass, a fair one," is attributed, from internal evidence, to the period of Wither's university career. See vol. i., p. 148 and notes thereon. least, an early draft) of his Fair Virtue; towards the end of which the poet says, "Of summers I have seen twice three times three." It is also probable that he travelled in the British Isles at this period of his life. In a list of his books, given by himself at the end of Fides Anglicana (1660), the first four are 2. Iter Boreale, a Northern Journey. Verse. 4. Philarete's Complaint. Verse. These four last-mentioned were lost in manuscript." Wood, in recording these, adds "yet they were recovered and printed more than once." There is no foundation for this; probably he was confusing the second with one of the poems of that name actually extant,-one by Robert Wild, another by Corbet. The titles of the first and third of these poems imply a journey to Ireland. This theory is further supported by his address to "Sir Thomas Ridgeway, Knight Baronet, Treasurer of Ireland," "Sir, you first graced and gratified my Muse and later in the same Epigram,1 "Now so you will think well of this my rhyme, 1 Epigram No. 11, attached to Abuses Stript and Whipt. Moreover, in the Catalogue of his Books, Wither includes A Discourse concerning the Plantations of Ulster, in Ireland. Wood affirms that this was printed; but no copy is now extant, supposing Wood to be correct. The fourth in the above list is perhaps the early Fair Virtue, or possibly Fidelia, as the former could hardly be styled a "Complaint." No doubt, "Philarete" really had a "mistress" who disdained him ; in spite of the hint that "Fair Virtue" was perhaps only the abstract quality, we can imagine that "the passionate heart of the poet was whirled into folly" in his youth. However, in 1606 or thereabout, Wither went to London (sent, perhaps, by his friends) to seek his fortune; and, as Wood says, he was "sent to one of the Inns of Chancery." For the next five years, in which we hear nothing of him, he was no doubt engaged in cultivating friendships among a society which must have been much after his own heart; in noticing the "abuses of the times" in preparation for satire—perhaps in writing it; in courting still the more peaceful Muse that inspired him to help his friend William Browne of Tavistock in the composition of the latter's Shepherd's Pipe (1614);1 but I doubt whether the crabbed processes and intricacies 1 For an account of William Browne, see the introduction in the Muses' Library edition. Here it suffices to say that he was a contemporary of Wither's, born in the same year, 1588; author of Britannia's Pastorals, The Shepherd's Pipe (which Wither states was "composed jointly by himself and Mr. W. Browne"), The Inner Temple Masque, etc.; a close friend both of Michael Drayton and Wither, as well as of the "learned Selden"; he died about 1645. of the law claimed very much either of his time or his attention. It is likely that Fidelia and Fair Virtue were by this time in private circulation amongst the little band of friends, which included Michael Drayton, Christopher Brooke, and lesser though not less sweet voices of that generation. But in 1611 came his first publication, and with unpleasant results. No copy of Abuses Stript and Whipt with a title-page bearing the date 1611 is now known. Thomas Park, in his elaborate bibliography of Wither's works, published in the first volume of the British Bibliographer, gives "Abuses Stript and Whipt, 1611," with a note to this effect : "This date is given from Dalrymple, who said in 1785,—' Mr. Herbert has a copy of Abuses Stript and Whipt, wanting the title-page, with Wither's head,1 1611, ætat. suæ 21 + 15882= 1609 so that 1611 must refer to the publication and not to Wither's age." Holle's portrait was no doubt made when Wither was twenty-one, i.e. in 1609; and 1611 actually is the date of the first edition, though Park's hint has been either scorned or entirely neglected by subsequent bibliographers. Conclusive evidence is furnished by the fact of the "Satiricall Essayes" being mentioned in the Epithalamia, written for Princess Elizabeth, and published in 1612. Even without this, the constant 1 William Holle's engraved portrait. Dalrymple, followed by Park in part, argued from the inscriptions ("G. W. AN. ÆTATIS SVÆ 21. 1611") that the poet was born in 1590. After collecting all the internal evidence from Wither's voluminous works, I find only two references, both, curiously enough, in connection with the death of Queen Elizabeth, which support the 1590 theory; the rest, to the number of six or seven, more or less exactly confirm the statements of Aubrey and Wood. See Appendix A. 2 Misprinted 1581. references in Wither's later works would be enough to establish the claim.1 The publication was no doubt stopped by authority at once, and the author was even in danger of imprisonment. But he had obtained, somehow or other, a powerful patroness in the Princess Elizabeth herself; and she, it would appear, intervened. In dedicating his Psalms of David translated into Lyric Verse (1632) to her, then Queen of Bohemia, Wither writes, "for I do hereby most humbly, and thankfully acknowledge that, when my overforward Muse first fluttered out of her nest (!), she obtained the preservation of her endangered liberty by your gracious favour; and perhaps escaped also thereby that pinioning which would have marred her flying forth for ever after." Exactly what Wither's previous claim upon her was, I do not know; but afterwards he regarded her with a touching affection and respect. On November 6, 1612, Henry, Prince of Wales, died. That his popularity must have been great is attested by the extraordinary outburst of elegiac poetry which bewai'ed his untimely death. Donne, Chapman, Campion, Webster, Heywood, Drummond and his friend Alexander, Browne, Drayton, Braithwait, Bishops Hall and Henry King, Joshua Sylvester, Tourneur, and Lord Herbert of Cherbury ;—all these 1 For a collection of these, see Appendix B. 2 In the Satyre to the King (1614) Wither says she And which is more, vouchsafed her word to clear |