manifested his taste and discernment by including Dryden in the censure. In more recent times, critics have not been wanting, equally unkind, and equally uninformed, with respect to the object of their ridicule. Even the amiable and learned Bishop Percy had nothing better to say of the author of the Shepherd's Resolution, and other pastorals, indisputably among the finest of the kind in our language, than that he had "distinguished himself in youth by some pastoral pieces that were not inelegant." Ritson, while confessing that Wither's more juvenile productions would not discredit the first writer of the age, could not refrain from adding, that by "his long, dull, puritanical rhymes, he obtained the title of the English Bavius." This appellation has never been traced beyond Ritson, and may be considered the dull invention of his own pen. The prejudice of Swift and of Ritson has found inheritors in our own day. Mr. D'Israeli, whose ingenuity and talent have met with the praise they deserve, was only able to discover that "this prosing satirist has, in some pastoral ́poetry, strange to say, opened the right vein*.” Yet, this prosing satirist" had written, in the morning of his days, poems, with which the juvenile efforts of Dryden, of Pope, or of Cowley, can bear no comparison; and affording examples of versification singularly correct and musical, and breathing the manly fervour of pure and idiomatic English. Other names of equal influence might be added to the list; but it is pleasing to reflect, that amid all the clamour of petulant ignorance, some hands have been held up in the poet's favour. Dr. Southey, in one of his latest works, has not been ashamed to find in the neglected leaves of Wither, *Quarrels of Authors, vol. 2, p. 254. "a felicity of expression, a tenderness of feeling, and an elevation of mind*.' A word of kindness from one who has "built up the tombs" of so many of our elder poets in a beautiful criticism, ought to be adequately esteemed. Sir Egerton Brydges and Mr. Park have also exerted themselves in the poet's cause, and to their many and careful labours the writer of the following memoir has already acknowledged his obligations. George Wither was born at Bentworth, near Alton, in Hampshire, and, according to Anthony Wood and Aubrey, on the 11th of June, 1588; but Dalrymple and Park, upon the authority of a copy of Abuses Stript and Whipt, in the possession of Mr. Herbert, have fixed the poet's birth in 1590. The register of baptisms at Bentworth affords no assistance, the earliest entry beginning in 1603. But a conclusive evidence in support of Wood and Aubrey is furnished by Wither himself, in a pamphlet entitled Salt upon Salt, where he says, in August, 1658, When I began to know the world and men, The round I stand in maketh ten times seven. The "ten times seven" will carry his birth back to 1588. George Wither, the poet's father, was descended from the Withers of Manydowne, near Wotton St. Lawrence, in the county of Hants, where one of the family was recently residing. * Memoir of Taylor, in Lives of Uneducated Poets. He had three sons, George, James, and Anthony. The poet's mother was Ann Serle *. 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. Wither's 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, Who brought me all things needful; when at hand, Or in neat harbours, which by art were made, Britain's Remembrancer, canto 3. An account of the pedigree of Wither's ancestors has been given by Sir Egerton Brydges, in the first volume of the Restituta, from the visitation book of Hampshire, in 1634. The family, which originally came from Lancashire, had been seated in Hampshire many years before the birth of the poet. In 1810, the representative of another branch of the family, Wither Bramstone, Esq., was residing in the adjoining parish of Deane. In the spring of 1603, Wither was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford *, and entered under John Warner, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, a sound logician, and a good and ripe scholar. Wither 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, * 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, 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. ་ P.205. The sonnet is quoted by Ritson, from a Miscellany, in 12mo., entitled A Description of Love, with certain Epigrams, Elegies, and Sonnets; and also Master Johnson's Answere to Master Withers. Of this book, which obtained great popularity, an 8th edition appeared in 1636. In Warton's Companion to the Oxford Guide, this song is improperly ascribed to Taylor, the Water-poet. Ritson, "to cut the matter short," has endeavoured to ascertain the year in which it was written.. The author," he says, was admitted of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1604, and having pursued his studies for three years, left the University for the Inns of Chancery. Now it will be evident that this song was written at College. If, therefore, we allow the first year for his falling in love, the second, for the favourable return he experienced, and the third, for the loss of his mistress, this song must have been written in 1606, when the author was eighteen years of age." 66 I am sorry to be obliged to demolish a fabric so ingeniously constructed, but we shall presently find Wither in London in his eighteenth year, long after he had left Oxford. So much for Ritson's plan of cutting a matter short. By treading implicitly in the foot-prints of Wood, Ritson has fallen into another error, in saying that John Taylor was, on all occasions, the professed antagonist of Wither. The Water-poet, on the contrary, was the respectful admirer of Wither during the brighter period of his life, and only ceased to be so when Wither forsook the principles and the creed of his earlier days. 66 of whom Dr. Bliss has remarked, with great truth, that he rarely affirms any thing 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. house has long been removed. This 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, Warner neither encouraged idleness in himself, nor permitted it in others. The young poet 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 |