In 1639 occurred his first experience of soldiering, when he was a captain of horse in the expedition against the Scots. On the outbreak of the war in England, Wither, according to Anthony Wood, sold his estate and raised a troop for the service of the Parliament. In 1643 he was appointed governor of Farnham Castle. He asserted that his superiors neglected to supply him with adequate means of defending the place; his enemies said that he deserted it. Anyhow, as Campbell remarks, the defence of his conduct which he afterwards published seems to have been far more resolute than his defence of the fortress. Wither's own house and farm were among the first to suffer during the war, for, as early as January 1642, we find the House of Commons making an order for the immediate payment to him of £328, 6s., by way of compensation for the plunder by the King's cavaliers. But Wither claimed to have lost as much as £2000, and obtained an order empowering him to indemnify himself by seizing the goods of those who had plundered him. Among these was Sir John Denham, and Wither promptly seized upon his neighbour's property. Some time after this, as Aubrey tells the story, Wither was taken prisoner, and in great danger of his life; but Sir John Denham prayed the King not to hang him, for that while George Wither lived, he (Denham) could not be accounted the worst poet in England. Wither's life was accordingly spared.

In 1643 we hear of him, in poverty and distress, getting pecuniary aid from his generous friend Mr. Westron and from the Earl of Essex. He appears to have been perpetually petitioning Parliament for the redress of his grievances, and getting orders for his relief which were almost invariably of no benefit to him.

The energy which in happier circumstances might have given us permanent additions to our poetical literature, expended itself in cursory comments on current events, futile vaticinations, and profitless controversies. In 1653 his ever-restless mind produced a curious scheme for parliamentary reform. He declared the means of settlement to be an 'Everlasting Parliament.' Every city, shire, or borough, on pain of being deeply fined,' was to elect a representative annually, and this was to be done in such a manner that a twelfth part of the members retired, and new members took their places every month. The members were to be paid their wages regularly, and the House was to elect a fresh Speaker also every month. Undue influence in elections was to be punished by exile, and bribery in the public offices by death. There was to be a new Parliament House,' with towers adorned and strong walls fenced about,' and having gardens and fair walks adjoining thereto. Members were to receive

free lodging in twelve mansions to be erected close by the House there was to be a constant table of

one meal a day' for all and sundry, and many other things arranged,

'so as they might

Pursue the public service with delight.'

And forasmuch as outward habits draw respect unto

men's persons,' the members were to be all alike attired in a peculiar robe or upper garment, and from each man's neck was to be suspended a golden tablet whereon was enamelled the British Isles within the ocean placed.' This poetico-political pamphlet may be commended to the attention of certain hon. members now at St. Stephen's.

Wither's own circumstances, however, were growing worse and worse. His enemies caused his name to be struck from the Commission of the Peace for Hampshire and from the militia, and he had become so poor that when it was proposed to rate him at two horses for the service of the militia, he pitifully protested that he was hardly able to find so much as the bridles. In August 1661 his books and papers were seized by authority of a warrant from Secretary Nicholas; he was charged with publishing a seditious libel against members of the House of Commons, and in the course of a few days found himself a prisoner in Newgate. He was kept in confinement until July 1663, when he was released, on giving to the Lieutenant of the Tower a bond to be of good behaviour. A second time he saw the plague ravage London, and although

none of his household succumbed to it, the sickness and subsequent fire played such havoc among his friends that, some being dead, some impoverished, and the remainder scattered, neither he nor they knew where to find each other, and there were few or none to help him in the destitution of his latter days. He died on May 2, 1667.

Wither's poetry, at least all that was written between 1613 and 1623, before he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, is characterised by fine feeling, delicate fancy, true pathos, and singularly sweet versification. He is at his best in the seven-syllabled trochaic measure of Philarete and The Shepherd's Hunting, but many of his lyrics are only below the best, and have that indescribable charm of the older Elizabethan manner, which he lived long enough to see evaporating into the courtly sprightliness of his later contemporaries. Only one of these keeps its place in the popular anthologies, the 'Shall I, wasting in despair,' to which Sir Francis Palgrave in his Golden Treasury prefixed the title of 'The Manly Heart.' But Wither has the true lyrical note, and the music of more than one song of his 'beats time to nothing in the brain' of many a student who knows and loves the treasures that lie buried in worm-eaten volumes on the dustiest shelves of our great libraries.

A FORGOTTEN ROYAL WRITER

It is certainly not surprising that the English people bear the name of their first King James in no very affectionate remembrance; for, during a period of twenty-two years, he was mainly engaged in sowing the seeds which in the reign of his son brought forth a sanguinary revolution. But neither the disastrous results which followed the attempt of the monarch to put into practice his pet theory of 'King-Craft,' nor the vivid picture of the man as a goggle-eyed and slobbering buffoon, which has been stereotyped by Sir Walter Scott in the Fortunes of Nigel, should be allowed to blind us to the undeniable interest which attaches to James's efforts as an author. Of course we need not pay much attention to the fulsome flattery of his contemporaries. In the opening sentences of The Advancement of Learning, for instance, we may find Bacon affecting an 'extreme wonder' at the largeness of the King's capacity, the faithfulness of his memory, the swiftness of his apprehension, the penetration of his judgment, the felicity and order of his elocution, and other admirable qualities too numerous to mention, including 'the knowledge and illumina