the name) still resides; and of which another branch, long seated at Hall Place in the adjoining parish of Deane,* is represented by Wither Bramstone, Esq. who resides there. The poet speaks of "his Bentworth's beechy shadows" in the prooemium to his "Abuses Stript and Whipt." + He was educated under John Greaves of Colemore, a celebrated schoolmaster of those parts. In the Epigrams annexed to the poem already mentioned, first published 1613, at his age of 25, is the following "To his School-master, Master John Greaves. "If ever I do wish I may be rich, (As oft perhaps such idle breath I spend,) I do it not for any thing so much, As for to have wherewith to pay my friend. That, though I would, amends I cannot make: Sith my estate no better means afford; What I in deeds receive, I do repay In willingness, in thanks, and gentle words. Knowing you'd nothing ultra posse crave, Here I have brought you some essays of our. In 1604, or thereabouts, Wither was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, under the tuition of John Warner, afterwards Bishop of Rochester. Here he has himself See "The Topographer," iv. 32 2, and "Topographical Miscellanies." See it in Cers. Lit. II. 294. given a full account of his proficiency and his pursuits in the prooemium already mentioned. He says he found the art of logic, to which his studies were directed, first dull and unintelligible; but at the moment it begun all at once to unfold its mysteries to him, he was called home "to hold the plough." He laments that thus by fate's appointment he was obliged to forsake "the Paradise of England:" "there," says he, "There all my sweetest hopes I left, and went quest of Care, Despair, and Discontent." After he had stayed some time in his own country, certain malicious advisers, under the cloak of friendship, pretending that nothing was to be got by learning, endeavoured to persuade his father to put him to some mechanic trade. But he, aware of their hollowness, and finding that country occupations were not fitted to his genius, determined, on some slight gleam of hope, to try his fortune at court, and therefore "forsook again The shady grove, and the sweet open plain," and entered himself a member of Lincoln's Inn. Now the world opened on him in characters so different from his expectations, that, having been probably educated in puritanical principles, he felt that disgust which perhaps made him a satirist for life. The first thing, which appeared to fill him with dislike and anger, was the gross flattery and servility which seemed necessary to his advancement. If however his manners did not procure him favour with the courtiers, his talents obtained him the acquaintance and friendship of many men of genius. William Browne, the pastoral poet, who was of the Inner Temple, was an early familiar of his. And some of his verses having got abroad, began to procure the name of a poet for himself. His Philarete's Complaint, &c. formed a part of his Juvenilia, which are said to have been his earliest compositions. I know not the date of the earliest edition of these. There was an edition, as it seems, with many additions, in 1633. There was also an edition in 1622. He also wrote Elegies on the death of Prince Henry, 1612. In 1613 first appeared his celebrated Satires, entitled Abuses Stript and Whipt. The reign of King James was not propitious to the higher orders of poetry. All those bold features, which nourished the romantic energies of the age of his predecessor, had been suppressed by the selfish pusillanimity and pedantic policy of this inglorious monarch. Loving flattery and a base kind of luxurious ease, he was insensible to the ambitions of a gallant spirit, and preferred the cold and barren subtleties of scholastic learning to the breathing eloquence of those who were really inspired by the Muse. Poetical composition therefore soon assumed a new character. Its exertions were now overlaid by learning; and the strange conceits of metaphysical wit took place of the creations of a pure and unsophisticated fancy. It was thus that Donne wasted in the production of unprofitable and short-lived fruit the powers of a most acute and brilliant mind. It was thus that Phineas Fletcher threw away upon an unmanageable subject the warblings of a copious and pathetic imagination. The understanding was more exercised in the ingenious distortion of artificial stores, than the faculties which mark the poet in pouring forth the visions of natural fiction. Such scenes as youthful poets dream, On summer eve, by haunted stream, were now deemed insipid. The Fairy Fables of Gorgeous Chivalry were thought too rude and boisterous, and too unphilosophical for the erudite ear of the book-learned king! As writers of verse now brought their compositions nearer to the nature of prose, the epoch was favourable to the satirical class, for which so much food was furnished by the motley and vicious manners of the nation. Wither therefore, bursting with indignation at the view of society which presented itself to his young mind, took this opportunity to indulge in a sort of publication, to which the prosaic taste of the times was well adapted; but he disdained, and perhaps felt himself unqualified, to use that glitter of false ornament, which was now substituted for the true decorations of the Muse. "I have strived," says he, "to be as plain as a pack-saddle." • Preface to "Abuses Stript and Whipt." "Though "Though you understand them not, yet because you see this wants some fine phrases and flourishes, as you find other mens writings stuffed withal, perhaps you will judge me unlearned.""Yet I could with ease have amended it; for it cost me, I protest, more labour to observe this plainness, than if I had more poetically trimmed it." In the Abuses Stript and Whipt Wither is indeed excessively plain, and excessively severe. These Satires gave such offence that he was committed to the Marshalsea, where he continued several months. To these there is a copy of commendatory verses, signed Th. C. (probably his friend Th. Cranley,) which deserves in sertion. "To the Impartial Author. "GEORGE, I did ever think thy faithful breast Well mayst thou speed in these tempestuous times! Yet I so well do like thy honest rhymes, That I could wish all poets would write so. I hold them double prais'd, whom thou commendst. Thy dear friend, Th. C." The poet, at the commencement of the Second Book of these Satires, has the following prayer. "Precatio. "Thou, that createdst all things in a week, O grant, I pray, sith thou hast deign'd to show 13 That That this my noting of man's humorous passion Ι may be for my past offences sorry, Let not Ambition, nor a foul Desire, In the third Satire of the Second Book, entitled Weakness, the following lines occur. "Though it be disgrac'd thro' ignorance, The generous will Poetry advance, As the most antique science that is found, And that which hath been the first root and ground Of Content; and hath been the delight of Kings. A better glory, and a greater fame, Than Britain's Monarchy; for few but he, I think, will both a King and poet be; I am compell'd, because that at this day Than |