membering that he had vowed a pilgrimage to the queen of Bohemia, he travelled to her court to accomplish his vow, and presented her highness with a copy of his Psalms. In 1639 he was a captain of horse in the expedition against the Scots, and quarter master general of his regiment, under the earl of Arundel. But as soon as the civil wars broke out he sold his estate to raise a troop of horse for the parliament, and soon afterwards rose to the rank of major. In the month October of the same year, 1642, he was appointed by parliament captain and commander of Farnham Castle, in Surrey; but his government was of short duration, for the castle was ceded on the first of December to Sir William Waller. Wither says, in his own justification, that he was advised by his superiors to quit the place, while his enemies alleged that he deserted it. The de fence of his conduct, which he published, seems to have been more resolute than his defence of the fortress. In the course of the civil war, he was made prisoner by the royalists, and when some of them were desirous of making an example of him, Denham, the poet, is said to have pleaded with his majesty that he would not hang him, for as long as Wither lived he (Denham) could not be accounted the worst poet in England. Wood informs us that he was afterwards constituted by Cromwell majorgeneral of all the horse and foot in the county of Surrey. At the Restoration, the estates, which he had either acquired or purchased during the interregnum, were taken from him. But the event which crushed his fortunes could not silence his pen, and he was committed first to Newgate and afterwards to the Tower, for remonstrances, which were deemed a libel on the new government. From the multitude of his writings, during a three years' imprisonment, it may be clearly gathered, that he was treated not only with rigour, but injustice; for the confiscation of his property was made by forcible entry, and besides being illegal in form, was directly contrary to the declaration that had been issued by Charles the Second before his accession. That he died in prison may be inferred from the accounts, though not clear from the dates of his biographers; but his last days must have been spent in wretchedness and obscurity. He was buried between the east door and the south end of the Savoy church, in the Strand. GEORGE WITHER. FROM THE SHEPHERD'S HUNTING. SEE'ST thou not, in clearest days, Leaving it (unblemish'd) fair? So, my Willy, shall it be With detraction's breath and thee. It shall never rise so high, As to stain thy poesy. As that sun doth oft exhale Vapours from each rotten vale; Poesy so sometimes drains Gross conceits from muddy brains; Mists of envy, fogs of spite, "Twixt men's judgments and her light; But so much her power may do That she can dissolve them too. If thy verse do bravely tower, And poor I, her fortune ruing, But if I my cage can rid, I'll fly, where I never did. And though for her sake I'm crost, Spite of all the world could do. With those sweets the spring-tide yields; Though I may not see those groves, Where the shepherds chaunt their loves, And the lasses more excel Than the sweet-voic'd Philomel; Though of all those pleasures past, But remembrance, poor relief, That more makes than mends my grief: Whence she should be driven to, Make this churlish place allow |