I. A POEM WRITTEN BY SIR HENRY WOTTON IN HIS YOUTH. [THIS Poem was first printed in Davison's Poeticall Rhapsodie, 1602, as "An Elegie," and with the signature "H.W." Wotton was then thirty-four years old; and it is therefore probable that it was written some years before that time. If there were any truth in the assertion that Wotton was addressed as a poet by Bastard in 1598, it would follow that his other youthful compositions are now lost; for this single piece would scarcely entitle him to the rank of a poet, and the others ascribed to him in Rel. Wotton. and reprinted in this volume, can be referred,-in most cases with certainty, and in all with probability,―to a much later date. But the statement arose from a misapprehension of the meaning of Bastard's Epigram, which will be found in the Introduction to this volume. His claim to this piece has been disputed; for it is ascribed to Sir Benjamin Rudyard by the Editor of the Poems of Pembroke and Rudyard (1660); but the authority of Davison and Izaak Walton will more than counterbalance that of Dr. Donne the younger. The Variations are from three copies of the Poem; viz. A=Davison's Rhapsodie, in the fourth edition of which it has the longer title, "Of a woman's heart," but no signature at all (1621, p. 202.).—B=Rudyard's Poems, p. 34; Title, "Verses made by Sir B. R."-C=MS. Rawl. Poet. 147, p. 74. Signature, "H. Wotton." The additional variations, marked D, are borrowed from Mr. Dyce's edition of Sir Henry Wotton's Poems, printed for the Percy Society. They were taken from a MS. in the handwriting of Sir Roger Twysden, and are here retained to corroborate those of other copies, for it will be seen that none of them are peculiar to that transcript.] FAITHLESS World, and thy [most] A Womans Heart; [faithless part, The true Shop of variety, where sits Nothing but Fits [5] And fevers of desire, and pangs of love, Which toys remove! [10] Why was she born to please? or I to trust Suffering her Eyes to govern my despair, And fruit of time rewarded with untruth, Untrue she was; yet I believ'd her eyes, [15] Till I was taught, that Love was but a School To breed a fool. [20] Or sought she more, by triumphs of denial, How far her smiles commanded my Yield, and confess; weakness? Excuse no more thy folly; but, for Cure, As well thy shame, as passions that were vain; To know that Love, lodg'd in a Womans brest, H. W. [VARIATIONS.-1. 'most' is the reading of A B C D. In Rel. Wotton. it is more'. I follow Mr. Dyce in this alteration of the text.-9. her looks'-B C D.-' by despair'-C.-15. 'is but'-B C.-16. After this line, another couplet is found in BCD, viz. 'Or was it absence that did make her strange, Base flower of change?' 17. than triumphs'-A B C D.-18. 'To see'-A B C D.-19. Mr. Dyce inserts 'on' after 'commanded,' from D, which is supported by B C. But the line is complete without it, the accent being thrown on the second syllable of 'weakness.'-21. 'Excuse not now. . . . nor her nature'-A B C D.-23. The recent editors of Davison announce that the second 'as' is omitted in ed. 1621,—a mere accidental omission, if it were so; but the line has only been disturbed at the press, to the loss of one letter: it runs, Aswel thy shames, passions that were vaine'-24. 'thy gain'-A B C D.-24. Sir E. Brydges prints 'jest' for guest,' without any authority that I know of.] SIR HENRY WOTTON AND SERJEANT HOSKINS RIDING ON THE WAY. [JOHN HOSKINS was originally a Fellow of New College (1584-6), where he graduated as B. A. May 6: 1588: and as M.A. Feb. 26: 1591-2: but some sarcasms in which he indulged as Terra Filius for that year, caused him to be expelled from the University without being admitted to his regency. After he had taught a school for some time, and had commenced a Greek Lexicon, a prosperous marriage enabled him to enter at the Middle-Temple, and to become a member of Parliament, where what Sir Henry Wotton calls his "licentiousness, baptized freedom," consigned him to the Tower, June 7: 1614. He was released in about a year, and in 17 Jac. I. (1619) was elected Lent-Reader of the MiddleTemple. In the 21st of the same reign (1623), he was made serjeant-at-law; but although the title of serjeant is the only mark of time about this dialogue, we can scarcely believe that so youthful a piece was composed by two men, of whom the younger was then fifty-five. Wood adds, that Hoskins was "soon after a judge or justice itinerant for Wales, and one of the council of the Marches thereof." He died Aug. 27: 1638.* ・ Some of the strange assertions contained in Wood's account of him must undoubtedly be reckoned among the "folliries and misinformations," by which, as Wood complains so grievously, (Life, p. lx.) John Aubrey would "stuff his many letters sent to A. W." and which" somtimes would guid him into the paths of errour." Aubrey was well acquainted with Hoskins's descendants, and certainly took him for a poet; the story of his " polishing" Ben Jonson seems to be directly borrowed from Aubrey's MSS.;-and the tradition of the services which he is said to have rendered to Sir Walter Raleigh probably had the same original.† It is certain, however, that Hoskins was familiar with many of his more eminent contemporaries. Wood says that "he was also much respected and beloved by Cambden, Selden, Sam. Daniel, Dr. Joh. Donne, dean of Paul's, Rich. Martin, recorder of London, sir H. Wotton, and sir Ben. Rudyard;" and he records his name in a similar manner in various other biographies,—e. g. those of Martin, Rudyard, Jonson, and Sir John Davies. Granger has printed an Inscription found under Martin's portrait, which "Chr. Brocus, Jo. Hoskinus, & Hugo Hollandus, obsequii et amoris triumviratu nexi," dedicated in 1620 to Sir Lionel Cranfield, (afterwards Earl of Middlesex,) "amico amicum amici."|| I have somewhere seen an account of a “Convivium," in which Hoskins, Brooke, and Donne take part,— the latter two under the titles of Christophorus Torrens and Joannes Factus. Wood's A. O. ii. 624-627. Fasti, i. 242, 255. + See (1.) Letters from the Bodleian, ii. 330, 394, 395, and Mr. Thoms's Anecdotes and Traditions, p. 116. (2.) Letters from the Bodleian, ii. 413. (3.) Raleigh's Works, Oxford edit. viii. 743. (The sentence last referred to is omitted in the copy of Aubrey's Life of Raleigh, which is printed in Letters from the Bodleian.) Wood's A. O). ii. 626, 250, 401, 612, iii. 456. |