George Wither (June 11, 1588 – May 2, 1667) was an English poet and satirist. June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... 1588 was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... // Events January 20 - Poland cedes Kyiv, Smolensk, and eastern Ukraine to Russia in the Treaty of Andrusovo that put a final end to the Deluge, and Poland lost its status as a Central European power. ...

Son of George Wither, of Hampshire, he was born at Bentworth, near Alton. He was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, at the age of fifteen, and remained at the university for two years. His neighbors appear to have had no great opinion of him, for they advised his father to put him to some mechanic trade. He was, however, sent to one of the Inns of Chancery, eventually obtaining an introduction at court. He wrote an elegy (1612) on the death of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and a volume of gratulatory poems (1613) on the marriage of the princess Elizabeth, but his uncompromising character soon created trouble for him. In 1611 he published Abuses Stript and Whipt, twenty satires of general application directed against Revenge, Ambition, Lust and other abstractions. The volume included a poem called "The Scourge", in which the Lord Chancellor was attacked, and a series of epigrams. No copy of this edition is known, and it was perhaps suppressed, but in 1613 five editions appeared, and the author was lodged in the Marshalsea prison. The influence of the Princess Elizabeth, supported by a loyal Satyre to the king, in which he hints that an enemy at court had fitted personal meanings to his general invective, secured his release at the end of a few months. He had figured as one of the interlocutors, Roget, in his friend William Browne's Shepherds Pipe, with which were bound up eclogues by other poets, among them one by Wither, and during his imprisonment he wrote what may be regarded as a continuation of Browne's work, The Shepherds Hunting (printed 1615), eclogues in which the two poets appear as Willie and Roget (in later editions Philarete ). The fourth of these eclogues contains a famous passage in praise of poetry. After his release he was admitted (1615) to Lincoln's Inn, and in the same year he printed privately Fidelia, a love elegy, of which there is a unique copy in the Bodleian Library. Other editions of this book, which contained the lyric "Shall I", wasting in despair, appeared in 1617 and 1619. In 1621 he returned to the satiric vein with Wither's Motto: Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo (latin for "I have not, I want not, I care not"). Over 30,000 copies of this poem were sold, according to his own account, within a few months. Like his earlier invective, it was said to be libellous, and Wither was again imprisoned, but shortly afterwards released without formal trial on the plea that the book had been. duly licensed. In 1622 appeared his Faire- Virtue, The Mistresse of Phil Arete, a long panegyric of a mistress, partly real, partly allegorical, written chiefly in the seven-syllabled verse of which he was a master. Hampshire (abbr. ... Bentworth is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England, about four miles west of Alton. ... Alton is the name of several places: United Kingdom Alton, Derbyshire, England Alton, Hampshire, England Alton, Staffordshire, England Alton, Wiltshire, England Canada Alton, Ontario Altona, Ontario Alton, Nova Scotia North Alton, Nova Scotia South Alton, Nova Scotia Altona, British Columbia Altona, Manitoba Old Altona, Manitoba Alton, Quebec United States Alton... College name Magdalen College Named after Mary Magdalene Established 1458 Sister College Magdalene College President Professor David Clary FRS JCR President Iain Anstess Undergraduates 395 Graduates 230 Homepage Boatclub Magdalen College (pronounced ) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... Court of Chancery, London, late 18th century The Court of Chancery was one of the courts of equity in England and Wales. ... Originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), the term elegy is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. ... Events January 20 - Mathias becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... For other people known as Henry, Prince of Wales see Henry, Prince of Wales (disambiguation) Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales (February 19, 1594 - November 6, 1612) was the eldest son of King James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Anne of Denmark. ... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ... Elisabeth, Electress Palatine and briefly queen of Bohemia (August 19, 1596 – February 13, 1662), born Lady Elizabeth Stuart, was born as the eldest daughter to King James VI of Scotland and his Queen consort Anne of Denmark. ... Events June 23 - Henry Hudsons crew maroons him, his son and 7 others in a boat November 1 - At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeares romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time. ... The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor and in former times Chancellor of England, is one of the most senior and important functionaries in the government of the United Kingdom. ... An epigram is a short poem with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement. ... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ... Marshalsea was a debtors prison in Southwark, London best known for being the central location in Charles Dickens book Little Dorrit. ... William Browne (1590?‑1645?) was an English poet, born at Tavistock, educated at Oxford, after which he entered the Inner Temple. ... An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. ... Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ... Part of Lincolns Inn drawn by Thomas Shepherd c. ... Originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), the term elegy is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. ... Entrance to the Library, with the coats-of-arms of several Oxford colleges Oxford University Libraries Service (OULS) comprises over 30 of the University of Oxfords central and faculty libraries: from the world-famous Bodleian Library, established 400 years ago, to the modern digital library ventures. ... Events Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed I (1603-1617) to Mustafa I (1617-1623). ... Events May 13 - Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason. ... Events February 9 - Gregory XV is elected pope. ... Events January 1 - In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of March 25. ... A Panegyric is a formal public speech delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally high studied and undiscriminating eulogy. ...

Wither began as a moderate in politics and religion, but from this time his Puritan leanings became more and more pronounced, and his later work consists of religious poetry, and of controversial and political tracts. His Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1622-1623) were issued under a patent of King James I ordaining that they should be bound up with every copy of the authorized metrical psalms offered for sale. This patent was opposed, as inconsistent with their privilege to print the singing-psalms, by the Stationers Company, to Withers great mortification and loss, and a second similar patent was finally disallowed by the House of Lords. Wither was in London during the plague of 1625, and in 1628 published Britains Remembrancer, a voluminous poem on the subject, interspersed with denunciations of the wickedness of the times, and prophecies of the disasters about to fall upon England. He also incidentally avenged Ben Jonson's satire on him as the Chronomastix of Time Vindicated, by a reference to Bens drunken conclave. This book he was obliged to print with his own hand in consequence of his quarrel with the Stationers Company. In 1635 he was employed by Henry Taunton, a London publisher, to write English verses illustrative of the allegorical plates of Crispin van Passe, originally designed for Gabriel Rollenhagens Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum (1610-1613). The book was published as a Collection of Embletnes, Ancient and Moderne, of which the only perfect copy known is in the British Museum. The Puritans were members of a group of English Protestants seeking further reforms or even separation from the established church during the Reformation. ... Events January 1 - In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of March 25. ... Events August 6 - Pope Urban VIII is elected to the Papacy. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and... James VI of Scotland and James I of England and Ireland (occasionally known as King James the Vain) (Charles James) (19 June 1566–27 March 1625) was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... Plague is usually understood as a generic term for Bubonic plague, the mortal disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, which is spread by fleas from rats and some species of mice to human beings. ... Events March 27 - Prince Charles Stuart becomes King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... Events March 1 - writs were issued in February 1628 by Charles I of England that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date. ... Benjamin Jonson (June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ... // Events January 7 - Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean moons of Jupiter. ... Events January - Galileo observes Neptune, but mistakes it for a star and so is not credited with its discovery. ... The main entrance to the British Museum The British Museum in London is the United Kingdoms - and one of the worlds - largest and most important museums of human history and culture. ...

The best of Withers religious poetry is contained in Heleluiah: or Britains Second Remembrancer, which was printed in Holland in 1641. Many of the poems rise to a high point of excellence. Besides those properly entitled to the designation of hymns, the book contains songs of singular beauty, especially the Cradle.. song ( Sleep, baby, sleep, what ails my dear ), the Anniversary Marriage Song ( Lord, living here are we ), the Perambulation Song ( Lord, it bath pleased Thee to say ), the Song for Lovers ( Come, sweet heart, come, let us prove ), the Song for the Happily Married ( Since the)~ in. singing take delight ) and that for a Shepherd (Renowned men their herds to keep). Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ... Events The Long Parliament passes a series of legislation designed to contain Charles Is absolutist tendencies. ...

(Nos. 50 in the first part, 17 and 24 in. the second, and 20,21 and 41 in the third). There is also in. the second part a fine song (No. 59), full of historical as well as poetical interest, upon the evil times in which the poet lived, beginning Now are the times, these are the days Which will those men approve Who take delight in honest ways And pious courses love; Now to the world it will appear That innocence of heart Will keep us far more free from fear Than helmet, shield or dart.

Wither wrote, generally, in a pure nervous English idiom, and preferred the reputation of rusticity (an epithet applied to him even. by Baxter) to the tricks and artifices of poetical style which were then in favor. It may be partly on that account that he was better appreciated by posterity than by his contemporaries.

Wither had served as captain of horse in 1639 in the expedition of Charles I against the Scottish Covenanters, and his religious rather than his political convictions must be accepted as the explanation of the fact that, three years after the Scottish expedition, at the outbreak of the English Civil War, he is found definitely siding with the Parliament. He sold his estate to raise a troop of horse, and was placed by a parliamentary committee in command of Farnham Castle. After a few days occupation he left the place undefended, and marched to London. His own house near Farnham was plundered, and he himself was captured by a troop of Royalist horse, owing his life to the intervention. of Sir John Denham on the ground that so long as Wither lived he himself could not be accounted the worst poet in England. After this episode he was promoted to the rank of major. He was present at the siege of Gloucester (1643) and at Naseby (1645). He had been deprived in 1643 of his nominal command, and of his commission as justice of the peace, in consequence of an attack upon Sir Richard Onslow, who was, he maintained, responsible for the Farnham disaster. In the same year parliament made him a grant of 2000 for the loss of his property, but he apparently never received the full amount, and complained from time to time of his embarrassments and of the slight rewards he received for his services. An order was made to settle a yearly income of 150 on Wither, chargeable on Sir John Denhams sequestrated estate, but there is no evidence that he ever received it. A small place given him by the Protector was forfeited by declaring unto him (Oliver Cromwell) those truths which he was not willing to hear of. At the Restoration he was arrested, and remained in prison for three years. He died in London. Events January 14 - Connecticuts first constitution, the Fundamental Orders, is adopted. ... Charles I (19 November 1600–30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625, until his execution. ... The Covenanters were a radical Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England, during the 17th century. ... The term English Civil War (or Wars) refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651. ... An aerial view of Parliament of India at New Delhi. ... Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,500,000 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. ... Sir John Denham (1615 - 1669), poet, son of the Chief Baron of Exchequer in Ireland, was born in Dublin, and educated at Oxford He began his literary career with a tragedy, The Sophy (1641), which seldom rises above mediocrity. ... Gloucester (pronounced ) is a city and district in south-west England, close to the Welsh border. ... // Events January 21 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga February 6 - Abel Tasman discovers the Fiji islands. ... Naseby is a village in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of around 500. ... // Events January 10 - Archbishop Laud executed on Tower Hill, London. ... A Justice of the Peace (JP) is a magistrate appointed by a commission to keep the peace, dispense summary justice and deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions. ... Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. ... The English Restoration or simply Restoration was an episode in the history of Great Britain beginning in 1660 when the monarchy was restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War. ...

His extant writings, catalogued in Parks British Bibliographer, number over a hundred. Sir S. E. Brydges published The Shepherds Hunting (1814), Fidelia (1815) and Fair Virtue (I8f8), and a selection I appeared in Stanford's Works of the British Poets, vol. v. (i 819). Most of Withers works were edited in twenty volumes for the Spenser Society (1871-1882); a selection was included by Henry Morley in his Companion Poets (1891); Fidelia and Fair Virtue are included in Edward Arber's English Garner (vol. iv., 1882; vol. vi. 1883), and an excellent edition of The Poetry of George Wither was edited by F. Sidgwick in 1902. Among Algernon Swinburne's Miscellanies there is an amusing account of a copy of a selection from Wither's poems annotated by Charles Lamb, then by Dr Nott, whose notes were the subject of further ruthless comment from Lamb. Algernon Swinburne, Portrait by Rossetti Algernon Charles Swinburne (April 5, 1837 – April 10, 1909) was a Victorian era English poet. ... Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 –- 27 July 1834) was an English essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the childrens book Tales from Shakespeare, which he produced along with his sister, Mary Lamb. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.