Have put on blacke, and loving mourners be, To mourne for me, since mourning doth thee grace, Then will I sweare beauty herselfe is blacke, So now I have confest that he is thine, Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me, In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworne, For I have sworne deepe oathes of thy deepe kindenesse, Oathes of thy love, thy truth, thy constancie; And to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindnesse, Or made them sweare against the thing they see; SIR HENRY WOTTON was born in 1568, at Bocton Hall, Kent, of an ancient and honourable family. He was the younger of four sons, upon each of whom the honour of knighthood was conferred Having been educated at Winchester School, he took his degree at Queen's College, Oxford, where he greatly distinguished himself. Afterwards, he "laid aside his books and betook himself to the useful library of travel," continuing many years abroad, and visiting France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. His wit and talents obtained the notice of the Earl of Essex, by whom he was taken into" a serviceable friendship." Upon the fall of this " Darling of Fortune," Sir Henry considering prevention by absence a better security than to "plead his innocency in a prison," again became a resident abroad, and continued chiefly in Florence until the accession of James the First. By this monarch he was selected as ambassador to Venice. The favour of his Majesty was, however, nearly lost by a word. Passing through Germany, he was requested by a learned friend to write some sentence in his albo-"a book of white paper," says Izaak Walton, "which the German gentry usually carry about them."-Sir Henry wrote in Latin a pleasant definition of an ambassador. "An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." The sentence slept quietly in the albo for eight years; but at length a Roman adversary of King James quoted it as a principle of the king's religion. The writer then fell under the displeasure of the monarch; but, having penned an apology, ingenious, clear, and choicely eloquent, he was restored to favour. On his return to England, he was appointed Provost of Eton College-as "the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts,. and afford rest to his body and mind," to him an object of exceeding envy, if we may credit the inscription, which, after an enumeration of his titles upon the "Lodging-scutcheon," that according to custom was placed above the door of the house in which the envoy resided abroad, terminated thus-" after all these employments he hath learned this, that the souls of wise men grow better by resting." Here he continued during the remainder of his days; "Invidiæ remedium" writ over his study door. Here he entered, at the age of sixty, into holy ordersconceiving himself bound in duty so to do; and was at all times and in all seasons cheerful and happy-"nor did he," says the amiable enthusiast, "forget his innate pleasure of angling," which he would usually call "his idle time not idly spent," adding that he would rather live five May months than forty Decembers." He died in December, 1639,-putting off mortality, says his friend and biographer, "with as much content and cheerfulness as human frailty is capable of; being then in great tran ́quillity of mind, and in perfect peace with God and man," and as the poet Cowley has quaintly expressed it, "He died lest he should idle grow at last." "He was worthy of the love and favour of so many princes and persons of eminent wisdom and learning; worthy of the trust committed unto him for the service of his prince and country," and "worthy," adds old Izaak, with more of modesty than truth, "a more worthy pen to have preserved his memory, and commended his merits to the imitation of posterity." "He was of a choice shape, tall of stature, and of a most persuasive behaviour; which was so mixed with sweet discourse and civilities, as gained him much love from all persons with whom he entered into an acquaintance." The claims of Sir Henry Wotton to rank among the British Poets, are by no means large, if they are estimated by the number or length of his contributions to our national store. He neither anticipated nor coveted fame for his poetry. He wrote from the impulse of feeling;-and as his mind was of a rare order, what he did, he was sure to do well. Our language contains, we think, few things finer than his lines to the Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James the First. They have been often imitated, but never surpassed; and among his other productions are many of exceeding beauty, which touch the heart more than a host of those artificial thoughts and laboured efforts at effect so conspicuous in his more voluminous contemporaries. Wotton's two lines "upon the death of Sir Albert Morton's wife" have been justly celebrated as containing a volume in seventeen words: "He first deceas'd; She for a little tri'd To live without him: lik'd it not, and di'd." FAREWELL, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles; And torture free-born minds: embroider'd trains Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins; Inherited, not purchas'd nor our own, Fame, honour, beauty, state, train, blood and birth, Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. I would be great, but that the sun doth still I would be high, but see the proudest oak Welcome pure thoughts, welcome ye silent groves, And if Contentment be a stranger then, ON HIS MISTRESS, THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. You meaner beauties of the night, What are you when the sun shall rise? You curious chaunters of the wood, You violets, that first appear, Th' eclipse and glory of her kind? THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE. How happy is he born and taught, Whose passions not his masters are, Who envies none that chance doth raise, Who hath his life from rumours freed, Who God doth late and early pray, This man is freed from servile bands, |