George Wither

George Wither (1588-1667). Engraving by T.S. Engleheart, after John Payne, 1699. Courtesy Wellcome Images & Wikimedia Commons.

George Wither
Born	1588-06-11 O.S. Bentworth, Hampshire
Died	1667-05-02 O.S.
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	English
Genres	Satire
Notable work(s)	Abuses Stript and Whipt, The Shepheard's Hunting

George Wither (11 June O.S., 1588 - 2 May O.S., 1667) was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style He was several times imprisoned.

Life

Overview

Wither, born near Alton, Hampshire, was at Oxford for a short time, and then studied law at Lincoln's Inn. In 1613 he published a bold and pungent satire, Abuses Stript and Whipt, with the result that he was imprisoned for some months in the Marshalsea. While there he wrote The Shepheard's Hunting, a pastoral. Wither's Motto, Nec Habeo, nec Careo, nec Curo (I have not, want not, care not) was written in 1618, and in 1622 he collected his poems as Juvenilia. The same year he published a long poem, Faire Virtue, the Mistress of Philarete, in which appears the famous lyric, "Shall I wasting in despair." Though generally acting with the Puritans he took arms with Charles I. against the Scotch in 1639; but on the outbreak of the Civil War he was on the popular side, and raised a troop of horse. He was taken prisoner by the Royalists, and is said to have owed his life to the intercession of a fellow-poet, Sir John Denham. After the establishment of the Commonwealth he was considerably enriched out of sequestrated estates and other spoils of the defeated party; but on the Restoration page 412was obliged to surrender his gains, was impeached, and committed to the Tower. In his later years he wrote many religious poems and hymns, coll. as Hallelujah. Before his death his poems were already forgotten, and he was referred to by Pope in The Dunciad as "the wretched Withers". He was, however, disinterred by Southey, Lamb, and others, who drew attention to his poetical merits, and he has now an established place among English poets, to which his freshness, fancy, and delicacy of taste well entitle him.

Youth and education

Wither, the eldest of 3 sons of Anne (Serle) and George Wither, , was born at Bentworth, near Alton, Hampshire, on 11 June 1588. He refers to "Bentworth's beechy shadows" in his Abuses stript and whipt.

From Ralph Starkey the archivist, whose wife was the poet's cousin, he is said to have received some early instruction. He derived his chief education from John Greaves, rector of Colemore, whose son, John Greaves, was the great mathematician. To his "schoolmaster Greaves" Wither addressed an affectionate epigram in 1613.

Subsequently he proceeded to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he spent 2 years, 1604-1606. His tutor, according to Aubrey, was John Warner (1581–1666), afterwards bishop of Rochester. Wither took no degree.

Early career

It is thought that he spent some time in Ireland, perhaps with Adam Loftus at Rathfarnham Castle. He wrote what amounted to a masque for a wedding that took place there in 1610, of the parents of Francis Willughby. About 1610, in order to study law, he moved to London, where the greater part of his long life was spent. After joining a minor inn of court he was entered at Lincoln's Inn in 1615.

Almost as soon as Wither settled in London he devoted his best energies to literature, and proved himself the master not only of a lyric vein of rare quality, but also of a satiric temper which could often express itself in finely pointed verse. His friends soon included the most notable writers of the day. William Browne (1591–1643?) seems to have been his earliest literary associate, and through Browne he appears to have made the acquaintance of Michael Drayton.

The earliest volume in the title-page of which his name figured was ‘Prince Henries Obsequies or Mournefull Elegies upon his Death: with a supposed Interlocution betweene the Ghost of prince Henrie and Great Brittaine. By George Wyther (London, printed by Ed. Allde, for Arthur Johnson, 1612, 4to; reprinted in 1617, and with the ‘Juvenilia’ of 1622 and 1633). This was dedicated in a metrical epistle to Sir Robert Sidney (afterwards Earl of Leicester). The elegies are in 45 stanzas, each forming a sonnet, and the literary promise is high throughout.

The next year Wither celebrated the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth with the elector palatine in a volume of Epithalamia: or Nuptiall Poems (London, for Edward Marchant, 1612–13, 4to, 1620, 1622; London, 1633, 8vo). The poem pleased the Princess Elizabeth, whom Wither thenceforth reckoned his most powerful patron.

First imprisonment

Less agreeable consequences attended another literary effort of Wither's. In 1611, according to his own account, he took notice of "public crimes" (Warning Piece to London, 1662), and gave proof of his quality as a satirist. No publication by Wither dated in 1611 is known, but in 1613 appeared his Abuses stript and whipt; or Satiricall essayes by George Wyther: Divided into two bookes (London, printed by G. Eld for Francis Burton, 1613, 8vo). The dedication ran: "To Him-selfe G.W. wisheth all happiness." The satires are succeeded by a poem called "The Scourge," and a series of epigrams to patrons and friends, including his father, mother, cousin William Wither, and friend Thomas Cranley. A portrait by William Hole or Holle is dated 1611, and erroneously gives Wither's age as 21.

The book was popular (there were at least 5 editions in 1613, and others in 1614, 1615, and 1617, the last "reviewed and enlarged"), but it gave on its initial appearance serious offence to the authorities for reasons that are not apparent. Each of the 20 satires discloses the evils lurking in abstractions like Revenge, Ambition, Lust, Weakness, and the like, and, although some of the anecdotal digressions may have had personal application, the clue is lost. Wither declared that he had,

as opportunity was offered, glanced in general tearmes at the reproofe of a few thinges of such nature as I feared might disparage or prejudice the Commonwealth … [but] I unhappily fell into the displeasure of the state: and all my apparent gFood intentions were so mistaken by the aggrauations of some yll affected towards my indeauours, that I was shutt up from the society of mankind" (The Schollers Purgatory, Spenser Soc. 2–3).

Despite the fact that the satires referenced nobody by name, and that Wither had published them a year before with no trouble, he was arrested for libel "on or about 20 March 1614" and held in the Marshalsea prison for 4 months before being released.

Pritchard makes the case that the reason for Wither's imprisonment was that he angered Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, by accusing him and others of colluding with the Spanish—and Catholic—government. Pritchard mentions that Northampton was at the height of his power when Wither was arrested, and notes that he was not able to secure his release until after Northampton's death in June 1614.

The Princess Elizabeth is reported to have intervened on his behalf, and her intervention, supported by a poetic appeal to the king from Wither himself, procured his release after a few months. The poet's appeal was entitled A Satyre: Dedicated to His Most Excellent Maiestie (London, printed by Thomas Snodham for George Norton, 1615, sm. 8vo; in some copies "written" is found for "dedicated").

Wither shed an unaccustomed luster on the Marshalsea by penning some of his best poetry while a prisoner there. He had some hand in William Browne's pastoral poems. In the 1st eclogue of Browne's Shepherd's Pipe (1614) he was introduced as an interlocutor under the name of ‘Roget,’ and to the same volume Wither contributed the 2nd and 4th eclogues which were appended to Browne's work. In 1 of these Wither introduced his friends Christopher Brooke and Browne under the names of "Cuttie’ and ‘Willy;" the other he dedicated "to his truly loving and worthy friend Mr. W. Browne."

Fired by Browne's example, Wither straightway continued the Shepherd's Pipe in a similar poem wholly of his own composition, which he entitled The Shepherd's Hunting. This was published in 1615, and was described on the title-page as consisting of "certaine eglogues, written during the time of the author's imprisonment in the Marshalsey" (London, printed by W. White for George Norton, 1615, 8vo; reprinted in the Workes, 1620, and in Juvenilia, 1622 and 1633). It was dedicated to the "visitants" to his prison cell. The interlocutors were Browne, under the name of Willie, and the poet himself, under the name of Roget, a designation which he altered in editions subsequent to 1620 to Philarete. In the 4th eclogue appears, in his favorite 7-syllabled rhyming couplets (the meter of Milton's ‘L'Allegro’), his classical eulogy of the gift of poetry for the wealth and strength it confers on its possessor.

Pastorals and satires

In 1616 Browne lauded Wither, in company with John Davies of Hereford, in the 2nd song of the 2nd book of Britannia's Pastorals (ll. 323–6); to this volume Wither contributed commendatory verses.

The Shepherd's Hunting was succeeded by another little volume of charming verse entitled Fidelia, a poetical lament in epistolary form from a desolate maiden forsaken by her lover. It seems to have been originally printed in small octavo in 1615 for private circulation. A copy of the private edition is in the Bodleian Library. The edition was published for sale under the title Fidelia, written by G.W. of Lincolnes Inne, Gentleman (London, printed by Nicholas Okes, 1617, 12mo). In an edition "newly corrected and augmented," dated 1619, there were added2 songs, including the matchless lyric "Shall I wasting in despair." (A new edition of 1620 was printed by John Beale for Walkley, and it reappeared in the Juvenilia.)

Of literary interest, although of far smaller literary value than Fidelia, was the poem called Wither's Motto. Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo (London, printed for John Marriott, 1621, 8vo), which quickly reached a second edition and achieved an extraordinary popularity. There is an engraved frontispiece with a whole-length figure of the author looking towards heaven. Wither, who confusingly dates its 1st appearance in 1618, says that about 30,000 copies were printed and published within a few months (Fragmenta Prophetica, 47). It is a fluent series of egotistical reflections on the conduct of life, intermingled with some spirited sarcasm at the expense of the mean and vicious. Its sound morality recommended it to the serious-minded, and on the strength of it John Winthrop took a hopeful view of "our modern spirit of poetry" (Winthrop, Life and Letters, 1864, 396).

Some persons in high station deemed the poem a reflection on current politics and politicians, and Wither was again ordered to the Marshalsea (Court and Times of James I, ii. 266). In the course of his examination he denied the charge of libel, and declared that Drayton had approved the poem in manuscript (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619-1623, 268, 274–5). It was admitted that the Stationers' Company had refused a license for the 1st edition, but that the 2nd was licensed, after some passages had been struck out. Wither was liberated without undergoing formal trial.

The Motto had been defiantly dedicated "To anybody," and, falling under the notice of John Taylor the water-poet, was good-humouredly satirised by that rhymester in ‘Et habeo, et careo, et curo’ ("I have, I want, I care"); it was also unimpressively criticized in An Answer to “Wither's Motto,” by T.G. [perhaps Thomas Gainsford], Oxford, 1625.

Of equally admirable literary quality with Fidelia was another love poem which was probably written at the same period. This was called Faire-Virtve, the Mistresse of Phil'Arete. Written by himself, Geo. Wither (London, printed for John Grismond, 1622, 8vo; reprinted in 1633 with the Juvenilia of that year). According to the prefatory epistle of John Marriott the stationer, this was 1 of Wither's earliest performances; imperfect copies had already gone abroad, and Wither had permitted the publication on condition that no author's name appeared. The poem is a rapturous panegyric (mainly in heptasyllabic rhyme) of a half-imaginary beauty.

Puritan polemics

Faire Virtue was Wither's final contribution to pure literature, and few of his later works fulfil his earlier poetic promise. Thenceforth his writings consist of pious exercises and political diatribes. Like his greater contemporary Milton, he became a convinced puritan, and he made it a point of conscience to devote his ready pen solely to the advancement of the political and religious causes with which he had identified himself. In the volume of pious poems called Halelujah (1641) his old power seemed to revive, but nowhere else in the wide range of his religious verse did his thought or diction reach a genuinely poetic level.

The long series of his religious works opened with a learned prose treatise in folio, entitled A Preparation to the Psalter (London, printed by Nicholas Okes, 1619, folio, with the title-page engraved by Delaram, and a portrait of Wither from the same hand, which is now rarely found with the book; dedicated to Charles, prince of Wales). There quickly followed Exercises Vpon the first Psalme. Both in Prose and Verse (London, printed by Edward Griffin for John Harrison, 1620, 8vo; dedicated to Sir John Smith, knt., son of Sir Thomas Smith, governor of the East India Company).

A more ambitious venture of the same character bore the title The Songs of the Old Testament. Translated into English Measures: preserving the Naturall Phrase and genuine sense of the Holy Text: and with as little circumlocution as in most prose Translations. To every song is added a new and easie Tune, and a short Prologue also (London, printed by T.S. 1621, 8vo; dedicated to the archbishop of Canterbury, Abbot).

Wither's reputation was now assured. Secular and religious critics were equally enthusiastic in his praises, and in 1620 his popularity was paid a very equivocal compliment. A collection of his compositions was surreptitiously issued under the title: The Workes of Master George Wither, of Lincolns-Inne, Gentleman: Containing Satyrs, Epigrammes, Eclogues, Sonnets and Poems. Whereunto is annexed a Paraphrase on the Creed, and the Lords Prayer (London, printed by John Beale for Thomas Walkley, 1620, 8vo). Wither retorted by issuing an authentic collection of his finest works, called Jvvenilia: A collection of those Poemes which were heretofore imprinted, and written by George Wither (London, printed for John Budge, 1622, 8vo, with an engraved title). There was a reissue of 1626 ("for Robert Allot"). A new edition of 1633 included "Faire Virtue." It is mainly on the contents of this volume that Wither's position as a poet depends.

Anxious to secure the full profits of his growing literary work, Wither sought an exceptional mode of guaranteeing his rights in his next volume. The book was called The Hymnes and Songs of the Church, and Orlando Gibbons supplied ‘the musick.’ The volume was divided into 2 parts — the 1st consisting of "Canonicall Hymnes," adapted from scripture and other sources, and the 2nd, of original "Spirituall Songs' for various seasons and festivals. Wither asserts that he was engaged on the work for 3 years, and he obtained by letters patent on 17 February 1623 for a period of 51 years, not only a grant of monopoly or full copyright in the work, but also a compulsory order directing its "insertion" and "addition" to every copy of the authorized Psalm-book in meeter which the Stationers' Company enjoyed the privilege under earlier patents of publishing (Arber, iv. 12, seq.; cf. Rymer, Acta Publica, xvii. 454).

The volume appeared in 1623, in at least 4 forms. There was a 16mo impression "printed for George Wither;"’ another in quarto, "printed by the assignes of George Wither … cum Privilegio Regis Regali;" a 3rd in 8vo, "printed by the assignes of George Wither, 1623, cum Privilegio Regis Regali;" and a 4th in folio "printed by the assignes of George Wither." The Stationers' Company regarded Wither's patent, and independent method of business, as a serious infringement of their privileges. Booksellers refused to bind up copies with the authorised psalter or to sell it in any shape, and warned their customers that it was an incompetent performance. Wither protested warmly, but with little avail.

Unfortunately he did not carry with him the sympathy of all his fellow-craftsmen. He was still the friend of William Browne; of Richard Brathwaite, who applied to him the epithet "lovely" in 1615; and of Drayton, to whose Polyolbion (pt. ii.) he contributed in 1622 an enthusiastic commendation. But his successes were viewed with jealousy by Ben Jonson and his band of disciples. Alexander Gill the elder had quoted Wither's work with approval in his Logonomia Anglica (1619), and Jonson had quarrelled in consequence with Gill, whose son retorted with violence. Jonson revenged himself by caricaturing Wither under the title Chronomastix (that is, satirist of time) in the masque called ‘Time Vindicated,’ which was presented at court on Twelfth night 1623–4. Much sarcasm was here expended on Wither's quarrel with his printers, and finally Fame was represented as disowning him, despite the outcry of friends who deify him.

Wither vigorously stated his grievances against the booksellers in a highly interesting prose tract which he entitled The Schollers Purgatory, discouered In the Stationers Commonwealth. … Imprinted for the Honest Stationers, 12mo. There is no mention of date or place of publication. It was probably printed abroad about 1624. In the form of an address to the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops assembled in convocation, Wither narrated with spirit the long series of wrongs which he and other authors of his day suffered at the hands of their publishers.

The stationers sought to stop the publication. They moved the court of high commission to institute an inquiry. Wither was called upon to explain why he issued the volume without a license. He admitted that parts had been printed under his direction by George Wood, and boasted that the edition consisted of 3,000 copies (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, 143).

Wither was in London during the plague of 1625, and, despite the distractions of personal controversy, penned 2 accounts of it. One he called The Historie of the Pestilence or the proceedings of Justice and Mercy manifested an [sic] the Great Assizes holden about London in the yeare 1625. This remains in a folio manuscript in the author's autograph in the Pepysian Collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge. At the same time he published a 2nd treatise on the subject, as Britains Remembrancer: Containing a Narrative of the Plague lately past; a Declaration of the Mischiefs present; and a Prediction of Judgments to come (if Repentance prevent not), 1628, 12mo. He was still under the stationers' ban. No license was obtainable for this book, and he caused it to be printed "for Great Britaine" at his own risk, and, it is said, with his own hand (Court and Times of Charles I, i. 367). John Grismond undertook to sell copies.

The impression consisted of 4,000 copies. There is a long preliminary address to the king in verse and a "premonition" in prose. The voluminous poem is itself in 8 cantos of heroic rhymes. Vivid descriptions of the plague are interspersed with much wild denunciation of the impiety of the nation and anticipation of future trouble. Mindful of Jonson's onslaught, he referred to the "drunken conclave" at which Jonson had denied him the title of poet. He claimed with much self-satisfaction in later years to have clearly foretold in this volume all the future misfortunes that the country witnessed in his lifetime.

A visit to the continent seems to have followed, and Wither appears to have been received in audience by his early patroness, the Princess Elizabeth, now the exiled queen of Bohemia. To her he gratefully dedicated his next publication, The Psalms of David, translated into Lyrick verse according to the Scope of the Original, and illustrated with a short Argument and a briefe Prayer or Meditation before and after every Psalme. This was printed in the Netherlands by Cornelius Gerrits van Breughel in 1632, and formed a thick square octavo. As early as April 1625 he had visited Cambridge in order to find a printer for the work, but had met with none to undertake it (cf. ib. i. 12). Subsequently, in January 1633-4, Wither, in continuance of the warfare with the London stationers, summoned all or most of them before the council to answer for a "contempt of the great seal" in their continued defiance of his patent of 1623. The judgment of the court disallowed that part of Wither's patent which directed that his Hymnes should be bound up with the authorised Psalter (ib. ii. 236). Immediately afterwards he made his peace with the publishers and his relations with them were amicable from then.

File:Marshall.jpg

William Marshall's frontispiece to Wither's Emblemes.

The plates which were originally engraved by Crispin Pass for the Emblems of Rollenhagius, and had appeared with mottoes in Greek, Latin, or Italian (Cologne, 1613; and Arnheim, 1616), were purchased in 1634 by Henry Taunton, a London publisher, with a view to a reissue. Wither was employed by him to write illustrative verses in English. The volume appeared as A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne; quickened with Metrical Illustrations, both Morall and Divine, London, printed by A. M. for Henry Taunton, 1635, fol. (the only perfect copy known is in the British Museum).

About 1636 Wither retired to what he calls "his rustic habitation," a cottage under the Beacon Hill at Farnham (Nature of Man, 1636), and there devoted himself to the congenial study of theology. In 1636 he issued The Nature of Man: A learned and useful tract, written in Greek by Nemesius, surnamed the Philosopher … one of the most ancient Fathers of the Church. The translation was not made from the Greek of Nemesius, but from two Latin versions. It was inscribed by Wither to his "most learned and much honoured friend John Selden, esq."

Civil War

The political crisis of the following years drew Wither into public life. In 1639 he served as captain of horse in the expedition of Charles I against the Scottish covenanters. In 1641 he was sufficiently at leisure to produce his best work as a religious poet — the interesting collection of 273 "hymns," entitled Halelujah; or, Britans Second Remembrancer, bringing to remembrance (in praisefull and pœnitentiall Hymns, Spirituall Songs, and Morall Odes) Meditations advancing the Glory of God, in the practise of pietie and virtue (London, 1641, 12mo). Halelujah is 1 of the scarcest of all Wither's publications; only 4 copies are known, of which one is in the British Museum. At the same date Wither repeated his old warning of the nation's impending peril in A Prophesie written long since for this year 1641, London, n.d., 8vo (a reprint of the 8th canto of Britain's Remembrancer of 1628).

In 1642 he sold such estate as he possessed and raised a troop of horse for the parliament. He placed on his colors the motto Pro rege, lege, grege(cf. Campo-Musæ, frontispiece). On 14 October 1642 he was appointed, by a parliamentary committee, captain and commander of Farnham Castle, and of such foot as should be put into his hands by Sir Richard Onslow and Richard Stoughton, for the defense of the king, parliament, and kingdom.

But his government was of short duration. Wither knew little of military procedure, and under the advice, he declared, of his superiors he soon quit the castle and drew away his men. He was subsequently captured by a troop of royalists, and owed his life to the intercession of Sir John Denham, who pleaded that "so long as Wither lived he [Denham] would not be accounted the worst poet in England.’ Wither thenceforth regarded Denham with very bitter feelings.

Farnham Castle was soon reoccupied (on 1 December) by the parliamentary general, Sir William Waller. Wither retained his position in the parliamentary army, became a justice of the peace for Surrey, and was promoted to the rank of major, but it is doubtful if he saw further active service. His chief energies were thenceforth devoted to procuring a livelihood. On 9 February 1642-3, 2,000l. was granted him on his petition towards the repair of his plundered estate. Other payments were subsequently ordered by the parliament, but were not made.

Meanwhile, Wither was busier than ever with his pen. In 1643 he published 3 tracts, all of which attracted attention. The earliest was Mercurius Rusticus; or, a Countrey Messenger: Informing divers things worthy to be taken notice of, for the furtherance of those proceedings which concerne the publique peace and safety; this was in opposition to a royalist periodical, similarly named, by Bruno Ryves.

Wither's 2nd literary labor of 1643 was the poetic Campo-Musæ; or the Field-musings of Captain George Wither; touching his Military Ingagement for the King and Parliament, the Justnesse of the same, and the present distractions of these Islands (London, 1643, 8vo; 1644, 2 editions; 1661); this was dedicated to the parliamentary commander, the Earl of Essex; in it Wither claimed to reconcile the king and parliament, while he narrated his personal difficulties.

In Aqua Musæ Wither's old opponent, John Taylor the water-poet, denounced the ambiguity of his attitude, describing him as a "juggling rebell." Taylor affirmed that he had loved and respected Wither for 35 years, "because I thought him simply honest; but now his hypocrisy is by himself discovered, I am bold to take my leave of him." Further aspersions on his conduct drew from Wither (also in 1643) his prose tract Se Defendendo: a Shield and a Shaft against Detraction. Opposed and drawn by Capt. Geo. Wither: by occasion of scandalous rumours, touching his desertion of Farnham-Castle; and some other malicious aspersions.

In 1644 Wither experienced new embarrassments. He charged Sir Richard Onslow, whom he held responsible for his misfortunes at Farnham, with sending money privately to the king. Onslow retorted by depriving Wither of the nominal command, which he still held, of the militia in the east and middle division of the county, and contrived his removal from the commission of the peace (August 1644). Wither denounced Onslow with virulence in his Justiciarius Justificatus, and complaint was made to the House of Commons. The book was referred for examination to a committee on 10 April 1646, and on 7 August it was voted to be "false and scandalous." Wither was directed to pay a fine of 500l., and the book was burned at Guildford by the hangman (Whitelocke, p. 218). Subsequently, Wither states, the house discharged him "both from the said fine and imprisonment without his petitioning or mediation for it" (Hist. MSS. Comm. 14th Rep. pt. ix., Onslow Papers, pp. 476–7).

Wither pursued his literary labors undismayed. In a flood of further tracts and poems he warned the House of Commons or the nation of coming danger in the Cassandra-like spirit of his Britain's Remembrancer: Letters of Advice to the Electors, 1644, prose; Some Advertisements for the New Election of Burgesses; Speech without Doors, 9 July 1644; Vox Pacifica, a long poem in 4 cantos, 1645, with a woodcut map of England, Scotland, and Ireland as frontispiece; Speech without Doors Defended, 1646; Opobalsamum Anglicanum, 1646; Major Wither's Disclaimer: being a Disavowment of a late Paper, entituled ‘The Doubtfull Almanack’ [prose], lately published in the name of the said Major Wither, 1646, 4to, prose; What Peace to the Wicked? 1646, 4to, a poem in short rhyming couplets, printed in double column, denouncing the clergy for the dissensions of 1645.

All his old prophecies of calamity were repeated in his tedious poem, Prosopopœia Britanica: Britain's Genius, or Good-Angel, Personated; reasoning and avissing, touching the Games now playing, and the Adventures now at hazard in these Islands; and presaging also some future things not unlikely to come to passe, London, 1648, 8vo. This work and Britain's Remembrancer were the publications which Wither regarded as of greatest value among all his publications (cf. Fides Anglicana, p. 53; Furor Poeticus, 30).

In 1647 he issued 2 poems in the interests of peace. One was Carmen Expostulatorium; or, a timely Expostulation with those, both of the City of London and the present Armie, who have either endeavoured to engage these Kingdomes in a Second Warre, or neglected the prevention thereof. The other was Amygdala Britannica: Almonds for Parrets; a dish of stone fruit: partly shel'd and partly unshel'd.

Wither's private anxieties grew year by year more acute, and he often varied his comments on public events by long petitions to the House of Commons describing his personal embarrassments. A Single Siquis, And a quadruple Quere, in verse [1648], which was presented to members of parliament in their private capacities, opens with a reference to Cromwell's victory over the Scots at Preston on 17 August 1648, but it dealt mainly with its author's financial distress. A like appeal, called The Tired Petitioner, appeared about the same time, on a single sheet, as well as Verses presented to several Members of the House of Commons, repairing thither the 23rd of December 1648 … with an imprinted petitioner therto annexed.

His contemporary tracts, The true state of the case betwixt the King and Parliament; The Prophetical Trumpeter Sounding an Allarum to Britaine (London, n.d., 8vo); Carmen Eucharisticon, on Michael Jones's victory in Ireland (1649, 4to), touched less personal topics. Of somewhat ambiguous import was Vaticinium Votivum, Or Palæmons Prophetick Prayer. Lately Presented Privately to His now Majestie in a Latin Poem; and here Published in English; Trajecti. Anno Caroli Martyris primo [1649], 8vo, with a portrait of Charles II.

Commmonwealth

After the king's death Wither constituted himself the panegyrist of the new form of government. Some doubt exists as to his responsibility for the sympathetic prose tract on recent political history, called Respublica Anglicana, 1650, 4to, although assigned on the title-page to "G.W." But he described himself as "A faithful servant to this Republik," in A Timelie Cavtion, comprehended in thirty-seven Double Trimeters, occasioned by a late rumour of an intention suddenly to adjourn this Parliament, and superscribed to those whome it most concernes. September 10, 1652. In a postscript he not unjustly calls the publication "Wither'd leaves" — a play upon words which he frequently repeated. To a mystical tract in verse called The dark Lantern he added "A Poem concerning a Perpetuall Parliament," 1653, 8vo.

Other lucubrations of the time were of a more exclusively religious temper (cf. Three Grains of Spiritual Frankincense, 1651, 12mo, dedicated to President Bradshaw; "A Letter to the Honourable Sir John Danvers, knight," at end of a Copy of a Petition from the Governor and Company of the Sommer Islands, 1651, 4to; The British Appeals, with Gods Mercifull Replies, printed for the author, 1651, 8vo, 2 editions). Westrow Reviv'd (1653) was an elegy on Thomas Westrow, a well-to-do neighbor, to whom Wither had been under financial obligations.

Praises of Cromwell are the main theme of The Modern States-man (1653 and 1654); The Protector: A poem (1655 and 1656, 8vo); Vaticinium Causuale [sic]: a rapture occasioned by the late miraculous Deliverance of his Highnesse the Lord Protector from a desperate danger, a poem (1656, 14 October 4to); Boni Ominis Votum, a congratulatory poem on the parliament of 1656 (28 July 1656); A Cause allegorically stated, 1657;‘A Sudden Flash … by Britains Remembrancer, 1657, a long poem dedicated to the Protector; and A private Address to the said Oliver, 1657-8.

Wither's support of Cromwell's government did not go wholly without reward, although no substantial aid was afforded him. He had gained little hitherto by his political partisanship. From 1645 onwards he had occupied himself in "discovering" the estates of royalist delinquents, and was granted on paper much confiscated property in Surrey, but, owing to various accidents, he failed to secure permanent possession of any portion of it. Sir John Denham's lands at East Horsley were for a short time under his control, as well as the estate of Stanislaus Browne at Pirbright, but he gained little by the temporary seizure (cf. Cal. Committee for Advance of Money, i. 515, ii. 872–3; Cal. Committee for Compounding, 972–3, 1792; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm., Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 195).

In A Thankful Retribution (1649, in verse) he expressed gratitude to a few members of parliament who had vainly urged the bestowal on him of an office in the court of chancery. He seems to have been appointed later a commissioner for levying assessments in support of the army in the county of Surrey. In 1650, too, the commons, in reply to his numerous petitions, acknowledged that a sum approaching 4,000l. was due to him, and it was arranged that an annual income amounting to 8 per cent. on a portion of it should be secured to him (Commons' Journals, vi. 519).

At the same time an order was made for settling 150l. a year upon him from Sir John Denham's lands "in full satisfaction of all other demands." But his financial position was not permanently improved, and he sought further official work. In 1653 he was employed as a commissioner for the sale of the king's goods (Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 171). In 1655 a clerkship in the statute office of the court of chancery was bestowed on him. But his needs were still unsatisfied, and he repeated his old grievances in a new series of printed petitions which only ceased with his life.

A small place given him by the Protector was forfeited after Wither expressed criticism of Cromwell. He was involved in 11 court cases, from 1643 to 1661, including Onslow's libel suit over Justiarius Justificatus.

Second imprisonment

On Cromwell's death Wither appealed to his son Richard to carry on the traditions of his father's rule, as well as to relieve his own sufferings (cf. Petition and Narrative of George Wither, Esq., 1658?; Epistolicum-Vagum-Prosa-Metricum, 1659). In A Cordial of Confection (1659) he admitted the possibility of the restoration of Charles II under certain conditions. But when the Restoration was assured, he expressed his apprehensions with a frankness that gave him a new notoriety (cf. Salt upon Salt, a poem on Cromwell's death, 1659; Fides Anglicana, 1660; Furor Poeticus, 1660; Speculum Speculativum, 1660, 3 editions, a long poem in verse dedicated to the king). In the last days of the Commonwealth he resided at Hambledon, Hampshire, but he returned to London, to a house in the Savoy, in 1660.

His attitude attracted the attention of the authorities; his papers were searched, and an unpublished manuscript reflecting on the reactionary temper of the House of Commons led to his prosecution by order of parliament. The paper, which was in verse, was entitled Vox Vulgi. Being a welcome home from the Counties, Citties, and Burroughs, to their prevaricating Members: saving the honour of the House of Commons, and of every faithfull and discreet individual Member thereof. "This was intended (he said) to have been offered to the private consideration of the Lord Chancellor [Earl of Clarendon]: but had been seized upon when unfinished, and its author taken into custody."

On his arrest in August 1660 Wither was committed to Newgate. He was brought before the House of Commons on 24 March 1661–2, and was then committed to the Tower to await impeachment (Duke of Somerset MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. 15th Rep. vii. 93). On 3 April 1662 the king was thanked for his arrest. 6 days later a petition was read on his behalf, and his wife was allowed access to him in order that he might be induced to recant (Commons' Journals, 1662–3).

No further proceedings against him were taken. He remained a prisoner till 27 July 1663, when he was released on giving a bond for good behavior. The offending poem, Vox Vulgi, was not printed at the time, and remained in manuscript among the Earl of Clarendon's papers in the Bodleian Library till 1880, when Rev. W.D. Macray published it in Anecdota Bodleiana (pt. ii.)

During his imprisonment Wither's pen was never idle for a moment. He explained the meaning of his Vox Vulgi in a miscellaneous collection of verse entitled An Improvement … evidenced in Crums and Scraps, 1661 (cf. The Triple Paradox, printed for the author, 1661, moralisings in verse; The Prisoner's Plea, 1662, prose). While still a prisoner he also resumed his prophetic mantle in his medley of prose and verse called A Proclamation, in the name of the King of Kings, to all the Inhabitants of the Isles of Great Britain. … Whereto are added some Fragments of the same Author's omitted in the first impression of the booke intitled “Scraps and Crums” (1662, 8vo).

From Newgate on 8 March he dated, too, his prose Paralellogrammaton: an Epistle to the three Nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Whereby their sins being parallel'd with those of Judah and Israel, they are forewarned and exhorted to a timely repentance (3 May 1662, 8vo). Verses intended to the King's Majesty. By Major George Wither, whist [sic] he was prisoner in Newgate, bore the date 22 March 1662[-3], (2 octavo editions).

Last years

After his release in July 1663 Wither issued Tuba Pacifica: Seasonable Præcautions, whereby is sounded forth a Retreat from the War intended between England and the United Provinces of Lower Germany. … Imprinted for the Author, and are to be disposed of rather for Love than Money, 1664 (8vo, in verse). He remained in London during the great plague of 1665, and drew from it many pious morals in his verse Memorandum to London occasioned by the Pestilence, 1665, with a ‘Warning piece to London,’ 8vo. In 1665 there also appeared Meditations upon the Lord's Prayer, with a Preparatory Preamble to the Right Understanding and True Use of this Pattern, London, 8vo; and the next year, Three Private Meditations, for the most part of Publick Concernment, London, 1666, 8vo (in verse).

Once again he ventured into the political arena with a poem called Sighs for the Pitchers: Breathed out in a Personal Contribution to the National Humiliation, the last day of May 1666, in the Cities of London and Westminster, upon the near approaching engagement then expected between the English and Dutch Navies; there is a warning prefixed of many faults escaped in the printing owing to "the author's absence;" a woodcut on the title presents 2 pitchers (England and Holland); there were 2 editions in 1666. The government viewed the pamphlet with suspicion, and warrants were issued for the arrest of those who sold it (Cal. State Papers, 1665–6, 569).

The last work that Wither published was "the first part" of a series of extracts from his old prophetic books, which bore the general title Fragmenta Poetica. "The first part" had the subsidiary title Ecchoes from the Sixth Trumpet. Reverberated by a Review of Neglected Remembrances (1666); a portrait of the author at the age of 79 was prefixed. The volume, which supplies an account of Wither's chief works, was twice reissued posthumously in 1669 — with the new title Nil Vltra, or the Last Works of Captain George Wither;’ and again with the title Fragmenta Prophetica; or, The remains of George Wither, esq.

Wither died in his house in the precincts of the Savoy on 2 May 1667, after living in London ‘almost sixty years together;’ he was buried ‘within the east door’ at the church of the Savoy Hospital in the Strand. An ‘epitaph composed by himself upon a common fame of his being dead and buried’ was published in his ‘Memorandum to London,’ 1665.

Family

Wither married Elizabeth, daughter of John Emerson or Emerton of South Lambeth. She survived him; her will, dated 15 May 1677, was proved 19 Jan. 1682–3. "She was a great wit," according to Aubrey, "and would write in verse too." Wither frequently refers to "his dear Betty" in his poems in terms of deep devotion. By her he had 6 children, only 2 of whom — a son and a daughter — seem to have outlived the poet. The daughter Elizabeth married Adrian Barry, citizen of London, and of Thame, Oxfordshire, and died about 1708. She prepared for publication in 1688 her father's Divine Poems by way of a paraphrase on the Ten Commandments;’ she wrote under the initials "E.B.," and dedicated the work to her father's friends. The poet's surviving son, Robert, was buried at Bentworth in 1677, and by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Hunt of Fidding (Theddon), left, with 2 sons and 2 daughters (cf. Shepherds Hunting, ed. Brydges, 1814, pp. x–xiii).

Writing

It is now universally recognised that Wither was a poet of exquisite grace, although only for a short season in his long career. Had his last work been his Faire Virtue, he would have figured in literary history in the single capacity of a fascinating lyric poet. He was one of the few masters in English of the heptasyllabic couplet, and disclosed almost all its curious felicities. But his fine gifts failed him after 1622, and during the last 45 years of his life his verse is mainly remarkable for its mass, fluidity, and flatness. It usually lacks any genuine literary quality and often sinks into imbecile doggerel.

Ceasing to be a poet, Wither became in middle life a garrulous and tedious preacher, in platitudinous prose and verse, of the political and religious creeds of the commonplace middle-class puritan. At times he enjoyed considerable influence; but his political philosophy amounted only to an assertion that kings ought not to be tyrannical nor parliaments exacting, and his religious views led merely to a self-complacent conviction of the sinfulness of his neighbours and of the peril to which their failings exposed the world, owing to the working of the vengeance of God.

Miscellaneous

In his ‘Fides Anglicana’ (1660) Wither enumerated 86 of his works. His Ecchoes from the Sixth Trumpet (1666) gives a far briefer list. The full total of his publications reached 100, and others remained in manuscript. Various reissues of books by him, as well as many new publications that were doubtfully assigned to him, besides the Divine Poems edited by his daughter in 1688, appeared before the end of the 17th century. Among these are: ‘Vox et Lacrimæ Anglorum’ (London, 1668, 8vo); ‘Mr. George Wither Revived, or his Prophesie of our present Calamity, and (except we repent) future Misery, written in the year 1628’ (1683, fol. extracts from the eighth canto of ‘Britain's Remembrancer’); ‘Gemitus de Carcere Natus, or Prison Sighs and Supports, being a few broken Scraps and Crums of Comfort’ (1684, 4to); ‘The Grateful Acknowledgment of a late trimming Regulator, with a most Strange and wonderful Prophecy taken out of Britain's Genius, written by Captain George Wither’ (1688, 4to, a selection from ‘Prosopopœia Britannica’); ‘Wither's prophecy of the downfal of Antichrist,’ ‘a collection of many wonderful prophecies,’ (1691, 4to); ‘A Strange and wonderful prophecy concerning the Kingdom of England … taken out of an old manuscript by G. W.,’ 1689, fol. In ‘Wonderful Prophecies relating of the English Nation’ (1691, 4to) one of the prophecies is by Wither.

Wither Redivivus: in a small new years gift pro rege et grege. To his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, 1689, 4to, is a medley in the manner of Wither, but is probably not by Wither himself. Of other works doubtfully assigned the most interesting is The Great Assizes holden in Parnassus by Apollo (1645), where Wither is introduced in the jury.

Among the lost works which Wither claimed to have written are: ‘Iter Hibernicum of his Irish Voyage;’ ‘Iter Boreale;’ ‘Patrick's Purgatory;’ ‘Philaretes Complaint.’ In Ashmolean MS. 38 are some unprinted verses by him, including ‘Mr. George Withers to the king when he was Prince of Wales;’ ‘Uppon a gentlewoman that had foretold the time of her death;’ and ‘An Epitaph on the Ladie Scott.’

Wither has verses, besides those already specified, before Smith's ‘Description of New England’ (1616); Hayman's ‘Quodlibets’ (1629); Wastel's ‘Microbiblion’ (1626); Butler's ‘Female Monarchy’ (1634); Blaxton's ‘English Usurer’ (1638); beneath the portrait of Lancelot Andrews prefixed to his ‘Moral Law Expounded’ (1642); Carter's ‘Relation of the Expedition of Kent, Essex, and Colchester’ (1650); and Payne Fisher's ‘Panegyric on the Protector’ (1656). In Mercer's ‘Angliæ Speculum’ (1646, &c.) there are an anagram and epigram to the ‘famous Poet Captain George Withers.’ Cockain's ‘Divine Blossoms’ (1656) is dedicated to him.

The largest collection of Wither's works was in the library of Thomas Corser. Two earlier collectors were Alexander Dalrymple and John Matthew Gutch, and many copies that belonged to them are now in the British Museum.

Extracts from Juvenilia by Alexander Dalrymple (London, 1785, 8vo) formed the earliest attempt at a full reprint of Wither's poems. Selections from Wither figured in a very thin volume called ‘Select Lyrical Ballads, written about 1622,’ which was printed by Sir S.E. Brydges (1815, 8vo). Brydges also printed ‘Shepherd's Hunting’ (1814), ‘Fair Virtue’ (1815), and ‘Fidelia’ (1818) in separate volumes.

In 1810 Gutch reprinted a few specimens of Wither's early work, and sent to Lamb an early interleaved copy for corrections and suggestions. ‘I could not forbear scribbling certain critiques in pencil on the blank leaves,’ Lamb wrote to Gutch on 9 April 1810. The book, with these pencilled notes, was afterwards sent to Dr. George Frederick Nott, the editor of Surrey's and Wyatt's poems. Nott added emendations of his own, and the volume again found its way to Lamb, who amusingly recorded his low opinions of Nott's taste. The volume, with the triple set of annotations, was subsequently acquired by Swinburne, who humorously described it in the Nineteenth Century in January 1885 (reprinted in his Miscellanies, 1886).

J.M. Gutch also edited the Juvenilia and other works in Poems of George Wither, without notes or introduction (Bristol, 1820, 3 vols.); this collection was never completed; some copies are divided into four volumes, and bear the date 1839. Stanford printed a few of Wither's poems in his ‘Works of British Poets’ (1819, vol. v.). Southey included the ‘Shepherd's Hunting’ in his ‘Select Works of English Poets’ (1831). Wither's ‘Halelujah’ and ‘Hymnes and Songs of the Church,’ edited by Edward Farr, were reprinted in the ‘Library of Old Authors,’ 1857–8.

The greater number of Wither's works were reprinted by the Spenser Society between 1870 and 1883 in twenty parts. A selection was edited by Professor Henry Morley in his ‘Companion Poets,’ 1891. ‘Fidelia’ and ‘Faire Virtue’ are included in Mr. Arber's ‘English Garner.’

Critical introduction

by William Thomas Arnold

Wither resembles Wordsworth in having written almost all his good work within a period of a few years. That period is from 1613 to 1623. The great exception is the Hallelujah — a collection of sacred poems, in which are some beautiful things written as late as 1641. On the whole, however, the collection of Wither’s poems entitled Juvenilia contains nearly all his best writing. The enthusiasm with which he threw himself into politics damaged his genius. His nature was not large enough to pour itself with equal power into the two channels of art and practical life. He became an eager partisan and sectary, retaining that moral elevation and dignity which ever honourably distinguishes him, but losing all sense of form and measure, perhaps indeed deliberately neglecting them as things indifferent.

It is then to the early part of his life that we have to attend; and here we must remember his two years at Oxford, where he was a member of Magdalen College: two happy years, he himself has told us, which were unfortunately cut short by his sudden withdrawal from the University. In 1605, he went up to Lincoln’s Inn, and there became acquainted with Browne, who was at that time a member of the Inner Temple. The friendship was a very important one for Wither. The two wrote in friendly rivalry, and often in intimate co-partnership, and we shall hardly err in laying great stress upon Browne’s influence during the first period of Wither’s poetry. Browne was a born artist, if ever there was one, and his example wooed the naturally ascetic and polemical genius of Wither into pleasanter paths for a while.

Wither in later life expresses most unnecessary repentance for his early poems. He had no such reason for feelings of the kind as perhaps Chaucer had. Not a single line of his poetry is really corrupt or dishonourable to the writer. But he was young then, and could write of love and the beauty of nature and the beauty of woman, with a facile pen and an ardent delight in the fulness of his life and the power of his art, which seemed no doubt profane and dangerous trifling to the Puritan captain of the Civil War.

But even in his youth life did not altogether smile upon him. His very harmless satires, published under the title Abuses Stript and Whipt in 1613, were rewarded by imprisonment in the Marshalsea. As Lamb says, it is wonderful that such perfectly general denunciations of the ordinary vices of Gluttony, Avarice, Vanity, and the rest of it in the abstract should have seemed offensive to any human being. But the cap fitted some one in high place, and Wither had to expiate his plain spokenness by a rigorous confinement.

After his liberation he renewed more intimately than ever his friendship with Browne, and in 1615 wrote in conjunction with him the Shepherd’s Pipe. His own Shepherd’s Hunting, which he wrote in prison ... and which contains perhaps his very best work, appeared in the same year. To this date also must be assigned the first edition of his Fidelia, a poetical epistle from a forsaken fair one to her inconstant lover. At the end of this first edition of Fidelia is printed that famous song — "Shall I, wasting in despaire?" — which will always keep Wither’s memory green, even if all else of his poetry is forgotten.

The Motto followed in 1618, and met at once with great success. The poem is an amusingly egotistical performance, but the egotism is, as Charles Lamb said, of a sort which no one can resent. The motto is "Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo," and the poem is divided into three parts, one treating of "nec habeo," another of "nec careo," and the third of "nec curo." In a preface addressed to "Anybody," he makes a statement which perhaps no one would wish to gainsay. "The language is but indifferent, for I affected matter rather than words; the method is none at all: for I was loath to make a business of a recreation." It is worth noticing that in the preface he alludes to the episode which, in spite of its uncouthness and exaggeration, is perhaps the most amusing part of his satires, in very uncomplimentary terms. "The foolish Canterbury Tale in my Scourge of Vanity (which I am now almost ashamed to read over) even that hath been by some praised for a witty passage." Whenever Wither gives himself liberty and has his fling, he is sure not long afterwards to repent.

In 1623 appeared his 1st serious attempt at sacred poetry in the shape of his Hymns and Songs of the Church. Great part of this collection consists of metrical paraphrases of the Psalms and Song of Solomon, but there are also some hymns the inspiration of which is due to no one but Wither himself. Such are the "Hymn for All Saints Day" and the "Hymn for the Author", which are not only interesting in themselves but because a close comparison with the form in which these same poems appeared in the collection entitled Hallelujah nearly twenty years afterwards reveals the notable fact that Wither was one of the very few poets who improved his work by retouching it, and that his second thoughts were always his best.

I give nothing from his Britain’s Remembrancer (1628) or from his Emblems (1634). The former seems to me a rather tedious political poem, and the latter is merely a collection written to order as text for a certain number of Dutch engravings. It is true that there are one or two of these latter poems which show qualities of thought and diction not to be disregarded, but on the whole I do not think he reaches his best anywhere in the collection.

Hallelujah (1641) shows that great part of his old power still survives. The versification is flexible and musical in a very high degree, clothing the thought sometimes, as in the poem on "All Saints’ Day", in a form of subtle beauty and strangeness; in other poems, as in the verses For those at Sea, moving with a grand lilt and rapidity which fitly symbolize the theme. The verses on "A Dear Friend Deceased" are of exquisite tenderness and beauty. They are written from the heart and to the heart, and affect us as they must have affected the writer himself. Wither has the same rare power of pathos that was possessed also by his friend Browne.

The limits of our space prevent us quoting even all of the few poems that we have specially named; but it is hoped that our selection will still be fairly representative of a poet who is certainly much less known than he deserves to be. Braithwaite wrote in 1615 —

‘And long may England’s Thespian springs be known

By lovely Wither and by bonny Browne.’

But the wish has hardly been fulfilled, and there are few readers who would not be a little surprised by the epithet here applied to the Puritan poet. No real lover of poetry will however grudge it him. He is one of the few masters of octosyllabic verse in our language. Lamb has dwelt lovingly on its curious felicities, and for compass and variety it would not be easy to name its superior. It is the one form of verse pre-eminently suited to Wither, who has achieved no such triumphs with the heroic couplet.

But it is not only for beauty of poetic form that Wither deserved Braithwaite’s enthusiastic epithet. Like the Charmides of Plato’s dialogue, he has "what is much more important, a beautiful soul." Never was there a purer or more honourable spirit, or one which kept closer to the best it knew, and as Wither has revealed himself in his works in a way in which few poets have done, it is natural to read him not only with admiration but with sympathy.

Critical reputation

The history of Wither's reputation is curious. His early reputation as a lyric poet died out in his lifetime; he himself admitted that it "withered." For some years after his death his name was usually regarded as a synonym for a hack rhymester. Royalists ranked him with Robert Wild , the presbyterian poet. Butler, in Hudibras, classed him with Prynne and Vicars. Phillips, in his Theatrum Poetarum (1675), more justly wrote:

George Wither, a most profuse pourer forth of English rhime, not without great pretence to a poetical zeal against the vices of his times, in his “Motto,” his “Remembrancer,” and other such like satirical works. … But the most of poetical fancy which I remember to have found in any of his writings is a little piece of pastoral poetry called “The Shepherd's Hunting.”

Richard Baxter, in the prefatory address to his Poetica Fragmenta (1681), declared: "Honest George Withers, though a rustic poet, hath been very acceptable; as to some for his prophecies, so to others, for his plain country honesty." Dryden rhymed:

He fagotted his notions as they fell,

And if they rhymed and rattled, all was well.

Pope, in the Dunciad (i. 126), expressed scorn for "wretched Withers." According to the Dunciad "Withers, Ward, and Gildon rest" together "Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns molest".

Swift likened Withers to Bavius. Dr. Johnson and the editors of the chief collections of English poetry did not mention him or his works. But towards the end of the 18th century his early poems were reprinted. Percy included his famous song, "Shall I wasting in despair," and an extract from Philarete, in his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Ellis quoted him in his Specimens.

The result was that critics like Lamb, Coleridge, and Southey recognized his merit, and, ignoring the political and religious lucubrations of Wither's later years (by which alone he desired to be judged), gave his literary work unstinted praise. Southey declared that he had the "heart and soul" of a poet. Lamb studied him with Quarles. In the Annual Review (1807) Lamb wrote: "Quarles is a wittier writer, but Wither lays more hold of the heart. Quarles thinks of his audience when he lectures; Wither soliloquises in company with a full heart." In an essay on "The Poetical Works of George Wither" (published in Lamb's Works in 1818) he expressed unbounded faith in his poetic greatness.

Wither's wide range of publication, in prose as well as various poetic genres over nearly half a century, has left a very uneven impression of his interests and affected his reputation. George Gilfillan wrote that "Wither was a man of real genius, but seems to have been partially insane". Herbert Grierson found something to praise in early love poems, but spoke of "endless diffuse didactic and pious poems, if they can be called poems". C.V. Wedgwood wrote that "every so often in the barren acres of his verse is a stretch enlivened by real wit and observation, or fired with a sudden intensity of feeling".

In the 20th century, Wither has been classified as a Spenserian, with Michael Drayton, Giles Fletcher, Phineas Fletcher, and Henry More. The early Jacobean Spenserians were generally republican rather than imperial (at least in terms of ancient Rome), of the "country party" rather than the "court party", nostalgic for Elizabeth I, and in favor of the older ornateness rather than the plain style of James I.

According to historian Christopher Hill, "we can trace a line from Spenser ... through a group of poets ... ranging from Shakespeare, Drayton, the 2 Fletchers, William Browne, and Samuel Daniel to George Wither". And: "A line of poets could be traced from Sidney and Spenser through Sylvester and Browne to Wither – not, admittedly, of a rising quality, but of a consistent political attitude."

Where Hill identifies connections via the aristocratic patrons and politics, Alastair Fowler takes Drayton to be the poetic centre of a group, which besides Wither comprised Browne, John Davies of Hereford, William Drummond of Hawthornden, George Sandys and Joshua Sylvester.

Recognition

4 of his poems ("I loved a Lass," "The Lover's Resolution," "The Choice," and "A Widow's Hymn") were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.

Besides the engraved portraits prefixed to Juvenilia, The Emblems, Fragmenta Poetica, and other of his books, an original portrait of Wither, painted in oil by Cornelius Janssen, was sold at Gutch's sale in 1858. This is probably the picture from which the likeness by John Payne was engraved for Wither's Emblemes (1635). The head prefixed to the 31st emblem in Thomas Jenner's Soules Solace (1631, 4to) is supposed to be intended for Wither.

Publications

Poetry

• Prince Henries obsequies. London: Ed. Allde, for Arthur Iohnson, 1612.
• Epithalamia: or nuptiall poems. London: F. Kingston, for Edward Marchant, 1613.
• A Satyre: Dedicated to His most excellent Majestie. London: Thomas Snodham, for George Norton, 1614.
• The Shepherds Hunting. London: George Norton, 1615; London: T. Bensley, 1814.
• Fidelia. London: Nicholas Okes, for George Norton, 1615; London: T. Bensley, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1815.
• A Preparation to the Psalter. London: Nicholas Okes, 1619.
• Wither's motto: nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo. London: Iohn Marriott, 1621.
• Faire-virtue: the mistresse of Phil'arete. London: John Grismand, 1622.
• Juvenilia. London: Thomas Snodham for Iohn Budge, 1622.
• The Hymns and Songs of the Church: Translated and composed. London: John Bill, for George Wither, 1623.
• Britains Remembrancer. London: Iohn Grismond, 1628; Manchester, UK: Spenser Society, 1880.
• A Collection of Emblems: Ancient and modern. London: A.M., for Henry Taunton, 1635.
• Haleluiah; or, Britain's second remembrancer]. London: I.L., for Andrew Hebb, 1641; London: J.R. Smith, 1857; Manchester, UK: C.E. Simms, for Spenser Society, 1879; New York: Franklin, 1970. Part I, Parts II & III
• Extracts from Juvenilia. London: George Bigg for J. Sewell & J. Debrett, 1785.
• A Prophesie Written Long Since (canto 8 of Britain's Remembrancer). London: 1641.
• Campo-Musae; or, The field-musings of Captain George Wither. London: R. Austin / A. Coe, 1643.
• The Speech without Doore. [London?]: 1644.
• The Great Assises holden in Parnassus by Apollo. London: Richard Cotes, for Edward Husbands, 1645; Oxford, UK; Blackwell, for Luttrell Society, 1948; New York: Franklin, 1967.
• Vox Pacifica: A voice tending to the pacification of God's wrath. London: printed by Robert Austin, 1645.
• Opobalsamum Anglicanum: An English balme. London: 1646.
• What Peace to the wicked? London: 1646.
• Carmen Expostualorium. London: 1647.
• Amygdala Britannica: Almonds for parrets. London: 1647.
• A Single si quis, and a Quadrupal Quere. London: 1648.
• Carmen-ternarium Semi-cynicum: A dose of rime and reason. London: [1648?]
• Prosopopoeia Britannica: Britans genius, or good-angel, personated. London: Robert Austin, 1648.
• A Thankful Retribution. London: 1649.
• Vaticinium Votivum; or, Palemon's prophetick prayer. London: 1649.
• British Appeals; with Gods mercifull replies. London: Nathaniel Brooks, 1651.
• A Timely Caution. London: Printed by John Clowell, 1652.
• The Dark Lantern. London: R. Austin, or Richard Lowndes, 1653.
• Westrow Revived: A funerall poem without fiction. London: printed by . Neile, 1653.
• The Protector: A poem. London: printed by J.C., 1655.
• Vaticinium Causuale. London: T. Ratcliffe / E. Mottershed, 1655.
• Boni Ominis Votum: A good omen to the next Parliament. London: John Hardesty, 1656.
• A Suddain Flash: Timely discovering some reason wherefore the stile of the Protector should not be deserted by these nations. London: John Saywell, 1657.
• Epistolium-Vagum-Prosa-Metricum; or, An epistle at randome. London: 1659.
• Salt upon Salt: Made out of certain ingenious verses. London: L. Chapman, 1659.
• Speculum Speculativium; or, A considering-glass. London: 1660.
• Furor-poeticus Propheticus. London: printed by James Cottrell, 1660.
• An Improvement of Imprisonment, Disgrace, Poverty, into Real Freedom. London: 1661.
• A Triple Paradox: Affixed to a counter-mure raised against ... the world, the flesh, and the Devil. London: 1661.
• Verses Intended to the King's Majesty. London: 1662.
• Tuba-pacifica: Seasonable precautions. London: privately published, 1664.
• Three Private Meditations. London: 1666.
• Majesty in Misery. London: 1681.
• Mr Geo. Wither Revived (extracts from Britain's Remembrancer). London: William Marshall, 1683.
• Divine Poems. London: T.S., for R. Janeway, 1688.
• Extracts from Juvenilia (edited by Alexander Dalrymple). London: George Bigg, for J. Sewell / J. Debrett, 1785.
• Vox Vulgi: A poem in censure of the Parliament of 1661. Oxford, UK: James Parker, 1880.
• Poetical Works (edited by John Matthew Gutch). London: J. Lilly, 1863.
• The Poetry of George Wither (edited by Frank Sidgwick). London: A.H. Bullen, 1902; New York: AMS Press, 1968; St. Clair Shores, MI: Scholarly Press, 1970. Volume I, Volume II
• Poems. London: George Newnes / New York: Scribner, 1904.
• The History of the Pestilence (1625) (edited by Joseph Milton French). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932.

Non-fiction

• Abuses Stript, and Whipt; or, Satyrical essayes. London: G. Eld, for Francis Burton, 1613.
• The Schollers Purgatory. [London?]: printed by G. Wood, 1623; Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum / Norwood, NJ: W.J. Johnson, 1977.
• Read and Wonder: A warre between two entire friends, the Pope and the Divell. London: 1641.
• Mercurius Rusticus; or, A country messenger. London: 1643.
• Se Defendendo: A shield, and shaft, against detraction. London: 1643.
• Reasons Humbly Offered: In justification of an order granted to the Major George Wither. London: 1643.
• Two Incomparable Generalissimos of the World. London: 1644.
• Letters of Advice: Touching the choice of knights and burgesses for the Parliament. London: 1644.
• To the Most Honourable the Lords and Commons: Petition. London: 1646.
• Justitiaruis Justificatus: Justice justified. London: 1646.
• Major Wither's Disclaimer. London: R. Austin, 1647.
• The Tired Petitioner. London: 1647.
• An Allarum from Heaven; or, A memento to the great councell]. London: G. Wharton, 1649.
• Carmen Eucharisticon. London: Robert Austin, 1649.
• Respublica anglicana; or, The historie of Parliament in their late procedings. London: F. Leach, for George Thompson, 1650.
• The True State of the Cause of George Wither. London: [1650?]
• Three Grains of Spirituall Frankincense. 1651.
• The Modern States-man. London: Henry Hills, 1654.
• To the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland: *The Humble Petition of George Wither Esq. London: 1655.
• A Cause Allegorically Stated. 1657.
• The Petition and Narrative of Geo. Wither esq. London: 1659.
• A Cordial Confection: To strengthen their hearts whose courage begins to fail. London: printed by James Cottrell, 1659.
• Fides-anglicana; or, A plea for the publick-faith of these nations. 1660.
• The Prisoners Plea. London: 1661.
• Joco-serio: Strange news. London: 1661.
• Paralellogrammaton: An epistle to three nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: 1662.
• A Memorandum to London: Occasioned by the prestilence. London: 1665.
• Meditations upon the Lords Prayer. London: 1665.
• Ecchoes from the Sixth Trumpet. London: 1666.
• Sigh for the Pitchers. London: 1666.
• The Grateful Acknowledgement of a Late Trimming Regulator. London: 1688.
• The Strange and Wonderful Prophecy. London: J.K., 1689.
• Withers Redivivus. London: 1689.

Collected editions

• The Workes of Master George Wither, of Lincolns-Inne, Gentleman. London: Iohn Beale for Thomas Walkley, 1620.
• A Proclamation in the Name of the King of Kings (prose & verse). London: 1662.
• Fragmenta Prophetica; or, The remains of George Wither, Esq. London: Temple-Barre, 1669.
• Miscellaneous Works. Manchester, UK: C. Simms for the Spenser Society, 1872; New York: Franklin, 1967.

Translated

• The Songs of the Old Testament: Translated into English measures. London: Thomas Snodham, 1621.
• The Psalmes of David: Translated into lyrick-verse. Amsterdam: Cornelis Gerrits van Breughel, 1632.
• Nemesius, Bishop of Emesa, The Nature of Man. London: Miles Flesher, for Henry Taunton, 1636
  • also published as The Character of Man. London: Rob. Crofts, 1657.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

"I Loved a Lass" by George Wither (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

• List of British poets
• List of English-language hymnists
• Timeline of British poetry

References

• Joan Grundy, The Spenserian Poets Edward Arnold, 1969. ISBN 0-7131-5457-8
•  Lee, Sidney (1900) "Wither, George" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 62 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 259-268 . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 20, 2018.

External links

Poems

• 3 poems by Wither: "I Loved a Lass," "For Summer-time," "A Christmas Carol"
• George Wither at the Poetry Foundation
• Wither, George (1588-1667) (3 poems) at Representative Poetry Online
• George Wither in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900: "I loved a Lass," "The Lover's Resolution," "The Choice," "A Widow's Hymn"
• Wither in The English Poets: An anthology: "Weakness" (from Abuses Stript and Whipt), Eclogue 4 (from The Shepherd's Hunting, "The Author's Resolution in a Sonnet" (from Fidelia), Love Poems (from The Mistress of Philarete), "A Christmas Carol,"
  • Extracts from Hallelujah: "When We Are upon the Seas," For Summer Time," " The Prayer of Old Age"
• George Wither (1588-1667) info & 13 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• George Wither at PoemHunter (34 poems)
• George Wither at Poetry Nook (86 poems)

Audio / video

• George Wither poems at YouTube

Books

• Works by George Wither at Project Gutenberg
• George Wither at Amazon.com

About

• George Wither in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• George Wither in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Wither, George