The copy of 1617 has an additional poem, with a woodcut of a Satire prefixed to "the Scourge."

George Wither was born in 1590, so that in 1613 he was in his twenty-third year. He died in 1667, the latest of his many productions having been printed in the year preceding. Whenever he had not the sword in his hand he wielded the pen, and sometimes used both at once. He was a much better poet at the commencement than at the conclusion of his career, and had he ceased to write after he published his "Shepherds Hunting," in 1615, or, at all events, after his “Fair Virtue, the Mistress of Philarete," came out in 1622, he would have been handed down as one of the ornaments of our language. His "Shepherds Hunting" had been written when he was only twenty, for, in the fourth Eclogue, it is said of him :

"But it will appeare ere long,

I'me abus'd, and thou hast wrong,
Who at twice ten hast sung more,

Then some will doe at fourscore."

"Fair Virtue, or the Mistress of Philarete," was written prior to "Abuses Stript and Whipt," where it is mentioned. Some lines by Taylor (this Vol. p. 145) contain a libel upon Wither's honesty.

WITHER, GEorge. Britain's 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). It is dedicated (for the glory of God) to Posteritie; and to these Times (if they please) by George Wither &c. — Imprinted for Great Britaine and are to be sold by John Grismond &c. 1628. 12mo. 289 leaves.

This work relates principally to the great plague of 1625, during the whole period of which the author remained in London; and in the third of the eight cantos of which his poem consists, he states his reasons for hazarding the infection. An engraved title

page precedes the printed one, representing every species of pestilence overhanging England in the form of a dense cloud, while Justice and Mercy are seated above in the sky. Facing it are verses giving "the meaning of the title-page." It is dedicated in twenty-two pages of closely printed verses to the King, and they are followed by "a Premonition" in prose, the most curious part of which relates to another work by Wither, called his "Motto," which he had published in 1618. After the eighth canto is a "conclusion in verse, filling twelve pages; for, when Wither took up the pen, his thoughts seem to have flowed so rapidly and readily, that he did not know how to lay it down again.

It has no printer's name, and no doubt was worked off at some private press; and in a note at the end respecting errors, it is said, "The faults escaped in the printing we had not such meanes to prevent as we desired, nor could we conveniently collect them by reason of our haste or hazard, and other interruptions." There are some noble verses by Wither in his "Preparation to the Psalter," folio, 1619.

WITHER, GEORGE.

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. Deus dabit his quoque finem. — London Printed by R. Austin and A. Coe. 1643. 8vo. 40 leaves.

At this period the author professed to be determined to "employ every faculty which God had given him for the King and Parliament," and in this spirit he dedicated his tract to the Earl of Essex, under whom he was still serving, although at the moment engaged in recruiting his "disabled troop." At the back of the title is an address in verse "to the English," the object of which is to rouse them from their supineness. The general scope of the poem is to justify the author in the course he has pursued, and at the end he promises his "Vox Pacifica," which came out soon afterwards. The whole is written in Wither's usual strain of puritanical patriotism.

WITHER, GEORGE.-Prosopopoeia Britannica: Britans Genius, or Good-Angel personated; reasoning and advising touching the Games now playing, and the Adventures now at hazard in these Islands &c. Discovered by Terræ-Filius (a well knowne Lover of the Publike-Peace) when the begetting of the Nationall Quarrell was first feared &c. - London Printed by Robert Austin. 1648. 8vo. 59 leaves.

This tract was published without the name of the author, but Wither had called himself Terræ Filius in 1643, and his style could not be mistaken. He tells "the scornfully censorious " (whom he addresses after "the meek ingenuous Reader") that the work had been seen in MS. eight months before, but that he had met with difficulties in getting it licensed. The poem, which is of a politico-religious cast, is divided into two "Lections," followed by brief epistles to the Parliament and to the King, and they contain an unusual number of happy separate passages.

WODHOUSE, W.

The XV fearfull tokens

preceding, I say,

The generall judgement
called Domes day.

Watch and pray for no man knoweth the hower.Imprinted at London by William How for William Pickeryng. 8vo. 6 leaves.

Such is the title of this little tract, which serves to introduce a new name into our poetical bibliography. Whether W. Wodhouse was the ancestor of Peter Woodhouse, the author of "The Flea," published in 1605, we cannot determine. It would seem that it was originally intended to print these "XV fearfull tokens" as a broadside, and they were entered at Stationers' Hall to W. Pickering as a ballad" in 1565-66 (Extr. I. 125); but as the piece

66

consisted of thirty stanzas, like the following, they were probably found too much for the space, and were therefore brought out as a small separate tract:

"Ther shal not help the Eloquence

Of Lawyers at the Barre,

Nor yet their crafty sapience;

Their owne deedes wil them marre.
Ther shal no bribes be take that day,

No man for to prevent:

Faire wordes nothing prevaile they may,

But he will geve judgement."

Two such stanzas are devoted to each of the fifteen signs, and the whole is subscribed "Finis. W. Wodhouse." This tract, if we mistake not, is no where mentioned.

WONDERS.

Im

The History of Strange Wonders. prynted at London by Roulande Hall, dwellynge in Goldynge Lane at the signe of the three arrows. 1561. 8vo. 26 leaves.

This book was entered for publication in the Stationers' Register by Rowland Hall, in 1561, but no other copy of it than the present is known, which, unfortunately, wants the title-page. The colophon is as above given. It is recorded by bibliographers only by the title as it stands in the books of the Stationers' Company (Dibdin's Typ. Ant. IV. 420). The whole is prose, although, from one of the heads of the divisions, "Certayn Eglogs taken out of divers Epistles," we might be led to expect verse. It consists of extracts from various printed works, and manuscript accounts, of miraculous appearances, foretelling future events, the application, or misapplication, being also usually given.

WOODHOUSE, PETER. The Flea: Sic parva componere magnis. - London Printed for John Smethwick and are to be solde at his shop in Saint Dunstanes Church

yard in Fleet street, under the Diall. 1605. 4to. 18 leaves.

The fault of this piece lies more in its design than in its execution, for it is by no means deficient in cleverness. "The Epistle Dedicatorie," "to the giddie multitude," is subscribed P. W., and "The Epistle to the Reader," signed "Thy poore friend Peter Woodhouse."

It is in the form of a dream, by Democritus, of a contest for superiority between an Elephant and a Flea, and the strife is to be judged by a Bull and a Weazel. As far as the moral of the apologue shows the advantages of activity over strength, it is good; but we do not exactly see why the Bull and the Weazel were chosen as umpires, or rather as sticklers and arbitrators. "R. P. Gent" has three good introductory stanzas, justifying the design by the examples of Homer, Virgil, Apuleius, and Erasmus. When Heraclitus afterwards calls it "an idle dream," Democritus maintains its excellence, and laughs at those who would give personal application to so slight and unpretending an invention, observing,

"Such fooles as these would descant on my dreame

And it interpret, as it best shall seeme

To their weake wit and blunt capacitye,
Censure each word, each sentence misapplye:

If I should light on such a giddie Asse,

I'd scorne to answer him, but let him passe."

The little attempt ends with the following sort of apology:

"Many many things have written,

When th' ad better still have sitten;
Peradventure so had I,

Yet I know no reason why.

It's a foolish toy I write

And in folly most delight:

Then (I hope) it will please many,

And not be dislikte of any.

Even from tales of Robin Hood

Wise men alway picke some good.

None (I trust) offend I shall;

So, I take my leave of all.

:

"PETER WOODHOUSE."