-Warton puts it, more correctly, "as a scholar and a patron."* Bastard says nothing of his being a Poet, but that those who lived in London might expect to "haue Poets of worthy name," because they had "the foode and life of poetry."

The First Part does not contain all the extant poems which were composed by Wotton; but the others which have been ascribed to him bear traces of maturer age,-with the exception, perhaps, of his share in "a Dialogue between Sir Henry Wootton and Mr. Donne," which was printed among Donne's Poems.+ Wotton may have written some of the pieces in Part II. of which Walton only knew that they were found among his papers ;—in one case especially, the "Description of the Country's Recreations," this seems very probable;-and it is also possible that he was the author of one poem in Part III., the "Farewell to the Vanities of the World," though it was never included among his Remains. The following lines, which were prefixed to Howell's Dodona's Grove, must be ranked among his latest compositions, as the book (which would be submitted to him in MS.) was not published till the year after his death :66 TO THE RARELY ACCOMPLISH'D, AND WORTHY

OF BEST EMPLOYMENT, MASTER HOWEL,

UPON HIS VOCALL FORREST.

"Beleeve it, Sir, you happily have hit

Vpon a curious Fancie, of such wit,

That farre transcends the vulgar; for each Line
Me thinks breathes Barclay, or a Boccoline.

Zouch's Walton, p. 191. Warton's Milton's Minor Poems, p. 119, ed. 1791.-Bastard inscribed another Epigram to Henry Wotton, Lib. iv. Ep. 39, p. 102. He had been his contemporary at Oxford. See Wood's A. O. ii. 227.—The name of "Sr Henry Wotton" was inserted in the first sketch of Bolton's Hypercritica, among those of " the best Authors for written English." He is there certainly among the Poets, by the side of " Beniamin Johnson." See Anc. Crit. Essays, ii. 247, note.

+ See this vol. p. 10. Donne addressed three Poetical Epistles to Wotton (pp. 61, 76, 104, ed. 1633. The last is also in Walton's Life of Wotton, p. 144), besides some letters in prose.

See the extracts from the Complete Angler in this vol. pp. 55, 110.

I know you might (none better) make the Vine,
The Olive, Ivie, Mulberry, and Pine,

With others, their owne Dialects expose;

But you have taught them all rich English Prose.
I end and envie; but must justly say,

Who makes Trees speak so well, deserves the Bay.

HENRY WOTTON.

Some Poems in Part I. have been claimed for other writers (No. i. vi. vii. xiii); but Wotton has gained as well as lost by the general confusion of property in these smaller compositions. It is not necessary to give a list of all the poems which have been erroneously attributed to him; but two instances may be mentioned, because they are brought forward by better authorities than usual.—Archbishop Sancroft assigns to him one of the most popular pieces printed among the Poems of Carew; it has also been given to Lord Pembroke; but Carew's title will probably be thought most valid, not by any means from the authority of the Collection which bears his name, but from the nature of the verses.*-Mr. Collier has printed, from Ben Jonson's handwriting, a translation of Martial's Vitam quæ faciunt beatiorem, which he thought might be Wotton's, because the same paper contained one of Wotton's pieces which Jonson had transcribed (see p. 29); but there can be no doubt that it is Jonson's own, as he told Drummond that he had translated that very Epigram.†

• In Carew it begins," Aske me no more where Jove bestowes"—p. 129, repr. of 1824. The other copies are in Pembroke's Poems, 1660, p. 92, and MS. Tann. 465, fol. 60. A fourth is in Wit Restored, 1658, p. 114. It is curious that no two of these agree throughout in the arrangement of the stanzas; but all the others begin with what is the second stanza in Carew, -"Aske me no more whither do stray"—.

+ Collier's Life of Alleyn, p. 54. Conversations of Jonson and Drummond, p. 2, Shakesp. Soc. ed. cf. p. 7.—The Epigram (Lib. x. Ep. 47) was very frequently translated, as by Surrey (p. 43, ed. Nott), Randolph (p. 61, ed. 1668), &c. From one of Howell's Letters, it seems that he and Sir Thomas Lake had written rival translations for a wager, and that Sir Kenelm Digby adjudged Lake's to be the better. (Ep. Ho-El. § 5, p. 31, ed. 1645.) There is another translation in MS. Mal. 14, p. 34. Jonson may have transcribed a friend's translation, in addition to translating it himself; but the internal evidence, as Mr. Collier remarks, is decidedly in his favour.

A brief account of Wotton's prose writings may be expected here. Most of them were posthumous; for though he sometimes amused himself with looking after printers," he seldom committed anything to the press. There were, however, at least three things which were printed during his life-time:

(1.) In 1612, he printed a Latin letter to Mark Welser, one of the Chief Magistrates of Augsburg, and dispersed it in most parts of Italy and Germany. This Epistle, in which much excellent vituperation is wasted on a very unworthy object, was occasioned by the results of an indiscretion committed in 1604, when he was on his way to Venice. In the plenitude of his satisfaction at having been recalled from exile to be honoured with knighthood,† and entrusted with an important office, Wotton grew facetious about his new dignity, and propounded his famous definition of an Ambassador,— "an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his Country." The pun might pass in English; for "to lie” was the term then used for the residence of an Ambassador. But when he issued it in Latin, for the benefit of the learned abroad, the equivocation vanished; and Scioppius, who was seeking accusations to bring against the Protestants, pounced upon the plain" ad mentiendum" as the English diplomatic creed. More mischief than Wotton had ever dreamt of

See Rel. Wotton. pp. 321, 336, 340, 468.

+ Here we meet with a difficulty in passing. Wotton's name does not occur in the printed list of James's crowd of Knights; and the Records of the Herald's College will not supply the deficiency. Some have conjectured that he was knighted in Scotland, which is flatly at variance with Walton's narrative (p. 142). But it is known that some knighthoods were never recorded, because the new knights would not pay their fees.

Walton, pp. 150-2. Wotton wrote another letter on the subject to King James; and Wood speaks as if two were printed. A. O. ii. 644-5.-Contemporary allusions occur in Ruggle's Ignoramus, p. 32, ed. Hawkins; Massinger, ii. 126, ed. 1813; and a second pan on the definition (as if one were not enough) in a Sermop preached by Dr. J. King the younger before the University of Oxford in 1625, p. 6.—Notwithstanding the advice of his early friend Alberto Scipioni (Rel. Wotton. pp. 344, 356, cf. pp. 699, 711),

rose out of this very simple jest; but its effects on his prospects have been sometimes overstated."

(2.) In 1624, he published a small tract entitled "The Elements of Architecture," which has been frequently reprinted. One copy was presented to the Earl of Middlesex, with the following letter:-+

"TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE EARLE OF MIDDLesex, LORD HIGH THRESORER OF ENGLAND.

MY LORD,

I humbly present vnto youre Lord this Pamphlet ; printed sheete by sheete as fast as It was borne, and borne

Wotton had to learn caution from experience; for there were three other matters in his first Venetian Embassy for which he has been blamed: first, for "injurions speeches" against the King of France in 1604 (Camd. Ann. Jac. I. pp. 3, 84); secondly, and most unjustly, for delaying to present King James's Book to the Venetian Senate (see the extracts in Bio. Brit. vi. 4343.); thirdly, for being (as some thought) too zealous for his Master's honour (Winwood, iii. 77; cf. Sketches from Ven. Hist. ii. 319-20).— Chamberlain's occasional attacks upon him (e. g. Winw. iii. 461,469) must have sprung from prejudice.

• It has been said, that he was kept five years without employment in consequence. Let us see how far this is true.-In 1612, he was Ambassador to Savoy. We have contemporary accounts of his setting out in March and returning in the end of July (Winwood, iii. 353, 367, 384; Nichols's Progresses of James I. ii. 438, 460; cf. Letters of F. Paul, 1693, pp. 322-5); and among the Ashm. MSS. (1729, Lett. 114-6) are two autograph letters from Wotton to Lord Pembroke written during his absence, one dated from the foot of M. Cenis, May 9: 1612: (with a journal) the other dated from Turin, May 28: 1612:-The accusation of Scioppius does not appear to have been known till after his return (Winw. iii. 407; Nichols, ib. 468); and his letter to Welser is dated Dec. 1612. Within a year after that period (viz. Nov. 16: evidently in 1613), he told Sir Edmund Bacon that the King had expressed a "general purpose" to put him "again into some use." (Rel. Wotton. p. 429.) The result of this I do not know; but he was again sent abroad before November, 1614, for Mr. Collier has recently printed a letter from him to Spinola which is dated in that month, and endorsed as from the "Embassador to the Estates Netherland." (Egerton Papers, p. 466. See also Rel. Wotton. p. 280.) In the following year, he was re-appointed to Venice. He had been a Member of Parliament in 1614. See this vol. p. 85, note.

+ The original is in Mr. Pickering's possession; but the signature has been cut away by the binder. Another copy was given " To Mr Doctor

as soone as It was conceived: So as It must needes haue the imperfections and deformities of an immature birth, besides the weakenesse of the Parent. And therefore I could not allowe it so much fauour even from my self as to thinke it worthie of dedication to any. Yet my long deuotion towardes y Lord and youre owne noble love of this Art which I handle doe warrant me to intertayne you with a copie thereof. And so I rest

Your Lordps ever

deuoted Servant."

Some years afterwards, he presented another copy to Juxon, when he held the same office, with a letter which is printed among his Remains.*

(3.) His "Plausus et Vota," addressed to King Charles when returning from Scotland after his Coronation in 1633, were printed in that year.†

Goslin, the most worthie Master of Caies Colledge. Authoris et Operis Donum." (On that person, see Fuller's Worthies of Norwich, p. 275. Wood's Fasti, i. 350. Warton's Milton, p. 493, ed. 1791.) See too Rel. Wotton. p. 357.

• Rel. Wotton. p. 338. Wotton's circumstances made the Lord Treasurer a very important officer to him; and Juxon seems to have treated him with great kindness. It was very different with his predecessor, Weston, Earl of Portland, as we might have guessed even from one of Wotton's respectful letters to him (p. 561). In another place, Wotton speaks out, more boldly than he was wont to do, of the way in which Weston had made a scorn of his poverty and a sport of his modesty (p. 468). Considering the obvious design of the letter in which he gave Weston a sketch of his own character (p. 333), the intimations of his faults which it contains are both honestly and skilfully brought in.

+ See this vol. p. 22. The original edition is on folio paper, with only 17 widely printed lines on a page. Sign. to N 2, with two leaves prefixed, as ¶ 1 and 2. It was reprinted in 1681 in a Tract entitled "Monarchia Britannica, sub auspiciis Elizabethæ Felicis, Jacobi Pacifici, Caroli I. Pientissimi," &c. (That publication included three small pamphlets, the first by Master, the second by Savile, and the third by Wotton.) In addition to the Translation in Rel. Wotton. Zouch (p. 511) mentions another" which is very scarce, printed in a very small twenty-fours, on a large type, containing 118 pages, besides the Dedication and Preface."

T

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