And thus the circle of Sir Henry Wotton's life-that circle which began at Bocton, and in the circumference thereof did firft touch at Winchester school, then at Oxford, and after upon fo many remarkable parts and paffages in Christendom-that circle of his life was by death thus clofed up and completed, in the feventy-fecond year of his age, at Eton college, where, according to his will, he now lies buried, with his motto on a plain graveftone over him. Dying worthy of his name and family; worthy of the love and favour of fo many princes and perfons of eminent wisdom and learning; worthy of the truft committed unto him for the fervice of his prince and country. And all readers are requested to believe, that he was worthy of a more worthy pen to have preferved his memory and commended his merits to the imitation of pofterity. And cleanfe my fordid foul within "No hallow'd oils, no grains I need, "No rags of faints, no purging fire; "One rofy drop from David's feed "Was worlds of feas to quench thine ire And said by him that said no more, "Thou then that haft dispung'd my score, My life, my ftrength, my joy, my all." IZ. WA. AN ELEGY ON SIR HENRY WOTTON, WRIT BY Mr. ABRAM COWLEY b WHAT fhall we fay, fince filent now is he, Who when he fspoke all things would filent be? That only Fame shall speak of him in more. He read the men and manners; bringing home Their "Every thing which Cowley wrote," fays the editor of his select works, "is either fo "good or fo bad, that in all reafon a separation fhould be made." His Elegy on the death of Sir Henry Wotton is claffed by him among the latter, as he has not inferted it in his " Collec"tion of Cowley's Poems." Dr. Johnfon entertains a more favourable opinion of it: By him it is pronounced to be vigorous and happy, the series of thoughts eafy and natural, and the conclufion, though a little weakened by the intrufion of Alexander, elegant and forcible. Denham has remarked of Cowley, "To him no author was unknown, "Yet what he writ was all his own." The last lines of this elegy bear so strong a resemblance to an epigram of Grotius upon the death of Jofeph Scaliger, that the great critic above quoted thinks them copied from it, though they are copied by no fervile hand. Jofeph Scaliger, like Sir Henry Wotton, was celebrated for his accurate knowledge of languages. Grotius composed four elegies on the death of this eminent fcholar. That which Cowley is fuppofed to have imitated begins with these lines "Hic jacet et Gades fuper exauditus et Indos Their wifdom, learning, and their piety, So well he understood the most and best He did the utmoft bounds of knowledge find, A. COWLEY. Sir Henry Wotton's most important embaffies were those to Venice. To that republic he was thrice fent ambaffador from James I. "Unus Pellao juveni non fufficit orbis." JUVEN. Sat. X. 168. APPENDIX. THE WORKS OF SIR HENRY WOTTON. SIR HENRY WOTTON is addreffed as a poet by Bastard the epigrammatift, in the following lines: "Wotton, the country and the country swaine, "How can they yeelde a poet any sense? His poems were collected by Ifaac Walton, and inferted in "RELIQUIE WOTTONIANÆ; or, a Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems with Characters of fundry Perfonages, and other incomparable Pieces of Language and Art: By the curious Pencil of the ever memorable Sir Henry Wotton, K. late Provost of Eton College, 1651." In the fourth edition. which appeared in 1685, is the valuable addition of letters to the Lord Zouch. This collection contains the "TREATISE on the ELEMENTS of ARCHITECTURE," first published in 1624, 4to. This Treatife is ftill held in great eftimation, has been tranflated into Latin, and annexed to the works of Vitruvius, and to Freart's "Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern." Befides the pieces in "The Remains," Sir Henry Wotton wrote 1. " A JOURNAL of his EMBASSIES to ROME " II. "THREE PROPOSITIONS to the COURT of ANGOSCIÓLA, in MATTERS of DUELS." III. "The STATE of CHRISTENDOM; or, a moft exact and curious Discovery of many fecret Paffages and hidden Mysteries of the Times: Written by the renowned Sir Henry Wotton, K. Ambaffadour in Ordinary to the Moft Serene Republique of Venice, and late Provost of Eaton College." London, 1657. To which is added " A SUPPLEMENT to the HISTORY of the STATE of CHRISTENDOM." Reprinted in 1677. This work was begun about the year 1599, during Sir Henry Wotton's first refidence at Venice, after his hafty departure from England. |