thofe many friends that observed him, to be well prepared, and to be both patient and free from all fear, as feveral of his letters writ on this his last fick-bed may testify. And thus he continued till about the beginning of December following, at which time he was feized more violently with a quotidian fever, in the tenth fit of which fever his better part, that part of Sir Henry Wotton which could not die, put off mortality with as much content and cheerfulness as human frailty is capable of, being then in great tranquillity of mind, and in perfect peace with God and man3.

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 pafsages in Christendom-that çircle of his life was by death thus closed up and completed, in the feventy-fecond year of his age, at Eaton College, where, according to his will, he now lies buried, with his motto on a plain grave-ftone 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 trust committed unto him for the service 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.

IZ. WA.

The following exquifitely beautiful hymn was written by him in his fickness:

"O thou great Power, in whom I move,
"For whom I live, to whom I die!
"Behold me thro' thy beams of love,
"Whilft on this couch of tears I lie,
"And cleanse my fordid soul within
By thy Chrift's blood, the bath of fin

..

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,

"O, precious ranfom! which, once paid,
That consummatum est was faid;

"And faid by him that faid no more,
"But feal'd it with his dying breath.

"Thou then that hast dispung'd my score,
"And dying waft the death of Death,

"Be to me now, on thee I call,

My life, my firength, my joy, my all."

AN

ELEGY ON SIR HENRY WOTTON,

WRIT BY

MR. ABRAM COWLEY

WHAT fhall we fay, fince filent now is he,
Who when he spoke all things would filent be.
Who had fo many languages in ftore,

That only Fame fhall fpeak of him in more.
Whom England now no more return'd must fee;
He's gone to heav'n on his fourth embassy'.
On earth he travell'd often, not to say
He'd been abroad to pass loose time away;
For in whatever land he chanc'd to come,
He read the men and manners; bringing home
Their wisdom, learning, and their piety,
As if he went to conquer, not to fee.
So well he understood the most and best
Of tongues that Babel fent into the Weft;

h" Every thing which Cowley wrote," fays the editor of his felect works," is either fo good or fo bad, that in all reafon a feparation "should be made." His Elegy on the death of Sir Henry Wotton is clafsed by him among the latter, as he has not inferted it in his, " Collection of Cowley's Poems." Dr. Johnson entertains a more favourable opinion of it: By him it is pronounced to be vigorous and happy, the feries of thoughts easy 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 laft lines of this elegy bear fo ftrong a refemblance to an epigram of Grotius upon the death of Joseph 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 scholar.

That which Cowley is fuppofed to have imitated begins with these lines

"Hic jacet et Gades fuper exauditus et Indos
"Scaliger, hîc mundi publica lingua jacet."

iSir Henry Wotton's most important embaffies were those to Venice. To that Republic he was thrice fent ambassador from James I.

Spoke them fo truly, that he had you'd fwear)
Not only liv'd but been born every where.
Juftly each nation's speech to him was known;
Who for the world was made, not us alone.
Nor ought the language of that man be lefs,
Who in his breast had all things to exprefs:
We fay that learning's endless, and blame Fate
For not allowing life a longer date.

He did the utmoft bounds of knowledge find,
And found them not fo large as was his mind;
But, like the brave Pellean youth, did moan,
Because that art had no more worlds than one.
And when he faw that he through all had paft,
He dy'd left he should idle grow at last.

A. COWLEY.

"Unus Pellæo juveni non fufficit orbis."

JUVEN, Sat. X. 168.

L

APPENDIX.

THE WORKS OF SIR HENRY WOTTON.

SIR HENRY WOTTON is addrefsed as a poet by Bastard the epigrammatift, in the following lines:

"Wotton, the country and the country fwaine,
"How can they yeelde a poet any sense?
"How can they firre him up or heal his vaine?
"How can they feed him with intelligence?
"You have that fire which can a wit enflame
"In happy London, England's fayreft eye:
"Well may you poets have of worthy name
"Which have the foode and life of poetry.
"And yet the country or the towne may fway
"Or bear a part, as clownes doe in a play."

His Poems were collected by Ifaac Walton, and inserted in "RELIQUIA WOTTONIANÆ; or, a Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems with Characters of fundry Perfonages, and other incomparable Pieces of Language and Art: By the cu rious Pencil of the ever memorable Sir Henry Wotton, Kt. late Provost of Eaton College, 1651." A fecond edition in 4to appeared in 1654: a third in 1672. 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," firft published in 1624, 4to. This Treatife is ftill held in great estimation, has been tranflated into Latin, and annexed to the works of Vitruvius, and to Freart's "Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern."

In Cibber's, or rather Shield's Lives of the Poets, the only fpecimen given of Sir Henry Wotton's poetry, is the famous compofition, "THE WORLD'S A BUBBLE," which, in "The Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," is faid to have been found among his papers, the author unknown. Farnabie, in his "Epigrammata Selecta, 1629," afcribes it to Lord Bacon. He has tranflated it into Greek, and has fome various readings.

Of Sir Henry Wotton's Latin Panegyric on Charles I. there are two tranflations by unknown hands: The one is inferted in "The Reliquiæ Wottonianæ;" the other is very scarce, printed

in a very small twenty-fours, on a large type, containing 118 pages, befides the Dedication and Preface.

A

Panegyrick

of King Charles,
being obfervations
upon the inclination --

life & govern-
-ment of our Sove-
-raign Lord the
King.
Written by

Sir Henry Wotton, Knight,
Provost of Eaton Colledg,
a little before his Death,

And printed for Richard Marriott,
London.

Befides the pieces in "The Remains," Sir Henry Wotton

wrote

"The STATE of CHRISTENDOM; or, a most exact and curious Discovery of many Secret Passages and hidden Mysteries of the Times: Written by the renowned Sir Henry Wotton, Kt. Ambafsadour in Ordinary to the Moft Serene Republique of Venice, and late Provoft 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.

Several of Sir Henry Wotton's letters are inferted in "Cabala, or Mysteries of State. London, 1654," in 4to; and in "Cabala, or Scrinia facra. London, 1663," Fol.: Alfo in "Strafford's Letters and Defpatches, 1739," Fol.

The two following tracts, written by Sir Henry Wotton, were never printed; namely,

"The JOURNAL of his EMBASSIES to VENICE;" a MS. fairly written, and formerly in the library of Lord Edward Conway.

"THREE PROPOSITIONS to the COUNT D'ANGOSCIOLA, in Matters of Duels;" a MS. preferved in the library of the College of Arms.