This may be fome account of his difpofition and of the employment of his time, till he was Mafter of Arts, which was anno 1615; and in the year 1619 he was chofen Orator for the University. His two precedent Orators, were Sir Robert Nantons and Sir Francis Netherfoled: The firft was not long after tinctions of hereditary rank. At this time Mr. Herbert's pecuniary refources were not very plentiful. In a letter dated March 18, 1617, he writes; "I protest and vow I even study thrift, and yet I am fearce able, "with much ado, to make one half year's allowance shake the hands with the other." He feems to have been prodigiously fond of fine clothes; for his biographer tells us afterward, that he enjoyed his gentile bumour for fine clothes and court-like company." And it appears that he did not change" his fword and filk clothes into a canonical coat," till four years after he was Prebendary of Lincoln. If his tafle in this refpect had been doubted, he might have answered as Autolicus did to the fimple Shepherd. Sir? Shep. Are you a Courtier, an like you, "Aut. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier. Seeft thou not "the air of a court in thefe enfoldings? hath not my gaite in it the "measure of the Court?" Shakespear's Winter's Tale, Act IV. Scene XI. b.Of the Office of Orator, which still continues the moft honourable academical employment, Mr. Herbert has given the best description in a letter to a friend. "The Orator's place, that you may understand "what it is, is the fineft place in the University, though not the gain"fulleft, yet that will be about 301. per annum: But the commodiouf. "nefs is beyond the revenue, for the Orator writes all the University "letters, makes all the orations, be it to the King, Prince or whatever comes to the Univerfity. To requite thefe pains, he takes place next "the Doctors, is at all their afsemblies and meetings, and fits above the "Proctors; is Regent or Non-regent at his pleasure, and fuch like gaynefses which will please a young man well." "Robertus Naunton, Difcipulus, Maii 2, 1582. Soc. Minor, O. 2, "1585. Soc. Major, Mar. 15, 1586" (Bursar's Books at Trin. Coll.) Sir Robert Naunton, a native of Suffolk, was defcended from a very ancient family in that county. He was tranfplanted from Trinity College to Trinity Hall, where he was chofen Fellow. He was the author of "Fragmenta Regalia, or Obfervations on the late Queen Elizabeth, her Times and Favourites," a tract ufually printed along with "Arcana Aulica; or Walfingham's Manual of Prudential Maxims for the Statesman and Courtier," the one being a compendium of poli tics for the ordering of a court life, the other a judicious collection of great examples that have acted in conformity to thofe precepts, and made themfelves famous to pofterity in their refpective itations. He improved the opportunity of recommending himfelf to James I. at Ilinching-brook, where the Univerfity met his Majefly on his first arri val from Scotland. The King was fo well pleafed with his eloquence and learning, that he firft appointed him Secretary of State, and then Mafter of the Wards. Mr. Howell, in one of his letters, relates of him, that while he attended on the Earl of Rutland, as Ambassador to Denmark, he was appointed to deliver a Latin oration before the King. At the beginning of his fpeech, when he had pronounced Serenissime Rex, he was dathed out of countenance, and to gravelled, that be could go no farther. d Francifcus Netherfole, Difcipulus, Ap. 12, 1605. Soc. Minor, Sep. 18, T 4 made Secretary of State; and Sir Francis not very long after his being Orator, was made Secretary to the Lady Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia. In this place of Orator, our George Herbert continued eight years, and managed it with as becoming and grave a gaiety as any had ever before or fince his time. For he had acquired great learning, and was bleft with a high "fancy, a civil and fharp wit, and with a natural elegance, "both in his behaviour, his tongue, and his pen." Of all which, there might be very many particular evidences, but I will limit myself to the mention of but three. And the first notable occafion of fhewing his fitness for this employment of Orator was manifested in a letter to King James upon the occafion of his fending that University his book, called Bafilicon Dorone;" and their Orator was to acknowledge this great honour, and return their gratitude to his Majesty for fuch a condefcenfion, at the close of which letter he writ, "Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hofpes ! Sep. 18, 160S. Soc. Major, Mar. 23, 1609. (Bursar's Books of Trinity College.) This gentleman, born at Netherfole, in the county of Kent, was preferred to be Ambafsador to the Princes of the Union, and Se. cretary to the Lady Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. It is hard to say, whether he was more remarkable for his doings or sufferings on her be half. He married Lucy, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Goodyear, of Polefworth in Warwickshire, by whofe encouragement, being free of himself to any good defign. he founded and endowed a very fair school at Polefworth aforefaid. (Sir William Dugdale's Hist. of Warwickshire.) James I. paid a vifit to the Univerfity of Cambridge, in March 161415. When Hee passed into Trinity College, where all the houfe "ranked on each fide the entrance, he was prefented with a short ora"tion by the Orator of the University, Mr. Francis Netherfole, Fellow "of the faid College, kneeling all the while on his knees, the which his Majefty graciously accepted." (From a MS. in the possession of Mr. Todd, author of The Lives of the Deans of Canterbury") He was blamed at the time of the royal vifit, "for calling the Prince Jacobissime "Carole; and fome will add that he called him Jacobale too, which nei"ther pleafed the King nor any body elfe." To this circumftance is an allufion in a fong written at that time. "Moft Jacob Charles," did Cambridge cry," you welcome are to us." "An Oxford boy," &c. Yet, notwithstanding this cenfure, the classical reader will be much pleafed with the perufal of a funeral oration, fpoken by Sir Francis Netherfole before the Vice Chancellor and the Univerfity, to the memory of Henry Prince of Wales. It is inferted in Bates's "Vitæ felectorum aliquot Virorum.”: Or" His Majefly's Inftructions to his dearefi fon Henry the Prince," 1599. It has been confidered as the beft of the King's works, and in the opinion of Lord Bacon is excellently written. (Bacon's Works, Vol. III. p. 223, 118.) "In this book," fays Mr. Camden," is moft ele. gantly pourtrayed and fet forth the pattern of a moft excellent, every way accomplished, king. Incredible it is how many men's hearts "and affections he won unto him by his correcting of it, and what an expectation This letter was writ in fuch excellent Latin, was fo full of conceits, and all the exprefsions fo fuited to the genius of the King, that he inquired the orator's name, and then asked William Earl of Pembroke, if he knew him? whofe answer was, "That "he knew him very well, and that he was his kinfman; but he "loved him more for his learning and virtue, than for that he "was of his name and family." At which anfwer, the King fmiled, and asked the Earl leave, "That he might love him too; "for he took him to be the jewel of that University." The next occafion he had and took to fhew his great abilities was with them, to fhew allo his great affection to that church in which he received his baptifm, and of which he profefsed himself a member; and the occafion was this: There was one Andrew Melvin, a minifter of the Scotch Church, and rector of St. Andrews, who, by a long and conftant converfe, with a discontented part of that clergy which oppofed Epifcopacy, became at laft to be a chief leader of that faction; and had proudly appeared to be fo to King James, when he was but King of that nation, who, the fecond year after his coronation in England, convened a part of the Bishops and other learned Divines "expectation of himself he raifed amongst all men even to admiration." And Archbishop Spotfwood obferves, that it is faid to have contributed more to facilitate the King's accefsion to the throne of England, than all the difcourfes published by other writers in his favour, The famous Andrew Melvin, or rather Melville, having obtained a copy of the "Doron Bafilicon" in manufcript, thought fome pafsages fo very exceptionable, that he directed feveral copies to be circulated in different parts of Scotland. In confequence of this, a libel was drawn up against the work and laid before the Synod of St. Andrew's, by a mi. nifter of the kirk. To vindicate himself, James caufed it to be published in 1599. 66 It may not be improper here to mention an instance of courtly addrefs noticed by Bishop Hacket in his Life of Archbishop Williams," p. 175. Having remarked that the King, on opening the Parliament in 1623, feafled the two houfes with a speech, than which nothing could be apter for the subject, or more eloquent for the matter; he adds, “ All the helps of that faculty were extremely perfect in him, abounding in wit "by nature, in art by education, in wifdom by experience. Mr. Geo. Herbert, being Prælector in the Rhetorique School in Cambridge, anno 1618, pafsed by thofe fluent orators that domineered in the pulpits of Athens and Rome, and infifted to read upon an oration of King James, which he analyfed, fhewed the concinnity of the parts, "the propriety of the phrafe, the height and power of it to move the affections, the fiyle utterly unknown to the ancients, who could not "conceive what kingly eloquence was; in refpect of which thote noted demagogi were but hirelings, and triobuiary rhetoricians." 66 66 Let it not be forgotten that Mr. Herbert was then a very young man, flushed with hopes of obtaining promotion in a court, where all the blandifhments of adulation were practifed.-Time, experience, and terious contemplation, effectuated a change in his mind, and totally alienated him from every ambitious purfuit. of his church to attend him at Hampton-Court, in order to a friendly conference with fome diffenting brethren, both of this," and the Church of Scotland: Of which Scotch party, Andrew Melvin was onef; and he being a man of learning, and inclined to fatirical poetry, had scattered many malicious bitter verses against our liturgy, our ceremonies, and our church government; which were by fome of that party fo magnified for the wit, that they were therefore brought into Westminster School, where Mr. George Herbert then, and often after, made fuch anfwers to them, and fuch reflection on him and his kirk, as might unbeguile any man that was not too deeply pre-engaged in fuch a quarrel. But to return to Mr. Melvin at Hampton-Court Conference, he there appeared to be a man of an unruly wit, of a strange confidence, of fo furious a zeal, and of fo ungoverned passions, that his infolence to the King, and others at this Conference, loft him both his rectorship of St. Andrews, and his liberty too: For his former verfes, and his prefent reproaches there used against the church and state, caufed him to be committed prifoner to the Tower of London, where he remained very angry for three years. At which time of his commitment, he found the Lady Arabella, an innocent prifoner there; and he pleased himself much in fending the next day after his commitment, thefe two verfes to the good Lady; which I will underwrite, because they may give the reader a taste of his others, which were like thefe "Caufa tibi mecum eft communis, carceris, Ara. Bella, tibi caufa eft, Araque facra mihi." f ANDREW MELVILLE was not prefent at the celebrated conference held at Hampton-Court, in the first year of King James I. upon the complaint of the Puritans against the ceremonies and the liturgy of the Church of England. He was lummoned to appear before the King and Council in 1604. In the first edition of " Mr. Walton's life of Mr. George Herbert," Melville is defcribed to be " Master of a great wit; a wit full of “knots and clenches; a wit sharp and satirical; exceeded, I think, by "none of that nation, but their Buchanan." This unfortunate Lady ARABELLA STUART, daughter of Charles Earl of Lenox, the younger brother of Henry Darnley, the King's father, died in prifon, Sept. 27th, 1615, and was interred at Weftminster, without any funeral pomp, in the night, in the fame vault wherein Mary. Queen of Scots and Prince Henry were buried. The following epitaph was written upon her by Bishop Corbet, She is fuppofed to be the fpeaker. "How do I thank thee, Death, and blefs thy power, "And a fmall coffin my poor carcafe hath. For at thy charge both foul and body were That among fain's, this among kings is laid, And what my birth did claim my death has paid." Owen I fhall not trouble my reader with an account of his enlargement from that prison, or his death; but tell him Mr. Herbert's verfes were thought fo worthy to be preferved, that Dr. Duport, the learned Dean of Peterborough, hath lately collected and caufed many of them to be printed, as an honourable memorial of his friend Mr. George Herbert, and the cause he undertook. Owen the epigrammatifi dedicates a Book of Epigrams to this lady, whom he flyles excellentifsimam et doctifsimam heroinam." Regia progenies, genere illafirifsima virgo, AUDOENI EPIGR. L. IV. Ep. 1. The lines quoted by Mr. Ifaac Walton were infcribed by Andrew Melville, not to Lady Arabella Stuart, but to Sir William Seymour, afterwards Marquis of Hertford, who was then imprisoned in the Tower, for marrying her without the King's confent. Fuller has transcribed them differently: Caufa mihi tecum communis carceris, arą Edward Philips, a nephew of Milton, published his "Lives of the Poets" in 1615. He thus quotes this diftich: "Caufa mihi tecum communis carceris, Ara "Bella tibi caufa eft carceris, Ara mihi." This seems to be the better reading. Melville did not hold the altar to be facred. JAMES DUPORT, the learned fon of a learned father, John Duport, Mafter of Jefus College, Cambridge, was Greek Profefsor in that Univerfity. No one ever filled the chair with more credit to himfelt. He imbibed the very language, the very fpirit of Homer. His admirable Greek verfions of the book of Job, Ecclefiafies, the Song of Solomon, and the Pfalms, will perpetuate and endear his name to the admirers of classic elegance. On the promotion of Dr. Edward Rainbow to the See of Carlisle, he was appointed Dean of Peterborough, and in 1668 was elected Mafler of Magdalen College, Cambridge. He publifhed a collection of Latin poems of different kinds in 1662, under the title of "Ecclefiaftes Solomonis, Auctore, Joan. Viviano, Canticum Solomonis, necnon Epigrammata facra, per Ja. Duportum. Accedunt Georgi Herberti Mulæ refponforiæ ad Andrea Melvini Anti-Tami-Cami-Catego riam."- "The Mufæ refponforia" confitt of fifty epigrams, as Mr.Herbert himself calls them, intended as an antwer to a poem written by Andrew Melville, in Sapphic meafure, againfi the difcipline of the Church of England, containing fifty fianzas, and addrefsed to theUniversities of Oxford and Cambridge. Three of Mr. Herbert's epigrams are intcribed to King James, one to the Prince of Wales, one to the Bishop of Wichefter, one to the people of Scotland, exhorting them to peace, one to thote whom he fuppofed to be led atiray by Melville and other wrners of his perfuafion, the lafi to the Deity, and the reft to Melville himfelt, In the Preface to this work, Duport thus fpeaks of Mr. Leibeit: "Poftquam hæc fcripferam, tradita mihi in manus funt à venerabli vito Gu. Dit |