Sir Henry Wotton. 1568-1639.
How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
The Character of a Happy Life.
Who God doth late and early pray
More of his grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book or friend.
The Character of a Happy Life.
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.[174:4]
The Character of a Happy Life.
You meaner beauties of the night,
That poorly satisfy our eyes
More by your number than your light;
You common people of the skies,—
What are you when the moon[174:5] shall rise?
On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia.[174:6]
[175]
He first deceased; she for a little tried
To live without him, liked it not, and died.
Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton's Wife.
I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff.
Preface to the Elements of Architecture.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
The Disparity between Buckingham and Essex.
An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth.[175:1]
Reliquiæ Wottonianæ.
The itch of disputing will prove the scab of churches.[175:2]
A Panegyric to King Charles.
Footnotes
[174:4] As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.—2 Corinth. vi. 10.
[174:5] "Sun" in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (eds. 1651, 1654, 1672, 1685).
[174:6] This was printed with music as early as 1624, in Est's "Sixth Set of Books," etc., and is found in many MSS.—Hannah: The Courtly Poets.
[175:1] In a letter to Velserus, 1612, Wotton says, "This merry definition of an ambassador I had chanced to set down at my friend's, Mr. Christopher Fleckamore, in his Album."
[175:2] He directed the stone over his grave to be inscribed:—
Hic jacet hujus sententiæ primus author:
Disputandi pruritus ecclesiarum scabies.
Nomen alias quære
(Here lies the author of this phrase: "The itch for disputing is the sore of churches." Seek his name elsewhere).
Walton: Life of Wotton.