Loe this is he whose infant Muse begann
To braue the World before yeares stufd him Man;
Though praise be sleight & scornes to make bis Rymes
Begg fauors or opinion of the Tymes,

Yet few by good men haue bine more approu'd
None so unseene, so generally loud,

S. T.I.

MONG the numerous poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there is scarcely a name more worthy of honour than that of George Wither.

Some writers have, indeed, pronounced Wither a fanatical rhymer and an intemperate Puritan. Such was the judgment of Ritson, Heylin, Dryden, Swift and Pope: all writers of undoubted talent, but whose criticism and taste must have been governed by prejudice. In the "neglected leaves" of Wither, Dr. Southey discerned "felicity of expression;"" tenderness of feeling;" and "elevation of mind;" and Sir Egerton Brydges, Mr. Park, Mr. Willmott, and that truly Christian poet and critic, James Montgomery, have all borne testimony to Wither's merits. The cloud which obscured his merits as a poet, arose from his mingling in the political warfare of the turbulent period in which he lived.

Sir Egerton Brydges in his Restituta has thus given the pedigree of the poet.

"Thomas Wither of the County of Lancaster, Esq. left three sons.

"Robert Wither, third son, came to Manydowne in Hampshire, and there lived, leaving issue.

"Thomas Wither, of Manydowne, who married Joane, daughter and heir of Richard Mason of Lydmonton in Hampshire, and had three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard.

John, eldest son, of Manydowne who married Ann daughter of Ayliffe of Skeynes in Hampshire, had three sons, John, Richard and George (which last married Avelyn, daughter of John Shank, and had Gilbert, Thomas, John and Reginald; and the said Gilbert was father of George, William, Reginald and Henry).

"Richard Wither, second son of John Wither and Ann Ayliffe, was of Manydowne, and married a daughter of William Poynter of Whitchurch in Hampshire, by whom he had four sons, John, George, (father of the poet) Otho and Ferdinando.

"John Wither of Manydowne, eldest son, married Jane, daughter of John Love of Basing in Hampshire, and had five sons, William, Anthony, John, James, and Richard. William, eldest son, was of Manydowne, and married Susan, daughter of Paul Risley of Chetwood in Buckinghamshire, and had issue, John, Paul, and Susan.

George Wither (second son of Richard Wither by the daughter of Poynter) had issue three sons, viz. George Wither the poet, James Wither, and Anthony Wither."

In most of Wither's poems something of his private history may be collected. The date of his birth even is better substantiated by his verse than by the baptismal Register. Aubrey and Anthony Wood state