his dear Harry; for fo Gentilis ufed to call him: And though he was not able to do that, yet there was in Sir Henry fuch a propenfity and connaturalness to the Italian language and thofe ftudies whereof Gentilis was a great mafter, that his friendship between them did daily increase, and proved daily advantageous to Sir Henry, for the improvement of him in feveral sciences, during his ftay in the university: From which place, before I shall invite the reader to follow him into a: foreign nation, though I muft omit to mention divers perfons that were then in Oxford, of memorable note for learning, and friends to Sir Henry Wotton, yet I must not omit the mention of a love that was there begun betwixt him and Dr. Donne, fometime Dean of St. Paul's, a man of whose abilities I fhall forbear to fay any thing; because he who is of this nation, and pretends to learning or ingenuity, and is ignorant of Dr. Donne, deferves not to know him. The friendship of these two I must not omit to mention, being fuch a friendship as was generously elemented; and as it was begun in their youth, and in an university, and there maintained by correspondent inclinations and ftudies, fo it lafted till age and death forced a feparation. In Oxford he stayed till about two years after his father's death, at which time he was about the twenty-fecond year of his age: And having to his great wit added the ballaft of learning and knowledge of the arts, he then laid afide his books, and betook himself to the useful library of travel, and a more general converfation with mankind; employing the remaining part of his youth, his induftry, and fortune, to adorn his mind, and to purchase the rich treafure of foreign knowledge: Of which, both for the fecrets of Nature, the difpofitions of many nations, their feveral laws and languages, he was the poffeffor in a very large measure, as I fhall faithfully make In Dr. Donne's letters, published in 1651, are several addreffed "To the best knight, Sir H. Wotton." Dr. Donne has thus expreffed his great regard for this his friend.. "Whom free from German fchifmes, and lightnesse "Of France and faire Italie's faithleffneffe, "Having from thefe fuck'd all they had of worth, "And brought home that faith you carried forth (Donne's Poems, 1633, p. 63.) make to appear, before I take my pen from the following narration of his life. d In his travels, which was almoft nine years before his return into England, he stayed but one year in France, and most of that in Geneva, where he became acquainted with Theodore Beza (then very aged) and with Ifaac Cafaubon', in whofe houfe (if I be rightly informed) Sir Henry Wotton was lodged, and there contracted a moft worthy friendship with that man of rare learning and ingenuity. Three • Or rather, fix years. The writers of the Biographia Britannica explain the mistake by fuppofing that the tail of the fhould be turned upwards to make it 6. It appears from a ? letter to Lord Zouch, dated July 10, 1592, that he had been abroad three years. He probably returned in 1595, as he was appointed Secretary to the Earl of Effex, after his return, in 1596, when he was in the 27th or 28th year of his age. In his letters to the above nobleman he has given an entertaining account of his travels, under the disguise of a Dutchman, and particu larly of his journey to Rome, where he diftinguished himself by wearing a large blue feather in a black hat. At Sienna he learned of Scipio Alberti the maxim which he recommended to Milton, "I penfieri ftretti et il vifo fciolto." Theodore Beza died at Geneva, Oct. 13, 1605, aged 86 years. This learned foreigner encouraged the Puritans in England, and in 1566 wrote with much confidence to Bishop Grindal in their behalf. Yet however attached he might be to the difcipline of his own church at Geneva, and he was very zealous for a Prefbyterian government, and by no means fo moderate as Calvin in that refpect, it appears from feveral of his letters to Archbishop Whitgift, that he retained the higheft regard and veneration for the Church of England. His Biographer, Melchior Adam, has given this character of him. "Ingenio fummo, judicio "accurato, memoriâ tenaciffimâ, facundiâ fingulari, affabilitate et comitate nulli fecundus, "adeo ut, propter, commemoratas dotes, adjunctâ illis vitæ longævitate (quæ tamen omnia "erant inferiora fummâ doctrinâ et pietate) quidam vocarent Bezam atatis fua Phanicem." • "Here I am placed to my very great contentment in the house of Mr. Ifaac Cafaubon, a "perfon of fober condition among the French, and this is all I can fignifie of myself, my "little affairs not allowing me much to fpeak of." (Letter to my Lord Zouch, Aug. 22, 1593, Geneva.) This illuftrious fcholar, pronounced by Jofeph Scaliger to be the beft Grecian of his time, was born at Geneva in 1559. He read lectures on the Belles Lettres, firft at his native place, and afterward at Paris. Henry IV. of France appointed him his Librarian, and in vain attempted Three of the remaining eight years were spent in Germany, the other five in Italy (the stage on which God appointed he should act a great part of his life); where both in Rome, Venice, and Florence, he became acquainted with the most eminent men for learning, and all manner of arts; as Picture, Sculpture, Chymistry, Architecture, and other manual arts, even arts of inferior nature; of all which he was a most dear lover, and a most excellent judge.. He tempted to withdraw him from his profeffion of the reformed religion. After the untimely death of that Monarch, having obtained permiffion from the Queen Regent of France to leave the kingdom for a limited time, he came in October 1610, along with Sir Henry Wotton inte England, where he was received by James I. with marks of peculiar kindness, rewarded with an annual pension of three hundred pounds, and with valuable church-preferment. He was esteemed not more for his learned works than for his fingular affability and moderation. He approved Epifcopacy. In his works he calls himself "Hortibonus," a good garden: Cafau, in the language of Dauphiné, signifying a garden, and bon good. It is well known that Ifaac Cafaubon and Grotius, extremely anxious to form an union between the Popish and Proteftant churches, had communicated their fentiments to each other upon this matter with: great freedom. Morton, Bishop of Durham, caused a monument at his own expence to be erected to the memory of this learned man. "Qui noffe vult Cafaubonum. When Lord Herbert of Cherbury went to Paris in the earlier period of his life, he was, by the recommendation of the English Ambaffador, received into the houfe of that incomparable fcholar, Ifaac Cafaubon, by whofe learned conversation he much benefited himfelf. (Life of Lord Herbert, printed at Strawberry Hill, p. 69.) "The very feat and fink of all corruption, to which," as he writes in a letter to King James," my wandering curiofity carried me no less than four times in my younger years, "where I fixed my ftudies moft upon the hiftorical part in the politic management of religion; which I found plainly converted from a rule of confcience to an inftrument of state "and from the mistress of all fciences into the very handmaid of Ambition." He returned out of Italy into England about the thirtieth year of his age, being then noted by many both for his perfon and comportment: For indeed he was of a choice fhape, tall of ftature, and of a moft perfuafive behaviour; which was fo mixed with fweet difcourfe and civilities, as gained him much love from all perfons with whom he entered into an acquaint ance. And whereas he was noted in his youth to have a fharp wit, and apt to jeft; that, by time, travel, and conversation, was fo polished, and made fo ufeful, that his company feemed to be one of the delights of mankind; infomuch as Robert Earl of Effex (then one of the darlings of Fortune, and in greatest favour with Queen Elizabeth) invited him firft into a friendship, and, after a knowledge of his great abilities, to be one of his Secretaries, the other being Mr. Henry Cuffe", fometime of Merton College in Oxford See Sir Henry Wotton's "Parallel betwixt Robert Earl of Effex and George Duke of Buckingham." (Reliq. Wotton, p. 161.)—This parallel was animadverted upon by Lord Clarendon. The unfortunate Secretary of Robert Devereux, Earl of Effex. He is generally fupposed to have advised thofe violent measures which ended in the deftruction of his noble patron. His character as a fcholar was established by the tract, "De rebus geftis in fancto Concilio "Nicœno," a translation from Greek into Latin. He fuffered for the fame offence with his mafter. Sir Henry Wotton describes Cuffe as "A man of secret ambitious ends of his own, "and of proportionate counfels, fmothered under the habit of a fcholar, and flubbered over "with a certain rude and clownish fashion that had the semblance of integrity." (Reliq. Wotton. p. 180.)-He is called by Camden, "Vir exquifitiffimâ doctrinâ ingenioque acer"rimo, fed turbido et tortuofo," Owen, the Epigrammatift, wrote the following lines upon him: Doctus eras Græcè, felixque tibi fuit Alpha, "At fuit infelix Omega, Cuffe, tuum." In the beginning of his account of "The State of Christendom," he pathetically laments his voluntary banishment. "That day should have been more joyful unto me than the day of "my birth and nativity, wherein I might have seen a letter from any of my friends with "affurance of my pardon to call me home. But I find myself so much inferior to Coriolanus in good fortune, as I come behind him in manly valour, and other laudable qualities." Τι; το στέρεσθαι πατρίδος ή κακον μεγα Μεγιστον· ἔργῳ δ ̓ ἐστι μείζον ἡ λόγῳ. Oxford (and there alfo the acquaintance of Sir Henry Wotton in his youth); Mr. Cuffe being then a man of no common note in the university for his learning, nor after his removal from that place, for the great abilities of his mind, nor indeed for the fatalnefs of his end. Sir Henry Wotton, being now taken into a serviceable friendship with the Earl of Effex, did perfonally attend his councils and employments in two voyages at sea against the Spaniards, and also in that (which was the Earl's last) into Ireland: That voyage wherein he then did fo much provoke the Queen to anger, and worse at his return into England; upon whose immoveable favour the Earl had built fuch fandy hopes, as encouraged him to thofe undertakings; which, with the help of a contrary faction, fuddenly caufed his commitment to the Tower. Sir Henry Wotton obferving this, though he was not of that faction (for the Earl's followers were alfo divided into their feveral interefts) which encouraged the Earl to thofe undertakings which proved so fatal to him and divers of his confederation; yet knowing treafon to be fo comprehenfive, as to take in even circumftances, and out of them to make fuch pofitive conclufions as fubtle ftatesmen fhall project, either for their revenge or fafety: Confidering this, he thought prevention by abfence out of England', a better fecurity than to ftay in it, and there plead his innocency in a prifon. Therefore did he, fo foon as the Earl was apprehended, very quickly, and as privately glide through Kent to Dover, without fo much as looking toward his native and beloved Bocton; and was by the help of favourable winds and liberal payment of the mariners, within fixteen hours after his departure from London, fet upon the French fhore; where he heard fhortly after, that the Earl was arraigned, condemned, and beheaded; and that his friend Mr. Cuffe was hanged, and divers other perfons of eminent quality executed. The times did not look fo favourable upon Sir Henry Wotton, as to invite his return into England: Having therefore procured of Sir Edward Wotton, his elder brother, an affurance that his annuity should be paid him in Italy, thither he went; happily renewing his intermitted friendship and interest, and indeed his great content in a new conversation with his old Ꮓ See the oppofite page for the note here referred to. acquaintance |