WITHER, GEORGE, was b. on June 11, 1588, at Bentforth, an estate in Hampshire of which his father was proprietor, and which in due course fell to the son. He was educated at the grammar-school of Colemore, and afterward at Magdalen college, Oxford, which he entered in 1604; He remained there severalyears, and after passing some time at home, he went to London, and entered himself at Lincoln's inn. His bent was, however, rather to literature than law; and he shortly became known in certain circles as a writer of clever verses. In 1613 he came before the public in a volume of satire, the title of which, Abuses Stript and lVhipt, in some sort defines its contents. Certain things in the hook were considered offensive by the authorities, and he was sent to the Marshalsca prison, and kept there for some months. During his imprisonment were composed his Satire to the Kings and his Shepherd's Hunting. In 1622 appeared a collection of his poems under the title Mistress of Philarete, and in 1635 his Emblems, Ancient and Modern. Though he had very much identified himself with the party of the Puritans, among whom his writings were most popular, on the breaking out of civil disturbance, he served as a captain of cavalry in the ill-judged and abortive expedition of Charles I. against the Scotch covenanters in 1639. When a little later, however, the general discontent determined itself into the grand struggle between the and the English parliament, he promptly sided with the latter, and raised a troop of horse for its service by the sale of his estate. In the army of the parliament he attained the rank of major; but of his special services not much is known. On one occasion he was taken prisoner, and is said to have owed his life to a joke of Denham's, who besought the royalists to spare his life, on the ground that so long as Wither lived, he (Denham) was not the worst poet in England. On the final. triumph of the side with which he had
ranged himself, it appears that opportunities were afforded him of feathering his nest rather comfortably by the spoil of the defeated party. With .the restoration naturally a reverse came; and as the reputed author of a pamphlet entitled Vox Vulgi, of a so-called seditious tendency, he was committed to the tower, and an impeachment of him having been ordered, his life for a time seemed to be in some danger. The impeachment was not, however, proceeded with, and sooner or later—the date seems somewhat uncertain —he obtained his He died in London on May 2, 1667.
Wither was an .,xcessively voluminous writer. Upward of 100 separate publications of his have been noted by modern bibliographers (see 1st and 2d vols. of Park's Bibliographer), yet, after his death, his poetry fell into oblivion, or, so far as remem uered. Was regarded with such contempt that we find him introduced by Pope in the Dunciad, as Withers." A later time has, however, revised this decision; the grace, sweetness, fancy, and charm of natural simplicity which distinguish not little of his verse have since been sufficiently recognized; and a modest niche in the temple has been accorded him, from which he cannot now be degraded. The men to whom the resuscitation of his fame is chiefly owing are Southey, Lamb, and sir Egerton Brydges. In his Shepherd's Hunting, in particular, passages occur of such rare and finished beauty, that no collection of the choicest things in English poetry could be held to be complete which should omit them. His Hymns and Songs of the Church were edited, with an introduction by Mr. Ed. Farr, in 1856. By far the best and most complete account of Wither's life and writings is to be found in Wilmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets (Loud. 1834).