Transcriber's Note Archaic, dialectical and other spellings not in current usage have been left as in the original book. Obvious misprints have been fixed. Details of the changes appear at the end of the text. ENGLISH REPRINTS WILLIAM HABINGTON Castara THE THIRD EDITION OF 1640; EDITED AND COLLATED WITH THE EARLIER ONES OF 1634, 1635 EDITED BY EDWARD ARBER F.S.A. ETC. LATE EXAMINER IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON WESTMINSTER A. CONSTABLE AND CO. 1895 CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION, 3 BIBLIOGRAPHY, with FIRST LINES, etc., of the three first editions, showing the growth of the work, 5 CASTARA. The first Part, 9 (1) THE AUTHOR, 11 (2) GEORGE TALBOT, To his best friend and Kinsman _William Habington_, Esquire, 14 (3) A CHARACTER. _A Mistress_, 15 (4) FIFTY-SEVEN Poems, chiefly on Love and Courtship, 17 CASTARA. The second Part, 55 (1) A CHARACTER. _A Wife_, 57 (2) FIFTY Poems, chiefly on Wedded Happiness, 59 (3) A CHARACTER. _A Friend_, 99 (4) EIGHT Elegies, _The Funerals of the Honourable my best friend and Kinsman_, GEORGE TALBOT, Esquire, 101 CASTARA. The third Part, 111 (1) A CHARACTER. _A Holy Man_, 112 (2) TWENTY-TWO Poems, chiefly Sacred, with Scripture Texts, 115 _INTRODUCTION._ The old English family of HABINGDON, ABINGDON, HABINGTON, or ABINGTON traced their pedigree beyond the reign of Henry III., to PHILIP DE HABINGTON, of Abingdon, co. Cambridge: but that branch of the family from which our Poet sprang, descended from RICHARD HABINGTON, of Brokhampton, whose _third_ son JOHN was coifferer to Queen Elizabeth. This JOHN HABINGTON, our Poet's grand-father, bought Hindlip Hall, an estate beautifully situated about four miles from Worcester. He married twice. By his second wife he had two sons, THOMAS; and EDWARD, who was executed for Babington's plot in 1586.