I shall not trouble my Reader with an account of his enlargement from
that prison, or his death; but tell him Mr. Herbert's verses were
thought so worthy to be preserved, that Dr. Duport,[13] the learned
Dean of Peterborough, hath lately collected and caused many of them
to be printed, as an honourable memorial of his friend Mr. George
Herbert, and the cause he undertook.
[Sidenote: In favour with James]
And in order to my third and last observation of his great abilities,
it will be needful to declare, that about this time King James came
very often to hunt at Newmarket and Royston, and was almost as often
invited to Cambridge, where his entertainment was comedies,[14] suited
to his pleasant humour; and where Mr. George Herbert was to welcome
him with gratulations, and the applauses of an Orator; which he always
performed so well, that he still grew more into the King's favour,
insomuch that he had a particular appointment to attend his Majesty
at Royston; where, after a discourse with him, his Majesty declared to
his kinsman, the Earl of Pembroke, that he found the Orator's learning
and wisdom much above his age or wit. The year following, the King
appointed to end his progress at Cambridge, and to stay there certain
days; at which time he was attended by the great Secretary of
Nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, and by the
ever-memorable and learned Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, both
which did at that time begin a desired friendship with our Orator.
Upon whom, the first put such a value on his judgment, that he usually
desired his approbation before he would expose any of his books to
be printed; and thought him so worthy of his friendship, that having
translated many of the Prophet David's Psalms into English verse, he
made George Herbert his patron, by a public dedication of them to him,
as the best judge of Divine Poetry. And for the learned Bishop, it is
observable, that at that time there fell to be a modest debate betwixt
them two about Predestination, and Sanctity of life; of both of which
the Orator did, not long after, send the Bishop some safe and useful
aphorisms, in a long letter, written in Greek; which letter was so
remarkable for the language and reason of it, that, after the reading
of it, the Bishop put it into his bosom, and did often shew it to many
Scholars, both of this and foreign nations; but did always return it
back to the place where he first lodged it, and continued it so near
his heart till the last day of his life.
[Sidenote: His friends]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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