The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II.Cibber, Theophilus
History
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
Plays, eclogues, songs, a satyr I have writ,
A remedy for those i' th' amorous fit:
Love elegies, and funeral elegies,
Letters of things of diverse qualities,
Encomiastic lines to works of some,
A masque, and an epithalamium,
Two books of epigrams; all which I mean
Shall in this volume come upon the scene;
Some divine poems, which when first I came
To Cambridge, I writ there, I need not name.
Of Dianea, neither my translation,
Omitted here, as of another fashion.
For Heaven's sake name no more, you say I cloy you;
I do obey you; therefore friend God b'wy you.
Footnotes:
1. Athen. Oxon. p. 756, vol. ii.
2. Wood, ubi supra.
* * * * *
Sir GEORGE WHARTON
Was descended of an ancient family in Westmoreland, and born at
Kirby-Kendal in that county, the 4th of April 1617, spent some time at
Oxford, and had so strong a propensity to the study of astronomy and
mathematics, that little or no knowledge of logic and philosophy was
acquired by him[1]. After this, being possesed of some patrimony, he
retired from the university, and indulged his genius, till the
breaking out of the civil wars, when he grew impatient of sollitude,
and being of very loyal principles turned all his inheritance into
money, and raised for his Majesty a gallant troop of horse, of which
he himself was captain.
After several generous hazards of his person, he was routed, about the
21st of March 1645, near Stow on the Would in Glouceste[r]shire, where
Sir Jacob Astley was taken prisoner, and Sir George himself received
several scars of honour, which he carried to his grave[2]. After this
he retired to Oxford the then residence of the King, and had in
recompence of his losses an employment conferred upon him, under Sir
John Heydon, then lieutenant-general of the ordnance, which was to
receive and pay off money, for the service of the magazine, and
artillery; at which time Sir Edward Sherborne was commissary-general
of it. It was then, that at leisure hours he followed his studies, was
deemed a member of Queen's-College, being entered among the students
there, and might with other officers have had the degree of master of
arts conferred on him by the members of the venerable convocation, but
neglected it. After the surrender of the garrison of Oxford, from
which time, the royal cause daily declined, our author was reduced to
live upon expedients; he came to London, and in order to gain a
livelihood, he wrote several little things, which giving offence to
those in power, he was seized on, and imprisoned, first in the
Gatehouse, then in Newgate, and at length in Windsor Castle, at which
time, when he expected the fevered stroke of an incensed party to fall
upon him, he found William Lilly, who had formerly been his
antagonist, now his friend, whose humanity and tenderness, he amply
repaid after the restoration, when he was made treasurer and paymaster
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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