THE POEMS OF RICHARD CORBET, LATE BISHOP OF OXFORD AND OF NORWICH. THE FOURTH EDITION, With considerable Additions. TO WHICH ARE NOW ADDED, “ORATIO IN FUNUS HENRICI PRINCIPIS,” FROM ASHMOLE’S MUSEUM, _Biographical Notes, and a Life of the Author_, BY OCTAVIUS GILCHRIST, F.S.A. London: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1807. Invidebam devio ac solo loco Opes camœnarum tegi: At nunc frequentes, atque claros, nee procul, Quum floreas inter viros. AUSONIUS. R. TAYLOR, and Co. Shoe Lane. TO MY FRIEND THOMAS BLORE, ESQ. THIS VOLUME, UNDERTAKEN AT HIS SUGGESTION, AND PROMOTED BY HIS ASSISTANCE, IS INSCRIBED BY THE EDITOR. THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. The public interest has been of late years so strongly manifested in favour of the poets of the seventeenth century, that little apology appears necessary for the republication of the following Poems. It would, however, be equally vain and foolish in the editor to claim for the author a place among the higher class of poets, or to exalt his due praise by depreciating the merits of his contemporaries.—Claiming only for Cæsar what to Cæsar is due, it may without arrogance be presumed that these pages will not be found inferior to the poems of others which have been fortunately republished, or familiarised to the generality of readers through the popular medium of selections. The author of the following poems (an account of whose life may be considered as a necessary appendage to these pages) is said to have descended from the antient family of the Corbets in Shropshire. It were too laborious and pedantic in a work of this nature to trace his pedigree, but I should be pleased to find any proofs of their attachment to him: yet as the bishop did not usually “conceal his love,” I suspect he received no mark of their regard, at least till his elevation conferred rather than received obligation by acknowledgment.