George Wither

George Wither (1588 – 1667)

1. Was born at Bentworth in Hampshire. Sent to Oxford in 1603.
2. He fought under Cromwell as a Major General during the English Civil War and was arrested after the Restoration when the poet, Sir John Denham, interceded on his behalf.
3. Died in 1667
4. Works:
   1. He wrote an elegy (1612) on the death of Prince Henry and a volume of Congratulatory poems (1613) on the marriage of the princess Elizabeth.
   2. In 1612-13, his satiric work: Abuses Script and Whipt was published, which included a poem called The Scourge, in this writing he attacked the then Lord Chancellor. for this he was confined to the Marshalsea prison.
   3. After release he published the pastoral eclogues: The Shepherd’s Hunting (1615) and Fidelia, a love elegy (1617)
   4. Wither returned to the satiric vein with the publication of Wither’s Motto in 1621. This work earned him the ire of the authorities. Wither was arrested for the second time.
   5. Fair Virtue (1622)
   6. Juvenilia (1622): a collection of love and pastoral poetry.
   7. His later works are religious in tone after his conversion to Puritanism. His Hymns and Songs of the Church (1623) are written in a more sober vein.