2

in Shropshire,1 where, in the space of less than two years, I not only recovered all I had lost in my sickness, but attained to the knowledge of the Greek tongue and logic, insomuch, that at twelve years old my parents thought fit to send me to Oxford to University College, where I remember to have disputed at my first coming in logic, and to have made in Greek the exercises required in that college, oftener than in Latin. I had not been many months in the University, but news was brought me of my father's death, his sickness being a lethargy, caros, or coma vigilans, which continued long upon him; he seemed at last to die without much pain, though in his senses.* Upon opinion given by physicians that his disease was mortal, my mother thought fit to send for me home, and presently, after my father's death, to desire her brother Sir Francis Newport to haste to London to

3

1 Doubtless Thomas Newton, eldest son of Edward Newton, of Barley, Cheshire; a graduate of both Cambridge and Oxford, and a well-known classical scholar. He" taught school," says Wood, "at Macclesfield, or near it, with good success." He died in May 1607 (see Wood's "Athenæ Oxon.," ed. Bliss, ii. 5). Didlebury is near Macclesfield.

2 Matriculated as a gentleman-commoner in 1595, aged fourteen years; "being put under the tuition of an eminent tutor." Wood's "Athenæ Oxon," ed. Bliss, iii. 239.

3 In old medical books carus or carosis is applied to various kinds of coma.

• 1596.

2

obtain my wardship for his and her use jointly, which he obtained.1 Shortly after I was sent again to my studies in Oxford, where I had not been long but that an overture for a match with the daughter and heir of Sir William Herbert of St. Julian's was made, the occasion whereof was this: Sir William Herbert being heir-male to the old Earl of Pembroke above-mentioned by a younger son of his (for the eldest son had a daughter, who carried away those great possessions the Earl of Worcester now holds in Monmouthshire, as I said before), having one only daughter surviving, made a will, whereby he estated all his possessions in Monmouthshire and Ireland upon his said daughter, upon condition she married one of the surname of Herbert, otherwise the said lands to descend to the heirs-male of the said Sir William; and his daughter to have only a small portion out of the lands he had in Anglesey and Carnarvonshire; his lands being thus settled, Sir William died shortly afterwards.3 He was a man much conversant with books, and especially given to the study of divinity, insomuch,

1 The wardship was not obtained by Newport, but by his kinsman Sir George More, afterwards Donne's father-in-law. Kempe's Loseley MSS., p. 347. (See Appendix VI. below.)

2 Between Caerleon and Newport. Thomas Churchyard, in his "Worthines of Wales" (1587), says: "Saint Gyllians is a fair house where Sir William Harbert dwelles."

3 He died at St Julian's, 4th March 1592-3, and was buried at Monmouth a week later. Powysland Coll., xi. 364.

that he writ an Exposition upon the Revelations, which is printed; though some thought he was as far from finding the sense thereof as he was from attaining the philosopher's stone, which was another part of his study: howsoever, he was very understanding in all other things, he was noted yet to be of a very high mind; but I can say little of him, as having never seen his person, nor otherwise had much information concerning him. His daughter and heir, called Mary, after her father

1 “A Letter written by a trve Christian Catholike to a Romaine pretended Catholike vppon occasion of controuersie touching the Catholike Church: the 12, 13, and 14 chapters of the Reuelations are breifly and trulie expounded." London, John Windet, 1586. Small 4to. 86 pp. The book is anonymous, but Sir William's arms are at the back of the title-page. A copy is in the British Museum. The interpretation is very quaint and unconvincing. Ames refers to the book under the author's name, and credits him with another work, "Sidney or Baripenthes " (1586), a poem on the death of Sir Philip Sidney. Typograph. Antiquities, ed. Herbert, p. 1226. (See also Strype's Parker, ii. 166; and Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 483.)

2 Sir William was the intimate friend of Dr. Dee, and took a house at Mortlake in 1581 in order to pursue his studies in astrology and alchemy with the doctor. See Dr. Dee's Diary, published by Camden Society, pp. 3, 10, &c.

3 The earliest reference to Lord Herbert's wife is in Dr. Dee's Diary, under date 22d January 1581-2::-"Arthur Dee (b. 19th July 1579) and Mary Herbert, they being but 3 yere old the eldest, did make, as it wer, a shew of childish marriage, of calling ech other husband and wife" (p. 14).

died, continued unmarried until she was one-andtwenty; none of the Herberts appearing in all that time, who, either in age or fortune, was fit to match her. About this time I had attained the age of fifteen,1 and a match at last being proposed, yet, notwithstanding the disparity of years betwixt us, upon the eight-and-twentieth of February 1598-9], in the house of Eyton, where the same man, vicar of married my father and mother, christened and married me, I espoused her. Not long after my marriage I went again to Oxford, together with my wife and mother, who took a house, and lived for some certain time there; and now, having a due remedy for that lasciviousness to which youth is naturally inclined, I followed my book more close than ever, in which course I continued until I attained about the age of eighteen, when my mother took a house in London, between which place and Montgomery Castle I passed my time till I came to the age of one-and twenty, having in that space divers children, I having now none remaining but Beatrice, Richard, and Edward. During this time of living in the University or at home, I did, without any master or teacher, attain the knowledge of the

2

1 See p. 29, note 3. The age is probably seventeen. 2 Walton says Lady Herbert lived for four years at Oxford. (See Appendix III.)

French, Italian, and Spanish languages, by the help of some books in Latin or English translated into those idioms, and the dictionaries of those several languages; I attained also to sing my part at first sight in music, and to play on the lute with very little or almost no teaching;-my intention in learning languages being to make myself a citizen of the world as far as it were possible; and my learning of music was for this end, that I might entertain myself at home, and together refresh my mind after my studies, to which I was exceedingly inclined, and that I might not need the company of young men, in whom I observed in those times much ill example and debauchery.1

Being gotten thus far into my age, I shall give some observations concerning ordinary education, even from the first infancy till the departure from the University; as being desirous, together with the narration of my life, to deliver such rules as I conceive may be useful to my posterity. And first, I find, that in the infancy those diseases are to be remedied which may be hereditary unto them on

1 One is reminded of Sir Philip Sidney's advice to his brother to give good heed to the learning of music. Sidney always regretted that he himself had neglected it in youth. "You will not believe what a want I find of it in my melancholy times." Sidney Papers, i. 283-285. First-rate accomplishment in music was not very common: Puttenham says in his "Arte of Poesie "—"It is hard to find in these dayes of noblemen or gentlemen any excellent musitian" (p. 16).