232 Lawrence Mason, 



is wildly untrue of their own life-times and is beginning to be true 

 in part only with the growing recognition of Henry King's right to a 

 place in English hterature and literary history. 



II. EDUCATION AND EARLY LIFE. 



Henr}' King, the eldest son of Bishop John King, "was born in 

 the same house and chamber at Wornal, in Bucks, wherein his father 

 had received his first breath,^ in the month of January [1592], and 

 was baptized there on the 16 th of the said month [; he was] educated 

 partly in grammar learning in the free-school at Thame in Oxfordsh. 

 and partly in the college school at Westminster." ^ From West- 

 minster he followed his father to Christ Church, Oxford, matri- 

 culating Jan. 20, 1609, and took the same four degrees ; B.A., in 

 1611 ; M.A., in 1614 ; B.D. and D.D., in 1625. ^ Among Henry King's 

 fellow-scholars at ^^'estminster were Robert Herrick (if Mr. A. H. 

 Bullen's conjecture be correct: "Diet. Nat. Biog.", XXVI, 253), 

 George Herbert, William Strode, William Cartwright, and Thomas 

 Randolph,* but the great Camden, who had taught his father,^ was 

 no longer a master there; and later, among the "many afterwards 

 eminent men in attendance, as students, or [as candidates] for ad- 

 vanced degrees," at Christ Church during his undergraduate days, 

 Grosart mentions John Williams, afterwards archbishop and lord 

 chancellor, Edward Littleton, Brian Duppa, Christopher Wren, 

 John Hales, Williams Strode, and John Donne.^ Inspiration and 

 competition in abundance were therefore afforded King by both 

 institutions, as well as a perhaps not less important or influential 

 element, namely the warm friendship of at least two of these not- 

 ables — Brian Duppa and John Donne. He does not appear to have 



on pp. X and xi Dr. Grosart gives an account of King's death, with lengthy 

 extracts from his son's sermon in defence of him, and adds a brief biblio- 

 graphy of "authorities fro and con" in the matter of the alleged apostas}-. 

 Chalmers ("Gen. Biog. Diet.", XIX, 357) refers readers to Dodd's "Church 

 History," I, for a full discussion of this question. 



1 "A Local coincidence not commonly to be parrelelled." — Harl. MS. 1625, 

 fol. 115. 



2 "Athen. Oxon.," Ill, 839. 



3 "Alum. West.," p. 77. 



* " Robert Herrick : Contribution k I'Etude de la Po6sie Lyrique en Angle- 

 terre au Dix-Septieme Siecle," par Floris Delattre, Paris, 1912, p. 21. 



5 "Diet. Nat. Biog.," VIII. 279. 



* Grosart, op. cit., viii, ix. 



i 



