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W O U 
nary to Venice, where he acquired such reputation that seve¬ 
ral young gentlemen of rank attended him for improvement. 
In his way through Augsburg, he drew up the following hu¬ 
morous definition of an ambassador:—“ Legatus est vir 
bonus peregre missus ad mentiendum reipublicse causa i. c. 
an ambassador is a good man, sent abroad to lie for the ser¬ 
vice of his country. This sentence was afterwards alleged 
as a maxim avowed by the religion professed by the king of 
England ; and it so far excited the displeasure of James, that 
Wotton, after his return, remained for five years unemployed. 
An apology, however, regained the royal favour, and he was 
sent on an embassy first to the United Provinces, and after¬ 
wards in 1615 to Venice. After three years’ residence he re¬ 
turned with the hope of succeeding to the office of secretary 
Winwood, but he was otherwise employed in various foreign 
embassies, from the last of which to Venice he did not return 
till after the death of James, when he was appointed, as a re¬ 
compense for his services, to the provostship of Eton college 
in 1624. Soon after his settlement in this situation, he pub¬ 
lished his “ Elements of Architecture.” But as the statutes 
of the college required his assuming the clerical character, he 
took deacon’s orders, without undertaking what he considered 
as too serious a charge, the cure of souls. In his domestic 
entertainments he maintained the reputation of hospitality, 
and in his connection with the seminary over which he presi¬ 
ded, he was a liberal encourager of genius and application. 
For the amusement of advanced life he had contemplated 
a life of Luther, with a history of the Reformation; but 
Charles I. persuaded him to undertake a history of England, in 
which, however, he made little progress. Having large de¬ 
mands on government for money advanced in foreign servi¬ 
ces, his circumstances were embarrassed, and he frequently 
solicited his majesty to grant him new preferment. But death 
was the only termination of his wants and wishes; and this 
happened in December, 1639, in the 72d year of his age. 
His remains were interred in the chapel of Eton college, and 
the following epitaph was inscribed on the stone that covered 
them by his own order: “ Hicjacet hujus sententiae primus 
auctor, Dispulandi Pruritus Ecclesiarum Scabies. No¬ 
men alias quaere.” His accomplishments and literary acqui¬ 
sitions were very distinguished ; and they are hyperbolically 
stated in Cowley’s elegy, when he speaks of him as one 
“ Who had so many languages in store. 
That only fame shall speak of him in more.” 
Business occupied so much of his time, that he had little 
leisure for writing. After his death were published his “ Re¬ 
liquiae Wottonianae;” and they have often been reprinted. 
Of his poems, there is one entitled “ A Hymn to my God in 
a Night of my late Sickness,” which has been highly ex¬ 
tolled.— Biog. Brit. 
WOTTON (William), a learned clergyman, was born in 
1666, and under the tuition of his father, who was also a 
clergyman, he became a perfect phenomenon as to the know¬ 
ledge of languages; for at the age of five years he could read 
the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages almost as well as 
English. Accordingly he was entered of Catharine-hall, 
Cambridge, some months before he was ten years of age: at 
twelve years and five months he took the degree of B. A., 
some time before which he had been celebrated in a copy of 
verses by Dr. Duport, not only for his acquaintance with 
the learned languages, including Arabic, Syriac, and Chal¬ 
dee, but his knowledge of geography, logic, philosophy, ma¬ 
thematics, and chronology. He commenced B. D. in 1691, 
and being chaplain to the earl of Nottingham, this nobleman 
presented him in 1693 to the rectory of Middleton-Keynes, in 
Buckinghamshire. His first work appeared in 1694, and 
was entitled “ Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learn¬ 
ing.” A second edition was published in 1697, and to this 
was annexed Dr. Bentley’s Dissertation upon Phalaris, which 
involved AVotton in controversy, and subjected him to the 
sarcasm of Swift’s Battle of Books. Wotton defended his 
own book against the objections of sir W. Temple and others, 
and some observations in the Tale of a Tub, in the third edi¬ 
tion in 1705. In 1701 he published “ The History of 
Rome, from the Death of Antoninus Pius to the Death of Se- 
verus Alexander,” 8vo. undertaken at the request of bishop 
Burnet, for the use of his pupil the duke of Gloucester; and 
recommended by Leibnitz to George II. when electoral 
prince. In 1706 he attacked “ Tindal’s Rights of the Chris¬ 
tian Church,” and in 1707 archbishop Tenison conferred 
upon him the degree of D. D. Notwithstanding his talents 
and learning, his life was irregular, and of course his circum¬ 
stances embarrassed, so that in 1714 he was obliged to 
retire into South Wales, where he employed himself in 
writing. He also acquired the Welsh language, and was able 
to preach in it. Dr. Wotton, says one of his biographers, 
was one of those scholars, whose early proficiency, being 
chiefly the result of an extraordinary memory, was not fol¬ 
lowed by mature products corresponding to the expectations 
they excited. He died at the age of 60, in the year 1726. 
Nichols's Lit. Anecd. Gen. Biog. 
WOTTEN’S-END, a hamlet of England, in Gloucester¬ 
shire. 
WOUDENBURG, a village of the Netherlands, in the 
province of Utrecht; 6 miles south of Amersfort. Population 
1200. 
WOUDSEND, a village of the Netherlands, in Friesland, 
with 900 inhabitants. 
AVOVE. The preterite and participle passive of weave. 
Adam, waiting her return, had wove 
Of choicest flowers, a garland. Milton. 
WO'VEN. The participle passive of weave. 
No man living 
Could say, that is my wife there : all were woven 
So strangely in One piece. Shakspeare. 
WOUGHTON-ON-THE-GREEN, a parish of England, 
in Buckinghamshire. 
WOULD. The preterite of will. It is generally used as 
an auxiliary verb with an infinitive, to which it gives the 
force of the subjunctive mood.—If God’s providence did not 
so order it, cheats would daily be committed, which would 
justle private men out of their rights, and unhinge states. Rap. 
I Would do it. My resolution is that it should be done 
by me. 
Thou AVouldst do it. Such must be the consequence 
to thee ; that such should be thy act. 
He Would or it would. This must be the consequence 
to him or it; that such should be his act, or its effect.—The 
plural as the singular. 
To themselves they live. 
And to their island, that enough would give 
A good inhabitant. • Chapman. 
Was or am resolved; I wish or wished to; I am or was 
willing. 
You would be satisfied?— 
Would? nay, and will. Shakspeare. 
It is a familiar term for wish to do, or to have .—What 
wou/dst thou with us? Shakspeare. —Should wish. 
Celia! if you apprehend 
The muse of your incensed friend; 
Nor would that he record your blame, 
And make it live; repeat the same; 
Again deceive him, and again. 
And then he swears he’ll not complain. Waller. 
It is used in old authors for should. —The excess of diet 
would be avoided. Bacon.— It has the signification of I 
wish, or I pray ; this is formed by a gradual corruption of 
the phrase, would God; which originally imported, that 
God would, might God will, might God decree ; from this 
phrase ill understood came would to God; thence, I would 
to God: and thence, I would, or elliptically, would, came 
to signify, I wish and so it is used even in good authors. 
—1 would my father look’d but with my eyes. Shakspeare. 
Would thou hadst hearken’d to my words, and stay’d 
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange 
Desire 
