40 
“complained that his new boots ftunk :— 
«¢ J believe, Madam (he replied), it ts not 
my new boots that ftink, but the old ftale 
petitions that have lain fo Jong in my bag 
unopened.”> This was Dr. Haddon, who 
held the office of Mafter of the Requefts 
fo Jong, that he complained to a friend, 
s¢ Ego inter mendicos fenefcam,’—TI hall 
giow old among beggars. 
Sir HENRY WOTTON t& King CHARLES 
the Firft. 
(Upon his Entrance into boly Orders.) 
fHARL. MSS. VOL. 2232. ] 
“* May it pleafe your Majefty, 
¢¢ The gracious afpeét which I have 
ever obferved in your Majetty doth bind 
me, though there were no other reafons, 
next under God, to approve all my ac- 
tions by yourjudgment. Let me, there- 
fore, moit humbly make known unto your 
Majefty, that it hath pleafed the Foun- 
tain of ail thoughts. to difpofe my mind 
by his fecret providence, to enter into the 
facred order of the church, having ccn- 
firmed in me (for which his name be ever 
bleffed} the reverence and love of his 
truth, by the large experience of the abufes 
thereof in the very feat and fink of all 
corruption, Rome itfelf, to which my 
wandering curiofity carried me, no lefs 
than four times in my younger years, 
when I fixed my ftudy moft upon the hif- 
torical part in the political managing of 
veligion, which I found plainly icanverted 
from the truth of confcience te an initru- 
ment of ftate, and from the mittrefs of all 
fcience into the very hand-maid ef ambi- 
‘tion. Neither do I repent me of bending 
‘my mind that way, for though perhaps the 
truth may more compendioufly appear zz 
ordine doétring, ‘yet never more fully than 
when we fearch the original veins thereof ; 
the increafe, depravation, and decays, zz 
‘ordine temporum. This is the point 
wherein Ihave travelled moft, and where- 
in I will fpend (God willing) the remain- 
der of my. days, hoping that the all-fufh. 
cient God will, in the ftrength of his 
mercy, enable my weaknefs, either by my 
voice or by mypen, to celebrate bis glory. 
Now, though I was thus far confident in 
myfelf (with all humility be it {poken), 
“that neither my lite, nor my poor erudi- 
tion, would yield much fcandal to others ; 
and likewife might well have prefumed 
that this refolution could no ways offend 
your Majefty’s religious heart, but might 
rather be {ecure in your Majetty’s favour 
and encouragement, yet having been eni- 
ployed fo many years abroad in civil ufe, 
Extratis from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters; [Feb. 1, 
T thought it undutiful to change my call- 
ing, without the foreknowledge and ap- 
probation of you, my dear fovereign. 
The Almighty, who hath endued your 
Majety with excellent viriues, and fo 
early taught you the rare concert between 
greatnefs and gocdnefs, long protect your 
‘ab perfon and ftates under his fingular 
ove: . 
“© Your Majefty’s moft faithful 
¢¢ And devoted vaflal, 
“HEN, WOTTON.” 
ae 
Mr. LEWIs THEOBALD io Dr. BIRCH, 
with feme Account of BEN, JONSON. 
[EX MSS. DR, BIRCH, BRIT. MUS. ] 
‘« Wyan’s-court, 
OF SP Ryo tats << Augufi 10, 17376 
‘© T have beer pretty much out of town, 
or would have much feoner furnifhed you 
with what Ihave been able to giean, in 
-anfwer to your queries with relation to 
Ben. Jonfon. 
‘© As we find; from the Latin epitaph, 
that he died at the age of fixty-three, in _ 
the year 1637, he was confequently born 
about the year1574. Wherher he worked- 
at his father-in-law’s trade, as a brick- 
layer, after. he had been a fhort time at 
Cambridge, according to Dr. Fuller, or 
before he went to that univerfity, accord- 
ing to other writers, I confefs I cannot 
folve with all the certainty I could with ; 
but I, will endeavour to lead to it as near 
as Ican by circumfance. I muft firft 
take notice of a point from Langbaine, in 
which either he or Wood have committed, 
T imagine, a ftrange blunder; viz. that 
in the year 1619 he took his Matter of 
Arts degree at Chri&t Church College, in 
Oxford. For by calculation it appears, 
that he was then forty-five years old: he 
had attended as Court Poet fixteen years, 
fo could not be a .refident at the Univer- 
fity; and, fuppofing the degrees were 
only honorary, would he, at that period 
of life, and in his Ration, have aceepted 
them? But the College book, upon ap- 
plication, will eafily clear up this point ; 
and it occurs to me it may be afcertained 
as eafily, whether he worked as a. brick- 
layer before he went to, or after he came 
from the Univerfity, by this fingle en. 
quiry, at what time Lincoln’s Inn was~ 
new built, if there be any truth in the 
tradition of his being concerned therein. 
‘© Whether there is any authority be- 
fides "Wood's, that he was tutor to and 
travelled abroad with a fon of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, I mutt confefs Wood’s autho- 
rity {eems to me very precarious, Aipperys 
an 
