If you thought being a poet was a harmless occupation of odes, daffodils and lovey-dovey stuff then think again as this Hampshire Great, George Wither, proves after his caustic wit and biting satire regularly lost him his home and freedom.
Born at Bentworth near Alton on June 11, 1588, the year of the Armada, George Wither became a prolific poet and pamphleteer, cutting satirist, and composer of hymns. He was the son of George Wither Snr. and Mary and was baptised in the village church, St Mary’s, a 13th century foundation that has pleasingly survived restorers’ attentions. The Wither family lived in Bentworth until sometime in the 17th century. It’s a bucolic place of medieval church, small village green, large houses, flint-walled school building and pub. This is where George Wither came into the world and entered the fray.
George’s grandfather, Richard Wither, was another Hampshire resident, living at Manydown or Manydown Park, Wootton St Lawrence where the family had resided since the 14th century. The Wither family, and their cousins the Bigg-Withers, lived here from the late-15th century to 1871 when the house was sold. Sadly, this mansion, which once hosted and influenced Jane Austen, was demolished in 1965. George is described as being ‘of this house’. He studied at Magdalen, Oxford between 1604-06, yet left without a degree. Moving to London in 1610, then entering Lincoln’s Inn in 1615, his future was seemingly in the law. He’d already started dabbling with poetry though, his 1612 elegy to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1594-1612), who’d died of typhoid fever, toadying favour with the bereaved monarch, James VI/I. The demise of the prince saw his younger brother, Charles, become heir apparent (the future Charles I). The following year (1613) George was at it again, a volume of his poems praising the marriage of Princess Elizabeth (1596-1622) who wed the Elector Palatine from whom our Georgian monarchs, George I, George II et al, followed.
Wither’s satire got him into bother however, his Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), which reflected on his early life in Bentworth, leading to his imprisonment. However, his period of incarceration was short, four months in the Marshalsea, as it’s believed a satire addressed to the King plus the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke secured his freedom.
Unfortunately for Withers, this wasn’t to be his only spell behind bars, and he enters into a period of in and out of incarceration. It was thought that The Scourge, a poem, was attacking the Lord Chancellor, and inside he went again. However, he kept himself busy, composing The Shepherd’s Hunting (1615) which includes some of his best verse and Fidelia (also 1615), the first literary text published by subscription.
The Motto (1618) was curiously self-confessional and is presumably one and the same as Wither’s motto: Nec Habeo, nec Careo, nec Curo (1621) which translates as ‘I don’t have, I don’t want, I don’t care’. Here he asserts his own virtues, a lack of avarice, which denounced others less virtuous. It offended and he ended up inside again, in Newgate this time. At least it sold well, over 30,000 copies in a few months according to Wither.
His best poem was Fair Virtue, or the Mistress of Philarete (1622), a curate’s egg as it’s inconsistent although the best passages are exquisite, and the best redeems the rest. His Juvenilia, a collection of love and countryside poetry, came out the same year. There was also his Hymns and Songs of the Church (1623), the first English hymn book not based totally on the psalms and also the first book where its author successfully asserted copyright, Psalms of David Translated (1631), Emblems (1634) and the gloriously entitled Hallelujah (1641). Some of these names confirm Wither’s poetry becoming increasingly religious and political after 1622, his Puritanism not only demanding a simplified church but also revelling in censorious morals. Woe betides anyone who fancied having fun. Wither was in London during the 1625 plague, his Britain’s Remembrancer (1628) a prophetic reflection on this where he claimed the calamity was God’s judgement on people’s wickedness. Able to start a ruck in an empty room, Wither self-published this one having fallen out with the Stationers’ Company.
A fiery Puritan, in 1642 Wither sold his estate, land in Bentworth parish, to pay for a Parliamentary cavalry troop as the English Civil War began against Charles I; Wither had once supported the King. His reward for nailing his colours to the Parliamentarian mast was to be taken prisoner. This might have been the end for turncoat Wither except for rescuer, fellow poet Sir John Denham, who proclaimed self-effacingly that saving Wither suited him for ‘so long as Wither lived, he himself could not be accounted the worst poet in England’.
Later in the war Oliver Cromwell made Wither major-general in Surrey and Master of the Statute Office. Nailing one’s colours is fine until the wind changes direction and the monarchy’s restoration in 1660 and accession of Charles II saw Wither cast out, losing property and position. Wither and his estates parted company with monotonous regularity. He also got himself banged up with similar ease. Suspected of writing the Vox Vulgi, a satirical go at the 1661 Parliament, Wither found himself in a cell again. He’d be released back into the community in 1663 after three years. Wither annoyed so folk bit back. One commentator called him a genius but ‘partially insane’ whilst another critic described his poems, ‘if they can be called poems’, as ‘pious’ which went with his Puritanism. Wither never learned and he lost his lands again when he wrote something judged to be critical of Cromwell.
In his later years Wither’s poetry became unpopular; perhaps his face no longer fitted. He had his admirers though in Georgian/Victorian times, the likes of Poet Laureate Robert Southey (1774-1843), bibliographer Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762-1837), historian Henry Hallam (1777-1859) and, in particular, essayist Charles Lamb (1775-1834) who belatedly revived interest in his work. Demonstrating that posthumous fame is possible, his Juvenilia (1622) was reprinted by the Spenser Society between 1870-72. George Wither died in London on May 2 1667 aged 78.
CHRONOLOGY
1588 – Birth of George Wither in Bentworth, near Alton (June 11).
1606 – Leaves Magdalen, Oxford without graduating.
1610 – Moves to London and five years later enters Lincoln’s Inn.
1613 – Abuses Stript and Whipt sees Wither imprisoned in the Marshalsea.
1621 – Wither’s Motto results in further imprisonment, this time in Newgate.
1622 – Wither’s best poem Fair Virtue, or the Mistress of Philarete, is published.
1628 – Britain’s Remembrancer is Wither’s verdict on the London plague of 1625.
1642 – Wither sells his estate to fund a troop of cavalry for the Parliamentary cause.
1663 – Wither’s final prison terms ends after three years inside.
1667 – Death of George Wither in London (May 2) aged 78.
