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 of Cromwell are the main theme of ‘The Modern States-man’ (1653 and 1654); ‘The Protector. A poem’ (1655 and 1656, 8vo); ‘Vaticinium Causuale [sic]: a rapture occasioned by the late miraculous Deliverance of his Highnesse the Lord Protector from a desperate danger,’ a poem (1656, 14 Oct. 4to); ‘Boni Ominis Votum,’ a congratulatory poem on the parliament of 1656 (28 July 1656); ‘A Cause allegorically stated,’ 1657; ‘A Sudden Flash … by Britains Remembrancer,’ 1657, a long poem dedicated to the Protector; and ‘A private Address to the said Oliver,’ 1657–8.

Wither's support of Cromwell's government did not go wholly without reward, although no substantial aid was afforded him. He had gained little hitherto by his political partisanship. From 1645 onwards he had occupied himself in ‘discovering’ the estates of royalist delinquents, and was granted on paper much confiscated property in Surrey, but, owing to various accidents, he failed to secure permanent possession of any portion of it. Sir John Denham's lands at East Horsley were for a short time under his control, as well as the estate of Stanislaus Browne at Pirbright, but he gained little by the temporary seizure (cf. Cal. Committee for Advance of Money, i. 515, ii. 872–3; Cal. Committee for Compounding, pp. 972–3, 1792; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm., Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 195). In ‘A Thankful Retribution’ (1649, in verse) he expressed gratitude to a few members of parliament who had vainly urged the bestowal on him of an office in the court of chancery. He seems to have been appointed later a commissioner for levying assessments in support of the army in the county of Surrey. In 1650, too, the commons, in reply to his numerous petitions, acknowledged that a sum approaching 4,000l. was due to him, and it was arranged that an annual income amounting to 8 per cent. on a portion of it should be secured to him (Commons' Journals, vi. 519). At the same time an order was made for settling 150l. a year upon him from Sir John Denham's lands ‘in full satisfaction of all other demands.’ But his financial position was not permanently improved, and he sought further official work. In 1653 he was employed as a commissioner for the sale of the king's goods (Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 171). In 1655 a clerkship in the statute office of the court of chancery was bestowed on him. But his needs were still unsatisfied, and he repeated his old grievances in a new series of printed petitions which only ceased with his life.

On Cromwell's death Wither appealed to his son Richard to carry on the traditions of his father's rule, as well as to relieve his own sufferings (cf. Petition and Narrative of George Wither, Esq., 1658?; Epistolicum-Vagum-Prosa-Metricum, 1659). In ‘A Cordial of Confection’ (1659) he admitted the possibility of the restoration of Charles II under certain conditions. But when the Restoration was assured, he expressed his apprehensions with a frankness that gave him a new notoriety (cf. Salt upon Salt, a poem on Cromwell's death, 1659; Fides Anglicana, 1660; Furor Poeticus, 1660; Speculum Speculativum, 1660, three editions, a long poem in verse dedicated to the king). In the last days of the Commonwealth he resided at Hambledon, Hampshire, but he returned to London, to a house in the Savoy, in 1660. His attitude attracted the attention of the authorities; his papers were searched, and an unpublished manuscript reflecting on the reactionary temper of the House of Commons led to his prosecution by order of parliament. The paper, which was in verse, was entitled ‘Vox Vulgi. Being a welcome home from the Counties, Citties, and Burroughs, to their prevaricating Members: saving the honour of the House of Commons, and of every faithfull and discreet individual Member thereof.’ ‘This was intended (he said) to have been offered to the private consideration of the Lord Chancellor [Earl of Clarendon]: but had been seized upon when unfinished, and its author taken into custody.’ On his arrest in August 1660 Wither was committed to Newgate. He was brought before the House of Commons on 24 March 1661–2, and was then committed to the Tower to await impeachment (Duke of Somerset MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. 15th Rep. vii. 93). On 3 April 1662 the king was thanked for his arrest. Six days later a petition was read on his behalf, and his wife was allowed access to him in order that he might be induced to recant (Commons' Journals, 1662–3). No further proceedings against him were taken. He remained a prisoner till 27 July 1663, when he was released on giving a bond for good behaviour. The offending poem, ‘Vox Vulgi,’ was not printed at the time, and remained in manuscript among the Earl of Clarendon's papers in the Bodleian Library till 1880, when the Rev. W. D. Macray published it in ‘Anecdota Bodleiana’ (pt. ii.)

During his imprisonment Wither's pen was never idle for a moment. He explained the meaning of his ‘Vox Vulgi’ in a miscellaneous collection of verse entitled ‘An Improvement … evidenced in Crums and Scraps,’ 1661 (cf. The Triple Paradox, printed for the author, 1661, moralisings in


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108 Dulichium, at any rate was not in his kingdom. It is improbable that the question was ever seriously considered by the poet, and he does not trouble himself to state distinctly in what degree of relationship they may have stood to Odysseus or Penelope. If we may follow the analogy of Hindu law, their connection with the family would not be carefully scrutinised. They would attend such a meeting if they belonged to the Birâdari, "brotherhood," or Phatria of wife or husband. But, I venture to think that what we are told about the Suitors is not inconsistent with the theory that in the more primitive version of the tale they may have been regarded as the family or tribal council, like the Hindu Panchâyat, and that their presence in Ithaca, after the assumed death of Odysseus, may have been based on the generally recognised right inherent in the kinsfolk of arranging and enforcing the marriage of Penelope with one or other of their number according to the current tribal law of the age. Their assemblage in the palace of the absent prince would then be the meeting described in the Mahâbhârata of the Kshatriya nobles at the Svayamvara of Draupadi, or the family council of a sept of modern Râjputs to settle a moot question of tribal usage. This conception of their position, startling as it may appear at first, seems to be borne out by at least two facts. To begin with, there is evidence in the poem that they were, or claimed to be, acting under a show of authority. This, which I hold to be the primitive type of the legend, is naturally disguised in the Epic, where their position as lawless intruders is the basis of the plot as we have it. But Antinous, for instance, clearly asserts their right to interfere in the future settlement of Penelope, and Eurymachus claims that they are entitled to sit there, as a Hindu sits in Dharna, until she obeys their mandate; and he also asserts the corporate right of the Suitors to impose a fine on

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 verse; The Prisoner's Plea, 1662, prose). While still a prisoner he also resumed his prophetic mantle in his medley of prose and verse called ‘A Proclamation, in the name of the King of Kings, to all the Inhabitants of the Isles of Great Britain. … Whereto are added some Fragments of the same Author's omitted in the first impression of the booke intitled “Scraps and Crums”’ (1662, 8vo). From Newgate on 8 March he dated, too, his prose ‘Paralellogrammaton: an Epistle to the three Nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Whereby their sins being parallel'd with those of Judah and Israel, they are forewarned and exhorted to a timely repentance’ (3 May 1662, 8vo). ‘Verses intended to the King's Majesty. By Major George Wither, whist [sic] he was prisoner in Newgate,’ bore the date 22 March 1662[–3], (two octavo editions).

After his release in July 1663 Wither issued ‘Tuba Pacifica: Seasonable Præcautions, whereby is sounded forth a Retreat from the War intended between England and the United Provinces of Lower Germany. … Imprinted for the Author, and are to be disposed of rather for Love than Money,’ 1664 (8vo, in verse). He remained in London during the great plague of 1665, and drew from it many pious morals in his verse ‘Memorandum to London occasioned by the Pestilence,’ 1665, with a ‘Warning piece to London,’ 8vo. In 1665 there also appeared ‘Meditations upon the Lord's Prayer, with a Preparatory Preamble to the Right Understanding and True Use of this Pattern,’ London, 8vo; and next year ‘Three Private Meditations, for the most part of Publick Concernment,’ London, 1666, 8vo (in verse). Once again he ventured into the political arena with a poem called ‘Sighs for the Pitchers: Breathed out in a Personal Contribution to the National Humiliation, the last day of May 1666, in the Cities of London and Westminster, upon the near approaching engagement then expected between the English and Dutch Navies;’ there is a warning prefixed of many faults escaped in the printing owing to ‘the author's absence;’ a woodcut on the title presents two pitchers (England and Holland); there were two editions in 1666. The government viewed the pamphlet with suspicion, and warrants were issued for the arrest of those who sold it (Cal. State Papers, 1665–6, p. 569).

The last work that Wither published was ‘the first part’ of a series of extracts from his old prophetic books, which bore the general title ‘Fragmenta Poetica.’ ‘The first part’ had the subsidiary title ‘Ecchoes from the Sixth Trumpet. Reverberated by a Review of Neglected Remembrances’ (1666); a portrait of the author at the age of seventy-nine was prefixed. The volume, which supplies an account of Wither's chief works, was twice reissued posthumously in 1669—first with the new title ‘Nil Vltra, or the Last Works of Captain George Wither;’ and again with the title ‘Fragmenta Prophetica, or the Remains of George Wither, esq.’

Wither died in his house in the precincts of the Savoy on 2 May 1667, after living in London ‘almost sixty years together;’ he was buried ‘within the east door’ at the church of the Savoy Hospital in the Strand. An ‘epitaph composed by himself upon a common fame of his being dead and buried’ was published in his ‘Memorandum to London,’ 1665.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Emerson or Emerton of South Lambeth. She survived him; her will, dated 15 May 1677, was proved 19 Jan. 1682–3. ‘She was a great wit,’ according to Aubrey, ‘and would write in verse too.’ Wither frequently refers to ‘his dear Betty’ in his poems in terms of deep devotion. By her he had six children, only two of whom—a son and a daughter—seem to have survived the poet. The daughter Elizabeth married Adrian Barry, citizen of London, and of Thame, Oxfordshire, and died about 1708. She prepared for publication in 1688 her father's ‘Divine Poems by way of a paraphrase on the Ten Commandments;’ she wrote under the initials ‘E. B.,’ and dedicated the work to her father's friends. The poet's surviving son, Robert, was buried at Bentworth in 1677, and by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Hunt of Fidding (Theddon), left, with other issue, two sons—Hunt Wither and Robert Wither (d. 1695)—and two daughters (cf. Shepherds Hunting, ed. Brydges, 1814, pp. x–xiii).

Besides the engraved portraits prefixed to ‘Juvenilia,’ ‘The Emblems,’ ‘Fragmenta Poetica,’ and other of his books, an original portrait of Wither, painted in oil by Cornelius Janssen, was sold at Gutch's sale in 1858. This is probably the picture from which the likeness by John Payne was engraved for Wither's ‘Emblemes’ (1635). The head prefixed to the thirty-first emblem in Thomas Jenner's ‘Soules Solace’ (1631, 4to) is supposed to be intended for Wither.

In his ‘Fides Anglicana’ (1660) Wither enumerated eighty-six of his works. His ‘Ecchoes from the Sixth Trumpet’ (1666) gives a far briefer list. The full total of his publications reached a hundred, and others remained in manuscript. Various reissues of


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 books by him, as well as many new publications that were doubtfully assigned to him, besides the ‘Divine Poems’ edited by his daughter in 1688, appeared before the end of the seventeenth century. Among these are: ‘Vox et Lacrimæ Anglorum’ (London, 1668, 8vo); ‘Mr. George Wither Revived, or his Prophesie of our present Calamity, and (except we repent) future Misery, written in the year 1628’ (1683, fol. extracts from the eighth canto of ‘Britain's Remembrancer’); ‘Gemitus de Carcere Natus, or Prison Sighs and Supports, being a few broken Scraps and Crums of Comfort’ (1684, 4to); ‘The Grateful Acknowledgment of a late trimming Regulator, with a most Strange and wonderful Prophecy taken out of Britain's Genius, written by Captain George Wither’ (1688, 4to, a selection from ‘Prosopopœia Britannica’); ‘Wither's prophecy of the downfal of Antichrist,’ ‘a collection of many wonderful prophecies,’ (1691, 4to); ‘A Strange and wonderful prophecy concerning the Kingdom of England … taken out of an old manuscript by G. W.,’ 1689, fol. In ‘Wonderful Prophecies relating of the English Nation’ (1691, 4to) one of the prophecies is by Wither.

‘Wither Redivivus: in a small new years gift pro rege et grege. To his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange,’ 1689, 4to, is a medley in the manner of Wither, but is probably not by Wither himself. Of other works doubtfully assigned the most interesting is ‘The Great Assizes holden in Parnassus by Apollo’ (1645), where Wither is introduced in the jury.

Among the lost works which Wither claimed to have written are: ‘Iter Hibernicum of his Irish Voyage;’ ‘Iter Boreale;’ ‘Patrick's Purgatory;’ ‘Philaretes Complaint.’ In Ashmolean MS. 38 are some unprinted verses by him, including ‘Mr. George Withers to the king when he was Prince of Wales;’ ‘Uppon a gentlewoman that had foretold the time of her death;’ and ‘An Epitaph on the Ladie Scott.’

Wither has verses, besides those already specified, before Smith's ‘Description of New England’ (1616); Hayman's ‘Quodlibets’ (1629); Wastel's ‘Microbiblion’ (1626); Butler's ‘Female Monarchy’ (1634); Blaxton's ‘English Usurer’ (1638); beneath the portrait of Lancelot Andrews prefixed to his ‘Moral Law Expounded’ (1642); Carter's ‘Relation of the Expedition of Kent, Essex, and Colchester’ (1650); and Payne Fisher's ‘Panegyric on the Protector’ (1656). In Mercer's ‘Angliæ Speculum’ (1646, &c.) there are an anagram and epigram to the ‘famous Poet Captain George Withers.’ Cockain's ‘Divine Blossoms’ (1656) is dedicated to him.

The largest collection of Wither's works was in the library of Thomas Corser. Two earlier collectors were Alexander Dalrymple and John Matthew Gutch, and many copies that belonged to them are now in the British Museum.

The history of Wither's reputation is curious. His early reputation as a lyric poet died out in his lifetime; he himself admitted that it ‘withered.’ For some years after his death his name was usually regarded as a synonym for a hack rhymester. Royalists ranked him with Robert Wild [q. v.], the presbyterian poet. Butler, in ‘Hudibras,’ classed him with Prynne and Vicars. Phillips, in his ‘Theatrum Poetarum’ (1675), more justly wrote: ‘George Wither, a most profuse pourer forth of English rhime, not without great pretence to a poetical zeal against the vices of his times, in his “Motto,” his “Remembrancer,” and other such like satirical works. … But the most of poetical fancy which I remember to have found in any of his writings is a little piece of pastoral poetry called “The Shepherd's Hunting.”’ Richard Baxter, in the prefatory address to his ‘Poetica Fragmenta’ (1681), declared: ‘Honest George Withers, though a rustic poet, hath been very acceptable; as to some for his prophecies, so to others, for his plain country honesty.’ Dryden declared: He fagotted his notions as they fell, And if they rhymed and rattled, all was well. Pope, in the ‘Dunciad’ (i. 126), expressed scorn for ‘wretched Withers.’ Swift likened him to Bavius. Dr. Johnson and the editors of the chief collections of English poetry did not mention him or his works. But towards the end of the eighteenth century his early poems were reprinted. Percy included his famous song, ‘Shall I wasting in despair,’ and an extract from ‘Philarete,’ in his ‘Reliques of Ancient Poetry.’ Ellis quoted him in his ‘Specimens.’ The result was that critics like Lamb, Coleridge, and Southey recognised his merit, and, ignoring the political and religious lucubrations of Wither's later years, by which alone he desired to be judged, gave his literary work unstinted praise. Southey declared that he had the ‘heart and soul’ of a poet. Lamb studied him with Quarles. In the ‘Annual Review’ (1807) Lamb wrote: ‘Quarles is a wittier writer, but Wither lays more hold of the heart. Quarles thinks of his audience when he lectures; Wither soliloquises in company with a full heart.’ In an essay on


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Rh Halitherses. In this connection, then, it is important to note that it would seem that the people of Ithaca, even the Boulê or Agora of the island, were on the side of the Suitors. Among them were twelve princes of the island, whose massacre nearly led to a general attack on Odysseus and his party, which was repelled only by direct divine interposition. Nestor, again, the impersonation of worldly wisdom, suggests that the people of the land may hate Telemachus. The poet, it is true, may have heard a legend that the dynasty of Odysseus were themselves interlopers. But of this there is no clear evidence in the poems. Here it is enough to point out that public opinion, instead of being enlisted in defence of a helpless princess exposed to the unwelcome attentions of a body of insolent brawlers, was obviously on the other side. This, it appears to me, lends strong support to the suggestion that in the original form of the Saga the Suitors were kinsmen, not impudent intruders. Secondly, the suggestion which I have made as to the status of the Suitors seems to be supported by the claim which they distinctly make to divide among themselves the property of the prince who was assumed to be dead. Thus Antinous proposes that after slaying Telemachus they should "keep his livelihood and his possessions," but leave the palace to Penelope and to whomsoever she might be induced or compelled to marry. "They are eager even now," says Philoetius, "to divide among themselves the possessions of our lord who is long afar." And at the crisis of his fate Eurymachus reminds Odysseus that Antinous aimed at being King of Ithaca. All this seems to me,


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 ‘The Poetical Works of George Wither’ (published in Lamb's ‘Works’ in 1818) he expressed unbounded faith in his poetic greatness. It is now universally recognised that Wither was a poet of exquisite grace, although only for a short season in his long career. Had his last work been his ‘Faire Virtue,’ he would have figured in literary history in the single capacity of a fascinating lyric poet. He was one of the few masters in English of the heptasyllabic couplet, and disclosed almost all its curious felicities. But his fine gifts failed him after 1622, and during the last forty-five years of his life his verse is mainly remarkable for its mass, fluidity, and flatness. It usually lacks any genuine literary quality and often sinks into imbecile doggerel. Ceasing to be a poet, Wither became in middle life a garrulous and tedious preacher, in platitudinous prose and verse, of the political and religious creeds of the commonplace middle-class puritan. At times he enjoyed considerable influence; but his political philosophy amounted only to an assertion that kings ought not to be tyrannical nor parliaments exacting, and his religious views led merely to a self-complacent conviction of the sinfulness of his neighbours and of the peril to which their failings exposed the world, owing to the working of the vengeance of God.

Extracts from ‘Juvenilia’ by Alexander Dalrymple (London, 1785, 8vo) formed the earliest attempt at a full reprint of Wither's poems. Selections from Wither figured in a very thin volume called ‘Select Lyrical Ballads, written about 1622,’ which was printed by Sir S. E. Brydges (1815, 8vo). Brydges also printed ‘Shepherd's Hunting’ (1814), ‘Fair Virtue’ (1815), and ‘Fidelia’ (1818) in separate volumes. In 1810 Gutch reprinted a few specimens of Wither's early work, and sent to Lamb an early interleaved copy for corrections and suggestions. ‘I could not forbear scribbling certain critiques in pencil on the blank leaves,’ Lamb wrote to Gutch on 9 April 1810. The book, with these pencilled notes, was afterwards sent to Dr. [q. v.], the editor of Surrey's and Wyatt's poems. Nott added emendations of his own, and the volume again found its way to Lamb, who amusingly recorded his low opinions of Nott's taste. The volume, with the triple set of annotations, was subsequently acquired by Mr. Swinburne, who humorously described it in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ in January 1885; Mr. Swinburne's essay is reprinted in his ‘Miscellanies,’ 1886. J. M. Gutch also edited the ‘Juvenilia’ and other works in ‘Poems of George Wither,’ without notes or introduction (Bristol, 1820, 3 vols.); this collection was never completed; some copies are divided into four volumes, and bear the date 1839. Sheets containing a life of Wither by Gutch, intended to accompany his edition, were accidentally destroyed; only one impression was preserved by Gutch (cf. Athenæum, 1858, i. 500). Stanford printed a few of Wither's poems in his ‘Works of British Poets’ (1819, vol. v.). Southey included the ‘Shepherd's Hunting’ in his ‘Select Works of English Poets’ (1831). Wither's ‘Halelujah’ and ‘Hymnes and Songs of the Church,’ edited by Edward Farr, were reprinted in the ‘Library of Old Authors,’ 1857–8. The greater number of Wither's works were reprinted by the Spenser Society between 1870 and 1883 in twenty parts. A selection was edited by Professor Henry Morley in his ‘Companion Poets,’ 1891. ‘Fidelia’ and ‘Faire Virtue’ are included in Mr. Arber's ‘English Garner.’

 WITHERING, WILLIAM (1741–1799), physician, botanist, and mineralogist, was born at Wellington, Shropshire, in March 1741, being the only son of Edmund Withering, a surgeon, and his wife Sarah Hector, a kinswoman of


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 [q. v.], bishop of Worcester. Withering was educated by Henry Wood of Ercall until 1762, when he entered the university of Edinburgh, graduating M.D. in 1766. He devoted himself specially to the study of chemistry and anatomy, joined the Medical Society of Edinburgh, and became a freemason, devoting his hours of leisure to the German flute and harpsichord. At Edinburgh he made the acquaintance of [q. v.], the historian of British botany. After a visit to Paris Withering settled down in practice at Stafford, where he remained from 1767 to 1775, acting during most of that time as sole physician to the county infirmary. Here, too, he began to collect plants, doing so at first for the lady patient who became his wife. In 1775, on the death of Dr. Small, Withering removed to Birmingham, where he soon acquired a practice as large and as lucrative as that of any physician out of London, and for thirteen years acted as chief physician to the Birmingham General Hospital. In 1776, the year after his settling in Birmingham, Withering published his most important work, ‘A Botanical Arrangement of all the Vegetables naturally growing in Great Britain, according to the System of the celebrated Linnæus; with an easy Introduction to the Study of Botany;’ and about the same time he evinced his interest in Spain by assisting (Sir) [q. v.] with chemical and botanical notes to his ‘Travels’ through that country. He became an active member of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and of the celebrated Lunar Society, in which he was associated with [q. v.], [q. v.], and [q. v.], and was for a time engaged in chemical researches to combat, as he says, ‘that monster Phlogiston’—a subject which he, however, handed over to his friend Priestley. His attention being for a time directed to mineralogy, he communicated to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society—of which he was elected a fellow in 1784—analyses of Rowley ragstone and toadstone in 1782, and experiments and observations on ‘terra ponderosa,’ or barium carbonate (afterwards named Witherite in his honour), in 1784, and in 1783 published a translation of Sir Torbern Bergmann's ‘Sciagraphia Regni Mineralis,’ with notes by himself, under the title of ‘Outlines of Mineralogy.’ In 1786 Withering moved to Edgbaston Hall, until then the residence of Sir Henry Gough Calthorpe, where he amused himself by breeding Newfoundland dogs and French cattle, and where he completed the second edition of the ‘Botanical Arrangement,’ for which work he constantly employed two professional plant-collectors. Withering was not himself present at the dinner in July 1791 in commemoration of the French revolution which gave rise to the riots in which Priestley's house was sacked; but, the disturbance growing, he felt compelled to fly, taking with him his books and specimens in wagons loaded up with hay, though the arrival of the military ultimately saved his house from destruction. In December 1792, after the publication of the third volume of the ‘Botanical Arrangement,’ which dealt in a most original manner with the fungi and other cryptogams, Withering, who was long threatened with consumption, sailed for Lisbon, where he remained until the following June. While there, at the request of the Portuguese court he analysed the hot mineral waters of Caldas da Rainha, and on revisiting Lisbon in October 1793 presented a memoir on the subject to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and was made a foreign corresponding member of that body. The memoir was published both in the ‘Transactions’ of the Academy and in the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’ As the result of his plant-collecting in Lisbon he drew up a ‘Floræ Ulyssipponensis Specimen,’ which is included in his ‘Miscellaneous Tracts,’ collected by his son in 1822. Withering came to the conclusion that the climate of Lisbon was of no service in cases of consumption, and, travelling through the south of England on his return, decided that the Undercliff of the Isle of Wight would be far preferable. He then purchased from Priestley his house, ‘The Larches,’ which had been sacked by the mob in 1791, and here he spent the five remaining years of his life, living mainly in his library, which was maintained artificially at a uniform temperature of 65° F. His son, indeed, maintains in the memoir prefixed by him to his father's ‘Miscellaneous Tracts’ that nothing showed his skill as a physician more than the way in which he prolonged his own frail existence. Among the distinguished men who visited him at Birmingham were Camper, Necker, Calonne, Reinhold Forster, and Afzelius. The last-mentioned botanist, demonstrator in the university of Upsal, revised Withering's herbarium in preparation for the third edition of the ‘Botanical Arrangement,’ which appeared in 1796; and Thunberg, the successor of Linné, sent him Swedish plants for the purposes of the same work, and lent his sanction to Withering's modification of Linné's classification by the merging


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 of the Gynandria, Monœcia, Diœcia, and Polygamia in the other classes. Withering died on 6 Oct. 1799, it being wittily said during his long illness that ‘the flower of physicians is indeed Withering.’ He was buried at Edgbaston old church, where his monument bears a bust and is ornamented with the foxglove, which he did much to introduce into the pharmacopœia, and with Witheringia, a genus of Solanaceæ dedicated to his honour by L'Héritier. The fine portrait of Withering painted by Charles Frederick von Breda in 1792 was engraved by W. Bond as a frontispiece to the ‘Miscellaneous Tracts,’ as well as by Ridley for Thornton's collection. Withering married, on 12 Sept. 1772, Helena, only child of George Cookes of Stafford, by whom he had two children, who survived him—William (1775–1832) and Charlotte.

His chief works, in addition to those already sufficiently described, were:
 * 1) ‘Dissertatio Inauguralis de Angina Gangrænosa,’ Edinburgh, 1766.
 * 2) ‘A Botanical Arrangement of all the Vegetables naturally growing in Great Britain,’ London, 1776, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit., much improved by Dr. Jonathan Stokes, Birmingham, 3 vols., vols. i. and ii. 1787, vol. iii. 1792; 3rd edit., Birmingham, 1796, 4 vols.; 4th edit., enlarged by William Withering the younger, London, 1801, 4 vols.; 5th edit., ‘corrected and considerably enlarged,’ Birmingham, 1812, 4 vols.; 6th edit., London, 1818, 4 vols.; 7th edit., London, 1830, 4 vols.; another edit., ‘corrected and condensed’ by William Macgillivray, London, 1830, 4to (3rd edit. of this abbreviation, London, 1835, 8vo); 8th edit., London, 1852, 8vo.
 * 3) ‘An Account of the Scarlet Fever and Sore Throat, or Scarlatina Anginosa,’ 1778; 2nd edit. 1793. 4. ‘An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses,’ 1785, 8vo.

WITHERINGTON, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1785–1865), landscape-painter, was born in Goswell Street, London, on 26 May 1785. At school and afterwards in business he cultivated a taste for drawing, and at length, in 1805, became a student at the Royal Academy, though he did not decide till some time later to become a painter by profession. In 1808 he exhibited his first picture, ‘Tintern Abbey,’ at the British Institution, and made his first appearance at the Royal Academy in 1811, with two views of Hartwell, Buckinghamshire. He remained a constant contributor to the Royal Academy exhibitions till the year of his death, sending 138 pictures in all, in addition to sixty-two at the British Institution. He also exhibited for several years in succession at the Birmingham Society of Arts, founded in 1821. His early pictures were principally landscapes, but he varied them with such subjects as ‘Lavinia,’ ‘The Soldier's Wife,’ ‘Sancho Panza,’ and ‘John Gilpin.’ In 1830 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. He had lived hitherto chiefly in London, but his health failed about this time, and he was compelled to spend several months of each year in the country, chiefly in Kent.

In 1840 he became an academician. Henceforth he employed his renewed health and vigour in painting views in Devonshire, the lake country, Wales, and other parts of England, though Kent was still his favourite county. His pictures are simple unaffected studies of English scenery, varied with incidents of country life, in which the figures are well painted. Two of his best known works, ‘The Hop Garland,’ engraved by H. Bourne, and ‘The Stepping Stones,’ engraved by E. Brandard, were presented to the National Gallery as part of the Vernon collection in 1847, but they are among the pictures temporarily on loan to other galleries. ‘The Hop Garden’ (1834), one of his best works, is in the Sheepshanks collection at the South Kensington Museum. ‘Angling,’ ‘The Beggar's Petition,’ and several other pictures have been engraved. There is a lithograph, ‘The Young Anglers,’ by Witherington himself. He died at Mornington Crescent, London, on 10 April 1865.

WITHEROW, THOMAS (1824–1890), Irish divine and historian, son of Hugh Witherow, a farmer at Aughlish, near Dungiven, Londonderry, by Elizabeth Martin, was born at Ballycastle on 29 May 1824. He received his early education at Ralliagh church school, whence he passed to the care of (1806–1877) [q. v.], and, later on, successively to the Academy and the Royal Academical Institution in Belfast. In 1839 he entered the collegiate department of the latter seminary, and here, with the exception of a session at Edinburgh, all his college days were spent. In 1845 he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Glendermot, and in 1845 ordained at Maghera, Londonderry, by the presbytery of Magherafelt as colleague to Charles Kennedy. He proved himself a most able and faithful


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34. Its light flows into the mind evermore, and we forget its presence. The poet, the orator, bred in the woods, whose senses have been nourished by their fair and appeasing changes, year after year, without design and without heed,—shall not lose their lesson altogether, in the roar of cities or the broil of politics. Long hereafter, amidst agitation and terror in national councils,—in the hour of revolution,—these solemn images shall reappear in their morning lustre, as fit symbols and words of the thoughts which the passing events shall awaken. At the call of a noble sentiment, again the woods wave, the pines murmur, the river rolls and shines, and the cattle low upon the mountains, as he saw and heard them in his infancy. And with these forms, the spells of persuasion, the keys of power are put into his hands.

3. We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings. But how great a language to convey such pepper-corn informations! Did it need such noble races of creatures, this profusion of forms, this host of orbs in heaven, to furnish man with the dictionary and grammar of his municipal speech? Whilst we use this grand cipher to expedite the affairs of our pot and kettle, we feel that we have not yet put it to its use, neither are able. We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always


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 clergyman. In 1865, on the opening of the Magee presbyterian college, Londonderry, he was appointed by the general assembly professor of church history and pastoral theology. The duties of this chair he discharged during the remainder of his life with much zeal and efficiency. In 1878 he was elected moderator of the general assembly, and in 1884 a senator of the royal university of Ireland. He died on 25 Jan. 1890 at Londonderry, and was buried in the city cemetery there.

He married Catharine, daughter of Thomas Milling, Maghera, by whom he had seven daughters and three sons.

Witherow was author of a number of valuable works, the chief of which are: He was a frequent contributor to the ‘British and Foreign Evangelical Review,’ the Belfast ‘Witness,’ and the Londonderry ‘Standard,’ and was one of the editors of the ‘Presbyterian Review.’ He was made hon. D.D. in 1883 by the Presbyterian Theological Faculty, Ireland, and LL.D. by the royal university in 1885.
 * 1) ‘Three Prophets of our own,’ 1855.
 * 2) ‘The Apostolic Church—which is it?’ 1856.
 * 3) ‘A Defence of the Apostolic Church,’ 1857.
 * 4) ‘Scriptural Baptism; its Mode and Subjects,’ 1859.
 * 5) ‘Derry and Enniskillen in the year 1689,’ 1873.
 * 6) ‘The Boyne and Aghrim,’ 1879.
 * 7) ‘Historical and Literary Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland’ (1623–1800), 2 vols. 1879.
 * 8) ‘History of the Reformation; a primer,’ 1882.
 * 9) ‘Life of Rev. A. P. Goudy, D.D.’ (commenced by  [q. v.], but left unfinished), 1887.
 * 10) ‘Two Diaries of Derry in 1689, being Richards's Diary of the Fleet and Ash's Journal of the Siege, with Introduction and Notes,’ 1888.
 * 11) ‘The Form of the Christian Temple,’ 1889.

WITHERS, THOMAS (1769–1843), captain in the navy, son of Thomas Withers, yeoman, of Knapton, North Walsham, Norfolk, and Priscilla his wife, was baptised on 17 Sept. 1769. On 4 June 1779 he was admitted one of the nautical scholars of Christ's Hospital, where he continued for upwards of six years, though for part of the time (14 July 1781–31 Jan. 1784) he was borne on the books of the Grana as servant of the purser, Joseph Withers, presumably his uncle. On 1 Dec. 1785 he was discharged from Christ's Hospital and bound apprentice to Richard Harding, commander of the East India Company's ship Kent, for a term of seven years ‘unless his majesty should require his last year's service’ (information from Christ's Hospital per Mr. W. Lempriere). In May 1793 he entered on board the Agamemnon, then newly commissioned by Captain [q. v.], to whom his North Walsham connection had probably introduced him. In the Agamemnon Withers continued as midshipman, schoolmaster, and master's mate till July 1796, when he followed Nelson to the Captain. During this time he had seen much exceptional service; had been landed at Bastia and Calvi; had been wounded at Oneglia on 29 Aug. 1795, and been captured at Vado in November (, Nelson Despatches, ii. 77, 111). On the day after the battle of Cape St. Vincent he was made lieutenant into the prize-ship Salvador del Mundo (15 Feb. 1797, confirmed 22 March). From February 1798 to December 1800 he was serving in the Terrible in the Channel, with Sir [q. v.], as afterwards in the Kent in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Egypt till August 1802, when he was made acting commander of the expedition. The commission was confirmed on 11 April 1803. For a few months in the end of 1804 he commanded the Tartarus sloop in the Channel, and in 1805 was appointed agent for transports to the Elbe and Weser. In this service he continued: in Sicily, the Ionian Islands, and Alexandria, 1806–7; Halifax and Martinique, 1808–10. During 1810–16 he was principal agent in the Mediterranean—coast of Spain and Italy. He was made post-captain on 13 May 1809. After the war he had no service, and lived in retirement at North Walsham till his death on 4 July 1843.

WITHERSPOON, JOHN (1723–1794), presbyterian divine and statesman, born on 5 Feb. 1722–3 in the parish of Yester in Haddingtonshire, was the eldest son of James Witherspoon (d. 12 Aug. 1759), minister of that parish, by his wife Anne, daughter of David Walker (d. 1787), minister of Temple in Midlothian. His mother's family claimed descent from John Knox and his son-in-law, John Welch. Witherspoon was educated at the grammar school at Haddington, where he was distinguished by his diligence and proficiency in the classics, and proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he was laureated on 8 May 1739. On 6 Sept. 1743 he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Haddington, and, after assisting his father


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 for a few months, he was presented in 1744 to the parish of Beith by Alexander Montgomerie, tenth earl of Eglinton [q. v.], called on 24 Jan. 1744–5, and ordained on 11 April. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1745 Witherspoon, influenced by loyalty, placed himself at the head of a small body of volunteers and marched to Glasgow. Being ordered to return, he disobeyed, continued his advance, and was made prisoner by the rebels after the battle of Falkirk, in which, however, he took no part. He was confined in the castle of Doune with other prisoners, until they managed to escape by a rope of knotted blankets.

Witherspoon's fame as a preacher steadily increased, and on 16 June 1753 he attained distinction as an author by his ‘Ecclesiastical Characteristics, or the Arcana of Church Policy, being an Attempt to open up the Mystery of Moderation’ (Glasgow, 8vo), written in a vein of delicate humour against the ‘moderate’ party in the Scottish church. The work was deservedly popular, and reached a fifth edition in 1763 (Edinburgh, 8vo). It at first appeared anonymously, but it was followed in 1763 by a ‘Serious Apology’ for the ‘Characteristics,’ in which Witherspoon acknowledged the authorship (Edinburgh, 8vo). It also earned the praise of Warburton and of Rowland Hill, and was lauded by the bishops of London and Oxford as an exquisite exposure of ‘a party they were no strangers to in the church of England.’ In his warfare with the moderates he had to encounter almost alone writers of the calibre of Hugh Blair [q. v.], Alexander Gerard (1728–1795) [q. v.], and William Robertson the historian.

In 1756 Witherspoon established his reputation by his ‘Essay on the Connection between the Doctrine of Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ and Holiness of Life’ (Glasgow, 16mo), one of the ablest expositions of the Calvinistic doctrine in any language. It has been repeatedly republished. He increased his popularity by his ‘Serious Enquiry into the Nature and Effect of the Stage’ (Glasgow, 8vo). John Home [q. v.] had scandalised popular ideas of ministerial propriety by placing ‘Douglas’ on the Edinburgh stage in 1756, and Witherspoon's grave and temperate rebuke came as a solace to outraged sentiment. It was reprinted in 1842 as the first of a series of ‘Reprints of Scarce Tracts connected with the Church of Scotland’ (Edinburgh, 8vo), with an ironical preface by Alexander Colquhoun-Stirling-Murray-Dunlop [q. v.], directed against the ‘moderates’ of his own time. No more of the series appeared. A new edition by William Moffat was published in 1876 (Edinburgh, 8vo). On 9 Dec. 1756 Witherspoon was called to the town church at Paisley, and on 16 June 1757 he was admitted. He continued to publish pamphlets and sermons for some years, until in 1762 a discourse, entitled ‘Sinners sitting in the Seat of the Scornful: Seasonable Advice to Young Persons,’ involved him in unexpected difficulties. In the preface he rebuked by name, and with some severity, some young men who had travestied the Lord's Supper on the night before its celebration at Paisley. In consequence he was prosecuted for libel and defamation, and, after proceedings extending over thirteen years, he was sentenced by the supreme court on 28 Feb. 1776 to pay damages to the extent of 150l. Much sympathy was shown him, and on 28 June 1769 the university of St. Andrews bestowed on him the honorary degree of D.D.

In 1765 Witherspoon published a delightful satire, ‘The History of a Corporation of Servants discovered a Few Years Ago in the Interior Parts of South America’ (Glasgow, 4to), in which, after tracing the growth of ecclesiasticism before and after the Reformation under the guise of the history of a guild of servants, he proceeded to hold up to ridicule the abuses prevalent in the Scottish church. In the meantime his fame was growing daily. He declined invitations to become minister of a congregation in Dublin and of the Scottish church at Rotterdam. On 9 May 1768, however, having received two invitations to become principal of Princeton College, New Jersey, he resigned his charge, and in July sailed for America. He was received in New England with great enthusiasm, and his journey from Philadelphia to Princeton was a triumphal procession. His reputation was great enough to ensure Princeton a marked increase in prosperity after his arrival. He and his friends presented a large number of books to the college library, and he exerted himself to obtain pecuniary aid for the college from the North American colonies. He effected a revolution in the system of instruction by introducing the Scottish system of lectures, greatly extending the study of mathematical science, improving the course of instruction in natural philosophy, and in 1772 introducing Hebrew and French to the curriculum. He himself lectured on eloquence, history, philosophy, and divinity. Under his auspices were educated many ministers and early patriots and legislators of the United States, among them James Madison.


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Rh stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question, whether the characters are not significant of themselves. Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts? The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind. The laws of moral nature answer to those of matter as face to face in a glass. "The visible world and the relation of its parts, is the dial plate of the invisible." The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics. Thus, "the whole is greater than its part;" "reaction is equal to action;" "the smallest weight may be made to lift the greatest, the difference of weight being compensated by time;" and many the like propositions, which have an ethical as well as physical sense. These propositions have a much more extensive and universal sense when applied to human life, than when confined to technical use.

In like manner, the memorable words of history, and the proverbs of nations, consist usually of a natural fact, selected as a picture or parable of amoral truth. Thus; A rolling stone gathers no moss; A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; A cripple in the right way, will beat a racer in the wrong; Make hay while the sun shines; 'T is hard to carry a full cup even;


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 On the outbreak of the American revolution Witherspoon's varied talents as a preacher, debater, politician, and man of affairs at last found full room for action in the turmoil of the war of independence. He strongly supported the cause of the colonies, and in the spring of 1776 he took his seat in the convention for framing the first constitution for New Jersey. His conduct in this assembly established his capacity for affairs. After serving there during the deposition of William Franklin, the royalist governor, on 21 June 1776, he was elected by the citizens of New Jersey as their representative in the general congress by which the constitution of the United States was framed. All his influence was exerted in favour of the declaration of independence. When a member of congress expressed a fear that they ‘were not yet ripe’ for such a declaration, Witherspoon replied, ‘In my judgment, sir, we are not only ripe but rotting.’ At his instance the Scottish soldiers were omitted from the list of mercenaries whom, according to the declaration of independence, England had employed against the colonists. He was among those who signed the declaration on 4 July, and, with the exception of a brief interval, he remained in congress until the virtual close of the revolution. His erudition gave him weight in an assembly in love with theory, and his training in Scottish ecclesiastical politics prepared him for the secular politics of America. On 7 Oct. he was appointed a member of the secret executive committee. He was a member of the board of war, and on 27 Aug. 1778 was made a member of the committee of the finances. In 1781 he was one of the commissioners who brought about an accommodation between congress and the mutineers from Washington's army at Trenton (Ann. Reg. 1781, i. 7). During the whole of the struggle he continually influenced public opinion by sermons, pamphlets, and addresses, in which, while strenuous for independence, he showed the dangers of excessive decentralisation and urged the necessity of leaving sufficient strength to the executive. He also strongly deprecated an undue resort to a paper currency, and urged the propriety of making loans and establishing funds for the payment of interest.

On the settlement of the question of American independence early in 1783, Witherspoon resumed his academic duties, and two years later he visited Great Britain to obtain subscriptions for the college, which had suffered severely during the war. He found, however, that the feeling against the colonists was too strong to afford him much chance of success, and, after a brief visit, he finally returned to the United States. In 1785 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Yale College. Two years before his death he became blind, but, in spite of this infirmity, he continued to preach and to lecture until the end of his life. He died on 15 Nov. 1794, and was buried at Princeton. He was twice married: first, in 1748, to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Montgomery of Craighouse; and secondly, in 1791, to Anne, widow of Dr. Dill of York County, New York. By the former he had three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, James, became a major in the American army, and was killed at Germantown. Of his daughters, Anne married Samuel Stanhope Smith, who succeeded him as president of Princeton College; and Frances married David Ramsay, the historian. John Cabell Breckinridge, the confederate leader, was a descendant of Witherspoon (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 25). Witherspoon's portrait was engraved from life by Trotter in 1785, and a colossal statue was erected to him on 20 Oct. 1876 in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. He was brilliant in conversation, and was said to have a more imposing presence than any American leader, except Washington.

Witherspoon, both from his attainments and his position, exercised a considerable influence on theological development in the United States, and he has been credited with moulding presbyterian thought in New England (cf. Bibliotheca Sacra, July 1863; Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, October 1863). Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of: 1. ‘Seven Single Sermons,’ Edinburgh, 1758, 8vo; Philadelphia, 1778, 8vo. 2. ‘A Practical Treatise on Regeneration,’ London, 1764, 12mo; 5th ed. London, 1815, 12mo. 3. ‘Essays on Important Subjects,’ London, 1764, 2 vols. 12mo. This collection included No. 2 as well as ‘Ecclesiastical Characteristics.’ 4. ‘Discourses on Practical Subjects,’ Glasgow, 1768, 12mo; Edinburgh, 1804, 12mo. 5. ‘Practical Discourses on Leading Truths of the Gospel,’ Edinburgh, 1768, 12mo; 1804, 12mo. 6. ‘Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament,’ Philadelphia, 1774, 8vo; erroneously attributed to Benjamin Franklin. 7. ‘The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men,’ a sermon, Philadelphia, 1776, 8vo; this discourse, a defence of revolutionary theories, was republished in Glasgow in 1777, with severe annotations, in which he was styled a rebel and a traitor. To the American edition he added an ‘Address to the Natives of Scot-


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36 Vinegar is the son of wine; The last ounce broke the camel's back; Long-lived trees make roots first;—and the like. In their primary sense these are trivial facts, but we repeat them for the value of their analogical import. What is true of proverbs, is true of all fables, parables, and allegories.

This relation between the mind and matter is not fancied by some poet, but stands in the will of God, and so is free to be known by all men. It appears to men, or it does not appear. When in fortunate hours we ponder this miracle, the wise man doubts, if, at all other times, he is not blind and deaf;

for the universe becomes transparent, and the light of higher laws than its own, shines through it. It is the standing problem which has exercised the wonder and the study of every fine genius since the world began; from the era of the Egyptians and the Brahmins, to that of Pythagoras, of Plato, of Bacon, of Leibnitz, of Swedenborg. There sits the Sphinx at the roadside, and from age to age, as each prophet comes by, he tries his fortune at reading her riddle. There seems to be a necessity in spirit to manifest itself in material forms; and day and night,


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 land,’ which appeared separately in 1778. 8. ‘Sermons on various Subjects, not already published … with the History of a Corporation of Servants, and other Tracts,’ Edinburgh, 1798, 12mo. He also published numerous single sermons, lectures, and essays. A collective edition of his works, with a memoir by his son-in-law, Samuel Stanhope Smith, was published in New York in four volumes in 1800 and 1801, and a second edition in Philadelphia in 1802. New editions were published at New York in 1802 in four volumes, and at Edinburgh in 1804–5, and in 1815 in nine volumes. His ‘Miscellaneous Works’ appeared at Philadelphia in 1803, his ‘Select Works’ at London in 1804 (2 vols. 8vo), and his ‘Essays, Lectures, and Sermons’ at Edinburgh in 1822 (6 vols. 12mo). Several of his sermons are included in David Austin's ‘American Preacher,’ Elizabeth Town, 1793–4, 4 vols. 8vo. Witherspoon edited the ‘Sermons’ of James Muir of Alexandria, United States of America, in 1787. To him is also doubtfully ascribed ‘A Letter from a Blacksmith to the Ministers and Elders of the Church of Scotland, in which the Manner of Public Worship there is pointed out, the Inconveniences and Defects considered, and Methods for removing them humbly proposed,’ London, 1759, 8vo; 5th ed. Edinburgh, 1826, 8vo; and with still less probability ‘A Series of Letters on Education by a Blacksmith, edited by Isaac James,’ Bristol, 1798, 8vo; Southampton, 1808, 12mo. Witherspoon was severely satirised by Jonathan Odell, the loyalist poet (see Loyalist Poetry of the Revolution, pp. 17–18).

WITHMAN (d. 1047?), abbot of Ramsey, called also Leucander and Andrew, was a German by birth (Chron. Abb. Rames. p. 121, Rolls Ser.), one of those apparently whom Cnut gathered round him. Green, on what authority does not appear, places Withman among the royal chaplains who, under Cnut, were first organised for administrative purposes (Conquest of England, pp. 544–5). Withman was promoted in 1016 to the great abbacy of Ramsey (Chron. Abb. Rames. App. p. 340). He was a hard student and a man of stern character, whose discipline involved him in serious disputes with his monks. Against the latter he appealed to the diocesan, Ætheric; but the bishop, having visited the house, gave decision in favour of the monks, reminding the abbot of the breadth and tolerance of St. Benedict's great rule (ib. pp. 121–3). Withman thereupon set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, whence he returned to find his successor in the abbacy appointed. The new abbot, Æthelstan, at once offered to resign, but Withman refused to allow him, and himself retired to a solitary spot near Ramsey, called Northeye. Here, with one companion and two servants, and supported by the abbey, he lived over twenty-six years, dying probably about 1047 (ib. pp. 125, 340). Withman is said to have enjoyed the friendship of Edward the Confessor, whom he persuaded to give certain lands to the abbey in 1047 (ib. pp. 160, 340). He wrote a life of the Persian bishop St. Ivo or St. Ives, whose remains were supposed to be buried at Ramsey. The original is apparently lost, but a revision by [q. v.] is printed in the ‘Acta Sanctorum’ (ii. 288 seq.) and in Migne's ‘Patrologia’ (clv. p. 80). Bale also attributes to Withman a narrative of his journey to Jerusalem (Scriptt. Illustr. Brit. i. 151), of which, however, nothing further seems to be known.

WITHRINGTON. [See .]

WITTLESEY, WILLIAM (d. 1374), archbishop of Canterbury. [See .]

WIVELL, ABRAHAM (1786–1849), portrait-painter, was born on 9 July 1786 in the parish of St. Marylebone, London. He was the fourth child and only son of a tradesman who had left Launceston, Cornwall, a year previously, and died soon after his son's birth, leaving his widow very badly off. Young Wivell began to work for his living at the age of six as a farmer's boy. He returned to London two years later, and,


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 after trying several occupations, was apprenticed to a hairdresser in 1799 for seven years. At the end of this term he set up for himself in the same trade, and advertised his skill in taking likenesses by exhibiting miniatures among the wigs in his shop-window. He made the acquaintance of Joseph Nollekens and James Northcote [q. v.], who helped him to extend his practice as a portrait-painter, though he could not yet afford to live by that alone. He made some unsuccessful experiments about this time in etching and mezzotint engraving. A mezzotint portrait by him, after John Smith, was published in Rodd's ‘Portraits to illustrate Granger's Biographical History of England,’ 1819. In 1820 he took portraits of Arthur Thistlewood [q. v.] and the other Cato Street conspirators in Clerkenwell prison, and received a commission from the publisher Thomas Kelly of 17 Paternoster Row to draw them again during their trial at the Old Bailey. These portraits met with great success. Later in the same year he took a sketch of Queen Caroline as she appeared on a balcony to receive the greetings of the people on her return to London. The sketch was brought to the queen's notice, and she gave Wivell a sitting to enable him to finish the portrait. At the queen's trial in the House of Lords Wivell, who had gained a surreptitious entrance among the barristers, took rapid sketches of all the persons concerned, which were circulated at the time among the company present and afterwards published. This was the starting-point of Wivell's career of prosperity. He soon obtained abundant commissions from the royal family and the aristocracy, and painted portraits, which were afterwards engraved, of George IV, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Clarence, Prince George and Princess Augusta of Cambridge as children, Lord Holland, Sir Francis Burdett, George Canning, Sir Astley Cooper, Lord John Russell, and many more of the leading men of the day. He painted the portraits of nearly two hundred members of parliament for a view of the interior of the House of Commons which was published by Bowyer and Parkes, and received numerous commissions for theatrical portraits. He seldom exhibited at the Royal Academy or other galleries, and few of his portraits were painted in oils; the majority were highly finished pencil-drawings on a miniature scale. In 1825 he went to Stratford-on-Avon and made a drawing of the bust of Shakespeare in Stratford church, which was engraved by J. S. Agar. In 1827 he published ‘An Inquiry into the History, Authenticity, and Characteristics of the Shakespeare Portraits,’ and lost a large sum of money by the venture, since the sale of the book was not nearly sufficient to cover the expense of the plates. He was relieved at this juncture by the death of his uncle, Abram Wivell of Camden Town, who left him his house and furniture and an annuity of 100l. for life. In 1828 Wivell became interested in the subject of fire-escapes, in which he invented several improvements. In 1829 a society was formed which developed into the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, established in 1836. Wivell became superintendent of fire-escapes to this society, with a salary of 100l., and held this post till 1841, when he left London for Birmingham. There he resumed his practice as a portrait-painter and had sittings from many of the important residents. In 1847 he took portraits of railway celebrities for the ‘Monthly Railway Record.’ He died at Birmingham on 29 March 1849. He was twice married, in 1810 and 1821. His second wife and ten children survived him. His eldest son, Abraham, also became an artist, and painted a portrait of Sir Rowland Hill, which was engraved in mezzotint by W. O. Geller in 1848. A portrait of Wivell, drawn by himself, was engraved by William Holl.

[Art Journal, 1849, p. 205.]

WIX, SAMUEL (1771–1861), divine, born in London on 9 Feb. 1771, was the second son of Edward Wix of St. Peter's, Cornhill. He was educated at the Charterhouse under Samuel Berdmore [q. v.], and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted pensioner on 8 Nov. 1791, and elected scholar on 6 Dec. 1792. He graduated B.A. in 1796 and M.A. in 1799. He was apparently admitted at the Inner Temple (16 Aug. 1783), but was ordained deacon in 1798 and priest in 1800. After holding curacies in Chelsea, Ealing, Eynsford, Kent, and Faulkbourne, Essex, successively, he was presented in 1802 to the living of Inworth, Essex. Six years later he was elected hospitaller and vicar of St. Bartholomew's the Less in London. He was also for a time president of Sion College. An adherent of the old high-church party, he cared more for devotion than polemics, yet he involved himself in controversy. His first publication was ‘Scriptural Illustrations of the Thirty-nine Articles, with a practical Commentary on each … affectionately intended to promote Religious Peace and Unity,’ 1808, 8vo. It was followed in 1818 by a more ambitious eirenicon, published originally in the ‘Eclectic


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 river and storm, beast and bird, acid and alkali, preexist in necessary Ideas in the mind of God, and are what they are by virtue of preceding affections, in the world of spirit. A Fact is the end or last issue of spirit. The visible creation is the terminus or the circumference of the invisible world. "Material objects," said a French philosopher, "are necessarily kinds of scoriæ of the substantial thoughts of the Creator, which must always preserve an exact relation to their first origin; in other words, visible nature must have a spiritual and moral side."

This doctrine is abstruse, and though the images of "garment," "scoriæ," "mirror," &c., may stimulate the fancy, we must summon the aid of subtler and more vital expositors to make it plain. "Every scripture is to be interpreted by the same spirit which gave it forth,"—is the fundamental law of criticism. A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and of virtue, will purge the eyes to understand her text. By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant of its hidden life and final cause.

A new interest surprises us, whilst, under the view now suggested, we contemplate the fearful extent and multitude of objects; since "every object rightly seen, unlocks a new faculty of the


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 Review,’ entitled ‘Reflections concerning the Expediency of a Council of the Church of England and the Church of Rome being holden, with a view to accommodate Religious Differences.’ This produced, among other answers, an angry reply from Thomas Burgess (1756–1837) [q. v.], bishop of St. David's. Wix wrote two temperate rejoinders. His ‘Reflections’ attracted the attention of Jerome, comte de Salis, who became Wix's lifelong friend, and caused his book to be translated at his own expense into several foreign languages. But Wix was opposed to granting Romanists political rights, and in 1822 issued a pamphlet in support of his views.

Wix, who wrote many similar pamphlets, was a man of singular simplicity of character and of vigorous intellect. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He died at the vicarage, St. Bartholomew's, London, on 4 Sept. 1861. A tablet to his memory was erected in the church by order of the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. By his wife, a Miss Walford of the Essex family, he had several children. The eldest son, Edward Wix (1802–1866), a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford, was sometime archdeacon of Newfoundland, and afterwards vicar of St. Michael's, Swanmore, near Ryde, where he died on 24 Nov. 1866, being succeeded in the parish by his son, Richard Hooker Edward Wix (1832–1884). He was a frequent contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and the author of ‘Six Months of a Newfoundland Missionary's Journal,’ 1836, 8vo, and of ‘A Retrospect of the Operations of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in North America,’ 2nd edit. 1833, 8vo.

[Admission entry at Christ's Coll. per the Master; Gent. Mag. 1861 ii. 453, 1862 i. 94–6, 1866 ii. 849; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

WODE. [See .]

WODEHOUSE. [See also .]

WODEHOUSE or WOODHOUSE, ROBERT (d. 1345?), treasurer of the exchequer, was son of Bertram de Wodehouse, a Norfolk knight who fought with distinction against the Scots under Edward I, by his wife Muriel, daughter and heir of Hamo, lord of Felton. His eldest brother, Sir William Wodehouse, was ancestor of the present Earl of Kimberley (see Visit. Norfolk, Harl. Soc.;, Hist. Norfolk, passim; , Peerage).

Robert, who probably accompanied his father to Scotland, was presented to the church of Ellon in the diocese of Aberdeen on 9 Sept. 1298. He was king's clerk, and travelled into Scotland with money on the king's service in July 1306, receiving on 2 April 1307, as his reward apparently, the church of Staunton-upon-Wye. These preferments were among the first of a long series which Wodehouse received at the hands of three kings in succession, for most of the churches which were bestowed upon him had fallen, for some reason or other, into the royal gift. On 4 Dec. 1310 he was presented to the church of Plumbland in Westmorland, and from May 1311 onward he appears in numerous entries in the patent rolls as king's escheator both north and south of Trent. This office he seems to have vacated at the close of 1312. From this time his rise in the royal favour was rapid. On 7 Oct. 1314 he received the prebend of Ketton in Lincoln Cathedral, and two royal mandates, directed to the civil and ecclesiastical officers respectively, were issued for the repression of the opposition which the appointment apparently excited. On 16 Oct. 1315 he obtained a license for a grant of land at Bunny in Nottinghamshire. He was at this time pastor of the church of Torrington in Yorkshire, where he had a house, and on 15 Feb. 1317 received a grant of land in London. On 24 March the king gave him a prebend of York, on 30 March the church of Auckland belonging to Durham, and on 10 April the church of Hackney in London. Edward II also gave Wodehouse the custody for life of the hospital of St. Nicholas, Pontefract.

On 24 July 1318 Wodehouse was appointed a baron of the exchequer, and was summoned to parliament among the judges until November 1322, when he resigned or was removed, and became keeper of the wardrobe. He retained this office under Edward III (from 5 Sept. 1327 till 2 March 1328). He apparently held property in Ireland which he administered by attorneys. In 1328 Wodehouse became archdeacon of Richmond, and on 16 April 1329 was appointed second baron of the exchequer. On 16 Sept. following he was made treasurer of the exchequer. As treasurer he was brought into relations with the papal agents, for to him fell the duty of receiving from the papal nuncio, also a king's clerk, the king's moiety of the first-fruits; on 8 June 1331 the king ratified his appointment by papal provision to the prebend of Colewich in Lincoln Cathedral. Some time before this he had received the prebend of Northwell in St. Mary's, Southwell. On 28 Nov. 1330 Wodehouse gave up the


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 * (in part; with Peter Alexeivitch Kropotkin and John Scott Keltie)

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10 elder son had recently died, and he had set his heart on discovering the younger, who was now heir to the throne. Thus Belthandros returned to his native country and was duly married to the heroine.

In this romance the machinery is the most striking part, and occupies the central place. The Castle of Love, which Belthandros finds near such a familiar place as Tarsus, is undisguised magic—like the forest of Broceliande, or the castle in which Parzival saw the Holy Grail. This magic is more satisfactory than if the experience had been represented as a dream. An improbable dream is less interesting than make-believe reality, provided the illusion is well managed, and this poet has managed it with skill- The idea of the phlogopotamon, the mystery of the flame glancing on the water, which draws Belthandros to the abode of Love, gives his romance a certain poetical distinction. But the machinery is too large and impressive for the rest of the story; we feel that the plot, as it is worked out, is too slight to justify the elaboration of the machinery. In particular, the prediction which Belthandros read in the Castle of Love, that he and Chrysantza would be sundered apart, is fulfilled by their separation for a few hours on the opposite sides of a river. There is here, an inartistic disproportion between the prophecy and the event. There is, too, an almost insolent carelessness in allowing the crude coincidence, by which Belthandros and Chrysantza reach the seashore at the very moment when his father's ship is approaching.

The poem is Greek from beginning to end, in its setting, its descriptions, its ideas. There is nothing in it which we can say must have been due to Western influence. The poet is acquainted with the feudal relations of liegeman and lord, as every Greek was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But the


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38 soul." That which was unconscious truth, becomes, when interpreted and defined in an object, a part of the domain of knowledge,—a new weapon in the magazine of power.


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N view of the significance of nature, we arrive at once at a new fact, that nature is a discipline. This use of the world includes the preceding uses, as parts of itself.

Space, time, society, labor, climate, food, locomotion, the animals, the mechanical forces, give us sincerest lessons, day by day, whose meaning is unlimited. They educate both the Understanding and the Reason. Every property of matter is a school for the understanding,—its solidity or resistance, its inertia, its extension, its figure, its divisibility. The understanding adds, divides, combines, measures, and finds nutriment and room for its activity in this worthy scene. Meantime, Reason transfers all these lessons into its own world of thought, by perceiving the analogy that marries Matter and Mind.

1. Nature is a discipline of the understanding in intellectual truths. Our dealing with sensible objects is a constant exercise in the necessary lessons of difference, of likeness, of order, of being and seeming, of progressive arrangement; of ascent from particular to general; of


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 which is in Baker's ‘Northamptonshire.’ His figure, tall and handsome, with a military appearance, was familiar from 1764 at the chief book-sales of London. J. T. Smith describes him as ‘very thin, with a long nose and thick lips,’ and clad in a coat which was tightly buttoned from under his chin. He sat the whole day long with great patience and was very rigid in his bids, not advancing a sixpenny-bit beyond his reserve (Book for a Rainy Day, 1861, p. 100). Wodhull was a keen whig, ardent for the spread of civil and religious liberty, and his poems show sympathy with the views of Rousseau. He filled no public office save that of high sheriff for Northamptonshire in 1783. He deprecated the long war with France, and after the treaty of Amiens visited Paris to make acquaintance with its libraries. For a time he was among the détenus of Napoleon, and he suffered so much from the dampness of the prison and the confinement within its walls that he came back to England an invalid. His sight gradually failed and his voice became inaudible. Dibdin and Heber visited him in the winter of 1815 and found him in bad health. He died at Thenford on 10 Nov. 1816, and was buried in an altar-tomb under a fine yew-tree on the south side of the chancel. On 30 Nov. 1761 Wodhull married at Newbottle, near Banbury, Catherine Milcah, fourth daughter of the Rev. John Ingram of Wolford, Warwickshire. She died, leaving no issue, at Wolford on 28 May 1808, aged 64, and was buried at Thenford. A whole-length portrait of her, painted by Zoffany, was in the south library at Thenford, and a mezzotint engraving of it, by Richard Houston, was published on 28 May 1772 (see also, Mezzo Portraits, ii. 692–3). By his will, dated 21 Aug. 1815, Wodhull devised Thenford, the library, and his other estates to Mary Ingram, his wife's sister, who died on 14 Dec. 1824, and left them to Samuel Amy Severne.

Wodhull was the first translator into English verse of all the extant writings, the nineteen tragedies and fragments, of Euripides. He advertised in February 1774 his intention of publishing this translation, and thought that one year would have sufficed for his task; but the work was not completed (in 4 vols.) until 1782; a new edition, ‘corrected throughout by the translator,’ was published in 1809 (3 vols.). His translation of the ‘Medea’ forms part of vol. lxix. of Sir John Lubbock's ‘Hundred Books;’ five more of the plays in his translation are in Henry Morley's ‘Universal Library’ (vol. lviii.), and ‘Hecuba,’ with seven others of his rendering, is in vol. lxi. His version is accurate, but not imbued with much poetic feeling.

His other writings included 2. ‘Ode to the Muses,’ 1760. 3. ‘A Poetical Epistle to xxxx xxxxxxx [John Cleaver] M.A., Student of Christ Church,’ 1761; 2nd edit. corrected, 1762. 4. ‘Two Odes,’ 1763. 5. ‘Equality of Mankind, a Poem,’ 1765; this, with the previous pieces, was included in his poems (1772 and 1804), and in Pearch's ‘Collection of Poetry’ (vol. iv.); it was also issued, ‘revised and corrected with additions,’ in 1798 and 1799. 6. ‘Poems,’ 1772; a collection of the pieces published separately (150 copies only printed for presents). 7. ‘Poems,’ revised edit. 1804; prefixed is a portrait of Wodhull, painted by Gardiner in 1801 and engraved by E. Harding; it is reproduced in Quaritch's ‘Collectors.’ Two of his poetical pieces are in the ‘Poetical Register’ for 1806–7 (pp. 241–4 and 481–3). He suppressed his ‘Ode to Criticism,’ which he wrote when very young, in satire of some peculiarities in Thomas Warton's poems; but Warton inserted it in ‘The Oxford Sausage’ (1814, pp. 131–8). He helped in the fourth edition of Harwood's ‘View of the Classics’ (1790) and Dibdin's ‘Introduction to the Classics’ (3rd edit.), and was a frequent correspondent of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ chiefly as ‘L.L.,’ the terminating letters of his name.

Some of the duplicates in Wodhull's library were sold in 1801 (a five days' sale), and more in 1803 (an eight days' sale). The rest of his collections, about four thousand volumes and many manuscripts, remained at Thenford, the property of the family of Severne, until 1886. The printed books were chiefly first editions of the classics and rare specimens of early printing in the fifteenth century, many being bound by Roger Payne in Wodhull's ‘favourite Russia leather’ with his arms on the cover. They also contained about fifteen hundred tracts of the seventeenth century, collected by Sir Edward Walker [q. v.], and many poems and pamphlets of the eighteenth century. They were sold in January 1886 (a ten days' sale), and realised 11,972l. 14s. 6d. The sale of his manuscripts took place on 29 and 30 Nov. 1886. Wodhull not only bought but read his books. He was an admirable Greek scholar, and without an equal in his knowledge of French editions and printers in the sixteenth century. His portrait is reproduced in Dibdin's ‘Bibliographical Decameron’ (iii. 363–6), and he figures in the ‘Bibliomania’ as Orlando (cf. also Bibliomania, 1876, pp. 575–7).


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Rh Frankish element enters so little into the texture of the story that even the heroine, who ought to have a Latin name, is called Chrysantza, and described as purple born. It has been ingeniously suggested that Belthandros and Rhodophilus are transformations of the names Bertrand and Rudolf, but the poet, as if to show that he is not drawing upon Western literature, intimates expressly that the names are Greek—and so they are. At the same time, Greek though the poem is, it has an unmistakable kinship with the French romans d'aventure.

Another poem of chivalry, Lybistros and Rhodamne, has a very similar motif. The general gist of the argument may be stated in a sentence. It was revealed to Lybistros in a dream that he is destined to wed Rhodamne, whose fate is revealed in like manner to her; he discovers and wins her; then they are separated by magical means, and in the end he finds her again. This is the groundwork; but the construction is intricate and the poem in every way more elaborate than the tale of Belthandros. The first thing to be noticed is that the poet is expressly sympathetic with the world of Latin chivalry. The hero is conceived as a Latin prince, and wears Latin costume. The heroine, daughter of an Indian king, admires Frank customs. The name of the hero's rival, a king of Egypt, is Berderichos, that is, Bertrich; and the claim of the two suitors for Rhodamne's hand is decided by a tournament.

The love-making of Lybistros and Rhodamne by correspondence forms a substantial part of the story. The lover has to attach his letters to arrows and shoot them into the garden of the princess. Some of the letters are


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WODROW, ROBERT (1679–1734), ecclesiastical historian, second son of James Wodrow, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, by Margaret, daughter of William Hair, a small proprietor in Kilbarchan parish, Renfrewshire, was born at Glasgow in 1679. In 1691 he entered the university of Glasgow, where, after taking the degree of M.A., and while attending the theological classes, he was on 18 Jan. 1697 appointed university librarian, an office which he held for four years. After resigning the librarianship he went to reside in the house of a relative, Sir John Maxwell of Nether Pollock, lord of session under the title of Lord Pollock; and while there he was, 6 Jan. 1703, licensed to preach by the presbytery of Paisley, with the view, probably, of qualifying him for presentation to the parish of Eastwood, near Glasgow, which was in the gift of Lord Pollock, and to which he was presented on the death of the incumbent in the following summer, the ordination taking place on 28 Oct. Notwithstanding calls from Glasgow in 1712, and from Stirling in 1717 and again in 1726, he preferred the quietude of Eastwood, and remained there till his death, 21 March 1734. He was buried at Eastwood. He married, in 1708, Margaret, daughter of Patrick Warner, minister of Irvine, and granddaughter of William Guthrie, minister of Fenwick; he had sixteen children, ten sons and six daughters, of whom Robert succeeded him at Eastwood, Patrick—the ‘auld Wodrow’ of Burns's ‘Twa Herds’ who ‘lang has wrought mischief’—became minister of Tarbolton, and James became minister of Dunlop and afterwards of Stevenston.

Though specially devoted to historical and antiquarian studies, Wodrow not only enjoyed great popularity as a preacher, but took an ardent interest in ecclesiastical politics. On the union of the kingdoms in 1707 he was nominated by the Paisley presbytery one of a committee to consult with the assembly's commission at Edinburgh as to the methods to be adopted for guarding the interests of the presbyterian kirk, and on the accession of George I in 1714 he took an active part in the fruitless endeavour to obtain the abolition of the law of patronage. He, however, systematically discouraged every attempt to avoid compliance with the law of patronage while it remained in force, and in 1731 he assisted Principal Hadow in drawing up the act of the assembly anent the method of planting of vacant churches, the passing of which in the following year gave rise to the associate presbytery, which was to develop into the secession church, and latterly, after union with the relief church, into the united presbyterian church.

In 1721–2 Wodrow published, in two volumes, ‘The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution’ (Edinburgh, fol.), of which a second edition, with a memoir by Robert Burns, D.D., appeared at Glasgow in four volumes, 1828–30. It displays enormous labour, and contains a most detailed and, considering the immense difficulties of his task, a remarkably authentic, though not by any means an impartial or sufficient, account of the covenanting persecution. It was approved by the general assembly of the kirk, and dedicated to George I, who recognised its semi-official character by, on 26 April 1725, authorising the payment out of the exchequer of 100 guineas to the author. In defence of the episcopal side of the dispute, Alexander Bruce, a member of the faculty of advocates, projected a work to be entitled ‘An Impartial History of the Affairs in Church and State in Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution.’ He had, however, only begun to collect materials for it when it was interrupted by his death in 1734, and although it was undertaken by Bishop (1681–1757) [q. v.], only the first volume, bringing the narrative down to 1568, appeared.

Wodrow was also the author of:  ‘The Oath of Abnegation considered in a Letter to a Friend,’ 1712. And he left in manuscript:  A ‘Life’ of his father, James Wodrow, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, which was published in 1828.  A series of ‘Memoirs of Reformers and Ministers of the Church of Scotland,’ which is preserved in the library of the university of Glasgow, and of which two volumes were printed by the Maitland Club, 1834–45, under the title ‘Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and most eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland,’ and another volume, having special reference to ministers in the north-east of Scotland, by the New Spalding Club in 1890.  ‘Analecta; or, Materials for a History of remarkable Providences, mostly relating to Scotch Ministers and Christians,’ in the library of the faculty of advocates, Edinburgh, and printed in four volumes by the Maitland Club, 1842–3, containing a good deal of interest-


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12 charming in their way, but they lack the subtlety which would please the 'ladies who have intelligence in love' of France and Italy. I may take as a specimen the first letter that Rhodamne wrote to her lover:—

 * 'I shrieked it to heaven, I told it to the clouds, I made earth my witness and the air, that never would I bow my neck beneath the bond of love. And now—my unbending purpose has been bent, my pride subdued, the plan of my behaviour changed. The freedom of my will I have made thy bondslave. I forswear from this hour the oath I made to heaven, the sacred oath I sware to the clouds. I avow it, and I write thee this my letter,—no small thing I deem it.'

The correspondence is somewhat too long, but the author has introduced an element wanting in Belthandros, where the interest turns entirely on the adventures.

The fatality of Love is a central idea as in Belthandros, and his destiny is revealed to Lybistros by the same kind of machinery. There can indeed be hardly a doubt that the poet knew Belthandros and borrowed the device. But he has avoided the error of allowing it a disproportionate place in his story, and he has so sophisticated it that it has a different poetical value. Lybistros, too, visits the fortress and gardens of Love; but there is no magic; he visits them in dreams; and the mansion, which is called Erotokratia, is pervaded by an atmosphere of allegory. Love himself assumes three forms—of a child, a man in his prime, and an old man; and he is surrounded by allegorical figures, Agape ('Affection'), Pothos ('Longing'), Kremasmos ('Suspense'). Thus, instead of the illusion of reality, successfully achieved in Belthandros, we have here allegory and dream. Moreover, while in Belthandros love is accepted simply as an irresistible power, here its claims are defended on philosophical grounds. Its cult is vindicated. The ideal hero must be trained in the school of love,


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  gossip and anecdotes relating to the author's own time, but much of it by no means trustworthy.  Twenty-four volumes of correspondence, partly preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and partly in the possession of the church of Scotland, of which three volumes were published in 1842–3. In 1841 the Wodrow Society was established at Edinburgh for the publication of works of the early writers of the church of Scotland; it was dissolved in 1847 after publishing twelve works.

WOFFINGTON, MARGARET (1714?–1760), actress, the daughter of John Woffington, a journeyman bricklayer, was born, it is commonly said, on 18 Oct. 1718 in Dublin, but probably four or five years earlier. Her father, dying in 1720, received a pauper's funeral, and left his wife, with two children, in debt. An effort on the part of the widow to keep a huckster's shop on Ormonde Quay failed, and Mrs. Woffington earned a small and precarious livelihood by hawking fruit or watercress in the street. At this time Madame Violante, a Frenchwoman, had opened, with a miscellaneous entertainment consisting largely of rope-dancing, an edifice, partly theatre partly booth, constructed in a house formerly occupied by Lord-chief-justice Whitehead, fronting on Fawnes' Court, near College Green. One of her feats was to cross the stage on a tight-rope with a basket containing an infant suspended to each foot. Among the children so carried was ‘Peg’ Woffington. When, after a season, the experiment failed, Peg took to her mother's occupation of selling fruit or vegetables in the street. When ten years of age she was engaged afresh by Madame Violante for a lilliputian company, and played Polly in the ‘Beggar's Opera.’ Subsequently she played Nell in the ‘Devil to Pay,’ and other parts. Her performance attracted the attention of (1688–1732) [q. v.], who engaged her at Aungier Street Theatre, where, besides dancing between the acts, she played elderly parts, such as Mrs. Peachum and Mother Midnight in Farquhar's ‘Twin Rivals.’ For a time she acted with Sparks, Barrington, and others at the Rainsford Street theatre, a house on the outskirts of Dublin. Her first serious attempt was as Ophelia, which she played successfully on 12 April 1737 at Smock Alley Theatre. She repeated her performance of Polly Peachum, and played Mrs. Clive's part of Miss Lucy in Fielding's ‘Old Man taught Wisdom, or the Virgin Unmasked.’ Her name also stands to Female Officer and to Phillis in the ‘Conscious Lovers.’ In April 1740 she gave what to the end was considered her most bewitching impersonation, that of Sir Harry Wildair in the ‘Constant Couple.’

The fame of this secured her an engagement from Rich for Covent Garden, at which house she appeared on 6 Nov. 1740 as Silvia in the ‘Recruiting Officer.’ She was then announced as ‘Miss Woffington.’ When on the 8th she repeated the part, it was as Mrs. Woffington, which name she subsequently bore. In this character she had to masquerade as a boy, and immediately took the town by storm. On 13 Nov. she was Lady Sadlife in the ‘Double Gallant,’ and on the 15th Aura in Charles Johnson's ‘Country Lasses.’ On the 21st she appeared, by particular desire, as Sir Harry Wildair. She acted the character twenty nights during the season, ten of them being consecutive, and was so successful in the part that no male actor was thenceforth acceptable in it. On 5 Dec. she was Elvira in the ‘Spanish Friar,’ and was seen during the season as Violante in the ‘Double Falsehood,’ Lætitia in the ‘Old Bachelor,’ Victoria in the ‘Fatal Marriage,’ some part (presumably Florella) in ‘Greenwich Park,’ Angelica in the ‘Gamester,’ Phillis, and Cherry in the ‘Beaux' Stratagem.’ Next year she was engaged at Drury Lane, where she made, it is believed, her first appearance on 8 Sept. 1741 as Silvia, playing Sir Harry Wildair on 4 Jan. 1742. Ruth in the ‘Committee,’ Lady Brute in the ‘Provoked Wife,’ Nerissa in the ‘Merchant of Venice,’ Rosalind in ‘As you like it,’ Helena in ‘All's well that ends well’ (in which, through illness, she broke down), Mrs. Sullen in the ‘Beaux' Stratagem,’ Clarinda in the ‘Double Gallant,’ Berinthia in the ‘Relapse,’ Belinda in ‘Man of the Mode,’ Lady Betty Modish in the ‘Careless Husband,’ Clarissa in the ‘Confederacy,’ and Cordelia to the Lear of Garrick followed. In the summer she returned to Dublin, when she sprang to the height of popularity.

She reappeared at Drury Lane on 15 June 1742 as Sir Harry Wildair, and on the arrival of Garrick two days later she played Lady Anne to his Richard III. She also supported him as Angelina in ‘Love makes a Man, or the Fop's Fortune,’ and other parts. She had her share in bringing about what was called the ‘Garrick fever’ [see ], and when Garrick returned to London, she accompanied him, or followed immediately after him. They were known lovers, Garrick's affection for her dating, it is thought, from a period before he went on the


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 stage, and they began on their arrival a tripartite domestic arrangement at 6 Bow Street, in which Charles Macklin [q. v.] was the third. This unpromising experiment speedily broke down, and Mrs. Woffington and Garrick retired to Southampton Street, Strand [for the particulars of this experiment, and for the lines in which Garrick or Hanbury-Williams berhymed ‘lovely Peggy,’ see ]. Mrs. Woffington was less seen at Drury Lane than might have been expected from her Dublin triumphs. She had to face, however, the formidable rivalry of Mrs. Clive and Mrs. Pritchard. She appeared as Queen Anne for the first time in England; spoke an epilogue to the ‘Merchant of Venice’ on Shakespeare's women characters; played Lady Lurewell in the ‘Constant Couple’ to the Sir Harry Wildair of Garrick, which, after her own, was a failure; and was, 17 Feb. 1743, the first Charlotte in Fielding's ‘Wedding Day.’ In the following season she was seen for the first time in London as Ophelia, Mrs. Ford, Lady Townley, Portia in ‘Merchant of Venice,’ and Millamant in the ‘Way of the World;’ and was, 3 April 1744, the first Lætitia in Ralph's ‘Astrologer,’ an alteration of ‘Albumazar.’ The season 1744–5 saw her as Mrs. Frail in ‘Love for Love,’ Oriana in ‘The Inconstant,’ Narcissa in ‘Love's last Shift,’ and Belinda in the ‘Provoked Husband;’ and the following season as Maria in the ‘Nonjurors,’ Florimel in ‘Comical Lovers,’ Constantia in the ‘She Gallants,’ the scornful Lady, Penelope in the ‘Lying Lover,’ Mrs. Conquest in the ‘Lady's last Stake,’ Isabella in ‘Measure for Measure,’ Viola in ‘Twelfth Night,’ Aminta in the ‘Sea Voyage,’ Female Officer in ‘Humours of the Army,’ and Mariana in the ‘Miser.’ On 18 Jan. 1746 she was the original Lady Katherine Gordon in Macklin's ‘Henry VII, or the Popish Impostor.’

On 30 April of the previous year, for Mrs. Woffington's benefit, the part of Cherry in the ‘Beaux' Stratagem’ had been played by Miss M. Woffington, being her first appearance on any stage. This was her sister Mary, who subsequently married Captain (afterwards the Hon. and Rev.) George Cholmondeley, second son of the Earl Cholmondeley, and a nephew of Horace Walpole, and survived Margaret over half a century.

In the following season, 1746–7, when Garrick had become associated with Lacy in the management of Drury Lane, Mrs. Woffington ‘created’ no new part, but was seen for the first time as Charlotte in the ‘Refusal,’ Lady Percy, Cleopatra in ‘All for Love,’ Belinda in ‘Artful Husband,’ Mrs. Loveit in ‘Man of the Mode,’ Silvia in ‘Marry or do Worse,’ and Lady Rodomont in ‘Fine Lady's Airs.’ On 13 Feb. 1748 she was the first Rosetta in Moore's ‘Foundling,’ and was seen during the season as Sulpitia in ‘Albumazar,’ Jacintha in ‘Suspicious Husband,’ Hippolito in Dryden's alteration of the ‘Tempest,’ Flora in ‘She would and she would not,’ and Jane Shore. In the next season, the busiest of her later career, she reappeared at Covent Garden, where she was, 13 Jan. 1749, the original Veturia in Thomson's ‘Coriolanus.’ Mrs. Woffington, according to the epilogue, painted with wrinkles her beautiful face in order to play the character. She was also Arabella, otherwise My Lady No, in ‘London Cuckolds,’ Helena in the ‘Rover,’ Portia in ‘Julius Cæsar,’ Lady in ‘Comus,’ Elvira in ‘Love makes a Man,’ Bellemante in ‘Emperor of the Moon,’ Andromache in ‘Distressed Mother,’ Calista in ‘Fair Penitent,’ Lady Touchwood in ‘Double Dealer,’ Leonora in ‘Sir Courtly Nice,’ and Queen Katharine in ‘Henry VIII.’ In 1749–50 she was Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, Clarinda in ‘Suspicious Husband,’ Aspasia in ‘Tamerlane,’ Estifania in ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife,’ Lady Jane Grey in piece so named (a performance that added greatly to her reputation, high as this was), Anne Bullen in ‘Virtue Betrayed,’ and Queen Mary in ‘Albion Queens.’ The years 1750 and 1751 added to the list Queen in ‘Hamlet,’ Hippolita in ‘She would and she would not,’ Lady Fanciful in ‘Provoked Wife,’ Hermione in ‘Distressed Mother,’ and Constance in ‘King John.’

During the three following seasons she was in Dublin. Her success was even greater than before. Writing to the Countess of Orrery on 21 Oct. 1751, Victor, the historian of the stage, says: ‘Mrs. Woffington is the only theme either in or out of the theatre—her performances are in general admirable.’ He compares her with Mrs. Oldfield and Mrs. Porter. Some tolerable verses signed by her name, asking for an annual repetition of a kiss given her in 1746 by the Duke of Dorset, are in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for December 1751. During her stay she added to her repertory Zara in the ‘Mourning Bride,’ Lothario, Widow Lackit in ‘Oroonoko,’ and Palmira in ‘Mahomet.’ By her performances in four stock plays she brought her management 4,000l., a record quite unprecedented. Taking what proved to be a final farewell of Ireland, she returned with Sheridan, her manager, to England, and reappeared at Covent Garden, 22 Oct. 1754, as Maria in the ‘Nonjuror,’ adding during the season to her repertory Phædra in ‘Phædra and Hippolitus,’ Lady


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 Plyant in ‘Double Dealer,’ Aurelia in ‘Twin Rivals,’ Jocasta in ‘Œdipus,’ and Isabella in ‘Fatal Marriage.’ Next season saw her as Angelica in ‘Love for Love,’ Lady Dainty in ‘Double Gallant,’ Roxana in ‘Rival Queens,’ Penelope in ‘Ulysses,’ and Violante in the ‘Wonder.’ She was also, 23 March 1756, the first Melantha in ‘Frenchified Lady.’ It was in this season that Mrs. Woffington, who was on bad terms with Mrs. Bellamy, while performing Roxana to her rival's Statira, drove her off the stage and stabbed her almost in sight of the audience. In consequence of the quarrel Foote wrote his ‘Green-room Squabble, or a Battle-Royal between the Queen of Babylon and the Daughter of Darius.’ Even more bitter than this feud was that between Woffington and Mrs. Clive—‘no two women ever hated each other more’. In her last season on the stage Mrs. Woffington played Celia in the ‘Humourous Lieutenant,’ Almeria in ‘Mourning Bride,’ Queen in ‘Richard III,’ and Lothario, and was on 14 March 1757 the first Lady Randolph in Home's ‘Douglas.’

On 3 May she played Rosalind in ‘As you like it.’ This was her last performance. She had been declining in health all the season. Tate Wilkinson, to whom she had shown herself tyrannical and venomous, was standing by her when in the fifth act she complained of indisposition. He gave her his arm and took her away. She changed her dress and returned on the stage, saying she was ill. She got half through the epilogue when her voice broke. She strove vainly to recall her words, screamed with terror, and tottered to the door, where she was caught. ‘The audience, of course, applauded till she was out of sight, and then sunk into awful looks of astonishment at seeing a favourite actress struck so suddenly by the hand of death (for so it seemed) in such a situation of time and place, and in her prime of life. … She was that night given over, and for several days, but she afterwards so far recovered as to linger till 1760, but existed as a mere skeleton’ (, Memoirs, i. 118–19). She died on 28 March 1760 in Queen Square, Westminster, whither she had been removed from Teddington. In Teddington she was buried, and a tablet to her memory was placed on the east wall of the northern aisle of the church; she is in the inscription called ‘spinster.’ In the register she is described as ‘of London.’

Mrs. Woffington is said to have been the handsomest woman that ever appeared on the stage, though Wilkinson, whom her sarcasms and persecution stung, awards a slight preference to Miss Farren, subsequently Countess of Derby. ‘A bold Irish-faced girl’ was the description of her by Conway, the correspondent of Horace Walpole. She had vivacity (as Walpole himself admitted, though he disliked her acting) and wit, and a rarer gift—conscientiousness towards the public, scarcely ever disappointing an audience even when really too ill to act. She was content also, while the entire range of characters in tragedy and comedy was assigned to her, to take secondary parts. Her society was sought by all ranks, and she was one of the most courted and caressed of women. Her amours were numerous. She frankly avowed that she preferred the society of men to that of women, and told concerning herself the story that, after acting Sir Harry Wildair amid thunders of applause, she said to James Quin [q. v.] in the green-room, ‘I have played the part so often that half the town believes me to be a real man,’ receiving from Quin the rough retort, ‘Madam, the other half knows you to be a woman.’ She was, when she died, under the protection of Colonel Cæsar, and was held by some to be secretly married to him. Brought up as a Roman catholic, she changed her religion late in life, the reason, it is said, being the promise, subsequently fulfilled, of a legacy of 200l. a year from Owen MacSwinny [q. v.]

Mrs. Woffington was seen to highest advantage in ladies of rank and elegance—Millamant, Lady Townley, Lady Betty Modish, Lady Plyant, Maria in the ‘Non-juror,’ Angelica, and the like. She won also in tragedy high recognition, including that of so competent and prejudiced an observer as Wilkinson. Andromache and Calista were her most popular tragic parts. In breeches parts, and notably in Sir Henry Wildair, she carried the town captive. Neither Garrick nor Woodward was equally welcome in this character. Her voice was bad, and she was charged in tragedy with imitating the rather artificial method of Marie-Françoise Dumesnil, the famous actress of the Comédie-Française. Campbell, who could not have seen her, says ‘she used to bark out the “Fair Penitent” with the most dissonant notes.’ Both Cibber and Quick thought highly of her acting. The singular honour was accorded her in Dublin, during her last visit in 1753, of being elected president of the Beefsteak Club in that city. She assisted regularly at its meetings, being the only woman admitted. The privilege aroused some popular prejudice against her and her manager, Sheridan, and was partly the cause of her quitting Ireland. Innumerable stories, many of them apocryphal but some doubtless true, are told about


text: Author:Alfred Einhorn

title: Author:Alfred Einhorn


text: Category:The American Carbon Manual

title: Category:The American Carbon Manual