I don’t think Wither knows why, or by whom he was persecuted. (See Philarate to Willy in Eclogue I, and last page but two of ‘Address to the Reader.’)
He calls Time ‘bald and ill-fac’d,’ ‘shameless time,’ speaks of his ‘deformities,’ ‘blockish age,’ that ‘truth’ in this age gets ‘hatred,’ ‘while love and charitie are fled to heaven.’
He took upon him to scourge Time, and he was certainly arrogant enough, in form at any rate, for Chronomastix.
I therefore take him to have been the stalking-horse or blind used by Jonson, the Prince, and some others, to conceal the true object.”
SHAKESPEARE—A THEORY
[The Notes of this Essay (except those inserted by the Editor) which are denoted by Roman Numerals, will be found at the end of it.]