P. [158]. Venerabili viro, praeceptori suo olim et semper colendissimo Magistro Mathaeo Herbert.
Matthew Herbert was Rector of Llangattock, and apparently acted as tutor to the young Vaughans. He is mentioned in the lines Ad Posteros (p. 51). Thomas Vaughan also has two sets of Latin verses to him (Grosart, II., 349), and dedicated to him his Man-Mouse taken in a Trap (1650). On July 19, 1655, he petitioned for the discharge of the sequestration on his rectory, which had been sequestered for the delinquency of the Earl of Worcester (Cal. Proc. Ctee. for Compositions, p. 1713). He died in 1660.
P. [159]. Praestantissimo viro Thomae Poëllo in suum de Elementis Opticæ Libellum.
The Elementa Opticae appeared in 1649. It has no name on the title-page, but the preface is signed "T. P.," and dated 1649. It contains the present prefatory verses, together with some others, also in Latin, by Eugenius Philalethes (Thomas Vaughan).
THALIA REDIVIVA.
This volume, published in 1578, at a late date in Henry Vaughan's life, twenty-three years after the second part of Silex Scintillans, must have been written, at least in part, much earlier. The poem on The King Disguised, for instance, goes back to 1646. At the end of the volume, with a separate title-page (cf. Bibliography), come the Verse Remains of the poet's brother, Thomas Vaughan. This is the rarest of Vaughan's collections of poems. The copy once in Mr. Corser's collection, and now in the British Museum, was believed to be unique. It was used both by Lyte and Dr. Grosart. But Miss Morgan has come across two other copies, one in Mr. Locker-Lampson's library at Rowfant, the other in that of Mr. Joseph, at Brecon.
P. [163]. The Epistle-Dedicatory.
Henry Somerset, third Marquis of Worcester, was created Duke of Beaufort in 1682. He was a distant kinsman of Vaughan's, whose great-great-grandfather, William Vaughan of Tretower, married Frances Somerset, granddaughter of Henry, Earl of Worcester. He was a firm adherent of the Stuarts, and refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III. (Dr. Grosart).
P. [164]. Commendatory Verses.
These are signed by Orinda; Tho. Powell, D.D.; N. W., Ies. Coll., Oxon.; I. W., A.M. Oxon.