How can they feed him with intelligence?
You have that fire which can a witt enflame
In happy London Englands fayrest eye:
Well may you Poets have of worthy name
Which have the foode and life of Poetry.
And yet the Country or the towne may swaye
Or beare a part, as clownes do in a play.
Donne was one of those to whom Wotton showed Bacon's poem, and the result was the present letter which occasionally echoes Bacon's words. Wotton replied to it in some characteristic verses preserved in B (Lord Ellesmere's MS.) and P (belonging to Captain Harris). I print it from the former:
To J: D: from Mr H: W:
Worthie Sir: