In 1615, appeared "The Shepheards Hunting: Being certaine Eglogues, written during the time of the Author's imprisonment in the Marshalsey," 8vo. This was intended as a continuation of the "Shepheard's Pipe," and is fully equal, if not superior, to the prior portion: Phillips, indeed, speaking of Wither, says, "the most of poetical fancy, which I remember to have found in any of his writings, is in a little piece of pastoral poetry, called The Shepherd's Hunting."[669:B]
The next work with which Wither favoured us, though not published for general circulation before 1619, yet, as the stationer,
George Norton, tells us, had been "long since imprinted for the use of the author, to bestow on such as had voluntarily requested it in way of adventure;" words which seem to intimate, that it had been dispersed for the purpose of pecuniary return, and probably with the intent of supporting the bard during his imprisonment in the Marshalsea. It has accordingly a title-page which implies a second impression, and is termed "Fidelia. Newly corrected and augmented." This is a work which ought to have protected the memory of Wither from the sarcasms of Butler, Swift, and Pope; for it displays a vein of poetry at once highly elegant, impassioned, and descriptive. To Fidelia was first annexed the two exquisite songs, reprinted by Dr. Percy, commencing
"Shall I, wasting in dispaire,"
and
"Hence away, thou Syren, leave me."[670:A]
We shall close the list of those works of Wither that fall within the era to which we are limited, by noticing his "Faire Virtue: the Mistresse of Phil'arete," 8vo. This beautiful production, glowing with all the ardours of a poetic fancy, was one of his earliest compositions, and is alluded to in his "Satire to the King," in 1614, before which period there is reason to suppose it was widely circulated in manuscript; for in a prefatory epistle to the copy of 1622, published by John Grismand, but which was originally prefixed to an anonymous edition printed by John Marriot, and not now supposed to be in existence, Wither tells us, that "the poem was composed many years agone, and, unknown to the author, got out of his custody by an acquaintance;" and he adds, "when I first composed it, I well liked thereof, and it well enough became my years." To high praise of this work in its poetical capacity, Mr. Dalrymple has annexed the
important remark, that it unfolds a more perfect system of female tuition than is any where else to be discovered.
The great misfortune of Wither was, that the multitude of his subsequent publications, many of which were written during the effervescence of party zeal, and are frequently debased by coarse and vulgar language, overwhelmed the merits of his earlier productions. Yet it must be conceded, that his prose, during the whole period of his authorship, generally exhibits great strength, perspicuity, and freedom from affectation; and on the best of his poetical effusions we may cheerfully assent to the following encomium of an able and impartial judge:—
"If poetry be the power of commanding the imagination, conveyed in measure and expressive epithets, Wither was truly a poet. Perhaps there is no where to be found a greater variety of English measure than in his writings, (Shakspeare excepted,) more energy of thought, or more frequent developement of the delicate filaments of the human heart."[671:A]