Ricardus Corbet, Theologiæ Doctor,
Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Christi Oxoniensis
Primum Alumnus, deinde Decanus, exinde
Episcopus, illinc huc translatus, et
Hinc in cœlum Jul. 28. An. 1635.
By his will “he commits and commends the nurture and maintenance of his son and daughter to the faythful and loving care of his mother-in-law Anne Hutton;” from which, and the total silence as to his wife, I conclude he outlived her—and with a legacy of one thousand pounds to his daughter Alice, to be paid at her attaining the age of seventeen, or upon her marriage, he enjoins her not to marry without the consent of her grandmother. By the further provisions of his testament, his son was to be joined with Anne Hutton in the administration upon his attaining the age of seventeen; and in case of the decease of both, the whole was to devolve upon his daughter Alice.
Such was the end of this learned and ingenious prelate and poet, of whose works I have undertaken the revision, and in collecting the scattered memorials for whose biography,
et etiam disjecta membra poetæ,
I have, I hope not unprofitably to myself or others, employed some leisure hours.
His person, if we may rely upon a fine portrait of him in the hall of Christ-Church, Oxford, was dignified, and his frame above the common size: one of his companions[31] says he had
A face that might heaven to affection draw:
and Aubrey says, he had heard that “he had an admirable grave and venerable aspect.”
In no record of his life is there the slightest trace of malevolence or tyranny: “he was,” says Fullers[32], “of a courteous carriage, and no destructive nature to any who offended him, counting himself plentifully repaired with a jest upon him.” Benevolent, generous and spirited in his public character; sincere, amiable, and affectionate in private life; correct, eloquent, and ingenious as a poet; he appears to have deserved and enjoyed through life the patronage and friendship of the great, and the applause and estimation of the good.