In Wotton, who eventually became Provost of Eton, Cavendish had as a companion a man of letters. Of his poetry only two fragments shall be quoted.
Untrue she was: yet I believed her eyes
(Instructed spies)
Till I was taught that love was but a school
To breed a fool.
—love, lodged in a woman’s breast,
Is but a guest.
Wotton’s literary tastes may have had the effect of implanting a love of literature in Cavendish, or at least of inducing him to dabble in literature. The very fact of his father’s never pressing the boy to give much attention to books or scholars in early youth, may have disposed him to cultivate both at maturity.