part iii
.'
On fol. 1 and fol. 3, the short title actually written by Aubrey is:--
ʻ♄ Pars iiiᵗⁱᵃ
1681
ᴊᴬʼ
i.e. the symbol for Saturn, the patron of antiquarian studies, and Aubrey's monogram. On fol. 4 Aubrey has a very elaborate title, showing the destination of the MS.:--
'Auctarium vitarum a ᴊᴬ collectarum, anno Domini 1681.
_Tanquam tabulata naufragii._
John Aubrey, R.S.S.
Le mal est que la vive voix meurt en naissant et ne laisse rien qui reste apres elle, ni formant point de corps qui subsiste en l'air. Les paroles ont des aisles; vous scavez l'epithete[29] qu'Homère leur donne, et un poëte Syrien en a fait un espece parmy les oiseaux; de sorte que, si on n'arreste pas ces fugitives par l'ecriture, elles eschappent fort vistement à la memoire.
_Les Oeuvres diverses du sieur de Balzac_, page 43.
Ornari res ipsa nolit contenta doceri.--HORAT
For Mr. Anthony Wood at Oxford.'
A slip by Anthony Wood, pasted here, shows that Aubrey recalled the MS., probably to make additions to it:--
'Mr. AUBREY,
I beseech you as you have been civill in giving this book to me at Oxon in Sept. 1681, so I hope when you have done with it you'l returne every part of it againe to your servant,
ANT. WOOD.'
As originally made up, this 'Auctarium' contained four leaves at the beginning (for an index[30]), and leaves foliated 1-38 (of which 12 and 13 are now[31] missing).
The second part[32] of the MS. extends over foll. 69-103 in the present marking.
Aubrey, on fol. 69, writes the title:--
'An Apparatus for the lives of our English mathematical writers by Mr. John Aubrey, R.S.S. March 25, 1690.'
As originally made up, this treatise consisted of one leaf (for an index[33]) and pages marked 1-46 (of which pp. 31-38 are now missing).
The history of this treatise is fully set out by Aubrey in some notes in it and in the other MSS.:--
1. It was suggested by Richard Blackburne.
MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 8ᵛ:--'Dr. <Richard> Blackbourn would have me putt out in print the lives of our English mathematicians together.'
2. It had been partly anticipated by Selden and Sherburne.
MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 70:--'My purpose is, if God give me life, to make an _apparatus_, for[34] the lives of our English Mathematicians; which when I have ended, I would then desire Mr. Anthony Wood to find out one that is master of a good Latin stile, and to adde what is[35] already in his printed booke[36] to these following[37] minutes.
'I will not meddle with our own writers[38] in the mathematicks before the reigne of king Henry VIII, but prefix those excellent verses of Mr. John Selden (with a learned commentary to them) which are printed before a booke intituled <Arthur> Hopton's _Concordance of yeares_[39] scilicet:--
* * * * *'
MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69:--'Sir Edward Shirbourn, somewhere in his translation and notes upon Manilius, has enumerated our English mathematicians, and hath given short touches of their lives--which see.'
3. The first step towards it would be to pick out the mathematicians from the lives already written by Aubrey.
MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 51ᵛ:--'I would have the lives of John Dee, Sir Henry Billingsley, the two Digges (father and sonne), Mr. Thomas Hariot, Mr. <Walter> Warner, Mr. <Henry> Brigges, and Dr. <John> Pell's, to be putt together.--As to the account of Mr. Hariot, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Brigges, I recieved it from Dr. Pell.'
=MS. Aubr. 9=: a folio, containing fifty-five leaves, and in addition several printed papers.
The title is found on fol. 28 (as now marked) of the MS.:--
'Supplementum vitae Thomae Hobbes, Malmesburiensis, 1679/80
* * * * *
HOBBI[40] jucunda senectus, Cujus erant mores qualis facundia, mite Ingenium.--
JUVENAL, _Sat._ IV. v. 81.
Extinctus amabitur.--
HORAT. _Epist._ I. lib. 2.
I. A.'
I. A. = Aubrey's initials.
The reason for this title was that Aubrey intended his Collections to be a sort of commentary on Hobbes' short Latin autobiography, which was in the press in Febr. 1679/80, and was published in Nov. 1680 (Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, ii. 480, 500).
But Anthony Wood (MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28) objected:--'What need you say Supplimentum?' _sic_ 'pray say the life of Thomas Hobbs.' And Aubrey, in obedience to this, changed the short title on fol. 30 (see the beginning of the life); and on the parchment cover of the MS. (now fol. 1) wrote:--
'The life of Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury, by Mr. John Aubrey, Fellow of the Royall Societie, 1679/80.'
Aubrey set about this Life of Hobbes immediately after Hobbes' death,
## partly as a tribute of respect to his friend's memory, but apparently
also in fulfilment of a promise to the deceased. The preface[41] is as follows:--
'LECTORI.
'Tis religion to performe the will of the dead; which I here[42] dischardge, with my promise (1667) to my old friend Mr. T<homas> H<obbes>, in publishing[43] his life and performing the last office to my old[44] friend Mr. Thomas Hobbes, whom I have had the honour to know <from> my child-hood[45], being his countreyman and borne in Malmesbury hundred and taught my grammar by his schoolmaster[46].
Since nobody knew so many particulars of his life as myselfe, he was willing[47] that if I survived him, it should be handed to posterity by my hands, which I declare and avow to do ingenuously and impartially, to prevent misreports and undecieve those who are scandalized by....
One sayes[48] that when a learned man dyes, a great deal of learning dyes with him. _He_ was 'flumen ingenii,' never dry. The _recrementa_[49] of so learned a person are[50] valueable[I.]. Amongst innumerable observables of him which had deserved to be sett downe, these few (that have not scap't[51] my memory) I humbly offer[52] to the present age and posterity, _tanquam tabulam naufragii_[II.], and as plankes and lighter things swimme, and are preserved, where the more weighty sinke and are lost. And[53] as with the light after sun-sett--at which time, clear[54]; by and by[55], comes the _crepusculum_; then, totall darkenes--in like manner is it with matters of antiquitie. Men thinke, because every body remembers a memorable accident shortly after 'tis donne, 'twill never be forgotten, which for want of registring[56], at last is drowned in oblivion. Which[57] reflection haz been a hint, that by my meanes many antiquities have been reskued[58], and preserved (I myselfe now inclining[59] to be ancient[60])--or els utterly lost and forgotten.
[I.] We read that an earthen lamp of a philosopher (quaere nomen) hath been sold for....
[II.] Vide Erasmi _Adagia_ and quaere Dr. <Richard> Bl<ackburne>.
For that I am so minute, I declare I never intended it, but setting downe in my first[61] draught every particular[62], (with purpose, upon review, to retrench[63] what was superfluous and triviall), I shewed it to some friends of mine (who also were of Mr. Hobbes's acquaintance) whose judgments I much value, who gave their opinion: and 'twas clearly their judgement[64], to let _all_ stand; for though to soome at present it might appeare too triviall; yet hereafter 'twould not be scorned[65] but passe[66] for antiquity.
And besides I have precedents of reverend writers to plead, who have in some lives[III.] recited things as triviall[67], nay, the sayings and
## actions of good woemen.
[III.] Dean Fell hath recorded his mother's jejune sayings and actions and triviall remarques of Dr. Hammond in his life, written by him.
I am also to beg pardon of the reader for two long digressions, viz. Malmesbury and Gorambery; but this also was advised, as the only way to preserve them, and which I have donne for the sake of the lovers of antiquity. I hope its novelty and pleasantness will make compensation for its length.
Yours[68],
I. A.'
In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28ᵛ are two letters by Aubrey, asking advice in connexion with this life.
i. _Aubrey to Anthony Wood._
'To his honoured friend Mr. Anthony à Wood, Master of Arts, at Merton College in Oxon.
Deare friend!
I have hastily writt this third draught, which I hope is legible: I have not time to read it over. Pray peruse it as soon as you can, for time drawes on. Dr. Blackburne and I will be diligent in it and will doe _you_ all the right[69] your heart can wish. I thought together with this to have sent you the transcript of Mr. Hobbes' life revised by himselfe but am prevented by hast, and 'tis the last day of the terme. I will send it suddenly.
My service to Mr. Pigot. I am, Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,
JO. AUBREY.
London Feb. 12, 1679/80.
Why might not his two sheetes _Of heresie_ be bound up with this to preserve it and propagate trueth?
I know here be severall tautologies; but I putt them downe thus here, that upon reviewe I should judge where such or such a thing would most aptly stand.
Why should not Dr. Blackbourne in the life of Mr. H. written by him selfe quote that of A. Wood in the margent for a blindation, because there are in great part the very same words?'
ii. _Aubrey to Richard Blackburne._
'Dr. Blackbourne!
Pray advise me whether 'twould not shew handsomest to begin with a description of Malmesbury, and then to place Mr. H. pedigre?
But, with all, should not
"Thomas Hobbes was borne at Malmesbury, Apr. ... 1588[70]"
be the initiall and, as it were, textuall, line?
Shall I in the first place putt Mr. H. life donne by himselfe? (If so, whether in Latin, or English, or both?) Or else, shall I intersperse it with these animadversions?
I could begin with a pleasant description of Malmesbury, etc., (all new and untoucht) 14 leaves in 8vo, which his verses will lead me to, and which Ant. Wood seemes to desire.
Pray be my Aristarchus, and correct and marke what you thinke fitt. First draughts[71] ought to be rude as those of paynters, for he that in his first essay will be curious in refining will certainly be unhappy in inventing.
Doctor, I am your affectionate and humble servant.
J. A.
I will speake to Fleetwood Shepherd to engage the earl of Dorset to write in the old gentleman's praise.
Should mine be in Latin or English or both? (And by whome the Latin, if so?) Is my English style well enough[72]?'
=Other MSS.= A few additional lives, and portions of lives, of persons mentioned in these four biographical volumes, have been brought in from letters by Aubrey in MS. Ballard 14 and in MS. Wood F 39 and F 49.
Three lives, in fair copy, by Aubrey, are found in MS. Rawlinson D. 727, foll. 93-96, and have been given here. They were formerly in Anthony Wood's hands: see Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, iv. 192, note.
MS. Aubr. 21, a volume made up in the Ashmolean library from siftings out of Aubrey MSS. and papers; MS. Aubr. 22, a collection of grammatical tracts, brought together by Aubrey with a view to a treatise on education; MS. Aubr. 23, a volume of 125 leaves, dated on fol. 8 as 'Collectio geniturarum, made London May 29, 1674,' but on the title as '1677: for the <Ashmolean> Musaeum'; MS. Aubr. 26,'Faber fortunae,' i.e. projects for retrieving Aubrey's fortunes----have yielded additional matter.
V. THE OLD EDITION.
The pith of these lives was extracted by Anthony Wood, and incorporated in his _Athenae_, vol. i. in 1691, vol. ii. in 1692, and the 'appendix' left in MS. at his death (published in the second edition of the _Athenae_ in 1721).
The MSS. of Aubrey's 'Lives' were placed in the library of the Ashmolean Museum, in the personal custody of the Keeper, Edward Lhwyd, in 1693. Aubrey, writing[73] to Thomas Tanner, intimates that his MSS. will show how greatly Wood's _Athenae_ was indebted to his help, and makes a special request that Wood shall not know that they have been placed in the Museum.
Beginning[74] on Sept. 16, 1792, Edmund Malone made a transcript of 174 lives from the three MSS. (MS. Aubr. 6, 7, 8), with notes, with a view to publication. The first volume of this contained folios 1-152, forty-four lives of poets and sixty-eight of prose writers. It is now in the Bodleian, by the gift of C. E. Doble, Esq.; but mutilated, folios 126-152 having been torn off from the end of the volume. The second volume, containing folios 153-385, sixty-two lives, was MS. 9405 in Sir Thomas Phillipps' library, was mentioned in _Notes and Queries_ (8 S. vii. 375), and has recently been bought by the Bodleian.
Some years later, James Caulfield, of London, publisher, arranged for the issue of a select number of biographies from Aubrey's MSS., illustrated by engravings from originals in the Ashmolean and elsewhere. They were to appear under the title of 'The Oxford Cabinet'; and one part, 32 pp., a very pretty book, was published at London in 1797. This part contains the lives of William Aubrey, Francis Bacon, John Barclay, and Francis Beaumont, with engravings (inter alia) of Aubrey's drawings of Verulam House, and Bacon's fishponds. At this point the Keeper of the Ashmolean, at Malone's instance, withdrew the permission which had been granted to Curtis to transcribe for Caulfield. The reason given was that Curtis had taken away papers and title-pages from Oxford libraries, and was not to be trusted in the Ashmolean--see Macray's _Annals of the Bodleian_, p. 273.
The dates, however, suggest that Malone's action may have been in part inspired by a wish to keep the course clear for his own project. The transcription made for Caulfield, although not always accurate in point of spelling, is by no means badly done: certainly it is much better than that which was made for the later issue.
In 1813 appeared '_Letters written by Eminent Persons ... and Lives of Eminent Men by John Aubrey, Esq. ..._ from the originals in the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum: in two volumes.' The editors are said to have been Dr. Philip Bliss and the Rev. John Walker, Fellow of New College.
The _Lives_ by Aubrey occupy pp. 197-637 of Volume II.
Dr. Bliss's interests were bibliographical, and he was not careful[75] to collate with original MSS. either the printed text of earlier editions or transcripts made for himself. As a result, that issue of Aubrey's Lives, although making accessible the greater portion of what is interesting in the originals, is marred by many grave blunders and arbitrary omissions.
A comparison of a few pages of Dr. Bliss's edition with Aubrey's MS. copy suggests a troublesome question in English textual criticism. If two eminent Oxford scholars in the beginning of the nineteenth century could thus pervert their author's meaning, can we have trust in the earlier redaction of greater texts, such as Shakespeare?
THE 'LIVES'
=George Abbot= (1562-1633).
[76]Archbishop Abbot was borne in the howse of old Flemish building, timber and brick, now an alehouse, the signe 'Three Mariners,' by the river's side by the bridge on the north side of the street in St. Nicholas parish on the right hand as you goe out of the towne northwards.
[77]Old Nightingale was his servant, and weepes when he talkes of him. Every one that knew, loved him. He was sometimes cholerique.
He was borne the first howse over the bridge on the right hand in St. Nicholas parish <Guildford>. He was the sonne of a sherman[78]. His mother, with child of him, longed for a jack, and dream't that if shee could eate a jack, her son should be a great man. The next morning, goeing to the river, which runs by the howse (which is by the bridge), with her payle, to take up some water, a good jack came into her payle. Which shee eat up, all, her selfe. This is generally recieved for a trueth.
His godfather and godmothers sent him to the University, his father not being able.
=Sir Robert Aiton= (1570-1638).
[A] Sir Robert Aiton[79], knight;--he lies buried in the south aisle of the choire of Westminster abbey, where there is erected to his memory an elegant marble and copper monument and inscription--viz.
_This long inscription is in copper:--_
M. S.
Clarissimi, omnigenaque virtute et eruditione (presertim poesi) ornatissimi equitis, Domini Roberti Aitoni, ex antiqua et illustri gente Aitona ad Castrum Kinnadinum apud Scotos oriundi: qui a serenissimo rege Jacobo in cubicula interiora admissus; in Germaniam ad imperatorem imperiique principes, cum libello regio regiae authoritatis vindice, legatus; ac primum Annae, demum Mariae, serenissimis Britanniarum reginis, ab epistolis, consiliis, et libellis supplicibus; necnon Xenodochio S'ᵃᵉ Catharinae praefectus; anima Creatori reddita, hic, depositis mortalibus exuviis, secundum redemptoris adventum expectat.
_Carolum_ linquens, repetit _Parentem_; Et valedicens _Mariae_, revisit _Annam_; et _Aulaei_ decus alto _Olympi_ Mutat honore.
Obiit coelebs in Regiâ Albaulâ, non sine maximo bonorum omnium luctu et moerore:
Aetat. suae LXVIII, Salut. humanae MDCXXXVIII.
Hoc devoti gratique animi testimonium optimo patruo, Jo. Aitonus, M.L.P.
_In white marble at the bottome of the monument:--_
Musarum decus hîc, patriaeque, aulaeque, domique Et foris exemplar, sed non imitabile, honesti.
His bust is of copper, curiously cast, with a laurell held over it by two figures of white marble.
That Sir Robert was one of the best poets of his time--Mr. John Dreyden sayes he has seen verses of his, some of the best of that age, printed with some other verses--quaere.
He was acquainted with all the witts of his time in England. He was a great acquaintance of Mr. Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, whom Mr. Hobbes told me he made use of (together with Ben Johnson) for an Aristarchus, when he made his Epistle Dedicatory to his translation of Thucydides. I have been told (I think by Sir John himself) that he was eldest brother to Sir John Ayton, Master of the Black Rod, who was also an excellent scholar.
_Note._
[A] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'..., on a cross engrailed between 4 crescents a rose,' with the motto
'Et decerpta dabunt odorem.'
He encircles the coat of arms with a laurel wreath, as is his custom when it is a poet whose life he is writing.
=Aldsworth.=
[80]... Aldsworth, mathematical boyes.
[81]Memorandum:--the patent for the mathematicall blew-coate boyes at Christ Church in London was dated '19th August in the 25th yeare of the reigne of king Charles the second' <1673>.
=Thomas Allen= (1542-1632).
[82]Thomas Allen, Trin. Coll. Oxon.--Elias Ashmole, esqr., <has> the MSS. of Thomas Allen's commentary on the second and third bookes of Ptolomey's Quadripartite[83].
[84]Thomas Allen--vide Anthony Wood's _<Hist. et> Antiq. <Univ.> Oxon._
Mr. Thomas Allen[B] was borne in Staffordshire.
Mr. Theodore Haak, a German, Regiae Societatis Socius, was of Glocester Hall, 1626, and knew this learned worthy old gentleman, whom he takes to have been about ninety-six yeares old when he dyed, which was about 1630 (vide).
The learned <Edmund> Reynolds, who was turned Catholique[IV.] by his brother the learned Dr. <John> Reynolds, President of Corpus Xti Colledge, was of Glocester Hall then too. They were both neer of an age, and they dyed both within 12 monethes one of th'other[C]. He was at both their funeralls. Mr. Allen came into the hall to commons, but Mr. Reynolds had his brought to his chamber.
[IV.] Memorandum the Latin verses made on their mutual conversions--which insert.
Bella inter ... plusquam civilia fratres.
He sayes that Mr. Allen was a very cheerfull, facetious man, and that every body loved his company, and every howse on their _Gaudie-dayes_ were wont to invite him.
His picture was drawne at the request of Dr. Ralph Kettle, and hangs in the dining roome of the President of Trin. Coll. Oxon. (of which house he first was, and had his education there) by which it appeares that he was a handsome sanguine man, and of an excellent habit of bodie.
There is mention of him in _Leicester's Commonwealth_[85] that the great Dudley, earle of Leicester, made use of him for casting nativities, for he was the best astrologer of his time. He hath written a large and learned commentary, in folio, on the Quadripartite of Ptolemie, which Elias Ashmole hath in MS. fairly written, and I hope will one day be printed.
In those darke times astrologer, mathematician, and conjurer, were accounted the same things; and the vulgar did verily beleeve him to be a conjurer. He had a great many mathematicall instruments and glasses in his chamber, which did also confirme the ignorant in their opinion, and his servitor (to impose on freshmen and simple people) would tell them that sometimes he should meet the spirits comeing up his staires like bees. One[V.] of our parish[VI.] was of Glocester Hall about 70 yeares and more since, and told me this from his servitor. Now there is to some men a great lechery in lying, and imposing on the understandings of beleeving people, and he thought it for his credit to serve such a master.
[V.] J. Power[D].
[VI.] Kington <S. Michael, Wilts>.
He was generally acquainted, and every long vacation, he rode into the countrey to visitt his old acquaintance and patrones, to whom his great learning, mixt with much sweetnes of humour, rendred him very welcome. One time being at Hom Lacy[86] in Herefordshire, at Mr. John Scudamore's (grandfather to the lord Scudamor), he happened to leave[87] his watch in the chamber windowe--(watches were then rarities)--The maydes came in to make the bed, and hearing a thing in a case cry _Tick, Tick, Tick_, presently concluded that that was his Devill, and tooke it by the string with the tongues[88], and threw it out of the windowe into the mote (to[89] drowne the Devill.) It so happened that the string hung on a sprig of an elder that grew out of the mote, and this confirmed them that 'twas the Devill. So the good old gentleman gott his watch again.
Sir Kenelm Digby loved him much (vide Sir K. Digby's Life <p.> 69[90]), and bought his excellent library of him, which he gave to the University. I have a Stifelius' Arithmetique that was his, which I find he had much perused, and no doubt mastered. He was interred in Trinity College Chapell, (quaere where: as I take it, the outer Chapell.) George Bathurst[E] B.D. made his funerall oration in Latin, which was printed. 'Tis pitty there had not been his name on a[91] stone over him.
[92]Thomas Allen ... left the house[93] because he would not take orders.
Queen Elizabeth sent for him to have his advice about the new star that appeared in the Swan or Cassiopeia (but I think the Swan), to which he gave his judgment very learnedly.
He was great-uncle to Mr. <Henry> Dudley, the minister of Broadhinton in Wilts <1665>.
_Notes._
[B] Thomas Allen, of Staffordshire, aged 17, was elected Scholar of Trinity, June 4, 1561, and Fellow, June 19, 1564. His retirement to Gloucester Hall was no doubt to avoid the Oath of Supremacy imposed by Elizabeth on members on the foundation of the Colleges. Edmund Reynolds, in the same way, retired to Gloucester Hall, vacating his fellowship in Corpus Christi College.
[C] Edmund Reynolds died Nov. 21, 1630; Thomas Allen died Sept. 30, 1632.
[D] This will serve to show how imperfectly the names in the Matriculation-register represent those who actually studied in Oxford. The Matric. register gives '_Zachary Power_, e com. Wilts.,' as matriculating at Gloucester Hall, Nov. 3, 1609: but omits his elder brother John Power (mentioned in MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 48, as being 40 in 1624, when Zachary was 32).
[E] George Bathurst, of Ga<r>sington, Oxon, aged 16, was elected Scholar of Trinity June 6, 1626, and Fellow June 8, 1631; B. D. 1640. His _Oratio funebris_ on Allen was publ. London 1632.
=Charles Alleyn= (obiit 1640?).
[94]Charles Alleyn, who wrote the Battailes of Agencourt, Poitiers, and Crescy, was usher to Mr. Thomas Farnaby.
=Lancelot Andrewes= (1555-1626).
[95]Lancelot Andrewes[F], lord bishop of Winton, was borne in London; went to schoole at Merchant Taylors schoole. Mr. Mulcaster[G] was his schoolemaster, whose picture he hung in his studie (as Mr. Thomas Fuller, _Holy State_).
Old Mr. Sutton, a very learned man of those dayes, of Blandford St. Maries, Dorset, was his school fellowe, and sayd that Lancelot Andrewes was a great long boy of 18 yeares old at least before he went to the university.
He was a fellowe[96] of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge (called _Collegium Episcoporum_, for that, at one time, in those dayes, there were of that house ... bishops).
The Puritan faction did begin to increase in those dayes, and especially at Emanuel College. That party had a great mind to drawe in this learned young man, whom if they could make theirs, they knew would be a great honour to them. They carried themselves outwardly with great sanctity and strictnesse, so that 'twas very hard matter to----as to their lives. They preached up very strict keeping and observing the Lord's day; made, upon the matter, damnation to breake it, and that 'twas lesse sin to kill a man then.... Yet these hypocrites did bowle in a private green at their colledge every Sunday after sermon; and one of the colledge (a loving friend to Mr. L. Andrewes) to satisfie him one time lent him the key of a private back dore to the bowling green, on a Sunday evening, which he opening, discovered these zealous preachers, with their gownes off, earnest at play. But they were strangely surprized to see the entrey of one that was not of _the brotherhood_.
There was then at Cambridge a good fatt alderman that was wont to sleep at church, which the alderman endeavoured to prevent but could not. Well! this was preached against as a signe of _reprobation_. The good man was exceedingly troubled at it, and went to Andrewes his chamber to be satisfied in point of conscience. Mr. Andrewes told him that <it> was an ill habit of body not of mind, and that it was against his will; advised him on Sundays to make a more sparing meale and to mend it at supper. The alderman did so, but sleepe comes upon <him> again for all that, and was preached at. <He> comes againe to be resolved, with tears in his eies; Andrewes then told him he would have him make a good heartie meale as he was wont to doe, and presently take out his full sleep. He did so[97]; came to St. Marie's[98], where the preacher was prepared with a sermon to damne all who slept at sermon, a certaine signe of _reprobation_. The good alderman having taken his full nap before, lookes on the preacher all sermon time, and spoyled the designe.--But I should have sayd that Andrewes was most extremely spoken against and preached against for offering to assoile or excuse a sleeper in sermon time. But he had learning and witt enough to[99] defend himselfe.
His great learning quickly made him known in the university, and also to King James, who much valued him for it, and advanced him, and at last[100] made him bishop of Winchester, which bishoprick he ordered with great prudence as to government of the parsons, preferring of ingeniose persons that were staked to poore livings and did _delitescere_. He made it his enquiry to find out such men. Amongst severall others (whose names have escaped my memorie) Nicholas Fuller (he wrote _Critica Sacra_), minister of Allington neer Amesbury in Wilts, was one. The bishop sent for him, and the poor man was afrayd and knew not what hurt he had donne. <He> makes him sitt downe to dinner; and, after the desert, was brought in in a dish his institution and induction, or the donation, of a prebend: which was his way. He chose out alwayes able men to his chaplaines, whom he advanced. Among others, <Christopher> Wren, of St. John's in Oxon, was his chaplaine, a good generall scholar and good orator, afterwards deane of Winsore, from whom (by his son in lawe, Dr. William Holder) I have taken this exact account of that excellent prelate.
His Life is before his Sermons, and also his epitaph, which see. He dyed at Winchester house, in Southwark, and lies buried in a chapell at St. Mary Overies, where his executors ... Salmon M. D. and Mr. John Saintlowe, merchant of London, have erected (but I beleeve according to his lordship's will, els they would not have layed out 1000 _li._) a sumptuose monument for him.
He had not that smooth way of oratory as now. It was a shrewd and severe animadversion of a Scotish lord, who, when king James asked him how he liked bp. A.'s sermon, sayd that he was learned, but he did play with his text, as a Jack-an-apes does, who takes up a thing and tosses and playes with it, and then he takes up another, and playes a little with it. Here's a pretty thing, and there's a pretty thing!
[101]Bishop Andrews: vide the inscription before his _Sermons_.
_Notes._
[F] Aubrey gives the coat:--'See of Winchester; impaling ..., 3 mullets on a bend engrailed and cottised ...,' ensigned with a mitre or, and encircled by the Garter motto.
[G] Richard Mulcaster, Head Master of Merchant Taylors' School, 1561-1586.
=Francis Anthony= (1550-1623).
[102]Dr. [Francis[103]] Anthony, the chymist, Londinensis, natus 16 Aprilis, 1550, 1ʰ. P.M., Virgo 0° 3´ ascend.
Quaere A<nthony> W<ood> if of Oxon or Cambridge[104].
Scripsit 2 libros, viz.:--_Aurum potabile_, and his _Defense_ against Dr. <Matthew> Gwyn (who wrote a booke called _Aurum non Aurum_). This is all that Mr. Littlebury, bookeseller, remembers.
He lived in St. Bartholomew's close, London, where he dyed, and is, I suppose, buried there, about 30 yeares since[H], scil. 1652.
Vide his nativity in Catalogue[I].
He had a sonne who wrote something, I thinke (quaere Mr. Littlebury); and a daughter maried to ... Montague, a bookeseller in Duck-lane, who in Oliver's time was a soldier in Scotland.
_Notes._
[H] Wood notes here 'so that by this reckoning,' i.e. if born in 1550 _ut supra_, 'he was 102.'
[I] i.e., I suppose, in MS. Aubrey 23 (Aubrey's _Collectio Geniturarum_), where at fol. 121, among nativities from Dr. Richard Napier's papers, is:--'Dr. Anthony, Londinensis, who made _aurum potabile_ at London, natus 16 April, 1550, 1ʰ P.M.'
=Thomas Archer= (1554-1630?).
[105]Mr. Archer, rector of Houghton Conquest, was a good scholar in King James's (the 1st) dayes, and one <of> his majestie's chaplains.
He had two thick 4to MSS. of his own collection; one, _joci_ and tales etc., and discourses at dinners; the other, of the weather. I have desired parson Poynter[106], his successor, to enquire after them, but I find him slow in it. No doubt there are delicate things to be found there.
=John Ashindon= (obiit 13--?).
[107]Johannes Escuidus[108], Merton College:--Elias Ashmole, esq., hath the corrected booke by the originall MSS. of Merton College library, now lost, which is mentioned in Mr. William Lilly's almanack 1674, a folio.
Amongst many other rarities he haz a thin folio MS. of Alkindus in Latin.
[109]Johannes Escuidus:--Summa astrologiae judicialis, in folio, Venetiis, 1489.--It is miserably printed, he sayes there; and that he was a student of Merton College Oxford.--Mr. Elias Ashmole has the booke.
=Elias Ashmole= (1617-1692).
[110]Memorandum--the lives of John Dee, Dr. <Richard> Nepier, Sir William Dugdale, William Lilly, Elias Ashmole[111], esq.,--Mr. Ashmole haz and will doe those himselfe: as[112] he told me formerly but nowe he seemes to faile.
=Deborah Aubrey= (1609/10-1685/6).
[113]Mris. Deborah Aubrey, my honoured mother, was borne at Yatton-Kaynes, _vulgo_ West-Yatton, in the parish of Yatton-Keynel in com. Wilts., January 29ᵗʰ 1609[114], mane.
In a letter from my mother, dated Febru. 3ᵈ, 1679/80, she tells me she was seaventie yeares old the last Thursday [29 Januarii]--quod N. B.
_Her accidents._
My mother was maried at 15 yeares old.
She fell sick of a burning feaver at Langford, Somerset.
She was taken on the 6ᵗʰ June 1675; feaver there againe in July 1675.
She was borne Jan. 29ᵗʰ, morning, scil. the day before the anniversary-day of the king's decollation. She was 15 yeares old and as much as from January to June when she was maried.
She fell from her horse and brake her ... arme the last day of Aprill (1649 or 50) when I was a suitor to Mris Jane Codrington.
Lettre, Aug. 8, 1681:--she was lately ill three weekes and now her eies are a little sore.
Memorandum: 6 Januarie 1682/3, my mother writes to me that she is 73 yeares of age.
_Note._
She died at Chalk in Jan. 1685/6, and was buried at Kingston S. Michael; so in a letter by Aubrey to Anthony Wood, May 11, 1686, in MS. Ballard 14, fol. 139.
=John Aubrey= (1626-1697).
<These autobiographical jottings are found in MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3-5. They have been printed, with a few slips and slight omissions, in John Britton's _Memoir of J. Aubrey_, London, 1845, pp. 12-17. Aubrey (fol. 3) directs that the paper is 'to be interposed as a sheet of wast paper only in the binding of a booke'; and appends to this direction the motto:--
'I presse not to the choire[115] ... Thus devout penitents of old were wont, Some without dore, and some beneath the font.
Mr. Thomas Carew.'
Aubrey gives (fol. 3) an (incomplete) drawing of his own horoscope, on the scheme:--
'ᴊᴬ natus 1625/6, March 11th, 17ʰ 14´ 44˝ P.M. ...[116] (tempus verum), sub latitudine 51° 30´.'
In MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 110, is Charles Snell's calculation of Aubrey's nativity, on the scheme
'Sunday, 12 Martii 1626, 5ʰ 13´ 40˝ A.M., natus Johannes Aubreius, armiger, sub polo 51° 06´. The astrologers of the time used sometimes the English, and sometimes the Italian, enumeration of the hours.>
[117]I. A[118].
His life[119] is more remarqueable in an astrologicall respect[J] then for any advancement of learning[K], having[120] from his birth (till of late yeares) been labouring under a crowd of ill directions: for his escapes of many dangers[L], in journeys both by land and water, 40 yeares.
He was borne (longaevous, healthy kindred[M]) at Easton Pierse[N], a hamlet in the parish of Kington Saint Michael in the hundred of Malmesbury in the countie of Wilts, his mother's[O] (daughter and heir of Mr. Isaac Lyte) inheritance, March the 12 (St. Gregorie's day[P]), A.D. 1625[121], about sun-riseing, being very weake and like to dye that he was christned before morning prayer.
I gott not strength till I was 11 or 12 yeares old; but had sicknesse[122] of vomiting[Q], for 12 houres every fortnight for ... yeares, then about monethly, then quarterly, and at last once in halfe a yeare. About 12 it ceased.
When a boy, bred at Eston, an[123] eremiticall solitude. Was[124] very curious; his greatest delight to be continually with the artificers that came there (e.g. joyners, carpenters, coupers, masons), and understood their trades.
1634[125], was entred in his Latin grammar by Mr. R<obert> Latimer[R], rector of Leigh de-la-mere, a mile's fine walke, who had an easie way of teaching: and every time we askt leave to _goe forth_, we had a Latin word from him which at our returne we were[126] to tell him again--which in a little while amounted to a good number of words. 'Twas my unhappinesse in half a yeare to loose this good enformer by his death, and afterwards was under severall dull ignorant rest[127]-in[127]-house teachers[S] till 1638 (12[128]), at which time I was sent to Blandford schole in Dorset (William Sutton[129], B.D., who was ill-natured).
Here I recovered my health, and gott my Latin and Greeke, best of any of my contemporaries. The[130] usher[131] had (by chance) a Cowper's Dictionary, which I had never seen before. I was then in Terence. Percieving his method, I read all in the booke where Terence was, and then Cicero--which was the way[132] by which I gott my Latin. 'Twas a wonderfull helpe to my phansie, my reading of Ovid's _Metamorphy_ in English by Sandys, which made me understand the Latin the better. Also, I mett accidentally a booke of my mother's, Lord Bacon's _Essaies_, which first opened my understanding as to moralls (for Tullie's _Offices_ was too crabbed for my young yeares) and the excellence[133] of the style, or hints and transitions.
I[134] was alwayes enquiring[T] of my grandfather[135] of the old time, the rood-loft, etc., ceremonies, of the priory, etc. At 8, I was a kind of engineer; and I fell then to drawing, beginning first with plaine outlines, e.g. in draughts of curtaines. Then at 9 (crossed herein by father and schoolmaster), to colours, having no body to instruct me[136]; copied pictures in the parlour in a table booke----like[U].
Blandfordiae, horis vacuis, I drew and painted Bates's ... (quaere nomen libri[V]).
I was wont (I remember) much to lament with my selfe that I lived not in a city, e.g. Bristoll, where I might have accesse to watchmakers, locksmiths, etc. <I did> not very much care for grammar. <I had> apprehension enough, but my memorie not tenacious. So that then[137] was a promising morne enough of an inventive and philosophicall head. <I had a> musicall head, inventive, <wrote> blanke verse, <had> a strong and early impulse to antiquitie (strong impulse to ♄[138]). <My> witt was alwaies working, but not adroict for verse. <I was> ex<ceeding[139]> mild of spirit; migh<tily> susceptible of fascination.[140] My idea very cleer[141]; phansie like[142] a mirrour, pure chrystal water which the least wind does disorder and unsmooth--so noise or etc. would[143].
[144]My uncle Anthony Browne's bay nag threw me dangerously the Monday after Easter[145], 1639. Just before it I had an impulse of the briar under which I rode, which tickled him, at the gap at the upper end of Berylane. Deo gratias!
[146]1642, May 2ᵈ, I went[W] to Oxford.
Peace[147].
Lookt through Logique and some Ethiques.
1642, _Religio Medici_ printed, which first opened my understanding, which I carryed to Eston, with Sir K. D.[148]
But now[149] Bellona thundered, and as a cleare skie is sometimes suddenly overstretch<ed> with a dismall[150] cloud and thunder, so was this serene peace[151] by the civill warres through the factions of those times; vide Homer's Odyssey.
In August[152] following my father sent for me home, for feare.
In February ... following, with much adoe[153] I gott my father to lett me to beloved Oxon againe, then a garrison pro rege.
I gott Mr. Hesketh, Mr. Dobson's man, a priest, to drawe the ruines of Osney 2 or 3 wayes before 'twas pulld downe[X]. Now the very foundation is digged-up.
In Aprill I fell sick of the small pox at Trinity College; and when I recovered, after Trinity weeke[154], my father sent for me into the country again: where I conversed[155] with none but servants and rustiques and soldiers quartred, to my great griefe (_Odi prophanum vulgus et arceo_), for in those dayes fathers were not acquainted with their children. It was a most sad life to me, then in the prime of my youth, not to have the benefitt of an ingeniose conversation and scarce any good bookes--almost a consumption. This sad life I did lead in the country till 1646, at which time I gott (with much adoe) leave of my father to lett me goe to the Middle Temple, April the 6ᵗʰ 1646; admitted....
24 June following, Oxon was surrendred, and then came to London many of the king's party, with whom I[156] grew acquainted (many of them I knew before). I loved not debauches[157], but their martiall conversation was not so fitt for the muses.
Novemb. 6, I returned to Trinity College in Oxon again to my great joy; was much made of by the fellowes; had their learned conversation, lookt on bookes, musique. Here and at Middle Temple (off and on) I (for the most part) enjoyd the greatest felicity of my life (ingeniose youths, as[158] rosebudds, imbibe the morning dew[159]) till Dec. 1648 (Christmas Eve's eve) I was sent for from Oxon home again to my sick father, who never recovered. Where I was engaged to looke after his country businesse and solicite a lawe-suite.
Anno 165-, Octob. ..., my father dyed, leaving me debts 1800 _li._ and bro<thers'> portions 1000 _li._
Quid digni feci, hîc process. viam? Truly nothing; only umbrages, sc. Osney abbey ruines, etc., antiquities. _Cos_, a wheatstone, _exors ipse secandi_, e.g. <my> universall character[160] <: that> which was neglected and quite forgott and had sunk had not I engaged[161] in the worke, to carry on the worke--name them[162].
He began to enter into pocket memorandum bookes philosophicall and antiquarian remarques, Anno Domini 1654, at Llantrithid.
Anno 16--I began my lawe-suite on the entaile in Brecon[Y], which lasted till ..., and it cost me 1200 _li._
Anno ---- I was to have maried Mris K. Ryves, who died when to be maried, 2000 _li._ +[163], besides counting care of her brother, 1000 _li._ per annum.
Anno ---- I made my will[Z] and settled my estate on trustees, intending to have seen the antiquities of Rome and Italy for ... <years>, and then to have returned and maried, but--
Diis aliter visum est superis,
my mother, to my inexpressible griefe and ruine, hindred this[164] designe, which was[165] my ruine.
[166]My estate (was of) value 100 _li. fere_ + Brecon.
Then debts and lawe-suites, _opus et usus_, borrowing of money and perpetuall riding. To my prayse, <I had> wonderfull credit in the countrey for money. Anno ... sold manor of Bushelton in Herefordshire to Dr. T<homas> Willis. Anno ... sold the manor of Stratford in the same county to Herbert <Croft> lord bishop of Hereford.
Then anno 1664, June 11, went into France. Oct. ... returned. Then Joan Sumner.
[167]Memorandum. J. Aubrey in the yeare 1666, wayting then upon Joane Sumner to her brother at Seen in Wilts, there made a discovery of a chalybiate waters and those more impregnated than any waters yet heard of in England. I sent some bottles to the Royal Society in June 1667, which were tryed with galles before a great assembly there. It turnes so black that you may write legibly with it, and did there, after so long a carriage, turne as deepe as a deepe claret. The physitians were wonderfully surprized at it, and spake to me to recommend it to the doctors of the Bath (from whence it is but about 10 miles) for that in some cases 'tis best to begin with such waters and end with the Bath, and in some _vice versâ_. I wrote severall times, but to no purpose, for at last I found that, though they were satisfied of the excellency of the waters and what the London doctors sayd was true, they did not care to have company goe from the Bath. So I inserted it last yeare in Mr. Lilly's almanac, and towards the later end of summer there came so much company that the village could not containe them, and they are now preparing for building of houses against the next summer. Jo<hn> Sumner sayth (whose well is the best) that it will be worth to him 200 _li._ per annum. Dr. <Nehemiah> Grew in his History of the Repository of the Royal Society mentions this discovery, as also of the iron oare there not taken notice of before----'tis in