Wotton, Sir Henry

(1568-1639)

   Born in Kent and educated at Winchester school, he graduated B.A. from Queen's College, Oxford, in 1588, then spent the next seven years traveling on the Continent. During 1594 he wrote the prose work State of Christendom (published in 1657), and became the trusted agent and secretary to Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex. He conveyed a letter from the Duke of Tuscany to James VI of Scotland, warning him of an assassination plot, and was reWright warded by a knighthood by the grateful monarch, James I, in 1604. Wotton was ambassador to Venice from 1604 to 1623 and a member of Parliament in 1614 and 1625. In 1624 he became provost of Eton College and in 1627 he took holy orders. He died at Eton and was buried in the college chapel. His Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1654) contains fifteen of his poems. Some of his poems: "A Dialogue Betwixt God and the Soul," "A Poem Written by Sir Henry Wotton, in His Youth," "On a Bank as I Sat aFishing; a Description of the Spring," "The Character of a Happy Life," "You Meaner Beauties of the Night."

   Sources: A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. James H. Trott, ed. Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. Americans' Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology. Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz, eds. W.W. Norton, 2000. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Golden Treasury of the Best Songs & Lyrical Poems in the English Language. Francis Turner Palgrave, ed. Oxford University Press, 1964, Sixth edition, updated by John Press, 1994. Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century: Donne to Butler. Herbert J. Grierson, ed. Oxford University Press, 1921. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg. org.uk). Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). Seventeenth Century Poetry: The Schools of Donne and Jonson. Hugh Kenner, ed. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).