William Browne

“ It had been subtler criticism, as well as more amiable, to observe that you can wake up again and, starting anew at the precise point where you dropped off, continue the perusal with as much pleasure as ever, neither ashamed of your somnolence nor imputing it as a fault to the poet. For William Browne is perhaps the easiest figure in our literature. He lived easily, he wrote easily, and no doubt he died easily. He no more expected to be read through at a sitting than he tried to write all the story of Marina at a sitting. ”

“ William Browne, born about 1590-91, of a Devonshire family, went to Exeter College, Oxford, and to the Inns of Court. In 1613 he published the first part of his "Britannia's Pastorals," with commendatory verses, including some, more cautious than usual, by Ben Jonson. The pastorals have the usual defects of the obsolete kind of composition and of Browne's own age of conceits. They are extremely prolix, very artificial, rich in classical allusions, and occasionally in puns. The rhymed decasyllabic couplets carry on the sense, as was usual before Waller and Pope. ”

“ Time will throw a dart at thee. We do not know when or where our poet ended his days, but if, oppressed with sorrow or sickness, he turned with longing to the native scenes which in early youth he had loved so well, it is likely enough that he is referred to in the simple entry of the Tavistock register:—“27th March, 1643, William Browne was buried.” ”

“ Thirteen-fourteenths looked at the paper, then at Lucy, then at Minora. Then he folded up the sheet carefully, and put it away at the bottom of his pocket.
“Now, Minora,” said the Fraction, “pull yourself together and tell us about it. Where did you see Father William, and which way did he go?”
Minora sighed, and rubbed her arms and hands and sides.
“I don’t know anything about Father William,” she said, “but I do know an old gentleman who looks as old as old, and who can jump and run, and tumble, and get up again, and never mind it at all, as if he were as young as young.” ”

“ Shall enjoy a Spring for ever!”ever!” In truth, William Browne was, as his friend Drayton styled him, “a rightly-born Poet.” If, like the “Faërie Queene,” his Pastorals are vague and diffuse in narrative, and deficient in human interest, yet, like the “Faërie Queene,” they abound in happy visions, and fine descriptions, and wholesome thoughts, expressed in easy, flowing melody. Browne was akin to Keats and Tennyson in his love of well-sounding words and sonorous lines. It gave him keen pleasure—
To linger on each line’s enticing graces. ”

“ His verses are of such unequal merit, that it is difficult to select any long passage, or scarcely, indeed, any short one, that does not contain matter unworthy of him; yet in all may be discerned promise, in many sweetness and beauty, in some grandeur; and there is nobody who loves poets of the Spenser school, but will have a considerable bit of lurking affection, in the green places of his heart, for William Browne, and lament that he did not live to become famous. Much of his Britannia’s Pastorals, as he called them, was written before he was twenty. ”

“ Sir William Browne, the physician, who lived to a very extraordinary age, and was in other respects an odd mortal, with more genius than understanding, and more self sufficiency than wit, was the only person who ventured to oppose Mr. Johnson when he had a mind to shine by exalting his favourite university, and to express his contempt of the Whiggish notions which prevail at Cambridge. He did it once, however, with surprising felicity. His antagonist having repeated with an air of triumph the famous epigram written by Dr. ”

“ Her mother, Harriet Browne, was of Scotch and English descent, her paternal ancestor, in this country, being Nicholas Browne,—always spelled with an e,—who was a member of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts from Lynn in 1641, and afterwards from Reading, in 1655-1656, and 1661.
Her great-grandfather, William Browne, of Cambridge, in 1705 sold sixty acres of upland and swamp to Thomas Brattle, Esq., of Boston, Treasurer of the society known as “The President and Fellows of Harvard University;” and on this land many of the Harvard College buildings now stand. ”

“ The same rich borrower owed something to William Browne, who, in his turn, like the Fletchers, but with a much less extensive indebtedness, levied on Spenser. Browne, however, was free from the genius loci, being a Devonshire man born and of Exeter College, Oxford, by education. ”

“ A group of poets graced with rarest charm and linked together by several and varied circumstances, each one figures here in unique evidence and bold relief of individuality. They are called of the order Spenserian; servants at the altar to the Pastoral Muse; and, in the reckoning of time, belong to that glorious age of great Elizabeth. Nicholas Breton (or Britton, as it is pronounced) and William Browne were both contributors to England's Helicon, of 1614, and Browne and Wither each submitted verses for The Shepherd's Pipe, a publication of the same year. ”

“ For surely there are subtler venerations, such as will invisibly destroy, and like the basilisks of heaven. In things of this nature silence commendeth history: 'tis the veniable part of things lost; wherein there must never rise a Pancirollus, nor remain any register but that of hell.
WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643)
mong the English poets fatuous for their imaginative interpretation of nature, high rank must be given to William Browne, who belongs in the list headed by Spenser, and including Thomas Lodge, Michael Drayton, Nicholas Breton, George Wither, and Phineas Fletcher. ”

“ Browne was a good antiquarian. In a marginal note at the beginning of the first book of 'Britannia's Pastorals' he corrects a passage in the printed copy of William of Malmesbury from a manuscript copy in the hands of his 'very learned friend Mr. Selden.' Michael Drayton in the Epistle to Henry Reynolds speaks of Browne as one of his 'dear companions' and 'bosom friends.' To the second edition of the 'Polyolbion' (1622) Browne prefixed a copy of laudatory verses; and Drayton showed his respect for Browne by dedicating to him an elegy. ”

“ Fame, and that too after death, was all which hitherto the poets had promised themselves from this art. It seems to have been left to Wither to discover that poetry was a present possession, as well as a rich reversion, and that the Muse has a promise of both lives,--of this, and of that which was to come.--CHARLES LAMB.
William Browne (1591-? 1645)
I feel an envious touch, And tell thee Swain: that at thy fame I grutch, Wishing the Art that makes this Poem shine, And this thy Work (wert not thou wrongèd) mine. GEORGE WITHER: To the Author [of Britannia's Pastorals] . ”

“ Owl said something about Father William fetching a book,” said the Rook. “Lucy wanted the book, I fancy, but I didn’t much attend to that part of the story.”
“Then, perhaps Father William has taken it to Lucy in Nonsense Land,” said Thirteen-fourteenths, “does Father William live in Nonsense Land? Tell me about him, tell me about him, tell me quickly." And Thirteen-fourteenths could scarcely keep still he was so excited.
“Let me speak to them all one minute,” said Mr. Snip, “for we must be nearing Nonsense Land.”
“Friends,” he said, “remember we have come to help Lucy. ”

“ If not infallible the book is full of interest. Any one who cares at all for French literature, and does not mind a little intellectual irritation, will read it both with pleasure and advantage.”
* Gosse, Edmund William. Sir Thomas Browne. **75c. Macmillan.
This volume in the “English men of letters” series, a monograph on Sir Thomas Browne, “bears every sign of care and of minute and skillful investigation. Browne himself is set before us with fullness of detail, his work is analysed with scholarly patience.... Browne was that rare favorite of the gods, a happy man of genius. ”

“ So they all sat down beneath the tree, and Father William began—
“Question one—Where did the bag come from? Question two—Where did it go to? Question three—What is in the bag?”
“We haven’t any paper,” objected Ellessdee, “we can’t take the questions down.”
“Question one,” said Father William, “I’ll answer myself. Can anyone answer Question two?”
“I can answer one of the questions,” said the Fraction. “I saw the holiday fairies dragging that bag through the wood.”
“The young monkeys,” said Father William, “then they stole it whilst I was asleep.” ”

“ Why don’t you look for it yourself?” And, having managed to free his leg from the Fraction’s grasp, he began to climb the tree faster than ever.
“Who told you it was up a tree?” called Thirteen-fourteenths; but Ellessdee was far too busy to answer.
“They are looking for the lost piece of my jacket,” said the Fraction to Lucy; “isn’t it kind of them!”
“Can’t we help?” said Half-term, who was aching for something to do.
“What is it like?” asked Miss Crimson Lake. “It is white,” said Thirteen-fourteenths, “white like my jacket, and somebody has told the figures that it is up a tree.” ”

“ Sir G. Browne, Bart. (Vol. vii., p. 528.) —Your correspondent Newbury is in error in styling this George Browne a baronet, nor was he of West Stafford or Wickham. He was the sole son and heir of Sir George Browne, Knight, of Wickhambreux, co. Kent, Caversham, co. Oxford, and Cowdray in Midhurst, co. Sussex; which last estate devolved on this family by the will of William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, the son of Lucy (daughter and co-heiress of John Nevill, Marquess of Montagu) by her first husband, Sir Thomas Fitzwillam of Aldwark, co. York ”

“ He says he will stay at home, too. You see, Queen Harmony was rather annoyed about all the disturbance. She told Major C and me we ought to keep to our own staircase and mind our own business. She told Father Time if he couldn’t keep better order she’d have to beat him. Indeed, she scolded us all round, and said she’d make all the Scales chromatic, if they didn’t keep their Sharps and Flats in order,” and Minora shuddered. ‘Then she sent me to fetch the book of Betty Barber, to bring it to her.”
“What was she going to do with it?” asked Lucy. ”

“ Sir Thomas Browne was born in London on October 19, 1603, educated at Winchester and Oxford, and trained for the practise of medicine. After traveling on the Continent he finally settled as a physician in Norwich, and enjoyed a distinguished professional reputation. Later he became equally famous as a scholar and antiquary, and was knighted by Charles II on the occasion of the King's visit to Norwich in 1671. ”

“ Immature White-tailed Eagles, the "Halyætus" of the text, still occur almost every autumn or winter on this coast, but no mature example has hitherto been killed. Browne's friend, Sir Charles Scarburgh (1616-1694) , was born in London, and is buried at Cranford, in Middlesex. He seems to have been greatly distinguished as an anatomist and physician. He was a friend of William Harvey, whom he succeeded as Lumleyan Lecturer at the College of Physicians (of which he was elected a fellow in 1650) . Harvey, out of regard for his "lovinge friend" Dr. ”

“ They were reissued with other works in 1739 under the title of 'Poems on various Subjects,' and again in 1773 as 'Angling Sports, in nine Piscatory Eclogues.' Browne found a kind friend in Cave, the proprietor of the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' and for a long time he was the principal poetical contributor to that periodical. The prize of 50l. offered by Cave for the best theological poem was awarded to Browne by Dr. Birch; it is printed, with other prize poems of his composition, in the 'Poems on various Subjects.' Browne was an enthusiastic angler, and in 1750, at the suggestion of Dr. ”

“ Nor any to oppose you save our lips,
But come on shore,
Where no joy dies till love hath gotten more.
For swelling waves our panting breasts,
Where never storms arise,
Exchange; and be awhile our guests:
For stars gaze on our eyes. ”

“ Wherein the leaves, to birds' sweet carolling,
Dance with the wind; then sees the summer's day
Perfect the embryon blossom of each spray;
Next cometh autumn, when the threshed sheaf
Loseth his grain, and every tree his leaf ”

“ Singing woke the mounting lark:
⁠She records her love.
Not the sun hath with his beams
Gilded yet our crystal streams;
⁠Rising from the sea,
Mists do crown the mountains' tops,
And each pretty myrtle drops:
⁠'Tis but newly day. ”

“ To some few birds kind Nature hath
⁠Made all the summer as one day;
Which once enjoy'd, cold winter's wrath
⁠As night they sleeping pass away.
Those happy creatures are, that know not yet
The pain to be deprived or to forget. ”

“ Some slight omission of ceremonial will offend its pride, some sordid repulse will check its ambition; it will flame with anger at the breaking of a jar, or pine with jealousy at the like frailty in a mistress. ”

“ Th' insnared fish, here on the top doth scud,
There underneath the banks, then in the mud,
And with his frantic fits so scares the shoal,
That each one takes his hide, or starting hole:
By this the pike, clean wearied, underneath
A willow lies. ”

“ These, with a many more, methought, complain'd
That Nature should those needless things produce,
Which not alone the sun from others gain'd
But turn it wholly to their proper use:
I could not choose but grieve that Nature made
So glorious flowers to live in such a shade. ”

“ The maids and fairies both were kept away,
And in a drought the caterpillars threw
Themselves upon the bud and every spray.
⁠God shield the stock! If heaven send no supplies,
⁠The fairest blossom of the garden dies. ”