GEORGE WITHER

GEORGE WITHER (1588-1667), poet, born at Arlesford, in Hampshire, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford; was imprisoned for his first poem, a satire, "Abuses Stript and Whipt," in 1613; his subsequent productions betray true poetic inspiration, and special passages in them are much admired; he was a religious poet, and is much belauded by Charles Lamb; in the Civil War he espoused the Puritan side, and in his zeal in its behalf raised a troop of horse.