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The voices / 15 fragments

Sir Henry Wotton

1568 AD — 1639 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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▷ Play this voiceSearch within this voice ↗Place in time ↗truthmindhappinessfriendshipfaithlifedeathlove
Historical source references

Archive entries

12Undated
O, thou great Power! in whom we move, By whom we live, to whom we die, Behold me through thy beams of love, Whilst on this couch of tears I lie, And cleanse my sordid soul within By thy Christ’s blood, the bath of sin. No hallowed oils, no gums I need, No new-born drams of purging fire: One rosy drop from David’s seed Was worlds of seas to quench thine ire: O, precious ransom! which once paid, The Consummatum est was said. And said by him, that said no more, But sealed it with his sacred breath: Thou, then, thus hast dispurged our score, And dying wert the death of death; Be now whilst on thy name we call, Our life, our strength, our joy, our all.
Sir Henry Wotton / quote
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13Undated
Welcome pure thoughts, welcome ye silent groves, These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves: Now the wing’d people of the sky shall sing My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring: A prayer book now shall be my looking-glass, In which I will adore sweet virtue’s face. Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace-cares, No broken vows dwell here, no pale-faced fears: Then here I’ll sit, and sigh my hot love’s folly, And learn ’t affect an holy melancholy; And if Contentment be a stranger then, I’ll ne’er look for it but in Heaven again.
Sir Henry Wotton / quote
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14Undated
I would be great, but that the sun doth still Level his rays against the rising hill; I would be high, but see the proudest oak, Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke; I would be rich, but see men, too unkind, Dig in the bowels of the richest mine: I would be wise, but that I often see The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free: I would be fair, but see the fair and proud, Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud: I would be poor, but know the humble grass Still trampled on by each unworthy ass; Rich hated: wise suspected: scorn’d if poor: Great fear’d: fair tempted: high still envied more: I have wish’d all; but now I wish for neither; Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair; poor I’ll be rather.
Sir Henry Wotton / quote
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