Educated at Magdalen College,Oxford and at the Inns of Chancery. He wrote Abuses Stript and Whipt in 1611, a group of satires which resulted in his arrest for libel and four months in jail before his release. The case was unusual in that no names appear in the work! In 1615, Wither was admitted to Lincoln's Inn. He was in London during the plague of 1625. In 1639, he served as captain of horse under Charles I, but nevertheless sided with Parliament against the Royalists during the English Civil War. During the Restoration, he was arrested and imprisoned for three years. He was a prolific poet, satirist, writer of hymns and pamphleteer. He was also an avid supporter of the Commonwealth. His works include The Shepherd's Hunting (1615), Fidelia (1615), Faire-Virtue (1622), Hymns and Songs of the Church (162-23), The Scholler's Purgatory (1624) and Haleluiah: Or Britain's Second Remembrancer (1641). |
