{\b George Wither}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 11 June 1588

{\b Date of Death}.: 2 May 1667

{\b Works}.

Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), Fidelia (1617), Shall I Wasting in Despair 
(1619), Shepheards Hunting. Withers Motto (1621), Faire Virtue (1622), 
Juvenilia (1622), The Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1624), Britain's 
Remembrancer (1614), Haleluiah (1641).

{\b Featured Works}.

'Farewell, Sweet Groves', 'Shall I, Wasting in Despair'.

{\b General Comment}.

Born in Bentworth, Hampshire and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, George 
Wither was a poet and pamphleteer. He spent a period imprisoned in the 
Marshalsea in 1614 after causing offence with his satirical piece Abuses 
Stript and Whipt. Whilst in prison he wrote a series of five pastorals, titled 
The Shepheards Hunting. The content of the second of these pastorals caused 
Wither some trouble with the government. Wither faced a further prison 
sentence in 1621, due to Withers Motto. He was sent this time to Newgate. 
During the civil war he was involved with the Puritan cause, at which point 
his role as a pamphleteer really began. Wither became active in the war 
efforts and sold his estate in order to raise a regiment to fight for the 
Puritans. He became Governor of Farnham Castle in 1642 and major general of 
forces in Surrey in 1643. In later life, due to his Puritanical beliefs, 
Withers writing became increasingly didactic in style. The fact that he lost 
all his property and positions during the Restoration also influenced him and 
he devoted much of his energy to writing petitions and litigations attempting 
to regain all that he had lost.