Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 2.djvu/21

 him to have had a quick and smart countenance. The following epitaph was written upon him,


 * Here lies the Water-poet, honest John,
 * Who row'd on the streams of Helicon;
 * Where having many rocks and dangers past,
 * He at the haven of Heaven arrived at last.

William Habington,

SON of Thomas Habington, Esq; was born at Hendlip in Worcestershire, on the 4th of November 1605, and received his education at St. Omers and Paris, where he was earnestly pressed to take upon him the habit of a Jesuit; but that sort of life not suiting with his genius, he excused himself and left them*. After his return from Paris, he was instructed by his father in history, and other useful branches of literature, and became, says Wood, a very accomplished gentleman. This author has written,

1. Poems, 1683, in 8vo. under the title of Castara: they are divided into three parts under different titles, suitable to their subject. The first, which was written when he was courting his wife, Lucia, the beautiful daughter of William Lord Powis, is introduced by a character, written in prose, of a mistress. The second are copies to her after marriage, by the character of a wife; after which is a character of a friend, before several funeral elegies. The third part consists of divine poems, some of which are paraphrases on several texts out of Job, and the book of psalms.

•Wood Athen. Oxon. v.2. p.100.

B 6 2. The