Brief Lives, Vol. 1

AUBREY'S 'BRIEF LIVES'

                            _ANDREW CLARK_

VOL. I.

                          HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

                 PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

                            [Illustration]

                    LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK

[Illustration: JOHN AUBREY: AETAT. 40

_From a pen-and-ink drawing in the Bodleian_]




              _'Brief Lives,' chiefly of Contemporaries,
                              set down by
                         John Aubrey, between
                        the Years 1669 & 1696_


                     EDITED FROM THE AUTHOR'S MSS.

                                  BY

                             ANDREW CLARK
      M.A., LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD; M.A. AND LL.D., ST. ANDREWS

                           _WITH FACSIMILES_

                            VOLUME I. (A-H)

                                Oxford

                        AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

                                 1898

                        [Illustration: Oxford]
                    PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
                         BY HORACE HART, M.A.
                       PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY




PREFACE


The rules laid down for this edition have been fully stated in
the Introduction. It need only be said here that these have been
scrupulously followed.

I may take this opportunity of saying that the text gives Aubrey's
quotations, English and Latin alike, in the form in which they are
found in his MSS. They are plainly cited from memory, not from book:
they frequently do not scan, and at times do not even construe. A few
are incorrect cementings of odd half lines.

The necessary excisions have not been numerous. They suggest two
reflections. The turbulence attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh seems to
have made his name in the next age the centre of aggregation of quite
a number of coarse stories. In the same way, Aubrey is generally nasty
when he mentions the noble house of Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and
the allied family of Sydney. There may be personal pique in this, for
Aubrey thinks he had a narrow escape from assassination by a Herbert
(i. 48); perhaps also there may be the after-glow of a Wiltshire 'feud'
(i. 316).

The Index gives all references to persons mentioned in the text, except
to a few found only in pedigrees, or otherwise quite insignificant;
also to all places of which anything distinctive is said.

                                                   ANDREW CLARK.

  _January 4, 1898._




CONTENTS


                               VOLUME I

    FRONTISPIECE: JOHN AUBREY, AETAT. 40.

                                                                    PAGE

  SYNOPSIS OF THE LIVES                                            ix-xv

  INTRODUCTION                                                      1-23

  LIVES:--=Abbot= TO =Hyde=                                       24-427


                               VOLUME II

    FRONTISPIECE: AUBREY'S BOOK-PLATE.

  LIVES:--=Ingelbert= TO =York=                                    1-316

  APPENDIX  I:--AUBREY'S NOTES OF ANTIQUITIES                    317-332

  APPENDIX II:--AUBREY'S COMEDY _The Countrey Revell_            333-339

  INDEX                                                          341-370

  FACSIMILES                                                   _At end._

      I.  Castle Mound, Oxford. Riding at the Quintin.

     II.  Verulam House.

    III.  Horoscope and cottage of Thomas Hobbes.

     IV.  Plans of Malmsbury and district.

      V.  Horoscope and arms of Sir William Petty.

     VI.  Wolsey's Chapel at Christ Church.




SYNOPSIS OF THE 'LIVES'


In the text the Lives have been given in alphabetical order of the
names. This was necessary, not only on account of their number--more
than 400--but because Aubrey, in compiling them, followed more than one
principle of selection, writing, first, lives of authors, then, lives
of mathematicians, but bringing in also lives of statesmen, soldiers,
people of fashion, and personal friends.

The following synopsis of the lives may serve to show (i) the heads
under which they naturally fall, (ii) their chronological sequence.

The mark † indicates the year or approximate year of death; ‡ denotes a
life which Aubrey said he would write, but which has not been found; §
is attached to the few names of foreigners.


BEFORE HENRY VIII.

                                WRITERS.

                                _Poets._

  Geoffrey Chaucer (†1400).
  John Gower (†1408).

                                _Prose._

  Sir John Mandeville (†1372).

                              MATHEMATICS.

  John Holywood (†1256).
  Roger Bacon (†1294).
  John Ashindon (†13..).

                                ALCHEMY.

  George Ripley (†1490).

                           CHURCH AND STATE.

  S.