William Habington (4 November 1605 – 30 November 1654) was an English poet.

Life

Habington was born at

Hindlip Hall Hindlip Hall is a stately home in Hindlip, Worcestershire, England. The first major hall was built before 1575, and it played a significant role in both the Babington and the Gunpowder plots, where it hid four people in priest holes. It was Hump ...

, Worcestershire, and belonged to a well-known Catholic family. His father, Sir Thomas Habington, an antiquary and historical scholar, had been implicated in the plots on behalf of

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

; his uncle, Sir Edward Habington, was beheaded in 1586 on the charge of conspiring against

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

in connection with Sir Anthony Babington; while to his mother, Mary Habington, was attributed the revelation of the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought ...

. The poet received his education in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audomar, ...

. The information given by

Anthony à Wood Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary. He was responsible for a celebrated ''Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon''. Early life Anthony W ...

in his ''Athenae'' that Habington returned to England "to escape the importunity of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

to join their order" rests only on a vague statement made by the ex-Catholic James Wadsworth in his ''English Spanish Pilgrim''. He married about 1632 Lucy, second daughter of Sir

William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis William Herbert, 1st Baron Powis KB (George Edward Cokayne. ''Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, Or Dormant'', Volume 6. G. Bell & sons, 1895. pg 295. – 7 March 1655Bernard B ...

, the dedicatee of his first book of poems.

Writings

His volume of lyrical poems arranged in two parts and entitled ''Castara'' was published anonymously in 1634, and celebrated his marriage to Lucy. In 1635 appeared a second edition enlarged by three prose characters, fourteen new lyrics and eight touching elegies on his friend and kinsman,

George Talbot, 9th Earl of Shrewsbury George Talbot, 9th Earl of Shrewsbury, 9th Earl of Waterford (19 December 1566 – 2 April 1630), was the son of Sir John Talbot (died 1611) of Grafton in Worcestershire, who was a prominent Roman Catholic, frequently fined or imprisoned on acc ...

. The third edition (1640), issued for the first time in his name, contains a third part consisting of a prose character of ''A Holy Man'' and twenty-two devotional poems. He also wrote a tragi-comedy, '' The Queen of Arragon'' (1640), published without his consent by his kinsman, Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and revived at the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

; six essays on events in modern history, ''Observations upon History'' (1641); and, along with his father, ‘’The History of Edward IV’’ (1640).

Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...

in the introspective conclusion to ''

Walden ''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...

'' quotes from Habington’s poem ‘To My Honoured Friend, Sir Ed. P. Knight’: “Direct your eye right inward, and you’ll find A thousand regions in your mind Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be Expert in home-cosmography”.H D Thoreau, ''Walden''

Life

Writings

References

Further reading