at Whitton, a hamlet in the parish of Twickenham, where the poet passed his declining days. Under the will of his father he inherited sundry freehold lands and tenements lying in St. Augustine's parish, Watlingstreet, London, and five hundred pounds in money, which was directed to be paid him by Bennet, the father's wife and sole executrix, upon his attaining the age of twenty-five years. After receiving the rudiments of education at Westminster School, he entered in Lent term 1597-8 at Broadgate Hall, and the year following was admitted a student of Christ-Church College, Oxford. In 1605 he proceeded Master of Arts, and became celebrated as a wit and a poet.

2 Reg. Prerog. Court Cant. Parker, 49.-Vincent Corbet left his copyholds in Twickenham and Thistleworth (or Isleworth) to his wife, and legacies to various others. See page 118.

is preserved in a collection of "Mery Passages and Jeastes," Harl. MS. No. 6395: "Ben Jonson was at a tavern, and in comes bishop Corbet (but not so then) into the next room. Ben Jonson calls for a quart of raw wine, and gives it to the tapster. < Sirrah!' says he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, and tell him I sacrifice my service to him.' The fellow did, and in those terms. "Friend!' says bishop Corbet,' I thank him for his love; but pr'ythee tell him from me that he is mistaken, for sacrifices are always burnt.

In 1612, upon the death of the amiable and accomplished Henry Prince of Wales,

"The expectancy and rose of the fair state,"

and the theme of many a verse; the University, overwhelmed with grief, more espe

cially as he had been a student of Magdalen College under the tutorage of Mr. John Wilkinson, (" afterwards the unworthy president of that house,") and desirous of testifying their respect for his memory, deputed Corbet, then one of the proctors, to pronounce a funeral oration; "who," to use the words of Antony Wood, "very oratorically speeched it in St. Maries church, before a numerous auditory3." On the 13th of March in the following year he performed a similar ceremony in the Divinity School on the interment of sir Thomas Bodley, the munificent founder of the library known by his name.

Amid the religious dissensions at this period, encouraged and increased by James's suspected inclination to popery, it was scarcely

3 Wood's Annals of Oxford, vol. ii. p. 312. ed. Gutch. 4to. 1796.

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possible to avoid giving offence to the supporters of the various doctrinal opinions which in this confusion of faiths divided the people. At the head of the Church was Dr. George Abbott, a bigoted and captious Puritan: opposed to this disciple of Calvin was Laud, then growing into fame, who boldly supported the opinions of Arminius. With the latter Corbet coincided: but the undisguised publication of his faith had nearly proved fatal to his future prospects; for, "preaching the Passion sermon at Christ-Church, (1613,) he insisted on the article of Christ's descending into hell, and therein grated upon Calvin's manifest perverting of the true sense and meaning of it for which, says Heylyn, he was so rattled up by the Repetitioner, (Dr. Robert Abbott, brother of the archbishop,) that if he had not been a man of a very great courage, it might

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have made him afraid of staying in the Uni versity. This, it was generally conceived, was not done without the archbishop's setting on; but the best was, adds Heylyn, that none sunk under the burthen of these oppressions, if (like the camomile) they did not rise the higher by it."

When James, in 16055, visited Oxford in his summer progress, the wits of the sister University vented their raillery at the entertainment given to the royal visitor. Cambridge, which had long solicited the same

4 Heylyn's Life of Archbishop Laud, p. 68. fol. 1668. 5 See a curious account of the proceedings on this occa sion by an eye witness, in Leyland's Collectanea, vol. ii. 626. ed. Hearne, 1770.

6 One of the ballads written on this occasion is (through the kindness of my friend John Dovaston, esq.) in a ma nuscript in my possession, beginning,

To Oxenford our king is gone

With all his noble peers.—&c.