This union of wit and beauty was not looked upon with indifference, nor was their epithalamium unsung, or the string touched by the hand of an unskilful master: Come, all ye Muses, and rejoyce At this your nursling's happy choyce; Come light thy taper at her eye: In that bright eye there dwells a starre, The offspring of this marriage were a daughter named Alice, and a son born the 10th of November, 1627, towards whom the beautiful poem at page 150 is an undecaying monument of paternal affection. Of these descendants of the bishop I lament 10 Wit Restored, 8vo. 1658. that I have discovered so little if this volume : pe should be fortunate enough to excite attention to its author, the loss may at some future riod be supplied: they were both living when their grandmother, Anne Hutton, made her will in 1642, and the son administered to the testament in 1648. In 1628 Corbet suffered a severe privation in the loss of his patron Villiers duke of Buckingham, assassinated by Felton on the 23d of August, who, whatever were his political crimes, was, like his amiable and indulgent master, a liberal promoter of literature and science, and to his death an encourager of Corbet's studies. If, however, this event checked his hopes of promotion for a season, it did not leave him without a patron; for, upon the translation of Hewson to the see of Durham, (to make way for Dr. Duppa to be dean of that church,) he was elected bishop of Oxford the 30th of July, was consecrated at Lambeth the 19th of October, and installed the 3d of November, 1629; "though," in the opinion of Wood, "in some respects unworthy of such an office'." Warned by the many petulant remarks on the poetical character scattered throughout the account of Oxford writers, one is little surprised at this churlish remark on the part of honest Antony, who seems to have considered all poetry as ... inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ, and its indulgence inconsistent with the clerical profession. Corbet was certainly no 66 precisian," and perhaps his only fault was possessing a species of talent to which Antony had no pretension. Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. col. 736. The bishopric of Oxford he held but a short time, being translated to a more active see, that of Norwich, in the month of April 1632; when a dispute arose as to his right of claim to the glebe sown previous to his vacating the vicarage: the opinion of the attorney-general, (Noy,) which is preserved in the Harleian collection of manuscripts", was in his favour, in as much as the translation was not his own act merely. On the 9th of March, 1633, he preached before the king at Newmarket9. 2 Harl. Catalogue, 464. fol. 3. He appears to have conceded a portion of the patronage attending his elevation, as in the Museum is "Carta Ricardi Corbet episcopi Norwicensis, qua concedit Georgio Abbot, archiepiscopo Cantuariensi, proximam advocationem, nominationem, præsentationem, liberam dispositionem, et jus patronatus archidiaconatus Norfolciæ, dat. 15 Maii, an. 8 R. Caroli I." Harl. MSS. No. 464. Fol. 3. 3 Strafford State Papers and Dispatches, vol. i. p. 221. folio. Scarcely was he seated in the episcopal chair of Norwich when Abbott died, and Laud, who had long exercised the authority of metropolitan, was two days afterwards. (August 6th, 1633) preferred to the see of Canterbury. Having now "no rival near his throne," in the warmth of his zeal he immediately applied himself to reform abuses and exact a conformity to the established church, the discipline of which had exceedingly relaxed during the ascendancy of his calvinistic predecessor. For this purpose Laud issued certain orders and instructions to the several bishops, insisting upon a strict examination into the state of religion and its ceremonies in their several dioceses; the result of which was transmitted to that prelate, and by him laid before the King. These representations, many of which are curious, are |