WILLIAM

See also:

• WILLIAM HABINGTON (1605-1654)

HABINGTON (1605-1654)  , English poet, was born at Hendlip Hall, Worcestershire, on the 4th of November 16o5 . He belonged to a well-known Catholic family . His father, Thomas Habington (156o-1647), an antiquary and historical scholar, had been implicated in the plots on behalf of Mary queen of Scots; his uncle, Edward Habington, was hanged in 1586 on the charge of conspiring against Elizabeth in connexion with Anthony Babington; while to his mother, Mary Habington, was attributed the revelation of the Gunpowder Plot . The poet was sent to the college at St Omer, but, pressure being brought to bear on him to induce him to become a Jesuit, he removed to Paris . He married about 1632 Lucy, second daughter of Sir William Herbert, first Baron Powys . This lady he had addressed in the volume of lyrical poems arranged in two parts and entitled Castara, published anonymously in 1634 . 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 . The third edition (164o) contains a third part consisting of a prose character of " A Holy Man " and twenty-two devotional poems . Habington's lyrics are full of the far-fetched " conceits " which were fashionable at court, but his verse is quite free from the prevailing looseness of morals . Indeed his reiterated praises of Castara's virtue grow wearisome . He is at his best in his reflective poems on the uncertainty of human life and kindred topics . He also wrote a Historie of Edward the Fourth (164o), based on notes provided by his father; a tragi-comedy, The Queene of Arragon (164o), published without his consent by his kinsman, the earl of Pembroke, and revived at the Restoration; and six essays on events in modern history, Observations upon History (1641) .

Anthony a

Wood insinuated that during the Commonwealth the poet" did run with the times, and was not unknown to Oliver the usurper." He died on the 30th of November 16 J4 . The works of Habington have not been collected . The Queene of Arragon was reprinted in Dodsley's"Old Plays," vol.ix.(1825) ; Castara was edited by Charles Elton (1812), and by E .