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HENRY VAUGHAN (1622-1695)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 955 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:VAUGHAN (1622-1695)  , called the "'Silurist," See also:English poet and mystic, was See also:born of an See also:ancient Welsh See also:family at See also:Newton St Briget near Scethrog by See also:Usk, Brecknockshire; on the 17th of See also:April 1622 . His grandfather, See also:Thomas See also:Vaughan, was the son of See also:Charles Vaughan of Tretower See also:Castle, and had acquired the See also:farm of Newton by See also:marriage . From 1632 to 1638 he and his twin See also:brother Thomas, noticed below, were privately educated by the Rev . See also:Matthew See also:Herbert, See also:rector of Llangattock, to whom they both addressed Latin verses expressing their gratitude . See also:Anthony a See also:Wood, who is the See also:main authority for Vaughan's See also:biography, says that See also:Henry was entered at Jesus See also:College, See also:Oxford, in 1638, but no corroboration of the statement is forthcoming, although Thomas Vaughan's matriculation is entered, nor does Henry Vaughan ever allude to See also:residence at the university.' He was sent to See also:London to study See also:law, but turning his See also:attention to See also:medicine, he became a physician, and settled first at See also:Brecon and later at Scethrog to the practice of his See also:art . He was regarded, says Wood, as an " ingenious See also:person, but proud and humorous." It seems likely that he fought on the See also:king's See also:side in the Welsh See also:campaign of 1645, and was See also:present at the See also:battle of See also:Rowton See also:Heath . In 1646 appeared Poems, with the Tenth Satyre of See also:Juvenal Englished, by Henry Vaughan, Gent . The poems in this See also:volume are chiefly addressed to " Amoret," and the last is on Priory See also:Grove, the See also:home of the " matchless Oriuda," Mrs Katharine See also:Philips . A second volume of See also:secular Two poems in the Eueharistica Oxoniensia (1641) are signed '' H . Vaughan, Jes . See also:Coll.," but are probably by a contemporary of the same name, noticed by Wood . See Mr E .

K . See also:

Chambers's See also:biographical See also:note in vol. ii. of Vaughan's See also:Works.See also:verse, Olor Iscanus, which takes its name from the opening verses addressed to the Isca (Usk), was published by a friend, probably Thomas Vaughan, without the author's consent, in 165r . The See also:book includes three See also:prose See also:translations from Latin versions of See also:Plutarch and See also:Maximus of See also:Tyre, and one in praise of a See also:country See also:life from See also:Guevara . The See also:preface is dated 1647, and the See also:reason for Vaughan's reluctance to See also:print the book is to be sought in the preface to Silex Scintillans: or Sacred Poems and Pious Ejaculations (r65o) . There he says: " The first that with any effectual success attempted a diversion of this foul and overflowing stream (of profane See also:poetry) was the blessed See also:man, Mr See also:George Herbert, whose See also:holy life and verse gained many pious converts, of whom I am the least." He further expresses his See also:debt in " The Match," when he says that his own " fierce, See also:wild See also:blood . . . is still See also:tam'd by those See also:bright fires which thee inflam'd." His debt to Herbert extended to the See also:form of his poetry and sometimes to the actual expressions used in it, and a See also:long See also:list of parallel passages has been adduced . His other works are The See also:Mount of See also:Olives: or Solitary Devotions, with a See also:translation, Man in See also:Glory, from the Latin of See also:Anselm (165x); See also:Flores Solitudinis (1654), consisting of two prose translations from Nierembergius, one from St Eucherius, and a life of See also:Paulinus, See also:bishop of See also:Nola; Hermetical Physick, translated from the Naturae Sanctuarium of Henricus Nollius; Thalia Rediviva; The Pass-Times and Diversions of a Country Muse (1678), which includes some of his brother's poems . Henry Vaughan died at Scethrog on the 23rd of April 1695, and was buried in the See also:church-yard of Llansantffraed . As a poet Vaughan comes latest in the so-called " See also:meta-See also:physical " school of the 17th See also:century . He is a See also:disciple of See also:Donne, but follows him mainly as he saw him reflected in George Herbert . He analyses his experiences, amatory and sacred, with excessive ingenuity, striking out, every now and then, through his extreme intensity of feeling and his See also:close observation of nature, lines and phrases of marvellous felicity . He is of See also:imagination all compact; and is happiest when he abandons himself most completely to his See also:vision .

It is, as Ch;non H . C . See also:

Beeching has said, "' undoubtedly the mystical "See also:element in Vaughan's See also:writing by vihich he takes See also:rank as a' poet . . . it is easy to see that he has a See also:passion for Nature for her own See also:sake, that he has observed her moods; that indeed the See also:world is to him no less than a See also:veil of the eternal spirit, whose presence may be See also:felt in any, even the smallest See also:part." In this imaginative outlook on Nature he no doubt exercised See also:great See also:influence on See also:Wordsworth, who is known to have possessed a copy of his poems, and it is difficult to avoid seeing in " The See also:Retreat " the germ of the later poet's " See also:Ode on Intimations of See also:Immortality." By this poem, with " The World," mainly because of its magnificent opening See also:stanza, " Beyond the Veil," and " See also:Peace," he is best known to the See also:ordinary reader . The See also:complete works of Henry Vaughan were edited for the See also:Fuller Worthies Library by Dr A . B . See also:Grosart in 1871 . The Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, were edited in 1896 by Mr E . K . Chambers, with an introduction by See also:Canon H . C . Beeching, for the See also:Muses' Library .

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