THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.
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The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon thefollowing Poem._ From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. SIR, It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the firsttaste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that Iwanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, ifI could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which Iunderstood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgarphrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), andto have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learnedfriend, at a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together somegood authors of the antient time; among which I observed you to havebeen familiar. Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for avery kind letter from you dated the sixth of this month, and for adainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I shouldmuch commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with acertain Doric delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must plainlyconfess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsamollities_.{19:A} But I must not omit to tell you, that I now only oweyou thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the trueartificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before, withsingular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. inthe very close of the late R.'s poems, printed at Oxford; whereunto itis added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out theprincipal, according to the art of stationers, and to leave the reader_con la bocca dolce_.{20:A} Now, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may challenge a little moreprivilege of discourse with you; I suppose you will not blanch{20:B}Paris in your way; therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a fewlines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young LordS. as his governor, and you may surely receive from him good directionsfor shaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did reside bymy choice some time for the king, after mine own recess from Venice. I should think that your best line will be through the whole length ofFrance to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa, whence the passageinto Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, toFlorence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from theinterest you have given me in your safety. At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipione, an old Romancourtier in dangerous times, having been steward to the Duca diPagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man,that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chatof those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from hisnative harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been thecentre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his advice,how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of others, orof mine own conscience. _Signor Arrigo mio_ (says he), _I pensieristretti, ed il viso sciolto_,{21:A} will go safely over the whole world.Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment dothneed no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to thebest of all securities, God's dear love, remaining
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