SOURCE: Hensley, Charles S. “The Tireless Pamphleteer.” In The Later Career of George Wither, pp. 105-43. The Hague: Mouton, 1969.

In the following excerpt, Hensley traces Wither's political and religious beliefs as they appear in the pamphlets he authored after 1642.

I'le use all good and likely means I may: Sing, when it lasteth; when it faileth, pray: That, though from me my Foes the out-works win, I may secure the Fortresses within, And, in the mean space, neither be perplext Or scared, to think, who will enslave me next: For, he that trusts to an internal aid, Of no external Pow'r need be afraid. 

Furor Poeticus

After 1642 Wither's work takes on an increasing note of desperation. When his considerable popularity with the puritan middle-classes began to wane in the early 1630's, he began to consider his many oppressions, including two more imprisonments, and the virtual neglect of his “remembrances...