WILSON, THOMAS (1525?-1581).—­Scholar and statesman, b. in Lincolnshire, was at Camb., and held various high positions under Queen Elizabeth.  He was the author of The Rule of Reason containing the Arte of Logique (1551), and The Arte of Rhetorique (1553), and made translations from Demosthenes.  He endeavoured to maintain the purity of the language against the importation of foreign words.

WINGATE, DAVID, (1828-1892).—­Poet, was employed in the coal-pits near Hamilton from the time he was 9.  He pub. Poems and Songs (1862), which was favourably received, and followed by Annie Weir (1866).  After this he studied at the Glasgow School of Mines, became a colliery manager, and devoted his increased leisure to study and further literary work. Lily Neil appeared in 1879, followed by Poems and Songs (1883), and Selected Poems (1890).  W. was a man of independent character.  He was twice m., his second wife being a descendant of Burns.

WINTHROP, THEODORE (1828-1861).—­Novelist, b. at New Haven, Conn., descended through his f. from Governor W., and through his mother from Jonathan Edwards, ed. at Yale, travelled in Great Britain and on the Continent, and far and wide in his own country.  After contributing to periodicals short sketches and stories, which attracted little attention, he enlisted in the Federal Army, in 1861, and was killed in the Battle of Great Bethel.  His novels, for which he had failed to find a publisher, appeared posthumously—­John Brent, founded on his experiences in the far West, Edwin Brothertoft, a story of the Revolution War, and Cecil Dreeme.  Other works were The Canoe and Saddle, and Life in the Open Air.  Though somewhat spasmodic and crude, his novels had freshness, originality, and power, and with longer life and greater concentration he might have risen high.

WITHER, GEORGE (1588-1667).—­Poet, b. near Alton, Hampshire, was at Oxf. for a short time, and then studied law at Lincoln’s Inn.  In 1613 he pub. a bold and pungent satire, Abuses Stript and Whipt, with the result that he was imprisoned for some months in the Marshalsea.  While there he wrote The Shepheard’s Hunting, a pastoral. Wither’s Motto, Nec Habeo, nec Careo, nec Curo (I have not, want not, care not) was written in 1618, and in 1622 he coll. his poems as Juvenilia.  The same year he pub. a long poem, Faire Virtue, the Mistress of Philarete, in which appears the famous lyric, “Shall I wasting in despair.”  Though generally acting with the Puritans he took arms with Charles I. against the Scotch in 1639; but on the outbreak of the Civil War he was on the popular side, and raised a troop of horse.  He was taken prisoner by the Royalists, and is said to have owed his life to the intercession of a fellow-poet, Sir John Denham.  After the establishment of the Commonwealth he was