Theophilus Cibber - The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753)

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Upon his return to England, he lived retired at the seat of the earl
of Devonshire, and applied himself to the study of philosophy; and as
almost all men who have written any thing successfully would be
thought poets, so Hobbs laid claim to that character, tho' his poetry
is too contemptible for crit[i]cism. Dr. White Kennet in his memoirs
of the family of Cavendish informs us, 'That while Mr. Hobbs lived in
the earl of Devonshire's family, his professed rule was to dedicate
the morning to his health, and the afternoon to his studies; and
therefore at his first rising he walked out, and climbed any hill
within his reach; or if the weather was not dry, he fatigued himself
within doors, by some exercise or other till he was in a sweat,
recommending that practice upon his opinion, that an old man had more
moisture than heat; and therefore by such motion heat was to be
acquired, and moisture expelled; after this he took a breakfast, and
then went round the lodgings to wait upon the earl, the countess, and
the children, and any considerable strangers, paying some short
addresses to them all. He kept these rounds till about 12 o'clock,
when he had a little dinner provided for him, which he eat always by
himself without ceremony. Soon after dinner he retired into his study,
and had his candle, with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco laid by him,
then shutting the door he fell to smoaking and thinking, and writing
for several hours.'

He retained a friend or two at court to protect him if occasion should
require; and used to say, it was lawful to make use of evil instruments
to do ourselves good. 'If I were cast (said he) into a deep pit, and
the Devil should put down his cloven foot, I should take hold of it to
be drawn out by it.'

Towards the end of his life he read very few books, and the earl of
Clarendon says, that he had never read much but thought a great deal;
and Hobbs himself used to observe, that if he had read as much as
other philosophers, he should have been as ignorant as they. If any
company came to visit him, he would be free of his discourse, and
behave with pleasantry, till he was pressed, or contradicted, and then
he had the infirmities of being short and peevish, and referring them
to his writings, for better satisfaction. His friends who had the
liberty of introducing strangers to him, made these terms with them
before admission, that they should not dispute with the old man, or
contradict him.

In October 1666, when proceedings against him were depending, with a
bill against atheism and profaneness, he was at Chatsworth, and
appeared extremely disturbed at the news of it, fearing the messengers
would come for him, and the earl of Devonshire would deliver him up,
the two houses of Parliament commit him to the bishops, and they
decree him a heretic. This terror upon his spirits greatly disturbed
him. He often confessed to those about him, that he meant no harm, was
no obstinate man, and was ready to make any satisfaction; for his
prevailing principle and resolution was, to suffer for no cause
whatever.

Under these apprehensions of danger, he drew up, in 1680, an
historical naration of heresy, and the punishments thereof,
endeavouring to prove that there was no authority to determine heresy,
or to punish it, when he wrote the Leviathan.

Under the same fears he framed an apology for himself and his
writings; observing, that the exceptionable things in his Leviathan
were not his opinions, so much as his suppositions, humbly submited to
those who had the ecclesiastical power, and never since dogmatically
maintained by him either in writing or discourse; and it is much to be
suspected, as Dr. Kennet observes, that upon this occasion, he began
to make a more open shew of religion and church communion. He now
frequented the chapel, joined in the service, and was generally a
partaker of the sacrament; and when any strangers used to call in
question his belief, he always appealed to his conformity in divine
service, and referred them to the chaplain for a testimony of it.
Others thought it a meer compliance with the orders of the family; and
observed, he never went to any parish church, and even in the chapel
upon Sundays he went out after prayers, and would not condescend to
hear the sermon, and when any friend asked the reason of it, he gave
no other answer but this, that preachers could tell him nothing but
what he knew. He did not conceal his hatred to the clergy; but it was
visible his aversion proceeded from the dread of their civil power and
interest. He had often a jealousy that the bishops would burn him; and
of all the bench he was most afraid of Dr. Seth Ward, bishop of Sarum,
because he had most offended him. Dr. Kennet further observes, that
his whole life was governed by his fears.

In the first Parliament of 1640, while it seemed to favour the
measures of the court, he wrote a little tract in English wherein he
demonstrated as himself tells us, that all the power and rights
necessary for the peace of the kingdom, were inseparably annexed to
the sovereignty of the King's person. But in the second parliament of
that year, when they proceeded fiercely against those who had written
or preached in defence of the regal power; he was the first that fled,
went over into France, and there continued eleven years. Whether from
the dread of assassination, or as some have thought from the notion of
ghosts and spirits, is uncertain, but he could not endure to be left
in an empty house; whenever the earl of Devonshire removed, he would
accompany him; even in his last stage from Chatsworth to Hardwick,
when in a weak condition, he dared not be left behind, but made his
way upon a feather bed in a coach, tho' he survived the journey but a
few days. He could not bear any discourse of death, and seemed to cast
off all thoughts of it; he delighted to reckon upon longer life. The
winter before he died he had a warm coat made him, which he said must
last him three years, and then he would have such another. A few days
after his removal to Hardwick, Wood says that he was struck with a
dead palsy, which stupified his right side from head to foot,
depriving him of his speech and reason at the same time; but this
circumstance is not so probable, since Dr. Kennet has told us, that in
his last sickness he frequently enquired, whether his disease was
curable; and when it was told him that he might have ease but no
remedy, he used these expressions. 'I shall be glad then to find a
hole to creep out of the world at;' which are reported to be his last
sensible words, and his lying some days following in a state of
stupefaction, seemed to be owing to his mind, more than to his body.
The only thought of death which he appeared to entertain in time of
health, was to take care of some inscription on his grave; he would
suffer some friends to dictate an epitaph, amongst which he was best
pleased with these words:

"This is the true Philosopher's Stone."

He died at Hardwick, as above-mentioned, on the 4th of Dec. 1679.
Notwithstanding his great age, for he exceeded 90 at his death, he
retained his judgment in great vigour till his last sickness.

Some writers of his life maintain, that he had very orthodox notions
concerning the nature of God and of all the moral virtues;
notwithstanding the general notion of his being a downright atheist;
that he was affable, kind, communicative of what he knew, a good
friend, a good relation, charitable to the poor, a lover of justice,
and a despiser of money. This last quality is a favourable
circumstance in his life, for there is no vice at once more despicable
and the source of more base designs than avarice. His warmest votaries
allow, that when he was young he was addicted to the fashionable
libertinism of wine and women, and that he kept himself unmarried lest
wedlock should interrupt him in the study of philosophy.

In the catalogue of his faults, meanness of spirit and cowardice may
be justly imputed to him. Whether he was convinced of the truth of his
philosophy, no man can determine; but it is certain, that he had no
resolution to support and maintain his notions: had his doctrines been
of ever so much consequence to the world, Hobbs would have abjured
them all, rather than have suffered a moment's pain on their account.
Such a man may be admired for his invention, and the planning of new
systems, but the world would never have been much illuminated, if all
the discoverers of truth, like the philosopher of Malmsbury, had had
no spirit to assert it against opposition. In a piece called the Creed
of Mr. Hobbs examined, in a feigned Conference between him and a
Student of Divinity, London 1670, written by Dr. Tenison, afterwards
archbishop of Canterbury, the Dr. charges Mr. Hobbs with affirming,
'that God is a bodily substance, though most refined, and forceth evil
upon the very wills of men; framed a model of government pernicious in
its consequences to all nations; subjected the canon of scripture to
the civil powers, and taught them the way of turning the Alcoran into
the Gospel; declared it lawful, not only to dissemble, but firmly to
renounce faith in Christ, in order to avoid persecution, and even
managed a quarrel against the very elements of Euclid.' Hobbs's
Leviathan met with many answers, immediately after the restoration,
especially one by the earl of Clarendon, in a piece called a Brief
View and Survey of the dangerous and pernicious Errors to Church and
State, in Mr. Hobbs's Book entitled Leviathan, Oxon. 1676. The
university of Oxford condemned his Leviathan, and his Book de Cive, by
a decree passed on the 21st of July 1638, and ordered them to be
publickly burnt, with several other treatises excepted against.

The following is a catalogue of his works, with as full an account of
them as consists with our plan.

He translated into English the History of the Grecian War by
Thucydides, London 1628, and 1676 in fol. and since reprinted in two
volumes in octavo.

De Mirabilibus Pecci, a Latin Poem, printed at London 1636; it was
translated into English by a person of quality, and the translation
was published with the original at London 1678.

Elementa Philosophica, seu Politica de Cive, id est, de Vita civili &
politica prudenter instituenda, Paris 1642 in 4to. Mr. Hobbs printed
but a few copies of this book, and revised it afterwards, and made
several additions to it, with which improvements it was printed at
Amsterdam, under the direction of Monsieur Forbier, who published a
French translation of it. Dr. John Bramhall, bishop of Derry in
Ireland, in the Preface to his Book entitled a Defence of true
Liberty, from an antecedent and extrinsical Necessity, tells us, 'that
ten years before he had given Mr. Hobbs about sixty exceptions, one
half political, and the other half theological to that book, and every
exception justified by a number of reasons, to which he never yet
vouchsafed any answer.' Gassendus, in a letter to Sorbiere, tells us,
that our author's Book de Cive, deserves to be read by all who would
have a deep insight into the subject. Puffendorf observes, that he had
been much obliged to Mr. Hobbs, whose hypothesis in this book, though
it favours a little of irreligion, is in other respects sufficiently
ingenious and sound.

An Answer to Sir William Davenant's Epistle or Preface to Gondibert,
Paris 1650, 12mo. and afterwards printed with Gondibert. See Davenant.

Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy, being a Discovery
of the Faculties, Acts, and Passions of the Soul of Man, from their
original Causes, according to such philosophical Principles as are not
commonly known or asserted.

De Corpore Politico, or the Elements of Law, London 1650.

Leviathan, or the Matter, Power, and Form of a Commonwealth, London
1651 in fol. reprinted again in fol. 1680; a Latin Version was
published at Amsterdam 1666 in 4to; it was likewise translated into
Low Dutch, and printed at Amsterdam 1678 in 4to. To the English
editions is subjoined a Review of the Leviathan.

A Compendium of Aristotle's Rhetoric and Rhamus's Logic.

A Letter about Liberty and Necessity, London 1654 in 12mo. to this
piece several answers were given, especially by Dr. Bernard Laney, and
Dr. Bramhall, bishop of Derry, London 1656 in 4to.

Elementorum Philosophiae sectio prima de Corpore, London 1655 in 8vo;
in English, London 1656 in 4to. sectio secunda, London 1657 in 4to.
Amsterdam 1680 in 4to.

Six Lessons to the Professors of Mathematics of the Institution of Sir
Henry Saville, London 1656 in 4to; this is written against Dr. Seth
Ward, and Dr. John Wallis.

The Remarks of the Absurd Geometry, Rural Language, &c. of Dr. John
Wallis, London 1657 in 8vo. Dr. Wallis having published in 1655 his
Elenchus Geometriae Hobbianae. It occasioned a notable controversy
between these two great men.

Examinatio et Emendatio Mathematicae hodiernae, &c. in sex Dialogis,
London 1660, in 4to. Amsterdam 1668 in 4to.

Dialogus Physicus, sive de Natura Aeris, London 1661 in 4to.

De Duplicatione Cubi, London 1661, 4to. Amsterdam 1668 in 4to.

Problemata Physica, una cum magnitudine Circuli, London 1662, 4to.

De Principiis et Ratiocinatione Geometrarum, contra sastuosum
Professorem Geometrae, Amsterdam 1668 in 4to.

Quadratura Circuli, Cubatio sphaerae, Duplicatio Cubi; una cum
Responsione ad Objectiones Geometriae Professoris Saviliani Oxoniae
editas Anno 1669, London in 4to. 1669.

Rosetum Geometricum, sive Propositiones aliquot frustra antehac
tentatae, cum censura brevi Doctrinae Wallisianae de Motu, London 1671 in
4to. There is an account of this book in the Philosophical
Transactions, Numb. 72, for the year 1671.

Three Papers presented to the Royal Society against Dr. Wallis, with
Considerations on Dr. Wallis's Answer to them, London 1671, 4to.

Lux Mathematica &c.

Censura Doctrinae Wallisianae de Libra.

Rosetura Hobbesii, London 1672 in quarto.

Principia et Problemata aliquot Geometrica ante desperata, nunc
breviter explicata & demonstrata, London 1674, 4to.

Epistola ad Dom. Ant. Wood Authorem Historiae & Antiquitat Universit.
Oxon. dated April 20, 1674; the substance of this letter is to
complain of the figure which Mr. Wood makes him appear in, in that
work; Hobbs, who had an infinite deal of vanity, thought he was
entitled to higher encomiums, and more a minute relation of his life
than that gentleman gave. An Answer was written to it by Dr. Fell, in
which Hobbs is treated with no great ceremony.

A Letter to William, Duke of Newcastle, concerning the Controversy he
had with Dr. Laney, Bishop of Ely, about Liberty and Necessity, London
1670 in 12mo.

Decameron Phisiologicum, or Ten Dialogues on Natural Philosophy,
London 1678, 8vo. To this is added the Proportion of a Straight Line
to hold the Arch of a Quadrant; an account of this book is published
in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 138.

His Last Words, and Dying Legacy, printed December 1679, and published
by Charles Blunt, Esq; from the Leviathan, in order to expose Mr.
Hobbs's Doctrine.

His Memorable Sayings in his Books, and at the Table, printed with his
picture before it.

Behemoth, the History of the Civil Wars of England, from 1640 to 1660,
printed London, 1679.

Vita Thomae Hobbs; this is a Latin Poem, written by himself, and
printed in 4to, 1679.

Historical Narration of Heresy, and the Punishment thereof, London
1680, in four sheets and a half in folio, and in 1682 in 8vo. of this
we have already made some mention.

Vita Thomae Hobbs, written by himself in prose, and printed at
Caropolis, i.e. London, and prefixed to Vitae Hobbianae Auctarium 1681
in 8vo. and 1682 in 4to.

A Brief of the Art of Rhetoric, containing the Substance of all that
Aristotle hath written in his three Books on that Subject, printed in
12mo. but without a date.

A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Law of
England.

An Answer to Archbishop Bramhall's Book called the Catching of the
Leviathan, London 1682 in 8vo.

Seven Philosophical Problems, and two Positions of Geometry, London
1682 in 8vo. dedicated to the King 1662.

An Apology for himself and his Writings, of which we have already
taken notice.

Historia Ecclesiastica carmine elegiaco concinnata, London 1688 in
8vo.

Tractatus Opticus, inserted in Mersennus's Cogitata
Physico-Mathematica, Paris 1644 in 4to.

He translated into English Verse the Voyages of Ulysses, or Homer's
Odysseys. B. ix, x, xi, xii. London 1674 in 8vo.

Homer's Iliads and Odysse[y]s, London 1675, and 1677 in 12mo; to which
is prefixed a Preface concerning Heroic Poetry. Mr. Pope in his
Preface to his Translation of Homer's Iliad, says, 'that Mr. Hobbs, in
his Version, has given a correct explanation of the sense in general,
but for particulars and circumstances, lops them, and often omits the
most beautiful. As for its being a close translation, I doubt not,
many have been led into that error by the shortness of it, which
proceeds not from the following the original line by line, but from
the contractions above mentioned. He sometimes omits whole similes and
sentences, and is now and then guilty of mistakes, into which no
writer of his learning could have fallen but through carelessness. His
poetry, like Ogilby's, is too mean for criticism.' He left behind
likewise several MSS. Mr. Francis Peck has published two original
Letters of our author; the first is dated at Paris October 21, 1634,
in which he resolves the following question. Why a man remembers less
his own face, which he sees often in a glass, than the face of a
friend he has not seen a great time? The other Letter is dated at
Florence, addressed to his friend Mr. Glen 1636, and relates to Dr.
Heylin's History of the Sabbath.

Thus have we given some account of the life and writings of the famous
Philosopher of Malmsbury, who made so great a figure in the age in
which he lived, but who, in the opinion of some of the best writers of
that time, was more distinguished for his knowledge than his morals,
and there have not been wanting those who have declared, that the
lessons of voluptuousness and libertinism, with which he poisoned the
mind of the young King Charles II. had so great an effect upon the
morals of that Prince, that our nation dearly suffered by this
tutorage, in having its wealth and treasure squandered by that
luxurious Monarch. Hobbs seems not to have been very amiable in his
life; he was certainly incapable of true friendship, for the same
cowardice, or false principle, which could instigate him to abandon
truth, would likewise teach him to sacrifice his friend to his own
safety. When young, he was voluptuous, when old, peevish, destitute
alike of resolution and honour. However high his powers, his character
is mean, he flattered the prevailing follies, he gave up virtue to
fashion, and if he can be produced as a miracle of learning, he can
never be ranked with those venerable names, who have added virtue to
erudition, and honour to genius; who have illuminated the world by
their knowledge, and reformed it by example.

Footnotes:
1. Wood, ubi supra.
2. Athen. Oxon. p. 251.

* * * * *

Sir ASTON COKAINE,

A gentleman who lived in the reign of Charles I. He was son of Thomas
Cokaine, esq; and descended from a very ancient family at Ambourne in
the Peak of Derbyshire; born in the year 1608, and educated at both
the universities[1]. Mr. Langbaine observes, that Sir Aston's
predecessors had some evidence to prove themselves allied to William
the Conqueror, and in those days lived at Hemmingham Castle in Essex.
He was a fellow-commoner at Trinity College in Cambridge, as he
himself confesseth in one of his books. After he had left the
university, he went to the Inns of Court, where continuing awhile for
fashion's sake, he travelled afterwards with Sir Kenelm Digby into
France, Italy, Germany, &c. and was absent the space of twelve years,
an account of which he has written to his son[2], but it does not
appear to have been printed. He lived the greatest part of his time in
a lordship belonging to him called Pooley, in the parish of Polesworth
in Warwickshire, and addicted himself much to books and the study of
poetry. During the civil wars he suffered much for his religion, which
was that of Rome, and the King's cause; he pretended then to be a
baronet, created by King Charles I. after by violence he had been
drawn from the Parliament, about June 10, 1641; yet he was not deemed
so by the officers of the army, because no patent was enrolled to
justify it, nor any mention of it made in the docquet books belonging
to the clerk of the crown in Chancery, where all Patents are taken
notice of which pass the Great Seal. Sir Aston was esteemed by some a
good poet, and was acknowledged by all a great lover of the polite
arts; he was addicted to extravagance; for he wasted all he had,
which, though he suffered in the civil wars, he was under no necessity
of doing from any other motive but profusion.

Amongst our author's other poetical productions, he has written three
plays and a masque, which are in print, which we shall give in the
same order with Mr. Langbaine.

1. A Masque, presented at Bretbie in Derbyshire, on Twelfth-Night
1639. This Entertainment was presented before the Right Honourable
Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, and his Countess, two of their
sons acting in it.

2. The Obstinate Lady, a Comedy, printed in 8vo. London 1650.
Langbaine observes, that Sir Aston's Obstinate Lady, seems to be a
cousin Jerman to Massinger's Very Woman, as appears by comparing the
characters.

3. The Tragedy of Ovid, printed in 8vo. 1669. 'I know not (says Mr.
Langbaine) why the author calls this Ovid's Tragedy, except that he
lays the scene in Tomos, and makes him fall down dead with grief, at
the news he received from Rome, in sight of the audience, otherwise he
has not much business on the stage, and the play ought rather to have
taken the name of Bassane's Jealousy, and the dismal Effects thereof,
the Murder of his new Bride Clorina, and his Friend Pyrontus.'

4. Trapolin creduto Principe, or Trapolin supposed a Prince, an
Italian Tragi-Comedy, printed in 8vo. London 1658. The design of this
play is taken from one he saw acted at Venice, during his abode in
that city; it has been since altered by Mr. Tate, and acted at the
Theatre in Dorset-Garden; it is now acted under the title of Duke and
No Duke.

He has written besides his plays,

What he calls a Chain of Golden Poems, embellished with Mirth, Wit,
and Eloquence. Another title put to these runs thus: Choice Poems of
several sorts; Epigrams in three Books. He translated into English an
Italian Romance, called Dianea, printed at London 1654.

Sir Aston died at Derby, upon the breaking of the great Frost in
February 1683, and his body being conveyed to Polesworth in
Warwickshire beforementioned, was privately buried there in the
chancel of the church. His lordship of Pooley, which had belonged to
the name of Cokaine from the time of King Richard II. was sold several
years before he died, to one Humphrey Jennings, esq; at which time our
author reserved an annuity from it during life. The lordship of
Ambourne also was sold to Sir William Boothby, baronet. There is an
epigram of his, directed to his honoured friend Major William Warner,
which we shall here transcribe as a specimen of his poetry, which the
reader will perceive is not very admirable.

Plays, eclogues, songs, a satyr I have writ,
A remedy for those i' th' amorous fit:
Love elegies, and funeral elegies,
Letters of things of diverse qualities,
Encomiastic lines to works of some,
A masque, and an epithalamium,
Two books of epigrams; all which I mean
Shall in this volume come upon the scene;
Some divine poems, which when first I came
To Cambridge, I writ there, I need not name.
Of Dianea, neither my translation,
Omitted here, as of another fashion.
For Heaven's sake name no more, you say I cloy you;
I do obey you; therefore friend God b'wy you.

Footnotes:
1. Athen. Oxon. p. 756, vol. ii.
2. Wood, ubi supra.

* * * * *

Sir GEORGE WHARTON

Was descended of an ancient family in Westmoreland, and born at
Kirby-Kendal in that county, the 4th of April 1617, spent some time at
Oxford, and had so strong a propensity to the study of astronomy and
mathematics, that little or no knowledge of logic and philosophy was
acquired by him[1]. After this, being possesed of some patrimony, he
retired from the university, and indulged his genius, till the
breaking out of the civil wars, when he grew impatient of sollitude,
and being of very loyal principles turned all his inheritance into
money, and raised for his Majesty a gallant troop of horse, of which
he himself was captain.

After several generous hazards of his person, he was routed, about the
21st of March 1645, near Stow on the Would in Glouceste[r]shire, where
Sir Jacob Astley was taken prisoner, and Sir George himself received
several scars of honour, which he carried to his grave[2]. After this
he retired to Oxford the then residence of the King, and had in
recompence of his losses an employment conferred upon him, under Sir
John Heydon, then lieutenant-general of the ordnance, which was to
receive and pay off money, for the service of the magazine, and
artillery; at which time Sir Edward Sherborne was commissary-general
of it. It was then, that at leisure hours he followed his studies, was
deemed a member of Queen's-College, being entered among the students
there, and might with other officers have had the degree of master of
arts conferred on him by the members of the venerable convocation, but
neglected it. After the surrender of the garrison of Oxford, from
which time, the royal cause daily declined, our author was reduced to
live upon expedients; he came to London, and in order to gain a
livelihood, he wrote several little things, which giving offence to
those in power, he was seized on, and imprisoned, first in the
Gatehouse, then in Newgate, and at length in Windsor Castle, at which
time, when he expected the fevered stroke of an incensed party to fall
upon him, he found William Lilly, who had formerly been his
antagonist, now his friend, whose humanity and tenderness, he amply
repaid after the restoration, when he was made treasurer and paymaster
of his Majesty's ordnance, and Lilly stood proscribed as a rebel. Sir
George who had formerly experienced the calamity of want, and having
now an opportunity of retrieving his fortune, did not let it slip, but
so improved it, that he was able to purchase an estate, and in
recompence of his stedfast suffering and firm adherence to the cause
of Charles I. and the services he rendered Charles II. he was created
a baronet by patent, dated 31st of December 1677.

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