Значение слова WOTTON в Литературной энциклопедии

SIR HENRY (1568-1639).-Diplomatist and poet, _s._ of a Kentish gentleman, was _b._ at Boughton Park, near Maidstone, and _ed._ at Winchester and Oxf. After spending 7 years on the Continent, he entered the Middle Temple. In 1595 he became sec. to the Earl of Essex, who employed him abroad, and while at Venice he wrote _The State of Christendom or a Most Exact and Curious Discovery of many Secret Passages and Hidden Mysteries of the Times_, which was not, however, printed until 1657. Afterwards he held various diplomatic appointments, but Court favour latterly failed him and he was recalled from Venice and made Provost of Eton in 1624, to qualify himself for which he took deacon's orders. Among his other works were _Elements of Architecture_ (1624) and _A Survey of Education_. His writings in prose and verse were _pub._ in 1651 as _Reliquiae Wottonianae_. His poems include two which are familiar to all readers of Elizabethan verse, _The Character of a Happy Life_, "How happy is he born and taught," and _On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia_, beginning "Ye meaner Beauties of the Night." He was the originator of many witty sayings, which have come down.