Charles Cotton was born on 28 April 1630 at Beresford Hall, near Alstonefield, on the Staffordshire side of the Peak District, and died in London on 16 February 1687. He belonged to that striking generation of English writers whose lives were shaped by civil war, regicide, Restoration, religious division, and the gradual reorganization of literary culture around print, patronage, and metropolitan fashion. Yet Cotton’…
“Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers, we, who improve his golden hours, by sweet experience know that marriage, rightly understood, gives to the tender and the good a paradise below.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Light Verse Poets, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Restoration Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
Sir Henry Wotton was born on 30 March 1568 at Bocton Hall in Kent, into a family whose Protestant loyalties, landed status, and administrative connections prepared him for public life. He died on 5 December 1639 at Eton, having lived through the final decades of Elizabeth I’s reign, the long rule of James I, and the early, increasingly troubled years of Charles I. He is remembered in several capacities: as an ambassa…
“An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Devotional Poets, Metaphysical Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Peace, Wonder
