Note 20 — IMPRISONMENT OF THE LEARNED.
Reading edition
Withers, throughout these unique eclogues, which are supposed to narrate the discourses of "friendly shepherds" who visit him—
"—pent Within the jaws of strict imprisonment; A forlorn shepherd void of all the means, Whereon man's common hope in danger leads"
—is still upheld by the same consciousness of rectitude which inspired Sir Richard Lovelace in his better-known address "To Althea from Prison." Withers' poem was published before Lovelace was born. A few lines from Withers will display this similarity. Speaking of his enemies, he says:—
"They may do much, but when they have done all, Only my body they may bring in thrall. And 'tis not that, my Willy; 'tis my mind, My mind's more precious freedom I so weigh, A thousand ways they may my body bind, In thousand thralls, but ne'er my mind betray: And hence it is that I contentment find, And bear with patience this my load away: I'm still myself, and that I'd rather be. Than to be lord of all these downs in fee."