Note 694:D — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

Though said to be the fourth edition, this copy is supposed by Mr. Neve to be really the first impression. (See Cursory Remarks on Ancient English Poets, 1789, p. 27.) Few poems have been more popular than Overbury's "Wife;" owing partly to the good sense with which it abounds, and partly to the interesting and tragic circumstances which accompanied the author's fate. It was speedily and frequently imitated; in 1614, appeared "The Husband. A poeme expressed in a compleat man," by an anonymous writer; in 1616, "A Select Second Husband for Sir Thomas Overburie's Wife," by John Davies of Hereford; in 1619, "The Description of a Good Wife," by Richard Brathwaite; and in the same year, "A Happy Husband, or Directions for a Maid to chuse her Mate," by Patrick Hannay. These pieces are inferior to their prototype, which, though not displaying much poetic inspiration, is written with elegance and perspicuity.