VAUGHAN
,
HENRY
(
1621
-
1695
);
poet
,
a member of the
Vaughan
family of
Tretower Court
— see the family article; b.
1621
at
Trenewydd
(
Newton
),
Brecknock
, and educated by
Matthew
Herbert
,
rector
of
Llangattock
. He appears to have gone up to
Oxford
in
1638
and to have been a member of
Jesus College
. He took no degree, but some two years later his father sent him to
London
to study law. Because of the
Civil War
he was summoned home and for a time acted as
secretary
to
judge
Sir
Marmaduke
Lloyd
(see under
Lloyd
family of
Maesyfelin
). There is reason to think that he then
fought for the king
. He is known to have returned home by
1647
. About
1650
he was converted to a religious life under the influence of
George
Herbert
(q.v.)
. This inclination was reinforced by the death of his brother
William
; his own illness intensified
Vaughan
's gravity. As an ardent
Royalist
he was distressed by political events but found consolation in the scenery of the
Usk Valley
. He also turned to the
reading of devotional works and occult philosophy
and began to
practise as a physician
. He was twice m. — (1) to
Catherine
Wise
, and (2) to her sister
Elizabeth
. He d.
23 April 1695
, and was buried at
Llansantffraed
.
Vaughan
's chief works are:
Poems
,
1646
;
Silex Scintillans
,
1650
;
Olor Iscanus
,
1651
;
The Mount of Olives
,
1652
;
Flores Solitudinis
,
1654
; and
Thalia Rediviva
,
1678
. The
Gregynog Press
printed
Poems
in
1924
and
Vaughan
's translation of
Guevara
'r ‘
Praise and Happinesse of the Countrie-Life
’ from
Olor Iscanus
in
1938
.
Vaughan
was bilingual, and there are traces of
Welsh
influence in his poetry, which also reflects his love of his tranquil native valley. In his fondness for
solitary communion with nature
and his reminiscences of childhood, he anticipates
Wordsworth
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
L. C. Martin
(ed.),
The Works of Henry Vaughan
, Oxford,
1914
(Oxford,
1914
);
-
id., ‘Henry Vaughan and the Theme of
Infancy,’ in
Seventeenth Century Studies presented to Sir
Herbert Grierson
, Oxford, 1938
(Oxford,
1938
);
-
L. Imogen Guiney
(ed.),
The Mount of Olives and Primitive Holiness
set forth in the life of Paulinus Bishop of Nola
,
London, 1902
(Henry Frowde,
1902
);
-
F. E. Hutchinson
,
Henry Vaughan. A life and
interpretation
, Oxford, 1947
(Oxford,
1947
);
-
E. Blunden
,
On the Poems of Henry Vaughan.
Characteristics and imtimations. With his principal Latin
poems carefully translated into English verse
, Oxford,
1927
(Oxford,
1927
).
-
[2nd edn. of
The Works of Henry Vaughan
, Oxford,
1914
(ed.
L. C. Martin
, Oxford,
1958
).]
Author:
Emeritus Professor Herbert Gladstone Wright, M.A., (1888-1962),
Bangor
His twin brother was
THOMAS
VAUGHAN
(
1621
-
1666
),
alchemist
and
poet
, who is the subject of an article in the
D.N.B.
and who has also been dealt with extensively in
Theophilus
Jones
,
Hist. Brecknock
(3rd edn.), iii, 207, and in
F. E.
Hutchinson
's book on
Henry
Vaughan
(especially in chap. xi, but the index should also be consulted). He entered
Jesus College
,
Oxford
, at the end of
1638
, and graduated in
1642
, but there is no official confirmation of
Anthony
Wood
's claim that he was elected a
Fellow
(see
Hardy
,
Jesus College
, 97-8, and the list at the end of the book). He was appointed
rector
of his native parish of
Llansantffraed
about 1644
—
Theophilus
Jones
's date,
1640
, is too early. But he returned to
Oxford
to join
Charles
I
, and fought for him in the
Civil War
. Partly because of this, partly because of his intemperance and long absence from his parish, he was deprived of his living in
1650
by the parliamentary commissioners (
Richards
,
Puritan Movement
, 50-2, and
Religious Developments
, 490). He then studied
alchemy
, first in
Oxford
, and then in
London
. He d.
27 Feb. 1665/6
at
Albury, Oxon.
, where he was buried. He regarded himself as a
philosopher
— but he was one who categorically repudiated the teaching of
Aristotle
and
Descartes
, for he was a kind of
mystic
, and his experiments were directed more towards
analysing the secrets of nature
than to finding the philosopher's stone. He published some eight books under the pseudonym
Eugenius Philalethes
(which has often led to his being confused with another mystic who called himself
Eirenaeus Philalethes
), and other books are attributed to him. He also
wrote a fair amount of poetry
in
Latin
and in
Welsh
. Not only did he account himself a
Welshman
, but he claimed that
Welsh
was his native tongue (
Hutchinson
, op. cit., 26).
Bibliography:
- The sources are given in the text.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
