by a copy of verses to Sir Kenelm Digby. He also wrote a Latin Comedy
entitled Naufragium Joculare, or the Merry Shipwreck. The first
occasion of his entering into business, was, an elegy he wrote on the
death of Mr. William Harvey, which introduced him to the acquaintance
of Mr. John Harvey, the brother of his deceased friend, from whom he
received many offices of kindness through the whole course of his
life[3]. In 1643, being then master of arts, he was, among many
others, ejected his college, and the university; whereupon, retiring
to Oxford, he settled in St. John's College, and that same year, under
the name of a scholar of Oxford, published a satire entitled the
Puritan and the Papist. His zeal in the Royal cause, engaged him in
the service of the King, and he was present in many of his Majesty's
journies and expeditions; by this means he gained an acquaintance and
familiarity with the personages of the court and of the gown, and
particularly had the entire friendship of my lord Falkland, one of the
principal secretaries of state.

During the heat of the civil war, he was settled in the family of the
earl of St. Alban's, and accompanied the Queen Mother, when she was
obliged to retire into France. He was absent from his native country,
says Wood, about ten years, during which time, he laboured in the
affairs of the Royal Family, and bore part of the distresses inflicted
upon the illustrious Exiles: for this purpose he took several
dangerous journies into Jersey, Scotland, Flanders, Holland, and
elsewhere, and was the principal instrument in maintaining a
correspondence between the King and his Royal Consort, whose letters
he cyphered and decyphered with his own hand.

His poem called the Mistress was published at London 1647, of which he
himself says, "That it was composed when he was very young. Poets