Barten Holyday

Son of Thomas Holyday a Taylor, was born in Allsaints Parish within the City of Oxford, in an house opposite to Linc. College, entred into Ch. Ch. and exhibited unto by his kinsman Dr. Ravis somtimes Dean of that House, an. 1605, aged 12. or more years, and was, I think, at that time a Chorister. Afterwards, when he was about to take the degree of Bach. of Arts, he was elected one of the number of Students, being then noted to have a most admirable veine in Poetry and Oratory. In 1615 he proceeded in Arts, took Holy Orders soon after, became a most eloquent and quaint Preacher, and had two Benefices in the Dioc. of Oxon. confer’d on him, whereof one was the rectory of Crowell. In 1618 he went as Chaplain to Sir Franc. Steaart, when he conducted to Spaine Dedicus Sarmiento de Acunna the Earl of Gundamore, after he had continued several years in the English Court as an Embassador from the K. of that Country; in which journey behaving himself in a facete and pleasant way, did much obtain the favour of that Count. Afterwards he became Chaplain to K. Ch. 1. and succeeded Mr. Will. Bridges, Son of Dr. John Bridges B. of Ox, in the Archdeaconry of Oxon. before the year 1626. In 1642 he was, by vertue of the Letters of the said King, actually created, with others, Doct. of Divinity, and sheltred himself in and near Oxon during the time of rebellion; but when the royal Party declin’d, and the Independent had taken place, upon the installation of Oliver to the Protectorship, he, who before had lost his Livings, and the profits of his Archdeaconry, did side with that faction so far, as to undergo the examination of the Triers, or rather Spanish Inquisitors, in order to be inducted into the rectory of Chilton in Berks, in the place of one Tho. Laurence ejected for being not Compos mentis. For which act he was much blamed by his antient friends and acquaintance of the Orthodox Clergy, yet commended by some for making provision for a second Wife that he a little before, in his elderly years, had taken, and the Children to be had by her. After the Kings restauration he left that Living to make room for the true owner, returned to Eifley near Oxon. to live on his Archdeaconry, and might, had he not acted the vain man, been made a Bishop or at least a Dean of a rich Church. His poetry and sublime fancy were such, that fam’d him second to none in his time in the University, witness in some manner his smooth translation of rough Persius, which he made before he was 20 years of age, tho in these times much undervalued by Juniors. As Scaliger said of Claudian and his works, solo argumento ignobiliore oppressus addit de ingenio, quantum deest materiae, so may it be of Holyday and his Poem, viz. whatsoever is mean in Persius is so choicely adorned by his Genie, that if it stand out of the presence of ignorant and desperate emulation, it may be graceful. His Philosophy also, expressed in his book De Anima, and well languag’d Sermons, speak him eminent in his generation, and do enough shew him to have traced the rough, as well as the pleasant, pathes of Poetry. His works are these.

Several Sermons, viz. (1) Three Sermons upon the passion, resurrection and ascension of our Saviour. Lond. 1626. qu. The first at Ch. Ch. on Goodfriday 1621. on 1. Cor. 2.8. The second at S. Maries on Easter Tuesday 1623 on 1. Cor. 15.20. and the third at Ch. Ch. on Ascension day 1625, on 1. Pet. 3.22. (2) Two Sermons at Pauls Cross, the first preached 24. of Mar. 1624 on Ezech. 37.22. Lond. 1626. qu. The other preached the 5 of Aug. 1623 on Psal. 18.48.49.—Printed there the same year. (3) Nature of Faith, on Heb. 11.4. Lond. 1654. qu. (4) Motives to a godly life, in 10. Sermons. Oxon. 1657. qu. (5) Four Sermons against disloyalty, preached in the times of the late troubles. Oxon. 1661. oct. The first of which is Of Obedience on Exod. 20.12. &c.

Technogamia: or, the marriage of Arts, a Comedy. Lond. 1630. qu. acted publickly in Ch. Ch. Hall with no great applause 13. Febr. 1617. But the wits of those times being minded to shew themselves before the King, were resolved, with leave, to act the said Comedy at Woodstock; whereupon the Author making some foolish alterations in it, it was accordingly acted on a Sunday night, 26. Aug. 1621. But it being too grave for the King, and too Scholastick for the auditory, (or as some have said, that the Actors had taken too much wine before they began) his Majesty (Jam. 1.) after two Acts, offer’d several times to withdraw. At length being perswaded by some of those that were near to him, to have patience till it was ended, least the young men should be discouraged, sate down, tho much against his will. Whereupon these verses were made by a certain Scholar.

At Christ Church Marriage done before the King,

Least that those Mates should want an offering,

The King himself did offer, what I pray?

He offer’d twice or thrice to go away.

Several witty copies of verses were made on the said Comedy, among which was that of Pet. Heylyn of Magd. Coll. called Whoop Holyday. Which giving occasion for the making other Copies pro and con, Corbert Dean of Ch. Ch. who had that day preached (as it seems) before the King with his band starch’t clean, did put in for one; for which he was reproved by the graver sort, but those that knew him well, took no notice of it, for they have several times said, that he loved to the last boys-play very well.

Philosophiae polito-barbarae specimen, in quo de animâ, & ejus habitibus intellectualibus quaestiones aliquot, libris 2. illustrantur. Oxon. 1633. qu.

Survey of the World in 10 books, a Poem Oxon. 1661. oct. Which passing the censure of Scholars, it was judged by them to be an inconsiderable piece, and by some, not to be his. But so it was, that it being published just before his death, it was taken for a posthumus work, which had been by him composed in his younger days. ’Tis said by some that he was Author of a Com. called The Gentile Craft, but whether true, I doubt it. Sure I am he translated from Lat. into English (1) Satyrs of Persius. Oxon. 1616. sec. edit. There again 1635. Reviewed and amended, and also augmented with illustrations by the translator—Oxon. 1673. fol. In this translation he consulted above a dozen Expositors, yet in his preface to the translation, he hath these words, I may without ambition say, it is a new thing Persius understood. To have committed no faults in my translation (saith he according to his elegant way of writing) had been to translate my self and put off man. (2) Satyrs of Juvenal illustrated with notes and sculptures. Oxon. 1673. fol. At the end of which is the fourth Edit. of Persius before mention’d, both which were published by Will. Dewey of Tortdeane in Glocestershire Gent. whose Mother Dr. Holyday had taken to his second Wife. (3) Odes of Horace. Lond. 1652. oct. Whether printed before that time I know not. This translation is so near that of Sir Tho. Hawkins, printed 1638. in oct. or that of Hawkins so near this, that whether of the two is the Author, remains to me, as yet, undiscovered. This Dr. Holyday who was highly conceited of his own worth, especially in his younger days, died in the house belonging to the Archdeacon of Oxon. situated and being in a village called Eisley near to that City, on the second day of Octob. in sixteen hundred sixty and one,1661. and was three days after buried at the foot of Bishop Kings monument, under the South wall of the Isle joyning, on the South side, to the choire of Christ Church Cathedral. At which time his bones being laid close on the right side to those of W. Cartwright and Jo. Gregory, what had it been for an admirer of those learned and pious men, to have put a memorial over their graves? As for Sir Thom. Hawkins Kt. before mention’d he was an ingenious man, was as excellent in the fac. of Musick as in Poetry, and translated from the original, Unhappy prosperitie; expressed in the history of Ael. Sejanus and Philippa the Catanian, with observations on the fall of Sejanus. Lond. 1639 in oct. or tw. sec. edit. What other translations he hath made, or what books he hath written, I know not, nor any thing else of him, only that he was of Nash Court in the Parish of Boughton under the Bleane in Kent, where dying in the latter end of 1640, as it seems, was buried in the Parish Church of Boughton near to the graves of his Father Sir Tho. Hawkins Kt, and of Anne his Mother. He had an ingenious Brother named John Hawkins Doctor of Physick of London, and a Nephew called John Kirton Doctor of the same faculty, who is to be mentioned elsewhere.