Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Study of Cowley's Davideis: A Dissertation Presented to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
In February came the commission of the Earl of Manchester 'to take special care that the solemn league and Covenant be tendered and taken in the University of Cambridge, ' and as a consequence Cowley, in common with nearly all the Masters and Fellows, was -forcibly ejected from the University. Together with Crashaw and many others, he took refuge in Oxford, then quite a Royalist stronghold, and entered St. John's College. Here he became intimate with Lord Falkland, to whom he afterwards addressed some lines. He attached him self to the Royal cause and secured an introduction to Baron Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, one of the Queen's most trusted friends and admirers. Through him Cowley was brought into her service, and when in July 1644 the Queen escaped from England and took refuge in Paris, Cowley accompanied her as secretary to Lord Jermyn. His duties as secretary were arduous, and his life in Paris was distasteful to him; yet he managed to continue his literary work, and wrote while there his collection of love poems entitled T/ze Mistress. In Paris he met his friend Crashaw again, then in actual need, and introduced him to the Queen. Through her, Crashaw was appointed secretary to Cardinal Palotta, and died in Italy a short time later, soon after he had been appointed one of the Canons of the church of Loretto.
In 1656 Lord Jermyn sent Cowley to England, in order that he might, says Sprat, 'under pretence of privacy and retirement, take occasion of giving notice of the posture of things in this nation.' Shortly after reaching his native land, he was seized by mistake for another, but as soon as his identity was discovered he was cast into prison.
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