Brief Life


(for Colin Winborn)



i.

a sheet of waste
paper only

*

under a crowd
of ill directions

*

about sun-
rising

*

about sun-
rising

*

I got not strength till I
was 11

*

an eremitical
solitude, was very
curious

*

a mile's
fine walk

*

this good
informer

*

a proper man and a
good fellow

*

that ingenious
place

*

I was
transplanted

*

I met accidentally
a book
of my mother's

*

pleased with the elegancy
of the writing

*

coloured initial
letters

*

Oughtred
in my pocket

*

before the late wars a world
of rare manuscripts perished hereabout

*

old manuscripts went to wrack
in those days

*

methought did grieve me
then to see

*

hints and
transitions

*

not educated to learning but to
hawking

*

in those days fathers
were not acquainted with
their children

*

a sad life
in the country

*

fancy lay most
to geometry

*

a kind of
engineer

*

inventive and philosophical
head

*

head was always
working

*

access to
watch-makers, locksmiths, etc.

*

fancy
like a mirror

*

almost
a consumption

*

could fancy a thing
so strongly

*

had so clear an idea
of it

*

at 9, a
portraiter

*

in idle
hours

*

never idle

*

never riotous
or prodigal

*

draw
the ruins

*

sent for me home,
for fear

*

got
my father
to let
me

*

afforded but a slender
harvest

*

to go
forth


ii.

I expect
preferment

*

more impregnated
than any waters

*

deep as a deep
claret

*

I saw that in-
comparable good conditioned
gentlewoman

*

in an
ill hour

*

under an
ill tongue

*

to my
great loss

*

does disorder and
unsmooth

*

but no
hurt done

*

yet (I thank
God) no
hurt

*

not so fit
for the muses

*

the least
wind

*

died when
to be married

*

nose bled at the left
nostril

*

inexpressible grief
and ruin

*

affairs ran
kim kam

*

absconded as a
banished man

*

treacheries and enmities in
abundance against me

*

devilish opposition
against me

*

judge being exceedingly made
against me

*

malicious contrivance

*

with whom I was
delitescent

*

I see Mars in [blank] threatens
dangers to me
from falls

*

nag threw me
dangerously

*

twice in danger
of drowning

*

danger of being run through
with a sword

*

hindered
his thrust

*

fear of
crocodiles

*

makes me
lethargic

*

stomach
so tender

*

not well ordered
till 1670

*

when my
imposthume
in my head
did break

*

never in my life
to enjoy

*

the very
foundation
is digged
up

*

more moderate
as to that point

*

lusty fair haired solar
fellow

*

15 wounds
in my head

*

which
tickled him

*

I had an impulse
of the briar

*

apoplectic
fit

*

terrible fit
of spleen

*

truly nothing, only
umbrages

*

perpetual
riding

*

lost and
dispersed

*

so noise etc would


iii.

took me
into his arms

*

I had so strong an impulse
to

*

this
delicate island

*

mother
of silver

*

again to my
great joy

*

without my seeking or
dreaming of it

*

imbibe
the morning
dew

*

receptacles
and provision
for contemplative
men

*

raised me (un-
expected) good friends

*

singular
friend

*

pray for the young
angels

*

otium

*

truly nothing, only
umbrages

*

never quiet

*

never quiet
till all was gone

*

nor anything of happiness
till divested
of all

*

could not be quiet
till I had done it

*

living histories

*

pocket mem-
orandum book

*

in a while
amounted

*

manuscripts flew
like butterflies about

*

made great harvest
of them

*

I was
transplanted

*

ask
its name

*

carry
on the work, name
them

*

a dust basket

*

horoscope thus

*

like

*

Peace

*

in the binding
of a book