Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, et al, | Page 3

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RELIGIO MEDICI.

RELIGIO MEDICI,
HYDRIOTAPHIA, AND THE LETTER TO A FRIEND.
BY
SIR THOMAS BROWNE, KNT.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
J. W. WILLIS BUND, M.A., LL.B., GONVILLE AND CAIUS
COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, OF LINCOLN'S INN,
BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

INTRODUCTION.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE (whose works occupy so prominent a
position in the literary his- tory of the seventeenth century) is an author
who is now little known and less read. This com- parative oblivion to
which he has been consigned is the more remarkable, as, if for nothing
else, his writings deserve to be studied as an example of the English
language in what may be termed a transition state. The prose of the
Elizabethan age was begin- ning to pass away and give place to a more
inflated style of writing--a style which, after passing through various
stages of development, culminated in that of Johnson.
Browne is one of the best early examples of this school; his style, to
quote Johnson himself, "is vigorous but rugged, it is learned but
pedantick, it is deep but obscure, it strikes but does not please, it
commands but does not allure. . . . It is a tissue of many languages, a
mixture of heterogeneous words brought together from distant regions."
Yet in spite of this qualified censure, there are passages in Browne's
works not inferior to any in the English language; and though his
writings may not be "a well of English undefiled," yet it is the very
defilements that add to the beauty of the work.
But it is not only as an example of literary style that Browne deserves
to be studied. The matter of his works, the grandeur of his ideas, the
originality of his thoughts, the greatness of his charity, amply make up
for the deficiencies (if deficiencies there be) in his style. An author who
combined the wit of Montaigne with the learning of Erasmus, and of
whom even Hallam could say that "his varied talents wanted nothing
but the controlling supremacy of good sense to place him in the highest
rank of our litera- ture," should not be suffered to remain in obscurity.
A short account of his life will form the best introduction to his works.
Sir Thomas Browne was born in London, in the parish of St Michael le
Quern, on the 19th of October 1605. His father was a London merchant,
of a good Cheshire family; and his mother a Sussex lady, daughter of
Mr Paul Garraway of Lewis. His father died when he was very young,
and his mother marrying again shortly afterwards, Browne was left to
the care of his guardians, one of whom is said to have defrauded him
out of some of his property. He was educated at Winchester, and
afterwards sent to Oxford, to what is now Pembroke College, where he
took his degree of M.A. in 1629. Thereupon he commenced for a short

time to practise as a physician in Oxfordshire. But we soon find him
growing tired of this, and accompanying his father-in-law, Sir Thomas
Dutton, on a tour of inspection of the castles and forts in Ireland. We
next hear of Browne in the south of France, at Montpellier, then a
celebrated school of medicine, where he seems to have studied some
little time.