medicine, and when he settled again in England he shared with John Hester [q. v.] the chief burden of upholding its principles there. He returned to Cambridge in 1582, and was incorporated M.D. In July he accompanied Peregrine Bertie, lord Willoughby [q. v.], to Elsinore, to invest King Frederick of Denmark with the order of the Garter. He notes that the court dinners lasted from seven to eight hours (Health's Improvement, p. 294), and that he made the acquaintance of Tycho Brahe and Peter Severinus. At the end of 1583 he completed in London, with a dedication to Severinus, his most elaborate exposition of his medical principles, ‘De Jure et Præstantia Chemicorum Medicamentorum Dialogus Apologeticus’ (Frankfort, 1584, 12mo; new edit. Ursel in Nassau, 1602, 8vo). In style Moffett sought to imitate Erasmus's ‘Colloquia.’ With this essay he printed five letters dated from London between February and April 1584—four addressed to ‘Philalethes Germanus’ and one to ‘Endymion Luddipolensis.’ The work attracted attention abroad and figured in Lazarus Zetzner's ‘Theatrum Chemicum,’ Strasburg, 8vo, 1613 (i. 63–90). Moffett subsequently illustrated his sobriety as an investigator by publishing a digest of Hippocrates, whose merits were unduly disparaged by many of the newer school of medicine to which Moffett belonged. This book he entitled ‘Nosomantica Hippocratea sive Hippocratis Prognostica cuncta ex omnibus ipsius scriptis methodice digesta’ (Frankfort, 1588, 8vo).
By 1588 Moffett had secured a good practice, at first apparently in Ipswich and afterwards in London. On 22 Dec. 1585 he was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians, and on 29 Feb. 1588 a fellow, becoming censor in the same year. Among his early patients were Lady Penruddock and Sir Thomas and Edmund Knyvet of Norfolk. In July 1586 he and Penny attended during her last illness at Hansworth Anne Seymour, duchess of Somerset, widow of the protector, and they attested her will. Moffett seems to have first made the lady's acquaintance in early youth (Theatrum Insectorum, pp. 14, 21). In 1590 he was in attendance on Sir Francis Walsingham at Barn Elms, Surrey. Next year he was appointed physician to the forces serving in Normandy under the Earl of Essex; and on 6 Jan. 1591–2 he sent a note to the earl from Dieppe advising him to return to England (Cal. Hatfield MSS. iv. 174). On settling again in London, Moffett appears to have spent much time at court. He came to know Sir Francis Drake, who first showed him a flying-fish, ‘milvus marinus’ (Health's Improvement, p. 245); interested himself in the eccentricities of Woolmer, ‘the foul feeder’ (ib. pp. 123, 376), and was much patronised by Henry Herbert, second earl of Pembroke [q. v.], and his family. Mary Herbert [q. v.], the earl's wife, attracted by his cultured tastes, ultimately induced him to leave London for her own home in Wiltshire, and the latter part of his life was spent at or near Wilton as a pensioner of her husband. By the earl's influence he was elected M.P. for Wilton on 24 Oct. 1597. Walter Sweeper, when dedicating to William, third earl of Pembroke, his ‘Brief Treatise’ in 1622, wrote that ‘that godly and learned phisitian and skilful mathematician Mr. Doctor Moffet, my most worthy and kind friend,’ resided in Wilton House, but according to Aubrey, his patron soon gave him the neighbouring manor-house of Bulbridge for his residence (Nat. Hist. p. 89). He died there on 5 June 1604, and was buried in Wilton Church.
Moffett combined with his interests in science real literary aptitude. An ‘epitaphe or epigram or elegies, done by Mr. Morfet,’ was entered in the books of the Stationers' Company, by Edmund Bollifant, 15 Jan. 1588–9, but of this effort nothing else is known. Ten years later he published pseudonymously an interesting poem, embodying some of his observations in Italy and Spain. It is entitled ‘The Silkwormes and their Flies; Lively described in verse, by T. M. a Countrie Farmar, and an Apprentice in Physicke. For the great benefit and enriching of England. Printed at London by V. S. for Nicholas Ling, and are to be sold at his shop at the West ende of Paules,’ 1599, 4to. It is dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke, whom he describes as ‘the most renowned patroness and noble nurse of learning,’ and he notices in detail her literary labours (Collier, Bibl. Cat. i. 539). A copy is in the British Museum. Chamberlain wrote to Carleton, 1 March 1598–9, ‘The Silkworme is thought to be Dr. Muffetts, and in mine opinion is no bad piece of poetrie’ (Chamberlain, Letters, Camd. Soc., p. 47). ‘Moffatts Silkwormes and their Flies’ is highly praised in Nicholas Baxter's ‘Sir Philip Sydney's Ourania,’ 1606.
Moffett has been hastily identified with the T. M. who wrote the prose tracts ‘Father Hubbards Tales,’ and ‘The Blacke Booke,’ both issued in 1604, but his claim may be safely rejected [see Middleton, Thomas, (1570?–1627)].
Two professional works by Moffett appeared posthumously. He had completed in 1590 a valuable work on the natural history of insects, partly compiled from the writings
