after poem; he writes of her "Being Sicke," then of her recovery; and on the first anniversary of their marriage he compares their passion to the sunlight,
Which had increast, but that, by love's decree
'Twas such at first, it ne'er could greater be!
In the course of time two children were born to them—Thomas and Catherine—of whom, unfortunately, we know little. But such glimpses of the home life as do reach us make lines like the following, with all their breath of the lotus flower, entirely comprehensible:
Though with larger sail
Some dance upon the Ocean, yet more fraile
And faithlesse is that wave than where we glide.
. . . And cause our boat
Dares not affront the weather, we'll ne'er float
Farre from the shore.
Another and very amiable side of Habington's character is revealed in his friendship with George Talbot, brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury. These two cousins had been close friends from childhood. Both had known the culture of "a liberall education," and both developed into men of severely high and noble nature. Looking back after Talbot's death, Habington thought that his friend had inherited "the vertues of all his progenitors"; and he mused lovingly how frank and open had been his speech, yet how faithful his guarding of another's secret; how he was "absolute governor, no destroyer of his passions," and so generous that he could forgive an injury. As for Talbot, he had declared, in verses to his "best friend and kinsman William
