Cowley thought then that he had taken leave of
verse, which needed less troubled times for its reading, and a mind
less troubled in the writer. He left out of his book, he said, the
pieces written during the Civil War, including three books of the
Civil War itself, reaching as far as the first battle of Newbury.
These he had burnt, for, he said, "I would have it accounted no less
unlawful to rip up old wounds than to give new ones." "When the
event of battle and the unaccountable Will of God has determined the
controversy, and that we have submitted to the will of the
conqueror, we must lay down our pens as well as arms." The first
part of this folio contained early poems; the second part "The
Mistress;" the third part "Pindaric Odes;" and the fourth and last
his "Davideis."
In September of the following year, 1657, Cowley acted as best man
to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, on his marriage at Bolton
Percy, to Fairfax's daughter; Cowley wrote also a sonnet for the
bride. In December he obtained, by influence of friends, the degree
of M.D. from the University of Oxford, and retired into Kent to
study botany.
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