Famous Men and Women of Suffolk No 7 in a Series

In previous posts I have mentioned some of the famous men and women of Suffolk including

No 6 Henry Crabb Robinson - Diarist- Born in Bury St Edmunds
No 5 Thomas Gainsborough - Landscape and Portrait Artist - Born in Sudbury
No 4 Matthew Hopkins - Witchfinder General - Born in Ipswich
No 3 Louise Rame - Ouida - Author - Born in Bury St Edmunds
No 2 Robert Bloomfield - Poet- Born in Bury St Edmunds
No 1 John Constable - Romantic Landscape Artist - Born in East Bergholt

No 7 - William Alabaster 1567 - 1640 I mention because he was born in Hadleigh which is of course the venue for this Sundays 10 mile race.

His claim to fame was that he wrote Roxana, a Senecan tragedy in Latin. He is known for his theological works, including De bestia Apocalypsis (Delft, 1621) and Ecce sponsus venit (1633) and a Lexicon Pentaglotton (1637).

He was created Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge by royal command of King James the !st in 1614.

His personal sonnets included

"My friends, whose kindness doth their judgments blind"

My friends, whose kindness doth their judgments blind,
Know you, say they, the dangers where you run,
Which zeal hides from you, but compassion
Tells us? You feel the blow, the smart we find.
I know it well, and as I call to mind,
This is the bill: dearness, affection,
Friends, fortune, pleasure, fame, hope, life undone,
Want, prison, torment, death, shame--what behind?
Is then my sense transel'mented to steel,
That neither this, nor that, nor all, can feel,
Nor can it bend my mind, which theirs doth break?
Not so, nor so; for I am not insensate,
But feel a double grief that for Christ's sake
I have no more to spend, nor have spent that

I understand some of the sonnets from Alabaster have been covered by Vaughan Williams though I have never heard them myself. Anyone familiar with his works?

If you are running on Sunday in Hadleigh spare a thought for him.