Italy, as a member of Sir Dudley's household, and when the ambassador
returned from Venice, he seems to have kept Thomas Carew with him, for
he is found in the capacity of secretary to Sir Dudley Carleton, at the
Hague, early in 1616. From this office he was dismissed in the autumn of
that year for levity and slander; he had great difficulty in finding
another situation. In August 1618 his father died, and Carew entered the
service of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in whose train he started for
France in March 1619, and it is believed that he travelled in Herbert's
company until that nobleman returned to England, at the close of his
diplomatic missions, in April 1624. Carew "followed the court before he
was of it," not receiving the definite appointment of gentleman of the
privy chamber until 1628. While Carew held this office, he displayed
his tact and presence of mind by stumbling and extinguishing the candle
he was holding to light Charles I. into the queen's chamber, because he
saw that Lord St Albans had his arm round her majesty's neck. The king
suspected nothing, and the queen heaped favours on the poet. Probably in
1630, Carew was made "server" or taster-in-ordinary to the king. To this
period may be attributed his close friendship with Sir John Suckling,
Ben Jonson and Clarendon; the latter says that Carew was "a person of
pleasant and facetious wit." Donne, whose celebrity as a court-preacher
lasted until his death in 1631, exercised a powerful if not entirely
healthful influence over the genius of Carew. In February 1633 a masque
by the latter, entitled _Coelum Britanicum_, was acted in the
banqueting-house at Whitehall, and was printed in 1634. The close of
Carew's life is absolutely obscure. It was long supposed that he died in
1639, and this has been thought to be confirmed by the fact that the
first edition of his _Poems_, published in 1640, seems to have a
posthumous character. But Clarendon tells us that "after fifty years of
life spent with less severity and exactness than it ought to have been,
he died with the greatest remorse for that licence." If Carew was more
than fifty years of age, he must have died in or after 1645, and in fact
there were final additions made to his _Poems_ in the third edition of
1651. Walton tells us that Carew in his last illness, being afflicted
with the horrors, sent in great haste to "the ever-memorable" John Hales
(1584-1656); Hales "told him he should have his prayers, but wo