CAREW, George (1557-1629), Earl of Totness, and Baron Carew of Clopton, Warwickshire, was born in 1557. After completing his studies at Oxford, he joined the army, and held an important command in the Irish wars against the Earl of Desmond and the rebels. He was successively appointed governor of Askeaton castle, lieutenant-general of artillery, and, after the successful expedition to Cadiz (1596), lord-president of Munster, treasurer to the army, and ultimately one of the lords judges of Ireland. When he entered on his duties, the whole country was in open rebellion; but by a prudent and vigorous policy, backed by his own intrepidity in the field, he soon reduced the rebels to submission. His greatest exploit was the capture of Dunboy castle, a success which disappointed the Spanish allies, and in reality put an end to the war. For his services in Ireland he was made governor of Guernsey, and was raised to the peerage. He was afterwards made privycouncillor to James I., and died at London in 1629. Carew wrote an account of the wars in Ireland in a book called Hibernia Poeata, published after his death; and made several collections for the history of Henry V., which were afterwards digested into Speed’s History of Great Britain. Some of his letters have been printed by the Camden Society, 1860.

CAREW, Richard (1555-1620), author of the Survey of Cornwall, was born in 1555. At an early age he became a distinguished student of Christ Church, Oxford, and when only fourteen was chosen to dispute extemporaneously with Sir Philip Sidney, in presence of the earls of Leicester and Warwick and other noblemen. From Oxford he removed to the Middle Temple, where he spent three years, and then went abroad. On his return he was appointed sheriff of Cornwall, and published his Survey of the county, a work which enjoyed a high reputation, and has been several times reprinted. His other works are entitled— The Examination of Men’s Wits, a translation from the Italian, part of which is said to have been executed by his father; The True and Ready Way to learn the Latin Tongue, a tract included in Hartlib’s book on the same subject; and A Translation of the first Five Cantos of Tasso’s Gerusalemme. He died in 1620.

CAREW, Thomas (1589-1639), an English poet, was born about the year 1589. He studied at Oxford, and on the completion of his course was made gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles I. At court he was highly esteemed for the vivacity of his wit and the elegance of his manners; and his poetical tastes gained him the friendship of Ben Jonson, Sir William Davenant, and other celebrated literary men. He wrote several sonnets, amorous pieces, and masques, which were set to music by Henry Lawes and other eminent masters. Most of his smaller pieces are distinguished by peculiar sweetness and gracefulness, by light gaiety, and by felicitous expression. They are generally occasional poems, vers de société, addressed to ladies, and are sometimes exquisite of their kind. His longest and best known work is a masque called Coelum Britannicum, performed by the king and several of the nobles at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday, 1633. Parts in this masque were taken by Lord Brackley and his brother, who acted in the following year in Mdton’s Cornus. The Coelum is founded on the Spaccio della Bestia of Bruno (q.v.), and is a work of very considerable poetic merit. Some of the introductory verses remind strongly of Milton. Carew died in the prime of life about the year 1639. The best edition of his works is that of W. C. Hazlitt.