He then makes fome obfervations on the poem the "Davideis," and concludes his criticisms on Cow❤ ley as follows:

"After fo much criticism on his Poems, the Effays which accompany them muft not be forgotten. What is faid by Sprat of his converfation, that no man could draw from it any fufpicion of his excellence in poetry, may be applied to thefe compofitions. No author ever kept his verfe and his profe at a greater diftance from each other. His thoughts are natural, and his style has a smooth and placid equability, which has never yet obtained its due commendation. Nothing is far fought, or hard laboured; but all is eafy without feeblenefs, and familiar without groffness.

"It has been obferved by Felton, in his "Effay on the Clafficks," that Cowley was beloved by every mufe that he courted, and that he has rivalled the Ancients in every kind of poetry but tragedy.

"It may be affirmed, without any encomiaftick fervour, that he brought to his poetic labours a mind replete with learning, and that his pages are embel lished with all the ornaments which books could fupply; that he was the first who imparted to English num bers the enthusiasm of the greater ode, and the gaiety of the lefs; that he was equally qualified for sprightly fallies and for lofty flights; that he was among thofe who freed tranflation from fervility, and, inftead of following his Author at a distance, walked by his fide; and that if he left verfification yet improveable, he left likewise, from time to time, fuch fpecimens of excel, lence, as enabled fucceeding poets to improve it.

WALLER.

WALLER:

DMUND WALLER was born on the 3d of March,

ED

1605, at Colfhill, in Hertfordshire. His father was Robert Waller, Efq. of Agmondefham, in Buckinghamfhire, whofe family was originally a branch of the Kentith Wallers; and his mother was the daughter of John Hampden, of Hampden, in the fame county, and fister to Hampden "the zealot of rebellion *.

His father died while he was an infant, but left him an early income of three thousand five hundred pounds, which may be reckoned more than equivalent to ten thoufand of the prefent time.

He was educated, by the care of his mother, at Eton; and removed afterwards to King's College, in Cambridge. He was fent to parliament in his eighteenth, if not in his fixteenth year, and often frequented the court of James the Firft. His political and poetical life began nearly together. In his eighteenth year he wrote the poem that appears firft in his works, on

This har epithet of Dr. Johnson fhould not be fuffered to pafs without fome obfervation. The rifing generation, for whose use this Abridgement is effentially calculated, will probably confider the character of Hampden as lefs opprobrious, than the able critic (but certainly not unbiaffed man) has here reprefented it. Perhaps pofterity will rather confider Hampden as the ftrenuous, yet temperate affertor of the liberties of his country. Clarendon fays, "that Mr. Hampden carried himself throughout the whole bufinefs of the fhip-money with fuch fingular temper and modefly, that he actually obtained more credit and advantage by lofing it, than the king did fervice by gaining it."

"In fuch refpect is the memory of Hampden ftill held by his grateful countrymen, that fome years ago, one of his defcendants being deficient in an account of public money, he was exonerated from the debt due to government by an act of parliament, particularly expreffing, that it was for the fervices his illuftrious relation had done to his country, that this mark of favour was fhewn to him."-SEWARD'S ANECDOTES OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS, Vol. III. Page 276.

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The

"The Prince's Efcape at St. Andero," a piece in which his verfification was fuch as it appears in his last performances.

His next poem is fuppofed to be "The Addrefs to the Queen," written in his twentieth year, and we have no date of any other poetical production before that which the murder of the Duke of Buckingham occafioned.

Waller, although rich by inheritance, took care early to grow richer by marrying Mrs. Banks, a great heirefs in the City. Having brought him a fon, who died young, and a daughter, who was afterwards married to Mr. Dormer, of Oxfordshire, fhe died in child-bed, and left him a widower of about five and twenty.

She,

Being too young to refift beauty, he found himself captivated by the Lady Dorothea Sydney, eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicefter, whom he courted by all the poetry in which Sachariffa is celebrated. however, rejected his addreffes, it is faid, with disdain, and married in 1636 the Earl of Sunderland, who died at Newberry in the king's caufe. In her old age, meeting with Waller, fhe afked him when he would again write fuch verfes upon her; "when you are as young, madam," faid he, "and as handfome as you were then "

It

The marriage of Sachariffa to Lord Sunderland, which took place at PENSHURST, the ancient feat of the Sydney family, in Kent, produced from Waller the following letter, which he addreffed to Lady Lucy Sydney, the fifter of Sachariffa. We infert it here as one of the prettiest pieces of gallantry and most elegantly turned compli ments we ever met with.

"MADAM,

"IN this common joy at Penfhurft, I know none to whom complaints may come lefs unfeasonable than to your ladyfhip, the lofs of a bedfellow being almoft equal to that of a mistress; and therefore you ought at least to pardon, if you confent not to the im

precations

It is collected from the verfes written at Penshurst, that he diverted his disappointment by a voyage; but Johnfon appears to think it more likely," that he amufed himself with forming an imaginary fcene, than that fo important an incident, as a vifit to America, fhould have been left floating in conjectural probability."

From his twenty-eighth to his thirty-fifth year he wrote his pieces on "the Reduction of Sallee; on the Reparation of St. Paul's; to the King on his Navy; the Panegyric on the Queen Mother; the two Poems to the Earl of Northumberland; and, perhaps, others, of which the time cannot be difcovered."

When he had loft all hopes of Sachariffa, he looked round him for an easier conqueft, and gained a lady of the family of Breffe, or Breaux, by whom he had five fons and eight daughters,

precations of the deferted, which juft Heaven no doubt will hear.May my lady Dorothy, if we may yet call her fo, fuffer as much, and have the like paffion for this young lord, whom he has preferred to the rest of mankind, as others have had for her; and may his love before the year go about, make her taste of the first curfe impofed upon womankind, the pains of becoming a mother.--May her first born be none of her own fex, nor fo like her, but that he may resemble her lord as much as herfelf.-May fhe, that always affected filence and retiredness, have the house filled with the noife and number of her children, and hercafter of her grandchildren; and then may fhe arrive at that great curfe, fo much declined by fair ladies, old age; may fhe live to be very old, and yet feem young; be told fo by her glafs, and have no aches to inform her of the truth; and when the fhall appear to be mortal, may her loid not mourn for her, but go hand in hand with her to that place, where, we are told, there is no marrying nor giving in marriage, that being there divorced, we all may have an equal intereft in her again! My revenge being immortal, I with all this may be fal her pofterity to the world's end, and afterwards!-To you, Madam, I wifh all good things, and that this lofs may, in good time, be happily fupplied with a more conftant bedfellow of the other fex Madam, I humbly kifs your hands, and beg pardon for this trouble, from

"Your Ladyship's

"Moft humble Servant,

"EDMOND WALLER."

At the time the parliament was called, in 1640, it appeared that his political character had not been mistaken, the courtiers imagining him hoftile to them, from his being confidered as the kinfman of Hampden. The king's demand of a fupply induced Waller to deliver a moft vehement speech, the great pofition of which was, that grievances ought to be redreffed before fupplies are granted.

In the long parliament, which, unhappily for the nation, met Nov. 3, 1640, he reprefented Agmondefham the third time. Although a fupporter of the discontented party, he did not, however, adopt all their opinions. When the great question, whether epifcopacy ought to be abolished, was debated, he fpoke against the innovation fo coolly, fo reafonably, and fo firmly, that we are forry our narrow limits will not permit us to infert the fpeech.

It cannot but be wifhed, that he who could speak fo well had been able to act with spirit and uniformity.

When the commons began to fet the royal authority at open defiance, Waller is faid to have withdrawn from the house, and to have returned with the king's permiffion; and when the king fat up his ftandard, le fent him a thousand broad pieces. He continued, however, to fit in the rebellious conventicle, but fpoke with great freedom against the fenfe and fpirit of the house.

The engagement known by the name of Waller's plot was now discovered, when he, together with his brother-in-law, Tomkyns, was apprehended. Waller, it is faid, was fo confounded with fear, that he made a humiliating confeffion of all he knew of the bufinefs, accused the Earl of Portland, and Lord Conway, as co-operating in the tranfaction; and teftified, that the Earl of Northumberland had declared himfelf difpofed in favour of any attempt that might check the violence of the parliament, and reconcile them to the king.

The