LIFE OF WALLER.

EDMUND WALLER was fortunately exempted from thofe ufual concomitants of genius, obfcurity in the commencement of life, and Poverty during its continuance,—his father having been a gentleman of family and fortune in Buckinghamshire, and his mother sister to the celebrated Hampden. The poet himself was born at Coleshill in Hertfordshire on the 3d of March 1605.

His father dying in the infancy of his fon, left him heir to an estate worth three thousand five hundred pounds a-year; an income more than equivalent to ten thousand pounds of our money at present. He was educated at Eaton, whence he removed to King's College, Cambridge.

His debut both in politics and poetry was splendid and early; for he was chofen a member of parliament in his eighteenth year; and then too, gave a specimen to the world of his genius, in a copy of verfes on the Prince's (Charles I.'s) escape at St. Andero, which at once displayed that correct taste and fuavity of numbers for which he is fo justly celebrated; and which he seems to have intuitively poffeffed, fince no models existed at that time, in the English language, from which he could copy

them.

Waller, happily for himself, being placed above the neceffity of writing for fubfiftence, compofed all his pieces occafionally, at different intervals, from his eighteenth to his eightieth year. Our poet indeed found a much shorter road for improving his fortune than that leading to Parnaffus, having married a rich city heiress, though opposed by the intereft of the court, who wished to provide for the lady a different husband. She dying in a short time, left him a widower of five and twenty, in the full enjoyment of health, wit, and affluence, to commence a fresh matrimonial engagement.

Young, rich, vain, amorous and ambitious, our poet became the fuitor of the lady Dorothea Sydney, eldest daughter to the Earl of Leicester. To her we are indebted for those elegant effufions of poetical gallantry, in which she is celebrated under the name of Sachariffa; an appellation which unhappily did not accord with the lady's difpofition; for, in fpite of his beautiful verses, the treated his love with dignified difdain, and at once quafhed his hopes and extinguished his paffion, by bestowing her hand

on the Earl of Sunderland.

Waller was not, however, driven to despair; but diverted his disappointment by transferring his affection and his poetry to new objects; and accordingly attached himself to Lady Sophia Murray, who is fuppofed to be the Amoret of fome of his most pleasing pieces.

About the year 1640, he is thought to have taken a voyage to the islands of Bermudas, which fup plied the incidents and imagery of his poem on the battle of the Whales, the most confiderable for length of all his pieces. It displays his usual felicity of versification, with some vigorous paffages; but it is not eafy to determine whether it was intended for a ferious or a mock heroic poem.

Between his twenty-eighth and thirty-fifth year he alfo compofed feveral leffer pieces, fuch as that on the reduction of Sallee,-on the the, repairs of St. Paul's Church,- on the Navy, &c. In all these, the sweetness of his numbers are confpicuous; and he sometimes surpasses himself in energy of thought, and vivacity of expreffion.

Waller was not of a complexion to remain long without a mate. He obtained the hand of a lady of the name of Breffe, unaided by poetry. In reality poetry is no adjunct to domeftic felicity. True home-felt blifs, like a deep ftream, makes the leaft noife in its courfe; and that such Waller enjoyed

in

in his fecond marriage, may be reasonably inferred from his wife's having brought him thirteen children.

Waller distinguished himself early in the ever memorable politics of the times. Connected by affinity with the principal leaders, in poffeffion of an ample fortune, and gifted by nature with splendid talents, had his virtue been equal to these endowments, he might have taken a principal lead in them. It does not ufually happen, that fimilar powers for profe and poetical compofition, unite in the fame perfon. Cicero, with the most harmonious profe, was a wretched poet. In Waller, however, we find them eminently conjoined. His parliamentary speeches surpass all his contemporaries in eloquence and wit. Even at this day, when English oratory may dispute the palm with Greece and Rome, his language would not be deemed obfolete.

As Waller was related to Hampden and Cromwell, he outwardly embraced the republican fide; but his real inclination tended to monarchy.

In 1643, we find him engaged with his brother-in-law Tomkyns and others, in a plot to restore the king: His plot was however discovered just as it was ripe for execution. Tomkyns was hanged; but the poet saved his life at the expence of his honour and of half his fortune; having accused several of the nobility, as being concerned with him, although unable to prove his allegations; and he paid a fine of ten thousand pounds, forfeited his feat in the house, and was banished his country. How forcible is the contrast between Waller and his kinfman Cromwell! and how wide the difference between acting and speaking! All the natural and acquired accomplishments of the one, aided by a powerful fortune and dazzling eloquence, were loft, because the poffeffor was deftitute of fortitude, confiftency, and active powers; while the other, wanting them all, and scarcely able to speak or write a fentence intelligibly, yet by an unparalelled energy of foul, and an intuitive perception of the human character, overturned an ancient monarchy, ufurped the government, and ruled a nation of demagogues uncontrolled.

Waller chofe Paris for his refidence in exile, where he kept open table, and lived in fplendor, till bis fortune fuffered so much, that he was obliged to fell his wife's jewels. At length he folicited and obtained permiflion from the protector, to return to his native country, where he was again received into favour and confidence. This kindness was not forgot; for on Cromwell's death, which happened foon after, he celebrated his memory in thofe fine lines, which are efteen ed his chef d'avore, and which are confidered as a model for a panygerical poem.

On the restoration, Waller, not lefs a pliant courtier, than an eloquent poet, offered his adulatory incenfe to Majefty restored, with the fame facility that he had before done to Charles I. and to Cromwell. The king however, perceived and remarked, that the congratulatory verses to him were not equal to those on the death of Oliver. The address of Waller on the occafion, has been much celebrated, "Poets, Sir, (he replied,) fucceed better in fiction than in truth."

Waller, during all this reign, ferved in parliament with his ufual celebrity. His wit, cheerfulness, and focial powers, continued unimpaired, and procured him the attention of all distinguished for rank or abilities: Nor was his fame confined to England only; for St. Evermond, with whom he kept up a confidential correfpondence, diffeminated it over Europe.

He also took an active part in the perfecution of Lord Clarendon, which was thought to arise rather from a vindictive fspirit than a love for juftice, because the chancellor refufed to affix his feal to a grant given him by the king of the provoftship of Eaton College, that place being generally filled by a clergy

man.

These two great men, it is certain, bore no good will towards each other. Waller treated the earl with warmth and perfevering afperity in the houfe: The earl on the other hand hath drawn the character of the poet, in his celebrated history, in no very favourable colours.

In 1685 he was again chofen, being then in his eightieth year, a representative in the first parliament of James H. with which monarch he continued to enjoy the fame familiar confidence that he was honoured with by his predeceffors.

Being now arrived at an age feldom the lot of a poet or a courtier, he began to feel the quick decay of his vital powers, while thofe of his mind continued unimpaired; for the compofitions of the laft year of his life poffefs all the excellencies of his former ones.

AL

At length, on the 214 October 1687, he yielded up his breath, with the refignation and hope of a Christian; for in the principles of Christianity he ever continued stedfast. He was buried at Beaconffield, where a monument is erected to his memory.

The political character of Waller will not bear a scrutiny. He was in truth a time-serving courtier; yet we cannot withhold an admiration, in contemplating those abilities which enabled him to steer is such security, in times fo pregnant with danger, through the very midst of contending factions. We must be struck with that confummate address, those infinuating manners, and that conciliating pliability, by which he preserved his interests with fovereigns fo very different in their tempers and in their views, as were James 1. Charles I. Cromwell, Charles II, and James II.

The address of Atticus, in preserving the esteem of all, amidst the moft violent contentions of parties, has been loudly celebrated. That of Waller was no less dexterous, and perhaps too, as virtuous; for, if the boasted neutrality of the Roman be scrutinized, it will probably be found to be only a refined tergiversation.

The poetry of Waller, when we confider the time in which his firft pieces (which are no ways inferior to his later ones) were written, displays a great elegance of taste, and a judgment almost congenially matured. One can scarcely believe, that but twenty years intervened between the last publication of Spencer, and the first of Waller; yet the former (who indeed affected the obsolete,) cannot be read without a gloffary; whereas, the diction and turn of stile (save a few scattered expletives) of the the latter, are fo entirely modern, that they seem no otherwise different, than by conveying that superior weight and energy of fentiment, which so strongly mark the character of the older poetry, and which yet promises it a longer existence than its florid but feeble offspring can hope for.