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when she was but seven years of age, and in the Memoirs of her lord, written by Burnet, we have her character at large: an author whom I quote the more willingly on this occafion, presuming his veracity may pass uncensured, now he happens to speak well

of the dead.

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"She was a lady of great and fingular worth, and "her person was noble and graceful, like the hand"fome race of the Villiers's; but to fuch as knew "her well, the virtues of her mind were far more fhining. She was educated from a child in the court, "and esteemed and honoured by all in it, and by none more than the late King, (Charles I.) who as "he was one of the chafteft men, not to say princes, "fo he was a perfect honourer of all virtuous ladies, "She was lady of the Queen's Bed-chamber, and ad66 mitted by her Majefty into an entire confidence and 'friendship, and not only was her honour unstained, "but even her fame continued untouched with calumny, fhe being fo ftrict to the feveret rules as "never to admit of those follies which pass in that "ftyle for gallantry. She was a most affectionate and "dutiful wife; and us'd to say, "fhe had the greatest "reason to blefs God for having given her such a hus, "band, whom, as the loved perfectly, fo fhe was not "afhamed to obey." But that which crowned all her "other perfections, was the deep fenfe the had of "religion. She lived and died in the communion of Volume 11. M

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"the Church of England, and was a very devout per

fon. Many years before her death fhe was fo exact "in obferving herretirements to her clofet, that, not "withstanding all her avocations, and the divertise ❝ments of the court, (as the writer was informed by "one who lived with her) no day passed over her "without bestowing large portions of her time on "them, befides her constant attendance on the Cha"pel. She bore first three daughters, and then three fons. Her daughters were Lady Mary, Lady Anne, "and Lady Sufanna; her fons were Charles, James, and William, but all her fons, and her eldeft daugh*ter died young. A year before fhe died fhe languish"ed, which ended in a confumption, of which, after "a few months fick nefs, fhe died; fo that fhe prepa*red for death timeously. About a month before her

death fhe called for her children, and gave them "her last blessings and embraces, ordering them to "be brought no more near her, left the fight of them "might have kindled too much tenderness in her "heart, which she was then studying to raise above * all created objects, and fix where she was shortly to "be admitted. She died the Icth of May 1638, and " left her lord a most fad and afflicted person; and "though his spirit was too great to fink under any "burden, yet all his life after he remembered her "with much tender affection. She died, indeed, in a "good time for her own repofe, when her lord was

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"beginning to engage in the affairs of Scotland, which proved so fatal both to his quiet and life.' From the date of her death, it appears that Mr. Waller wrote this poem anno ætat. 33.

Upon Ben. Johnson, p. 111.

WHATEVER traditionhath preservedrelatingtothofe writers who are celebrated by Mr. Walier, has been fo often repeated in the Lives of the English Poets, or mentioned in the Athens Oxonienfes, that it would be fuperfluous to transcribe what really would yield but small entertainment to the reader, and therefore I fhall pass all, or most of them, over in filence, till come to speak of my Lord Rofcommon, of whom, I think, I am enabled to give a fuller account than has hitherto appeared; and at present will only make this general observation on Mr. Waller's commendatory verfes, that they are to be esteemed as the pure effects of candour and friendship; in many of which he seems, like a good-natured magiftrate, to have been prevailed upon, by the innocent poverty of the books which he commends, to give them a passport for present subsistence, in their journey to the land where all things are forgotten.

Of a war with Spain, and fight at fea, p. 128.

MR. Waller's principal aim in this poem is to re

commend the Protector to the reverence of the nation

under the title of King, which the Ufurper ambitiously affected: but finding that the same evil spirit which he had artfully conjured up against his lawful fovereign ftill poffeffed the Houfe of Commons to perplex his own affairs, he projected the scheme of engaging in a war with Spain,to be enabled,by foreign fpoil, to establish his government in what form, and under what denoniination, he pleased, without depending on parliamentary council or supplies. With this view he concluded a peace with France against Spain, which is cenfured by Ludlow, Wellwood, and others, for the falfeft ftep he ever made, and the most fatal to the tranquillity of Europe. However, his own hopes were fufficiently anfwered by the fuccefs of that naval expedition which is the fubject of this poem.

With thefe returns victorious Montagu.] In fome late editions the title of this poem injuriously gives the glory of this action to General Montagu which is entirely due to Stayner, who, for his bravery on this occafion, and foon afterwards at Santa Cruz, was knighted by Cromwell; and had his valour been employed in a better cause, by a better master, he might have been justly ranked amongst those who have merited most of the English nation. But when Montagu came back from the coast of Portugal, the Marquis's two fons, and two furviving daughters, with about ninety other prifoners, and all the bullion, were com

mitted to his care. With these returns he to Portf mouth, where he received the Protector's orders to bring them by land to London, and his orders were executed with great oftentation."

Upon the death of the Lord Protector, p. 133. MR. Waller wrote this poem anno ætat. 53. Nature berfelf took notice of his death, &c.] He expired upon the 3d day of Sept. 168, a day he thought always very propitious to him, and on which he had twice triumphed for two of his greatest victories: and this was now a day very memorable for the greatest form of wind that had been ever known, for fome hours before and after his death, which overthrew trees, houses, and made great wrecks at fea; and the tempeft was fo univerfal, that the effects of it were terrible both in France and Flanders, where all people trembled at it: for befides the wrecks all along the fea-coaft, many boats were caft away in the very rivers; and within few days after, the circumstance of his death, that accompanied the form, was univerfally known.

"He was one of thofe men quos vituperare ne inimici quidem poffunt, nifi ut fimul laudent, "whom his "veryenemies could not condemn without commend"ing him at the fame time:" for he could never "have done half that mischief without great courage,

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