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Of an elegy made by Mrs. Wharton, &c. p. 157. SHE was the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, in Oxfordshire, who having no fon, left his estate to be divided between this lady and her fifter, the Countess of Abingdon, whose memory Mr. Dryden has celebrated in a funeral panegyrick. She was the late Marquis of Wharton's first wife, and died without iffue. The Earl of Rochester's mother was aunt to her father Sir Henry Lee; for which reafon Mr. Waller fays they were allied both in genius and in blood.

Upon our late lofs of the Duke of Cambridge, p. 158. He was the Duke of York's first son, by his fecond lady, Mary d'Efte, born the 7th of November 1677, and died when he was about a month old.

Inftructions to a Painter, &'q. p 159.

HAVE already observed that Mr. Waller imitated Bufenello's Venetian Triumph in the addrefs of this poem; in which (as, indeed, in most of his panegy zicks) he hath so closely confined himself to historical fact, and is so particular and full in defcribing the whole action, that very few paffages will require any explanation. He wrote it anno atat. 60.

The battle of The Summer Islands, p. 174.

THE iflands of Bermuda derived that name from the first European discoverer, who was a Spaniard; but, about the year 1609, Sir George Summers, being wrecked on that coast, settled a colony there, which he intended to have planted in Virginia, and called them The Summer Islands. They are fituate in 32 degrees and 30 minutes of northern latitude.

With the fweet found of Sacharissa's name, &c.] It cannot be fuppofed that Mr. Waller would infinuate any remains of paffion for the Lady Dorothy after her marriage; the names of Sidney and Sacharissa were laid down together in 1639; fo that this poem was certainly written before that year, though there are no hints from which we can discover exactly the time of its production. In the conclufion of the last poem to that lady he declares his refolution to make a voyage to divert his despair; and if he was a proprietor of the Summer Iflands, as it is reported he was, he might perhaps at that time accompany his friend the Earl of Warwick, who had a large share in that plantation; and that division of Bermuda which was the scene of this action which Mr. Waller records, bears the name of that Earl, who, instead of loitering away life in court-attendance, employed his younger years in fettling colonies in the West Indies, an employment more innocent, as well as more honourable,

than what he afterwards engaged in!" He was a man "of a companionable wit and converfation, of an "univerfal jollity, and fuch a license in his words and "in his actions, that a man of less virtue could not be "found out; fo that one might reasonably have be“lieved that a man fo qualified would not have been "able to have contributed much to the overthrow of "a nation and kingdom: but with all these faults he "had great authority with that people who, in the "beginning of the troubles, did all the mischief; and "by opening his doors, and making his house the "rendezvous of all the filenced minifters, in the time "when there was authority to filence them, and fpending a good part of his estate (of which he was

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very prodigal) upon them, and by being present "with them at their devotions, and making himself merry with them, and at them, (which they dif pensed with) he became the head of that party, and got the flyle of a godly man. When the King revo "ked the Earl of Northumberland's commiffion of 'Admiral, he presently accepted the office from the parliament, and never quitted their fervice: and when Cromwell disbanded that parliament, he be “took himself to the protection of the Protector, "married his heir to his daughter, and lived in fo en "tire a confidence and friendship with him, that "when he died the Protector exceedingly lamented "him. He left his estate (which before was subjec

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ef to a vast debt (more improved and repaired than any man who trafficked in that defperate commodity of Rebellion." Earl of Clarendon's Hiftory, Book vi.

VOL. II.

EPISTLES.

To the King, on bis navy, p. 1.

IN all the editions fince the refloration, this poem has been placed the first; which, I suppose, hath induced molt perfons to imagine it to have been written feveral years foouer than it was. In this number I find the writer of Mr. Waller's life, who believes it was occafioned by the fleet that was fet out under the command of the Lord Viscount Wimbleton; and feems to have been led into this opinion by that addition to the title, in the year 1626, which has been prefixed in fome of the latest editions. The gentleman, whoever he was, that fixed the date of this and fome other of the poems, will not appear to have been very competently qualified for fuch an undertaking, if we reflect that he has miftaken no less than two years in his chronology upon the verses On the Danger the Prince efcaped at St. Andero; and having so grofsly erred in a fact fo notorious as that, I think we may decently difmifs him from the chair, and hear Mr. Rymer's

opinion, though I believe there is reafon not to ftand to his decifion in the cafe depending. "Ourlanguage," says he, "retained fomething of the churl; fomething "of the stiff and Gothish did stick upon it till long "after Chaucer. Chaucer threw in Latin, French, "Provincial, and other languages, like new stum to "raise a fermentation. In Queen Elizabeth's time it grew fine, but came not to an head and spirit, did not shine and sparkle, till Mr. Waller fet it a-run"ning. And one may obferve, by his poem On the "Navy, anno 1632, that not the language only, but "his poetry, then distinguished him from all his con"temporaries, both in England and in other nations, "and from all before him upwards to Horace and

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Virgil. For there, befides the language, clean and "majestick; the thoughts new and noble; the verse "fweet, fmooth, full, and ftrong; the turn of the

poem is happy to admiration; the first line, with "all that follow in order, leads to the conclufion; "all bring to the fame point and centre:

To thee, his chofen, more indulgent, he
Dares truft fuch pow'r with fo much piety.

"Here is both Homer and Virgil; the fortis Achilles, “and the pius Æneas, in the person he compliments, " and the greatness owing to his virtue. The thought "and application is most natural, juft, and true, in poetry, though in fact, and really, he might have no "more fortitude or piety than another body; for the

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