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wit, as that, in very few words, it fays fomewhat "fo extracted,as that it hath a sharpness, and strength, " and taste, to difrelish, if not to kill, the proudett

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'hopes which you can have of her value of you. She

affects extremes, because fhe cannot fuffer any con"dition but of plenty and glory, in which, if she had

not an affared and very eminent kind of being, the "would fly to the other extreme of retiredness, and "fo rather obfcure herfelf than not be herfelf; it be

ing natural to her, as her life, to maintain it in magnificence. She hath been told by her physi"cians, that he is inclined to melancholy; and this “opinion of theirs proved to be the best remedy for “it, by the mirth which the expreffed at it. This { "fay to fhew her to be of a cheerful nature in her "own opinion, who beft can judge of it, as fle, the "moft comely of all creatures, can express it. She "hath, as all noble hearts have, anibition, which, I

conceive, fhe rather conferves as a humour neceffary to the mind, (as thofe of the body alfo are) than "for any particular end or wifh, fhe being fo free "from the want of any thing, as that it must be a tudy (and in that a pain) for her to inquire what to defire."

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All that remains to be added concerning this celcbrated lady is, that he had no children by the Earl of Carlisle, whom fle furvived, without engaging in a fecond marriage, tothe year166c; and was then inVolume 11.

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terred, near her unfortunate father, at Petworth ia Suffex.

To

my l y Lord of Northumberland, on the death of his Lady, p. 8.

I CANNOT with any certainty inform myself in what year the lady died who occafioned the writing this poem,andwill defer myconjecture till I come to fix the date of that which immediately fucceeds. She was the Lady Anne Cecil, daughter ofthat Earl of Salisbury to whom chiefly the old Earl of Northumberland imputed the lofs of his liberty; and when he was told, in the Tower, what choice his fon, the Lord Percy, had made, he expreffed his abhorrence of the marriage with this paffionate exclamation, "My blood "will not mingle with Cecil's ina bafon."Ican add nothing, and nothing needs to be added, to that amiable character which Mr. Waller has left of this lady; and therefore I will proceed to tranfcribe the Earl of Clarendon's account of her lord, which is far from being equally advantageous to his memory.

"Ofthofe who were of the King's council,and who "ftaid and aced with the parliament, the Earl of Nor"thumberland maywell be reckoned the chief, in re'fpect of the antiquityand fplendour of his family,his &6 great fortune and estate, and the general reputation he had among the greatest men, and his great

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intereft, by being High Admiral of England. Tho' he was of a family that had lain under frequent blemishes of want of fidelity to the crown, and his <father had been long a prifoner in the Tower, under fome fufpicion of having fome knowledge of the gunpowder treafon; and after he was fet at liberty by the mediation and credit of the Earl of Car“lifle, (who had, without and against his consent "married his daughter) he continued to his death "under fuch a reftraint, that he had not liberty to "live and refide upon his northern eftate. Yet this "lord's father was no fooner dead than the King "poured out his favours upon him in a wonderful

meafure. He began with conferring the Order of "the Garter upon him, and fhortly after made him

of his privy council. When a great fleet of fhips "was prepared, by which the King meant that his neighbour princes fhould difcern that he intended "to maintain and preferve his fovereignty at fea, he

fent the Earl of Northumberland admiral of that "fleet, (a much greater than the crown had put to fea' fince the death of Queen Elizabeth) that he

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might breed him for that service before he gave "him a more abfolute command: and after he had "in that capacity exercised himself a year or two, "the King made him Lord High Admiral of Eng"land; which was fuch a quick fucceffion of bounties and favours as had rarely befallen any man

"who had not been attended with the envy of a fa"vourite. He was in all his deportment a very great

man, and that which looked like formality was a "pun&uality in preferving his dignity from the in"vafion and intrusion of bold men, which no man "of that age fo well preferved himself from. Tho' "his notions were not large or deep, yet his temper "and refervednefs in difcourfe got him the repu"tation of an able and a wife man; which he made "evident in the excellent government of his family, "where no man was more absolutely obeyed, and "no man had ever fewer idle words to anfwer for; “and in debates of importance he always expreffed "himself very pertinently. If he had thought the

66

King as much above him, as he thought himself "above other confiderable men, he would have been "a good fubject; but the extreme undervaluing "thofe and not enough valuing the King, made him "liable to the impreffions which they who approach"ed him by thofe addresses of reverence and esteem, "that, nfually infinuate into fuch natures, made in him: fo that after he was first prevailed upon

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not to do that which in honour and gratitude he was obliged to, (which is a very peftilent corrup "tion!) he was with the more facility led to concur "in what, in duty and fidelity, heought not to have "done, and what at firft he never intended to have "done; and fo he concurred in all the councils which

** produced the rebellion, and flaid with them to fupport it.*** He died in the year 1668, anno ætat. "66, and was buried, near his fifter, the Countess of "Carlifle, at Petworth, having been the tenth Ear! "of his family, and the fixth who had been honour"ed with the Garter."

To my Lord Admiral, of bis late fickness and recovery.p.10. THE time and occafion of writing this poem appears to have been when the Earl of Northumberland was appointed General of the English army against the Scots, and excufed himself from action by pretending want of health, though his conduct foon afterwards evidenced it was want of inclination to exert that vigour which the King's affairs required, and which, of all men living, he was the most bound by gratitude to have exerted: and therefore we may fuppofe that Mr. Waller made him the compliment of these verses, (a very seasonable one to cover his difaffection) in the latter-end of the year 1640, anno tat. 35. And the death of the Earl's lady being mentioned as if it were ftill green in his memory, the pre→ ceding poem was probably written the year before, or perhaps a little earlier.

To Van Dyck, p. 13.

SIR Anthony Van Dyck was born at Antwerp, in the year 1599, and gave fuch early proofs of his most ex

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