a poetical dedication to Sir Kenelm Digby; of whofe acquaintance all his contemporaries feem to have been ambitious; and "Naufra"gium Joculare," a comedy written in Latin, but without due attention to the ancient models; for it is not loofe verfe, but mere profe. It was printed, with a dedication in verse to Dr. Comber, mafter of the college; but having neither the facility of a popular nor the accuracy of a learned work, it seems to be now univerfally neglected.

At the beginning of the civil war, as the Prince paffed through Cambridge in his way to York, he was entertained with a reprefentation of the "Guardian," a comedy, which Cowley fays was neither written nor acted, but rough-drawn by him, and repeated by the scholars. That this comedy was printed during his abfence from his country, he appears to have confidered as injurious to his reputation; though, during the fuppreffion of the theatres, it was fometimes privately acted with fufficient approbation.

In 1643, being now master of arts, he was, by the prevalence of the parliament, ejected

from

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from Cambridge, and fheltered himself at St. John's College in Oxford; where, as is faid by Wood, he published a fatire, called "The Puritan and Papift," which was only inferted in the last collection of his works*; and fo distinguished himself by the warmth of his loyalty, and the elegance of his converfation, that he gained the kindness and confidence of those who attended the King, and amongst others of Lord Falkland, whofe notice cast a luftre on all to whom it was extended.

About the time when Oxford was furren dered to the parliament, he followed the Queen to Paris, where he became fecretary to the Lord Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, and was employed in fuch correfpondence as the royal caufe required, and particularly in cyphering and decyphering the letters that paffed between the King and Queen; an employment of the highest coufidence and honour. So wide was his pro

* In the first edition of this Life, Dr. Johnson wrote, "which was never inferted in any collection of his "works;" but he altered the expreffion when the Lives were collected into volumes. The fatire was added to Cowley's works by the defire of Johnfon. N.

vince of intelligence, that, for feveral years, it filled all his days and two or three nights in the week.

In the year 1647, his " Miftrefs" was published; for he imagined, as he declared in his preface to a fubfequent edition, that

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poets are scarcely thought freemen of their "company without paying fome duties, or "obliging themselves to be true to Love."

This obligation to amorous ditties owes, I believe, its original to the fame of Petrarch, who, in an age rude and uncultivated, by his tuneful homage to his Laura, refined the manners of the lettered world, and filled Europe with love and poetry. But the bafis of all excellence is truth: he that profeffes love ought to feel its power. Petrarch was a real lover, and Laura doubtlefs deferved his tenderness. Of Cowley, we are told by Barnes*, who had means enough of information, that, whatever he may talk of his own inflammability, and the variety of characters by which his heart was divided, he in

*Barnefii Anacreontem. Dr. J.

reality

reality was in love. but once, and then never had refolution to tell his paffion,

This confideration cannot but abate, in some measure, the reader's esteem for the work and the author. To love excellence, is natural; it is natural likewise for the lover to folicit reciprocal regard by an elaborate display of his own qualifications. The defire of pleafing has in different men produced actions of heroism, and effufions of wit; but it feems as reasonable to appear the champion as the poet of an "airy nothing," and to quarrel as to write for what Cowley might have learned from his mafter Pindar to call the "dream of a shadow."

It is furely not difficult, in the folitude of a college, or in the bustle of the world, to find useful ftudies and ferious employment. No man needs to be fo burthened with life as to fquander it in voluntary dreams of fictitious occurrences. The man that fits down to fuppofe himself charged with treafon or peculation, and heats his mind to an elaborate purgation of his character from crimes which he

was

was never within the poffibility of committing, differs only by the infrequency of his folly from him who praises beauty which he never faw; complains of jealoufy which he never felt; fuppofes himfelf fometimes invited, and fometimes forfaken; fatigues his fancy, and ranfacks his memory, for images which may exhibit the gaiety of hope, or the gloominess of defpair; and dreffes his imaginary Chloris or Phyllis fometimes in flowers fading as her beauty, and fometimes in gems lafting as her virtues.

At Paris, as fecretary to lord Jermyn, he was engaged in tranfacting things of real importance with real men and real women, and at that time did not much employ his thoughts upon phantoms of gallantry. Some of his letters to Mr. Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington, from April to December in 1650, are preferved in "Mifcellanea Aulica," a collection of papers published by Brown. These letters, being written like thofe of other men whofe minds are more on things than words, contribute no otherwife to his reputation than as they fhew him to have been above the affectation of unfeafonable

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