to have been well informed of facts, though he may fometimes err in chronology, has delivered as indubitably certain:

"He found Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winchefter, "and Dr. Neale, Bishop of Durham, standing be"hind his Majefty's chair; and there happened fome"thing extraordinary," continues this writer, "in "the converfation thofe prelates had with the King, "on which Mr. Waller did often reflect. His Ma"jefty afked the Bishops, "My Lords, cannot I "take my subjects money when I want it, without

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all this formality of parliament ?" The Bishop of "Durham readily anfwered, God forbid, Sir, but $6 you fhould you are the breath of our noftrils.' "Whereupon the King turned and faid to the bifhop of Winchester, Well, my Lord, what fay you?" Sir,' replied the bifhop, I have no fkill to judge of parliamentary cafes.' The King anfwered, "No put-offs, my Lord; anfwer me pre. fently." Then, Sir,' faid he, I think it is lawful for you to take my brother Neale's money; for "he offers it.' Mr. Waller faid, the company was "pleafed with this anfwer, and the wit of it feemed "to affect the King; for, a certain lord coming in "foon after, his Majefty cried out, “Oh, my "Oh, my Lord, they fay you lig with my Lady." No, Sir,' fays "his Lordship in confufion; but I like her company, because she has so much wit.' "Why then, fays the King, "do you not lig with my Lord of

"Winchefter there?"

Waller's political and poetical life began nearly together. In his eighteenth year he wrote the poe112 that appears first in his works, on the Prince's Elcape

at St. Andero :" a piece which juftifies the obfervation made by one of his editors, that he attained, by a felicity like inftinct, a ftyle which perhaps will never be obfolete; and that, "were we to judge

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*

only by the wording, we could not know what was "wrote at twenty, and what at fourfcore." His verfification was, in his firft effày, fuch as it appears in his last performance. By the perufal of Fairfax's tranflation of Taffo, to which, as Dryden relates, he confeffed himfelf indebted for the fmoothness of his numbers, and by his own nicety of observation, he had already formed fuch a fyftem of metrical harmony as he never afterwards much needed, or much endeavoured, to improve. Denham corrected his numbers by experience, and gained ground gradually upon the ruggedness of his age; but what was acquired by Denham was inherited by Waller.

The next poem, of which the fubject seems to fix the time, is fuppofed by Mr. Fenton to be the Addrefs to the Queen, which he confiders as congratulating her arrival, in Waller's twentieth year. He is apparently miftaken; for the mention of the nation's obligations to her frequent pregnancy proves that it was written when the had brought many children. We have therefore no date of any other poetical production before that which the murder of the Duke of Buckingham occafioned; the fteadinefs with which the King received the news in the chapel deferved indeed to be refcued from oblivion.

Neither of thefe pieces that feem to carry their own dates could have been the fudden effufion of

*Preface to his Fables. Dr. J.

Q 4

fancy.

fancy. In the verses on the Prince's escape, the prediction of his marriage with the Princefs of France must have been written after the event; in the other, the promifes of the King's kindnefs to the defcendants of Buckingham, which could not be properly praised till it had appeared by its effects, fhew that time was taken for revifion and improvement. It is not known that they were published till they appeared long afterward with other poems.

Waller was not one of thofe idolaters of praise who cultivate their minds at the expence of their fortunes. Rich as was by inheritance, he took care early to grow richer, by marrying Mrs. Banks, a great heiress in the city, whom the intereft of the court was employed to obtain for Mr. Crofts. Having brought him a fon, who died young, and a daughter, who was afterwards married to Mr. Dormer of Oxfordshire, fhe died in childbed, and left him a widower of about five-and-twenty, gay and wealthy, to please himself with another marriage.

Being too young to refift beauty, and probably too vain to think himself refiftible, he fixed his heart, perhaps half fondly and half ambitiously, upon the Lady Dorothea Sidney, eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester, whom he courted by all the poetry in which Sachariffa is celebrated; the name is derived from the Latin appellation of fugar, and implies, if it means any thing, a fpiritless mildnefs, and dull good-nature, fuch as excites rather tendernefs than efteem, and fuch as, though always treated with kindness, is never honoured or admired,

Yet he defcribes Sachariffa as a fublime predominating beauty, of lofty charms, and imperious influence,

influence, on whom he looks with amazement rather than fondness, whofe chains he wishes, though in vain, to break, and whofe presence is wine that inflames to madness.

His acquaintance with this high-born dame gave Wit no opportunity of boasting its influence; she was not to be fubdued by the powers of verfe, but rejected his addreffes, it is faid, with difdain, and drove him away to folace his disappointment with Amoret or Phillis. She married in 1639 the Earl of Sunderland, who died at Newberry in the King's cause; and, in her old age, meeting fomewhere with Waller, asked him, when he would again write fuch verfes upon her; "When you are as young, Madam,” faid he," and as handfome as you were then."

In this part of his life it was that he was known to Clarendon, among the reft of the men who wese eminent in that age for genius and literature; but known fo little to his advantage, that they who read his character will not much condemn Sachariffa, that she did not defcend from her rank to his embraces, nor think every excellence comprised in wit.

The Lady was, indeed, inexorable; but his uncommon qualifications, though they had no power upon her, recommended him to the fcholars and statesmen; and undoubtedly many beauties of that time, however they might receive his love, were proud of his praises. Who they were, whom he` dignifies with poetical names, cannot now be known. Amoret, according to Mr. Fenton, was the Lady Sophia Murray. Perhaps by traditions preferved in families more may be discovered.

·་

From

From the verfes written at Penfhurft, it has been collected that he diverted his difappointment by a voyage; and his biographers, from his poem on the Whales, think it not improbable that he vifited the Bermudas; but it seems much more likely that he fhould amufe himself with forming an imaginary fcene, than that fo important an incident, as a visit to America, fhould have been left floating in conjec tural probability.

From his twenty-eighth to his thirty-fifth year, he wrote his pieces on the Reduction of Sallee; on the Reparation of St. Paul's; to the King on his Navy; the panegyrick on the Queen Mother; the two poems to the Earl of Northumberland; and perhaps others, of which the time cannot be dif covered.

When he had loft all hopes of Sacharissa, he looked round him for an eafier conqueft, and gained a lady of the family of Breffe, or Breaux. The time of his marriage is not exactly known. It has not been discovered that this wife was won by his poetry; nor is any thing told of her, but that the brought him many children. He doubtlefs praifed fome whom he would have been afraid to marry, and perhaps married one whom he would have been afhamed to praife. Many qualities contribute to domeftick happinefs, upon which poetry has no colours to beftow; and many airs and fallies may delight imagination, which he who flatters them never can approve. There are charms made only for diftant admiration, No fpectacle is nobler than a blaze.

The

Of this wife, his biographers have recorded that gave him five fons and eight daughters.