EDMUND WALLER. EDMUND WALLER, born at Coleshill, Hertfordshire, in March, 1605, was the son of Robert Waller, Esq. a gentleman of an ancient family and good fortune, who married a sister of the celebrated John Hampden. The death of his father during his infancy left him heir to an estate of 35001. a year, at that period an ample fortune. He was educated first at Eton, whence he was removed to King's College in Cambridge. His election to parliament was as early as between his sixteenth or seventeenth year; and it was not much later that he made his appearance as a poet and it is remarkable that a copy of verses which he addressed to Prince Charles, in his eighteenth year, exhibits a style and character of versification as perfectly formed as those of his maturest productions. He again served in parliament before he was of age; and he continued his services to a later period. Not insensible of the value of wealth, he augmented his paternal fortune by marriage with a rich city heiress. In the long intermissions of parliament which occurred after 1628, he retired to his mansion of Beaconsfield, where he continued his classical studies, under the direction of his kinsman Morley, afterwards bishop of Winchester; and he obtained admission to a society of able men and polite scholars, of whom Lord Falkland was the connecting medium. Waller had a brother-in-law, named Tomkyns, who was clerk of the queen's council, and pos sessed great influence in the city among the wars loyalists. On consulting together, they thought i would be possible to raise a powerful party, whic might oblige the parliament to adopt pacific mea sures, by resisting the payment of the taxes levied for the support of the war. About this time Sir Nicholas Crispe formed a design of more dangerous import, which was that of exciting the king's friends in the city to an open resistance e the authority of parliament; and for that purpose he obtained a commission of array from his majesty. This plan appears to have been originally unconnected with the other; yet the commission was made known to Waller and Tomkyns, and the whole was compounded into a horrid and dreadful plot. Waller and Tomkyns were apprehended. when the pusillanimity of the former disclosed the whole secret. "He was so confounded with fear,” (says Lord Clarendon,)" that he confessed what ever he had heard, said, thought, or seen, all that he knew of himself, and all that he suspected of others, without concealing any person, of what de gree or quality socver, or any discourse which be had ever upon any occasion entertained with them.” The conclusion of this business was, that Tomkyns and Chaloner, another conspirator, were hanged and that Waller was expelled the House, tried, and condemned; but after a year's imprisonment, and a fine of ten thousand pounds, was suffered to g into exile. He chose Rouen for his first place of foreign exile, where he lived with his wife till lis removal to Paris. In that capital he maintained the appearance of a man of fortune, and enter Waller became a widower at the age of twentyfive; he did not, however, spend much time in mourning, but declared himself the suitor of Lady Dorothea Sydney, eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester, whom he has immortalized under the poetical name of Saccharissa. She is described by him as a majestic and scornful beauty; and he seems to delight more in her contrast, the gentler Amoret, who is supposed to have been a Lady So-tained hospitably, supporting this style of living phia Murray. Neither of these ladies, however, was won by his poetic strains; and, like another man, he consoled himself in a second marriage. When the king's necessities compelled him, in 1640, once more to apply to the representatives of the people, Waller, who was returned for Agmondesham, decidedly took part with the members who thought that the redress of grievances should precede a vote for supplies; and he made an energetic speech on the occasion. He continued during three years to vote in general with the Opposition in the Long Parliament, but did not enter into all their measures. In particular, he employed much cool argument against the proposal for the abolition of Episcopacy; and he spoke with freedom and severity against some other plans of the House. In fact, he was at length become a zealous loyalist in his inclinations; and his conduct under the difficulties into which this attachment involved him became a source of his indelible disgrace. A short narrative will suffice for the elucidation of this Potter. chiefly by the sale of his wife's jewels. At length, after the lapse of ten years, being reduced to what he called his rump jewel, he thought it time to ap ply for permission to return to his own country. He obtained this licence, and was also restored to his estate, though now diminished to half its former rental. Here he fixed his abode, at a house buit by himself, at Beaconsfield; and he renewed his courtly strains by adulation to Cromwell, now Protector, to whom his mother was related. Te this usurper the noblest tribute of his muse was paid. When Charles II. was restored to the crown, and past character was lightly regarded, the stains of that of Waller were forgotten, and his wit and poetry procured him notice at court, and admission to the highest circles. He had also sufficient interest to obtain a seat in the House of Commons, in all the parliaments of that reign. The king's gracious manners emboldened him to ask for the vacant place of provost of Eton college, which was granted him; but Lord Clarendon, then Lord TO AMORET. FAIR! that you may truly know, If sweet Amoret complains, And, those scorching beams to shun If the soul had free election I would not thus long have borne 'Tis amazement more than love, Unto that adored dame: For 'tis not unlike the same, Then smile on me, and I will prove Wonder is shorter-liv'd than love. TO AMORET. AMORET, the Milky Way, Fram'd of many nameless stars! The smooth stream, where none can say, He this drop to that prefers! Amoret, my lovely foe! Tell me where thy strength does lie? Where the power that charms us so? In thy soul, or in thy eye? By that snowy neck alone, Or thy grace in motion seen, No such wonders could be done; Yet thy waist is straight, and clean, As Cupid's shaft, or Hermes' rod: And powerful too, as either god. OF LOVE. ANGER, in hasty words, or blows, For women, born to be control'd, While her high pride does scarce descend So the tall stag, upon the brink OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE DWARFS DESIGN OF Chance make others wive, To him, for whom Heav'n seem'd to frame, Thrice happy is that humble pair, As if the world held none but them. To him the fairest nymphs do show Ah! Chloris! that kind Nature thus A PANEGYRIC TO MY LORD PROTECTOR, WHILE with a strong, and yet a gentle, hand, Let partial spirits stili aloud complain, Above the waves as Neptune show'd his face, Your drooping country, torn with civil hate, Restor'd by you, is made a glorious state; The seat of empire, where the Irish come, And the unwilling Scots, to fetch their doom. The sea's our own: and now, all nations greet, Heaven (that hath plac'd this island to give law, Whether this portion of the world were rent, Hither th' oppress'd shall henceforth resort, Justice to crave, and succour, at your court; And then your highness, not for our's alone, But for the world's protector shall be known. Fame, swifter than your winged navy, flies Through every land, that near the ocean lies; Sounding your name, and telling dreadful news To all that piracy and rapine use. With such a chief the meanest nation blest, Lords of the world's great waste, the ocean, we Angels and we have this prerogative Our little world, the image of the great, When for more worlds the Macedonian cry'd, He safely might old troops to battle lead, Whom the old Roman wall, so ill confin'd, They, that henceforth must be content to know No warmer region than their hills of snow, May blame the sun; but must extol your grace, Which in our senate hath allow'd them place. Prefer'd by conquest, happily o'erthrown, Like favour find the Irish, with like fate Holland, to gain your friendship, is content In our late fight, when cannons did diffuse, Preventing posts, the terrour and the news, Our neighbour princes trembled at their roar : But our conjunction makes them tremble more. Your never-failing sword made war to cease, And now you heal us with the acts of peace; Our minds with bounty and with awe engage, Invite affection, and restrain our rage. Less pleasure take brave minds in battles won, To pardon, willing, and to punish, loth, You strike with one hand, but you heal with both; When Fate or errour had our age misled, One! whose extraction from an ancient line Oft have we wonder'd, how you hid in peace Your private life did a just pattern give, But when your troubled country call'd you forth, Still, as you rise, the state, exalted too, The rising sun night's vulgar lights destroys. Had you, some ages past, this race of glory This Cæsar found; and that ungrateful age, That sun once set, a thousand meaner stars If Rome's great senate could not wield that sword, You! that had taught them to subdue their foes, |