which could not be properly praifed 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 afterwards with other poems.

Waller was not one of those idolaters of praise who cultivate their minds at the expence of their fortunes. Rich as he 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, eldeft 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 spiritlefs mildness, and dull good-nature, fuch as excites rather tenderness than efteem, and fuch as, though always treated with kindnefs, is never honoured or admired.

Yet he defcribes Sachariffa as a fublime predominating beauty, of lofty charms, and imperious influence, on whom he looks with amazement rather than fondness, whofe chains he wishes, though in vain, to break, and whofe prefence is wine that inflames to madness.

His acquaintance with this high-born dame gave wit no opportunity of boafting its influence; fhe was VOL. II.

not

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, wha

* It is by no means clear, that Waller ever made his personal addreffes to this lady, or that a fense of her worth and the dignity of that truly noble family from which he was defcended, might not awe him into filence on the fubject of marriage, for it is certain that, at the time when Waller was celebrating her in verfe, her parents were folicitous about difpofing of her. Among the Sidney papers are fundry letters from her mother, the countess of Leicester, to the earl her husband, abroad, wherein the expreffes a ftrong defire to have her daughter well matched. In one fhe fays, "It "would joy me much to receive fome hope of that lord's addreffes "to Doll which once you writ of to me." In another she profeffes to doubt, that lord Holland is not real to lord Devonshire's marrying Doll; and in another is the following paffage to the fame purpofe of her daughter's marriage:

"Now concerning Doll, of whom I can neither fay what I defire, my lord Love"nor what I thought I should have done; for I find "lace fo uncertain and fo idle, fo much addicted to mean company, and fo easily drawn to debauchery, as it is now my study how to "break off with him in fuch a manner as it may be faid that we re

fufed him; for fince Sunday last we have not feen him, though "hebe every day near us. Many particulars I could tell you of his "wildnefs; but the knowledge of them would be of no ufe to you, "fince he is likely to be a stranger to us; for though his eftate is "good, his perfon pretty enough, and his wit much more than "ordinary, yet dare I not venture to give Doll to him. And con"cerning my lord of Devonshire, I can fay as little to please you; "for though his mother and fitter made fair fhews of good intentions to us, yet, in the end, we find them juft as I expected, full "of deceit and jugling" Vide Collins's Collection of the Sidney Papers, vol. II. p. 452, 464, 472, 494.

It no where appears that any offers, on the part of Mr. Waller, stood in the way of that fettlement of her daughter, which this lady was thus anxious in promoting; but her cares for this purpose were terminated in the difpofal of her to a gallant young nobleman, who, of all her fuitors, feems alone to have been worthy of her.

By

who died at Newberry in the king's caufe; and, in her old age, meeting fomewhere with Waller, afked him, when he would again write fuch verfes upon her; "When you are as young, Madam," faid he, "and 66 as handfome, as you were then."

In this part of his life it was that he was known to 12 Clarendon, among the reft of the men who were 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 Sacharifla, that fhe did not defcend from her rank to his embraces, nor think every excellence comprised in wit.

The Lady was, indéed, inexorable; but his uncommon qualifications, though they had no power upon her, recommended him to the scholars 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

By the way, he was, at the time of his marriage, only lord Spencer, not being created earl of Sunderland till near four years

after.

And here let me take notice of a paffage in one of the letters above referred to, and for the honour of the female fex infert it, as containing the nobleft fentiments of esteem and conjugal affection that language can exprefs. Writing to her lord at Paris, lady Leicester thus concludes her letter: "All the children I will leave here at Penfa "hurft], according to your advice; and, if you can fpare Daniel, I "defire that you will fend him to me for the time of my being at "London. Mr. Seladine comes in with your letter, whom I am en"gaged to entertain a little; befides, it is fupper time, or else t "fhould bestow one fide of paper in making love to you and fince "I may with modefty exprefs it, I will fay that if it be love to think on you fleeping and waking, to difcourfe of hothing with pleasure but what concerns you, to wish myself every hour with you, and "to pray for you, with as much devotion as for my own foul, then certainly it may be faid that I am in love; and this is all that you * fhall at this time hear from Your, D. LEYCESTER."

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A

names, cannot now be known. Amoret, according to Mr. Fenton, was the Lady Sophia Murray. Perhaps by traditions preserved in families more may be difcovered.

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 feems much more likely that he should amufe himself with forming an imaginary scene, than that fo important an incident, as a vifit to America, fhould have been left floating in conjectural 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 difcovered.

When he had loft all hopes of Sachariffa, 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 difcovered that this wife was won by his poetry; nor is any thing told of her, but that he brought him many children. He doubtlefs praifed fone 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.

Of

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

During the long interval of parliament, he is reprefented as living among those with whom it was most honourable to converfe, and enjoying an exuberant fortune with that independence and liberty of speech and conduct which wealth ought always to produce. He was however confidered as the kinfman of Hampden, and was therefore fuppofed by the courtiers not to favour them.

When the parliament was called in 1640, it appeared that Waller's political character had not been miftaken. The King's demand of a fupply produced one of those noify fpeeches which difaffection and difcontent regularly dictate; a fpeech filled with hyperbolical complaints of imaginary grievances. "They," fays he, "who think themfelves already undone can never apprehend themfelves in danger; and they "who have nothing left can never give freely." Political truth is equally in danger from the praises of courtiers, and the exclamations of patriots.

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He then proceeds to rail at the clergy, being fure at that time of a favourable audience. His topick is fuch as will always ferve its purpose; an accufation of acting and preaching only for preferment: and he exhorts the Commons carefully to provide for their protection aginft Pulpit Law.

It always gratifies curiofity to trace a fentiment. Waller has in this fpeech quoted Hooker in one paffage; and in another has copied him, without quoting.

Religion," fays Waller," ought to be the firft "thing in our purpofe and defires; but that which is "first in dignity is not always to precede in order of "time;

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