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Some years afterwards, bufinefs," fays Sprat, paffed of course into other hands;" and Cowley, being no longer ufeful at Paris, was in 1656 fent back into England, that, " under pretence of privacy "and retirement, he might take occafion of giving "notice of the posture of things in this nation."

Soon after his return to London, he was feized by fome meffengers of the ufurping powers, who were fent out in queft of another man; and being examined, was put into confinement, from which he was not difmiffed without the fecurity of a thousand pounds given by Dr. Scarborough.

This year he published his poems, with a preface, in which he seems to have inferted fomething, fuppreffed in fubfequent editions, which was interpreted to denote fome relaxation of his loyalty. In this preface he declares, that "his defire had been for "fome days paft, and did ftill very vehemently con"tinue, to retire himself to fome of the American "plantations, and to forfake this world for ever."

From the obloquy which the appearance of submiffion to the ufurpers brought upon him, his biographer has been very diligent to clear him, and indeed it does not feem to have leffened his reputation. His wish for retirement we can easily believe to be undiffembled; a man haraffed in one kingdom, and perfecuted in another, who, after a course of bufinefs that employed all his days and half his nights in cyphering and decyphering, comes to his own country and fteps into a prifon, will be willing enough to retire to fome place of quiet and of fafety. Yet let neither our reverence for a gepius, nor our pity for a fufferer, difpofe us to forget

that,

that, if his activity was virtue, his retreat was cowardice.

He then took upon himself the character of Phy- ! fician, ftill, according to Sprat, with intention, "to "diffemble the main defign of his coming over;" and, as Mr. Wood relates, "complying with the "men then in power (which was much taken notice of by the royal party), he obtained an order to be "created Doctor of Phyfick, which being done to "his mind (whereby he gained the ill-will of fome "of his friends), he went into France again, having "made a copy of verfes on Oliver's death."

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This is no favourable reprefentation, yet even in this not much wrong can be difcovered. How far he complied with the men in power, is to be enquired before he can be blamed. It is not faid that he told them any fecrets, or affifted them by intelligence or any other act. If he only promised to be quiet, that they in whofe hands he was might free him from confinement, he did what no law of fociety prohibits.

The man whofe mifcarriage in a juft caufe has put him in the power of his enemy may, without any violation of his integrity, regain his liberty, or preferve his life, by a promife of neutrality: for, the ftipulation gives the enemy nothing which he had not before; the neutrality of a captive may be always fecured by his imprifonment or death. He that is at the difpofal of another may not promise to aid him in any injurious act, because no power can compel active obedience. He may engage to do nothing, but not to do ill.

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There is reafon to think that Cowley promised little. It does not appear that his compliance gained him confidence enough to be trufted without fecurity, for the bond of his bail was never cancelled; nor that it made him think himself fecure, for at that diffolution of government, which followed the death of Oliver, he returned into France, where he refumed his former ftation, and staid till the Reftoration.

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"He continued," fays his biographer, "these bonds till the general deliverance;" it is therefore to be fuppofed, that he did not go to France, and act again for the King, without the confent of his bondíman; that he did not fhew his loyalty at the hazard of his friend, but by his friend's permiffion.

Of the verfes on Oliver's death, in which Wood's narrative feems to imply fomething encomiaftick, there has been no appearance. There is a difcourfe concerning his government, indeed, with verfes intermixed, but fuch as certainly gained its author no friends among the abettors of ufurpation.

A doctor of phyfick however he was made at Oxford in December, 1657; and in the commencement of the Royal Society, of which an account has been given by Dr. Birch, he appears bufy among the experimental philofophers with the title of Dr. Cowley.

There is no reafon for fuppofing that he ever attempted practice; but his preparatory ftudies have contributed fomething to the honour of his country. Confidering Botany as neceffary to a phyfician, he retired into Kent to gather plants; and as the predo

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minance of a favourite ftudy affects all fubordinate operations of the intellect, Botany in the mind of Cowley turned into Poetry. He composed in Latin feveral books on Plants, of which the first and fecond difplay the qualities of Herbs, in elegiac verfe; the third and fourth, the beauties of Flowers in various measures; and in the fifth and fixth, the uses of Trees, in heroick numbers.

At the fame time were produced, from the fame univerfity, the two great Poets, Cowley and Milton, of diffimilar genius, of oppofite principles; but concurring in the cultivation of Latin Poetry, in which the English, till their works and May's poem appeared *, seemed unable to contest the palm with any other of the lettered nations.

If the Latin performances of Cowley and Milton be compared (for May I hold to be fuperior to both), the advantage feems to lie on the fide of Cowley, Milton is generally content to exprefs the thoughts of the ancients in their language; Cowley, without much lofs of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.

At the Restoration, after all the diligence of his long fervice, and with confcioufnefs not only of the merit of fidelity, but of the dignity of great abilities, he naturally expected ample preferments; and, that he might not be forgotten by his own fault, wrote a Song of Triumph. But this was a time of fuch

* By May's Poem we are here to understand a continuation of Lucan's Pharfalia to the death of Julius Cæfar, by Thomas May, an eminent poet and hiftorian, who flourished in the reigns of James and Charles I. and of whom a life is given in the Biogra phia Britannica. H.

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general hope, that great numbers were inevitably difappointed; and Cowley found his reward very tediously delayed. He had been promised by both Charles the Firft and Second, the Mastership of the Savoy; but he loft it," fays Wood, "by certain "perfons, enemies to the Mufes."

The neglect of the court was not his only mortification; having, by fuch alteration as he thought proper, fitted his old Comedy of "The Guardian" for the ftage, he produced it under the title of "The Cutter of Coleman-ftreet." It was treated on the stage with great feverity, and was afterwards cenfured as a fatire on the King's party.

Mr. Dryden, who went with Mr. Sprat to the first exhibition, related to Mr. Dennis, "that, when "they told Cowley how little favour had been fhewn "him, he received the news of his ill fuccefs, not ss with fo much firmnefs as might have been ex"pected from fo great a man."

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What firmnefs they expected, or what weakness Cowley difcovered, cannot be known. miffes his end will never be as much pleafed as he that attains it, even when he can impute no part of his failure to himself; and, when the end is to please the multitude, no man, perhaps, has a right, in things admitting of gradation and comparifon, to throw the whole blame upon his judges, and to

* 1663.

Here is an error in the defignation of this comedy, which our author copied from the title-page of the latter editions of -Cowley's works: the title of the play itfelf is without the article, Cutter of Coleman-ftreet," and that becaufe a merry fharking fellow about the town, named Cutter, is a principal character in it. H.

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