COWLEY.

HE Life of Cowley, notwithstanding the penury

TH

of English biography, has been written by Dr. Sprat, an author whofe pregnancy of imagination and elegance of language have defervedly fet him high in the ranks of literature; but his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence, has produced a funeral oration rather than a history: he has given the character, not the life of Cowley; for he writes with fo little detail, that scarcely any thing is distinctly known, but all is fhewn confused and enlarged through the mift of panegyrick.

ABRAHAM COWLEY was born in the year one thousand fix hundred and eighteen. His father was a grocer, whofe condition Dr. Sprat conceals under the general appellation of a citizen; and, what would probably not have been lefs carefully fuppreffed, the omiffion of his name in the register of St. Dunftan's parish, gives reafon to fufpect that his father was a fectary. Whoever he was, he died before the birth of his fon, and confequently left him to the care of his mother; whom Wood reprefents as struggling earneftly to procure him a literary education, and who,

as the lived to the age of eighty, had her folicitude rewarded by feeing her fon eminent, and, I hope, by seeing him fortunate, and partaking his profperity. We know at leaft, from Sprat's account, that he always acknowledged her care, and justly paid the dues of filial gratitude.

In the window of his mother's apartment lay Spenfer's Fairy Queen; in which he very early took delight to read, till, by feeling the charms of verfe, he became, as he relates, irrecoverably a poet. Such are the accidents, which, fometimes remembered, and perhaps fometimes forgotten, produce that particular defignation of mind, and propenfity for fome certain fcience or employment, which is commonly called Genius. The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to fome particular direction. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great Painter of the prefent age, had the first fondness for his art excited by the perufal of Richardfon's treatife.

By his mother's folicitation he was admitted into Weftminster-school, where he was foon diftinguifhed. He was wont, fays Sprat, to relate, "That he had "this defect in his memory at that time, that his "teachers never could bring it to retain the ordinary "rules of grammar.”

This is an inftance of the natural defire of man to propagate a wonder. It is furely very difficult to tell any thing as it was heard, when Sprat could not refrain from amplifying a commodious incident, though the book to which he prefixed his narrative contained its confutation. A memory admitting fome things, and rejecting others, an intellectual digeftion that concocted the pulp of learning, but refused the husks,

had

had the appearance of an inftinctive elegance, of a particular provifion made by Nature for literary politenefs. But in the author's own honest relation, the marvel vanishes: he was, he fays, fuch "an enemy "to all constraint, that his mafter never could prevail " on him to learn the rules without book." He does not tell that he could not learn the rules, but that, being able to perform his exercises without them, and being an enemy to constraint," he spared himself the

labour.

Among the English poets, Cowley, Milton, and Pope, might be faid "to lifp in numbers;" and have given fuch early proofs, not only of powers of language, but of comprehenfion of things, as to more tardy minds seems scarcely credible. But of the learned puerilities of Cowley there is no doubt, fince a volume of his poems was not only written but printed in his thirteenth year; containing, with other poetical compofitions, "The tragical History of Pyramus and Thisbe," written when he was ten years old; and "Conftantia "and Philetus," written two years after.

While he was yet at fchool he produced a comedy called "Love's Riddle," though it was not published till he had been fome time at Cambridge. This comedy is of the paftoral kind, which requires no acquaintance with the living world, and therefore the time at which it was compofed adds little to the wonders of Cowley's minority.

In 1636, he was removed to Cambridge, where he continued his ftudies with great intenfenefs; for he is faid to have written, while he was yet a young ftudent, the greater part of his "Davideis;" a work of which the materials could not have been collected without the ftudy

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study of many years, but by a mind of the greateft vigour and activity.

Two years after his fettlement at Cambridge he. published "Love's Riddle," with a poetical dedication to Sir Kenelm Digby; of whofe acquaintance all his contemporaries feem to have been ambitious and "Naufragium Joculare," a comedy written in Latin, but without due attention to the ancient models; for it is not loose verfe, but mere profe. It was printed, with a dedication in verfe to Dr. Comber, master of the college; but having neither the facility of a popular nor the accuracy of a learned work, it feems 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 fcholars. 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 mafter of arts, he was, by the prevalence of the parliament, ejected 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 laft collection of his works; and fo diftinguished himself by the warmth of his loyalty, and the elegance of his converfation, that he gained the kindnefs and confidence of thofe who attended the King, and amongst others of Lord Falkland, whofe notice caft a luftre on all to whom it was extended.

About

About the time when Oxford was furrendered to the parliament, he followed the Queen to Paris, where he became fecretary to the Lord Jermin, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, and was employed in fuch correspondence as the royal cause required,, and particularly in cyphering and decyphering the letters that paffed between the King and Queen; an employment of the highest confidence and honour. So wide was his province of intelligence, that, for feveral years, it filled all his days and two or three nights in the week.

In the year 1647, his "Mistress" was published; for he imagined, as he declared in his preface to a fubfequent edition, that "poets are scarce thought "freemen of their company without paying fome duties, or obliging themselves to be true to Love."

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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 basis of all excellence is truth: he that profeffes love ought to feel its power. Petrarch was a real lover, and Laura doubtless 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 reality was in love but once, and then never had refolution to tell his paffion.

This confideration cannot but abate, in fome meafure, 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 elabo

* Barnefii Anacreontem. Orig. edit.

rate