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 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 himfelf with another marriage.

Being too young to refift beauty, and probably too vain to think himself resistible, he fixed his heart, perhaps half fondly and half ambitioufly, 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 fpiritlefs 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 fondnefs, whose 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; the was VOL. II.

not

not to be fubdued by the powers of yerfe, but rejected his addreffes, it is faid, with difdain, and drove him away to folace his difappointment with Amoret or Phillis. She married in 1639 the Earl of Sunderland, who

*It is by no means clear, that Waller ever made his perfonal addreffes to this lady, or that a fenfe of her worth and the dignity of that truly noble family from which fhe 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 verse, her pa rents were folicitous about difpofing of her. Among the Sidney papers are fundry letters from her mother, the countefs of Leicester, to the earl her husband, abroad, wherein the expreffes a ftrong defire to have her daughter well matched. In one she says, "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 the 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 purpose. of her daughter's marriage:

"Now concerning Doll, of whom I can neither say what I defire, "nor what I thought I fhould have done; for I find my lord Love"lace fo uncertain and fo idle, fo much addicted to mean company,

and fo enfily 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 laft we have not feen him, though "he be every day near us. Many particulars I could tell you of his

wildness; but the knowledge of them would be of no ufe to you, "fince he is likely to be a ftranger to us; for though his estate 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 filter made fair fhews of good intentions to us, yet, in the end, we find them just as I expected, fullof 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, ftood 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, fecms alone to have been worthy of her.

By

who died at Newberry in the king's cause; 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 handsome, 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 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 Sachariffa, that the did not defcend from her rank to his embraces, nor think every excellence comprifed in wit.

The Lady was, indeed, 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 praifes. 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 intert it, as containing the nobleft sentiments of esteem and conjugal affection that language can exprefs. Writing to her lord at raris, lady Leicester thus concludes her letter: "All the children I will leave here [at Penf"hurft], according to your advice; and, if you can ipare Daniel, I "defire that you will fend him to me for the time or 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 elfe I "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 difcourte of nothing with pleature "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 said that I am in love; and this is all that you "fall at this time hear from Your, D. LEYCESTER."

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

covered.

From the verses written at Penfhurft, it has been collected that he diverted his difappointment by a voyand his biographers, from his poem on the age; Whales, think it not improbable that he vifited the Bermudas; but it seems much more likely that he should amuse himfelf with forming an imaginary fcene, than that fo important an incident, as a vifit to America, should 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 discovered.

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 praised 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 happiness, 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.

1

Of

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

During the long interval of parliament, he is repre fented as living among thofe 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 themselves already undone can

never apprehend themselves 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.

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 purpofe; 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 pasfage; and in another has copied him, without quoting. Religion," fays Waller, ought to be the first thing in our purpofe and delires; but that which is "firft in dignity is not always to precede in order of Q3

"time;