Cromwell.

EDMUND WALLER.

DMUND WALLER was born March 3, 1605, at Coleshill, Hertfordshire. His father was Robert Waller, Esq., of Amersham, Bucks; his mother, Anne, daughter of Griffith Hampden, Esq., of Hampden, Bucks, and aunt of the celebrated John Hampden, who was first cousin of Edmund Waller and also of Oliver Waller was educated at Eton, from whence he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge. It is said that he was returned at the age of sixteen for the borough of Amersham. If so, he must have sat as a silent member until he was of age. His father having died during his childhood, Waller, being the eldest son, succeeded to an estate of three thousand five hundred pounds a year. He married, early in life, Ann, the daughter of Edward Banks, a wealthy citizen of London, by which alliance he greatly augmented his property. At the age of five and twenty Waller was left a widower with a son and a daughter. Within a short period he began to offer his admiration to Lady Dorothea Sydney (eldest daughter of the earl of Leicester and cousin to the celebrated Sir Philip Sydney), who is celebrated in his poetry under the name of "Sacharissa." Lady Dorothea scornfully rejected his advances and allied herself with Henry, Lord Spencer, who was created earl of Sunderland, and was killed at the battle of Newbury, September,

1643. An anecdote is told of the scornful countess in later life meeting Waller and asking him when he would again write her such complimentary verses as he once did, to which he replied, "When you are as young, madam, and as handsome, as you were then." The next object of Waller's admiration was the Lady Sophia Murray, whose charms are rehearsed in Waller's verses under the title of "Amoret." Amoret does not appear to have smiled upon the rich and amorous poet. Before long he married a Miss Mary Breaux (or Bresse), who appears to have been a woman with great domestic virtues and a large family. The poet by this marriage had to encounter the prosaic fact of being the father to thirteen children.

Waller occupied a seat in the House of Commons as the representative of various boroughs for a considerable portion of his life. He sat in Parliaments of James I., Charles I., the Commonwealth, Charles II. and James II. In 1640, after an interruption of twelve years, when the Parliament was reassembled, Waller joined the party in opposition to the court. He was supposed to be greatly influenced by his connection with the Hampden family. It was not long before he retreated from his political position, and, on the king setting up his standard at Nottingham, Waller contributed a thousand broad pieces. to the royal chest. In the House of Commons he spoke openly on the king's side. After the battle of Edgehill, in 1643, Waller was one of the commissioners sent by Parliament to confer with the king at Oxford.

In the May of the same year the plot known as "Waller's plot" was discovered. It is difficult to determine precisely what this plot was. It was asserted by Waller and his friends that they were only engaged in making lists of the inhabitants of London to determine the numbers of royalists and of Parliamentarians, and thereby draw together for a common object all those who were well disposed toward the king. But at the same moment that this plot was discovered another was revealed which was regarded as connected with it. This was a project of a city merchant, Sir Nicholas Crispe, to raise an armed force to act against the Parliament. Crispe was found to be possessed of a commission of array signed by the king and granted for this purpose. Waller always denied having anything to do with Crispe's plot. His chief confederate in his own scheme was his sister's husband, a Mr. Tomkeyns, clerk of the queen's council. It is remarkable that the commission of array granted to Crispe was in the possession of Tomkeyns and buried for concealment in his garden. The plots were discovered partly by the eavesdropping of a servant concealed behind the hangings of a room in which Waller and Tomkeyns met, and partly by the theft of certain papers carried off by Goode, the chaplain of Waller's sister, who was married to a Mrs. Price, a strong Parliamentarian. Tomkeyns was hung before his own door, in Holborn. Alexander Hampden was imprisoned for life. Others in the plot escaped to the king at Oxford. Waller was arraigned at Guildhall, and (it is said in some lives of him) was condemned to death. After being imprisoned for a year, and after having bribed to such an extent that he very largely decreased his estate, he

was liberated on paying a fine of ten thousand pounds and undertaking to leave the country. He retired to France, and lived first at Rohan, then in Paris. During his exile, in 1645, he published the first edition of his poems. In 1653, through the interest of his connections, Cromwell granted him permission to return to England, when he settled himself at a house he had built near Beaconsfield. He very soon wormed himself. into the favor and liking of the Protector, to whom in 1654 he addressed the most famous of his poems, "A Panegyric to my Lord Protector."

At the Restoration, Waller, as might be expected, was found at court and an enthusiastic supporter of the royal cause. On two occasions when the provostship of Eton was vacant Waller sought that office from the king, but on both occasions his petition failed. It was not to be held by a layman. He sat in all the Parliaments of Charles II. and was the delight of the House; even at eighty years of age he was the liveliest and wittiest man within its walls. He took his seat in the Parliament which assembled on the accession of James II., but did not live to witness the Revolution. He died at his residence at Beaconsfield, October 21, 1687, aged eighty-two, and was buried in the parish church.

Waller is so completely forgotten in the political world that it is unnecessary to say much about his principles-if he had any! He was one of those who accommodated himself with suavity to circumstances, but on the whole it must be said of him that he was at heart a royalist and the chief acts of his life were in support of the royal cause, though when his plot was discovered the weakness

and terror he displayed showed that he had far more thought for his own life and preservation than for the principles he had espoused. His relationship to the Hampdens and connection with Cromwell's family probably saved his life when Tomkeyns was executed. When Waller returned from France, a familiar friendship sprang up between him and Cromwell. It is told of the Protector that on Waller overhearing him converse, at an interview with some of his political friends, in the nauseous cant phraseology of the period, Cromwell apologized to Waller for it, and said, "Cousin Waller, I must talk to these men in their own way.

The general character of Waller's poetry is elegance and gayety. He was always smooth, but seldom strong. Previous to Pope he was the most correct of our poets in diction and versification. His language is famous for its lucidity; and if he never raised the spirit, he certainly did a good work in refining the manner, of English poetry.

THE

J. C. M. BELLEW.

SAMUEL ROGERS.

HE father of Samuel Rogers was a banker and a dissenter, residing at Newington Green, where the author of the "Pleasures of Memory" was born July 30, 1763. He was first sent to a school at Hackney, and afterward to a private tutor at Islington. In 1776, Rogers lost his mother, and on leaving his tutor his wish was to enter the dissenting college at Warrington and become a nonconformist minister. His father had other views, and he was entered as a clerk in the banking-house. Being a delicate youth, he paid frequent visits to the seaside and occupied his leisure

with reading and poetry, for which he had exhibited a taste at a very early age. His first attempts at authorship appeared in the form of a contribution to the Gentleman's Magazine in 1781, entitled "The Scribbler.” They are only to be noticed as being his first essays. His admiration for Dr. Johnson was so great that he determined to call upon and introduce himself to the venerable genius, and, accompanied by a friend, proceeded to Bolt court, Fleet street; but his courage failed him when he placed his hand on the knocker, and they never met. The first volume of Rogers's poems was published in 1786 without a name. fears about its reception by the public were groundless, as it was favorably noticed in the Monthly Review, whereupon he owned himself the author. In 1788 his elder brother and companion in the bankinghouse died. The beautiful lines in the "Pleasures of Memory" commencing,

His

"O thou with whom my heart was wont to share From reason's dawn each pleasure and each care," were descriptive of his character. By his brother's death he became his father's adviser and friend in all that related to business, while his literary fame kept pace with his worldly circumstances. In 1789 he visited Edinburgh and made the acquaintance of Dr. Robertson, the historian; Mackenzie, who wrote "The Man of Feeling;" Dr. Black, Professor Playfair and Mrs. Piozzi, the friend of Dr. Johnson. When the French Revolution broke out, Mr. Rogers, educated as he had been among Whigs and dissenters, took a warm interest in the cause of liberty. He paid a visit to Paris in 1791. In 1792 the "Pleasures of Memory," a poem on which

he had been engaged for six years, was published. It was principally written during his leisure moments in the banking-house. Its success was astonishing; and when the author was known, his reputation was assured. In 1793 his father died. Being in possession of a large fortune, he had ample leisure to indulge his taste in literary society and the fine arts. In 1795 he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Siddons and wrote an epilogue for her, which she delivered on her benefitnight. During his father's life he had made many political friends, among whom were Priestly, Gilbert, Wakefield and Horne Tooke; he was present when the lastnamed individual was committed to the Tower. He considered Tooke the most able man in conversation he had ever met. With Fox and Grattan he was intimate; indeed, his social tastes brought him into friendly intercourse with most of the literary celebrities of his day, and the journal he kept of their sayings and opinions gives us many interesting reminiscences. About the year 1800 he formed the acquaintance of Lord and Lady Holland, and for many years was a welcome visitor at Holland House.

In 1802, Mr. Rogers again visited Paris, when the galleries of the Louvre were crowded by artists from all parts to see the spoils of Italy, Flanders, Spain, etc., which had been carried off by the French. Here he began to study the fine arts and form his judgment upon the masterpieces of those different countries; he also wrote his lines called "The Torso." In 1803 he went to Scotland and became acquainted with Scott, Coleridge and Wordsworth. On his return to London he took a house in St. James's

Place, Westminster, where he resided till his death. This house he enriched with all that was beautiful in art. The drawingroom mantelpiece was by Flaxman; a sideboard and a cabinet were carved by Chantrey, then a journeyman; a small cabinet for antiquities for antiquities was designed by Stothard, and to a most valuable collection of pictures he added a rich selection of Greek vases and rare engravings. rare engravings. Here, surrounded by every refinement, he delighted to gather round him men that were eminent in letters and art. In 1812, Columbus was published; in 1814, Jacqueline; and in 1819, Human Life. This he considered his best work. In 1822 appeared the first part of Italy, and for some time afterward the authorship was not known. In 1828 he published the second part, with his name; but the poem was not so successful as he hoped, so he made a bonfire of the unsold copies and set himself the task of improving it. In 1830 he published a magnificent edition. of Italy illustrated with engravings after drawings done for him by Stothard, Turner and other artists. In 1834 he also published a similarly illustrated edition of his former

poems.

When Wordsworth died, in 1850, Mr. Rogers was the solitary survivor of that long list of poets with almost all of whom he had lived on terms of intimacy. By Queen Victoria's command, Prince Albert wrote and offered him the laureateship, which he declined, on account of his advanced age. The prince had previously offered him an honorary degree at Cambridge, but this also he had refused. He died in St. James's Place, December 18, 1855, and it was only during the last two years of his life that he