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well, he by degrees drew that refpect to his parts, which always carries fome compaffion to the perfon, that he got leave to compound for his tranfgreffion, and them to accept of ten thousand pounds for his liberty; whereupon he had leave to recol•lect himself in another country (for his liberty was

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to be banishment) how miferable he had made him⚫ felf in obtaining that leave to live out of his own. And there cannot be a greater evidence of the ⚫inestimable value of his parts, than that he lived in the good affection and efteem of many, the pity of moft, and the reproach and fcorn of few, or • none.'

After this ftorm had fubfided, Mr. Waller travelled into France, where he continued feveral years. He took over his lady's jewels to fupport him, and lived very hofpitably at Paris, and except that of lord Jermyn, afterwards earl of St. Alban's, who was the Queen of England's prime minifter when the kept her court there, there was no English table but Mr. Waller's; which was fo coftly to him, that he ufed to fay, he was at laft come to the Rump Jewel. Upon his return to England, fuch was the unfteadiness of his temper, he fided with thofe in power, particularly the Lord Protector, with whom he lived in great intimacy as a companion, tho' he feems not to have acted for him. He often declared that he found Cromwell very well acquainted with the Greek and Roman ftory; and he frequently took notice, that in the midft of their discourse, a fervant has come to tell him, that such and fuch attended; upon which Cromwell would rife and ftop them; talking at the door, where Mr. Waller could over-hear him fay, • The lord ⚫ will reveal, the lord will help,' and feveral fuch expreffions; which when he returned to Mr. Waller, he excufed, faying, Coufin Waller, I must talk to these men after the r own way.'

In 1654 he wrote a panegyric on Oliver Crom well, as he did a poem on his death in 1658. At the restoration he was treated with great civility by King Charles II, who always made him one of his party in his diverfions at the duke of Buckingham's, and other places, and gave him a grant of the provofthip of Eaton-College; tho' that grant proved of no effect. He fat in feveral Parliaments after the reftoration, and wrote a panegyric upon his Majefty's return, which however, was thought to fall much short of that which he before had wrote on Cromwell. The King one day asked him in raillery, How is it Waller, that you wrote a better encomium on Cromwell than on me.' May it pleafe your Majesty, anfwered the bard, with the most admirable fineness, Poets generally fucceed belt in fiction.

Mr. Waller continued in the full vigour of his genius to the end of his life; his natural vi vacity bore up against his years, and made his company agreeable to the laft; which appears from the following little ftory.

King James II. having ordered the earl of Sunderland to defire Mr. Waller to attend him one af ternoon; when he came, the King carried him into his clofet, and there asked him how he liked fuch a picture? Sir, fays Mr. Waller, my eyes are dim, and I know not whofe it is.' The King anfwered, It is the Princefs of Orange;' and fays Mr. Waller, fhe is like the greatest woman in the ' world.' Whom do you call fo, faid the King,' Queen Elizabeth, faid he.' I wonder, Mr. Waller, replied the King, you should think fo; but I mult confefs, fhe had a wife council ;' and Sir, faid Mr. Waller, did you ever know a Fool chufe a wife 'one.'

Mr. Waller died of a dropfy October 21, 1687. Finding his diftemper encrcafe, and having yield

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ed all hopes of recovery, he ordered his fon-inlaw Dr. Peter Birch, to defire all his children to join with him, and give him the facrament. He at the fame time profefed himself a believer in revealed religion with great earnestnefs, telling them, that he remembered when the duke of Buckingham, once talked profanely before King Charles, he told him, My lord, I am a great deal older than your grace, and I believe I have heard more arguments for atheism, than ever your grace did; but I have lived long enough to fee, there was nothing in them, and fo I hope will your grace.' It is faid, that had Mr. Waller lived longer, he would have inclined to the revolution, which by the violent meafures of James II. he could forefee would happen. He was interred in the churchyard of Beaconsfield. where a monument is erected to his memory, the inscriptions on it were written by Mr. Thomas Rymer.

He left feveral children behind him: Hebequeathed his eftate to his fecond fon Edmund, his eldest, Benjamin, being fo far from inheriting his father's wit, that he had not a common portion. Edmund, the fecond Son, ufed to be chofen member of Parliament for Agmondefham, and in the latter part of his life turned Quaker. William, the third fon, was a merchant in London, and Stephen, the fourth, a civilian. Of the daughters, Mary was married to Dr. Peter Birch, prebendary of Westminster; another to Mr. Harvey of Suffolk, another to Mr. Tipping of Oxfordshire.

Thefe are the most material circumftances in the life of Mr. Waller, a man whofe wit and parts drew the admiration of the world upon him when he was living, and has fecured him the applaufe of pofterity. As a ftatefman, lord Clarendon is of opinion, he wanted fleadiness, and even infinuates, that he was deficient in point of honour; the earl at leaft conftrues his timidity, and apparent

parent cowardice, in a way not very advanta

geous to him.

All men have honoured him as the great refiner of English poetry, who reftored numbers to the delicacy they had loft, and joined to melifluent cadence the charms of fenfe. But as Mr. Waller is unexceptionally the first who brought in a new turn of veríe, and gave to rhime all the graces of which it was capable, it would be injurious to his fame, not to prefent the reader with the opinions of fome of the greatest men concerning him, by which he will be be ter able to understand his particular excellencies, and will fee his beauties in full glow before him. To begin with Mr. Dryden, who, in his dedication to the Rival Ladies, addreffed to the earl of Orrery, thus chara&erizes Waller.

The excellency and dignity of rhime were never fully known till Mr. Waller fought it: He first made writing eafily an art; first thewed us to conclude the fenfe moft commonly in diftichs, which in the verfes of thofe before him, runs on for fo many lines together, that the reader is out of breath to overtake it.'

Voltaire, in his letters concerning the English nation, fpeaking of British poets, thus mentions Waller. Our author was much talked of in France. He had much the fame reputation in London that Voiture had in Paris; and in my opinion deferved it better. Voiture was born in an age that was just emerging from barbarity; an age that was ftill rude and ignorant ; the people of which aimed at wit, tho' they had not the leaft pretenfions to it, and fought for points and conceits inftead of fentiments. Bristol ftones are more eafily found than diamonds. Voiture born with an eafy and frivolous genius, was the first who fhone in this Aurora of French literature. Had he come into

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the world after thofe great genius's, who fpread fuch glory over the age of Lewis XIV, he would either have been unknown, would have been defpifed, or would have corrected his ftile. Waller, tho' better than Voiture, was not yet a finifhed poet. The graces breathe in fuch of Waller's works as are wrote in a tender ftrain; but then they are languid thro' negligence, and often disfigured with falfe thoughts. The Englifh had not at this time attained the art of correct writing; but his ferious compofitions exhibit a ftrength and vigour, which could not have been expected from the foftnefs and effeminacy of his other pieces.'

The anonymous author of the preface to the fecond part of our author's poems, printed in the year 1690, has given his character at large, and tells us ; That Waller is a name that carries every thing in it that is either great, or graceful in poetry. He was indeed the parent of English verfe, and the first who fhewed us our tongue had beauty and numbers in it. The tongue came into his hands like a rough diamond; he polifhed it firft, and to that degree, that artists fince have admired the workmanship without pretending to mend it. He undoubt edly stands first in the lift of refiners; and for ought I know the laft too; for I queftion whether in Charles II's reign; the English did not come to its full perfection, and whether it had not had its Auguftan age, as well as the La6 tin. Thus far this anonymous author. If I may be permitted to give my opinion in fo delicate a point as the reputation of Waller, I fhall take the liberty to obferve, that had he, in place of preceding, fucceeded thofe great wits who flourished in the reign of Charles II, he could never have rofe to fuch great reputation,

nor