Milton's gives him not a line in return. great work was published twenty years before the death of Waller, whofe very last pieces are, of divine Love, and, of divine Poefie; and yet he mentions neither Milton, nor his poem. Milton's earlieft edition of his smaller poems had been published in the fame year with the firft impreffion of Waller's; 1645; but they are equally overlooked. To Jonfon and Fletcher he gives the full praise of dramatic excellence; even exaggerated praise. Their best compofitions were fo different from any of his own, that they could ftand in no degree of rivalship with him. He has praised Mr. Sandys, Mr. Evelyn, Mr. Wafe, and Sir W. D'Avenant ; writers, from whom he had nothing to fear. Of the topics of Waller's poetry it is obfervable, that he has flattered the two Charles's and James II. only when living Cromwell, both when living and dead; and in lines far exceeding any, that have come from his pen on any other occafion. Whilft Crom well well was living, these were the notes he fung to him, in return for the favor of recalling him from banishment, Let the rich ore forthwith be melted down, For fo the poem, Upon a War with Spain, concluded, in the original copy. In the verses on Cromwell's death, his last breath shakes our ifle. On Octa's top thus Hercules lay dead. Waller feems to have wished for the praise of excellence, without fubmitting any where to the labor of revifion, whereby it was to be obtained. Even in the Panegyric on Cromwell, by much the most ftudied and elaborate of all his pieces, are evident figns of this neglect. That the obfervation is true, in in both its applications, fix verses from the poem, On the Second Duchefs of York, may evince: Your matchlefs beauty gives our fancy wing; Your judgment makes us careful how we fing. Lines not compos'd, as heretofore, in hafte, Polish'd like marble, fhall, like marble, last. Yet, a few lines further, we find, So the bright fun burns all our grass away, than which there is not perhaps a meaner couplet in his volume. Of this neglect indolence was the foundation; and of this indolence other proof is afforded by his frequent copies of himself: nor did he always copy with the beft judgment; for he has taken two complete verfes from the poem, To the King on his Navy (and those of no trifling import, the third couplet in his book), and applied them to Oliver, in the poem, On the War with Spain. To a peculiar phrafeology, as far as a fingle instance, perhaps no poet ever was fo addicted. -the glad morning, which her beams does throw Upon their fmiling leaves, and gilds them so. Of this mode of expreffion he has examples almost without number. Waller's favorite and predominating poetical word is, thundering; as Pope's is, murmuring. Of his pieces many are occafional, and declare their own dates. Of many others neither is the time eafily fettled, nor is it easy to account for the order, in which they ftand, even in thofe editions published in his lifetime. Of one only, among the doubtful ones, would it be material to afcertain the date; because that date, whatever it may be, forms the epoch of Waller's poetical The general opinion is, that the poem, To the King on his Navy, was written to King James; and the first lines appear æra. ... j... indeed " indeed to bear fome allufion to The Peacemaker" but the conclufion, compared with Waller's other pieces, feems to afford reafon to believe, that it was addreffed to Charles I. The laft couplet celebrates the King for piety: To thee, his chofen, more indulgent, he The poem to Charles I. On receiving at Chapel the News of the P. of Buckingham's Death, opens, So earnest with thy God, can no new care, In the verfes to Charles I. On the Storming of the Port of Sallée, Morocco's monarch fends presents, To the renown'd for piety and force. The analogy between thefe paffages would perhaps at once decide the question, if we did not elsewhere find the like qualities predicated of Cromwell |