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ved on his mother. He was fent to Eton school, and to King's College in Cambridge; but Mr. Wood, in his Athen. Oxon. fays, that he was mostly trained in grammar learning under Mr. Dobfon, minifter of Great Wycombe in Bucks. He gave early discoveries of that acuteness of imagination which afterwards breathed through his poetical and profe compofitions; for at fixteen years of age he was elected burgess for Aymefham, and took his feat in the Houfe of Commons in the third parliament of James I. That our Author did not exceed the years here afcribed to him, is evident from his own words; "I was but fixteen,” fays he, "when I fat firft; and fometimes it has "been thought fit that young men may be early in "councils, that they may be alive when others are "dead." And hence Lord Clarendon has obferved, in his character of young Waller, "that he was nurfed “in parliaments." He obtained a feat in parliament a fecond time, before arriving at the age of manhood, for the borough of Chipping-Wycombe in Bucking→ hamshire, in the first parliament of Charles I.; and in the third parliament of the fame prince he was again elected for Aymesham.

Our Author began to give proofs of his poetical genius fo early as the year 1623, when he had not exceeded his 18th year, as appears from the copy of verses "Upon the danger his Majefty (being prince) efcaped in the road of St. Andero ;" for there

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Prince Charles, before setting fail for England, after long foliciting a marriage with the Infanta at the Spanish court, gave a magnificent entertainment on board the British admiral, then in the port of St. Andero, to fome Spanish noblemen who had escorted him from Madrid; but in going afhore, the prince, with his company, were on the point of perishing in a violent ftorm. In this beautiful panegyrick we meet with that unexpected, yet natural approximation, comparifon, and contraft of different images, which characterize the writings of Waller. Yet perhaps it was not so much owing to his wit, his fine parts, or his talent for poetry, that he came first to be pu blickly known and diftinguished, as to his carrying off the daughter and fole heiress of a rich citizen, against arival, whofe intereft was espoused by the court. This lady was Anne, the daughter of Richard Banks, Efq. and Waller's rival was a gentleman of the name of Crofts, who paid his addreffes to the lady backed by the influence and intereft of the court. It is not known at what time he married this lady, but he was a widower before reaching his 25th year, when he began to entertain a passion for Sacharissa, which was a fictitious name for the Lady Dorothy Sidney, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester, afterwards Countefs of Sunderland. She was one of the celebrated beauties of that age, and in her were united every perfonal and mental accomplishment.

He now lived more expenfively than ufual, was known at court, was careffed by all the people of quality who had any relifh for wit and polite literature, and made one of that celebrated club, of which Lord Falkland, Mr. Chillingworth, Sir Francis Wenman, Mr. Godolphin, and other distinguished men, were inembers. By mixing with the learned and virtuous, our ideas are arranged, our knowledge becomes more diffufed, and our best habits are formed and ftrengthened; for the closet only begins that work which fociety completes, by giving the mind all that embellishment and dignity which it is capable of receiving.

At one of these meetings this illuftrious club of wits heard a noife in the ftreet, and were told that a fon of Ben Jonhson was arrested. The unhappy man was fent for, who proved to be Mr. George Morley, afterwards Bishop of Wincheler. Mr. Waller liked him so well that he paid the debt, which was about roc. on condition he agreed to live with him at Beaconsfield. Mr. Morley did fo for feveral years; and Waller ufed frequently to acknowledge, that from this gentleman he imbibed a tafte for the ancient writers, and acquired what he had of their manner. As Mr. Waller, prior to this incident with Morley, had given specimens of his poetical genius, we are only to fuppofe that Morley improved and refined this propenfity.

The above circumftance is contradi&ed by Lord Clarendon, and, upon his authority, by Mr. Stockdale, who has lately obliged the world with the life of our Poet. According to this last biographer, Morley, who was one of the politeft scholars of the age, was related to our Author, and their love of letters produced an intimacy and friendship between them. He further obferves," that Morley ufed often to vifit Waller at "Beaconsfield, and affift him in his literary progrefs. "He directed him in his choice of books; he read "with him the capital authors of antiquity; he enlarged his underflanding, and refined his tafte. "That his cousin Waller, therefore, might gain all (6 potlible improvement, and rife to that confequence "which he might derive from his uncommon abi"lities, he introduced him into Lord Falkland's

club.”—“He brought him," faysLord Clarendon, "into that company which was most celebrated for "good converfation."

During the long intermiflion of parliaments, from 1629 to 1640, Wailer dedicated most of his time to the profecution of his ftudies. At length a parliament was called in the 164, which is called the Short Parliament, as it met on the 13th of April, and was diffolved before the end of May. This long recess of parliament having difgufted the nation, and raised jealousies against the defigns of the court, which would be fureto difcover themselves whenever the King came

to afk a fupply, Mr. Waller, elected for Aymesham, refolved to attack the late meafures of the court, and plead the cause of freedom and the people. On the 22d April 1640, in a most animated speech, fortu¬ nately preferved, he gives us fome notions of his general principles in government. He proposed to the House, that the neceffary fubfidies fhould be granted to the King; but that before they were taken into confideration the faults of adminiftration fhould be examined and redreffed, liberty confirmed, and property fecured. This speech does Waller honour, as it evinces he was equally an enemy to defpotism and anarchy, and that he meant not to abridge the lawful authority of the King, though he strenuously vindicated the rights of the people.

The Long Parliament met on the 3d of Nov. 1640, in which Waller again represented Aymesham for the third time. Being now warmly actuated with that general spirit of oppofition to the court, which the abrupt diffolution of the preceding parliament, and other unpopular measures of the King and his minifters had excited, (although it does not appear that at this crifis he harboured any rebellious designs against his fovereign) Waller was appointed to fupport the impeachment against Judge Crawley. Accordingly, on the 16th July 1641, at a conference of the Two Houses, he delivered the impeachment, and enforced it with a speech replete with painted wit and nervous

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