WALLER. 



retired manner at his houfe near Beaconsfield ; purfued his 

 claflical ftudics under Morley, afterwards bifhop of Win- 

 chefter ; and acquired improvement as well as celebrity from 

 the fociety of polite fcholars into which he was introduced. 

 At the age of twenty-tive years lie loll his wife, and foon 

 afterwards became the fuitor of lady Dorothea Sydney, 

 eldell daughter of the earl of Leicefter, whom he has im- 

 mortahzed under the appellation of SaccharilFa. But much 

 as he admired this majellic and fcornful beauty, as he deno- 

 minates her, he was more delighted with the gentle Amo- 

 ret, fuppofed to have been lady Sophia Murray ; but failing 

 to engage the attachment of either of thcfe ladies by his 

 poetic drains, he fought comfort under the anguilh of 

 difappointment in a fecond marriage. When parliament 

 met in 1640, after a long fufpenfion, Waller was again 

 returned for Atrmondefliam, and joined the party which 

 thought that a redrefs of grievances fhould precede a vote 

 of fupplies, urging their plea by an energetic fp-ech. He 

 was alfo a member of the long-parliament, and warmly op- 

 pofed the exaction of (hip-money, after the example of his 

 juftly celebrated uncle, Hampden. He farther dillingnifhed 

 himlelf by h.s eloquence ni the impeachment of judge Craw- 

 ley, With the condu(il of which he was entrulled by the com- 

 mons. He continued for three years to give his vote in ge- 

 neral with the oppofition, without concurring in all the 

 meafures of this party ; particularly the abolition of epifco- 

 pacy. In the progrefs of the dif^jute between the king and 

 parliament, he difcontinued for a time his attendance ; 

 though he manifclled his inclination to the royal fide by 

 court panegyric, and when he again returned to ihe houfe, 

 by remonftrating agaiiift its proceei^ings ; and when the king 

 fet up his ftandard at Nottingham, it is faid that he fent him 

 1000 broad pieces. As he was one of the commiffioners ap- 

 pointed by parliament for treating with the king at Oxford, 

 he was kindly noticed by his majclly ; and he was probably 

 thus induced to engage m a plot in his favour. According- 

 ly, he concerted meafures with Tomkyn.«, clerk of the queen's 

 council, for refilling the payment of the taxes levied for the 

 fupport of the army, and promoting petitions for peace, 

 and thus conflraining parliament to adopt pacific meafures. 

 In the profecution of this plan, they fought the concurrence 

 of perfons of influence in the city. Whilft they were tlius 

 employed, fir Nicholas Crifpe, who was a zealous loyalift, 

 was exciting t!ie king's friends among the citizens to refill 

 openly the authority of parliament, and with this view he 

 had aftualiy obtained a commiflion of array from his ma- 

 jefty. Thefc two plots were, as Clarendon fuppofes, inde- 

 pendent of each other ; but however this be, the commif- 

 lion was known to Waller and Tomkyns. When thele mea- 

 fures became known to perfons in power, they were arretted ; 

 and the deficiency of evidence againll them was amply fup- 

 plied by the pufillanimity of Waller, who difclofed every fe- 

 cret of his party, and bafely betrayed a number of perfons, of 

 difFerciit rank and llation, w!:o had repofcd their confidence 

 m his honour. Of this number were the earl of Portland, 

 lord Conway, and the carl of Northumberland.' He at- 

 tempted alfo to perfuade lord Portland to confefs the charge, 

 and to lay the blame on the two other noblemen juil men- 

 tioned. Two coiifpirators, -viz,. Tomkyns and Chaloncr, 

 were hanged, and Waller faved his l;fe by afiecfting a rc- 

 morfe of confcience, which dilordered his underftanding ; 

 fo that he was merely expelled llic houle, tried and con- 

 demned, and after a year's in-.prifonment, and the payment 

 of a fine of io,coo/., permitted to go into exile. Thus dif- 

 graced in the ellimation ot all who made any prctcnfions to 

 probity and honour, he fird rcfided at Rouen, and from 



thence removed to Paris, where he lived like a man of for- 

 tune, and in the exercife of hofpitality, on the means which 

 he derived from the falc of his wife's jewels. After the in- 

 terval of ten years, being reduced to his rump jewel, as he 

 called it, he folicited permiflion to return to his native coun- 

 try, and having obtained a licence to this purpofe, he took 

 pofleffion of a houfe which he had built near Beaconsfield. 

 Unreilrained by principle, he paid his vifit, by the effufion 

 of his proftituted mufe, to Cromwell, to whom he alfo paid 

 a tribute of adulation after his death. He loll no time, 

 however, in congratulating Charles II. on his refloration ; 

 and when the king took notice that his panegyric on Crom- 

 well furpafled his congratulatory poem, he replied, with a 

 happy courtly turn, " that poets always fucceed better in 

 fiction than in truth." Waller was again received into the 

 bell company, and though he drank only water, his wit and 

 vivacity made him an agreeable alfociate to thofc who lived 

 more freely and intemperately. He alfo obtained a feat in the 

 houfe of commons, of which, though advanced in years, he 

 was a lively and pleafant member. From the king he pro- 

 cured, in 1665, the appointment of provoll of Eton col- 

 lege : but Clarendon, who was then lord-chancellor, re- 

 fufed to fanftion it, becaufe he was a layman. The con- 

 du£l of the chancellor gave great offence to Waller, fo that 

 he joined the duke of Buckingham in his hollihty againfl 

 him, and both fpoke and voted for his impeachment. Upon 

 the accelTion of James II., Waller, in his eightieth year, was 

 returned for Saltafh, and availing himfelf of the privilege of 

 age, fpoke freely to the king, whilll he was treated by him 

 with condefcenfion and kindnefs. Once in converfation 

 with the king he fpoke of queen Elizabeth as the greateft 

 woman in the world, to which James retorted, " I wonder 

 you fhould think fo ; but it mud beconfeffcd fhe had a wife 

 council." " And when, fir," replied Waller, " did you 

 know a fool clioofe a wife one." When Waller was about 

 to marry his daughter to Dr. Birch, the king expreffed his 

 wonder, " that he fhould think of marrying his daughter to 

 a fallen church." He returned a mefiage, in which he ex- 

 preffes his fenfeof the honour done him by the king's interefl 

 in his domeflic affairs ; adding, " I have lived long enough 

 to obferve that this church has got a trick of riling again." 

 Forefeeing the florm that was gathering at the dole of king 

 James's reign, he obferved, " that he would be left like a 

 whale upon the flrand." In his " Divine Poems," indi- 

 cating the flate of his mind towards the clofe of life, " it is 

 jileaiing (fays Dr. Johnfon) to difcover that his piety was 

 without weaknefs, and that his intelleftual powers continued 

 llrcng and vigorous." His death happened at Beaconf- 

 field, in Odober 1687, in the eighty-third year of his age ; 

 and of feveral children by his fecond wife, his fun Edmund, 

 who reprefented Agmondclliam in parliament, became a 

 profelyte to quaktrilm. Of his moral principles and con- 

 di:<!il, efpccially in the earlier period of his life, we can form 

 no very high opinion. Lord Clarendon reprefents him asab- 

 jeCt, and wanting courage to fiipport l.im in any virtuous 

 undertaking, and as combining fervile adulation with a vain 

 and imperious temper ; but Clarendon, it will be recolledled, 

 was fomewhat prejudiced in forming a judgment, which is, 

 ujion the whole, too jult. He acknowledges, however, 

 that he pof.efled lui<erior powers of eloquence, and that the 

 cxiiberancc of his wit, and pleaiantneis ot his converfation, 

 winch made him a chofen companion, wire fufficient to 

 cover a multitude of great faults. As a poet, l,e is faid by 

 one of his biographers to have poffefled " chjufltr and in- 

 trinfic merit enough to retain no nuan feat on the EnghTIi 

 ParnafTus:" " he trifles with ingenuity, and is ferious with 



an 



