fing, as that upon the Card torn by the Queen. There are a few lines written in the Dutchess's Tao, which he is faid by Fenton to have kept a fummer under correction. It hap pened to Waller, as to others, that his fuccefs was not always in proportion to his labour.

Of these petty compofitions, neither the beauties nor the faults deferve much attention. The amorous verfes have this to recommend them, that they are lefs hyperbolical than thofe of fome other poets. Waller is not always at the laft gafp; he does not die of a frown, nor live upon a smile. There is, however, too much love, and too many trifles. Little things are made too important; and the Empire of Beauty is reprefented as exerting its influence further than can be allowed by the multiplicity of human paffons, and the variety of human wants. Such books, therefore, may be confidered as fhewing the world under a falfe appearance, and, fo far as they obtain credit from the young and unexperienced, as misleading expectation, and mifguiding practice.

7

VOL. I.

D &

Of

Of his nobler and more weighty perfor mances, the greater part is panegyrical: for of praise he was very lavish, as is obferved by his imitator, Lord Lansdowne w dals. edi indi vid

No fatyr stalks within the hallow'd ground,
But queens and heroines, kings and gods abound;
Glory and arms and love are all the found.

}

In the firft poem, on the danger of the Prince on the coaft of Spain, there is a puerile and ridiculous mention of Arion at the beginning; and the last paragraph, on the Gable, is in part ridiculously mean, and in part ridiculously tumid. The poem, however, is fuch as may be juftly praised, without much allowance for the ftate of our poetry and language at that time.nst Les antiaco ói b'inset

miccoś zid » Bo sodied amat bity sds doid W The two next poems are upon the King's behaviour at the death of Buckingham, and upon his Navy, kid

He has, in the firft, used the Pagan deities great propriety :

with

'Twas want of fuch a precedent as this

Made the old Heathen frame their gods amifs.

In the poem on the Navy, thofe lines are very noble which fuppofe the King's power fecure against a fecond Deluge; fo noble, that it were almost criminal to remark the mistake of centre for furface, or to fay that the empire of the fea would be worth little if it re not that the waters terminate in land.

were

The poem upon Sallee has forcible fentiments; but the conclufion is feeble. That on the Repairs of St Paul's has fomething vulgar and obvious; fuch as the mention of Amphion; and fomething violent and harsh, as

797ewod

So all our minds with his confpire to grace The Gentiles' great apoftle, and deface deface e dout Thofe ftate-obfcuring fheds, that like a chain Seem'd to confine, and fetter him again ogs Which the glad faint fhakes off at his command, As once the viper from his facred hand. add 5 So joys the aged oak, when we divide The creeping ivy from his injur'd fide.

2

His praife of the Queen is too much exaggerated; and the thought, that fhe

faves

lovers, by cutting off hope, as ng off hope, as gangrenes

are cured by

BROLLY STA refents

nothing to the mind but difguft and horror.

Of the Battle of the Summer Islands, it feems not eafy to fay whether it is intended to raife terror or merriment. The beginning is too fplendid for jeft, and the conclufion too light for feriousness. The verfification is ftudied, the fcenes are diligently difplayed, and the images artfully amplified; it ends but as neither in joy nor forrow, it will fcarcely be read a fecond time.

The Panegyrick upon Cromwell has ob tained from the publick a very liberal dividend of praife, which however cannot be said to have been unjoftly lavifhed; for fuch a feries of verfes had rarely appeared before in the English language. Of the lines fome are grand, fome are graceful, and all are mufical. There is now and then a feeble verfe, or a trifling thought; but its great fault is the choice of its hero.

The

The poem of The War with Spain begins with lines more vigorous and it

and ftriking than

The fuc

patavol

Waller is accustomed to produce. ceeding parts are variegated with better paffages and worse. There is fomething too farfetched in the comparison of the Spaniards

drawing the English on, by laluting by faluting St. ucar with cannon, to lambs awakening the lion by bleating. The fate of the Marquis

Lucar

and his Lady, who were burnt in their fhip, SPOR Melonos sni čus forgot bibriolet would have moved more, had the poet not made him die like the Phoenix, because he had fpices about him, nor expreffed their affection and their end by a conceit at once Vorol yon ve maden amit boost & bear

faife and vulgar:

Alive, in equal flames of love they burn'd, -VIAnd now together are to afhes turn'd. bonist bished toiming notowod Molde stinng to bask

The veries to Charles, on his Return, were doubtless intended to counterbalance the panegyrick on Cromwell. If it has been thought inferior to that with which it is naturally compared, the caufe

has been already remarked.

D d 3

of its deficience

sdgoods quifins g

onded to solars

The