England should keep him company without drinking, but Ned Waller." His Majesty was, also, anxious to appoint him to the Provostship of Eton; but by the statutes of the college laymen are excluded from the enjoyment of that high office.* As it was the Chancellor Clarendon, who from this consideration refused to affix his seal to the grant, the active part which Waller took in the prosecution of that illustrious nobleman has, perhaps justly, been ascribed rather to a spirit of vindictiveness than a love of justice. They, certainly, did not like one another.

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Waller sat in several parliaments after the Restoration: in 1661, for Hastings; in 1678, for Chipping Wycombe; and for Saltash, in 1685, in the first parliament of James II. At this time he wrote a Presage of the Downfall of the Turkish† Empire,' which he presented to the King on his birth-day. He was now very old, but his wit and abilities still rendered him the object of general admiration. "He was the delight (says Burnet) of the House; and, even at eighty, he said the liveliest things of any among them." This made his company agreeable to the very last.

*It is known, that Sir Henry Wotton qualified himself for it by deacon's orders: and the Provosts always receive institution, as for a parsonage, from the Bishop of Lincoln. Dr. Zachary Cradock was chosen by the fellows in his stead.

+ It is remarked by his commentator Fenton, that in reading Tasso he had early imbibed a veneration for the heroes of the Holy War, and a zealous enmity to the Turks, which never left him.

even

As a proof of the consideration in which he was held, his remarks (says Johnson) were circulated and recorded." When the Duke of York's influence was high both in Scotland and England, it drew (we are informed by Burnet) a lively reflexion from Waller, the celebrated wit. "The House of Com

James II. once took him into his closet, and asked him, how he liked such a picture. Sir," replied. Mr. Waller," my eyes are dim, and I don't know whose it is." The King said, "It is the Princess of Orange." Upon which Mr. Waller observed, "She is like the greatest woman in the world." "Whom do you call so?" inquired James. "Queen Elizabeth," answered he. "I wonder, Mr. Waller," replied the King, "you should think so; but, I must confess, she had a wise Council." "Sir," asked Mr. Waller in his turn, "did you ever know a fool choose a wise one?" Some time after this, it being known that he intended to take Dr. Birch for his son-in-law, James expressed his surprise that he should have any thoughts of marrying his daughter to a falling church." His answer was, Sire, I have lived long enough to observe, that this falling church has got a trick of rising again."

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Being now arrived at an age seldom attained by poets or courtiers, he began to feel his vital powers decay, though those of his mind continued unimpaired: the composition of the last years of his life possessing all the excellences of his former ones. Not long before his death, he purchased an estate with a small house upon it at Coleshill,* his birth-place, to which he frequently retired. He should be glad,'

mons (he observed) had resolved that the Duke should not reign after the King's death; but the King, in opposition to them, had resolved that he should reign even during his life." Nor was his fame confined to his own country; by St. Evremond, with whom he kept up a confidential correspondence, it was disseminated over Europe.

* This, though it stands in Hertfordshire, is in the parish of Agmondesham.

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he said, 'to die like the stag, where he was roused.' But, in this, his wish was not gratified. He was at Hall Barn, when finding his legs begin to swell, he took Dr. Birch with him to Sir Charles Scarborough, then in attendance at Windsor as First Physician to James II.; and told him, that he came to him as an old friend, to ask him what that swelling meant :' on which Sir Charles bluntly replied, "Why, Sir, your blood will run no longer." With the utmost composure, Waller immediately repeated some appropriate lines from Virgil, on the condition of human life. The symptom increasing, he ordered Dr. Birch to give him the Holy Sacrament, and desired all his children to join with him. At the same time, he earnestly professed his firm belief in Christianity; adding, that when the Duke of Buckingham once talked profanely before King Charles, he had 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 you did: but I have lived long enough to see there is nothing in them, and so I hope your Grace will." He died October 21, 1687, at the advanced age of eighty two, and was interred with his ancestors in the church-yard at Beaconsfield, where a handsome monument, with an inscription by Rymer, was erected to his memory.

In parliament, says Clarendon, to whom he was accurately known, he ever appeared with great advantage; having a graceful way of speaking, and by thinking much upon several arguments (which his temper and complexion, that had much of melancholic, inclined him to) he seemed often to speak upon the sudden, when the occasion had only administered the opportunity of saying what he had thoroughly

considered, which gave a great lustre to all he said, which was rather of delight than weight. He was only concerned however, we are told by Burnet, to say that which should make him be applauded, and never laid the business of the House to heart, being a vain and empty though a witty man. So qualified, even at this day (remarks one of his biographers, writing in the day of Pitt, and Burke, and Fox) when English oratory may dispute the palm with that of Greece and Rome, the language of his parliamentary speeches would not be deemed obsolete, nor their influence pass unfelt. How forcible is the contrast, he adds, between Waller and his kinsman Cromwell! and how wide the difference between acting and speaking! All the natural and acquired accomplishments of the first, aided by a powerful fortune and dazzling eloquence, were lost, because their possessor was destitute of fortitude, consistency, and activity; while the latter wanting them all, and scarcely able to speak or write a sentence intelligibly, yet by an unparalleled energy of soul and an intuitive perception of the human character, overturned an ancient monarchy, usurped the government, and tyrannised over a nation of demagogues." And yet this pliancy of principle alone it was, if indeed life could be considered as worth retaining upon such a condition, which carried him safely in times so pregnant with danger, through the midst of contending factions ; and rendered him acceptable to sovereigns so different in their temper and their views as the four Stuarts and the Protector. If the celebrated neutrality of Atticus were scrutinised, would it be found to be more than a refined and dexterous tergiversation?

There needs no more to be said to extol the excel

lence and power of his wit, and pleasantness of his conversation, than that it was of magnitude enough to cover a world of very great faults; that is, so to cover them, that they were not taken notice of to his reproach: viz. a narrowness in his nature to the lowest degree; an abjectness and want of courage to support him in any virtuous undertaking; an insinuation, and servile flattery to the height the vainest and most imperious nature could be contented with; that it preserved and won his life from those, who were most resolved to take it, and in an occasion in which he ought to have been ambitious to have lost it, and then preserved him again from the reproach and contempt that was due to him for so preserving it, and for vindicating it at such a price; that it had power to reconcile him to those whom he had most offended and provoked, and continued to his age with that rare felicity, that his company was acceptable where his spirit was odious, and he was at least pitied where he was most detested.

"His wit and his poetry," says Johnson, "natu rally connected him with the polite writers of his time he was joined with Lord Buckhurst in the translation of Corneille's 'Pompey,' and is said to have added his help to that of Cowley in the original draught of the Rehearsal.' Of his course of studies or choice of books, however, nothing is known more, than that he professed himself unable to read Chapman's translation of Homer without rapture!' His opinion concerning the duty of a poet is contained in his declaration, that he would blot from his work any line, which did not contain some motive to virtue.'"

His estate, which he had greatly reduced, he be