PREFACE

то

WALSH's DIALOGUE,

CONCERNING WOMEN.'

THE perusal of this dialogue in defence of the fair sex, written by a gentleman of my ac

7 A Dialogue concerning Women, being a Defence of the Sex, addressed to Eugenia, was written by William Walsh, Esq. and published in 8vo. in 1691.

Mr. Walsh, who is pronounced by Dryden, in his Postscript to the translation of Virgil, to have been "the best critick in the nation," and had the honour to be highly commended by Pope, was the son of Joseph Walsh, of Abberley, in Worcestershire, Esq., and was born in 1663. At the time, therefore, of the publication of this piece, he was twenty-eight years old. He lived in much intimacy with our author, who corresponded with him; and some of Dryden's letters to Walsh are yet extant in manuscript. Mr. Walsh represented the county of Worcester, in parliament, in the years 1698 and 1699, and afterwards, in 1707, he was member for Richmond, in Yorkshire. He died in 1708.

Dennis, who tells us he knew Walsh very well, says, "he was a learned, candid, judicious gentleman. . . . He loved to be well dressed,-and thought it no disparagement of his understanding.”

quaintance, much surprised me; for it was not easy for me to imagine, that one so young could have treated so nice a subject with so much judgment. It is true, I was not ignorant that he was naturally ingenious, and that he had improved himself by travelling; and from thence I might reasonably have expected that air of gallantry, which is so visibly diffused through the body of the work, and is indeed the soul that animates all things of this nature: but so much variety of reading, both in ancient and modern authors, such digestion of that reading, so much justness of thought, that it leaves no room for affectation, or pedantry, I may venture to say, are not overcommon amongst practised writers, and very rarely to be found amongst beginners. It puts me in mind of what was said of Mr. Waller, the father of our English numbers, upon the sight of his first verses by the wits of the last age, that he came out into the world forty thousand strong, before they heard of him.* Here in imitation of my

* According to Antony Wood (ATH. Oxon, ii. 423,) this was not said of Waller, but by that poet, of Sir John Denham. "In the latter end of the year 1641, he published the tragedy called THE SOPHY, which took extremely much, and was admired by all ingenious men, particularly by Edmund Waller, of Beaconsfield, who then said of the author, that he broke out, like the Irish rebellion, threescore thousand strong, before any body was aware, or the least suspected it."-The observation is more applicable to Denham, than to Waller; for Den

friend's apostrophes, I hope the reader need not be told, that Mr. Waller is only mentioned for honour's sake; that I am desirous of laying hold on his memory, on all occasions, and thereby acknowledging to the world, that unless he had written, none of us could write.

I know, my friend will forgive me this digression; for it is not only a copy of his style, but of his candour. The reader will observe, that he is ready for all hints of commending merit, and the writers of this age and country are particularly obliged to him, for his pointing out those passages which the French call beaux endroits, wherein they have most excelled. And though I may seem in this to have my own interest in my eyes, because he has more than once mentioned me, so much to my advantage, yet I hope the reader will take it only for a parenthesis, because the piece would have

ham, from the age of sixteen when he went to Trinity College, in Oxford, (Nov. 18, 1631,) to the time of his father's death, (Jan. 6, 1638-9) had lived in great dissipation, and as Wood says, was considered by his contemporaries as "a slow and dreaming young man, more addicted to cards and dice, than to study." Waller, on the other hand, wrote his first poem in 1623, when he was only eighteen years of age, at which time his contemporaries must rather have been surprized at so early a display of talents, than at the lateness of their exertion. Besides, the circumstance of THE SOPHY being published precisely at the period of the Irish Rebellion's breaking out, appropriates the remark, and shews that it was made on Denham.

been very perfect without it. I may be suffered to please myself with the kindness of my friend, without valuing myself upon his partiality: he had not confidence enough to send it out into the world without my opinion of it, that it might pass securely, at least amongst the fair readers, for whose service it was principally designed. I am not so presuming, to think my opinion can either be his touchstone, or his passport; but I thought I might send him back to Ariosto; who has made it the business of almost thirty stanzas in the beginning of the 37th book of his ORLANDO FURIOSO, not only to praise that beautiful part of the creation, but also to make a sharp satire on their enemies; to give mankind their own, and to tell them plainly, that from their envy it proceeds that the virtue and great actions of women are purposely concealed, and the failings of some few amongst them exposed with all the aggravating circumstances of malice. For my own part, who have always been their servant, and have never drawn my pen against them, I had rather see some of them praised extraordinarily, than any of them suffer by detraction: and that in this age, and at this time particularly, wherein I find more heroines than heroes. Let me therefore give them joy of their new champion. If any will think me more partial to him than really I am, they can only say I have returned his bribe; and the worst I wish him, is, that he may receive justice from the men, and favour only from the ladies.

DEDICATION

OF

ELEONORA;

A PANEGYRICAL POEM.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF ABINGDON.

MY LORD,

THE commands, with which

you honoured me some months ago, are now performed: they had been sooner, but betwixt ill health, some bu

8 The lady in honour of whom this poem was written, was Eleonora, eldest daughter, and at length sole heir, of Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, in the county of Oxford, Baronet, by Anne, daughter of Sir John Danvers, and sister and heir to Henry Danvers, Esq., who was nephew and heir to Henry, Earl of Danby: she was the wife of James Bertie, first Earl of Abingdon, and died May 31, 1691. Her lord, in 1698, married a second wife, Catharine, daughter of Sir Thomas Chamberlaine, Bart.

It is a singular circumstance, that our author should have written this poem, (which was published in 4to. in 1692,) at the desire of a nobleman with whom he was not personally acquainted, in praise of a lady whom he never saw. This, therefore, was evidently a task undertaken for a pecuniary reward; and the commission, perhaps, was procured by Mr. Aubrey, a common friend of our author and the Earl of Abingdon.