EPISTLES.

To the King, on his Navy, p. 199.

IN all editions of Waller since the restoration, this poem has been placed the first; which, I suppose, hath induced most persons to imagine it to have been written several years sooner than it was. In this number I find the writer of Mr. Waller's life, who believes it was occasioned by the fleet that was sent out under the command of the Lord Viscount Wimbleton: and seems to have been led into this opinion by that addition to the title, in the year 1626, which has been prefixed in some of the latest editions. The gentleman, whoever he was that fixed the date of this and some other of the poems, will not appear to have been very competently qualified for such an undertaking, if we reflect that he has mistaken no less than two years in his chronology upon the verses "On the Danger the Prince escaped at St. Andero ;" and, having so grossly erred in a fact so notorious as that, I think we may decently dismiss him from the chair, and hear Mr. Rymer's opinion, though I believe there is reason not to stand to his decision in the case depending. Our language,' says he, ' retained something of the churl; something of the stiff and Gothish did stick upon it long after Chaucer. Chaucer threw in Latin, French, Provincial, and other languages, like new stum, to raise a fermentation. In Queen Elizabeth's time it grew fine, but came not to a head and spirit, did not shine and sparkle, till Mr. Waller set it

a-running. And one may observe, by his poem “On the Navy," anno 1632, that not the language only, but his poetry, then distinguished him from all his contemporaries, both in England and in other nations, and from all before him upwards to Horace and Virgil. For there, besides the language, clean and majestic; the thoughts new and noble; the verse sweet, smooth, full, and strong; the turn of the poem is happy to admiration; the first line, with all that follow in order, leads to the conclusion; all bring to the same point and centre:

To thee, his chosen, more indulgent, he

Dares trust such power with so much piety.

Here is both Homer and Virgil: the fortis Achilles, and the pius Eneas, in the person he compliments, and the greatness owing to his virtue. The thought and application is most natural, just, and true in poetry, though in fact, and really, he might have no more fortitude or piety than another body; for the repairing then of Paul's gave a reasonable colour for his piety, and that navy-royal might well give him the pre-eminence in power above Achilles.'

I should willingly have acquiesced in this determination, if there had been any naval armament in the year 1632 considerable enough for the subject of Mr. Waller's poem; neither did the war betwixt France and Spain, which is referred to in the third verse, break out till, I believe, almost three years after the date that Mr. Rymer hath assigned! and therefore, in a matter that still remains so uncertain, I may venture to interpose my

own opinion, which, whether right or no, may be less liable to objections than those that have been already advanced.

In the year 1635 the Hollanders espoused the quarrel of Fance against Spain, and the terms stipulated in the treaty were, that they should not only divide the provinces of Flanders, but also Dunkirk, Ostend, and the other sea-ports on the coast, equally between them. Upon the concluding this league offensive and defensive, the Dutch forgot their obligations to the crown of England, treated their old benefactors with disrespect, and were more audacious in their encroachments upon the fishery on our coasts. King Charles thought it was high time to assert his sovereignty over the narrow seas, and immediately fitted out a much greater fleet than had ever been equipped since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and appointed the Earl of Lindsey to command it. Sir William Monson, who served Vice-admiral under the Earl, informs us, in his Naval Tracts, that while this `fleet was preparing, many idle, factious, and scandalous reports were invented, to persuade the people that those preparations were only an artifice of state to draw money from the subject. Could Mr. Waller ever have had a more happy opportunity than this of making his court to the King, by representing his actions in their proper light, in proclaiming his navy to be (as in truth it was) the glory and defence of the nation? and yet, to deal ingenuously, I am of opinion that this poem was written in the following year, when his great friend, the Earl of Northumberland was made admiral of a fleet not inferior to the former, in the thirty-first year of Mr. Waller's age.

To the Queen, occasioned upon Sight of her Majesty's Picture, p. 200.

WHEN all thoughts of a marriage with the Infanta of Spain were laid aside, King James consented that Prince Charles should make his addresses to Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, youngest daughter of Henry IV. of France, by his Queen Mary de Medicis. Accordingly, in the year 1624, the Lord Kensington, (afterwards created Earl of Holland) was dispatched to make proposals to Lewis XIII. by whom they were embraced, and the nuptial ceremony was performed in the church of Nôtre Dame in Paris, on the 1st of May, 1625. Mr. Waller seems to have written this poem soon after her Majesty's arrival in England, anno ætat. 20. Nor shall we think him too profuse in praising her beauty, when we read the description of her person, which Lord Kensington gives, in a letter to the Prince of Wales, whom he would not dare to delude with a portrait of his own invention. Sir, if your intentions proceed this way, (as by many reasons of state and wisdom there is cause now rather to press it than slacken it) you will find a lady of as much loveliness and sweetness to deserve your affection as any creature under Heaven can do. And, Sir, by all her fashions since my being here, and by what I hear from the ladies, it is most visible to me her infinite value and respect unto you. Sir, I say not this to betray your belief, but from a true observation and knowledge of this to be so. I tell you this, and must somewhat more, in way

of admiration of the person of Madame; for the impressions I ever had of her were but ordinary, but the amazement extraordinary, to find her (as I protest to God I did) the sweetest creature in France. Her growth is very little, short of her age, but her wisdom infinitely beyond it. I heard her discourse with her mother, and the ladies about her, with extraordinary discretion and quickness. She dances (the which I am a witness of) as well as ever I saw any creature. They say she sings sweetly; I am sure she looks so.' And in another letter he says, That for beauty and goodness she was an angel.' This description will claim the more regard when we reflect on the important occasion on which it was written, and on the person who wrote it, who was the most accomplished courtier of that age: elegans formarum spectator, was the Earl of Holland's true character, and it had been happy for himself and the nation if he had never aspired to any other.

To the Queen-mother of France, upon her Landing, p. 202.

MARY MEDICIS, queen-mother of France, is a sad and very singular instance how insecure the most commanding condition may prove against the vicissitudes of fortune. She was daughter to the Great Duke of Tuscany, wife of Henry IV. of France, mother to Lewis XIII. his successor, to the Queens of England and Spain, and to the Duchess of Savoy, yet was made a sacrifice by her own son (a timorous and weak prince) to the ambition of Cardinal Richelieu, to whom she had