Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
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Together With Those Plays He Wrote The Poems Which Are In the Present
Collection, And Translated from The French The History Of The
Triumvirate.
All This Was Performed before He Was Thirty-Four Years Old; For He Died
April 14, 1685, In a Manner Which I Am Unwilling to Mention. Having
Been Compelled by His Necessities To Contract Debts, And Hunted, As Is
Supposed, By The Terriers Of The Law, He Retired to A Publick House On
Tower Hill, Where He Is Said To Have Died of Want; Or, As It Is Related
By One Of His Biographers, By Swallowing, After A Long Fast, A Piece Of
Bread Which Charity Had Supplied. He Went Out, As Is Reported, Almost
Naked, In the Rage Of Hunger, And, Finding a Gentleman In a Neighbouring
Coffee-House, Asked him For A Shilling. The Gentleman Gave Him A Guinea;
And Otway, Going away, Bought A Roll, And Was Choked with The First
Mouthful. All This, I Hope, Is Not True; And There Is This Ground Of
Better Hope, That Pope, Who Lived near Enough To Be Well Informed,
Relates In spence'S Memorials, That He Died of A Fever, Caught By
Violent Pursuit Of A Thief That Had Robbed one Of His Friends. But That
Indigence, And Its Concomitants, Sorrow And Despondency, Pressed hard
Upon Him, Has Never Been Denied, Whatever Immediate Cause Might Bring him
To The Grave.
Of The Poems Which The Present Collection Admits, The Longest Is The
Poet'S Complaint Of His Muse, Part Of Which I Do Not Understand; And In
That Which Is Less Obscure, I Find Little To Commend. The Language Is
Often Gross, And The Numbers Are Harsh. Otway Had Not Much Cultivated
Versification, Nor Much Replenished his Mind With General Knowledge. His
Principal Power Was In moving the Passions, To Which Dryden[81], In his
Latter Years, Left An Illustrious Testimony. He Appears, By Some Of His
Verses, To Have Been A Zealous Royalist, And Had What Was In those Times
The Common Reward Of Loyalty; He Lived and Died neglected.
[Footnote 75: In roscius Anglicanus, By Downes, The Prompter, P. 34,
We Learn, That It Was The Character Of The King in mrs. Behn'S Forced
Marriage, Or The Jealous Bridegroom, Which Mr. Otway Attempted to
Perform, And Failed in. This Event Appears To Have Happened in the Year
1672. R.]
[Footnote 76: This Doubt Is, Indeed, Very Reasonable. I Know Not Where It
Is Said That Don Carlos Was Acted thirty Nights Together. Wherever It Is
Said, It Is Untrue. Downes, Who Is Perfectly Good Authority On This Point,
Informs Us, That It Was Performed ten Days Successively. M.]
[Footnote 77: 1681.]
[Footnote 78: 1684.]
[Footnote 79: 1682.]
[Footnote 80: The "Despicable Scenes Of Vile Comedy" Can Be No Bar
To Its Being a Favourite Of The Publick, As They Are Always Omitted in
The Representation. J.B.]
[Footnote 81: In his Preface To Fresnoy'S Art Of Painting. Dr.J.]
Waller
Edmund Waller Was Born On The Third Of March, 1605, At Coleshill In
Hertfordshire. His Father Was Robert Waller, Esq. Of Agmondesham, In
Buckinghamshire, Whose Family Was Originally A Branch Of The Kentish
Wallers; And His Mother Was The Daughter Of John Hampden, Of Hampden In
The Same County, And Sister To Hampden, The Zealot Of Rebellion.
His Father Died while He Was Yet An Infant, But Left Him A Yearly Income
Of Three Thousand Five Hundred pounds; Which, Rating together The Value
Of Money And The Customs Of Life, We May Reckon More Than Equivalent To
Ten Thousand At The Present Time.
He Was Educated, By The Care Of His Mother, At Eton; And Removed
Afterwards To King'S College, In cambridge. He Was Sent To Parliament In
His Eighteenth, If Not In his Sixteenth Year, And Frequented the Court Of
James The First, Where He Heard A Very Remarkable Conversation, Which The
Writer Of The Life Prefixed to His Works, Who Seems To Have Been Well
Informed of Facts, Though He May Sometimes Err In chronology, Has
Delivered as Indubitably Certain:
"He Found Dr. Andrews, Bishop Of Winchester, And Dr. Neale, Bishop Of
Durham, Standing behind His Majesty'S Chair; And There Happened something
Extraordinary," Continues This Writer, "In The Conversation Those
Prelates Had With The King, On Which Mr. Waller Did Often Reflect. His
Majesty Asked the Bishops: 'My Lords, Cannot I Take My Subjects' Money,
When I Want It, Without All This Formality Of Parliament?' The Bishop Of
Durham Readily Answered, 'God Forbid, Sir, But You Should: You Are The
Breath Of Our Nostrils.' Whereupon The King turned and Said To The Bishop
Of Winchester, 'Well, My Lord, What Say You?' 'Sir,' Replied the Bishop,
'I Have No Skill To Judge Of Parliamentary Cases.' The King answered, 'No
Put-Offs, My Lord; Answer Me Presently.' 'Then, Sir,' Said He, 'Think It
Is Lawful For You To Take My Brother Neale'S Money; For He Offers It.'
Mr. Waller Said, The Company Was Pleased with This Answer, And The Wit Of
It Seemed to Affect The King; For, A Certain Lord Coming in soon After,
His Majesty Cried out, 'Oh, My Lord, They Say You Lig With My Lady.' 'No,
Sir,' Says His Lordship, In confusion;' But I Like Her Company, Because
She Has So Much Wit.' 'Why Then,' Says The King, 'Do You Not Lig With My
Lord Of Winchester There?'"
Waller'S Political And Poetical Life Began Nearly Together. In his
Eighteenth Year He Wrote The Poem That Appears First In his Works, On The
Prince'S Escape At St. Andero; A Piece Which Justifies The Observation,
Made By One Of His Editors, That He Attained, By A Felicity Like
Instinct, A Style Which, Perhaps, Will Never Be Obsolete; And That, "Were
We To Judge Only By The Wording, We Could Not Know What Was Wrote At
Twenty, And What At Fourscore." His Versification Was, In his First
Essay, Such As It Appears In his Last Performance. By The Perusal Of
Fairfax'S Translation Of Tasso, To Which, As Dryden Relates[82], He
Confessed himself Indebted for The Smoothness Of His Numbers, And By
His Own Nicety Of Observation, He Had Already Formed such A System
Of Metrical Harmony, As He Never Afterwards Much Needed, Or Much
Endeavoured, To Improve. Denham Corrected his Numbers By Experience, And
Gained ground Gradually Upon The Ruggedness Of His Age; But What Was
Acquired by Denham Was Inherited by Waller.
The Next Poem, Of Which The Subject Seems To Fix The Time, Is Supposed,
By Mr. Fenton, To Be The Address To The Queen, Which He Considers As
Congratulating her Arrival, In waller'S Twentieth Year. He Is Apparently
Mistaken; For The Mention Of The Nation'S Obligations To Her Frequent
Pregnancy, Proves That It Was Written, When She Had Brought Many
Children. We Have, Therefore, No Date Of Any Other Poetical Production
Before That Which The Murder Of The Duke Of Buckingham Occasioned: The
Steadiness With Which The King received the News In the Chapel, Deserved,
Indeed, To Be Rescued from Oblivion.
Neither Of These Pieces, That Seem To Carry Their Own Dates, Could Have
Been The Sudden Effusion Of Fancy. In the Verses On The Prince'S Escape,
The Prediction Of His Marriage With The Princess Of France Must Have
Been Written After The Event; In the Other, The Promises Of The King'S
Kindness To The Descendants Of Buckingham, Which Could Not Be Properly
Praised, Till It Had Appeared by Its Effects, Show That Time Was Taken
For Revision And Improvement. It Is Not Known That They Were Published
Till They Appeared, Long Afterwards, With Other Poems.
Waller Was Not One Of Those Idolaters Of Praise Who Cultivate Their Minds
At The Expense Of Their Fortunes. Rich As He Was By Inheritance, He Took
Care Early To Grow Richer, By Marrying mrs. Banks, A Great Heiress In
The City, Whom The Interest Of The Court Was Employed to Obtain For Mr.
Crofts. Having brought Him A Son, Who Died young, And A Daughter, Who Was
Afterwards Married to Mr. Dormer, Of Oxfordshire, She Died in childbed,
And Left Him A Widower Of About Five-And-Twenty, Gay And Wealthy, To
Please Himself With Another Marriage.
Being too Young To Resist Beauty, And Probably Too Vain To Think Himself
Resistible, He Fixed his Heart, Perhaps Half Fondly And Half Ambitiously,
Upon The Lady Dorothea Sidney, Eldest Daughter Of The Earl Of Leicester,
Whom He Courted by All The Poetry In which Sacharissa Is Celebrated; The
Name Is Derived from The Latin Appellation Of Sugar, And Implies, If It
Means Any Thing, A Spiritless Mildness, And Dull Good-Nature, Such As
Excites Rather Tenderness Than Esteem, And Such As, Though Always Treated
With Kindness, Is Never Honoured or Admired.
Yet He Describes Sacharissa As A Sublime Predominating beauty, Of Lofty
Charms, And Imperious Influence, On Whom He Looks With Amazement Rather
Than Fondness, Whose Chains He Wishes, Though In vain, To Break, And
Whose Presence Is "Wine That Inflames To Madness." His Acquaintance With
This High-Born Dame Gave Wit No Opportunity Of Boasting its Influence;
She Was Not To Be Subdued by The Powers Of Verse, But Rejected his
Addresses, It Is Said, With Disdain, And Drove Him Away To Solace His
Disappointment With Amoret Or Phillis. She Married, In 1639, The Earl Of
Sunderland, Who Died at Newbury, In the King'S Cause; And, In her Old
Age, Meeting somewhere With Waller, Asked him, When He Would Again Write
Such Verses Upon Her; "When You Are As Young, Madam," Said He, "And As
Handsome, As You Were Then."
In This Part Of His Life It Was That He Was Known To Clarendon, Among The
Rest Of The Men Who Were Eminent In that Age For Genius And Literature;
But Known So Little To His Advantage, That They Who Read His Character
Will Not Much Condemn Sacharissa, That She Did Not Descend From Her Rank
To His Embraces, Nor Think Every Excellence Comprised in wit.
The Lady Was, Indeed, Inexorable; But His Uncommon Qualifications,
Though They Had No Power Upon Her, Recommended him To The Scholars And
Statesmen; And, Undoubtedly, Many Beauties Of That Time, However They
Might Receive His Love, Were Proud Of His Praises. Who They Were, Whom He
Dignifies With Poetical Names, Cannot Now Be Known. Amoret, According to
Mr. Fenton, Was The Lady Sophia Murray. Perhaps, By Traditions, Preserved
In Families, More May Be Discovered.
From The Verses Written At Penshurst, It Has Been Collected that He
Diverted his Disappointment By A Voyage; And His Biographers, From His
Poem On The Whales, Think It Not Improbable That He Visited the Bermudas;
But It Seems Much More Likely, That He Should Amuse Himself With Forming
An Imaginary Scene, Than That So Important An Incident, As A Visit To
America, Should Have Been Left Floating in conjectural Probability.
From His Twenty-Eighth To His Thirty-Fifth Year, He Wrote His Pieces On
The Reduction Of Sallee; On The Reparation Of St. Paul'S; To The King on
His Navy; The Panegyrick On The Queen Mother; The Two Poems To The Earl
Of Northumberland; And Perhaps Others, Of Which The Time Cannot Be
Discovered.
When He Had Lost All Hopes Of Sacharissa, He Looked round Him For An
Easier Conquest, And Gained a Lady Of The Family Of Bresse, Or Breaux.
The Time Of His Marriage Is Not Exactly Known. It Has Not Been Discovered
That This Wife Was Won By His Poetry; Nor Is Any Thing told Of Her, But
That She Brought Him Many Children. He, Doubtless, Praised some Whom He
Would Have Been Afraid To Marry, And, Perhaps, Married one Whom He Would
Have Been Ashamed to Praise. Many Qualities Contribute To Domestick
Happiness, Upon Which Poetry Has No Colours To Bestow; And Many Airs And
Sallies May Delight Imagination, Which He Who Flatters Them Never Can
Approve. There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration. No Spectacle
Is Nobler Than A Blaze.
Of This Wife, His Biographers Have Recorded that She Gave Him Five Sons
And Eight Daughters.
During the Long Interval Of Parliament, He Is Represented as Living among
Those With Whom It Was Most Honourable To Converse, And Enjoying an
Exuberant Fortune With That Independence And Liberty Of Speech And
Conduct Which Wealth Ought Always To Produce. He Was, However, Considered
As The Kinsman Of Hampden, And Was, Therefore, Supposed by The
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