THE ENGLISH POET S. DEDICATION. MADAM, To my Lady ** YOUR commands for the gathering these sticks into a faggot had fooner been obeyed; but, intending to prefent you with my whole vintage, I ftayed till the lateft grapes were ripe for here your ladyfhip has not only all I have done, but all I ever mean to do of this kind. Not but that I may defend the attempt I have made upon poetry, by the examples (not to trouble you with hiftory) of many wife and worthy perfons of our own times; as Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Francis Bacon, Cardinal Perron (the ableft of his countrymen), and the former Pope; who, they fay, inftead of the triple crown, wore fometimes the Poet's ivy, as an ornament, perhaps, of lefs weight and trouble. But, Madam, thefe Nightingales fung only in the fpring; it was the diverfion of their youth; as ladies learn to fing, and play, when they are children, what they forgot when they are women. The refemblance holds further; for, as you quit the lute the fooner, because the pofture is fufpected to draw the body awry; fo this is not always practifed without fome villany to the mind; wrefting it from prefent occafions; and accuftoming us to a ftyle fomewhat removed from common ufe. But that you may not think his cafe deplorable who made these verses; we are told that Tully (the greateft Wit among the Romans) was once fick of this disease; and yet recovered fo well, that of almost as bad a Poet as your fervant, he became the most perfect Orator in the world. So that, not fo much to have made verfes, as not to give over in time, leaves a man without excufe: the former prefenting us with an opportunity at leaft of doing wifely, that is, to conceal those we have made; which I fhall yet do, if my humble requeft may be of as much force with your Ladyfhip, as your commands have been with me. Madam, I only whifper thefe in your ear; if you publifh them, they are your own: and therefore as you apprehend the reproach of a Wit and a Poet, caft them into the fire: or, if they come where green boughs are in the chimney, with the help of your fair friends, (for, thus bound, it will be too hard a task for your hands alone) tear them in pieces, wherein you will honour me with the fate of Orpheus, for fo his Poems, whereof we only hear the form, (not his limbs, as the ftory will have it) I fuppofe were scattered by the Thracian dames. Here, Madam, I might take an opportunity to celebrate your virtues, and to inftruct you how unhappy you are, in that you know not who you are: how much you excel the moft excellent of your own, and how much you amaze the leaft inclined to wonder of our, fex. But as they will be apt to take your ladyfhip's for a Roman name, fo would they believe that I endeavoured the character of a perfect Nymph, worshipped an image of my own making, and dedicated this to the Lady of the brain, not of the heart, of Your Ladyship's Moft humble Servant, VOL. II. EDM. WALLER, WHEN the Author of thefe verfes (written only to please himself, and fuch particular perfons to whom they were directed) returned from aboard fome years fince, he was troubled to find his name in Print; but, fomewhat fatisfied, to fee his Lines fo ill rendered that he might justly disown them; and fay to a mistaking Printer, as one did to an ill Reciter, Male dum recitas, incipit effe tuus. Having been ever fince preffed to correct the many and grofs faults (fuch as ufe t be in impreffions wholly neglected by the Authors); his answer was, that he made these when ill Verfes had more favor, and efcaped better, than good ones do in this age; the feverity whereof he thought not unhappily diverted by thofe faults in the impreffion, which hitherto have hung upon his Book, as the Turks hang old rags. or fuch-like ugly things upon their faireft horfes, and other goodly creatures, to fecure them against fascination. And, for thofe of a more confined underftanding, who pretend not to cenfure; as they admire moft what they leaft comprehend, his verfes (maimed to that degree that himself scarce knew what to make of ma of them) might, that way at least, have a title to fome admiration: which is ro fmall matter, if what an old Author observes be true, that the aim of Orators, a victory of Hiftorians, truth; and of Poets, admiration. He had reafon therefor to indulge thofe faults in his Book, whereby it might be reconciled to fome, and ¿commended to others... The Printer alfo he thought woul fare the worse, if thofe faults were amended. for we fee maimed ftatues fell better than whole ones; and clipped and wate money goes about, when the entire and weighty lies hoarded up. Thefe are the reasons which for above twelve years past he has opposed to requeft; to which it was replied, that as it would be too late to recall that whi had fo long been made public; fo, might it find excufe from his youth, the fea it was produced in. And, for what had been done fince, and now added, if commend not his Poetry, it might his Philofophy, which teaches him fo chearf to bear fo great a calamity, as the lofs of the beft part of his fortune, torn from a in prifon (in which, and in banishment, the beft portion of his life hath alfo be fpent), that he can ftill fing under the burthen, not unlike that Roman †, Martial, Lib. i. Ep. 39. ↑ Horace, Lib. II. Epist. ii. Quen *** Quem demifere Philippi Decifis humilem pennis, inopemque paterni Whofe fpreading wings the civil war had clip'd, Who yet not long after could fay, Mufis amicus, triftitiam & metus Lib. I. Ode xxvi, They that acquainted with the Mufes be, Not fo much moved with these reasons of ours (or pleas'd with our rhymes) as wearied with our importunity, he has at laft given us leave to affure the Reader, that the Poems which have been fo long, and fo ill fet forth under his name, are here to be found as he firft writ them: as alfo, to add fome others which have fince been compofed by him. And though his advice to the contrary might have difcouraged us; yet, obferving how often they have been reprinted, what price they have borne, and how earneftly they have been always enquired after, but efpecially of late; (making good that of Horace, Meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit: Lib. II. Epift. i. "Some verfes being, like fome vines recommended to our tafte by time and *age,'") We have adventured upon this new and well-corrected Edition, which for own fakes as well as thine, we hope will fucceed better than he apprehended. Vivitur ingenio, cætera mortis erunt. ALBINOVANUS. 5 [B] 2 PRE THE HE Reader needs be told no more in commendation of thefe Poems, than that they are Mr. Waller's: a name that carries every thing in it that is either great, or graceful, in Poetry! He was indeed the Parent of English Verfe, and the firft that shewed us our Tongue had Beauty, and Numbers, in it. Our language owa more to Hin than the French does to Cardinal Richelieu and the whole Academy. A Poet cannot think of Him, without being in the fame rapture Lucretius is in, when Epicurus comes in his way; Tu pater, & rerum inventor; Tu patria nobis Lib. III. ver. 9. The Tongue came into His hands, like a rough diamond: He polished it firft: and to that degree, that all artists fince him have admired the workmanship, without pretending to mend it. Suckling and Carew, I must confefs, wrote fome few things Imoothly enough: but, as all they did in this kind was not very confiderable; fon was a little later than the earlieft pieces of Mr. Waller. He undoubtedly ftands firt in the lift of refiners; and, for aught I know, laft too; for I queftion, whether in Charles the fecond's reign, English did not come to its full perfection; and whether it has not had its Auguftan Age, as well as the Latin. It feems to be already mist with foreign languages as far as its purity will bear; and, as Chemifts fay of their Menftruums, to be quite fated with the infufion. But pofterity will beft judge this. In the mean time, it is a furprising reflection, that between what Spenfe wrote last, and Waller firft, there fhould not be much above twenty years diftance: and yet the one's language, like the money of that time, is as current now as ever whilft the other words are like old coins, one must go to an antiquary to underftas: their true meaning and value. Such advances may a great genius make, when i undertakes any thing in earneft! Some Painters will hit the chief lines and mafter-ftrokes of a face fo truly, th through all the differences of age, the picture shall still bear a resemblance. Th art was Mr. Waller's: He fought out, in this flowing Tongue of ours, what par would laft, and be of ftanding use and ornament: and this he did fo fuccefsfus that his language is now as fresh as it was at his firft fetting out. Were we to judge barely by the wording, we could not know what was wrote at twenty, and what at fourfcore. He complains, indeed, of a tide of words that comes in upon the English Poet, and overflows whatever he builds: but this was lefs His cafe than any man's that ever wrote; and the mischief of it is, this very complaint will af long enough to confute itfelf; for, though Englifh be mouldering ftone, as he te us there, yet he has certainly picked the beft out of a bad quarry, W |