THE LIFE OF BY DR. JOHNSON. EDMUND WALLER was born on the third of March, 1605, at Colshill in Hertfshire. His father was Robert Waller, esquire, of Agmondesham in Buckinghamsie, 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 custims 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 Eaton; and removed afterward to Eng's College in Cambridge. He was sent to parliament in his eighteenth, if not in his airteenth year, and frequented the court of James the First, where he heard a very rekable 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. Wer me "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 tae 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 Wincester, 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; anpresently. Then, sir,' said he, I 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 wn after, his majesty cried out, Oh, my lord, they say you lig with my lady.'-' No, sr, says his lordship in confusion; but I like her company, because she has so much 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 rote the poem, that appears first in his works, on the Prince's Escape at St. Andero : piece which justifies the observation made by one of his editors, that he attained, by elicity like instinct, a style, which perhaps will never be obsolete; and that, "were to judge only by the wording, we could not know what was wrote at twenty, and viat at fourscore." His versification was, in his first essay, such as it appears in his 6 |