Mr. Dryden tells us, Mr. Waller us'd to fay he could never read Chapman's Homer without Tranfport; it must not be for the Mufick of his Verfe, but the Beauties of the Original, which he preferv'd in his Tranflation.

As great a Genius as Mr. Waller had, he fometimes trifled with it too much, and lavifhed his Wit on leffer Subjects, tho' he was qualify'd for the greateft; as may be feen by fome Flights in his fhort Occafional Poems. Dr. Sylveftre, in his Edition of Mr. De St. Evremond's Works, fays, Mr. Edmond Waller, s'eft generallement fait admirer par la delicatelle & l'elevation de fon Efprit; Ses Poefies ont quelque chofe de fi Grand & de fi Noble qu'il n'y a point d'Auteur Anglois qui en ait encore approché. "Mr. Edmond Waller was ge"nerally admir'd for the Delicacy and Eleva❝tion of his Genius; there's fomething fo "Great and fo Noble in his Poems, that no "English Author has ever yet come up to it.

What he has Tranflated of the Fourth Book of Virgil (not to anticipate the Reader's Pleafure by tranícribing here the fublime Paffages fcattered through his Works) fhews he was well qualified for great and ferious Undertakings.

So to mad Pentheus double Thebes appears,
And Furies bowl in his diftemper'd Ears:
Oteftes fo, with like Diftraction tofs'd,

Is made to fly, &c.

b 3

But

But he was a Man of Pleafure, as well as Wit; the Labour of Heroicks did not fuit with his Indolence: He wrote for his Amusement, and Fame came upon him unfought for: How he wou'd have fucceeded in the Drama, we are not able to judge, he having attempted nothing in that kind that was capable of Succefs in English; what he did of Pompey, Corneille is to answer for; what he alter'd from Fletcher, is fo little, that neither the Beauties nor Faults of the Maid's Tragedy can be attributed to him. It is certain by his Verfes to the Author, he had a great Opinion of that Play, he having feveral Couplets on it, befides thefe :

I never yet the Tragick Scene affay'd,
Deterr'd by that Inimitable Maid;
And when I venture at the Comick Style,
Thy Scornful Lady feems to mock my

Toil.

He wrote alfo a Poem on Ben Johnson, with whom and Mr. Fletcher, 'tis probable, he was very converfant, they being both his Contemporaries, as well as Dryden, Otway, Shadwell, &c. To which we may add Shakespear; for he was a Member of the Houfe of Commons three or four Years after that Poet's Death: However, his Dramatick Elfays were not fo efteem'd by him, as to be preferv'd or publifh'd, tho' he was a great Admirer of this kind of Writing. He feems to have wrote (as fome of the Greek and Roman Poets have done before him) for the Entertainment of himself, his Miftrefs, and his Friends,

Friends, and to have coveted no Reputation this way, that might lay the leaft Restraint upon his Inclinations.

Our Author is moft properly ranked amongst the Lyrick Writers; and he is the best in that Kind of the English, and perhaps of the Moderns. 'Tis not to be doubted but he was a Lover and an Imitator of Anacreon, and had also a Veneration for Catullus, of whofe Two different Manners he has form'd One, which is as Gallant as that of Catullus, and as Eafie as that of Anacreon: For in a hundred Places one may fee he follows the Ancients, tho' never fervilely. On this Occafion we cannot but remember what Monfieur St. Evremont fays of our Author, in his Difcourfe Des Belles Lettres. Je n'ai point, faith he, connu d'Homme a qui 'Antiquité foit fi obligée qu'a Monfieur Waller; Il lui préte fa belle Imagination auffi bien que fon Intelligence fine & delicate; en forte qu'il entre dans l'Elprit des Anciens non feulement pour bien entendre ce qu'ils ont penfé, mais pour embellir encore leurs Pensées. "I never knew a Man "to whom Antiquity is fo much oblig'd, as to "Mr. Waller: He lends her his beautiful Ima"gination, as alfo his fine and delicate Under"tanding; fo that he enters into the Genius " of the Ancients, not only to understand right"ly what they have thought, but to embellish "their Thoughts still more."

That Mr. Waller imitated Anacreon, will appear to any one who knows that Manner, and in his French Friends Works 'tis often mention'd. But the Happiness of our Author's Imitation or Anacreon, will best be seen in

b 4

his

his Poems to Amoret and Phillis; especially this:

Phillis, why shou'd we delay
Pleasures fhorter than the Day?
Cou'd we (which we never can)
Stretch our Lives beyond their Span,
Beauty like a Shadow flies,

And our Youth before us dies.
Or wou'd Youth and Beauty ftay,
Love bas Wings, and will away.
Love has fwifter Wings than Time.

Nothing can be more foft, more easy, and more in the Anacreontick Way.

As to the Verfes written after the Manner of Catullus, where is there any thing more Gallant than that Ode, if we may use the Term, beginning thus?

Anger in hafty Words and Blows

It felf difcharges on its Foes:

And Sorrow too finds fome Relief
In Tears, which wait upon our Grief:
So ev'ry Paffion, but fond Love,

Unto its own Redress does move;
But that alone, &c.

'Tis a Wonder how Mr. Waller comes to be charg'd with want of Fire, when he's fo full of Metaphors and Similes; and when he very arely makes ufe of any which do not embel

lifh and raise the Subject: And in this, tho' he has been proposed as a Pattern to copy after by almost all the English Poets fince, he has ftill been found Inimitable.

Not to trouble the Reader with the frivolous Criticisms that Men of little Candour and Judgment are apt to dwell upon, when they fpeak of Mr. Waller's Writings; we will own that there are feveral little Overfights, Improprieties, and Slips in Grammar, to be found up and down his Works: We may add likewife, that fometimes his Thoughts are not fo very juft, as in all probability they would have been, if he had been at the Pains to revise them in cool Blood. But to make Amends for the few Blemishes that are to be found in his Works, the Beauties in them are very exquifite, and fown thick from one End of his Poems to the other. In a Word, nothing can be faid more to the Praife of any Author, than what is ftrictly due to Mr. Waller, which is, That he left our Poetry in a much better State than what he found it in. His Verfe is to this very Day harmonious, and his Language ftill courtly. Mr. Dryden (who knew the Excellence of our Author) having Occafion to mention him in his Dedication before his Tranflation of the Eneis, expreffes himself in these Words. I say nothing of Sir John Denham, Mr. Waller, and Mr. Cowley; 'tis the utmost of my Ambition to be thought their Equal, or not to be much inferior to them. And in his Dedication of the Rival Ladies, to the Earl of Orrery: Rhime has all the Advantage of Profe befides its own, but the Excellence and Dignity of it were b 5

never