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I wish all this may also befal their posterity to the world's end, and afterwards!

To you, Madam, I wish all good things; and that this lofs may in good time be happily supply'd with a more conftant bed-fellow of the other fex.

Madam, I humbly kifs your hands, and beg pardon for this trouble, from

Your Ladyship's most humble Servant,

EDM. WALLER.

Madam,

YOUR

To my Lady*

OUR commands for the gathering these sticks into a faggot had fooner been obey'd, but intending to present you with my whole vintage, I ftay'd 'till the latest 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, instead of the Triple Crown, wore fometimes the Poet's ivy, as an ornament, perhaps, of leffer weight and trouble. But, Madam, these 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 forget when they are women. The resemblance 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

always practised without fome villany to the mind; wrefting it from prefent occafions; and accuftoming us to a style fomewhat remov'd from common ufe. But, that you may not think his cafe deplorable who had made verses; we are told, that Tully (the greateft Wit among the Romans) was once fick of this difeafe; and yet recover'd fo well, that of almost as bad a Poet as your fervant, he became the most perfect Orator in the world. So that, not so much to have made verses, as not to give-over in time, leaves a man without excuse : the former prefenting us with an opportunity at least of doing wifely, that is, to conceal those we have made; which I shall yet do, if my humble request may be of as much force with your Ladyship, as your commands have been with me. Madam, I only whifper these in your ear; if you publish 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 honor 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 scatter'd 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 most excellent of your own, and how much you amaze the least inclin'd to wonder of our, fex. But as they will be apt to take your Ladyship's for a Roman name, so wou'd they believe that I endeavour'd the character of a perfect Nymph, worship'd an image of my own making, and dedicated this to the Lady of the brain, not of the heart, of

Your LADY SHIP'S

moft humble Servant,

* Qu, violence.

EDM. WALLER.

Preface to the first Edition of Mr. WALLER's Poems, after the Restoration; printed in the year 1664.

WHEN the Author of these verses (written only

W to pleafe himfelf, and fuch particular perfons to

whom they were directed) returned from abroad some years fince, he was troubled to find his name in Print: but, fomewhat fatisfy'd, to see his Lines fo ill render'd that he might justly difown them; and fay to a miftaking Printer, as † one did to an ill Reciter.

*** Malè dum recitas, incipit effe tuus.

Having been ever fince preffed to correct the many and grofs faults (fuch as ufe to be in Impreffions wholly neglected by the Authors) his anfwer was, that he made these when ill Verses had more favor, and escaped better, than good ones do in this age: the severity 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 horses, and other goodly creatures, to fecure them against fascination. And, for those of a more confin'd understanding, who pretend not to cenfure; as they admire most what they leaft comprehend, fo, his Verses (maim'd to that degree that himself scarce knew what to make of many of them) might, that way` at least, have a title to fome admiration: which is no fmall matter, if what an old Author obferves be true, that the aim of Orators, is victory; of Hiftorians, truth; and of Poets, admiration. He had reason there

fore

+ Martial. L. 1. Ep. 39.

fore to indulge those faults in his Book, whereby it might be reconciled to fome, and commended to others.

The Printer alfo he thought would fare the worse, if thofe faults were amended: for, we see maimed statues fell better than whole ones; and clip'd, and wash'd money goes about, when the entire, and weighty, lies hoarded up.

These are the reasons which for above twelve years past he has opposed to our requeft; to which it was reply'd, that as it would be too late to recall that which had fo long been made publick; fo, might it find excufe from his youth, the feafon it was produced in. And, for what had been done fince, and now added, if it commend not his Poetry, it might his Philosophy, which teaches him fo chearfully to bear fo great a calamity, as the lofs of the best part of his fortune, torn from him in prifon, (in which, and in banishment, the best portion of his life hath also been spent) that he can still fing under the burthen, not unlike * that Roman,

**** Quem dimifere Philippi

Decifis humilem pennis, inopemque paterni
Et Laris, & fundi. ****

Whose spreading wings the civil war had clip'd,
And him of his old patrimony ftrip'd.

Who yet not long after could fay,

Musis amicus, triftitiam & metus

Portare ventis. ****

Tradam protervis in mare Creticum

Ode 26. Lib. 1.

They that acquainted with the MUSES be,
Send care, and forrrow, by the winds to fea.

*Horace Epift. 2. lib. 2.

Not

Not fo much moved with these reasons of ours, (or pleas'd with our rhymes) as wearied with our importu→ nity, he has at last given us leave to affure the Reader, that the Poems which have been so long, and fo ill, set forth under his name, are here to be found as he first writ them as also, to add fome others which have fince been compofed by him. And though his advice to the contrary might have difcourag'd us; yet, obferving how often they have been reprinted, what price they have born, and how earneftly they have been always inquired after, but efpecially of late; (making good that of Horace,

*** Meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit:

Epift. 1. Lib. 2.

Some verfes being, like fome wines, recommended to our tafte by time and age) we have adventur'd upon this new, and well-corrected, Edition; which, for our own fakes as well as thine, we hope will fuccede better than he apprehended.

Vivitur ingenio, cætera mortis erunt.

Albinovanus.

Preface to the fecond Part of Mr. WALLER'S Poems; printed in the year 1690.

TH

HE Reader needs be told no more in commendation of these Poems, than that they are Mr. WALLER's: a name that carries every thing in it that's either great, or graceful, in Poetry! He was in, deed the Parent of English Verse, and the first that fhew'd us our Tongue had beauty, and Numbers, in it. Our language owes more to Him than the French does to Cardinal Richelieu, and the whole Academy. A

Poet

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