Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) - Samuel Johnson (classic books to read txt) 📗

He Could Not Do Less.

 

 

 

Cromwell, Now Protector, Received waller, As His Kinsman, To Familiar

Conversation. Waller, As He Used to Relate, Found Him Sufficiently Versed

In Ancient History; And When Any Of His Enthusiastick Friends Came To

Advise Or Consult Him, Could, Sometimes, Overhear Him Discoursing in the

Cant Of The Times; But, When He Returned, He Would Say: "Cousin Waller, I

Must Talk To These Men In their Own Way;" And Resumed the Common Style Of

Conversation.

 

 

 

He Repaid The Protector For His Favours (1654) By The Famous Panegyrick,

Which Has Been Always Considered as The First Of His Poetical

Productions. His Choice Of Encomiastick Topicks Is Very Judicious; For He

Considers Cromwell In his Exaltation, Without Inquiring how He Attained

It; There Is, Consequently, No Mention Of The Rebel Or The Regicide. All

The Former Part Of His Hero'S Life Is Veiled with Shades; And Nothing is

Brought To View But The Chief, The Governour, The Defender Of England'S

Honour, And The Enlarger Of Her Dominion. The Act Of Violence, By

Which He Obtained the Supreme Power, Is Lightly Treated, And Decently

Justified. It Was, Certainly, To Be Desired, That The Detestable Band

Should Be Dissolved, Which Had Destroyed the Church, Murdered the King,

And Filled the Nation With Tumult And Oppression; Yet Cromwell Had Not

The Right Of Dissolving them, For All That He Had Before Done Could Be

Justified only By Supposing them Invested with Lawful Authority. But

Combinations Of Wickedness Would Overwhelm The World, By The Advantage

Which Licentious Principles Afford, Did Not Those, Who Have Long

Practised perfidy, Grow Faithless To Each Other.

 

 

 

In The Poem On The War With Spain Are Some Passages, At Least, Equal

To The Best Parts Of The Panegyrick; And, In the Conclusion, The Poet

Ventures Yet A Higher Flight Of Flattery, By Recommending royalty To

Cromwell And The Nation. Cromwell Was Very Desirous, As Appears From His

Conversation, Related by Whitlock, Of Adding the Title To The Power Of

Monarchy, And Is Supposed to Have Been Withheld From It Partly By Fear Of

The Army, And Partly By Fear Of The Laws, Which, When He Should Govern By

The Name Of King, Would Have Restrained his Authority. When, Therefore, A

Deputation Was Solemnly Sent To Invite Him To The Crown, He, After A Long

Conference, Refused it; But Is Said To Have Fainted in his Coach, When He

Parted from Them.

 

 

 

The Poem On The Death Of The Protector Seems To Have Been Dictated by

Real Veneration For His Memory. Dryden And Sprat Wrote On The Same

Occasion; But They Were Young Men, Struggling into Notice, And Hoping for

Some Favour From The Ruling party. Waller Had Little To Expect; He Had

Received nothing but His Pardon From Cromwell, And Was Not Likely To Ask

Any Thing from Those Who Should Succeed him.

 

 

 

Soon Afterwards, The Restoration Supplied him With Another Subject; And

He Exerted his Imagination, His Elegance, And His Melody, With Equal

Alacrity, For Charles The Second. It Is Not Possible To Read, Without

Some Contempt And Indignation, Poems Of The Same Author, Ascribing

The Highest Degree Of "Power And Piety" To Charles The First, Then

Transferring the Same "Power And Piety" To Oliver Cromwell; Now Inviting

Oliver To Take The Crown, And Then Congratulating charles The Second

On His Recovered right. Neither Cromwell Nor Charles Could Value His

Testimony, As The Effect Of Conviction, Or Receive His Praises, As

Effusions Of Reverence; They Could Consider Them But As The Labour Of

Invention, And The Tribute Of Dependence.

 

 

 

Poets, Indeed, Profess Fiction; But The Legitimate End Of Fiction Is The

Conveyance Of Truth; And He That Has Flattery Ready For All Whom The

Vicissitudes Of The World Happen To Exalt, Must Be Scorned, As A

Prostituted mind, That May Retain The Glitter Of Wit, But Has Lost The

Dignity Of Virtue.

 

 

 

The Congratulation Was Considered as Inferiour In poetical Merit To The

Panegyrick; And It Is Reported, That, When The King told Waller Of The

Disparity, He Answered, "Poets, Sir, Succeed better In fiction Than In

Truth."

 

 

 

The Congratulation Is, Indeed, Not Inferiour To The Panegyrick, Either By

Decay Of Genius, Or For Want Of Diligence; But Because Cromwell Had Done

Much, And Charles Had Done Little. Cromwell Wanted nothing to Raise Him

To Heroick Excellence But Virtue; And Virtue His Poet Thought Himself At

Liberty To Supply. Charles Had Yet Only The Merit Of Struggling without

Success, And Suffering without Despair. A Life Of Escapes And Indigence

Could Supply Poetry With No Splendid Images.

 

 

 

In The First Parliament, Summoned by Charles The Second, March 8, 1661,

Waller Sat For Hastings, In sussex, And Served for Different Places In

All The Parliaments Of That Reign. In a Time When Fancy And Gaiety Were

The Most Powerful Recommendations To Regard, It Is Not Likely That Waller

Was Forgotten. He Passed his Time In the Company That Was Highest Both In

Rank And Wit, From Which Even His Obstinate Sobriety Did Not Exclude

Him. Though He Drank Water, He Was Enabled, By His Fertility Of Mind, To

Heighten The Mirth Of Bacchanalian Assemblies; And Mr. Saville Said, That

"No Man In england Should Keep Him Company Without Drinking, But Ned

Waller."

 

 

 

The Praise Given Him By St. Evremond Is A Proof Of His Reputation; For It

Was Only By His Reputation That He Could Be Known, As A Writer, To A Man

Who, Though He Lived a Great Part Of A Long Life Upon An English Pension,

Never Condescended to Understand The Language Of The Nation That

Maintained him.

 

 

 

In Parliament, "He Was," Says Burnet, "The Delight Of The House, And,

Though Old, Said The Liveliest Things Of Any Among Them." This, However,

Is Said In his Account Of The Year Seventy-Five, When Waller Was Only

Seventy. His Name, As A Speaker, Occurs Often In grey'S Collections; But

I Have Found No Extracts That Can Be More Quoted, As Exhibiting sallies

Of Gaiety Than Cogency Of Argument.

 

 

 

He Was Of Such Consideration, That His Remarks Were Circulated and

Recorded. When The Duke Of York'S Influence Was High, Both In scotland

And England, It Drew, Says Burnet, A Lively Reflection From Waller, The

Celebrated wit. He Said "The House Of Commons Had Resolved that The Duke

Should Not Reign After The King'S Death; But The King, In opposition To

Them, Had Resolved that He Should Reign, Even In his Life." If There

Appear No Extraordinary Liveliness In this Remark, Yet Its Reception

Proves The Speaker To Have Been A Celebrated wit, To Have Had A Name

Which The Men Of Wit Were Proud Of Mentioning.

 

 

 

He Did Not Suffer His Reputation To Die Gradually Away, Which May Easily

Happen In a Long Life, But Renewed his Claim To Poetical Distinction,

From Time To Time, As Occasions Were Offered, Either By Publick Events

Or Private Incidents; And, Contenting himself With The Influence Of His

Muse, Or Loving quiet Better Than Influence, He Never Accepted any Office

Of Magistracy.

 

 

 

He Was Not, However, Without Some Attention To His Fortune; For He Asked

From The King, In 1665, The Provostship Of Eton College, And Obtained

It; But Clarendon Refused to Put The Seal To The Grant, Alleging that

It Could Be Held Only By A Clergyman. It Is Known That Sir Henry Wotton

Qualified himself For It By Deacon'S Orders.

 

 

 

To This Opposition The Biographia Imputes The Violence And Acrimony With

Which Waller Joined buckingham'S Faction In the Prosecution Of Clarendon.

The Motive Was Illiberal And Dishonest, And Showed that More Than Sixty

Years Had Not Been Able To Teach Him Morality. His Accusation Is Such As

Conscience Can Hardly Be Supposed to Dictate, Without The Help Of Malice:

"We Were To Be Governed by Janizaries, Instead Of Parliaments, And Are In

Danger From A Worse Plot Than That Of The Fifth Of November; Then, If The

Lords And Commons Had Been Destroyed, There Had Been A Succession; But

Here Both Had Been Destroyed for Ever." This Is The Language Of A Man

Who Is Glad Of An Opportunity To Rail, And Ready To Sacrifice Truth To

Interest, At One Time, And To Anger, At Another.

 

 

 

A Year After The Chancellor'S Banishment, Another Vacancy Gave Him

Encouragement For Another Petition, Which The King referred to The

Council, Who, After Hearing the Question Argued by Lawyers For Three

Days, Determined that The Office Could Be Held Only By A Clergyman,

According to The Act Of Uniformity, Since The Provosts Had Always

Received institution, As For A Parsonage, From The Bishops Of Lincoln.

The King then Said, He Could Not Break The Law Which He Had Made; And Dr.

Zachary Cradock, Famous For A Single Sermon, At Most, For Two Sermons,

Was Chosen By The Fellows.

 

 

 

That He Asked any Thing else Is Not Known; It Is Certain That He Obtained

Nothing, Though He Continued obsequious To The Court Through The Rest Of

Charles'S Reign.

 

 

 

At The Accession Of King james, In 1685, He Was Chosen For Parliament,

Being then Fourscore, At Saltash, In cornwall; And Wrote A Presage Of The

Downfal Of The Turkish Empire, Which He Presented to The King, On His

Birthday. It Is Remarked, By His Commentator, Fenton, That, In reading

Tasso, He Had Early Imbibed a Veneration For The Heroes Of The Holy War,

And A Zealous Enmity To The Turks, Which Never Left Him. James, However,

Having soon After Begun What He Thought A Holy War At Home, Made Haste To

Put All Molestation Of The Turks Out Of His Power.

 

 

 

James Treated him With Kindness And Familiarity, Of Which Instances Are

Given By The Writer Of His Life. One Day, Taking him Into The Closet, The

King asked him How He Liked one Of The Pictures: "My Eyes," Said Waller,

"Are Dim, And I Do Not Know It." The King said It Was The Princess Of

Orange. "She Is," Said Waller, "Like The Greatest Woman In the World."

The King asked who Was That; And Was Answered, Queen Elizabeth. "I

Wonder," Said The King, "You Should Think So; But I Must Confess She

Had A Wise Council." "And, Sir," Said Waller, "Did You Ever Know A Fool

Choose A Wise One?" Such Is The Story, Which I Once Heard Of Some Other

Man. Pointed axioms, And Acute Replies, Fly Loose About The World, And

Are Assigned, Successively, To Those Whom It May Be The Fashion To

Celebrate.

 

 

 

When The King knew That He Was About To Marry His Daughter To Dr. Birch,

A Clergyman, He Ordered a French Gentleman To Tell Him, That "The King

Wondered he Could Think Of Marrying his Daughter To A Falling church."

"The King," Said Waller, "Does Me Great Honour, In taking notice Of My

Domestick Affairs; But I Have Lived long Enough To Observe That This

Falling church Has Got A Trick Of Rising again."

 

 

 

He Took Notice To His Friends Of The King'S Conduct; And Said That "He

Would Be Left Like A Whale Upon The Strand." Whether He Was Privy To Any

Of The Transactions Which Ended in the Revolution, Is Not Known. His Heir

Joined the Prince Of Orange.

 

 

 

Having now Attained an Age Beyond Which The Laws Of Nature Seldom Suffer

Life To Be Extended, Otherwise Than By A Future State, He Seems To Have

Turned his Mind Upon Preparation For The Decisive Hour, And, Therefore,

Consecrated his Poetry To Devotion. It Is Pleasing to Discover That

His Piety Was Without Weakness; That His Intellectual Powers Continued

Vigorous; And That The Lines Which He Composed when "He, For Age, Could

Neither Read Nor Write," Are Not Inferiour To The Effusions Of His Youth.

 

 

 

Towards The Decline Of Life, He Bought A Small House, With A Little Land,

At Coleshill; And Said, "He Should Be Glad To Die, Like The Stag,

Where He Was Roused." This, However, Did Not Happen. When He Was At

Beaconsfield, He Found His Legs Grow Tumid; He Went To Windsor, Where Sir

Charles Scarborough Then Attended the King, And Requested him, As Both A

Friend And A Physician, To Tell Him, "What That Swelling meant." "Sir,"

Answered scarborough, "Your Blood Will Run No Longer." Waller Repeated

Some Lines Of Virgil, And Went Home To Die.

 

 

 

As The Disease Increased upon Him, He Composed himself For His Departure;

And, Calling upon Dr. Birch To Give Him The Holy Sacrament, He Desired

His Children To Take It With Him, And Made An Earnest Declaration Of His

Faith In christianity. It Now Appeared what Part Of His Conversation

With The Great Could Be Remembered with Delight. He Related, That Being

Present When The Duke Of Buckingham Talked profanely Before King charles,

He Said To Him, "My Lord, I Am A Great Deal Older Than Your Grace, And

Have, I Believe, Heard More Arguments For Atheism Than Ever Your Grace

Did; But I Have Lived long Enough To See There Is Nothing in them; And

So, I Hope, Your Grace Will."

 

 

 

He Died october 21, 1687, And Was Buried at Beaconsfield, With A Monument

Erected by His Son'S Executors, For Which Rymer Wrote The Inscription,

And