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as had rarely befallen any man, who had not been attended with the envy of a Favorite. He was in all his deportment a very great man; and that which look'd like formality was a punctuality in preserving his dignity from the invafion and intrufion of bold men; which no man of that age fo well preferv'd himself from. Tho' his notions were not large or deep, yet his temper, and reservedness in difcourfe, got him the reputation of an able and a wife man: which he made evident in the excellent government of his family, where no man was more abfolutely obey'd: and no man had ever fewer idle words to answer for: and in debates of importance he always exprefs'd himself very pertinently. If he had thought the King as much above him, as he thought himself above other confiderable men, he would have been a good fubject: but, the extreme undervaluing thofe, and not enough valuing the King, made him liable to the impreffions which they who approach'd him by thofe addreffes of reverence, and esteem, that usually infinuate into fuch natures, made in him. So that after he was firft prevail'd upon, not to do that which in honor and gratitude he was oblig'd to (which is a very peftilent corruption !) he was, with the more facility, led to concur in what, in duty and fidelity, he ought not to have done, and what at first he never intended to have done: and fo he concurr'd in all the counfels which produc'd the rebellion, and ftay'd with them to support it. ***. He dy'd in the year 1668. Ann. Ætat. 66. and was bury'd near his fifter the Countess of Carlisle at Pet-worth; having been the tenth Earl of his family, and the fixth who had been honor'd with the Garter.

Virtue would blush if Time should boaft &c.] This argument is ufed by Sulpicius in his inimitable Epistle to Cicero on the death of his daughter Tullia: Nullus dolor eft quem non longinquitas temporis minuat ac molliat; hoc Te expectare tempus tibi turpe eft, ac non ei rei fapientâ tuâ Te occurrere: and it is likewise employ'd by Cicero himself on + Page 26.

another

another occafion: Nam quod allatura eft ipsa diuturnitas, quæ maximos luctus vetuftate tollit, id nos præcipere confilio prudentiaque debemus. Epift. 16. lib. 5.

*The brave Æmilius &c.] He conquer'd Perfeus, and put a final period to the Macedonian empire; by which fuch immense wealth was brought into the Public Treafury, and that so well manag'd, that the Government had no occafion to impose any Taxes upon the Roman people before the war broke out between Anthony and Cæfar. Of two fons whom he paffionately lov'd, one dy'd five days before his father's triumph; the other, three days after it which loss he supported with the fame invincible greatness of foul, with which he fubdu'd the enemies of the State, and despis'd the plunder. In his speech on this occafion Mr. Waller forfakes Plutarch to follow Valerius Maximus: Precatus fum, ut fi adverfi quid Populo Romano immineret, totum in meam domum converteretur..

To my Lord Admiral of his late fickness and recovery.

The time and occafion of writing this Poem appear to have been, when the Earl of Northumberland was appointed General of the English Army against the Scots, and excus'd himfelf from action, by pretending want of health; tho' his conduct foon afterwards evidenc'd it was want of inclination to exert that vigor which the King's affairs requir'd; and which, of all men living, he was the most bound by gratitude to have exerted. And therefore we may fuppofe that Mr. Waller made him the complement of these verses (a very feasonable one to cover his difaffection) in the latter end of the year 1640, Anno Ætat. 35. And the death of the Earl's Lady being mention'd as if it were still green in his memory, the preceding Poem was probably written the year before, or perhaps a little earlier.

* Page 27. | Page 28,

The

The Ladies too, the brightest of that time &c.] The ftory of Orpheus hath been already related, pag. xxxviii: but, in this place it will not be improper to quote a few verfes from the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, to which Mr. Waller feems to refer.

*** omnemque refugerat Orpheus Fæmineam Venerem; feu quod malè cefferat illi, Sive fidem dederat : multas tamen ardor habebat Jungere fe vati; multæ doluere repulse. *Orpheus fled the face of womankind, And all foft union with the fex declin'd: Whether his ill fuccefs this change had bred; Or, binding vows made to his former bed: Whate'er the cause, in vain the Nymphs conteft, With rival love to warm his frozen breaft: For, every Nymph with love his lays infpir'd; But, every Nymph repuls'd, with grief retir'd. Mr. Congreve.

+ *** O'er young

Adonis fo

Fair Venus mourn'd, and with the pretious show'r
Of her warm tears cherish'd the fpringing flow'r.] See
Ovid's Metamorphofes, Book X.

*** Luctus monumenta manebunt
Semper, Adoni mei, repetitaque mortis imago
Annua plangoris peraget fimulamina noftri:
At cruor in florem mutabitur. An tibi quondam
Famineos artus in olentes vertere menthas,
Perfephone, licuit? Nobis Cynereius heros
Invidia mutatus erit? Sic fata, cruorem
Nectare odorato Spargit; qui tactus ab illo
Intumuit: fic, ut pluvia perlucida cælo
Surgere bulla folet: nec plena longior horâ
Facta mora eft, cùm flos è fanguine concolor ortus:
Qualem, quæ lento celant fub cortice granum,
Punica ferre folent : brevis eft tamen ufus in illo;

[blocks in formation]

Nam

Namque malè hærentem, & nimiâ levitate caducum
Excutiunt idem qui præftant nomina venti.

For thee, loft youth! my tears, and restless pain,
Shall in immortal monuments remain :
With folemn pomp in annual rites return'd,
Be thou for ever, my Adonis, mourn'd!
Could Pluto's Queen with jealous fury ftorm,
And Menthè to a fragrant herb tranform?
Yet dares not Venus with a change furprize,
And in a flow'r bid her fall'n heroe rife?
Then, on the blood fweet Nectar fhe bestows;
The fcented blood in little bubbles rofe:
Little as rainy drops which flutt'ring fly,
Born by the winds along a low'ring sky.
Short time enfu'd, 'till where the blood was fhed,
A flow'r began to rear his purple head:
Such as in Punic apples is reveal'd,
Or in the filmy rind but half conceal'd.
Still here the fate of lovely forms we see,
So fudden fades the fweet Anemone!
The feeble ftems to ftormy blasts a prey,
Their fickly beauties droop, and pine away:
The winds forbid the flow'rs to flourish long,
Which owe to winds their name in Grecian fong.
Mr. Eufden.

The paffion of Venus for Adonis, is likewife defcrib'd with great delicacy by Bion, and our admirable Shakespear, in language only inferior to the fineft writers of antiquity. The mysterious fenfe of the fable is thus unveil'd by Mr. Sandys, in a note on this quotation from Ovid. The feafts of Adonis were yearly celebrated by the Phænicians, (of which country they report him to be) beating their breafis, and tearing their garments, with univerfal forrow: offering facrifice to his Manes; yet affirming the day following that he liv'd, and was afcended into heaven. The women that would not cut their hair, were injoin'd to

proftrate

proftrate themselves to ftrangers, and to offer the hire of their bodies to Venus. This lamentation for the death of Adonis is mention'd by the Prophet Ezekiel; for fo Thamuz is interpreted in the vulgar tranflation: altho' Tremelius take it for Ofyris: however, both are the fame in the allegory. Solomon is faid in the first of the Chronicles to have follow'd Aftarten; which fome interpret to be this Venus, the Goddefs of the Sidonians. She had her ftatue in mount Libanus, in a mournful pofture; her head cover'd with a veil; leaning her cheek on her lest hand, and fustaining her mantle with the other, into which her tears appear'd to defcend. Now, Adonis was no other than the Sun, ador'd under that name by the Phænicians; as Venus, by the name of Aftarten; for, the Naturalifts call the upper hemisphere of the earth which we inhabit, Venus; as the lower, Proferpina. Therefore they made the Goddess to weep, when the Sun retir'd from her to the fix Winter-Signs of the Zodiac; fhort'ning the days, and depriving the earth of her delight and beauty: which again he restores by his approach into Aries. Adonis is faid to be flain by a boar, because that beaft is the image of the winter; favage, horrid, delighting in mire, and feeding on acorns, a fruit which is proper to that feafon. So the winter wounds (as it were,) the Sun to death, by diminishing his heat, and luftre; whofe lofs is lamented by Venus, or, the widow'd earth, then cover'd with a veil of clouds : fprings gufhing from thence, (the tears of her eyes,) in greater abundance; the fields presenting a fad afpect, as being depriv'd of their ornament. But, when the Sun returns to the Æquator, Venus recovers her alacrity: the trees are invested with leaves, and the earth with her flow'ry mantle: wherefore the antients did dedicate the month of April to Venus. And not only the Phænicians, but the house of Judah worship'd the Sun under the name of Tamuz, the fame with Adonis: for,

Adon

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