WALLER, EDMUND, celebrated as one of the refiners of English poetry, was b. at Coleshill, Hurts, March 3, 1605 or 1606. He was of an ancient and opulent family, and having passed through Eaton and King's college, Cambridge,was returned to parliament, at the early age of 18, a member for Amersham, Bucks. In 1631 he married a London heiress, who stied shortly afterward; and the rich widower made suit to lady Dorothy Sidney, eldest daughter of the earl of Leicester, whom he poetically and perseveringly commemorated under the name of Saccharissa. Lady Dorothy, however, was inexora ble; "she was not to be subdued," as Johnson says, "by the powers of verse." Meet ing him in her old age, she asked the poet when he would again write verses upon her, and he ungallantly replied: " When you are as young, madam, and as handsome as you were then." In the long parliament, Waller joined the party of Hampden (who was his cousin), and he was one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate with king-. Charles I. at Oxford in 1643. He was soon gained over by the royalists, and entered into a censpiracy against the dominant party in the house of commons, for which he was fined £10,000, and banished the kingdom. His conduct on this occasion was mean and disgraceful. lie not only confessed all he knew, but all that he suspected; attempted to criminate innocent persons, and humbled himself before the house of commons in language inexpressibly abject and humiliating. After eight years' exile, spent in France
and Italy, lie was suffered to return to England; and he then became a supporter of the commonwealth, and a panegyrist of Cromwell, to whom be was distantly related. When Charles II. was restored, Waller was equally ready with a poetical congratulation; but his loyal strains were ninth inferior to those with which he had hailed the protector; and it is said that when Charles reminded him of this fact, the poet wittily replied: "Poets, sir, succeed better in fiction than in truth." Up to his 80th year, Waller con tinued a member of the house of commons, delighting all parties by his wit and vivacity. Ile died at Beaconsfield, Oct. 21, 1687. Waller began early to write verses, and pub lished two collections of his poems—one in 1645, and another in 1664. An edition appeared in 1711, edited by Atterbury; and one in 1729, with copious " Observations " by Fenton. Pope has eulogized the sweetness of Waller's verse. Some of his smaller pieces are characterized by infinite grace and harmony; be has also occasional dignity and striking imagery, as in the lines on Cromwell; and lie is never involved or obscure: yet his rank among our poets is but a subordinate one, as he is deficient in passion, energy, and creative power.