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Clarendon, whom on all occafions I fhall employ to fet Mr. Waller's Poems in a clearer light; and I prefume, if Thucydides and Livy could have been made as ferviceable in illustrating the Greek and Roman Clafficks, the world would never have accused their editors of being too fparing of their own speculations. “He was a younger brother of a noble family in Scotland, and came into the kingdom with King "James, as a gentleman, under no other character than a person well qualified by his breeding in France, " and by flady in human learning, in which he bore "a good part in the entertainment of the King, who "much delighted in that exercise; and by these means,

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and notable gracefulness in his behaviour, and affa"bility, in which he excelled, he had wrought him✩ * felf into a particular interest with his master, and ""into greater affection and esteem with the whole

English nation, than any other of that country, “by chufing their friendships and conversation, and "really preferring it to any of his own; infomuch

as, upon the King's making him Gentleman of his "Bedchamber, and Viscount Doncaster, by his royal “mediation (in which office he was a most prevalent "prince) he obtained the fole daughter and heir of "the Lord Denny to be given him in marriage; by "which he had a fair fortune in land provided for

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any iffue he should raise, and which his fon, by this "lady, lived long to enjoy. He ascended, afterwards,

"and with the expedition he desired, to the other "conveniencies of the court. He was Groom of the "Stole, and an Earl, and Knight of the Garter; and "married a beautiful young lady, daughter to the "Earl of Northumberland, without any other appro “bation of her father, or concernment in it, than “fuffering him and her to come into his presence af“ter they were married. He lived rather in a fairin "telligence than any friendship with the favourites, "having credit enough with his master to provide for **his own intereft, and he troubled not himself for "that of other men; and had no other consideration * of money than for the support of his luftre; and "whilst he could do that he cared not for money, ❝ having no bowels in the point of running in debt, “or borrowing all he could. He was furely a man of

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the greatest expense, in his own perfon, of any in the

age he lived, and introduced more of that expense, "in the excess of clothes and diet, than any other "man; and was indeed the original of all those in

ventions from which others did but transcribe co"pies He had a great univerfal understanding, and * could have taken as much delight in any other way, * if he had thought any other as pleasant, and worth

his care; but he found bufinefs was attended with * more rivals and vexations, and, he thought, with "much lefs pleasure, and not more innocence. He " left behind him the reputation of a very fine gen

"tleman, anda moft accomplished courtier; and after "having spent in a very jovial life, above 4co,ccol. "which, upon a strict computation, he received from

the crown, he left not a houfe nor acre of land to be "remembered by. And when he had in his profpe& "(for he was very sharp-fighted, and saw as far be "fore him as most men) the gathering together of "that cloud in Scotland, which shortly after cover"ed both kingdoms, he died with as much tranquil"lity of mind, to all appearance, as used to attend a "man of more fevere exercife of virtue, and with as. little apprehension of death, which he expected 61 many days."

His expenfive luxury has been juft now mentioned in the Earl of Clarendon's character, to which I will add what is recorded by Osborn, who was likewife his contemporary. "The Earl of Carlifle," fays he, 66 was one of the quorum that brought in the va "nity of anti-fuppers, not heard of in our forefa"thers' time, and for ought I have read, or at least.

remember, unpractised by the most luxurious tyrants; the manner of which was, to have the board "covered at the first entrance of the guests with dishes "as high as a tall man could well reach, filled with "the choiceft and dearest viands fea or land could "afford; and all this once feen, and having feasted "the eyes of the invited, was in a manner thrown "away, and fresh set on to the fame height, hav 99

only this advantage of the other, that it was hot. "I cannot forget one of the attendants of the King "that, at a feast made by this monfter in excess, ate,

to his fingle hare, a whole pie, reckoned to my "Lord at Ic. another writer saysat 2‹ Z” ** * What follows is too coarse to be transcribed, till he comes to tell us ***" When the most able phyficians, and "the Earl's own weakness, had passed judgment he "could not live many days, he did not forbear his "entertainments, but made divers brave clothes (as "he faid) to outface naked and despicable Death "withal; blafpheming God fo far in the person of his handmaid Nature, as to fay fhe wanted wisdom, love, or power, in making man mortal, and fubject to difeafes; forgetting that if every individual his luft had been able to have produced should "have profecuted an equal excess with his, they would in a far lefs time than an age have brought "themfelves or the world into the fame disease he "died of, which was a confumption."

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Own

In answer to one who writ a libel against the Countess of Carlife, p. 76.

THE title of this poem is supplied from the table to the first edition: the beginning of it refers to a paffage in the fifth Iliad, where Homer introduceth Pallas infpiriting Diomede to wound Venus, when she was refcuing her fon Æneas from imminent danger in a combat.

On my Lady Dorothy Sidney's picture, p. 78. ROBERT SIDNEY, the second of that name who fuc ceeded to the Earldom of Leicefter, married the La dy Dorothy Percy, fifter to the celebrated Countefs of Carlisle, by whom he had a numerous iffue. Of eight daughters, the Lady Dorothy, whom Mr. Waller has made immortal in his Poems, was the firft-born; but when or where he was born I have not been able to difcover, no mention being made of her name in the register at Penshurft: fo that, like the Grecian Venus, (whom the Mufes, I think, never pretended to have feen in her cradle) fhe appears at once in the full bloom and lure of beauty, to receive the hymns of her adorers.

Non licuit populis parvam te, Diva, videre.

In the year 1639 fhe was married to Henry Lord Spenser, created Earl of Sunderland by K. Charles I. in whose cause, a little more than four years after his marriage he was flain at the battle of Newbury, before he had completed the twenty-third year of his age. "A lord of great fortune, and early judgment! "who having no command in the army, attended

upon the King's perfon under the obligation of "honour; and putting himself, that day, (Sept. 20. 1643) in the King's troop a volunteer, before they

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came to charge was taken away by a cannon bulkt.”