❝ repairing then of Paul's gave a reasonable colour " for his piety, and that navy-royal might well give "him the preeminence in power above Achilles."

I fhould willingly have acquiefced in this determi nation, if there had been any naval armament in the year 1632 confiderable enough for the fubject of Mr. Waller's poem; neither did the war betwixt France and Spain, which is referred to in the third verse, break out till, I believe, almost three years after the date that Mr. Rymer hath affigned; and therefore, in a matter that fill remains fo uncertain, I may venture to interpose my own opinion, which, whether right or no, may be less liable to objections than those that have been already advanced.

In the year 1635 the Hollanders espoused the quarrel of France against Spain, and the terms ftipulated in the treaty were, that they should not only divide the provinces of Flanders, but also Dunkirk, Oftend, and the other fea-ports on the coast, equally hetween them. Upon the concluding this league offenfive and defenfive, the Dutch forgot their obligations to the crown of England, treated their old benefactors with difrefpect, and were more audacious in their encroachments upon the fishery on our coafts. King Charles thought it was high time to affert his fovereignty over the narrow feas, and immediately fitted out a much greater fleet than had ever been equipped fince the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and appointed

the Earl of Lindsey to command it. Sir Williamt Monfon, who ferved Vice-admiral under the Earl, informs us, in his Naval Tracts, that while this fleet was preparing, many idle, factious, and fcandalous reports were invented, to persuade the people that thofe preparations were only an artifice of state to draw money from the fubject. Could Mr. Waller ever have had a more happy opportunity than this of making his court to the King, by representing his actions in their proper light, in proclaiming his navy to be, as in truth it was, the glory and defence of the nation? And yet, to deal ingenuously, I am of opinion that this poem was written in the following year, when his great friend, the Earl of Northumberland, was made admiral of a fleet not inferiour to the former, in the thirty-first year of Mr. Waller's age.

The world's reflorer once could not endure.] This line is printed as I find it in the first edition; in the others it is nøver cou'd endure. The building of Babel is related by Mofes in Genesis, chap. xi.

To the Queen, occafioned upon fight of her Majefty's picture, p. 2.

WHEN all thoughts of a marriage with the Infanta of Spain were laid aside, King James confented that Prince Charles fhould make his addreffes

Maria urbon, youngest daughte

of France, by his queen Mary de Medicis. Accordingly, in the year 1624, the Lord Kensington, (afterwards created Earl of Holland) was difpatched to make proposals to Lewis XIII. by whom they were embraced, and the nuptial ceremony was performed in the church of Nôtredame in Paris, on the first of May 1625. Mr. Waller feems to have written this poem foon after her Majesty's arrival in England, anno ☛tat, 20. Nor shall we think him too profufe in praifing her beauty, when we read the defcription of her perfon, which the Lord Kensington gives, in a letter to the Prince of Wales, whom he would not dare to delude with a portrait of his own invention. **** Sir, "if your intentions proceed this way, (as by many "reafons of ftate and wifdom there is caufe now ra"ther to press it than slacken it) you will find a lady "of as much loveliness and fweetnefs to defer ve your "affection as any creature under heaven can do. And, “Sir, by all her fashions fince my being here. and by "what I hear from the ladies, it is most visible to me "her infinite value and refpect unto you, Sir, I say "not this to betray your belief, but from a true ob"servation and knowledge of this to be fo. I tell you "this,and must somewhat more, in way of admiration "of the perfon of Madame; for the impreffions I "had of her were but ordinary, but the amazement **extraordinary, to find her (as I protest to God I

') the sweetest creature in France. Her growth

" is very little fhort of her age, but her wisdom infinitely beyond it. I heard her difcourfe with her "mother, and the ladies about her, with extraordi

nary difcretion and quickness. She dances (the *which I am a witness of) as well as ever I faw any creature. They say the fings fweetly; I am fure the "looks fo." *** And in another letter he fays, “That for beauty and goodness she was an angel.” This description will claim the more regard, when we reflect on the important occafion on which it was written, and on the perfon who wrote it, who was the most accomplished courtier of that age: elegans formarum fpectator, was the Earl of Holland's true character, and it had been happy for himself and the nation if he had never afpired to any other.

To the Queen-mother of France, upon her landing, p. 5. MARY DE MEDICIS, queen-mother of France, isafad and very fingular inftance how infecure the most commanding condition may prove against the viciffitudes of Fortune. She was daughter to the Great Duke of Tuscany, wife of Henry IV. of France, mother to Lewis XIII. his fucceffor, to the Queens of England and Spain, and to the Duchefs of Savoy, yet was made a facrifice by her own fon (a timorousand weak prince) to the ambition of Cardinal Richlieu, to whom she had been a benefactress. By him the was represented

to the King of France as a perfon diffaffected to his government, then was perfecuted from the court, and at length confined to Compeigne; from whence the made her escape, the 19th of July 1631,with so much precipitation, that she travelled thirty leagues with out taking cafe or refreshment. In the year 1638, her daughter, the Queen of England, invited her over to take fanctuary in this nation, whether her evil genius purfued her; for, upon her arrival, the populace raised a tumult, in which three men were flain, and when the Earl of Holland, who was Lord-lieutenant of Middlesex, gave orders for a guard of a hundred muf queteers out of the militia to protect her Majefty's perfon, he was answered, that they thought it fitter for them to do other things than to guard a foreigner. At length fhe was lodged fafe in St. James's palace, where for about three years the enjoyed a penfion of 3ecol. a month. At laft the parliament petitioned for her removal out of the kingdom, which they foftened with a prefent of 1c,cool. to make provifion for her journey. The King's affairs were too much perplexed for him to give protection to others; and therefore, in Auguft 1641, he ordered the Earl of Arundel to attend this unfortunate princefs to Cologne; where, having languifhed to the followingyear, in a condition very unsuitable to her high birth and former dignity, fhe died about five months before the implacable Cardinal. This poem was addressed to the Volume 11.