eftablish'd Auguftus in the quiet poffeffion of the whole empire, Virgil thought it fo important, that he employ'd a God to figure it on his heroe's fhield, in the conclufion of his eighth Eneid; to which I refer the reader. *The great Achilles march'd not to the field &c.] See Homer's eighteenth Iliad. Against him firft Opdam his squadron leads, Proud of his late fuccefs against the Swedes.] James Lord Opdam, Baron of Waffenaer, was of a noble, and very antient, extraction; who, while the administration of the commonwealth was in de Wit's charge, obtain'd the commiffion of Admiral purely by the dint of military merit; being strongly attach'd in his inclinations to the House of Orange. In the year 1658, when the States join'd in the quarrel of Denmark against Sweden, he commanded their fleet in the Sound; where, at the very time that he was severely afflicted with the gout, he engag'd and defeated the Swedes; while the two contending Kings flood, on the oppofite fhores, fpectators of his bravery. So trembled Jacob] Gen. chap. xxxvii. + But fell, like Phaeton &c.] See the fecond book of Ovid's Metamorphofes. Monfieur Neuville, who wrote the fupplement to Grotius's hiftory of Holland, fays, the Dutch affirm'd that an English gunner, employ'd by Opdam on board his own fhip, defignedly fir'd the powder-room: an action fo much of the old Roman ftrain, that I wonder They could either believe, or report it. The brave Admiral was bury'd in the new Church at Delf; where the States erected a magnificent tomb over his ashes: round which many emblems of his great qualities are plac'd, in ftatues, and tables of relievo ; with a long Latin infcription, which fays, that in the 55th year of his age, Herculeo exemplo flammis viam fibi ad Superos para tam invenit: against * Page 165. Ibid. | Page 166. † Page 167. against which no reasonable exception could have been made, if the monument had flood in a heathen temple. That, bears the radiant enfign of the day.] Tranflated from Lucretius Book V. Propterea noctes hiberno tempore longe Ceffant, dum veniat radiatum infigne diei. Fierce, goodly, young! Mars he resembles &c.] Imitated from the feventh Iliad, where Homer defcribes Ajax when he was going to engage with Hector : He moves to combate with majestic pace: Laft, draw the Commons, at his royal feet Pouring-out treasure, &c.] By the confeffion of their own Hiftorian, the Dutch in this engagement loft nineteen men of war, and had fix thousand flain: above two thoufand, with feveral officers, were brought prifoners into England. About three months after this glorious victory, the Parliament, by reafon of the contagion that rag'd in London, affembled at Oxford; and voted a new fupply of twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds; to be rais'd by a proportionable addition to the monthly affeffment, to begin at Chriftmas following. And likewife voted a month's farther affeffment of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds; to commence from the expiration of the former affeffment to be granted to his Majely with a defire to his Majefty, to dispose of it to his Royal Highness the Duke of York. : Page 167. ‡ Ibid. * Page 170. Se + So, Jove himself, when Typhon &c.] The Cretans, (whose national infincerity became a proverb, which is recorded in facred writ,) affirm'd that Jupiter was not only a native of their island, but dy'd there and at Gnous they pretended to fhew his fepulchre: which was employ'd by Lactantius, and other primitive Chriftians, to expofe the ftupidity of the heathen fuperftition. Even fome of the pagan writers, and particularly Callimachus, have cenfur'd them for it. **On Ida's mount, Or Dicte, ftudious of his country's praife, хсіх. Mr Prior. Typhon was one of the Giants, whose attempt against the skies hath already been mention'd, page lxxxix. and His enormous fize ftruck the Gods with fuch a terror, that they fled, (even Jupiter himself) and conceal'd themselves in Egypt. The reader will find a fui! account of him in the fifth book of Ovid's Metamorphofes. His thunder mix'd with terror, wrath, and flame.] Imitated from Virgil's defcription of thunder in the 8th Eneid: Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquofe + Page 171. Mr. Dryden. Taffo Ibid. Taffo knew how the fairer fex to grace &c.] When the Court was at Windsor, these verses were writ in the Tao of her Royal Highness at Mr. Waller's requeft, by the late Duke of Buckinghamshire: and I very well remember to have heard his Grace fay, that the Author employ'd the greatest part of a fummer in compofing, and correcting, them. So that however he is generally reputed the parent of those swarms of Infect-Wits who affect to be thought eafy writers; it is evident that he bestow'd much time, and care, on his Poems, before he ventur'd them out of his hands. That illaborata facilitas which a great critic affigns for the diftinguishing character of Cicero's profe, may with equal propriety be apply'd to Sir George Etherege's ftyle in his Comedies, and to Mr. Waller's verfification. I have already fpoken of Tao, page xxx, who paid a particular complement to her Royal Highnefs's family in the character of his favorite Rinaldo. She was the daughter of Alphonfo Efte, Duke of Modena, by his confort Laura Margaretta Mazarini Martinazzi: and, as fhe is defcrib'd by the late Earl of Peterborough, in the bloom of her youth fhe rival'd the fancied charms of the Poet's Armida." She was tall, and admirably shaped: her complexion was of the last fairness; and her hair as black 66 as jet; fo were her eye-brows, and her eyes; but, "the latter fo full of light, and fweetness, as that they “did dazzle, and charm too: there feemed given to "them from nature fovereign power; power to kill, "and power to fave: and in the whole turn of her face, "which was the most graceful that could be framed, "there was all the features, all the beauty, and all that "could be great, and charming, in any human creature ! " 66 Page 175 Of T * Of DIVINE LOVE. TH HE divine Poems were the last of Mr. Waller's productions, most of them having been writ ten when he was about eighty years old; in which, though there is not the fame elevation, and fire, as in his earlier compofitions, His fetting fun fill shoots a glimm'ring ray ; + Before this oracle, like Dagon, all Mr. Dryden. The false pretenders, Delphos, Ammon fall.] The hiftory of Dagon falling proftrate before the Ark is recorded 1 Samuel, chap. v. This idol was of human shape to the waift; and downward refembled a fish; as the Tritons, and Nereids, are ufually painted. Milton gives a full description of him in the first book of Paradife Loft. Who mourn'd in earnest, when the captive Ark The *Page 177 + Page 179. |