John Waller

“ That evening we sat late around the camp fire, and before we separated for the night Mr. Ewart said, turning to me:
"I want a promise from you, Miss Farrell."
"What is it?"
"Caution, caution!" said the Doctor.
"That you will make no more solitude à deux excursions, as John calls them, with old André. He is old, despite his seeming strength, and his age is beginning to tell on him. I see that he has failed much since last year."
"You 're right there, Gordon; she should not risk it with him," said Jamie, emphatically. ”

“ Waller taught it; he first made writing easily an art; first showed us to conclude the sense most commonly in distichs, which, in the verse of those before him, runs on for so many lines together that the reader is out of breath to overtake it. This sweetness of Mr. Waller's lyric poesy was afterward followed, in the epic, by Sir John Denham, in his Cooper's Hill." (Epistle Dedicatory of The Rival Ladies.) In another place Dryden observed that only Waller, in English, had surpassed Spenser in the harmony of his verse. ”

“ Thomson.
V. OLD AGE AND DEATH. (95) Edmund Waller, 1605-1687, an English poet, was a cousin of John Hampden, and related to Oliver Cromwell. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Waller was for many years a member of Parliament. He took part in the civil war, and was detected in a treasonable plot. Several years of his life were spent in exile in France. After the Restoration he came into favor at court. His poetry is celebrated for smoothness and sweetness, but is disfigured by affected conceits. ###
The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er;
So calm are we when passions are no more. ”

“ Waller was not a very creative spirit; but here he was true to his class, and failed like a very poet. He had a brother-in-law named Tomkins, clerk of the Queen's Council, and possessed of much influence in the city. Consulting together on national affairs, it struck them simultaneously that energetic measures might yet save the court. They saw, or thought they saw, a reaction in favour of the royal cause, and they determined to try and unite the royalists together in a peaceful but strong combination against the parliament. ”

“ Here he keeps open table for the banished royalists, as well as for the French wits, till his means are impaired by his liberality. A middling poet, a pitiful politician, a fickle dangler in affairs of love, Waller was an admirable host, and not only gave good dinners and suppers, but flavoured them delicately with compliment and repartee. ”

“ It discovers a want of heart, and an infinite littleness of soul. We can hardly conceive him to have possessed a drop of the blood of Hampden or Cromwell in his veins, and cease to wonder why two high-spirited ladies of rank should have spurned the homage of a poetic poltroon, whom instinctively they seem to have known to be such, even before he proved it to the world.
"Infamous, and not contented," Waller repairs to the Continent, first to Rouen, then to Switzerland and Italy, in company with his friend Evelyn, and, in fine, settles for a season in Paris. ”

“ I have but two daughters--you are a single man--"
"But one engaged to be married very shortly," replied his auditor, making him a low bow; and Sir Henry went back to Sir Walter Herbert, saying, in a fierce and impatient tone, "Let us proceed with the business before us at once, Sir Waller. I say the man must be committed, and I call upon you as a magistrate to do so."
"I do not see the case as you do," answered the good Knight of Moorhurst; and as he spoke, Langford approached the table also, and, raising his eyes to the prisoner, at once recognised the poor half-witted man, Silly John Graves. ”

“ Waller, from whose work on monumental brasses the woodcut is taken, has been able to discover something of the history of Alderman Field. John Field, senior, was born about the beginning of the fifteenth century, but nothing is known of his early life. In 1449 he had clearly risen to commercial eminence in London, since he was in that year appointed one of fifteen commissioners to treat with those of the Duke of Burgundy concerning the commercial interests of the two countries in general, and specially to frame regulations for the traffic in wool and wool-fells brought to the staple at Calais. ”

“ The next parliament was not called till 1624, when Waller was not elected. The electors of Agmondesham, who had, meantime, obtained fuller privileges, chose two matured members to represent them, and the precocious boy lost his seat.
Waller's "political and poetical life began nearly together." It was in his eighteenth year that he wrote his first poetical piece—that on the escape of Prince Charles from a tempest on his return from Spain. It is a tissue of smooth and musical mediocrity. It shews a kind of stunted prematurity. ”

“ Then to the other this you may prefer.
'Tis left to you: the boxes and the pit,
Are sov'reign judges of this sort of wit.
In other things the knowing artist may
Judge better than the people; but a play,
(Made for delight, and for no other use)
If you approve it not, has no excuse.
[1] 'Maid's Tragedy': Waller altered this tragedy without success. [2] 'Marble last': these lines occur in a previous poem.
EPILOGUE TO THE 'MAID'S TRAGEDY.' SPOKEN BY THE KING. The fierce Melantius was content, you see,
The king should live; be not more fierce than he ”

“ In Oxford, it proved refractory to the king's wishes, and refusing to grant him a tithe of the supplies which he demanded, was summarily dismissed. Waller was not re-elected in 1626, when the next parliament was summoned, but secured his return for Agmondesham in March 1627. He appears to have been in these years a silent senator, taking little interest or share in the debates, but retiring from them to offer the quit-rent of his versicles—a laureate without salary, and yet not probably much more sincere than laureates generally are ”

“ A strange story is told, that one Goode, her chaplain, had stolen some of his papers, and would have got a hold of them all, had not Waller, having DREAMED that his sister was perfidious, risen and secured the rest. Clarendon, on the other hand, says that the discovery was made by a servant of Tomkins, who acted as a spy for the parliament. At all events, they were found out, and, in their terror and pusillanimity, they betrayed their associates. The Duke of Portland and Lord Conway were instantly arrested. Lady Aubigny, too, was imprisoned, but contrived to make her escape to the Hague. ”

“ He worshipped smoothness, and sought it at every hazard. He preferred the Jacob of a soft flowing commonplace to the rough hairy Esau of a strong originality, cumbered with its own weight and richness. We think that this excessive love of the soft, and horror at the rude, materially weakened his genius. The true theory of versification lies in variety, and in accommodation to the necessities and fluctuations of the thought. The "Paradise Lost," written in Waller's rhyme, would have been as ridiculous as Waller's love to Saccharissa expressed in Milton's blank verse. ”

“ Lofting became bankrupt’ (ib. 1697–1702, vol. lxxi. No. 18) . After 1700 he settled at Great Marlow, and the parish register records the burial of his wife there 23 July 1709. In his will, dated 14 April 1733, he describes himself as ‘John Lofting, of Great Marlow, Bucks, gentleman,’ and he appears to have been possessed of considerable property, among which he mentions his ‘thimble mills.’ He appoints his friends Edmund and Harry Waller of Beaconsfield (descendants of the poet) to be overseers of his will. ”

“ As no complete account of Walker's work is in existence (that of Walpole being very incomplete, while Cunningham passes him over entirely) , it may be added that the artist twice painted John Evelyn, in different sizes, as well as Bradshaw, John Hampden, Colonel Thomas Sanders, Cornet Joyce, and Speaker Lenthall, as well as Sir William and Lady Waller, Mrs Thomas Knight, and General George Monk, duke of Albemarle, and Sir Thomas Fairfax (engraved by Faithorne) . ”

“ He reads hastily—communicates its intelligence in whispers to those beside him, and hurries out. No time is lost. Pym and his party could not trifle now though they would, and would not though they could. Waller and Tomkins are seized that night in their houses, and overwhelmed with fear, confess everything. It is suspected that Waller was betrayed by his sister, Mrs. ”

“ To Sir Richard Fanshaw, upon his Translation of 'Pastor Fido'
To the Hon. Edward Howard, on 'The British Princes'
An Occasional Imitation of a Modern Author upon the Game of Chess
The Passion of Dido for Aeneas
Of Prudence
Of Justice
The Progress of Learning
Elegy on the Death of Helfry Lord Hastings, 1650
Of Old Age
THE POETICAL WORKS OF EDMUND WALLER WALLER'S POETICAL WORKS. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. OF THE DANGER HIS MAJESTY [BEING PRINCE] ESCAPED IN THE ROAD AT ST ANDERO. [1] Now bad his Highness bid farewell to Spain,
And reach'd the sphere of his own power—the main ”

“ Ewart asked of Mrs. Macleod.
"Not since the last of October; but Marcia has seen her recently."
He looked at me inquiringly.
"I bought the rag carpet strips of her daughter."
"Is the old woman well?"
"Yes, she is wonderful for her age."
"Ninety-nine next year," said Mr. Ewart. "What a century she has lived!"
"André père must be ninety, then," said Doctor Rugvie. "How well I remember him! He is Mère Guillardeau's brother, as perhaps you know," he said turning to me. "Jamie must have told you of André."
"Yes, of André father and André son; you know them both?" ”

“ E., 107 Walker, John, 112, 113 Wallden, a Carmelite Friar, 8 Waller, Mr. John, 281 Walpole, Horace, 284, 292 Walter, John, of the Times, 235 Walton Hall library, 93 Walton, Izaak, 35, 36, 85, 171 Walton's 'Compleat Angler,' 144, 145, 218, 234, 322 Wanley, Humfrey, 34, 38, 122 Ward, Mr. W., 107 Warde, Roger, 191 Wardour Street, 206 Ware, Richard, 215 Warner's 'Syrinx' (1597) , 288 Warwick, Earl of, 107 Waterton, E., 96, 97 Watson, Dr. T., 100 Weskett, 'On Insurances,' 152 Wesley, Charles, 35 Wesley and Sons, 234 West, James, 59, 60, 111, 179 Westell, Mr. ”

“ Stidolf (or Stidulf) of Badsell, which estate Henry's father Thomas had obtained by espousing Marion, the heiress of John Badsell. These facts remain recorded in the following inscription upon the memorial in the chancel of Tudely church of George Fane (son and heir of the above-named Richard) and his wife, Joane Waller. "Hie jacent Georg' Fane et Joane Waller uxor ejus Filius et Heres Ei Fane et Agnet Filie et Heredis Hen Filii et Hered' T Stidulf et Marion Badsell Filie et Hered' John' Badsell qui Ge' obit 4 die Fe 1571 et Jo Waller 6 Di 1545." ”

“ Come on into the living-room—I 've built up a roaring fire there—and let's talk; nobody 's around."
"Where 's Doctor Rugvie?"
"Gone off with Cale to the farm. He 'll get pneumonia if he does n't look out; the place is like an ice-house at this season."
I slipped the pudding into the oven. "Now look out for it and keep enough milk in it till it wheys, Angélique." I turned to Jamie. "Where's Mr. Ewart?"
"Oh, Ewart's off nosing about in Quebec for some old furniture for his den. Pierre drove him to the train just after breakfast. He told mother he would be back in time for supper." ”

“ I may know of the family."
"I have my doubts about thet," he said with considerable emphasis. "Girls of your age ain't apt to know of folks thet lived, an' loved, an'—I was goin' to say 'lost', but she ain't never thet to me, 'fore they was born. My wife's name, Marcia, was Morey, Jemimy Morey—one of three—"
"Triplets? Yes marm," he said, in reply to Mrs. Macleod's look of surprise. "Job Morey, her father, was a poor man, poor, as we used ter say, as Job's turkey. He 'd had a hard time, no mistake. He 'd had five boys ter raise on a farm thet was half rocks. ”

“ Googe; I appreciate that. You must find it hard to see a stranger like myself preëmpting your special claim, as I fancy this one is."
"It used to be when I was a youngster; but, to tell the truth, I haven't cared for it much of late years. The city life spoils a man for this. I love that rush and hustle and rubbing-elbows with the world in general, getting knocked about—and knocking." He laughed merrily, significantly, and Father Honoré, catching his meaning at once, laughed too. ”

“ Edward Waller, the first refiner of English versification, was a member of the lower house; a man of considerable fortune, and not more distinguished by his poetical genius than by his parliamentary talents, and by the politeness and elegance of his manners. As full of keen satire and invective in his eloquence, as of tenderness and panegyric in his poetry, he caught the attention of his hearers, and exerted the utmost boldness in blaming those violent counsels by which the commons were governed. ”

“ Ewart; these, he declared, made the connection and started a current. Its energy made itself pleasurably felt in every member of the household. Cale was twice in Montreal, on a personally conducted tour, for the coach horses. Big Pete was putting on double windows all over the house, stuffing the cracks with moss, piling cords of winter wood, hauling grain and, during the long evenings, enjoying himself by cutting up the Canadian grown tobacco, mixing it with a little molasses, and storing it for his winter solace. Angélique was making the kitchen to shine, and Marie was helping Mrs. Macleod. ”