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the stage is a very wide deviation from the practice of that time; when the ardour for theatrical entertainments was not yet diffused through the whole people, and the audience, confifting nearly of the fame perfons, could be drawn together only by variety.

The Orphan was exhibited in 1680. This is one of the few plays that keep poffeffion of the ftage, and has pleafed for almott a century, through all the viciffitudes of dramatick fashion. Of this play nothing new can eafily be faid. It is a domeftick tragedy drawn from middle life. Its whole Its whole power is upon the affections: for it is not written with much comprehenfion of thought, or elegance of expreffion. But if the heart is interested, many other beauties may be wanting, yet not be miffed.

The fame year produced the History and Fall of Caius Marius: much of which is borrowed from the Romeo and Juliet of Shakspeare.

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In 1683 was published the first, and next year the fecond, parts of The Soldier's Fortune, two comedies now forgotten: and in 1685 his laft and greatest dramatick work, Venice Preferved, a tragedy, which ftill continues to be one of the favourites of the publick, notwithstanding the want of morality in the original defign, and the defpicable fcenes of vile comedy with which he has diverfified his tragick action. By comparing this with his Orphan, it will appear that his images were by time become ftronger, and his language more energetick. The ftriking paffages are in every mouth; and the publick feems to judge

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rightly of the faults and excellencies of this play, that it is the work of a man not attentive to decency, nor zealous for virtue; but of one who conceived forcibly, and drew originally, by confulting nature in his own breast.

Together with thofe plays he wrote the poems which are in the prefent collection, and tranflated from the French the Hiftory of the Tri

umvirate.

All this was performed before he was thirty-four years old; for he died April 14, 1685, in a manner which I am unwilling to mention. Having been compelled by his neceffities to contract debts, and hunted, as is fuppofed, by the terriers of the law, he retired to a publick houfe on Tower-hill, where he is faid to have died of want: or, as it is related by one of his biographers, by fwallowing, after a long faft, a piece of bread which charity had fupplied. He went out, as is reported, almost naked, in the rage of hunger, and, finding a gentleman in a neighbouring coffee-house, asked him for a fhilling. The gentleman gave him a guinea; and Otway going away bought a roll, and was choaked with the first mouthful. All this, I hope, is not true; and there is this ground of better hope, that Pope, who lived near enough to be well informed, relates in Spence's Memorials, that he died of a fever caught by violent pursuit of a thief that had robbed one of his friends. But that indigence, and its concomitants, forrow and defpondency, proffed hard upon him, has never been denied, whatever immediate caufe might bring him to the grave

Of the poems which the rrefent collection admits, the longest is the Poet's Complaint of his Muse,

part

part of which I do not understand; and in that which is lefs obfcure I find little to commend. The language is often grofs, and the numbers are harth. Otway had not much cultivated verfification, nor much replenished his mind with general knowledge. His principal power was in moving the paffions, to which Dryden in his latter years left an illuftrious teftimony. He appears by fome of his verfes to have been a zealous royalist, and had what was in thofe times the common reward of loyalty; he lived and died neglected.

WALL E R.

EDMUND WALLER was born on the third of March, 1605, at Colfhill, in Hertfordfhire. His father was Robert Waller, Efquire, of Agmondefham in Buckinghamshire, whofe family was originally a branch of the Kentifh Wallers; and his mother was the daughter of John Hampden, of Hampden in the fame county, and fifter to Hampden, the zealot of rebellion.

His father died while he was yet an infant, but left him a yearly income of three thoufand five hundred pounds; which, rating together the va

In his preface to Frefnoy's Art of Painting. Dr. J.

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lue of money and the customs of life, we may reckon more than equivalent to ten thousand at the prefent time.

He was educated, by the care of his mother at Eaton; and removed afterwards to King's College in Cambridge. He was fent to parliament in his eighteenth, if not in his fixteenth year, and frequented the court of James the First, where le heard a very remarkable converfation, which the writer of the Life prefixed to his Works, who feems to have been well informed of facts, though he may fometimes err in chronology, has delivered as indubitably certain:

"He found Dr. Andrews, bishop of Winchefter, "and Dr. Neale, bifhop of Durham, ftanding be"hind his Majefty's chair; and there happened "" fomething extraordinary," continues this writer, "in the converfation thofe prelates had with the "king, on which Mr. Waller did often reflect. "His Majesty afked the bifhops, "My Lords, "cannot I take my subjects' money, when I want "it, without all this formality of parliament?" The "bishop of Durham readily anfwered, God for

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bid, Sir, but you fhould: you are the breath of "our noftrils.' Whereupon the King turned and "faid to the bishop of Winchefter, Well, my "Lord, what fay you?" Sir,' replied the bishop, 66 6 I have no fkill to judge of parliamentary cafes.' "The King anfwered, "No put-offs, my Lord; "answer me prefently." Then, Sir,' faid he, I "think it is lawful for you to take my brother "Neale's money; for he offers it.' Mr. Waller "faid, the company was pleafed with this anfwer, "and the wit of it feemed to affect the King: for, "a certain lord coming in foon after, his Majesty VOL. I. "cried

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"cried out, "Oh, my lord, they fay you lig with "my Lady." No, Sir, fays his Lordthip in "confufion; but I like her company, because "The has fo much wit.' Why then," fays the

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66 King, "do you not lig with my Lord of Win"chefter there?"

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Wailer's political and poetical life began nearly together. In his eighteenth year he wrote the poem that appears in his works, on "the Prince's Escape at St. Andero;" a piece which justifies the obfervation made by one of his editors, that he attained, by a felicity like inftinct, a ftyle which perhaps will never be obfolete; and that, were "we to judge only by the wording, we could not "know what was wrote at twenty, and what at "fourfcore." His verification was, in his first effav, fuch as it appears in his laft performance. By the perufal of Fairfax's tranflation of Tatlo, to which, as Dryden relates, he confeffed himfelf indebted for the fmoothness of his numbers, and by his own nicety of obfervation, he had already formed fuch a fyftem of metrical harmony as he never afterwards much needed, or much endeavoured, to improve. Denham corrected his numbers by experience, and gained ground gradually upon the ruggednefs of his age; but what was acquired by Denham was inherited by Walier.

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The next poem, of which the fubject seems to fix the time, is fuppofed by Mr. Fenton to be the Addrefs to the Queen, which he confiders as congratulating her arrival, in Waller's twentieth year. He is apparently miftaken; for the mention of the nation's obligations to her frequent pregnancy

Preface to his Fables. Dr. J.

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