Some years afterwards, " business," fays Sprat, "paffed of course into other hands;" and Cowley, being no longer ufeful at Paris, was, in 1656, fent back into England, that, "under pretence of privacy and retirement, he might take occafion of "giving notice of the pofture of things in this "nation."

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Soon after his return to London, he was seized by fome meffengers of the ufurping powers, who were fent out in queft of another man; and, being examined, was put into confinement, from which he was not difmiffed without the fecurity of a thousand pounds given by Dr. Scarborough.

This year he publifhed his poems, with a preface, in which he feems to have inferted fome. thing, fuppreffed in fubfequent editions, which

Lord FALKLAND'S:

Non hæc, O Palla, dederas promissa parenti,
Cauties ut fævo velles te credere Marti.

Haud igoarus eram, quantum nova gloria in armis,
Et præ lulce decus primo certamine poffet.
Primitiæ joven s miferæ, bellique propinqui
Dura rudimenta, & nulli exaudita Deorum,
Vota precefque meæ!

Eneid, XI. 152.

O Pallas, thou haft fail'd thy plighted word,
To fight with caution, not to tempt the fword;
I warn'd thee, but in vain, for well I knew
What perils youthful ardour would pursue :
That boiling blood would carry thee too far,
Young as thou wert to dangers, raw to war.
O curit effay of arms, difaftrous doom,
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come;
Hard elements of unaufpicious war,

Vain vows to Heaven, and unavailing care.

DRYDEN.

Hoffman, in his Lexicon, gives a very fatisfactory account of this practice of feeking fates in books and fays, that it was used by the Pagans, the Jewith Rabbins, and even the early Chriftians the latter taking the New Teftament for their oracle. H. B 5

i

was

was interpreted to denote fome relaxation of his loyalty. In this preface he declares, that "his "defire had been for fome days paft, and did ftill 64 very vehemently continue, to retire himself to "fome of the American plantations, and to for"fake this world for ever."

From the obloquy which the appearance of fubmiffion to the ufurpers brought upon him, his biographer has been very diligent to clear him, and indeed it does not feem to have leffened his reputation. His with for retirement we can easily believe to be undiffembled; a man haraffed in one kingdom, and perfecuted in another, who, after a courfe of bufinefs that employed all his days and half his nights in cyphering and decyphering, comes to his own country and steps into a prifon, will be willing enough to retire to fome place of quiet and of fafety. Yet let neither our reverence for a genius, nor our pity for a sufferer, dispose us to forget that, if his activity was virtue, his retreat was cowardice.

He then took upon himself the character of Phyfician, ftill, according to Sprat, with intention, to diffemble the main defign of his coming "over;" and, as Mr. Wood relates, "comply

46

ing with the men then in power (which was "much taken notice of by the royal party), he "obtained an order to be created Doctor of "Phyfick, which being done to his mind (where"by he gained the ill-will of fome of his friends), "he went into France again, having made a copy "of verfes on Oliver's death."

This is no favourable representation, yet even in this not much wrong can be difcovered. How far he complied with the men in power, is to be enquired

enquired before he can be blamed. It is not faid that he told them any fecrets, or affifted them by intelligence, or any other act. If he only promifed to be quiet, that they in whofe hands he was might free him from confinement, he did what no law of fociety prohibits.

The man whofe mifcarriage in a juft caufe has put him in the power of his enemy may, without any violation of his integrity, regain his liberty, or preferve his life, by a promife of neutrality: for, the ftipulation gives the enemy nothing which he had not before; the neutrality of a captive may be always fecured by his imprisonment or death. He that is at the difpofal of another may not promife to aid him in any injurious act, because po power can compel active obedience. He may engage ta do nothing, but not to do ill.

There is reafon to think that Cowley promifed little. It does not appear that his compliance. gained him confidence enough to be trufted without fecurity; for, the bond of his bail was never cancelled; nor that it made him think himself. fecure, for, at that diffolution of government, which followed the death of Oliver, he returned into France, where he refumed his former station, and ftaid till the Restoration.

"He continued," fays his biographer, "under "thefe bonds till the general deliverance;" it is therefore to be fuppofed, that he did not go to France, and act again for the King, without the confent of his bondfman; that he did not fhew his loyalty at the hazard of his friend, but by his friend's permiffion.

Of the verfes on Oliver's death, in which Wood's narrative feems to imply fomething encomiaftick,

there has been no appearance.

There is a difcourfe concerning his government, indeed, with verfes intermixed, but fuch as certainly gained its author no friends among the abettors of ufurpation. A doctor of phyfick however he was made at Oxford, in December, 1657 and in the commencement of the Royal Society, of which an account has been given by Dr. Birch, he appears bufy among the experimental philofophers with the title of Dr. Cowley."

:

There is no reafon for fuppofing that he ever attempted practice; but his preparatory ftudies have contributed fomething to the honour of his country. Confidering Botany as necessary to a phyfician, he retired into Kent to gather plants; and, as the predominance of a favourite study affects all fubordinate operations of the intellect, Botany in the mind of Cowley turned into Poetry. He compofed in Latin feveral books on Plants, of which the first and fecond difplay the qualities of Herbs, in elegiac verfe; the third and fourth, the beauties of Flowers in various measures; and in the fifth and fixth, the ufes of Trees in heroick numbers.

At the fame time were produced, from the fame univerfity, the two great Poets, Cowley and Milton, of diffimilar genius, of oppofite principles; but concurring in the cultivation of Latin Poetry, in which the English, till their works and May's poem appeared *, feemed unable to contest the palm with any other of the lettered nations.

By May's Poem, we are here to understand a continuation of Lucan's Pharfalia to the death of Julius Cæfar, by Thomas May, an eminent poet and hiftorian, who flourished in the reigns of James and Charles I. and of whom a life is given in the Biographia Britannica. H.

If the Latin performances of Cowley and Milton be compared (for May I hold to be fuperior to both), the advantage feems to lie on the fide of Cowley. Milton is generally content to exprefs the thoughts of the ancients in their language; Cowley, without much lofs of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.

At the Restoration, after all the diligence of his long fervice, and with confcioufnefs not only of the merit of fidelity, but of the dignity of great abilities, he naturally expected ample preferments; and that he might not be forgotten by his own fault, wrote a Song of Triumph. But this was a time of fuch general hope, that great numbers were inevitably difappointed; and Cowley found his reward very tedioufly. delayed. He had been promifed, by both Charles the Firft and Second, the Mastership of the Savoy; "but he loft it, fays Wood," by certain perfons, enemies to the "Mufes."

The neglect of the court was not his only mortification; having, by fuch alteration as he thought proper, fitted his old Comedy of the Guardian" for the ftage, he produced it under the title of "The Cutter of Coleman-ftreet +." It was treated on the ftage with great feverity, and was afterwards cenfured as a fatire on the king's party.

1663.

Here is an error in the defignation of this comedy, which our author copied from the title page of the latter editions of Cowley's works; the title of the play itfelf is without the article, "Cutter of "Coleman-street," and that, because a merry fharking fellow' about the town, named Cutter, is a principal character in it. H.

Mr.