Imatges de pàgina
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"doth their minds. She is fo great a lover of varie ty, as that when the may not otherwife exprefs it, fhe will remove her own thoughts, if not change “her opinions, even of those persons that are not "leaft confidered by her; and when they have given "herthisentertainment, let them fettle again in their

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former places with her. She hath certain high and "elevated thoughts in which the is pleased most, and “they carry her mind above any thing within her "knowledge. She believeth nothing to be worthy of "her confideration but her own imaginations: thefe 66 gallant fancies keep her in fatisfaction when the is alone, where fhe will make fomething worthy of “her liking, fince in the world the cannot find any ་་ thing worthy of her loving. Amongst the rest of "her unnumbered perfections, he hath a grace and

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facility, (and I might well say, a felicity) in her << expreffions, fince they are certain, and always in "the best and feweft words: and as they are hande "fome, they are likewife fo faithful in the relation "of any thing, as that the refines the language, and "yet within the true limits of the occasion, adding nothing to the fubftance, but yet infinitely by the manner. She is in difpofition inclined to be cholerick, which the fuppreffes, not perhaps in confide❝ration of the persons who occafion it, but upon a "belief that it is unhandsome towards herself; which "yet, being thus covered, doth fo kindle and fire her

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wit, as that, in very few words, it fays fomewhat "fo extracted, as that it hath a sharpness, and strength, " and taste, to difrelish, if not to kill, the proudest

hopes which you can have of her value of you. She "affects extremes, because she cannot suffer any con"dition but of plenty and glory, in which, if the had "not an affured and very eminent kind of being, fhe "would fly to the other extreme of retiredness, and "fo rather obfcure herself than not be herself; it being natural to her, as her life, to maintain it in "magnificence. She hath been told by her physi"cians, that she is inclined to melancholy; and this

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opinion of theirs proved to be the best remedy for "it, by the mirth which the expreffed at it. This I "fay to fhew her to be of a cheerful nature in her "own opinion, who beft can judge of it, as fhe, the "moft comely of all creatures, can exprefs it. She

hath, as all noble hearts have, ambition, which, I "conceive, the rather conferves as a humour neceffary "to the mind, (as thofe of the body also are) than

for any particular end or wifh, fhe being fo free "from the want of any thing, as that it must be a "study (and in that a pain) for her to inquire what to defire."

All that remains to be added concerning this celebrated lady is, that he had no children by the Earl of Carlisle, whom the furvived, without engaging in a fecond marriage, to the year 1660; and was then inVolume 11.

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terred, near her unfortunate father, at Petworth in Suffex.

To my Lord of Northumberland, on the death of bis Lady, p. 8.

I CANNOT with any certainty inform myself in what year the lady died who occafioned the writing this poem,andwill defer myconjecture till I come to fix the date of that which immediately fucceeds She was the Lady Anne Cecil, daughter of that Earl of Salisbury to whom chiefly the old Earl of Northumberland imputed the lofs of his liberty; and when he was told, in the Tower, what choice his fon, the Lord Percy, had made, he expreffed his abhorrence of the marriage with this paffionate exclamation, “My blood "will not mingle with Cecil's in a bason."Ican add nothing, and nothing needs to be added, to that amiable character which Mr. Waller has left of this lady; and therefore I will proceed to tranfcribe the Earl of Clarendon's account of her lord, which is far from being equally advantageons to his memory.

"Of thofe who were of the King's council, and who "staid and acted with the parliament, the Earl of Northumberland maywell be reckoned the chief, in re"fpect of the antiquityand splendour of his family, his great fortune and eftate, and the general reputation he had among the greatest men, and his great

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intereft, by being High Admiral of England. Tho "he was of a family that had lain under frequent "blemishes of want of fidelity to the crown, and his "father had been long a prifener in the Tower, un"der fome fufpicion of having some knowledge of the 66 gunpowder treafon; and after he was fet at liberty by the mediation and credit of the Earl of Car❝lifle, (who had, without and against his confent "married his daughter) he continued to his death "under fuch a restraint, that he had not liberty to "live and refide upon his northern eftate. Yet this "lord's father was no fooner dead than the King "poured out his favours upon him in a wonderful "measure. He begun with conferring the Order of "the Garter upon him, and fhortly after made him "of his privy council. When a great fleet of ships 46 was prepared, by which the King meant that his

neighbour princes fhould discern that he intended "to maintain and preferve his fovereignty at fea, he "fent the Earl of Northumberland admiral of that "fleet, (a much greater than the crown had put to "fea fince the death of Queen Elizabeth) that he "might breed him for that fervice before he gave "him a more abfolute command: and after he had "in that capacity exercifed himself a year or two, "the King made him Lord High Admiral of Eng"land; which was fuch a quick fucceffion of boun"ties and favours as had rarely befallen any man

"who had not been attended with the envy of a fa"vourite. He was in all his deportment a very great

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man, and that which looked like formality was a "punctuality in preferving his dignity from the in"vafion and intrusion of bold men, which no man "of that age fo well preferved himself from. Tho "his notions were not large or deep, yet his temper "and reservedness in difcourfe got him the repu"tation of an able and a wife man; which he made "evident in the excellent government of his family, "where no man was more abfolutely obeyed, and 66 no man had ever fewer idle words to anfwer for; "and in debates of importance he always expressed "himself very pertinently. If he had thought the

King as much above him, as he thought himself "above other confiderable men, he would have been

a good fubject; but the extreme undervaluing "thofe and not enough valuing the King, made him "liable to the impreffions which they who approach"ed him by thofe addreffes of reverence and efteem, "that usually infinuate into fuch natures, made "in him: fo that after he was firft prevailed upon

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not to do that which in honour and gratitude he

was obliged to, (which is a very pestilent corrup“tion!) he was with the more facility led to concur "in what, in duty and fidelity, he ought not to have "done, and what at first he never intended to have "done; and fo he concurred in all the councils which

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