tial reasoning will tell us there is as much due to the memory of Mr. Waller, as to the most celebrated names of antiquity.

But, to wave the dispute now of what ought to have been done; I can affure the Reader, what would have been, had this edition been delayed. The following Poems were got abroad, and in a great many hands: it were vain to expect, that among fo many admirers of Mr. Waller, they should not meet with one fond enough to publish them. They might have ftaid, indeed, till by frequent tranfcriptions they had been corrupted extremely, and jumbled together with things of another kind; but, then they would have found their way into the world. So it was thought a greater piece of kindness to the Author, to put them out whilst they continue genuine and unmixed; and fuch as He Him felf, were He alive, might own.

POEMS

P O E MS

M R.

O F

WALLER.

Of the Danger his MAJESTY (being Prince) escaped in the Road at Saint Andero.

N

OW had his Highness bid farewell to Spain,

And reach'd the fphere of his own power, the

With British bounty in his ship he feasts

Th' Hefperian Princes, his amazed guests,
To find that watery wilderness exceed
The entertainment of their great Madrid.
Healths to both Kings, attended with the roar
Of cannons echoed from th' affrighted shore,
With loud refemblance of his thunder, prove
Bacchus the feed of cloud-compelling Jove:
While to his harp divine Arion fings

[main:

The loves, and conquefts, of our Albion Kings.
Of the fourth Edward was his noble fong,
Fierce, goodly, valiant, beautiful, and young:
He rent the crown from vanquish'd Henry's head;
Rais'd the White Rose, and trampled on the Red:
Till Love, triumphing o'er the victor's pride,
Brought Mars and Warwick to the conquer'd fide:
Neglected

Neglected Warwick, (whose bold hand, like Fate,
Gives and refumes the fceptre of our State)
Wooes for his Mafter; and, with double fhame,
Himself deluded, mocks the Princely Dame,
The Lady Bona: whom just anger burns,

And foreign war with civil rage returns.

Ah! fpare your fwords, where beauty is to blame;
Love gave th' affront, and must repair the fame :
When France shall boast of her, whose conquering eyes
Have made the best of English hearts their prize;
Have power to alter the decrees of Fate,
And change again the counfels of our State.
What the prophetic Muse intends, alone

To him that feels the fecret wound is known.
With the sweet found of this harmonious lay,
About the keel delighted dolphins play;
Too fure a fign of fea's enfuing rage,

Which muft anon this Royal troop engage:
To whom soft fleep feems more secure and fweet,
Within the town commanded by our fleet.

These mighty Peers plac'd in the gilded barge,
Proud with the burden of fo brave a charge;
With painted oars the youths begin to sweep
Neptune's fmooth face, and cleave the yielding deep:
Which foon becomes the feat of fudden war
Between the wind and tide, that fiercely jar,
As when a fort of lufty fhepherds try
Their force at foot-ball, care of victory
Makes them falute fo rudely breast to breast,
That their encounter feems too rough for jeft;

They

A

They ply their feet, and still the restless ball,
Toft to and fro, is urged by them all :

So fares the doubtful barge 'twixt tide and winds;
And like effect of their contention finds.
Yet the bold Britons still fecurely row'd;
Charles and his virtue was their facred load:
Than which a greater pledge Heaven could not give,
That the good boat this tempest should out-live.
But ftorms increase! and now no hope of grace
Among them shines, fave in the Prince's face;
The reft refign their courage, skill, and fight,
To danger, horror, and unwelcome night.
The gentle veffel (wont with state and pride
On the smooth back of filver Thames to ride)
Wanders aftonish'd in the angry Main,
As Titan's car did, while the golden rein
Fill'd the young hand of his adventurous fon *,
When the whole world an equal hazard run
To this of ours, the light of whofe defire,
Waves threaten now, as that was fcar'd by fire.
Th' impatient sea grows impotent, and raves
That, night affifting, his impetuous waves
Should find refistance from fo light a thing;
Thefe farges ruin, those our safety bring.
Th' oppreffed veffel doth the charge abide,
Only because affail'd on every fide:
So men with rage and paffion fet on fire,
Trembling for hafte, impeach their mad defire.

The pale Iberians had expir'd with fear,
But that their wonder did divert their care;
To see the Prince with danger mov'd no more,
Than with the pleasures of their Court before:
Godlike his courage feem'd, whom nor delight
Could foften, nor the face of Death affright:
Next to the power of making tempests cease,
Was in that form to have so calm a peace.
Great Maro could no greater tempest feign,
When the loud winds ufurping on the Main
For angry Juno, labor'd to destroy
The hated reliques of confounded Troy:
His bold Æneas, on like billows toit
In a tall fhip, and all his country loft,

Diffolves with fear; and both his hands upheld,
Proclaims them happy whom the Greeks had quell'd
In honourable fight: our Hero fet

In a small fhallop, Fortune in his debt,

So near a hope of crowns and fceptres, more
Than ever Priam, when he flourish'd, wore;
His loins yet full of ungot Princes, all
His glory in the bud, lets nothing fall
That argues fear: if any thought annoys
The Gallant Youth, 'tis love's untaked joys;
And dear remembrance of that fatal glance,
For which he lately pawn'd his heart in France;
Where he had feen a brighter Nymph, than * fhe
That fprung out of his prefent foe, the fea.

* Venus.

That