Queen in the year 1638, in the thirty-third year of Mr Waller's age. The conclufion of this poem will be best understood by those who are acquainted with the Gierufalemme Liberata, in the nineteenth book of which the combat of Tancredi with Argantes, and in the twentieth that of Rinaldo with the Soldan, is described; and it needs no greater recommendation to be read, than its having been reverenced by Mr. Dryden next to the Aneis of Virgil. Mr.Waller not only learned the art of verfifying from Fairfax's tranflation of it, but the subje&t made a lasting impreffion on his maturer judgment; for in fome of his lateft compofitions, as well as in this, he expreffeth a defire that the Chriftian princes would enter into a religious confederacy to refcue the holy fepulchre from the hands of the Infidels. In this place it will not be improper to give a fhort account of the life of his favourite author. Torquato Taffo was born at Sorrento, an ancient city in Italy, about fix leagues distant from Naples, in the year 1544. In his infancy he manifefted an amazing genius, which was afterwards cultivated at Rome and Padua with variety of polite literature; and when he was no more than twenty-two years old, he began to write his immortal Gierufalemme Liberata. Alphonfus Duke of Ferrara invited him to refide in his court, whether he repaired, and was recei yed more like a victorious hero than a recorder of their The country, to my Lady of Carlife, p. 6. THE Lady Lucy Percy, whom the best English poets of that age, and Voiture, the politeft wit of France, celebrated under the title of The Countess of Carlisle, was a younger daughter of Henry Earl of Northum berland; who, upon a fufpicion of his not having been entirely ignorant of the gunpowder plot, was for many years imprisoned in the Tower. During his confinement the Lady Lucy was married to James Hay, created Viscount Doncaster, and Earl of Carlisle, by K. James I.; with which alliance her father was fo highly offended, that with extreme difficulty fhe obtained his forgiveness, but could never regain his affection. Inconjunction with a wonderful vivacity of wit, and all the graces peculiar to her fex in a moit eminent degree, fhe was bleffed with a mafculine vigour of mind, but is cenfured for having abufed it to the perplexing King Charles's affairs with the parliament; on which account a late learned and ingenious writer calls her, "the Helen of her country." But here it will be more decent to draw a veil over her political errours, and view her only in that agrecable light in which Mr. Waller and Sir Toby Mathews have placed her. The latter of thefe gentlemen has given us her description in profe, which is alluded to by Sir John Suckling in his Seffion of the Poets. I only fay it is alluded to, but believe it was originally "that has reduced him to a brute? I was more angry "(if poffible) than compaffionate, to see him at Fer"rara in fo pitiful a condition survive himself; for" getting both himself and his works, which (with"out his knowledge, though before his face!) have "been published deformed and incorrect."*** The ingenious tranflator thought his author in this place had described Ariosto, a very pardonable mistake! fince many flights in his Orlando seem to have been the dreams of an overheated imagination. I cannot find how long Taffo continued in this deplorable condition; but, it is faid, by the care that was taken of him in an hospital, he recovered the use of his reason; and Thaunus informs us, that in his lucid intervals he wrote like one infpirited with a divine fury, and was mafter of a judgment sedate and cool enough to correct what he composed. At last he was invited to Rome to receive the laurel with the publick solemnities with which it is ufually conferred in that city; but whilst the pageantry was preparing, he was feized by a fever, and died in the fifty-first year of his age; and being privately interred in the church dedicated to St. Humphrey, a plain marble was laid over his grave, with this epitaph; Hie jacet Torquatus Taffus: where, fome years after, Cardinal Bevilaqua erected a handsome monument, with a Latin inscription, longer indeed than the former, but fo unequal to the perfon it commemorates, that it is not worth my tranfcribing, The country, to my Lady of Carlife, p. 6. Tae Lady Lucy Percy, whom the best English poets of that age, and Voiture, the politeft wit of France, celebrated under the title of The Countefs of Carlisle, was a younger daughter of Henry Earl of Northum. berland; who, upon a fufpicion of his not having been entirely ignorant of the gunpowder plot, was for many years imprisoned in the Tower. During his confinement the Lady Lucy was married to James Hay, created Viscount Doncaster, and Earl of Carlifle, by K. James I.; with which alliance her father was fo highly offended, that with extreme difficulty fhe obtained his forgiveness, but could never regain his affection. In conjunction with a wonderful vivacity of wit, and all the graces peculiar to her fex in a moit eminent degree, fhe was bleffed with a masculine vigour of mind, but is cenfured for having abused it to the perplexing King Charles's affairs with the parliament; on which account a late learned and ingenious writer calls her, "the Helen of her country." But here it will be more decent to draw a veil over her political errours, and view her only in that agreeable light in which Mr. Waller and Sir Toby Mathews have placed her. The latter of thefe gentlemen has given us her description in profe, which is alluded to by Sir John Suckling in his Seffion of the Poets. I only fay it is alluded to, but believe it was originally mentioned; for I am perfuaded that, in the verse on which I ground my conjecture, for the word care we fhould read, For had not her Character furnish'd you out With fomething of handsome, &c. A fmall number of Suckling's plays were printed for himself, to present to the quality when they were acted at court; but his poems and letters were published by his friend the Earl of Denbeigh after his death, from fuch imperfect copies as his Lordship could hastily collect ; and therefore it is not strange if many of them still retain their original corruption. In the poem I have juft quoted (to inftance in no more) Shillingfworth, Walter, Cid, have been contantly misprinted for Chillingworth, Waller, and Sid, i. e. Sidney Godolphin. But it is time to let the character itself atone for this digreffion which it oc< cafioned. "This lady's birth is noble, from a high and an"cient defcent, and in it her blood is kept pure by oftenalliance with great and princely families. Time has allowed it a line of longer measure than almoft to any by continuance, and fo, as we cannot with "eafe give an account of the firft greatnefs and eleva"tion of her ancestors; but yet it leaves certain marks 24 by which we may (as by a kind of back-light) point at many of them, whofe courage and virtues have "dignified both their good fortunes and their ill, |