The loves and heroines of the poets . fts, afterwards Baron Crofts, was backed by the influence of the court,hut Waller succeeded in distancing them all, and won her hand and fortune. At the endof three or four years she died, and left him a wealthy widower, with two children. Hemourned her loss a sufficient time, and then oast about for a successor to install in her])Iace. As lie was rich enough not to need to marry again for money, lie looked forbeauty and rank—two cliarming but expensive qualities, whicli he however could drew him to Pensliurst, and the Lady Dorothea. The date o
The loves and heroines of the poets . fts, afterwards Baron Crofts, was backed by the influence of the court,hut Waller succeeded in distancing them all, and won her hand and fortune. At the endof three or four years she died, and left him a wealthy widower, with two children. Hemourned her loss a sufficient time, and then oast about for a successor to install in her])Iace. As lie was rich enough not to need to marry again for money, lie looked forbeauty and rank—two cliarming but expensive qualities, whicli he however could drew him to Pensliurst, and the Lady Dorothea. The date of his wooing is notgiven, as I have already mentioned, but circumstances fix it in 10-38. He probablyfollowed Lord Lovelace, who seems to have been dismissed the previous year. Wallerssuit did not thrive. The Lady Dorothea was doubtless flattered by his attentions, aswhat young lady would not have been ? He was a man of breeding and wit, and, as thesaying was then, an ingenious and elegant poet. He wrote beautiful verses about EDMUND WALLER. 183 iind slie admired them, and him too, perliaps, but not as a lover. As a poet he waswelcome to praise her; to call her nymph, goddess, and the like; to languish and diefor her, He chose: but when it came to making love to her in his own person, it wasanother matter. And to expect her to return his love, was worst of all. She rejectedhim with disdain and scorn. Whether she considered herself his superior in rank, orthought him a little too old (there was a difference of fifteen years in their ages), or,what is more likely, loved somebody else better, we are left to conjecture. The Ear],her father, being abroad at the time, Waller wrote to liim, and pressed him to comehome, and decide the matter. That beam of beauty, which begunTo warm us so when thou wert scorches like the raging Sirius does first appear,O fix this flame! and let despairRedeem the rest from endless care, But he might as well have saved his verses
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectlovepoetry, bookyear1
