Edmund Waller

Edmund Waller (March 3, 1606 – October 21, 1687) was an English poet. Edmund Waller, English Poet File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (63rd in leap years). ... Events January 27 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins ending in their execution on January 31 May 17 - Supporters of Vasili Shusky invade the Kremlin and kill Premier Dmitri December 26 - Shakespeares King Lear performed in court Storm buries a village of St Ismails near... October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ... Events March 19 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population –mid-2004... A poet is some one who writes poetry. ...

He was the eldest son of Robert Waller of Coleshill, Herts, and Anne Hampden, his wife; thus he was first cousin to John Hampden. Early in his childhood his father moved the family to Beaconsfield. Of Waller's early education all we know is his own account that he "was bred under several ill, dull and ignorant schoolmasters, till he went to Mr Dobson at Wickham, who was a good schoolmaster and had been an Eton scholar." Robert Waller died in 1616, and Anne, a lady of rare force of character, sent him to Eton and to the University of Cambridge. He was admitted a fellow-commoner of King's College, Cambridge on March 22, 1620. He left without a degree, and it is believed that in 1621, at the age of only sixteen, he sat as member for Agmondesham (Amersham) in the last parliament of James I. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon says that Waller was "nursed in parliaments." In the parliament of 1624 he represented Ilchester, and in the first parliament of Charles I, Chipping Wycombe. Hertfordshire (pronounced Hartfordshire and abbreviated as Herts) is an inland county in the United Kingdom and part of the East of England Government Office region. ... John Hampden as depicted in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book John Hampden (circa 1595—1643) was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, a descendant of a very ancient family of that county, said to have been established there before... Map sources for Beaconsfield at grid reference SU945900 Beaconsfield is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about 30 miles NW of London. ... Map sources for Wickham at grid reference SU572115 Wickham, formerly spelled Wykeham, is a civil parish and small market town in Hampshire, southern England, about three miles north of Fareham, and part of the City of Winchester local government district. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a prestigious and internationally known Public School for boys. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a prestigious and internationally known Public School for boys. ... The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University, or just Cambridge), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Full name The Kings College of Our Lady and St Nicholas in Cambridge Motto Veritas Et Utilitas Truth and usefulness Named after Henry VI Previous names - Established 1441 Sister College(s) New College Provost Prof. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in Leap years). ... Events September 6 - English emigrants on the Mayflower depart from Plymouth, England for the future New England and arrive at the end of the year. ... States currently utilizing parliamentary systems are denoted in orange and red—the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. ... James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland (Charles James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. ... Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (February 18, 1609–December 9, 1674) was an English historian and statesman. ... Ilchester is a village in Somerset, England, situated on the River Yeo five miles north of Yeovil. ... Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ...

Waller's first notable action was his surreptitious marriage with a wealthy ward of the Court of Aldermen, in 1631. He was brought before the Star Chamber for this offence, and heavily fined. But his own fortune was large, and all his life Waller was a wealthy man. After bearing him a son and a daughter at Beaconsfield, Mrs Waller died in 1634. It was about this time that the poet was elected into the "Club" of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland. The Star Chamber was an English court of law at the royal Palace of Westminster that began sessions in 1487 and ended them in 1641 when the court itself was abolished. ... Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland (c. ...

In about 1635 he met Lady Dorothy Sidney, eldest daughter of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, who was then eighteen years of age. He formed a romantic passion for this girl, whom he celebrated under the name of Sacharissa. She rejected him, and married Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland in 1639. Disappointment is said to have made Waller temporarily insane. However, he wrote a long, graceful and eminently sober letter to the bride's sister on the occasion of the wedding. In 1640 Waller was again Member of Parliament for Amersham, and made certain speeches which attracted wide attention; later, in the Long Parliament, he represented St Ives in Huntingdonshire. Waller had hitherto supported the party of John Pym, but he now left him for the group of Falkland and Hyde. His speeches were much admired, and were separately printed; they are academic exercises very carefully prepared. Clarendon says that Waller spoke "upon all occasions with great sharpness and freedom." Events February 10 - The Académie française in Paris is expanded to become a national academy for the artistic elite. ... Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland (October 5, 1617 - February 5, 1684), was the wife of Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland and the daughter of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester. ... Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester (December 1, 1595 – November 2, 1677), was the son of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, and his first wife, Barbara Gamage. ... The Right Honourable Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland (c. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... The Long Parliament is the name of the English Parliament called by Charles I, in 1640, following the Bishops Wars. ... St Ives is a medium-sized market town around 15 miles north-west of Cambridge, in the district of Huntingdonshire, England. ... Huntingdonshire (abbreviated Hunts) is a part of England around Huntingdon, which is currently administered as a local government district of Cambridgeshire. ... John Pym (1584 – December 8, 1643) was an English parliamentarian, leader of the Long Parliament and a prominent critic of James I and then Charles I. Pym was born in Brymore, Somerset, into minor nobility. ... Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland (c. ... Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (February 18, 1609–December 9, 1674) was an English historian and statesman. ...

An extraordinary and obscure conspiracy against Parliament, in favour of the king, which is known as "Waller's Plot," occupied the spring of 1643, but on May 30 he and his friends were arrested. In the terror of discovery, Waller was accused of testifying against the others. He was called before the bar of the House in July, and made an abject speech of recantation. His life was spared and he was committed to the Tower of London, but, on paying a fine of #10,000, he was released and banished from the realm in November 1643. // Events January 21 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga February 6 - Abel Tasman discovers the Fiji islands. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... For the film with this title, see Tower of London (1939 film). ...

He married a second wife, Mary Bracey of Thame, and went over to Calais, afterwards taking up his residence at Rouen. In 1645 the Poems of Waller were first published in London, in three different editions; there has been much discussion of the order and respective authority of these issues, but nothing is decidedly known. Many of the lyrics were already set to music by Henry Lawes. Map sources for Thame at grid reference SP710060 Thame is a market town in Oxfordshire, England on the River Thame between Aylesbury and Oxford, with a population of around 12,000. ... Location within France Rouen Cathedral The entrance to Rouen Cathedral Abbey church of Saint-Ouen, (chevet) in Rouen Rouen, medieval house Rouen (pronounced in French, sometimes also ) is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France, and presently the capital of the Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy) région. ... Henry Lawes (December 5, 1595 - October 21, 1662) was an English musician and composer. ...

In 1646 Waller travelled with John Evelyn in Switzerland and Italy. During the worst period of his exile Waller managed to "keep a table" for the Royalists in Paris, although in order to do so he was obliged to sell his wife's jewels. At the close of 1651 the British House of Commons revoked Waller's sentence of banishment, and he was allowed to return to Beaconsfield, where he lived very quietly until the Restoration. In 1655 he published A Panegyric to my Lord Protector, and was made a Commissioner for Trade a month or two later, he followed this, in 1660, with a poem To the King, upon his Majesty's Happy Return. Being challenged by Charles II to explain why this latter piece was inferior to the eulogy of Cromwell, the poet smartly replied, "Sir, we poets never succeed so well in writing truth as in fiction". // Events The Westminster Confession of Faith Ongoing events Wars of the Three Kingdoms, including the English Civil War (1642-1649) Births February 4 - Hans Erasmus Aßmann, Freiherr von Abschatz, German statesman and poet (d. ... John Evelyn (October 31, 1620 – February 27, 1706) was an English writer, gardener and diarist. ... The House of Bourbon is an important European royal house. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur Tossed by the waves, she does not founder Coordinates : , Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) Administration Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Département Paris (75) Région ÃŽle-de-France Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (PS) City (commune) Characteristics Land Area 86. ... The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... King Charles II, the first monarch to rule after the English Restoration. ... Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. ...

Waller entered the House of Commons again in 1661, as M.P. for Hastings, and Burnet has recorded that for the next quarter of a century "it was no House if Waller was not there." His sympathies were tolerant and kindly, and he constantly defended the Nonconformists. For other uses, see Hastings (disambiguation). ... A nonconformist is an English or Welsh Protestant of any non-Anglican denomination, chiefly advocating religious liberty. ...

One famous speech of Waller's was: "Let us look to our Government, fleet and trade, 'tis the best advice the oldest Parliament man among you can give you, and so God bless you."

After the death of his second wife, in 1677, Waller retired to his house called Hall Barn at Beaconsfield, and though he returned to London, he became more and more attached to the retirement of his woods, "where," he said, "he found the trees as bare and withered as himself." In 1661 he had published his poem, St James' Park; in 1664 he had collected his poetical works; in 1666 appeared his Instructions to a Painter; and in 1685 his Divine Poems. The final collection of his works is dated 1686, but there were further posthumous additions made in 1690.

Waller bought a cottage at Coleshill, where he was born, meaning to die there; "a stag," he said, "when he is hunted, and near spent, always returns home." He actually died, however, at Hall Barn, with his children and his grandchildren about him, on 21 October 1687, and was buried in woollen (in spite of his expressed wish), in the churchyard of Beaconsfield. October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ... Events March 19 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. ...

Waller's lyrics were at one time admired to excess, but with the exception of "Go, lovely Rose" and one or two others, they have lost their popularity. He lacked imaginative invention, but resolutely placed himself in the forefront of reaction against the violence and "conceit" into which the baser kind of English poetry was descending.

Waller was regarded by some as the pioneer in introducing the classical couplet into English verse. It is, of course, obvious that Waller could not "introduce" what had been invented, and admirably exemplified, by Geoffrey Chaucer. But those who have pointed to smooth distichs employed by poets earlier than Waller have not given sufficient attention to the fact (exaggerated, doubtless, by critics arguing in the opposite camp) that it was he who earliest made writing in the serried couplet the habit and the fashion. Waller was writing in the regular heroic measure, afterwards carried to so high a perfection by John Dryden and Alexander Pope, perhaps even in 1621. Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902. ... A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Pope, circa 1727. ...

Thomas Lane was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. ... Wycombe is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Thomas Lane was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Trivia

Edmund Waller Primary School is in New Cross, South East London. New Cross is a district on the north tip of the London Borough of Lewisham. ...

External link

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Edmund Waller

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Edmund Waller

• Luminarium: Edmund Waller Life, works, essays
• Works by Edmund Waller at Project Gutenberg
  • Full text of Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham from Project Gutenberg