Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/328

 put-offs, my Lord; answer me presently." Then, Sir,' said he, 'I think it is lawful for you to take my brother Neale's money; for he offers it.' Mr. Waller said, the company was pleased with this answer, and the wit of it seemed to affect the King: for, a certain lord coming in soon after, his Majesty cried out, "Oh, my lord, they say you lig with my Lady." 'No, Sir,' says his Lordship in confusion; 'but I like her company, because she has so much wit'. "Why then," says the King, "do you not lig with my Lord of Winchester there?"

Waller's political and poetical life began nearly together. In his eighteenth year he wrote the poem that appears in his works, on "the Prince's Escape at St. Andero;" a piece which justifies the observation made by one of his editors, that he attained, by a felicity like instinct, a style which perhaps will never be obsolete; and that, "were we to judge only by the wording, we could not know what was wrote at twenty, and what at forescore." His versification was, in his first essay, such as it appears in his last performance. By the perusal of Rh