1605-1687
[Sidenote: Aubrey’s _Lives of Eminent Persons_.]
“His intellectuals are very good yet; but he growes feeble. He is
somewhat above a middle stature, thin body, not at all robust: fine
thin skin, his face somewhat of an olivaster; his hayre frized, of a
brownish colour, full eie, popping out and working; ovall faced, his
forehead high and full of wrinkles. His head but small, braine very
hott, and apt to be cholerique. _Quarto doctior, eo iracundior._--CIC.
He is somewhat magisteriall, and hath received a great mastership of
the English language. He is of admirable elocution, and gracefull, and
exceeding ready.”--1680.
[Sidenote: _Life of Edmund Waller._ *]
“Waller’s person was handsome and graceful. That delicacy of soul
which produces instinctive propriety, gave him an easy manner, which
was improved and finished by a polite education, and by a familiar
intercourse with the Great. The symmetry of his features was dignified
with a manly aspect, and his eye was animated with sentiment and
poetry. His elocution, like his verse, was musical and flowing. In the
senate, indeed, it often assumed a vigorous and majestick tone, which,
it must be owned, is not a leading characteristick of his numbers....
His conversation was chatised by politeness, enriched by learning, and
brightened by wit.”
[Sidenote: _An account of the life of Mr. Edmund Waller._ *]
“’Twas the politeness of his manners, as well as the excellence of his
genius, which endeared him to these foreign wits. All the world knows
Mr. St. Evremond was polite almost to a fault, for ev’ry virtue has its
opposite vice, and this has affectation; and yet writing to my Lord St.
Albans he says, ‘Mr. Waller vous garde une conversation délicieuse, je
ne suis pas si vain de vous _parleur_ de mienne.’... We shall close
what we intend to say of his manners and personal endowments with the
Earl of Clarendon’s short character of him: ‘There was of the House
of Commons one Mr. Waller, and a gentleman of very good fortune and
estate, and of admirable parts and faculty of wit, and of an intimate
conversation with those who had that reputation.’ This, and what has
been taken out of his lordship’s history which has respect to Mr.
Waller’s qualities, confirm the judgment we endeavour to form of him
that he was one of the most polite, the most gallant, and the most
witty men of his time, and he supported that character above half a
century.”