ge Morley, afterwards bishop of Winchester. Mr. Waller liked him
so well, that he paid the debt, which was no less than one hundred
pounds, on condition that he would live with him at Beconsfield, which
he did eight or ten years together, and from him Mr. Waller used to
say, that he learned a taste of the ancient poets, and got what he had
of their manner. But it is evident from his poems, written before this
incident of Mr. Morley's arrest, that he had early acquired that
exquisite Spirit; however, he might have improved it afterwards, by
the conversation and assistance of Mr. Morley, to whom this adventure
proved very advantageous.

It is uncertain, at what time our author was married, but, it is
supposed, that his first wife Anne, daughter and heir of Edward Banks,
esq; was dead before he fell in love with lady Dorothy Sidney,
daughter to the earl of Leicester, whom he celebrates under the name
of Sacharissa. Mr. Waller's passion for this lady, has been the
subject of much conversation; his verses, addressed to her, have been
renowned for their delicacy, and Sacharissa has been proposed, as a
model to succeeding poets, in the celebration of their mistresses. One
cannot help wishing, that the poet had been as successful in his
Addresses to her, as he has been in his love-strains, which are
certainly the sweetest in the world. The difference of station, and
the pride of blood, perhaps, was the occasion, that Sacharissa never
became the wife of Waller; though in reality, as Mr. Waller was a
gentleman, a member of parliament, and a person of high reputation, we
cannot, at present, see so great a disproportion: and, as Mr. Waller
had fortune, as well as wit and poetry, lord Leicester's daughter
could not have been disgraced by such an alliance. At least we are
sure of one thing, that she lives for ever in Waller's strains, a
circumstance, which even her beauty could not have otherwise procured,
nor the lustre of the earl of Sunderland, whom she afterwards married:
the countess of Sunderland, like the radiant circles of that age, long
before this time would have slept in oblivion, but the Sacharissa of
Waller is consigned to immortality, and can never die but with poetry,
taste, and politeness.

Upon the marriage of that lady to lord Spenser, afterwards earl of
Sunderland, which was solemnized July 11, 1639, Mr. Waller wrote the
following letter to lady Lucy Sidney, her sister, which is so full of
gallantry, and so elega