The Romance of Biography (Vol 2 of 2)
The Romance of Biography (Vol 2 of 2)
or Memoirs of Women Loved and Celebrated by Poets, from the Days of the Troubadours to the Present Age. 3rd ed. 2 Vols.
Book Excerpt
ress of Lady Byron, the widow of the poet.
CHAPTER II.
WALLER'S SACHARISSA.
The courtly Waller, like the lady in the Maids' Tragedy, loved with his ambition,--not with his eyes; still less with his heart. A critic, in designating the poets of that time, says truly that "Waller still lives in Sacharissa:" he lives in her name more than she does in his poetry; he gave that name a charm and a celebrity which has survived the admiration his verses inspired, and which has assisted to preserve them and himself from oblivion. If Sacharissa had not been a real and an interesting object, Waller's poetical praises had died with her, and she with them. He wants earnestness; his lines were not inspired by love, and they give "no echo to the seat where love is throned." Instead of passion and poetry, we have gallantry and flattery; gallantry, which was beneath the dignity of its object; and flattery, which was yet more superfluous,--it was painting the lil
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