"That incouragement I have already received from the most ingenious men, in their clear and courteous entertainment of Mr. Waller's late choice Peeces, hath onece more made me adventure into the world, presenting it with these ever-green and not to be blasted laurels."
Had Humphrey Mosley any presentiment of the deathless fame of Milton?
S. W. Singer.
"The Soul's dark Cottage," &c. (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—This admired couplet can never escape recollection. It was written by Waller. From the tenor of some preceding lines, and the place which the verses occupy in the edition of 1693, they must be among the latest of his compositions.
Bolton Corney.
[A. H. H., R. B., C. J. R., H. G. T., and other friends have replied to this Query.
The Rev. J. Sansom points out a kindred passage in his poem of Divine Love, canto vi. p. 249.:
"The soul contending to that light to fly
From her dark cell," &c.
H. G. sends a beautiful parallel passage from Fuller (Holy State Life of Monica): "Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven, and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body." And J. H. M. informs us that amongst Duke's Poems is a most flattering one addressed to Waller, evidently allusive to the lines in question.]