28/31 In the preface to the Poems of Edmund Waller, published in 1690, the editor ventures to say, "He was, indeed, the Parent of English Verse, and the first that shewed us our Tongue had Beauty and Numbers in it. Our Language owes more to Him, than the French does to Cardinal Richelieu and the whole Academy. * * * * The Tongue came into His hands a rough diamond: he polished it first; and to _that_ degree, that all artists since him have admired the workmanship, without pretending to mend it."-- _British Poets_, Vol. ii, Lond., 1800: _Waller's Poems_, p. |