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FRANCIS QUARLES.

IT has been the misfortune of this poet to realize his own aphorism, that "Shame is the chronical disease of popularity, and that from fame to infamy is a beaten road." The favourite of Lord Essex, and the " sometimes darling," of the "plebeian judgments *," is now known to many only in the ridicule of Pope. But Quarles will live in spite of the Dunciad. His manly vigour, his uncompromising independence, his disinterested patriotism, and his exalted piety, cannot be entirely forgotten. These are flowers whose blossoms no neglect can wither.

Francis Quarles was born in the spring of 1592, at Stewards †, in Romford Town Ward, in the county of Essex. He was descended from a family of great respectability, and possessing estates in the adjoining parishes of Hornchurch, Dagenham, &c. His father, James Quarles, was Clerk of the Green Cloth and Purveyor of the Navy to Queen Elizabeth. He died, November the 16th, 1642, and his death is registered in the church of Romford. Our poet received his early education at a school in the country, probably in the neighbourhood, and is said to have "surpassed all his equals." He was subsequently entered of Christ's College, Cambridge, but whether he took any degree, I have not been able to discover with certainty. was a resident member of the University in 1608. From Cambridge he went to Lincoln's Inn, where for

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