Famous Quotes | The King [Charles II] after the...
The King [Charles II] after the Restoration accused the poet, Edmund Waller, of having made finer verses in praise of Oliver Cromwell than of himself; to which he agreed, saying, that Fiction was the soul of Poetry.
- Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield
Attribution: Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773), British statesman, man of letters. letter, Aug. 12, 1763, “Miscellaneous Pieces,” Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl, Earl of Chesterfield, to his Son, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl, Esq, 5th ed., vol. IV, p. 357, London. Waller (1606-1687) was first a royalist, then a parliamentarian, and, after the death of Cromwell, a royalist again. His Panegyric to My Lord Protector was the elaborate poem that stuck in King Charles’s craw, but his diplomatic answer saved the day for him.
Categories: Fiction, Man Of Letters, Poetry And Poets, Praise, Statesman
