when the next parliament was summoned, but secured his return for
Agmondesham in March 1627. He appears to have been in these years a
silent senator, taking little interest or share in the debates, but
retiring from them to offer the quit-rent of his versicles--a laureate
without salary, and yet not probably much more sincere than laureates
generally are; for although his loyalty was undoubted, his expressions
of it in rhyme are often hyperbolical to a degree.

In his twenty-sixth year, he married an heiress, the daughter of Mr.
Banks, a wealthy London citizen. In this there was nothing singular but
the fact, that he, as yet obscure, distanced a rival of great influence,
whose suit was supported by royalty--namely, Mr. Crofts, afterwards
Baron Crofts--gave rather a romantic and adventurous air to the match.
He retired soon after to Beaconsfield, where he spent some happy years
in the enjoyment of domestic society, pursuing, too, his studies under
the direction of Morley, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, a
distinguished scholar of the time, who resided with him. During this
period he is said to have read many poets, but to have written little
poetry. Although the king, jealous of his subjects, had, in 1632, by a
most absurd and arbitrary decree, commanded all the lords and gentry in
the kingdom to reside on their own estates, Waller did not at the time
consider this an exceeding hardship. Indeed, his feelings were on no
subject, and under no pressure of circumstances, either very profound or
very lasting.

His wife died after having borne him a son and a daughter--a son, who
did not long survive his mother; and a daughter, who became afterwards
Mrs. Dormer of Oxfordshire. From under this calamity Waller, yet only
thirty years of age, rebounded with characteristic elasticity. He came
back, nothing both, to the society he had left, and was soon known to be