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He was the eldest son of Robert Waller of Coleshill, Herts, and Anne Hampden, his wife; thus he was first cousin to John Hampden. Early in his childhood his father moved the family to Beaconsfield. Of Waller's early education all we know is his own account that he "was bred under several ill, dull and ignorant schoolmasters, till he went to Mr Dobson at Wickham, who was a good schoolmaster and had been an Eton scholar." Robert Waller died in 1616, and Anne, a lady of rare force of character, sent him to Eton and to the University of Cambridge. He was admitted a fellow-commoner of King's College, Cambridge on March 22 1620. He left without a degree, and it is believed that in 1621, at the age of only sixteen, he sat as member for Agmondesham (Amersham) in the last parliament of James I. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon says that Waller was "nursed in parliaments." In the parliament of 1624 he represented Ilchester, and in the first parliament of Charles I, Chipping Wycombe.
Waller's first notable action was his surreptitious marriage with a wealthy ward of the Court of Aldermen, in 1631. He was brought before the Star Chamber for this offence, and heavily fined. But his own fortune was large, and all his life Waller was a wealthy man. After bearing him a son and a daughter at Beaconsfield, Mrs Waller died in 1634. It was about this time that the poet was elected into the "Club" of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland.
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Famous quotes by Edmund Waller http://bit.ly/J6eDa
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Famous quotes by Edmund Waller http://bit.ly/J6eDa
Selected Poetry of Edmund Waller (1606-1687) - Prepared by members of the Department of English at the University of Toronto.
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