(1660—1685,)
daughter of Dr. Henry Killigrew, 1 master of the Savoy, and one of the Prebendaries of Westminster, was born in St. Martin's-lane, London, a little before the Restoration. Her family was remarkable for its loyalty, accomplishments, and wit, and this young lady promised to be one of its fairest ornaments. 2 Antony Wood says she was a Grace for beauty, and a Muse for wit. Dryden has celebrated her genius for painting and poetry in a very long ode, in which the rich stream of his numbers has hurried along with it all that his luxuriant fancy produced in his way ; it is an harmonious hyperbole, composed of the fall of Adam, Arethusa, vestal Virgins, Diana, Cupid, Noah's ark, the Pleiades, the valley of Jehosaphat, and the last Assizes. 3 Yet Antony Wood
____________________The family of KILLEGREW was distinguished by genius; fheir talent was conspicuous ; and as they received almost unlimited panegyric from contemporaries, candour will induce us to believe that they deserved it.
Sir Robert Killegrew, who held offices in the courts of Kings Charles First and Second, had three sons of remarkable talent. William and Thomas Killegrew excelled in dramatic poetry, and their works have been splendidly printed in folio volumes, though few in number. Thomas has been aready mentioned (vol i. p. 326), as having possessed a singular vein of humour, with the liberty to indulge it.
Henry, master of the Savoy, published sermons, and a tragedy written when he was seventeen years old.
His daughter, Mrs. Anne Killegrew (called Mrs. after the fashion of the age, although never married) gave very early testimonies of singular powers. To have received such elevated praise in the prose of the ascetic A. Wood, and in the enthusiastic strains of Dryden, argues transcendent merit; or was owing to a fortunate combination of circumstances.—D.
"Her pencil drew whate'er her soul designed,
And oft the happy draught surpass'd the image of her mind."
He particularises her landscapes ; and her portraits of James II. and his second wife are not easily recognised in the subjoined couplets.
"For not content to express his outward part,
Her hand call'd out the image of his heart,
His warlike mind, his soul devoid of fear,
His high-designing thoughts were figured there."
Such turgid flattery might be more applicable to his queen, Mary d'Este, to whom he was married in 1673, then in her sixteenth year.
"Our
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