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But (as I write a line) to weep a tear
For his decease; such sad extremities
May make such men as I write Elegies.

And wonder not; for when a general loss
Falls on a nation, and they slight the Cross,
God hath rais'd prophets to awaken them
From stupefaction; witness my mild pen,
Not us'd to upbraid the world, though now it must
Freely and boldly, for the cause is just.

Dull age! Oh I would spare thee; but th'art worse;
Thou art not only dull, but hast a curse

Of black ingratitude; if not, could'st thou

Part with miraculous DONNE, and make no vow
For thee and thine, successively to pay
A sad remembrance to his dying day?
Did his youth scatter Poetry, wherein
Was all philosophy? Was every sin
Character'd in his Satires? made so foul

That some have fear'd their shapes, and kept their soul
Freer29 by reading verse? Did he give days

Past marble monuments to those whose praise
He would perpetuate? Did he (I fear

The dull will doubt) these at his twentieth year?
But, more matur'd, did his full soul conceive,
And in harmonious, holy numbers weave
A Crown of sacred sonnets,30 fit to adorn

A dying martyr's brow; or to be worn
On that blest head of Mary Magdalen,

After she wip'd Christ's feet, but not till then?
Did he (fit for such penitents as she
And he to use) leave us a Litany,
Which all devout men love, and sure it shall,
As times grow better, grow more classical?
Did he write Hymns, for piety and wit31
Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ?
Spake he all languages? knew he all laws?
The grounds and use of physic, but, because
'Twas mercenary, waiv'd it? Went to see
That blessed place of Christ's nativity?

Did he return and preach him? preach him so
As none but he did, or could do? They know32
(Such as were blest to hear him know) 'tis truth.
Did he confirm thy aged? convert thy youth?
Did he these wonders? and is this dear loss
Mourn'd by so few? (few for so great a cross.)

29 Safer.

30 "La Corona," a Holy Sonnet on the Crown of Thorns, printed in Donne's Poems, ed. 1633, p. 28, and commencing thus:

"Deign at my hands this Crown of prayer and praise,"

31 For piety, for wit.

32 As since St. Paul none did, none could! those know (Such as were blest to hear him) this is truth.

But sure the silent are ambitious all
To be close mourners at his funeral;
If not, in common pity they forbear

By repetitions to renew our care;

Or, knowing, grief conceiv'd, conceal'd, consumes
Man irreparably, (as poison'd fumes

Do waste the brain), make silence
a safe
way
T'inlarge the soul from these walls, mud and clay
(Materials of this body), to remain

With DONNE in heaven, where no promiscuous pain
Lessens the joy we have; for, with him, all
Are satisfied with joys essential.

My thoughts, dwell on this joy, and do not call 33
Grief back by thinking of his funeral;

Forget he loved me; waste not my sad years,
(Which haste to David's seventy), fill'd with fears
And sorrow for his death; forget his parts,
Which find a living grave in good men's hearts;
And (for my first is daily paid for sin)
Forget to pay my second sigh for him;
Forget his powerful preaching; and forget
I am his convert. Oh, my frailty! let
My flesh be no more heard; it will obtrude
This lethargy; so should my gratitude,
My vows of gratitude should so be broke;
Which can no more be than Donne's virtues spoke
By any but himself; for which cause, I
Write no Encomium, but an35 Elegy;

Which, as a free will offering, I here give36

Fame, and the world, and parting with it grieve,

I want abilities fit to set forth

A monument, great as DONNE's matchless worth.

Iz. WA." 37

It has been remarked that in these verses Walton calls himself Donne's "convert;" but he perhaps meant no more than that he had been induced by his sermons and example to take a proper view of religion, in which sense the word is used in a preceding line.

A second edition of Dr. Donne's Poems was published in 1635, with a portrait of the author, engraved by Marshall, from a picture painted in 1591, when he was in his eighteenth year; and the following lines by Walton were placed under it:

33 Dwell on this joy, my thoughts; oh! do not call. 34 Flows.

35 This.

36 This and the three following lines are added from the edition

of 1635.

37 Donne's Poems, ed. 1633, pp. 382-384.

"This was, for youth, strength, mirth, and wit, that time
Most count their golden age; but 'twas not thine.
Thine was thy later years, so much refin'd

From youth's dross, mirth and wit, as thy pure mind
Thought (like the Angels) nothing but the praise
Of thy Creator, in those last best days.

Witness this book (thy emblem) which begins
With love; but ends with sighs and tears for sins.

Iz. WA."

Sir Henry Wotton having intended to write the life of Donne, he requested Walton, who readily undertook the task, to collect materials for the purpose; but several years having elapsed without any progress being made in the work, Walton reminded him of his purpose in a "most ingenuous letter," the answer to which is printed in the "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ." The date of Sir Henry Wotton's letter to Walton, wherein he expresses a wish for his "ever welcome company" in the approaching fishing season, does not occur; but the allusion to Dr. King's appointment as Dean of Rochester, in which office he was installed on the 6th of February, 1638-9,38 fixes it to the early part of the year 1639.

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I am not able to yield any reason, no, not so much as may satisfy myself, why a most ingenuous letter of yours hath lain so long by me (as it were in lavender) without an answer, save this only, the pleasure I have taken in your style and conceptions, together with a meditation of the subject you propound, may seem to have cast me into a gentle slumber. But being now awaked, I do herein return you most hearty thanks for the kind prosecution of your first motion, touching a just office due to the memory of our ever memorable friend, to whose good fame, though it be needless to add any thing, (and my age considered, almost hopeless from my pen ;) yet I will endeavour to perform my promise, if it were but even for this cause, that in saying somewhat of the life of so deserving a man, I may perchance over-live That which you add of Dr. King (now made Dean of Rochester, and by that translated into my native soil,) is a great spur unto me: with whom I hope shortly

mine own.

38 Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.

to confer about it in my passage towards Boughton Malherb, which was my genial air, and invite him to a friendship with that family where his predecessor was familiarly acquainted. I shall write to you at large by the next messenger, (being at present a little in business,) and then I shall set down certain general heads, wherein I desire information by your loving diligence; hoping shortly to enjoy your own ever welcome company in this approaching time of the Fly and the Cork. And so I rest,

"Your very hearty poor friend to serve you, "H. WOTTON."'39

Sir Henry Wotton died in the ensuing December; and on Walton's hearing that Dr. Donne's sermons were about to be published without a life of the author, he determined to supply the deficiency. His motives for becoming Donne's biographer are explained in so natural and pleasing a manner in his "Introduction," dated on the 15th February, 1639 (1640), that it ought not to be omitted:

"If that great master of language and art, Sir Henry Wotton, the late provost of Eton College, had lived to see the publication of these sermons, he had presented the world with the author's life exactly written; and it was pity he did not; for it was a work worthy his undertaking, and he fit to undertake it: betwixt whom, and the author, there was so mutual a knowledge, and such a friendship contracted in their youth, as nothing but death could force a separation. And though their bodies were divided, their affections were not: for that learned knight's love followed his friend's fame beyond death and the forgetful grave: which he testified by entreating me, whom he acquainted with his design, to inquire of some particulars that concerned it, not doubting but my knowledge of the author, and love to his memory, might make my diligence useful. I did most gladly undertake the employment, and continued it with great content, till I had made my collection ready to be augmented and completed by his matchless pen; but then death prevented his intentions. When I heard that sad news, and heard also that these sermons were to be

39 Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, ed. 1685, p. 360.

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printed and want the author's life, which I thought to be very remarkable; indignation or grief (indeed I know not which) transported me so far, that I reviewed my forsaken collections, and resolved the world should see the best plain picture of the author's life that my artless pencil, guided by the hand of truth, could present to it. And if I shall now be demanded, as once Pompey's poor bondman was;-(the grateful wretch had been left alone on the sea-shore, with the forsaken dead body of his once glorious lord and master and was then gathering the scattered pieces of an old broken boat to make a funeral pile to burn it, which was the custom of the Romans)- Who art thou that alone hast the honour to bury the body of Pompey the Great?' so, who am I that do thus officiously set the author's memory on fire? I hope the question will prove to have in it more of wonder than disdain. But wonder indeed the reader may, that I, who profess myself artless, should presume with my faint light to show forth his life, whose very name makes it illustrious! but be this to the disadvantage of the person represented, certain I am it is to the advantage of the beholder; who shall here see the author's picture in a natural dress which ought to beget faith in what is spoken: for he that wants skill to deceive may safely be trusted. And if the author's glorious spirit, which now is in heaven, can have the leisure to look down and see me, the poorest, the meanest of all his friends, in the midst of this officious duty, confident I am, that he will not disdain this well meant sacrifice to his memory: for, whilst his conversation made me and many others happy below, I know his humility and gentleness were then eminent; and I have heard divines say, those virtues that were but sparks upon earth, become great and glorious flames in heaven."

The first volume of Donne's sermons, to which his life was prefixed, was published in 1640 in folio, by John Marriott, probably the father of the Richard Marriott who was Walton's friend as well as publisher for nearly half a century.

Walton's first essay as a biographer was highly applauded by his contemporaries. King Charles the First, whose private virtues and literary acquirements gave

40 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, I. pp. 37–40.

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