liar friendship with Mr. Hooker, and had had some part of their education with him in his house when he was parson of Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury, in which city their good father then lived. They had, I say, a great part of their education with him, as myself, since that time, a happy cohabitation with them." 20 The maiden name of the mother of Mrs. Walton has not been positively ascertained; but it is nearly certain that she was Anne, the sister of John Carpenter, second son of John Carpenter, of Rye, in Sussex, who married Anne, the sister of Secretary Davison, which alliance would explain the connection that is known to have existed between the families of Davison and Cranmer,21 and may have induced Walton to insert "The Beggars' Song," which he says in the " Complete Angler, written by Francis Davison, the secretary's eldest son. was On the 31st of March, 1631, Walton lost his revered friend, Dr. Donne. About three weeks before his death, Donne, to use Walton's words, "sent for many of Dr. Richard Field, Dean of Gloucester, the friend of Hooker, who is mentioned as "that great schoolman" in Walton's introduction to the collected edition of the lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert) she was living in 1635. Rachel, the second daughter, was born in 1577, married in 1597 John Blowfield, gentleman, and died in August, 1600, leaving one son of the name of George [M. I. in Margate Church, printed in Cozens' Tour through the Isle of Thanet, p. 452.] Elizabeth, the third daughter, was born in 1574, married in 1592 Alexander Norwood, gentleman, and was living in 1617: Susannah, the fourth daughter, married Mr. Floud; Jane, the fifth daughter, was born in 1580; the sixth daughter, Anne, married in 1581 John Sellar, had issue, and was living in 1617; and Margaret, the youngest daughter, who was born in 1585, was living in 1604. It is supposed that two of the daughters married persons of the names of Boote and Parry; but it is certain that one of them was the wife of Dr. John Spencer, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the bosom friend and fellow pupil of Hooker, and the editor of his works. Dr. Spencer died in 1614, [Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, II. 145.], and was probably the father of the Dr. John Spencer who is described in the will of Mrs. Floud in 1635 as "her cousin." 20 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, 1817, vol. I. pp. 304, 305. In another place (p. 446) Walton says, "Dr. Spencer's wife was my aunt, and sister to George Cranmer, of whom I have spoken." 21 A letter is preserved in the State Paper Office from John Carpenter to his brother-in-law, Secretary Davison, dated 7th October, 1586, in which he speaks of his "brother Cranmer," to whom he had written respecting his son George, who was the George Cranmer mentioned in the preceding page. his most considerable friends, with whom he took a solemn and deliberate farewell, commending to their considerations some sentences useful for the regulation of their lives, and then dismissed them, as good Jacob did his sons, with a spiritual benediction." It would seem that Walton was not one of the friends there alluded to; but with Dr. King, Dr. Winniff (afterwards Bishop of Lincoln), and Dr. Montfort, then a residentiary of St. Paul's, he attended Donne in almost his last hours, and received his dying wishes. This fact may be inferred from King's letter to Walton upon his Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert, which will be again noticed, wherein he said, "I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable friend, Dr. Donne, late Dean of St. Paul's Church, who not only trusted me as his executor, but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent sermons of his, now made public; professing before Dr. Winniff, Dr. Montfort, and, I think, yourself, then present at his bed-side, that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the press; together with which (as his best legacy) he gave me all his sermon-nctes, and his other papers, containing an extract of near fifteen hundred authors. How these were got out of my hands, you, who were the messenger for them, and how lost both to me and yourself, is not now seasonable to complain."’23 As the younger Donne bequeathed his father's collection of extracts to Bishop King to be given to the son of Izaak Walton, it may be inferred that Dr. Donne's eldest son was the person who desired Walton to claim his father's MSS. from King. 24 Some time before his death, Dr. Donne caused several seals to be made of helitropium, or blood-stone, and engraved with a representation of the Saviour extended on an anchor, instead of the cross-a beautiful emblem of the Christian faith-which he presented to his most intimate friends, among whom were Sir Henry Wotton, Dr. Hall, then Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Duppa, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. King, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, George Herbert, the author of The Temple,' 22 Life of Donne, ed. Zouch, I. 155. 24 Vide postea, p. lxvii. 25 Life of Donne, ed. Zouch, pp. 124-126. с 66 23 Ibid. I. pp. 22, 24. 925 and Walton. Donne adopted this device instead of the crest of his family, a sheaf of snakes; and the seal sent by him to Herbert was accompanied by some verses on the subject, which, with Herbert's reply, were printed by Walton in his Life of Donne. They are full of the quaint conceits with which the poetry of the time abounded, and however agreeable to the taste of that age, they have few charms for the present. Walton always used the seal25 that was given to him by Donne, of which an accurate engraving will be found in a subsequent page. Walton wrote the following Elegy upon Donne, and, with similar tributes to his worth by Dr. King, Sir Lucius Carey, Endymion Porter, and several other persons, it was printed at the end of an edition of Donne's poems, in 1633, of which work it is not improbable that Walton was the editor.26 The Elegy is more remarkable for fervour than elegance; but it contains a few passages illustrative of the writer's own feelings and situation, which render it of interest: "Is DONNE, great DONNE, deceased? then, England, say And shew its28 graceful power. I would not praise 25 It is impressed on his Will, and also on that of his son. 26 The work was printed for John Marriot, and contained an address "from the Printer to the Understanders," which does not bear sufficient resemblance to Walton's style to justify its being positively attributed to his pen; but it is not unlikely that the following "Hexastichon Bibliopola" was written by Walton, notwithstanding that the name of the publisher is affixed to it: "I see in his last preach'd and printed book, And see his statue in a sheet of stone; And sure his body in the grave hath one: Those sheets present him dead-these, if you buy, Jo. MAR." 27 The following variations occur in the next edition of Donne's Poems, which was printed in 1635: Our Donne is dead; England should mourn, may say 28 Her. But (as I write a line) to weep a tear And wonder not; for when a general loss Dull age! Oh I would spare thee; but th'art worse; Of black ingratitude; if not, could'st thou Part with miraculous DONNE, and make no vow That some have fear'd their shapes, and kept their soul Past marble monuments to those whose praise The dull will doubt) these at his twentieth year? But, more matur'd, did his full soul conceive, A dying martyr's brow; or to be worn 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 Or, knowing, grief conceiv'd, conceal'd, consumes Do waste the brain), make silence a safe way With DONNE in heaven, where no promiscuous pain My thoughts, dwell on this joy, and do not call 33 Forget he loved me; waste not my sad years, 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." 87 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. |