Introduction xxv 



dirk, and the Scots were not poisoners. Introduced 

 by Lindsay as " Octavio Baldi," Wotton found his 

 nervous majesty accompanied by four Scottish 

 nobles. He spoke in Italian ; then, drawing near, 

 hastily whispered that he was an Englishman, and 

 prayed for a private interview. This, by some art, 

 he obtained, delivered his antidotes, and, when James 

 succeeded Elizabeth, rose to high favour. Izaak's < 

 suppressed humour makes it plain that Wotton had 

 acted the scene for him, from the moment of leav- 

 ing the long rapier at the door. Again, telling how 

 Wotton, in his peaceful hours as Provost of Eton, 

 intended to write a Life of Luther, he says that 

 King Charles diverted him from his purpose to at- 

 tempting a History of England "by a persuasive 

 loving violence (to which may be added a promise 

 of 500 a year) ". He likes these parenthetic touches, 

 as in his description of Donne, "always preaching 

 to himself, like an angel from a cloud, but in none 1 '. 

 Again, of a commendation of one of his heroes he 

 says, "it is a known truth, though it be in verse". 

 A memory of the days when Izaak was an amorist, 

 and shone in love ditties, appears thus. He is 

 speaking of Donne : 



" Love is a flattering mischief ... a passion that carries us to 

 commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds remove feathers." 



" The tears of lovers, or beauty dressed in sadness, are observed 

 to have in them a charming sadness, and to become very often too 

 strong to be resisted." 



These are examples of Walton's sympathy: his 

 power of portrait-drawing is especially attested by 

 his study of Donne, as the young gallant and poeC 

 the unhappy lover, the man of state out of place and 

 neglected ; the heavily burdened father, the con- 

 scientious scholar, the charming yet ascetic preacher 

 and divine, the saint who, dying, makes himself, in 

 his own shroud, an emblem of mortality. 



