like the Cy 



Introduction xi 



like the Cyclops, had known love. Early in 1639, 

 Wotton wrote to Walton about a proposed Life of 

 Donne, to be written by himself, and hoped "to 

 enjoy your own ever welcome company in the^x 

 approaching time of the Fly and the Cork ". Wotton ^ 

 was a fly-fisher; the cork, or float, or "trembling 

 quill," marks Izaak for the bottom-fisher he was. x 

 Wotton died in December 1639; Walton prefixed 

 his own Life of Donne to that divine's sermons 

 in 1640. He says, in the Dedication of the re- 

 print of 1658, that "it had the approbation of our 

 late learned and eloquent King," the martyred 

 Charles I. Living in, or at the corner of, Chan- 

 cery Lane, Walton is known to have held parochial 

 office : he was even elected " scavenger ". He had the 

 misfortune to lose seven children of whom the last 

 died in 1641 his wife, and his mother-in-law. In 

 1644 he left Chancery Lane, and probably retired 

 from trade. He was, of course, a Royalist. Speak- 

 ing of the entry of the Scots, who came, as one of 

 them said, "for the goods, and chattels of the 

 English/ 1 he remarks, " I saw and suffered by it ". * 

 He also mentions that he "saw" shops shut by 

 their owners till Laud should be put to death, in 

 January 1645. In his Life of Sanderson, Waltojn 

 vouches for an anecdote of " the knowing and coil* 

 scientious King," Charles, who, he says, meant to 

 do public penance for Stafford's death, and for 

 the abolishing of Episcopacy in Scotland. Bui 

 the condition, " peaceable possession of the Crown, 

 was not granted to Charles, nor could have been 

 granted to a prince who wished to rein trod uce Bish- 

 ops in Scotland. Walton had his information from 

 Dr. Morley. On Nov. 25, 1645, Walton probably 



1 The quip about "goods and chattels" was revived later, in 

 the case of a royal mistress. 



* 



