LIFE OF IZAAK WAL TON. [ 1 63 5, 



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** 

 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 7 of gratitude shou 



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 an 8 Elegy ; 

 Which, as a free-will offering, I here give 9 

 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." 1 



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 : 



" 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 lor 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 with- 

 out 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 " Reliquiae Wottonianae." The date of Sir Henry 

 Wotton's letter to W'alton, wherein he expresses a wish for his 



6 Dwell on this joy, my thoughts ; oh ! do not call. 

 7 Flows. 8 This. 



!) This and the three following lines are added from the edition of 1625. 

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



