XIV THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 



{Biographia Literaria) says of Cotton : " There are not a few of 

 his poems replete witli every excellence of thought, images and 

 passions, whicli ue expect or desire in the poetry of the milder 

 muse ; and yet, so worded, that the reader sees no one reason 

 either in the selection or the order of the words, why he might 

 not have said the very same in an appropriate conversation, and 

 cannot conceive how indeed he could have expressed such thoughts 

 otherwise, without loss or injury to his meaning." The finest 

 specimens of his better poetry are the Stanzes IrreguUers, ad- 

 dressed to Walton, which are prefixed to the second part of the 

 Angler, and Contentation, which is subjoined to this sketch. It is 

 to be regretted that the love of retirement and nature shown in 

 these poems is reversed by his querulous discontent in others. 



His prose translations are now seldom seen, their subjects 

 having lost their interest, except that of Montaigne, which, as it 

 superseded " resolute " John Florio's work (the translation which 

 Shakspeare used, as is proved by his autograph in a copy of the 

 first edition, 1603), has itself, though not without considerable 

 merit, been put aside for one still better. 



It has already been said, that his second part of the Complete 

 Angler was written at the request of Walton himself, who gladly 

 appended it to his own work, with only a few marginal notes, 

 placing the cypher of their conjoined initials on the title page, 

 and adding his letter of acknowledgment to Cotton and the Sixin- 

 zes IrreguUers at the end. Cotton says that he wrote his part in 

 little more than ten days ; but we may suppose, from the inge- 

 nuity of the structure and the elaborate description of the flies, 

 that he had before thought of the subject, and prepared jnemoranda 

 before he fairly sat down to write it out ; if indeed the whole 

 description of flies and fly-making was not already prepared. 

 As to the merit of the treatise, the reader has an opportunity to 

 judire for himsfVf. It is certainly vorv far inferior to Walton's 

 in simplicity, beauty, and n)oral feeling ; but is as far superior 

 in its display of the art. Cotton felt himself upon his best beha- 

 vior when he wrote it, and anxious to please his adopted father 

 by conforming to his tastes, in which he very well succeeded. 

 The wit is subduiMl and so gracefully pleasant, unmixed with 

 any gross alloy, that we wish lie hail written alwavs in the 



