Introduction 



E-H-N 



//. Walton s Literary Life and Friendships 



IF Walton had a " special genius for bishops," he had an even 

 rarer genius for friendship. His literary life may be said to 

 have been begotten of two particularly interesting friendships, 

 for his first appearance in print was in the form of an elegy upon 

 Donne,* prefixed to the 1633 edition of Donne's poems, of which it 

 is probable he was the editor ; and when later, in 1 640, he prefixed 

 his life of Donne to a volume of Donne's sermons, it was because Sir 

 Henry Wotton had died in 1639, without fulfilling his intention of 

 himself writing the life of the great dean. Walton had been busy, at 

 Wotton's request, collecting materials for that life, and had on one 

 occasion jogged his memory about the matter. Wotton's reply, 

 preserved in the Reliquiae Wottonian<e, can hardly be spared here, 



* See Appendix. 



xlix d 



