Introduction 



And said by him, that said no more. 

 But sealed it with his sacred breath; 

 Thou then that has despung'd my score, 

 And dying wast the death of death, 



Be to me now, on thee I call, 



My life, my strength, my joy, my all. 



H. worroN. 



In 1652 Walton seems to have contributed an address to the 

 Reader to " The Heroe of Lorenzo, or The way to Eminencie and 

 Perfection. A piece of serious Spanish wit Originally in that 

 language written, and in English. By Sir John Skeffington, Kt. and 

 Barronet ; " * and in the same year he contributed some com- 

 mendatory verses to the " Scintillula Altaris " of his " worthy 

 friend," Edward Sparke.* 



With the year 1653 came the charming classic, which in the 

 present volume is published for the hundred and twenty-first time. It 

 was a troublous year in which this " contemplative man's recreation " 

 was born. For us, looking back, it seems hard to realise that quiet 

 men might go a-angling by tranquil rivers, and that there should be 

 a sale, and a ready one, for so peaceful a book ; but one remembers 

 Sir Thomas Browne meditating in a like quietude at Norwich ; one 

 thinks, too, to take an example from a later time, of Theophile 

 Gautier bringing out a new edition of his poems during the siege of 

 Paris, and it is healing to reflect that even in such troublous times 

 there is always peace somewhere in the world for peaceable men. 



I shall deal more particularly with 'The Compleat Angler later on. 

 Meanwhile let us proceed with Walton's quiet history. 



In 1654 appeared an enlarged second edition of the Reliquiae 

 Wottonian<e, in 1655 an enlarged second edition of 'The Compleat 

 Angler , and in 1658 a second edition of 'The Life of Donne, also 

 revised and enlarged. In 1660 Walton's satisfaction at the Restora- 

 tion was expressed in a "humble eclogue," addressed to "my 

 ingenious friend, Mr. Brome, on his various and excellent poems," 

 "written the 29 of May 1660," and first published in the first 



* See Appendix. 

 liii 



