Notes 



Page 207. of which Diodorus speaks, The famous historian, Diodorus Siculus. 

 Walton propably quoted from The History of the World, by Diodorus Siculus ; done 

 into English by ZMr. (Henry) Cogan, 1653. B. 



Page 208. Phineas Fletcher. In the first edition Walton wrote " Phineas 

 Fletcher, who, in his Purple Island, has so excellently imitated our Spenser's 

 Faerie Queen" Phineas Fletcher belonged to a poetical family ; his father, Dr. 

 Giles Fletcher, was, according to Wood, " a learned man and excellent poet ; " 

 his brother Giles was the author of Chrisfs Victory and Triumph ; so that Benlowes, 

 in his commendatory verses to Phineas, well says : 



Thou art a poet born, -who knvw thee know it; 

 Thy brother, sire, thy -very names a poet. 



He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and beneficed with the living of 

 Hilgay, Norfolk. His first production was Sicelides, a Piscatory, which he wrote 

 about 1614, but did not publish until 1631, when it appeared without his name 

 " as it hath been acted in King's College, Cambridge," 410. The scene of it is 

 laid in Sicily. In 1632 he published a small prose treatise, I2mo., De Literatis 

 Antique Britannia, having special reference to Cambridge ; and in 1633, The 

 Purple Island, with Pis cat or ie Eclogues, and other "Poetic all {Miscellanies, by P. F. 

 Trinted by the Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge, 410. The Purple Island is a 

 poetical description, in the Spenserian stanza, of the human anatomy, and not- 

 withstanding the difficulty of his subject, it shows much poetical skill, while some 

 passages occur in it of no small merit. His Piscatorie Eclogues, less elaborate, are 

 very pleasing, as are some of his miscellanies. The quotation in the text is from 

 the third, fifth, and sixth verses of the Xllth (last) canto of The Purple Island. 

 Walton has used his wonted freedom in altering his author, thus : where the 

 original has, "His bed of wool yields," &c., our author writes, "His bed more safe 

 than soft," &c. Fletcher also wrote, " Never his humble house or state torment 

 him : " and his last line is, 



And token he dies, green turjs ivitA grassle tomb content him. 



The Piscatory Eclogues were republished with a preface and illustrative notes, 

 by Alex. Fraser Tytler (afterwards Lord Woodhouselee), at Edinburgh, 1771, duo. 

 Not only in the Eclogues, but throughout his writings, Fletcher's angling pro- 

 pensities are discoverable. B. 



Page 210. an old catch. This song is given in the first edition with the 

 music for a treble and a bass, composed, probably at the request of Walton, by 

 Henry Lawes, an eminent musician, master of music to Charles I., and composer 

 of the music of Milton's Comus, as it was performed at Ludlow Castle, the resi- 

 dence of the Earl of Bridgewater. It is proper to add, that Walton is mistaken 

 in calling it an "Old Ketch" (ist ed.) ; for it is not a catch, but rather in the 

 style of a madrigal ({Major}. B. 



421 



