Notes 



Page 210. six verses in praise of music. These verses were taken, with some 

 small variations, from Select Jtyres and ^Dialogues (already referred to), where they 

 have the signature, W. D. Knight, which I take to signify that they were written 

 by Sir William Davenant. H. 



Page 218. the Rosicrucians. A famous brotherhood of mystics and "occul- 

 tists," as we now phrase it, supposed to have been founded at the end of the 

 fifteenth century by one Christian Rosenkranz, and first known to the world by 

 the publication of Fama Fraternitatis Laudabilis Ordinis Roses cruris in 1614, and 

 Confessio Fraternitatis, etc., 1617. The Rosicrucians figured largely in the skull- 

 and cross-bones romanticism fashionable at the beginning of the century, but 

 Bulwer's famous novel Zanoni was their first serious treatment in imaginative 

 literature. Of late years Madame Blavatsky, with her Indian theosophy, may be 

 said to have completed their popularisation. 



Page 218. Mr. Margrave. In the first edition Piscator says: "To that 

 purpose I will go with you either to Charles 'Brandon's (near to the Swan in 

 Golding Lane}, or to Mr. Fletcher's in the Court, which did once belong to Dr. 

 Nowel, the Dean of Paul's, that I told you was a good man, and a good Fisher ; it 

 is hard by the West end of Saint Paul's Church ; they be both honest men and 

 will fit an angler with what tackling hee wants. Viat. Then, good Master, let it 

 be at Charles Brandon" &c. In the second edition, after speaking of Fletcher, 

 our author adds : " But if you would have choice hooks, I will one day walk with 

 you to Charles Kerbye's in Harp alley in Shoe Lane, who is the most exact and 

 best hook-maker that the nation affords." 



Why Walton left Kirby's name out of his last edition is beyond our conjecture, 

 for he was not dead at the time ; in the first edition of The Angler's "Dade Mecum 

 (Chetham's), 1681, there is an advertisement, " The choicest hooks are made by Mr. 

 Charles Kirby in Globe Court in Shoe Lane, London ; " and in the third edition 

 of the same work there is another advertisement of Will. Browne at the sign of 

 the Fish in Black Horse alley, near Fleet street, " who selleth all sorts of Fishing 

 Tackle, also Charles Kirby's hooks, &c.," to which is added : " Note, That 

 Kirby's hooks are known by the fineness of the wyer and strength, and many 

 shops sells counterfeits of his, which proves prejudicial to the user." It is said 

 that Kirby learnt the secret of tempering the steel for his hooks from the celebrated 

 Prince Rupert. This is probable, as the prince was much given to practical 

 science, among other evidences of which was his discovery of mezzotint engraving 

 from seeing a soldier scraping a rusty musket barrel. B. 



Page 226. ZMatthiolus. Peter Andrew Matthiolus, an eminent physician, born 

 at Sienna, Tuscany, 1501. He is best known by his commentaries on the ZMateria 

 ZMedica of Dioscorides, in which he displayed great talent, though, as Sprengel 

 observes (in the preface to his edition of Dioscorides), he was not altogether free 

 from the errors of his age. The work to which Walton refers is, probably, Epistolee 



422 



