INTRODUCTION. xv 



"he I dare not say unhappily fell into such a liking- 

 as with her approbation increased into a love, with a 

 young gentlewoman " that dwelt in a certain family. But 

 we should, of course, remember that it is the late Dr. 

 Donne, Dean of St. Paul's and Vicar of St. Dunstan's in 

 the West, of whom he is writing, and that had Charles 

 Cotton been in the question there might have been a 

 different account of the episode. 



Walton's first work was The Life of Dr. John Donne; 

 and in an Introduction he tells us the occasion of it. After 

 the death of Donne, in 1631, a collection of his Sermons 

 was to be published, and Sir Henry Wotton had undertaken 

 to write an account of his life to be included in the volume; 

 but Sir Henry was prevented by death, and Walton, who 

 had collected materials to assist his friend in his purpose, 

 being, as he says, unwilling that the Sermons should appear 

 without a Life, resolved that "the world should see the 

 best plain picture of the Author's life, that his artless pencil, 

 guided by the hand of truth, could present to it." The 

 book was published in 1640, and in 1651, eleven years 

 later, The Life of Sir Henry Wotton appeared. "Having 

 writ these two Lives," says he, "I lay quiet twenty years, 

 without a thought of either troubling myself or others, by 

 any new engagement in this kind; for I thought I knew my 

 unfitness." In 1650 he took up his abode at Clerkenwell, 

 and appears to have lived there till 1661. 



The somewhat unstirring course of Walton's life passing 

 at this period through the disorders of the Civil War, with 

 the severe legislation of Cromwell, followed by the excitement 

 of the Restoration and happy return of his Sacred Majesty 

 Charles the Second, with the loose morality, the proverbial 

 licentiousness in life and literature that succeeded that 

 event, is in this same year (1651) broken in upon by a 



