Waltoniana | Page 4

and 1640, at which time we in peace. were the quietest and happiest people in the Christian World.
To the present Editor the collection and annotation of these Remains has been a most welcome labour of love. Some of his oldest and most cherished memories connect themselves with the author of the "Complete Angler." That book was one of the first that he ever read with real and genuine delight; and even before reading days commenced, in the earliest dawn of memory, the place where Walton had cut his familiar signature of "Iz. Wa." on Chaucer's tomb in Westminster Abbey, was pointed out to him often by a kindred spirit now here no more. The name of Walton will also be found enshrined in the earliest prose production[8] to which the Editor prefixed his own name. R.H.S.
FOOTNOTES
[1] "Happy old man, whose worth all mankind knows Except himself, who charitably shows The ready road to Virtue, and to Praise, The road to many long, and happy days; The noble arts of generous piety, And how to compass true felicity. ----he knows no anxious cares, Thro' near a Century of pleasant years; Easy he lives and cheerful shall he die, Well spoken of by late posterity."
June 5, 1683. _(Flatman's Commendatory Verses prefixed to "Thealma and Clearchus;" Poems and Songs by Thomas Flatman, Third Edition.)_
[2] _The Love of Amos and Laura. Written by S.P. London. Printed for Richard Hawkins, dwelling in Chancery-Lane, neere Serieants Inne, 1619._ Printed at the end of a volume entitled, _Alcilia, Philoparthens louing Folly, &c._, which, from its being signed at the end with the initials "J.C.," has been attributed to Walton's friend, John Chalkhill, whose posthumous poem, _Thealma and Clearchus_, he published in the last year of his life. The lines to Walton do not appear in the earlier quarto edition of the book issued by the same publisher in 1613, or in the later quarto of 1628.
[3] _Thealma and Clearchus; a Pastoral Romance, by John Chalkhill. First Published by Isaac Walton, 1683. A New Edition. Revised and Corrected (by S.W. Singer). Chiswick: 1820._
[4] Vol. iv. (1821), pp. 230-249.
[5] Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature (Lond. 1849), vol. iii. p. 177.
[6] _Love and Truth: / in / Two modest and peaceable / Letters / concerning / The distempers of the present Times. / Written / From a quiet and Conformable Citizen of / LONDON, to two busie and Factious/ Shop-keepers in Coventry./_
1 Pet. 4. 15. But let none of you suffer as a busiebody in other mens / matters. /
LONDON, / Printed by _M.C._ for Henry Brome at the Gun / in St. Pauls Church-yard. 1680.
COLLATION: 4to. pp. iv. (with Title) 40 (Sig. A 1 and 2; B to E 4).
[7] York, 1795, pp. x. 70.
[8] _The School of Pantagruel_, Sunbury, 1862, p. 9.
* * * * *

AN ELEGIE UPON DR. DONNE.
1633.

[_Juvenilia: or Certaine Paradoxes and Problemes, written by I. Donne. London, Printed by E.P. for Henry Seyle, and are to be sold at the signe of the Tygers head, in Saint Pauls Church-yard, Anno Dom_. 1633 (pp. 382-384)._
_Poems, by J.D. with Elegies on the Author's Death. London. Printed by M.F. for JOHN MARRIOT, and are to be sold at his Shop in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street, 1635._
The text is printed from the revised version of 1635, and the original readings of 1633 are given at the foot of the page.]

An Elegie upon DR. DONNE.
Our Donne is dead; England should mourne, may say We had a man where language chose to stay And shew her gracefull power.[1] I would not praise That and his vast wit (which in these vaine dayes Make many proud) but, as they serv'd to unlock That Cabinet, his minde: where such a stock Of knowledge was repos'd, as all lament (Or should) this generall cause of discontent. And I rejoyce I am not so severe, But (as I write a line) to weepe a teare For his decease; Such sad extremities May make such men as I write Elegies. And wonder not; for, when a generall losse Falls on a nation, and they slight the crosse, God hath rais'd Prophets to awaken them From stupifaction; witnesse my milde pen, Not us'd to upbraid the world, though now it must Freely and boldly, for, the cause is just. Dull age, Oh I would spare thee, but th'art worse, Thou art not onely dull, but hast a curse Of black ingratitude; if not, couldst thou Part with _miraculous Donne_, and make no vow For thee, and thine, successively to pay A sad remembrance to his dying day? Did his youth scatter _Poetry_, wherein Was all Philosophy? was every sinne, Character'd in his _Satyrs_? Made so foule That some have fear'd their shapes, and kept their soule Safer by reading verse? Did he give dayes Past marble