even in the folio of 1598 the sonnets are unaccountably excluded. ELLIOT. I suppose there are no important omissions in the body of the " Apology.” Bourne. No; but you will see that the edition of 1598 (which is called "The Defence of Poesie") commences thus; "When the right vertuous E. W. and I were at the Emperours Court together." Now the edition of 1595 gives the whole name instead of the initials, viz. " Edwarde Wootton." ELLIOT. Who was Edward Wootton? If Fulke Greville thought it worthy of mention in his Epitaph that he was the friend of Sir P. Sidney, his other friends deserve to be inquired after. BOURNE. No doubt he was brother to Sir Henry Wootton. Edward Wootton was Comptroller of the Queen's Household, and, according to Camden, "was remarkable for many high employments:" he was sent several times Ambassador to foreign Courts, and on one of these occasions he was accompanied by Sidney. MORTON. How deeply it is to be lamented that a few days before his death Sir H. Wootton should have burnt many of the productions of his youth. What is the date of his earliest piece now extant? BOURNE. It is difficult to decide, but the events referred to fix the dates of a few: the earliest I immediately recollect is inserted in Davison's "Poetical Rapsody," 1602, but that he had written poems before that is very clear. Thomas Bastard, the author of "Chrestoleros," published in 1598, addresses two epigrams ad Henricum Wottonum, in one of which he says, "Wotton, the country and the country swayne, How can they yield a poet any sense? How can they stirre him up, or heate his braine? How can they feede him with intelligence?" And he recommends him, therefore, to come to "London, Englands fayrest eye." It is not very unlikely that their friendship was occasioned or confirmed by their mutual love of fishing, for in another Epigram, De piscatione, Bastard observes, 66 Fishing, if I a fisher may protest, Of pleasures is the sweet'st, of sports the best, Of exercises the most excellent; Of recreations the most innocent. But now the sport is marde, and wott ye why! Fishes decrease, and fishers multiply." MORTON. All Sir Henry's friends, however, were not fishermen : one of his most intimate companions, Dr. Donne, has this stanza in his "Progresse of the Soule," "Is any kind subject to rape like fish? Ill unto men, they neither doe nor wish ; Of beasts, nor their yong sonnes to beare away; To spoile the nests industruous birds do make; And lawes make fasts, & lents for their destruction." ELLIOT. If we may believe Rabelais, among the Roman Emperors is to be found a great example in favour of fishing: in B. II. c. 30. (Edit. 1553) he asserts that Trajan estoit pescheur de Grenouilles. MORTON. I doubt the correctness of your authority besides, at best Trajan was only a French fisherman-a fisher of frogs. ELLIOT. I assure you Rabelais makes the assertion in the same chapter, where he represents Lancelot du Lac as escorcheur de chevaulx mors, and all the Knights of the Round Table as pouvres gaingnedeniers tirans la rame pour passer les rivieres de Coccyte, Phlegeton, Styx, Acheron, & Lethe. BOURNE. One is quite as true as the other: Walton's work is quite enough to make me a fisherman. You know that he was the first to collect and publish the scattered remains of Sir H. Wootton, and their friendship, I believe, originated in their mutual partiality to angling. Here we may introduce very fitly the treat I promised you some days ago, in the examination of a poem dedicated to Walton, but not noticed by any one of his biographers. ELLIOT. That is rather strange, recollecting the unremitting pains taken within the last twenty or thirty years to collect the minutest facts regarding Walton. It is remarkable, too, that he, only a small tradesman, should be fixed upon by an author to patronize his poem. MORTON. We have very often seen that an author dedicates his work to an obscure friend merely as a token of regard, and there was no man more likely to produce such a feeling than "honest Izaac:" S. P., the writer in question, like the author of the "Metamorphosis of Tobacco" (a poem dedicated to Drayton, which we so much admired a few days ago), might say that his pen "Loath'd to adorn the triumphs of those men Which hold the reins of fortune and the times," and might, therefore, prefer his obscure friend, so that I do not see much in your last observation. What is the title of the poem ? BOURNE. It is called "The Love of Amos and Laura. Written by S. P. London: printed for Richard Hawkins, dwelling in Chancery Lane, neere Serieants Inne. 1619." Walton was born in 1593, so that in 1619 he was in his twenty-sixth year. MORTON. The author only gives his initials on the title. Does he insert Walton's name at full length before the dedication? BOURNE. He is addressed, not by his name at length, but by an abbreviation always employed by Walton, and with his noted peculiarity of using a z instead of an s in the word Izaac-it is "To my approved and much respected friend, Iz. Wa.:" the epithets" approved and much respected" are appropriate to the station in life Walton filled. MORTON. Nearly all his letters and poems are subscribed Iz. Wa. : BOURNE. But none are so early as 1619: it is probable, however, that he began to write before 1631, the date of his poem on the death of his friend Dr. Donne it is a propensity generally peculiar to youth, and subsiding with age; in this way I account for what S. P., in the dedication, says of his friend's skill in verse. It is in these terms: "To thee thou more then thrice beloued friend, I, too vnworthy of so great a blisse, These harsh-tun'd lines I here to thee commend; Thou being cause it is now as it is : For hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might These haue been buried in obliuions night. "If they were pleasing I would call them thine, But being bad I needes must call them mine, Accept them then, and where I have offended, S. P." ELLIOT. It was somewhat late to amend after it was printed, but the compliment is not ill paid. |