Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/282

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Walton
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Walton

To Francis Quarles's ‘Shepheards Oracles,’ in 1646, he contributed a prose ‘Address to the Reader.’ Among the poetical tributes to the memory of William Cartwright prefixed to the collection of his plays and poems are some verses by Walton (1651). Sir John Skeffington's ‘Heroe of Lorenzo’ (1652) contains a preface by Walton, who in the same year prefixed a copy of complimentary verses to Edward Sparke's ‘Scintillula Altaris.’ In 1660 Walton wrote a charming eclogue, ‘Daman and Dorus,’ by way of preface to Alexander Brome's ‘Songs and other Poems,’ and in 1661 he contributed some complimentary verses to the fourth edition of Harvey's ‘Synagogue.’ All these pieces, together with a few other fragments, such as the epitaph to his second wife in Worcester Cathedral and his letters to Aubrey and others, are collected in Richard Herne Shepherd's ‘Waltoniana’ (Pickering, 1878).

Five editions of ‘The Compleat Angler’ appeared during Walton's lifetime, viz. in 1653, 1655, 1661, 1668, and 1676. The third edition was also reissued in 1664 with a new title-page. Copies of the first edition have attained very great value. At the sale of Mr. Arthur Young's library by Messrs. Sotheby & Co. in December 1896 a copy in the original binding was sold for 415l., while at the sale of Mr. L. D. Alexander's library at New York in March 1895 a rebound copy cost 276l. 1s. Among the notable editions that appeared after Walton's death may be mentioned:

  1. ‘The Compleat Angler,’ edited by Moses Browne [q. v.], London, 1750, 12mo; this edition, the first after Walton's death, was reissued in 1759 and 1772; in this last edition the songs were ‘now for the first time set to music.’
  2. ‘The Complete Angler … with Notes Historical, Critical, and Explanatory,’ London, 1760, 8vo, edited by Sir John Hawkins (1719–1789) [q. v.], the first biographer of Walton, whose labours were due to the suggestion of Dr. Johnson. This held the field down to 1836, going through numerous editions. The best is that of 1808, of which a copy, with boards made from the wood of Cotton's fishing-house, was sold at Higgs's sale for 63l. In Bagster's second edition of 1815 Hawkins's notes were revised by (Sir) Henry Ellis.
  3. ‘The Complete Angler of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton … extensively embellished with Engravings [by Cook and Pye] after first-rate Artists,’ London, 1823, 8vo. This edition was greatly admired for the quality of its engravings, and it was competently edited by Richard Thomson (1794–1865) [q. v.]
  4. ‘The Complete Angler … with original Memoirs and Notes by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas’ [q. v.], London, 1836, 2 vols. 8vo. The most learned of all the editions of Walton, it was furnished with biographies and notes the results of seven years' labour. It was illustrated by Stothard and Inskipp, and reissued in 1860 and 1875.
  5. ‘The Complete Angler … with copious Notes … by the American Editor’ (George W. Bethune), New York, 1847, 8vo. It contains an excellent bibliographical preface giving an account of treatises of fishing of an earlier date than Walton's; reissued in 1848, 1852, 1859, 1866, 1880, and 1891.
  6. ‘The Complete Angler. … Being a facsimile reprint of the first Edition,’ London, 1876, 8vo and 4to. It is known as Stock's facsimile, and was reissued in 1877, in 1880, and in 1896 with a preface by Mr. Richard Le Gallienne.
  7. ‘The Compleat Angler. … Edited and arranged by R. B. Marston,’ London 1888, 2 vols. 4to. This may be considered the standard edition for the antiquary and bibliographer. It contains lives of Walton and Cotton, besides elaborate notes and numerous photographic illustrations.
  8. An ornate edition, with introduction by J. R. Lowell, Boston, Mass. 1889.
  9. ‘The Complete Angler … Edited with Notes … by J. E. Harting. With … Etchings … by P. Thomas’ (tercentenary edition), London, 1893, 8vo. 10. ‘The Compleat Angler,’ ed. Andrew Lang, London, 1896, 8vo.

A German translation was published at Hamburg in 1859 with the title ‘Der Vollkommene Angler von Isaac Walton und Charles Cotton, herausgegeben von Ephemera, übersetzt von J. Schumacher.’ Some portions of the dialogue have been unfaithfully rendered into French by Charles de Massas in ‘Le Pêcheur à la Mouche Artificielle.’

Walton's only surviving son, Isaac Walton (1651–1719), was born at Clerkenwell on 7 Sept. 1651. He was educated by his maternal uncle, Thomas Ken, then a canon of Winchester, and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 12 July 1668, graduating B.A. in 1672 and M.A. on 13 March 1675–6. In 1675, the year of the papal jubilee, he visited Rome, Venice, and other parts of Italy in company with Ken. He was appointed domestic chaplain to Seth Ward [q. v.], bishop of Salisbury, and in 1679 was instituted rector of Boscombe in Wiltshire, which he exchanged in 1680 for Poulshot in the same county. Poulshot he retained till his death. On 26 July 1678 he was installed in the prebend of Yatesbury in the diocese