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'only' omitted in C E.-8. 'will here'-C. 'can there'-D.-9. 'like a quiet'-A B D. 'a' omitted in C E.-10. Travels to'C D.-11. Over all the'-C. 12. 'Where do spring those'-C. In A, 'springs'-. 13. Printed as two lines in B, though not in Birch. So also is line 22. The arrangement is justified by that of lines 24, 25: but I have not altered that of A. In C, line 13 is printed thus:—

And I there will sweetly kiss

The happy bowl of peaceful bliss'-.

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It is 'I will' in D.-14. 'my'-D. ‘Drinking mine eternal fill' -C.-15. 'Flowing on each milky hill'-C.-Lines 16, 17, 22— 26 are omitted in D. In A B, the same seven lines are all placed together, after line 15. In C E they are arranged as above.-18. Before that happy'-D. 'In that happy'-C.-21. 'walk' omitted in D.-22. ' to quench my thirst'-A B. ‘to slake their thirst'-C E.-23. And then taste... nectar'-C.-27. 'our bodies'-B. 'Bottle'-D.-29. 'Then those holy paths'-C. 'Then the hilly paths'-D. In A B, 'Then the blessed Parts'—. 31. 'Saphire flowers'-A B. 'and Saphire floares'-D.-35, 36, 37, all begin Nor' in D.-36. Accusers'-D.-39. 'He pleades' -D.-40. And hath but not ffees'-D.-41. 'grand twelve' -C. 'twelve grand'-A B D.-42. awfull furye'-D.-43. Against'-D.-45. The latter part of this line, and all the next, are enclosed in brackets in A B.-47. "Thou would'st'—A B. 'That giuest'-D.-49. 'my'-D. Then this is mine'-C.-51. Seeing my flesh'-C.-53. 'Just at the stroke of death, my arms being spread'-C. 'iust at the stroake when my veynes spread' -D.-55. So shall I ready'-C.-56. 'Tread those bless'd paths shown in thy holy writ’—C. ‘best pathes'-D.-The concluding couplet, which is in A B C, and is quoted by Oldys (p. 556), appears to have been placed here by mistake. It is in none of the three MSS.; and Mr. Tytler has doubtless done well in omitting it. The copy he has printed is taken in other respects from C, except that in line 20, he reads, "That have doft their rags of clay'-]

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[THIS poem, like many others reprinted in this volume, has been ascribed to various writers; and among the rest, both to Wotton and to Raleigh; nor is it easy to decide which account is the most likely to be true. The case appears to stand as follows:

1. In the earlier editions of the Complete Angler, it is intimated, that its author may have been DR. DONNE.— (Piscator is about to recite it, in return for Venator's repetition of the "Description of the Country's Recreations," above, p. 55.) "Come, now drink a glasse to me, and I will requite you with a very good Copie of Verses ;-it is a Farewell to the vanities of the World; and, some say, written by Dr. D. But let them be writ by whom they will, he that writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be possest with happie thoughts at the time of their composure; and I hope he was an Angler."-" Well, Master," says Venator, "these Verses be worthie to keep a room in every mans memorie." (pp. 350-2, ed. 1655.) With this account

agrees the title of a copy in MS. Ashm. 38. "Doctor Donns valadiction to the worlde."

2. But in the third and succeeding editions of the Angler, the most important clause underwent an alteration; for we now read; "and, some say, written by SIR HARRY WOTTON, Who, I told you, was an excellent Angler." (p. 251, 3rd edit.) Headley (ii. 24, ed. 1787,) and Campbell (p. 157, second ed.) have therefore printed it as Wotton's, without any sign of doubt; and though we have nothing more than this to shew for it, his claim may very possibly be just.

3. In Sir H. Nicolas's noble reprint of Walton, we find a note upon the poem ;-" These verses are also said to have been written by SIR WALTER RALEIGH, when a prisoner in the Tower, shortly before his execution. Walton expresses himself doubtful as to the author." (p. 311.) This tradition, which really seems to haunt us, has done Raleigh little service. It has nearly deprived him, as we have seen, of one poem, which I believe he really wrote; and there can be no doubt that it is a mistake in this case also. He may have written the piece at some other time; but I do not know on what authority it is ascribed to him at all.

4. A fourth claimant is added from Wit's Interpreter (1671, p. 269,) where the poem is said to be "By SIR KENELME DIGBY." On this authority, Ellis inserted a part of it in his Collection under Digby's name (iii. 179, ed. 1811).

A singular title is prefixed to an anonymous copy of it in Sancroft's Collection (MS. Tann. 465, fol. 59); "An Hermite in an Arbour, wth a prayer booke in his hand, his foote spurning a globe, thus speaketh." I have given no regular list of variations; for Walton's text (here taken from ed. 1655) is in general far superior to any of the others.]

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AREWELL, ye gilded follies, pleasing

troubles!

Farewell, ye honour'd rags, ye glorious
bubbles!

Fame's but a hollow eccho; Gold pure clay;
Honour the darling but of one short day;
Beautie (th' eyes idol) but a damask'd skin;
State, but a golden prison, to live in,

And torture free-born minds; imbroydred Trains
Meerly but pageants for proud swelling veins;
And Blood, ally'd to Greatnesse, is alone

Inherited, not purchas'd, nor our own:

Fame, Honour, Beauty, State, Train, Blood, and
Birth,

Are but the fading Blossoms of the earth.

I would be great, but that the Sun doth still
Levell his rayes against the rising hill;
I would be high,-but see the proudest Oak
Most subject to the rending Thunder-stroak;
I would be rich,-but see men (too unkind)
Dig in the bowels of the richest mind ;*
I would be wise, but that I often see
The Fox suspected, whilest the Ass goes free;
I would be fair,-but see the fair and proud
(Like the bright Sun) oft setting in a cloud;
I would be poor,-—but know the humble grasse

I. e. mine, as it is spelt in MS. Sancr. where the line begins,' Diggs most'—(It was 'man' in the preceding line). In Wit's Interpr.' Dig ou the bowels'-.

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Still trampled on by each unworthy Asse:

Rich, hated; wise, suspected; scorn'd, if poor;
Great, fear'd; fair, tempted; high, still envy'd more:
I have wish'd all, but now I wish for neither;

Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair ;-poor I'l be rather.

Would the world now adopt me for her heir;
Would Beauties Queen entitle me the Fair;

Fame speak me Fortunes Minion; could I vie
Angels with India; with a speaking eye

Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike Justice dumb,
As well as blind and lame; or give a tongue
To stones by Epitaphs; be call'd great Master
In the loose Rhimes of every Poetaster;
Could I be more then any man that lives,
Great, fair, rich, wise, [all in+] Superlatives;
Yet I more freely would these gifts resign,
Then ever Fortune would have made them mine;

And hold one minute of this holy leisure

Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure.

"An angel is a piece of coin, value ten shillings. The words to vie angels' are a metonymy, and signify to compare wealth."-HAWKINS;-a very insufficient explanation. His parallel of" dropping angels," from the Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green (Percy, ii, 165, ed. 1767,) is more to the point. "To vie," used as an active verb, meant-to stake, or hazard, -implying an antagonist who could "revie" by putting down a larger stake. Hence the expression was transferred from games of chance to va. rious other kinds of contest. (See Gifford's Jonson, i. 106.) This meaning seems to have been passing out of general use in the middle of the seventeenth century; for a line of Bp. King's, which stands thus in the MS. copy of his Poems,-" Vyes Rages with the boyling flood"-was altered in the edition (1657) to “ Out-vies in rage," &c. (King's Poems, p. 25, 1843: so also a copy in Tixall Poetry, p. 313). In Wit's Interpreter, the above passage is printed, "Could I buy Angels”—a sufficient proof of the inaccuracy of that copy.

+ in all-Complete Angler, eds. 2 and 3,-the only old editions which I have at hand. It is altered in the modern copies.

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