ABSTRACT
Walton (1593-1683), author of The Compleat Angler, was also the first biographer of Donne and Herbert among others. He was Donne's parishioner in the 1620S and, he claimed, his convert; certainly he was one of the privileged visitors at Donne's deathbed. The brilliant Life and Death of Dr Donne, first published with Donne's LXXX Sermons in 1640, has peculiar value as the unique testimony of a friend though it cannot be taken for an accurate record of facts. Walton is chiefly concerned with the pattern of Donne's life and priesthood, but his admiration of Donne's poetry breaks out in occasional quotations and in the comments which are given below.
