My woeful Monument shall be a cell,
The murmur of the purling brook my knell;
My lasting Epitaph the Rock shall groan;
Thus when sad lovers ask the weeping stone,
What wretched thing does in that centre lie,
The hollow echo will reply, 'twas I.
I cannot understand why Mr. Chambers, to whom I am indebted for most of this information, was content to print so inadequate a text when Walton was in his hand. Two of his lines completely puzzled me:
Welcome pure thoughts! welcome, ye careless groans!
These are my guests, this is that courtage tones.
'Groans' are generally the sign of care, not of its absence. However, I find that Ashmole MS. 38, in the Bodleian, and some others read: