_Pope and Flatman_ (Vol. iv., p. 210.).--Flatman's _Poems_ were first
published in the year 1682--his death took place in 1688: these dates,
therefore, supply an answer to E. V., as far as regards the question of
borrowing. The edition now before me is that of 1686, being the
_fourth_, "with many additions and amendments." It is dedicated to "His
Grace the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland," &c., and has
twenty-eight pages of recommendatory poems prefixed to it; one of which
bears the name of _Charles Cotton_, the adopted son of honest Izaak
Walton.
Although Campbell speaks with great contempt of Flatman, and quotes
Granger, who says that "one of his heads (he painted portraits in
miniature) is worth a ream of his pindarics," I cannot but think he has
been unduly depreciated; there being many passages in his poems (brief
ones it is true) possessed of considerable beauty, and which I would
gladly extract in proof of my assertion, were your pages available for
such a purpose.