The New International Encyclopædia/Cotton, Charles

COT′TON, Charles (1630-87). An English translator and poet, said to have been educated at Cambridge. He was a friend of Izaak Walton, to whom he addressed several poems, and to the fifth edition (1676) of whose Compleat Angler he contributed as the ‘second part’ an essay on fly-fishing. His works, nearly all in verse, include a translation of Corneille's Horace (1671); the Life of the Duke d'Espernon (1670); The Fair One of Tunis, published anonymously (1674); The Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie (1664); The Voyage to Ireland, and The Wonders of the Peak (1681). Cotton was a famous angler and was horticulturist enough to write an excellent Planters’ Manual (1675). Some of his poems have been much admired for their sweetness and directness of style. Wordsworth and Lamb particularly praised his Ode to Winter. His best work, the English version of Montaigne's Essays (1685, and frequently since), places him among the greatest of translators.