March 31: The Ghastly Whim of John Donne (Vol. 15, pp. 364-369)

The poet John Donne died this day in 1631, so we have Isaak Walton taking a break from writing about fishing to give an account of Donne's last days and how much pleasure he took in posing for his death mask — except that the mask was a shroud that wrapped him from head to foot. An eccentric sod, Dr. Donne was.