Which having first your pastime been,
Serves then for meat or medicine. 1
Ambush'd behind that root doth stay
A pike; to catch-and be a prey.
The treacherous quill in this slow stream
Betrays the hunger of a bream.
And that nimble ford, no doubt,
Your false fly cheats a speckled trout.
When you these creatures wisely choose
To practise on, which to your use
Owe their creation,—and when
Fish from your arts do rescue men,—
To plot, delude, and circumvent,
Ensnare and spoil, is innocent.
Here by these crystal streams you may
Preserve a conscience clear as they;
And when by sullen thoughts you find
Your harassed, not busied, mind
In sable melancholy clad,
Distemper'd, serious, turning sad;
Hence fetch your cure, cast in your bait,
All anxious thoughts and cares will straight
Fly with such speed, they'll seem to be
Possest with the hydrophobie.
The water's calmness in your breast,
And smoothness' on your brow shall rest.
Away with sports of charge and noise,
And give me cheap and silent joys.
Such as Acteon's game pursue,
Their fate oft makes the tale seem true.
The sick or sullen hawk, to-day,
Flies not; to-morrow quite away.
Patience and purse to cards and dice
Too oft are made a sacrifice:
The daughter's dower, th' inheritance
O' th' son, depend on one mad chance.
The harms and mischiefs which th' abuse
Of wine doth every day produce,
Make good the doctrine of the Turks,
That in each grape a devil lurks.
And by yon fading sapless tree,
'Bout which the ivy twin'd you see,
1 The following four lines were here added to the second edition, but are
omitted in all the others :
"And there the cunning carp you may
Beguile with paste; if you'll but stay,
And watch in time, you'll have your wish,
For paste and patience catch this fish."
His fate's foretold, who fondly places
His bliss in woman's soft embraces.
All pleasures but the angler's bring
I' th' tail repentance like a sting.
Then on these banks let me sit down,
Free from the toilsome sword and gown;
And pity those that do affect
To conquer nations and protect.
My reed affords such true content,
Delights so sweet and innocent,
As seldom fall unto the lot
Of scepters, though they're justly got.
MY MOST INGENIOUS FRIEND'S BOOK, "THE COMPLETE ANGLER."
HE that both knew and writ the Lives of men,
Such as were once, but must not be again;
Witness his matchless Donne and Wotton, by
Whose aid he could their speculations try :
He that conversed with angels, such as were
Ouldsworth and Featly,3 each a shining star
Showing the way to Bethlem; each a saint,
Compar'd to whom our zealots, now, but paint.
He that our pious and learn'd Morley knew,
And from him suck'd wit and devotion too.
He that from these such excellencies fetch'd,
That he could tell how high and far they reach'd;
What learning this, what graces th' other had;
And in what several dress each soul was clad.
1 The son of Thomas Weaver, of Worcester. See Wood's "Athen. Oxon." vol. iii. p. 623.
2 Dr. Richard Holdsworth. See an account of him in Wood's "Fasti Oxon." and in Ward's "Lives of the Gresham Professors." 3 Dr. Daniel Featley, for whom see Wood's "Athen. Oxon." 4 Dr. George Morley, Bishop of Winchester.
Reader, this he, this fisherman, comes forth,
And in these fisher's weeds would shroud his worth.
Now his mute harp is on a willow hung,
With which when finely touch'd, and fitly strung,
He could friends' passions for these times allay,
Or chain his fellow anglers from their prey.
But now the music of his pen is still,
And he sits by a brook watching a quill:
Where with a fixt eye, and a ready hand,
He studies first to hook, and then to land
Some trout, or pearch, or pike; and having done,
Sits on a bank, and tells how this was won,—
And that escap'd his hook, which with a wile
Did eat the bait, and fisherman beguile.
Thus whilst some vex they from their lands are thrown,
He joys to think the waters are his own;
And like the Dutch, he gladly can agree
To live at peace now, and have fishing free.
April 3, 1650.
Hic typus est salvatoris mirandus Jesu,
Litera mysterium quælibet hujus habet.
Hunc cupio, hunc cupias, bone frater arundinis, ixedv;
Solverit hic pro me debita, teque Deo.2
Piscis is est, et piscator, mihi credito, qualem
Vel piscatorem piscis amare velit.
AD VIRUM OPTIMUM ET PISCATOREM PERITISSIMUM,
MAGISTER artis docte piscatoriæ,
Waltone, salve! magne dux arundinis,
Seu tu reducta valle solus ambulas,
Præterfluentes interim observans aquas,
Seu fortè puri stans in amnis margine,
Sive in tenaci gramine et ripâ sedens,
Fallis peritâ squameum pecus manu;
O te beatum! qui procul negotiis,
Forique et urbis pulvere et strepitu carens,
Extraque turbam, ad lenè manantes aquas
Vagos honestâ fraude pisces decipis.
Dum cætera ergo pænè gens mortalium
Aut retia invicem sibi et technas struunt,
Donis, ut hamo, aut divites captant senes,
Gregi natantûm tu interim nectis dolos.
Voracem inescas advenam hamo lucium,
Avidamve percam parvulo alberno capis,
Aut verme ruffo, musculâ aut truttam levi,
Cautumve cyprinum, et ferè indocilem capi
Calamoque linoque, ars at hunc superat tua,
Medicamve tincam, gobium aut escâ trahis,
Gratum palato gobium, parvum licet,
1 ΙΧΘΥΣ, Piscis.
I'Inooûs, Jesus.
X Xploròs, Christus.
Ο Θεοῦ, Dei.
Υ Υιός, Filius.
Σ Zwτhp, Salvator.
2 Matt. xvii. 27, the last words of the chapter.
Prædamve, non æque salubrem barbulum,
Etsi ampliorem, et mystace insignem gravi.
Hæ sunt tibi artes, dum annus et tempus sinunt,
Et nulla transit absque lineâ dies.
Nec sola praxis, sed theoria et tibi
Nota artis hujus; unde tu simul bonus
Piscator, idem et scriptor; et calami potens
Utriusque necdum et ictus, et tamen sapis.
Ut hamiotam nempe tironem instruas!
Stylo eleganti scribis en Halieutica
Oppianus alter artis et methodum tuæ, et
Præcepta promis rite piscatoria,
Varias et escas piscium, indolem et genus.
Nec tradere artem sat putas piscariam,
(Virtutis est hæc et tamen quædam schola
Patientiamque et temperantiam docet,)
Documenta quin majora das, et regulas
Sublimioris artis, et perennia
Monimenta morem, vitæ et exempla optima,-
Dum tu profundum scribis Hookerum; et pium
Donnum ac disertum; sanctum et Herbertum, sacrum
Vatem; hos videmus nam penicillo tuo
Graphicè, et peritâ, Isace, depictos manu.
Post fata factos hosce per te Virbios.1
O quæ voluptas est legere in scriptis tuis!
Sic tu libris nos, lineis pisces capis,
Musisque litterisque dum incumbis, licet
Intentus hamo, interque piscandum studes.'
VIRUM ET PISCATOREM OPTIMUM.
ISAACE, Macte hâc arte piscatoriâ;
Hâc arte Petrus principi censum dedit;
Hâc arte princeps nec Petro multo prior,
Tranquillus ille, teste Tranquillo,3 pater
1 VIRBIUS quasi BIS VIR, is an epithet applied to Hippolytus, because he was by Diana restored to life after his death. Vide Ovidii Met. lib. xv. v. 536, et seq.; Hoffmanni "Lexicon Universale," art. Virbius.-H.
2 These verses are written by Dr. James Duport.
3 i.e. Suetonius Tranquillus.
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