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Where with a fixt eye, and a ready hand,

He studies first to hook, and then to land

Some Trout, or Perch, or Pike; and having done,
Sits on a bank, and tells how this was won,

And that escaped 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.*

EDW. POWEL, Mr. of Arts.†

TO MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW,‡ MR IZ. WALTON,
ON HIS "COMPLETE ANGLER."

THIS book is so like you, and you like it,
For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit,
That I protest ingenuously, 'tis true,

I love this mirth, art, wit, the book, and you.

ROB. FLOUD, C.S

TO HIS INGENIOUS FRIEND, MR IZAAK WALTON,
ON HIS "COMPLETE ANGLER."|||

SINCE 'tis become a common fate, that we
Must in this world or Fish or Fishers be;
And all neutrality herein's denied,

'Tis not my fault that I am not supplied
With those three grand essentials of your Art,

Luck, skill, and patience: for I have a heart
That's as inclinable as others be,

Whose fortune imps their ingenuity.

*The date does not occur in the second edition.

+ Probably the Edward Powel "of the borough of Stafford, Minister," whose son Charles took his degree of B. A. in 1666, became Rector of Cheddington, and was the author of The Religious Rebel. Wood's Fasti Oxon., by Bliss, vol. ii. p. 289. An "Ed. Powel," and most likely the same person, addressed some Complimentary Verses to his very worthy and most ingenious friend, Mr James Shirley," which are prefixed to Shirley's Poems, 8vo, 1646.

Thus in the second, but the words "in-law" are omitted in the third and subsequent editions.

Elder brother of John Floud, M.A., before mentioned, and brother of Walton's first wife. See Life of Walton.

These verses occur in the second edition only. For what reason Walton omitted them in the three subsequent impressions, which were published in his lifetime, it is not easy to guess, unless it was because he thought slightingly of their merits. That it was not from a quarrel with the author is certain, from his having addressed "An humble Eclogue to him as late as May 1660, in which Walton calls him his "ingenious friend."

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But then what make I here, to write of that,
I'm unskill'd in, and talk I know not what?
And that in verse too? 'Tis an itch we've got,
We must be scribbling whether learn'd or not.
Nay, here's some reason for't; the form we see
Clubbing with matter, makes a thing to be.
And trains of livery'd servitors, we know,
Makes not a prince, but signifies he's so.
Ciphers to figures join'd, make sums; and we
Make something, Friend, when we are join'd to thee.
Yet I shall hardly praise, or like thy skill;
For we're all prone enough to catch and kill;
Thou need'st not make an art on't: they that are
Once listed in the new saint's calendar,

Do't as they pray and preach by inspiration;
No heathen rules, or old premeditation,
Nor antichristian acts; who reads our story,
Will find we do't without thy directory.

But when I think with what a pleasing art
Thou dost thy rules both practise and impart,
I am delighted too, as well as taught;

And fishes leap for joy when they are caught :
I could unman myself, and wish to be

A fish, so that I might be took by thee.

Blest then are thy companions, who with thee
Participate of such felicity,

Such undisturb'd, such dangerless delight,
That does at once both satiate and invite.

Whence more safe joy, more true contentment springs
Than from the courts of those gay pageants, kings

Or great king-riders, who still hurried are

With those grand tyrants, business and care;
And fling upon base acts, and filthy vice,
Spurr'd on by ambition and by avarice.

Whilst by some gliding river thou sit'st down,
Thy mind's thy kingdom, and content's thy crown,
Conversing with the silent fish, and when

Thou'rt killing them, thou think'st of once dead men ;
And from oblivion and the grave set'st free

Names, whom thou robest with immortality.
For he that reads thy Wotton and thy Donne
Can't but believe a resurrection;

And spite of envy, this encomium give,

By Thee fish die; by Thee dead friends revive.

ALEX. BROME.*

* One of the twelve adopted sons of Ben Jonson, and the author of The Cunning Lovers, a Tragedy, 1654; Songs, and other Poems, 1664; and Covent Garden Drollery, 1672, &c.

CLARISSIMO AMICISSIMOQUE FRATRI, DOMINO ISAACO WALTON, ARTIS PISCATORIÆ PERITISSIMO.

UNICUS est medicus reliquorum piscis, et istis,

Fas quibus est medicum tangere, certa salus.

Hic typus est Salvatoris mirandus JESU,

1 Litera mysterium quælibet hujus habet.

Hunc cupio, hunc capias (bone frater arundinis), ix@úv:
2 Solveret hic pro me debita, teque Deo.

Piscis is est, et piscator, mihi credito, qualem
Vel piscatorem piscis amare velit.

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2 Matt. xvii. 27, the last words of the chapter.

HENRY BAYLEY, Artium Magister.”

AD VIRUM OPTIMUM, ET PISCATOREM PERITISSIMUM,
ISAACUM WALTONUM.†

MAGISTER artis docte Piscatoria,
Waltone, salve! magne dux arundinis,
Seu tu reductâ 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 lene manantes aquas
Vagos honestâ fraude pisces decipis.
Dum cætera ergo penè gens mortalium
Aut retia invicem sibi et technas struunt,
Donis, ut hamo, aut divites captant senes;
Gregi natantum tu interim nectis dolos,
Voracem inescas advenam hamo lucium,

Henry Bagley in the second, third, and fourth editions. A Henry Bagley was minister of the Savoy from 1623 to 1625.-H.

†These verses occur for the first time in the fifth edition.

Avidámve percam parvulo alburno capis,
Aut verme ruffo, musculâ aut truttam levi,
Cautúmve cyprinum, et ferè indocilem capi
Calamóque linóque (ars at hunc superat tua);
Medicámve tincam, gobium aut escâ trahis,
Gratum palato gobium, parvum licet;
Prædámve, non æquè salubrem barbulum,
Etsi ampliorem, et mystace insignem gravi.
Hæ sunt tibi artes, dum annus et tempus sinunt,
Et nulla transit absque linea 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 ritè piscatoria,

Varias et escas piscium, indolem, et genus.
Nec tradere artem sat putas piscariam
(Virtutis est hæc et tamen quædam schola
Patientiámque et temperantiam docet);
Documenta quin majora das, et regulas
Sublimioris artis, et perennia

Monimenta morum, 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.

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.*

AD ISAACUM WALTONUM, VIRUM ET PISCATOREM

OPTIMUM.+

ISACE, macte hac arte piscatoriâ;

Hac arte Petrus principi censum dedit ;
Hac arte princeps, nec Petro multò prior,
Tranquillus ille, teste Tranquillo, pater
Patriæ, solebat recreare se lubens

* By Dr James Duport. See next page.

These verses occur for the first time in the fifth edition.
i.e., Suetonius Tranquillus.

B

Augustus, hamo instructus ac arundine.
Tu nunc, Amice, proximum clari es decus
Post Cæsarem hami, gentis ac Halieuticæ :
Euge, O professor, artis haud ingloriæ,
Doctor cathedræ, prælegens Piscariam!
Næ tu Magister, et ego discipulus tuus
(Nam candidatum et me ferunt arundinis,
Socium hac in arte nobilem nacti sumus.
Quid amplius, Waltone, nam dici potest?
Ipse hamiota Dominus en orbis fuit.

JACO. DUP. D.D.*

* James Duport, S. T. P. Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, in 1668, and became Dean of Peterborough on the 27th of July 1664. He was the son of John Duport, who assisted in the translation of King James's Bible, and was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; was afterwards Professor of Greek in that University; and died about 1679.-Fuller's Church History, B. x. p. 46. Walton, in his Life of Herbert, says that Dr Duport had collected and published Herbert's Poems. In a collection of Latin Poems, by Dean Duport, entitled Musa Subseciva, printed in 8vo, 1676, the verses in the text, those in the preceding page, and some on Walton's Life of Herbert, will be found, pp. 101, 118, 371. A short account of this person is given by Bishop Kennett in the Lansdowne MSS. 986 and 987.

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