For he that views it with judicious looks
Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks.
The world the river is; both you and I,
And all mankind, are either fish or fry.
If we pretend to reason, first or last,
His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast.
Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme,
If not at first, will doubtless take's in time.
Here sits, in secret, blest Theology,
Waited upon by grave Philosophy,
Both natural and moral; History,
Deck'd and adorn'd with flowers of Poetry,
The matter and expression striving which
Shall most excel in worth, yet not seem rich.
There is no danger in his baits; that hook
Will prove the safest, that is surest took.

Nor are we caught alone, but, which is best,
We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome drest;
Drest to be fed, not to be fed upon :

And danger of a surfeit here is none.
The solid food of serious contemplation

Is sauced, here, with such harmless recreation,
That an ingenuous and religious mind
Cannot inquire for more than it may find
Ready at once prepared, either t' excite,
Or satisfy, a curious appetite.

More praise is due: for 'tis both positive
And truth, which once was interrogative,
And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest―
"Et piscatorem piscis amare potest.”

CH. HARVIE, Mr. of Arts.*

TO MY DEAR FRIEND, MR IZ. WALTON, IN PRAISE OF
ANGLING, WHICH WE BOTH LOVE.

Down by this smooth stream's wandering side,
Adorn'd and perfumed with the pride

Of Flora's wardrobe, where the shrill

Aerial choir express their skill,

First, in alternate melody,8

And, then, in chorus all agree.

Whilst the charm'd fish, as ecstasied

With sounds, to his own throat denied,

VARIATIONS.

6 Down by this wand'ring stream's smooth side.-2d edit.

7 Choir of the air.-Ibid.

8 harmony.-Ibid.

9 Where.-Ibid.

In the second and third editions the initials C. H. only occur; the name was printed at length in the fifth edition for the first time. An account of Harvey will be found in a subsequent note.

Scorns his dull element, and springs
I' the air, as if his fins were wings.
'Tis here that pleasures sweet and high
Prostrate to our embraces lie:

Such as to body, soul, or fame,1
Create no sickness, sin, or shame :
Roses, not fenc'd with pricks, grow here,
No sting to the honey-bag is near:
But, what's perhaps their prejudice,
They difficulty want and price.

An obvious rod, a twist of hair,
With hook hid in an insect, are
Engines of sport, would fit the wish
Of th' Epicure, and fill his dish.

In this clear stream let fall a grub;
And, straight, take up a Dace or Chub.
I' the mud, your worm provokes a snig,*
Which being fast, if it prove big,t
The Gotham folly will be found
Discreet, ere ta'en she must be drown'd.
The Tench, physician of the brook,
In yon dead hole expects your hook;
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.2

And at that nimble ford, no doubt,

2

1

name.-2d edit.

3 some.-Ibid.

6 or.-Ibid.

9 next.-Ibid.

The following lines here occur in the 2d 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."

? These two lines are omitted in the 2d edit.

4 dappled.-Ibid.

3 in.-2d edit.

* Snig, a term more generally applied to the small nine-eyed eel, commonly found about the apron of an old weir, or in shallow parts of the river Lee, and forms the amusement of sniggling to youthful Anglers.-Eu. H.

"If it prove big" alludes to one of the stories told of the Wise Men of Gotham, a facetious penny history much in circulation in the time of Walton. It is there related that the men of Gotham, upon a Good Friday, after due consultation, collected all their white herrings, red herrings, sprats, and salt fish, and cast the whole into a pond, in order to secure a sufficient store of fish for the next Lent. In due time upon dragging the pond, there was found only a very large eel, and it being suspected the same must, by the size, have devoured the intended stock, it was concluded that such a voracious monster ought to be destroyed, and, as a death-warrant, it was determined that it should put in another pond, in order that it might be drowned.-Eu. H.

be

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, are 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 hydrophoby.

The water's calmness 8 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 tale1 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 2
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,
His fate's foretold, who fondly places
His bliss in woman's soft embraces.
All pleasures, but the Angler's, bring
I' the tail repentance, like a sting.

4

Then on these banks let me sit down,
Free from the toilsome sword and gown;
And pity those that do7 affect

To conquer nations and protect.
My reed affords such true content,
Delights so sweet and innocent,

5 Whilst.-2d edit.

7 you'll.-Ibid.

9 And give me cheap and quiet

3d edit.

2 This, and the four 3 that-2d edit.

7 shall.-Ibid.

9

VARIATIONS.

6 You fishes choose to rescue men.-Ibid. 8 Then this stream's calmness.-Ibid.

joys.-Ibid. Sweeter are cheap and silent joys.-
1oft makes that fable true.-2d edit.

following lines first appeared in the 3d edit.
4 that.-Ibid.
5 this bank.-Ibid.

8 affords me such content.-Ibid.

6 lie.-Ibid.

9 so.-loud.

1649.

As seldom fall unto 1 the lot

Of sceptres, though they're justly got.

THO. WEAVER, Mr. of Arts.*

TO THE READERS OF 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, each a shining star
Showing the way to Bethlem; each a saint,
Compared 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.

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:

VARIATION.] 1 As falls but seldom to the lot.-2d edit.

* The son of Thomas Weaver, of Worcester. He entered of Christ's Church, Oxford, in 1633, being then seventeen years of age, and took his Master's degree in 1640, about which time he was made one of the Chaplains or petty Canons of the Cathedral. He was ejected by the Parliament in 1648, when "he shifted from place to place, and lived upon his wits." After the Restoration, he was made an exciseman at Liverpool, and was commonly called "Captain Weaver;" but "prosecuting too much the crimes of poets," he died at Liverpool on the 3d of January 1662-3. His works are Songs and Poems of Love, 1654; Choice Drollery, with Songs and Sonnets, 1656. Wood's Athen. Oxon., by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 623. No date occurs to the verses in the text in any earlier edition than the fifth.

† Dr Richard Holdsworth. See an account of him in the Fasti Oxon., by Bliss, p. 376; and in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors.-H.

Dr Daniel Fairclough, alias Featly, about whom see Athen. Oxon., by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 156.-H.

Said by Hawkins to have been Dr George Morley, who became Bishop of Worcester in 1660; was translated to Winchester in 1662; and died in 1684, to whom Walton dedicated his Life of Hooker. A Life of this prelate will be found in Wood's Athen. Oxon., by Bliss, vol. iv. p. 149. The only thing which renders it doubtful whether Bishop Morley was alluded to, is that it would seem, from the manner in which the person is mentioned, that he was not then, i.e., in 1650, living.

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.§

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."