Piscator.Well sung, Coridon, this song was sung with mettle; and it was choicely fitted to the occasion: I shall love you for it as long as I know you.I would you were a brother of the angle; for a companion that is cheerful, and free from swearing and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold.I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning; nor men, that cannot well bear it, to repent the money they spend when they be warmed with drink.And take this for a rule: you may pick out such times and such companies, that you make yourselves merrier for a little than a great deal of money; for "'Tis the company and not the charge that makes the feast "; and such a companion you prove: I thank you for itBut I will not compliment you out of the debt that I owe you, and therefore I will begin my song, and wish it may be so well liked.
The Angler's song.
As inward love breeds outward talk The hound some praise, and some the hawk Some, better pleas'd with private sport Use tennis, some a mistress court: But these delights I neither wish Nor envy, while I freely fish.
Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride; Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide Who uses games shall often prove A loser, but who falls in love, Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare: My angle breeds me no such care.
Of recreation there is none So free as fishing is alone; All other pastimes do no less Than mind and body both possess: My hand alone my work can do, So I can fish and study too.
I care not, I, to fish in seas, Fresh rivers best my mind do please, Whose sweet calm course I contemplate, And seek in life to imitate: In civil bounds I fain would keep, And for my past offences weep.
And when the timorous Trout I wait To take, and he devours my bait, How poor a thing, sometimes I find, Will captivate a greedy mind: And when none bite, I praise the wise Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise.
But yet, though while I fish, I fast, I make good fortune my repast; And "hereunto my friend invite, In whom I more than that delight: Who is more welcome to my dish Than to my angle was my fish.
As well content no prize to take, As use of taken prize to make: For soour Lord was pleased, when He fishers made fishers of men; Where, which is in no other game, A man may fish and praise his name.
The first men that our Saviour dear Did choose to wait upon him here, Blest fishers were, and fish the last Food was that he on earth did taste: I therefore strive to follow those Whom he to follow him hath chose.
W.B.
Coridon.Well sung, brother, you have paid your debt in good coin.We anglers are all beholden to the good man that made this song: come, hostess, give us more ale, and let's drink to him.And now let's every one go to bed, that we may rise early: but first let's pay our reckoning, for I will have nothing to hinder me in the morning; for my purpose is to prevent the sun-rising.
Peter.A match.Come, Coridon, you are to be my bed-fellow.I know, brother, you and your scholar will lie together.But where shall we meet to-morrow night? for my friend Coridon and I will go up the water towards Ware.
Piscator.And my scholar and I will go down towards Waltham.
Coridon.Then let's meet here, for here are fresh sheets that smell of lavender; and I am sure we cannot expect better meat, or better usage in any place.
Peter.'Tis a match.Good-night to everybody.Piscator.And so say I.
Venator.And so say I.
Piscator.Good-morrow, good hostess, I see my brother Peter is still in bed.Come, give my scholar and me a morning drink, and a bit of meat to breakfast: and be sure to get a dish of meat or two against supper, for we shall come home as hungry as hawks.Come, scholar, let's be going.
Venator.Well now, good master, as we walk towards the river, give me direction, according to your promise, how I shall fish for a Trout.
Piscator.My honest scholar, I will take this very convenient opportunity to do it.
The Trout is usually caught with a worm, or a minnow, which some call a peek, or with a fly, viz.either a natural or an artificial fly: concerning which three, I will give you some observations and directions.
And, first, for worms.Of these there be very many sorts: some breed only in the earth, as the earth-worm; others of, or amongst plants, as the dug-worm; and others breed either out of excrements, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the horns of sheep or deer; or some of dead flesh, as the maggot or gentle, and others.
Now these be most of them particularly good for particular fishes.But for the Trout, the dew-worm, which some also call the lob-worm, and the brandling, are the chief; and especially the first for a great Trout, and the latter for a less.There be also of lob-worms, some called squirrel-tails, a worm that has a red head, a streak down the back, and a broad tail, which are noted to be the best, because they are the toughest and most lively, and live longest in the water; for you are to know that a dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm.And for a brandling, he is usually found in an old dunghill, or some very rotten place near to it, but most usually in cow-dung, or hog's-dung, rather than horse-dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry for that worm.But the best of them are to be found in the bark of the tanners, which they cast up in heaps after they have used it about their leather.