THE COMPLETE ANGLER 243 



I would be fair, but see the fair and proud, 

 Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud 

 I would be poor, but know the humble grass 

 Still trampled on by each unworthy ass 

 Rich, hated wise, suspected scorn'd, if poor 

 Great, fear'd fair, tempted high, still envied more : 

 I have wish'd all ; but now I wish for neither, 

 Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair poor I'll be rather. 



Would the World now adopt me for her heir 

 Would beauty's queen entitle me the fair 

 Fame speak me Fortune's minion could I " vie 

 Angels " with India * with a speaking eye 

 Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike justice dumb, 

 As well as blind and lame, or give a tongue 

 To stones by epitaphs be call'd " great master," 

 In the loose rhymes of every poetaster 

 Could I be more than any man that lives, 

 Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives 

 Yet I more freely would these gifts resign, 

 Than ever Fortune would have made them mine ; 

 /v And hold one minute of this holy leisure 

 " Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure ! 



Welcome, pure thoughts ! welcome, ye silent groves ! 



These guests, these courts, my soul most dearly loves ! 



Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing 



My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring : 



A prayer-book, now, shall be my looking-glass, 



In which I will adore sweet virtue's face. 



Here dwell no hateful looks, no palace cares, 



No broken vows dwell here, nor pale-faced fears ; 



* An angel is a coin, value ten shillings. The words, to vie 

 angels, are a periphrasis, and signify to compare wealth. In the 

 old ballad of " The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green," a compe- 

 tition of this kind is introduced : a young knight, about to marry 

 the beggar's daughter, is dissuaded from so unequal a match by 

 some gentlemen, his relations, who urge the poverty of her father : 

 the beggar challenges them to drop angels with him, and fairly 

 empties the purses of them all. The contest, and its issue, are re- 

 lated in the well-known ballad beginning, 



" Then spake the blind beggar, ' Although I be poore, 

 Yett rayle not against my child at my own door : 

 Though shee be no decked in velvet and pearle, 

 Yett I will dropp angells with you for my girle.' " H. 



