244 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



Post fata factos hosce per te Virbios. 

 O quae voluptas est legere in scriptis tuis ! 

 Sic tu libris nos, lineis pisces capis, 

 Musisque litterisque dum incumbis, licet 

 Intentus hamo, interque piscandum studes. 



A Translation 



To the best of Men and the Host Skilled of Anglers, Izaac 

 Walton. 



Hail Walton, learned master of the art of 

 angling ! Great champion of the rod, happy art 

 thou whether alone thou dost pace a secluded 

 valley, or, standing on the margin of a clear stream 

 or sitting in the matted grass of the bank, thou 

 dost with skilled hand trick the scaley race ! 

 Happy art thou, who far from business cares, away 

 from the noise and dust of mart and town and 

 beyond reach of crowds, dost by the slowly flowing 

 waters cut off, by honest fraud, the wandering fish ! 

 Whilst then almost all the rest of the race of 

 mortals either in turns spread nets for themselves 

 and bait traps with gifts as with a hook, or lie in 

 wait for rich old men, thou dost weave plots for 

 the tribe of fishes, dost entice the greedy foreign 

 pike with the hook, dost catch the voracious perch 

 with blay, a trout with red worm, or smooth 

 mussel, or thy art overcomes even the cautious 

 carp that rod and line can scarce take ; or thou 



