" Treaty 'se " as an Angling Idyl. 27 



dysportes and honest gamys " have influ- 

 enced the generations of English men 

 and women which have passed away since 

 this sweet lady's time ? Twenty editions 

 of it have been published, and it has been 

 quoted and copied times out of number. 



" HERE BEGYNNETH THE TREATYSE OF 

 FYSSHYNGE WYTH AN ANGLE. 



" Salomon in his parablys sayth that a 

 good spyryte makyth a flourynge aege, 

 that is a fayre aege and a longe. And 

 syth it is soo: I aske this questyon. 

 Whiche ben the meanes and the causes 

 that enduce a man into a mery spyryte ? 

 Truly to my best dyscrecon it semeth 

 good dysportes and honest gamys in 

 whom a man joyeth without ony repent- 

 annce after. Thenne folowyth it y gode 

 dysportes and honest games ben cause of 

 mannys fayr aege and longe life.* And 

 therfore now woll I chose of foure good 

 dysportes and honeste gamys, that is to 



* James Russell Lowell, one of the greatest 

 of American authors and critics, in referring to 

 Walton's hope, when eighty-three years of age, that 

 he should next year pay another visit to Cotton 

 and the Dove, adds : " This was in his eighty- 

 third year, and implies in him that longevity, the 

 taste for out-of-door sports, and of the muscle 

 to endure their fatigues which are almost peculiar 

 to Englishmen.'' 



