THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 153 



Nor care to get, nor fear to keep, 

 Did ever break a beggar's sleep. 



Bright shines the sun. Play, beggars, play ! 



Here 's scraps enough to serve to-day. 



"A hundred herds of black and white 



Upon our gowns securely feed ; 

 And yet if any dare us bite, 



He dies therefore as sure as creed. 

 Thus beggars lord it as they please, 

 And only beggars live at ease. 



Bright shines the sun. Play, beggars, play ! 

 Here's scraps enough to serve to-day." 



Ven. I thank you, good master, for this piece 

 of merriment and this song, which was well 

 humored by the maker and well remembered by 

 you. 



Pise. But I pray forget not the catch which you 

 promised to make against night ; for our country- 

 man, honest Coridon, will expect your catch, and 

 my song, which I must be forced to patch up, for 

 it is so long since I learned it that I have forgot a 

 part of it. But come, now it hath done raining, 

 let 's stretch our legs a little in a gentle walk to the 

 river, and try what interest our angles will pay us 

 for lending them so long to be used by the trouts ; 

 lent them, indeed, like usurers, for our profit and 

 their destruction. 



Ven. Oh me ! look you, master, a fish, a fish ! 

 oh, alas, master, I have lost her ! 



Pise. Ay, marry, sir, that was a good fish in- 

 deed. If I had had the luck to have taken up 

 that rod, then it is twenty to one he should have 



