14 fdnas of tbe Utofc, TOfle, anfc (Bun 



made Bertram, in lame defence of his meanness to 

 Diana, urge as his excuse : 



She knew her distance and did angle for me ? 



And who can fail to detect the practical angler, 

 versed in all the mysteries of the craft, in that muttered 

 " aside " of Leontes, as he cast his jealous eyes on 

 Hermione toying with Polixenes : 



I am angling now, 

 Though you perceive not how I give line. 



Then, lastly, listen to Jack Falstaff: "If the young 

 dace be a bait for the old pike y I see no reason in the 

 law of Nature but I may snap at him." If the man who 

 wrote that had not many a score of times trolled for 

 jack in full-fed Midland streams, then " fillip me with 

 a three-man beetle." 



What say you, then, my masters, is there not here 

 " ocular proof " that William of Stratford was an angler ? 

 And may not every honest brother of the angle lift his 

 head proudly and say, " Shakespeare was of us " ? 



There was a notable angler contemporary with Shake- 

 speare who wrote the most delightful verses on the 

 gentle craft that are to be found in the English language, 

 but withal so modest and retiring a bard that he was 

 not credited with the poems he had written till he had 

 been two hundred years in his grave. Nay, so diffident 

 was he that he could not be persuaded to publish his 

 verses in his life-time ; and it was not till after his 

 decease in 1609 tna t a slim volume entitled " The 

 Secrets of Angling, by J. D.," issued from the press. 

 The authorship was attributed by some to Donne, by 



