COMMENDATORY VERSES. 13 



As seldom fall unto 1 the lot 



Of sceptres, though they're justly got. 



THO. WEAVER, Mr. of Arts.* 



TO THE READERS OF MY MOST INGENIOUS FRIEND'S 

 BOOK, "THE COMPLETE ANGLER." 



HE that both knew and writ the Lives of men, 

 Such as were once, but must not be again ; 

 Witness his matchless Donne and Wotton, by 

 Whose aid he could their speculations try : 



He that conversed with angels, such as were 

 Ouldsworth f and Featly, each a shining star 

 Showing the way to Bethlem ; each a saint, 

 Compared to whom our zealots, now, but paint. 



He that our pious and learn'd Morley knew, 

 And from him suck'd wit and devotion too. 



He that from these such excellencies fetch'd, 



That he could tell how high and far they reach 'd ; 

 What learning this, what graces th' other had ; 

 And in what several dress each soul was clad. 



Reader, this He, this Fisherman, comes forth, 



And in these Fisher's weeds would shroud his worth. 



Now his mute harp is on a willow hung, 



With which, when finely touch'd, and fitly strung, 



He could friends' passions for these times allay, 



Or chain his fellow-Anglers from their prey. 



But now the music of his pen is still, 



And he sits by a brook, watching a quill : 



VARIATION.] * As falls but seldom to the lot. id edit. 



* The son of Thomas Weaver, of Worcester. He entered of Christ's Church, Oxford, 

 in 1633, being then seventeen years of age, and took his Master's degree in 1640, about 

 which time he was made one of the Chaplains or petty Canons of the Cathedral. He 

 was ejected by the Parliament in 1648, when '' he shifted from place to place, and lived 

 upon his wits." After the Restoration, he was made an exciseman at Liverpool, and 

 was commonly called " Captain Weaver ;" but "prosecuting too much the -crimes of 

 poets," he died at Liverpool on the 3d of January 1662-3. "His works are Song* and 

 Poems of Love, 1654 ; Choice Drollery \ with Songs and Sonnets, 1656. Wood's A then. 

 Oxon.j by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 623. No date occurs to the verses in the text in any earlier 

 edition than the fifth. 



t Dr Richard Holdsworth. See an account of him in the Fasti Oxon., by Bliss, p. 

 376 ; and in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors. H. 



t Dr Daniel Fairclough, alias Featly, about whom see Athen. Oxon., by Bliss, vol. 

 iii. p. 156. H. 



2 Said by Hawkins to have been Dr George Morley, who became Bishop of Worcester 

 in 1660 ; was translated to Winchester in 1662 ; and died in 1684, to whom Walton dedi- 

 cated his Life of Hooker. A Life of this prelate will be found in Wood's Athen. Oxen., 

 by Bliss, vol. iv. p. 149. The only thing which renders it doubtful whether Bishop 

 Morley was alluded to, is that it would seem, from the manner in which the person is 

 mentioned, that he was not then, i.e., in 1650, living. 



