THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



As inward love breeds outward talk, 

 The hound some praise, and some the hawk, 

 Some, better pleas'd with private sport, 

 Use tennis, some a mistress court : 

 But these delights I neither wish, 

 Nor envy, while I freely fish. 



Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride ; 



"Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide : 



Who uses games shall often prove 



A loser ; but who falls in love, 



Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare : 

 My angle breeds me no such care. 



Of recreation there is none 

 So free as fishing is alone ; 

 All other pastimes do no less 

 Than mind and body both possess : 



My hand alone my work can do, 



So I can fish and study too. 



I care not, I, to fish in seas, 

 Fresh rivers best my mind do please, 

 Whose sweet calm course I contemplate, 

 And seek in life to imitate : 



In civil bounds I fain would keep, 

 And for my past offences weep. 



And when the timorous Trout I wait 



To take, and he devours my bait, 



How poor a thing, sometimes I find, 



Will captivate a greedy mind : 



And when none bite, I praise the wise 

 Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise. 



But yet, though while I fish, I fast, 



I make good fortune my repast ; 



And thereunto my friend invite, 



In whom I more than that delight : 

 Who is more welcome to my dish 

 Than to my angle was my fish. 



As well content no prize to take, 



As use of taken prize to make : 



For so our Lord was pleased, when 



He fishers made fishers of men ; 



Where, which is in no other game, 

 A man may fish and praise his name. 



The first men that our Saviour dear 

 Did choose to wait upon him here, 



