158 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



[PART i. 



have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory 

 and a cheerful spirit ? 



VENATOR. Yes, master, I will speak you a copy of verses that 

 were made by Doctor Donne, and made to show the world that he 

 could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought smoothness 

 worth his labour : 8 and I love them the better, because they 

 allude to Rivers, and Fish and Fishing. They be these : *- 



And if mine eyes have leave to see, 

 I need not their light, having thee. 



Let others freeze with angling reeds, 

 And cut their legs with shells and weeds, 

 Or treacherously poor fish beset 

 With strangling snares or windowy net ; 



Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest, 

 The bedded fish in banks outwrest ; 

 Let curious traitors sleave silk flies, 

 To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes' eyes. 



For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, 

 For thou thyself art thine own bait; 

 That fish that is not catcht thereby, 

 Is wiser far, alas, than I.c 



Come, live with me, and be my love, 

 And we will some new pleasures prove, 

 Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, 

 With silken lines, and silver hooks. 



There will the river whisp'ring run, 

 Warm'd by thy eyes more than the sun ; 

 And there the enamel'd fish will stay. 

 Begging themselves they may betray. 



When thou wilt swim in that live bath, 

 Each fish, which every channel hath, 

 Most amorously to thee will swim, 

 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 



If thou, to be so seen, beest loath 

 By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both ; 



PlSCATOR. Well remembered, honest scholar. I thank you 

 for these choice verses ; which I have heard formerly, but had 

 quite forgot, till they were recovered by your happy memory. 

 Well, being I have now rested myself a little, I will make you 

 some requital, by telling you some observations of the Eel ; for 

 it rains still : and because, as you say, our angles are as money 

 put to use, that thrives when we play, therefore we'll sit still, and 

 enjoy ourselves a little longer under this honeysuckle-hedge. 



PlSCATOR. IT is agreed by most men, that the Eel is a most 

 the Romans have esteemed her the Helena of 

 their feasts ; and some the queen of palate- 

 pleasure. But most men differ about their breed- 

 ing : some say they breed by generation, as other 

 fish do ; and others, that they breed, as some 

 worms do, of mud ; as rats and mice, and many other living 

 creatures, are bred in Egypt, by the sun's heat when it shines 



VARIATIONS. 



8 when he thought them fit and worth his labour. ist edit. 



9 that the Eel is both a good and a most dainty fish. i.^ edit. 



* As has been observed in a former note, this song is an imitation of the one by Mar- 

 lowe, which the Milkmaid sung to Piscator and Venator on the Third Day. See page 

 79. It is printed among Donne's Poems, ed. 1635, p. 39, with the following varia- 

 tions : 



a And there th' innamour'd fish will stay. 



b Bewitch poor fishes wandering eyes. 



c Alas, is wiser far than I. 



dainty fish : ' 



CHAP. XIII. Of 

 the Eel, and 

 other Fish that 

 want Scales. 



