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 convers'd with angels, such as were 



Oulsworth* and Featly,] each a shining star 



Showing the way to Bethlem ; each a saint ; 



Compar'd to whom our zealots now but paint. 

 He that our pious and learn'd MorleyX 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 friend's 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 : 



* Dr. Richard Holdsworth. See an account of him in the Fast. Oxon. 

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

 t Dr. Daniel Featly, for whom see Athen. Oxon.. 603. 

 X Dr. Geors^f .Mnrley, bishop of Winchester. 



