THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



And when the timorous Trout I wait 



To take, and he devours my bait, 



Huxo poor a thing sometimes I find 



M^ill 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 mure than that delight: 



IVho 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 /nade 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. 

 Blest fishers were, and fish the last 

 Food was that he on earth did taste : 



I therefore strive to follow those, 



Whom he to follow him hath chose. 



Cor. Well sung, brother : you have paid your debt in good 

 coin ; we anglers are all beholden to the good man that made 

 this song. Come, Hostess, give us more ale, and let's drink to 

 him. 



And now let's every one go to bed, that we may rise early: 

 but first let's pay our reckoning, for I will have nothing to hinder 

 me in the morning ; for my purpose is to prevent* the sun-rising. 



Pet. a match : come, Coridon, you are to be my bed- fellow : 



* Prevent, i. e., go before, the meaning of the word nriginnlly and ac- 

 cording to the derivation. It is used in this sense by the transl itors of the 

 Bible, the writers of the Church of England Prayer-Book, and others of 

 those times. Possibly Walton, to whom the Scriptures were very familiar, 

 had in his mind Psilm cxix., 147, " I prevented the dawning of the morn- 

 ing." Doubtless their bein^ obliged to rise early is a chief reason of the 

 good health anglers generally enjoy. — Am. Ed. 



