106 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



berries, " Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but 

 doubtless God never did :" and so, if I might be judge, " God never 

 did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation, than angling." 

 I tell you, Scholar, when I sat last on this primrose-bank, and 

 looked down these meadows, I thought of them, as Charles the 

 emperor did of the city of Florence, " That they were too plea- 

 sant to be looked on, but only on holidays." As I then sat on 

 this very grass, I turned my present thoughts into verse : 'twas 

 a wish which I'll repeat to you. 



THE ANGLER'S WISH.* 



lin these flowery meads would be. 

 These crystal streams should solace me ; 

 To whose harmonious bubbling noise, 

 I wish my Angle would rejoice, 



Sit here, and see the turtle-dove. 



Court his chaste mate to acts of love : 



He was a great humorist. — Hawkins. Dr. Butler was born at Ipswich, 

 about 1535, and educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He died Jan. 29, 

 161S, and was buried at St, Mary's Church, Cambridge. — Sir H. JVicholas. 

 • This song was not inserted till the third edition, and was no doubt 

 written by Walton himself, for it bears the impress of his character, while 

 it does him no little credit. Sir Harris Nicholas' keen eye has detected a 

 variation in the fifth edition from the third and fourth, which is very cu- 

 rious. In the earlier impressions the name of " Chlora" is given. 



« 



Here hear my Chlora sing a song," 



while, in the fifth, as before us, it is " Kenna ;" Kenna being an allusion 

 to his second wife's maiden name of" Ken," " Chlora" an anagram, with a 

 vowel altered, of " Rachel," the name of his first wife. The change will 

 hardly gain our author credit with the ladies. In the margin opposite the 

 same line he wrote Like Hermit Poor. This was a popular song, the first 

 three words of which were used as a proverb, as in Hudibras, Part i., Can. 

 2, 1167-S. 



" Crondero making doleful face, 

 Like hermit poor in pensive j)lace." 



It was first set to music by the younger Ferabosco (Alfonso), 1609, in a 

 collection of his songs, praised by Ben Jonson (Epigram cxxxi.) ; and 

 afterwards by Nicholas Laniere, who, besides being eminent as a painter 

 and engraver, was master of music to Charles I., and the first who brought 

 the recitative into England. The song, with Laniere's music, as taken 



