246 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



And blood ally'd to ^reafnes.f, is alone 

 Inherited, not pnrcfias'd, nor our own : 



Fame, honor, beauty, state, train, blood, and birth. 



Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. 



J would be great, but that the sun doth still 



Level his rays against the rising hill : 



J would be high, but sec the proudest oak 



Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke : 



J would be rich, but see men, too unkindy 



Dig in the bowels of the richest mind: 



J would be wise, but that 1 often see 



The fox suspected, ivhilst the ass goes free : 



I would be fair, but see the fair and proud, 



Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud : 



I would be poor, but know the humble grass 



Still trampled on by each unworthy ass : 



Rich hated ; wise suspected ; scorii'd if poor ; 



Great fear' d ; fair tempted ; high still envy'd more : 



I have wish'd all ; but now I wish for neither ; 



Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair ; poor I'll be rather. 



Would the world noiv adopt me for her heir. 

 Would beauty's queen entitle me the fair. 

 Fame speak me fortune's minioii, could I vie 

 Angels with India,* with a speaking eye 



* An angel was a gold coin varying in value, so called from having the 

 fio-ure of an angel {Angelus quasi Anglus) upon it. After the coin had 

 gone out of use, the name signified ten shillings sterling. " Vie," from the 

 Saxon wigan, to contend, here means to try a comparison of wealth be- 

 tween two persons, each putting down a piece of money, until the store of 

 one was exhausted, which was sometimes called " dropping angels." This 

 Hawkins illustrates by a passage from the ballad of The Beggar's Daughter 

 of Bethnall- Green (See Percy's Reliques, Ser. ii., b. 2, 10), whose father, 

 on her being despised by the kinsmen of a young knight who wished to 

 marry her, thus showed his secret wealth : 



" Then spake the blind beggar, although I bee poore, 

 Yet rayle not against my child at my own doore : 

 Though shee be not decked in velvett and pearle, 

 Yett will I drop angels with you for my girle. 



«' With that an angell he caste on the ground, 



And dropped in angels full three thousand pound ; 



