The Compleat ^Angler 



Pise. Trust me, scholar, I thank you heartily for these verses : 

 they be choicely good, and doubtless made by a lover of angling. 

 Come, now, drink a glass with me, and I will requite you with another 

 very good copy : it is a farewell to the vanities of the world, and 

 some say written by Sir Harry Wotton, who I told you was an 

 excellent angler. But let them be writ by whom they will, he that 

 writ them had a brave soul, and must needs be possest with happy 

 thoughts at the time of their composure. 



Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles ; 



Farewell, ye honoured rags, ye glorious bubbles : 



Fame's but a hollow echo, gold, pure clay ; 



Honour, the darling but of one short day ; 



Beauty (tV eye's idol] but a damask 'd skin; 



State, but a golden prison, to live in, 



And torture free born minds ; embroidered trains, 



Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins : 



And blood allied to greatness is alone 



Inherited, not purchased, nor our own. 



Fame, honour, beauty, state, train, blood, and birth, 

 Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. 



I would be great, but that the sun doth still 



Level his rays against the rising hill: 



I would be high, but see the proudest oak 



Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke : 



I would be rich, but see men (too unkind} 



Dig in the bowels of the richest mind : 



I would be wise, but that I often see 



The fox suspected, whilst 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: scorn 1 d, if poor : 



Great, fear'd : fair, tempted : high, still envied more : 

 I have wished all ; but now I wish for neither, 

 Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair ; poor Pll be rather. 

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