IS OF NOTHING; OR 



as my part of the song may testify : but of that I will say no 

 more, lest you should think I mean by discommending it to 

 beg your commendations of it. And therefore, without replica- 

 tions, let's hear your catch, Scholar, which I hope will be a 

 good one, for you are both musical, and have a good fancy to 

 boot. 



VEN. Marry, and that you shall, and as freely as I would 

 have my honest Master tell me some more secrets of fish and 

 fishing as we walk and fish towards London to-morrow. But 

 Master, first let me tell you that, that very hour which you were 

 absent from me, I sat down under a Willow-tree by the water- 

 side, and considered what you had told me of the owner of that 

 pleasant meadow in which you then left me ; that he had a 

 plentiful estate, and not a heart to think so ; that he had at this 

 time many law-suits depending, and that they both damped his 

 mirth, and took up so much of his time and thoughts, that he 

 himself had not leisure to take the sweet content that I, who 

 pretended no title to them, took in his fields ; for I could there 

 sit quietly, and looking on the water, see some fishes sport 

 themselves in the silver streams, others, leaping at flies of 

 several shapes and colours ; looking on the hills, I could behold 

 them spotted with woods and groves ; looking down the 

 meadows, could see here a boy gathering Lilies and Lady- 

 smocks, and there a girl cropping Culverkeyes and Cowslips, 

 all to make Garlands suitable to this present month of May : 

 these, and many other field-flowers, so perfumed the air, that I 

 thought that very meadow, like that field in Sicily, of which 

 Diodorus speaks, where the perfumes arising from the place, 

 make all dogs that hunt in it to fall off, and to lose their 

 hottest scent. I say, as I thus sat joying in my own happy 

 condition, and pitying this poor rich man, that owned this and 

 many other pleasant groves and meadows about me, I did 

 thankfully remember what my Saviour said, that the Meek 

 possess the earth ; or rather, they enjoy what the other possess 

 and enjoy not ; for Anglers, and meek, quiet-spirited men, are 

 free from those high, those restless thoughts, which corrode the 

 sweets of life ; and they, and they only, can say, as the poet 

 has happily expressed it; 



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