ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 61 



And with his franticke fits so scares the shole, 

 That each one takes his hyde, or starting hole : 

 By this the Pike cleane wearied, underneath 

 A willow lyes, and pants (if Fishes breath) 

 Wherewith the Angler gently puls him to him, 

 And least his hast might happen to vndoe him, 

 Layes downe his rod, then takes his line in hand, 

 And by degrees getting the Fish to land, 

 Walkes to another Poole : at length is winner 

 Of such a dish as serues him for his dinner. 



In the year following the publication of Denny s' 

 poem, a prose version appeared anonymously, under 

 the title of The Pleasures of Princes. Gervase 

 Markham, the author of this conversion, is one 

 of the most interesting characters in angling 

 literature. He was the third son of Robert 

 Markham, of Gotham, Northamptonshire ; was born 

 about 1568, and died in 1637. By profession he 

 was a soldier, and served as captain under the 

 Earl of Essex in Ireland, but appears to have 

 turned to literature as a means of gaining a living. 

 He was a most versatile author. " No subject, 

 indeed, appears to have been rejected by Markham : 

 husbandry, housewifery, farriery, horsemanship, and 

 military tactics, hunting, hawking, fowling, fishing, and 

 archery, heraldry, poetry, romances, and the drama 

 all shared his attention and exercised his genius 

 and industry " (Drake's Shakespeare and his Times). 



Markham was a most unscrupulous writer; not 

 only did he usually omit to mention the sources 

 from which he compiled his works, but also he was 



