

A UTHORS ON SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 569 



wholesome walk and merry at his ease, a sweet air of the sweet 

 savour of the mead flowers, that maketh him hungry. He 

 heareth the melodious harmony of fowls. He seeth the young 

 swans, herons, ducks, coots, and many other fowls with their 

 broods ; which me seemeth better than all the noise of hounds, the 

 blast of horns, and the cry of fowls that hunters, falconers, and 

 fowlers can make. And if the angler take fish, surely there is no 

 man merrier than he is in his spirit. Also whoso will use the 

 game of angling, he must rise early, which thing is profitable to 

 man in this wise, that is to wit, most to the heal of his soul. For 

 it shall cause him to be holy, and to the heal of his body, for it 

 shall cause him to be whole. Also to the increase of his goods, 

 for it shall make him rich. As the old English proverb saith in 

 this wise, whoso will rise early shall be holy, healthy, and zealous. 

 Thus have I proved in my intent that the disport and game of 

 angling is the very mean and cause that induceth a man into a 

 merry spirit : which after the said parable of Solomon, and the 

 said doctrine of physic, maketh a flowering age and a long. And 

 therefore to all you that be virtuous, gentle, and free-born, I 

 write and make this simple treatise, following by which ye may 

 have the full craft of angling to disport you at your last, to the 

 intent that your age may the more flower and the more longer to 

 endure." 



A curious instance of literary plagiarism may be men- 

 tioned in connection with this passage. That terribly long- 

 winded but entertaining author, old Burton, of " melancholy 

 anatomy," evidently had it in his eye as well as in his mind 

 when he wrote 



" Fishing is akinde of hunting by water, be it with nets, weeles, 

 baits, angling, or otherwise, and yields all out as much pleasure to 

 some men as dogs or hawks, when they draw their fish upon the 

 bank," saith Nic. Henselius, Silesiographice, cap. 3, speaking of 

 that extraordinary delight his countrymen took in fishing and 

 making of pooles. James Dubravius, that Moravian, in his book 

 De Pise., telleth how, travelling by the highway-side in Silesia, he 

 found a nobleman booted up to the groins, wading himself, pulling 



