6 4 o LITERA TURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



Thus there is a certain tendency for the angler to become 

 a poet, or at least to become imbued with poetic feelings 

 springing from an elevated source. 



The early English poets can hardly be expected to con- 

 tribute much to the literature of the angle ; but here is 

 a little bit from Chaucer's Complaynte of Mars and Venus 



(1475) : 



" Hit semeth he hath to lovers enemyti, 

 And lyke a fissher, as men al may se, 

 Bateth hys angle-hoke with summe pleasaunce 

 Til mony a fissch ys wode so that he be 

 Sesed therwith ; and then at erst hath he 

 Al his desire, and therwith al myschaunce, 

 And thogh the lyne breke he hath penaunce ; 

 For with the hoke he wounded is so sore, 

 That he his wages hathe for evermore." 



And one from John Gower (1483) : 



" And as the fisher on his bait 

 Sleeth, when he first seeth the fishes taste, 

 So when he seeth time ate last, 

 That he may worche an other wo, 

 Shall no man tornen him ther fro, 

 That hate will his felonie 

 Fulfill and feigne compaignie." 



Nor must we expect much piscatory poetry in the six- 

 teenth century. Spenser can hardly be claimed by the 

 angling fraternity as one of their songsters, though the 

 contemplation of the multitudes of the various inhabitants 

 of the waters made him exclaim 



" Oh what an endlesse work has he in hand 

 Who'd count the sea's abundant progeny, 

 Whose fruitful seed far passeth that on land, 

 And also theirs that roame in th' azure sky, 

 So fertile be the floods in generation, 

 So vast their numbers, and so numberless their nation." 



