ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 647 



" Come live with me, and be my love, 

 And we will some new pleasures prove, 

 Of golden sands and crystal brooks, 

 With silken lines, and silver hooks. 



" There will the river whisp'ring run, 

 Warm'd by the eyes more than the sun ; 

 And there the enamel'd fish will stay 

 Begging themselves they may betray. 



"When thou wilt swim in that live bath, 

 Each fish, which every channel hath, 

 Most amorously to thee will swim, 

 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 



"If thou to be so seen, beest loath 

 By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both ; 

 And if mine eyes have leave to see, 

 I need not their light, having thee. 



" Let others freeze with angling reeds, 

 And cut their legs with shells and weeds, 

 Or treacherously poor fish beset 

 With strangling snares or windowy net ; 



" Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest, 

 The bedded fish in banks outwrest ; 

 Let curious traitors sleave silk flies, 

 To 'witch poor wand'ring fishes' eyes. 



" For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, 

 For thou thyself art thine own bait : 

 That fish that is not catcht thereby, 

 Is wiser far, alas, than I." 



This is quoted by Walton in the " Fourth Day," and it 

 is in imitation of that sung by the milkmaid in the " Third 

 Day," which is attributed to the sweet-singing Christopher 

 Marlowe. 



And now we must refer to Izaak Walton himself as a 

 poet in verse, though the Complete A ngler itself is sufficient 

 to testify to him as one in prose, for, as Coleridge said, the 



