654 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



" Go on, my Muse, next let thy numbers speak 

 That mighty Nimrod of the streams, the Pike," 



and so forth. 



Altogether; the piscatory poets of the seventeenth century 

 do not present a very strong list, though J. D. is a literary 

 host in himself. The dramatists of the period do not come 

 to our aid to any great degree, though passages from 

 " rare " Ben Jonson, Dekkar, Beaumont and Fletcher, 

 Massinger, and others, as bearing on or illustrative of the 

 " ars piscatoria," might be quoted. Shakespeare, however, 

 has been claimed as a poet of the angler, and as an angler 

 too. A large number of passages may be adduced from 

 his plays to illustrate him in the first-named character, and 

 these have been collected very recently in a charming little 

 book by the Rev. H. N. Ellacombe, M.A., entitled Shake- 

 speare as an A ngler (Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row) ; and 

 the author has done his best to show that he was also a 

 follower of the gentle craft, arguing this from his use of 

 many technical angling terms, correct ichthyological de- 

 scriptions of fish, use of fishing proverbs, and his loving 

 descriptions of brooks and running streams and river 

 scenery. The little book will repay perusal at the hands 

 both of the lovers of Shakespeare and the lovers of the 

 angle, but the general impression will probably be that 

 the author somewhat labours in his self-imposed task, and 

 is open to the charge of proving too much. 



It is a modern fashion to prove that Shakespeare was 

 a master and follower of almost every conceivable art, 

 science, and pastime. Thus one author has elaborated the 

 poet " as a divine," another " as a physician," a third " as 

 a lawyer," and so on, as a soldier, sailor, &c., ad infinitum ; 

 and Mr. Ellacombe has also worked him out "as a 



