ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 655 



gardener." But though Dr. Johnson rightly said : " He 

 that will understand Shakespeare must not be content to 

 study him in the closet ; he must look for his meaning 

 among the sports of the field ;" and, it might be added, 

 in the history and practice of all the subjects to which he 

 alludes ; still, we must not conclude that the poet neces- 

 sarily followed personally this or that particular vocation, 

 of the details of which he shows much intimate knowledge. 

 The truth is, that Shakespeare was a man of wondrous 

 and most comprehensive information on a multitude of 

 subjects, however he may have acquired it, and was able 

 to use the correct technical terms connected with any 

 matter he handled. But to argue from such use, or from 

 that of proverbial and common-parlance expressions of his 

 day, that he was personally associated with any particular 

 matter to which they refer, strikes one as unreasonable as 

 to infer that a person must be given to horse-racing because 

 he uses phrases and expressions which the turf has caused 

 to become incorporated, as it were, with the English 

 language. Shakespeare is traditionally associated with 

 something more than a love of poaching, which seems still 

 an instinct in the nature of even civilised man ; but it 

 would be manifestly unfair to say that he was given to 

 " foxing " trout, because he makes one of his characters in 

 Twelfth Night say 



" Lie thou there ; for here comes the trout, 

 That must be caught with tickling." 



Very probably, indeed, Shakespeare, both in his early and 

 latter years, fished in the Stratford Avon and elsewhere, 

 but that his writings show him to have been an angler 

 must be looked upon rather as a " pious opinion " rather 

 than as necessary to be held as an article of faith. 



