54 FISHING GOSSIP. 



the river ; the fishy nation are, in more senses than 

 one, a scaly set, and obstinately refuse to render any 

 assistance towards filling the fisherman's basket, 

 without at least the proffer of a comestible bribe. 



According to the Diversions of Purley, the word 

 "bait," in itself, is simply the past participle of the verb 

 to bite. We offer a bait to the fish, which in turn 

 bites it, thus denoting the acceptance of a line of 

 invitation to dinner, not indeed to eat, but like 

 Polonius to be eaten. It is the ancient and often 

 repeated case of the biter bitten, daily occurring on 

 land as well as in the water, and causing old Guillim, 

 the herald, shrewdly to observe that there are many 

 more fishers in the world than are members of the 

 Worshipful Company of Fishermen. " A man," says 

 the moody-minded Prince of Denmark " may fish 

 with a worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of a 

 fish that fed of that worm." Shakespeare, by the way, 

 shows himself to be as familiar with the pleasant 

 sport of fishing, as he was with almost everything 

 else, frequently making direct and metaphorical 

 allusions to it. Claudio, in Much Ado about Nothing, 

 says : " Bait the hook well, this fish will bite ;" and 

 in Measure for Measure we may read 



" cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, 

 "With saints doth bait thy hook ! most dangerous 

 Is that temptation that doth goad us on 

 To sin in loving virtue." 



