128 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART. I. 



"A hundred herds of black and white 



Upon our gowns securely feed ; 

 And yet if any dare us bite, 



He dies therefore as sure as creed. 

 Thus beggars lord it as they please, 

 And only beggars live at ease. 



Bright shines the sun : play, beggars, play, 



Here's scraps enough to serve to-day." 



VEN. I thank you, good Master, for this piece of merriment, 

 and this song, which was well humored by the maker, and well 

 remembered by you. 



Pise. But I pray forget not the catch which you promised 

 to make against night ; for our countryman, honest Coridon, 

 will expect your catch and my song, which I must be forced 

 to patch up, for it is so long since I learned it that I have for- 

 got a part of it. But come, now it hath done raining, let's 

 stretch our legs a little in a gentle walk to the river, and try 

 what interest our angles will pay us for lending them so long 

 to be used by the Trouts : lent them indeed, like usurers, for 

 our profit and their destruction. 



VEN. O me ! look you Master, a fish, a fish ! O alas, Mas- 

 ter, I have lost her ! 



Pise. Ay marry, Sir, that was a good fish indeed : if I had 

 had the luck ta have taken up that rod, then 't is twenty to 

 one he should not have broke my line by running to the rod's 

 end, as you suffered him. I would have held him within the 

 bent of my rod, unless he had been fellow to the great Trout 

 that is near an ell long, which was of such a length and depth 

 that he had his picture drawn, and is now to be seen at mine 

 Host Rickabie's, at the George in Ware ; and it may be, by 

 giving that very great Trout the rod, that is, by casting it to 

 him into the water, I might have caught him at the long run ; 

 for so I use always to do when I meet with an overgrown fish, 

 and you will learn to do so too hereafter: for I tell you, 

 Scholar, fishing is an art, or, at least, it is an art to catch fish. 



