1 76 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I 



Pise. But, Scholar, have you nothing to mix with this dis- 

 course, which now grows both tedious and tiresome ? Shall I 

 have nothing from you, that seem to have both a good memory 

 and a cheerful spirit ? 



VEN, Yes, Master, I will speak you a copy of verses that 

 were made by Doctor Donne, and made to show the world 

 that he could make soft and smooth verses, when he thought 

 smoothness worth his labor ; and I love them the better, be- 

 cause they allude to rivers, and fish, and fishing. They be 

 these : 



" 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 whispering run, 

 Warmed by the eyes more than the sun ; 

 And there the enamelled 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 be'st 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, 

 Jo 'witch poor wandering fishes' eye; 



