THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 39 



And let me tell you that angling is of high esteem and 

 much use in other nations. He that reads the voyages of 

 Ferdinand Mendez Pinto,* shall find that there he declares 

 to have found a king and several priests a-fishing. 



And he that reads Plutarch shall find that angling was not 

 contemptible in the days of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, and 

 that they, in the midst of their wonderful glory, used angling 

 as a principal recreation. t And let me tell you, that in the 

 Scripture angling is always taken in the best sense, and that 



* A traveller so noted for his mendacity, that to call any narrator of travels 

 a " Mendez Pinto," is an insult. ED. 



t I must here so far differ from my author, as to say, that if angling was 

 not contemptible in the days of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, that illustrious 

 prostitute endeavoured to make it so. The fact related by Plutarch is the 

 following : 



" It would be very tedious and trifling to recount all his follies ; but his fish- 

 ing must not be forgot. He went out one day to angle with Cleopatra ; and 

 being so unfortunate as to catch nothing in the presence of his mistress, he was 

 very much vexed, and gave secret orders to the fishermen to dive under water, 

 and put fishes that had been fresh taken upon his hook. After he had drawn 

 up two or three, Cleopatra perceived the trick ; she pretended, however, to be 

 surprised at his good fortune and dexterity, told it to all her friends, and 

 invited them to come and see him fish the next day. Accordingly, a very 

 large company went out in the fishing vessels ; and as soon as Antony had let 

 down his line, she commanded one of her servants to be beforehand with An- 

 tony's, and, diving into the water, to fix upon his hook a salted fish, one of 

 those which were brought from the Euxine Sea." 



The story here told affords matter of serious reflection. Behold here two 

 persons of the highest rank, who had exhausted all the sources of sensual de- 

 light their appetites palled, and every gratification rendered tasteless 

 stooping to partake of the recreations of the meaner sort ; and of tyrants and 

 persecutors of their fellow-creatures, to become the deceivers of silly fish and 

 of each other. Doubtless we may suppose, that long before the tragical end 

 which they severally made of a profligate and wicked life, they were grown 

 tired and sick of the world, and had frequent occasion to exclaim and that 

 with greater reason than their predecessor in worldly glory that all the pomp 

 and splendour of dominion, all the power and authority resulting from regal 

 grandeur, all ambitious enterprises, all merely human projects, pursuits, and 

 pleasures, without a tranquil and composed mind, such as God vouchsafes only 

 to the meek and humble, are vanity and vexation of spirit. II. 



[Shakspeare, no doubt, read the above passage from Plutarch ; for in his play 

 of Anthony and Cleopatra we find the following verses: 



" Cleopatra. Give me mine angle. We'll to the river ; there, 



My music playing far off, I will betray 



Tawny-fumed fishes ; my bended hook shall pierce 



Their slimy jaws ; and as I draw them, up, 



I'll think them every one an Antony, 



And say, ' Ah, ha ! you're caught.' 

 CJuirmian. 'Twas merry, when 



You wager'd on your angling ; when your diver 



Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he 



With fervency drew up." Act II., Scene 5.] 



