232 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles ! 

 Farewell, ye honour' d rags, ye glorious bubbles ! 

 Fame's but a hollow echo gold, pure clay 

 Honour, the darling but of one short day 

 Beauty, th' eye's idol, but a damask'd skin 

 State, but a golden prison, to live in, 

 And torture free-born minds embroider 'd trains, 

 Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins 

 And blood allied to greatness is alone 

 Inherited, not purchased, nor our own. 



Fame, honour, beauty, state, train, blood, and birth, 

 Are but the fading blossoms of the earth. 



I would be great, but that the sun doth still 

 Level his rays against the rising hill 

 I would be high, but see the proudest oak 

 Most subject to the rending thunder-stroke 

 I would be rich, but see men (too unkind) 

 Dig in the bowels of the richest mind 

 I would be wise, but that I often see 

 The fox suspected, whilst the ass goes free 

 I would be fair, but see the fair and proud, 

 Like the bright sun, oft setting in a cloud 

 I would be poor, but know the humble grass 

 Still trampled on by each unworthy ass 

 Rich, hated wise, suspected scorn'd, if poor 

 Great, fear'd fair, tempted high, still envied more : 

 I have wish' d all ; but now I wish for neither, 

 Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair poor I'll be rather. 



Would the world now adopt me for her heir 

 Would beauty's queen entitle me the fair 

 Fame speak me fortune's minion could I vie 

 Angels with India* with a speaking eye 

 Command bare heads, bow'd knees, strike justice dumb, 

 As well as blind and lame, or give a tongue 

 To stones by epitaphs be call'd " great master," 

 In the loose rhymes of every poetaster 

 Could I be more than any man that lives, 

 Great, fair, rich, wise, all in superlatives 

 Yet I more freely would these gifts resign, 

 Than ever Fortune would have made them mine ; 

 And hold one minute of this holy leisure 

 Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure ! 



* An angel is a piece of coin, value ten shillings. The words to vie angels, 

 are a periphrasis, and signify to compare wealth. In the old ballad of the 

 Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal-green, a competition of this kind is introduced : 

 a young knight, about to marry the beggar's daughter, is dissuaded from so 

 unequal a match by some gentlemen, his relations, who urge the poverty of her 

 father : the beggar challenges them to drop angels with him, and fairly empties 

 the purses of them all. The contest, and its issue, are related in the well- 

 known ballad beginning, 



" Then spake the blind beggar, ' Although I be poore, 

 Yett rayle not against my child at my own door : 

 Though shee be no decked in velvet and pearle, 

 Yett I will dropp angells with you for my girle.' " H. 



