CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 109 



Ven. I thank you, good master, for this piece of merri- 

 ment, and this song, which was well humoured by the 

 maker, and well remembered by you. 



Pise. But, I pray, forget not the catch which you pro- 

 mised 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 learnt 

 it, that I have forgot 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 de- 

 struction. 



Ven. Oh me ! look you, master, a fish ! a fish ! Oh, alas, 

 master, I have lost her ! 



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

 had had the luck to have taken up that rod, then 'tis 

 twenty to one he should not have broke my line by run- 

 ning 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 now is 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. 



Ven. But, master, I have heard that the great Trout 

 you speak of is a Salmon. 



Pise. Trust me, scholar, I know not what to say to 

 it. There are many country people that believe hares 

 change sexes every year : and there be very many learned 

 men think so too, for in their dissecting them they find 



