CHAP. XXI. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 239 



Would the World DOW adopt me for her heir : 



Would beauty's Queeu 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 rhimes 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 miue ; 



And hold one minute of this holy leisure 



Beyond the riches of this empty pleasure. 



(1) An angel is a piece of coin, value ten shillings. The words to " vie an- 

 gels" are a metonymy, and signify to compare wealth. In the old ballad of the 

 Beggar's Daughter of BethnaLGrcen, 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 io the fol- 

 lowing stanzas, part of the ballad. 



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

 Yett rayle not against my child at my own door: 

 Though she be not decked in velvet and pearle, 

 Yett I will dropp angeUt with you for my girle . 



And then, if my gold may better her birthe, 

 And equall the gold that you lay on the earth, 

 Then neyther rayle nor grudge you, to see 

 The blind beggar's daughter a ladj to bee. 



But first you shall promise, and have itt well knowoe, 

 The gold that you drop shall all be your owne." 

 With that they replyed. ' Contented bee wee.' 

 " Then here's" (quoth the beggar), ' for prettye Bessec." 



With that, an angell he cast on the ground ; 



And dropped, in angells, full three thousand pound ; 



And oftentimes (it was proved most plain,) 



For the gentleman's one the beggar dropt twayue; 



Soe that the place wherein they did sitt, 

 With gold it was covered, every whitt : 

 The gentlemen, then, having dropt all their store, 

 Sayd, < Now, beggar, hold, for we have no more ; 



' Thou hast fulfilled thy promise aright.' 



" Then marry my girl," quoth he to the knight ; 



" And here," added he, " 1 will now throwe you downe 



A hundred pounds more, to buy her a gowne." 



The neighbourhood of Bethnal-Green is seldom without a public-house with 

 a sign representing The Beggar, and the Dissuade of the match, dropping 

 gold ; the Young-woman, and the Knight her lover, standing between them. 



