124 FOURTEENTH TO THE 



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 beest loth, 

 By sun or moon, thou darkenest 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 snare or windowy net ; 



Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest, 

 The bedded fish in banks outwrest j 

 Let curious traitors sleave silk flies, 

 To 'witch poor wandering fishes' eyes : 



For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, 

 For thou thyself art thine own bait : 

 That fish that is not catch' d thereby 

 Is wiser far, alas, than I." 



About the middle of the seventeenth century, we find 

 that the satirical and humourous became more frequently 

 employed in angling effusions than in previous times. 

 There are several quaint and funny ballads on matters and 

 pursuits connected with the rod and the line. We shall se- 

 lect one. It is from Llewellan's New Miracles (1646), and 

 treats of a subject which, in modern days, is a fertile topic 



