368 BIBL1OTHECA P1SCATORIA. 



" Fishing, if I, a fisher may protest, 

 Of pleasures is the sweet'st, of sports the best, 

 Of exercises the most excellent ; 

 Of recreations the most innocent. 

 But now the sport is marde, and wott ye why 

 Fishes decrease, and fishers multiply." 

 Collier's " Poetical Decameron," Vol. 2, p. 108. 



Sir John Stradling. 



" Divine Poems" (1625). 



" Like Birds for whom the Fowler spreads his net, 

 And traynes them in with whistle and a stale : 

 Or fish when bayted hookes old Anglers set, 

 Which bitten, brings them soone vnto their bale. 

 So that old Angler-for-mens-soules, some Wynnes 

 With sweetned baytes, and some with subtle gynnes. 



Interlude of the Four Elements. (1519). 

 Anon. 



Experiens. " Within this twenty years, 



Westward be found new lands, 



Fish they have so great plenty, 



That in havens take and slain they be 



With staves, withouten fail. 



Now Frenchmen and others have found the trade, 



That yearly of fish there they lade 



Above a hundred sail." 



Bunyan (John). 



"You see the ways the Fisherman doth take 

 To catch the fish : what engines doth he make ? 

 Behold ! how he engageth all his wits : 

 Also his snares, lines, angles, hooks and nets ; 

 Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line 

 Nor snare, nor net, nor engine can make thine ; 

 They must be grop'd for, and be tickled too, 

 Or they will not be catch'd, whate'er you do." 



