CHAP. I.] ' THE FIRST DAY. 81 



the glorious language and high metaphors of St. Paul, who 

 we may believe was not. 



And for the lawfulness of fishing: It may very well be 

 maintained by our Saviour's bidding St. Peter cast his hook 

 into the water, and catch a fish, for money to pay tribute to 

 Caesar. 



And let me tell you, that angling is of high esteem, 

 and of much use in other nations. He that reads the 

 voyages of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, 1 shall find that 

 there he declares to have found a -king and several priests 

 a-fishing. 



And he that reads Plutarch, shall find that angling 

 was not contemptible in the days of Marc Antony and 

 Cleopatra, and that they in the midst of their wonderful 

 glory used angling as a principal recreation. 2 And let me 

 tell you that in the Scripture, angling is always taken in the 

 best sense ; and that though hunting may be sometimes so 

 taken, yet it is but seldom to be so understood. And let 

 me add this more : he that views the ancient " Ecclesiastical 

 Canons," shall find hunting to be forbidden to churchmen, 

 as being a turbulent, toilsome, perplexing recreation ; and 



1 A traveller, whose veracity is much, questioned. H. He has been 

 punningly nick-named Mendacious Pinto. He travelled for one-and-twenty 

 years, chiefly in the East, and, if we are to believe him, had many strange 

 adventures and hair-breadth escapes : e. g. five times shipwrecked, seven- 

 teen times sold, and thirteen times made a slave. His voyages were first 

 printed in Portuguese, at Lisbon in 1614, and were translated into English, 

 by Henry Cogan, and published in small folio, London, 1633, The passage 

 alluded to occurs at page 319. ED. 



2 The account given by Plutarch is as follows : "It would be very 

 tedious and trifling to recount all his follies : but his fishing must not 

 be forgot. He went out one day to angle with Cleopatra, and being so 

 unfortunate as to catch nothing in the presence of his mistress, he was 

 very much vexed, and gave secret orders to the fishermen to dive under 

 water, and put fishes that had been fresh taken upon his hook. After 

 he had drawn up two or three, Cleopatra perceived the trick ; she 

 pretended, however, to be surprised at his good fortune and dexterity ; 

 told it to all her friends, and invited them to come and see him fish the 

 next day. Accordingly, a very large company went out in the fishing 

 vessels, and as soon as Antony had let down his line, she commanded one of 

 her servants to be beforehand with Antony's, and diving into the water, 

 to fix upon his hook a salted fish, one of those which were brought from 

 the Euxine Sea."" H. Shakespeare introduces this story in his "Antony 

 and Cleopatra," act ii., sc. 5. 



o 



