128 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride ; 

 Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide 

 Who uses games, shall often prove 

 A loser ; but who falls in love, 



Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare : 



My angle breeds me no such care. 



Of recreation there is none 

 So free as fishing, is, alone ; 

 All other pastimes, do no less 

 Than mind and body, both possess : 



My hand alone my work can do ; 



So, I can fish and study too. 



I care not, I, to fish in seas ; 

 Fresh rivers best my mind do please ; 

 Whose sweet calm course I contemplate 

 And seek in life to imitate : 



In civil bounds I fain would keep, 



And for my past offences weep. 



And when the tim'rous trout I wait 



To take ; and he devours my bait, 



How poor a thing, sometimes I find, 



Will captivate a greedy mind : 



And when none bite, I praise the wise, 

 Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise. 



But yet, though while I fish I fast, 

 I make good fortune my repast ; 

 And thereunto my friend invite, 

 In whom I more than that delight, 



Who is more welcome to my dish, 



Than to my angle was my fish. 



As well content, no prize to take, 



As use of taken prize to make ; 



For so our Lord was pleased, when 



He fishers made fishers of men ; 



Where, which is i a no other game, 

 A man may fish and praise his name. 



The first men that our Saviour dear 



Did choose to wait upon him here, 



Blest fishers were ; and fish the last 



Food was, that he on earth did taste : 

 I therefore strive to follow those, 

 Whom he to follow him hath chose. 



W. B. 1 



1 These initials appear in Walton's first edition only ; and, as Walton had 

 previously stated, are those of William Basse. ED. 



