CHAP. V.] THE FO URTH DAY. 159 



THE ANGLER'S WISH. 1 



I in these flowery meads would be : 

 These crystal streams should solace me, 

 To whose harmonious bubbling noise, 

 I with my angle would rejoice : 

 Sit here and see the turtle dove 

 Court his chaste mate to acts of love: 



Or on that bank, feel the west wind 

 Breathe health and plenty : please my mind, 

 To see sweet dew-drops kiss these flowers, 

 And, then, wash'd off by April showers : 

 Here, hear my Kenna sing a song : 2 

 There see a blackbird feed her young, 



1 This song, which was not inserted till the third edition, bears evidence 

 of having been written by Walton himself. Sir Harris Nicolas points out 

 a variation in the fifth edition from the fourth, which is curious. In the 

 fourth the name of " Chlora" is given 



"Here, hear my Chlora sing a song," 



while in the fifth it is "Kenna ; " in allusion to his second wife's maiden 

 name of "Ken." "Chlora" is an anagram, with a vowel altered, of 

 "Rachel," the name of his first wife. ED. 



2 We see by the author's reference to the margin, that he wishes to hear 

 Kenna, his mistress, sing the song "Like Hermit poor." This song was set 

 to music by Mr. Nich. Laneare, an eminent musician of Walton's time, (who, 

 we are told by Wood, was also an excellent painter, and whose portrait is 

 yet to be seen in the music school at Oxford), and is printed, with the 

 notes, in a collection entitled "Select Musical Ayres and Dialogues," folio, 

 1653. The song, as it stands there, is as follows : 



" Like hermit poor in pensive place obscure, 



I mean to spend my days of endless doubt, 

 To wait such woes as Tune cannot recure 



Where none but love shall ever find me out. 

 And at my gates, and at my gates, despair shall linger still ; 

 To let in death, to let in death, when love and fortune will. 



' ' A gown of gray my body shall attire, 



My staff of broken hope whereon I'll stay, 

 Of late repentance linkt with long desire, 



The couch is fram'd whereon my limbs I lay. 

 And at my gates, &c. 



