54 FISHING GOSSIP. 
the river ; the fishy nation are, in more senses than 
one, a scaly set, and obstinately refuse to render any 
assistance towards filling the fisherman’s basket, 
' without at least the proffer of a comestible bribe. 
According to the Diversions of Purley, the word 
“bait,” in itself, is simply the past participle of the verb 
to bite. We offer a bait to the fish, which in turn 
bites it, thus denoting the acceptance of a line of 
invitation to dinner, not indeed to eat, but like 
Polonius to be eaten. It is the ancient and often 
repeated case of the biter bitten, daily occurring on 
land as well as in the water, and causing old Guillim, 
the herald, shrewdly to observe that there are many 
more fishers-in the world than are members of the 
Worshipful Company of Fishermen. “ A man,” says 
the moody-minded Prince of Denmark “ may fish 
with a worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of a 
fish that fed of that worm.” Shakespeare, by the way, 
shows himself to be as familiar with the pleasant 
sport of fishing, as he was with almost everything 
else, frequently making direct and metaphorical 
allusions to it. Claudio, in Much Ado about Nothing, 
says: “ Bait the hook well, this fish will bite ;” and 
in Measure for Measure we may read— 
“© cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, 
With saints doth bait thy hook! most dangerous 
Is that temptation that doth goad us on 
To sin in loving virtue.” 
