INTRODUCTION. 3 



that passage in Othello (Act iii. Sc. 3), where the Moor 

 compares his suspected wife to a "haggard falcon," and 

 the hawking scene in Act ii. of the Second Part of King 

 Henry VI* 



Shakespeare, although a contemplative man, appears to 

 have found but little "recreation" in fishing, and the most 

 enthusiastic disciple of Izaak Walton would find it difficult 

 to illustrate a work on angling with quotations from 

 Shakespeare. He might refer us to Tzvelfth Night (Act ii. 

 Sc. 5), where Maria, on the appearance of Malvolio, ex- 

 claims, " Here comes the trout that must be caught with 

 tickling;" and to the song of Caliban in The Tempest 

 (Act ii. Sc. 2), "No more dams I'll make for fish." 

 Possibly, by straining a point or two, he might ask with 

 Benedick, in Much Ado about Nothing (Act i. Sc. 1), 

 " Do you play the flouting Jack ?" 



But our poet seems to have considered — 



" The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish 

 Cut with her golden oars the silver stream, 

 And greedily devour the treacherous bait." 



Much Ado, Act iii. Sc. i.-f- 



• These passages will be found duly criticised in Chapter II. 



+ In the following passage from The Tempest, Shakespeare, apropos of fish, gives 

 one of many proofs of his knowledge of human nature. Trinculo comes upon the 

 strange form of Caliban lying flat on the sands :— "What have we here? A man, 

 or a fish? dead or alive? A fish : he smells like a nsh : a very ancient and fish- 

 like smell; a kind of, not of the newest, poor-John. A strange fish ! Were I in 

 England now (as once I was), and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool 

 there but would give a piece of silver : there would this monster make a man : 



