^r. 83.] 



LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON^. 



Ixxxix 



"Hail, Walton I honoured friend of 



mine, 

 Hail ! mighty Master of the Line I 

 Whether down some valley's side 

 You walk to watch the smooth stream 



glide, 

 Or on the flowery margin stand 

 To cheat the fish with cunning hand, 

 Or on the green hank, seated still, 

 With quick eye guard the dancing quill. 

 Thrice happy sage ! who, distant far 

 From the wrangling foruni's war, 

 From the city's bustling train, 

 From the busy hum of men, 

 Haunt some gentle stream, and ply 

 Your honest crafts, to lure the fry : 

 And while the world around you set 

 The base decoy and treacherous net, 

 Man against man, th' insidious wile, 

 Or, the rich dotard to beguile, 

 Bait high with gifts the smiling hook 

 All gilt with Flattery's sweetest look ; 

 Arm'd for the innocent deceit, 

 You love the scaly brood to cheat, 

 And tempt that water-wolf, the pike, 

 With rav' ning tooth his prey to strike. 

 Or in the minnow's living head 

 Or in the writhed brandling red 

 Fix your well-charged hook, to gull 

 The greedy perch, bold biting fool. 

 Or with the tender moss-worm tried 

 Win the nice trout's speckled pride. 

 Or on the carp, whose wary eye 

 Admits no vulgar tackle nigh, 

 Essay your art's supreme address, 

 And beat the fox in sheer finesse : 

 The tench, physician of the brook. 

 Owns the magic of your hook, 

 The little gudgeon's thoughtless haste 

 Yields a brief yet sweet repast. 

 And the whisker'd barbel pays 

 His coarser bulk to swell your praise. 

 Such the amusement of your hours, 

 While the season aids your powers ; 

 Nor shall my friend a single day 

 E'er pass without a line away. 



Nor these alone your honours bound 

 The tricks experience has found ; 

 .Sublimer theory lifts your name 

 Above the fisher's simple fame. 

 And in the practice you excel 

 Of what none else can teach as well. 

 Wielding at once with equal skill 

 The useful powers of either quill. 

 With all that winning grace of style, 

 What else were tedious, to beguile, 

 A second Oppian, you impart 

 The secrets of the Angling art, 

 Each fish's nature, and how best 

 To fit the bait to every taste, 

 Till in the scholar, that you train. 

 The accomplish'd master lives again. 

 And yet your pen aspires above 

 The maxims of the art you love ; 

 Tho' virtues, faintly taught by rule, 

 Are better learnt in Angling's school. 

 Where Temperance, that drinks the riil. 

 And Patience, sovereign over ill, 

 By many an active lesson bought, 

 Refine the soul, and steel the thought 

 Far higher truths you love to start. 

 To train us to a nobler art, 

 And in the lives of good men give 

 That chiefest lesson, how to live ; 

 While Hooker, philosophic sage, 

 Becomes the wonder of your page. 

 Or while we see combin'd in one 

 The wit and the divine in Donne, 

 Or while the poet and the priest, 

 In Herbert's sainted form confest, 

 Unfold the temple's holy maze 

 That awes and yet invites our gaze : 

 Worthies these of pious name 

 From your portraying pencil claim 

 A second life, and strike anew 

 With fond delight the admiring view. 

 And thus at once the peopled brook 

 Submits its captives to your hook, 

 And we, the wiser sons of men. 

 Yield to the magic of your pen. 

 While angling on some streamlet's brink 

 The muse and you combine to think." 



Besides the " Contentation '^ ^ and the " Retirement," * which in 

 natural pathos and moral feeling have perhaps never been excelled, 

 Cotton addressed the following invitation to Walton to renew their 

 piscatory sports in the ensuing May ; but the year in which these 

 verses were written is not mentioned : — 



*' Whilst in this cold and blust'ring clime, 

 Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar, 

 We pass away the roughest time 

 Has been of many years before ; 



Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks 

 The chillest blasts our peace invade, 

 And by great rains our smallest brooks 

 Are almost navigable made ; 



■ Vide antea. 



■* Vide p. 219) ppstea. 



