CHAP. I,] THE FIRST DAY, 45 



Pliny, Ausonius,* Aristotle, and others, may be demonstrated. 

 But I will sweeten this discourse also out of a contemplation in 

 divine Du Bartas,t who says : — 



God quicTcened in the sea, and in the rivers, 



So many fishes of so many features, 



That in the waters we may see all creatures, 



Even all that on the earth are to be found, 



As if the world were in deep waters drown'd. 



For seas— as well as skies — have Sun, Moon, Stars \ 



As well as air — Swallows, Rooks, and Stares ; t 



As well as earth-^Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons, 



Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and many millions 



Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these 



As very fishes, living in the seas; 



As also Rams, Calves, Horses, Hares, and HogSj 



Wolves, Urchins, Lions, Elephants, and Dogs ; 



Yea Men and Maids ; and, which I most admire, 



The nlitred Bishop and the cowled Friar: § 



Of which, examples, but a few years since, 



Were shown the Norway and Polonian prince. 



These seem to be wonders ; but have had so many confir- 

 mations from men of learning and cre'dit, that you need not doubt 

 them. Nor are the number, nor the various shapes, of fishes 

 more strange, or more fit for contemplation, than their different 

 natures, inclinations, and actions ; concerning which, I shall beg 

 your patient ear a little longer. 



The Cuttle-fish will cast a long gut out of her throat, which, like 



* Decius Ausonius, a native of Bordeaux, was a Latin poet, Consul of Rome, and 

 Preceptor to the Emperor Gratian. He died about 390.— H. 



t Guillaume de Saluste Sieur du Bartas was a poet of great reputation in Walton's 

 time. He wrote, besides numerous other productions, a poem in French, called Divine 

 Weeks and Works ; which was translated into English by Joshua Sylvester. The 

 passage in the text occurs in the fifth day. — H. To Du Bartas, Milton is considered Co 

 have been much indebted. 



The names quoted above, Gesner, Rondeletius, Pliny, &c., are the writers from whom 

 Topsel, who wrote the History of Four-footed Beasts, Fishes, &c., compiled his work, 

 from which it is most probable Walton derived his information, rather than from the 

 original authorities. 



X Or Starlings. Minsheu.— H. 



2 This story of the Bishop-fish is told by Rondeletius, and vouched by Bellonius. 

 Without taking much pains in the translation, it is as follows: " In the year 1531, a 

 fish was taken in Polonia, that represented a bishop. He was brought to the king ; but, 

 seeming to desire to return to his own element, the king commanded him to be carried 

 back to the sea, into which he immediately threw himself." Rondeletius had before 

 related the story of a Monk-fish, which is what Du Bartas means by the " cowled Friar." 

 The reader may see the portraits of these wonderful personages in Rondeletius ; or, in 

 the Posthumous Works of the reverend and learned Mr John Gregory, in 4to, Lond. 1683, 

 pages 121, 122. Stow, in his Annals^ p. 157, from the Chronicle of Radulphus Cogges- 

 hale, gives the following relation of a sea-monster, taken on the coast of Suffolk, temp. 

 Hen. ii : "Neare unto Orford in Suffolk, certaine fishers of the sea tooke in their nets a 

 fish, having the shape of a man in all points : which fish was kept by Bartlemew de 

 Glaunville, custos of the castle of Orford, in the same castle, by the space of six moneths 

 and more, for a wonder. He spake not a word. AJl manner of meates he did eate, but 

 most greedily raw fish, after he had crushed out the moisture. Oftentimes, he was 

 brought to the church, where he shewed no tokens of adoration." "At length," says 

 this author, " when he was not well looked to, he stole away to the sea, and never after 

 appeared," — H. 



