110 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



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 dewdrops kiss these flowers. 



And then washed off by April showers : 



Here, hear my Kenna sing* ** a song ; [« Like Hermit Poor. 



There, see a blackbird feed her young, 



* ^^ Like Hermit Poor.'" 



The following is the song to which Walton alludes. It occurs in a Collection of Poems 

 entitled the "Phaenix Nest/' published in 1593.! 



Like to a Hermite poore, in place obscure,* 



I meane to spend my daies of endles doubt, 

 To v/aile such woes as time cannot recure, 



Where none* but Love shall ever finde me out. 

 My foode shall be of care and sorow made, 



My drinke nought else but teares falne from mine eies ; 

 And for my light, in such obscured shade. 



The flames shall c serve, which ^ from my hart arise. 

 A gowne of graie^ mybodie shall attire, 



My stafFe of broken hope whereon He staie ;/ 

 Ois late repentance, linckt with long desire, 

 The couch is fram'de whereon my limbes He lay ;* 

 And at my gate Dispaire shall linger still, 

 To let in Death, when Love and Fortune will. 

 The same ideas occur in a poem printed five years earlier, which is probably from the 

 Italian, a language to which the poets of that day were much indebted ; it is entitled 

 Scillaes Metamorphosis : Enterlaced •with the vnfortuitate love of Glaucus^ &=•€. by 

 Thomas Lodge, 1589, 4to. 



I will become a Hermit now, and doo my penance straight, 

 For all the errors of mine eyes with foolish rashness fil'd : 

 My hermitage shall placed be where mellancholies waight, 

 And none but love alone shall knowe the bower I meane to build. 

 My daylie diet shall be care, made calme by no delight : 

 My dolefull drinke my drierie teares, amidst the darksome place. 

 The fire that burnes my heedless heart shall stand in stead of light, 

 And shall consume my wearie life mine errors to deface. 

 My gowne shall be of spreding gray to clad my limmes withall ; 

 My late repent vpon my browe shall plainly written be, 

 My tedious griefe and great remorse that doth my soul enthrall, 

 Shall serue to plead my wearie paines and pensiue miserie. 

 Of faintfuU hope shall be my stafFe and daylie when I pray. 

 My mistris picture plac't by lone shall witnes what I say. 

 "Like Hermit Poor" was set to music by Mr Nicholas Laneare, an eminent master 



t Another copy of this Sonnet, but with the following variations, occurs in the 

 Harieian MS. 6oig, f. i39i '^^ t^^e writing of the time of James the First. 

 a Like Hermit poor in pensive place obscure. 



* nought. "^ may. rf that. e grief. 



y And broken hope shall be my strength and stay, 

 s And. * Shall be the couch whereon my limbs I'll lay. 



