114 'THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. 



ago.;^ and all the others of the company joined to sing the 

 burthen with her. The ditty was this ; but first the burthen : — 



Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play ; 

 Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 



What noise of viols is so sweet. 



As when our merry clappers ring? 

 What mirth doth want where Beggars meet? 



A Beggar's life is for a King. 

 Eat, drink, and play ; sleep when we list; 

 Go where we will, so stocks be mist. 



Bright shines the sun ; play, Beggars, play ; 



Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 



The world is ours, and ours alone ; 



For we alone have world at will ; 

 We purchase not ; all is our own ; 



Both fields and streets we Beggars fill. 

 Nor care to get, nor fear to keep,^ 

 I)id ever break a Beggar's sleep.- 



Play, Beggars, play; play, Beggars, play; 



Here's scraps enough to serve to-day. 



A hundred head of black and white 



Upon our gowns securely feed ; 

 If any dare his master ^ bite, 



He dies therefore, as sure as creed. 

 Thus Beggars lord it as they please ; 

 And only Beggars live at ease. 



Bright shines the sun; play, Beggars, 



Here's gciiaps enough to serve to-day. 



* Venator. I thiank ypu, good piaster, for this piece of merri- 

 ment, and this song, which was well humoured by the maker, and 

 well remembered by you. 



PiSCATOR, But, I prg-y, forget not the catch which you promised 



VARIATIONS. 



1 In the first edition the song is thus introduced after the passage, " No life, my 

 honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the angler's, unless it be the beggar's 

 life in summer, for then only they take no care, but are as happy as we anglers. 



Viator. Indeed, master, and so they be, as is witnessed by the beggar's song, made 

 long since by Frank Davison, a good poet, who was not a beggar, though he were a 

 good poet. 



Piscator. Can you sing it, scholar? 



Viator. Sit down afittlCj good master, and I will try." 



In the j^co«(^ edition, however, it occurs as in the text. 



2 These two lines have been supplied from the Rhapsody, becau-^e it is evident from 

 the song itself, that they were accidentally omitted, and because it is accurately given 

 in every other instance, with the exception of one line. 



3 Walton has printed this line. 



"And yet if any dare us bite." 

 These two variations occur in every edition of the Angler. 



* Piscator. I thank you, good scholar, this song was well humoured by the maker, 

 and well remembered and sung by you ; and I pray forget not the catch, &c. — ist 

 edit. 



reasons for believing that it was not written by him, but bv a poet whose initials were 

 "A. W." One or two facts tend, however, to identify Davison with A. W., and the 

 question is investigated in the reprint of the Rhapsody in iSzS, vol. i. p. cxxv. Between 

 1655, when the second edition of the Angler appeared, and 1602, when the Rhapsody was 

 first published, fifty-three years had elapsed, so that Walton J)robably referred to the 

 edition of i6ii. The song is there entitled, "A Song i ' - — 



J in praise of a Beggar's Life." 



