The Compleat Angler quotes

and I shall leave gleanings and observations enough to be made out of the experience of all that love and practice this recreation, to which I shall encourage them. For

Angling may be said to be so like the Mathematicks, that it can never be fully learnt

; at least not so fully, but that there will still be more new experiments left for the trial of other men that succeed us.

and I hope we shall each be the happier in the others' company. And, Gentlemen, that I may not lose yours, I shall either abate or amend my pace to enjoy it, knowing that, as the Italians say, "

Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter

".

Piscator.

You know, Gentlemen, it is an easy thing to scoff at any art or recreation; a little wit mixed with ill nature, confidence, and malice, will do it

; but though they often venture boldly, yet they are often caught, even in their own trap, according to that of Lucian, the father of the family of Scoffers:

No, no, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such dispositions, and as the learned and ingenuous Montaigne says, like himself, freely, "

When my Cat and I entertain each other with mutual apish tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that I make my Cat more sport than she makes me?

Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her time to begin or refuse, to play as freely as I myself have?

And now for the Water, the element that I trade in.

The water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move

, the element which God commanded to bring forth living creatures abundantly; and without which, those that inhabit the land, even all creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly return to putrefaction.

against all which any honest man may make a just quarrel, but I will not; I will leave them to be quarrelled with and killed by others, for

I am not of a cruel nature, I love to kill nothing but fish.

And, now, to your question concerning your host. To speak truly, he is not to me a good companion, for most of his conceits were either scripture jests, or lascivious jests, for which I count no man witty:

The ploughman, tho' he labour hard, Yet on the holy-day Heigh trolollie lollie foe, etc. No emperor so merrily Does pass his time away:

Then care away, etc.

To recompense our tillage, The heavens afford us showers Heigh trolollie lollie foe, etc. And for our sweet refreshment. The earth affords us bowers: Then care away, etc.

and it was choicely fitted to the occasion: I shall love you for it as long as I know you. I would you were a brother of the angle; for a companion that is cheerful, and free from swearing and scurrilous discourse, is worth gold.

I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning

; nor men, that cannot well bear it, to repent the money they spend when they be warmed with drink. And take this for a rule:

And take this for a rule: you may pick out such times and such companies, that you make yourselves merrier for a little than a great deal of money; for "

'Tis the company and not the charge that makes the feast

"; and such a companion you prove: I thank you for it.

Piscator.

Nay, the Trout is not lost; for pray take notice, no man can lose what he never had.

Venator. Master, I can neither catch with the first nor second angle: I have no fortune.

and was thus answered: "

I lent you, indeed, my fiddle, but not my fiddle-stick

; for you are to know, that every one cannot make musick with my words, which are fitted for my own mouth".

and the wings made of the wings of the buzzard. The twelfth is the dark drake-fly, good in August: the body made with black wool, lapt about with black silk; his wings are made with the mail of the black drake, with a black head.

Thus have you a jury of flies, likely to betray and condemn all the Trouts in the river.

I shall next give you some other directions for fly-fishing, such as are given by Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that hath spent much time in fishing: but I shall do it with a little variation.

… for the owners when they do nothing but sleep, or eat, or rejoice, as you know we have done this last hour, and sat as quietly and as free from cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's Tityrus and his Meliboeus did under their broad beech-tree.

No life, my honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the life of a well-governed angler

;

Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "

Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did

"; and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did"; and so, if I might be judge,

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

I'll tell you, scholar; when I sat last on this primrose-bank, and looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles the emperor did of the city of Florence: "That they were too pleasant to be looked on, but only on holy-days".

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, play; Here's scraps enough to serve to-day.

Venator. I thank you, good master, for this piece of merriment, and this song, which was well humoured by the maker, and well remembered by you.

Trust me, scholar, I have caught many a Trout in a particular meadow, that the very shape and the enamelled colour of him hath been such as hath joyed me to look on him: and I have then, with much pleasure, concluded with Solomon, "

Everything is beautiful in his season

".

I have told you who relate these things; and tell you they are persons of credit; and shall conclude this observation, by telling you, what a wise man has observed, "

It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, because it has no ears

".

and after that you have drawn it away, you may fall to, and enjoy your former recreation.

The Tench, the physician of fishes

, is observed to love ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better than either: yet Camden observes, there is a river in Dorsetshire that abounds with Tenches, but doubtless they retire to the most deep and quiet places in it.

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, For thou thyself art shine own bait;

That fish that is not catcht thereby, Is wiser afar, alas, than I.

Piscator. Well remembered, honest scholar. I thank you for these choice verses; which I have heard formerly, but had quite forgot, till they were recovered by your happy memory.

And I there made a conversion of a piece of an old catch, and added more to it, fitting them to be sung by us anglers. Come, Master, you can sing well: you must sing a part of it, as it is in this paper.

Man's life is but vain, for 'tis subject to pain, And sorrow, and short as a bubble;

'Tis a hodge-podge of business, and money, and care, And care, and money, and trouble.

Man's life is but vain, for 'tis subject to pain, And sorrow, and short as a bubble; 'Tis a hodge-podge of business, and money, and care, And care, and money, and trouble.

But we'll take no care when the weather proves fair; Nor will we vex now though it rain;

We'll banish all sorrow, and sing till to-morrow, And angle, and angle again.

But we'll take no care when the weather proves fair; Nor will we vex now though it rain;

We'll banish all sorrow, and sing till to-morrow, And angle, and angle again.

Peter. I marry, Sir, this is musick indeed; this has cheer'd my heart, and made me remember six verses in praise of musick, which I will speak to you instantly.

Musick! miraculous rhetorick, thou speak'st sense Without a tongue, excelling eloquence; With what ease might thy errors be excus'd, Wert thou as truly lov'd as th' art abus'd! But though dull souls neglect, and some reprove thee,

I cannot hate thee, 'cause the Angels love thee.

Venator. And the repetition of these last verses of musick has called to my memory what Mr. Edmund Waller, a lover of the angle, says of love and musick.

Peace, Chloris! peace, or singing die, That together you and I To heaven may go; For all we know Of what the blessed do above

Is, that they sing, and that they love.

Piscator. Well remembered, brother Peter; these verses came seasonably, and we thank you heartily. Come, we will all join together, my host and all, and sing my scholar's catch over again; and then each man drink the tother cup, and to bed;

I will tell you, scholar, I once heard one say, "I envy not him that eats better meat than I do; nor him that is richer, or that wears better clothes than I do:

I envy nobody but him, and him only, that catches more fish than I do

". And such a man is like to prove an angler; and this noble emulation I wish to you, and all young anglers.

and this we are free from.

And every misery that I miss is a new mercy; and therefore let us be thankful.

There have been, since we met, others that have met disasters or broken limbs; some have been blasted, others thunder-strucken: and we have been freed from these, and all those many other miseries that threaten human nature; let us therefore rejoice and be thankful.

where he saw ribbons, and looking-glasses, and nutcrackers, and fiddles, and hobby-horses, and many other gimcracks; and, having observed them, and all the other finnimbruns that make a complete country-fair, he said to his friend,

"Lord, how many things are there in this world of which Diogenes hath no need!"

And truly it is so, or might be so, with very many who vex and toil themselves to get what they have no need of. Can any man charge God, that He hath not given him enough to make his life happy? No, doubtless;

for I told you, there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side them: and if you have a competence, enjoy it with a meek, cheerful, thankful heart. I will tell you, Scholar, I have heard a grave Divine say, that

God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart

; which Almighty God grant to me, and to my honest Scholar. And so you are welcome to Tottenham High-Cross.

And therefore my advice is, that you endeavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor: but be sure that your riches be justly got, or you spoil all. For it is well said by Caussin,

"He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping".

Therefore be sure you look to that. And, in the next place, look to your health: and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of;

Fly from our country pastimes, fly, Sad troops of human misery. Come, serene looks, Clear as the crystal brooks, Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see The rich attendance of our poverty:

Peace and a secure mind, Which all men seek, we only find.

Abused mortals I did you know Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow, You'd scorn proud towers, And seek them in these bowers;

Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles; Farewell, ye honour'd rags, ye glorious bubbles;

Fame's but a hollow echo, Gold, pure clay;

Honour the darling but of one short day; Beauty, th' eye's idol, but a damask'd skin; State, but a golden prison, to live in And torture free-born minds; embroider'd Trains, Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins;