"The power of waters over the minds of poets has been acknowledged from the earliest ages;—through the 'flumina amem sylvasque inglorius' of Virgil, down to the sublime apostrophe to the great rivers of the earth, by Armstrong, and the simple ejaculation of Burns :— 'The Muse na Poet ever fand her, Till by himsel' he learned to wander WORDSWORTH. SHAKESPEARE AS AN ANGLER. AS Shakespeare an angler? WAS If we are to trust Sir Harris Nicolas, we must answer in the negative. In his beautiful edition of Walton's Angler, he gives an appendix of quotations on angling from the earlier poets; and among these Shakespeare's notices of the art are confined to four quotations. Mr. Roach Smith, in the first edition of his Rural Life of Shakespeare, gives the same four quotations only, and dismisses the subject in a few words; and in the second edition (1874) five more are added. Miss Bessie Mayou, in her Natural History of Shakespeare, gives a rather longer list; but as her quotations are selected with reference only to the fishes named, and not to catching them, we learn little from her book of Shakespeare's practical knowledge of the art. Mr. Harting, in his desire to show Shakespeare's knowledge of Ornithology, says that "Shakespeare, though a 'contemplative man,' appears to have found but little recreation' in fishing, and the most enthusiastic disciple of Izaak Walton would find it difficult to illustrate a work on angling with quotations from Shakespeare;" and this point he proves by limiting Shakespeare's notices of fishes and fishing to three passages. Yet I think there is little doubt that he was a successful angler, and had probably enjoyed many a day's fishing in the Warwickshire and Gloucestershire * Ornithology of Shakespeare, p. 3. streams, to which he looked back with pleasant and refreshing memories while he lived and wrote in London. This appears in many ways. There are scattered throughout the plays many actual descriptions of fishing; but they are necessarily short and incomplete, for it is not in a tragedy or comedy that we should expect to find a technical description of fishing or any other art. But his knowledge of the art, and his practical love of it, are shown rather in numberless indirect allusions, in proverbial expressions, in the unconscious use of the terms of the art, in the employment of words and phrases which show his perfect familiarity with it, and in the many little hints which show that he was no "prentice hand," but an experienced craftsman. They come out also in his not very frequent, but always accurate, accounts of different fishes; and especially in his almost loving descriptions of brooks and running streams, and in his bright word-painting of river scenery. There are many such which will at once occur to the memory of every angler; and among these, there are some which few but an angler would, and some even which none but an angler could, have written. The actual descriptions of fishing are these : 1. Ursula. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish |