W. B.

_Cor._ Well sung brother, you have paid your debt in good coyn, we
Anglers are all beholding to the good man that made this Song. Come
Hostis, give us more Ale and lets drink to him.

And now lets everie one go to bed that we may rise early; but first
lets pay our Reckoning, for I wil have nothing to hinder me in the
morning for I will prevent the Sun rising.

_Pet._ A match: Come _Coridon_, you are to be my Bed-fellow: I know
brother you and your Scholer wil lie together; but where shal we meet
to morrow night? for my friend _Coridon_ and I will go up the water
towards _Ware_.

_Pisc._ And my Scholer and I will go down towards _Waltam_.

_Cor._ Then lets meet here, for here are fresh sheets that smel of
Lavender, and, I am sure, we cannot expect better meat and better
usage.

_Pet_. 'Tis a match. Good night to every body.

_Pisc._ And so say I.

_Viat._ And so say I.

* * * * *

_Pisc._ Good morrow good Hostis, I see my brother _Peter_ is in bed
still; Come, give my Scholer and me a cup of Ale, and be sure you get
us a good dish of meat against supper, for we shall come hither as
hungry as _Hawks_. Come Scholer, lets be going.

_Viat._ Good Master, as we walk towards the water, wil you be pleased
to make the way seeme shorter by telling me first the nature of the
_Trout_, and then how to catch him.

_Pisc._ My honest Scholer, I wil do it freely: The _Trout_ (for which I
love to angle above any fish) may be justly said (as the ancient Poets
say of Wine, and we English say of Venson) to be a generous fish,
because he has his seasons, a fish that comes in, and goes out with the
_Stag_ or _Buck_: and you are to observe, that as there be some _barren
Does_, that are good in Summer; so there be some _barren Trouts_, that
are good in Winter; but there are not many that are so, for usually
they be in their perfection in the month of _May_, and decline with the
_Buck_: Now you are to take notice, that in several Countries, as in
_Germany_ and in other parts compar'd to ours, they differ much in
their bigness, shape, and other wayes, and so do _Trouts_; 'tis wel
known that in the Lake _Lemon_, the Lake of _Geneva_, there are
_Trouts_ taken, of three Cubits long, as is affirmed by _Gesner_, a
Writer of good credit: and _Mercator_ sayes, the _Trouts_ that are
taken in the Lake of _Geneva_, are a great part of the Merchandize of
that famous City. And you are further to know,