PISCATOR. Well sung, Coridon, this song was sung with mettle; 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: 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.

But I will not compliment you out of the debt that I owe you, and therefore I will begin my song, and wish it may be so well liked.

NOTE continued.]

Hey rowse, fill all the pottes in the house,

Tushe man, in good felowship let vs be mery,
Looke vp like a man or it is not worth a louse,
Hey how troly lowe, hey dery, dery.

In the comedy of The late Lancashire Witches, 1634, the song to the familiars, Mawsy, Puckling, &c. invites them to

Suck our blouds freely, and with it be jolly,

While merrily we sing, Hey trolly lolly.

And in Brome's comedy of The Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, 1641, is the following catch, afterwards inserted in nearly every musical collection of that period:

There was an old fellow at Waltham Cross,

Who merrily sung when he liv'd by the loss;
He never was heard to sigh with hey-ho,

But sent it out with a haigh trolly lo.

He chear'd up his heart, when his goods went to wrack,
With a heghm, boy, heghm, and a cup of old sack.

In the Weekly Journal of 30th July, 1715, there is mention of a noted female offender, prostitute, and housebreaker, called Trolly Lolly, who had been tried at nine assizes, and always saved herself from the capital part of the offence by pregnancy." Eu. H.

THE ANGLER'S SONG.

As inward love breeds outward talk,

The hound some praise, and some the hawk, Some, better pleas'd with private sport,

Use tennis, some a mistress court:

But these delights I neither wish,

Nor envy, while I freely fish.

Who hunts, doth oft in danger ride;
Who hawks, lures oft both far and wide;
Who uses games shall often prove

A loser; but who falls in love,

Is fetter'd in fond Cupid's snare:
My angle breeds me no such care.

Of recreation there is none

So free as fishing is alone;

All other pastimes do no less

Than mind and body both possess:

My hand alone my work can do,
So I can fish and study too.

I care not, I, to fish in seas,

Fresh rivers best my mind do please,
Whose sweet calm course I contemplate,

And seek in life to imitate:

In civil bounds I fain would keep,
And for my past offences weep.

And when the timorous Trout I wait
To take, and he devours my bait,
How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind:

And when none bite, I praise the wise
Whom vain allurements ne'er surprise.

But yet, though while I fish, I fast,
I make good fortune my repast;
And thereunto my friend invite,
In whom I more than that delight:

Who is more welcome to my dish
Than to my angle was my fish.

As well content no prize to take,
As use of taken prize to make:

For so our Lord was pleased, when
He fishers made fishers of men;

Where, which is in no other game,
A man may fish and praise his name.

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon him here,

Blest fishers were, and fish the last
Food was that he on earth did taste:
I therefore strive to follow those
Whom he to follow him hath chose.

W. B. 3

CORIDON. Well sung, brother, you have paid your debt in good coin. We anglers are all beholden to the good man that made this song: come, hostess, give us more ale, and let's drink to him. And now let's every one go to bed, that we may rise early: but first let's pay our reckoning, for I will have nothing to hinder me in the morning; for my purpose is to prevent the sun-rising.

PETER. A match. Come, Coridon, you are to be my bed-fellow. I know, brother, you and your scholar will lie together. But where shall we meet to-morrow night? for my friend Coridon and I will go up the water towards Ware.

PISCATOR. And my scholar and I will go down towards Waltham.

CORIDON. Then let's meet here, for here are fresh sheets that smell of lavender; and I am sure we cannot expect better meat, or better usage in any place.

PETER. "Tis a match. Good-night to every body.

NOTE.] These initials, apparently of William Basse, occur in the first edition only, and prove that Walton, in saying that this song was lately made at my request" by that composer, did not refer to the music only. In the Life and Remains of Dean Bathurst, by Warton, 8vo. 1761, are verses "To Mr. W. Basse upon the intended publication of his Poems, Jan. 13, 1651," to which Warton adds in a note, 'I find no account of this writer or his poems.'

S