If that thou wilt not read, let it alone ; Some love the meat, some love to pick the bone : Yea, that I might them better palliate, I did too with them thus Expostulate : May I not write in such a stile as this ? In such a method too, and yet not miss Mine end, thy good ? why may it not be done ? Dark Clouds bring Waters when the bright bring none, Yea, dark or bright, if they their Silver drops Cause to descend, the Earth, by yielding Crops, Gives praise to both, and carpeth not at either, But treasures up the Fruit they yield together ; Yea, so commixes both, that in her Fruit None can distinguish this from that : they suit Her well, when hungry ; but, if she be full, She spues out both, and makes their blessings null. You see the ways the Fisher-man doth take To catch the Fish ; what Engins doth he make ? Behold how he ingageth all his Wits ; Also his Snares, Lines, Angles, Hooks, and Nets. Yet Fish there be, that neither Hook, nor Line, Nor Snare, nor Net, nor Engin can make thine ; They must be grop't for, and be tickled too, Or they will not be catch't, whate're you do. How doth the Fowler seek to catch his Game By divers means, all which one cannot name ? His Gun, his Nets, his Lime-twigs, Light, and Bell ;
3. Palliate, in the unusual sense of soothe, win over. The word doubtless gave trouble, for it was changed in the eighth edition to " moderate."
23. Grop't for. Elizabethan writers make constant allusion to the catching of trout by groping with the hands beneath stones and shelving banks. Maria calls Malvolio a " trout that must be caught with tickling."
27. Lime-twigs, Light, and Bell. The snaring of birds at night by stunning them with the light of a cresset and the clang- ing of a large bell has not crystallized into metaphor, as has the use of twigs smeared with viscid lime.
