in april, 1653, oliver cromwell, after much bloodshed and amid great confusion, violently dissolved the “rump parliament.” in may of the same year, izaak walton published the compleat angler, or the contemplative man’s recreation. ’twas a strange contrast between the tranquil book and the tempestuous time. but that the contrast was not displeasing may be inferred from the fact that five editions were issued during the author’s life, which ended in 1683, at the house of his son-in-law in the cathedral close at winchester, walton being then in his ninety-first year and at peace with god and man.
doubtless one of the reasons why those early editions, especially the first, the second, and the fifth, (in which walton’s friend charles cotton added his “instructions how to angle for a trout or grayling
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in a clear stream,”) are now become so rare and costly, is because they were carried about by honest anglers of the 17th century in their coat-pockets or in their wallets, a practice whereby the body of a book is soon worn out, though its soul be immortal.
that this last is true of walton’s angler seems proven by its continual reappearance. the hundredth edition (called after the rivers lea and dove, which walton loved) was brought out in 1888, by the genial fisherman and bibliophile, r. b. marston of the london fishing gazette. among the other english editions i like john major’s second (1824); and sir john hawkins’, reissued by bagster (1808); and pickering’s richly illustrated two volumes edited by sir harris nicolas (1836). there is a 32mo reprint by the same publisher, (and a “diamond” from the oxford university press,) small enough to go comfortably in a vest-pocket with your watch or your pipe. i must speak also of the admirable introductions to the angler written in these latter years by james russell lowell, andrew lang, and richard le gallienne; and of the great american edition made by the reverend doctor
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george w. bethune in 1847, a work in which the learning, wit, and sympathy of the editor illuminate the pages. this edition is already hard to find, but no collector of angling books would willingly go without it.
the gentle reader has a wide choice, then, of the form in which he will take his walton,—something rare and richly adorned for the library, or something small and plain for the pocket or the creel. but in what shape soever he may choose to read the book, if he be not “a severe, sour-complexioned man” he will find it good company. there is a most propitiating paragraph in the “address” at the beginning of the first edition. explaining why he has introduced “some innocent harmless mirth” into his work, walton writes:
“i am the willinger to justify this innocent mirth because the whole discourse is a kind of picture of my own disposition, at least of my disposition in such days and times as i allow myself, when honest nat. and r.r. and i go a-fishing together.”
this indeed is one of the great attractions of the book, that it so naturally and simply shows the
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author. i know of no other in which this quality of self-revelation without pretense or apology is as modest and engaging,—unless it be the essays of charles lamb, or those of m. de montaigne. we feel well acquainted with walton when we have read the angler, and perhaps have added to our reading his only other volume,—a series of brief lives of certain excellent and beloved men of his time, wherein he not only portrays their characters but further discloses his own. they were men of note in their day: sir henry wotton, ambassador to venice; dr. john donne, dean of st. paul’s; richard hooker, famous theologian; george herbert, sacred poet; bishop sanderson, eminent churchman. with most of these, and with other men of like standing, walton was in friendship. the company he kept indicates his quality. whatever his occupation or his means, he was certainly a gentleman and a scholar, as well as a good judge of fishing.
of the actual events of his life, despite diligent research, little is known, and all to his credit. perhaps there were no events of public importance or interest. he came as near as possible to the fortunate
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estate of the nation which has a good repute but no history.
he was born in the town of stafford, august 9th, 1593. of his schooling he speaks with becoming modesty; and it must have been brief, for at the age of sixteen or seventeen he was an apprentice in london. whether he was a linendraper or an ironmonger is a matter of dispute. perhaps he was first one and then the other. his first shop, in the royal burse, cornhill, was about seven and a half feet long by five wide. but he must have done a good business in those narrow quarters; for in 1624 he had a better place on fleet street, and from 1628 to 1644 he was a resident of the parish of st. dunstan’s, having a comfortable dwelling (and probably his shop) in chancery lane, “about the seventh house on the left hand side.” he served twice on the grand jury, and was elected a vestryman of st. dunstan’s twice.
it was during his residence here that he lost his first wife, rachel floud, and the seven children whom she had borne to him. in 1644, finding the city “dangerous for honest men” on account of the
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civil strife and disorder, he retired from london, and probably from business, and lived in the country, “sometimes at stafford,” (according to anthony wood, the antiquary,) “but mostly in the families of the eminent clergymen of england, of whom he was much beloved.” this life gave him large opportunity for his favourite avocation of fishing, and widened the circle of his friendships, for wherever he came as a guest he was cherished as a friend. i make no doubt that the love of angling, to which innocent recreation he was attached by a temperate and enduring passion, was either the occasion or the promoter of many of these intimacies. for it has often been observed that this sport inclines those that practise it to friendliness; and there are no closer or more lasting companionships than such as are formed beside flowing streams by men who study to be quiet and go a-fishing.
after his second marriage, about 1646, to anne ken, half-sister of bishop thomas ken, (author of the well-known hymns, “awake, my soul, and with the sun,” and “all praise to thee, my god, this night,”) walton went to live for some years at
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clerkenwell. while he was there, the book for which he had been long preparing, the compleat angler, was published, and gave him his sure place in english literature and in the heart of an innumerable company of readers.
never was there a better illustration of “fisherman’s luck” than the success of walton’s book. he set out to make a little “discourse of fish and fishing,” a “pleasant curiositie” he calls it, full of useful information concerning the history and practice of the gentle art, and, as the author modestly claims on his title-page, “not unworthy the perusal of most anglers.” instead of this he produced an imperishable classic, which has been read with delight by thousands who have never wet a line. it was as if a man went forth to angle for smelts and caught a lordly salmon.
as a manual of practical instruction the book is long since out of date. the kind of rod which walton describes is too cumbrous for the modern angler, who catches his trout with a split bamboo weighing no more than four or five ounces, and a thin waterproofed line of silk beside which father izaak’s
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favourite line twisted of seven horse-hairs would look like a bed-cord. most of his recipes for captivating baits and lures, and his hints about “oyl,” or “camphire” with which they may be made infallibly attractive to reluctant fish, are now more curious than valuable. they seem like ancient superstitions,—although this very summer i have had recommended to me a secret magic ointment one drop of which upon a salmon-fly would (supposedly) render it irresistible. (yes, reader, i did try it; but its actual effect, owing to various incalculable circumstances, could not be verified. the salmon took the anointed fly sometimes, but at other times they took the unanointed, and so i could not make affidavit that it was the oil that allured them. it may have been some tickling in the brain, some dim memory of the time when they were little parr, living in fresh water for their first eighteen months and feeding mainly on floating insects, that made them wish to rise again.)
but to return to my subject. the angler of to-day who wishes to understand the technics of modern fishing-gear will go to such books as h. b. wells’
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fly rods and fly tackle, or to dr. george holden’s the idyl of the split bamboo. this very year two volumes have been published, each of which in its way goes far beyond walton: mr. william radcliffe’s fishing from the earliest times, which will undoubtedly take its place as the standard history of the ancient craft of fish-catching; and mr. edward r. hewitt’s secrets of the salmon, a brilliant and suggestive piece of work, full of acute scientific observation and successful experiment. these belong to what de quincey called “the literature of knowledge.” but the angler belongs to “the literature of power,”—that which has a quickening and inspiring influence upon the spirit,—and here it is unsurpassed, i may even say unrivalled, by any book ever written about any sport. charles lamb wrote to coleridge commending it to his perusal: “it might sweeten a man’s temper at any time to read the compleat angler.”
the unfailing charm of the book lives in its delicately clear descriptions of the country and of rural life; in its quaint pastoral scenes, like the interview with the milkmaid and her mother, and the convocation
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of gipsies under the hedge; and in its sincerely happy incitements to patience, cheerfulness, a contented spirit, and a tranquil mind.
in its first form the book opened with a dialogue between piscator and viator; but later this was revised to a three-sided conversation in which venator, a hunter, and auceps, a falconer, take the place of viator and try valiantly to uphold the merits of their respective sports as superior to angling. of course piscator easily gets the best of them, (authors always have this power to reserve victory for their favourites,) and auceps goes off stage, vanquished, while venator remains as a convert and willing disciple, to follow his “master” by quiet streams and drink in his pleasant and profitable discourse. as a dialogue it is not very convincing, it lacks salt and pepper; venator is too easy a convert; he makes two or three rather neat repartees, but in general, he seems to have no mind of his own. but as a monologue it is very agreeable, being written in a sincere, colloquial, unaffected yet not undignified manner, with a plenty of digressions. and these, like the by-paths on a journey, are the pleasantest
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parts of all. piscator’s talk appears easy, unconstrained, rambling, yet always sure-footed, like the walk of one who has wandered by the little rivers so long that he can move forward safely without watching every step, finding his footing by a kind of instinct while his eyes follow the water and the rising fish.
but we must not imagine that such a style as this, fluent as it seems and easy to read as it is for any one with an ear for music, either comes by nature or is attained without effort. walton speaks somewhere of his “artless pencil”; but this is true only in the sense that he makes us forget the processes of his art in the simplicity of its results. he was in fact very nice in his selection and ordering of words. he wrote and rewrote his simplest sentences and revised his work in each of the five earlier editions, except possibly the fourth.
take, for example, the bit which i have already quoted from the “address to the reader” in the first edition, and compare it with the corresponding passage in the fifth edition:
“i am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of
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it, because, though it is known i can be serious at reasonable times, yet the whole discourse is, or rather was, a picture of my own disposition, especially in such days and times as i have laid aside business, and gone a-fishing with honest nat. and r. roe; but they are gone, and with them most of my pleasant hours, even as a shadow that passeth away and returns not.”
all the phrases in italics are either altered or added.
he cites montaigne’s opinion of cats,—a familiar judgment expressed with lightness,—and in the first edition winds up his quotation with the sentence, “to this purpose speaks montaigne concerning cats.” in the fifth edition this is humourously improved to, “thus freely speaks montaigne concerning cats,”—as if it were something noteworthy to take a liberty with this petted animal.
the beautiful description of the song of the nightingale, and of the lark, and the fine passage beginning, “every misery that i miss is a new mercy,” are jewels that walton added in revision.
in the first edition he gravely tells how the salmon
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“will force themselves over the tops of weirs and hedges or stops in the water, by taking their tails into their mouths and leaping over those places, even to a height beyond common belief.” but upon reflection this fish-story seems to him dubious; and so in the later edition you find the mouth-and-tail legend in a poetical quotation, to which walton cautiously adds, “this michael drayton tells you of this leap or summer-salt of the salmon.”
it would be easy to continue these illustrations of walton’s care in revising his work through successive editions; indeed a long article, or even a little book might be made upon this subject, and if i had the time i should like to do it.
another theme would well repay study, and that is the influence of the king james version of the bible upon his style and thought. that wonderful example of pure, strong, and stately english prose, was first printed and published when walton was eighteen years old, about the time he came to london as an apprentice. yet to such good purpose did he read and study it that his two books, the angler and the lives, are full of apt quotations from
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it, and almost every page shows the exemplary effect of its admirable diction. indeed it has often seemed to me that his fine description of the style of the prophet amos, (in the first chapter of the angler,) reveals something of the manner in which walton himself desired to write; and in this desire he was not altogether unsuccessful.
how clearly the man shines through his book! an honest, kindly man, not ashamed of his trade, nor of his amusements, nor of his inmost faith. a man contented with his modest place in the world, and never doubting that it was a good world or that god made it. a firm man, not without his settled convictions and strong aversions, yet “content that every reader should enjoy his own opinion.” a liberal-mannered man, enjoying the music of birds and of merry songs and glees, grateful for good food, and “barly-wine, the good liquor that our honest fore-fathers did use to drink of,” and a fragrant pipe afterwards; sitting down to meat not only with “the eminent clergymen of england,” but also, (as his master did,) with publicans and sinners; and counting among his friends such dignitaries
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as dr. john hales, bishop king, and sir henry wotton, and such lively and vagarious persons as ben jonson, carey, and charles cotton. a loyal, steadfast man, not given to change, anxiety of mind, or vain complaining, but holding to the day’s duty and the day’s reward of joy as god sent them to him, and bearing the day’s grief with fortitude. thus he worked and read and angled quietly through the stormy years of the civil war and the commonwealth, wishing that men would beat their swords into fish-hooks, and cast their leaden bullets into sinkers, and study peace and the divine will.
