John Dennys (d.1609) poet and fisherman was the pioneer of Angling poetry in England. His only work "The Secrets of Angling" was the earliest English poetical treatise on fishing,[1] first published in 1613 in London. A didactic pastoral poem in 3 books, totaling 151 verses each of 8 lines, in the style of Virgil's Georgics,[2] it was published in 4 editions until 1652, examples of which are amongst the rarest books in existence.[3] A likely explanation for its rarity is the minute size of the publication, which measures only 5¼" by 3½" being in thickness only 1/4"; that is to say it is the size of a stack of a couple of dozen postcards. It was thus prone to being mislaid. It is considered to be one of the curiosities of English literature and bibliography. Much of the renown of the work derives from 6 verses (36-41, Bk. 1) having been quoted (with variations that were not improvements) [4] by Izaak Walton in his The Compleat Angler of 1653, part first, chap. 1.[5] John Dennys was possibly an acquaintance of Shakespeare, with whom he shared interests in both poetry and fishing.[6] Dennys received at the hand of Thomas Westwood (1814–1888),[7] the poet and bibliographer and one of his greatest proponents, the epithet "The Fisherman's Glorious John", signifying Angling Poetry's own John Dryden.[8] Dennys's poem was published anonymously, 4 years posthumously, and for 198 years the poem was misattributed, its authorship remaining a mystery until 1811. Few of his biographers can resist stating that Dennys was destined to become a greater secret than any he revealed.
The first three verses of Book 1 give an idea of the style and scope of the work:
Of angling and the art thereof I sing
What kind of tools it doth behove to have
And with what pleasing bayt a man may bring
The fish to bite within the watry wave.
A work of thanks to such as in a thing
Of harmless pleasure have regard to save
Their dearest soules from sinne and may intend
Of pretious time some part thereon to spend.
You Nymphs that in the springs and waters sweet
Your dwelling have of every hill and dale
And oft amidst the meadows greene doe meet
To sport and play and hear the Nightingale
And in the rivers fresh doe wash your feet
While Progne's sister[9] tels her woeful tale
Such ayde and power unto my verses lend.
And thou sweet Boyd that with thy watry sway
Dost wash the cliffes of Deington and of Weeke
And through their rocks with crooked winding way
Thy Mother Avon runnest soft to seek
In whose fair streams the speckled trout doth play
The roche the dace the gudgin and the bleeke
Teach me the skill with slender line and hook
to take each fish of river pond and brook.
The poet Thomas Westwood, in his Bibliotheca Piscatoria (1861),[10] made the following assessment of John Dennys:
The English poets of the Art of Angling perplex us neither with their multitude nor their magnitude. To some three or four of them may be assigned a place shall we say midway, by courtesy? on the ledges of Parnassus; the rest are innocent of all altitude whatsoever, except those of Grub Street garrets or the stilts of an absurd vanity. Foremost among the select few, by right of seniority and perhaps by poetic rights as well, we have "I.D."
Osmund Lambert stated: "Dennys was both poet and angler born; his verses are admired and bespeak a natural love of the art whose praises he so quaintly sings."[11] James Wilson: "The poetry, of which several passages are quoted by Walton, is remarkable for its beauty."[12] John Manley:"The poem itself is certainly of a high class, containing much point, elevation of thought, and sweetness, and subtlety of rhythm, as well of subtlety of diction in handling what in itself may be considered a prosaic subject".[13] Watkins :"No more musical and graceful verses were ever written on the art of angling. The author has chosen a measure at once sweet and full of power, and its interlinked melodies lure the reader onwards with much the same kind of pleasure as the angler experiences, who follows the murmuring of a favourite trout stream."[14] J.Turrell: "Usually when an author attempts to teach the practice of an art in a poem, the work either possesses no poetic value or else is too vague and indefinite to be of any service in teaching the art...In the difficult task of combining poetry and instruction it must be admitted that Dennys has been completely successful; for whether his work be viewed as a poem or as a practical treatise, it deserves the highest praise."[15] The Rev. Dr. Charles David Badham wrote of the work in 1854, quoting 8 verses:[16]
The following elaborately beautiful poem, by Davors, published about 230 years ago, in praise of this charming pastime, enters so fully into the arena of its enjoyments and delights as quite exhausts the subject. Such being the high calling of Angling, no wonder if much be expected of one who professes it. The same writer accordingly claims for a real adept this whole catalogue of Christian virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity, Patience, Humility, Courage, Liberality, Knowledge, Peaceableness & Temperance.
The Secrets of Angling is contained in 3 books, with three chapters each:
1/1: The antiquity of Angling, with the art of Fishing and Fishing in general.
1/2: The lawfulness, pleasure and profit thereof & with all objections answered against it.
1/3: To know the season & times to provide the tools & how to chuse the best & the maner how to make them fit to take each severall fish.
2/1: The Angler's experience, how to use his tools & his baits to make profit by his game.
2/2: What fish is not taken with the Angle & what is & what is best for health.
2/3: In what waters & rivers to find each fish.
3/1: The 12 virtues & qualities which ought to be in every angler.[17]
3/2: What weather, seasons & time of the yeare is best & worst & what houres of the day is best for sport.
3/3: To know each fishe's haunt and the times to take them. Also an obscure secret of an approved bait tending thereunto.
All 4 early editions of The Secrets of Angling were published anonymously, being imprinted on the title pages simply "By I.D. Esquire." The work had been published 4 years posthumously, as the publisher Roger Jackson explains at the start of his dedication in the first edition :"This poeme being sent to me to be printed after the death of the Author, who intended to have done it in his life, but was prevented by death".[18] The first to publish a guess at the author's true name was Izaak Walton, in his 5th. edition (1676) of The Complete Angler, where his character "Piscator" ascribes the poem he is about to quote to a certain "Jo.(i.e. John) Davors" (about whose existence nothing is known).[19] Following Walton's lead, the poem continued generally to be attributed to Davors, but was attributed to the great John Donne in 1706 by Robert Howlett,[20] and to 6 different poets called John Davies at various times. In 1811 the original copyright entry in the Register of the Stationers Company in London, dated 1612, recording the publisher's payment of 6 pence, was discovered by Sir Henry Ellis, future Chief Librarian at the British Museum,[21] which revealed the author's name as John Dennys.
1612, Feb.28 (23rd. March 1612/13 per Arber)[22] Mr. Rog. Jackson entred for his copie under thands of Mr. Mason and Mr.Warden Hooper a Booke called the Secrets of Angling, teaching the choysest tooles, bates, & seasons for the taking of any fish in pond or river, pracktised and opened in three Bookes, by JOHN DENNYS, Esquier. vj d.
Yet still nothing was known of his life until 1836 when the antiquary Sir Harris Nicolas,[23] prompted by information from James Williamson the fisherman and bibliographer,[24] published his identification with a family from Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, 7 miles E. of Bristol, known as "Dennis" (or "Denys" before about 1600), established in the vicinity in 1380 by Sir Gilbert Denys until 1701.[25] In the environs of this village are found geographical features apparently known to Mr Williamson who may have fished there, including the River Boyd, a tributary of which runs through the former lands of the Dennis family, flowing S.W. through the villages of Doynton and Wick with its rocky cliffs, into the Avon past Bitton, near Bristol, many of which places are mentioned in the third verse of the poem, in antique spelling. Yet Nicolas had nevertheless confused John Dennys with his eponymous grandfather, albeit having stated his date of death correctly as 1609. A descendant of the Dennis family , H.B. Tomkins had a letter published in 1869 correcting the pedigree,[26] but it seems to have been missed by the piscatorial bibliographers. It was not until 1881 that Thomas Westwood finally published the fully accurate identity of the poet, on information provided by the local antiquarian Rev. H.N. Ellacombe, Vicar of Bitton,[27] corroborated by his tardy notice of Tomkins's letter.[28] John "Dennys", as he has become immortalized in literary circles due to his publisher's mis-spelling, was in private life John Dennis Esq., Lord of the Manor of Pucklechurch, whose family had first been established in the vicinity at Siston Court. His will of 1609 is extant, which fits perfecly with his publisher's statement that the work was published posthumously in 1613. From clues in his poem, he appears to have been a man who followed only reluctantly the social conventions of his age, preferring a simple life close to nature to mixing in the high society to which he was born or to playing a role in county administration. This was unusual as his family had produced more Sheriffs of Gloucestershire than any other, and indeed both his father and son fulfilled that role.[29]
Izaak Walton quoted, with alterations, 6 verses of Dennys's work, in his "Compleat Angler", 1653 edition, part first, chapter 1:
These were the thoughts that then possessed the undisturbed mind of Sir Henry Wotton. Will you hear the wish of another Angler, and the commendation of his happy life, which he also sings in verse: viz. Jo. Davors, Esq.?
Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink
Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place
Where I may see my quill, or cork, down sink
With eager bite of Perch, or Bleak, or Dace;
And on the world and my Creator think:
Whilst some men strive ill-gotten goods t' embrace;
And others spend their time in base excess
Of wine. or worse. in war and wantonness
Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue,
And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill;
So I the fields and meadows green may view,
And daily by fresh rivers walk at will
Among the daisies and the violets blue,
Red hyacinth, and yellow daffodil,
Purple Narcissus like the morning rays,
Pale gander-grass, and azure culver-keys.
I count it higher pleasure to behold
The stately compass of the lofty sky;
And in the midst thereof, like burning gold,
The flaming chariot of the world's great eye:
The watery clouds that in the air up-roll'd
With sundry kinds of painted colours fly;
And fair Aurora, lifting up her head,
Still blushing, rise from old Tithonus' bed.
The hills and mountains raised from the plains,
The plains extended level with the ground
The grounds divided into sundry veins,
The veins inclos'd with rivers running round;
These rivers making way through nature's chains,
With headlong course, into the sea profound;
The raging sea, beneath the vallies low,
Where lakes, and rills, and rivulets do flow:
The lofty woods, the forests wide and long,
Adorned with leaves and branches fresh and green,
In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song,
Do welcome with their quire the summer's Queen;
The meadows fair, where Flora's gifts, among
Are intermix", with verdant grass between;
The silver-scaled fish that softly swim
Within the sweet brook's crystal, watery stream.
All these, and many more of his creation
That made the heavens, the Angler oft doth see;
Taking therein no little delectation,
To think how strange, how wonderful they be:
Framing thereof an inward contemplation
To set his heart from other fancies free;
And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye,
His mind is rapt above the starry sky.
Sir, I am glad my memory has not lost these last verses, because they are somewhat more pleasant and more suitable to May-day than my harsh discourse. And I am glad your patience hath held out so long as to hear them and me, for both together have brought us within the sight of the Thatched House. And I must be your debtor, if you think it worth your attention, for the rest of my promised discourse, till some other opportunity, and a like time of leisure.
Dennys's original version is as follows, verses 36-41 of book 1:
O let me rather on the pleasant Brinke
Of Tyne and Trent possesse some dwelling-place
Where I may see my Quill and Corke downe sinke
With eager bit of Barbill Bleike or Dace
And on the World and his Creator thinke
While they proud Thais' painted sheat imbrace
And with the fume of strong Tobacco's smoke
All quaffing round are ready for to choke
Let them that list these pastimes then pursue
And on their pleasing fancies feede their fill
So I the Fields and Meadowes greene may view
And by the Rivers fresh may walke at will
Among the Dayzes and the Violets blew
Red Hyacinth and yealow Daffadill
Purple Narcissus like the morning rayes
Pale Ganderglas and azour Culuerkayes
I count it better pleasure to behold
The goodly compasse of the loftie Skye
And in the midst thereof like burning gold
The flaming Chariot of the worlds great eye
The watry cloudes that in the ayre uprold
With sundry kindes of painted collours flie
And fayre Aurora lifting up her head
And blushing rise from old Thitonus' bed
The hills and Mountaines rais-ed from the Plaines
The plaines extended levell with the ground
The ground devided into sundry vaines
The vaines inclos'd with running rivers rounde
The rivers making way through nature's chaine
With headlong course into the sea profounde
The surging sea beneath the valleys low
The valleys sweet and lakes that lonely flowe
The lofty woods the forrests wide and long
Adorn'd with leaves and branches fresh and greene
In whose coole bow'rs the birds with chaunting song
Doe welcome with thin quire the Summer's Queene
The meadowes faire where Flora's guifts among
Are intermixt the verdant grasse betweene
The silver skal-ed fish that softlie swimme
Within the brookes and Cristall watry brimme
All these and many more of his creation
That made the heavens the Angler oft doth see,
And takes therein no little delectation
To think how strange and wonderfull they be
Framing thereof an inward contemplation
To set his thoughts from other fancies free
And whiles hee lookes on these with joyfull eye
His minde is rapt above the starry skye.
The First Edition of 1613 contains within its title page an illustration of two men fishing. The one in the left foreground wears Elizabethan hose and doublet, his hat at a jaunty angle, and has a freshly caught fish suspended on the end of his line. The second man in the right background, on the opposite bank of the stream, wears a long ceremonial fur-edged robe over his hose, a monogrammed hat and medallion on a chain, treads on a serpent with his right foot (seemingly a reference to Luke 10:19) and appears to proffer to the first man across the stream a large terrestrial globe hanging from his line as bait. On a scroll from the mouth of the robed man comes the couplet: "Hold hooke and line, then all is mine." It is likely the latter represents Satan, using the World to hook the unwary (Matthew, 4:8-9). The Virtuous Angler, engrossed in his morally upright and philosophical pastime, as expounded by Dennys, ignores the bait offered, appearing immune to such temptations. On a scroll out of the mouth of the Virtuous Angler, rejoicing in his catch, comes by way of reply of rejection the following couplet : "Well fayre the plesure, that bringes such treasure". There is a reference similar to Satan's words in Shakespeare, Henry IV Part II, Act II, Scene IV, where the first half only of the couplet is quoted, no doubt leaving the audience to mentally complete what was probably a contemporary cliche:[30] Pistol:"I'll see her damned first;-to Pluto's damned lake, by this hand, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down, down, dogs." The words are also used by Ben Johnson in The Case is Alter'd(1609).[31] The line probably originated in some older popular ballad, such as "The Royal Recreation of Joviall Anglers", which includes the verse:
When Eve and Adam liv'd by love, and had no cause for jangling,
The Devil did the waters move, the serpent fell to angling:
He baits his hook with godlike look quoth he this will entangle her:
The woman chops and down she drops: The Devil was the first angler.[32]
The ballad was printed with an illustration for frontispiece in which one of the figures has the identical couplet "Hold hook and line, then all is mine" proceeding from his mouth.[33] No doubt the significance of the line would have been understood immediately by the first readers as a reference to a menacing character in contemporary popular culture. The same woodcut illustration appeared on the 2nd. edition title page,[34] but a new woodcut was used for the 3rd. of the same design, but badly executed, showing the Virtuous Angler wearing a modernised style of hat with broad brim.[35] In the 4th. ed. the original woodcut illustration re-appeared, but as a frontispiece separate from the title page.[36]
The work contains what is thought to be the first printed description of a Reel:[37]
Yet there remains of Fishing tooles to tell
Some other sorts that you must have as well
A little board the lightest you can find
but not so thin that it will breake or bend
Made smooth & plaine your lines thereon to winde
With battlements at every other end
Like to the bulwarke of some ancient towne
As well-walled Sylchester[38] now raz-ed down.
The first edition contained a Dedication by "R.I."(Roger Jackson the publisher) to John Harborne of Tackley, Oxfordshire, whom he called "My much respected friend." John Harborne (1582–1651) was a wealthy merchant from the Middle Temple who had just purchased the manor of Tackley the year before publication, i.e in 1612, and had embarked on creating there a new mansion with an elaborate water garden. The remains of one square and two triangular ponds, no doubt originally containing fish, are visible today.[39] The manor lay on a tributary of the River Cherwell, and Harborne may well have been a fisherman himself, whose approbation Jackson sought to promote sales of the book. Jackson published in 1623 a plan of Harborne's water garden in its completed state, by Gervase Markham in his 3rd. ed. of "Cheap and Good Husbandry for the Well ordering of all Beasts and Fowls".[40] Markham also produced a prose version of The Secrets of Angling in 1614 in "The English Husbandman", which he referred to later as "The whole art of angling as it was written in a small treatise in Rime and now for the better understanding of the reader, put into prose".[41]
Universally identified as STC(2nd ed.)6611, ESTC System No. 006184901; ESTC Citation No. S113570.
The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists 4 copies:
Title page: "The Secrets of Angling: Teaching, The choisest Tooles Baytes and seasons, for the taking of any fish, in Pond or River: practised and familiarly opened in three Bookes. By I.D.Esquire". Below which is a woodcut illustration (untitled) of Satan and the Virtuous Angler. Below which: "Printed at London, for Roger Jackson, and are to be sould at his shop neere Fleetstreet Conduit, 1613".[42] 8vo.(i.e.octavo)[43] 30 leaves. It seems that only 3 perfect copies exist in 2010.
Provenance
In 1910 one copy was in the Bodleian, (no doubt the copy held from before 1806, in 1865 and 1883) from which J.Turrell made a photographic facsimilie of the title page, published in Ancient Angling Authors, 1910. In 1865 1 was in the Bodleian,[44] having been held from before 1806, given by John Davies of Kidwelly; 1 was in the possession of Mr Toovey, Bookseller, having been purchased in the sale of Mr Prince's library in 1858. It was stated to have the date imprint cut off (by the binder); A third was also held by Mr Toovey, having been purchased for £18, complete and uncut. In 1883 1 was still in the Bodleian; 1 was owned by Henry Huth (from which Edward Arber published a reprint in The English Garner, London, 1877). In 1880 it was listed thus in Huth's catalogue: "The edges uncut...with a large cut on the title.";[45] 1 was owned by Alfred Denison. Several imperfect copies existed in 1883.[46]
(STC (2nd.ed.)6611.5) The ESTC (2010) lists 2 copies:
There appears however to be a 3rd., held by Harvard University, of which an electronic reproduction is held by Yale, described in ORBIS as "Imperfect, illustrated title page, title page imprint cropped".[47] Title page contains the additional words: "Augmented with many approved experiments by W. Lauson", which consist of detailed footnotes by William Lauson, elucidating the text for the practical use of anglers. The same woodcut illustration as the 1st. edition is shown, below which: "Printed at London for Roger Jackson, and are to be sould..."(location of bookshop and date cut-off).
During the original binding the bottom of the title page, containing the date, was cut off. Its date of 1620 has been conjectured by Thos. Westwood[48] and followed by STC. 35 leaves, 8vo.[49]
Provenance.In 1865 a cropped copy was in the possession of Thomas Westwood; in 1883 it was owned by Alfred Denison. Only one copy of the 2nd.ed. was believed by Westwood to exist in 1883.
STC (2nd.ed.)6612; ESTC Citation No.S113571; ESTC System No. 006184902.
The ESTC lists 2 copies:
Title page text: "The Secrets of Angling Teaching, The choisest Tooles, Baytes and Seasons, for the taking (of any) Fish, in Pond or River: practised and familiarly ope(ned) in three Bookes.By I.D. Esquire. Augmented with many approved experiments. By W. Lauson (in verse)". (Woodcut of cruder quality than 1st. & 2nd. editions of (probably) "Satan and the Virtuous Angler". Satan: "Hold hooke and line, then all is mine"; Virtuous Angler: "Well feare the Pleasure That yeelds such treasure". Below woodcut: "Printed at London, for John Jackson, and are to be sou(ld at) his Shop in the Strand, at the signe of the P(arote, 1630)".
Provenance. In 1883 there was only 1 known integral copy of this edition, owned by Alfred Denison, probably bought from Grace's for £3 10s.[50] In 1865 Westwood had reported that he had a 3rd. ed., then considered unique, with the date cut off, the title page of which read: "Printed at London for John Jackson...". In 1869 William Pinkerton gave proof of the publication date as he had found a catalogue entry in the British Museum listed as: "Printed, in 8vo. for John Jackson, in the Strand, at the Signe of the parote, 1630".[51] It is not certain that he saw the book itself, which presumably was the one which came into the Denison collection. The STC catalogue conjectures a publication date of 1635. The whereabouts of the integral copy appears at present unknown.
ESTC Citation No.R208975; ESTC System No. 006115756; Wing (2nd.ed.1994) D1051A; Thomason E.1294(4)
The ESTC (in 2010) lists 4 copies:
Title page: "THE Secrets of Angling: TEACHING The choicest Tooles, Baits and seasons, for the taking of any Fish, in Pond or River : practised, and familiarly opened in three Bookes. By J.D. Esquire. Augmented with many approved exp(eri)ments. By W. Lauson". Below is an illustration, being the bookseller's mark "The Hare and the Sun", a pun on "Harison". Annotated in a 16th.c. hand "April 6". Below which: "London, Printed by T.H. for John Har(ison,) and are to be sold by Francis Coles, a(t) his Shop in the Old Bayly. 1652." [52] The woodcut illustration from the 1st. and 2nd. eds. reappears in the 4th. ed., but as a separate frontispiece.[53] 36 leaves, 8vo.[54]
Provenance. Several copies of it were extant in 1883, per Westwood, 2 being held by the British Museum,[55] and 1 by Alfred Denison. In 1807 Mr Douce held 1 and the British Museum another "less perfect copy".[56]
Reprints were made (large citations only) in 1809 Censura Litteraria, vol X, ed. Sir Egerton Brydges; in 1811, in full, (of 1652 ed.) edited by Sir Henry Ellis; in 1812 (of 1652 ed.) reprinted in Sir Egerton Brydges' "British Bibliographer", with 100 copies struck off separately; in 1813 the reprint in Censura Litteraria was reprinted by Daniel in the supplement to his Rural Sports; in 1877 a reprint appeared in Mr Arber's "English Garner, vol I; in 1883, London (of 1613 ed.) with Introduction by Thomas Westwood; in 1885, Edinburgh, with Introduction by "Piscator", probably Edmund Goldsmid.
Rev. Henry Nicholson Ellacombe(d.1916), Vicar of Bitton, who had assisted Westwood in his definitive identification of Dennys, went on to write "Shakespeare as an Angler" published at Oxford in 1883, in which he argues that The Bard and John Dennys were possibly fishing companions. Shakespeare lived for a while at Dursley, Glos., not too far from Dennys's manor of Oldbury-on-Hill, N. of Pucklechurch. The play Henry IV contains many references to the sport, and is said to have been written during this period.[57]
It is possible John Dennys had read the Georgics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, which his father Hugh had caused in 1543 to establish a scholarship "the Dennis Scholarship" by procuring an Act of Parliament[58] to divert the income from his great-uncle Hugh Denys's[59] bequest to Sheen Priory and Syon Abbey, dissolved by Henry VIII, to the newly refounded College.
John "Dennys" was son of Hugh Dennis (d.1559), Sheriff of Gloucestershire (1551) & Katherine, da. of Thomas Trye of Hardwicke, Glos. Hugh's father John had been the heir of Hugh Denys, Groom of the Stool to Henry VII. John the poet was heir to his elder brother Henry (ob.s.p. 1569).He married Eleanor(d.post 1618), da. of Thomas Millett of Warwickshire and had 4 children:[60]
He d. 30th. July 1609 and was buried 7th. August at St.Thomas a Becket Church, Pucklechurch. John Dennys's will was dated 1609, without month, proved 14th. Oct. 1609.[61] He left 4 children under 15 years old, from which may be deduced that he possibly died young aged 35 to 40.
Thomas Westwood wrote the following epitaph for John Dennys:
Calm be his sleep in the old aisle of Pucklechurch! or if any sound reach him from the outer world, may it be only the soughing of the sweet south wind, and the ripple of Boyd, that with "crooked winding way" past cliff and meadow, "Its mother Avon runneth soft to seek".[62]