The Secrets of Angling

Publication and authorship

First published in 1613, Dennys's book was published after his death. The author was identified by the initials J.D., and had been attributed to up to 6 poets. In 1811 the authorship was determined from a "23mo Martii, 1612" (i.e., 1613) entry in the Stationers' Registers, which showed that Dennys authored the book. The Secrets of Angling was published in 4 editions, the last in 1652, and copies are amongst the rarest books in existence.

The Secrets of Angling was the earliest English poetical treatise on fishing. Morgan George Watkins stated that the "tone of the poem is religious. It is full of lofty sentiments and natural descriptions, a poetical atmosphere surrounding even the commonest tools of the angler's craft."

Dedication

The first edition contained a dedication by "R.I."(Roger Jackson who was the publisher) to John Harborne of Tackley, County of Oxford, whom he called "My much respected friend."

Structure of the Work

A didactic pastoral poem in 3 books, totaling 151 verses each of 8 lines, in the style of Virgil's Georgics.

Book 1

1. The antiquity of Angling, with the art of Fishing and Fishing in general.
2. The lawfulness, pleasure and profit thereof & with all objections answered against it.
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.

Book 2

1. The Angler's experience, how to use his tools & his baits to make profit by his game.
2. What fish is not taken with the Angle & what is & what is best for health.
3. In what waters & rivers to find each fish.

Book 3

1. The 12 virtues & qualities which ought to be in every angler.
2. What weather, seasons & time of the yeare is best & worst & what houres of the day is best for sport.
3. To know each fishe's haunt and the times to take them. Also an obscure secret of an approved bait tending thereunto.

First verse

The following is the first verse of Book 1:

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.

Earliest reel described

The work contains what is thought to be the first printed description of a reel:

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 now raz-ed down.

River Boyd

The third verse of Book 1 refers to the rivers Boyd and Avon, and the villages of Doynton and Wick:

And thou sweet Boyd that with thy watry sway Dost wash the cliffes of Deington and of Weeke And through their Rockes with crooked winding way Thy mother Avon runnest soft to seeke In whose fayre streames the speckled Trout doth play The Roche the Dace the Gudgin and the Bleeke Teach me the skill with slender Line and Hooke To take each Fish of River Pond and Brooke.

Woodcut illustrations

The woodcut in the 1613 edition title represents an angler with a fish on his hook, and the motto, "Well fayre the pleasure that brings such treasure," and a man treading on a serpent with a sphere at the end of his rod and line labelled, "Hold hooke and line, then all is mine." The second edition, conjectured to be about 1620, is "augmented with approved experiments" by Lauson, and has the same woodcut on the title. The third edition, which may be 1630, was "printed at London for John" [Jackson], has a slightly different woodcut, with a varied motto, "Well feare the Pleasure, That yeelds such Treasure." The woodcut in the 4th edition title of the other editions here figures as frontispiece, the angler being dressed in the costume of a later period, and the flowers, foliage, etc., a little modified.

Literary Merit

Bibliotheca Piscatoria recorded Thomas Westwood's description of Dennys, whom he found to be among the foremost writers and poets about angling. Similarly, Osmuch Lambert offers praise: "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." James Wilson said that his work "is remarkable for its beauty," part of which has been quoted by Walton.

Biographer Morgan George Watkins wrote that: "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."

Marie Loretto Lilly stated in her book The Georgic that The Secrets of Angling "is not a great poem, but it should hold an honoured place for sweetness of verse, for its beauty of description and for the lessons that the poet so gently and happily teaches."

Source of inspiration

Verses from the book have been quoted in other works, such as Izaak Walton in the first part of the first chapter of his 1653 edition of The Compleat Angler. Gervase Markham also produced a prose version of The Secrets of Angling in 1614 in "The English Husbandman".

Editions

First edition: I.D. Esquire. (1613). The Secrets of Angling. London: Roger Jackson. 30 leaves.

Second edition: I.D. Esquire. (ca. 1620) The Secrets of Angling. London: Roger Jackson. 35 leaves. It had annotations by William Lawson.

Third edition: I.D. Esquire. (1630-1635) The Secrets of Angling. London: John Jackson.

Fourth edition: J.D. Esquire. (1652) The Secrets of Angling. London: T.H. for John Har(ison). 36 leaves.

Reprints were made in 1809, 1811-1813, 1877, 1883, 1885.