TIGHT-LINE UNIVERSAL TILL 17TH CENTURY 13 



But the existence of some method of releasing line rather 

 eariier than Barker and Walton may perhaps be inferred from 

 the following passage in William Browne's Britannia's 

 Pastorals (Fifth Song), pubhshed 1613-16 : — 



" He, knowing it a fish of stubborn sway, 

 Puis up his rod, but soft : (as having skill) 

 Wherewith the hooka fast holds the fishe's gill. 

 Then all his line he freely yeeldeth him, 

 Whilst furiously all up and downe doth swimme 

 Th' insnared fish. , . . 



By this the pike, cleane wearied, underneath 

 A willow lyes and pants (if fishes breathe) : 

 Wherewith the fisher gently puis him to him. 

 And, least his haste might happen to undo him, 

 Lays down his rod, then takes his line in hand. 

 And by degrees getting the fish to land, 

 Walkes to another poole." 



A few years suffice to span the interval between William 

 Browne and Barker, whereas between Theocritus and Barker 

 a great gulf of time yawns unbridged. Thus we have renderings 

 of the former (Idyll XXI.) and of other classical authors by 

 translators (more especially when they happen to be also 

 anglers !) which demonstrate ignorance or ignoring of the 

 fixity of line and the absence of reel. 



These, if not palpably anachronous, afford at any rate 

 evidence of incuriosity concerning facts. Their " then I gave 

 him slack " and other similar expressions, true enough of our 

 present line, can be no way appHcable to the conditions of 

 ancient Angling, unless the words mean — and then only by 

 strained construing — that their " slack" was given by depres- 

 sion of Rod rather than by lengthening of fine. 



With the hook also we are confronted with a similar slow- 

 ness of development. This is so well attested that we need 

 more than even the authority of Butcher and Lang to establish 

 what their slip in translating yvafXTrTii ayKiarpa as be7it hooks 

 in Odyssey IV., 369, and as barbed hooks in Odyssey XII., 332, 

 would suggest, viz. a synonymous form of a synchronous 

 invention. 



