74 BIBLIOTHECA PISCATORIA. 



belong, assuredly, to a later period. Collateral evidence, is to be 

 found in the fact that R. J. (Roger Jackson) in his dedication, does 

 not throw the poem far back, in a posthumous sense, but merely 

 says : — 



" This poem being sent unto me to be printed after the death ol 

 the author, who intended to have done it, in his life, but was 

 prevented by death," &c. &c. 



Had the ' Secrets ' been in existence half a century, some allusion 

 would surely have been made to the circumstance. 



From an article (by T. Westwood) published in the "Angler's 

 Note-book," 1880, pp. 181-5, the following appreciation of John 

 Dennys' poem may be e.xtracted : 



"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 altitudes 

 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 right as well, we nave " I. D.," who in the cool dawn of 

 the seventeenth century, and when the Elizabethan men were 

 passing, one by one, into the shadow, "sang to the echo," (for he 

 seems to have had no other audience in his own day and generation) 

 these " Secrets of Angling," himself being destined to become a 

 greater secret than any he revealed. 



His publisher, " R. J." (Roger Jackson) states in his dedication, 

 of the poem to Mr. John Harborne of Tackley, that the author 

 " intended to have printed it in his life, but was prevented by 

 death." Other motives of reticence, however, besides that final one, 

 may have had their weight ; some faintness of heart, for instance, 

 and some wisdom of discretion. The epoch was a trying one for 

 the minor muse. The Elizabethan bards, as I have said, were 

 dying out, but the national air still vibrated to their divine singing — 

 the national heart was still at fever-heat, with "Fairy Queens," 

 and " Passionate Pilgrims," with " heavenly Unas," and heroic 

 "Lucreces." It would scarcely have been strange, if a poet un- 

 known to fame, had recoiled from bringing into competition with 

 these and such as these, a simple song of bleak and bream. But 

 whatever the real motive may have been, I. D. ended by closing his 

 eyes on all the shows of this world, if not a " mute," at least an 

 " inglorious " poet, and unconsoled, perchance, by the conviction 

 that his modest rhymes would be brought into favour and accep- 

 tance, at a fitting time. 



The only contemporary recognition of I. D., that I am acquainted 

 with, is in the " Pleasures of Princes." This scarce tract is com- 

 monly considered to be the transmigration of the " Secrets " into 

 prose. The transmuting process ( for there can be little doubt of 

 the correctness of the general surmise ) was effected by no unskil- 

 ful hand, and without too much sacrifice of the precious metal of 

 the original. Sir Philip Sidney's ordeal has, indeed, seldom been 

 undergone, with so little deterioration. The quaint character of 

 the poem is preserved in the prose version and the passages added 

 ( especially the introduction ) have a striking merit of their own. • 



