THE TALE OF THE FISHES 



inspiration to a horde of succeeding writers who 

 scrupled not to adopt the nun's sentiments and borrow 

 her instructions verbatim. Leonard Mascall's "Booke 

 of Fishing with Hooke and Line" (1590), the next 

 work of importance in England, is largely a reproduc- 

 tion of the Essay of the literary prioress. "The Secrets 

 of Angling," a poem by John Dennys, appeared in 

 1*613; and in 1651 Thomas Barker's "The Art of 

 Angling," the first book in which the reel is described, 

 although some find evidence of its earlier use in certain 

 allusions of Shakespeare, who as a youth pursued the 

 fish fauna of his native Avon. Meanwhile there was 

 published at Lyons (1554) Rondelet's "De Piscibus," 

 from whose quaint Latin the reader may glean many 

 an angling axiom; and he is fortunate who lays hand 

 on du Bartas' "Devine Weekes and Workes," rare 

 book of 1605, thought with good reason to have in- 

 spired the pen of John Milton, in which is told the loves 

 and habits of the "speckle-starred" trout that frequents 

 the "swift tumbling Torrents and the sleepie Pooles" 

 (Sylvester's translation). How the angler revels in 

 these old expositions that precede the great classic of 

 1653, Walton's "Compleat Angler; or, the Contem- 



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