TIGHT-LINE UNIVERSAL TILL 17TH CENTURY 13 
But the existence of some method of releasing line rather 
earlier than Barker and Walton may perhaps be inferred from 
the following passage in William Browne’s Britannia’s 
Pastorals (Fifth Song), published 1613-16 :—. 
“ He, knowing it a fish of stubborn sway, 
Puls up his rod, but soft: (as having skill) 
Wherewith the hooke 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 puls 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 applicable 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 line. 
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 yvaurrd ayxorpa as bent hooks 
in Odyssey IV., 369, and as barbed hooks in Odyssey XII., 332, 
would suggest, viz. a synonymous form of a synchronous 
invention. 
