The Compleat Angler

On 31 Jan 2007 20:39:33 -0800, "salmobytes"
wrote:

On Jan 30, 4:57 pm, egildone wrote:
Has anyone here read Isaac Walton's book? If so, what is your opinion
of it? I found it online at
http://www.netlibrary.com

I would appreciate any comments you have.

Ed

I have a 1912 Little Brown edition I'm proud of....almost mint
condition. Found
it at the annual publisher's book sale in Chicago a few years back.
Walton used an ongoing dialog between Piscator and Viator illustrating
not so much how to fish, but why you might want to do so.
Pretty good stuff for 16 what ever it was.

Even more interesting, perhaps, is the plagiarism issue. The Art of
Angling,
published approximately 100 years earlier, also had a piscator viator
dialog that almost reads the same way. In the contemporary context
Walton
would be pilloried for academic theft. But in 1577 (the Art of Angling
date)
it's not clear that plagiarism had even existed as a concept.

Er, no...it's clear...as long as we're getting all Latin and ****, the
word "plagiarius" obviously predates Walton, and its use to mean,
generally, a "literary 'kidnapper'/thief" does, too. I'll not presume
to offer an opinion as to whether Walton was familiar with it...heck, he
died before I was born...

HTH,
R

A fair bit of the book is available on-line....I was fortunate to get a copy
of the last issue, more like lucky. I was walking along a street in Halifax
NS and there it was in the window - I wanted a copy for years. Went in -
opened the cover and there was the price $7.00 !!!! Still had the mint
cover on it too. There is a fishing God.

Who cares if he plagiarized something from a hundred years before his time.
If he did, he was a lucky guy to have the original book (if he did!) Maybe
Izaak just thought along the same lines. Old Izaak was onto
something......He had appreciation for the rivers and fish...As:

Of recreation there is none
So free as fishing is alone;
All other pastimes do no less
Than mind and body both possess:
My hand alone my work can do,
So I can fish and study too.


And, from The Anglers Song in the book:

As inward love breeds outward talk
The hound some praise, and some the hawk
Some, better pleas'd with private sport
Use tennis, some a mistress court:
But these delights I neither wish
Nor envy, while I freely fish.

Keith P.

"Salmo" wrote in message
...
A fair bit of the book is available on-line....

The compleat text is available.....for free.....from Project Gutenberg at:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/tcang10.txt

Wolfgang

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 18:06:33 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Salmo wrote:
[...]

Of recreation there is none
So free as fishing is alone;
All other pastimes do no less
Than mind and body both possess:
My hand alone my work can do,
So I can fish and study too.

A couple of my favourite bits, from memory:

"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to
contemplate and fools to pass by without consideration"

and

"Study to be quiet"...

It's worth pointing out that there are lots of different editions, the
later ones getting much more bloated. I've got a facsimile of the first
edition - it's easy to get nicely produced copies quite cheaply. Fits
easily in a small pocket. Not easy to read some of the script but
absolutely delightful..!

--
Nogood Boyo

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 12:36:27 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Wolfgang
wrote:

"Salmo" wrote in message
...
A fair bit of the book is available on-line....

The compleat text is available.....for free.....from Project Gutenberg at:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/tcang10.txt

That's one of the later editions...

--
Nogood Boyo

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 06:26:42 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly salmobytes
wrote:
On Feb 1, 6:50 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

Piscator, Venator and Auceps......

Yes Venator, not Viator. My only latin is of the porcine variety,
so it's not surprising I remembered it the nefas way.

Viator (traveller) in the first edition.

--
Nogood Boyo

On Feb 7, 11:36 am, Nogood Boyo wrote:
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 06:26:42 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly salmobytes
wrote:On Feb 1, 6:50 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

Piscator, Venator and Auceps......

Yes Venator, not Viator. My only latin is of the porcine variety,
so it's not surprising I remembered it the nefas way.

Viator (traveller) in the first edition.

That say you learn something new every day. It's not true except in
the most trivial sense.

This, however, is VERY interesting! Never before came across a
reference to name changes in later editions. So, was it just the
name? Or was the dialogue changed to suit?

Wolfgang
who has never doubted for a moment that there are good reasons to hang
out here.

On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 at 19:03:24 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Wolfgang
wrote:
On Feb 7, 11:36 am, Nogood Boyo wrote:
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 06:26:42 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly salmobytes
wrote:On Feb 1, 6:50 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

Piscator, Venator and Auceps......

Yes Venator, not Viator. My only latin is of the porcine variety,
so it's not surprising I remembered it the nefas way.

Viator (traveller) in the first edition.

That say you learn something new every day. It's not true except in
the most trivial sense.

This, however, is VERY interesting! Never before came across a
reference to name changes in later editions. So, was it just the
name? Or was the dialogue changed to suit?

In the first edition there are just the two characters - Piscator and
Viator. AIUI there are additional characters in the later editions and
the text is obviously adjusted accordingly. Indeed, later editions are
shown as having additional authors - Charles Cotton, John Buxton, and
John Buchan.

I've made a start on some of the later editions but never finished them
- they are padded out quite a bit more than the first edition.

I'll post a few of the opening pages of the first edition at
www.abertawe.co.uk/compleat/compleat.htm
(each pic about 60KB) and as a .PDF (2MB) in
alt.binaries.pictures.fishing
so that you can get a flavour. Reading the original version, squiggles
and all, is so much more fun..!

BTW, there's only one instance of the spelling "Compleat" in the first
edition - it's "Complete" everywhere but on the title page.

--
Nogood Boyo

On Thu, 8 Feb 2007 at 09:42:43 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Nogood Boyo
wrote:
I'll post a few of the opening pages of the first edition at
www.abertawe.co.uk/compleat/compleat.htm
(each pic about 60KB) and as a .PDF (2MB) in
alt.binaries.pictures.fishing

The .PDF for alt.binaries.pictures.fishing failed, I'm afraid. Over my
ISP's limit for newsgroups. I'll try again with .JPGs.

--
Nogood Boyo

On Feb 8, 3:42 am, Nogood Boyo wrote:
On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 at 19:03:24 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Wolfgang
wrote:



On Feb 7, 11:36 am, Nogood Boyo wrote:
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 at 06:26:42 in rec.outdoors.fishing.fly salmobytes
wrote:On Feb 1, 6:50 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:

Piscator, Venator and Auceps......

Yes Venator, not Viator. My only latin is of the porcine variety,
so it's not surprising I remembered it the nefas way.

Viator (traveller) in the first edition.

That say you learn something new every day. It's not true except in
the most trivial sense.

This, however, is VERY interesting! Never before came across a
reference to name changes in later editions. So, was it just the
name? Or was the dialogue changed to suit?

In the first edition there are just the two characters - Piscator and
Viator. AIUI there are additional characters in the later editions and
the text is obviously adjusted accordingly. Indeed, later editions are
shown as having additional authors - Charles Cotton, John Buxton, and
John Buchan.

I've made a start on some of the later editions but never finished them
- they are padded out quite a bit more than the first edition.

I'll post a few of the opening pages of the first edition at
www.abertawe.co.uk/compleat/compleat.htm
(each pic about 60KB) and as a .PDF (2MB) in
alt.binaries.pictures.fishing
so that you can get a flavour. Reading the original version, squiggles
and all, is so much more fun..!

BTW, there's only one instance of the spelling "Compleat" in the first
edition - it's "Complete" everywhere but on the title page.

Fascinating stuff.....at least to those of us with a thing for books.
Also surprising. Although I've long been aware that books evolve, I'd
never heard anything about changes in this one despite having been an
English major......at a university with a College of Natural Resources
(where Walton, among others, was worshipped as something of a demi-
god).....continuing to be an avid angler, the fact that "The Compleat
Angler" is regarded as a classic of English literature even outside of
angling circles, and having read both the book and about it for a long
time.

Looking forward to seeing the pages.....assuming that I can figure out
how to get to abpi on Google groups.

Thanks, N.B.

Wolfgang