The Complete Angler

Complete Angler 1653 , The

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Title: The Complete Angler 1653

Author: Isaak Walton
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9198] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 15,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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THE COMPLETE ANGLER;
OR,
_THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN'S RECREATION_.
By
ISAAK WALTON.
Being a _Facsimile Reprint of the First Edition published in 1653. With
a Preface by RICHARD LE GALLIENNE.

PREFACE.
The "first edition" has been a favourite theme for the scorn of those
who love it not. "The first edition--and the worst!" gibes a modern poet,

and many are the true lovers of literature entirely insensitive to the
accessory, historical or sentimental, associations of books. The present
writer possesses a copy of one of Walton's Lives, that of Bishop
Sanderson, with the author's donatory inscription to a friend upon the
title-page. To keep this in his little library he has undergone willingly
many privations, cheerfully faced hunger and cold rather than let it pass
from his hand; yet, how often when, tremulously, he has unveiled this
treasure to his visitors, how often has it been examined with undilating
eyes, and cold, unenvious hearts! Yet so he must confess himself to
have looked upon a friend's superb first edition of "Pickwick" though
surely not without that measure of interest which all, save the quite
unlettered or unintelligent, must feel in seeing the first visible shape of
a book of such resounding significance in English literature.
Such interest may, without fear of denial, be claimed for a facsimile of
the first edition of "The Compleat Angler" after "Robinson Crusoe"
perhaps the most popular of English classics. Thomas Westwood,
whose gentle poetry, it is to be feared, has won but few listeners, has
drawn this fancy picture of the commotion in St. Dunstan's Churchyard
on a May morning of the year 1653, when Richard Marriott first
published the famous discourse, little dreaming that he had been chosen
for the godfather of so distinguished an immortality. The lines form an
epilogue to twelve beautiful sonnets_ à propos _of the bi-centenary of
Walton's death:
"What, not a word for thee, O little tome, Brown-jerkined,
friendly-faced--of all my books The one that wears the quaintest,
kindliest looks-- Seems most completely, cosily at home Amongst its
fellows. Ah! if thou couldst tell Thy story--how, in sixteen fifty-three,
Good Master Marriott, standing at its door, Saw Anglers
hurrying--fifty--nay, three score, To buy thee ere noon pealed from
Dunstan's bell:-- And how he stared and ... shook his sides with glee.
One story, this, which fact or fiction weaves. Meanwhile, adorn my
shelf, beloved of all-- Old book! with lavender between thy leaves, And
twenty ballads round thee on the wall."
Whether there was quite such a rush as this on its publishing day we

have no certain knowledge, though Westwood, in his "Chronicle of the
Compleat Angler" speaks of "the almost immediate sale of the entire
edition." According to Sir Harris Nicolas, it was thus advertised in_
The Perfect Diurnall: from Monday, May 9th, to Monday, May 16th,
1653:
_"The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being
a discourse of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the perusal of most
Anglers, of 18 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. Also the Gipsee, never
till now published: Both printed for Richard Marriot, to be sold at his
shop in Saint Dunstan's Churchyard, Fleet street."
And it was thus calmly, unexcitedly noticed in the_ Mercurius Politicus:
from Thursday, May 12, to Thursday, May 19, 1653: _"There is newly
extant, a Book of 18d. price, called the Compleat Angler, or the
Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a discourse of Fish