IZAAK WALTON (A MODEL FOR THOREAU TO EMULATE?) “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Izaak Walton HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1594 Izaak Walton was born at Stafford (the traditional August 9, 1683 has approximately as much chance of being precise as any other choice date during this period) to a father recorded in the register of his baptism as “Gervase,” an innkeeper. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Izaak Walton “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1600 This was the approximate florut of the English poet John Chalkhill, about whose life precious little is known. Izaak Walton would in 1653 include a couple of his songs in THE COMPLEAT ANGLER. His volume THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS. A PASTORAL ROMANCE. IN SMOOTH AND EASIE VERSE. WRITTEN LONG SINCE BY JOHN CHALKHILL, ESQ., AN ACQUAINTANT AND FRIEND OF EDMUND SPENSER would appear belatedly in 1683 and would be studied by Henry Thoreau in 1842. THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Izaak Walton HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1624 In about this year Anne King, wife of Archdeacon Henry King, died at the age of 23. The body would be buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The initial volume of the prose and poetry of Thomas Heywood, entitled GYNAIKEION OR NINE BOOKS OF VARIOUS HISTORY CONCERNING WOMEN. From this year forward, at The Phoenix Theatre, he would be producing new plays such as THE CAPTIVES, THE ENGLISH TRAVELLER, and A MAIDENHEAD WELL LOST, and reviving old plays. It was at this point that the Reverend John Donne’s friendship with Izaak Walton began. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Izaak Walton HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1630 April 28, Wednesday (Old Style): Charles Cotton was born at Beresford in Staffordshire, a son of Charles Cotton the Elder. The father was a friend of Ben Jonson, John Selden, Sir Henry Wotton, and Izaak Walton. Rather than being sent to university he would be privately tutored by Ralph Rawson, one of the fellows who had in 1648 been ejected from Brasenose College of Oxford University. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Izaak Walton HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1634 In about this year Archdeacon Henry King, D.D. and Izaak Walton began a lifelong friendship. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Izaak Walton “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1651 Izaak Walton’s LIFE OF WOTTON appeared as a prefix to RELIQUIAE WOTTONIANAE, which offered to the public for the initial time much of Sir Henry Wotton’s work product: The Character of a Happy Life HOW happy is he born or taught That serveth not another’s will, Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his highest skill; Whose passions not his masters are; Whose soul is still prepared for death, Untied unto the world with care Of princes’ grace or vulgar breath; Who envies none whom chance doth raise, Or vice; who never understood The deepest wounds are given by praise, By rule of state but not of good; Who hath his life from rumours freed, Whose conscience is his strong retreat, Whose state can neither flatterers feed Nor ruins make accusers great; Who God doth late and early pray More of his grace than goods to send, And entertains the harmless day With a well-chosen book or friend. This man is free from servile bands Of hope to rise or fear to fall, Lord of himself, though not of lands, And having nothing, yet hath all. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Izaak Walton “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1653 Izaak Walton’s THE COMPLEAT ANGLER OR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN’S RECREATION. BEING A DISCOURSE OF FISH AND FISHING, NOT UNWORTHY THE PERUSAL OF MOST ANGLERS. THE COMPLEAT ANGLER HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1655 It was at this point that Charles Cotton and Izaak Walton (Walton would adopt Cotton). Eventually Cotton would place over the door of an upscale fishing shanty he would have constructed by the River Dove near Beresford Hall at Hartington a cipher made up of his and Walton’s initials. He would contribute a dozen chapters of “Instructions how to angle for a trout or grayling in a clear stream” to Walton’s THE COMPLEAT ANGLER. Although he enjoyed trout boiled with beer and horseradish, clearly he was not a subsistence fisherman for he would boast of catching 30, 35, and 40 trout and grayling at a session, and clearly he did not himself do any cooking since this upscale fishing shanty possessed neither woodpile nor chimney. (Cotton used a wooden rod that we would regard as quite heavy, and a line made of braided horsehair.) HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1671 It was at this point that Charles Cotton had his stone fishing cottage constructed in a pleasant vale by the River Dove, near his residence at Beresford Hall, Hartington. Over its door was positioned a cipher made up of his and Izaak Walton’s initials. HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1676 Charles Cotton provided a lengthy Part II for Izaak Walton’s THE COMPLEAT ANGLER OR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN’S RECREATION. BEING A DISCOURSE OF FISH AND FISHING, NOT UNWORTHY THE PERUSAL OF MOST ANGLERS.1 1. Unfortunately, all I can offer you electronically is the original Walton edition, lacking the Part II supplied in this year by Cotton: THE COMPLEAT ANGLER HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1683 John Chalkhill’s (and Izaak Walton’s) THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS. A PASTORAL ROMANCE. IN SMOOTH AND EASIE VERSE. WRITTEN LONG SINCE BY JOHN CHALKHILL, ESQ., AN ACQUAINTANT AND FRIEND OF EDMUND SPENSER (Printed for Benj. Tooke, at the Ship in S. Paul’s Church-yard). THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS (Walton would die during this year but the preface he wrote for the above volume had already been in existence for some five years.) HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON 1856 December 16, Tuesday: Thomas Cholmondeley wrote Henry Thoreau from Rome, urging him to “try a history. How if you could write the sweet, beautiful history of Massachusetts? … Or take Concord … Take the spirit of Walton and a spice of White.” The reference was of course to Izaak Walton’s famously inoffensive fishing book THE COMPLEAT ANGLER OR THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN’S RECREATION. BEING A DISCOURSE OF FISH AND FISHING, NOT UNWORTHY THE PERUSAL OF MOST ANGLERS and to the Reverend Gilbert White’s THE NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. — ROME, December 16, 1856. MY DEAR THOREAU,— I wish that I was an accomplished young American lady, for then I could write the most elegant and “recherché” letters without any trouble or thought. But now, being an Englishman, even my pleasures are fraught with toil and pain. Why, I have written several letters to you, but always, on reading them over to myself, I was obliged to burn them, because I felt they were bad letters, and insuffi- cient for a passage of the ocean. To begin, then, a new and a good letter, I must acquaint you that I received [your] former communication, which gave me the sincerest pleasure, since it informed me that the books which I sent came to hand, and were approved of. I had in- deed studied your character closely, and knew what you would like. Besides, I had, even from our first acquaintance, a previous memory of you, like the vision of a landscape a man has seen, he can- not tell where. As for me, my life still continues (through the friendship of an unseen hand) a fountain of never-ending delight, a romance renewed every morning, and never smaller to-day than it was yester- day, but always enhancing itself with every breath I draw. I delight myself, I love to live, and if I have been “run down” I am not aware of it. HDT WHAT? INDEX IZAAK WALTON IZAAK WALTON I often say to God, “What, O Lord, will you do with me in particular? Is it politics, or philosophical leisure, or war, or hunting, or what?” He always seems to answer, “Enjoy yourself, and leave the rest to itself.” Hence every- thing always happens at the right time and place, and rough and smooth ride together. There is an old Yorkshire gentleman — a great-grandfather of nine- ty — who promises to see his hundred yet, before he flits. This man was asked lately (he has had his troubles, too) “what of all things he should like best.” The merry old squire laughed, and declared that “he should like of all things to begin and live his life over again, in any condition, almost, — he was not particular.” Now, I am like the squire in my appreciation of life. It is so great a matter to exist pleasurably. The sensation of Being! Thus much about myself. As for my Phenomena, I have seen and thought and done quite up to my highest mark; but I will not weary you with descrip- tions of the Crimea, Constantinople, or even Rome, whence I am now writing.