ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the 1496 text, entitled the Treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle, taking it as the more complete rendering of the lost original and as the starting point for a vernacular piscatory literature in England. The Treatyse is easily the most important source for much early modern angling instruction, despite the fact that its first printer proclaimed his intent to keep the text hidden from popular view. The word crafty will appear repeatedly in the body of the Treatyse, always describing the way that piscatorial ingenuity can overcome difficulties in the field. De Worde would go on to print just such a text several decades later—a handsome quarto version of the Treatyse was on offer at his Fleet Street shop by about 1532, with the mention of “ydle persones” tellingly omitted. The Treatyse presents a series of neighboring, imbricate environments: ecosystems that are connected and interpenetrating, bearing to various degrees the signs of human wishes.
