Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

CRESCENS HARUNDO—WHAT ? 147piscatorial, but also in the probability that in them we meetwith the first recorded mention of (a) a Jointed Rod, and(b) Fishing with a Fly. The former claim turns on the couplet," Aut crescente levis traheretur harundine praeda,Pinguis et implicitas virga teneret aves."Ep., IX., 54. 3-For levis there are two other, though less well supported,readings, viz. vadis and vclis. Is harundo (literally a 'reed,' thena ' rod,' but used impartially to describe both the weapon ofthe fowler and of the fisher) in these lines a fowler's reed, ora fisher's rod ? The answer, if indeed any be possible, dependson the precise meaning to be attached to crescente, havingregard to the context and the whole epigram.Crescente, which some dictionaries, ignoring its use in asimilar connection in Silius ItaHcus, VII. 674-77, " sublimemcalamo sequitur crescente volucrem," render jointed, can onlyhere, I suggest, be properly translated by lengthening, orincreasing. But whether this process of increasing was effectedby. real joints cannot be clearly ascertained.In his solitary note on crescente Valpy (Delphin edition,1823) vouchsafes the bald and not informative comment:•" Vero mihi videtur intelligenda esse virga quae crescat inlocispalustribus."The following explanation is interesting, but to my mindindecisive, even though it claims the authority of " the oldcommentators." Crescente— ^" L'oiseleur cache sous un arbrerappelait les oiseaux en imitant leur chant : puis, quand lesoiseaux etaient sur I'arbre, il allongeait le roseau enduit de glu,qu'il tenait a la main et les oiseaux venaient s'y prendre.Le poete dit que le roseau croissait, parcequ'a mesure quel'oiseleur se hissait sur ses pieds, la baguette engluee semblaitcroitre en effet. Telle est la maniere dont les commentateursanciens interpretent ce distique."Much again depends on whether we read vadis(shallows)or levis (swift) ; vadis would incline the balance heavily, butnot absolutely, to the rod, not to the reed. We get no help1 Nisard edition of Martial, Paris, 1865.