WAS IT COINCIDENCE?

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 102, 26 October 1929, Page 25

WAS IT COINCIDENCE?

Did Izaak Walton plagiarise? Doubt may be aroused in tho minds of his admirers by tho following comparisoi appearing in the "Sunday Times," London, dealing with the description of the nightingale:—Walton wrote: "He that at midnight, whon the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, tho sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well bo lifted above earth and say 'Lord, what music hast Thou provided for the saints in Heaven, when Thou affordest bad men such music on earth ?' " Mr. Hugh Harting pointed out that in the Tercentenary Edition of "TheCompleat Angler" (1893), his father, tho lato J. E. Harting, in one of his notes from a naturalist's point of view, wrote as follows:—This remarkable passage has been frequently quoted, and its originality, so far as wo know, has never been questioned; but somo time since, on reading tho works of the French falconer, Charles d'Arcussia (1598-1644), we wero struck with a very similar expression which occurs in the twency-fourth"Lettrodo Philohierax a Philofalco" (ed. 1627, p. 353). It reads:—"A la verite e'est un grand plaisir d'estre aux champs a telle heuro (au lever du soleil) pour admirer les merveilles des oeuvres de Dieu, lesquellcs nous sonl manifesteos par ses creatures. J'ay este tcllement ravy d'ente'ndro. le ga_ouil des oyse'aux, que mon esprit s'est eslevc on haut, et j'ay diet en moy-mesmo: 'O quel doit cstro le concert des Anges du Ciol, puisquo ces Anges torrestres nous cxtasiont" par lours chants!' "