A Short Treatise on Hunting: Fox, Hare, Stag and Otter

Thomas Cockaine

Description

Originally published in 1591. One of the earliest books written on hunting in Britain. It was reprinted in 1932 with notes and history of hunting in Shakespeare's time. This is a republication of that edition. Chapters on hunting the hare, fox, stag and otter. Illustrated with early woodcuts. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528761444
• Langue: English

Extrait

T HE S HAKESPEARE A SSOCIATION F ACSIMILES
No. 5
T HE S HAKESPEARE A SSOCIATION F ACSIMILES
A series of rare texts illustrating life and thought in Shakespeare s England, under the general editorship of Dr. G. B. Harrison.
1931-2
(1) A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcraftes . By G EORGE G IFFORD . 1593. With an Introduction by B EATRICE W HITE .
(2) Skialetheia; or a shadow of Truth in Certaine Epigrams and Satyres , By E VERARD G UILPIN . 1598. With an introduction by G. B. H ARRISON .
(3) A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving-Men . By I.M. 1598. With an Introduction by A. V. J UDGES .
(4) Vicissitudo Rerum . By J OHN N ORDEN . 1600. With an Introduction by D. C. C OLLINS .
1932-3.
(5) A Short Treatise of Hunting . By S IR T HOMAS C OCKAINE . 1591. With an introduction by W. R. H ALLIDAY .
(6) Paradoxes of Defence . By G EORGE S ILVER . 1599. With an introduction by J. D OVER W ILSON .
(7) Present Remedies against the Plague , 1603, etc. With an introduction by W. P. B ARRETT .
S HAKESPEARE A SSOCIATION F ACSIMILES NO . 5
A Short Treatise of Hunting
1591
by SIR THOMAS COCKAINE
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
W. R. HALLIDAY
INTRODUCTION
SIR Thomas Cockaine, the author of this treatise, was a Derbyshire country gentleman, born about 1519, who succeded to the paternal estate at Ashbourne in 1538. To the major incidents in his life allusion is made in the course of the treatise. He was brought up in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury, to whose grandson he dedicates his work. Twice in fifty-two years his hunting was interrupted by public duties, first in 1544 when his services in the Scottish wars of Henry VIII earned him his knighthood, and again in 1548 when he took part in the relief of Haddington. The little else that is known of his life shows him to have been a patriotic, public-spirited and respected country gentleman. In 1550 he appears as arbiter in a dispute about lands: in 1558 he contributed 50 towards the expenses of defeating the Spanish Armada; in his own countryside he founded schools at Ashbourne. He twice tells us that he was no scollerd ; his grandson, however, was the eccentric Thomas Cockaine mentioned by Anthony Wood, who compiled an English-Greek Lexicon.
Sir Thomas claims no scholarship for his treatise because it pretends to be no more than a collection of practical hints drawn from his own experience. In this it differs from the majority of the many books upon sporting lore which were current in Tudor and Elizabethan times, though it is fair to say of these compendia that while their authors draw freely from the earlier literature of sport, both English and French, they almost always betray some practical knowledge of their own. The technique, ritual and procedure of venerie were the creation of France. The earliest English treatise is the translation by John Gifford of the Art de Venerie of Guillaume Twici, the French huntsman of Edward II: from this work, which exists among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum, much of the metrical treatise of the mysterious Dame Juliana Berners in the Boke of St. Albans would appear to be derived. The great book on hunting, however, to which most treatises ultimately go back, is La Livre de Chasse by Gaston III, Count de Foix and Bearn, known and often cited as Ph bus, who died in 1391. This was translated into English with some modifications and adaptation to English practice under the title The Master of Game by Edward, Duke of York, for the instruction of the Prince of Wales, who afterwards became Henry V. A printed edition of this work has been edited by Mr. and Mrs. Baillie Grohman.
The social revolution of Tudor and Elizabethan times created, as Madden has pointed out, a new demand for books upon sport among the new gentry. Why you know an a man have not skill in the hawking and hunting languages now-a-days, I ll not give a rush for him; they are more studied than the Greek or the Latin. He is for no gallant s company without them (Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour I, 1.).
Hect . Oh like a book of sport thou lt read me o er; But there s more in me than thou understand st
( Troil. and Cress ., IV., 5, 239).
The Boke of St. Albans , first published in 1486, was reprinted not less than twenty-two times between that date and 1616, while the Country Contentments of Gervase Markham ran through fourteen editions before the end of the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century there is a break; modern hunting literature begins afresh with Peter Beckford. As Madden justly remarks, the Will Wimbles and Squire Westerns of the eighteenth century would have scorned the aid of books. The effective gap is from the publication of The Gentleman s Recreation in 1647 to that of Beckford s Thoughts on Hunting in 1781.
Returning, however, to the sixteenth century, a systematic treatise on hunting was published in 1576 under the title of The noble arte of venerie or hunting, wherein is han