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California (California, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
Chapter 2: the first colonial literature The simplest and oldest group of colonial writings is made up of records of exploration and adventure. They are like the letters written from California in 1849 to the folks back East. Addressed to home-keeping Englishmen across the sea, they describe the new world, explain the present situation of the colonists, and express their hopes for the future. Captain John Smith's True Relation, already alluded to, is the typical production of this class: a swift marching book, full of eager energy, of bluff and breezy picturesqueness, and of triumphant instinct for the main chance. Like most of the Elizabethans, he cannot help poetizing in his prose. Cod-fishing is to him a sport ; and what sport doth yeald a more pleasing content, and lesse hurt or charge then angling with a hooke, and crossing the sweete ayre from Isle to Isle. over the silent streams of a calme Sea? But the gallant Captain is also capable of very plain speech, Cromwell
France (France) (search for this): chapter 2
ollowed Wigglesworth's relentless gaze into the future of the soul's destiny. Historical curiosity may still linger, of course, over other verse-writers of the period. Anne Bradstreet's poems, for instance, are not without grace and womanly sweetness, in spite of their didactic themes and portentous length. But this lady, born in England, the daughter of Governor Dudley and later the wife of Governor Bradstreet, chose to imitate the more fantastic of the moralizing poets of England and France. There is little in her hundreds of pages which seems today the inevitable outcome of her own experience in the New World. For readers who like roughly mischievous satire, of a type initiated in England by Bishop Hall and Donne, there is The simple Cobbler of Agawam written by the roving clergyman Nathaniel Ward. But he lived only a dozen years in Massachusetts, and his satirical pictures are scarcely more American than the satire upon German professors in Sartor Resartus is German. Like
Agawam (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
heir didactic themes and portentous length. But this lady, born in England, the daughter of Governor Dudley and later the wife of Governor Bradstreet, chose to imitate the more fantastic of the moralizing poets of England and France. There is little in her hundreds of pages which seems today the inevitable outcome of her own experience in the New World. For readers who like roughly mischievous satire, of a type initiated in England by Bishop Hall and Donne, there is The simple Cobbler of Agawam written by the roving clergyman Nathaniel Ward. But he lived only a dozen years in Massachusetts, and his satirical pictures are scarcely more American than the satire upon German professors in Sartor Resartus is German. Like Charles Dickens's American notes, Ward's give the reaction of a born Englishman in the presence of the sights and the talk and the personages of the transatlantic world. Of all the colonial writings of the seventeenth century, those that have lost least of their in
Jamestown, N. Y. (New York, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
lonists would certainly be safe in the new world, and also that they would not always be colonists. While the end of an historical or literary era cannot always be thus conveniently indicated by a date, there is no doubt that the final quarter of the seventeenth century witnessed deep changes in the outward life and the inner temper of the colonists. The first fine careless rapture was over. Only a few aged men could recall the memory of the first settlements. Between the founding of Jamestown and the rebellion under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon almost seventy years had intervened, an interval corresponding to that which separates us from the Mexican War. Roger Williams ended his much-enduring and beneficent life in the flourishing town of Providence in 1684. He had already outlived Cotton and Hooker, Shepard and Winthrop, by more than thirty years. Inevitably men began, toward the end of the century, to take stock of the great venture of colonization, to scrutinize their
Providence, R. I. (Rhode Island, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
's endeavor to wash it white in the blood of the Lamb. There is glorious writing here, and its effect cannot be suggested by quoting sentences. But there is one sentence in a letter written by Williams in his old age to his fellow-townsmen of Providence which points the whole moral of the terrible mistake made by the men who sought spiritual liberty in America for themselves, only to deny that same liberty to others. I have only one motion and petition, begs this veteran pioneer who had fordellion under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon almost seventy years had intervened, an interval corresponding to that which separates us from the Mexican War. Roger Williams ended his much-enduring and beneficent life in the flourishing town of Providence in 1684. He had already outlived Cotton and Hooker, Shepard and Winthrop, by more than thirty years. Inevitably men began, toward the end of the century, to take stock of the great venture of colonization, to scrutinize their own history and p
Massachusetts Bay (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
n, and most of them returned to England, where their books were printed and their remaining lives were passed. But far to the northeast of Virginia there were two colonies of men who earned the right to say, in William Bradford's quiet words, It is not with us as with other men, whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home again. One was the colony of Pilgrims at Plymouth, headed by Bradford himself. The other was the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay, with John Winthrop as governor. Bradford and Winthrop have left journals which are more than chronicles of adventure. They record the growth and government of a commonwealth. Both Bradford and Winthrop were natural leaders of men, grave, dignified, solid, endowed with a spirit that bred confidence. Each was learned. Winthrop, a lawyer and man of property, had a higher social standing than Bradford, who was one of the Separatists of Robinson's flock at Leyden. But the Pilgrim o
Ovid (Michigan, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
thumberland, tells in a language as simple as Defoe's the piteous tale of five months of illness and starvation, watched by those wild and cruel Pagans. John Pory, of the strong potations, who thinks that good company is the soul of this life, nevertheless comforts himself in his solitude among the crystal rivers and odoriferous woods by reflecting that he is escaping envy and expense. George Sandys, scholar and poet, finds his solace during a Virginia exile in continuing his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Colonel Norwood, an adventurer who belongs to a somewhat later day, since he speaks of having read Mr. Smith's travels, draws the long bow of narrative quite as powerfully as the redoubtable Smith, and far more smoothly, as witness his accounts of starvation on shipboard and cannibalism on shore. This Colonel is an artist who would have delighted Stevenson. All of these early tellers of Virginia tales were Englishmen, and most of them returned to England, where their book
New England (United States) (search for this): chapter 2
m 1620 to 1647. Winthrop's diary, now printed as the History of New England, begins with his voyage in 1630 and closes in the year of his denment held by the dominant party of the first two generations of New England pioneers has often been called a theocracy, that is to say, a ge. Historians properly insist upon the aesthetic poverty of the New England Puritans; that their rule of life cut them off from an enjoymentsion of the Psalms, designed to be sung in churches. Few of the New England churches could sing more than half-a-dozen tunes, and a pitch-pi black brook. But for several generations the boys and girls of New England had read the Day of doom as if Mr. Wigglesworth, the gentle and souls, as did John Eliot and Roger Williams and Daniel Gookin of New England. In the Pequot War of 1637 the grim settlers resolved to be ridte a comprehensive Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New England, bringing the history down to 1677. Under the better known titl
Massachusetts (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
eral for his r61e of Primate, and fate led him to persecute a man whose very name has become a symbol of victorious tolerance, Roger Williams. Williams, known today as a friend of Cromwell, Milton, and Sir Harry Vane, had been exiled from Massachusetts for maintaining that the civil power had no jurisdiction over conscience. This doctrine was fatal to the existence of a theocratic state dominated by the church. John Cotton was perfectly logical in enlarging Roger Williams into the wildernhe New World. For readers who like roughly mischievous satire, of a type initiated in England by Bishop Hall and Donne, there is The simple Cobbler of Agawam written by the roving clergyman Nathaniel Ward. But he lived only a dozen years in Massachusetts, and his satirical pictures are scarcely more American than the satire upon German professors in Sartor Resartus is German. Like Charles Dickens's American notes, Ward's give the reaction of a born Englishman in the presence of the sights an
Ipswich, Mass. (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
nd her subsequent captivity, and the loud-voiced Captain Church's unvarnished description of King Philip's death. The King, shot down like a wearied bull-moose in the deep swamp, fell upon his face in the mud and water, with his gun under him. They drew him through the mud to the upland; and a doleful, great, naked dirty beast he looked like. The head brought only thirty shillings at Plymouth: scanty reward and poor encouragement, thought Captain Church. William Hubbard, the minister of Ipswich, wrote a comprehensive Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New England, bringing the history down to 1677. Under the better known title of Indian Wars, this fervid and dramatic tale, penned in a quiet parsonage, has stirred the pulses of every succeeding generation. The close of King Philip's War, 1676, coinciding as it does with Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, marks an era in the development of our independent life. The events of that year, in the words of Professor Tyler, es
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