Dinsmore Documentation presents Classics of American Colonial History
| Author: | Wright, Thomas Goddard. |
| Title: | Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730. |
| Citation: | New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1920. |
| Subdivision: | Chapter XIV |
| HTML by Dinsmore Documentation * Added December 30, 2004 | |
| ◄ Chapter XIII Directory of Files Appendix ► |
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THE literary movement which was beginning in and around Boston at the end of the seventeenth century1 developed more rapidly after the new century opened. The central figure in this movement was Samuel Sewall, who, although he has no fame as a writer of poetry,2 wrote considerable verse, both Latin and English. His Latin verses were sufficiently well known in Boston in the first year of the century to call forth a burlesque.3 Sewall was less interested in English poetry,4 and yet some of his verses in English are not without merit. His penchant was epigrammatic verse, the following lines on the death of Tom Child, the painter, being perhaps the best example of his art.
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Tom Child had often painted Death, But never to the Life, before: Doing it now, he’s out of Breath; He paints it once, and paints no more.5 |
Others who were interested with Sewall in the writing of poetry were Richard Henchman, Nicholas Noyes, Nehemiah Hobart, Experience Mayhew, and a Mr. Bayly. It is not
1 See p. 168, above.
2 He is not mentioned as a writer of poetry by such historians of American poetry as Moses Coit Tyler and William B. Otis, or in the Cambridge History of American Literature. This is true also of the literary friends of Sewall mentioned in the text (see above), with the exception of Noyes.
3 Sewall recorded in his diary, May 29, 1701, “This day a Burlesqe comes out upon Hull-street, in a Travestie construing my Latin verses.” (Diary, ii. 35.)
4 In one of his letters to Richard Henchman, Sewall wrote, “It is convenient to sing the Downfall of Babylon, in verses that will stand.” As the accompanying verses are in Latin, it is evident that Sewall chose that rather than English for work which he considered important and desired to have endure. (Letter-Book, i. 318.)
5 Diary, ii. 170. November 10, 1706. The verses are prefaced by the statement, “This morning Tom Child, the Painter, died.”
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possible to determine whether these men ever came together as a group for mutual encouragement in literary work; but it is evident that Sewall kept in touch with the literary work which all of them were doing, encouraged them, and both criticized their verses and sent his own to them for criticism.6 This group did not produce any body of good verse, because none of its members had any real talent for poetry; but that they made the effort to produce, and that they encouraged each other’s efforts, shows that literary culture in New England had reached the creative stage.
There were still many things to handicap literary development. The most important of these was the lack of suitable means of publishing short or occasional poems, such as these men usually wrote. If we may judge by the poems that have survived, or of which we have record, no one of these men produced enough for a volume of poems. The newspapers of Boston printed practically no poetry until after 1720.7 Therefore the only means of publication was the
6 Sewall’s Verses upon the New Century, bearing the date of January 1, 1700-01, brought immediate response from Henchman in a long and effusive poem in praise of Sewall, dated January 2, 1700-01. To Henchman, Sewall wrote, February 24, 1703-04, “Sir,—I send home your Verses with Thanks. There are many good strokes in them: but in my mind, the English excell. I think—dominantur undiq[u]e fraudes, does not well end a verse; the last syllable in [Dominantur] is short by Rule.” (Letter-Book, i. 293.) He wrote to Henchman in 1705, “It is convenient to sing the Downfall of Babylon, in verses that will stand: let me therefore have your Examination and censure of the following Distich . . . . (Letter-Book, i. 318.) At about the same time he wrote to Nicholas Noyes, “Sir,—How am I ready to sink down into ingratitude on a sudden, and unawares! My Brother in a Letter had raised my Expectation of receiving a distich or 2 from you; and the disapointment puts me out of Tune.” [He adds an apposite quotation from Ovid.] (Letter-Book, i. 315.) On March 27, 1712, Nehemiah Hobart addressed a Latin poem of thirty-seven lines to Sewall, who sent to Hobart in acknowledgement of the compliment a copy of Virgil: “I give him Virgil on account of the Poem he has gratify’d me with.” (Diary, ii. 346.) This was soon turned into English verse by Henchman. (Letter-Book, i. 314 note 2, which gives both Latin and English versions.) Evidence of his interest in the poetry of Bayly and Mayhew is given in note 8 on page 207, below.
7 A very few times the News-Letter reprinted from English papers articles which included lines of verse. One four line Latin epigram by Sewall, published in the News-Letter in 1705, is the only original poem which I have been able to find in [footnote continues on p. 207] the papers before 1720, and we have Sewall’s testimony (Diary, ii. 149) that it was with difficulty that he persuaded John Campbell to print it.
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broadside, and in this form some of the verses of these men appeared. Other poems that circulated did so in manuscript. Sewall seems to have been as interested in the circulation of these poems as in their production, and therefore in a double sense was the center of this literary movement.8
One poem by Richard Henchman may indicate the existence of literary patronage in Boston at this time. This poem, entitled “Vox Oppressi,”9 was addressed to the Lady
8 The following quotations show Sewall’s custom of enclosing poetry in his letters. It should be noted that some of the poems were evidently printed as broadsides. “This day I made this Distich . . . . [omitted]. Gave them and two more to Mr. Phips at Charlestown.” (Diary, ii. 140. October, 1705.) “In my Letter I inclosed a News-Letter, two Copies of Mr. Bayly’s Verses, Babylon is fallen.” (Letter-Book, i. 351. August, 1707.) “Writ . . . . to Mr. Moodey . . . . [enclosed] this day’s News-Letter; Two Setts of Verses; Libels, and proceeding thereupon. Vindicated Glascow. Sent p Capt. Lyon to whom I gave Mr. Danforth, and Mayhew’s Verses.” (Letter-Book, i. 408. December, 1710.) “To Sir Charles Hobby . . . . inclosing . . . . 2 of Mr. Mayhew’s Poems on daughter Gerrish.” (Letter-Book, i. 412. 1711. Sewall’s daughter, Mrs. Gerrish, died in 1710.) “To Mr. Joseph Lord . . . . Sent him . . . . One Consolations, Frenches Verses, My verses on the Taking of Port-Royal. 4. Mr. Mayhew’s verses; 1 Mr. Danforth on Daughter Gerrishes Death.” (Letter-Book, i. 408. February, 1710-1 I.) “I visit Mr. Wadsworth . . . . Give a verse to him and to Mr. Pemberton.” (Diary, ii. 359. August, 1712.) “Left the Govr two of Mr. Hobart’s verses . . . . Gave Mr. Colman one of Mr. Hobart’s verses.” (Diary, ii. 360-1. August, 1712. These would seem to be printed copies of the Latin poem to Sewall to which reference has been made on page 206, note 6.) “Writ to Mr. Williams of Derefield, inclosed . . . my Verses on Merrimak River finish’d yesterday.” (Diary, iii. 240. January 16, 1719-20.) “Inclosed Merrimak dry’d up, with the occasion of it . . . . Inclosed 6. of Mr. Hobart’s printed verses.” (To Timothy Woodbridge, February 1, 1719-20. Letter-Book, ii. 104.) “Merrymak is printed off, about 300. I give Sam. Mather two of them.” (Diary, iii. 279. February, 1720-21. This poem is printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2d Series, ix. 8.) “Sent . . . . Mr. Hobart’s Verses-Nocte viator.” (To Edward Taylor, February 16, 1719-20. Letter-Book, ii. 105.) “Mr. Prince and I go next the Relations. I gave him Merrimack; he desired me to give him copies of all my performances.” (Diary, iii. 283. March 7, 1720-21.) “Having only one Renatus by me, I have inclos’d it, & a copy or two of Judge Lynde’s verses.” (To John Winthrop, January 8, 1725-6. Winthrop Papers, vi. 422.)
9 Preserved in manuscript in the Boston Public Library.
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Phipps, the wealthy widow of the former governor to express the poet’s gratitude for a gift of money. As further evidence is lacking, it is impossible to say whether the gift was to encourage Henchman’s poetical efforts, or to reward him for some poem in Lady Phipps’ honor or in honor of her husband, or merely charity; but the tone of the poem seems to be that of poet to patron.
Outside of the group of Sewall’s friends there were several who were writing verse, some for their own amusement, others for publication. Of the first class, the most interesting is Sarah Kemble Knight, whose journal of her trip from Boston to New York in 1704 owes much of its charm to the rhymes which furnished her a means to express privately the feelings which she could not express in public.10 Her satirical humor is matched by that of other poets of the day, of varying merit as poets, but deliberately satirical.11 Such
10 But I could get no sleep, because of the Clamor of some of the Town tope-ers in next Room, . . . . I set my Candle on a Chest by the bed side, and setting [sic] up, fell to my old way of composing my Resentments, in the following manner:
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I ask thy Aid, O Potent Rum! To Charm these wrangling Topers Dum. Thou hart their Giddy Brains possest The man confounded wth the Beast And I, poor I, can get no rest. Intoxicate them with thy fumes: O still their Tongues till morning comes!” |
(The Journal of Madam Knight, p. 38.)
Being refused accommodation at the house of a Mr. Devill, she wrote the following warning to other travelers:
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“May all that dread the cruel feind of night Keep on, and not at this curs’t Mansion light. ’Tis Hell; ’tis Hell! and Devills here do dwell: Here dwells the Devill—surely this’s Hell. Nothing but Wants: a drop to cool yo’r Tongue Cant be procur’d these cruel Feinds among. Plenty of horrid Grins and looks sevear, Hunger and thirst, But pitty’s bannish’d here The Right hand keep, if Hell on Earth you fear! |
(Ibid., p. 40.)
11 Sewall recorded in his Letter-Book (i. 255) a satire upon “The Gospel Order Revived” (an answer by Benjamin Colman and his friends to Increase [footnote continues on p. 209] Mather’s “The Order of the Gospel”) which was being circulated at Plymouth (March 1701). Part of the poem follows:
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. . . . . . . . The old strait Gate is now out of Date, The street it must be broad; And the Bridge must be wood, thô not half so good As firm Stone in the Road. . . . . . . . . Saints Cotton & Hooker, o look down, & look here Where’s Platform, Way & the Keys? O Torey what story of Brattle Church Twattle, To have things as they please Our Merchants cum Mica do stand Sacra Vico; Our Churches turn genteel: Parsons grow trim and trigg with wealth wine & wigg And their crowns are coverd with meal. |
A better satire is John Banister’s on Cotton Mather’s degree of Doctor of Divinity from Glasgow University, also found in Sewall’s Letter-Book (i. 407. November, 1710), Increase Mather having loaned him a copy of it.
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The mad enthusiast, thirsting after fame, By endless volum’ns [sic] thought to raise a name. With undigested trash he throngs the Press; Thus striving to be greater, he’s the less, But he, in spight of infamy, writes on, And draws new Cullies in to be undone. Warm’d with paternal vanity, he trys For new Suscriptions, while the Embryo* lyes Neglected—Parkhurst† says, Satis fecisti, My belly’s full of your Magnalia Christi. Your crude Divinity, and History Will not with a censorious age agree. |
* His 2 volumus [sic]—Sewall’s note. The reference is undoubtedly to Mather’s Biblia Americana, which Mather several times vainly endeavored to publish by subscription. It is still in existence—unprinted.
† Parkhurst was the London bookseller who published the Magnalia.
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satire may reflect the growth of English satirical poetry during the latter part of the seventeenth century and at the opening of the eighteenth. John Danforth, who had written some verses for his own almanacs at an earlier date, printed a poem a page in length at the end of his published lecture
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“The Right Christian Temper in every Condition.”12 Cotton Mather wrote several poems, found in his diary and elsewhere, most of which show more poetical feeling and expression than do the poems which he published in the “Magnalia.”13 Samuel Wigglesworth, son of the author of “The Day of Doom,” wrote one long poem, “A Funeral Song,”14 which, in spite of its title, in no way resembles the elegies of the earlier periods, but on the contrary shows
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Daz’d with the stol’n title of his Sire: To be a Doctor he is all on fire; Would after him, the Sacrilege commit But that the Keeper’s care doth him affright.§ To Britain’s northern Clime in haste he sends, And begs an Independent boon from Presbyterian friends; Rather than be without, he’d beg it of the Fiends. Facetious George brought him this Libertie To write C. Mather first, and then D. D. |
Another satire, less poetical but very bold, appeared in 1717. To quote Sewall,
a virulent Libel was starch’d on upon the Three Doors of the Meeting House [the New South], containing the following Words;
TO ALL TRUE-HEARTED CHRISTIANS. Good people, within this House, this very day,
A Canting Crew will meet to fast, and pray.
Just as the miser fasts with greedy mind, to spare;
So the glutton fasts, to eat a greater share.
But the sower-headed Presbyterians fast to seem more holy,
And their Canting Ministers to punish sinfull foley.”
(Diary, iii. 116.)
Still another satirical poem, which has disappeared, is mentioned in Thomas’ list for 1714 (History of Printing, ii. 372) under the title “Origin of the Whale-bone petticoat.” A Satyr (In Verse). Boston, August 2d, 1714.
‡ Increase Mather’s degree of Doctor of Divinity had been conferred upon him through his own influence at a time when it is questionable whether Harvard had the right to confer such a degree. His enemies criticized him for accepting it.
§ Leverett—Sewall’s note. President Leverett belonged to the party unfriendly to the Mathers.
12 Published at Boston, 1702. He also wrote a poem upon the death of Elder Hopestill, of Dorchester, in 1719. See Memoirs of Roger Clap, p. v.
13 See his Diary, i. 450; ii. 138, 786; and Kettell, Specimens of American Poetry, i. 14.
14 Printed in full in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, iv. 89, and in part in Tyler, History of American Literature, ii. 36 ff.
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greater poetical imagination than do his father’s poems. In 1713 Richard Steere of Connecticut and Long Island brought out at Boston a ninety-page volume of verse under the title of “The Daniel Catcher.”15
The last named volume deserves especial attention, not for the fifty-three page biblical poem in rhymed couplets, of the familiar colonial type, from which the volume gets its title, but for three of the shorter poems included in the volume. The first of these is a nineteen page poem in blank verse. The blank verse is not very good, but unique in the colonial poetry of the period, and unusual in any English poetry of the time, there being practically no non-dramatic blank verse from Milton to Thompson. The second, a poem on the visit of the angels to Bethlehem at the birth of the Saviour, is interesting for its echo of Milton’s “Hymn” in “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.” The theme is the same, although treated differently, and the metre resembles Milton’s in its regular stanza form with the Alexandrine at the end of each stanza; it differs in having an added line instead of the longer third and sixth lines of Milton’s. The resemblance is not remarkable, but it is difficult to believe that the writer was not influenced, even if not inspired, by Milton. If so, thi iss [sic] the first colonial poem which shows such influence. The third poem deserves quotation here as showing more poetic feeling than most of the contemporary poetry, and even more as an instance of an appreciation of nature at a time when sincere appreciation of nature was practically unknown in English poetry on either side of the ocean.
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All round the Horizon black Clouds appear A Storm is near: Darkness Eclipseth the Sereener Sky, The Winds are high, |
15 Printed in full in Littlefield, Early Massachusetts Press, ii. This was his second volume of verse. His first, A Monumental Memorial of Marine Mercy, was published in Boston, 1684.
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Making the Surface of the Ocean Show Like mountains Lofty, and like Vallies Low. The weighty Seas are rowled from the Deeps In mighty heaps, And from the Rocks Foundations do arise To Kiss the Skies: Wave after Wave in Hills each other Crowds, As if the Deeps resolv’d to Storm the Clouds. How did the Surging Billows Fome and Rore Against the Shore Threatning to bring the Land under their power And it Devour: Those Liquid Mountains on the Clifts were hurld As to a Chaos they would shake the World. The Earth did Interpose the Prince of Light Twas Sable nigh[t] All Darkness was but when the Lightnings fly And Light the Sky, Night, Thunder, Lightning, Rain, & raging Wind, To make a Storm had all their forces joyn’d. |
Such verse writers as these were responsible for the increased interest in literature during the early years of the century, and prepared the way for the even greater activity to follow when the influence of The Spectator and similar papers and of Pope and his contemporaries should be felt in New England. That the colonists so soon reacted to the literary movements in England may have been because of the work of these people, poor as it was in itself. As early as 1714 Cotton Mather was ready to attempt essays of the Spectator type;16 and as soon as a vehicle was provided in The New England Courant there were many who were eager to contribute.17 The essays in the Courant were the work
16 See p. 194, above.
17 An indication of the eagerness to contribute either to the Courant, or, for the more conservative, to the News-Letter or Gazette, is shown by the fact that one of [footnote continues on p. 213] the several verse contributions which Sewall sent to the News-Letter was an adaptation of a poem which he had written in 1676. It was published in the News-Letter for March 28, 1723, having waited nearly fifty years for a suitable medium for publication. It was evidently recalled by Sewall when he was seeking material to contribute. (Diary, i. 27; iii. 320 note.)
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of a group of men sufficiently organized so that John Campbell, publisher of The Boston News-Letter, disgruntled at the success of a new rival, and perhaps offended by the atheistic or deistic tone of the essays, gave them the name by which they have ever since been known, the Hell-Fire Club, that being the name of a London atheist club of unsavory repute. Isaiah Thomas speaks of the group as “a society of gentlemen.”18 The essays in the Courant were quickly answered by essays in the News-Letter and Gazette; and for several years public questions of the day, such as inoculation, were debated. Several months after the Courant ceased publication in 1726, The New England Weekly Journal was begun. This, like the Courant, was the organ of a group of men whose purposes were definitely literary. This group included such young writers as Mather Byles, Thomas Prince, Judge Danforth,19 and probably Matthew Adams, formerly associated with the Courant.20 The name “Proteus Echo” was assumed for the editor, as “Old Janus” had been used in the Courant, both in obvious imitation of the Spectator. Both journals printed verse as well as prose, and both frequently lightened the work of their writers by reprinting from English periodicals.21 The chief poet of the Journal was Mather Byles, whose style bears witness to his admiration of Pope’s poetry.22
Another illustration of the colonial response to English literary movements, as well as an illustration of increasing interest in the production of literature, is found in a manuscript
18 History of Printing, ii. 31.
19 Ibid., ii. 41, 42.
20 Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, v. 211 note.
21 Cook, Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, Chapters I and II, where much detail is given.
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volume recently acquired by the Harvard Library.22 This volume, in the handwriting of Ebenezer Turell, contains thirteen numbers of a student periodical, modeled after the Spectator, which evidently circulated in manuscript. The periodical is called The Telltale, and most of its papers are signed by Telltale. One paper gives an account of the “Telltale alias Spy Club—wch consists of these Six members: Telltale, Blablonge, Sharpsights, Courage, Intelligence, Quick.” Verse is found in one of the papers. Of this volume Mr. Lane writes, “It is the earliest college production of the kind of which I have any information.” That Harvard preceded any English college in attempting periodical literature is striking evidence of the awakening to literary activity in New England in the first quarter of the eighteenth century.
There are other indications of the literary tendency of the time. In 1724 T. Fleet published “The Indictment and Tryal of Sir Richard Rum,” a clever temperance tract with literary merit. In 1725 Nathaniel Ames began his “Almanac,” which differed from the earlier almanacs both in its use of the best English poetry (whereas earlier almanacs printed third rate original verse), and in its blending of wit and wisdom in effective phrases, wherein Ames anticipated Franklin’s “Poor Richard.” From now on the almanac yearly carried real literature into every home.
It must be admitted that most of the literature produced during this period is unsatisfactory. The imitations of the Spectator do not measure up to their model. The imitators of Pope may have caught the trick of his verse, but they lack both his brilliant wit and his poetic power. That the colonists did not succeed in their attempts is much less important, however, than the fact that they made the effort, and that at the end of the first century of colonization the effort was a general one, not limited to a few ministers or to the educated
22 This volume is described in detail in a paper by William C. Lane, Librarian of Harvard, read before the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xii. 220.)
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class. The leaders in the movement to establish literary journalism had been James Franklin, whose education had been merely that of a printer’s apprentice, and Matthew Adams, whom Benjamin Franklin describes as “an ingenious tradesman.”23 Benjamin Franklin himself was only a self-educated printer’s apprentice, and a mere boy as well, yet he also came under the influence of the Spectator and attempted essays with such success that the Dogood papers, begun in the Courant early in 1722, when Franklin was hardly sixteen, were among the most literary essays which that periodical published. Unquestionably we owe the writings of the greatest American writer of the eighteenth century to the literary movement which developed in New England and centered in Boston about the year 1720, as if to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the establishment of English civilization in New England.
23 Autobiography, p. 22.
Dinsmore Documentation presents Classics of American Colonial History