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Chapter VIII: Quotations by New England Writers.

AS a large part of the published writings of the New Englanders consisted of sermons, and as it seems to have been against their custom to use in their sermons any quotations except from Scripture or rarely from some of the Fathers, the field for quotations is somewhat limited. It is still further limited by the fact that few of the writers of narrative embellish their narratives with borrowed ornaments, either of prose or of poetry. From such books as do not belong to these two classes, from letters, and from a few narratives, the quotations to be included are taken.

Daniel Gookin, in his “Historical Collections of the Indians,” Chapter IV, referred to “that seraphick prediction of holy Herbert, that excellent poet, . . . . which he elegantly declared in that poem: Herbert, Church Militant, 190, 191 page.” He proceeds to quote twenty-four lines, from

Religion stands on tiptoe in our land Ready to pass to the American strand

to

But lends to us, shall be our desolation.

From his reference to the paging, which is the same in the fifth edition as in the first, it is evident that he had a copy of Herbert’s “The Temple” before him. There are two or three errors in the quotation which he may have made in copying, but which are more likely typesetters’ mistakes.

In a letter to Increase Mather, Nathaniel Morton wrote,

. . . . and in some sort comply with our Englis Poett, George Withers; (saith hee) Alas that I was borne soe late, or else soe

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soone; to see soe cleare, soe bright a morne, soe darke an afternoone.¹

Thomas Shepard, writing to his son, then entering Harvard, in regard to his studies, echoed Bacon’s essay, “Of Studies”:

Lett your studies be so ordered as to have variety of Studies before you, that when you are weary of one book, you may take pleasure (through this variety) in another: and for this End read some Histories often, which (they Say) make men wise, as Poets make witty; both which are pleasant things in the midst of more difficult studies.²

The witchcraft controversies naturally called forth much citing of authorities. John Hale, in his “Modest Enquiry,” referred to or quoted the following:

• Bernard³
• Baxter and R. Burton, their Histories about witches.⁴
• Finch: Common Law⁵
• Keeble of the Common Law⁶
• St. Germans: Abridgment of Common Law
• Wierus: De Præstigiis Demonum⁷

He also quoted a story by “my Lord Cook,” evidently

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Sir Edward Coke. A phrase which he used, “A dwarf upon a giants shoulders can see farther than a giant,” may have been taken from Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy,” where it is found;⁸ it may, however, have been a current phrase.

Robert Calef, merchant of Boston, in his attack on the Mathers which he called “More Wonders of the Invisible World” in mockery of Cotton Mather’s “Wonders of the Invisible World,” also showed familiarity with the literature of demonology, from which he freely quoted:

And in the Mercury for the month of February, 1695, there is this account⁹ [from which he quotes]

. . . the indians’ adorations, which agrees well with what A. Ross sets forth, in his Mistag. Poetic. p. 116,¹⁰ that . . . .

• Bernard’s work on witches¹¹
• Mr. Gaule’s book on witches¹²
• Perkins’ work on witches¹³
• Bodin¹⁴
• . . . . the fancies of Trithemius¹⁵

Calef was not content, however, with recent authors on the subject, but went back to the lives of Justin Martyr, Apollonius Tyaneus, and Julian the Apostate, and to the works of Josephus; he even quoted Ovid and Virgil. He has two quotations from Sandys’ metrical translation of the “Metamorphoses”: eighteen lines from Liber 7, and nine from Liber 14; and two passages from a metrical translation of Virgil’s “Bucolics” which I have been unable to identify:

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two lines from Eclogue 13, and eleven lines from Eclogue 8. Although Calef complained that he was not an educated man, in contrast to the Mathers whom he was opposing, he knew both his Virgil and his Ovid, in English at least, sufficiently well to recall passages which very effectively illustrated his point that the current notions of witchcraft came from paganism and had no authority from the Bible.

The Mathers, especially Cotton, with his vast learning and a willingness to exhibit it, are very helpful to this study because they did quote so freely as to give some idea of the books with which they were familiar. Increase Mather quoted or cited (giving page or chapter reference) at least one hundred and thirty different authors, not including anonymous works quoted or cited, such as “The History of Sham Plots” or the “German Ephemerides.” Besides these there are over thirty authors to whom he referred familiarly, but did not directly use. Cotton Mather quoted or cited over three hundred authors, and referred without direct use to nearly two hundred others. As it would be tedious to comment on all of these, only a few will be discussed, the rest being merely listed.

The most interesting quotation by Increase Mather is one from Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy.” Mather wrote:¹⁶

. . . . There is in special, a sort of melancholy madness, which is called lycanthropia or lupina insania, h. e., when men imagine themselves to be turned into wolves or other beasts. Hippocrates relates concerning the daughters of king Prætus, that they thought themselves kine. Wierus (de Præstigiis Dæmonum, 1. iii. c. 21) speaketh of one in Padua, that would not believe to the contrary but that he was a wolf; and of a Spaniard, who thought himself a bear. Euwichius (and from him Horstius) writeth of a man that was found in a barn under the hay, howling and saying he was a wolf. The foolish rusticks, who surprized him, began to flay him, that so they might see if he had not hair growing on the

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inside of his skin. Forestus has many instances to this purpose. Heurnius saith, that it is a disease frequent in Bohemia and Hungaria. No doubt but this disease gave occasion to Pliny’s assertion, that some men in his time were turned into wolves, and from wolves into men again. Hence was Ovid’s fable of Lycaon, and the tale of Pausanius being ten years a wolf, and then a man again. He that would see more instances, may read Austin, de Civ. Dei. 1. xviii, c. 5; Burton of Melancholly, page 9. They that are subject unto this malady, for the most part lye hid all the day, and go abroad in the night, barking and howling at graves and in desarts. We may suppose that Nebuchadnezzar was troubled with this disease.

From Mather’s brief reference to Burton in the above no one would imagine his real indebtedness to him for almost every detail in the passage. An idea of his wholesale borrowing in this instance will be obtained by a comparison of this with the parallel passage in Burton which follows:

Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls Cucubuth, others Lupinam insaniam, or Wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or some such beasts. Ætius and Paulus call it a kind of melancholy; but I should rather refer it to madness, as most do. Some make a doubt of it whether there be any such disease. Donat ab Altomari saith, that he saw two of them in his time: Wierus tells a story of such a one at Padua 1541, that would not believe to the contrary, but that he was a wolf. He hath another instance of a Spaniard, who thought himself a bear; Forrestus confirms as much by many examples; one amongst the rest of which he was an eye-witness, at Alcmaer in Holland, a poor husbandman that still hunted about graves, and kept in churchyards, of a pale, black, ugly, and fearful look. Such belike, or little better, were King Prætus’ daughters, that thought themselves kine. And Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel, as some interpreters hold, was only troubled with this kind of madness. This disease perhaps gave occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny, “some men were turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men again:” and to that fable of Pausanias, of a man that was ten years a wolf, and afterwards turned to his former shape: to

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Ovid’s tale of Lycaon, &c. He that is desirous to hear of this disease, or more examples, let him read Austin in his 18th book de Civitate Dei, cap. 5. Mizaldus, cent. 5. 77. Sckenkius, lib. 1. Hildesheim, . . . . [names several others]. This malady, saith Avicenna, troubleth men most in February, and is now-a-days frequent in Bohemia and Hungary, according to Heurnius. Schernitzius will have it common in Livonia. They lie hid most part all day, and go abroad in the night, barking, howling, at graves and deserts; . . .¹⁷

There are one or two original items in Mather’s, but nearly everything is borrowed, even to the phraseology, except the order. Was Mather the first of the many who have borrowed from the “Anatomy” without giving due credit?

Increase Mather knew Sir Thomas Browne as well as Burton, and quoted three times from his “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,”¹⁸ citing the page once. He also cited Sir Kenelme Digby’s “Discourse of Bodies,” pp. 409, 410.¹⁹ Thomas Fuller he cited and quoted;²⁰ and of course Joseph Glanvil, whose writings were the chief stronghold of those who believed in the necessity of witch-hunting.²¹ His acceptance of the absurdities of the witchcraft delusions was not, however, due to any lack of access to or familiarity with the best scientific writings of his time. He took illustrations from five numbers of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal

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Society,²² from two volumes of the Philosophical Conferences of the Virtuosi of France,²³ and from half a dozen volumes of the “German Ephemerides;”²⁴ he also quoted Robert Hooke²⁵ and Robert Boyle.²⁶ Of the latter he remarked in the Preface to “Remarkable Providences,” “I have often wished that the Natural History of New-England might be written and published to the world; the rules and method described by that learned and excellent person Robert Boyle, Esq., being duely observed therein.”

The list of the other books or writers made use of by Increase Mather,. given in the Appendix, will show the variety of his reading, and, with the lists already given on pages 130 and 131, will throw light upon the content of his library.

The quotations by Cotton Mather are not only more in number than his father’s, but have a more literary tone at times, partly because they include more poetry. He was familiar with “Paradise Lost,” as is shown by three well chosen passages from that poem which he used in the “Magnalia.” Charles Francis Adams, although he quotes these passages, makes the inference that we have no positive record of any copy of Milton’s poems in New England before 1720;²⁷ a study of Mather’s treatment of the passages he quotes will, however, I think, convince the reader that there must have been at least one copy of “Paradise Lost” in New England before 1698, lying open on Cotton Mather’s table as he wrote his greatest book. Speaking of the difficulties

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met by the colonists in their wars with the Indians, he wrote:²⁸

. . . . they found that they were like to make no weapons reach their enswamped adversaries, except Mr. Milton could have shown them how

To have pluckt up the hills with all their load— Rocks, waters, woods—and by their shaggy tops, Up-lifting, bore them in their hands, therewith The rebel host to ’ve over-whelm’d.

A comparison of this with the original, “Paradise Lost,” VI, 643-647, 650-651, shows that Mather’s changes are not misquotations from memory, but careful changes, evidently with the original before him, to preserve the rhythm and at the same time fit the new context.

From their foundations, loosening to and fro, They plucked the seated hills, with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods, and, by the shaggy tops Uplifting, bore them in their hands. Amaze, Be sure, and terror, seized the rebel host, .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .       Till on those cursed engines’ triple row They saw them whelmed, . . . .

The great impression made upon Mather by the details of the contest between the rebel host and the forces of the Almighty is shown by his own statement and by the two other paraphrases on the poem:

. . . . but we who felt ourselves assaulted by unknown numbers of devils in flesh on every side of us, and knew that our minute numbers employ’d in the service against them, were proportionably more to us than mighty legions are to nations that have existed as many centuries as our colonies have years in the world, can scarce forbear taking the colours in the Sixth Book of Milton to describe our story:²⁹

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For after this, the Auri sacra Fames, that “cursed hunger of lucre,” in the diverse nations of Europeans here, in diverse colonies bordering upon one another, soon furnished the salvages with tools to destroy those that furnish’d them:

—Tools, pregnant with infernal flame, Which into hollow engines, long and round, Thick ramm’d at the other bore, with touch of fire Dilated and infuriate, doth send forth From far with thund’ring noise among their foes Such implements of mischief, as to dash To pieces and o’erwhelm whatever stands Adverse.—30

Milton, “Paradise Lost,” VI, 482-491, wrote:

These in their dark nativity the Deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame; Which, into hollow engines long and round Thick-rammed, at the other bore with touch of fire Dilated and infuriate, shall send forth From far, with thundering noise, among our foes Such implements of mischief as shall dash To pieces and o’erwhelm whatever stands Adverse, that they shall fear we have disarmed The Thunderer of his only dreaded bolt.

Mather, “Magnalia,” ii. 568.

And now, sic magnis componere parva! Reader, And now their mightiest quell’d, the battel swerved, With many an inrode gor’d; deformed rout Enter’d, and foul disorder; all the ground With shiver’d armour strown, and on a heap, Salvage and Sagamore lay overturn’d, And fiery, foaming blacks: what stood, recoil’d, O’er wearied, and with panick fear surpris’d.

“Paradise Lost,” VI, 386-393.

And now, their mightiest quelled, the battle swerved, With many an inroad gored; deformed rout

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Entered, and foul disorder; all the ground With shivered armour strown, and on a heap Chariot and charioter lay overturned, And fiery foaming steeds; what stood recoiled, O’er-wearied, through the faint Satanic host, Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surprised—

Chaucer, too, Mather evidently knew, for he hoped “that saying of old Chaucer [might] be remembred, ’To do the genteel deeds, that makes the gentleman.’”³¹ Presumably this is a recollection of a passage in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale.”

Loke who that is most vertuous alway, Privee and apert, and most entendeth ay To do the gentil dedes that he can, And tak him for the grettest gentil man.32

If the phrase had come to Mather as a current saying it would hardly have had Chaucer’s name attached; at least it is hardly to be expected that people in general in New England would be so careful to preserve the name of a poet of whom Pope could write so slightingly, within ten years,

Now length of fame (our second life) is lost, And bare threescore is all e’en that can boast; Our sons their fathers’ failing language see, And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.

Presumably Mather had a copy of Chaucer, or had used the Harvard Library copy.³³ He made one other reference to Chaucer, speaking of “the famous old Chaucer’s motto:

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Mors mihi aerumnarum requies.”³⁴ On Chaucer’s tomb in Westminster Abbey this is given as Ærumnarum requies mors.

Other quotations by Cotton Mather are from Cowley’s Latin poems,³⁵ Fuller’s “Church History” and other writings,³⁶ James Howel’s “Familiar Letters,”³⁷ Dr. Burnet’s “History of the Reformation,”³⁸ Wood’s “Athenæ Oxoniensis,”³⁹ and so on. From Sir Richard Blackmore’s “Prince Arthur,” published in 1695, while the “Magnalia” was being written, he quoted two passages, one of 26 lines.⁴⁰ Besides these quotations he has references to “Hudibras,”⁴¹ to Tom Tusser’s lines on the harshness of Nicholas Udall, master of Eton,⁴² to Ronsard’s comment on DuBartas,⁴³ to Rabelais’ “Pantagruel,”⁴⁴ and to the legend of the Pied Piper.⁴⁵ He seems, also, to have

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been familiar with “Don Quixote,” for he speaks of “romances of Don Quixote and the Seven Champions,”⁴⁶ and elsewhere⁴⁷ speaks of the “quixotism” of Roger Williams. It would be interesting to know whether Mather “coined” that term for himself; the “New English Dictionary” records but one use of it earlier than this, in a book or tract, “Pulpit Popery, True Popery,” 1688, and quotes the next example from The Briton, No. 20, 1723. Certainly Cotton Mather, before the end of the century, had considerable literary background. The other books which he quoted or cited are listed in the Appendix.

In addition to all these, Cotton Mather was fond of using such phrases as “a saying of the Jews,” “the Arabian proverb,” “an account of a certain bishop of Rome,” “the Italian proverb,” “a certain proverb in Asia,” “the witty epigrammatist hath told us,” “as he that writes the life of holy Mr. Bains expresses it,” “the author of the life of Belgic Wallæus,” “the famous judge’s motto,” etc. In the “Magnalia”⁴⁸ occur two lines from Herbert, which, however, are not quoted by Mather, but in a prefatory epistle written by Matthew Mead of London. Presumably Mather could have quoted Herbert had he cared to, as a copy of Herbert’s poems was in his father’s library as early as 1664.⁴⁹

Samuel Sewall’s “Diary” and “Letter-Book” contain a few references to his reading. On his voyage to England in 1688 he carried with him a volume by Dr. Preston, Manton’s “Exposition of James,” and Erasmus.⁵⁰ At another time he recorded saying to Benjamin Colman, “Philomela would have

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found out some words . . . .,”⁵¹ Philomela being the nom de plume of Elizabeth Singer Rowe, a popular English poetess of the day. On the cover of his journal he copied in full “An Elegie on Mrs. Alicia Lisle, which for high Treason was beheaded at Winchester, September the 2^d 1685,” evidently taken from an English broadside.⁵² This is followed by letters dated 1686, and therefore was copied not long after publication. Sewall was no doubt especially interested in this poem because one of the daughters of the unfortunate Lady Alice Lisle was living in Boston, the wife of Hezekiah Usher, and formerly wife of President Hoar of Harvard.⁵³ The following item shows his interest in reading, and his taste. He was trying a case at Bristol at the time.

Rain hinder’d our setting out that day. So after din¯er at Mr. Saffin’s, Not knowing better how to bestow my time, Look’d on Mr. Saffin’s Books, and lit on Dr. Fullers History of the Worthies of England, and in p. 116. 117. found mention made of the Inundation at Coventry, on Friday April, 17. in the Maioralty of Henry Sewall my Father’s Grandfather. Mention is made p. 134. of W^m Dugdale’s Illustrations of Warwickshire.⁵⁴

Sewall did not need to go to Bristol to read Fuller, however, for two passages in his “Letter-Book” would indicate that he had more than one volume of Fuller in his own library, and was familiar with their contents.

I transcribe the following passage out of Dr. Fuller’s Engl[ish] Worthies in London, p. 202⁵⁵ . . . .

Transcribed the passages of George Abbot Archb[ishop] out of Fuller’s Ch[urch] History; knew not what better to write.⁵⁶

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Other authors or books which he quoted, or to which he referred, are: Augustine’s Psalms,⁵⁷ Baxter’s “Glorious Kingdom of Christ Described,”⁵⁸ Calvin’s “Institutions,”⁵⁹ Calamy’s “Life of Baxter,”⁶⁰ Horn’s “De Originibus Americanis,”⁶¹ Hornius’ “Carthaginian Dream,”⁶² Pareus’ “Commentaries,”⁶³ Thorowgood’s “Jews in America,”⁶⁴ and The London Gazette of June 27, 1700.⁶⁵

If the anonymous lines to Cotton Mather, written about 1700,⁶⁶

For Grace and Act and an Illustrious Fame Who would not look from such an Ominous Name, Where Two Great Names their Sanctuary take, And in a Third combined, a Greater make!

are, as Barrett Wendell very reasonably suggests,⁶⁷ in imitation of Dryden’s lines “Under Milton’s Picture”

Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn. The first, in loftiness of thought surpassed; The next, in majesty; in both, the last. The force of nature could no further go; To make a third, she joined the former two.

then we have another evidence of acquaintance with Milton’s

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poems, or at least with “Paradise Lost,” in the 1688 edition of which these lines first appeared.

The foregoing quotations not only add many items to the book lists of the preceding chapter, but also give some idea of the familiarity of the colonists with the books which they possessed. They certainly were not as lacking in books as has been generally believed; and it seems equally true that they read and appreciated such literary books as they possessed to an extent for which they have never been given due credit.

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