Engl 30133, American Lit to 1900

Williams, Fall 2012

Bradstreet's "Meditations Divine and Moral"

1

There is no object that we see, no action that we do, no good that we enjoy, no evil that we feel or fear, but we may make some spiritual advantage of all; and he that makes such improvement is wise as well as pious.

4

A ship that bears much sail and little ballast is easily overset, and that man whose head hath great abilities and his heart little or no grace is in danger of foundering.

6

The finest bread hath the least bran, the purest honey the least wax, and the sincereest Christian the least self-love.

8

Downy beds make drowsy persons, but hard lodging keeps the eyes open; a prosperous state makes a secure Christian, but adversity makes him consider.

11

That town which thousands of enemies without hath not been able to take hath been delivered up by one traitor within, and that man which all the temptations of Satan without could not hurt hath been foiled by one lust within.

14

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

19

Corn, till it have past through the mill and been ground to powder, is not fit for bread. God so deals with his servants: he grinds them with grief and pain till they turn to dust, and then are fit manchet [fine bread] for his mansion.

31

Iron, till it be thoroughly heat, is uncapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction and then beats them on His anvil into what frame he pleases.

Engl 30133, American Lit to 1900

Williams, Fall 2012

Beginnings

From William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation:

(setting: Mayflower voyage)

And I may not omite hear a spetiall worke of Gods providence. Ther was a proud and very profane yonge man, one of the sea-men, of a lustie, able body, which made him the more haughty; he would allways be contemning the poor people [Pilgrim passengers] in their sicknes, and cursing them dayly with greevous execrations, and did not let to tell them, that he hoped to help to cast halfe of them over board before they came to their jurneys end, and to make merry with what they had; and if he were by any gently reproved, he would curse and swear most bitterly. But it pleased God before they came halfe seas over, to smite this yong man with a greevous disease, of which he dyded in a desperate maner, and so was him selfe the first that was throwne overboard. Thus his curses light on his own head; and it was an astonishmente to all his fellows, for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.

From The Journal of John Winthrop:

(setting: at a meeting house in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony, August 15, 1648, during a sermon)

It fell out, about the midst of his sermon (Reverend Allen), there came a snake into the seat, where many of the elders sate behind the preacher. It came in at the door where people stood thick upon the stairs. Divers of the elders shifted from it, but Mr. Thompson, one of the elders of Braintree, (a man of much faith), trode the head of it, and so held it with his foot and staff . . . until it was killed. This being so remarkable, and nothing falling out but by divine providence, it is out of doubt, the Lord discovered somewhat of his mind in it. The serpent is the devil; the synod, the representative of the churches of Christ in New England. The devil had formerly and lately attempted their disturbance and dissolution; but their faith in the seed of the woman overcame him and crushed his head.

Engl 30133, American Lit to 1900

Williams, Fall 2012

John Winthop's "A Model of Christian Charity"

--lay sermon delivered on board the Arbella, the flagship vessel of a fleet carrying some 700 passengers during the "Great Migration" in 1629-1630. Some 20 thousand settlers journeyed to New England during the "Great Migration"

--sermon deals with ideals of Christian charity that must be realized if colony was to succeed in its divine errand--and also to survive the harsh conditions

--Winthrop argued that the settlers had to form a commonwealth for the mutual benefit of all and that their society had to be able to withstand the scrutiny of a hostile world--social cohesion and social commitment were required.

From the Text:

--God Almightie in his most holy and wise providence hath soe disposed of the Condicion of mankinde, as in all times some must be rich[,] some poore, some high and eminent in power and dignitie; others mean and in subjection.

--wee are a Company professing our selves fellow members of Christ

--for the worke wee have in hand, it is by mutuall consent through a speciall overruling providence, and a more then an ordinary approbation of the Churches of Christ to seeke out a place of Cohabitation and Consortship under a due form of government both civill and ecclesiastical. . . . The end is to improve our lives to doe more service to the Lord

--That which the most in their Churches maintain as a truth in profession only, wee must bring into familiar and constant practise, as in this duty of love wee must love brotherly without dissimulation, wee must love one another with a pure hearte fervently, wee must beare one anothers burthens

--Thus stands the cause betweene God and us, wee are entered into Covenant with him for this worke, wee have taken out a Commission, the Lord hath given us leave to drawe our owne Articles . . . Now if the Lord shall please to heare us, and bring us in peace to the place wee desire, then hath hee ratified this Covenant and sealed our Commission, and will expect a strickt performance of the Articles contained in it, but if wee shall neglect the observation of these Articles which are the ends wee have propounded, and dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnall intencions, seeking greater things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us[,] be revenged of such a perjured people[,] and make us know the price of the breach of such a Covenant

--we must be knit together as one man

--for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are uppon us [reference to Matthew 5: 14-15, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."]

--But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worship other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good Land whither wee passe over this vast Sea to possess it

Engl 30133, American Literature to 1900

Williams, Fall Semester 2010

Colonists at Jamestown?

On May 24, 1607, 105 colonists landed at Jamestown under a patent from the London Company. Among the members of this group there were:

54 colonists listed as “gentlemen”

2 surgeons

4 carpenters

12 laborers

1 blacksmith

1 sailor

1 barber

1 bricklayer

1 stone mason

1 tailor

1 drummer

and 4 boys.

Starvation and disease reduced the original 105 to 32 during the first seven months. A year later the first supply ship arrived with 120 new colonists. Among those new members there were:

33 colonists listed as “gentlemen”

21 laborers

6 tailors

2 apothecaries

1 jeweler

3 goldsmiths

1 gunsmith

1 barber

1 perfumer

1 surgeon

1 cooper

1 tobacco-pipe maker

and 1 blacksmith

During the Starving Time which followed 3 out of 4 colonists died.

Engl 30133, American Literature to 1900

Williams, Fall Semester 2012

Elizabethans and America

The soil is the most plentiful, sweet, and wholesome of all the world.

We were entertained with all love and kindness with as much bounty after their manner as they could possibly devise. We found the people [to be] most gentle, loving, and faithful, void of all guile and treason and such as lived after the manner of the
Golden Age. The earth bringeth forth all things in abundance as in the first creation, without toil or labor.

--Arthur Barlow, A New Land Like unto That of the Golden Age (1584)

We have discovered the main [part of the land] to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring such sundry rich and most pleasant gums, grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain, nor Italy hath no greater . . .Besides that, it is the goodliest and most pleasing territory of the world and the climate so wholesome that we have not had one sick since we touched the land here. To conclude, if Virginia had but horses and kine {cattle] in some reasonable proportion, I dare assure myself, being inhabited with English, no realm in Christendom were comparable to it.

--Ralph Lane, Letter to Richard Hakluyt, (1585)

Scapethrift: But is there such treasure there, Captain, as I have heard?

Captain Seagull: I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us, and for as much red copper as I can bring, I’ll have thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping-pans and their chamber pots are pure gold, and all their chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold. All the prisoners are fettered in gold. And for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather them by the sea-shore to hang on their children’s coats and stick in their caps, as commonly as out children wear saffron gilt brooches and groats with holes in them.

Scapethirft: And is it a pleasant country withal?

Captain Seagull: As ever the sun shined on, temperate and full of all sorts of excellent viands. Wild boar is as common there as our tamest bacon is here, venison as mutton. And then you shall live freely there, without sergeants, or courtiers, or lawyers . . .

--Eastward Ho, a play by Chapman, Jonson, and Marston (1605)

To get the pearl and gold

And ours to hold,

Virginia,

Earth’s only Paradise,

Where nature hath in store

Fowl, venison, and fish,

And the fruitful’st soil

Without your toil

Three harvest more

All greater than you wish.

--Michael Drayton, “Ode to the Virginia Voyage” (1606)