A History of American Literature. Boynton Percy Holmes
Historical Tracts, Vol. II, Nos. 1 and 2. 1883.
Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Ser.3, Vol. VI.
Collections
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 1-18.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 1-8, 33-43.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 3-17.
Narratives of Early Virginia. L. G. Tyler, editor. 1907.
Sailors Narratives. G. P. Winship, editor. 1905.
William Bradford. History of Plimouth Plantation. First published in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Ser. 4, Vol. III.
Available Editions
Charles Deane, editor. 1896.
W. T. Davis, editor. 1912.
Collections
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 27-44.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 93-130.
Thomas Morton. New English Canaan, or New Canaan. Amsterdam, 1637.
Available Editions
Force. Historical Tracts, Vol. II, No. 5. 1883. C. F. Adams, editor.
Prince Historical Society Publications. 1888. C. F. Adams, editor.
Collections
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 60-72.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 28-30.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 147-156.
Nathaniel Ward. The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. London, 1647.
Available Editions
Force. Historical Tracts, Vol. III, No. 8. 1906.
Ipswich Historical Society of Ipswich, Mass. Publications.
Biography
A Memoir of Nathaniel Ward. J. W. Dean. 1868.
Collections
Cairns, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 112-124.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 18-20.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 147-156.
Roger Williams. Works. Edited by members of the Narragansett Club. Providence, 1866-1874. 6 vols. Contains likewise J. Cotton’s contributions to the controversy with Williams, together with a bibliography of Williams’s works.
Available Edition
Letters from 1632 to 1675. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Ser. 4, Vol. VI.
Biography and Criticism
Carpenter, E. J. Roger Williams; a Study of the Life, etc. Grafton History Series. 1909.
Masson, David. Life of John Milton, Vols. II, III.
Straus, Oscar S. Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty. 1894.
Collections
CAIRNS, W. B. Early American Writers, pp. 94-111.
Duyckinck, E. A. and G. L. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 32-38.
Stedman and Hutchinson. Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 246-253.
Literary Treatment of the Period
Drama
Barker, J. N. The Indian Princess; an Operatic Melodrama (1808), in Representative Plays by American Dramatists (edited by M.J. Moses), Vol. I. 1918.
Custis, G. W. P. Pocahontas, or The Settlers of Virginia; a National Drama (1830), in Representative American Plays (edited by A.H. Quinn). 1917.
Essays
Emerson, R. W. Discourse at Concord, 200th Anniversary. Works, Vol. XI.
Lowell, J. R. New England Two Centuries Ago. Works, Vol. II.
Whittier, J. G. A Chapter of History, in Literary Recreations and Miscellanies.
Fiction
Austin, Mrs. J. G. Standish of Standish.
Austin, Mrs. J. G. Betty Alden (sequel).
Austin, Mrs. J. G. David Alden’s Daughter.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Gray Champion and The Maypole of Merry Mount, in Twice-Told Tales.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown, in Mosses from an Old Manse.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter.
Johnston, Mary. By Order of the Company.
Johnston, Mary. The Old Dominion.
Motley, J. L. Merry Mount.
Poetry
Poems of American History (edited by B.E. Stevenson), pp. 36-56.
American History by American poets (edited by N.U. Wallington). Vol. I, pp. 39-92.
TOPICS AND PROBLEMS
Read the “New English Canaan,” Bk. III, with a view to deciding how far Morton’s evident prejudice discredited his account of the Puritans; examine it again for its specifically literary qualities.
Read from Bradford’s “History of Plimouth Plantation” for the admirable traits of Puritanism and see, also, if you find grounds for any of Morton’s strictures.
Read the Hawthorne selections in the Book List – Literary Treatment of the Period – and decide how far he may have sympathized with the attitude of Morton in the “New English Canaan.”
Read from “The Simple Cobler of Aggawam” for any evidence of Nathaniel Ward’s residence in America; decide on the degree to which the work is English and the degree to which it is colonial.
Compare the attitude toward Ireland of Nathaniel Ward in this work and of Jonathan Swift in his “Modest Proposal.”
Make comparisons in diction from a corresponding number of pages in “The Simple Cobler” and in Carlyle’s “Sartor Resartus.”
CHAPTER II
THE EARLIEST VERSE
Although it is generally said of the Puritans that they were actually hostile to all the arts, there is abundant proof that they had a liking for verse and a widespread inclination to try their hands at it. They wrote memorial verses of the most intricate and ingenious sorts, sometimes carving them in stone as epitaphs. There is less verse sprinkled through the unregenerate Morton’s “Canaan” than there is in the intolerant Ward’s “Cobler.” The old conservative never wrote more wisely than in this so-called “song”:
They seldom lose the field, but often win,
Who end their Warres, before their Warres begin.
Their Cause is oft the worse, that first begin,
And they may lose the field, the field that win.
In Civil Warres ’twixt Subjects and their King,
There is no conquest got, by conquering.
Warre ill begun, the onely way to mend,
Is t’end the Warre before the Warre do end.
They that will end ill Warres, must have the skill,
To make an end by Rule, and not by Will.
In ending Warres ’tween Subjects and their Kings,
Great things are