Puritan Poetry -- No Kidding!

Anne Bradstreet is one of America's first female writers. Her work is simple and accessible and this particular piece very illustrative of Puritan values and beliefs.

ON THE BURNING OF OUR HOUSE
by Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

In silent night when rest I took
For sorrow near I did not look,
I wakened--'twas with thundering noise--
And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.
The fearful sound of fire and fire
Let no man know is my Desire.
I started up, the light did spy
And to my God my heart did cry
To strengthen me in my distress
And not to leave me succorless.
Then coming out beheld a space
The flame consume my dwelling place,
And when I could no longer look
I blessed His Name who gave and took,
That laid my goods now in the dust
Yea so it was, and so 'twas just.
It was his own it was not mine
Far be it yet I should repine,
He might of All justly bereft,
But yet sufficient for us left.
When by the Ruines oft I pass
My sorrowing eyes aside did cast
And here and there the places spy
Where oft I sat and long did lie,
Here stood that trunk, and there that chest
There lay that store I counted best
My pleasant things in ashes lie
And them behold no more shall I.
Under thy roof no guest shall sit,
Nor at thy table eat a bit.
No pleasant tale shall 'ere be told
Nor things recounted done of old.
No candle 'ere shall shine in thee
Nor bridegroom's voice 'ere heard shall be.
In silence ever shalt thou lie
Adieu, adieu, all's vanity.
Then straight I 'gin my heart to chide,
And did thy wealth on Earth abide,
Didst fix thy hope on mouldering dust,
The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?
Raise up thy thoughts above the sky
That dunghill mists away may fly.
Thou hast a house on high erect,
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It's purchased and paid for, too
By Him who hath Enough to do.
A prize so vast as is unknown
Yet by his Gift is made thine own.
There's wealth enough--I need no more,
Farewell my pelf, farewell my store.
The world no longer let me love
My hope, my treasure, lies above.

Puritans Made Things Painful (For Those who Broke the Rules)

Pillory stocks, used for public humiliation

As I mentioned in class, most of the punishments used by the Puritans of Massachusetts -- stocks, whippings, and hangings -- were public, with the punishment serving to shame the lawbreaker and remind the public that to disagree with the state's decisions is to disagree with God's laws and will. That being said, public punishment was not a product of the Puritan age, but it played a large part in the village life of the Massachusetts Bay colony. We'll see this up close when we study The Scarlet Letter next month.

For now, here are a few examples of public punishments in use during the late 17th century -- in both Massachusetts and in Europe.

The Shrew's Fiddle

The barrel pillory

Here's an excellent article on the subject from The Salem News, published in 2004:

Punishments in 17th-century Massachusetts were diverse, creative, and often cruel. They ranged from simple fines to maiming to burning at the stake, although the latter was never used in Essex County. Instead, locals convicted of murder, like Dorothy Talby of Salem who capped a career of deviant behavior by killing her daughter, met their respective ends on the gallows.

The pillory and stocks mentioned by Hawthorne, along with the whipping post, were fixtures in many local communities until they were outlawed in Massachusetts in 1813. The pillory could be a most uncomfortable instrument. The criminal's neck was placed in a stretched position in a hole between two pieces of hinged wood (in extreme cases, the offender's ears might be nailed to the pillory frame). Two smaller openings trapped the miscreant's hands, preventing him or her from warding off the rotten eggs or other foodstuffs thrown by onlookers.

Recommended: read whole article

Snapshot: A Separate Peace by John Knowles

A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, begins as a story of innocent boys at a summer boarding school in New England and ends as a tale bigger than war and almost as deep as evil itself.

The story is set mainly at Devon, a beautiful, heavily-wooded boarding school in a quiet seashore town. Taking place in the 1940's, war has just begun to take hold of the school in its summer months. Gene, the mild-mannered, introverted narrator, is befriended by Phineas, his opposite. Outgoing, honest, popular, and athletic, Phineas is the star of school that summer. Both boys are seniors, just ripening to be drafted. But after an unfortunate "accident," the summer ends with a shock and Gene is thrown into adulthood with optimistic Phineas left as the victim.

The story that comes from the events of that summer is thick with grief, with potent images and strikingly diverse characters who all struggle within themselves to live in a world where boys like them are taken daily to war. The book itself is not amazing because of its storyline, but because of the remarkable character development which paints an entirely new picture of a world at war, and how this world can invade the quiet lives of innocent New England boys.

Much of this character development is derived from the active tension between Phineas and Gene. Both highly competitive, much of the book is the inner struggle for Gene to accept that Phineas is not out to hurt anyone. The novel reads very quickly, not simply because of its short length but also due to the rising and falling of Gene's inner psyche unfolding onto the page. This inner struggle is known only to Gene, and as his one greatest secret comes to light, that struggle is projected outward and into brutal boys in a hard, war-bound world.

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Goody Glover Day?

Remember Goody Glover, the Irish washerwoman who was hanged for witchcraft in the Goodwin affair recounted by Cotton Mather? It seems that Cotton Mather's account of the Goodwin children's afflictions and possessions is in dispute -- by the Boston City Council. On November 16, 1988 the Boston City Council recognized "the injustice done to Ann Glover 300 years earlier," and proclaimed that day “Goody Glover Day”, condemning what had been done to her.

Modern day Bostonians claim that Glover was a victim of anti-Catholic persecution:

The last woman to be hanged in Boston as a witch was Goodwife “Goody” Ann Glover, an Irish laundress. This North End resident was wildly accused in 1688 of practicing witchcraft by the infamous Reverend Coton Mather, pastor of the old North Church. Her Puritan accusers were caught up in a witch mania that was part of the rigid Puritanism of the time, attaching supernatural causes to things they couldn't explain, especially medical conditions.

Glover was an Irish slave, sold to the Barbados by Englishman Oliver Cromwell, during the occupation of Ireland in the 1650s. Persecuted for his own religious beliefs, her husband died there. By 1680 she and her daughter were settled in Boston, employed as housekeepers by John Goodwin. In the summer of 1688, four of the five Goodwin children fell ill. Their doctor concluded "nothing but a hellish Witchcraft could be the origin of these maladies." Martha, the 13-year-old daughter, confirmed the doctor's diagnosis by claiming she became ill right after an argument with Glover.

Glover was arrested and tried as a witch. In the courtroom there was confusion over Glover's testimony, since she refused to speak English, even though she knew the language. According to Mather, "the court could have no answers from her, but in the Irish, which was her native language." The court convicted Glover of witchcraft and sentenced her to be hanged.”

Robert Calef, a Boston merchant who knew her, says "Goody Glover was a despised, crazy, poor old woman, an Irish Catholick who was tried for afflicting the Goodwin children. Her behaviour at her trial was like that of one distracted. They did her cruel. The proof against her was wholly deficient. The jury brought her guilty. She was hung. She died a Catholick."

Author James B. Cullen wrote, "she was drawn in a cart, a hated and dreaded figure, chief in importance, stared at and mocked at, through the principal streets from her prison to the gallows….The people crowded to see the end, as always; and when it was over they quietly dispersed, leaving the worn-out body hanging as a terror to evil-doers."

During the trial Coton Mather called Glover "a scandalous old Irishwoman, very poor, a Roman Catholick and obstinate in idolatry." A decade after Glover was hanged Mather was still preaching against "idolatrous Roman Catholicks," trying to preserve a parochial society in a world that was quickly changing. Many other Irish immigrants came to America as bond slaves or "redemptioners" and were not as steadfast in their Faith as Goody Glover, and drifted into Protestantism.

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Horrid Bushes of Vanity

Increase Mather (left) and Cotton Mather (right) disagreed on wigs.

Soulofdiscretion asked if anyone has yet discovered whether the wild hairdo from Cotton Mather's is his own or a wig. Reading through "A History of Wigs" I came across an entry regarding 17th century Puritan views on the subject claiming that the Puritans believed that wigs were "horrid bushes of vanity." In fact, Cotton Mather's father (Increase Mather) is credited with coining this phrase. Yet it seems that Cotton, perhaps on account of his Christian name, rebelled against his father's parochial view on men's wig fashion. Excerpt:

The seventeenth century was one of dramatic change for men. Though the Puritan Parliament faction (called “Roundheads” for their short, somber haircuts) railed against wigs, and some Puritan pastors even refused to allow anyone wearing a wig into the church, this century saw the widespread use of wigs for men for the first time since the days of the ancient Egyptians... In the New World, despite protests from Puritan ministers such as Increase Mather (President of Harvard University), the wig craze spread. While Mather argued that wigs were “horrid bushes of vanity,” his son Cotton and many clergy adopted the fashion. Wigs were also popular in the South, and wealthy plantation owners and bricklayers alike wore them. Even slaves who could not afford authentic wigs made wigs from cotton wool and goat hair.

There you have it. Mystery solved. Cotton Mather ushered in the "wig craze" for Puritan ministers. Now, just for trivia's sake, did you know that King Louis XIII's baldness was the reason for the wearing of powdered white wigs so popular with America's founding fathers:

French King Louis XIII wore a wig to conceal his baldness, and when French King Louis XIV’s hair started to thin when he was 35, he shaved his head and wore a large wig. As a compliment to the Sun King, all his courtiers began to wear yellow wigs. Later, in old age, Louis wore an enormous wig, thickly covered with perfumed and white powder. Men and women (who were more likely to wear extensions), both old and young began to copy him as looking old became “in.”

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