NOTES ABBREVIATIONS, ETC. A.M.L. The American Men of Letters series of biographies; Boston, 1882 C.H.A.L. The Cambridge History of American Literature; New York, 1917-1921; 4 vols. Numbers prefixed to the notes refer first to the page, and second to the line, where the passage commented on will be found. The letters a and b indicate respectively the left and right columns in the prose texts. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SUGGESTIONS As aids to the study of American literature, a few general works are essential. The Cambridge History of American Literature, New York, 1917, 4 vols., and some standard history of the United States, should be available to every student. Good briefer histories of American literature are such works as Barrett Wendell's A Literary History of America, Boston, 1900; W. P. Trent's A History of American Literature, New York, 1903; Percy H. Boynton's A History of American Literature, Boston, 1919, and Walter C. Bronson's A Short History of American Literature, revised edition, Boston, 1919. Certain works dealing with particular periods or phases of American letters are of such outstanding merit as to be almost indispensable. Moses Coit Tyler's A History of American Literature 1607-1676, New York, 1878, 2 vols., and the same author's A Literary History of the American Revolution, New York, 1897, 2 vols., are the best treatments of the early period. Fred Lewis Pattee's American Literature Since 1870, New York, 1915, is a most useful discussion of the entire field of recent literature. The same author's The Development of the American Short Story, New York, 1923, is one of many valuable discussions of this type. Carl Van Doren's two books on the American novel are listed in the note below. Norman Foerster's Nature in American Poetry, 1923, is a stimulating treatment of a significant theme. The Transcendental movement may best be approached through a study of the works listed at the beginning of the special bibliography on Emerson, p. 1155, below. R. L. Rusk's The Literature of the Middle Western Frontier, New York, 1925, 2 vols., and Lucy Lockwood Hazard's The Frontier in American Literature, New York, 1927, are studies of a hitherto somewhat neglected phase of American letters. Three valuable reference manuals are S. J. Whitcomb's Chronological Outlines of American Literature, New York, 1894; W. T. Hastings' Syllabus of American Literature, Chicago, 1923; and Contemporary American Literature: Bibliographies and Study Outlines, Chicago, 1922, by John M. Manly and Edith Rickert. THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAN DRAMA The student interested in the American drama may well begin his reading with two chapters in the C.H.A.L.: "The Early Drama, 1756-1860," by Arthur H. Quinn, Vol. I, pp. 215 ff.; and The Drama, 1860-1918," by Montrose J. Moses, Vol. III, pp. 266 ff. Each chapter is supplemented by an admirable bibliography. He may then proceed to Arthur Hornblow's History of the American Theatre, Philadelphia, 1919, 2 vols., and to Arthur E. Krows's Play Production in America, New York, 1916; further, to some work of broader scope like George P. Baker's Dramatic Technique, Boston, 1919, which deals with dramatic theory regardless of geographical or chronological limits. Two collections of texts are of particular value: Montrose J. Moses's Representative Plays by American Dramatists, New York, 1917, 3 vols., and Arthur H. Quinn's Representative American Plays, New York, 1917. The best guides to further study will be found in the bibliographies of the C.H.A.L. No one interested in this phase of American literature will neglect the work of Clyde Fitch (1865-1909), William Vaughn Moody (1869-1910), Augustus Thomas (1859-), Percy MacKaye (1875-), and Eugene O'Neill (1888-). A special study of the one-act play, which should scarcely be limited to American authors, may be made through such convenient collections as: Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays, edited by Frank Shay and Pierre Loving, New York, 1920; Representative One-Act Plays by American Authors, NOTES edited by Margaret Gardner Mayorga, Boston, 1919; and The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays, edited by S. A. Leonard, Boston, 1921. THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAN NOVEL For a study of the American novel two books by Carl Van Doren are invaluable: The American Novel, New York, 1921, and Contemporary American Novelists, New York, 1922. In addition, the student should make frequent reference to one or more of the standard works on prose fiction, which, though dealing with British as well as American novels, are indispensable for a study of the technique; probably the best of these is A Study of Prose Fiction, by Bliss Perry, Boston, 1902. EARLY NOVELISTS (Chronologically Arranged) Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) Wieland James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) Homeward Bound; The Deerslayer (and others of the Leather-Stocking Tales) The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Marble Faun, The Blithedale Herman Melville (1819-1891) Typee, Omoo, Moby Dick Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) Uncle Tom's Cabin Lew Wallace (1827-1905) Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) Hugh Wynne, Westways "Mark Twain" (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Mysterious Stranger William Dean Howells (1837-1920) The Lady of the Aroostook, A Modern Instance, The Rise of Silas Lapham, A Hazard of New Fortunes, New Leaf Mills Henry James (1843-1916) The American, Daisy Miller, The Europeans, The Portrait of a Lady George Washington Cable (1844-1925) The Grandissimes, Madame Delphine Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) Mr. Isaacs, Saracinesca, The Witch of Prague LATER NOVELISTS (Alphabetically Arranged) Gertrude Atherton (1857-) The Conqueror James Branch Cabell (1879-) My Antonia, One of Ours Winston Churchill (1871-) Richard Carvel, The Crisis, The Crossing, Coniston, The Inside of the Cup Stephen Crane (1870-1900) The Red Badge of Courage Margaret Deland (1857-) The Awakening of Helena Richie, The Iron Woman Theodore Dreiser (1871-) Jennie Gerhardt, The Financier Edna Ferber (1887-) So Big Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-) The Brimming Cup, Rough Hewn Zona Gale (1874-) Miss Lulu Bett Henry Sydnor Harrison (1880-) Joseph Hergesheimer (1880-) Java Head, The Bright Shawl Robert Herrick (1868-) The Common Lot, Together Mary Johnston (1870-) To Have and To Hold, Cease Firing Sinclair Lewis (1885-) Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith Joseph Crosby Lincoln (1870-) Cap'n Eri, Galusha the Magnificent Jack London (1876-1916) The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, White Fang Frank Norris (1870-1902) The Octopus, The Pit Ernest Poole (1880-) The Harbor, His Family Herbert Quick (1861-) Booth Tarkington (1869-) The Gentleman from Indiana, Monsieur Beaucaire, Penrod, The Turmoil Edith Wharton (1862-) The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, A Son at the Front Stewart Edward White (1873) The Blazed Trail, Gold Owen Wister (1860-) The Virginian JOHN SMITH (1580-1631) NOTES Captain John Smith could probably qualify as the adventurer par excellence of the early seventeenth century. Born in the year 1580, he was not sixteen years old when his romantic career had fairly begun. For nine years he served as a professional soldier on the continent of Europe, attaching himself to various leaders, and ultimately finding himself a slave in Constantinople. The account of his escape from his brutal master, whom he killed with a flail, of his wanderings through the wilderness, of further adventures in Africa and on the Atlantic, and of his ultimate return to England in 1604, has the fascination of a mediæval romance, with the added virtue of substantial accuracy. When the attempt to found an English Colony in Virginia was under way, Smith, scenting possibilities of excitement in a new part of the world, at once joined the movement, and was appointed to the council of the colony. From September 1608 to September 1609 he served as President. In America his genius for hairbreadth escapes did not forsake him, but despite the mishaps attendant upon a life such as his, he found time to do a considerable amount of literary and scientific work, and to administer the affairs of the colony in an able fashion. The Jamestown colonists were for the most part "gentlemen" of broken fortune, indented laborers, and professional soldiers. It was a miscellaneous crew that Smith sought to lead: unskilled in manual labor, untutored in the ways of the wilderness, and ill provided with food, the colonists saw their numbers diminish-till after six months only thirty of the original one hundred and five were left alive. That the settlement was not entirely wiped out is due in large measure to Smith's ability and courage. Smith returned to London in 1609, and in 1613 led an expedition which explored and surveyed the coasts of New England. He returned without the gold which his employers had ordered him to find, but with maps which were to prove of great value. seems probable that the Separatists would have chosen him to lead the Mayflower expedition in 1620, had he been of their religious faith. It The latter years of his life Smith spent in England, writing the many works which attest his ability, energy, and resourcefulness. He died in 1631, leaving no descendants. BIBLIOGRAPHY The best edition of Smith's works is that edited by A. G. Bradley, Edinburgh, 1910. His most important historical works are included in Original Narratives of Virginia, ed. L. G. Tyler, N. Y. 1907. The life of Smith in the D.N.B. is succinct and authoritative; A. G. Bradley's Captain John Smith, London, 1905, is ampler, and more readable. NOTES A TRUE RELATION NOTES 1. This document, published in London in 1608, is the earliest extant printed account of the Jamestown colony. THE GENERAL HISTORIE OF VIRGINIA 4. This is Smith's most pretentious historical work. It was first published in London, in 1624. Here for the first time appears the Pocahontas story, a fact which has led some persons to doubt its authenticity. But it seems probable that the omission of the incident from earlier works by Smith was merely an inadvertence, and that the account here given is substantially true. "MOURT'S RELATION" The document usually known by this title was published in London, in 1622, without any indication of authorship. It is known, however, to have been the work of Edward Winslow and William Bradford. As the earliest published account of the settlement at Plymouth, the book would possess a sentimental value even if it had no other. since it is a vivid and accurate account, written by competent eye-witnesses, of the early days at Plymouth, and since it contains certain information otherwise unavailable, the document assumes a position of unique importance in early American literature. But The signature "G. Mourt," which appears at the close of the "Address to the Reader," has given rise to the commonly accepted title. The text in this volume is based on Henry M. Dexter's edition of the Relation, Boston, 1865, which is a good and readily available edition. NOTES 6. a. 46. In the name of God, Amen. The following articles of agreement, generally known as "The Mayflower Compact," formed the fundamental law under which Plymouth governed itself for upwards of half a century. 6. b. 2. The Northerne parts of Virginia. In the seventeenth century the word "Virginia" denoted little more than that part of North America lying between the holdings of Spain in the south and of France in the north. The charter granted in 1606 to the Royal Virginia Company defined the territory as lying between the 34th and 44th parallels of latitude. WILLIAM BRADFORD (1589-1657) Bradford's position in American civilization is unique. To him, more surely than to any other one man, was due the success of the Pilgrim experiment at Plymouth. His energy, foresight, kindliness, firmness, and heroism saved the hundred and two May. flower colonists from disaster. Without Brad ford, the chronicle of English settlements in New England would have been a different story. He was born in 1589, in Yorkshire, of a family which possessed some_property, but no particular social standing. In 1606 he felt himself compelled by his conscience to join the Brownists, or Separatists, who were meeting at the home of William Brewster, in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. Desiring a sort of religious liberty which was not to be had in England at the time, Bradford and his associates considered emigrating to Holland, and by 1609, after various difficulties, found themselves established at Leyden. 1613, Bradford married Dorothy May, who Here, in later accompanied him to New England, only to be tragically drowned in Provincetown harbor while her husband was absent on one of the preliminary exploring trips. From 1613 to 1620 Bradford fades out of the picture of the Separatist colony in Holland. Others than he were chiefly responsible for organizing the Mayflower expedition. But when once the colonists reached New England, Bradford's influence and importance became immediately obvious. John Carver, who had been elected the first governor of the colony, died on April 21, 1621. Bradford was promptly chosen to fill his place, and from that time till his death in May of 1657 was in the governor's chair every year but five. His ability as an administrator was gratefully recognized by his contemporaries. It is almost as obvious to the student who three centuries later turns the pages of his historical work. Bradford's importance as a man of letters is confined rather sharply to two books: the first half of the so-called Mourt's Relation, in which he chronicled events from September 6, 1620, to March 23, 1621; and the history to which he gave no title but Of Plimoth Plantation. The latter is one of the most important documents in our early literature, partly because it gives a connected account of the Separatist movement from its origin at the time of the English Reformation to the year 1646, and partly because it is so well written that even if it had no historical significance it would still be a monument in the history of American culture. ca It is obvious that Bradford, despite his lack of formal education, was a man of learning and literary skill. He knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; he was well versed in philosophy and theology; and-naturally-was thoroughly familiar with the sonorous dences of the Bible. When he himself came to write, his sentences shaped themselves more or less after the model of the Biblical form; his own dignity, integrity, and heroic unselfishness lent a character to the narrative which the work of a petty man, however learned, could never have possessed. The student who becomes familiar with Of Plimoth Plantation, will see at first hand the life of the Pilgrim colony; he will also become acquainted with one of the noblest of early American leaders. BIBLIOGRAPHY EDITIONS. Bradford's History of Plymouth -to give it the usual title is readily available. The earliest complete edition was that prepared by Charles Deane for the Massachusetts Historical Society, and published in 1856 in the Collections, Series 4, vol. 3. A more recent edition is that of W. T. Davis, N. Y. 1908, which makes one volume in the series of Original Narratives of Early American History, and contains valuable explanatory material. W. C. Ford's two-volume edition, Boston, 1912, is even more elaborate than Deane's in its editorial matter, and contains a biographical memoir. BIOGRAPHIES. Biographical studies of Bradford are regrettably few. Shepard's Governor William Bradford and his Son, Major William Bradford, N. Y. 1900, is the most extensive. A considerable amount of biographical material may be found in the introduction to John A. Doyle's facsimile reproduction of the entire manuscript, London and Boston, 1896, and in Harold Paget's modernization of the History, N. Y. 1920. NOTES OF PLIMOTH PLANTATION 10. The volume which bears this title was written by Bradford between the years 1630 and 1648. From 1648 to 1767 the manuscript is known to have been in Massachusetts, where it was consulted by various historical writers. Then it disappeared, to be discovered in 1855 in the library of the Bishop of London, at Fulham. At once the Massachusetts Historical Society secured permission to make a copy, and in 1856 published Charles Deane's edition. In 1897 the Bishop of London returned the manuscript to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where it now occupies a place of honor in the State Library. 10. a. 45. These troubls being blowne over. The reference is to the difficulties experienced by the ship Speedwell, which had accompanied the Mayflower on the first attempt to cross the Atlantic, but had leaked so seriously as to necessitate putting back to port, leaving some passengers behind, and transshipping the rest to the already crowded Mayflower. 11. a. 20. Were forced to hull. To run before the wind with the sails furled. 12. a. 8. The apostle and his shipwracked company. See Acts xxxiii. 12. a. 26. Goe up to the tope of Pisgah. A mountain north-east of the Dead Sea, from one spur of which, Nebo, Moses obtained his view of the land of promise. See Deuteronomy xxxiv. 12. b. 15. How the case stood betweene them and the marchants. The Pilgrims, not having enough funds to finance their venture themselves, had been forced to bargain with the London "Merchants Adventurers," who transported them to New England. Payment was to be made after seven years, and was to consist of one half of all the "capital and profits" of the colony at the end of the period. 12. b. 46. The departure of this ship. The ship Fortune, which arrived at Plymouth about the middle of November, 1621, with 35 settlers. Bradford notes, "The plantation was glad of this addition of strength, but could have wished that many of them had been of beter condition, and all of them beter (sic) furnished with provissions; but that could not now be helpte." These par 13. a. 10. The Narigansetts. ticular Indians were to prove troublesome neighbors. 13. b. 40. In the generell way as before. The articles of agreement between the Pilgrims and the Merchants Adventurers had provided that "all profits and benefits that are gott by trade, traffick, trucking, working, fishing, or other means remain in the common stock." It proved impossible to administer affairs on this basis, and Bradford early came to the conclusion that so far as corn, at least, was concerned, each man must plant and cultivate his own. 14. b. 10. Captaine Wollastone. Mr. Morton. For another side of this story, see Morton's account, p. 27 above. Hawthorne's tale, The Maypole of Merrymount, is a modern re-telling of the inciIdent here recorded. 14. b. 31. Selling their time. The "sarvants" whom Wollaston thus disposed of were indentured laborers, bound to serve for a term of years. He had the right to sell what remained unexpired of the indentured period. 15. a. 42. Sundry rimes and verses. See p. 27, this volume. 15. b. 2. Mr. John Indecott. John Endi cott (?1588-1665) appears often in the chronicles of early Massachusetts. His most notorious exploit was the act of cutting the cross from the royal colors. See the selections from Winthrop's Journal, p. 23, above. Hawthorne's Endicott and the Red Cross is the best-known account of the incident. 16. a. 5. Scruplats to make scrupins. Screw-plates for making screw-pins. The screw-pin controlled the spring in the lock of an old-fashioned fire-arm. |