Poems and Meditations (Volume 69) (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series) [1 ed.] 0866986219, 9780866986212

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Anne Bradstreet

Poems and Meditations E D I TE D BY

Margaret Olofson Thickstun

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 69

POEMS AND MEDITATIONS

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 69

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEXTS AND STUDIES VOLUME 563

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Madre María Rosa Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns Edited and translated by Sarah E. Owens Volume 1, 2009. Giovan Battista Andreini Love in the Mirror: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Jon R. Snyder Volume 2, 2009 Raymond de Sabanac and Simone Zanacchi Two Women of the Great Schism: The Revelations of Constance de Rabastens by Raymond de Sabanac and Life of the Blessed Ursulina of Parma by Simone Zanacchi Edited and translated by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Bruce L. Venarde Volume 3, 2010 Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera The True Medicine Edited and translated by Gianna Pomata Volume 4, 2010 Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Sainctonge Dramatizing Dido, Circe, and Griselda Edited and translated by Janet Levarie Smarr Volume 5, 2010

Pernette du Guillet Complete Poems: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Karen Simroth James Translated by Marta Rijn Finch Volume 6, 2010 Antonia Pulci Saints’ Lives and Bible Stories for the Stage: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Elissa B. Weaver Translated by James Wyatt Cook Volume 7, 2010 Valeria Miani Celinda, A Tragedy: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Valeria Finucci Translated by Julia Kisacky Annotated by Valeria Finucci and Julia Kisacky Volume 8, 2010 Enchanted Eloquence: Fairy Tales by Seventeenth-Century French Women Writers Edited and translated by Lewis C. Seifert and Domna C. Stanton Volume 9, 2010 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Sophie, Electress of Hanover and Queen Sophie Charlotte of Prussia Leibniz and the Two Sophies: The Philosophical Correspondence Edited and translated by Lloyd Strickland Volume 10, 2011

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series In Dialogue with the Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing Edited by Julie D. Campbell and Maria Galli Stampino Volume 11, 2011 Sister Giustina Niccolini The Chronicle of Le Murate Edited and translated by Saundra Weddle Volume 12, 2011 Liubov Krichevskaya No Good without Reward: Selected Writings: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Brian James Baer Volume 13, 2011 Elizabeth Cooke Hoby Russell The Writings of an English Sappho Edited by Patricia Phillippy With translations by Jaime Goodrich Volume 14, 2011 Lucrezia Marinella Exhortations to Women and to Others If They Please Edited and translated by Laura Benedetti Volume 15, 2012 Margherita Datini Letters to Francesco Datini Translated by Carolyn James and Antonio Pagliaro Volume 16, 2012

Delarivier Manley and Mary Pix English Women Staging Islam, 1696–1707 Edited and introduced by Bernadette Andrea Volume 17, 2012 Cecilia del Nacimiento Journeys of a Mystic Soul in Poetry and Prose Introduction and prose translations by Kevin Donnelly Poetry translations by Sandra Sider Volume 18, 2012 Lady Margaret Douglas and Others The Devonshire Manuscript: A Women’s Book of Courtly Poetry Edited and introduced by Elizabeth Heale Volume 19, 2012 Arcangela Tarabotti Letters Familiar and Formal Edited and translated by Meredith K. Ray and Lynn Lara Westwater Volume 20, 2012 Pere Torrellas and Juan de Flores Three Spanish Querelle Texts: Grisel and Mirabella, The Slander against Women, and The Defense of Ladies against Slanderers: A Bilingual Edition and Study Edited and translated by Emily C. Francomano Volume 21, 2013

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Barbara Torelli Benedetti Partenia, a Pastoral Play: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Lisa Sampson and Barbara Burgess-Van Aken Volume 22, 2013

Tullia d’Aragona and Others The Poems and Letters of Tullia d’Aragona and Others: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Julia L. Hairston Volume 28, 2014

François Rousset, Jean Liebault, Jacques Guillemeau, Jacques Duval and Louis de Serres Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern France: Treatises by Caring Physicians and Surgeons (1581–1625) Edited and translated by Valerie WorthStylianou Volume 23, 2013

Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza The Life and Writings of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza Edited and translated by Anne J. Cruz Volume 29, 2014

Mary Astell The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England Edited by Jacqueline Broad Volume 24, 2013 Sophia of Hanover Memoirs (1630–1680) Edited and translated by Sean Ward Volume 25, 2013 Katherine Austen Book M: A London Widow’s Life Writings Edited by Pamela S. Hammons Volume 26, 2013 Anne Killigrew “My Rare Wit Killing Sin”: Poems of a Restoration Courtier Edited by Margaret J. M. Ezell Volume 27, 2013

Russian Women Poets of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Amanda Ewington Volume 30, 2014 Jacques Du Bosc L’Honnête Femme: The Respectable Woman in Society and the New Collection of Letters and Responses by Contemporary Women Edited and translated by Sharon Diane Nell and Aurora Wolfgang Volume 31, 2014 Lady Hester Pulter Poems, Emblems, and The Unfortunate Florinda Edited by Alice Eardley Volume 32, 2014

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Jeanne Flore Tales and Trials of Love, Concerning Venus’s Punishment of Those Who Scorn True Love and Denounce Cupid’s Sovereignity: A Bilingual Edition and Study Edited and translated by Kelly Digby Peebles Poems translated by Marta Rijn Finch Volume 33, 2014 Veronica Gambara Complete Poems: A Bilingual Edition Critical introduction by Molly M. Martin Edited and translated by Molly M. Martin and Paola Ugolini Volume 34, 2014 Catherine de Médicis and Others Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters Translation and study by Leah L. Chang and Katherine Kong Volume 35, 2014 Françoise Pascal, MarieCatherine Desjardins, Antoinette Deshoulières, and Catherine Durand Challenges to Traditional Authority: Plays by French Women Authors, 1650–1700 Edited and translated by Perry Gethner Volume 36, 2015

Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa Selected Drama and Verse Edited by Patrick John Corness and Barbara Judkowiak Translated by Patrick John Corness Translation Editor Aldona Zwierzyńska-Coldicott Introduction by Barbara Judkowiak Volume 37, 2015 Diodata Malvasia Writings on the Sisters of San Luca and Their Miraculous Madonna Edited and translated by Danielle Callegari and Shannon McHugh Volume 38, 2015 Margaret Van Noort Spiritual Writings of Sister Margaret of the Mother of God (1635–1643) Edited by Cordula van Wyhe Translated by Susan M. Smith Volume 39, 2015 Giovan Francesco Straparola The Pleasant Nights Edited and translated by Suzanne Magnanini Volume 40, 2015 Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d’Andilly Writings of Resistance Edited and translated by John J. Conley, S.J. Volume 41, 2015

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Francesco Barbaro The Wealth of Wives: A Fifteenth-Century Marriage Manual Edited and translated by Margaret L. King Volume 42, 2015 Jeanne d’Albret Letters from the Queen of Navarre with an Ample Declaration Edited and translated by Kathleen M. Llewellyn, Emily E. Thompson, and Colette H. Winn Volume 43, 2016 Bathsua Makin and Mary More with a reply to More by Robert Whitehall Educating English Daughters: Late Seventeenth-Century Debates Edited by Frances Teague and Margaret J. M. Ezell Associate Editor Jessica Walker Volume 44, 2016 Anna StanisŁawska Orphan Girl: A Transaction, or an Account of the Entire Life of an Orphan Girl by way of Plaintful Threnodies in the Year 1685: The Aesop Episode Verse translation, introduction, and commentary by Barry Keane Volume 45, 2016

Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi Letters to Her Sons, 1447–1470 Edited and translated by Judith Bryce Volume 46, 2016 Mother Juana de la Cruz Mother Juana de la Cruz, 1481–1534: Visionary Sermons Edited by Jessica A. Boon and Ronald E. Surtz. Introductory material and notes by Jessica A. Boon. Translated by Ronald E. Surtz and Nora Weinerth Volume 47, 2016 Claudine-Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin Memoirs of the Count of Comminge and The Misfortunes of Love Edited and translated by Jonathan Walsh Volume 48, 2016 Feliciana Enríquez de Guzmán, Ana Caro Mallén, and Sor Marcela de San Félix Women Playwrights of Early Modern Spain Edited by Nieves Romero-Díaz and Lisa Vollendorf Translated and annotated by Harley Erdman Volume 49, 2016

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Anna Trapnel Anna Trapnel’s Report and Plea; or, A Narrative of Her Journey from London into Cornwall Edited by Hilary Hinds Volume 50, 2016

Ippolita Maria Sforza Duchess and Hostage in Renaissance Naples: Letters and Orations Edited and translated by Diana Robin and Lynn Lara Westwater Volume 55, 2017

María Vela y Cueto Autobiography and Letters of a Spanish Nun Edited by Susan Laningham Translated by Jane Tar Volume 51, 2016

Louise Bourgeois Midwife to the Queen of France: Diverse Observations Translated by Stephanie O’Hara Edited by Alison Klairmont Lingo Volume 56, 2017

Christine de Pizan The Book of the Mutability of Fortune Edited and translated by Geri L. Smith Volume 52, 2017 Marguerite d’Auge, Renée Burlamacchi, and Jeanne du Laurens Sin and Salvation in Early Modern France: Three Women’s Stories Edited, and with an introduction by Colette H. Winn. Translated by Nicholas Van Handel and Colette H. Winn Volume 53, 2017 Isabella d’Este Selected Letters Edited and translated by Deanna Shemek Volume 54, 2017

Christine de Pizan Othea’s Letter to Hector Edited and translated by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Earl Jeffrey Richards Volume 57, 2017 Marie-Geneviève-Charlotte Thiroux d’Arconville Selected Philosophical, Scientific, and Autobiographical Writings Edited and translated by Julie Candler Hayes Volume 58, 2018 Lady Mary Wroth Pamphilia to Amphilanthus in Manuscript and Print Edited by Ilona Bell Texts by Steven W. May and Ilona Bell Volume 59, 2017

The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series

Se rie S ed i to r S Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr. Se rie S ed i to r , e ng l i Sh te x tS Elizabeth H. Hageman

Previous Publications in the Series Witness, Warning, and Prophecy: Quaker Women’s Writing, 1655–1700 Edited by Teresa Feroli and Margaret Olofson Thickstun Volume 60, 2018 Symphorien Champier The Ship of Virtuous Ladies Edited by Todd W. Reeser Volume 61, 2018 Isabella Andreini Mirtilla, A Pastoral: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Valeria Finucci Translated by Julia Kisacky Volume 62, 2018 Margherita Costa The Buffoons, A Ridiculous Comedy: A Bilingual Edition Edited and translated by Sara E. Díaz and Jessica Goethals Volume 63, 2018 Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle Poems and Fancies with The Animal Parliament Edited by Brandie R. Siegfried Volume 64, 2018

Margaret Fell Women’s Speaking Justified and Other Pamphlets Edited by Jane Donawerth and Rebecca M. Lush Volume 65, 2018 Mary Wroth, Jane Cavendish, and Elizabeth Brackley Women’s Household Drama: Loves Victorie, A Pastorall, and The concealed Fansyes Edited by Marta Straznicky and Sara Mueller Volume 66, 2018 Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel From Arcadia to Revolution: The Neapolitan Monitor and Other Writings Edited and translated by Verina R. Jones Volume 67, 2019 Charlotte Arbaleste DuplessisMornay, Anne de Chaufepié, and Anne Marguerite Petit Du Noyer The Huguenot Experience of Persecution and Exile: Three Women’s Stories Edited by Colette H. Winn Translated by Lauren King and Colette H. Winn Volume 68, 2019

ANNE BRADSTREET

Poems and Meditations

•

Edited by MARGARET OLOFSON THICKSTUN

Iter Press Toronto, Ontario Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Tempe, Arizona 2019

Iter Press Tel: 416/978–7074

Email: [email protected]

Fax: 416/978–1668

Web: www.itergateway.org

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Tel: 480/965–5900

Email: [email protected]

Fax: 480/965–1681

Web: acmrs.org

© 2019 Iter, Inc. and the Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bradstreet, Anne, 1612?–1672, author. | Thickstun, Margaret Olofson, 1956– editor. Title: Poems and meditations / Anne Bradstreet ; edited by Margaret Olofson Thickstun. Description: Tempe, AZ : ACMRS, [2019] | Series: The other voice in early modern Europe. The Toronto series ; 69 | Series: Medieval and renaissance texts and studies ; volume 563 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019013199 (print) | LCCN 2019016250 (ebook) | ISBN 9780866987547 (ebook) | ISBN 9780866986212 (paperback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: American poetry--Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. | American prose literature--Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. Classification: LCC PS711 (ebook) | LCC PS711 .A4 2019 (print) | DDC 818/.109--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013199 Cover illustration: William Dobson (ca. 1610–1646). Detail from Portrait of a Family, Probably That of Richard Streatfeild, ca. 1645. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Accession number B1981.25.241. Cover design: Maureen Morin, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries. Typesetting and production: Iter Press.

Contents Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION PART 1: THE TENTH MUSE LATELY SPRUNG UP IN AMERICA (1650) To Her Most Honored Father Thomas Dudley, Esquire, these humbly presented The Prologue The Four Elements Of the Four Humors in Man’s Constitution The Four Ages of Man The Four Seasons of the Year The Four Monarchies The Assyrian being the first The Second Monarchy, being the Persian The Third Monarchy was the Grecian The Roman Monarchy, being the Fourth A Dialogue between Old England and New, concerning their present troubles, Anno 1642 An Elegy upon that Honorable and renowned Knight, Sir Philip Sidney In honor of Du Bartas, 1641 In honor of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth, of most happy memory David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan, 2 Samuel 1:19 Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures PART 2: POEMS ADDED TO SEVERAL POEMS (1678) An Elegy upon that Honorable and renowned Knight Sir Philip Sidney [alternate version] An Apology [added following “The Four Monarchies”] Poems the editors of Several Poems inserted between “David’s Lamentation” and “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Things” To the Memory of My Dear and Ever Honored Father, Thomas Dudley, Esquire An Epitaph on My Dear and Ever Honored Mother, Mistress Dorothy Dudley

xv xvii xix 1 39 42 44 46 63 82 97 106 106 125 153 203 207 219 225 229 235 237 239 242 246 247 247 250

Contemplations The Flesh and the Spirit Poems following the text of The Tenth Muse The Author to Her Book Several other Poems … which she never meant should come to public view Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632, Aetatis Suae 19 Upon Some Distemper of the Body Before the Birth of One of Her Children To My Dear and Loving Husband A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment Another (“Phoebus make haste”) Another (“As loving Hind”) To Her Father with Some Verses In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659 In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet To the Memory of My Dear Daughter-in-law, Mistress Mercy Bradstreet PART 3: POEMS AND MEDITATIONS FROM THE ANDOVER MANUSCRIPT Material in Anne Bradstreet’s handwriting For My Dear Son Simon Bradstreet Meditations Divine and Moral Material in Simon Bradstreet’s handwriting To My Dear Children My Dear Children [Here follow several occasional meditations] “By night, when others soundly slept” For deliverance from a fever From another sore fit Deliverance from a fit of fainting Meditations when my soul hath been refreshed July 8, 1656 “What God is like to him I serve” “My soul, rejoice thou in thy God” August 28, 1656 May 11, 1657 May 13, 1657 September 30, 1657

251 260 265 265 266 266 268 269 270 271 272 274 276 277 280 281 282 283

285 287 287 304 305 310 310 311 312 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322

Upon My Son Samuel, His Going for England, November 6, 1657 May 11, 1661 “My thankful heart with glorying tongue” For the Restoration of my Dear Husband from a Burning Ague, June 1st, 1661 Upon My Daughter Hannah Wiggin, Her Recovery from a Dangerous Fever On My Son’s Return Out of England, July 17, 1661 Upon My Dear and Loving Husband, His Going into England, January 16, 1661 In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband’s Absence In Thankful Acknowledgement for the Letters I Received from My Husband Out of England In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husband’s Safe Arrival, September 3, 1662 [Here follow some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666. Copied out of a loose paper.] “In silent night, when rest I took” Material in Anne Bradstreet’s handwriting “As weary pilgrim, now at rest”

323 324 325 326 327 328 330 332 334 335 336 336 338

APPENDIX 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse Kind Reader “Mercury showed Apollo Bartas’ Book,” by Nathaniel Ward To my dear Sister, the Author of these Poems, by John Woodbridge Upon the Author, by a Known Friend “I cannot wonder,” by C. B. “Arm, arm, Soldados,” by R. Q. In Praise of the Author, Mistress Anne Bradstreet, by N. H. Upon the Author, by C. B. Another to Mistress Anne Bradstreet, by H. S. An Anagram Another

341 341 342 343 345 346 346 346 347 347 348 348

APPENDIX 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems Upon Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, Her Poems, etc., by John Rogers A Funeral Elegy, by John Norton

349 349 352

Bibliography Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces General Index

357 365 371

Illustrations Cover.

William Dobson (ca. 1610–1646). Detail from Portrait of a Family, Probably That of Richard Streatfeild, ca. 1645. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Accession number B1981.25.241.

Figure 1.

Title page, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Reproduced by permission of the Beinecke Library of Yale University. 40

Figure 2. Title page, Several Poems. From the copy in Hamilton College Library Special Collection. Spec Coll PS711 .A1 1678. Reproduced 240 by permission of the Burke Library of Hamilton College. Figure 3. “The Author to Her Book.” From the copy in Hamilton College Library Special Collection. Spec Coll PS711 .A1 1678. Reproduced by permission of the Burke Library of Hamilton College. 264 Figure 4. Opening page, “Meditations Divine and Morall.” MS Am 1007.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Anne Bradstreet’s handwriting. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Stevens 286 Memorial Library, North Andover, MA.

xv

Abbreviations ANB ODNB

American National Biography Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online version)

xvii

Acknowledgments Although Pope is right to claim that index-learning turns no student pale, the ability to access the amassed knowledge of experts through conversation and e-mail queries makes research even easier. I am grateful to my colleagues at Hamilton College: Doug Ambrose and Kevin Grant in history, who pointed me toward the most authoritative current material about historical matters; Carl Rubino and Barbara Gold in classics, who generously answered my questions about both useful resources and matters of fact; and Anne Feltovich, also in classics, who coached me in translating what little Latin found its way into the texts. Our reference librarian Kristin Strohmeyer cheerfully and promptly pursued the answer to any arcane questions I might ask. In the wider community, Ruth Rogers, curator of Special Collections at Wellesley College, provided swift assistance both in person and from a distance. The historian Francis Bremer graciously answered a series of questions posed by a person whom he had met only once twenty-five years ago. Two Hamilton students, Emily Aviles and Zachary Deming, read drafts of the introduction and of the edited poems, offering their feedback as non-specialist readers. Anne Bradstreet expressed great distress over errors in the print version of her poems. For patience and attention to detail that have helped me to avoid perpetuating that state of affairs, I am deeply grateful to Margaret English-Haskin, Iter project manager, and, particularly, to the series editor Elizabeth Hageman.

xix

Introduction The Other Voice In July 1650, a small volume of poems appeared for purchase in London with the extravagant title, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Its author Anne Bradstreet (ca. 1612–1672), over three thousand miles away in the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s settlement at Andover, was apparently unaware of this event. Manuscript copies of her poems had traveled to England in 1647 when her brother-in-law John Woodbridge, a clergyman, had returned there. She very likely knew that he had these copies. Bradstreet, members of her extended family, and others in her social circle wrote and exchanged verse, participating in what is now called “social authorship.” Margaret Ezell, in her volume of Anne Killigrew’s poems prepared for the Other Voice series, defines this practice as “the serious pursuit of literary excellence shared with a select audience of readers using the medium of circulating handwritten copies.”1 Thus, a writer could ensure that readers of his or her work were like-minded individuals with the education and sophistication to appreciate it. The exchange of poems created a sense of intellectual community and sustained relationships across distance.2 The first poem by Bradstreet in The Tenth Muse is addressed explicitly to her father and cites his own poetic accomplishments as the incentive for her efforts. This poem may have served as the cover letter for a formal manuscript collection created for him: a presentation copy. In England during the decades before the publication of The Tenth Muse, lyric poetry continued to circulate in manuscript copies in controlled social circles. University-educated men did publish volumes of poems on historical or religious subjects, translations of longer works, and shorter original poems flattering the king or other important personages. Some of these works would position a man for patronage or employment. Poetry by multiple authors might appear in a memorial volume, such as the 1638 collection Justa Edouardo King, which contains Milton’s “Lycidas.” But it was still the norm among persons of social standing to circulate their work in manuscript only, with the poems perhaps appearing in print after their deaths through the efforts of friends. The poems of writers like 1. Margaret J. M. Ezell, introduction to “My Rare Wit Killing Sin”: Poems of a Restoration Courtier (Toronto: Iter Inc. & Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2013), 32. 2. For extended discussions of the practice of manuscript exchange and its social benefits, see Margaret J. M. Ezell, Social Authorship and the Advent of Print (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), and Margaret Hannay, “The Countess of Pembroke’s Agency in Print and Scribal Culture,” in Women’s Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript Publication in England, 1550–1800, ed. George Justice and Nathan Tinker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 17–49.

1

2 Introduction John Donne, George Herbert, and Thomas Carew were made public in this way. By 1650, publication patterns were beginning to change, as poetry was recruited into the national conversation about what it meant to be English, created out of the conflict between Parliament and the king. A Royalist printer, Humphrey Moseley, had begun printing editions of poems by living authors to promote a sense of national pride in the monarchy and the established Church.3 Woodbridge chose to place Bradstreet’s volume with Stephen Bowtell, who produced works by writers favoring Parliament and Nonconformists.4 Publishing The Tenth Muse with Bowtell positioned Bradstreet’s collection, with its poems praising Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant writers Sir Philip Sidney and Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas (commonly referred to as Du Bartas), and its “Dialogue between Old England and New,” as a political contribution to that national debate.5 When the volume did arrive in Massachusetts Bay, its author responded exactly as her brother-in-law had anticipated. He wrote in the prefatory epistle, I fear the displeasure of no person in the publishing of these Poems but the Author’s, without whose knowledge, and contrary to her expectation, I have presumed to bring to public view what she resolved should never in such a manner see the Sun. Bradstreet did express that displeasure, in a poem known as “The Author to Her Book” that was published posthumously in a volume titled Several Poems (1678)—six years after her death and twenty-eight years after the publication of The Tenth Muse. We know from that poem that Bradstreet continued to revise the poems already printed in The Tenth Muse and, from a small lyric titled “An 3. Robert Wilcher, “Humphrey Moseley (b. in or before 1603, d. 1661),” ODNB. For an extended discussion of Moseley’s project, see David Scott Kasten, “Humphrey Moseley and the Invention of English Literature,” in Agents of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth Eisenstein, ed. Sabrina Alcorn Baron and Eric N. Lindquist (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007), 105–24. 4. Woodbridge had connections to Bowtell through Nathaniel Ward, whose prose work A Simple Cobbler of Agawam Bowtell had published under a pseudonym in 1647 and who had, like Woodbridge, emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 and returned to England in 1647. See Mary Rhinelander McCall, “Nathaniel Ward (c. 1578–1652).” Ward was the minister of the church in Ipswich for only two years (1634–1636) but remained in Ipswich until his return to England. The Bradstreets lived in Ipswich from 1635 to 1645. 5. For arguments about the possible political positioning of this volume, see Catherine Gray, Women Writers and Public Debate in Seventeenth-century Britain (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 143–82, and Gillian Wright, Producing Women’s Poetry, 1600–1730 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 57–73. For an argument that highlights the Dudley family’s desire to showcase daughter Anne’s respectability to counter the scandal of their daughter Sarah’s public prophesying, see Ivy Schweitzer, The Work of Self-Representation: Lyric Poetry in Colonial New England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 145–53.

Introduction 3 Apology” elsewhere in Several Poems, that she tried, unsuccessfully, to extend her poem on the Roman monarchy. She also wrote other poems in a variety of forms, and she lost manuscripts when her house “fell prey to th’ raging fire” (“Apology,” 14). But there is no evidence that she was revising for print publication or that she sought to produce an improved printed volume of her poems. “The Author to Her Book” asserts that she had not wanted her work to appear in print: “my blushing was not small / My rambling brat (in print) should mother call” (8). Bradstreet’s actions seem to corroborate her claim. She lived for twenty-two more years. She continued to circulate her work in manuscript. The new material presented in the posthumous volume includes five public poems: “The Author to Her Book,” two poems commemorating her parents upon their deaths, a poetic meditation called “Contemplations,” and a dialogue between “The Flesh and the Spirit.” These she would have shared among her friends and acquaintances. The other newly printed poems address private subjects: her love for her husband and her grief for the deaths of grandchildren and for the loss of the children’s mother, her daughter-in-law. The editorial comment preceding these poems states an explicit understanding, and violation, of her wishes: “Several other Poems made by the Author upon Divers Occasions were found among her Papers after her Death, which she never meant should come to public view; amongst which, these following (at the desire of some friends that knew her well) are here inserted.” These poems would have circulated more narrowly: the elegies primarily within the family, the love poems enclosed in letters to her husband when he was traveling. It is an astonishing stroke of luck that we have any of Bradstreet’s poetry. Only one short piece of her father’s poetic output remains, even though he was one of the founding fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and so the sort of person whose papers might be expected to survive. We know of poems by other famous individuals—Sir Philip Sidney, for example—that were praised by contemporaries but then lost because they existed in manuscript form only.6 As one of the few English-language poets from colonial America whose work got into print, Bradstreet has always been part of literary history, her poems included in anthologies and taught in courses. But Bradstreet’s public work survives because her brother-in-law betrayed her trust, and the personal poems because later editors did so as well. From the start, her poems were published for purposes other than her own. Over time, her work has been presented, often piecemeal, to confirm one idea or another about what a female poet of her time and place ought to care about, write about, and sound like. This volume, by presenting all her writing that has survived, by making it clear what appeared when and where, and

6. For details of manuscript materials gone astray see Hannay, “The Countess of Pembroke’s Agency,” 27–32.

4 Introduction by providing explanatory notes, will allow readers to engage with the depth of her humanistic learning and the complexity of her art.

The Cover Image for the Present Volume Because no portrait of Anne Bradstreet exists, we have chosen a portrait by the English painter William Dobson (ca. 1610–1646) of a young family, tentatively identified as that of Richard Streatfeild (ca. 1611–1676).7 The painting, dated about 1645, is part of the collection at the Yale Center for British Art. In 1645, Richard Streatfeild would have been thirty-four; Simon Bradstreet, born in 1603, forty-two; Anne, born about 1612, thirty-three. The clothing worn by the Streatfeild family suggests that they are of the same social class as the Bradstreets. The woman in the portrait radiates intelligence and confidence. Her cap and collar are crisply white but otherwise unostentatious; her features are regular and pleasing. Although Anne Bradstreet contracted smallpox in her teens, her brother-in-law John Woodbridge compliments her appearance in his dedicatory poem: “There needs no painting to that comely face / That in its native beauty hath such grace.” He knew her well. There is no reason to suspect that she would be gratified by empty flattery—and if her face had been disfigured by scars, such a couplet would be egregious and cruel.

Anne Bradstreet’s Historical and Religious Context Anne Bradstreet was born and raised in England but moved with her extended family to the newly formed Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, when she was about eighteen years old and recently married. Not quite a century before the family left England, the Anglican church had split from Rome because of King Henry VIII’s need to produce a legitimate male heir. That church had become a confirmed independent organization with the coronation of Henry’s daughter Elizabeth, whose Protestantism was as much pragmatic as theological: She could be monarch only if her father’s second marriage, which took place during his first wife’s life, was legitimate. But the reformation of the church—both its theology and its practice—continued to be a contested issue well into the seventeenth century, with theological positions and concerns about practice intertwined. The Anglican church officially espoused Protestant positions. Its statement of belief, published in 1563 as Articles, whereupon it was agreed by the archbishops and bishops of both the provinces, and the whole clergy (commonly called The Thirty-Nine Articles), codified Calvinist positions, such as the belief in 7. Katherine Gibson, “William Dobson (bap. 1611, d. 1646),” ODNB. For further information about Dobson and his painting, see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Dobson,_Portrait_ of_a_Family,_Probably_that_of_Richard_Streatfeild_(c._1645,_Yale_Center_for_British_Art).jpg

Introduction 5 predestination (Article 17) and justification by faith alone (Article 11). The document asserts the principle that “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation” (Article 6) and that church services must be conducted in a language that the congregation can understand (Article 24). The Book of Common Prayer (first published in 1549) made it possible for individuals to follow along with the liturgy and to pause over places in the text. A series of translations of the Bible into English—the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishops’ Bible (1569), and finally, the King James Bible (1611)—ensured that individuals had access to Scripture.  But the entanglement of church and state meant that Anglican reform did not extend to church organization: The church hierarchy continued to ordain priests and assign them to particular parishes. The elaborate vestments, stained glass, incense, and music of Catholic practice continued to compete for worshippers’ attention with Scripture readings and preaching. Laypeople were expected to attend the church nearest to them. In fact, church attendance was required of all. Now that the monarch was head of the church, absence from services could be interpreted as a form of political rebellion and, potentially, treason; unexcused absences incurred serious fines. Many English people desired more sweeping reforms in church governance and practice. The most extreme groups rejected institutional hierarchy altogether, believing that Christ alone is the head of the church in this world and the next. They wanted to worship in congregations that were “gathered,” meaning that individuals would meet in groups of like-minded people, no matter the geographical distance. Individuals should attend churches that fit their theological beliefs. Congregations should elect their own ministers and teachers and be able to fire them. The English congregation that came to be known as the Pilgrims and settled in Plymouth on Cape Cod operated in this way. For them, it mattered intensely whom a person worshipped with: Not only were conspicuously sinful people excluded but individuals, male and female, had also to apply for membership and to explain their religious beliefs and spiritual history to the congregation. Their refusal to be part of the larger Anglican Communion earned them and others like them the epithet “Separatists.” The men who formed the Massachusetts Bay Company held many positions in common with Separatists but hoped to remain within the Anglican Communion. They favored a looser form of church governance, with more local control over the conduct of services that would focus on preaching over liturgy and other ritual practices. Most importantly, they subscribed strongly to a belief in England—and in the English church—as the leader of a militant Protestantism that would reform Europe. The ascension of the Stuart monarchs challenged this self-conception and made their position in England increasingly uncomfortable.

6 Introduction Although James had been raised a Protestant, he was autocratic, committed to central rule of the country and the church, and often put political considerations over religious ones. He tolerated Catholics who would swear an oath of allegiance to the king over the Pope and used his authority as both monarch and head of the Anglican church to promote a more relaxed attitude toward the Sabbath—and as a consequence toward religious observance generally—going so far as to issue in 1618 a proclamation called The Declaration of Sports that encouraged Sunday recreation. Far from assuming the mantle of champion of Protestantism in Europe, James proposed an alliance with Catholic Spain through a marriage between his son Charles and the Spanish Infanta Maria Anna. Despite Parliamentary intercessions, perhaps even in defiance of them, when the Spanish match failed, Charles pursued an alliance with France and, immediately after James’s death in 1625, Charles married the French princess Henrietta Maria, a Catholic. Like his father, Charles believed ardently in the divine right of kings and behaved autocratically, dissolving his Parliaments almost as soon as he called them. He expressed his high church leanings in his support of Richard Montagu, a controversialist who argued against the Calvinist idea of predestination, and William Laud, whom he appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal in 1626 and Bishop of London in 1628 and who would become the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633. Laud championed liturgical uniformity and a focus on sacraments rather than preaching, and he employed informants and enforcers to see that clergy cooperated. In September 1626, Charles needed money to assist the king of Denmark in his war against Ferdinand II, but Parliament was the vehicle by which the monarchy could tax its people, and Charles did not want to call a Parliament: His experiences working with that body had not been productive, and Laud had convinced him that Parliament tended toward Puritanism and was therefore anti-monarchical. In consultation with his privy council, Charles at first requested gifts of money—called “benevolences”—from individuals normally assessed for tax purposes, such as landowners, aristocrats, knights, and justices of the peace. When these gifts proved to be less than adequate for his financial needs, he required a “loan.” Individuals resisting the forced loan were subject to military service, house arrest, or prison.8 Among such resisters were the fourth Earl of Lincoln, Theophilus Fiennes-Clinton, his father-in-law William Fiennes (Lord Saye and Sele), and Thomas Dudley, who was the earl’s steward and Anne Bradstreet’s father.9 As a result of his defiance, and to set an example for other 8. For detailed discussions of the forced loan, see Richard Cust, “Charles I, the Privy Council, and the Forced Loan,” Journal of British Studies 24, no. 2 (April 1985): 208–35; and David Cressy, Charles I and the People of England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 96–103. 9. David L. Smith, “William Fiennes, first viscount Saye and Sele (1582–1662),” ODNB; Francis J. Bremer, “Thomas Dudley (1576–31 July 1633),” ANB. There is no entry for Theophilus Clinton (ca. 1600–1667).

Introduction 7 powerful men, the Crown imprisoned the Earl of Lincoln in the Tower of London from March 1627 until early in 1628.10

The Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony arose out of the confluence of this religious and political contention and general English economic ventures in the New World. According to Bradstreet’s father, “about the Year 1627, some Friends being together in Lincolnshire, fell into discourse about New England, and the Planting of the Gospel there; and after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons, by Letters and Messages, to some in London and the West Country.”11 The men in the west were members of the Dorchester Company, whose projects in the New World had been unsuccessful. John Humphreys, who was married to Lady Susan Clinton, the sister of the Earl of Lincoln, was that group’s treasurer.12 Another Clinton relative—Isaac Johnson,13 husband of the earl’s sister Lady Arbella—recruited John Winthrop, who would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s first governor, at the festivities following Cambridge University’s commencement ceremony in July 1629.14 This new group of men formed the Massachusetts Bay Company, a joint stock company overseen by a board of governors, securing both a patent and a royal charter to allow them to settle and govern the land “which lies and extends between a great River there commonly called Monomack alias Merrimack, and a certain other River there, called Charles River, being in the Bottom of a certain Bay there, commonly called Massachusetts.”15 To encourage a significant number of gentlemen of substance to emigrate, the Massachusetts Bay Company’s board 10. Francis J. Bremer, First Founders: American Puritans and Puritanism in an Atlantic World (Durham: University of New Hampshire Press, 2012), 66. 11. Thomas Dudley, “To the Right Honorable, My Very Good Lady, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln,” in Massachusetts; or, the First Planters of New-England (Boston, MA: 1696), 11. 12. Francis J. Bremer, John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founding Father (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 152. 13. Roger Thompson, “Isaac Johnson (bap. 1601, d. 1630),” ODNB. 14. Bremer, First Founders, 147. See also Bremer, “John Winthrop (1588–1649),” ODNB; Charles Cohen, “John Winthrop (12 Jan. 1588–26 Mar. 1649),” ANB. A substantial number of the men involved in the initial migration, as well as the clergy who followed thereafter, were graduates of Emanuel College, Cambridge, including Anne’s husband, Simon Bradstreet; John Cotton, minister of the church the Dudley family attended in England; John Harvard; Thomas Hooker, minister of the church the Bradstreets attended in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay; John Rogers; Thomas Shepard; Nathaniel Ward, minister of the church the Bradstreets attended in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay; and John Wilson. 15. The First Charter of Massachusetts, March 4, 1629, in Henry Steele Commager, Documents of American History (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1958), 16–18.

8 Introduction of governors approved a document referred to as the Cambridge Agreement that transferred government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to twelve men who promised to leave for the New World with their families the following winter. Anne Bradstreet’s father, Thomas Dudley, was one of them.16 The emigrants chose John Winthrop for their first governor and, after another man found he would not be able to liquidate his estates in time to leave with the group, Thomas Dudley as the deputy governor. For their own security, they took the charter with them when they set sail, making it difficult for either the stock company’s governors or for the Crown to rescind their consent. The colonists chose emigration to New England, rather than to Holland or some other Puritan-friendly country, because it would allow them, in effect, a blank slate in which to establish a model Christian commonwealth and because the New England coast had become familiar, even if still wild and in some ways forbidding. Although English contact with the North Atlantic coast of the Americas began officially in 1497, when John Cabot undertook a voyage commissioned by Henry VII, fisherman from the city of Bristol, the home port for Cabot’s voyages, had likely been fishing the Outer Banks before this time.17 English exploration of what is now the New England coast began in earnest in the early seventeenth century, with regular expeditions sponsored by joint-stock companies: Bartholomew Gosnold led one on behalf of the Virginia Company (1602); Matthew Pring, one underwritten by a group of Bristol merchants (1603); and George Weymouth, one supported by the East India Company (1605).18 French explorers and traders, focused mainly along the St. Lawrence and the Maine/ Maritime coast, and Dutch settlers, focused mainly in southern New England and what is now New York, added to European familiarity with north Atlantic coastal topography and economic prospects. By the 1620s, there were several English settlements in Massachusetts: the Separatist community at Plymouth (1620) on Cape Cod; a fur-trading post at Mount Wollaston (1624), now Quincy; and toward the end of the decade, a handful of other small economic outposts in the Bay area. The English had enough knowledge of New England by 1630 to consider establishing a substantial colony there practicable, but before the Bay Company began sending over settlers, the number of Europeans living in Massachusetts numbered only around five hundred.19

16. The Cambridge Agreement, August 26, 1629, in Commager, Documents of American History, 18. 17. Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500–1643 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 51. 18. Kathleen J. Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 5. 19. Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650, 28.

Introduction 9 The Native American population of southeastern New England had been substantially larger, estimated at between 75,000 and 140,000,20 but two epidemics in the early seventeenth century depopulated many coastal villages and seriously destabilized the intra-tribal political situation. Between 1616 and 1618, an undetermined sickness devastated the groups most actively trading with the French, which were the ones closest to the coast.21 As a result, when English colonists arrived in the 1620s and 1630s, they were able to occupy land without significant resistance. Then, in 1633, an outbreak of smallpox ravaged the remaining local villages. It spread through settlements along the Connecticut River as well, because the native population had no resistance to European pathogens. As much as 90 percent of the aboriginal population was killed off by these epidemics. The Native Americans in southern New England practiced intensive cultivation of small garden plots, growing multiple crops in one crowded space, which provided natural supports for climbing vines, such as beans, and fixed nitrogen in the soil. Because they moved with the seasons to take advantage of varying food sources, their housing was portable. They set controlled fires in the woodlands to encourage browse for deer and to enable easy passage and good sight lines for hunters.22 The settler Edward Johnson describes the woodlands in the 1630s as “thin of Timber, like our Parks in England.”23 The Massachusetts Bay colonists benefited from arriving in land that had been managed for centuries, with abandoned garden plots and cleared meadows surrounding seasonal village sites. For most English settlers, however, European assumptions about land management blinded them to their good fortune: They did not recognize that this land had already been cultivated. Additionally, fifteen years had passed between the first outbreaks of disease in the local tribes and the arrival in 1630 of significant numbers of settlers,24 meaning that in many places gardens and villages had gone to weeds and forest undergrowth had swelled to thicket. The Cambridge Agreement had given the day-to-day governance of the new colony to the stockholders who had agreed to emigrate. As governor, John 20. Joseph Conforti, Saints and Strangers: New England in British North America (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), 6. 21. Salisbury, Manitou and Providence, 101; see also Conforti, Saints and Strangers, 26; Bragdon, Native People, 25–28. 22. For further information about Native American cultural practices, see Salisbury, Manitou and Providence, 30–48; William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (New York: Hill and Wang, 1983), 19–107; Bragdon, Native People, 102–29; and Conforti, Saints and Strangers, 6–10. 23. Edward Johnson, A History of New England from the English planting in the year 1628 until the year 1652 (London: Printed for Nathaniel Brooke, 1653), 56. Mason I. Lowance, Jr., “Edward Johnson (Sept. 1599–23 Apr. 1672),” ANB. 24. Salisbury, Manitou and Providence, 184. For extended discussions of Native American land management practices, see Cronon, Changes in the Land, 34–53, and Bragdon, Native People, 123–29.

10 Introduction Winthrop outlined his idea of the ideal Christian commonwealth that the group could establish in his shipboard address, “A Model of Christian Charity.” He explained that, as fellow members of Christ’s mystical body, the colonists should treat one another with divinely required love, subordinating the needs of the individual to the success of the group. He argued that they were chosen by God for the special work of establishing this colony, that God had entered into a covenant to support them in this enterprise, and that the Massachusetts Bay Colony would be “as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.”25 But seven hundred–plus people divided among multiple nascent townships could not easily function as one large loving family. Almost immediately, in October 1630, the General Court (the governor and the other men named in the Cambridge Agreement) extended the franchise to all propertied adult men in the colony, but those freemen had first to be church members. Church membership required testifying to having experienced a conversion experience, and doing so in a way that convinced those already part of the church that the experience was genuine. After a few bumpy years of demands from the freemen and resistance from the governors, the colony established a working government with limited representation, especially in relation to taxation. For the remainder of his life, Anne Bradstreet’s father served in the colonial government, including four one-year terms as governor. Her husband, Simon, served the colony as a magistrate and, later, as the Massachusetts representative to the New England Confederation; he himself was also elected governor in 1679, seven years after Anne’s death. Between 1630 and 1640, between fifteen and twenty thousand English colonists arrived in Massachusetts Bay.26 By 1634, settlements had expanded south and west to Connecticut, at Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford, and by 1637 north to what is now Dover, New Hampshire. The English colonists did not recognize Native Americans as having title to land that they were apparently not using. They occupied land without consent or purchase and treated the people they encountered as subjects in their legal system. They did not adopt Native American agricultural practices or foodways but “sought to maintain cultural distinctions.”27 Johnson writes about the enthusiasm in 1633 when “a small glean of Rye was brought to the Court as the first fruits of English grain, at which this poor people greatly rejoiced to see the Land would bear it.”28 The colonists would be able to eat English food grown in the New World. 25. The Journal of John Winthrop: 1630–1649 (abridged), ed. Richard S. Dunn, James Savage, and Laetitia Yeandle (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1996), 10. 26. Scholars continue to refine these numbers but agree about the effect of a substantial influx of English settlers into the area. Francis J. Bremer, The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards (New York: St. Martin’s, 1976), 40; Conforti, Saints and Strangers, 33. 27. Salisbury, Manitou and Providence, 186. 28. Johnson, A History of New England, 62.

Introduction 11 In that same year, Roger Williams began to advocate for Native American land rights and sovereignty, but the Massachusetts Bay authorities confiscated and burned a tract he had written.29 Williams’s activities not only threatened to unsettle the English hegemony over native populations but also threatened to highlight Massachusetts Bay’s effective if not acknowledged separation from the English Crown and the Anglican Communion, as Williams also vocally espoused Separatist positions. In October 1635, he was tried for sedition and heresy, but he escaped in January to the sachem Massasoit and, in the spring of 1636, established the Providence Plantations in what is now Rhode Island, just outside the purview of the Massachusetts Bay charter. A war among tribal nations, in which the Narragansetts and Mohegans allied with the English against the Pequots, resulted in the horrific massacre of more than five hundred Pequots when colonists set fire to the village at Mystic in 1637 and to the subsequent routing of that nation. The remaining Native Americans were not in a position to challenge the now dominant English colonists until after Anne Bradstreet’s death. She leaves no record of having had any encounters with the indigenous population and expresses no opinions about them. In exiling Williams, the governors thought they had banished religious controversy, but in 1637 they faced another test in the Antinomian controversy and the trial of Anne Hutchinson.30 Hutchinson had attended John Cotton’s church in England, where Anne Bradstreet and her parents had worshipped, and followed Cotton to Massachusetts in 1634.31 Among the Calvinists, Cotton leaned toward free grace, the idea that an individual can do nothing to constrain God to grant him salvation; most of the other clergy in Massachusetts Bay were preparationists, arguing that individuals should work with the guidance of clergymen to make themselves more likely to receive grace. Anne Hutchinson held meetings in her home to discuss sermons, which was an appropriately pious activity. She must have been both a brilliant and a charismatic teacher, because more and more women, and then some men, attended these discussions. At her trial in November 1637, she cited the scriptural command that the elder women should teach the younger (Titus 2:3–4), but she had transgressed Paul’s dictum that women not “usurp authority over the man” (1 Timothy 2:12) by teaching 29. Salisbury, Manitou and Providence, 196. See also Glenn W. LaFantasie, “Roger Williams (1603?– 1683),” ODNB; Francis J. Bremer, “Roger Williams (ca. 1606–1683),” ANB. For further information about Roger Williams’s conflict with Massachusetts Bay authorities, see Edmund Morgan, Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea, paperback reprint (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965), 102–12. 30. Elaine C. Huber, “Anne Hutchinson (1591?–1643),” ANB. For further discussion, as well as the primary documents related to this crisis, see David D. Hall, The Antinomian Controversy, 1636–1638: A Documentary History (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990). 31. Francis J. Bremer, “John Cotton (1585–1652),” ODNB; Sargent Bush, Jr., “John Cotton (4 Dec. 1584–23 Dec. 1652),” ANB.

12 Introduction them. Scholars dispute whether the authorities were more concerned about the theological positions Hutchinson espoused or about the fact that a woman was engaged so energetically and publicly in religious teaching. But during the stress of the trial, Hutchinson asserted that the Holy Spirit spoke through her, a position very close to that espoused by the Quakers, who would trouble the colony, and receive brutal treatment for it, in the coming decades. Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet were both on the General Court that pronounced her banishment. Anne Bradstreet makes no comment about this event in any of the material available to us. Because of their religious beliefs, the colonists were seriously committed to education. In 1635, they established Boston Latin school, a grammar school where boys would learn the Latin and Greek they would need to enter university. It was supported by public funds. The following year, the General Court voted to establish a college and, when the clergyman John Harvard left half his estate to support this cause, they chose the name Harvard College. Having a college in New England meant not only that colonists would not need to send their sons back to England for university training but also that they would be able to train clergymen, the primary purpose of a college, away from the control of the Anglican church. The college graduated its first class—nine young men—in 1642; the next year, only four.32 In 1638, the colony imported a printer and a printing press and, in 1640, produced a new version of the psalms for congregational singing: The Whole Book of Psalms. Only young men destined for the clergy or for professional careers in medicine or law needed to study Latin, but everyone needed to be able to read English to read Scripture. In 1642, the General Court passed its first literacy law, requiring householders to prepare all children, male and female, in their charge for gainful employment and to teach them to read so that they could “understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of this country.”33 Town governments were authorized to appoint men to investigate neglect of these responsibilities, to impose fines, and, if necessary, to remove children to appropriate apprenticeships. Roxbury established its own Latin school in 1643, and in 1648 the General Court ordered any town larger than fifty households to hire a schoolmaster to teach children to read and write English. Towns with more than one hundred households 32. John Langdon Sibley, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Charles William Sever, 1873), 1:15, 74. 33. Massachusetts School Law of 1642, in Commager, Documents of American History, 28–29. Although the General Court did not include Native American villages in this edict, the colony did support significant religious evangelism that included the expectation of ordaining Native American clergymen, the establishment of the (unsuccessful) “Indian College” alongside Harvard College, and the production of a complete Bible in Algonquian—a twenty-year undertaking. The American Antiquarian Society provides extensive information about the Algonquian Bible project at http:// www.americanantiquarian.org/EnglishtoAlgonquian/home.

Introduction 13 were expected to establish a grammar school where young men could learn Latin as well or to support the grammar school of a neighboring town until such time as they could fund their own.34 In 1642, the conflict between Parliament and the king that had led so many of the colonists to emigrate came to a head in the first English civil war. Bradstreet’s poem “A Dialogue between Old England and New” engages the causes of this war. Defeated in battle, Charles had surrendered to Scottish forces in April 1646; in 1647, he was turned over to the English. He was tried and beheaded in January 1649. For several years, England was run by Parliament as a religious republic, or commonwealth, without a single leader; then, in 1653, the army forced the dissolution of Parliament and the creation of a Protectorate, with Oliver Cromwell, a staunch Puritan, as Lord Protector. As the Parliamentary forces gained ground against and then defeated the Royalists, colonists from Massachusetts Bay began to return home to England.35 Among them, in 1647, were Bradstreet’s sister Lucy and Lucy’s husband, John Woodbridge; with them went a manuscript copy of Bradstreet’s poems. Individuals returned to England for education as well; among them was Bradstreet’s oldest child, Samuel, who left Massachusetts in 1657 for four years to pursue medical training. During the 1660s, the final decade of Anne Bradstreet’s life, the colony was growing rapidly.36 Cromwell had died in the fall of 1658. As this was the first modern European experiment in republican government, there was no clear understanding about how to handle a succession of power. After more than a year of political confusion, Parliament invited Prince Charles to return as king. He arrived in England in April 1660. In the aftermath of the restoration of monarchy, as the newly restored Anglican church reestablished control over parishes and required theological and liturgical orthodoxy, clergy and other individuals with Nonconformist leanings fled England for New England. Among these new emigrants were Samuel Sewall (arrived 1661), who would be a judge at the Salem witch trials, and Edward Taylor (arrived 1668), a poet who, like Anne Bradstreet, had heirs who disregarded his desire that his poetry remain private. Both men 34. Massachusetts School Law of 1647 in Commager, Documents of American History, 29. 35. For information about this reverse migration, see David Cressy, Coming Over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), and Susan Hardman Moore, Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the Call of Home (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007). 36. The US Census estimates that the population of white settlers grew from about twenty thousand to thirty thousand people between 1660 and 1670. Although these numbers are estimates, and more recent scholars offer other possible numbers, the population appears to have doubled in size between 1650 and 1670, with a larger percentage of growth in that second decade. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. Series Z 1–19, 756. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1975/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1970.html

14 Introduction attended Harvard College, graduating together in 1671.37 Anne Bradstreet does not leave any writings that address political or historical events taking place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony or in England after 1642. The poetry that survives from the last decades of her life is personal, focused mainly on family matters.

Anne Bradstreet’s Life and Works What firsthand information we have about Anne Bradstreet’s life comes to us through poems that she wrote for her family—the ones that her posthumous editors report that she “never meant to come to public view”—and from a small collection of other personal writings preserved by her son Simon. Although she came to be valued for these personal poems and the short prose pieces contained in Simon’s collection, Anne Dudley Bradstreet reveals very little about herself in her work. Of what must have been momentous events—her marriage, her displacement from a comfortable life in England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, her early years in that struggling frontier environment—Anne Bradstreet writes simply, “I changed my condition and was married and came into this country, where I found a new world and new manners, at which my heart rose. But after I was convinced it was the way of God, I submitted to it and joined to the church at Boston.”38 In this letter to her children—or brief spiritual autobiography presented as a letter—she is more concerned that they follow her spiritual guidance than that they learn any details about their mother’s history. From the private poems that survive, we know that she loved her husband and missed him when he was away on business. She experienced several severe illnesses, but she was also strong enough to bear and raise eight healthy children. We know that she grieved when three young grandchildren, and then a daughter-in-law and her newborn child, died, but no poems survive about other grandchildren, of whom she had many. We know that her house burned down on July 10, 1666, but we need to look to other sources to find out what town that house was in. Despite the emotional appeal of Bradstreet’s personal poems, she is fundamentally an intellectual writer. The preponderance of her poetry engages with books, not experience, with ideas, not feelings. When she writes in “Contemplations” about taking a walk, the speaker observes an oak, sits under an elm, listens to a grasshopper and a cricket—activities that could as easily occur in England as in Massachusetts, in land that had been managed for generations as in a village at the edge of wilderness. When she describes a sailor caught in a storm, 37. Sibley, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, 2:334. See also Jonathan M. Chu, “Samuel Sewall (29 Mar. 1652–1 Jan. 1730),” ANB, and Jeffrey A. Hammond, “Edward Taylor (1624–24 June 1729),” ANB. 38. Letter titled “My Dear Children,” in the Andover manuscript, page 305 of this volume.

Introduction 15 the text does not offer details gleaned from her own uncomfortable three months’ sojourn at sea: The Mariner that on smooth waves doth glide Sings merrily and steers his Barque with ease, As if he had command of wind and tide, And now becomes great Master of the seas, But suddenly a storm spoils all the sport And makes him long for a more quiet port, Which ’gainst all adverse winds may serve for fort. “Contemplations,” 211–17 Instead, the stylized example becomes an analogy for the wayward spirit learning to value life in heaven over life on this earth. Perhaps the comment in the same poem that the “leaves and fruit seemed painted, but was true / Of green, of red, of yellow, mixèd hue” (5–6) suggests a North American, rather than English, autumnal scene, but that red could indicate a ripened fruit as easily as a turning leaf. Nowhere in her poems does she describe a landscape that could be located in a particular space, let alone North America. In the “Four Seasons,” she mentions nightingales and elephants, but not a chipmunk, raccoon, skunk, or beaver; she refers to orange and lemon trees, figs and pomegranates, but not to pumpkins or maize. Information about her life must be pieced together from other sources, which provide the contours but not the inner life of this very private woman. Anne Dudley was born about the year 1612, in Northamptonshire, England. That date is determined from the poem “Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632, Aetatis Suae,39 19,” which appeared in print six years after her death. Her father, Thomas Dudley (ca. 1574–1653), had been orphaned in youth and placed at fourteen in the household of William Compton, second Baron Compton, who later became the Earl of Northampton. Like his own father, Thomas served as a captain in the English army during the French wars of religion. He then trained at law under the supervision of Judge Augustin Nicholls.40 Dudley claimed a connection to the Sutton-Dudleys and, through them, a distant relationship to the Sidneys of Penshurst Place. Anne’s mother, Dorothy Yorke (ca. 1582–1643), was a gentlewoman “whose Extract and Estate were considerable.”41 Anne was the second of the couple’s five children and the oldest of their four girls. Through his connections with William Compton and other members of his circle, Thomas Dudley became the steward to Theophilus Clinton, the fourth 39. Her age. 40. For a full account of Dudley’s life, see Bremer, First Founders, 65–66. 41. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana; or, the Ecclesiastical History of New England (London: 1702), ed. Kenneth Murdoch (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977), 230.

16 Introduction Earl of Lincoln, and moved with his family to the earl’s estate at Sempringham, near Boston in Lincolnshire. This was in 1619, when Anne was six or seven years old. This large Puritan-leaning household was headed by the young earl, who was not yet twenty when he succeeded to the title, and his mother, the dowager countess Elizabeth Clinton.42 Elizabeth Clinton was a religiously serious woman who published a pamphlet—The Countess of Lincoln’s Nurserie (1622)—arguing that Christian mothers were obligated to nurse their own children. One of Thomas Dudley’s first tasks was to negotiate a marriage between her son Theophilus and Bridget Fiennes, daughter of William Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele. The household included the earl’s three younger brothers and at least six of his sisters, two of whom—Lady Arbella, who married Isaac Johnson, and Lady Susan, who married John Humphreys—would emigrate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The early religious seriousness that Anne mentions in her spiritual autobiography, titled simply “My Dear Children,” seems to have coincided with the move to Sempringham, as she locates it as occurring when she was “about six or seven.”43 The behavior she records—being very conscious of religious duties such as telling the truth, obeying her parents, and observing private prayers, and then being very anxious when she failed in them—presents common tropes in accounts of this kind. She reports by her early teens, “I found my heart more carnal and, sitting loose from God, vanity and the follies of youth take hold of me,”44 which is again typical of these brief narratives. This confessed worldliness coincides with the period of time when the Dudleys appear to have moved temporarily to Boston, about fifteen miles from the earl’s estate, to be nearer to John Cotton, the Nonconformist minister preaching at St. Botolph’s. Anne herself is otherwise silent about life in England. That her father encouraged his daughter’s study and her poetic pursuits is corroborated by verses in which she dedicates manuscript copies of longer poems to him.45 The breadth of her reading, as demonstrated in the body of her work, confirms that she benefited from access to the extensive library at Sempringham, the guidance of the dowager countess, who oversaw the education of all the young women in her household, as would have been the custom at this time,46 and the instruction of the tutors the dowager countess employed.

42. Betty Travitsky, “Clinton, Elizabeth, [née Knevet] countess of Lincoln (1574?–1630?),” ODNB. 43. Letter titled “My Dear Children,” in the Andover manuscript, 305 in this volume. 44. 305 in this volume. “Carnal” means “focused on worldly matters.” 45. For an extended discussion of what the print edition can reveal about Bradstreet’s practice of manuscript circulation, see Wright, Producing Women’s Poetry, 1600–1730, 57–93. 46. Bremer, First Founders, 234. For a full discussion of aristocratic patterns of shared supervision for the education of children, see Claire Cross, The Puritan Earl: The Life of Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntingdon (1536–1595) (London: Macmillan, 1966), 22–60.

Introduction 17 At some point in the early 1620s, Simon Bradstreet arrived at Sempringham to serve as an assistant to Thomas Dudley. Son of a Nonconformist clergyman, Simon had spent two years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Although Simon may have returned for a year to Emmanuel after he began work at Sempringham and the Dudleys may have lived for a time in Boston, he would have had regular contact with Thomas Dudley and his family. In 1628, Anne contracted smallpox. Shortly after her recovery, she and Simon were married and moved to the household of Frances Wray Rich, the dowager countess of Warwick. In 1630, the couple joined the Dudley family in the migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The family traveled on the Arbella, as did Isaac Johnson and his wife, the Lady Arbella Clinton, after whom the ship was named. Information about the journey comes from a diary kept by fellow passenger John Winthrop. When Winthrop began his entries on March 29, the emigrants were already on board the boat, which he describes as a 350-ton vessel, captained by Peter Milborne, manned by fifty-two sailors, and outfitted with twenty-eight pieces of ordnance. He neglects, however, to mention how many of the roughly seven hundred colonists who traveled in seventeen ships47 to the New World that spring happened to be aboard the Arbella, or who they were, or how they were housed. It is only from other sources that we know what provisions they had stowed away. A Mr. Beecher reports that the Arbella carried large supplies of beer, dried peas, oatmeal, beef, suet, bread, butter, vinegar, flour, salt, and mustard seed.48 Pamphlets published in 1630 advised emigrants to take eighteen months’ worth of provisions to tide them over to a first harvest, seed and farm implements, livestock, tools and nails for building houses, and weapons and ammunition, as well as clothing and shoes along with the means to repair them.49 Colonists would also need to supply bedding, household furnishings, kitchen implements, and, if they had the means, materials such as glass for windows.50 Winthrop does report that, on April 6th, the flotilla having not yet gotten underway, “the Lady Arbella and the gentlewomen, and Mr. Johnson and some others went ashore to refresh themselves”; that two days later, at the sighting of an unidentified ship on the horizon, “the lady Arbella and the other women and children were removed into the lower deck”; and that on April 23, during a stretch of calm weather, “the lady and gentlewomen dined in the great cabin,” forcing the captains visiting from other ships to eat with the important men in the 47. See Dudley in Massachusetts; or, the First Planters, 12. 48. In Winthrop’s Journal: History of New England, 1630–1649, ed. James Kendall Hosmer (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908), 1:341. (Hereafter cited as Winthrop’s Journal.) 49. See, for example, A Proposition of Provisions Needful for Such as Intend to Plant Themselves in New England (London: Fulk and Clifton, 1630). 50. See Dudley in Massachusetts; or, the First Planters, 19–20, and Johnson, A History of New England, 28.

18 Introduction roundhouse.51 In each instance, Anne Bradstreet would have been among these gentlewomen. Three other ships sailed in the cluster of which the Arbella was the flagship. The group finally got underway on April 8. Winthrop devotes most of his attention to weather and, as the fleet approached the North American coast, depth soundings. He does report that the captain addressed seasickness and fidgets among the children by engaging them in exercise and games on deck and that the group held worship services on Sundays when the weather permitted. At the end of April, they instituted regular religious instruction as well. At one of these gatherings, Winthrop would have delivered the address “A Model of Christian Charity.”52 There was sporadic communication between the four ships in this little fleet. On May 28, Winthrop reports that a child had been born on the Jewel “about this time,” and on June 1 that the Arbella sent a boat to the Jewel to collect a midwife to deliver a baby.53 A week later, he reports the sad outcome of another labor: “stillborn.”54 In the close quarters of this ship, Anne would have been acutely aware of these events but, as she had not yet had a baby of her own, unlikely to have helped with the deliveries. On the day this second woman lost her baby, the passengers caught some cod, which “came very seasonably, for our salt fish was now spent”;55 the following day the group spotted land for the first time in almost two months. On June 12, two different groups of passengers, both including women, went ashore, some to eat with Isaac Allerton, from the Plymouth Colony, and John Endecott, the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s advance man, and some to gather strawberries. There is no information about whether, or in which event, Anne might have participated. On June 14, the Arbella reached the inner harbor at Salem, and the passengers disembarked. As Anne records so briefly, the primitive conditions in the newly established colony were shocking. Writing the following March, Thomas Dudley reports that the conditions in the new world were so harsh that 80 of the 180 indentured servants sent ahead in the spring of 1629 had died during the winter. The rest were weak from illness and malnourishment.56 These men were to have cleared land, planted crops, and built dwellings for the colonists; instead they themselves looked anxiously to the colonists for food, which the new arrivals could not provide. The colonial leaders were forced to release the surviving indentured servants from their contracts. Many of those men returned to England on the vessels that had brought the new colonists. 51. Winthrop’s Journal, 1:15. 52. The Journal of John Winthrop, 1–12. 53. Winthrop’s Journal, 1:25. 54. Winthrop’s Journal, 1:27. 55. Winthrop’s Journal, 1:27. 56. See Dudley in Massachusetts; or, the First Planters, 12–13.

Introduction 19 Unhappy with Salem as a location, the colonists sent out exploratory groups to identify other possible sites for their town, but owing to the weak condition of many of the new arrivals, who were suffering from scurvy as well as infectious diseases, and to the difficulty in transporting ordnance and other heavy equipment upriver, the group ended up settling “dispersedly.” A letter from Samuel Fuller and Edmund Winslow to William Bradford at Plymouth Plantation, dated July 26, 1630, explains that the new colonists “are so disposed of in their outward estates as to live in three distinct places” and so intend to become “three distinct bodies.”57 Although the Massachusetts Bay Colony insisted that it remained in communion with the Church of England, these churches were gathered, meaning that individuals discussed their religious positions and then agreed “to enter into covenant with the Lord to walk in his ways”;58 the members of this new body then elected men to be pastors and teachers. In a follow-up letter, Fuller reports that the founding members of the church at Charlestown were John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, and John Wilson, who became their minister.59 Ships kept arriving into July, with more mouths to feed, more bodies to house, and more illness and suffering to contribute to the common stock. Dudley writes, “They who had health to labor fell to building, wherein many were interrupted with sickness and many died weekly, yea almost daily.”60 Edward Johnson reports in his early history Wonder-Working Providence (1652) that the colonists “pitched tents of Cloth, other built them small huts wherein they lodged their Wives and children.”61 By early February, Winthrop would report that “the poorer sort of people (who lay long in tents, etc.) were much afflicted with the scurvy, and many died, especially at Boston and Charlestown.”62 Colonists of means had brought adequate provisions but also were able to secure food from the Plymouth Plantation, which was by this time established enough to be able to sell grain and livestock. William Bradford reports, with distress, the effect of the influx of settlers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony on the price of agricultural commodities and the eagerness of the colonists at Plymouth to profit from this turn of events.63 Although lack of financial resources made the poorer inhabitants of the colony more vulnerable to illness, four wooden walls and the means to procure 57. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647, ed. Francis Murphy (New York: Random House, 1981), 260. See also Michael McGiffert, “William Bradford (1590–9 May 1657),” ANB. 58. Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 260. 59. Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 261; Francis J. Bremer, “John Wilson (c. 1591–Aug. 1667),” ANB. 60. Dudley, “To the Right Honorable, My Very Good Lady, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln,” in Massachusetts; or, the First Planters, 14. 61. Johnson, A History of New England, 38. 62. Hosmer, Winthrop’s Journal, 1:45. 63. Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 281.

20 Introduction sustenance did not protect the wealthy from infectious disease. Among the individuals who died during this first year were Lady Arbella herself and her husband, Isaac Johnson. Wooden structures were also vulnerable to fire. Winthrop’s diary, which he kept only episodically once the fleet landed—itself evidence of the difficulty of frontier life—notes frequent house fires. In some cases, the occupants were able to remove their “goods”; in others, all that they had brought with them was lost. Replacing these belongings would require sending to England. He also mentions livestock depredation by wolves and general anxiety about attacks—by the French, by Native Americans—as the isolated settlers misinterpreted one another’s gunfire. In his letter about this first year, Thomas Dudley remarks, “It may be said of us almost as of the Egyptians, that there is not an house where there is not one dead, and in some houses many.”64 The “almost” might gesture toward the Dudley/Bradstreet household, as Anne, Simon, Anne’s parents, and all of her siblings survived this first awful winter. The Dudley/Bradstreet clan settled initially at Newtowne, or Cambridge, where Thomas Hooker served as minister before departing for Connecticut in 1636.65 During this period, Anne reports in her spiritual autobiography that she suffered from “a lingering sickness like a consumption [or an inflammation of the lungs], together with a lameness” and that “it pleased God to keep me a long time without a child, which was a great grief to me.”66 She delivered her first child at some point in 1633 and named him Samuel, to honor her only brother, but also possibly to invoke the biblical story of Hannah, who also had long been barren and whose prayers were rewarded by the birth of a son (1 Samuel 1:20). About the time the Dudley and Bradstreet families removed to Ipswich in 1635, Bradstreet delivered another child, a daughter named Dorothy. Her daughter Sarah was born at some point between 1636 and 1638. Her brother Samuel, who had married John Winthrop’s daughter Mary in 1632, and her sister Patience, who had married Daniel Dennison, moved with the rest, so that for ten years all of Anne’s extended family remained nearby. Mary Winthrop Dudley delivered her first son, Thomas, about the same time as Anne had Samuel. Her son John was born about the same time as Anne’s daughter Dorothy, and her daughter Margaret in the same year as Anne’s daughter Sarah. Patience delivered her first child in 1638. Patience and Mary both delivered babies in 1639. By 1640, Thomas and Dorothy Dudley had eleven grandchildren under the age of seven, all living in close proximity. In his epistle prefacing The Tenth Muse, Bradstreet’s brother-in-law John Woodbridge assures the reader that her “Poems are the fruit but of some few hours,

64. Dudley, “To the Right Honorable, My Very Good Lady, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln,” in Massachusetts; or, the First Planters, 21. 65. Johnson, A History of New England, 90. 66. Letter titled “My Dear Children,” in the Andover manuscript, page 305 of this volume.

Introduction 21 curtailed from her sleep and other refreshments.”67 Although the Bradstreets were both financially comfortable and socially well-positioned, so that Anne would have had servants to assist her and family nearby for support, those hours must have been very few. Johnson underscores in his Wonder-Working Providence that life in the new colony required all individuals to engage in physical tasks to which they were not accustomed in England, “even such men as scarce ever set hand to labor before, men of good birth and breeding.”68 As Laurel Thatcher Ulrich documents, a housewife in a frontier settlement such as Cambridge or Ipswich or Andover would have overseen a vegetable garden, a farmyard occupied by chickens, pigs, and sheep, the cows grazing nearby or on the village common, and possibly an orchard. She and her assistants would have baked bread, pickled vegetables, preserved berries and fruits, brewed cider and beer, made cheese, killed and plucked poultry, slaughtered cows and pigs, smoked sides of meat, made sausage, caught, dried, and salted fish, and gathered mushrooms, nuts, and berries. She would also have supervised the care of the household’s clothing, which might have included carding and spinning wool but would certainly have involved sewing and mending and laundering. How intimately the female head of household participated in these activities would depend on the number of helpers, but she needed to know how to perform all these tasks so that she could train and supervise others. No matter what her situation, she would have prepared medicinal concoctions to treat various ailments and attended the deliveries of other women in her community. She was also responsible for the religious instruction and observance not only of her children but also of her entire household.69 In addition, after that difficult start, Anne Bradstreet, like all the women of her generation, conceived on a regular basis, producing a child about every two years. Ulrich’s research suggests that cultural practice in colonial New England involved weaning infants by sending the nursing mother on a several days’ trip away from home, often a visit home to her own mother. This practice would protect the mother from the physical and emotional suffering of listening to her child demanding to nurse, for, as Bradstreet remarks in a meditation, “Some children are hardly weaned. Although the teat be rubbed with wormwood or mustard, they will either wipe it off, or else suck down sweet and bitter together.”70 The spacing of deliveries by women in the Dudley clan suggests that they generally weaned their children at about a year and a half. Gaps in the rate of delivery—four years between Anne’s daughters Hannah and Mercy, another four-year gap between Dudley and John—might have resulted from Simon’s frequent travel on business 67. 341 in this volume. 68. Johnson, A History of New England, 85. 69. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650–1750, reprint (New York: Vintage, 1991), 13–34. 70. From “Meditations Divine and Moral,” page 292 in this volume. “Hardly” means “with difficulty.”

22 Introduction or Anne’s susceptibility to fevers and fainting spells; it might also signal miscarriages. No manuscript material survives from Bradstreet’s childbearing years. The only personal poems from this period that can be pinpointed on a time line are the elegies on the deaths of her parents. The poem “Before the Birth of One of her Children,” which appeared in Several Poems, is undated. Only the title, supplied by the editors, locates it in relation to a pregnancy. The personified character Childhood in “The Four Ages of Man” provides a gloomy portrait of motherhood. He describes “my mother’s breeding sickness” (65), “her nine months’ weary burden” (66), “her bearing pangs … that pain, which can’t be told by tongue” (67–68); then her disturbed sleep, her weariness from dandling a fussy infant to quiet it, as well as the physical cost of nursing: “My mother still did waste, as I did thrive” (70). Childhood admits to temper tantrums and “frail flesh” (130) and to suffering from illnesses, teething, indigestion, diarrhea, and accidents, all of which would fray a mother’s composure. But this representation should be qualified by the poem’s perspective: The speaker attests that he is cursed with “a perverse will” (121), a “lying tongue” (123), and a temperament “oft stubborn, peevish, sullen” (125) because he was “conceived in sin and born in sorrow” (61). The poem develops a theological point, rather than recording a holistic and individual experience of mothering. During these early years, Anne, her sisters, and her sister-in-law were fortunate in their deliveries and their children’s survival. Living in close community with her sisters and her mother must have provided a sense of security and companionship, as well as experience to draw on in moments of trial or emergency. The decade that followed, however, brought disruption and heartache. In 1640, Thomas and Dorothy Dudley moved to Roxbury, more than thirty miles away. In 1641, sister Mercy and her husband, John Woodbridge, moved to Andover. Also in 1641, Simon was called away to adjudicate a conflict in Pascataquack. During the investigation, it was discovered that Hansard Knollys had raped two young girls, ages eight and nine, entrusted to his care when their parents had traveled to England.71 These girls were the daughters of Susan Clinton, whom Anne had known intimately since childhood, and her husband, John Humphreys.72 Then, in 1643, Anne lost her sister-in-law Mary Winthrop Dudley, who died in April at the age of about thirty—Anne’s age—leaving six children; that December her own mother, Dorothy, died at the age of sixty-one. In the epitaph for her mother, Bradstreet invokes the social roles for which Woodbridge later praises Bradstreet herself: She describes Dorothy Dudley as “a worthy Matron,” “a loving Mother and obedient wife,” “a true Instructor of her Family,” and “a friendly Neighbor, pitiful to poor” and kind to her servants, who

71. Winthrop’s Journal, 2:28. 72. Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 355fn.

Introduction 23 showed her devotion to God through both public and private worship.73 The loss of her support and guidance must have been very hard. Still, during this period Anne managed to write poetry. Her elegy on poet and soldier Sir Philip Sidney is dated 1638, the celebration of the poet Guillaume Du Bartas, 1641; both “A Dialogue between Old England and New” and the dedicatory poem for the first two of her four-part debate poems (which she called quaternions)—“The Four Elements” and “The Four Humors”—are dated 1642; the celebration of Queen Elizabeth and the epitaph for her mother, 1643. In fact she had composed the bulk of the extant poetry before 1647, when the Woodbridges sailed for England: the other two quaternions—“The Four Ages of Man” and “The Four Seasons”—, “The Prologue,” the enormous historical survey titled “The Four Monarchies,” and “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures.” It has been suggested that Bradstreet prepared her verse translation of 2 Samuel 1:19, “David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan,” in response to the execution of King Charles, but there is little internal and no extratextual evidence to support that claim. Despite her responsibilities and losses, the decade between 1638 and 1647 was Bradstreet’s most productive time as a poet. The 1640s brought the Dudley family further distress. In 1646, Anne’s sister Sarah returned to Massachusetts. She had followed her husband, Benjamin Keayne, back to England sometime after 1642. There, Sarah had been caught up in religious enthusiasm. As Stephen Winthrop reports in a letter from London dated March 27, 1646, “my she Cousin Keaynes is grown a great preacher.”74 Her husband was more concerned about the sexual freedom that Sarah embraced: In letters to John Cotton and John Wilson, Keayne accused Sarah of a “breach of the conjugal knot” and “unsatiable desire and lust” and claimed that she had given him a venereal disease. He announced his determination never to live “together again as husband and wife.”75 Sarah did not return to Massachusetts chastened: In October 1647, she was excommunicated from the church in Boston for “irregular prophesying” and later was admonished by authorities for an illicit relationship. To control the scandal, Thomas Dudley convinced the General Court to grant Sarah a divorce and, in 1652, to sanction her remarriage, on the grounds that she needed a man to control her.76 In 1648, Simon Bradstreet moved his family to Andover, about eighteen miles from Ipswich and more than twenty miles from Boston, where Simon, as an elected magistrate, had frequent business. Their oldest son, Samuel, likely stayed behind in Ipswich to prepare for Harvard, from which he would graduate in 1653. 73. The epitaph for her mother appears on page 250 in this volume. 74. Winthrop Papers, ed. Allyn B. Forbes (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1947), 5:70. 75. Suffolk Deeds, ed. William Blake Trask (Boston, MA: Rockwell and Churchill Printers, 1880), 1:84. 76. For a full discussion, see Bremer, First Founders, 106–8; Schweitzer, The Work of Self-Representation, 150–52, 265–66.

24 Introduction In 1650, husband Simon was called away to Hartford to adjudicate a boundary dispute between New Amsterdam and the English settlers in Connecticut. In 1651, he traveled in York and Kittery, in what is now Maine, again to address issues of jurisdiction. During this period, Anne would have added day-to-day aspects of household management normally under Simon’s purview to the responsibilities she already juggled.77 The surviving poems that she sent to her husband while he was away on business suggest that she would have missed not only his physical assistance but also his emotional and spiritual support. Puritans believed that marriage, albeit hierarchical, should be grounded in a mutual affection;78 Anne’s poems attest to her confidence that her marriage lived up to the ideal. In 1652, she delivered her eighth and last child, a son named John. Then in 1653, Anne’s father, Thomas Dudley, died. The children were also beginning to disperse. The poem “In Reference to My Children, 23 June 1659” reports that by then, five of her eight “chicks” had flown. In 1654, daughter Dorothy married Seaborn Cotton; the couple settled in Hampton, in what is now New Hampshire, almost forty miles away. There is no information about whether Anne was present when Dorothy delivered her first child in 1655. She named him Stilborn. This is only the second such tragedy documented in the Dudley-Bradstreet family record: Anne’s brother Samuel’s first daughter, named Mary, born about 1646 to his second wife, Mary Byley, died at six months.79 In 1656, Dorothy delivered the Bradstreets’ first surviving grandchild, a daughter also named Dorothy. 1656 is the same year that Anne’s daughter Sarah married Richard Hubbard and that her son Simon entered Harvard University. Although there is no concrete evidence that the younger Simon did not move with the family to Andover, circumstantial evidence suggests he remained behind. The first recorded town meeting in Andover was in 1656, so it is highly unlikely that the inhabitants had the resources at this time to hire a schoolmaster to teach young men Latin. According to Luther Caldwell, young Simon reports having been educated in Ipswich by Ezekiell Cheevers,80 and in 1658, when Dudley was old enough to attend grammar school, the Bradstreets sent him to study in Ipswich. In 1657, Anne’s son Samuel sailed for England to pursue medical studies. The 1659 poem about her children counts Anne’s daughter Hannah as one of the 77. Ulrich identifies among the roles for housewives at this time that of “deputy husband” (Good Wives, 9, 36–50). 78. See Ephesians 5:22–28. For elaboration on marriage and household organization, see Robert Cleaver and John Dod, A Godly Form of Household Government (London: Printed for Thomas Man, 1621) and William Gouge, Of Domestical Duties (London: Printed by Haviland for William Bladen, 1622), treatise 2, part one, especially page 197. 79. As was a common practice, that couple named their next daughter, born in 1648, Mary as well. 80. Luther Caldwell, An Account of Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan Poetess, and Kindred Topics (Boston: Damrell and Upham, 1898), 18.

Introduction 25 three still at home. Hannah married in early June 1659; it is possible Bradstreet composed the poem in response to Hannah’s marriage. By July 1659, only Mercy, born in 1646 or 1647, and Dudley, born in 1652, remained at home. At some point in the 1650s, Anne Bradstreet began keeping a little notebook that does not survive. We know its contents because her son Simon, after her death, copied the material in it into another booklet (not begun until 1664) in which she had been keeping prose meditations. That other booklet is now referred to as the Andover manuscript. The first dated entry in the lost notebook, July 8, 1656, was preceded by her brief spiritual autobiography, addressed to her children, and four short poems. According to Simon’s transcription, there followed a collection of prose entries and poems, mostly religious, often marking her delivery from an illness or a spell of fainting. She included poems about Samuel’s departure for England and another on his return in 1661, about her husband’s and then her daughter Hannah’s recovery from fever, about her husband’s departure for England in the winter of 1661 (Old Style; 1662 by the modern calendar), about her thoughts during his absence, and about his return that summer. Although she composed the poem “In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659” during this same period, she did not copy it into the lost notebook. The notebook contained no poem celebrating her daughter Sarah’s marriage in 1656, or Hannah’s in 1659, or the birth of her first surviving grandchild Dorothy Cotton in 1656, or of Hannah’s first son in 1660, or any of their other children, or any of her daughter Sarah’s. There was nothing about her son Simon’s graduation from Harvard in 1660. We cannot say that Bradstreet did not mark any of these occasions: If she had included in that notebook everything she wrote during this time, the poem “In Reference to Her Children” would have been there, and it was not. This lost notebook of poems and journal entries ended with the poem celebrating her husband Simon’s return from England in 1662. It did not mark the occasion of her son Samuel’s marriage to Mercy Tyng, which took place at some point between 1661 and 1663. The three surviving poems that Bradstreet wrote about the deaths of grandchildren mourn the loss of the children in that family. Their first child, a daughter named Elizabeth, died in August 1665 at one and a half years of age; that same year, Mercy delivered another daughter, Anne. On July 10, 1666, the Bradstreet home was destroyed by fire. Somehow that now lost notebook and the booklet that became the Andover manuscript escaped the flames. The more serious literary project, a continuation of “The Four Monarchies,” did not survive. In a poem that Several Poems appends to that work as an “Apology,” Bradstreet reports that she had “resolved, when many years had passed, / To prosecute my story to the last” (9–10), that she had persevered, despite being frustrated with her efforts, only to lose the new work “to th’ raging fire” (14). There is no information about why the serious manuscript material perished and these small collections of personal material survived.

26 Introduction Perhaps Anne had loaned out the little notebook that Simon found and later copied. Perhaps she kept the booklet where she recorded her meditations divine and moral on her person, so that she could write in it as ideas occurred. We do not know how the poem on the death of granddaughter Elizabeth survived the 1666 fire to be found “among her loose papers” for inclusion in the posthumous Several Poems. The most likely explanation would be that she had sent copies to other mourners. Life went on. The Bradstreet family built a new house in Andover. In 1667, son Simon married Lucy Woodbridge, and daughter-in-law Mercy gave birth to a daughter also named Mercy. In June 1669, Samuel and Mercy’s daughter Anne died at the age of three and a half; that October, Mercy delivered another baby, a boy named Simon, who died in November, having lived only a month. Anne wrote elegies mourning the loss of both of these children. But we have no extant poem marking the death of her daughter Dorothy’s newborn son in 1667 or the loss of her son Simon’s newborn in 1669. The final surviving elegy, addressed to son Samuel, reports the death of Mercy Tyng Bradstreet on September 6, 1670, from the premature delivery of a stillborn infant, named Anne after her dead sister.81 Samuel was en route to Jamaica, presumably to establish himself toward bringing his family. He did not return, leaving his sole surviving child, Mercy, to the care of relatives.82 Anne Dudley Bradstreet died on September 16, 1672, at about sixty years of age, after suffering what her son Simon reports was a consumption.83 She was survived by her husband, Simon, seven of her eight children—daughter Dorothy having died in February of that year—and at least a dozen grandchildren. She also left the printed volume The Tenth Muse, some “loose papers” that may or may not have been in her personal possession, and two small manuscript booklets: the now lost one from the 1650s containing poems and meditations; the other begun in 1664 containing “Meditations Divine and Moral” and, at the back, “As weary pilgrim.” From among the loose papers, the editors of the posthumous volume Several Poems (1678) selected thirteen personal poems—five verse letters to her husband, two poems about specific illnesses, the 1659 poem about her children, the four elegies about the reproductive losses in her son Samuel’s family, and a short poem to her father. But they do not give any indication about where they found copies of the poems that they interpolated between “David’s Lamentation” 81. Several Poems presents the date as September 6, 1669, but Elizabeth Wade White reports that Simon Bradstreet, Jr.’s diary confirms the 1670 date. Anne Bradstreet: The Tenth Muse (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), 356–67. 82. Mercy Bradstreet lived to marry Dr. James Oliver, had at least one child, and died in Boston in 1710. Oliver Wendell Holmes is one of her descendants. White, Anne Bradstreet, 353. 83. Simon’s diary quoted in White, Anne Bradstreet, 358.

Introduction 27 and “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Things”: the elegies that Bradstreet wrote on the deaths of her parents, the longer poem “Contemplations,” and the dialogue “The Flesh and the Spirit.” They do not indicate where they found the poem “The Author to Her Book” or the much shorter and reorganized version of the elegy on Sir Philip Sidney. The title page announces that the poems have been “corrected by the author,” but they do not indicate the source of those corrected copies. They did not select any material from either manuscript booklet. No manuscript copies of any of the printed poems—from either volume—survives. The only materials in Anne’s handwriting are the collection of prose pieces she called “Meditations Divine and Moral,” with its dedicatory letter to son Simon, and the poem “As weary pilgrim.”

Anne Bradstreet’s Art The poem Bradstreet composed in response to the unauthorized publication of The Tenth Muse embodies her aesthetic principles. “The Author to Her Book” develops the conventional metaphor of the writer as having given birth to the book, except that in this case the author, like the parent in the metaphor, is also female. Bradstreet exploits this confluence to express distress about the physical presentation of the poems in a printed book: Others “less wise than true” have “exposed” the speaker’s child in rags—literally the paper on which the book was printed but figuratively in tattered garments. Upon the book/child’s return, the speaker attempts to improve its appearance, presumably by correcting errors that may have been introduced by the compositor or that appear more starkly in this new form. As a mother would, she scrubs at its face, stretches its limbs “to make thee even feet”—playing on the technical term for a metrical unit, a “foot”—and laments that she has nothing but homespun cloth with which to “trim” it. These activities express neoclassical values, focusing on the presentation of the material rather than on its originality. The poem subscribes to an aesthetic principle that Alexander Pope would articulate succinctly sixty years later: “True wit is nature to advantage dressed, / What oft was thought but ne’ er so well-expressed.”84 Predictably, then, the poem is in iambic pentameter couplets. Only lines 5 and 11 depart from the regular iambic meter: the first includes two trochaic substitutions—

′

˘

˘

′

′ ˘

˘

′

˘

′

(Made thee) (in rags), (halting) (to th’press) (to trudge) —which mimics the halting quality of the action described; the second possibly includes an extra unstressed syllable, so that 84. Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711), Part 2:97.

28 Introduction

˘ ′ ˘

′

˘

“(Yet be) (ing mine own)” can be read as an iamb followed by an anapest, although it is possible to elide the syllables of “being” to read two iambs:

˘

′

˘

′

“(Yet being) mine own.” In most cases the couplet and the sentence coincide, so that the thought closes with the couplet, as in this example: “I cast thee by as one unfit for light; / Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight” (9–10). Also, as in this example, syntax generally aligns with line. The only true enjambment occurs in the couplet composed of lines 11 and 12: “Yet being mine own, at length affection would / Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.” Of the twenty-four lines of the poem, only three are not end-stopped. This pattern holds throughout Bradstreet’s formal, public poetry: pentameter couplets, end-stopped lines, very little enjambment, and only occasional metrical irregularities.85 She uses the same form in the private poems addressed to her husband and in the elegies on the deaths of her relatives. In The Tenth Muse, only “The Prologue” is not in couplets, having a more complex stanza form: sestets with an ababcc rhyme scheme. “Contemplations,” which first appeared in Several Poems, uses a seven-line stanza that rhymes ababccc, as does the elegy on her granddaughter Elizabeth. Among the other poems first printed in Several Poems, “The Flesh and the Spirit” and “In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659” are in iambic tetrameter couplets. The very early poem “Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632, Aetatis Suae 19” is the only poem of Bradstreet’s in ballad meter to appear in print during the seventeenth century, but that is a form she employed throughout her life when writing poems in response to illnesses and family crises short of death. The manuscript booklet includes ten poems in ballad meter, five poems in iambic tetrameter couplets, and four more in iambic tetrameter quatrains that are cross-rhymed. In making these artistic choices, Bradstreet respects the principle of decorum: The form of a poem should match the seriousness of the subject. Her preference for ballad meter in private religious lyric reflects her exposure to vernacular translations of the psalms into simple English metrical patterns. As the preface to The Whole Book of Psalms (conventionally referred to as the Bay Psalm Book) explains of these biblical poems, If in our English tongue we are to sing them, then as all our English songs (according to the course of our English poetry) do run in meter, 85. To preserve metrical regularity, Bradstreet will elide syllables—“As battles pitched ’i ’th ’air” (“The Four Elements,” 474)—or interpolate them—“faberic” (“The Four Humors,” 320).

Introduction 29 so ought David’s psalms to be translated into meter, that so we may sing the Lord’s songs, as in our English tongue so in such verses as are familiar to an English ear which are commonly metrical.86 The aesthetic ideals expressed here may seem to run counter to a neoclassical sensibility. The translators cite fidelity to the original text as the highest value, defending the awkwardness of their poems by asserting, If therefore the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire or expect; let them consider that God’s altar needs not our polishings: Ex. 20.87 But they also make a distinction between psalm translations and high art: They are not claiming that their verses are better than other kinds of verses, or even good in themselves, but simply that in this context achieving as exact as possible an expression of the Hebrew ideas in English trumps aesthetic considerations. They recognize that poems have social locations and “occasions,” as a person with a neoclassical perspective does. Anne Bradstreet is a poet of occasions: She writes on the death of a family member, the burning of her house, the recovery of her daughter from fever; she writes verse epistles to her husband when he is away attending to public matters; she writes poems celebrating the English Protestant tradition. And when she writes a serious poem on a serious subject, such as the four elements or the four humors or the political situation in England, she addresses those subjects in rhyming pentameter couplets, a serious form. In “The Four Elements,” Phlegm promises to be both brief and reasonable in a couplet whose rhetorical balance would satisfy any neoclassical writer: What’s slanderous, repel; doubtful, dispute; And when I’ve nothing left to say, be mute. (498–501) Where did she acquire these sensibilities? The poet whom Bradstreet most clearly admired and imitated was the French Protestant poet Guillaume Du Bartas. His most famous poem, the book-length Divine Weeks and Works, appeared in English in 1605, translated by Josuah Sylvester. Sylvester chose heroic couplets as the appropriately dignified form for this work. The first Week presents the events from first two chapters of Genesis in seven sections, one for each day, with significant commentary. As its twentieth-century editor writes, the events are “vastly expanded with theological speculation, contemporary science and pseudo-science, 86. The Whole Book of Psalms (Cambridge, MA: 1640), preface, unnumbered page 9. 87. The Whole Book of Psalms, preface, unnumbered page 12.

30 Introduction and moral reflection.”88 The sequel, The Second Week, or Childhood of the World, which was included in the same English volume, traces biblical history from Eden and the Fall through the sack of Jerusalem that initiated the Babylonian Captivity. Such a model clearly appealed to the well-educated, religiously serious young woman. Although Bradstreet writes enthusiastically about Sir Philip Sidney as well, partly because of his status in English Protestant history and partly because of her distant familial relationship to him, she does not adopt his interest in the pastoral or in experimental forms, such as the double sestina “Ye Goatherd Gods” in the Arcadia. The sestet she employs in “The Prologue” comes from the January and December sections of Spenser’s Shepherds’ Calendar, but the more immediate source for Bradstreet is again Sylvester, who translated Du Bartas’s Epigrams into this form, and Francis Quarles, who used it in his Divine Fancies (1632). The seven-line stanza she adopted for “Contemplations” and the elegy on baby Elizabeth also comes to her through Quarles’s Emblems (1635). Bradstreet acknowledges Sidney’s sonnet sequence in the original version of her elegy about him—and it is highly likely that she was familiar with Shakespeare’s work—but she leaves no evidence that she ever attempted a sonnet. Her romantic poems address marital, not unrequited, love. If, as she writes to Sidney, “thy wiser days condemned thy witty works” (“Elegy,” 31), Bradstreet would surely not emulate them. Like her contemporary Lucy Hutchinson, who translated Lucretius from the Greek to keep herself occupied and then versified Genesis as penance for that earlier activity,89 Bradstreet is an intellectual who presents her ideas in verse. Her choice of material reveals her engagement with history, especially a religious reading of history, with ethics, and with science: She addresses alchemy in “The Four Elements”; physiology, humoral theory, and medicine in “The Four Humors”; agriculture and economics in “The Four Ages of Man”; and astrology and cosmology in “The Four Seasons.” But her greatest passion was clearly for history. Her longest poem, “The Four Monarchies of the World,” runs to almost thirtyfive hundred lines, with close to one thousand of them recounting the reign of Alexander the Great. Although there is nothing to indicate that Bradstreet studied Latin, her poems reveal a broad acquaintance with classical literature and history. She knew the mythology and geography that would come with that reading. She refers to the orator Demosthenes in her “Prologue.” She later mentions by name the poets Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and Ovid, the historians Thucydides and Pliny, and the physicians Hippocrates and Galen. Through Sir Walter Ralegh’s massive The History of the 88. Susan Snyder, introduction to The Divine Weeks and Works of Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur du Bartas (Oxford: Clarendon, 1979), 1. 89. See Lucy Hutchinson, preface to Order and Disorder, ed. David Norbrook (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), 3–5.

Introduction 31 World (1614), the source text for her “Four Monarchies,” Bradstreet was exposed to the opinions of the ancient historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, as well as to the critical commentary on classical history with which Ralegh frequently engages. Although most of the material in that long poem comes directly from Ralegh, Bradstreet includes anecdotes from Plutarch and Suetonius, information from Titus Flavius Josephus’s The Antiquities of the Jews, and material from William Pemble’s The Period of the Persian Monarchy (1631). The tradition that Alexander the Great was jealous of Achilles comes to her through Sir Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning (1605). The anecdote in “The Four Seasons” about Bajazet’s grief for his son’s death reveals her acquaintance with Richard Knolles’s General History of the Turks (1603). Bradstreet’s poems engaging more contemporary subjects demonstrate her serious interest in English history as well. In her poem honoring Queen Elizabeth, she mentions by name both John Speed, author of The History of Great Britain (1614), and William Camden, whose Annals the true and royal history the famous empress Elizabeth Queen of England, France, and Ireland had been published in a translation from the Latin in 1625. In “The Four Ages of Man,” the character Old Age recounts significant political and military events from the death of Elizabeth through the beginning of the first English civil war; in “A Dialogue between Old England and New,” the character New England reaches back to the beginnings of English history—to Hengist deposing Vortigern in the fifth century—to inquire about the source of the civic strife besetting her mother country and then touches on significant instances of civil war from that ancient conflict to the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century. Given her familial and historical context, Bradstreet was also steeped in biblical language and history; in fact, her reading of the books of Daniel and of Revelation color her presentation of political history in both “The Four Monarchies” and “A Dialogue between Old England and New.” Although she lived among Puritans and so would have known the Geneva Bible (1560), Bradstreet clearly prefers the King James Version (1611), using diction from that translation in thirteen instances where the language of the Geneva and the King James versions diverge.90 At some points, the word choice is striking: The King James translates 2 Samuel 1:19 as “how are the mighty fallen”; the Geneva writes, “how are the mighty overthrown.” Anne Bradstreet chooses the former: “how the mighty are fallen” (“David’s Lamentation,” 39). She follows the King James elsewhere in that poem, writing “the shield of Saul was vilely cast away” (14), the expression the King James uses; the Geneva states that the shield “is cast down” (2 Samuel 90. As the translators of the Geneva Bible (1560) used the Great Bible (1539) as their base text and the translators of the King James (1611) used the Bishops’ Bible (a revision of the Great Bible completed in 1569) as theirs, differences among translations from this period tend to be confined to decisions about particular words or phrases.

32 Introduction 1:21). She describes the weapons as “perished” (40), preferring the adjective in the King James to the Geneva’s “destroyed” (2 Samuel 1:27). In “The Four Ages of Man,” she writes, “My golden Bowl and silver Cord, e’ er long,  / Shall both be broke” (419–20), choosing the King James’s “bowl” over the Geneva’s “ewer” (Ecclesiastes 12:6). Such differences in diction might simply have caught a poet’s ear, but there are instances so minute as to suggest that Bradstreet had the King James Version at her side when composing: In “Four Ages of Man,” she writes, “Man at his best estate is vanity” (338; emphasis added), preferring that preposition in the King James to the Geneva’s “man in his best state” (Psalm 39:5; emphasis added). In only one instance that I can identify does she incorporate language from the Geneva Bible that does not appear in the King James, and in that case, she combines the two translations.91 Bradstreet devoted the bulk of her attention to the long poem on ancient history. It occupies more than half of The Tenth Muse—114 of the 207 pages. Throughout “The Four Monarchies,” she expresses a confidence that acts of treachery and violence will be addressed by divine justice, and she uses the prophecies in Daniel to summarize the fates of the warring nations. But Bradstreet articulates her thesis most clearly near the end of her record of the Grecian monarchy: “Thus Kings and Kingdoms have their times and dates/ Their standings, over-turnings, bounds, and fates” (1716). That thesis is closer to the spirit of Ecclesiastes, the biblical text to which she alludes most frequently in her writing, than it is to a triumphant presentation of a divine plan. A person reading the volume in 1650 might find the final lines of “The Roman Monarchy” inspiring—“and people swear, ne’ er to accept of King” (108)—but only by ignoring the ultimate rise of Imperial Rome.92 Her poems about more contemporary history adopt an attitude appropriate to a person allied with Puritan and Parliamentary forces, but Bradstreet does not espouse a radical political agenda. “The Four Ages of Man” may present an unflattering portrait of British cavaliers, but “A Dialogue between Old England and New,” even in its vision of the church being purged and the gibbets at Tyburn groaning, assumes a reformed England headed by a reformed king. Although she packs dense amounts of information into compact lines, “The Four Monarchies” contains stretches of compelling or amusing narrative, as well as elegantly managed, witty couplets. Contemplating Alexander’s neglected corpse, she comments, “A God alive him all must Idolize;  / Now like a mortal 91. In her spiritual autobiography, Bradstreet combines elements from both versions in her paraphrase of Psalm 139:23–24: “Lord, search me and try me, see what ways of wickedness are in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The words in bold come from the King James Version, the italicized phrase from the Geneva. 92. Gillian Wright suggests that the prophetic vision from Daniel, now closing Bradstreet’s account of the Grecian monarchy, ought logically to be the conclusion of the entire project, and that the editors in 1650 may have reorganized the presentation for their own political purposes (Producing Women’s Poetry, 1600–1730, 81).

Introduction 33 helpless man he lies” (“Grecian,” 974–75). The narrative voice also keeps the reader on track, as in this transition: “But leave him building, others in their urn, / And for a while let’s unto Asia turn” (“Grecian,” 1301–2). But Bradstreet’s literary abilities find their finest expression in creating believable voices. That is clearly the appeal of the personal poems: Whether she is playfully developing an analogy to encourage her husband to return home quickly, or figuring her home as a nest recently deserted by her now-fledged offspring, or thoughtfully grappling with the death of a beloved grandchild, the voice on the page speaks in a natural, conversational style. In her public poems, too, Bradstreet creates characters who genuinely engage one another, whether that is New England trying her best to determine the source of Old England’s suffering or one of the four elements or the four humors jockeying with her sisters for supremacy—and often putting the others down in order to puff up her own importance: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air quarrel over who contributes the most to agricultural success and whose peculiar form of catastrophe causes the most damage. Both Melancholy and Blood tweak their sister Choler for her red nose. Bradstreet’s persona in her public poems is both self-deprecating and witty. In “The Prologue,” for example, she announces that “To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings, / Of Cities founded, Commonwealths begun, / For my mean Pen are too superior things” (1–3). Yet those are precisely the subject of the bulk of her poetic output. In the elegy on Sidney, she develops a scenario in which the Muses snatch away her pen; she is able to complete her poem only because Errata, a personification of errors, steals it back from them. The poem created by the harried mother of “The Author to Her Book” fulfills the neoclassical expectations that the speaker claims to despair of. Bradstreet may concede that others think “my hand a needle better fits” (“Prologue,” 26). She understands the broader cultural resistance to female intellectual and artistic achievement, but she was not deterred by it from pursuing her interests.

The Afterlife of Bradstreet’s Poems and Meditations The public resistance to her literary activities that Bradstreet acknowledges in the “Prologue” appears even before her printed work does. Her brother-in-law John Woodbridge anticipates both disbelief and some concern on the part of readers, as he assures them in his prefatory letter to The Tenth Muse that the writer of these poems, although she may appear to have transgressed the boundary of womanly propriety is, in fact, “esteemed and honored in her place” and appropriately conscious of her responsibilities as a wife and mother. In his commendatory poem, Woodbridge praises Bradstreet at the expense of other women, claiming “Your Works are solid, others weak as air,” a backhanded compliment of the kind

34 Introduction Abraham Cowley deployed fifteen years later in commending Katherine Philips.93 In his poem, Nathaniel Ward has Apollo assert that Bradstreet is “a right Du Bartas girl,” suggesting to readers that the poetry, perhaps, is derivative. The anonymous supplier of the anagrams that close the commendatory section of the volume reinforces this suggestion by discovering “Bartas” through rearranging the letters of “Bradstreet.” Several of the other prefatory poems express the sentiment that if women were to succeed in the arts, men would be diminished. Despite the mixed response of her original commenders, Bradstreet was admired as a poet and an intellect in her own century. Bathsua Makin includes Bradstreet in the section of An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen (1673) titled “women have been good poets,” writing “How excellent a poet Mrs. Broadstreet is (now in America) her works do testify.”94 In 1678, the editors of the expanded volume Several Poems provide new supplementary material: a poem by John Rogers, husband of one of Bradstreet’s nieces, and a funeral elegy by John Norton, nephew of a clergyman who served in Ipswich for several years when the Bradstreets lived there. These editors chose not to reprint the peculiar anonymous poem “Arm, Arm, Soldados” that was part of the original prefatory material. Although Norton’s elegy reveals nothing of interest about either Bradstreet’s life or her art, Rogers’s praise of her work not only demonstrates that he actually read it with care but also dismisses any suggestions that she is not an original poet: Your only hand those Poesies did compose, Your head the source whence all those springs did flow, Your voice, whence changes sweetest notes arose. (43–45) In his comprehensive history of New England, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), Cotton Mather attests that any man would be proud to have had such an accomplished daughter, whose poems “have afforded a grateful Entertainment unto the Ingenious.”95 Two other complete editions of Bradstreet’s work appeared before the twentieth century. A 1758 American volume announces that it is “reprinted from the second edition,” or Several Poems, which it follows in including both Rogers’s commendatory poem and Norton’s funeral elegy. The volume supplies no information about who produced it or for what occasion. As with the two 93. In a commendatory poem included in Poems by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. (London: Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriott, 1664) Abraham Cowley writes, “’Tis solid and ’tis manly all, / Or rather ’tis Angelical” (“Upon Mrs. K.P. Her Poems,” lines 50–51). 94. Bathsua Makin, An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen (London: Printed by J. D. for Parkhurst, 1673), 16, 20. 95. Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, 233.

Introduction 35 earlier books, it does not name the author: She is simply “a gentlewoman.” John Harvard Ellis, on the other hand, celebrates Bradstreet’s identity: His Works of Anne Bradstreet (1867) clearly intends to be both comprehensive and scholarly, but he attends neither to the published order nor proposes a likely composition order of her work. He puts the poems and meditations from the Andover manuscript before the printed poems and presents facsimiles of the title pages from The Tenth Muse and Several Poems back-to-back, followed by the contents of Several Poems. Although his Note on the Text is extensive, he does not address his editorial choices in the matter of organization. Unlike the editors of the 1758 volume, Ellis does express his opinion of the content. In a lengthy introduction that is part biography and part history, he writes of the poems, I am confident that, if it is denied that they evince much poetic genius, it must, at least, be acknowledged that they are remarkable, when the time, place, and circumstances under which they were composed, are taken into consideration. They are quaint and curious; they contain many beautiful and original ideas, not badly expressed.96 Ellis also inaugurates the tradition of dismissing Bradstreet’s longer poems as “simply poetical versions of what she had read.”97 The nineteenth century saw the rise of anthologies of women poets, organized according to nation. George Bethune does not include Bradstreet among his Female British Poets (1848). Frederic Rowton, in The Female Poets of Great Britain (1854), provides a very brief notice, saying that Bradstreet “was the daughter of one and the wife of another Governor of Massachusetts” and so belongs in a collection of female American poets.98 His contemporary Caroline May, who edited just such a volume, finds most of Bradstreet’s subject matter “curious” but presents twenty-two of the thirty-three stanzas from “Contemplations” as evidence that Bradstreet is “a genuine poet.”99 This preference for “Contemplations” appears again in Luther Caldwell’s biographical Account of Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan Poetess and Kindred Topics (1898). He provides excerpts from “her best and most harmonious poetry,”100 which, along with several stanzas from “Contemplations,” 96. John Harvard Ellis, introduction to The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse (Charlestown: Abram E. Cutter, 1867), xliii. 97. Ellis, The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse, xliii–xliv. 98. Frederic Rowton, The Female Poets of Great Britain: Chronologically Arranged (Philadelphia: Henry C. Baird, 1854), 60. 99. Caroline May, ed., American Female Poets (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1853), 17. 100. Caldwell, An Account of Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan Poetess, and Kindred Topics, preface, unpaginated.

36 Introduction constitutes in his mind two of her poems to her husband and the poem about her children, which he has titled “The Bird’s Nest.” During the twentieth century, Bradstreet became the subject of scholarly inquiry, with the number of entries about her work in the MLA bibliography tripling from six in the 1950s to eighteen in the 1960s and then doubling to thirty-four in the 1970s. Two major editions of Bradstreet’s complete works appeared: Jeannine Hensley’s volume, which is still in print, from Harvard University Press, in 1967, and an edition by Joseph McElrath and Allan Robb from Twayne Publishers, in 1981. Hensley provided a comprehensive introduction but no footnotes; McElrath and Robb included extensive appendices indicating variants between The Tenth Muse and Several Poems, as well as a few explanatory footnotes. Josephine Piercy (1965), Elizabeth Wade White (1971), and Ann Stanford (1974) produced critical biographies of Bradstreet, and, in 1983, a collection called Critical Essays on Anne Bradstreet appeared.101 Scholars during this period continued to focus on Bradstreet’s personal poems, as well as on her relationship to Puritanism, to feminism, and to other women in colonial American history. Anthologies created to facilitate undergraduate education in American literature have included selections of Bradstreet from their inception in the middle of the twentieth century. From this record, Bradstreet continued to be valued for her personal and meditative work: The first edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature presented “Contemplations,” “The Flesh and the Spirit,” “As weary pilgrim” poems to her husband and on the deaths of her grandchildren, as well as “The Prologue,” “The Author to Her Book,” her spiritual autobiography, and selections from Meditations Divine and Moral. By the seventh edition, the editors had sacrificed those meditations for something more political: her poem praising Queen Elizabeth. Only at the end of the twentieth century does Bradstreet’s work appear in anthologies of English-language literature more broadly. The most recent edition of The Norton Anthology of Women’s Literature presents eight shorter lyrics, the poem on Queen Elizabeth, and a few meditations.102 The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-century Verse and Prose, published in 2000, includes writers living in New England.103 They choose “The Prologue” and some of Bradstreet’s poems about her family to represent her work but also “A Dialogue between Old England and New.” “A Dialogue” appears in Reading the Nation in English Literature: A

101. Pattie Cowell and Ann Stanford, eds., Critical Essays on Anne Bradstreet (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1983). 102. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, eds., The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English, third edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007). 103. Alan Rudrum, Joseph Black, and Holly Faith Nelson, eds., The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2000).

Introduction 37 Critical Reader (2010),104 and Women Poets of the English Civil War (2018)105 offers a substantial selection of Bradstreet’s public work, including “A Dialogue,” poems honoring Sir Philip Sidney and Queen Elizabeth, and selections from “The Four Monarchies.” Bradstreet is beginning to be appreciated for the full range of her artistic endeavors.

Note on the Text Anne Bradstreet’s poetry entered print on two separate occasions: in The Tenth Muse (London, 1650, printed for Stephen Bowtell) and in Several Poems (Boston, 1678, printed by John Foster). I have used the copy of The Tenth Muse held in the Clapp Library of Wellesley College as primary copy text and the copy of Several Poems held in the Burke Library of Hamilton College for poems that appeared first in the posthumous edition. Because the title page of the Wellesley copy of The Tenth Muse is not an original, Figure 1 on page 40 reproduces the title page from the copy held by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. A manuscript collection of material, now known as the Andover manuscript, contains a letter, a series of meditations, and one poem (“As weary pilgrim”) in Bradstreet’s handwriting, as well as other material by Bradstreet copied into the booklet by her son Simon. The manuscript, owned by the Stevens Memorial Library in North Andover, Massachusetts, is now on deposit at the Houghton Library, Harvard University, where it is cataloged as MS Am 1007.1. A digitized copy of the Andover manuscript may be accessed through the catalog at Harvard and is available at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4465803. Harvard also owns a manuscript transcription of the same text “in an unknown hand,” copied from Simon’s version with the signature “Sarah Bradstreet” on the front pastedown. It is cataloged as MS Am 1007. As Anne Bradstreet’s daughter Sarah had married in 1656, someone else must have identified it in this fashion. I have used this second manuscript to clarify a few places where Simon’s handwriting is illegible. A digitized copy of this second copy may be accessed through the catalog at Harvard and is available at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:29627383 Throughout this edition, I have regularized i/j, u/v, vv/w and the long s to conform to modern practice and replaced ampersands with “and.” I retain contractions only if to remove them might affect meter (such as “soon’t” for “soon it”). Where a contraction may be archaic and unfamiliar (“in’s” for “in his”), I provide a note at the first instance in each new poem; where a contraction follows archaic form, for example, “or’ e,” I have modernized the presentation (“o’ er”). I 104. Elizabeth Sauer and Julia M. Wright, eds., Reading the Nation in English Literature: A Critical Reader (New York: Routledge, 2010). 105. Sarah C. E. Ross and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, eds., Women Poets of the English Civil War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018).

38 Introduction have regularized spelling to conform to modern American usage, except that I have modernized the spelling of verbs only if to do so does not affect the metrical pattern (“stretcht” to “stretched,” for example) or disrupt the rhyme. I have added an accent to the past participle where the meter requires a stress on that syllable (“intermixèd”). To preserve the intimacy of the original, however, I have retained archaic pronouns and the verb forms that they govern, such as “thou seest” for “you see” and “I durst” for “I dare,” and “ye” for the plural “you.” I retain the occasional archaic plural (for example, “treen” for “trees”) when to modernize would disrupt the rhyme. I have regularized punctuation according to modern American standards, except where the original punctuation emphasizes the rhetorical balance of a line, and removed parentheses in twelve instances where they do not function as modern parentheses do. I have added the apostrophe to the letter s to show possession. When one speaker quotes another, I have inserted quotation marks for the sake of clarity. In longer sections of “The Four Monarchies,” I have inserted an occasional paragraph break to assist readers in keeping track of the action. Although we have no evidence that the way the poems appear in print are authorial choices, rather than those of the printing house, I have retained the capitalization and italics from the print editions. In transcribing the manuscript, I have spelled out other abbreviations, such as “with” for “wth,” “honored” for “hond.,” and “spiritual” for “spirit.,” and have changed “ye” to “the” where appropriate. I have capitalized “God” to conform with modern practice, even though Bradstreet herself did not do so. I have retained the style of the titles for the poems from the Andover manuscript. In presenting the titles of the printed poems, however, I have regularized fonts, size, and style to conform to modern practice. Where a poem has no title or an editorially added title that is nonspecific (such as “Another”), the table of contents supplies the first line in quotation marks. Line numbers in increments of 5 have been added to all the verse. Bradstreet used the Old Style calendar, in which March was the first month of the year. Notes clarify dates when necessary. For proper names in “The Four Monarchies,” I have followed the spellings in Bradstreet’s source text, Ralegh’s History of the World (1614). In the introduction and footnotes, I have modernized the titles and language of all early modern texts. As Bradstreet uses the King James Bible in all direct quotations and chooses its diction whenever that version differs from the Geneva Bible, all biblical references throughout the edition will be to the King James Version. The Oxford English Dictionary Online provides definitions of archaic words. All classical references are to volumes in the Loeb Classical Library.

PART 1: THE TENTH MUSE LATELY SPRUNG UP IN AMERICA (1650)

Figure 1. Title page, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Reproduced by permission of the Beinecke Library of Yale University.

THE TENTH MUSE Lately sprung up in AMERICA. OR Several Poems, compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of delight. Wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of Elements, Constitutions, The Four Ages of Man, Seasons of the Year. Together with an Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies, viz. Assyrian, Persian, The Grecian, Roman. Also a Dialogue between Old England and New, concerning the late troubles. With divers other pleasant and serious Poems.

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By a Gentlewoman in those parts. Printed at London for Stephen Bowtell at the sign of the Bible in Popes Head-Alley. 1650.

42 ANNE BRADSTREET

w w w To Her Most Honored Father Thomas Dudley, Esquire,  these humbly presented Dear Sir, of late delighted with the sight T. D. on the 1 Of your four* sisters decked in black and white, four parts Of fairer Dames the sun ne’ er saw the face of the (Though made a pedestal for Adam’s Race), world Their worth so shines in those rich lines you show, 5 Their parallels to find I scarcely know. To climb their Climes2 I have nor strength nor3 skill; To mount so high requires an Eagle’s quill. Yet view thereof did cause my thoughts to soar, My lowly pen might wait upon those four. 10 I bring my four and four,4 now meanly5 clad, To do their homage unto yours most glad, Who for their age, their worth, and quality Might seem of yours to claim precedency;6 But by my humble hand thus rudely7 penned 15 They are your bounden handmaids to attend. These same are they of whom we being have. These are of all the life, the nurse, the grave. These are the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry,8 That sink, that swim, that fill, that upwards fly. 20 Of these consists our bodies, clothes, and food, The world, the useful, hurtful, and the good. Sweet harmony they keep, yet jar oft times; Their discord may appear by these harsh rhymes. 1. Thomas Dudley had written a four-part poem—or “quaternion”—now lost, about the four parts of the world. The asterisk points readers to the gloss beside these lines. 2. Tracts or regions. 3. Neither … nor. 4. This poem introduces only two of the five quaternions published in The Tenth Muse: “The Four Elements” and “The Four Humors.” 5. Poorly or economically. 6. Bradstreet’s poems, addressing the elements out of which the four parts of the world are made, might be supposed to be of higher rank than her father’s. 7. In an unsophisticated manner. 8. The first of Bradstreet’s quarternions, “The Four Elements.”

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 43 Yours did contest for Wealth, for Arts, for Age. My first do show their good and then their rage. My other four9 do intermixèd tell Each other’s faults, and where themselves excel: How hot and dry contend with moist and cold; How Air and Earth no correspondence hold, And yet in equal tempers, how they ’gree; How divers natures make one unity. Some thing of all (though mean10) I did intend, But feared you’ld judge one Bartas11 was my friend, I honor him, but dare not wear his wealth. My goods are true (though poor); I love no stealth. But if I did, I durst not send them you, Who must reward a thief but with his due. I shall not need my innocence to clear: These ragged lines will do’t when they appear. On what they are, your mild aspect I crave. Accept my best, my worst vouchsafe a grave.

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From her that to yourself more duty owes, Than waters, in the boundless Ocean flows. Anne Bradstreet

9. The second quarternion, “The Four Humors.” 10. Insignificant. 11. Guillaume Du Bartas (1544–1590), a French Protestant and author of the hexameral poem La Semaine, ou Création du Monde (1578), published as The Divine Weeks and Works in an English verse translation by Josuah Sylvester in 1605.

44 ANNE BRADSTREET

w w w The Prologue 1 To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings,12 Of Cities founded, Commonwealths begun, For my mean Pen are too superior things, And how they all, or each, their dates have run. Let Poets and Historians set these forth; My obscure Verse shall not so dim their worth. 2 But when my wondering eyes and envious heart, Great Bartas’ sugared lines do but read o’ er; Fool, I do grudge the Muses did not part ’Twixt him and me that over-fluent store; A Bartas can do what a Bartas will, But simple I, according to my skill.

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3 From School-boy’s tongue, no Rhetoric we expect,13 Nor yet a sweet Consort14 from broken strings, Nor perfect beauty where’s a main defect, My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings, And this to mend, alas, no Art is able, ’Cause Nature made it so irreparable.

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4 Nor can I, like that fluent sweet tongued Greek Who lisped at first, speak afterwards more plain. By Art, he gladly found what he did seek,15 A full requital of his striving pain.

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12. An allusion to the opening lines of Virgil’s poem the Aeneid—“Arma virumque cano” (“Arms and the man I sing”)—outlining the conventional subject matter for epic poetry. 13. In Early Modern Women’s Writing and the Rhetoric of Modesty (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Patricia Pender points out that school boys are precisely the ones to use rhetoric (165). 14. Harmonious sound. 15. Demosthenes (384–322 BCE), the Greek orator, was said to have cured himself of a speech impediment by holding pebbles in his mouth.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 45 Art can do much, but this maxim’s most sure, A weak or wounded brain admits no cure. 5 I am obnoxious to each carping tongue Who says my hand a needle better fits. A Poet’s Pen all scorn I should thus wrong, For such despite they cast on female wits: If what I do prove well, it won’t advance. They’ll say it’s stolen, or else, it was by chance. 6 But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild, Else of our Sex why feignèd they those nine, And poesy made Calliope’s16 own child? So ’mongst the rest they placed the Arts divine. But this weak knot they will full soon untie: The Greeks did naught, but play the fool and lie. 7 Let Greeks be Greeks, and Women what they are. Men have precedency and still excel. It is but vain, unjustly to wage war. Men can do best, and Women know it well. Preeminence in each and all is yours, Yet grant some small acknowledgement of ours. 8 And oh, ye high flown quills, that soar the skies And ever with your prey still catch your praise, If e’ er you deign these lowly lines your eyes, Give wholesome Parsley wreath; I ask no Bays.17 This mean and unrefinèd stuff of mine Will make your glistering gold but more to shine. A. B.

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16. The Greek muse of poetry. 17. Poets received laurel (bay) wreaths when they won competitions. The speaker here suggests a different kitchen herb, parsley, for her wreath.

46 ANNE BRADSTREET

w w w w w The Four Elements

Fire, Air, Earth, and Water did all contest Which was the strongest, noblest, and the best, Who the most good could show, and who most rage. For to declare themselves they all engage, And in due order each her turn should speak, But enmity this amity did break: All would be chief, and all scorned to be under, Whence issued rains and winds, lightning and thunder. The quaking Earth did groan, the sky looked black, The Fire, the forcèd Air, in sunder crack; The sea did threat the heavens, the heavens the earth. All lookèd like a Chaos, or new birth; Fire broilèd Earth, and scorchèd Earth it choked. Both by their darings Water so provoked That roaring in it came, and with its source Soon made the combatants abate their force. The rumbling, hissing, puffing was so great The world’s confusion it did seem to threat.18 But Air at length contention so abated That betwixt hot and cold she arbitrated. The others’ enmity, being less, did cease. All storms now laid, and they in perfect peace. That Fire should first begin, the rest consent, Being the most impatient Element. Fire What is my worth both ye and all things know. Where little is, I can but little show, But what I am, let learnèd Grecians say; What I can do, well-skilled Mechanics may. The benefit all Beings by me find. Come first ye Artists, and declare your mind. What tool was ever framed, but by my might; O Martialist!19 what weapon for your fight 18. The commotion seemed to portend the end of the world. 19. Soldier.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 47 To try your valor by, but it must feel My force? Your sword, your Pike,20 your flint and steel,21 Your Cannon’s bootless,22 and your powder, too. Without mine aid, alas, what can they do? The adverse wall’s not shaked, the Mine’s not blown, And in despite the City keeps her own. But I with one Granado23 or Petard24 Set ope those gates that ’fore so strong was barred. Ye Husband-men,25 your coulter’s26 made by me, Your shares, your mattocks,27 and what e’ er you see Subdue the earth and fit it for your grain That so in time it might requite your pain, Though strong limbed Vulcan28 forged it by his skill, I made it flexible unto his will. Ye Cooks, your kitchen implements I framed, Your spits, pots, jacks,29 what else I need not name. Your dainty food, I wholesome make. I warm Your shrinking limbs, which winter’s cold doth harm. Ye Paracelsians,30 too, in vain’s your skill In chemistry, unless I help you still, And you Philosophers, if ere you made A transmutation,31 it was through mine aid. Ye Silversmiths, your ore I do refine; What mingled lay with earth, I cause to shine. But let me leave these things. My flame aspires To match on high with the Celestial fires. The Sun, an Orb of Fire was held of old. Our Sages new, another tale have told.

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20. A long spear. 21. Source of sparks. 22. Worthless. 23. A grenade. 24. A bomb that is placed. 25. Farmers. 26. A blade on a plow. 27. Tools for digging. 28. Roman god of fire and the forge. 29. Spits held roasts over the fire; jacks were counter-weighted pulley devices that slowly turned the spit. 30. Followers of Paracelsus (1493–1541 CE), a Swiss philosopher and alchemist. 31. The process of changing a base metal into gold.

48 ANNE BRADSTREET But be he what they list,32 yet his aspect33 A burning fiery heat we find reflect, And of the selfsame nature is with mine, Good sister Earth, no witness needs but thine. How doth his warmth refresh thy frozen backs, And trim thee gay, in green, after thy blacks?34 Both man and beast rejoice at his approach, And birds do sing to see his glittering Coach.35 And though naught but Sal’manders live in fire,36 The Fly Pyrausta37 called, all else expire, Yet men and beasts, Astronomers can tell, Fixèd in heavenly constellations dwell, My Planets, of both Sexes, whose degree Poor Heathen judged worthy a Deity: With Orion38 armed, attended by his dog; The Theban stout Alcides,39 with his club; The Valiant Perseus who Medusa slew;40 The Horse that killed Bellerophon,41 then flew. My Crab, my Scorpion, fishes, you may see;42 The maid with balance,43 wain with horses three;44 The Ram, the Bull, the Lion, and the Beagle;45 The Bear, the Goat, the Raven, and the Eagle; The Crown, the Whale, the Archer, Bernice’ Hair,46

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32. Like or desire. 33. Face. 34. The black clothing worn during mourning. Here, to signify winter. 35. In Greek mythology, the sun is drawn across the sky in a chariot. 36. According to folklore, salamanders can withstand fire. 37. A mythological insect impervious to fire. 38. The constellation Orion is named after a powerful mythological Greek hunter. 39. Also Heracles or Hercules, a god or hero who accomplished feats of strength. 40. A Greek demigod who killed the snaky-headed Gorgon Medusa. 41. Pegasus, the flying horse. Bellerophon was a Greek hero thrown from Pegasus as he tried, impiously, to ascend Mount Olympus. 42. The zodiac signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. 43. Libra. 44. The Big Dipper, once likened to a wagon pulled by three horses. 45. Canis Major. 46. A constellation named after Queen Berenice II of Egypt, who, in the third century BCE, sacrificed her hair to the gods in gratitude for her husband’s safe return from war.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 49 The Hydra, Dolphin, Boys that waters bear.47 Nay more than these, Rivers ’mongst stars are found, Eridanus, where Phaeton was drowned.48 Their magnitude49 and height50 should I recount My story to a Volume would amount. Out of a multitude, these few I touch. Your wisdom out of little gathers much. I’ll here let pass my Choler,51 cause of wars, And influence of divers of those stars, When in conjunction52 with the sun, yet more, Augment his heat, which was too hot before. The Summer ripening season I do claim, And man from thirty unto fifty frame.53 Of old, when Sacrifices were divine, I of acceptance was the holy sign.54 ’Mong all my wonders which I might recount, There’s none more strange than Aetna’s55 sulphury mount. The choking flames that from Vesuvius56 flew The over-curious second Pliny slew,57 And with the ashes that it sometimes shed Apulia’s ’jacent parts58 were coverèd. And though I be a servant to each man, Yet by my force master my master can.

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47. Aquarius. 48. This fall of stars resembling a river has two myths associated with it: it is the path the sun chariot took when Phaeton lost control of it; it is the river Eridanus in which Phaeton drowned. 49. Brightness. 50. In this context, location among the other stars in the heavens. 51. One of the four humors believed to influence the body and its moods, choler is characterized as hot and dry, causing an irritable temperament. 52. In alignment. In astrology, the conjunction of certain stars and planets affects earthly phenomenon. 53. As the element associated with choler, Fire governs summer and, according to Bradstreet’s understanding, middle age. 54. The gods in Near Eastern traditions, including Judaism, indicated the acceptance of offerings by setting them on fire. See God consuming Elijah’s offering, 1 Kings 18. 55. An active volcano in Sicily. 56. A volcano in southern Italy that erupted in 79 CE, destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum. 57. Pliny the Elder (whose full name was Gaius Plinius Secundus) perished in one of the after eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. He had sailed to the stricken area to rescue a friend. Bradstreet refers to his initial interest in sailing toward the area to observe the volcanic activity personally. 58. Adjacent. Apulia is the lower eastern part of Italy, known as the boot’s heel.

50 ANNE BRADSTREET What famous Towns to cinders have I turned? What lasting Forts my kindled wrath hath burned? The stately seats of mighty Kings by me In confused heaps of ashes may ye see. 110 Where’s Ninus’59 great walled Town, and Troy60 of old, Carthage61 and hundred more in stories told, Which when they could not be o’ ercome by foes The Army through my help victorious rose? Old sacred Zion,62 I demolished thee; 115 So great Diana’s63 Temple was by me, And more than brutish Sodom64 for her lust, With neighboring Towns I did consume to dust. What shall I say of Lightning and of Thunder, Which Kings, and mighty ones, amazed with wonder, 120 Which made a Caesar (Rome’s), the world’s proud head, Foolish Caligula, creep under’s bed,65 Of Meteors, Ignis Fatuus,66 and the rest? But to leave those to’ th’ wise, I judge is best. The rich I oft make poor, the strong I maim, 125 Not sparing life when I can take the same, And in a word, the World I shall consume, And all therein at that great day of doom.67 Not before then shall cease my raging ire, And then, because no matter more for fire. 130 Now Sisters, pray proceed, each in her course, As I, impart your usefulness and force.

59. Mythical king who founded Nineveh on the Tigris River in Assyria, now Iraq. 60. An ancient city on the Mediterranean coast in what is now Turkey. 61. An ancient city on the Mediterranean coast in what is now Tunisia. 62. Another name for Jerusalem. 63. The famous Temple of Diana (or Artemis), goddess of the hunt and the moon, in Ephesus was rebuilt twice, once after being destroyed by a flood, then by an act of arson. It was permanently demolished by Goths in 268 CE. 64. God destroyed the city of Sodom and others nearby after townsmen tried to rape two male travelers who were angels in disguise. Genesis 19. 65. According to Suetonius, Caligula was terrified of thunderstorms. C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Lives of the Caesars 1.483. 66. False fires that appear at night over marshy areas, possibly caused by decomposing organic matter. 67. According to Jesus in Mark 13:38–42, God will destroy the world with fire at Judgment Day.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 51 Earth The next in place, Earth judged to be her due. Sister, in worth I come not short of you; In wealth and use I do surpass you all, 135 And Mother Earth, of old, men did me call. Such was my fruitfulness, an Epithite68 Which none e’ er gave, nor you could claim of right. Among my praises this I count not least: I am th’ original of man and beast. 140 To tell what sundry fruits my fat soil yields In vineyards, orchards, gardens, and corn69 fields, Their kinds, their tastes, their colors, and their smells, Would so pass time, I could say nothing else. The rich and poor, wise, fool, and every sort, 145 Of these so common things can make report. To tell you of my Countries and my regions Soon would they pass, not hundreds, but legions, My cities famous, rich, and populous, Whose numbers now are grown innumerous. 150 I have not time to think of every part, Yet let me name my Grecia,70 ’tis my heart. For Learning, Arms, and Arts, I love it well, But chiefly ’cause the Muses there did dwell.71 I’ll here skip o’ er my mountains, reaching skies, 155 Whether Pyrenean or the Alps; both lies On either side the country of the Gauls,72 Strong forts from Spanish and Italian brawls, And huge great Taurus, longer than the rest, Dividing great Armenia from the least,73 160 And Hemus,74 whose steep sides none foot upon. But farewell all, for dear mount Helicon,75 68. Epithet. 69. The generic word for grain at this time. 70. Greece. 71. The nine Muses lived on Mount Olympus. 72. The Pyrenees and the Alps are mountain ranges that border France, home of the Gauls, protecting France from Spain, to its southwest, and Italy, to its southeast. 73. The Taurus mountain range is in present-day Turkey. 74. An older name for the Balkan mountain range between Serbia and Bulgaria. 75. A mountain in Greece associated with the Muses.

52 ANNE BRADSTREET And wondrous high Olympus,76 of such fame That heaven itself was oft called by that name. Sweet Parnassus,77 I dote too much on thee, 165 Unless thou prove a better friend to me. But I’ll skip o’ er these Hills, not touch a Dale, Nor yet expatiate in Temple vale. I’ll here let go my Lions of Numedia,78 My Panthers and my Leopards of Libya,79 170 The Behemoth,80 and rare found Unicorn, Poison’s sure antidote lies in his horn.81 And my Hyena imitates man’s voice. Out of huge numbers, I might pick my choice: Thousands in woods and plains, both wild and tame, 175 But here, or there, I list82 now none to name. No, though the fawning dog did urge me sore In his behalf to speak a word the more, Whose trust and valor I might here commend, But time’s too short and precious so to spend. 180 But hark, ye worthy Merchants who for prize Send forth your well-manned ships, where sun doth rise. After three years, when men and meat is spent, My rich commodities pay double rent. Ye Galenists,83 my Drugs that come from thence 185 Do cure your patients, fill your purse with pence, Besides the use you have of Herbs and Plants, That with less cost, near home, supplies your wants. But Mariners,84 where got you ships and sails And Oars to row, when both my sisters fails?85 190 Your Tackling,86 Anchor, Compass, too, is mine, 76. A mountain in Greece reputed to be home of the gods and associated with the Muses. 77. Another Greek mountain associated with the Muses. 78. An ancient Berber kingdom, located in what is now Algeria. 79. Another North African country. 80. A very large herbivore, mentioned in Job 40:15–24. 81. The mythical unicorn was a reputed antidote to animal poisons. 82. Choose. 83. Followers of the Greek physician, Galen, who developed the humoral theory of medicine popular in Bradstreet’s day. 84. Sailors. 85. The failing sisters would be Air and Water. 86. Tackle is the rope part of a block and tackle system used to lift large loads in shipping.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 53 Which guides when Sun nor Moon nor87 Stars do shine. Ye mighty Kings, who for your lasting fames Built Cities, Monuments called by your names, Was those compilèd heaps of massy stones 195 That your ambition laid, aught but my bones? Ye greedy misers who do dig for gold, For gems, for silver, treasures which I hold, Will not my goodly face your rage88 suffice, But you will see what in my bowels lies?89 200 And ye Artificers, all trades and sorts,90 My bounty calls you forth to make reports If ought you have to use, to wear, to eat, But what I freely yield upon your sweat? And choleric sister,91 thou (for all thine ire) 205 Well knowest my fuel must maintain thy fire. As I ingenuously (with thanks) confess My cold thy fruitful heat doth crave no less. But how my cold, dry temper works upon The melancholy constitution, 210 How the Autumnal season I do sway, And how I force the grey head to obey,92 I should here make a short, yet true narration, But that thy method is my imitation. Now might I show my adverse quality, 215 And how I oft work man’s mortality. He sometimes finds, maugre93 his toiling pain, Thistles and thorns where he expected grain. My sap to plants and trees I must not grant; The Vine, the Olive, and the Figtree want. 220 The Corn and Hay both fall before they’re mown, And buds from fruitful trees before they’re blown. Then dearth prevails that Nature to suffice The tender mother on her Infant flies; 87. Neither … nor. 88. Desire or appetite. 89. A generic term for internal organs. Here Earth criticizes mining. 90. Craftsmen employed in different trades and of differing rank. 91. Fire. 92. Associated with black bile, or melancholy (one of the humors believed to control human temperaments), Earth governs autumn and, in Bradstreet’s understanding, old age. 93. Despite.

54 ANNE BRADSTREET The Husband knows no Wife, nor father sons, But to all outrages their hunger runs. Dreadful examples soon I might produce, But to such auditors ’twere of no use. Again, when Delvers dare in hope of gold To ope those veins of Mine, audacious bold, While they thus in my entrails seem to dive, Before they know, they are interred alive. Ye affrighted wights,94 appalled how do you shake If once you feel me, your foundation, quake, Because in the abyss of my dark womb Your Cities and your selves I oft entomb. O dreadful Sepulcher! that this is true Korah and all his Company well knew.95 And since faire Italy full sadly knows What she hath lost by these my dreadful woes, And Rome, her Curtius can’t forget, I think, Who bravely rode into my yawning chink.96 Again, what veins of poison in me lie, As Stibium97 and unfixed Mercury,98 With divers more. Nay, into plants it creeps In hot and cold, and some benumbs with sleeps. Thus I occasion death to man and beast When they seek food and harm mistrust the least. Much might I say of the Arabian sands,99 Which rise like mighty billows on the lands, Wherein whole Armies I have overthrown. But windy sister, ’twas when you have blown. I’ll say no more, yet this thing add I must: Remember sons, your mold is of my dust, And after death, whether interred or burned, As earth at first, so into earth returned.100

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 55 Water Scarce Earth had done, but th’ angry waters moved. Sister (quoth she) it had full well behoved Among your boastings to have praisèd me, Cause of your fruitfulness, as you shall see. 260 This your neglect shows your ingratitude; And how your subtlety would men delude. Not one of us, all knows, that’s like to thee, Ever in craving from the other three. But thou art bound to me, above the rest, 265 Which am thy drink, thy blood, thy sap, and best. If I withhold, what art thou? Dead, dry lump, Thou bear’st no grass, nor plant, nor tree, nor stump. Thy extreme thirst is moistened by my love With springs below and showers from above, 270 Or else thy sunburnt face and gaping chaps101 Complain to th’ heaven when I withhold my drops. Thy Bear, thy Tiger, and thy Lion stout, When I am gone, their fierceness none need doubt; The Camel hath no strength, thy Bull no force, 275 Nor mettle’s102 found in the courageous Horse. Hinds103 leave their Calves, the Elephant the Fens; The Wolves and savage Beasts forsake their Dens. The lofty Eagle and the Stork fly low; The Peacock and the Ostrich share in woe. 280 The Pine, the Cedars, yea, and Daphne’s tree104 Do cease to flourish in this misery. Man wants his bread and wine and pleasant fruits; He knows such sweets lies not in earth’s dry roots, Then seeks me out, in River and in Well, 285 His deadly malady I might expel. If I supply, his heart and veins rejoice; If not, soon ends his life, as did his voice. That this is true, earth, thou canst not deny; I call thine Egypt, this to verify, 290 Which by my fatting Nile doth yield such store 101. Jaws. 102. Courage. 103. Female deer. 104. Daphne was turned into a laurel to save her from Apollo’s sexual advances.

56 ANNE BRADSTREET That she can spare, when Nations round are poor.105 When I run low, and not o’ er flow her brinks, To meet with want each woeful man bethinks. But such I am, in Rivers, showers and springs; 295 But what’s the wealth that my rich Ocean brings? Fishes so numberless I there do hold; Shouldst thou but buy, it would exhaust thy gold. There lives the oily Whale, whom all men know; Such wealth, but not such like, Earth thou mayst show, 300 The Dolphin (loving music) Arion’s friend,106 The crafty Barbel,107 whose wit doth her commend, With thousands more, which now I list not name. Thy silence of thy beasts doth cause the same. My pearls that dangle at thy darlings’ ears 305 Not thou, but shellfish yields, as Pliny108 clears. Was ever gem so rich found in thy trunk As Egypt’s wanton Cleopatra drunk?109 Or hast thou any color can come nigh The Roman Purple, double Tyrian dye,110 310 Which Caesars, Consuls, Tribunes111 all adorn? For it to search my waves, they thought no scorn. Thy gallant rich perfuming Ambergris112 I lightly cast ashore as frothy fleece With rolling grains of purest massy gold, 315 Which Spain’s Americans do gladly hold. Earth, thou hast not more Countries, Vales, and Mounds Than I have Fountains, Rivers, Lakes, and Ponds:

105. The Hebrews sent emissaries to Egypt during a drought. See Genesis 42. 106. The musician Arion, leaping into the sea to escape pirates, was rescued by dolphins who had been attracted to his playing. 107. A species of freshwater fish known to act evasively when hooked. 108. Pliny the Elder explains the origin of pearls in Natural History 3.235. 109. Pliny records this story of Cleopatra dissolving an expensive pearl earring in vinegar and then drinking the liquid (Natural History 3.245). 110. Tyrian, or imperial, purple was created by the secretions of predatory sea snails. Tyre was a Phoenician port city in what is now Lebanon. 111. Titles related to political and military rank in the Roman Empire. 112. A waxy substance produced by sperm whales and used as a fixative in perfumery.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 57 My sundry Seas, Black,113 White,114 and Adriatic,115 Ionian,116 Baltic,117 and the vast Atlantic, 320 The Pontic,118 Caspian,119 Golden Rivers five, Asphaltis Lake,120 where naught remains alive. But I should go beyond thee in thy boasts, If I should show more Seas than thou hast Coasts. But note this maxim in Philosophy: 325 Than Seas are deep, Mountains are never high. To speak of kinds of Waters I’ll neglect, My divers Fountains and their strange effect, My wholesome Baths, together with their cures. My water Sirens,121 with their guileful lures: 330 Th’ uncertain cause of certain ebbs and flows, Which wond’ring Aristotle’s wit ne’ er knows.122 Nor will I speak of waters made by Art, Which can to life restore a fainting heart,123 Nor fruitful dews, nor drops from weeping eyes, 335 Which pity moves, and oft deceives the wise. Nor yet of Salt and Sugar, sweet and smart, Both when we list, to water we convert. Alas, thy ships and oars could do no good Did they but want my Ocean and my Flood. 340 The wary Merchant on his weary beast Transfers his goods from North and South and East, Unless I ease his toil and do transport The wealthy fraught124 unto his wishèd Port. These be my benefits which may suffice. 345 113. The Black Sea is an inland sea bordering, among other nations, Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia. 114. An arm of the Barents Sea, on the north shore of Russia. 115. The arm of the Mediterranean that separates Italy from the Balkans. 116. The part of the Mediterranean between the boot of Italy and southern Greece. 117. The stretch of the Atlantic reaching between Scandinavia and Finland. 118. Another name for the Black Sea. 119. An inland sea to the east of the Black Sea, bordered by, among other nations, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran. 120. The Dead Sea, which is heavy with salt, will not support aquatic life. Sir John Mandeville (1300– 1371) reported that its black mud was asphalt tossed up by the lake. 121. Mythological singers who lured sailors to their deaths on the rocky coast of their island. 122. During the last years of his life, Aristotle studied unusual tides off the island of Euboea. 123. Cordials or other liquid medicines. 124. Freight.

58 ANNE BRADSTREET I now must show what force there in me lies. The phlegmy125 constitution I uphold: All humors, Tumors that are bred of cold. O’ er childhood and Winter I bear the sway, Yet Luna126 for my Regent I obey. 350 As I with showers oft time refresh the earth, So oft in my excess I cause a dearth And with abundant wet so cool the ground By adding cold to cold, no fruit proves sound. The Farmer and the Plowman both complain 355 127 Of rotten sheep, lean kine, and mildewed grain. And with my wasting floods and roaring torrent, Their Cattle, Hay, and Corn I sweep down current. Nay many times my Ocean breaks his bounds And with astonishment the world confounds 360 And swallows Countries up, ne’ er seen again, And that an Island makes, which once was main.128 Thus Albion (’tis thought) was cut from France, Sicily from Italy, by th’ like chance, And but one land was Africa and Spain, 365 Until strait Gibralter129 did make them twain. Some say I swallowed up (sure ’tis a notion) A mighty Country i’ th’ Atlantic Ocean.130 I need not say much of my Hail and Snow, My Ice and extreme cold, which all men know. 370 Whereof the first, so ominous I rained, That Israel’s enemies therewith was brained.131 And of my chilling colds such plenty be That Caucasus high mounts are seldom free.132 Mine Ice doth glaze Europe’s big’st Rivers o’ er; 375 ’Til Sun release, their ships can sail no more. 125. One of the four humors believed to influence the body and its moods, phlegm is characterized as moist and cold, leading to indolence. 126. The moon. 127. Cows. 128. Part of the mainland. 129. The narrow stretch of water (7.7 nautical miles) between Gibraltar, on the Spanish peninsula, and Morocco, on the African coast. 130. The lost Atlantis. 131. Hailstones killed the army of Amorites as they fled the battle at Gibeon (Joshua 10:11). 132. The Caucasus mountain range separates the Black Sea from the Caspian Sea.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 59 All know what inundations I have made, Wherein not men, but mountains seemed to wade, As when Achaia all under water stood,133 That in two hundred year, it ne’ er proved good; Deucalion’s great deluge,134 with many more. But these are trifles to the Flood of Noah. Then wholly perished earth’s ignoble race And to this day impairs her beauteous face. That after times shall never feel like woe, Her confirmed sons behold my colored bow.135 Much might I say of wracks, but that I’ll spare, And now give place unto our sister Air. Air Content (quoth Air) to speak the last of you, Though not through ignorance, first was my due. I do suppose, you’ll yield without control. I am the breath of every living soul. Mortals, what one of you that loves not me, Abundantly more than my sisters three? And though you love Fire, Earth, and Water well, Yet Air, beyond all these ye know t’excel. I ask the man condemned, that’s near his death, How gladly136 should his gold purchase his breath, And all the wealth that ever earth did give, How freely should it go, so he might live. No world, thy witching trash were all but vain If my pure Air thy sons did not sustain. The famished, thirsty man, that craves supply, His moving reason is, “give lest I die,” So loath he is to go, though nature’s spent, To bid adieu to his dear Element. Nay, what are words, which do reveal the mind? Speak, who or what they will, they are but wind. Your Drums, your Trumpets, and your Organs sound, What is’t but forcèd Aire which must rebound?

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133. Mythological flood at the end of the Age of Silver. Achaia is Greece. 134. Another mythological flood, which Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha, survived in a floating chest. 135. After destroying all humans except Noah and his family, God set a rainbow in the heavens as surety that he would never again flood the earth (Genesis 9:12–17). 136. Likely.

60 ANNE BRADSTREET And such are Echoes and report o’ th’ gun Which tells afar th’ exploit which he hath done. Your songs and pleasant tunes, they are the same, And so’s the notes which Nightingales do frame. Ye forging Smiths, if Bellows once were gone Your red hot work more coldly would go on. Ye Mariners, ’tis I that fill your Sails And speed you to your Port, with wishèd gales. When burning heat doth cause you faint, I cool, And when I smile, your Ocean’s like a Pool. I ripe the corn; I turn the grinding mill, And with my self, I every vacuum fill. The ruddy sweet sanguine137 is like to Air, And youth and spring sages to me compare. My moist hot nature is so purely thin, No place so subtly made but I get in. I grow more pure and pure as I mount higher, And when I’m throughly138 rarified, turn fire. So when I am condensed, I turn to water, Which may be done by holding down my vapor. Thus I another body can assume, And, in a trice, my own nature resume. Some for this cause (of late) have been so bold, Me for no Element longer to hold. Let such suspend their thoughts and silent be, For all Philosophers make one of me. And what those Sages did or spake or writ Is more authentic than their modern wit. Next, of my Fowls139 such multitudes there are, Earth’s Beasts and Water’s Fish scarce can compare. The Ostrich with her plumes, th’ Eagle with her eyne,140 The Phoenix141 too (if any be) are mine; The Stork, the Crane, the Partridge, and the Pheasant,

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137. One of the four humors believed to influence the body and its moods, blood, characterized as hot and moist, is associated with courage and hope. 138. Thoroughly. 139. Birds. 140. An archaic plural for eyes. 141. A mythical bird that self-combusts and then rises from its own ashes.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 61 The Pie,142 the Jay, the Lark, a prey to th’ Peasant,143 With thousands more, which now I may omit 445 Without impeachment to my tale or wit. As my fresh Air preserves all things in life, So when it’s corrupt, mortality is rife. Then Fevers, Purples,144 Pox,145 and Pestilence,146 With divers more, work deadly consequence, 450 Whereof such multitudes have died and fled, The living scarce had power to bury dead. Yea so contagious Countries have me known That birds have not ’scaped death as they have flown. Of murrain147 Cattle numberless did fall. 455 Men feared destruction epidemical. Then of my tempests felt at Sea and Land, Which neither ships nor houses could withstand. What woeful wracks I’ve made may well appear, If naught was known, but that before Algier 460 Where famous Charles the fifth more loss sustained148 Than in his long hot wars, which Milan gained.149 How many rich fraught150 vessels have I split? Some upon sands, some upon rocks have hit. Some have I forced to gain an unknown shore, 465 Some overwhelmed with waves and seen no more. Again, what tempests and what hurricanoes Knows Western Isles, Christopher’s,151 Barbados, Where neither houses, trees, nor plants I spare, But some fall down, and some fly up with air. 470 Earthquakes so hurtful and so feared of all, Imprisoned I am the original. Then what prodigious sights sometimes I show 142. Magpie. 143. Larks, very small birds, were consumed bones and all. 144. Diseases involving skin rashes. 145. Here, most likely smallpox. 146. Bubonic plague. 147. An infectious disease affecting livestock. 148. On October 25, 1541, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, had to abandon the siege of Algiers because of a hurricane, losing thousands of soldiers and 150 ships. 149. Charles V fought from 1522 to 1525 to gain control of Milan. 150. Laden. 151. St. Kitts, in the West Indies, was originally called St. Christopher’s Island.

62 ANNE BRADSTREET As battles pitched i’ th’ Air (as Countries know), Their joining, fighting, forcing, and retreat, That earth appears in heaven, oh wonder great! Sometimes strange flaming swords and blazing stars, Portentous signs of Famines, Plagues, and Wars, Which makes the mighty Monarchs fear their Fates By death or great mutations of their States. I have said less than did my sisters three, But what’s their worth, or force, but more’s in me. To add to all I’ve said was my intent, But dare not go beyond my Element.

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w w w w w Of the Four Humors in Man’s Constitution The former four, now ending their Discourse, Ceasing to vaunt their good, or threat their force, Lo! other four step up, crave leave to show The native qualities that from each flow. But first they wisely showed their high descent, 5 Each eldest Daughter to each Element; Choler152 was owned by Fire, and Blood153 by Air; Earth knew her black swarth154 child,155 Water her fair.156 All having made obeisance to each Mother Had leave to speak, succeeding one the other, 10 But ’mongst themselves they were at variance, Which of the four should have predominance. Choler hotly claimed right by her mother, Who had precedency of all the other, But Sanguine did disdain what she required, 15 Pleading herself was most of all desired; Proud Melancholy, more envious than the rest, The second, third, or last could not digest. She was the silentest of all the four; Her wisdom spoke not much, but thought the more. 20 Cold phlegm did not contest for highest place, Only she craved to have a vacant space. Well, thus they parle157 and chide, but to be brief, Or will they nil158 they, Choler will be chief. They seeing her imperiosity,159 25 At present yielded to necessity. 152. One of the four humors believed to influence the body and its moods, choler is characterized as hot and dry, causing an irritable temperament. 153. The humor blood, also called sanguine, is characterized as hot and moist and associated with courage and hope. 154. Swarthy, or dark. 155. The humor black bile, characterized as dry and cold and leading to melancholy. 156. The humor associated with water is phlegm, characterized as moist and cold, causing an indolent temperament. 157. Negotiate. 158. Whether they will or no. Evolved into willy-nilly. 159. Imperiousness.

64 ANNE BRADSTREET Choler To show my great descent and pedigree Your selves would judge but vain prolixity.160 It is acknowledgèd from whence I came; It shall suffice to tell you what I am, 30 Myself and Mother, one as you shall see, But she in greater, I in less degree. We both once Masculines the world doth know, Now Feminines (a while) for love we owe Unto your Sisterhood, which makes us tender 35 161 Our noble selves, in a less noble Gender. Though under fire we comprehend all heat, Yet man for Choler is the proper seat.162 I in his heart erect my regal throne, Where Monarch-like I play and sway163 alone, 40 Yet many times, unto my great disgrace, One of your selves are my compeers in place,164 Where if your rule once grow predominant, The man proves boyish, sottish, ignorant, But if ye yield subservient unto me, 45 I make a man, a man i’ th’ highest degree. Be he a Soldier, I more fence his heart Than Iron Corslet165 ’gainst a sword or dart. What makes him face his foe without appall166 To storm a Breach or scale a City wall,167 50 In dangers to account himself more sure Than timorous Hares, whom Castles do immure?168 Have ye not heard of Worthies, Demi-gods? ’Twixt them and others, what is’t makes the odds 160. Long-windedness. 161. For the purpose of the conversation, Choler and her parent Fire condescend to appear in feminine form. 162. Galenists believe that the heat in choler caused the generative organs to shift to the outside of the body, manifesting as male rather than female. 163. Rule. 164. Corulers, as Choler has to share control with one or more other humors. 165. Armor protecting the torso. 166. For “being afraid.” 167. Military maneuvers, charging through a break in or climbing defensive walls, both of which would make a soldier vulnerable to enemy weapons. 168. Other men, not governed by Choler, would hide inside castles like timid rodents.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 65 But valor. Whence comes that? from none of you, Nay milksops,169 at such brunts170 you look but blue. Here’s Sister Ruddy,171 worth the other two, That much will talk, but little dares she do, Unless to court and claw and dice and drink, And there she will outbid us all, I think. She loves a Fiddle better than a Drum,172 A Chamber well. In field she dares not come. She’ll ride a Horse as bravely as the best, And break a staff, provided’t be in jest, But shuns to look on wounds and blood that’s spilt. She loves her sword, only because it’s gilt.173 Then here’s our sad black Sister,174 worse than you. She’ll neither say, she will nor will she do, But peevish, Malcontent, musing she sits, And by misprisions like to lose her wits; If great persuasions cause her meet her foe, In her dull resolutìon, she’s slow. To march her pace to some is greater pain, Than by a quick encounter to be slain; But be she beaten, she’ll not run away; She’ll first advise, if’t be not best to stay. But let’s give cold, white Sister Phlegm her right: So loving unto all, she scorns to fight. If any threaten her, she’ll in a trice Convert from water to congealèd Ice; Her teeth will chatter, dead and wan’s her face, And ’fore she be assaulted quits the place. She dare not challenge if I speak amiss, Nor hath she wit, or heat, to blush at this. Here’s three of you, all sees now what you are, Then yield to me preeminence in War. Again, who fits for learning, science, Arts?175 Who rarifies the intellectual parts?

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169. Term for the timid, from milk-soaked bread fed to infants. 170. Sharp blows. 171. The humor Blood. 172. Prefers parties to military actions. 173. Blood enjoys the accoutrements of combat but not the real thing. 174. Melancholy. 175. Choler claims to be the humor best suited to study and intellectual achievement.

66 ANNE BRADSTREET Whence flow fine spirits and witty notions? Not from our dull slow Sisters’ motions, Nor sister Sanguine, from thy moderate heat. Poor spirits the Liver breeds, which is thy seat.176 What comes from thence, my heat refines the same, And through the arteries sends o’ er the frame. The vital spirits they’re called, and well they may, For when they fail, man turns unto his clay.177 The Animal I claim, as well as these. The nerves should I not warm, soon would they freeze. But Phlegm herself is now provoked at this; She thinks I never shot so far amiss. The Brain she challenges, the Head’s her seat,178 But know’st a foolish brain that wanteth heat. My absence proves it plain. Her wit then flies Out at her nose, or melteth at her eyes. Oh, who would miss this influence of thine, To be distilled a drop on every line! No, no, thou hast no spirits; thy company Will feed a Dropsy179 or a Timpany,180 The Palsy,181 Gout,182 or Cramp, or some such dolor. Thou wast not made for Soldier or for Scholar. Of greasy paunch and pallid cheeks, go vaunt, But a good head from these are dissonant. But Melancholy, wouldst have this glory thine? Thou sayst, thy wits are staid, subtle and fine. ’Tis true, when I am midwife to thy birth. Thy self’s as dull as is thy mother Earth. Thou canst not claim the Liver, Head nor Heart; Yet hast thy seat assigned, a goodly part, The sink of all us three, the hateful spleen,

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176. According to humoral theory, there are three kinds of spirit: natural (liver), vital (heart), and animal (brain), in ascending order of purity. They are all initially metabolized in the liver, which was believed to be governed by Blood. 177. Dies. 178. Humoral theory associates the brain and lungs with Phlegm, which Choler tries to claim. 179. Illness in which fluid accumulates in the tissues. 180. A tumor. 181. A paralysis or a tremor. 182. Inflammation of the joints, particularly in the toes.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 67 Of that black region Nature made thee Queen,183 Where pain and sore obstructions thou dost work, Where envy, malice, thy companions lurk. If once thou’rt great, what follows thereupon But bodies wasting and destruction? So base184 thou art, that baser cannot be; The excrement, adustion185 of me. But I am weary to dilate thy shame, Nor is’t my pleasure thus to blur thy name, Only to raise my honors to the Skies, As objects best appear by contraries. Thus arms and arts I claim, and higher things, The Princely quality, befitting Kings, Whose Serene heads I line with policies. They’re held for Oracles, they are so wise. Their wrathful looks are death; their words are laws; Their courage, friend and foe and subject awes. But one of you would make a worthy King Like our sixth Henry,186 that same worthy thing That when a Varlet187 struck him o’ er the side, “Forsooth you are to blame,” he grave replied.188 Take choler from a Prince, what is he more Than a dead Lion by beasts triumphed o’ er? Again, ye know, how I act every part By th’influence I send still from the heart.189 It’s not your muscles, nerves, nor this nor190 that Without my lively heat does ought that’s flat. The spongy Lungs I feed with frothy blood; They cool my heat and so repay my good.

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183. Here Choler correctly associates Melancholy with the spleen. 184. Lowly. 185. Desiccation. 186. Henry VI of England (1421–1471) reigned from 1422 to 1461 and again briefly before his death, under suspicious circumstances, in 1471. 187. A man of low rank, a servant. 188. A contemporary, John Blakman, reports Henry using this expression when a would-be assassin struck him in the neck with a sword. Blakman’s text was available only in Latin during the seventeenth century. See M. R. James, Henry the Sixth: A Reprint of John Blacman’s Memoir with Translation and Notes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919), 40. 189. The heart is the seat of Blood, not Choler. 190. Neither … nor.

68 ANNE BRADSTREET Nay, th’ stomach, magazine191 to all the rest, Without my boiling heat cannot digest. And yet to make my greatness far more great, What differences the Sex, but only heat?192 And one thing more to close with my narration, Of all that lives, I cause the propagation. I have been sparing what I might have said, I love no boasting; that’s but children’s trade. To what you now shall say, I will attend, And to your weakness gently condescend.

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Blood Good sisters, give me leave (as is my place) To vent my grief and wipe off my disgrace. 160 Your selves may plead, your wrongs are no whit less; Your patience more than mine, I must confess. Did ever sober tongue such language speak, Or honesty such ties unfriendly break? Doest know thy self so well, us so amiss? 165 Is’t ignorance or folly causeth this? I’ll only show the wrongs thou’st done to me, Then let my sisters right their injury. To pay with railings193 is not mine intent, But to evince the truth by argument. 170 I will analyze thy so proud relation, So full of boasting and prevarication. Thy childish incongruities I’ll show, So walk thee ’til thou’rt cold, then let thee go. There is no Soldier but thy self thou say’st, 175 No valor upon earth, but what thou hast. Thy foolish provocations, I despise. And leave’t to all to judge where valor lies. No pattern nor no Patron will I bring, But David, Judah’s most heroic King,194 180 Whose glorious deeds in arms the world can tell. A rosy cheeked musician, thou know’st well. He knew how for to handle Sword and Harp, 191. A storehouse. 192. In humoral theory, it is the amount of choler, or heat, that determines an individual’s sex. 193. Abusive rants. 194. David, King of Israel, was a warrior and a poet/composer, to whom the Psalms are attributed.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 69 And how to strike full sweet, as well as sharp. Thou laugh’st at me for loving merriment And scorn’st all Knightly sports at tournament.195 Thou sayst I love my sword, because ’tis gilt, But know, I love the blade more than the hilt, Yet do abhor such timerarious196 deeds As thy unbridled, barb’rous Choler yields. Thy rudeness197 counts good manners vanity And real compliments, base flattery. For drink, which of us twain like it the best? I’ll go no further than thy nose for test. Thy other scoffs not worthy of reply Shall vanish as of no validity. Of thy black calumnies this is but part: But now I’ll show what Soldier thou art. And though thou’st used me with opprobrious spite, My ingenuity must give thee right. Thy Choler is but rage, when ’tis most pure But useful, when a mixture can endure. As with thy mother Fire, so ’tis with thee, The best of all the four when they agree. But let her leave the rest, and I presume Both them and all things else she will consume. Whil’st us for thine associates thou takest, A Soldier most complete in all points makest. But when thou scorn’st to take the help we lend, Thou art a fury or infernal Fiend. Witness the execrable deeds thou’st done Nor sparing Sex nor age nor sire nor son. To satisfy thy pride and cruelty Thou oft hast broke bounds of humanity. Nay should I tell thou wouldst count me no blab, How often for the lie, thou’st given the stab.198 To take the wall’s199 a sin of such high rate That naught but blood, the same may expiate.

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70 ANNE BRADSTREET To cross thy will, a challenge doth deserve.200 So spills that life thou’rt bounden to preserve. 220 Wilt thou this valor, manhood, courage call? Nay, know ’tis pride most diabolical. If murders be thy glory, ’tis no less. I’ll not envy thy feats nor happiness. But if in fitting time and place on foes, 225 For Countries good, thy life thou dar’st expose, Be dangers near so high and courage great, I’ll praise that fury, valor, choler, heat. But such thou never art when all alone, Yet such, when we all four are joined in one. 230 And when such thou art, even such are we, The friendly coadjutors still to thee. Nextly, the spirits thou dost wholly claim, Which natural, vital, animal we name. To play Philosopher, I have no list,201 235 Nor yet Physician nor Anatomist. For acting these, I have nor will nor art, Yet shall with equity give thee thy part. For th’ natural,202 thou dost not much contest, For there are none, thou say’st, if some, not best. 240 That there are some, and best, I dare aver, More useful than the rest, don’t reason err. What is there living which cannot derive His life now animal from vegetive? If thou giv’st life, I give thee nourishment, 245 Thine without mine is not, ’tis evident. But I without thy help can give a growth, As plants, trees, and small Embryon knoweth, And if vital spirits do flow from thee, I am as sure, the natural from me; 250 But thine the nobler, which I grant, yet mine Shall justly claim priority of thine: I am the Fountain which thy Cisterns fills, Through th’ warm blue conduits of my veinal rills.203 What hath the heart, but what’s sent from the liver? 255 200. Quick to take offense and issue a challenge to a duel. 201. Desire. 202. The natural spirits. 203. Small streams.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 71 If thou’rt the taker, I must be the giver. Then never boast of what thou do’st receive, For of such glory I shall thee bereave; But why the heart should be usurped by thee, I must confess, is somewhat strange to me. 260 The spirits through thy heat are made perfect there, But the materials none of thine, that’s clear. Their wondrous mixture is of blood and air, The first my self, second my sister fair. But I’ll not force retorts, nor do thee wrong. 265 Thy fiery yellow froth is mixt among. Challenge not all ’cause part we do allow. Thou know’st I’ve there to do, as well as thou. But thou wilt say, I deal unequally. There lives the irascible faculty, 270 Which without all dispute is Choler’s own, Besides the vehement heat only there known Can be imputed unto none but Fire, Which is thy self, thy Mother, and thy Sire. That this is true, I easily can assent, 275 If still thou take along my Aliment,204 And let me be thy Partner, which is due, So will I give the dignity to you. Again, stomach’s concoction thou dost claim, But by what right, nor do’st nor canst thou name. 280 It is her own heat, not thy faculty, Thou do’st unjustly claim her property. The help she needs the loving Liver lends, Who th’ benefit o’ th’ whole ever intends. To meddle further, I shall be but shent.205 285 Th’ rest to our Sisters is more pertinent. Your slanders thus refuted takes no place, Though cast upon my guiltless blushing face. Now through your leaves, some little time I’ll spend, My worth in humble manner to commend. 290 This hot, moist, nutritive humor of mine, When ’tis untaint, pure, and most genuine Shall firstly take her place, as is her due, Without the least indignity to you. 204. Nourishment. 205. Hesitant or restrained.

72 ANNE BRADSTREET Of all your qualities I do partake, 295 And what you singly are, the whole I make. Your hot, dry, moist, cold natures are four. I moderately am all, what need I more? As thus, if hot, then dry; if moist, then cold; If this can’t be disproved, then all I hold. 300 My virtues hid, I’ve let you dimly see. My sweet complexion proves the verity. This scarlet dye’s a badge of what’s within. One touch thereof so beautifies the skin. Nay, could I be from all your tangs but pure, 305 Man’s life to boundless time might still endure. But here’s one thrusts her heat where ’ts not required So suddenly, the body all is fired, And of the sweet, calm temper quite bereft, Which makes the mansion by the soul soon left; 310 So Melancholy seizes on a man With her uncheerful visage, swarth and wan: The body dries, the mind sublime doth smother, And turns him to the womb of ’s earthy mother. And Phlegm likewise can show her cruel art 315 With cold distempers to pain every part: The Lungs she rots, the body wears away, As if she’d leave no flesh to turn to clay. Her languishing diseases, though not quick, At length demolishes the faberick.206 320 All to prevent this curious care I take I’ th’ last concoction, segregation make Of all the perverse humors from mine own. The bitter choler, most malignant known, I turn into his cell, close by my side, 325 The Melancholy to the Spleen to ’bide. Likewise the Whey, some use I in the veins; The overplus I send unto the reins. But yet for all my toil, my care, my skill, It’s doomed by an irrevocable will 330 That my intents should meet with interruption, That mortal man might turn to his corruption. I might here show the nobleness of mind 206. An archaic term for the physical body. A fabric originally referred to a product of skilled workmanship, in this case, God’s.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 73 Of such as to the Sanguine are inclined: They’re liberal, pleasant, kind, and courteous, And like the Liver, all benignious;207 For Arts and Sciences, they are the fittest, And maugre208 Choler still they are the wittest, An ingenious working fantasy, A most voluminous large memory, And nothing wanting but solidity. But why, alas, thus tedious should I be? Thousand examples you may daily see. If time I have transgressed and been too long, Yet could not be more brief without much wrong. I’ve scarce wiped off the spots proud Choler cast, Such venom lies in words, though but a blast. No brags I’ve used, t’ your selves I dare appeal, If modesty my worth do not conceal. I’ve used no bitterness, nor taxed your name, As I to you, to me do ye the same.

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Melancholy He that with two assailants hath to do Had need be armèd well, and active too, Especially when friendship is pretended: That blow’s most deadly where it is intended. Though Choler rage and rail, I’ll not do so, The tongue’s no weapon to assault a foe. But since we fight with words, we might be kind, To spare our selves and beat the whistling wind. Fair rosy Sister, so mightst thou ’scape free, I’ll flatter for a time, as thou didst me, But when the first offenders I have laid, Thy soothing girds209 shall fully be repaid. But Choler, be thou cooled or chafed,210 I’ll venture, And in contention’s lists211 now justly enter. Thy boasted valor stoutly’s been repelled, If not as yet, by me thou shalt be quelled. 207. Benignant. 208. Despite. 209. Blows. 210. Warmed. 211. The list of combatants; by synecdoche, the combat itself.

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74 ANNE BRADSTREET What moved thee thus to vilify my name? Not past all reason, but in truth all shame, Thy fiery spirit shall bear away this prize; 370 To play such furious pranks I am too wise. If in a Soldier rashness be so precious, Know, in a General it’s most pernicious. Nature doth teach to shield the head from harm; The blow that’s aimed thereat is latched212 by th’arm. 375 When in Battalia my foes I face, I then command. Proud Choler stand thy place, To use thy sword, thy courage, and thy Art, For to defend my self, thy better part. This wariness count not for cowardice. 380 He is not truly valiant that’s not wise. It’s no less glory to defend a town Than by assault to gain one not our own. And if Marcellus bold, be called Rome’s sword, Wise Fabius is her buckler, all accord.213 385 And if thy haste, my slowness should not temper, ’Twere but a mad, irregular distemper. Enough of that, by our Sister heretofore, I’ll come to that which wounds me somewhat more: Of Learning and of Policy thou would’st bereave me, 390 But’s not thy ignorance shall thus deceive me. What greater Clerk or politician lives Than he whose brain a touch my humor gives? What is too hot, my coldness doth abate; What’s diffluent,214 I do consolidate. 395 If I be partial judged, or thought to err, The melancholy Snake215 shall it aver. Those cold dry heads more subtlety doth yield, Than all the huge beasts of the fertile field. Thirdly, thou dost confine me to the spleen, 400 As of that only part I was the Queen. Let me as well make thy precincts the gall, 212. Caught or blocked. 213. Marcus Claudius Marcellus (ca. 268–208 BCE) and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (ca. 280–203 BCE) were Roman generals and politicians who were co-consuls during the Second Punic War. They earned the honorifics “Sword of Rome” and “Shield of Rome,” respectively. 214. Fluid. 215. Cornelius Agrippa associated the snake with melancholy.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 75 To prison thee within that bladder small.216 Reduce the man to’s217 principles, then see If I have not more part than all ye three: What is without, within, of theirs, or thine, Yet time and age shall soon declare it mine. When death doth seize the man, your stock is lost; When you poor bankrupts prove, then have I most. You’ll say, here none shall e’ er disturb my right. You high born (from that lump) then take your flight. Then who’s man’s friend, when life and all forsakes? His mother (mine) him to her womb retakes. Thus he is ours; his portion is the grave. But whilst he lives, I’ll show what part I have. And first, the firm dry bones I justly claim, The strong foundation of the stately frame. Likewise the useful spleen, though not the best, Yet is a bowel called well as the rest. The Liver, Stomach, owes it thanks of right. The first it drains, o’ th’ last quicks218 appetite. Laughter (though thou sayst malice) flows from hence. These two in one cannot have residence. But thou most grossly dost mistake, to think The Spleen for all you three was made a sink.219 Of all the rest, thou’st nothing there to do; But if thou hast, that malice comes from you. Again, you often touch my swarthy hue, That black is black, and I am black, ’tis true; But yet more comely far, I dare avow, Than is thy torrid220 nose or brazen221 brow. But that which shows how high thy spite is bent In charging me to be thy excrement, Thy loathsome imputation I defy: So plain a slander needeth no reply. When by thy heat, thou’st baked thy self to crust, Thou dost assume my name, well be it just; 216. The gall bladder is the organ normally associated with Choler. 217. A contraction of “to his.” 218. Quickens or stimulates. 219. A pool or drainage pit. 220. Scorched or sunburnt. 221. Made of brass.

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76 ANNE BRADSTREET This transmutation is, but not excretion.222 Thou wants Philosophy and yet discretion. Now by your leave, I’ll let your greatness see 440 What officer thou art to all us three: The Kitchen Drudge, the cleanser of the sinks, That casts out all that man or eats or223 drinks. Thy bittering quality still irritates ’Til filth and thee nature exonerates. 445 If any doubt this truth, whence this should come, Show them thy passage to th’ Duodenum.224 If there thou’rt stopped, to th’ Liver thou turn’st in, And so with jaundice Saffrons225 all the skin. No further time I’ll spend in confutations.226 450 I trust I’ve cleared your sland’rous imputations. I now speak unto all, no more to one. Pray hear, admire, and learn instruction. My virtues yours surpass, without compare: The first, my constancy, that jewel rare. 455 Choler’s too rash, this golden gift to hold, And Sanguine is more fickle many fold. Here, there, her restless thoughts do ever fly, Constant in nothing, but inconstancy, And what Phlegm is, we know, likewise her mother: 460 Unstable is the one, so is the other. With me is noble patience also found, Impatient Choler loveth not the sound. What Sanguine is, she doth not heed nor care. Now up, now down, transported like the Air. 465 Phlegm’s patient, because her nature’s tame. But I by virtue do acquire the same. My temperance, chastity,227 is eminent, But these with you are seldom resident. Now could I stain my ruddy sister’s face 470 222. Transmutation is the changing of one substance to another; excretion the separating of refuse elements from the blood. Melancholy accuses Choler of a weak understanding of humoral theory. 223. Either … or. 224. Part of the small intestine. 225. Turns yellow, a side effect of jaundice, in which the body fails adequately to metabolize bilirubin. 226. The act of disproving another’s argument. 227. Temperance and chastity comprise the restrained and appropriate exercise of desires and passions. “Temperance” here may be a compositor’s misreading of “temperament.”

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 77 With purple dye, to show but her disgrace. But I rather with silence veil her shame Than cause her blush, while I dilate the same. Nor are ye free from this enormity, Although she bear the greatest obloquy. My prudence, judgment, now I might reveal, But wisdom ’tis, my wisdom to conceal. Unto diseases not inclined as ye: Nor cold nor hot, Ague228 nor Pleurisy;229 Nor Cough, nor Quinsy,230 nor the burning Fever. I rarely feel to act his fierce endeavor. My sickness chiefly in conceit doth lie: What I imagine, that’s my malady. Strange Chymera’s231 are in my fantasy And things that never were, nor shall I see. Talk I love not; reason lies not in length, Nor multitude of words argues our strength. I’ve done, pray Sister Phlegm, proceed in course. We shall expect much sound, but little force. Phlegm Patient I am, patient I’d need to be To bear the injurious232 taunts of three, Though wit I want, and anger I have less, Enough of both my wrongs for to express. I’ve not forgot how bitter Choler spoke, Nor how her Gall233 on me she causeless broke. Nor wonder ’twas, for hatred there’s not small Where opposition is diametrical. To what is truth, I freely will assent (Although my name do suffer detriment) What’s slanderous, repel; doubtful, dispute; And when I’ve nothing left to say, be mute. Valor I want, no Soldier am, ’tis true. I’ll leave that manly property to you. 228. Recurring high fever. 229. Inflammation of the lungs, causing chest pain. 230. Inflammation of the throat. 231. Mythical creatures created out of multiple animals. 232. This word needs to be pronounced “in´-ju-ri´-ous” to make the line scan. 233. Rancor, bile.

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78 ANNE BRADSTREET I love no thundering Drums nor bloody Wars; My polished skin was not ordained for scars. 505 And though the pitchèd field I’ve ever fled, At home the Conquerors have conquerèd. Nay, I could tell you (what’s more true than meet)234 That Kings have laid their Scepters at my feet. When sister Sanguine paints my Ivory face, 510 The Monarchs bend, and sue, but for my grace; My Lily white, when joinèd with her red, Princes hath ’slaved,235 and Captains captivèd. Country with Country, Greece with Asia fights; Sixty-nine Princes, all stout Hero Knights 515 Under Troy’s walls ten years will waste away, Rather than lose one beauteous Hellena.236 But ’twere as vain, to prove the truth of mine, As at noon day to tell the Sun doth shine. Next difference betwixt us twain doth lie, 520 Who doth possess the Brain, or thou or I? Shame forced thee say, the matter that was mine, But the spirits by which it acts are thine; Thou speakest truth, and I can speak no less. Thy heat doth much, I candidly confess, 525 But yet thou art as much, I truly say, Beholding unto me another way. And though, I grant, thou art my helper here, No debtor I because ’tis paid elsewhere. With all your flourishes, now Sisters three, 530 Who is’t or dare or can compare with me? My excellencies are so great, so many, I am confounded ’fore I speak of any: The Brain’s the noblest member all allow; The situation and form will it avow. 535 Its ventricles, membranes, and wond’rous net,237 234. Appropriate. 235. Enslaved. 236. The Trojan War, which pitted the armies of Greece (Europe) against the army of Troy (Asia), was fought to recover Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, from her abductor Paris, prince of Troy. 237. Contemporary anatomists divided the brain into four cavities, or ventricles, separated by membranes and fed through a tangle of vessels at the base of the skull named the rete mirabile or wonderful net. In this section, Bradstreet works closely with Helkiah Crooke’s Mikrokosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man, first translated into English in 1615.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 79 Galen, Hippocrates,238 drives to a set. That divine Essence, the immortal Soul, Though it in all and every part be whole, Within this stately place of eminence Doth doubtless keep its mighty residence, And surely the Soul’s sensitive239 here lives, Which life and motion to each Creature gives. The conjugations of the parts to th’ brain Doth show hence flows the power which they retain. Within this high built Citadel doth lie The Reason, Fancy, and the Memory; The faculty of speech doth here abide, The spirits animal, from whence doth slide, The five most noble Senses, here do dwell. Of three, it’s hard to say, which doth excel. This point for to discuss longs240 not to me. I’ll touch the Sight, great’st wonder of the three. The optic nerve, coats,241 humors,242 all are mine, Both wat’ry, glassy, and the crystalline. O! mixture strange, oh color, colorless,243 Thy perfect temperament, who can express? He was no fool who thought the Soul lay here, Whence her affections, passions, speak so clear;244 O! good, O bad, O true, O traitorous eyes! What wonderments within your balls there lies? Of all the Senses, Sight shall be the Queen; Yet some may wish, oh, had mine eyes ne’ er seen. Mine likewise is the marrow of the back, Which runs through all the spondles of the rack.245

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238. Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) first theorized the four humors; Galen (129–ca. 216 CE) developed the medical theory. 239. The faculty of sensation. 240. Belongs. 241. Membranes. 242. Here “humors” appears to mean different substances within the eye, separated by membranes or “coats.” See Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, book 8, chapters 8 and 9. 243. In Mikrokosmographia, Crooke explains how the crystalline humor has no color and yet can perceive all colors (book 8, chapter 9, 568). 244. Galen considered eyes the windows to the soul. See Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, book 1, chapter 3, 8–9. Jesus calls the eye the light of the body, revealing a person’s moral worth (Matthew 6:22–23). 245. Vertebrae on the backbone or frame.

80 ANNE BRADSTREET It is the substitute o’ th’ royal Brain,246 All nerves (except seven pair) to it retain,247 And the strong ligaments from hence arise, With joint to joint the entire body ties. Some other parts there issue from the Brain Whose use and worth to tell I must refrain; Some worthy learned Crooke248 may these reveal, But modesty hath charged me to conceal.249 Here’s my epitome250 of excellence, For what’s the Brain’s is mine, by consequence. A foolish Brain (saith Choler) wanting heat, But a mad one, say I, where ’tis too great. Frenzy’s worse than folly. One would more glad With a tame fool converse, than with a mad. Then, my head for learning is not the fittest, Ne’ er did I hear that Choler was the witt’est. Thy judgment is unsafe, thy fancy little, For memory, the sand is not more brittle. Again, none’s fit for Kingly place but thou; If Tyrants be the best, I’ll it allow, But if love be as requisite as fear, Then I, and thou, must make a mixture here. Well, to be brief, Choler I hope now’s laid, And I pass by what sister Sanguine said. To Melancholy I’ll make no reply. The worst she said was instability And too much talk, both which, I do confess A warning good; hereafter I’ll say less. Let’s now be friends; ’tis time our spite was spent, Lest we too late this rashness do repent. Such premises will force a sad conclusion: Unless we ’gree, all falls into confusion. Let Sanguine, Choler, with her hot hand hold; To take her moist, my moistness will be bold; My cold, cold Melancholy’s hand shall clasp;

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246. According to Crooke, the spine is called “The Brain’s Vicar or substitute” (13:10). 247. Galen identified seven nerves that originate in the cranium, rather than in the spinal cord. Modern science suggests that there are twelve. 248. Helkiah Crooke, author of Mikrokosmographia, standing in for any trained physician. 249. Bradstreet’s appeal to modesty suggests that she refers to the nerves that control sexual function. 250. Summary or outline.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 81 Her dry, dry Choler’s other hand shall grasp. Two hot, two moist, two cold, two dry here be, A golden Ring, the Posy,251 Unity. Nor jars nor252 scoffs let none hereafter see, But all admire our perfect amity, Nor be discerned, here’s water, earth, air, fire, But here’s a compact body, whole, entire. This loving counsel pleased them all so well That Phlegm was judged for kindness to excel.

251. Floral bouquet. 252. Neither … nor.

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w w w w w The Four Ages of Man Lo now! four other acts upon the stage, Childhood, and Youth, the Manly, and Old-age. The first, son unto Phlegm,253 grand-child to water, Unstable, supple, moist, and cold’s his Nature. The second, frolic, claims his pedigree 5 From blood and air, for hot and moist is he.254 The third of fire and choler255 is composed, Vindicative, and quarrelsome disposed. The last, of earth and heavy melancholy, Solid, hating all lightness and all folly.256 10 Childhood was clothed in white and given to show; His spring was intermixèd with some snow. Upon his head a Garland Nature set Of Daisy, Primrose, and the Violet. Such cold mean257 flowers (as these) blossom betime, 15 258 Before the Sun hath throughly warmed the clime. His hobby259 striding did not ride, but run, And in his hand an hour-glass new begun. In dangers every moment of a fall, And when ’tis broke, then ends his life and all. 20 But if he hold ’til it have run its last, Then may he live ’til threescore years or past. Next, youth came up in gorgeous attire (As that fond age doth most of all desire), His Suit of Crimson and his Scarf of Green. 25 In’s260 countenance his pride quickly was seen.

253. One of the four humors believed to influence the body and its moods. Phlegm is characterized as moist and cold, leading to indolence. 254. This humor, blood, is moist and warm, leading to cheerfulness. 255. Another humor, yellow bile, is hot and dry, leading to irritability. 256. Black bile is dry and cold, leading to melancholy. 257. Lowly. 258. Thoroughly. The modern form would disrupt the meter. 259. A hobby horse or riding stick. 260. Contraction of “in his.”

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 83 Garland of Roses, Pinks, and Gillyflowers261 Seemed to grow on’s262 head (bedewed with showers). His face as fresh as is Aurora263 fair, When blushing first she ’gins to red264 the Air. No wooden horse, but one of mettle265 tried: He seems to fly, or swim, and not to ride. Then prancing on the Stage, about he wheels; But as he went, death waited at his heels. The next came up in a more graver sort, As one that carèd for a good report. His Sword by’s side and choler in his eyes, But neither used (as yet) for he was wise. Of Autumn fruits a basket on his arm, His golden rod in’s purse, which was his charm. And last of all, to act upon this Stage, Leaning upon his staff, comes up old age. Under his arm a Sheaf of wheat he bore, A Harvest of the best: what needs he more? In’s other hand a glass,266 ev’n almost run, This writ about: This out, then I am done. His hoary hairs and grave aspect made way, And all gave ear to what he had to say. These being met, each in his equipage267 Intend to speak, according to their age, But wise Old-age did with all gravity To childish childhood give precedency, And to the rest, his reason mildly told: That he was young, before he grew so old. To do as he, the rest full soon assents. Their method was that of the Elements, That each should tell what of himself he knew, Both good and bad, but yet no more than’s true. With heed now stood, three ages of frail man, To hear the child, who crying, thus began.

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261. Pinks and gillyflowers are both related to carnations. Fragrant and hardy, they blossom in the summer. See “The Four Seasons,” lines 67–68. 262. Contraction of “on his.” 263. Goddess of the dawn. 264. Redden. 265. Spirited. Youth, unlike Childhood, rides an actual horse. 266. An hourglass, denoting the passage of time. 267. Costume.

84 ANNE BRADSTREET Childhood Ah me! conceived in sin and born in sorrow,268 A nothing, here today, but gone tomorrow, Whose mean beginning, blushing can’t reveal, But night and darkness must with shame conceal. My mother’s breeding sickness,269 I will spare, Her nine months’ weary burden not declare. To show her bearing pangs, I should do wrong, To tell that pain, which can’t be told by tongue. With tears into this world I did arrive; My mother still did waste, as I did thrive, Who yet with love and all alacrity, Spending was willing to be spent for me. With wayward cries, I did disturb her rest, Who sought still to appease me with her breast; With weary arms, she danced, and “By, By,”270 sung, When wretched I (ungrate) had done the wrong. When Infancy was past, my Childishness Did act all folly that it could express. My silliness did only take delight In that which riper age did scorn and slight, In Rattles, Baubles, and such toyish stuff. My then ambitious thoughts were low enough. My high-born soul so straitly271 was confined That its own worth it did not know nor mind. This little house of flesh did spacious count. Through ignorance, all troubles did surmount. Yet this advantage had mine ignorance: Freedom from Envy and from Arrogance. How to be rich, or great, I did not cark,272 A Baron or a Duke n’ er made my mark, Nor studious was Kings’ favors how to buy With costly presents or base flattery; No office coveted wherein I might Make strong myself and turn aside weak right.

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268. Painful childbirth is a consequence of original sin (Genesis 3:16). See also Psalm 51:5. 269. Morning sickness. 270. The nonsense refrain from a lullaby. 271. Tightly. 272. Fret or worry about.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 85 No malice bore to this or that great Peer,273 95 Nor unto buzzing whisperers gave ear. I gave no hand, nor vote, for death or life. I’d naught to do ’twixt Prince and peoples’ strife. No Statist I, nor Martialist i’ th’ field;274 Where e’ er I went, mine innocence was shield. 100 My quarrels not for Diadems did rise, But for an Apple, Plum, or some such prize. My strokes did cause no death, nor wounds, nor scars. My little wrath did cease soon as my wars. My duel was no challenge, nor did seek 105 My foe should weltering with his bowels reek.275 I had no Suits at law, neighbors to vex, Nor evidence for land did me perplex. I feared no storms, nor all the winds that blows. I had no ships at Sea, no fraughts276 to lose. 110 I feared no drought nor wet; I had no crop, Nor yet on future things did place my hope. This was mine innocence, but, oh, the seeds Lay rakèd up of all the cursèd weeds, Which sprouted forth in my ensuing age, 115 As he can tell, that next comes on the stage. But yet let me relate before I go The sins and dangers I am subject to: From birth stained, with Adam’s sinful fact,277 From thence I ’gan to sin as soon as act: 120 A perverse will, a love to what’s forbid, A serpent’s sting in pleasing face lay hid, A lying tongue as soon as it could speak And fifth Commandèment278 do daily break, Oft stubborn, peevish, sullen, pout, and cry, 125 Then naught can please, and yet I know not why. As many was my sins, so dangers too, For sin brings sorrow, sickness, death, and woe, And though I miss the tossings of the mind, 273. A member of the English nobility. 274. Not skilled in statecraft or in military strategy. 275. Writhe in his own blood and gore. 276. Freight. 277. Original sin, inherited from Adam, who ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3). 278. The fifth commandment is to “Honor thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12).

86 ANNE BRADSTREET Yet griefs in my frail flesh I still do find. What gripes279 of wind mine infancy did pain? What tortures I, in breeding teeth sustain? What crudities280 my cold stomach hath bred? Whence vomits, worms, and flux281 have issuèd? What breaches,282 knocks, and falls I daily have? And some perhaps, I carry to my grave. Sometimes in fire, sometimes in water fall: Strangely preserved, yet mind it not at all. At home, abroad, my danger’s manifold That wonder ’tis, my glass ’til now doth hold. I’ve done. Unto my elders I give way, For ’tis but little that a child can say. Youth My goodly clothing and beauteous skin Declare some greater riches are within, But what is best I’ll first present to view And then the worst, in a more ugly hue, For thus to do we on this Stage assemble. Then let not him which hath most craft dissemble. Mine education and my learning’s such As might myself, and others, profit much: With nurture trainèd up in virtue’s Schools, Of Science, Arts, and Tongues,283 I know the rules; The manners of the Court I likewise know, Nor ignorant what they in Country do. The brave attempts of valiant Knights I prize That dare climb Battlements reared to the skies. The snorting Horse, the Trumpet, Drum I like, The glist’ring Sword and well-advancèd Pike. I cannot lie in trench before a Town, Nor wait ’til good advice our hopes do crown. I scorn the heavy Corslet,284 Musket-proof;

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279. Spasms. 280. Bouts of indigestion. 281. Diarrhea. 282. Wounds. 283. The subjects taught at university: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, as well as classical languages. 284. Armor protecting the chest.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 87 I fly to catch the Bullet that’s aloof. Though thus in field, at home to all most kind, So affable that I do suit each mind. I can insinuate into the breast, And by my mirth can raise the heart depressed. Sweet Music rapteth my harmonious Soul And elevates my thoughts above the Pole.285 My wit, my bounty, and my courtesy Makes all to place their future hopes on me. This is my best, but youth is known, alas, To be as wild as is the snuffing Ass,286 As vain as froth, as vanity can be, That who would see vain man may look on me: My gifts abused, my education lost, My woeful Parents’ longing hopes all crossed; My wit evaporates in merriment; My valor in some beastly quarrel’s spent; Martial deeds I love not ’cause they’re virtuous, But doing so might seem magnanimous. My Lust287 doth hurry me to all that’s ill, I know no Law, nor reason, but my will; Sometimes lay wait to take a wealthy purse Or stab the man in’s own defense, that’s worse. Sometimes I cheat (unkind) a female Heir Of all at once, who not so wise as fair Trusteth my loving looks and glozing288 tongue Until her friends, treasure, and honor’s gone. Sometimes I sit carousing others’ health Until mine own be gone, my wit, and wealth. From pipe to pot,289 from pot to words and blows, For he that loveth Wine wanteth no woes. Days, nights, with Ruffians, Roarers,290 Fiddlers spend; To all obscenity my ears I bend. All counsel hate which tends to make me wise,

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285. The end of the earth; poetically, in the heavens. 286. In Jeremiah, God chastises the Israelites for being as willful as a wild ass that “snuffeth” or sniffs the wind (Jeremiah 2:24). 287. Desires or inclinations, used more broadly than simply sexual appetites. 288. Flattering. 289. Vessels for smoking and drinking. 290. Persons who are riotous.

88 ANNE BRADSTREET And dearest friends count for mine enemies. If any care I take, ’tis to be fine,291 For sure my suit more than my virtues shine. If any time from company I spare, ’Tis spent in curling, frizzling up my hair. Some young Adonis292 I do strive to be. Sardanapalus293 now survives in me. Cards, Dice, and Oaths, concomitant, I love; To Masques, to Plays, to Taverns still I move, And, in a word, if what I am you’d hear, Seek out a British, brutish Cavalier.294 Such wretch, such monster am I, but yet more I want a heart all this for to deplore. Thus, thus alas! I have misspent my time, My youth, my best, my strength, my bud, and prime, Rememb’ring not the dreadful day of Doom,295 Nor yet the heavy reckoning for to come, Though dangers do attend me every hour And ghastly death oft threats me with her power: Sometimes by wounds in idle combats taken, Sometimes by Agues296 all my body shaken; Sometimes by Fevers, all my moisture drinking, My heart lies frying, and my eyes are sinking; Sometimes the Cough, Stitch,297 painful Pleurisy298 With sad affrights of death do menace me; Sometimes the loathsome Pox my face be-mars With ugly marks of his eternal scars;299 Sometimes the Frenzy strangely mads my Brain

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291. Well-dressed, elegant. 292. A beautiful young man. Originally the Greek god of beauty and desire. 293. In the original, “Sardana Pallas,” emended in Several Poems to “Sardanapalus.” According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (90–30 BCE), Sardanapalus was the last king of Assyria, with a reputation for decadence and cross-dressing. Library of History 1.427; first translated into English in 1569. 294. A knight on horseback. In the 1640s, this term was associated with those who sided with King Charles against Parliament. 295. Judgment Day, when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. 296. Fevers causing shivers. 297. Cramp. 298. Inflammation of the lungs. 299. Smallpox pustules left scars.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 89 That oft for it in Bedlam300 I remain. Too many’s my Diseases to recite That wonder ’tis I yet behold the light, That yet my bed in darkness is not made, And I in black oblivion’s den long laid. Of Marrow full my bones, of Milk my breasts,301 Ceased by the gripes of Sergeant Death’s Arrests:302 Thus I have said, and what I’ve said you see, Childhood and youth is vain, yea vanity. Middle Age Childhood and youth forgot, sometimes I’ve seen, And now am grown more staid that have been green. What they have done, the same was done by me; As was their praise, or shame, so mine must be. Now age is more, more good ye do expect; But more my age, the more is my defect. But what’s of worth, your eyes shall first behold, And then a world of dross among my gold. When my Wild Oats were sown,303 and ripe, and mown, I then received a harvest of mine own. My reason, then bad judge, how little hope Such empty seed should yield a better crop. I then with both hands grasped the world together. Thus out of one extreme into another, But yet laid hold on virtue seemingly: Who climbs without hold, climbs dangerously. Be my condition mean, I then take pains My family to keep, but not for gains. If rich, I’m urgèd then to gather more To bear me out i’ th’ world and feed the poor; If a father, then for children must provide, But if none, then for kindred near allied; If Noble, then mine honor to maintain; If not, yet wealth Nobility can gain.

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300. An asylum for the insane in London (originally the hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem). 301. At this moment, Youth represents the female as well as the male. 302. An allegorical moment representing Death as an officer of the court. See Shakespeare, Hamlet 5:2:338–39. 303. Youthful excesses.

90 ANNE BRADSTREET For time, for place,304 likewise for each relation, I wanted not my ready allegation. Yet all my powers for self-ends are not spent, For hundreds bless me for my bounty sent, Whose loins I’ve clothed and bellies I have fed With mine own fleece and with my household bread. Yea, justice I have done, was I in place,305 To cheer the good and wicked to deface. The proud I crushed, th’oppressèd I set free, The liars curbed but nourished verity. Was I a pastor, I my flock did feed And gently led the lambs,306 as they had need. A Captain I, with skill I trained my band And showed them how in face of foes to stand. If a Soldier, with speed I did obey As readily as could my Leader say. Was I a laborer, I wrought all day As cheerfully as ere I took my pay. Thus hath mine age (in all) sometimes done well; Sometimes mine age (in all) been worse than hell. In meanness, greatness, riches, poverty Did toil, did broil, oppressed, did steal and lie. Was I as poor as poverty could be, Then baseness was companion unto me. Such scum as Hedges and Highways do yield, As neither sow, nor reap, nor plant, nor build. If to Agriculture I was ordained, Great labors, sorrows, crosses I sustained. The early Cock did summon, but in vain, My wakeful thoughts up to my painful gain. For restless day and night, I’m robbed of sleep By cankered307 care, who sentinel doth keep.308 My weary breast rest from his toil can find, But if I rest, the more distressed my mind. If happiness my sordidness hath found, ’Twas in the crop of my manured ground: 304. Employment. 305. A position as justice or magistrate. 306. Isaiah 40:11. 307. Literally, festering; figuratively, a gnawing, destructive influence. 308. Stands guard.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 91 My fattèd Ox and my exuberous309 Cow, My fleecèd Ewe and ever farrowing310 Sow. To greater things I never did aspire, My dunghill311 thoughts or hopes could reach no higher. If to be rich, or great, it was my fate, How was I broiled with envy and with hate? Greater than was the great’st was my desire, And greater still did set my heart on fire. If honor was the point to which I steered, To run my hull upon disgrace I feared, But by ambitious sails I was so carried That over flats and sands and rocks I hurried, Oppressed, and sunk, and sacked, all in my way That did oppose me to my longèd bay.312 My thirst was higher than Nobility And oft longed sore to taste on Royalty, Whence poison, Pistols, and dread instruments Have been cursed furtherers of mine intents. Nor Brothers, Nephews, Sons, nor313 Sires I’ve spared. When to a Monarchy my way they barred. There set, I rid myself straight out of hand Of such as might my son, or his, withstand. Then heaped up gold and riches as the clay, Which others scatter like the dew in May. Sometimes vain-glory is the only bait Whereby my empty soul is lured and caught. Be I of worth, of learning, or of parts,314 I judge I should have room in all men’s hearts, And envy gnaws if any do surmount. I hate for to be had in small account. If Bias like,315 I’m stripped unto my skin, I glory in my wealth I have within.

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309. Fertile. 310. A farrow is a litter of piglets. 311. A pile of manure, to which Scripture compares the slothful man (Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach 22.2). 312. Following the metaphor, the harbor that is his destination; figuratively, success. 313. Neither … nor. 314. Intellectual abilities. 315. To be cut on the bias is to be cut in a slanting line against the texture of the fabric. The implication here seems to be that if a person were flayed alive, he would still be proud of his innards.

92 ANNE BRADSTREET Thus good and bad and what I am you see, Now in a word, what my diseases be: The vexing Stone, in bladder and in reins,316 Torments me with intolerable pains; The windy colic317 oft my bowels rend, To break the darksome prison, where it’s penned; The knotty Gout doth sadly torture me, And the restraining lame Sciatica; The Quinsy318 and the Fevers oft distaste me, And the Consumption to the bones doth waste me. Subject to all Diseases, that’s the truth, Though some more incident to age or youth; And to conclude, I may not tedious be. Man at his best estate is vanity.319 Old Age What you have been, ev’n such have I before, And all you say, say I, and something more. Babe’s innocence, Youth’s wildness I have seen, And in perplexèd Middle-age have been, Sickness, dangers, and anxieties have past, And on this Stage am come to act my last. I have been young and strong and wise as you But now, Bis pueri senes320 is too true. In every Age I’ve found much vanity. An end of all perfection now I see. It’s not my valor, honor, nor my gold, My ruined house, now falling, can uphold; It’s not my Learning, Rhetoric, wit so large, Now hath the power Death’s Warfare to discharge. It’s not my goodly house, nor bed of down, That can refresh, or ease, if Conscience frown; Nor from alliance now can I have hope, But what I have done well, that is my prop. He that in youth is godly, wise, and sage Provides a staff for to support his age.

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316. Kidneys. 317. Stomach cramps caused, it was thought, by excess of the humor, choler, or bile. 318. Sore throat. 319. Worthless. Psalm 39.5. 320. An old man is twice a child.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 93 Great mutations, some joyful and some sad, In this short Pilgrimage I oft have had: 360 Sometimes the Heavens with plenty smiled on me; Sometimes, again, rained all adversity; Sometimes in honor, sometimes in disgrace, Sometime an abject, then again in place.321 Such private changes oft mine eyes have seen. 365 In various times of state I’ve also been. I’ve seen a Kingdom flourish like a tree When it was ruled by that Celestial she,322 And like a Cedar others so surmount That but for shrubs they did themselves account. 370 Then saw I France and Holland saved, Cadiz won,323 And Philip324 and Albertus325 half undone. I saw all peace at home, terror to foes, But ah, I saw at last those eyes to close, And then, me thought, the world at noon grew dark 375 When it had lost that radiant Sun-like spark. In midst of griefs, I saw some hopes revive (For ’twas our hopes then kept our hearts alive); I saw hopes dashed, our forwardness326 was shent,327 And silenced we, by Act of Parliament.328 380 I’ve seen from Rome, an execrable thing, A plot to blow up Nobles and their King.329

321. An “abject” is an outcast; “in place” means to be employed. 322. Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603). 323. In the original “Cales.” England had lost control of Calais in 1558, but combined Anglo-French forces captured the port city of Cadiz, Spain, in late June 1596. 324. King of Spain (1556–1598), King of England by marriage to Mary I (1554–1558). 325. Albert VII, Archduke of Austria, succeeded Philip II of Spain as sovereign of the Netherlands from 1598 to 1621. 326. Eagerness or readiness. 327. Lost. 328. In 1604, an ecclesiastical convocation of the Church of England prepared revised canon law, approved by the King, that censured those who “impugned” the status quo and that threatened Nonconformists with excommunication. 329. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a failed conspiracy by a group English Catholics to blow up the Parliament building during its opening session, at which the king would be present.

94 ANNE BRADSTREET I’ve seen designs at Ree330 and Cadiz331 crossed, And poor Palatinate for ever lost.332 I’ve seen a Prince to live on others’ lands, 385 A Royal one, by alms from Subjects’ hands.333 I’ve seen base men, advanced to great degree, And worthy ones, put to extremity, But not their Prince’s love, nor state so high, Could once reverse their shameful destiny. 390 I’ve seen one stabbed,334 another lose his head,335 And others fly their Country through their dread. I’ve seen, and so have ye, for ’tis but late, The desolation of a goodly State, Plotted and acted so that none can tell 395 Who gave the counsel, but the Prince of hell.336 I’ve seen a land unmolded with great pain, But yet may live to see’t made up again. I’ve seen it shaken, rent, and soaked in blood, But out of troubles ye may see much good.337 400 These are no old wives’ tales,338 but this is truth. We old men love to tell what’s done in youth. But I return from whence I stepped awry; My memory is short and brain is dry. My Almond-tree (gray hairs)339 doth flourish now, 405 And back, once straight, begins apace to bow.

330. Cooill y Ree is the Celtic name for the Isle of Man. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, unsuccessfully besieged its main city, Saint-Martin-de-Ré, in 1627. 331. In 1625, Edward Cecil, first Viscount of Wimbledon, failed to capture Cadiz, Spain, or the ships there filled with treasure. Buckingham was involved in this expedition as well. 332. A major center of Calvinism during the second half of the sixteenth century, the Palatinate fell to Catholic powers in 1620, triggering the Thirty Years’ War. 333. Frederick V, Elector of Palatine, lived off charity after his defeat and exile. 334. The Duke of Buckingham was stabbed to death by a disgruntled officer in 1628. 335. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was beheaded in 1641 at the instigation of Parliament. Charles signed reluctantly. 336. Satan. 337. English Civil Wars began in the spring of 1642. These poems left New England with Bradstreet’s brother-in-law John Woodbridge in 1647, about the time of the capture (in January of that year) of Charles I. This hopeful passage is unaware of this turn of events. Charles was executed in January 1649. 338. Unreliable stories. 339. The white blossoms of the almond tree are associated with old age (Ecclesiastes 12:5).

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 95 My grinders340 now are few, my sight doth fail; My skin is wrinkled, and my cheeks are pale. No more rejoice at music’s pleasant noise, But do awake at the cock’s clanging voice. 410 I cannot scent savors of pleasant meat, Nor sapors341 find in what I drink or eat. My hands and arms, once strong, have lost their might. I cannot labor, nor I cannot fight. My comely legs, as nimble as the Roe,342 415 Now stiff and numb, can hardly creep or go. My heart sometimes as fierce as Lion bold, Now trembling and fearful, sad, and cold. My golden Bowl and silver Cord, e’ er long, Shall both be broke343 by wracking death so strong. 420 I then shall go whence I shall come no more. Sons, Nephews, leave my death for to deplore. In pleasures, and in labors, I have found That earth can give no consolation sound To great, to rich, to poor, to young, or old, 425 To mean, to noble, fearful, or to bold. From King to beggar, all degrees shall find But vanity, vexation of the mind.344 Yea, knowing much, the pleasant’st life of all Hath yet amongst that sweet, some bitter gall. 430 Though reading others’ Works doth much refresh, Yet studying much brings weariness to th’flesh.345 My studies, labors, readings all are done, And my last period can e’en almost run. Corruption, my Father, I do call, 435 Mother and sisters both, the worms that crawl In my dark house, such kindred I have store. 340. Teeth. 341. Flavors. 342. A deer. 343. A metaphor for death from Ecclesiastes: “Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:6−7). 344. See Ecclesiastes 1:14: “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” 345. A paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 12:11–12: “The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

96 ANNE BRADSTREET There I shall rest till heavens shall be no more; And when this flesh shall rot and be consumed, This body, by this soul, shall be assumed; And I shall see with these same very eyes My strong Redeemer coming in the skies.346 Triumph I shall, o’ er Sin, o’ er Death, o’ er Hell, And in that hope, I bid you all farewell.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 97

w w w w w The Four Seasons of the Year Spring Another Four I’ve yet for to bring on, Of four times four, the last quaternion: The Winter, Summer, Autumn, and the Spring, In season all these Seasons I shall bring. Sweet Spring, like man in his minority, At present claimed and had priority;347 With smiling Sun-shine face and garments green, She gently thus began, like some fair Queen. Three months there are allotted to my share, March, April, May, of all the rest most fair; The tenth o’ th’ first Sol into Aries enters348 And bids defiance to all tedious Winters, And now makes glad those blinded Northern wights349 Who for some months have seen but starry lights, Crosses the Line,350 and equals night and day, Still adds to th’ last, ’til after pleasant May. Now goes the Plowman to his merry toil, For to unloose his Winter-lockèd soil. The Seedsman now doth lavish out his Grain, In hope the more he casts, the more to gain. The Gardner now superfluous branches lops And Poles erects for his green clambering Hops,351 Now digs, then sows, his herbs, his flowers, and roots, And carefully manures his trees of fruits. The Pleiades352 their influence now give, And all that seemed as dead afresh do live.

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98 ANNE BRADSTREET The croaking Frogs, whom nipping Winter killed, Like Birds now chirp and hop about the field. The Nightingale, the Blackbird, and the Thrush Now tune their lays on sprays of every bush. The wanton frisking Kids and soft fleeced Lambs Now jump and play before their feeding Dams. The tender tops of budding Grass they crop. They joy in what they have, but more in hope, For though the Frost hath lost his binding power, Yet many a fleece of Snow and stormy shower Doth darken Sols’ bright face, makes us remember The pinching North west cold of fierce December. My second month is April, green and fair, Of longer days and a more temperate air. The Sun now keeps his posting residence In Taurus’ Sign,353 yet hasteth straight from thence, For though in’s354 running progress he doth take Twelve houses of the oblique Zodiac, Yet never minute still was known to stand, But only once at Joshua’s strange command.355 This is the month whose fruitful showers produces All Plants and Flowers, for all delights and uses. The Pear, the Plum, and Apple-tree now flourish, And Grass grows long, the tender Lambs to nourish. The Primrose pale and azure Violet Among the verdurous Grass hath Nature set, That when the Sun on’s356 love the earth doth shine, These might as Lace set out her Garments fine. The fearful Bird his little house now builds In trees and walls, in cities and in fields, The outside strong, the inside warm and neat, A natural Artificer complete. The clocking hen357 her chipping brood358 now leads,

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353. The constellation Taurus the Bull. 354. In his. 355. Joshua 10:12–13 recounts the Israelite military leader ordering the sun to stand still so his group could destroy their enemies. 356. On his. 357. A brooding hen. Also, clucking. 358. Hatching by chipping their way out of their shells.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 99 With wings and beak defends them from the gleads.359 My next, and last, is pleasant fruitful May, Wherein the earth is clad in rich array. The sun now enters loving Gemini360 And heats us with the glances of his eye, Our Winter raiment makes us lay aside, Lest by his fervor we be terrified. All flowers before the sunbeams now discloses, Except the double Pinks and matchless Roses. Now swarms the busy buzzing honey Bee Whose praise deserves a page from more than me. The cleanly housewife’s Dairy now’s i’ th’ prime, Her shelves and Firkins361 filled for winter time. The Meads362 with Cowslip, Honeysuckles ’dight,363 One hangs his head, the other stands upright,364 But both rejoice at th’ heaven’s clear smiling face, More at her showers, which water them a space. For fruits, my season yields the early Cherry, The hasty Peas, and wholesome red Strawberry. More solid fruits require a longer time. Each season hath his fruit, so hath each clime. Each man his own peculiar excellence, But none in all that hath preeminence. Some subject shallow brains much matter yields; Sometime a theme that’s large proves barren fields.365 Melodious Spring, with thy short pittance fly. In this harsh strain, I find no melody. Yet above all, this privilege is thine: Thy days still lengthen, without least decline.

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359. A bird of prey. 360. The constellation the Twins. 361. A cask. 362. Meadows. 363. Bedight or decorated. 364. Cowslip is a low-growing perennial; honeysuckle is either a climbing vine or a small shrub, depending on the variety. 365. A person with a shallow brain may find much to say about a simple subject; others may not be able to discourse at all even on a broader topic.

100 ANNE BRADSTREET Summer When Spring had done, then Summer must begin, With melted tawny face and garments thin, Resembling choler,366 fit and middle-age, As Spring did air, blood, youth in’s equipage.367 Wiping her sweat from off her brow that ran, With hair all wet, she puffing thus began. Bright June, July, and August hot are mine, I’ th’ first, Sol doth in crabbèd Cancer368 shine. His progress to the North now’s fully done And retrograde369 now is my burning Sun, Who to his Southward tropic370 still is bent, Yet doth his parching heat the more augment The reason why, because his flames so fair Hath formerly much heat the earth and air, Like as an oven, that long time hath been heat, Whose vehemency at length doth grow so great That if you do remove her burning store, She’s for a time as fervent as before. Now go those frolic swains, the shepherd lad, To wash their thick clothed flocks with pipes371 full glad. In the cool streams they labor with delight, Rubbing their dirty coats ’til they look white, Whose fleece when purely spun and deeply dyed, With robes thereof Kings have been dignified. ’Mongst all ye shepherds never but one man Was like that noble, brave Arcadian,372 Yet hath your life made Kings the same envy,373 Though you repose on grass under the sky.

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366. The humor yellow bile, hot and dry, that governs summer and, in Bradstreet’s understanding, middle age. 367. Outfit or costume. 368. Cancer is the sign of the crab. 369. Seeming to move backward. 370. The point in the year when the sun is farthest south of the equator; the winter solstice. 371. Musical instruments, akin to recorders. 372. Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) wrote the prose romance Arcadia, set in a pastoral landscape. He was also an accomplished poet who died in battle. See the note to Bradstreet’s elegy on Sidney later in this volume. 373. “Envy” rhymes with “sky.”

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 101 Careless of worldly wealth, you sit and pipe,374 Whilst they’re embroiled in Wars and troubles ripe, Which made great Bajazet375 cry out in’s woes, “Oh! happy Shepherd, which had not to lose Orthobulus, nor yet Sebastia great,376 But whistleth to thy Flock in cold, and heat, Viewing the Sun by day, the Moon by night, Endymion’s, Diana’s dear delight.”377 This Month the Roses are distilled in Glasses, Whose fragrant scent all made-perfume surpasses; The Cherry, Gooseberry is now i’ th’ prime, And for all sorts of Pease378 this is the time. July my next the hot’st in all the year; The Sun in Leo now hath his career, Whose flaming breath doth melt us from afar, Increasèd by the Star Canicular.379 This month from Julius Caesar took the name, By Romans celebrated to his fame.380 Now go the Mowers to their slashing toil, The Meadows of their burden to despoil. With weary strokes,381 they take all in their way, Bearing the burning heat of the long day. The Forks382 and Rakes do follow them amain,383 Which makes the agèd fields look young again, The groaning Carts to bear away this prize, To Barns and Stacks, where it for Fodder384 lies. My next, and last, is August, fiery hot, For yet the Southward Sun abateth not.

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374. Traditionally, poetry presents rural life as idyllic and figures the poet as a shepherd. 375. Bayezid I (1360–1403), Ottoman Sultan captured by Timur at the Battle of Ankara 1402. In his General History of the Turks (1603), Richard Knolles spells the name Baiazet. 376. Orthobulus was Bajazet’s son; Sebastia a great city. See Knolles, General History of the Turks, 216. 377. Edymion is an Aeolian shepherd who fell in love with the goddess of the moon, Diana. 378. Generic name for legumes. 379. The Dog Star, Sirius. 380. July from Julius, after Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE). 381. Mowers used scythes, long curved blades, to cut the hay. 382. Pitchforks. Workers would follow the mowers to rake and stack the hay. 383. Without delay. 384. Food for livestock.

102 ANNE BRADSTREET This month he keeps with Virgo385 for a space; The dried earth is parchèd by his face. August of great Augustus took its name,386 Rome’s second Emperor of peaceful fame. With Sickles now, the painful387 Reapers go, The ruffling tress of terra388 for to mow, And bundles up in sheaves the weighty Wheat, Which after Manchet’s389 made, for Kings to eat. The Barley and the Rye should first have place, Although their Bread have not so white a face. The Carter leads all home with whistling voice; He plowed with pain, but reaping doth rejoice.390 His sweat, his toil, his careful, wakeful nights, His fruitful crop abundantly requites. Now’s ripe the Pear, Pear-plum, and Apricock, The Prince of Plums, whose stone is hard as Rock. The Summer’s short, the beauteous Autumn hastes To shake his fruit, of most delicious tastes. Like good Old Age, whose younger juicy roots Hath still ascended up in goodly Fruits Until his head be gray and strength be gone, Yet then appears the worthy deeds he hath done: To feed his boughs, exhausted hath his sap, Then drops his Fruits into the Eater’s lap.

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Autumn Of Autumn months, September is the prime.391 Now day and night are equal in each clime.392 170 The tenth of this, Sol riseth in the Line And doth in poising Libra393 this month shine. The Vintage now is ripe; the Grapes are pressed, 385. The constellation the Virgin. 386. Like July, August was renamed for an emperor, Caesar Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE). 387. Conscientious. 388. The earth’s hair, or tresses. 389. Bread made of high-quality wheat. 390. Echoing Psalm 126:5, “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” 391. First. 392. The Julian calendar is about ten days off from the Gregorian calendar now in use, so the autumnal equinox currently falls later in September, either the 22nd or 23rd. 393. The constellation the Scales.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 103 Whose lively liquor oft is curst and blest, For nought’s so good, but it may be abused, 175 But it’s a precious juice when well it’s used. The Raisins now in clusters drièd be; The Orange, Lemon Dangle on the tree; The Fig is ripe, the Pom’granete also, And Apples now their yellow sides do show. 180 Of Medlar,394 Quince, of Warden,395 and of Peach, The season’s now at hand of all and each. Sure at this time, Time first of all began, And in this month was made apostate man,396 For then in Eden was not only seen 185 Boughs full of leaves or fruits, but raw and green, Or withered stocks, all dry and dead, But trees with goodly fruits replenished, Which shows, nor Summer, Winter, nor the Spring, Great Adam was of Paradise made King.397 190 October is my next. We hear in this The Northern Winter blasts begin to hiss. In Scorpio398 resideth now the Sun, And his declining heat is almost done. The fruitful trees all withered now do stand, 195 Whose yellow sapless leaves by winds are fanned, Which notes, when youth and strength have passed their prime, Decrepit age must also have its time. The sap doth slyly399 creep towards the earth, There rests, until the Sun give it a birth. 200 So doth Old Age still tend unto his Grave, Where also he his Winter time must have, But when the Son of Righteousness draws nigh, His dead old stock again shall mount on high.400 November is my last, for time doth haste. 205 394. The edible fruit of a small shrub. 395. A species of pear. 396. Adam, who lost Eden by disobeying the commandment not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis 3). 397. Autumn argues that the world must have begun in September because Eden immediately provided humans with abundant fruit to eat. 398. The constellation the Scorpion. 399. Cleverly, without the modern negative overtones. 400. Christians believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Christ.

104 ANNE BRADSTREET We now of Winter’s sharpness ’gin to taste. This month’s the Sun in Sagittarius401 So far remote his glances warm not us. Almost at shortest is the short’ned day.402 The Northern Pole beholdeth not one ray. Now Greenland, Groenland,403 Lapland, Finland see No Sun to lighten their obscurity, Poor wretches that in total darkness lie, With minds more dark than is the dark’ned sky.404 This month is timber for all uses felled, When cold, the sap to th’ roots hath low’st repelled. Beef, Brawn, and Pork are now in great’st request And solid’st meats our stomachs can digest. This time warm clothes, full diet, and good fires Our pinchèd flesh and empty paunch requires. Old cold, dry age and earth, Autumn resembles, And melancholy, which most of all dissembles. I must be short, and short’s the short’ned day. What Winter hath to tell, now let him say. Winter Cold, moist, young, phlegmy405 Winter now doth lie In Swaddling clouts,406 like new-born infancy, Bound up with Frosts, and furzed407 with Hails and Snows, And like an Infant, still he taller grows. December is the first, and now the Sun To th’ Southward tropic his swift race hath run; This month he’s hous’d in hornèd Capricorn;408 From thence he ’gins to length the short’ned morn.

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401. The constellation the Archer. 402. The winter solstice, December 10 in the Julian calendar but about December 22 in the Gregorian calendar. 403. Another spelling of Greenland. Bradstreet seems to have believed, mistakenly, that these were two different regions. 404. Although Greenland and Lapland would not have had Protestant Christian populations at this time, Finland had converted to Lutheranism in the sixteenth century. 405. One of the four humors believed to influence the body and its moods. Phlegm is characterized as moist and cold. 406. Pieces of cloth used to wrap up a baby. 407. Fuzzy. Furze is a spiny plant. 408. The constellation the Goat.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 105 Through Christendom with great festivity Now’s held a Guest (but blest) Nativity.409 Cold frozen January next comes in, 235 Chilling the blood, and shrinking up the skin. In Aquarius410 now keeps the lovèd Sun, And Northward his unwearied race doth run, The day much longer than it was before, The cold not lessened, but augmented more. 240 Now toes and ears and fingers often freeze, And Travelers sometimes their noses leese.411 Moist snowy February is my last. I care not how the Winter time doth haste. In Pisces412 now the golden Sun doth shine, 245 And Northward still approaches to the Line.413 The Rivers now do ope, and Snows do melt, And some warm glances from the Sun are felt, Which is increasèd by the lengthened day, Until by’s414 heat he drives all cold away. 250 My Subject’s bare, my Brains are bad, Or better Lines you should have had; The first fell in so naturally, I could not tell how to pass’t by: The last, though bad, I could not mend, 5 Accept therefore of what is penned, And all the faults which you shall spy, Shall at your feet for pardon cry. Your dutiful Daughter. A. B.415

409. The celebration of Jesus’s birth. He is a guest, only on earth temporarily. 410. The constellation the Water Carrier. 411. Lose, to frostbite. 412. The constellation the Fishes. 413. The ecliptic, or apparent orbit of the sun around the earth. 414. By his. 415. It is not clear that this untitled lyric refers to the previous poem. That Bradstreet identifies herself as “your dutiful daughter” suggests that she composed this verse for a particular and limited audience.

106 ANNE BRADSTREET

w w w w w The Four Monarchies,416 the Assyrian being the first, beginning under Nimrod,  131 years after the Flood When Time was young, and World in infancy, Man did not strive for Sovereignty, But each one thought his petty rule was high, If of his house he held the Monarchy. This was the Golden Age, but after came 5 The boisterous Sons of Cush, Grand-child to Ham,417 That mighty Hunter who in his strong toils, Both Beasts and Men subjected to his spoils.418 The strong foundation of proud Babel419 laid; Erech, Accad, and Calneh420 also made. 10 These were his first; all stood in Shinar land.421 From thence he went Assyria to command, And mighty Nineveh422 he there begun, Nor finishèd, ’til he his race had run; Resea,423 Caleh, and Rehoboth likewise, 15 By him, to Cities eminent did rise; Of Saturn, he was the original, Whom the succeeding times a god did call.424 When thus with rule he had been dignified One hundred fourteen years,425 he after died. 20 416. Bradstreet’s poem depends heavily on Sir Walter Ralegh’s History of the World (1614). Where he makes a definitive statement about an interpretive crux, Bradstreet accepts his determination. References will be by volume, chapter, and section number. As all seventeenth-century editions of his text identify the author as “Ralegh,” I use that spelling throughout. 417. Cush is the son of Ham, grandchild of Noah (Genesis 10:6). 418. Cush’s son Nimrod, “a mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9). 419. A biblical city in Shinar (Mesopotamia) famous for its tower that tried to reach to Heaven (Genesis 11:1–9). 420. Cities founded by Nimrod (Genesis 10:10). 421. Mesopotamia. 422. A city near modern-day Mosul, Iraq. 423. Normally Resen. More cities near Mosul. 424. Ralegh identifies the Greek and Roman gods as figures drawn from garbled memories of Hebrew history (History 1.6.4). Nimrod would be like Saturn in his story and powers. 425. Ralegh, History 1.10.4.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 107 Bellus Great Nimrod dead, Bellus the next, his Son, Confirms the rule his Father had begun, Whose acts and power is not for certainty Left to the world by any History, But yet this blot forever on him lies: He taught the people first to Idolize. Titles divine, he to himself did take; Alive, and dead, a god they did him make. This is that Bell426 the Chaldees427 worshippèd, Whose Priests in Stories oft are mentionèd; This is that Bell to whom the Israelites So oft profanely offered sacred rites. This is Beëlzebub,428 god of Ekronites,429 Likewise Baal-peor430 of the Moabites. His reign was short, for as I calculate At twenty-five ended his regal date.

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Ninus His father dead, Ninus431 begins his reign, Transfers his Seat to the Assyrian plain, And mighty Nineveh more mighty made, Whose foundation was by his Grand-sire laid. 40 Four hundred forty Furlongs432 walled about, On which stood fifteen hundred towers stout. The walls one hundred sixty foot upright, So broad, three Chariots run abreast there might.433 Upon the pleasant banks of Tigris’434 flood, 45 This stately seat of warlike Ninus stood. This Ninus for a god his father canonized, To whom the sottish people sacrificed. 426. Baal means “lord” in ancient Semitic languages. It came to be used by the Hebrews as the proper name for the god worshipped by Canaanites. 427. The Chaldeans were a Semitic-speaking tribe that Hebrew Scripture associates with Babylon. 428. Meaning lord of the flies. 429. A tribe in Canaan (Joshua 13:3). 430. The god of Mount Peor. The Moabites occupied a mountainous area in what is now Jordan. 431. A mythical king of the Assyrians. 432. A furlong is one-eighth of a mile. 433. Ralegh, History 1.12.1. 434. A river draining what is now Syria and Iraq into the Persian Gulf.

108 ANNE BRADSTREET This Tyrant did his neighbors all oppress; Where e’ er he warred he had too good success. 50 Barzanes, the great Armenian King, By force his tributary he did bring. The Median country435 he did also gain; Pharmus their King he causèd to be slain. An army of three Millions he led out 55 Against the Bactrians436 (but that I doubt). Zoroaster, their King, he likewise slew, And all the greater Asia did subdue. Semiramis from Menon he did take, Then drown himself, did Menon, for her sake.437 60 Fifty-two years he reigned (as we are told). The world then was two thousand nineteen old. Semiramis This great oppressing Ninus dead and gone, His wife Semiramis usurped the throne.438 She like a brave Virago439 played the rex, And was both shame, and glory of her sex. Her birth-place was Philistrius Ascalon, Her Mother Docreta, a Courtesan; Others report she was a vestal Nun, Adjudgèd to be drowned for what she’d done, Transformed into a fish, by Venus’ will, Her beauteous face (they feign) retaining still.440 Sure from this fiction, Dagon441 first began, Changing his woman’s face into a man. But all agree that from no lawful bed This great renownèd Empress issuèd, For which, she was obscurely nourishèd.

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435. Area roughly equivalent to Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. 436. Inhabitants of the city Bactria and the surrounding countryside in Persia, now Iran. 437. Ralegh covers Ninus’s martial exploits in History 10.8. His account diverges from that of Diodorus, who reports that Menon hanged himself out of grief for losing Semiramis to Ninus (Library 1.371). 438. Semiramis acted as regent for her son. 439. A bold, impudent woman. 440. Bradstreet found these alternate genealogies for Semiramis in Ralegh, who also refrains from making a choice (History 1.12.3). 441. The fish god of the Philistines.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 109 Whence rose that fable, she by birds was fed.442 This gallant dame unto the Bactrian war Accompan’ing her husband Menon far, 80 Taking a town such valor she did show That Ninus of her amorous soon did grow And thought her fit to make a Monarch’s wife, Which was the cause poor Menon lost his life. She flourishing with Ninus long did reign, 85 ’Til her ambition caused him to be slain, That having no compeer, she might rule all, Or else she sought revenge for Menon’s fall. Some think the Greeks this slander on her cast, As of her life, licentious and unchaste, 90 And that her worth deservèd no such blame, As their aspersions cast upon the same.443 But were her virtues more or less or none, She for her potency must go alone. Her wealth she showed in building Babylon, 95 Admired of all, but equalized of none.444 The walls so strong and curiously were wrought That after-ages skill by them were taught. With Towers and Bulwalks made of costly stone; Quadrangle was the form it stood upon. 100 Each Square was fifteen thousand paces long, A hundred gates it had, of metal strong. Three hundred sixty foot the walls in heighth; Almost incredible they were in breadth. Most writers say, six chariots might a front, 105 With great facility, march safe upon’t. About the wall, a ditch so deep and wide That like a river long it did abide. Three hundred thousand men here day by day Bestowed their labor and received their pay, 110 But that which did all cost and art excel, The wondrous Temple was she reared to Ba’al, Which in the midst of this brave Town was placed 442. One story recounts that, abandoned because she was illegitimate, Semiramis was raised by birds (Ralegh, History 1.12.3). 443. Ralegh also withholds judgment about whether Semiramis murdered Ninus and, if so, for what reason (History 1.12.1). 444. Ralegh reports that Semiramis sought in developing Babylon to outdo her husband’s building in Nineveh (History 1.12.1), but he does not enumerate the specifics that follow here.

110 ANNE BRADSTREET (Continuing ’til Xerxes445 it defaced) Whose stately top beyond the clouds did rise, 115 446 From whence Astrologers oft viewed the skies. This to describe in each particular, A structure rare I should but rudely mar. Her gardens, bridges, arches, mounts, and spires, All eyes that saw or ears that hear admires. 120 On Shinar plain, by the Euphratan447 flood, This wonder of the world, this Babel stood.448 An expedition to the East she made, Great King Staurobates449 for to invade. Her Army of four Millions did consist 125 (Each man believe it as his fancy list450) Her Camels, Chariots, Galleys in such number As puzzles best historians to remember, But this is marvelous: of all those men (They say) but twenty e’ er came back again. 130 The River Indus swept them half away; The rest Staurobates in fight did slay. This was last progress451 of this mighty Queen, Who in her Country never more was seen. The Poets feign her turned into a Dove, 135 Leaving the world, to Venus soared above, Which made the Assyrians many a day, A Dove within their Ensign to display.452 Forty-two years she reigned, and then she died, But by what means, we are not certified. 140 Ninyas, or Zameis453 His Mother dead, Ninyas obtains his right, A Prince wedded to ease, and to delight, Or else was his obedience very great, 445. King of Persia from 486 BCE to 465 BCE. 446. Ralegh, History 1.12.5. 447. The Euphrates drains what is now Syria and Iraq and runs parallel to the Tigris. 448. Hebrew Scripture conflates the Babel of Genesis with the city of Babylon. 449. A king in what is now India. 450. Chooses. Ralegh declares the reported numbers “incredible and impossible” (History 1.12.4). 451. When applied to a monarch, a procession. 452. Ralegh, History 1.12.4. 453. The sun god in the Assyrian pantheon.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 111 To sit thus long (obscure) wronged of his seat. Some write, his Mother put his habit on, 145 454 Which made the people think they served her Son. But much it is, in more than forty years, This fraud in war nor peace at all appears. It is more like, being with pleasures fed, He sought no rule, ’til she was gone and dead. 150 What then he did of worth can no man tell, But is supposed to be that Amraphel,455 Who warred with Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s King, ’Gainst whom his trainèd Bands Abram did bring.456 Some may object, his Parents ruling all, 155 How he thus suddenly should be thus small? This answer may suffice whom it will please: He thus voluptuous and given to ease,457 Each wrongèd Prince or child that did remain Would now advantage take, their own to gain. 160 So Province after Province rent away, Until that potent Empire did decay. Again, the Country was left bare (there is no doubt) Of men and wealth his mother carried out, Which to her neighbors when it was made known 165 Did then incite them to regain their own. What e’ er he was, they did or how it fell, We may suggest our thoughts, but cannot tell; For Ninyas and all his Race are left In deep oblivion, of acts bereft,458 170 And elev’n hundred of years in silence sit, Save a few names anew, Berosus459 writ. And such as care not what befalls their fames May feign as many acts, as he did names; 454. Ralegh discredits this theory, which he attributes to the historian Justin (fl. second century CE). See History 1.12.2. 455. Ralegh presents arguments identifying Amraphel with Ninyas (History 2.1.9). 456. Genesis 14:13–16 recounts Abram’s rescue of his brother Lot and Lot’s household from the Sumerian kings who had defeated Sodom and Gomorrah. 457. Ralegh, History 1.12.2; 2.1.1. 458. Bradstreet follows Ralegh in asserting that these kings and their deeds are not worth remembering (History 2.1.1). 459. A Babylonian astrologer who flourished during the third century BCE. His works survive only in pieces used by Flavius Josephus (37–100 CE) and Eusebius (ca. 260–340 CE).

112 ANNE BRADSTREET It is enough, if all be true that’s past. T’ Sardanapalus next we will make haste.

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Sardanapalus Sardanapalus460 (Son t’Ocrazapes) Who wallowèd in all voluptuousness, That palliardizing sot,461 that out of doors Ne’ er showed his face, but reveled with his Whores, 180 Did wear their garb, their gestures imitate, And their kind t’excel did emulate,462 Knowing his baseness and the people’s hate Kept ever close, fearing some dismal fate. At last Arbaces463 brave, unwarily, 185 His master like a Strumpet chanced to spy. His manly heart disdainèd, in the least, Longer to serve this Metamorphosed beast. Unto Belosus464 then he broke his mind, Who sick of his disease, he soon did find. 190 These two ruled Media and Babylon. Both for their King held their dominion. Belosus promisèd Arbaces aid; Arbaces him fully to be repaid. The last465 the Medes and Persians doth invite 195 Against their monstrous King to bring their might. Belosus the Chaldeans doth require And the Arabians to further his desire. These all agree, and forty thousand make, The rule from their unworthy Prince to take. 200 By prophecy, Belosus strength’s their hands; Arbaces must be master of their lands.466 These Forces musterèd and in array, Sardanapalus leaves his Apish play, And though of wars, he did abhor the sight, 205 460. Bradstreet accents the second syllable in this name: Sardánapalus. 461. A palliard is a beggar or lecher; a sot is a drunk. Ralegh uses this term in his discussion of Sardanapalus, which Bradstreet recapitulates in this section (History 2.22.12). 462. Ralegh inherits this representation of Sardanapalus’s moral failings from Diodorus, Library 1.427. 463. King of Media. 464. King of Babylon. 465. Arbaces. 466. This detail comes from Ralegh.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 113 Fear of his diadem did force him fight, And either by his valor or his fate, Arbaces’ courage he did sore abate, That in despair he467 left the field and fled, But with fresh hopes Belosus succorèd. 210 From Bactaria468 an Army was at hand, Pressed for this service by the King’s command; These with celerity Arbaces meets, And with all terms of amity he greets, Makes promises their necks for to unyoke 215 And their Taxations sore, all to revoke, T’in franchise them, to grant what they could crave, To want no privilege Subjects should have, Only entreats them, join their force with his, And win the Crown, which was the way to bliss. 220 Won by his loving looks, more loving speech, T’accept of what they could, they him beseech. Both sides their hearts, their hands, their bands unite, And set upon their Prince’s Camp that night, Who reveling in Cups sung care away, 225 For victory obtained the other day. But all surprised by this unlooked for fright, Bereft of wits, were slaughterèd down right. The King his Brother leaves, all to sustain, And speeds himself to Nineveh amain. 230 But Salmeneus469 slain, his Army falls; The King’s pursued unto the City walls, But he once in, pursuers came too late: The walls and gates their course did terminate. There with all store he was so well-provided 235 That what Arbaces did, was but derided, Who there encamped two years for little end, But in the third, the River470 proved his friend, Which through much rain then swelling up so high, Part of the wall it level caused to lie. 240 Arbaces marches in, the town did take, For few, or none, did there resistance make; 467. Arbaces. 468. Bactria occupied land that is now in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. 469. Sardanapalus’s brother. 470. The Tigris.

114 ANNE BRADSTREET And now they saw fulfilled a Prophecy, That when the River proved their enemy, Their strong-walled town should suddenly be taken; By this accomplishment, their hearts were shaken. Sardanapalus did not seek to fly This his inevitable destiny, But all his wealth and friends together gets, Then on himself, and them, a fire he sets. This the last Monarch was of Ninus’ race, Which for twelve hundred years had held that place. Twenty he reigned, same time, as Stories tell, That Amazia was King of Israel; His Father was then King (as we suppose) When Jonah for their sins denounced such woes.471 He did repent; therefore it was not done, But was accomplishèd now, in his Son. Arbaces thus of all becoming Lord Ingeniously with each did keep his word: Of Babylon, Belosus he made King, With over-plus of all treasures therein; To Bactrians, he gave their liberty; Of Ninevites, he causèd none to die, But sufferèd with goods to go elsewhere, Yet would not let them to inhabit there, For he demolishèd that City great, And then to Media transferred his seat.472 Thus was the promise bound, since first he craved Of Medes and Persians their assisting aid. A while he, and his race, aside must stand, Not pertinent to what we have in hand; But Belochus in’s progeny pursue, Who did this Monarchy begin anew.

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Belosus, or Belochus Belosus settled in his new old seat,473 275 Not so content, but aiming to be great, Encroachèd still upon the bord’ring Lands, 471. The book of Jonah relates God’s sending Jonah to Nineveh to denounce its wickedness. Everyone repents, including the king, so God spares the city. 472. Ralegh, History 2.23.4. 473. Belosus had already been ruling Babylon under Sardanapalus.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 115 ’Til Mesopotamia he got in’s hands, And either by compound, or else by strength, Assyria he also gained at length, 280 Then did rebuild destroyèd Nineveh, A costly work which none could do but he Who owned the treasures of proud Babylon, And those which seemed with Sardanapal’s gone. But though his Palace did in ashes lie, 285 The fire those Metals could not damnify. From rubbish these, with diligence he rakes. Arbaces suffers all, and all he takes. He thus enriched by this new trièd gold Raises a Phoenix474 new, from grave o’ th’old, 290 And from this heap did after Ages see, As fair a Town as the first Nineveh. When this was built, and all matters in peace, Molests poor Israel, his wealth t’increase.475 A thousand talents476 of Menahem had, 295 Who to be rid of such a guest was glad. In sacred Writ, he’s known by name of Pul, Which makes the world of differences so full That he and Belochus one could not be, But circumstance doth prove the verity, 300 And times of both computed so fall out, That those two made but one, we need not doubt. What else he did his Empire to advance, To rest content we must in ignorance. Forty-eight years he reigned. His race then run, 305 He left his new-got Kingdoms to his Son. Tiglath Palasser Belosus dead, Tiglath his warlike Son Next treads the steps by which his Father won. Damascus, ancient seat of famous Kings, Under subjection by his sword he brings. Rezin their valiant King, he also slew, And Syria t’obedience did subdue.

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474. A mythical bird that self-combusts and then rises from its own ashes. 475. Bradstreet follows Ralegh in conflating Belosus with Pul/Phul, the king of Assyria mentioned as extorting money from Israel during the reign of Menahem (2 Kings 15:19–20) and as carrying off several tribes of Israel in 1 Chronicles 5:26. Ralegh, History 2.23.4. 476. A coin whose value is determined by its weight.

116 ANNE BRADSTREET Judah’s bad King occasionèd this War,477 When Rezin’s force his borders sore did mar And divers Cities by strong hand did seize. 315 To Tiglath then doth Ahaz send for ease The temple robes, so to fulfill his ends, And to Assyria’s King a Present sends. “I am thy Servant, and thy Son” (quoth he)478 “From Rezin and from Pekah set me free.” 320 Gladly doth Tiglath this advantage take, And succors Ahaz, yet for Tiglath’s sake. When Rezin’s slain, his Army over-thrown, Syria he makes a Province of his own. Unto Damascus then comes Judah’s King, 325 His humble thankfulness (with haste) to bring, Acknowledging th’Assyrian’s high desert, To whom he owed479 all loyalty of heart. But Tiglath, having gained his wishèd end, Proves unto Ahaz but a feignèd friend. 330 All Israel’s Land beyond Jordan he takes. In Galilee, he woeful havoc makes. Through Syria now he marched, none stopped his way, And Ahaz open, at his mercy lay, Who still implored his love, but was distressed. 335 (This was that Ahaz, which so much transgressed.) Thus Tiglath reigned and warred, twenty-seven years, Then by his death, released was Israel’s fears. Salmanasser, or Nabonasser Tiglath deceased, Salmanasser is next, He Israelites more than his Father vexed. Hoshea, their last King, he did invade, And him six years his tributary made, But weary of his servitude, he sought To Egypt’s King, which did avail him naught, For Salmanasser, with a mighty Host, Besieged his regal town and spoiled his Coast,

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477. Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob and so his name became a synonym for the Hebrew people and for Israel. Both Ralegh and Hebrew Scripture attribute Ahaz’s military troubles to his having offended God by worshipping false idols, including Baal and Moloch. Ahaz sent temple treasures to Assyria in a successful bid for military assistance (History 2.23.6). See 2 Kings 16. 478. 2 Kings 16:7. 479. In the original, “ought.”

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 117 And did the people, nobles, and their King Into perpetual thralldom that time bring.480 Those that from Joshua’s time had been Estate481 Did Justice now by him eradicate.482 This was that strange degenerated brood, On whom nor threats nor483 mercies could do good. Laden with honor, prisoners, and with spoil, Returns triumphant Victor to his soil. Placed Israel in’s Land, where he thought best, Then sent his Colonies, theirs to invest. Thus Jacob’s Sons484 in exile must remain, And pleasant Canaan485 ne’ er see again. Where now those ten Tribes486 are, can no man tell, Or how they fare, rich, poor, or ill, or well; Whether the Indians of the East or West Or wild Tartarians, as yet ne’ er blessed, Or else those Chinoes487 rare, whose wealth and Arts Hath bred more wonder than belief in hearts. But what, or where they are, yet know we this: They shall return, and Zion see, with bliss.

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Sennacherib Sennacherib Salmanasser succeeds, Whose haughty heart is shown in works and deeds. His Wars none better than himself can boast, On Henah, Arpad, and on Ivah least, 370 480. 2 Kings 17:1–6. 481. Established. Joshua was a leading figure in the Hebrew people’s flight from Egypt and succeeded Moses as their leader. 482. Here and for the next five monarchs, numbers appear in the margin of The Tenth Muse. The dates seem to indicate the length of the monarch’s reign, although those numbers do not agree with modern sources. Several Poems preserves only the marginal note for Shalmanser. 483. Neither … nor. 484. The Hebrew people. Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, was the father of the twelve men from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob later earned the name Israel after he wrestled with an angel (Genesis 32:28). 485. The land that became Israel. 486. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were carried off by the Assyrians (2 Kings 16) and appear to have assimilated into other cultures. There remain many theories about where they went and who they became. 487. Chinese.

118 ANNE BRADSTREET On Hena’s and on Sepharvaim’s gods;488 ’Twixt them and Israel’s he knew no odds, Until the thund’ring hand of heaven he felt, Which made his Army into nothing melt.489 With shame then turned to Nineveh again, 375 And by his Sons in’s Idol’s house was slain.

[7 years.

Essarhadon His Son, weak Essarhadon reigned in’s place, The fifth, and last, of great Belosus’ race. Brave Merodach, the Son of Balladan, In Babylon Lieutenant to this man, 380 Of opportunity advantage takes And on his Master’s ruins his house makes. And Belosus first he490 did unthrone, So he’s now styled the King of Babylon. After twelve years did Essarhadon die, 385 And Merodach assume the Monarchy. Merodach Baladan All yields to him, but Nineveh kept free Until his Grand-child made her bow the knee. Ambassadors to Hezekiah sent, His health congratulates with compliment.491 390 Ben Merodach Ben Merodach, Successor to this King, Of whom is little said in anything, But by conjecture this, and none but he, Led King Manasseh to captivity.492

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488. 2 Kings 19 lists these cities as among those destroyed by Sennacherib, who sends a message to Hezekiah, warning that Israel will meet the same fate. The Sepharvaim were two towns on opposite sides of the Euphrates, north of Babylon. 489. 2 Kings 19:35–37 reports the destruction of the Assyrian army by the angel of the Lord and the subsequent assassination of Sennacherib. 490. In the original, “his,” most likely a compositor’s error. 491. 2 Kings 20:12. Ralegh, History 2.25.3. 492. 2 Chronicles 33:11 does not name which Assyrian king. Ralegh locates this event during the reign of Merodach (History 2.27.1).

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 119 Nebulassar Brave Nebulassar to this King was Son. The ancient Nineveh by him was won. For fifty years, or more, it had been free, Now yields her neck unto captivity. A Viceroy from her foe, she’s glad t’accept, By whom in firm obedience she’s kept.

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Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebopolassar The famous Wars of this Heroic King Did neither Homer,493 Hesiod,494 Virgil495 sing; Nor of his acts have we the certainty From some Thucydides’ grave History,496 Nor’s Metamorphosis from Ovid’s Book,497 405 Nor his restoring from old legends took, But by the Prophets, Pen-men most Divine, This Prince in’s magnitude doth ever shine. This was of Monarchies that head of gold,498 The richest and the dreadful’st to behold; 410 This was that tree whose branches filled the earth,499 Under whose shadow, birds and beasts had birth; This was that King of Kings, did what he pleased, Killed, saved, pulled down, set up, or pained, or eased; And this is he who, when he feared the least, 415 Was turnèd from a King unto a Beast.500 This Prince, the last year of his Father’s reign, Against Jehoiakim marched with his train,501 Judah’s poor King besieged who, succorless, Yields to his mercy and the present stress. 420 His Vassal is, gives pledges for his truth, Children of Royal blood, unblemished youth, Wise Daniel and his fellows ’mongst the rest, 493. Greek poet (ca. 750 BCE) who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. 494. Greek poet (ca. 700 BCE) who wrote the Theogony, a poem about the Greek gods. 495. Roman poet (70–19 BCE) most famous for the Aeneid. 496. Greek historian (460–395 BCE) of the Peloponnesian War. 497. Roman poet (43 BCE–17 CE) whose Metamorphoses recounts ancient myths. 498. An image from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which Daniel interprets (Daniel 2:38–45). 499. Another dream of Nebuchadnezzar’s (Daniel 4:10–17). 500. For God’s judgment on Nebuchadnezzar, see Daniel 4:33. 501. 2 Kings 24; 2 Chronicles 36:6; Daniel 1:1–2.

120 ANNE BRADSTREET By the victorious King to Babel’s pressed.502 The temple of rich ornaments defaced, 425 And in his Idol’s house the Vassal’s placed. The next year he, with unresisted hand, Quite vanquished Pharaoh Necho503 and his Band. By great Euphrates did his Army fall, Which was the loss of Syria withal; 430 Then into Egypt, Necho did retire, Which in few years proves the Assyrian’s hire. A mighty Army next he doth prepare, And unto wealthy Tyre with haste repair. Such was the situation of this place, 435 As might not him, but all the world outface, That in her pride, she knew not which to boast, Whether her wealth, or yet her strength was most. How in all Merchandise she did excel, None but the true Ezekiel need to tell.504 440 And for her strength, how hard she was to gain Can Babel’s tired Soldiers tell with pain.505 Within an Island had this City seat, Divided from the main by channel great. Of costly Ships and Galleys, she had store, 445 And Mariners to handle sail and oar. But the Chaldeans had nor ships nor skill. Their shoulders must their Master’s mind fulfill, Fetch rubbish from the opposite old town, And in the channel throw each burden down, 450 Where after many essays they make at last The Sea firm Land whereon the Army passed And took the wealthy town, but all the gain Requited not the cost, the toil, and pain. Full thirteen years in this strange work he spent, 455 Before he could accomplish his intent, And though a Victor home his Army leads With peelèd shoulders and with balded heads.506 When in the Tyrian wars, the King was hot, 502. Daniel 1:1–5. 503. 2 Kings 23:29–35. 504. Ezekiel prophesied Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Tyre (Ezekiel 26:1–14). 505. The following account of the situation, siege, and destruction of Tyre follows Ralegh, History 2.28.6. 506. Ezekiel 29:18.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 121 Jehoiakim his Oath had clean forgot, 460 Thinks this the fittest time to break his bands, While Babel’s King thus deep engagèd stands. But he (alas) whose fortune’s now i’ th’ebb, Had all his hopes like to a Spider’s web. For this great King withdraws part of his force, 465 To Judah marches with a speedy course, And unexpected finds the feeble Prince, Whom he chastisèd for his proud offense. Fast bound, intends at Babel he shall stay, But changed his mind and slew him by the way.507 470 Thus cast him out, like to a naked Ass, For this was he, for whom none said, “Alas!” His Son508 three months he sufferèd to reign, Then from his throne, he pulled him down again, Whom with his Mother, he to Babel led, 475 And more than thirty years in prison fed. His Uncle509 he established in’s place, Who was last King of holy David’s race, But he, as perjured as Jehoiakim, Judah lost more than e’ er they lost by him. 480 Seven years he keeps his faith, and safe he dwells, But in the eighth against his Prince rebels. The ninth came Nebuchadnezzar with power, Besieged his City, Temple, Zion’s Tower, And after eighteen months he took them all. 485 The walls so strong that stood so long now fall. The cursèd King by flight could no wise flee His well-deserved and foretold misery, But being caught, to Babel’s wrathful King, With Children, Wives, and Nobles, all they bring, 490 Where to the sword, all but himself was put, And with that woeful sight his eyes close shut.510 A hapless man, whose darksome contemplation Was nothing but such ghastly meditation. In midst of Babel now, ’til death he lies, 495 507. Ralegh, History 2.28.6. Neither 2 Kings 24 nor 2 Chronicles 36 report that Nebuchadnezzar murdered Jehoiakim. 508. Jehoiachin. 2 Kings 24:8–15; 2 Chronicles 36:9. 509. Mattaniah, whose name was then changed to Zedekiah. 510. According to 2 Kings 25:7, Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah’s eyes put out. Also Ralegh, History 2.28.6.

122 ANNE BRADSTREET Yet as was told, ne’ er saw it with his eyes. The Temple’s burnt, the Vessels had away, The Towers and Palaces brought to decay. Where late of Harp, and Lute was heard the noise, Now Zim and Iim lift up their shrieking voice.511 500 All now of worth are captive led with tears; There sit bewailing Zion seventy years. With all these Conquests, Babel’s King rests not, No, nor when Moab, Edom he had got. Kedar, Hazer, the Arabians too, 505 All Vassals, at his hands, for grace must sue. A total Conquest of rich Egypt makes; All rule he from the ancient Pharoahs takes: Who had for sixteen hundred years born sway, To Babylon’s proud King now yields the day. 510 Then Phut and Lud512 do at his mercy stand; Where e’ er he goes, he Conquers every Land. His sumptuous buildings passes all conceit Which wealth and strong ambition made so great; His Image Judah’s Captives worship not, 515 Although the Furnace be seven times more hot.513 His Dreams wise Daniel doth expound full well,514 And his unhappy change with grief foretell. Strange melancholy humors on him lay, Which for seven years his reason took away, 520 Which from no natural causes did proceed, For by the Heavens above it was decreed. The time expired, remains a Beast no more, Resumes his Government as heretofore. In splendor and in Majesty he sits, 525 Contemplating those times he lost his wits, And if by words we may guess at the heart, This King among the righteous had a part.515 Forty-four years he reigned, which being run, He left his Wealth, and Conquest, to his Son. 530 511. Wild beasts, an image of desolation. See Jeremiah 50:39 and Isaiah 13:21–22. 512. Josephus identifies Phut with what is now Libya. Lud is southeast of what is now Tel Aviv. 513. Daniel 3 reports that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refuse to worship the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar but survive in the fiery furnace. 514. Daniel interprets dreams for Nebuchadnezzar and for his son Belshazzar (Daniel 2–5). 515. Nebuchadnezzar testifies to God’s role in his madness and recovery in Daniel 4:34–37.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 123 Evilmerodach Babel’s great Monarch now laid in the dust, His son possesses wealth and rule, as just; And in the first year of his royalty Easeth Jehoiachin’s captivity.516 Poor forlorn Prince that had all state forgot, 535 In seven and thirty years had seen no jot. Among the Conquered Kings that there did lie Is Judah’s King, now lifted up on high. But yet in Babel he must still remain And native Canaan never see again. 540 Unlike his father, Evilmerodach Prudence and magnanimity did lack. Fair Egypt is by his remissness lost, Arabia and all the bordering coast. Wars with the Medes, unhappily, he waged, 545 (Within which broils, rich Croesus517 was engaged). His Army routed and himself there slain, His Kingdom to Belshazzar did remain. Belshazzar Unworthy Belshazzar next wears the Crown, Whose profane acts a sacred pen sets down.518 550 His lust and cruelty in books we find: A Royal State, ruled by a brutish mind. His life so base and dissolute invites The Noble Persians to invade his rights, Who with his own and Uncle’s power anon 555 Lays siege to’s519 regal seat, proud Babylon. The coward King, whose strength lay in his walls, To banqueting and reveling now falls, To show his little dread, but greater store, To cheer his friends, and scorn his foes the more. 560 The holy vessels thither brought long since Caroused they in and, sacrilegious Prince, Did praise his gods of metal, wood, and stone,520 516. In the original, Jehoiakim. 517. King of Lydia, 595–547 BCE. Ralegh discusses Croesus’s interactions with Cyrus the Great in History 3.3.2–3. 518. Daniel 5–8. 519. A contraction of “to his.” 520. Daniel 5:3–4.

124 ANNE BRADSTREET Protectors of his Crown and Babylon. But he above521 his doings did deride And with a hand soon dashèd all his pride. The King, upon the wall casting his eye, The fingers of his522 handwriting did spy, Which horrid sight, he fears, must needs portend Destruction to his Crown, to’s Person end. With quaking knees and heart appalled, he cries For the Soothsayers and Magicians wise This language strange to read and to unfold, With gifts of Scarlet robe and Chains of gold And highest dignity, next to the King, To him that could interpret clear this thing. But dumb the gazing Astrologers stand, Amazèd at the writing, and the hand. None answers the affrighted King’s intent, Who still expects some fearful sad event. As thus amort523 he sits, as all undone, In comes the Queen to cheer her heartless son, Of Daniel tells, who in his Grandsire’s days Was held in more request than now he was. Daniel in haste is brought before the King, Who doth not flatter, nor once cloak the thing, Reminds him of his Grandsire’s height and fall And of his own notorious sins, withal: His drunkenness and his profaneness high, His pride and sottish gross Idolatry. The guilty King, with color pale and dead, There hears his Mene and his Tekel read,524 And did one thing worthy a King (though late): Performed his word, to him, that told his fate. That night victorious Cyrus took the town, Who soon did terminate his Life and Crown. With him did end the race of Baladan, And now the Persian Monarchy began. The end of the Assyrian Monarchy 521. God. 522. God. 523. Lifeless. 524. These are some of the words that the hand of God wrote on the wall.

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w w w The Second Monarchy, being the  Persian,  begun under  Cyrus, Darius  (being his Uncle and his Father-in-Law) reigning with him about two years Cyrus Cambyses, Son of Persia’s King, Whom Lady Mandana did to him bring, She Daughter unto great Astyages,525 He in descent the seventh from Arbaces.526 Cambyses was of Achaemene’s race, 5 Who had in Persia the Lieutenant’s place When Sardanapalus was overthrown, And from that time had held it as his own. Cyrus Darius’s Daughter took to wife And so unites two Kingdoms without strife; 10 Darius was unto Mandana brother, Adopts her Son for his, having no other. This is of Cyrus the true pedigree, Whose Ancestors were royal in degree. His Mother’s Dream and Grandsire’s cruelty, 15 His preservation in his misery, His nourishment afforded by a Bitch Are fit for such whose ears for fables itch.527 He in his younger days an Army led Against great Croesus, then of Lydia head, 20 Who over-curious of war’s event For information to Apollo went And the ambiguous Oracle did trust,528 So overthrown of Cyrus, as was just, Who him pursues to Sardis, takes the town, 25 Where all that do resist are slaughtered down. Disguisèd Croesus hoped to ’scape i’ th’ throng,529 525. King of Media (585–550 BCE). 526. A general under Sardanapalus credited with founding the Median Empire around 830 BCE. 527. Ralegh dismisses Herodotus’s claim that Cyrus’s grandfather tried to have the infant killed because of a prophetic dream he had. Neither Ralegh nor Herodotus suggest that Mandana had a dream or that Cyrus was raised by a dog. See Herodotus, The Persian Wars, 1.139–41. 528. Ralegh, History 3.3.2. The oracle reported that Croesus’s going to war would destroy an empire, which turned out to be his own, not his enemy’s. 529. Bradstreet follows the story of Croesus’s capture and pardon in Ralegh’s History 3.3.4.

126 ANNE BRADSTREET Who had no might to save himself from wrong, But as he past, his Son, who was born dumb, With pressing grief and sorrow overcome, 30 Amidst the tumult, bloodshed, and the strife, Broke his long silence, cried, “spare Croesus’ life.” Croesus thus known, it was great Cyrus’ doom (A hard decree) to ashes he consume. Then on a Pike being set, where all might eye, 35 He “Solon, Solon, Solon” thrice did cry. Upon demand, his mind to Cyrus broke And told how Solon in his height had spoke.530 With pity Cyrus moved, knowing Kings stand Now up, now down, as fortune turns her hand. 40 Weighing the age and greatness of the Prince (His Mother’s Uncle, stories do evince) Gave him at once his life, and Kingdom too, And with the Lydians had no more to do. Next war the restless Cyrus thought upon 45 Was conquest of the stately Babylon, Now treble-walled and moated so about That all the world they neither fear nor doubt. To drain this ditch, he many sluices cut,531 But ’til convenient time their heads kept shut. 50 That night Belshazzar feasted all his rout, He cuts those banks and let the river out And to the walls securely marches on, Not finding a defendant thereupon, Enters the town, the sottish King he slays; 55 Upon earth’s richest spoils his Soldiers preys; Here twenty year’s provision he found. Forty-five mile this City scarce could round. This head of Kingdoms, Chaldes’ excellence, For Owls and Satyrs makes a residence.532 60 Yet wondrous Monuments this stately Queen Had after thousand years fair to be seen. Cyrus doth now the Jewish captives free; 530. Solon was an Athenian lawmaker who told Croesus that a man could be considered happy only after his death, when his entire life could be assessed. See Plutarch, Lives, 1.483. Plutarch was available in English beginning in 1595, in a translation by Thomas North. 531. Ralegh’s History 3.3.5 recounts Cyrus’s capture of Babylon. 532. Jeremiah 50:39.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 127 An Edict makes the Temple builded be.533 He, with his Uncle, Daniel sets on high And caused his foes534 in Lions’ den to die. Long after this, he ’gainst the Scythians goes And Tom’ris’ Son,535 an Army overthrows, Which to revenge, she hires a mighty power And sets on Cyrus in a fatal hour, There routs his Host, himself she prisoner takes, And at one blow, world’s head she headless makes, The which she baked within a Butt of blood, Using such taunting words as she thought good.536 But Xenophon reports, he died in’s bed, In honor, peace, and wealth, with a grey head, And in his Town of Pasargada537 lies, Where Alexander fought in hope of prize. But in this Tomb was only to be found Two Scythian bows, a sword, and target538 round, Where that proud Conqueror could do no less Than at his Hearse great honors to express.539 Three Daughters and two Sons he left behind, Ennobled more by birth, than by their mind. Some thirty years this potent Prince did reign. Unto Cambyses, then, all did remain. Cambyses Cambyses, no ways like his noble Sire, But to enlarge his state had some desire; His reign with Blood and Incest first begins, Then sends to find a Law for these his sins. That Kings with Sisters match, no Law they find,

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533. 2 Chronicles 36:23. 534. Daniel’s enemies. Daniel had been thrown to the lions, who, though God’s intervention, would not eat him. Daniel 6. 535. Cyrus captured but later released Spargapises, the son of Tomyris, Queen of the Scythians. Spargapises then committed suicide. 536. This story of Tomyris’s victory over Cyrus comes from Herodotus. 537. Cyrus the Great’s principal city, Pasargadae, is near what is now Shiraz, Iran. Its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 538. A shield. 539. Ralegh rehearses the different theories of Cyrus’s death, and Alexander’s opening Cyrus’s tomb, in History 3.3.6.

128 ANNE BRADSTREET But that the Persian King may act his mind, Which Law includes all Laws, though lawless still, And makes it lawful Law, if he but will.540 He wages war, the fifth year of his reign, ’Gainst Egypt’s King, who there by him was slain, And all of Royal blood that came to hand, He seizèd first of life, and then of Land. (But little ’Narus, ’scap’d that cruel fate, Who grown a man resumed again his state.)541 He next to Cyprus sends his bloody Host, Who landed soon upon that fruitful coast, Made Evelthon their King, with bended knee, To hold his own, of his free courtesy.542 The Temples he destroys not, for his zeal, But he would be professed god of their Weal.543 Yea, in his pride, he venturèd so far To spoil the Temple of great Jupiter, But as they marchèd o’ er those desert sands, The stormèd dust o’ erwhelmed his daring bands. But scorning thus by Jove to be outbraved, A second Army there had almost graved. But vain he found, to fight with Elements, So left his sacrilegious bold intents.544 The Egyptian Apis545 then he likewise slew, Laughing to scorn that calvish, sottish crew. If all his heat had been for a good end, Cambyses to the clouds we might commend, But he that ’fore the gods, himself prefers, Is more profane than gross Idolaters, And though no gods, if he esteem them some, And contemn them, woeful is his doom. He after this saw in a Vision His brother Smerdis sit upon his throne;546

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540. Ralegh, History 3.4.3. 541. Ralegh, History 3.4.2. 542. To acknowledge Cambyses’s generosity in allowing the Cypriot king to rule his own kingdom. Ralegh, History 3.4.3. 543. Commonwealth. 544. Ralegh, History 3.4.3. 545. A live bull whom the Egyptians worshipped as an embodiment of their god. 546. All the atrocities that follow are enumerated in Ralegh, History 3.4.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 129 He straight to rid himself of causeless fears, 125 Complots the Prince’s death in his green years, Who for no wrong, poor innocent, must die. Praraspes now must act this tragedy, Who into Persia with Commission sent, Accomplishèd this wicked King’s intent. 130 His sister,547 whom incestuously he wed, Hearing her harmless brother thus was dead, His woeful fate with tears did so bemoan That by her Husband’s charge, she caught her own. She with her fruit was both at once undone, 135 Who would have born a Nephew, and a Son. O hellish Husband, Brother, Uncle, Sire, Thy cruelty will Ages still admire. This strange severity one time he used Upon a Judge for breach of Law accused, 140 Flayed him alive, hung up his stuffèd skin Over his Seat, then placed his Son therein, To whom he gave this in rememberance: Like fault must look for the like recompense. Praraspes, to Cambyses favorite, 145 Having one son in whom he did delight, His cruel Master for all service done Shot through the heart of his beloved son, And only for his father’s faithfulness, Who said but what the King bade him express. 150 ’T would be no pleasant, but a tedious thing To tell the facts of this most bloody King. Feared of all, but loved of few, or none. All thought his short reign long, ’til it was done. At last, two of his Officers he hears 155 Had set a Smerdis up, of the same years And like in feature to the Smerdis dead, Ruling as they thought good, under his head. Touched with this news, to Persia he makes, But in the way, his sword just vengeance takes, 160 Unsheaths as he his horse mounted on high, And, with a Martial thrust, wounds him i’ th’ thigh, Which ends before begun, the Persian War, Yielding to death that dreadful Conqueror. 547. Meroe, sister to Smerdis, sister and wife to Cambyses.

130 ANNE BRADSTREET Grief for his brother’s death he did express, And more, because he died issueless. The Male line of great Cyrus now did end; The Female many ages did extend. A Babylon in Egypt did he make And built fair Meroe, for his sister’s sake. Eight years he reigned, a short yet too long time, Cut off in’s wickedness, in’s strength and prime.

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The inter Regnum between Cambyses, and Darius Hyslaspes Childless Cambyses, on the sudden dead, The Princes meet to choose one in his stead, Of which the chief were seven, called Satrapes 175 (Who like to Kings ruled Kingdoms as they please) Descended all of Achemenes’ blood And kinsmen in account to th’King they stood, And first these noble Magi ’gree upon, To thrust th’ Imposter Smerdis out of throne. 180 Their Forces instantly they raise and rout This King with conspirators so stout, Who little pleasure had in his short reign, And now with his accomplices lies slain. But yet, ’fore this was done, much blood was shed, 185 And two of these great Peers in place lay dead. Some write that sorely hurt they ’scaped away, But so or no, sure ’tis, they won the day. All things in peace and Rebels throughly548 quelled, A Consultation by the States was held 190 What form of Government now to erect: The old or new, which best, in what respect. The greater part declined a Monarchy, So late crushed by their Prince’s Tyranny, And thought the people would more happy be 195 If governed by an Aristocracy. But others thought (none of the dullest brain) But better one than many Tyrants reign. What arguments they used, I know not well, Too politic (’tis like) for me to tell.549 200 But in conclusiòn they all agree 548. Thoroughly. 549. Ralegh provides the different proposals in History 3.4.4.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 131 That of the seven a Monarch chosen be. All envy to avoid, this was thought on: Upon a Green to meet, by rising Sun, And he whose Horse before the rest should neigh, Of all the Peers should have precedency. They all attend on the appointed hour, Praying to Fortune for a Kingly power, Then mounting on their snorting coursers proud, Darius’ lusty stallion neighed full loud. The Nobles all alight, their King to greet, And after Persian manner kiss his feet. His happy wishes now doth no man spare, But acclamations echo in the air. A thousand times “God save the King,” they cry, “Let tyranny now with Cambyses die.” They then attend him to his royal room. Thanks for all this to’s550 crafty Stable groom.551 Darius Hyslapses Darius by election made a King, His title to make strong omits no thing. He two of Cyrus’ Daughters now doth wed; Two of his Nieces takes to nuptial bed,552 By which he cuts their hopes (for future times) That by such steps to Kingdoms often climbs. And now a King, by marriage, choice, and blood, Three strings to’s bow, the least of which is good. Yet more the people’s hearts firmly to bind Made wholesome gentle Laws, which pleased each mind. His affability and mild aspect Did win him loyalty and all respect, Yet notwithstanding he did all so well, The Babylonians ’gainst their Prince rebel. A Host he raised, the City to reduce, But strength against those walls was of no use. For twice ten months before the town he lay, And feared he now with scorn must march away.

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132 ANNE BRADSTREET Then brave Zopyrus, for his Master’s good, His manly face disfigures, spares no blood, With his own hands cuts off his ears and nose, And with a faithful fraud to th’ town he goes, 240 Tells them how harshly the proud King had dealt, That for their sakes his cruelty he felt, Desiring of the Prince to raise the siege: This violence was done him by his Liege.553 This told, for enterance he stood not long, 245 For they believed his nose more than his tongue. With all the City’s strength they him betrust. If he command, obey the greatest must. When opportunity he saw was fit, Delivers up the town, and all in it. 250 To lose a nose to win a Town’s no shame, But who dare venture such a stake for th’ game? Then thy disgrace, thine honor’s manifold, Who doth deserve a Statue made of gold, Nor can Darius in his Monarchy 255 Scarce find enough to thank thy loyalty, But yet thou hast sufficient recompense, In that thy fame shall sound whilst men have sense. Yet o’ er thy glory we must cast this veil: Thy falsehood, not thy valor did prevail. 260 Thy wit was more than was thine honesty. Thou lovedst thy Master more than verity.554 Darius in the second of his reign An Edict for the Jews published again, The temple to rebuild,555 for that did rest. 265 Since Cyrus’ time, Cambyses did molest. He like a King now grants a Charter large, Out of his own revenues bears the charge, Gives sacrifices, wheat, wine, oil, and salt, Threats punishment to him that through default 270 Shall let556 the work or keep back any thing Of what is freely granted by the King. 553. Zopyrus pretended that he had been mutilated for advising Darius to give up his attempt to take Babylon. Ralegh, History 3.5.2. 554. This discussion of how to evaluate Zopyrus’s actions is not in Ralegh. 555. Ralegh, History 3.5.3. 556. Interfere with or hinder.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 133 And on all Kings he pours out execrations That shall but dare raze those firm foundations. They thus backed of the King, in spite of foes, Built on and prospered, ’til their walls did close, And in the sixth year of his friendly reign Set up a Temple (though a less) again. Darius on the Scythians made a war,557 Ent’ring that large and barren country far. A bridge he made, which served for boat and barge Over fair Ister,558 at a mighty charge. But in that Desert, ’mongst his barbarous foes, Sharp wants, not swords, his valor did oppose. His Army fought with Hunger and with Cold, Which two then to assail his Camp was bold. By these alone his Host was pinched so sore, He warred defensive, not offensive, more. The Savages did laugh at his distress; Their minds by Hieroglyphics they express: A Frog, a Mouse, a Bird, an Arrow sent. The King will needs interpret their intent Possession of water, earth, and air, But wise Gobrias reads not half so fair. Quoth he, “like Frogs, in water we must dive, “Or like to Mice, under the earth must live; “Or fly like birds, in unknown ways full quick, “Or Scythian arrows in our sides must stick.” The King, seeing his men and victual spent, His fruitless war began late to repent, Returned with little honor, and less gain, His enemies scarce seen, then much less slain. He after this intends Greece to invade, But troubles in less Asià him stayed. Which hushed, he straight so orders his affairs, For Attica an Army he prepares, But as before, so now with ill success, Returned with wondrous loss, and honor less. Athens perceiving now their desperate state, Armed all they could, which eleven thousand make, By brave Miltiades (their chief) being led. 557. Ralegh, History 3.5.4. 558. The Danube.

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134 ANNE BRADSTREET Darius’ multitude before them fled. At Marathon this bloody field was fought, Where Grecians proved themselves right Soldiers stout. The Persians to their Galleys post with speed, Where an Athenian showed a valiant deed, Pursues his flying foes, and on the strand, He stays a landing Galley with his hand,559 Which soon cut off, he with the left Renews his hold; but when of that bereft, His whetted teeth he sticks in the firm wood. Off flies his head, down showers his frolic blood. Go Persians, carry home that angry piece As the best trophy that ye won in Greece. Darius light, he heavy, home returns, And for revenge his heart still restless burns. His Queen Attossa causèd all this stir, For Grecian Maids (’tis said) to wait on her. She lost her aim; her Husband, he lost more: His men, his coin, his honor, and his store. And the ensuing year ended his life (’Tis thought) through grief of his successes’ strife. Thirty-six years this royal Prince did reign. Unto his eldest Son all did remain.

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Xerxes Xerxes, Darius’ and Attossa’s Son, 335 Grandchild to Cyrus, now sits on the throne. The Father not so full of lenity, As is the Son of pride and cruelty. He with his Crown receives a double war: Th’ Egyptians to reduce and Greece to mar. 340 The first begun and finished in such hast None write by whom, nor how, ’twas overpast, But for the last he made such preparation, As if to dust he meant to grind that Nation. Yet all his men and instruments of slaughter 345 Producèd but derision and laughter. Sage Artabanus’ counsel had he taken, And’s cousin young Mardonius forsaken, His Soldiers, credit, wealth at home had stayed, 559. This anecdote comes from Ralegh, History 3.5.8.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 135 And Greece such wondrous triumphs ne’ er had made.560 350 The first deports,561 and lays before his eyes His Father’s ill success in’s enterprise Against the Scythians, and Grecians too; What infamy to’s honor did accrue. Flattering Mardonius, on th’other side, 355 With certainty of Europe feeds his pride. Vain Xerxes thinks his counsel hath most wit That his ambitious humor best can fit, And by this choice unwarily posts on To present loss, future subversiòn. 360 Although he hasted, yet four years was spent In great provisions for this great intent. His Army of all Nations was compounded That the large Persian government surrounded. His Foot562 was seventeen hundred thousand strong; 365 Eight hundred thousand Horse563 to them belong; His Camels, beasts for carriage, numberless, For truth’s ashamed how many to express. The charge of all he severally commended, To Princes of the Persian blood descended, 370 But the command of these Commanders all To Mardonius, Captain General. He was the Son of the forenamed Gobrias, Who married the sister of Darius: These his Land Forces were; then next, a Fleet 375 Of two and twenty thousand Galleys meet,564 Manned by Phoenicians and Pamphilians, Cypriots, Dorians, and Cilicians, Lycians, Carians, and Ionians, Eolians, and the Hellispontines; 380 Besides the Vessels for his transportation, Three thousand (or more) by best relation, Artemesia, Halicarna’s Queen,565 In person there now for his help was seen, 560. Ralegh, History 3.6.1. 561. Treats with consideration. This is Artabanus’s argument. 562. Foot soldiers. 563. Officers, who ride horses. 564. Appropriate or well-suited to the activity. 565. Halicarnassus was a Greek city that is now Bodrun, Turkey.

136 ANNE BRADSTREET Whose Galleys all the rest in neatness pass 385 Save the Zidonians’, where Xerxes was. Hers she kept still, separate from the rest, For to command alone she thought was best. O noble Queen, thy valor I commend, But pity ’twas, thine aid that here didst lend. 390 At Sardis, in Lydia, these all do meet, Whither rich Pythyus comes, Xerxes to greet, Feasts all this multitude of his own charge, Then gives the King a King-like gift, most large: Three thousand Talents of the purest gold, 395 Which mighty sum all wondered to behold. He humbly to the King then makes request: One of his five Sons there might be released, To be to’s age a comfort and a stay. The other four he freely gave away. 400 The King calls for the Youth, who being brought, Cuts him in twain for whom his Sire besought.566 O most inhuman incivility! Nay, more than monstrous barb’rous cruelty! For his great love, is this thy recompense? 405 Is this to do like Xerxes, or a Prince? Thou shame of Kings, of men the detestation, I Rhetoric want to pour out execration.567 First thing Xerxes did worthy recount, A Sea passage cuts behind Orthos’ Mount. 410 Next, o’ er the Hellespont a bridge he made Of Boats, together coupled, and there laid.568 But winds and waves these couples soon dissevered, Yet Xerxes in his enterprise persevered. Seven thousand Galleys chained by Tyrians’ skill 415 Firmly at length accomplishèd his will. Seven days and nights his Host without least stay Was marching o’ er this interrupting Bay, And in Abidus’ Plains must ring his Forces. He glories in his Squadrons and his Horses, 420 Long viewing them, thought it great happiness, One King so many Subjects should possess. 566. Ralegh, History 3.6.2. 567. Ralegh does not express outrage at this incident. 568. Ralegh, History 3.6.2.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 137 But yet this goodly sight producèd tears, That none of these should live a hundred years. What after did ensue, had he foreseen, 425 Of so long time his thoughts had never been. Of Artabanus he again demands How of this enterprise his thoughts now stands. His answer was, both Land and Sea he feared, Which was not vain, as it soon appeared. 430 But Xerxes resolute, to Thrace goes first. His Host, who Lissus569 drinks to quench their thirst, And for his Cattle all Pissirus’ Lake Was scarce enough for each a draught to take. Then marching to the strait Thermopylae,570 435 The Spartan meets him, brave Leonide.571 This ’twixt the Mountains lies (half Acre wide) That pleasant Thessaly from Greece divide. Two days and nights a fight they there maintain, ’Til twenty thousand Persians fall down slain. 440 And all that Army, then dismayed, had fled, But that a Fugitive discoverèd How part might o’ er the Mountains go about, And wound the backs of those bold Warriors stout. They thus behemmed with multitude of foes 445 572 Laid on more fiercely their deep mortal blows. None cries for quarter, nor yet seeks to run, But on their ground they die, each Mother’s Son. O noble Greeks, how now degenerate? Where is the valor of your ancient State? 450 When as one thousand could some Millions daunt; Alas, it is Leonides you want! This shameful Victory cost Xerxes dear. Amongst the rest, two brothers he lost there, And as at Land, so he at Sea was crossed; 455 Four hundred stately Ships by storms was lost, Of Vessels small almost innumerable.573 Them to receive the Harbor was not able. 569. A river flowing into the bay at what is now Thessaloniki, Greece. 570. A pass through mountains that allows land access to the Attican peninsula. 571. King of Sparta (ca. 540–480 BCE) who died defending this pass. 572. Ralegh, History 3.6.3. 573. The naval battle at Artemisium occurred simultaneously with the land battle at Thermopylae.

138 ANNE BRADSTREET Yet thinking to outmatch his foes at Sea, Enclosed their Fleet i’ th’ straits of Eubea, 460 But they as valiant by Sea as Land, In this Strait, as the other, firmly stand. And Xerxes’ mighty Galleys battered so That their split sides witnessed his overthrow. Yet in the Straits of Salamis574 he tried 465 If that small number his great force could bide. But he, in daring of his forward foe, Receivèd there a shameful over-throw. Twice beaten thus by Sea, he warred no more: But Phocian’s Land575 he then wasted sore. 470 They no way able to withstand his force, That brave Themistocles takes this wise course: In secret manner word to Xerxes sends That Greeks to break his bridge shortly intends, And as a friend, warns him, what e’ er he do, 475 For his retreat to have an eye thereto.576 He hearing this, his thoughts and course home bended, Much, that577 which never was intended! Yet ’fore he went, to help out his expense, Part of his Host to Delphos sent from thence 480 To rob the wealthy Temple of Apollo, But mischief Sacrilege doth ever follow: Two mighty Rocks broke from Parnassus Hill, And many thousands of these men did kill, Which accident, the rest affrighted so, 485 578 With empty hands they to their Master go. He seeing all thus tend unto decay Thought it his best, no longer for to stay. Three hundred thousand yet he left behind, With his Mardon’us, judex579 of his mind, 490 Who for his sake, he knew, would venture far (Chief instigator of this hopeless War). 574. An island west of Athens. 575. A region in central Greece near Mount Parnassus. 576. Ralegh, History 3.6.7. 577. Several Poems corrects to “much fearing that.” 578. Ralegh, History 3.6.4. 579. Latin for judge.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 139 He instantly to Athens sends for peace,580 That all Hostility might thence-forth cease, And that with Xerxes they would be at one, 495 So should all favor to their State be shown. The Spartans fearing Athens would agree, As had Macedon, Thebes, and Thessaly, And leave them out, the shock for to sustain, By their Ambassador they thus complain, 500 That Xerxes’ quarrel was ’gainst Athens State, And they had helped them, as confederate. If now, in need, they should thus fail their friends, Their infamy would last ’til all things ends. But the Athenians this peace detest, 505 And thus replied unto Mardon’s request That whilst the Sun did run his endless course Against the Persians they would use their force. Nor could the brave Ambassador be sent, With Rhetoric, t’ gain better compliment, 510 Though of this Nation born a great Commander, No less than Grandsire to great Alexander.581 Mardonius proud, hearing this answer stout, To add unto his numbers lays about And of those Greeks, which by his skill he’d won, 515 He fifty thousand joins unto his own; The other Greeks, which were confederate, One hundred thousand and ten thousand make; The Boeotian Fields of war, the seats Where both sides exercised their manly feats, 520 But all their controversies to decide, For one main Battle shortly both provide. The Athenians could but forty thousand arm, For other Weapons they had none would harm. But that which helped defects and made them bold 525 Was Victory, by Oracle foretold.582 Ten days these Armies did each other face. Mardonius finding victuals waste apace No longer dared, but fiercely onset gave; The other not a hand nor sword will wave 530 580. Ralegh rehearses the following negotiations in History 3.6.8. 581. Alexander II, son of King Amyntas III of Macedonia, reigned from 371 to 369 BCE. 582. Ralegh, History 3.6.9.

140 ANNE BRADSTREET ’Til in the entrails of their Sacrifice The signal of their victory doth rise, Which found, like Greeks they fight. The Persians fly, And troublesome Mardonius now must die. All’s lost, and of three hundred thousand men, Three thousand ’scape, for to run home again. For pity let those few to Xerxes go, To certify this final overthrow. Same day, the small remainder of his Fleet The Grecians at Mycale in Asia meet,583 And there so utterly they wracked the same, Scarce one was left to carry home the fame.584 Thus did the Greeks destroy, consume, disperse That Army which did fright the Universe. Scorned Xerxes, hated for his cruelty, Yet ceases not to act his villany. His brother’s wife solicits to his will;585 The chaste and beauteous Dame refuses still. Some years by him in this vain suit was spent, Yet words nor gifts could win him least content, Nor matching of her daughter to his son, But she was still as when it first begun. When jealous Queen Amestris of this knew, She Harpy-like upon the Lady flew, Cut off her lily breasts, her nose, and ears, And leaves her thus, besmeared with blood and tears. Straight comes her Lord and finds his wife thus lie. The sorrow of his heart did close his eye, He dying to behold that wounding sight Where he had sometime gazed with great delight; To see that face, where Rose and Lily stood, O’ erflown with torrent of her ruby blood; To see those breasts where chastity did dwell Thus cut and mangled by a hag of hell. With laden heart unto the King he goes, Tells as he could his unexpressèd woes, But for his deep complaints and showers of tears, His brother’s recompense was naught but jeers. 583. Ralegh, History 3.6.10. 584. News. 585. Ralegh provides details of the following incident in History 3.6.11.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 141 The grievèd Prince, finding nor right nor love, To Bactria his household did remove. His wicked brother after sent a crew, Which him and his most barbarously there slew. Unto such height did grow his cruelty, Of life no man had least security. At last his Uncle did his death conspire, And for that end his Eunuch he did hire, Which wretch him privately smothered in’s bed, But yet by search, he was found murderèd.586 The Artabanus, hirer of this deed, That from suspiciòn he might be freed, Accused Darius, Xerxes’ eldest son, To be the Author of the deed was done, And by his craft ordered the matter so That the poor innocent to death must go. But in short time, this wickedness was known, For which he died, and not he alone, But all his family was likewise slain. Such Justice then in Persia did remain. The eldest son, thus immaturely dead, The second was enthroned in’s father’s stead. Artaxerxes Longimanus Amongst the Monarchs next, this Prince had place, The best that ever sprang of Cyrus’ race. He first war with revolting Egypt made, To whom the perjured Grecians lent their aid, Although to Xerxes they not long before A league of amity had sworn before, Which had they kept, Greece had more nobly done, Than when the world they after overrun.587 Greeks and Egyptians both he overthrows And pays them now, according as he owes. Which done, a sumptuous feast makes like a King Where nine-score days are spent in banqueting. His Princes, Nobles, and his Captains calls, To be partakers in these festivals. His hangings, white, and green, and purple dye, 586. Ralegh, History 3.7.3. 587. Ralegh, History 3.7.4–5.

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142 ANNE BRADSTREET With gold and silver beds, most gorgeously.588 The royal wine in golden cups doth pass; To drink more than he list, none bidden was. Queen Vashti also feasts, but ’fore ’tis ended, Alas, she from her Royalty’s suspended, And a more worthy placèd in her room. By Memucan’s589 advice, this was the doom. What Hester590 was and did, her story read, And how her Countrymen from spoil she freed, Of Haman’s591 fall and Mordecai’s592 great rise, The might o’ th’ Prince, the tribute on the Isles.593 Unto this King Themistocles594 did fly When under Ostracism he did lie, For such ingratitude did Athens show This valiant Knight, whom they so much did owe.595 Such entertainment with this Prince he found That in all Loyalty his heart was bound. The King not little joyful of this chance, Thinking his Grecian wars now to advance, And for that end, great preparation made Fair Attica a third time to invade. His Grandsire’s old disgrace did vex him sore; His father Xerxes’ loss and shame, much more. For punishment, their breach of oath did call. The noble Greek, now fit for general, Who for his wrong he could not choose but deem His Country nor his Kindred would esteem.

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588. Esther 1:6. Ralegh presents the case for Artaxerxes and Ahasuerus being the same king. William Pemble (ca. 1592–1623), an English theologian, claims that Xerxes married Esther, so that Artaxerxes is her son. The Period of the Persian Monarchy, wherein sundry places of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel are cleared (London: Printed by Young for Bartlet, 1631), 2. Neither writer recounts Esther’s story. 589. One of the king’s chamberlains. 590. Esther, a Jewish woman, joined the king’s harem after Queen Vashti displeased her husband by refusing to come into his presence at the feast. Chosen as the new queen, Esther intervened on behalf of her people when Haman, a wicked minister, plotted their destruction (Esther). 591. The minister who tried to destroy the Jews. 592. Esther’s uncle, who alerted her to the crisis. He became the king’s most important minister. 593. Esther 10:1 mentions the tribute the king received. 594. Athenian politician and general who misled Xerxes about the Greeks’ plan to attack his pontoon bridge (lines 1072–75 above). 595. Ralegh, History 3.7.4.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 143 Provisiòns and season now being fit, T’ Themistocles he doth his war commit, But he all injury had soon forgate And to his Countrymen could bear no hate, Nor yet disloyal to his Prince would prove, To whom obliged, by favor and by love. Either to wrong did wound his heart so sore, To wrong himself by death, he chose before. In this sad conflict, marching on his ways, Strong poison took and put an end to’s days.596 The King this noble Captain having lost, Again dispersèd his new levied host. ’Rest of his time in peace he did remain And died the two and fortieth of his reign.

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Darius Nothus Three sons great Artaxerxes left behind; The eldest to succeed, that was his mind. But he, with his next brother fell at strife, That naught appeased him but his brother’s life. 650 Then the survivor is by Nothus slain, Who now sole Monarch doth of all remain. These two lewd sons are by historians thought To be by Hester to her husband brought.597 If they were hers, the greater was her moan 655 That for such graceless wretches she did groan. Disquiet Egypt ’gainst this King rebels, Drives out his garrison that therein dwells, Joins with the Greeks and so maintains their right For sixty years, maugre598 the Persians’ might. 660 A second trouble after this succeeds, Which from remissness in Asia proceeds: Amorges, whom their Viceroy he ordained, Revolts, having treasure and people gained, Invades the Country and much trouble wrought, 665 Before to quietness things could be brought. The King was glad with Sparta to make peace, So that he might these tumults soon appease. 596. Ralegh, History 3.7.4. 597. Ralegh, History 3.9.1. 598. Despite.

144 ANNE BRADSTREET But they in Asià must first restore All Towns held by his Ancestors before. 670 The King much profit reapeth by these leagues, Regains his own and then the Rebel breaks, Whose forces by their help were overthrown, And so each man again possessed his own. The King his sister, like Cambyses, wed, 675 More by his pride than lust thereunto led (For Persian Kings did deem themselves so good, No match was high enough, but their own blood). Two sons she bore; the youngest, Cyrus named, A hopeful Prince whose worth is ever famed. 680 His father would no notice of that take, Prefers his brother for his birth-right’s599 sake. But Cyrus scorns his brother’s feeble wit And takes more on him than was judgèd fit. The King provoked sends for him to the Court, 685 Meaning to chastise him in sharpest sort, But in his slow approach, ere he came there, His father’s death did put an end to’s fear. Nothus reigned nineteen years, which run, His large Dominions left to’s eldest son. 690 Artaxerxes Mnemon Mnemon now sits upon his father’s Throne, Yet doubts all he enjoys is not his own. Still on his brother casts a jealous eye, Judging all’s actions tends to’s injury. Cyrus, o’ th’ other side, weighs in his mind What helps in’s enterprise he’s like to find:600 His interest in the Kingdom, now next heir; More dear to’s mother than his brother far; His brother’s little love, like to be gone, Held by his mother’s intercession. These and like motives hurry him amain To win by force, what right could not obtain. And thought it best, now in his mother’s time, By lesser steps towards the top to climb. If in his enterprise he should fall short, 599. The right of the firstborn son to inherit. 600. Ralegh lays out Cyrus’s political position and reasoning in History 3.10.2.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 145 She to the King would make a fair report. He hoped, if fraud nor force the Crown could gain, Her prevailence601 a pardon might obtain. From the Lieutenant602 first he takes away Some Towns commodious in less Asia, 710 Pretending still the profit of the King, Whose rents and customs duly he sent in. The King, finding revenues now amended, For what was done seemed no whit offended. Then next, the Lacedemons603 he takes to pay. 715 (One Greek could make ten Persians run away.) Great care was his pretense those Soldiers stout The Rovers in Pisidia604 should drive out, But lest some worser news should fly to Court, He meant himself to carry the report, 720 And for that end five hundred Horse he chose. With posting speed towards the King he goes, But fame more quick arrives ere he came there And fills the Court with tumult, and with fear. The young Queen and [the]605 old at bitter jars, 725 The one accused the other for these wars. The wife against the mother still doth cry To be the Author of conspiracy.606 The King dismayed, a mighty Host doth raise, Which Cyrus hears and so foreslows his pace, 730 But as he goes his Forces still augments. Seven hundred Greeks now further his intents, And others to be warmed by this new sun In numbers from his brother daily run. The fearful King at last musters his Forces 735 And counts nine hundred thousand foot and horses, And yet with these had neither heart nor grace To look his manly brother in the face. Three hundred thousand yet to Syria sent 601. Influence. 602. According to Ralegh, Persian “lieutenants” governed largely independently of the king, although always “on his behalf.” Cyrus, as a lieutenant, displaces another lieutenant (History 3.10.2). 603. Lacedaemonians, inhabitants of Sparta and its surroundings. 604. A country in what is now the Turkish province of Antalya. 605. I have interpolated the article to rectify both the meter and the sense of the line. 606. Mnemon’s wife and his mother (who is also Cyrus’s mother).

146 ANNE BRADSTREET To keep those straits to hinder his intent. Their Captain hearing but of Cyrus’ name Ran back and quite abandonèd the same. Abrocomas was this base coward’s name, Not worthy to be known, but for his shame. This place was made, by nature and by art; Few might have kept it, had they but a heart. Cyrus despaired a passage there to gain, So hired a fleet to waft him o’ er the Main. The ’mazed King was now about to fly To th’ utmost parts of Bactr’a and there lie, Had not a Captain, sore against his will, By reason, and by force, detained him still. Up then with speed, a mighty trench he throws For his security against his foes, Six yards the depth and forty miles the length, Some fifty, or else sixty foot in breadth. Yet for his brother’s coming durst not stay; He surest was when furthest out o’ th’ way. Cyrus, finding his camp and no man there, Rejoicèd not a little at his fear. On this, he and his Soldiers careless607 grow, And here and there in carts their Arms they throw, When suddenly their Scouts come in and cry, “Arm, arm! The King is now approaching nigh.” In this confusion, each man as he might, Gets on his arms, arrays himself for fight, And rangèd stood, by great Euphrates’ side, The brunt of that huge multitude to bide, Of whose great numbers their intelligence Was gathered by the dust that rose from thence, Which like a mighty cloud darkened the sky And black and blacker grew, as they drew nigh. But when their order and silence they saw, That, more than multitudes, their hearts did awe.608 For tumult and confusion they expected, And all good discipline to be neglected. But long under their fears, they did not stay, For at first charge the Persians ran away, 607. The text has “cueless,” which seems to be a compositor’s error. 608. Ralegh supplies the details of this encounter in History 3.10.4.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 147 Which did such courage to the Grecians bring, They straight adorèd Cyrus for their King. So had he been, and got the victory, Had not his too much valor put him by. He with six hundred on a squadron set Of six thousand, wherein the King was yet, And brought his Soldiers on so gallantly, They were about to leave their King and fly, Whom Cyrus spied, cries out, “I see the man,” And with a full career, at him he ran. But in his speed a Dart hit him i’ th’ eye. Down Cyrus falls, and yields to destiny. His Host in chase knows not of his disaster, But treads down all, for to advance their Master. At last his head they spy upon a Lance; Who knows the sudden change made by this chance. Senseless and mute they stand, yet breathe out groans, Nor Gorgons609 like to this transformed to stones. After this trance, revenge new spirits blew, And now more eagerly their foes pursue, And heaps on heaps, such multitudes they laid, Their arms grew weak through slaughters that they made. The King unto a country Village flies, And for a while unkingly there he lies, At last displays his Ensign on a Hill, Hoping with that to make the Greeks stand still, But was deceived; to it they make amain. The King upon the spur runs back again, But they too faint still to pursue their game, Being Victors oft, now to their Camp they came.610 Nor lacked they any of their number small, Nor wound received, but one among them all. The King with his dispersed also encamped, With infamy upon each forehead stamped. After a while his thoughts he recollects. Of this day’s cowardice, he fears the effects. If Greeks unto their Countrymen declare, What dastards in the field the Persians are They soon may come and place one in his Throne,

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148 ANNE BRADSTREET And rob him both of Scepter and of Crown.611 That their return be stopped, he judged was best, That so Europeans might no more molest. 820 Forthwith he sends to’s Tent. They straight address, And there all wait his mercy, weaponless. The Greeks with scorn reject his proud commands, Asking no favor, where they feared no bands. The troubled King his Herald sends again 825 And sues for peace, that they his friends remain. The smiling Greeks reply, they first must bait;612 They were too hungry to capitulate. The King great store of all provision sends, And courtesy to th’ utmost he pretends. 830 Such terror on the Persians then did fall, They quaked to hear them to each other call. The King’s perplexed, there dares not let them stay, And fears as much to let them march away. But Kings ne’ er want such as can serve their will, 835 Fit instruments t’accomplish what is ill. As Tissaphern,613 knowing his Master’s mind, Invites their chief Commander, as most kind, And with all Oaths and deepest flattery, Gets them to treat with him in privacy, 840 But violates his honor and his word, And, Villain-like, there puts them to the sword.614 The Greeks, having their valiant Captains slain, Chose Xenophon to lead them home again. But Tissaphern did what he could devise 845 To stop the way in this their enterprise. But when through difficulties still they brake, He sought all sustenance from them to take, Before them burnt the country as they went, So to deprive them of all nourishment.615 850 But on they march, through hunger and through cold, O’ er mountains, rocks, and hills, as Lions bold. 611. Ralegh, History 3.10.5. The army following Cyrus included a large contingent of Greeks. 612. Eat. 613. Tissaphernes. Satrap of Lydia and Caria under Darius II and the man who informed Artaxerxes of Cyrus the Younger’s plan to assassinate him. 614. Ralegh, History 3.10.7. 615. Ralegh, History 3.10.8.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 149 Nor river’s course, nor Persians’ force could stay, But on to Trebizond616 they kept their way. There was of Greeks settled a Colony; 855 These after all received them joyfully. There for some time they were, but whilst they staid, Into Bithynia often inroads made. The King, afraid what further they might do, Unto the Spartan Admiral did sue, 860 Straight to transport them to the other side, For these incursions he durst not abide.617 So after all their travel, danger, pain, In peace they saw their Native soil again. The Greeks now (as the Persian King suspects) 865 The Asiatics’ cowardice detects: The many victories themselves did gain, The many thousand Persians they had slain, And how their Nation with facility Might win the universal Monarchy. 870 They then Dercilydas618 send with a Host, Who with his Spartans on the Asian coast Town after town with small resistance take, Which rumor makes great Artaxerxes quake.619 The Greeks by this success encouraged so, 875 Agesilaus himself doth overgo, By th’ King’s Lieutenant is encounterèd, But Tissaphernes with his Army fled, Which overthrow incensed the King so sore That Tissapherne must be Viceroy no more. 880 Tithraustes now is placèd in his stead And hath command, to take the other’s head. Of that false perjured wretch, this was the last, Who of his cruelty made many tast.620 Tithraustes trusts more to his wit than Arms 885 And hopes by craft to quit his Master’s harms. He knows that many towns in Greece envies 616. A city on the coast in what is now Anatolia, in western Turkey. 617. Ralegh, History 3.10.15. 618. A Spartan commander. 619. Ralegh, History 3.11.2 620. Ralegh, History 3.11.4.

150 ANNE BRADSTREET The Spartans’ height, which now apace doth rise. To these he thirty thousand Talents sent With suit, their force against his foes be bent. They to their discontent receiving hire,621 With broils and quarrels sets all Greece on fire. Agestilaus is callèd home with speed; To defend more than offend he had need.622 They now lost all and, were a peace to make, The King’s conditions they are forced to take. Dissentiòn in Greece continued long, ’Til many a Captain fell, both wise and strong, Whose courage naught but death could ever tame. ’Mongst these Epaminondas wants no fame, Who had (as noble Ralegh doth evince) All the peculiar virtues of a Prince.623 But let us leave these Greeks, to discord bent, And turn to Persia, as is pertinent. The King from foreign foes, and all at ease, His home-bred troubles seeketh to appease. The two Queens, by his means, ’gin to abate Their former envy and inveterate hate. Then in voluptuousness he leads his life And weds his Daughter for a second wife. His Mother’s wicked counsel was the cause, Who soothes624 him up, his own desires are Laws.625 But yet for all his greatness and long reign, He must leave all, and in the pit remain. Forty-three years he rules, then turns to dust, As all the mighty ones have done, and must. But this of him is worth the memory, He was the Master of good Nehemie.626

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 151 Darius Ochus Great Artaxerxes dead, Ochus succeeds, Of whom no Record’s extant of his deeds. 920 Was it because the Grecians now at war Made Writers work at home, they sought not far, Or dealing with the Persian now no more Their Acts recorded not, as heretofore? Or else, perhaps the deeds of Persian Kings 925 In after wars were burnt, ’mongst other things. That three and twenty years he reigned, I find.627 The rest is but conjecture of my mind. Arsames, or Arses Why Arsames his brother should succeed, I can no reason give, ’cause none I read;628 930 It may be thought, surely he had no Son, So fell to him, which else it had not done. What Acts he did, time hath not now left penned, But as ’tis thought, in him had Cyrus end, Whose race long time had worn the Diadem, 935 But now’s devolvèd to another Stem. Three years he reigned, as Chronicles express; Then Nature’s debt he paid, quite Issueless. Darius Codomanus How this Darius did attain the Crown, By favor, force, or fraud, is not set down. 940 If not (as is before) of Cyrus’ race, By one of these he must obtain the place. Some writers say, that he was Arses’ son, And that great Cyrus’ line yet was not run, That Ochus unto Arsames was father, 945 Which by some probabilities seems rather, That son and father both were murderèd By one Bagoas, an Eunuch (as is said); Thus learnèd Pemble,629 whom we may not slight, But as before doth (well-read) Ralegh write, 950 627. Pemble, The Period of the Persian Monarchy, 3. 628. Ralegh does not mention Ochus or Arsames. Pemble identifies the successor as Arses and states that Arses is Ochus’s son (Persian Monarchy, 3). 629. Pemble, Persian Monarchy, 3.

152 ANNE BRADSTREET And he that story630 reads shall often find That several men will have their several mind. Yet in these differences we may behold, With our judicious learned Knight631 to hold. And this ’mongst all’s no controverted thing, That this Darius was last Persian King, Whose wars and losses we may better tell In Alexander’s reign who did him quell: How from the top of world’s felicity He fell to depth of greatest misery, Whose honors, treasures, pleasures had short sway; One deluge came, and swept them all away, And in the sixth year of his hapless reign, Of all, did scarce his winding sheet retain. And last, a sad catastrophe to end, Him to the grave did traitor Bessus send.632 The end of the Persian Monarchy

630. History. 631. Ralegh. 632. Ralegh, History 4.2.13.

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w w w The Third Monarchy was the Grecian, beginning under Alexander the Great, in the 112 Olympiad633 Great Alexander was wise Philip’s634 son, He, to Amyntas,635 Kings of Macedon. The cruel, proud Olympias was his mother; She to the rich Molossians’ King636 was daughter. This Prince637 (his father by Pausanias638 slain) 5 The twenty first of’s639 age began to reign. Great were the gifts of nature which he had; His Education, much to these did add. By Art and Nature both he was made fit T’accomplish that which long before was writ. 10 The very day of his nativity To th’ ground was burnt Diana’s Temple high, An Omen to their near approaching woe Whose glory to the Earth this Prince did throw.640 His rule to Greece he scorned should be confined. 15 The universe scarce bounds his large vast mind. This is the he-goat which from Grecia came, Who ran in fury on the Persian Ram, That broke his horns, that threw him on the ground; To save him from his might, no man was found.641 20 Philip on this great conquest had an eye, But death did terminate those thoughts so high. The Greeks had chose him Captain General, Which honor to his son now did befall (For as world’s Monarch now we speak not on, 25 But as the King of little Macedon). 633. An Olympiad is the four-to-five-year period between Olympic Games. 634. 382–336 BCE. 635. Died 370 BCE. 636. A tribal kingdom to the west of Macedonia, in what is now Albania. 637. Alexander. 638. A member of Philip’s guard. 639. A contraction of “of his.” 640. Ralegh, History 4.2.1. 641. The vision of the he-goat’s triumph over the ram and its interpretation comes from Daniel 8.

154 ANNE BRADSTREET Restless both day and night, his heart now was, His high resolves which way to bring to pass, Yet for a while in Greece is forced to stay, Which makes each moment seem more than a day. Thebes and old Athens both ’gainst him rebel, But he their mutinies full soon doth quell. This done, against all right and nature’s laws, His kinsmen puts to death without least cause, That no combustion in his absence be In seeking after Sovereignity. And many more, whom he suspects will climb Now taste of death (lest they deserv’t in time).642 Nor wonder is’t, if he in blood begin, For cruelty was his parental sin. Thus easèd now of troubles and of fears, His course to Asià next Spring he steers, Leaves sage Antipater at home to sway, And through the Hellespont his ships make way. Coming to land, his dart on shore he throws. Then with alacrity he after goes. Thirty-two thousand made up his foot force; To these were joined five thousand goodly horse. Then on he marched, in’s way he viewed old Troy,643 And on Achilles’ 644 Tomb, with wondrous joy, He offered and for good success did pray To him, his mother’s Ancestor (men say).645 When news of Alexander came to th’ Court, To scorn at him, Darius646 had good sport, Sends him a frothy and contemptuous letter, Styles him disloyal servant, and no better, Reproves him for his proud audacity To lift his hand ’gainst such a Monarchy. Then to his Lieutenant in Asia sends, That he be ta’en alive (for he intends To whip him well with rods, and then to bring That boy so malapert before the King). 642. Ralegh, History 4.2.2. 643. A city on the northwest coast of Anatolia. The site of the Trojan War. 644. Greek warrior who fought and died in the Trojan War. 645. Ralegh presents this relationship as fact (History 4.2.2). 646. Darius Codomannus, King of Persia. See above lines 944–71.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 155 Ah! fond vain man, whose pen was taught ere while In lower terms to write a higher style. To th’ river Granic647 Alexander hies, 65 Which twixt Phrygia648 and Propontis649 lies. The Persians for encounter ready stand And think to keep his men from off the land. Those banks so steep, the Greeks now scramble up And beat the coward Persians from the top, 70 And twenty thousand of their lives bereave, Who in their backs did all their wounds receive. This Victory did Alexander gain, With loss of thirty-four of his there slain. Sardis then he, and Ephesus,650 did gain, 75 Where stood of late Diana’s wond’rous Fane,651 And by Parmenio652 (of renownèd fame) Miletus and Pamphylia overcame. Hallicarnassus and Pisidia He for his master takes, with Lycia.653 80 Next Alexander marched t’wards the black sea And easily takes old Gordium654 in his way (Of Ass-eared Midas once the regal seat, Whose touch turned all to gold, yea even his meat).655 There the Prophetic knot he cuts in twain, 85 656 Which who so did must Lord of all remain. Now news of Memnon’s death (the King’s Viceroy) To Alexander’s heart’s no little joy. For in that Peer more valor did abide Than in Darius’ multitudes beside. 90 647. The Biga River in northwestern Turkey. 648. A region in central Anatolia. 649. The Sea of Marmara. 650. Greek cities in western Anatolia. 651. Temple. 652. One of Alexander’s generals. 653. Cities and territories along the west and southwest coasts of Anatolia. 654. A city in central Anatolia. 655. Ralegh does not supply this story about Midas. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 11:172–93 for Midas having the ears of an ass, 11:85–145 for turning everything he touched to gold. 656. The Gordian knot. A prophecy asserted that the man who could undo this knot would become ruler of all Asia. Ralegh, History 4.2.3.

156 ANNE BRADSTREET There Arsenes657 was placed yet durst not stay, But sets one in his room and ran away. His substitute, as fearful as his master, Goes after too and leaves all to disaster. Now Alexander all Cilicia takes. 95 No stroke for it he struck, their hearts so quakes. To Greece he thirty thousand talents658 sends To raise more force for what he yet intends. And on he goes Darius for to meet, Who came with thousand thousands at his feet. 100 Though some there be, and that more likely, write, He but four hundred thousand had to fight, The rest attendants, which made up no less (Both sexes there) was almost numberless. For this wise King had brought to see the sport 105 Along with him the Ladies of the Court, His mother old, beauteous wife, and daughters, It seems, to see the Macedonians’ slaughters.659 Sure it’s beyond my time and little Art To show how great Darius played his part, 110 The splendor and the pomp he marchèd in, For since the world has660 no such Pageant seen. Oh, ’twas a goodly sight there to behold: The Persians clad in silk and glitt’ring gold, The stately Horses trapped,661 the lances gilt 115 As if they were now all to run at tilt. The Holy fire was borne before the Host (For Sun and Fire the Persians worship most). The Priests in their strange habit follow after, An object not so much of fear, as laughter. 120 The King sat in a chariot made of gold, With Robes and Crown, most glorious to behold, And o’ er his head his golden gods on high Support a particolored canopy. A number of spare horses next were led, 125 657. Governor of Cicilia, a territory on the coast of south Anatolia. 658. A coin whose value was determined by weight. 659. Ralegh supplies information about Darius’s entourage, the presence of the ladies of the court, and the pomp and pageantry described in the following lines (History 4.2.4). 660. In the original, “was.” 661. Harnessed.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 157 Lest he should need them in his chariot’s stead. But they that saw him in this state to lie Would think he neither thought to fight nor fly. He fifteen hundred had like women dressed, For so to fright the Greeks he judged was best. 130 Their golden Ornaments so to set forth Would ask more time than were their body’s worth. Great Sisigambis,662 she brought up the Rear. Then such a world of Wagons did appear, Like several houses moving upon wheels, 135 663 As if she’d drawn whole Susa  at her heels. This brave Virago to the King was mother And as much good she did as any other. Now lest this Gold and all this goodly stuff Had not been spoil and booty rich enough, 140 A thousand Mules and Camels ready wait, Laden with gold, with Jewels, and with Plate, For sure Darius thought, at the first sight, The Greeks would all adore, and would none fight. But when both Armies met, he might behold 145 That valor was more worth than Pearls or gold, And how his wealth served but for baits t’allure, Which made his overthrow more fierce and sure. The Greeks come on, and with a gallant grace Let fly their Arrows in the Persians’ face. 150 The cowards feeling this sharp stinging charge Most basely run and left their King at large, Who from his golden Coach is glad t’alight And cast away his Crown for swifter flight. Of late like some immovable he lay, 155 Now finds both legs and Horse to run away. Two hundred thousand men that day were slain, And forty thousand Prisoners also ta’en, Besides the Queens and Ladies of the Court, If Curtius664 be true, in his report. 160 The Regal ornaments now lost, the treasure 662. Darius’s mother. 663. The capital city of the Persian empire. 664. The Roman Quintus Curtius Rufus who wrote a history of Alexander the Great at some point in the first century CE; his identity and the work’s authority remain uncertain. Ralegh expresses some reservation about statistics and information about the aftermath of this rout (History 4.2.4).

158 ANNE BRADSTREET Divided at the Macedonian’s pleasure. Yet all this grief, this loss, this overthrow, Was but beginning of his future woe. The Royal Captives, brought to Alexander, 165 T’ward them demeaned himself like a Commander, For though their beauties were unparalleled Conquered himself (now he had conquerèd), Preserved their honor, used them courteously, Commands no man should do them injury, 170 And this to Alexander is more a fame Than that the Persian King he overcame.665 Two hundred eighty Greeks he lost in fight, By too much heat, not wounds (as Authors write).666 No sooner had this Captain won the field, 175 667 But all Phoenicia  to his pleasures yield, Of which the Government he doth commit Unto Parmenio, of all most fit. Darius now more humble than before, Writes unto Alexander to restore 180 Those mournful Ladies from captivity, For whom he offers him a ransom high, But down his haughty stomach could not bring, To give this Conqueror, the style of King. His Letter Alexander doth disdain, 185 And in short terms sends this reply again: A King he was, and that not only so, But of Darius King, as he should know.668 Now Alexander unto Tyre doth go (His valor and his victories they know). 190 To gain his love, the Tyrians do intend, Therefore a Crown and great provisions send.669 Their present he receives with thankfulness, Desires to offer unto Hercules, Protector of their Town, by whom defended 195 And from whom also lineally descended. 665. Ralegh reports on Alexander’s restraint (History 4.2.4). 666. Ralegh suggests the Greek soldiers more likely died from the exertion of killing so many Persians than from the Persians’ fighting back (History 4.2.4). 667. A region stretching from Anatolia south and east as far as Israel. 668. Ralegh includes this exchange in History 4.2.4. 669. Ralegh recounts the negotiations and Alexander’s ultimate victory in History 4.2.5.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 159 But they accept not this, in any wise, Lest he intend more fraud, than sacrifice, Sent word, that Hercules his Temple stood, In the old town (which now lay like a wood). 200 With this reply, he was so sore enraged, To win their town his honor he engaged. And now, as Babel’s King did once before, He leaves not ’til he makes the sea firm shore. But far less cost and time he doth expend; 205 The former ruins help to him now lend. Besides, he had a Navy at command; The other670 by his men fetched all by Land. In seven months’ space he takes this lofty town Whose glory now a second time’s brought down. 210 Two thousand of the chief he crucified; Eight thousand by the sword now also died, And thirteen thousand Galley-slaves he made, And thus the Tyrians for mistrust were paid. The rule of this he to Philotas gave, 215 Who was the Son of that Parmenio brave; Cilicia he to Socrates671 doth give, For now’s the time, Captains like Kings may live, For that which easily comes, as freely goes. Zidon672 he on Hephestion673 bestows: 220 He scorns to have one worse than had the other, And therefore gives this Lordship to another. Hephestion now hath the command o’ th’ Fleet, And must at Gaza674 Alexander meet. Darius finding troubles still increase, 225 By his Ambassadors now sues for peace And lays before great Alexander’s eyes The dangers, difficulties, like to rise:675 First, at Euphrates, what he’s like to abide, 670. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who also had captured Tyre by filling in the moats. See “The Assyrian Monarchy,” lines 443–54. 671. A Greek lieutenant, not the philosopher. 672. A city in what is now Lebanon. 673. Another Greek lieutenant. 674. A city in what is now Palestinian territory. 675. Ralegh summarizes Darius’s warning and offer in History 4.2.6.

160 ANNE BRADSTREET And then at Tigris and Araxis’ 676 side. 230 These he may ’scape, and if he so desire, A league of friendship make, firm and entire. His eldest Daughter him in marriage offers, And a most Princely Dowry with her proffers: All those rich Kingdoms large which do abide 235 677 Betwixt the Hellespont and Halys’  side. But he with scorn his courtesy rejects, And the distressèd King no way respects, Tells him these proffers great (in truth were none) For all he offered now was but his own. 240 “But,” quoth Parmenio (that brave Commander) “Was I as great as is great Alexander, Darius’ offers I would not reject, But th’ Kingdoms and the Ladies soon accept.” To which brave Alexander did reply, 245 “And so if I Parmenio were, would I.”678 He now to Gaza goes and there doth meet His favorite, Hephestion, with his fleet, Where valiant Betis679 doth defend the town (A loyal Subject to Darius’ Crown), 250 For more repulse the Grecians here abide, Than in the Persian Monarchy beside, And by these walls so many men were slain That Greece must yield a fresh supply again. But yet this well-defended town is taken 255 (For ’twas decreed that Empire should be shaken). The Captain ta’en, had holes bored through his feet And by command was drawn through every street, To imitate Achilles (in his shame) Who did the like to Hector (of more fame).680 260 What, hast thou lost thy late magnanimity? Can Alexander deal thus cruelly? Since valor with Heroics is renowned, Though in an enemy it should be found. 676. A river that drains the Caucasus Mountains toward the Caspian Sea. 677. A river that drains from Central Anatolia into the Black Sea. 678. Ralegh includes this exchange between Alexander and Parmenio in History 4.2.6. 679. A Persian satrap. 680. Bradstreet borrows the description of this barbarous event, as well as the expressions of outrage, from Ralegh (History 4.2.6).

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 161 If of thy future fame thou hadst regard, 265 Why didst not heap up honor and reward? From Gaza to Jerusalem he goes, But in no hostile way (as I suppose). Him in his Priestly Robes high Jaddus681 meets, Whom with great reverence Alexander greets. 270 The Priest shows him good Daniel’s Prophecy, How he should overthrow this Monarchy, By which he was so much encouragèd, No future dangers he did ever dread. From thence to fruitful Egypt marched with speed, 275 Where happily in’s wars he did succeed. To see how fast he gained is no small wonder, For in few days he brought that Kingdom under. Then to the Fane of Jupiter he went, For to be called a god was his intent. 280 The Pagan Priest through hire, or else mistake, The Son of Jupiter did straight him make.682 He Diabolical must needs remain That his humanity will not retain. Now back to Egypt goes, and in few days, 285 Fair Alexandria from the ground doth raise.683 Then settling all things in less Asia, In Syria, Egypt, and Phoenicia, Unto Euphrates marched and over goes, For no man to resist his valor shows. 290 Had Betis684 now been there, but with his Band, Great Alexander had been kept from Land, But as the King is, so’s the multitude, And now of valor both were destitute. Yet he (poor Prince) another Host doth muster, 295 685 Of Persians, Scythians, Indians in a cluster. Men but in shape and name, of valor none, Fit for to blunt the swords of Macedon. Two hundred fifty thousand by account 681. High-priest of the Jews, loyal at this point to Darius. 682. Ralegh locates the confusion over the Egyptian priest calling Alexander “O son of Jupiter!” in the priest’s imperfect command of Greek (History 4.2.7). 683. Information about the building of Alexandria is not in Ralegh. 684. The satrap ruling the city. See above line 249. 685. Ralegh, History 4.2.8.

162 ANNE BRADSTREET Of Horse and Foot this Army did amount, 300 For in his multitudes his trust still lay, But on their fortitude he had small stay. Yet had some hope that on that even plain His numbers might the victory obtain. About this time, Darius’ beauteous Queen, 305 Who had long travail and much sorrow seen, Now bids the world adieu, her time being spent, And leaves her woeful Lord for to lament.686 Great Alexander mourns, as well as he, For this lost Queen (though in captivity). 310 When this sad news (at first) Darius hears, Some injury was offerèd, he fears. But when informed how royally the King Had usèd her, and hers, in everything, He prays the immortal gods for to reward 315 Great Alexander for this good regard, And if they down his Monarchy will throw, Let them on him that dignity bestow. And now for peace he sues, as once before, And offers all he did, and Kingdoms more, 320 His eldest Daughter for his Princely Bride (Nor was such match in all the world beside) And all those Countries which betwixt did lie, Phoenician Sea and great Euphrates high, With fertile Egypt and rich Syria 325 And all those Kingdoms in less Asia, With thirty thousand Talents to be paid For his Queen-Mother and the royal Maid, And ’til all this be well-performed and sure, Ochus his Son a hostage shall endure. 330 To this stout Alexander gives no ear; No, though Parmenio plead, he will not hear, Which had he done (perhaps) his fame had kept, Nor infamy had waked when he had slept, For his unlimited prosperity 335 Him boundless made in vice and cruelty. Thus to Darius he writes back again, “The Firmament two Suns cannot contain; 686. Ralegh records the death of Darius’s queen, as well as the attempted negotiations following it, in History 4.2.9.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 163 Two Monarchies on Earth cannot abide, Nor yet two Monarchs in one World reside.” 340 The afflicted King, finding him set to jar, Prepares against tomorrow for the war. Parmenio Alexander wished that night To force his Camp, so put them all to flight, For tumult in the dark doth cause most dread, 345 And weakness of a foe is coverèd. But he disdain’d to steal a victory: The Sun should witness of his valor be. Both Armies meet, Greeks fight, the Persians run, So make an end, before they well begun.687 350 Forty-five thousand Alexander had, But ’tis not known what slaughters here they made. Some write th’other had a million, some more, But Quintus Curtius, as was said before.688 At Arbela, this victory was gained, 355 And now with it, the town also obtained. Darius, stripped of all, to Media came, Accompanied with sorrow, fear, and shame, At Arbela left his ornaments and treasure, Which Alexander deals, as suits his pleasure. 360 This Conqueror now goes to Babylon, Is entertained with joy and pompous train, With showers of Flowers, the streets along are strown, And Incense burnt, the silver Altars on. The glory of the Castle he admires, 365 The firm foundations and the lofty spires. In this a mass of gold and treasure lay, Which in few hours was carried all away. With greedy eyes, he views this City round, Whose fame throughout the world was so renowned, 370 And to possess he counts no little bliss, The Towers and Bowers of proud Semiramis,689 Though worn by time and razed by foes full sore, Yet old foundations showed, and somewhat more. With all the pleasures that on earth was found, 375 This City did abundantly abound, 687. Ralegh recounts the battle of Arbela in History 4.2.10. 688. The “some” who write this rely on Quintus Curtius, who is not reliable. 689. Queen to Ninus and then ruler of Assyria in her own right. See lines 60ff in “The First Monarchy.”

164 ANNE BRADSTREET Where four and thirty days he now doth stay And gives himself to banqueting, and play.690 He and his Soldiers wax effeminate, And former Discipline begin to hate; 380 Whilst reveling at Babylon he lies, Antipater from Greece sends great supplies; He then to Susa goes, with his fresh bands, But needs no force; ’tis rendered to his hands. He likewise here a world of treasure found, 385 For ’twas the seat of Persian Kings renowned. Here stood the Royal houses of delight Where Kings have shown their glory, wealth, and might: The sumptuous Palace of Queen Hester here, And of good Mordecai, her Kinsman dear; 390 Those purple hangings, mixed with green and white, Those beds of gold and couches of delight, And furniture, the richest of all Lands, Now falls into the Macedonian’s hands. From Susa to Persepolis he goes, 395 Which news doth still augment Darius’ woes.691 In his approach, the Governor sends word: For his receipt with joy, they all accord. With open Gates, the wealthy town did stand, And all in it was at his high command. 400 Of all the Cities that on Earth was found None like to this in riches did abound. Though Babylon was rich, and Susa too, Yet to compare with this, they might not do. Here lay the bulk of all those precious things 405 Which did pertain unto the Persian Kings, For when the Soldiers had rifled their pleasure, And taken money, plate, and golden treasure, Statues of gold and silver numberless, Yet after all, as stories do express, 410 The share of Alexander did amount To a hundred thousand Talents by account. Here of his own he sets a Garrison (As first at Susa and at Babylon). On their old Governors, titles he laid, 415 690. See Ralegh, History 4.2.11 for Alexander’s behavior in both Babylon and Susa. 691. Ralegh provides the following details, including the burning of Persepolis (History 4.2.12).

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 165 But on their faithfulness he never stayed. Their charge gave to his Captains (as most just) For such revolters false, what Prince will trust? The pleasures and the riches of this town Now makes this King his virtues all to drown. 420 He walloweth now in all licentiousness, In pride and cruelty to th’ highest excess. Being inflamed with wine upon a season (Filled with madness and quite void of reason), He at a bold, base Strumpet’s lewd desire 425 Commands to set this goodly town on fire. Parmenio wise entreats him to desist And lays before his eyes, if he persist, His name’s dishonor, loss unto his State, And just procuring of the Persians’ hate. 430 But deaf to reason (bent to have his will) Those stately streets with raging flames doth fill. Now to Darius he directs his way, Who was retired and gone to Media, And there with sorrows, fears, and cares surrounded 435 Had now his fourth and last Army compounded, Which forty thousand made, but his intent Was straight in Bactria these to augment; But hearing Alexander was so near, Thought now this once to try his fortunes here, 440 Choosing rather an honorable death, Than still with infamy to draw his breath. But Bessus false, who was his chief Commander, Persuades him not to fight with Alexander.692 With sage advice, he lays before his eyes 445 The little hope of profit like to rise, If when he’d multitudes the day he lost, Then with so few, how likely to be crossed. This counsel for his safety he pretended, But to deliver him to’s693 foes intended. 450 Next day this treason, to Darius known, Transported sore, with grief and passion, Grinding his teeth and plucking off his hair, Sat down, o’ erwhelmed with sorrow and despair, 692. Ralegh provides the details of Bessus’s betrayal of Darius (History 4.2.13.) 693. A contraction of “to his.”

166 ANNE BRADSTREET Bidding his servant Artabazus true 455 Look to himself and leave him to that crew, Who was of hopes and comfort quite bereft And of his Guard and Servitors now left. Straight Bessus comes and, with his traitorous hands, Lays hold on’s Lord and, binding him with bands, 460 Into a cart him throws, covered with hides, Who wanting means t’resist, these wrongs abides, Then draws the Cart along with chains of gold, In more despite the thrallèd Prince to hold. And thus to Alexander on he goes, 465 Great recompense in’s thoughts he did propose, But some detesting this his wicked fact To Alexander fly and told this act, Who doubling of his march, posts694 on amain, Darius from those Traitors’ hands to gain. 470 Bessus gets knowledge his disloyalty Had Alexander’s wrath incensèd high, Whose Army now was almost within sight. His hopes being dashed, prepares himself for flight. Unto Darius first he brings a Horse 475 And bids him save himself by speedy course. This woeful King his courtesy refuses, Whom thus the execrable wretch abuses, By throwing Darts, gives him his mortal wound, Then slew his servants that were faithful found, 480 Yea, wounds the beasts (that drew him) unto death, And leaves him thus, to gasp out his last breath. (Bessus, his Partner in this Tragedy, Was the false Governor of Media.) This done, they with their Host soon speed away, 485 To hide themselves, remote, in Bactria. Darius, bathed in blood, sends out his groans, Invokes the heavens and earth to hear his moan. His lost felicity did grieve him sore, But this unheard of injury much more. 490 Yea, above all, that neither ear nor eye Should hear nor see his groans and misery. As thus he lay, Polystratus a Greek, Wearied with his long march, did water seek, 694. Proceeds on horseback.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 167 So chanced these bloody Horses to espy, 495 Whose wounds had made their skins of purple dye. To them he goes and, looking in the Cart, Finds poor Darius, piercèd to the heart, Who, not a little cheered to have some eye The witness of his dying misery, 500 Prays him to Alexander to commend The just revenge of this his woeful end And not to pardon such disloyalty, Of treason, murder, and base cruelty, If not because Darius thus did pray, 505 Yet that succeeding Kings in safety may Their lives enjoy, their crowns, and dignity, And not by Traitors’ hands untimely die. He also sends his humble thankfulness For all that Kingly Grace he did express 510 To’s Mother, Children dear, and Wife now gone, Which made their long restraint seem to be none, Praying the immortal gods that Sea and Land Might be subjected to his695 royal hand, And that his rule as far extended be 515 As men the rising, setting Sun shall see. This said, the Greek for water doth entreat, To quench his thirst and to allay his heat. “Of all good things” (quoth he) “once in my power, “I’ve nothing left, at this my dying hour; 520 “Thy pity and compassion to reward, “Wherefore the gods requite thy kind regard.” This said, his fainting breath did fleet away, And, though a Monarch once, now lies like clay. Yea, thus must every Son of Adam lie: 525 Though gods on earth, like Sons of men shall die. Now to the East great Alexander goes To see if any dare his might oppose (For scarce the world or any bounds thereon Could bound his boundless, fond ambitiòn). 530 Such as submits, he doth again restore And makes their riches and their honors more; On Artabazus more than all bestowed

695. Alexander’s.

168 ANNE BRADSTREET For his fidelity to’s Master showed.696 Thalestris, Queen of th’Amazons, now brought Her train to Alexander (as ’tis thought) Though some of reading best, and soundest mind, Such country there, nor yet such people find.697 Then tell her errand we had better spare; To th’ignorant, her title may declare. As Alexander in his greatness grows, So daily of his virtues doth he lose.698 He baseness counts his former clemency And not beseeming such a dignity. His past sobriety doth also hate, As most incompatible to his state. His temperance is but a sordid thing, No ways becoming such a mighty King. His greatness now he takes to represent His fancied gods, above the firmament, And such as showed but reverence before Are strictly now commanded to adore. With Persian Robes himself doth dignify, Charging the same on his Nobility; His manners, habit, gestures now doth fashion After that conquered and luxurious Nation. His Captains that were virtuously inclined Grieved at this change of manners and of mind; The ruder sort did openly deride His feignèd Deity and foolish pride. The certainty of both comes to his ears, But yet no notice takes of what he hears. With those of worth, he still desires esteem, So heaps up gifts, his credit to redeem, And for the rest new wars and travels finds, That other matters may take up their minds. Then hearing Bessus makes himself a King, Intends with speed that Traitor down to bring.699 Now that his Host from luggage might be free,

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696. Ralegh, History 4.2.14. 697. Ralegh expresses skepticism about this meeting, but not about there being Amazons. Ralegh, History 4.2.15. 698. For Alexander’s degeneration and his troops’ response, see Ralegh, History 4.2.16. 699. Ralegh, History 4.2.16.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 169 And no man with his burden burdened be, Commands forthwith each man his fardle700 bring Into the Marketplace before the King, Which done, sets fire upon those costly spoils The recompense of travels, wars, and toils, And thus, unwisely, in one raging fume The wealth of many Cities doth consume. But marvel ’tis, that without mutiny The Soldiers should let pass this injury. Nor wonder less, to Readers may it bring, For to observe the rashness of the King. Now with his Army doth he haste away, False Bessus to find out in Bactria.701 But sore distressed for water in their march, The drought and heat their bodies much doth parch. At length, they came to th’ River Oxus’702 brink, Where most immoderately these thirsty drink. This more mortality to them did bring Than did their wars against the Persian King. Here Alexander’s almost at a stand, How to pass over and gain the other Land, For Boats here’s none, nor near it any wood, To make them rafts to waft them o’ er the flood. But he that was resolvèd in his mind Would by some means a transportation find. So from his carriages the Hides he takes, And stuffing them with straw, he bundles makes. On these, together tied, in six day’s space, They all pass over to the other place. Had Bessus had but valor to his will, He easily might have made them stay there still, But, coward, durst not fight, nor could he fly, Hated of all, for’s former treachery, Is by his own now bound in Iron chains (A collar of the same his neck contains) And in this sort, they rather drag than bring This Malefactor vile before the King, Who to Darius’ Brother gives the wretch,

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700. Bundle. 701. All the details of Alexander’s campaign against Bessus are from Ralegh, History 4.2.18. 702. A river flowing between what are now Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

170 ANNE BRADSTREET With wracks and tortures every limb to stretch. Here was of Greeks a town in Bactria Whom Xerxes from their country led away; These not a little joyed this day to see, Wherein their own had sovereignity. And now revived with hopes, held up their head, From bondage long to be enfranchisèd. But Alexander puts them to the sword, Without cause given by them, in deed or word. Nor703 sex, nor age, nor one, nor other spared, But in his cruelty alike they shared. Nor could he reason give for this great wrong, But that they had forgot their Mother-tongue. Whilst thus he spent some time in Bactria, And in his Camp strong and securely lay, Down from the mountains twenty thousand came, And there most fiercely set upon the same; Repelling these two marks of honor got, Imprinted deep in’s leg by Arrows shot. And now the Bactrians ’gainst him rebel, But he their stubbornness full soon doth quell. From hence he to Jaxartis river704 goes, Where Scythians rude his valor doth oppose, And with their outcries, in a hideous sort, Besets his Camp or Military Court. Of Darts and Arrows made so little spare, They flew so thick they seemed to dark the air, But soon the Grecians forced them to a flight, Whose nakedness could not endure their might. Upon this River’s bank in seventeen days, A goodly City doth completely raise, Which Alexandria he doth also name, And furlongs sixty could not round the same. His third supply, Antipater now sent, Which did his former Army much augment, And being an hundred twenty thousand strong, He enters now the Indian Kings among.705 Those that submit, he doth restore again; 703. Neither. 704. Further into Uzbekistan. 705. Ralegh, History 4.2.20.

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 171 Those that do not, both they and theirs are slain; To age nor sex, no pity doth express, But all fall by his sword, most merciless. He t’ Nisa goes, by Bacchus706 built long since, Whose feasts are celebrated by this Prince, Nor had that drunken god one that would take His liquors more devoutly in for’s sake. When thus, ten days, his brain with wine he’d soaked, And with delicious meats his Palate choked, To th’ river Indus707 next, his course he bends.708 Boats to prepare, Hephestion first he sends, Who coming thither long before his Lord Had to his mind made all things now accord. The Vessels ready were at his command, And Omphis, King of that part of the land Through his709 persuasion Alexander meets And as his Sovereign Lord him humbly greets. Fifty-six Elephants he brings to’s hands And tenders him the strength of all his lands, Presents himself there with a golden Crown And eighty Talents to his Captains down. But Alexander caused him to behold He glory sought no silver nor yet gold. His presents all with thanks he doth restore, And of his own a thousand Talents more. Thus all the Indian Kings to him submit, But Porus stout, who will not yield as yet; To him doth Alexander thus declare His pleasure is, that forthwith he repair Unto his Kingdom’s borders and as due His Homage unto him as Sovereign do. But Kingly Porus this brave answer sent, That to attend him there was his intent And come as well-provided as he could, But for the rest his sword advise him should. Great Alexander vexed at this reply,

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706. According to legend, Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, as raised by nymphs at Nisa, in what is now Turkmenistan. 707. The major river in what is now Pakistan. 708. The account of Alexander conquering India occupies 4.2.20 in Ralegh’s History. 709. Hephestion’s.

172 ANNE BRADSTREET Did more his valor than his Crown envy,710 Is now resolved to pass Hydaspes’ flood,711 And there his Sovereignty for to make good. But on the banks doth Porus ready stand 685 For to receive him when he comes to land, A potent Army with him, like a King, And ninety Elephants for war did bring. Had Alexander such resistance seen On Tigris’ side, here now he had not been. 690 Within this spacious river, deep and wide, Did here and there Isles full of trees abide. His Army Alexander doth divide: With Ptolomy712 sends part o’ th’other side. Porus encounters them, thinking all’s there; 695 Then covertly, the rest gets o’ er elsewhere. But whilst the first he valiantly assailed, The last set on his back and so prevailed. Yet work enough, here Alexander found, For to the last stout Porus kept his ground. 700 Nor was’t dishonor at the length to yield, When Alexander strives to win the field. His fortitude his Kingly foe commends, Restores him, and his bounds further extends. Eastward, now Alexander would go still, 705 But so to do, his Soldiers had no will.713 Long with excessive travails714 wearièd Could by no means be further drawn, or led. Yet that his fame might to posterity Be had in everlasting memory 710 Doth for his Camp a greater circuit take, And for his Soldiers larger Cabins make. His Mangers he erected up so high As never Horse his Provender could eye; Huge Bridles made, which here and there he left, 715 Which might be found, and so for wonders kept. Twelve Altars he for Monuments then rears, 710. “Envy” rhymes with “reply.” 711. What is now the Jhelum River, which runs through northwest India and eastern Pakistan. 712. One of Alexander’s generals. 713. Ralegh covers Alexander’s journey homeward in History 4.2.21. 714. This word means both “travels” and “struggles.”

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 173 Whereon his acts and travels long appears. But doubting wearing Time would these decay, And so his memory might fade away, 720 He on the faire Hydaspes’ pleasant side Two Cities built, his fame might there abide. The first Nicea, the next Bucephalon, Where he entombed his stately stallion.715 His fourth and last supply was hither sent, 725 Then down t’ Hydaspes with his Fleet he went. Some time he after spent upon that shore, Where one hundred Ambassadors, or more, Came with submission from th’ Indian Kings, Bringing their Presents, rare and precious things. 730 These all he feasts in state, on beds of gold, His furniture most sumptuous to behold. The meat and drink, attendants, everything To th’ utmost showed the glory of a King. With rich rewards, he sent them home again, 735 Acknowledged for their Master’s Sovereign. Then sailing South, and coming to the shore, These obscure Nations yielded as before. A City here he built, called by his name, Which could not sound too oft, with too much fame. 740 Hence sailing down by th’ mouth of Indus’ flood, His Galleys stuck upon the sand and mud, Which the stout Macedonians ’mazèd sore, Deprived at once the use of Sail and Oar. But well observing th’ nature of the tide, 745 Upon those Flats they did not long abide. Passing fair Indus’ mouth, his course he steered To the coast which by Euphrates’ mouth appeared, Whose inlets near unto, he winter spent, Unto his starvèd Soldiers small content, 750 By hunger and by cold so many slain, That of them all the fourth did scarce remain. Thus Winter, Soldiers, and provision spent, From hence he to Gedrosia716 went, And thence he marched into Carmania.717 755 715. Bucephalon was the name of Alexander’s favorite horse. 716. What is now coastal Balochistan. 717. What is now Kerman Province in Iran.

174 ANNE BRADSTREET So he at length drew near to Persia. Now through these goodly countries as he passed, Much time in feasts and rioting doth wast, Then visits Cyrus’ Sepulcher in’s way, Who now obscure at Pasagarda lay.718 760 Upon his Monument his Robes he spread And set his Crown on his supposed head.719 From hence to Babylon; some time there spent. He at the last to royal Susa went. A Wedding Feast to’s Nobles then he makes, 765 And Statirah, Darius’ daughter takes; Her Sister gives to his Hephestion dear, That by this match he might be yet more near.720 He fourscore Persian Ladies also gave, At the same time, unto his Captains brave. 770 Six thousand Guests he to this feast invites, Whose Senses all were glutted with delights. It far exceeds my mean abilities To shadow forth these short felicities. Spectators here could scarce relate the story, 775 They were so rapt with this external glory. If an Ideal Paradise a man should frame, He might this feast imagine by the same. To every Guest, a cup of gold he sends. So after many days this Banquet ends. 780 Now, Alexander’s conquests all are done, And his long travels past and overgone; His virtues dead, buried, and all forgot, But vice remains, to his eternal blot. ’Mongst those that of his cruelty did taste, 785 Philotas was not least, nor yet the last:721 Accused, because he did not certify The King of treason and conspiracy, Upon suspicion being apprehended, Nothing was found, wherein he had offended. 790 His silence guilt was of such consequence, 718. Ralegh, History 4.2.22. 719. Ralegh does not include this detail. Plutarch reports that Alexander was much affected by Cyrus’s tomb and refurbished it but not that he honored the grave in this way (Lives, 7.419). 720. Ralegh, History 4.2.22. 721. Ralegh records the deaths of Philotas and his father Parmenio in History 4.2.17.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 175 He death deserved for this so high offense, But for his Father’s great deserts, the King His Royal pardon gave for this same thing. Yet is Philotas unto Judgement brought, 795 Must suffer, not for what he did, but thought. His Master is Accuser, Judge, and King, Who to the height doth aggravate each thing, Inveighs against his Father, now absent, And’s Brethren, whom for him their lives had spent. 800 But Philotas, his unpardonable crime, Which no merit could obliterate, or time: He did the Oracle of Jupiter deride, By which his Majesty was deified. Philotas, thus o’ ercharged with wrong and grief, 805 Sunk in despair, without hope of relief, Fain would have spoke and made his own defense. The King would give no ear, but went from thence, To his malicious foes delivers him, To wreak their spite and hate on every limb. 810 Philotas after him sends out this cry, “Oh, Alexander, thy free clemency “My foes exceed in malice, and their hate “Thy Kingly word can easily terminate.” Such torments great, as wit could first invent, 815 Or flesh or life could bear, ’til both were spent Are now inflicted on Parmenio’s Son, For to accuse himself, as they had done. At last he did. So they were justified And told the world that for desert he died. 820 But how these Captains should, or yet their Master, Look on Parmenio after this disaster, They knew not; wherefore, best now to be done, Was to dispatch the Father, as the Son. This sound advice, at heart, pleased Alexander, 825 Who was so much engaged to this Commander, As he would ne’ er confess, nor could reward, Nor could his Captains bear so great regard. Wherefore at once all these to satisfy, It was decreed Parmenio should die. 830 Polidamus, who seemed Parmenio’s friend, To do this deed they into Media send.

176 ANNE BRADSTREET He walking in his Garden, to and fro, Thinking no harm because he none did owe, Most wickedly was slain, without least crime 835 (The most renownèd Captain of his time). This is Parmenio, which so much had done For Philip dead and his surviving Son, Who from a petty King of Macedon By him was set upon the Persian Throne; 840 This that Parmenio who still overcame, Yet gave his Master the immortal fame, Who for his prudence, valor, care, and trust Had this reward most cruel and unjust. The next that in untimely death had part 845 Was one of more esteem, but less desert: Clytus, beloved next to Hephestion, And in his cups, his chief Companion.722 When both were drunk, Clytus was wont to jeer; Alexander, to rage, to kill, and swear, 850 Nothing more pleasing to mad Clytus’ tongue Than’s Master’s god-head to defy and wrong; Nothing touched Alexander to the quick Like this, against his deity to kick. Upon a time, when both had drunken well, 855 Upon this dangerous theme fond Clytus fell. From jest, to earnest, and at last so bold That of Parmenio’s death him plainly told. Alexander now no longer could contain, But instantly commands him to be slain. 860 Next day, he tore his face for what he’d done, And would have slain himself, for Clytus gone. This pot companion he did more bemoan Than all the wrong to brave Parmenio done. The next of worth, that suffered after these, 865 Was virtuous, learnèd, wise Callisthenes, Who loved his Master more than did the rest, As did appear in flattering him the least. In his esteem, a God he could not be, Nor would adore him for a Deity. 870 For this alone, and for no other cause, Against his Sovereign or against his Laws, 722. Ralegh recounts the deaths of Clytus and Callisthenes in History 4.2.19.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 177 He on the rack his limbs in pieces rent; Thus was he tortured, ’til his life was spent. Of this unkingly deed doth Seneca 875 This censure pass, and not unwisely, say, “Of Alexander, this th’eternal crime, “Which shall not be obliterate by time, “Which virtues fame can ne’ er redeem by far, “Nor all felicity of his in war; 880 “When e’ er ’tis said, he thousand thousands slew, “Yea, and Callisthenes to death he drew; “The mighty Persian King he overcame, “Yea, and he killed Callisthenes by name; “All Kingdoms, Countries, Provinces, he won, 885 “From Hellespont, to th’ furthest Ocean; “All this he did, who knows not to be true, “But yet withal, Callisthenes he slew; “From Macedon his Empire did extend, “Unto the furthest bounds of th’ orient; 890 “All this he did, yea, and much more, ’tis true, “But yet withal, Callisthenes he slew.”723 Now Alexander goes to Media, Finds there the want of wise Parmenio. Here his chief favorite Hephestion dies.724 895 He celebrates his mournful obsequies, For him erects a stately Monument, Twelve thousand Talents on it frankly spent, Hangs his Physician. The reason why: Because he let Hephestion to die. 900 This act (me thinks) his godhead should ashame, To punish where himself deservèd blame, Or of necessity he must imply The other was the greatest Deity. From Media to Babylon he went; 905 To meet him there, t’Antipater had sent, That he might next now act upon the Stage, And in a Tragedy there end his age. The Queen Olympias725 bears him deadly hate (Not suffering her to meddle in the State) 910 723. Seneca’s Latin lament, as well as Ralegh’s translation, appears in History 4.2.19. 724. Ralegh, History 4.2.22. 725. Alexander’s mother.

178 ANNE BRADSTREET And by her Letters did her Son incite This great indignity for to requite. His doing so, no whit displeased the King, Though to his Mother he disproved the thing; But now, Antipater had lived thus long, He might well die, though he had done no wrong. His service great now’s suddenly forgot, Or if remembered, yet regarded not. The King doth intimate ’twas his intent, His honors and his riches to augment, Of larger Provinces the rule to give, And for his Counsel near the King to live. So to be caught Antipater’s too wise; Parmenio’s death’s too fresh before his eyes. He was too subtle for his crafty foe, Nor by his baits could be ensnarèd so, But his excuse with humble thanks he sends: His age, and journey long, he now pretends And pardon craves for his unwilling stay. He shows his grief; he’s forced to disobey. Before his answer came to Babylon, The thread of Alexander’s life was spun: Poison had put an end to’s days, ’twas thought, By Philip and Cassander to him brought, Sons to Antipater, bearers of his Cup, Least of such like their Father chance to sup; By others thought, and that more generally, That through excessive drinking he did die.726 The thirty third of ’s age do all agree This Conqueror did yield to destiny, Whose famous Acts must last, whilst world shall stand And Conquests be talked of, whilst there is Land. His Princely qualities had he retained Unparalleled for ever had remained, But with the world his virtues overcame, And so with black beclouded all his fame. Wise Aristotle, tutor to his youth, Had so instructed him in moral truth, The principles of what he then had learned

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726. Ralegh withholds judgment on whether Alexander was poisoned intentionally or simply from consuming too much alcohol (History 4.2.22).

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 179 Might to the last (when sober) be discerned. Learning, and learned men, he much regarded And curious Artists evermore rewarded. The Iliads727 of Homer he still kept And under’s pillow laid them when he slept.728 Achilles’ happiness he did envy ’Cause Homer kept his Acts to memory;729 Profusely bountiful, without desert, For those that pleased him, had both wealth and heart; Cruel by nature, and by custom too, As oft his Acts throughout his reign did shew; More boundless in ambition than the sky, Vain thirsting after immortality, Still fearing that his Name might hap to die, And fame not last unto Eternity. This conqueror did oft lament (’tis said) There was no worlds more to be conquerèd.730 This folly great Augustus did deride, For had he had but wisdom to his pride He would have found enough for to be done To govern that he had already won. His thoughts are perished. He aspires no more, Nor can he kill or save as heretofore. A God alive him all must Idolize; Now like a mortal helpless man he lies. Of all those kingdoms large which he had got To his posterity remained no jot, For by that hand731 which still revengeth blood, None of his Kindred, or his Race, long stood. And as he took delight much blood to spill, So the same cup to his did others fill. Four of his Captains all do now divide, As Danièl before had Prophesied:

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727. The poem recounting the Trojan War. Not italicized in the text. 728. Plutarch, Lives, 7.245. Ralegh does not include this detail. 729. Sir Francis Bacon, The Two Books of Francis Bacon: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning (London: Printed by Purfoot and Creed for Tomes, 1605), 36 verso. 730. According to tradition, Alexander the Great wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer. According to Plutarch, Alexander wept when his friend Anaxarchus raised the possibility that there are infinite worlds (Moralia, 6.179). Elsewhere Plutarch claims it was Caesar who wept when he heard of Alexander’s life (Lives, 7.469). 731. God. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19)

180 ANNE BRADSTREET The Leopard down, his four wings ’gan to rise; The great Horn broke, the less did tyrannize.732 What troubles and contentions did ensue We may hereafter show in season due.

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Aridaeus Great Alexander dead, his Army’s left Like to that Giant of his eye bereft When of his monstrous bulk it was the guide, His matchless force no Creature could abide, 990 But by Ulysses having lost his sight.733 Each man began for to contemn his might, For aiming still amiss, his dreadful blows Did harm himself, but never reached his foes. Now Court and Camp all in confusion be; 995 734 A King they’ll have, but who, none can agree. Each Captain wished this prize to bear away, Yet none so hardy found as so durst say. Great Alexander had left issue none, Except by Artabasus’ daughter one, 1000 And Roxan fair, whom late he marrièd, Was near her time to be deliverèd.735 By Nature’s right, these had enough to claim, But meanness of their Mothers barred the same, Alleged by those which by their subtle plea 1005 Had hope themselves to bear the Crown away. A Sister Alexander had, but she Claimed not; perhaps her Sex might hindrance be. After much tumult, they at last proclaimed His base born Brother, Aridaeus named, 1010 That so under his feeble wit and reign Their ends they might the better still attain. This choice Perdiccas736 vehemently disclaimed, 732. Daniel 7:6–11. 733. Ralegh makes the analogy between Alexander’s leaderless army and the cyclops Polyphemous, blinded by Ulysses, in History 4.3.1. 734. Ralegh lays out the competing claims outlined below in History 4.3.1. 735. Two of Alexander’s “many wives,” although not previously mentioned by Bradstreet or Ralegh. Alexander may not have formally married Barzine, daughter to Artabazus, satrap of Phrygia. Roxana’s father is identified alternately as Oxyartes, a Bactrian nobleman, or as a brother of Darius III. 736. One of Alexander’s generals.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 181 And th’ unborn babe of Roxan he proclaimed. Some wishèd him to take the style of King, Because his Master gave to him his Ring And had to him, still since Hephestion died, More than to th’ rest his favor testified. But he refused, with feignèd modesty, Hoping to be elect more generally. He hold of this occasion should have laid, For second offers there were never made. ’Mongst these contentions, tumults, jealousies, Seven days the Corpse of their great Master lies Untouched, uncovered, slighted, and neglected, So much these Princes their own ends respected. A contemplation to astonish Kings, That he, who late possessed all earthly things, And yet not so content, unless that he Might be esteemèd for a Deity, Now lay a spectacle, to testify The wretchedness of man’s mortality. After this time, when stirs began to calm, The Egyptians his body did embalm, On which no sign of poison could be found, But all his bowels colored well and sound. Perdiccas, seeing Aridaeus must be King, Under his name begins to rule each thing. His chief opponents who kept off the Crown Was stiff Meleager,737 whom he would take down. Him by a wile he got within his power And took his life unworthily that hour, Using the name and the command o’ th’ King To authorize his Acts in every thing. The Princes, seeing Perdiccas’ power and Pride, Thought timely for themselves now to provide. Antigonus738 for his share Asia takes, And Ptolemy739 next sure of Egypt makes. Seleucus740 afterward held Babylon;

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182 ANNE BRADSTREET Antipater had long ruled Macedon. 1050 These now to govern for the King pretends, But nothing less each one himself intends. Perdiccas took no Province, like the rest, But held command o’ th’ Armies which was best, And had a higher project in his head, 1055 Which was his Master’s sister for to wed. So, to the Lady secretly he sent, That none might know to frustrate his intent, But Cleopatra this suitor did deny For Leonatus,741 more lovely in her eye, 1060 To whom she sent a message of her mind, That if he came, good welcome he should find. In these tumultuous days, the thrallèd Greeks Their ancient liberty afresh now seeks, Shakes off the yoke, sometimes before laid on 1065 By warlike Philip and his conquering son. The Athenians force Antipater to fly To Lamia, where he shut up doth lie. To brave Craterus, then, he sends with speed To come and to release him in his need.742 1070 The like of Leonatus he requires (Which at this time well suited his desires) For to Antipater he now might go, His Lady take i’ th’ way, and no man know.743 Antiphilus, the Athenian General, 1075 With speed his forces doth together call, Striving to stop Leonatus that so He join not with Antipater, that foe. The Athenian Army was the greater far (Which did his match with Cleopatra mar) 1080 For fighting still, whilst there did hope remain, The valiant Chief744 amidst his foes was slain. ’Mongst all the Captains of great Alexander For personage, none was like this Commander. 741. The man appointed as joint protectors of the unborn king, Roxana’s child. Ralegh, History 4.3.2. Ralegh discusses Cleopatra’s offer to Leonatus in History 4.3.5, but Perdiccas’s interest in marrying her in the previous section, where he also reports Perdiccas’s marriage to another woman. 742. Ralegh, History 4.3.3. 743. Ralegh, History 4.3.5. “His lady” is Cleopatra, whom Leonatus wished to marry. 744. Leonatus.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 183 Now to Antipater Craterus goes, 1085 Blocked up in Lamia still by his foes. Long marches through Cilicia he makes, And the remains745 of Leonatus takes. With them and his, he into Grecia went, Antipater releas’d from’s prisonment. 1090 After this time, the Greeks did never more Act anything of worth, as heretofore, But under servitude their necks remained, Nor former liberty or glory gained. Now died (about the end of th’ Lamian war) 1095 Demosthenes, that sweet tongued orator.746 Craterus and Antipater now join747 In love and in affinity combine. Craterus doth his daughter Phila wed, Their friendship may the more be strengthenèd.748 1100 Whilst they in Macedon do thus agree, In Asia they all asunder be. Perdiccas grieved to see the Princes bold So many Kingdoms in their power to hold, Yet to regain them, how he did not know, 1105 For’s Soldiers ’gainst those Captains would not go.749 To suffer them go on, as they begun, Was to give way; himself might be undone. With Antipater t’ join sometimes he thought, That by his help, the rest might low be brought, 1110 But this again dislikes and would remain If not in word, in deed a Sovereign; Desires the King to go to Macedon, Which of his Ancestors was once the throne, And by his presence there to nullify 1115 750 The Acts of his Viceroys, now grown so high. Antigonus of Treason first attaints,751 And summons him to answer these complaints. 745. Troops. 746. Demosthenes (384–322 BCE) took poison to avoid execution by Antipater. Ralegh, History 4.3.6 747. At this point in time, “join” rhymed with “combine.” 748. Ralegh, History 4.3.7. 749. Ralegh, History 4.3.9. 750. Ralegh explains Perdiccas’s jockeying for power in History 4.3.7. 751. Accuses.

184 ANNE BRADSTREET This he752 avoids, and ships himself and’s Son, Goes to Antipater and tells what’s done. 1120 He and Craterus both with him now join, And ’gainst Perdiccas all their strength combine. Brave Ptolemy to make a fourth now sent, To save himself from dangers eminent In midst of these Garboils753 with wondrous state, 1125 His Master’s Funerals doth celebrate. At Alexandria, in Egypt Land, His sumptuous monument long time did stand. Two years and more since Nature’s debt he paid, And yet ’til now at quiet was not laid. 1130 Great love did Ptolemy by this act gain And made the Soldiers on his side remain. Perdiccas hears his foes are now combined (’Gainst which to go is troubled in his mind). With Ptolemy for to begin was best, 1135 Near’st unto him, and farthest from the rest. Leaves Eumenes the Asian coast to free From the invasions of the other three, And with his Army into Egypt goes, Brave Ptolemy to th’ utmost to oppose. 1140 Perdiccas’ surly carriage and his pride Did alienate the Soldiers from his side, But Ptolemy by affability, His sweet demeanor and his courtesy, Did make his own firm to his cause remain, 1145 754 And from the other daily some did gain. Python, next Perdiccas a Captain high, Being entreated by him scornfully, Some of the Soldiers enters Perdiccas’ tent, Knocks out his brains, to Ptolemy then went 1150 And offers him his Honors and his place, With style of the Protector would him grace. Next day into the Camp comes Ptolemy And is of all receivèd joyfully. Their proffers he refused, with modesty, 1155 752. Antigonus. 753. Tumult or confusion. 754. Ralegh reports on the different temperaments of these two men, and the outcome of their encounter, in History 4.3.8.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 185 Confers them Python on, for’s courtesy. With what he held, he now was well content Than by more trouble to grow eminent. Now comes there news of a great victory That Eumenes got of the other three. 1160 Had it but in Perdiccas’ life arrived, With greater joy it would have been received. Thus Ptolemy rich Egypt did retain, And Python turned to Asia again. Whilst Perdiccas thus stayed in Africa,755 1165 Antigonus did enter Asia And fain would draw Eumenes to their side, But he alone now faithful did abide. The other all had kingdoms in their eye, But he was true to’s master’s family, 1170 Nor could Craterus (whom he much did love) From his fidelity make him once move. Two battles now he fought, and had the best, And brave Craterus slew, amongst the rest. For this great strife, he pours out his complaints, 1175 And his beloved foe full sore laments.756 I should but snip a story into verse, And much eclipse his glory to rehearse The difficulties Eumenes befell, His stratagems, wherein he did excel, 1180 His policies, how he did extricate Himself from out of labyrinths intricate. For all that should be said, let this suffice: He was both valiant, faithful, patient, wise. Python now chose protector of the State. 1185 His rule Queen Eurydice757 begins to hate, Perceives Aridaeus must not king it long, If once young Alexander grow more strong, But that her Husband serve for supplement To warm the seat was never her intent. 1190 She knew her birthright gave her Macedon, 755. The story backtracks here, as Perdiccas remains dead. 756. Ralegh, History 4.3.9. 757. Wife of King Aridaeus, daughter of Alexander’s half-sister Cynane, granddaughter of King Perdiccas (King Philip’s elder brother), and so heir to Macedon in her own right. Ralegh reports (disapprovingly) her mother’s fighting skills and Eurydice’s martial education, as well as Antipater’s success in outmaneuvering her, in History 4.3.10.

186 ANNE BRADSTREET Grandchild to him who once sat on that throne, Who was Perdiccas, Philip’s elder brother, She daughter to his son, who had no other. Her mother Cyna, sister to Alexander, 1195 Who had an Army like a great Commander Ceria the Phrygian Queen for to withstand, And in a Battle slew her hand to hand. Her Daughter she instructed in that Art, Which made her now begin to play her part. 1200 Python’s commands She ever countermands; What he appoints She purposely withstands. He wearied out, at last, would needs be gone, Resigned his place, and so let all alone. In’s stead the Soldiers chose Antipater, 1205 Who vexed the Queen more than the other far. He placed, displaced, controlled, ruled as he list, And this no man durst question, or resist. For all the Princes of great Alexander Acknowledgèd for chief this old Commander. 1210 After a while to Macedon he makes. The King and Queen along with him he takes, Two Sons of Alexander and the rest, All to be ordered there as he thought best. The Army with Antigonus did leave 1215 And government of Asia to him gave. And thus Antipater the groundwork lays On which Antigonus his height doth raise, Who in few years the rest so overtops, For universal Monarchy he hopes. 1220 With Eumenes he divers Battles fought, And by his sleights to circumvent him sought. But vain it was to use his policy, ’Gainst him that all deceits could scan and try. In this Epitome758 too long to tell 1225 How neatly Eumenes did here excel, That by the selfsame traps the other laid, He to his cost was righteously repaid. Now great Antipater the world doth leave. To Polysperchon then his place he gave, 1230 Fearing his Son Cassander was unstayed, 758. Summary of the important events.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 187 Too young to bear that charge, if on him laid.759 Antigonus, hearing of his760 decease, On most part of Assyria doth seize, And Ptolemy now to encroach begins; All Syria and Phoenicia he wins. Now Polysperchon ’gins to act in’s place, Recalls Olympias the Court to grace. Antipater had banished her from thence Into Epire761 for her great turbulence. This new Protector’s of another mind, Thinks by her Majesty much help to find. Cassander could not (like his father) see This Polysperchon’s great ability, Slights his commands, his actions he disclaims, And to be great himself now bends his aims. Such as his father had advanced to place, Or by his favor any way did grace Are now at the devotion of the Son Pressed to accomplish what he would have done. Besides, he was the young Queen’s762 favorite, On whom (’twas thought) she set her chief delight. Unto these helps, in Greece, he seeks out more, Goes to Antigonus and doth implore By all the Bonds ’twixt him and’s father past, And for that great gift which he gave him last, By these, and all, to grant him some supply To take down Polysperchon grown so high. For this Antigonus needed no spurs, Hoping still more to gain by these new stirs, Straight furnished him with a sufficient aid. Cassander for return all speed now made. Polysperchon, knowing he did rely Upon those friends his father raised on high, Those absent, banishèd, or else he slew All such as he suspected to him true.763 Cassander with his Host to Grecia goes,

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759. Ralegh, History 4.3.12. 760. Antipater’s. 761. Ephyra, on the western coast of Greece, near the border of what is now Albania. 762. Eurydice. Ralegh suggests an inappropriate romantic interest here (History 4.3.13). 763. Ralegh, History 4.3.14.

188 ANNE BRADSTREET Whom Polysperchon labors to oppose, But had the worst at Sea, as well as Land, And his opponent still got upper hand.764 1270 Athens, with many Towns in Greece besides, Firm to Cassander at this time abides. Whilst hot in wars these two in Greece remain, Antigonus doth all in Asia gain, Still labors Eumenes might with him side, 1275 But to the last he faithful did abide. Nor could Mother nor Sons of Alexander Put trust in any but in this Commander. The great ones now began to show their mind And act, as opportunity they find. 1280 Aridaeus, the scorned and simple King, More than he bidden was could act no thing; Polysperchon hoping for’s office long, Thinks to enthrone the Prince765 when riper grown. Eurydice this injury disdains 1285 And to Cassander of this wrong complains.766 Hateful the Name and House of Alexander Was to this proud, vindicative Cassander. He still kept fresh within his memory His Father’s danger, with his Family, 1290 Nor counts he that indignity but small When Alexander knocked his head to th’ wall. These, with his love unto the amorous Queen Did make him vow her servant to be seen. Olympias Aridaeus deadly hates, 1295 As all her Husband’s children by his Mates. She gave him poison formerly (’tis thought) Which damage both to mind and body brought. She now with Polysperchon doth combine To make the King by force his seat resign 1300 And her young Nephew in his stead t’enthrone, That under him she might rule all alone. For aid goes to Epire among her friends, The better to accomplish these her ends. Eurydice, hearing what she intends, 1305 764. Ralegh, History 4.3.15–16. 765. Alexander’s son by Roxana. 766. Ralegh records all this family infighting in History 4.3.19.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 189 In haste unto her dear Cassander sends To leave his Siege at Tagra and with speed To come and succor her in this great need. Then by entreaties, promises, and coin Some Forces did procure with her to join. 1310 Olympias now enters Macedon. The Queen to meet her bravely marchèd on, But when her Soldiers saw their ancient Queen, Remembering what sometime she had been, The Wife and Mother of their famous Kings, 1315 Nor Darts nor Arrows now none shoots nor flings. Then King and Queen767 to Amphipolis768 do fly, But soon are brought into captivity. The King by extreme torments had his end, And to the Queen, these presents she doth send: 1320 A Halter, cup of Poison, and a Sword, Bids choose her death, such kindness she’ll afford. The Queen with many a curse and bitter check At length yields to the Halter her fair neck, Praying that fatal day might quickly haste 1325 On which Olympias of the like might taste. This done, the cruel Queen rests not content, ’Til all that loved Cassander was nigh spent: His Brethren, Kinsfolk, and his chiefest friends That were within her reach came to their ends, 1330 Digged up his brother dead, ’gainst nature’s right, And throws his bones about to show her spite. The Courtiers wond’ring at her furious mind Wished in Epire she still had been confined. In Peloponnesus then Cassander lay, 1335 Where hearing of this news he speeds away. With rage and with revenge he’s hurried on, So goes to find this Queen in Macedon, But being stopped at Strait Thermopylae Sea passage gets and lands in Thessaly. 1340 His Army he divides, sends part away, Polysperchon to hold a while in play, And with the rest Olympias pursues, To give her for all cruelties her dues. 767. Aridaeus and Eurydice. 768. A town on the coast of Greece in eastern Macedonia.

190 ANNE BRADSTREET She with the flow’r o’ th Court to Pydna769 flies. Well-fortified and on the Sea it lies. There by Cassander she’s blocked up so long, Until the Famine grows exceeding strong.770 Her Cousin of Epire did what he might To raise the Siege and put her foes to flight. Cassander is resolved there to remain, So succors and endeavors proves but vain. Fain would she come now to capitulate; Cassander will not hear, such is his hate. The Soldiers pinchèd with this scarcity, By stealth unto Cassander daily fly. Olympias wills to keep it to the last, Expecting nothing but of death to taste, But he unwilling longer there to stay Gives promise for her life, and wins the day. No sooner had he got her in his hands, But made in Judgement her Accusers stand And plead the blood of their dear Kindred spilt, Desiring Justice might be done for guilt, And so was he acquitted of his word: For Justice’ sake she being put to th’ sword. This was the end of this most cruel Queen, Whose fury yet unparalleled hath been. The Daughter, Sister, Mother, Wife to Kings, But Royalty no good conditions brings. So boundless was her pride and cruelty She oft forgot bounds of Humanity. To Husband’s death (’twas thought) she gave consent, The Author’s death she did so much lament: With Garlands crowned his head, bemoaned his Fates, His sword unto Apollo consecrates.771 Her outrages too tedious to relate, How for no cause but her inveterate hate Her Husband’s Wife and Children, after’s death, Some slew, some fried, of others stopped the breath.772

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769. A city on the coast in central Greece. 770. Ralegh relates the siege of Pydna and its outcome in History 4.3.20. 771. Ralegh records how Olympias mourned the death of her husband’s murderer in these ways. History 4.1.8. 772. Ralegh reports that Olympias broiled one of her rival’s children in a copper basin. History 4.3.20.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 191 Now in her age she’s forced to taste that Cup Which she had often made others to sup. Now many Towns in Macedon suppressed, And Pella’s fain to yield amongst the rest, The Funerals Cassander celebrates 1385 Of Aridaeus and his Queen with state Among their Ancestors by him there laid And shows of lamentation for them made. Old Thebes he then rebuilt (so much of fame) And raised Cassandria after his name.773 1390 But leave him building, others in their urn, And for a while let’s into Asia turn. True Eumenes endeavors by all skill To keep Antigonus from Susa still, Having Command o’ th’ treasure he can hire, 1395 Such as nor threats nor favor could acquire. In divers battles he had good success. Antigonus came off still honorless. When victor oft had been and so might still, Peucestas did betray him by a wile; 1400 Antigonus then takes his774 life unjust Because he never would let go his trust. Thus lost he all for his fidelity, Striving t’ uphold his Master’s family, But as that to a period did haste, 1405 So Eumenes of destiny must taste. Antigonus all Persia now gains, And Master of the treasure he remains. Then with Seleucus straight at odds doth fall, But he for aid to Ptolemy doth call. 1410 The Princes all begin now to envy775 Antigonus his growing up so high, Fearing their state and what might hap ere long, Enter into a combination strong: Seleucus, Ptolemy, Cassander joins; 1415 Lysimachus to make a fourth combines.776 Antigonus, desirous of the Greeks, 773. Ralegh, History 4.3.20. 774. In both cases, Eumenes. 775. Rhymed with “high.” 776. Ralegh, History 4.5.1.

192 ANNE BRADSTREET To make Cassander odious to them seeks, Sends forth his declaration from afar, And shows what cause they had to take up war:777 1420 The Mother of their King to death he’d put; His Wife and Son in prison close had shut; And how he aims to make himself a King, And that some title he might seem to bring, Thessalonica he had newly wed, 1425 Daughter to Philip, their renownèd head; Had built and called a City by his name, Which none e’ er did but those of royal fame; And in despite of their two famous Kings, Th’ hateful Olynthians778 to Greece rebrings; 1430 Rebellious Thebes he had re-edified, Which their late King in dust had damnified; Requires them therefore to take up their Arms, And to requite this Traitor for those harms. Now Ptolemy would gain the Greeks likewise, 1435 For he declares against his injuries: First, how he held the Empire in his hands, Seleucus drove from government and lands, Had valiant Eumenes unjustly slain, And Lord o’ th’ City Susa did remain, 1440 So therefore craves their help to take him down, Before he wear the universal Crown. Antigonus at Sea soon had a fight, Where Ptolemy and the rest put him to flight. His Son at Gaza likewise lost the field, 1445 779 So Syria to Ptolemy did yield. And Seleucus recovers Babylon, Still gaining Countries Eastward goes he on. Demetrius again with Ptolemy did fight, And coming unawares put him to flight, 1450 But bravely sends the Prisoners back again And all the spoil and booty they had ta’en,780 Courteous as noble Ptolemy, or more, 777. Ralegh outlines the arguments on each side in History 4.5.3. 778. Occupants of a city in northern Greece who earlier had allied themselves with Alexander’s father Philip against the other Greek city-states. 779. Ralegh, History 4.5.6. 780. Ralegh, History 4.5.8.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 193 Who at Gaza did th’ like to him before. Antigonus did much rejoice his son 1455 His lost repute with victory had won. At last these Princes, tired out with wars, Sought for a peace and laid aside their jars. The terms of their agreement thus express, That each shall hold what he doth now possess 1460 ’Til Alexander unto age was grown, Who then shall be installèd in the throne. This touched Cassander sore, for what he’d done, Imprisoning both the mother and her son. He sees the Greeks now favor their young Prince, 1465 Whom he in durance held now and long since, That in few years he must be forced or glad To render up such kingdoms as he had, Resolves to quit his fears by one deed done, And put to death the mother and her son.781 1470 This Roxan for her beauty all commend, But for one act she did, just was her end. No sooner was great Alexander dead But she Darius’ daughters murderèd. Both thrown into a well to hide her blot; 1475 Perdiccas was her partner in this plot. The Heavens seemed slow in paying her the same, But yet at last the hand of vengeance came, And for that double fact which she had done, The life of her must go, and of her son. 1480 Perdiccas had before for his amiss, But from their hands who thought not once of this. Cassander’s deed the Princes all detest, But ’twas in show; in heart it pleased them best. That he was odious to the world, they’re glad, 1485 And now they are free Lords of what they had. When this foul tragedy was past and done, Polysperchon brings up the other son, Called Hercules, and elder than his brother (But Olympias thought to prefer th’ other). 1490 The Greeks, touched with the murder done so late, This Prince began for to compassionate, 781. In History 4.5.9, Ralegh recounts Roxana’s death, as well as her earlier murder of Darius’s daughter Stateira.

194 ANNE BRADSTREET Begin to mutter much ’gainst proud Cassander And place their hopes o’ th’ heir of Alexander. Cassander feared what might of this ensue, 1495 So Polysperchon to his Counsel drew, Gives Peloponnesus unto him for hire Who slew the prince according to desire.782 Thus was the race and house of Alexander Extinct by this inhumane wretch Cassander. 1500 Antigonus for all this doth not mourn. He knows to’s profit all i’ th’ end will turn. But that some title he might now pretend, For marriage to Cleopatra doth send. Lysimachus and Ptolemy the same, 1505 And vile Cassander, too, sticks not for shame. She now in Lydia at Sardis lay, Where by Embassage all these Princes pray. Choice above all, of Ptolemy she makes; With his Ambassador her journey takes. 1510 Antigonus’ Lieutenant stays her still, Until he further know his Master’s will. To let her go, or hold her still, he fears. Antigonus thus had a wolf by th’ ears, Resolves at last the Princess then’d783 be slain, 1515 So hinders him of her he could not gain. Her women are appointed to this deed; They for their great reward no better speed, For straight way by command they’re put to death As vile conspirators that took her breath. 1520 And now he thinks he’s ordered all so well, The world must needs believe what he doth tell.784 Thus Philip’s house was quite extinguishèd, Except Cassander’s wife, who yet not dead, And by their means who thought of nothing less 1525 Than vengeance just, against the same t’express. Now blood was paid with blood for what was done By cruel father, mother, cruel son, Who did erect their cruelty in guilt, And wronging innocents whose blood they spilt. 1530 782. Ralegh, History 4.5.9. 783. Amended in Several Poems to “should.” 784. Ralegh, History 4.5.9.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 195 Philip and Olympias both were slain; Aridaeus and his Queen by slaughters ta’en; Two other children by Olympias killed, And Cleopatra’s blood now likewise spilled. If Alexander was not poisonèd, 1535 Yet in the flower of’s age he must lie dead. His wife and sons then slain by this Cassander, And’s kingdoms rent away by each Commander. Thus may we hear, and fear, and ever say, That hand785 is righteous still which doth repay. 1540 These Captains now the style of Kings do take, For to their Crowns, there’s none can title make. Demetrius is first that so assumes; To do as he, the rest full soon presumes. To Athens then he goes, is entertained, 1545 Not like a King, but like some God they feigned. Most grossly base was this great adulation, Who incense burnt and offerèd oblation.786 These Kings fall now afresh to wars again. Demetrius of Ptolemy doth gain. 1550 ’Twould be an endless story to relate Their several battles and their several fate. Antigonus and Seleucus now fight Near Ephesus, each bringing all their might, And he that conqueror shall now remain, 1555 Of Asia the Lordship shall retain. This day ’twixt these two foes ends all the strife, For here Antigonus lost rule and life,787 Nor to his son did there one foot remain Of those dominions he did sometimes gain. 1560 Demetrius with his troops to Athens flies, Hoping to find succor in miseries. But they adoring in prosperity, Now shut their gates in his adversity. He, sorely grieved at this his desperate state, 1565 Tries foes, since friends will not compassionate. His peace he then with old Seleucus makes, 785. God’s. 786. Ralegh, History 4.5.10. 787. Ralegh, History 4.6.4.

196 ANNE BRADSTREET Who his fair daughter Stratonica takes.788 Antiochus, Seleucus’ dear loved son, Is for this fresh young Lady half undone, 1570 Falls so extremely sick all fear his life, Yet dares not say, he loves his father’s wife. When his disease the skillful Physician found, He wittily his father’s mind did sound, Who did no sooner understand the same 1575 But willingly resigned the beauteous dame. Cassander now must die; his race is run, And leaves the ill-got kingdoms he had won. Two sons he left, born of King Philip’s daughter, Who had an end put to their days by slaughter.789 1580 Which should succeed, at variance they fell; The mother would the youngest should excel. The eld’st enraged did play the viper’s part And with his Sword did pierce his mother’s heart (Rather than Philip’s child must longer live, 1585 He, whom she gave his life, her death must give). This by Lysimachus soon after slain (Whose daughter unto wife, he’d newly ta’en). The youngest by Demetrius killed in fight, Who took away his now pretended right. 1590 Thus Philip’s and Cassander’s race is gone, And so falls out to be extinct in one. Yea though Cassander died in his bed, His seed to be extirped790 was destinèd, For blood which was decreed that he should spill, 1595 Yet must his children pay for father’s ill. Jehu in killing Ahab’s house did well, Yet be avengèd must th’ blood of Jezreel.791 Demetrius, Cassander’s kingdoms gains, And now as King in Macedon he reigns.792 1600 788. Ralegh reports this marriage and Antiochus’s distress (History 4.5.6). 789. Ralegh, History 4.6.6. 790. Extirpated. 791. Jehu, King of northern Israel, exterminated the house of Ahab, king of Israel, at the command of a prophet because Ahab, at the instigation of his wife, Jezebel, allowed the worship of Baal and persecuted the followers of Yahweh (2 Kings 9). Although Jehu acted on God’s direction and his heirs ruled Israel for one hundred years, God eventually exacted vengeance on his house (Hosea 1:4). 792. Ralegh, History 4.6.7.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 197 Seleucus Asia holds, that grieves him sore, Those countries large his father got before. These to recover musters all his might, And with his son-in-law will needs go fight. There was he taken and imprisonèd 1605 Within an Isle that was with pleasures fed, Enjoyed what so beseemed his Royalty, Only restrainèd of his liberty.793 After three years he died, left what he’d won In Greece unto Antigonus, his son, 1610 For his posterity unto this day Did ne’ er regain one foot in Asia. Now died the brave and noble Ptolemy, Renowned for bounty, valor, clemency.794 Rich Egypt left, and what else he had won, 1615 To Philadelphus, his more worthy Son. Of the old Heroes now but two remain: Seleucus and Lysimachus. Those twain Must needs go try their fortune and their might, And so Lysimachus was slain in fight. 1620 ’Twas no small joy unto Seleucus’ breast That now he had outlivèd all the rest. Possession he of Europe thinks to take And so himself the only Monarch make. Whilst with these hopes in Greece he did remain, 1625 He was by Ptolemy Ceraunus slain, The second Son of the first Ptolemy, Who for rebellion unto him did fly. Seleucus was as Father and a friend, Yet by him had this most unworthy end. 1630 Thus with these Kingly Captains have we done. A little now, how the Succession run: Antigonus, Seleucus, and Cassander, With Ptolemy, reigned after Alexander; Cassander’s Sons soon after’s death were slain, 1635 So three Successors only did remain; Antigonus his Kingdoms lost, and’s life, Unto Seleucus, author of that strife. His Son Demetrius all Cassander’s gains, 793. Ralegh, History 4.6.8. 794. Ralegh reports the deaths of Alexander’s remaining captains in History 4.6.9.

198 ANNE BRADSTREET And his posterity the same retains. 1640 Demetrius’ Son was called Antigonus,795 And his again also Demetrius. I must let pass those many battles fought, Between those Kings and noble Pyrrhus796 stout And his son Alexander of Epire, 1645 Whereby immortal honor they acquire. Demetrius had Philip to his son; He Perseus. From him the kingdom’s won.797 Emillius the Roman General Did take his rule, his sons, himself and all. 1650 This of Antigonus his seed’s the fate, Whose kingdoms were subdued by th’ Roman state. Longer Seleucus held the Royalty In Syria by his posterity: Antiochus Soter798 his son was named, 1655 To whom Ancient Berosus799 (Too much famed) His book of Assur’s Monarchs dedicates, Tells of their wars, their names, their riches, fates. But this is perishèd with many more Which we oft wish were extant as before. 1660 Antiochus Theos800 was Soter’s son, Who a long war with Egypt’s King begun. The affinities and wars Daniel set forth, And calls them there, the Kings of South and North.801 This Theos he was murdered by his wife.802 1665 Seleucus reigned when he had lost his life.803 A third Seleucus next sits on the seat,804 795. In the text, “Awigonus,” but later “Antigonus.” See Plutarch, Lives, 9.7. 796. King of the Molossians, cousin to Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympias. 797. Ralegh, History 5.6.8. 798. Ruled the Seleucid Empire from 281 BCE to 261 BCE. 799. Babylonian author of Babyloniaca, or History of Babylonia, produced in three volumes between 290 BCE and 278 BCE. 800. Ruled the Seleucid Empire from 261 BCE to 246 BCE. 801. Daniel 11. 802. Theos had repudiated his wife, Laodice, to marry Berenice (Ptolemy’s daughter). Laodice poisoned her estranged husband and arranged for others to murder Berenice and her infant. 803. Seleucus Callinicus, reigned from 246 BCE to 225 BCE. 804. Seleucus Ceraunus, reigned from 225 BCE to 223 BCE.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 199 And then Antiochus surnamed the great.805 Seleucus806 next Antiochus succeeds, And then Epiphanes,807 whose wicked deeds, 1670 Horrid massacres, murders, cruelties, Against the Jews we read in Maccabees.808 By him was set up the abomination I’ th’ holy place, which causèd desolation. Antiochus Eupator809 was the next, 1675 By Rebels and imposters daily vexed. So many Princes still were murderèd, The Royal blood was quite extinguishèd, That Tygranes,810 the great Armenian King, To take the government was callèd in. 1680 Him Lucullus,811 the Roman General, Vanquished in fight and took those kingdoms all. Of Greece and Syria thus the rule did end. In Egypt now a little time we’ll spend. First Ptolemy being dead, his famous son, 1685 812 Called Philadelphus  next sat on the throne, The Library at Alexandria built, With seven hundred thousand volumes filled, The seventy-two interpreters did seek, They might translate the Bible into Greek.813 1690 His son was Euergetes814 the last Prince That valor showed, virtue, or excellence. Philopator815 was Euergetes’ son.

805. Ruled the Seleucid Empire from 222 BCE to 187 BCE. 806. Seleucus Philopater, reigned from 187 BCE to 175 BCE. 807. Brother of Philopater, Antiochus Epiphanes ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BCE to 164 BCE. 808. 1 Maccabees 1:10 to 1 Maccabees 6:16. See Ralegh, History 5.6.11. 809. Ruled the Seleucid Empire from 163 BCE to 161 BCE. 810. Tygranes reigned 140–55 BCE. See Plutarch, Lives, 2.527–93. 811. Lucius Licinius Lucullus (118–ca. 57–56 BCE), Roman general. 812. Ptolemy II Philadelphus reigned from 283 BCE to 246 BCE. 813. Bradstreet’s source here is The Antiquities of the Jews, book 12, chapter 2, by Titus Flavius Josephus (37–100 CE). Thomas Lodge, who wrote a commendatory letter included in Elizabeth Clinton’s The Countess of Lincolnes Nurserie (1622), published a translation of this work in 1602 that was reprinted frequently in the seventeenth century. 814. Reigned 246–222 BCE. 815. Reigned 222–204 BCE.

200 ANNE BRADSTREET After Epiphanes816 sat on the Throne, Philometor,817 then Euergetes again,818 1695 And next to him, did false Lathurus reign; Alexander, then Lathurus in’s stead;819 Next Auletes, who cut off Pompey’s head.820 To all these names we Ptolemy must add, For since the first that title still they had. 1700 Fair Cleopatra next, last of that race, Whom Julius Caesar set in Royal place. Her brother by him821 lost his traitorous head For Pompey’s life, then placed her in his stead. She with her Paramour Mark Antony822 1705 Held for a time the Egyptian Monarchy, ’Til great Augustus had with him a fight; At Actium slain, his Navy put to flight. Then poisonous Asps she sets unto her Arms, To take her life and quit her from all harms. 1710 For ’twas not death nor danger she did dread But some disgrace, in triumph to be led. Here ends at last the Grecian Monarchy, Which by the Romans had its destiny. Thus Kings, and Kingdoms, have their times and dates, 1715 Their standings, over-turnings, bounds, and fates. Now up, now down, now chief, and then brought under; The Heavens thus rule, to fill the earth with wonder. The Assyrian Monarchy long time did stand, 816. Reigned 204–181 BCE. He was only five years old at the beginning of his reign. 817. Reigned 180–145 BCE, partly in a co-regency with his mother, as he was a small child when his father died. 818. Ptolemy VIII Euergetes lived from 182 BCE to 116 BCE. After Egypt was invaded by the Seleucid Empire in 170 BCE, Ptolemy VIII reigned in Alexandria, while his brother Ptolemy Philometor served as a puppet ruler for other parts of Egypt. The brothers later shared rule with their sister Cleopatra II. After Philometor’s death, Euergetes ruled with his sister and then fought with her, provoking a Roman intervention shortly before his death in 116 BCE. 819. Ptolemy IX Soter (also called Lathyros) and his brother Ptolemy X Alexander contended with one another for the throne between 116 BCE and 88 BCE, when Lathyros permanently ousted his brother. 820. Ptolemy XIII (ca. 62–47 BCE), co-regent and brother to Cleopatra VII Philopater (69–30 BCE). Pompey, the Roman general and Caesar’s political rival, had fled to Egypt for safety. Ptolemy had Pompey executed, mistakenly believing that doing so would please Caesar. 821. Julius Caesar (100–40 BCE), Roman general and ruler. 822. Mark Antony (83–30 BCE), a Roman general who rose to power after Caesar’s death. He conducted a liaison with Cleopatra that lasted from 41 BCE to their deaths in 30 BCE.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 201 But yet the Persian got the upper hand; The Grecian them did utterly subdue, And Millions were subjected unto few. The Grecian longer than the Persian stood, Then came the Roman, like a raging flood, And with the torrent of his rapid course Their Crowns, their Titles, riches bears by force. The first was likened to a head of gold,823 Next, arms and breast of silver to behold; The third, belly and thighs of brass in sight, And last was Iron, which breaketh all with might. The Stone out of the Mountain then did rise And smote those feet, those legs, those arms and thighs; Then gold, silver, brass, iron, and all that store, Became like chaff upon the threshing floor.824 The first a Lion; second was a Bear; The third a Leopard, which four wings did rear;825 The last more strong and dreadful than the rest, Whose Iron teeth devoured every beast, And when he had no appetite to eat, The residue he stamped under’s feet. But yet this Lion, Bear, this Leopard, Ram, All trembling stand before that powerful Lamb.826 With these three Monarchies, now have I done, But how the fourth, their Kingdoms from them won, And how from small beginnings it did grow, To fill the world with terror, and with woe, My tired brain leaves to a better pen. This task befits not women, like to men. For what is past I blush, excuse to make, But humbly stand, some grave reproof to take. Pardon to crave for errors is but vain. The Subject was too high, beyond my strain. To frame Apology for some offense Converts our boldness into impudence. This my presumption (some now) to requite,

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823. These images come from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. 824. A worker beats, or threshes, grain to remove the inedible husk, called the chaff. 825. The monarchies as beasts comes from the vision in Daniel 7. 826. Christ, the Lamb of God.

202 ANNE BRADSTREET Ne sutor ultra crepidam,827 may write. After some days of rest, my restless heart To finish what begun, new thoughts impart And maugre828 all resolves, my fancy Wrought This fourth to th’other three now might be brought. Shortness of time and inability 5 Will force me to a confused brevity; Yet in this Chaos one shall easily spy The vast limbs of a mighty Monarchy. What e’ er is found amiss take in best part, As faults proceeding from my head, not heart. 10

827. “Cobbler, not more than the sandal”; in other words, she might be criticized for having meddled with material outside her area of expertise. 828. Despite.

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w w w The  Roman  Monarchy, being the Fourth and last, beginning, Anno Mundi 3213 Stout Romulus, Rome’s Founder and first King, Whom vestal Rhea into th’ world did bring. His Father was not Mars, as some devised, But Amulius, in Armor all disguised. Thus he deceived his Niece, she might not know The double injury he then did do.829 Where Shepherds once had cotes and Sheep their Folds, Where Swains and rustic Peasants made their Holds, A City fair did Romulus erect, The Mistress of the World, in each respect. His Brother Remus there by him was slain For leaping o’ er the Walls with some disdain.830 The Stones at first was cemented with blood, And bloody hath it proved, since first it stood. This City built, and Sacrifices done, A form of Government he next begun. A hundred Senators he likewise chose, And with the style of Patres831 honored those. His City to replenish, men he wants. Great privileges then to all he grants That will within these strong built walls reside, And this new gentle Government abide. Of Wives there was so great a scarcity, They to their neighbors sue for a supply, But all disdain alliance then to make, So Romulus was forced this course to take: Great shows he makes at Tilt and Tournament; To see these sports the Sabines832 all are bent; Their Daughters by the Romans then were caught; For to recover them, a Field was fought. But in the end, to final peace they come,

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829. Ralegh chooses this option as the most likely among those offered by Plutarch (History 2.24.5). 830. Bradstreet draws the details of Rome’s organization through Romulus’s death from Plutarch’s life of Romulus (Lives, 1.91–187). 831. Fathers. 832. Members of a tribe near Rome.

204 ANNE BRADSTREET And Sabines, as one people, dwelt in Rome. The Romans now more potent ’gin to grow, And Fedinates833 they wholly overthrow. But Romulus then comes unto his end, Some feigning say, to heaven he did ascend;834 Others, the seven and thirtieth of his reign Affirm that by the Senate he was slain. Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius is next chosen King, Held for his Piety some sacred thing. To Janus he that famous Temple built, Kept shut in peace, but ope when blood was spilt.835 Religious Rites and Customs instituted, And Priests and Flamens836 likewise he deputed, Their Augurs837 strange, their habit and attire, And vestal Maids838 to keep the holy fire. Goddess Egeria839 this to him told, So to delude the people he was bold.840 Forty-three years he ruled with general praise, Accounted for some god in after days.

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Tullus Hostilius Tullus Hostilius was third Roman King, Who Martial Discipline in use did bring.841 War with the ancient Albans he doth wage; The strife to end, six Brothers do engage. Three called Horatii on Roman’s side, 55 And Curiatii three Albans provide. The Romans Conquereth; others yield the day, Yet for their compact after false they play. 833. Inhabitants of a town near Rome in ancient Latium. 834. Reported in Plutarch’s life of Numa Pompilius (Lives, 1.307–83). 835. Bradstreet uses Plutarch’s life for the details of Numa’s reign (Lives, 1.307–83). 836. A priest dedicated to a particular deity. 837. Either the act of interpreting signs or the official doing the interpretation. 838. Virgins dedicated to serving the goddess Vesta by maintaining her sacred fire. 839. A nymph living in a local spring whom legend says became Numa Pompilius’s consort and advisor. 840. Plutarch presents this story respectfully (Lives, 1.317). 841. Information about Tullus’s reign comes from Ralegh, History 2.27.6.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 205 The Romans, sore incensed, their General slay, And from old Alba fetch the wealth away. Of Latin Kings this was long since the Seat, But now demolishèd to make Rome great. Thirty-two years doth Tullus reign, then die, Leaves Rome in wealth and power still growing high. Ancus Martius Next Ancus Martius sits upon the Throne, Nephew unto Pompilius dead and gone. Rome he enlarged, new built again the wall, Much stronger and more beautiful withal.842 A stately Bridge he over Tiber made; Of Boats and Oars no more they need the aid. Faire Ostia he built. This Town, it stood Close by the mouth of famous Tiber flood. Twenty-four year, th’ time of his royal race, Then unto death unwillingly gives place.

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Tarquinius Priscus Tarquin, a Greek at Corinth born and bred, 75 Who for sedition from his Country fled, Is entertained at Rome and, in short time, By wealth and favor doth to honor climb. He after Martius’ death the Kingdom had. A hundred Senators he more did add.843 80 Wars with the Latins he again renews And Nations twelve of Tuscany subdues. To such rude triumphs as young Rome then had, Much state and glory did this Priscus844 add. Thirty-eight years (this Stranger born) did reign, 85 And after all, by Ancus’ Sons was slain. Servius Tullius Next, Servius Tullius sits upon the Throne, Ascends not up by merits of his own, But by the favor and the special grace 842. Ralegh, History 4.7.1. 843. Ralegh, History 4.7.1 844. Tarquin the Elder’s full name was Lucius Tarquinius Priscus.

206 ANNE BRADSTREET Of Tanaquil, late Queen, obtains the place.845 90 He ranks the people into each degree, As wealth had made them of ability, A general Muster takes, which by account To eighty-thousand souls then did amount. Forty-four years did Servius Tullius reign, 95 And then by Tarquin, Priscus’ Son, was slain. Tarquinius Superbus, the last Roman King Tarquin the proud, from manners callèd so, Sat on the Throne when he had slain his foe. Sextus his Son doth (most unworthily) Lucretia force, mirror of chastity. She loathèd so the fact, she loathed her life And shed her guiltless blood with guilty knife.846 Her Husband sore incensed, to quit this wrong With Junius Brutus rose and, being strong, The Tarquins they from Rome with speed expel, In banishment perpetual to dwell. The Government they change; a new one bring, And people swear, ne’ er to accept of King. The end of the Roman Monarchy, being the fourth and last.

845. Ralegh, History 4.7.1. 846. Ralegh, History 4.7.1

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w w w A Dialogue between Old England and New, concerning their present troubles, Anno 1642 New England Alas, dear Mother,847 fairest Queen and best, With honor, wealth, and peace, happy and blest, What ails thee hang thy head and cross thine arms And sit i’ th’ dust to sigh these sad alarms? What deluge of new woes thus overwhelm The glories of thy ever-famous Realm? What means this wailing tone, this mourning guise? Ah, tell thy Daughter, she may sympathize.

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Old England Art ignorant indeed of these my woes, Or must my forcèd tongue these griefs disclose? 10 And must my self dissect my tattered state, Which ’mazèd Christendom848 stands wond’ring at? And thou a child, a Limb, and dost not feel My weakened fainting body now to reel? This Physic-purging potion I have taken 15 Will bring Consumption849 or an Ague850 quaking, Unless some Cordial851 thou fetch from high, Which present help may ease this malady. If I decease, dost think thou shalt survive, Or by my wasting state, dost think to thrive?852 20 Then weigh our case, if ’t be not justly sad, Let me lament alone, while thou art glad. 847. England. The country and her colony are personified here as mother and daughter. Internal evidence suggests a date of composition before 1645, as Old England refers to Archbishop Laud’s imprisonment, which began in late 1641, but not his execution, which took place in 1645, and New England encourages the Earl of Essex as military leader, but he suffered a significant defeat in 1644 and resigned his commission in 1645. 848. An archaic term for the Christian West. 849. A wasting disease. 850. A fever with chills. 851. A medicinal liquid. 852. At this point in time Massachusetts Bay Colony was a tiny enterprise heavily dependent on support from and trade with England.

208 ANNE BRADSTREET New England And thus, alas, your state you much deplore, In general terms, but will not say wherefore. What Medicine shall I seek to cure this woe? If th’ wound’s so dangerous I may not know. But you perhaps would have me guess it out. What, hath some Hengist,853 like that Saxon stout, By fraud, and force, usurped thy flow’ring crown, And by tempestuous Wars thy fields trod down, Or hath Canutus, that brave valiant Dane,854 The regal, peaceful Scepter from thee ta’en, Or is’t a Norman855 whose victorious hand With English blood bedews thy conquered Land, Or is’t intestine Wars that thus offend? Do Maud and Stephen for the Crown contend?856 Do Barons rise and side against their King And call in Foreign aid to help the thing?857 Must Edward be deposed,858 or is’t the hour That second Richard must be clapped i’ th’ Tower,859 Or is the fatal jar again begun That from the red, white pricking Roses sprung?860 Must Richmond’s861 aid the Nobles now implore,

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The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 209 To come and break the tushes of the Boar?862 If none of these, dear Mother, what’s your woe? Pray, do not fear Spain’s bragging Armado?863 Doth your Ally, fair France, conspire your wrack, Or doth the Scots play false behind your back? Doth Holland quit you ill, for all your love? Whence is this storm, from Earth or Heaven above? Is’t Drought, is’t Famine, or is’t Pestilence? Dost feel the smart, or fear the consequence? Your humble Child entreats you, show your grief, Though Arms nor Purse she hath for your relief. Such is her poverty, yet shall be found A suppliant for your help, as she is bound.

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Old England I must confess, some of those Sores you name My beauteous Body at this present maim, But foreign Foe nor feignèd friend I fear, For they have work enough (thou know’st) elsewhere,864 60 Nor is it Alcie’s Son and Henry’s Daughter865 Whose proud contention cause this slaughter, Nor Nobles siding to make John no King French Lewis unjustly to the Crown to bring,866 No Edward, Richard, to lose rule and life, 65 Nor no Lancastrians to renew old strife. No Crook-backed Tyrant867 now usurps the Seat, Whose tearing tusks did wound and kill and threat, No Duke of York nor Earl of March868 to soil 862. Tusks. Richard III of England used the white boar as his symbol. 863. England defeated and dispersed the Spanish Armada in 1588. 864. Old England refers to what is now called the Thirty Years’ War. Begun in 1618, this conflict pitted Protestant against Catholic states, caused widespread destruction and famine, and involved all European countries. 865. Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., and Allan P. Robb, eds., identify this couple as Stephen and Maud in The Complete Works of Anne Bradstreet (Boston: Twayne, 1981): 513. The name Alice derives from Adelis; Stephen’s mother’s name was Adela. 866. During their conflict with King John, the barons appealed for aid to Prince Louis of France, who had a claim to the English throne through his mother, a granddaughter of Henry II. 867. Richard III’s reputation as a “crookback” was meant to carry over to his moral character. His skeleton, excavated in 2012 and identified through DNA forensic testing, indicates scoliosis of the spine. 868. Richard Plantagenet (1411–60), third Duke of York, and Edmund de Mortimer (1391–1425), fifth Earl of March, were both great-grandsons of Edward III and so claimants to the throne of England

210 ANNE BRADSTREET Their hands in Kindred’s blood, whom they did foil. No need of Tudor Roses to unite; None knows which is the Red, or which the White.869 Spain’s braving Fleet a second time is sunk;870 France knows how of my fury she hath drunk. By Edward third and Henry fifth of fame, Her Lilies in mine Arms avouch the same.871 My Sister Scotland hurts me now no more, Though she hath been injurious heretofore. What Holland is, I am in some suspense, But trust not much unto his Excellence. For wants, sure some I feel, but more I fear, And for the Pestilence, who knows how near? Famine and Plague, two sisters of the Sword, Destruction to a Land doth soon afford. They’re for my punishments ordained on high, Unless thy tears prevent it speedily.872 But yet, I answer not what you demand: To show the grievance of my troubled Land. Before I tell the effect, I’ll show the cause, Which are my Sins, the breach of sacred Laws: Idolatry, supplanter of a Nation, With foolish superstitious adoration, And liked and countenanced by men of might. The Gospel is trod down and hath no right; Church Offices are sold and bought for gain,

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during the War of the Roses. 869. Henry Tudor resolved the War of the Roses by marrying Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the two warring branches of the Plantagenet family. By the seventeenth century, the two families were indistinguishable. 870. A fleet called “the second Spanish armada” was blown off course, with substantial losses, on an expedition to invade England in 1596. 871. Edward III of England was a grandson of Philip III of France. Henry V, Edward III’s great-grandson, married Catherine de Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France. As a result, the English monarchy uses lilies, the symbol of France, in its coat of arms. 872. Old England suggests that New England’s tears, and presumably prayers, might alleviate her woe by intervening with God on her behalf. Puritan congregations frequently held fasts and days of humiliation to influence divine will. On July 23, 1640, for example, the churches in Massachusetts Bay Colony held such a day “in behalf of our Native Country in time of feared dangers.” William Hooke, New England’s Tears, for Old England’s Fears (London: Printed by T. P. for John Rothwell and Henry Overton, 1641), title page.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 211 That Pope had hope to find Rome here again.873 For Oaths and Blasphemies, did ever ear From Beelzebub874 himself such language hear? What scorning of the Saints of the most high,875 What injuries did daily on them lie, What false reports, what nicknames did they take,876 Not for their own, but for their Master’s sake. And thou,877 poor soul, wast jeered among the rest. Thy flying for the Truth878 I made a jest. For Sabbath-breaking and for Drunkenness Did ever Land profaneness more express? From crying bloods yet cleansèd am not I, Martyrs and others dying causelessly.879 How many Princely heads on blocks laid down For naught, but title to a fading Crown? ’Mongst all the cruelties which I have done, Oh, Edward’s Babes, and Clarence’s hapless Son.880 O Jane, why didst thou die in flow’ring prime Because of Royal Stem that was thy crime.881 For Bribery, Adultery, for Thefts and Lies, Where is the Nation I can’t paralyze? With Usury, Extortion, and Oppression, These be the Hydra’s882 of my stout transgression. These be the bitter fountains, heads, and roots,

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873. The corrupt state of the Anglican church might encourage the Pope that Protestantism will fail. 874. A name for the devil. 875. Reformed Protestants referred to any believing church member as a saint. 876. Nicknames included Puritan, a pejorative term for a person wanting to purify church practice. 877. New England, England’s interlocutor, more particularly represents Massachusetts Bay Colony. 878. Christian religious principles. New England, but more particularly Massachusetts, was colonized by English Puritans who sought to worship and to organize both church and state according to New Testament models. See historical overview in the introduction to this volume. 879. During the reigns of Queen Mary, the Catholic state murdered Protestants; during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Protestant state murdered Catholics. See Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (London: Printed by Day, 1563) for the Protestant view of this conflict. 880. During the reign of Richard III, Edward IV’s young sons died under mysterious circumstances in the Tower of London and Edward of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence, was executed as his father had been. None of these deaths was related to disagreements about religion. 881. Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554) was chosen by her cousin Edward VI as his Protestant successor. She reigned for nine days before being deposed and executed by Edward’s sister Mary, a Catholic. 882. A mythological serpent with many heads.

212 ANNE BRADSTREET Whence flowed the source, the sprigs, the boughs, and fruits. 120 Of more than thou canst hear or I relate, That with high hand I still did perpetrate. For these were threat’nèd the woeful day.883 I mocked the Preachers, put it far away. The Sermons yet upon recòrd do stand 125 That cried destruction to my wicked Land. These Prophets’ mouths (alas the while) was stopped Unworthily, some backs whipped and ears cropped.884 Their reverend cheeks did bear the glorious marks885 Of stinking, stigmatizing, Romish886 Clerks. 130 Some lost their livings,887 some in prison pent, Some grossly fined from friends888 to exile went. Their silent tongues to heaven did vengeance cry, Who889 heard their cause and wrongs judged righteously And will repay it sevenfold in my lap: 135 This is forerunner of my after clap.890 Nor took I warning by my neighbors’ falls.891 I saw sad Germany’s dismantled walls. I saw her people famished, Nobles slain, Her fruitful land a barren heath remain. 140 I saw (unmoved) her Armies foiled and fled, Wives forced, babes tossed, her houses calcinèd.892 I saw strong Rochel893 yielding to her foe, 883. A day of reckoning for religious sins, prophesied by Christians whom Old England, as she admits in the next sentence, mocked. 884. Common punishments. Magistrates used cutting off the ears as visible reminders of a person’s sedition, heresy, or other serious rebellion. 885. Branding also provided a visible reminder of the person’s transgression. 886. A pejorative adjective for someone who is, or who is like, a Catholic. A clerk is a government or ecclesiastical functionary. 887. Anglican clergy received their income through the tithe (or 10 percent tax) levied on the inhabitants of their parish. 888. Leaving behind their friends. 889. Heaven. 890. Later calamities. 891. In the following lines, England describes the effects of the wars of religion. See note 864 to line 60 of this poem. 892. Reduced to ash. 893. Protestant Hugenots resisted a siege at La Rochelle, France, for fourteen months in 1627–28 before surrendering to Catholic royal forces. Twenty-two thousand people, more than eighty percent

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 213 Thousands of starvèd Christians there also. I saw poor Ireland bleeding out her last, Such cruelty as all reports have past.894 My heart obdurate stood not yet aghast. Now sip I of that cup, and just ’t may be: The bottom dregs895 reservèd are for me. New England To all you’ve said, sad mother, I assent: Your fearful sins great cause there’s to lament. My guilty hands (in part) hold up with you, A sharer in your punishment’s my due. But all you say amounts to this effect, Not what you feel, but what you do expect. Pray in plain terms, what is your present grief? Then let’s join heads and hands for your relief. Old England Well, to the matter then, there’s grown of late ’Twixt King and Peers a question of state: Which is the chief, the law or else the King? One saith it’s he, the other no such thing. My better part in Court of Parliament To ease my groaning land show their intent, To crush the proud and right to each man deal, To help the Church and stay896 the Common-Weal. So many obstacles comes in their way As puts me to a stand what I should say. Old customs, new Prerogatives stood on, Had they not held law fast, all had been gone, Which by their prudence stood them in such stead: They took high Strafford897 lower by the head,

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of the population, died of deprivation during the siege. 894. In the early 1640s, in response to anti-Catholic sentiments in the English Parliament and encouraged by the outbreak of the English Civil War, Irish Catholics rebelled against English rule, killing and displacing Protestant settlers and establishing Catholic home rule known as Confederate Ireland. Contemporary pamphlets wildly exaggerated the numbers of Protestants slain. 895. The bitterest portion. 896. Secure or support. 897. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (1593–1641), was loyal to Charles I and an ally of Archbishop Laud. The Long Parliament, having failed to convict him of treason for “high misdemeanors” during

214 ANNE BRADSTREET And to their Laud be’t spoke, they held i’ th’ Tower.898 All England’s Metropolitan899 that hour. This done, an Act they would have passèd fain, No prelate should his Bishopric retain.900 175 Here tugged they hard indeed, for all men saw, This must be done by Gospel, not by law. Next the Militia they urgèd sore.901 This was denied, I need not say wherefore. The King displeased, at York himself absents.902 180 They humbly beg return, show their intents. The writing, printing, posting to and fro, Shows all was done; I’ll therefore let it go. But now I come to speak of my disaster. Contention’s grown ’twixt Subjects and their Master. 185 They worded it so long, they fell to blows, That thousands lay on heaps.903 Here bleeds my woes. I that no wars so many years have known Am now destroyed and slaughtered by mine own. But could the field alone this cause decide, 190 One battle, two, or three I might abide, But these may be beginnings of more woe. his time as Lord Deputy of Ireland, declared him a danger to the state and had him executed in 1641 on a bill of attainder. 898. William Laud (1573–1645) worked as Archbishop of Canterbury to suppress the Protestant reform movement, to secure episcopal power, and to keep the Anglican church fully under the control of the monarchy. He was placed under arrest in late 1640 but not imprisoned in the Tower of London until February or early March 1641. The expression “to their Laud” uses the man’s name as a pun on praises, suggesting that Old England approves of his arrest. That Old England does not mention that Laud was beheaded in January 1645 suggests that Bradstreet completed the poem before that news reached Massachusetts. 899. “Metropolitan” is the term for a bishop who supervises others; used ironically, as here, to refer to someone (the populace itself) wielding supreme power. 900. In 1642 Parliament passed the Bishops Exclusion Bill, which prevented bishops from serving in the House of Lords or on the Privy Council. It invokes “Ministerie being of such great importance that it will take up the whole man” as the reason to revoke bishops’ political power. 901. This ordinance (1642), authorizing Parliament to appoint lieutenants to command militias, was the first act of Parliament enacted without royal assent. Parliament then used the militias to counter Royalist forces. 902. Charles was at York during the summer and fall of 1640. He had traveled north to command his armies against the Scots. 903. The first battle of the English Civil War took place at Edgehill, in Warwickshire, on October 23, 1642. The first Civil War lasted until the capture of King Charles in 1645. Casualty figures for this period are inconclusive, but death, destruction, and social disruption were substantial.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 215 Who knows, the worst the best may overthrow. Religion, Gospel, here lies at the stake. Pray now, dear child, for sacred Zion’s sake.904 195 Oh, pity me, in this sad perturbation, My plundered Towns, my houses’ devastation, My ravished virgins and my young men slain, My wealthy trading fall’n, my dearth of grain. The seed time’s come, but Ploughman hath no hope, 200 Because he knows not who shall in905 his crop. The poor they want their pay, their children bread, Their woeful mother’s tears unpitièd. If any pity in thy heart remain, Or any child-like love thou dost retain, 205 For my relief now use thy utmost skill, And recompense me good, for all my ill. New England Dear mother, cease complaints and wipe your eyes. Shake off your dust, cheer up, and now arise. You are my mother, nurse; I once your flesh. 210 Your sunken bowels gladly would refresh. Your griefs I pity much, but should do wrong To weep for that we both have prayed for long. To see these latter days of hoped for good, That Right may have its right, though’t be with blood. 215 After dark Popery906 the day did clear, But now the Sun in’s brightness shall appear. Blessed be the Nobles of thy Noble Land, With ventured lives for truth’s defense that stand. Blest be thy Commons,907 who for Common good 220 And thine infringèd Laws have boldly stood. Blessed be thy Counties which do aid thee still With hearts and states to testify their will. Blessed be thy Preachers, who do cheer thee on. O cry, the sword of God and Gideon.908 225 904. Old England uses Zion spiritually, to stand for the true church and Christian community. 905. Bring in. 906. A pejorative term for Catholicism. 907. The House of Commons. 908. A Hebrew military leader who on God’s command and with only three hundred men routed the Midianite army and killed its princely leaders (Judges 7).

216 ANNE BRADSTREET And shall I not on those wish Mero’s curse909 That help thee not with prayers, arms, and purse, And for myself, let miseries abound, If mindless of thy state I e’ er be found. These are the days, the Church’s foes to crush, To root out Prelates,910 head, tail, branch, and rush.911 Let’s bring Baal’s912 vestments out to make a fire, Their Miters, Surplices, and all their ’tire, Copes, Rochets, Crosiers, and such trash,913 And let their names consume, but let the flash Light Christendom, and all the world to see, We hate Rome’s Whore,914 with all her trumpery.915 Go on brave Essex,916 show whose son thou art, Not false to King nor Country in thy heart. But those that hurt his people and his Crown By force expel, destroy, and tread them down. Let Jails be filled with th’ remnant of that pack And sturdy Tyburn917 loaded ’til it crack, And ye brave Nobles, chase away all fear, And to this blessed Cause closely adhere. O mother, can you weep, and have such Peers? When they are gone, then drown yourself in tears. If now you weep so much, that then no more The briny Ocean will o’ erflow your shore. These, these are they (I trust) with Charles our King, Out of all mists such glorious days will bring,

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909. In Judges 5, the prophet Deborah reports an angel of the Lord cursing Meroz for failing to fight for God’s cause (Judges 5:23). 910. Church officials of high rank. Possibly a reference to the Root and Branch petition of 1640, which sought to abolish the episcopal organization of church governance. 911. In its entirety. 912. A false god from Hebrew scripture. Bradstreet accuses Anglican clergy, with their rituals and vestments, of worshipping a false god, or worshipping idolatrously. 913. Vestments worn by priests. A mitre is a hat. Surplices and rochets are loose linen gowns with wide sleeves. A cope is a long cape. A crosier is the staff a bishop carries. 914. The Catholic church. 915. Superstitious paraphernalia. 916. Robert Devereux, the third Earl of Essex (1591–1646), commanded the Parliamentary forces against the king from 1642 to 1645, when he resigned his commission after his defeat at Lostwithiel in Cornwall in 1644. 917. The gallows outside of London where traitors, along with other criminals, were hanged.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 217 That dazzled eyes beholding much shall wonder At that thy settled Peace, thy wealth and splendor, Thy Church and Weal established in such manner That all shall joy that thou displayedst thy banner And discipline erected, so I trust, That nursing Kings shall come and lick thy dust. Then Justice shall in all thy Courts take place Without respect of persons or of case. Then bribes shall cease, and suits shall not stick long, Patience and purse of Clients for to wrong. Then High Commissions918 shall fall to decay, And Pursuivants919 and Catchpoles920 want their pay. So shall thy happy Nation ever flourish When truth and righteousness they thus shall nourish When thus in Peace thine Armies brave send out To sack proud Rome921 and all her vassals rout. There let thy name, thy fame, thy valor shine, As did thine Ancestor’s in Palestine, And let her spoils full pay with int’rest be, Of what unjustly once she polled from thee.922 Of all the woes thou canst let her be sped. Execute to th’ full the vengeance threatenèd. Bring forth the beast that ruled the world923 with’s beck924 And tear his flesh and set your feet on’s neck, And make his filthy den so desolate To th’ ’stonishment of all that knew his state. This done, with brandished swords to Turkey go925 (For then what is’t, but English blades dare do) And lay her waste, for so’s the sacred doom,

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918. The supreme Anglican ecclesiastical court, focused on controlling sectaries. 919. A court officer who executes arrest warrants, in this case, for violating ecclesiastical laws. 920. A bailiff collecting fines, here for failure to pay tithes or fines imposed for not attending church. 921. The Papacy, not the city or state. 922. Before the English church broke from Rome under Henry VIII, the country would have paid tithes to Rome. 923. Protestants associated the Church of Rome with the woman in scarlet and with the great beast she rides in Revelation 17. The chapter predicts that the beast will be torn and eaten. 924. Two meanings could work here: the beast’s gesture, as in the phrase “beck and call,” or the beast’s beak. 925. New England urges that England, having defeated Roman Catholicism, undertake a crusade against Islam.

218 ANNE BRADSTREET And do to Gog,926 as thou hast done to Rome. Oh, Abraham’s seed lift up your heads on high.927 For sure the day of your redemption’s nigh. The scales shall fall from your long-blinded eyes,928 And him you shall adore who now despise. Then fullness of the Nations in shall flow, And Jew and Gentile to one worship go.929 Then follows days of happiness and rest. Whose lot doth fall to live therein is blessed. No Canaanite930 shall then be found i’ th’ land, And holiness on horses’ bells shall stand.931 If this make way thereto, then sigh no more, But if at all, thou didst not see’t before. Farewell, dear mother. Parliament, prevail, And in a while you’ll tell another tale.

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926. In Hebrew and Christian scripture, Gog represents the heathen (Ezekiel 38 and 39, Revelation 20:8). 927. Reformed Christians identified themselves as the New Israel. 928. An image of enlightenment. See Acts 9:18 where the scales fall from Saul’s eyes and he becomes Paul the apostle. 929. In Revelation 7:9, a great multitude from all nations worship God. A gentile is any person who is not a Jew. 930. The original non-Hebrew inhabitants of Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham. 931. A vision of God’s rule over the earth (Zechariah 14:20).

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w w w An Elegy932 upon that Honorable and renowned Knight, Sir Philip Sidney, who was untimely slain at the Siege of Zutphen, Anno 1586933 By A. B. in the year 1638 When England did enjoy her Halcyon days,934 Her noble Sidney wore the Crown of Bays,935 No less an Honor to our British Land, Than she936 that swayed the Scepter with her hand. Mars937 and Minerva938 did in one agree, 5 Of Arms and Arts, thou should’st a pattern be. Calliope939 with Terpsichore940 did sing; Of Poesy941 and of Music thou wert King. Thy Rhetoric it struck Polyhymnia942 dead; Thine Eloquence made Mercury943 wax red; 10 Thy Logic from Euterpe944 won the Crown. More worth was thine than Clio945 could set down.

932. For a discussion of the Renaissance tradition of the public elegy and Bradstreet’s relation to it, see Julia Penn Delacroix, “Sparing Fame: Anne Bradstreet’s Elegiac Consolations,” Legacy 32, no. 1 (2015): 1–30. 933. Philip (born in 1554) was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley. Philip was well-connected through his mother, who was daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (Grand Master of the Household for the young Edward VI), and sister to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth’s. His sister Mary married Henry Herbert, the second Earl of Pembroke. An accomplished writer, Philip seemed to excel at everything he did. 934. A time of calm and peace; in this case, the reign of Elizabeth I (November 1558–March 1603). 935. The wreath given a victor in battle or in a poetic competition. 936. Queen Elizabeth. 937. The Roman god of war. 938. The Roman goddess of wisdom. 939. The Greek muse of epic poetry. 940. The Greek muse of music and dance. 941. Poetry. 942. The Greek muse of sacred poetry and hymnody. 943. A Greek god associated with poetry and eloquence, among many other qualities. That the god waxes red suggests he is jealous of Sidney’s abilities. 944. The Greek muse of lyric poetry. 945. The Greek muse of history.

220 ANNE BRADSTREET Thalia946 and Melpomene,947 say th’ truth (Witness Arcadia,948 penned in his youth), Are not his Tragic Comedies so acted, 15 As if your nine-fold wit had been compacted To show the world they never saw before That this one Volume should exhaust your store? I praise thee not for this; it is unfit. This was thy shame, O miracle of wit. 20 Yet doth thy shame (with all) purchase renown, What do thy virtues then? Oh, honor’s crown! In all records, thy Name I ever see Put with an Epithet of dignity, Which shows thy worth was great, thine honor such, 25 The love thy Country owed949 thee was as much. Let then none disallow of these my strains,950 Which have the self-same blood yet in my veins,951 Who honors thee for what was honorable, But leaves the rest as most unprofitable. 30 Thy wiser days condemned thy witty works. Who knows the Spells that in thy Rhetoric lurks? But some infatuate fools soon caught therein Found Cupid’s Dam952 had never such a Gin,953 Which makes severer eyes but scorn thy Story, 35 And modest Maids and Wives blush at thy glory. Yet he’s a beetle head954 that can’t descry A world of treasure in that rubbish lie And doth thy self, thy work, and honor wrong (O brave Refiner of our British Tongue) 40 That sees not learning, valor, and morality, Justice, friendship, and kind hospitality, 946. The Greek muse of comedy. 947. The Greek muse of tragedy. 948. A prose romance, interspersed with poetry, published posthumously, that Sidney worked on from some time in the late 1570s until his death in 1586. 949. The text reads “ought.” 950. Verses. 951. Bradstreet’s grandfather, Roger Dudley, appears to have been from a collateral branch of the Dudley family and to have served Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as a captain in the militia. 952. The Roman goddess Venus. 953. A trap or snare. 954. An epithet applied to stupid people.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 221 Yea, and Divinity within thy Book. Such were prejudicate,955 and did not look. But to say truth, thy worth I shall but stain: 45 Thy fame and praise is far beyond my strain. Yet great Augustus was content (we know) To be saluted by a silly Crow.956 Then let such Crows as I, thy praises sing. A Crow’s a Crow, and Caesar is a King. 50 O brave Achilles,957 I wish some Homer958 would Engrave on Marble in characters of Gold What famous feats thou didst on Flander’s coast,959 Of which, this day, faire Belgia doth boast. O Zutphen, Zutphen, that most fatal City, 55 Made famous by thy fall, much more’s the pity. Ah, in his blooming prime, death plucked this Rose; E’ er he was ripe; his thread cut Atropos.960 Thus man is born to die, and dead is he. Brave Hector by the walls of Troy we see.961 60 Oh, who was near thee but did sore repine962 He rescued not with life that life of thine. But yet impartial Death this Boon963 did give: Though Sidney died, his valiant name should live, And live it doth, in spite of death, through fame. 65 Thus being overcome, he overcame. Where is that envious tongue, but can afford Of this our noble Scipio964 some good word?

955. Prejudiced or close-minded. 956. According to Isaac Disraeli, a Roman, hoping to curry favor with whoever won power, trained two crows, one to salute Augustus as emperor, the other to salute Antony. Curiosities of literature: Consisting of Anecdotes, Characters, and Observations, Literary, Critical, and Historical, 474–76. I have been unable to locate Bradstreet’s source for this anecdote. 957. The Greek warrior immortalized in Homer’s Iliad. 958. The poet to whom are ascribed the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. 959. Zutphen, where Sidney was fatally wounded, is in Flanders, now part of Belgium. 960. The Fate who snips the thread of life. 961. Achilles killed Hector, prince of Troy, outside the walls of Troy after Hector killed Achilles’s friend Patroclus, who was disguised in Achilles’s armor. 962. Express distress. 963. Gift. 964. The Roman general who defeated Hannibal during the Second Punic War.

222 ANNE BRADSTREET Noble Bartas,965 this to thy praise adds more: In sad, sweet verse, thou didst his death deplore. Illustrious Stella,966 thou didst thine full well If thine aspect was mild to Astrophel. I fear thou wert a Comet,967 did portend Such prince as he his race should shortly end. If such Stars as these, sad presages be, I wish no more such Blazers we may see. But thou art gone. Such Meteors never last, And as thy beauty, so thy name would wast, But that it is record by Philip’s hand968 That such an omen once was in our land. O Princely Philip, rather Alexander,969 Who wert of honor’s band the chief Commander, How could that Stella so confine thy will To wait ’til she her influence distil? I rather judged thee of his mind that wept To be within the bounds of one world kept,970 But Omphala set Hercules to spin,971 And Mars himself was ta’n by Venus’ gin. Then wonder less, if warlike Philip yield, When such a Hero shoots him out o’ th’ field. Yet this preeminence thou hast above,

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965. Guillaume Du Bartas, Frenchman, author of La Semaine, ou Création du Monde (1578), translated into English heroic couplets by Josuah Sylvester as The Divine Weeks of the World’s Birth (1604). 966. The pseudonym for Penelope Rich, the purported addressee in Sidney’s sonnet sequence. Although Sidney named his titular lover “Astrophel,” modern convention prefers “Astrophil.” 967. Bradstreet here develops an elaborate comparison between Stella, meaning “star,” and a comet whose appearance may have been an omen from heaven of Sidney’s early death. 968. Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, a sequence of 108 sonnets and 11 songs, tells the story of his ill-fated love for Penelope Devereux. 969. Bradstreet here seems to be punning on Philip Sidney’s sharing the name of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. Sidney is more like the son than like the father with whom he shares a first name. 970. According to tradition, Alexander the Great wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer. According to Plutarch, Alexander wept when his friend Anaxarchus raised the possibility that there are infinite worlds (Moralia, 6.179). Elsewhere Plutarch claims it was Caesar who wept when he heard of Alexander’s life (Lives, 7.469). Ralegh does not include this detail. 971. Omphale was Queen of Lydia. Hercules was condemned to serve her by doing women’s work for one year as punishment for having killed Iphitos, the son of the king of Oechalia.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 223 That thine was true, but theirs adult’rate love.972 Fain would I show how thou fame’s path didst tread, But now into such Lab’rinths am I led With endless turns, the way I find not out. For to persist, my muse is more in doubt, Calls me ambitious fool, that durst aspire. Enough for me to look, and so admire. And makes me now with Sylvester973 confess, But974 Sidney’s Muse can sing his worthiness. Too late my error see, that durst presume To fix my fal’tring lines upon his tomb, Which are in worth, as far short of his due, As Vulcan is, of Venus’ native hue.975 Goodwill did make my head-long pen to run, Like unwise Phaeton976 his ill-guided son, ’Til taught to ’s cost, for his too hasty hand, He left that charge by Phoebus to be manned. So proudly foolish I with Phaeton strive, Fame’s flaming Chariot for to drive. ’Til terror-struck for my too weighty charge I leave ’t in brief; Apollo do ’t at large. Apollo laughed to patch up what’s begun. He bade me drive, and he would hold the Sun. Better my hap, than was his darling’s fate, For dear regard he had of Sidney’s state, Who in his Deity had so deep share That those that name his fame, he needs must spare.977 He Promis’d much, but th’ muses had no will To give to their detractor978 any quill.

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972. Bradstreet seems to suggest that Sidney’s extramarital passion for Penelope Rich was not “adulterate” because unconsummated. 973. Josuah Sylvester included a brief paean to Sidney in the front matter to his 1605 translation of Du Bartas’s Divine Weeks and Works (B2). 974. Only. 975. Vulcan, the god of fire and metalwork, was married to Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Vulcan was such an ugly baby that his mother, Juno, threw him off Mount Olympus. 976. In Greek mythology, Helios, god of the sun, foolishly allowed his son Phaeton to drive his chariot for a day. When Phaeton lost control of the chariot, Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt to prevent Earth from being destroyed. 977. Bradstreet credits any success in her poem to the assistance of Apollo. 978. Bradstreet herself, who claims that her poem will not contribute to the Muses’s reputation.

224 ANNE BRADSTREET With high disdain, they said they gave no more, Since Sidney had exhausted all their store, That this contempt it did the more perplex In being done by one of their own sex. They took from me the scribbling pen I had. 125 I to be eased of such a task was glad. For to revenge his wrong, themselves engage And drove me from Parnassus979 in a rage, Not because sweet Sidney’s fame was not dear, But I had blemished theirs, to make ’t appear. 130 I pensive for my fault sat down, and then Errata980 through their leave threw me my pen. For to conclude my poem two lines they deign, Which writ, she bade return ’t to them again. So Sidney’s fame I leave to England’s Rolls, 135 His bones do lie interred in stately Paul’s.981 His Epitaph Here lies entombed in fame, under this stone, Philip and Alexander both in one.982 Heir to the Muses, the Son of Mars in truth, Learning, valor, beauty, all in virtuous youth. 140 His praise is much. This shall suffice my pen, That Sidney died the quintessence983 of men.

979. A mountain where the Muses live. 980. Errors. Bradstreet personifies this idea into a goddess. 981. St. Paul’s cathedral, London. 982. Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great. 983. The celestial, or fifth, essence latent in all things and extracted by distillation. Figuratively, the best.

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w w w In honor of Du Bartas,984 1641 A. B.

Amongst the happy wits this Age hath shown, Great, dear, sweet Bartas, thou art matchless known. My ravished985 eyes and heart with faltering tongue In humble wise have vowed their service long, But knowing th’ task so great and strength but small Gave o’ er the work, before begun withal. My dazzled sight of late reviewed thy lines, Where Art, and more than Art, in Nature shines. Reflection from their beaming altitude Did thaw my frozen heart’s ingratitude, Which Rays, darting upon some richer ground, Had causèd flowers and fruits soon to abound. But barren I, my Daisy here do bring, A homely flower in this my latter spring. If Summer or my Autumn age do yield Flowers, fruits, in garden, orchard, or in field, They shall be consecrated in my Verse And prostrate offered at great Bartas’ Hearse. My Muse unto a Child I fitly may compare, Who sees the riches of some famous Fair: He feeds his eyes, but understanding lacks To comprehend the worth of all those knacks. The glittering Plate986 and Jewels he admires, The Hats and Fans, the Plumes and Ladies tires,987 And thousand times his ’mazèd mind doth wish Some part, at least, of that brave wealth was his. But seeing empty wishes naught obtain, At night turns to his Mother’s cot988 again, And tells her tales (his full heart over-glad)

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984. Guillaume Du Bartas, Frenchman, author of La Semaine, ou Création du Monde (1578), translated into English by Josuah Sylvester as The Divine Weeks and Works (1605). 985. Entranced. 986. Tableware made of precious metals. 987. Outfits. 988. Small dwelling.

226 ANNE BRADSTREET Of all the glorious sights his eyes have had, But finds too soon his want of Eloquence. The silly Pratler speaks no word of sense And, seeing utterance fail his great desires, Sits down in silence. Deeply he admires.989 Thus weak brained I, reading thy lofty style, Thy profound Learning, viewing other while Thy Art in Natural Philosophy, Thy Saint-like mind in grave Divinity, Thy piercing skill in high Astronomy, And curious insight in Anatomy, Thy Physic,990 Music, and State policy, Valor in War, in Peace good Husbandry; Sure liberal Nature did with Art not small In all the Arts make thee most liberal.991 A thousand, thousand times my senseless Senses, Moveless, stand charmed by thy sweet influences. More senseless than the Stones to Amphion’s Lute,992 Mine eyes are sightless, and my tongue is mute. My full astonished heart doth pant to break; Through grief it wants a faculty to speak. Volleys of praises could I echo then, Had I an Angel’s voice, or Bartas’s pen, But wishes can’t accomplish my desire. Pardon, if I adore when I admire. O France, in him thou didst more glory gain Than in thy Pippin, Martell, Charlemagne,993 Than in Saint Louis994 or thy last Henry great,995 Who tamed his foes, in blood, in scars and sweat.

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989. Ponders with wonder. 990. Medical knowledge. 991. Free. With a pun on “liberal arts.” 992. According to mythology, Amphion, a son of Zeus by rape of Antiope, built the citadel in Thebes by playing his lyre so beautifully that the stones organized themselves into walls. 993. Pepin III (ca. 714–768), son of Charles Martel, was the first of the Frankish Carolingian kings. Charlemagne, Pepin’s son, became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 CE. 994. King of France from 1226 to 1270, Louis IX led two crusades and was canonized in 1297. 995. Henry IV of France (1553–1610) was raised a Calvinist by his mother, Jeanne D’Albret, Queen of Navarre, and fought for the Protestant cause in the Wars of Religion. He converted to Catholicism in order to become king of France but issued the Edict of Nantes (1598), which guaranteed religious freedom for Protestants.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 227 Thy fame is spread as far, I dare be bold, In all the Zones,996 the temp’rate, hot and cold. Their trophies were but heaps of wounded slain, Thine the quintessence997 of an Heroic brain. The Oaken garland998 ought to deck their brows; Immortal bays999 all men to thee allows Who in thy triumphs (never won by wrongs) Leadst millions chained by eyes, by ears, by tongues. Oft have I wondered at the hand of heaven In giving one, what would have servèd seven. If e’ er this golden gift was show’r’d on any, Thy double portion would have servèd many. Unto each man his riches are assigned, Of names, of state, of body, or of mind. Thou hast thy part of all, but of the last, Oh pregnant brain, Oh comprehension vast, Thy haughty style and rapted1000 wit sublime, All ages wond’ring at shall never climb. Thy sacred works are not for imitation, But monuments for future admiration. Thus Bartas’ fame shall last while stars do stand, And whilst there’s air or fire or sea or land. But lest my ignorance should do thee wrong, To celebrate thy merits in my Song, I’ll leave thy praise to those shall do thee right. Good will, not skill, did cause me bring my mite.1001

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His Epitaph. Here lies the pearl of France, Parnassus’ glory, 85 The world rejoiced at’s birth, at’s death was sorry. Art and Nature, joined by heaven’s high decree, 996. Areas of the Earth. 997. The celestial, or fifth, essence latent in all things and extracted by distillation. Figuratively, the best. 998. Roman soldiers who had performed feats of valor in battle received a garland of oak leaves, the corona civica. 999. A crown of bays (or laurel) adorned the brows of poets. 1000. Transported or inspired. 1001. A tiny amount. In Mark 12:42–44, Jesus comments that a poor widow who contributes two mites, or small coins, as a temple offering has given a greater gift than the wealthy donors, because she gave everything she had.

228 ANNE BRADSTREET Now showed what once they ought, Humanity. And Nature’s Law, had it been revocable, To rescue him from death Art had been able. 90 But Nature vanquished Art; so Bartas died. But Fame out-living both, he is revived.

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w w w In honor of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth, of most happy memory The Proem. Although great Queen, thou now in silence lie, Yet thy loud Herald1002 Fame doth to the sky Thy wondrous worth proclaim, in every clime, And so has vowed, whilst there is world, or time. So great’s thy glory and thine excellence, The sound thereof rapts every human sense, That men account it no impiety To say, thou wert a fleshly Deity. Thousands bring offerings (though out of date) Thy world of honors to accumulate. ’Mongst hundred Hecatombs1003 of roaring Verse, Mine bleating stands before thy royal Hearse. Thou never didst, nor canst thou now disdain T’accept the tribute of a loyal Brain. Thy clemency did erst1004 esteem as much The acclamations of the poor, as rich, Which makes me deem, my rudeness1005 is no wrong, Though I resound thy greatness ’mongst the throng.

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1002. A servant who alerts the crowd, through shouting or trumpeting, of the monarch’s approach. 1003. Originally, a hecatomb was the sacrificial offering of one hundred oxen; here the offerings are poems. 1004. Formerly, in the past. 1005. Lack of sophistication or learning.

230 ANNE BRADSTREET The Poem. No Phoenix1006 Pen, nor Spenser’s1007 Poetry, No Speed’s,1008 nor Camden’s1009 learnèd History, 20 Eliza’s works, wars, praise, can e’ er compact. The World’s the Theater where she did act. No memories nor volumes can contain The nine Olympiads1010 of her happy reign, Who was so good, so just, so learned, so wise, 25 From all the Kings on earth she won the prize. Nor say I more than duly is her due. Millions will testify that this is true. She hath wiped off th’aspersion of her Sex, That women wisdom lack to play the Rex. 30 Spain’s Monarch says not so, nor yet his Host; She taught them better manners to their cost.1011 The Salic Law1012 had not in force now been, If France had ever hoped for such a Queen. But can you Doctors now this point dispute? 35 She’s argument enough to make you mute. Since first the Sun did run, his ne’ er runned race, And earth had twice a year,1013 a new old face. Since time was time, and man unmanly man, Come show me such a Phoenix1014 if you can. 40 1006. A mythical bird that self-combusts and then rises from its own ashes. As this bird is one of a kind, a person possessing such a pen would be a singularly excellent writer. 1007. Edmund Spenser, author of the Faerie Queene (1590/1596), along with other poetic and prose works. That work honors Elizabeth both as Gloriana, the Fairy Queen of the title, and Belphoebe, a virtuous virginal character in the third book. 1008. John Speed (1552–1629), author of the History of Great Britain (1611) and a biblical genealogy, is better known today for his extensive maps, including his Prospects of the Most Famous Parts of the World (1627). 1009. William Camden (1551–1623), author of two large Latin histories—Britannia, a history of England from Roman times forward (English-language version 1610), and Annals, a history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (English-language version 1605), as well as a collection of historical essays in English, Remains of a Greater Work, Concerning England (1605). 1010. An Olympiad is the four-to-five-year period between Olympic Games. Elizabeth reigned for forty-five years. 1011. The English Navy destroyed the Spanish Armada in 1588. 1012. Salic law, which governed French inheritance, reserves succession to the throne to sons and to the offspring of male heirs only. 1013. Corrected in Several Poems to “once a year”; in other words, spring. 1014. Elizabeth, like the phoenix, is the only one of her kind.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 231 Was ever people better ruled then hers? Was ever Land more happy, freed from stirs? Did ever wealth in England so abound, Her Victories in foreign Coasts resound? Ships more invincible than Spain’s, her foe, 45 She racked, she sacked, she sunk his Armado. Her stately Troops advanced to Lisbon’s wall, Don Anthony in’s right for to install.1015 She frankly helped Franks’ brave, distressèd King.1016 The States united now her fame do sing.1017 50 She their Protectrix was. They well do know Unto our dread Virago1018 what they owe. Her Nobles sacrificed their noble blood, Nor men nor coin she spared to do them good. The rude untamèd Irish she did quell, 55 1019 And Tyrone bound before her picture fell. Had ever Prince such Counsellors as she? Her self, Minerva,1020 caused them so to be. Such Soldiers and such Captains never seen As were the subjects of our Pallas1021 Queen. 60 Her Seamen through all straits the world did round, Terra incognita1022 might know her sound. Her Drake1023 came laded home with Spanish gold; Her Essex took Cadiz,1024 their Herculean1025 hold. 1015. In 1589, England sent a fleet to Spain to replace Philip II with Antonio, Prior of Crato, and to establish control of the Azores and trade with the Americas. This expedition was not successful. 1016. Also in 1589, Elizabeth sent an army to France to support Henry of Navarre for the Protestant cause in the Wars of Religion. In 1563, he converted to Catholicism to succeed to the throne as Henry IV of France. 1017. Great Britain, comprising England, Scotland, and Wales. 1018. A heroic woman. 1019. In 1595, Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, initiated a rebellion against English rule in Ireland that did not end until his capture in 1603. 1020. Roman goddess of wisdom. 1021. An epithet applied to Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom. 1022. Unknown land. 1023. Sir Francis Drake (ca. 1540–1596), a sea captain who circumnavigated the globe, made his and England’s fortune by boarding and commandeering Spanish ships. 1024. Robert Devereux (1506–1601), the Earl of Essex, captured Cadiz during a naval campaign in 1596. 1025. The Strait of Gibraltar was also known as the Pillars of Hercules.

232 ANNE BRADSTREET But time would fail me, so my wit would to, To tell of half she did, or she could do. Semiramis1026 to her is but obscure. More infamy than fame she did procure: She placed her glory but on Babel’s walls,1027 World’s wonder for a time, but yet it falls. Fierce Tomris (Cyrus’ Headsman, Scythian’s Queen)1028 Had put her Harness off had she but seen Our Amazon1029 i’ th’ Camp at Tilbury1030 (Judging all valor, and all Majesty Within that Princess to have residence), And prostrate yielded to her Excellence. Dido1031 first Foundress of proud Carthage’ walls (Who living consummates her Funerals) A great Eliza, but compared with ours, How vanisheth her glory, wealth, and powers; Proud profuse Cleopatra,1032 whose wrong name Instead of glory proved her Country’s shame. Of her what worth in Story’s to be seen, But that she was a rich Egyptian Queen? Zenobia, potent Empress of the East, And of all these without compare the best (Whom none but great Aurelius could quell)1033 Yet for our Queen is no fit parallel.

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1026. An Assyrian queen from the ninth century BCE, reputed to be a great warrior, conqueror, and ruler. See “The Assyrian Monarchy,” lines 65ff, earlier in this volume. 1027. According to Diodorus (Library 1.373ff), Semiramis rebuilt Babylon, which Bradstreet conflates with Babel (Genesis 11). 1028. Tomyris, queen of the Scythians, defeated Cyrus the Great in battle in 530 BCE. According to legend, she beheaded Cyrus and submerged his head in a bucket of human blood. 1029. The Amazons were a legendary tribe of women dedicated to war. Elizabeth here replaces their leader Hippolyta. 1030. Elizabeth I gave a stirring speech at Tilbury shortly after the rout of the Spanish Armada. 1031. Founder and queen of Carthage. According to earlier accounts available only through a digest created by the historian Justin, Dido immolated herself on a funeral pyre for her husband in order to avoid a second marriage; according to Virgil’s Aeneid, she did so out of grief over Aeneas’s abandoning her. 1032. Queen of Egypt, who had liaisons with both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. She committed suicide after defeat at the Battle of Actium in 30 BCE. 1033. Zenobia, Regent of Syria, conquered Egypt in 270 CE, but when in 272 she declared her son emperor, the Roman armies besieged her capital in Palmyra. She was captured fleeing to Persia. Emperor Aurelian sent her to exile in Rome.

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 233 She was a Phoenix Queen. So shall she be. Her ashes not revived, more Phoenix she. 90 Her personal perfections who would tell Must dip his Pen i’ th’ Heliconian1034 Well, Which I may not. My pride doth but aspire To read what others write, and then admire. Now say, have women worth, or have they none? 95 Or had they some, but with our Queen is’t gone? Nay Masculines, you have thus taxed us long, But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong. Let such as say our sex is void of reason Know ’tis a slander now, but once was treason. 100 But happy England, which had such a Queen. O happy, happy, had those days still been. But happiness lies in a higher sphere. Then wonder not, Eliza moves not here. Full fraught with honor, riches, and with days, 105 She set, she set, like Titan1035 in his rays. No more shall rise or set such glorious Sun, Until the heaven’s great revolution.1036 If then new things, their old form must retain, Eliza shall rule Albion1037 once again. 110 Her Epitaph. Here sleeps THE Queen. This is the royal bed O’ th’ Damask Rose, sprung from the white and red,1038 Whose sweet perfume fills the all-filling air. This Rose is withered, once so lovely fair. On neither tree did grow such Rose before. 115 The greater was our gain, our loss the more. Another. Here lies the pride of Queens, pattern of Kings, So blaze it, fame. Here’s feathers for thy wings. 1034. Helicon is a mountain associated with the Muses. 1035. In Greek mythology, Helios, god of the sun, is a Titan, the offspring of the original gods. 1036. Judgment Day, which will inaugurate a new heaven and earth. 1037. An ancient name for Britain. 1038. The white rose represents the House of York; the red rose the House of Lancaster, both branches of the Plantagenet family. Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry Tudor (of the Lancastrian branch), united the two houses by marrying Elizabeth of York. Damask roses are pink.

234 ANNE BRADSTREET Here lies the envied, yet unparalleled Prince, Whose living virtues speak (though dead long since). If many worlds, as that fantastic framed, In every one, be her great glory famed. 1643

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w w w David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan, 2 Samuel 1:191039 Alas, slain is the head of Israel, Illustrious Saul, whose beauty did excel Upon thy places, mountainous and high. How did the mighty fall, and falling die? In Gath,1040 let not this thing be spoken on, 5 Nor published in streets of Askelon,1041 Lest Daughters of the Philistines rejoice, Lest the uncircumcised1042 lift up their voice. O! Gilbo Mounts,1043 let never pearlèd dew Nor fruitful show’rs your barren tops bestrew, 10 Nor fields of offerings ever on you grow, Nor any pleasant thing e’ er may you show. For the mighty ones did soon decay; The Shield of Saul was vilely cast away. There had his dignity so sore a foil,1044 15 As if his head ne’ er felt the sacred Oil.1045 Sometimes from crimson blood of ghastly slain, The bow of Jonathan ne’ er turned in vain, Nor from the fat and spoils of mighty men Did Saul with bloodless Sword turn back again. 20 Pleasant and lovely were they both in life, And in their deaths was found no parting strife. Swifter than swiftest Eagles, so were they, Stronger than Lions, ramping1046 for their prey. 1039. This poem is a versification of David’s lamentation over the deaths in battle of Saul, King of Israel, and Saul’s son Jonathan, David’s close friend from childhood, drawn from the King James (1611) English translation of the Bible, 2 Samuel 1:19–27. In the next chapter, David is anointed king. 1040. A city-state of the Philistines, enemies of the Israelites. 1041. Another Philistine city, on the Mediterranean coast. 1042. Non-Jews. Jews enact their commitment to their faith by circumcising male infants. 1043. The mountain range where Saul and Jonathan died, in what is now northern Israel. 1044. Humiliated by having been defeated in battle, the wounded Saul fell on his own sword (1 Samuel 31:4). In 2 Samuel, an Amalekite foolishly claimed that he slew Saul at Saul’s request and was promptly murdered at David’s command (2 Samuel 1:6–15). 1045. The coronation of Jewish kings involved being anointed with oil. 1046. Rearing up ferociously.

236 ANNE BRADSTREET O Israel’s Dames, o’ erflow your beauteous eyes 25 For valiant Saul, who on Mount Gilbo lies, Who clothèd you in cloth of richest dye And choice delights, full of variety, On your array put ornaments of gold, Which made you yet more beauteous to behold. 30 O! how in battle did the mighty fall, In midst of strength not succourèd at all? O! lovely Jonathan, how wert thou slain? In places high, full low thou dost remain. Distressed I am for thee, dear Jonathan. 35 Thy love was wonderful, passing a man, Exceeding all the Love that’s Feminine. So pleasant hast thou been, dear brother mine. How are the mighty fallen into decay, And war-like weapons perishèd away. 40

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) 237

w w w Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures As he said “vanity,” so vain say I.1047 O vanity, O vain all under sky. Where is the man can say, “lo, I have found “On brittle earth, a consolation sound”? What is ’t in honor to be set on high? No, they like beasts and sons of men shall die, And whilst they live, how oft doth turn their State? He’s now a slave that was a Prince of late. What is’t in wealth, great treasures for to gain? No, that’s but labor anxious, care and pain. He heaps up riches, and he heaps up sorrow. It’s his today, but who’s his heir tomorrow? What then, content in pleasures canst thou find? More vain than all, that’s but to grasp the wind. The sensual senses for a time they please. Meanwhile the conscience rage, who shall appease? What is’t in beauty? no, that’s but a snare, They’re foul enough today that once was fair. What, is’t in flow’ring youth or manly age? The first is prone to vice; the last to rage. Where is it then, in wisdom, learning, arts? Sure, if on earth, it must be in those parts. Yet these, the wisest man of men1048 did find But vanity, vexation of the mind,1049 And he that knows the most doth still bemoan, He knows not all, that here is to be known.1050 What is it then, to do as Stoics1051 tell, Nor laugh, nor weep, let things go ill or well?

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1047. The thesis of the book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to King Solomon: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). 1048. Solomon, king of Israel. 1049. A refrain in Ecclesiastes. All human activities and ambitions are “vanity and vexation of spirits” (Ecclesiastes 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 16; 6:9). 1050. Presumably Solomon, but also Socrates, who determined that he was, in fact, the wisest man because he understood his own ignorance. 1051. A philosophical school that advocated detached endurance.

238 ANNE BRADSTREET Such stoics are but stocks,1052 such teaching vain. While man is man, he shall have ease or pain. If not in honor, beauty, age, nor treasure, Nor yet in learning, wisdom, youth, nor pleasure, Where shall I climb, sound, seek, search, or find That summum Bonum1053 which may stay my mind? There is a path no vulture’s eye hath seen, Where lions fierce nor lion’s whelps hath been,1054 Which leads unto that living Chrystal fount,1055 Who drinks thereof, the world doth naught account. The depth and sea hath said, “it’s not in me.”1056 With pearl and gold it shall not valued be. For Sapphire, Onyx, Topaz, who will change?1057 It’s hid from eyes of men; they count it strange.1058 Death and destruction, the fame hath heard,1059 But where and what it is, from heaven’s declared. It brings to honor, which shall not decay; It steers with wealth, which time can’t wear away; It yieldeth pleasures, fair beyond conceit, And truly beautifies without deceit. Nor strength nor wisdom nor fresh youth shall fade, Nor death shall see, but are immortal made. This pearl of price,1060 this tree of life,1061 this spring, Who is possessèd of shall reign a King. Nor change of state nor cares shall ever see, But wear his Crown1062 unto eternity, This satiates the soul; this stays the mind. The rest’s but vanity, and vain we find. FINIS.

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1052. A standing tree stump. 1053. Greatest good. 1054. This couplet paraphrases Job 28:7–8. 1055. The river of life, issuing from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1). 1056. Job 28:14. 1057. A rhetorical question: who would exchange immortal life for jewels or other wealth? 1058. These three lines paraphrase Job 28:15–21. 1059. Job 28:22. 1060. In Matthew 13:45–46, Jesus presents as a model a merchant who sells all he has to purchase one pearl of great price, representing salvation. 1061. This tree grows by the river of the water of life, referenced earlier in the poem (Revelation 22:1–2). 1062. Revelation 2:10 promises safety, immortality, and the crown of life to the faithful.

PART 2: POEMS ADDED TO SEVERAL POEMS (1678)

PART 2: POEMS ADDED TO SEVERAL POEMS (16

Figure 2. Title page, Several Poems. From the copy in Hamilton College Library Special Collection. Spec Coll PS711 .A1 1678. Reproduced by permission of the Burke Library of Hamilton College.

Several POEMS Compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of Delight; Wherein especially is contained a complete Discourse, and Description of ELEMENTS, CONSTITUTIONS, The Four AGES of Man, SEASONS of the Year. Together with an exact Epitome of the three first Monarchies ASSYRIAN, PERSIAN, Viz. The GRECIAN. And beginning of the Roman Commonwealth to the end of their last King: With divers other pleasant & serious Poems.

{ {

By a Gentlewoman in New-England. The second Edition, Corrected by the Author and enlarged by an Addition of several other Poems found amongst her Papers after her Death. Boston, Printed by John Foster, 1678.

242 ANNE BRADSTREET

w w w An Elegy upon that Honorable and renowned Knight Sir Philip Sidney, who was untimely slain at the Siege of Zutphen, Anno 1586 When England did enjoy her Halcyon days,1 Her noble Sidney wore the Crown of Bays,2 As well an honor in our British Land As she3 that swayed the Scepter in her hand. Mars4 and Minerva5 did in one agree, Of Arms and Arts he should a pattern be. Calliope6 with Terpsichore7 did sing, Of Poesy and of music he was King. His Rhetoric struck Polyhymnia8 dead; His Eloquence made Mercury9 wax red; His Logic from Euterpe10 won the Crown; More worth was his than Clio11 could set down. Thalia12 and Melpomene,13 say truth (Witness Arcadia14 penned in his youth), Are not his tragic Comedies so acted As if your nine-fold wit had been compacted To show the world they never saw before That this one Volume would exhaust your store? His wiser days condemned his witty works.

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1. A time of calm and peace, in this case, the reign of Elizabeth I (November 1558–March 1603). 2. The wreath given a victor in battle or in a poetic competition. 3. Queen Elizabeth. 4. Roman god of war. 5. Roman goddess of wisdom. 6. Greek muse of epic poetry. 7. Greek muse of music and dance. 8. Greek muse of sacred poetry and hymnody. 9. Greek god associated with poetry and eloquence, among other qualities. His turning red may refer to anger at being surpassed. 10. Greek muse of lyric poetry. 11. Greek muse of history. 12. Greek muse of comedy. 13. Greek muse of tragedy. 14. A prose romance, interspersed with poetry, published posthumously, that Sidney worked on from some time in the late 1570s until his death in 1586.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 243 Who knows the spells that in his Rhetoric lurks, But some infatuate fools soon caught therein, Fond Cupid’s Dame15 had never such a gin,16 Which makes severer eyes but slight that story And men of morose minds envy his glory. But he’s a Beetle-head17 that can’t descry A world of wealth within that rubbish lie, And doth his name, his work, his honor wrong, The brave refiner of our British tongue, That sees not learning, valor, and morality, Justice, friendship, and kind hospitality, Yea, and Divinity within his book. Such were prejudicate,18 and did not look. In all Records his name I ever see Put with an Epithet of dignity, Which shows his worth was great, his honor such. The love his Country owed19 him was as much. Then let none disallow of these my strains Whilst English blood20 yet runs within my veins. O brave Achilles,21 I wish some Homer22 would Engrave in Marble, with Characters of gold The valiant feats thou didst on Flander’s coast, Which at this day fair Belgia may boast. The more I say, the more thy worth I stain: Thy fame and praise is far beyond my strain. O Zutphen, Zutphen, that most fatal City Made famous by thy death, much more the pity. Ah! in his blooming prime death plucked this rose; E’ er he was ripe, his thread cut Atropos.23 Thus man is born to die, and dead is he.

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15. Roman goddess Venus. 16. A trap or snare. 17. Epithet applied to stupid people. 18. Prejudiced or close-minded. 19. As in the version in The Tenth Muse, here the original word is “ought.” 20. In the earlier version, Bradstreet claims familial connection: “the self-same blood.” 21. Greek warrior immortalized in Homer’s Iliad. 22. The poet to whom are ascribed the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. 23. The Fate who snips the thread of life.

244 ANNE BRADSTREET Brave Hector by the walls of Troy we see.24 50 O who was near thee but did sore repine He rescued not with life that life of thine? But yet impartial Fates this boon25 did give: Though Sidney died, his valiant name doth live. And live it doth in spite of death through fame. 55 Thus, being overcome, he overcame. Where is that envious tongue but can afford Of this our noble Scipio26 some good word? Great Bartas27 this unto thy praise adds more: In sad sweet verse thou didst his death deplore; 60 And Phoenix Spenser28 doth unto his life His death present in sable to his wife. Stella29 the fair, whose streams from Conduits fell For the sad loss of her dear Astrophel. Fain would I show how he fame’s paths did tread, 65 But now into such Lab’rinths I am led, With endless turns, the way I find not out. How to persist, my Muse is more in doubt, Which makes me now with Sylvester30 confess, But31 Sidney’s Muse can sing his worthiness. 70 The Muses’ aid I craved; they had no will

24. Achilles killed Hector, prince of Troy, outside the walls of Troy after Hector killed Achilles’s friend Patroclus, who was disguised in Achilles’s armor. 25. Gift. 26. Roman general who defeated Hannibal during the Second Punic War. 27. Guillaume Du Bartas, Frenchman, author of La Semaine; ou Création du Monde (1578). 28. English poet Edmund Spenser dedicated his elegy on Sidney, titled “Astrophel: A Pastoral Elegy upon the death of that Most Noble and Valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney,” to Sidney’s widow, Frances Walsingham. It appeared in Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1595). Richard Crowder, having pointed out that three other elegies included, unattributed, in that volume also appeared anonymously in The Phoenix Nest (1593), suggests that Bradstreet may have known the earlier volume and so assumed that Spenser had written those poems as well (“ ‘Phoenix Spencer’: A Note on Anne Bradstreet” in New England Quarterly 17, no. 2 (June 1944): 310.) 29. The pseudonym for Penelope Rich, the purported addressee in Sidney’s sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella. Stella seems to complete a list of those offering “some good word” for Sidney, although in her case the tribute is tears, not poetry. This fragment might suggest that Astrophil and Stella chronicled a marital relationship; it did not. 30. Josuah Sylvester included a brief paean to Sidney in the front matter to his 1605 translation of Du Bartas’s Divine Weeks and Works (B2). 31. Only.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 245 To give to their Detractor32 any quill. With high disdain, they said they gave no more, Since Sidney had exhausted all their store. They took from me the scribbling pen I had 75 (I to be eased of such a task was glad). Then to revenge this wrong, themselves engage And drove me from Parnassus33 in a rage. Then wonder not if I no better sped Since I the Muses thus have injurèd. 80 I pensive for my fault sat down, and then Errata34 through their leave threw me my pen My Poem to conclude. Two lines they deign, Which writ, she bad return ’t to them again. So Sidney’s fame I leave to England’s Rolls. 85 His bones do lie interred in stately Paul’s.35 His Epitaph Here lies in fame under this stone, Philip and Alexander both in one,36 Heir to the Muses, the Son of Mars in Truth, Learning, Valor, Wisdom, all in virtuous youth. His praise is much. This shall suffice my pen: That Sidney died ’mong most renowned of men.

32. Bradstreet herself. 33. A mountain where the Muses live. 34. Errors. Bradstreet personifies this idea into a goddess. 35. St. Paul’s cathedral, London. 36. Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great.

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An Apology37 To finish what’s begun was my intent. My thoughts and my endeavors thereto bent. Essays38 I many made but still gave out. The more I mused, the more I was in doubt. The subject large; my mind and body weak, With many more discouragements did speak. All thoughts of further progress laid aside, Though oft persuaded, I as oft denied. At length resolved, when many years had passed, To prosecute my story to the last, And for the same, I hours not few did spend, And weary lines (though lank) I many penned. But ’fore I could accomplish my desire My papers fell a prey to th’ raging fire39 And thus my pains (with better things) I lost, Which none had cause to wail, nor I to boast. No more I’ll do since I have suffered wrack, Although my Monarchies their legs do lack. No matter is’t this last the world now sees Hath many Ages been upon his knees.

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37. This poem replaces the statement, “The end of the Roman monarchy, being the fourth and last,” that concluded “The Four Monarchies” in The Tenth Muse. 38. Attempts. 39. The Bradstreet family home burned down on July 10, 1666.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 247

Poems the editors of Several Poems inserted between “David’s Lamentation” and “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Things” To the Memory of My Dear and Ever Honored Father, Thomas Dudley, Esquire, Who Deceased July 31, 1653,  and of His Age, 77 By duty bound and not by custom led To celebrate the praises of the dead, My mournful mind, sore pressed, in trembling verse Presents my Lamentations at his Hearse, Who was my Father, Guide, Instructor, too, To whom I owed40 whatever I could do. Nor is’t Relation near my hand shall tie, For who more cause to boast his worth than I, Who heard or saw, observ’d or knew him better, Or who alive than I a greater debtor? Let malice bite, and envy gnaw its fill; He was my Father, and I’ll praise him still. Nor was his name or life led so obscure That pity might some Trumpeters procure, Who after death might make him falsely seem Such as in life no man could justly deem. Well-known and loved, where e’ er he lived, by most, Both in his native and this foreign coast.41 These to the world his merits could make known, So needs no Testimonial from his own. But now or never I must pay my Sum; While others tell his worth, I’ll not be dumb. One of thy Founders, him New England know, Who stayed thy feeble sides when thou wast low, Who spent his state,42 his strength, and years with care That After-comers in them might have share. True Patriot of this little Commonweal, Who is’t can tax thee ought, but for thy zeal? Truth’s friend thou wert, to errors still a foe, 40. In the original, “ought.” 41. England and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 42. Personal wealth.

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248 ANNE BRADSTREET Which caused Apostates43 to malign so. 30 Thy love to true Religion e’ er shall shine. My Father’s God, be God of me and mine. Upon the earth he did not build his nest, But as a Pilgrim44 what he had possessed. High thoughts he gave no harbor in his heart, 35 Nor honors puffed him up, when he had part. Those titles loathed, which some too much do love, For truly his ambition lay above. His humble mind so loved humility, He left it to his race for Legacy.45 40 And oft and oft, with speeches mild and wise, Gave his in charge, that Jewel rich to prize.46 No ostentation see in all his ways, As in the mean47 ones of our foolish days, Which all they have and more still set to view. 45 Their greatness may be judged by what they shew.48 His thoughts were more sublime, his actions wise; Such vanities he justly did despise. Nor wonder ’twas, low things ne’ er much did move, For he a Mansion had prepared above,49 50 For which he sighed and prayed and longed full sore He might be clothed upon for ever more, Oft spoke of death and, with a smiling cheer, He did exult his end was drawing near. Now fully ripe as shock of wheat that’s grown, 55 Death as a Sickle50 him hath timely mown, And in celestial Barn hath housed him high, Where storms nor show’rs nor ought can damnify. His Generation served, his labors cease, And to his Fathers gathered is in peace. 60 43. Persons who abandon their religious faith or principles. 44. A person on a journey, not a resident. 45. An inheritance. 46. Wisdom, specifically religious wisdom. See Job 28:18 and Matthew 13:45–46. 47. Lowly, diminished. 48. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asserts that actions speak louder than words: “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). 49. In the Gospel of John, Jesus states, “in my Father’s house there are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). 50. An implement with a curved blade used for cutting standing crops.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 249 Ah happy Soul, ’mongst Saints and Angels blest, Who after all his toil is now at rest. His hoary head in righteousness was found. As joy in heaven, on earth let praise resound. Forgotten never be his memory. His blessing rest on his posterity. His pious Footsteps followed by his race At last will bring us to that happy place Where we with joy each other’s face shall see And parted more by death shall never be.

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His Epitaph Within this Tomb a Patriot lies That was both pious, just, and wise, To Truth a shield, to right a Wall, To Sectaries51 a whip and Maul,52 A Magazine53 of History, 75 A Prizer of good Company In manners pleasant and severe. The Good him loved, the bad did fear, And when his time with years was spent, If some rejoiced, did more lament. 80

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51. Splinter groups within the reformed church. 52. A heavy hammer. 53. A storehouse.

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An Epitaph on My Dear and Ever Honored Mother, Mistress Dorothy Dudley, Who Deceased December 27, 1643,  and of Her Age, 61 A worthy Matron of unspotted life, A loving Mother and obedient wife; A friendly Neighbor, pitiful to poor, Whom oft she fed and clothèd with her store; To servants wisely awful,54 but yet kind, And as they did, so they reward did find; A true Instructor of her Family, The which she ordered with dexterity. The public meetings55 ever did frequent, And in her Closet56 constant hours she spent. Religious in all her words and ways, Preparing still for death, ’til end of days. Of all her Children, Children lived to see, Then, dying, left a blessèd memory.

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54. Inspiring respect. 55. Worship services. 56. A small private retiring room, for prayer and contemplation.

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w w w Contemplations Sometime now past in the Autumnal Tide, When Phoebus57 wanted but one hour to bed, The trees all richly clad, yet void of pride Were gilded o’ er by his rich golden head. Their leaves and fruits seemed painted, but was true Of green, of red, of yellow, mixèd hue. Rapt were my sense at this delectable view. 2 I wist58 not what to wish, yet sure thought I, If so much excellence abide below, How excellent is he that dwells on high, Whose power and beauty by his works we know? Sure, he is goodness, wisdom, glory, light, That hath this under world so righly dight.59 More Heaven than Earth was here, no winter and no night. 3 Then on a stately Oak I cast mine Eye, Whose ruffling top the Clouds seemed to aspire. How long since thou wast in thine Infancy? Thy strength and stature, more thy years admire. Hath hundred winters passed since thou wast born, Or thousands since thou brakest thy shell of horn? If so, all these as naught Eternity doth scorn. 4 Then higher on the glistering Sun I gazed, Whose beams was shaded by the leafy Tree. The more I looked, the more I grew amazed And softly said, “what glory’s like to thee?” Soul of this world, this Universe’s Eye, No wonder some made thee a Deity. Had I not better known (alas) the same had I. 57. The sun. 58. Know. 59. Clothed or decorated.

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252 ANNE BRADSTREET 5 Thou as a Bridegroom from thy Chamber rushes And as a strong man joys to run a race.60 30 The morn doth usher thee, with smiles and blushes. The Earth reflects her glances in thy face. Birds, insects, Animals with Vegetive,61 Thy heart from death and dullness doth revive, And in the darksome womb of fruitful nature dive. 35 6 Thy swift Annual and diurnal Course, Thy daily straight and yearly oblique path, Thy pleasing fervor and thy scorching force, All mortals here the feeling knowledge hath. Thy presence makes it day, thy absence night. Quaternal Seasons causèd by thy might. Hail Creature, full of sweetness, beauty, and delight. 7 Art thou so full of glory that no Eye Hath strength thy shining Rays once to behold? And is thy splendid Throne erect so high As to approach it can no earthly mold? How full of glory then must thy Creator be, Who gave this bright light luster unto thee. Admired, adored forever be that Majesty. 8 Silent alone, where none or saw or heard, In pathless paths I led my wand’ring feet. My humble Eyes to lofty Skies I reared To sing some Song, my ’mazèd Muse thought meet. My great Creator I would magnify That nature had thus deckèd liberally. But Ah, and Ah again, my imbecility! 9 I heard the merry grasshopper then sing, The black-clad Cricket bear a second part. 60. Psalm 19:5 describes the sun in these terms. 61. Plants.

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Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 253 They kept one tune and played on the same string, Seeming to glory in their little Art. Shall Creatures abject thus their voices raise And in their kind62 resound their maker’s praise, Whilst I, as mute, can warble forth no higher lays? 10 When present times look back to Ages past, And men in being fancy those are dead, It makes things gone perpetually to last And calls back months and years that long since fled. It makes a man more agèd in conceit Than was Methuselah or’s grand-sire great,63 While of their persons and their acts his mind doth treat. 11 Sometimes in Eden fair he seems to be, Sees glorious Adam there made Lord of all, Fancies the Apple dangle on the Tree That turned his Sovereign to a naked thrall, Who like a miscreant’s driven from that place To get his bread with pain and sweat of face, A penalty imposed on his backsliding Race.64 12 Here sits our Granddame65 in retired place, And in her lap her bloody Cain66 new born. The weeping Imp oft looks her in the face, Bewails his unknown hap and fate forlorn. His mother sighs to think of Paradise

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62. According to their nature. 63. According to the genealogy in Genesis, Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. His grandfather Jared lived nine hundred and sixty-two; his great-grandfather Mahalaleel eight hundred and ninety-five (Genesis 5). 64. According to Genesis, all humanity bears the curse of Adam, who forfeited Eden by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. As a punishment, humans must earn their living by the sweat of their brow (Genesis 3). 65. Eve. 66. Cain, Adam and Eve’s first son, would be bloody because he has just been born but also because he will commit the first murder.

254 ANNE BRADSTREET And how she lost her bliss to be more wise, Believing him that was, and is, Father of lies.67 13 Here Cain and Abel68 come to sacrifice: Fruits of the Earth69 and Fatlings70 each do bring. Of Abel’s gift the fire descends from Skies, But no such sign on false Cain’s offering.71 With sullen hateful looks he goes his ways, Hath thousand thoughts to end his brother’s days, Upon whose blood his future good he hopes to raise.

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14 There Abel keeps his sheep. No ill he thinks. His brother comes, then acts his fratricide. The Virgin Earth of blood her first draught drinks, But since that time she often hath been cloyed. 95 The wretch72 with ghastly face and dreadful mind Thinks each he sees will serve him in his kind,73 Though none on Earth but kindred near then could he find.74 15 Who fancies not his looks now at the Bar, His face like death, his heart with horror fraught, Nor Malefactor ever felt like war, When deep despair with wish for life hath fought, Branded with guilt and crushed with treble woes A Vagabond to Land of Nod he goes, A City builds, that walls might him secure from foes.75

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67. Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, and offered it to Adam, because the serpent told her it would make her wise. Tradition associates the serpent with Satan. 68. Adam and Eve’s second son. 69. Vegetable crops. 70. Lambs. 71. God accepted Abel’s offering by consuming it with fire. He did not consume Cain’s (Genesis 4). 72. Cain. 73. As he dealt with his brother. 74. As Adam and Eve are the first humans, anyone Cain meets ought to be a sibling. 75. Genesis 4:16–17. Nod is east of Eden. Cain settles there and marries. The location of neither place is known.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 255 16 Who thinks not oft upon the Fathers’ ages, Their long descent, how nephew’s sons they saw, The starry observations of those Sages, And how their precepts to their sons were law; How Adam sighed to see his Progeny Clothed all in his black sinful Livery76 Who neither guilt nor yet the punishment could fly. 17 Our life compare we with their length of days: Who to the tenth of theirs doth now arrive? And though thus short, we shorten many ways, Living so little while we are alive, In eating, drinking, sleeping, vain delight, So unawares comes on perpetual night And puts all pleasures vain unto eternal flight. 18 When I behold the heavens as in their prime And then the earth (though old) still clad in green, The stones and trees, insensible of time, Nor age nor wrinkle on their front are seen. If winter comes and greenness then do fade, A Spring returns and they more youthful made, But Man grows old, lies down, remains where once he’s laid. 19 By birth more noble than those creatures all, Yet seems by nature and by custom cursed. No sooner born, but grief and care makes fall That state obliterate he had at first. Nor youth nor strength nor wisdom spring again, Nor habitations long their name retain, But in oblivion to the final day remain. 20 Shall I then praise the heavens, the trees, the earth Because their beauty and their strength last longer? Shall I wish there or never to had birth 76. A uniform.

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256 ANNE BRADSTREET Because they’re bigger and their bodies stronger? Nay, they shall darken, perish, fade, and die, And when unmade so ever shall they lie, But man was made for endless immortality. 21 Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm, Close sat I by a goodly River’s side, Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm, A lonely place, with pleasures dignified. I once that love the shady woods so well, Now thought the rivers did the trees excel, And if the sun would ever shine, there would I dwell. 22 While on the stealing stream I fixed mine eye, Which to the longed for Ocean held its course, I marked nor crooks nor77 rubs that there did lie Could hinder ought, but still augment its force. “O happy Flood,” quoth I, “that holds thy race ’Til thou arrive at thy belovèd place, Nor is it rocks or shoals that can obstruct thy pace. 23 Nor is’t enough that thou alone may’st slide, But hundred brooks in thy clear waves do meet. So hand in hand along with thee they glide To Thetis’78 house, where all embrace and greet. Thou Emblem true of what I count the best, O could I lead my Rivulets to rest. So may we press to that vast mansion, ever blest. 24 Ye Fish which in this liquid Region ’bide, That for each season have your habitation, Now salt, now fresh, where you think best to glide To unknown coasts to give a visitation, In Lakes and ponds you leave your numerous fry. So nature taught, and yet you know not why, You wat’ry fold that know not your felicity. 77. Neither … nor. 78. A sea nymph in Greek mythology.

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Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 257 25 Look how the wantons frisk to taste the air, Then to the colder bottom straight they dive. 170 Eftsoon79 to Neptune’s80 glassy Hall repair To see what trade they great ones there do drive, Who forage o’ er the spacious sea-green field And take the trembling prey before it yield, Whose armor is their scales, their spreading fins their shield. 175 26 While musing thus with contemplation fed And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain, The sweet-tongued Philomel81 perched o’ er my head And chanted forth a most melodious strain, Which rapt me so with wonder and delight I judged my hearing better than my sight And wished me wings with her a while to take my flight. 27 “O merry Bird” (said I) “that fears no snares, That neither toils nor hoards up in thy barn,82 Feels no sad thoughts nor ’cruciating cares To gain more good or shun what might thee harm. Thy clothes ne’ er wear; thy meat83 is everywhere. Thy bed a bough, thy drink the water clear, Reminds not what is past, nor what’s to come dost fear. 28 The dawning morn with songs thou dost prevent,84 Sets hundred notes unto thy feathered crew, So each one tunes his pretty instrument, And warbling out the old, begin anew. And thus they pass their youth in summer season,

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79. Again. 80. Roman god of the sea. 81. The nightingale. In Greek mythology, Philomena was raped by her brother-in-law, who cut out her tongue so that she could not tell. Instead, she wove a tapestry revealing his crime. As consolation, she was transformed into a bird. 82. Matthew 6:26. 83. Food. 84. Anticipate.

258 ANNE BRADSTREET Then follow thee into a better Region Where winter’s never felt by that sweet airy legion.

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29 Man at the best a creature frail and vain, In knowledge ignorant, in strength but weak, Subject to sorrows, losses, sickness, pain. Each storm his state, his mind, his body break. 200 From some of these he never finds cessation, But day or night, within, without, vexation, Troubles from foes, from friends, from dearest, near’st Relation. 30 And yet this sinful creature, frail and vain, This lump of wretchedness, of sin and sorrow, 205 This weather-beaten vessel wracked with pain Joys not in hope of an eternal morrow, Nor all his losses, crosses, and vexation, In weight, in frequency, and long duration Can make him deeply groan for that divine Translation.85 210 31 The Mariner that on smooth waves doth glide Sings merrily and steers his Barque with ease, As if he had command of wind and tide, And now becomes great Master of the seas, But suddenly a storm spoils all the sport And makes him long for a more quiet port, Which ’gainst all adverse winds may serve for fort. 32 So he that faileth in this world of pleasure, Feeding on sweets that never bit of th’ sour, That’s full of friends, of honor, and of treasure, Fond fool, he takes this earth ev’n for heav’ns bower, But sad affliction comes and makes him see Here’s neither honor, wealth, nor safety. Only above is found all with security.

85. Shift from mortal to heavenly being.

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Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 259 33 O Time, the fatal wrack of mortal things, That draws oblivion’s curtains over kings, Their sumptuous monuments, men know them not. Their names without a Record are forgot. Their parts, their ports,86 their pomp’s all laid in th’ dust, Nor wit nor gold nor buildings ’scape time’s rust, But he whose name is graved in the white stone87 Shall last and shine when all of these are gone.

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86. Deportment or carriage. 87. Revelation 2:17 promises the faithful a white stone with a new name written on it, in addition to immortal life in heaven.

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w w w The Flesh and the Spirit In secret place where once I stood, Close by the Banks of Lacrim flood,88 I heard two sisters reason on Things that are past, and things to come. One flesh was called, who had her eye 5 On worldly wealth and vanity; The other Spirit, who did rear Her thoughts unto a higher sphere. Sister, quoth Flesh, what liv’st thou on, Nothing but Meditation? 10 Doth Contemplation feed thee so Regardlessly to let earth go? Can Speculation satisfy Notion without Reality? Dost dream of things beyond the Moon, 15 And dost thou hope to dwell there soon? Hast treasures there laid up in store That all in th’ world thou count’st but poor? Art fancy-sick or turned a Sot89 To catch at shadows which are not? 20 Come, come. I’ll show unto thy sense Industry hath its recompense. What canst desire, but thou mayst see True substance in variety? Dost honor like? Acquire the same, 25 As some to their immortal fame. And trophies to thy name erect Which wearing time shall ne’ er deject. For riches dost thou long full sore? Behold enough of precious store. 30 Earth hath more silver, pearls, and gold Than eyes can see or hands can hold. Affect’st thou pleasure? Take thy fill. Earth hath enough of what you will. 88. River of tears. 89. A fool or blockhead.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 261 Then let not go what thou mayst find For things unknown, only in mind. Spir: Be still thou unregenerate90 part. Disturb no more my settled heart, For I have vowed (and so will do) Thee as a foe still to pursue And combat with thee will and must, Until I see thee laid in th’ dust. Sisters we are; yea, twins we be, Yet deadly feud ’twixt thee and me, For from one father are we not: Thou by old Adam wast begot,91 But my arise is from above, Whence my dear father I do love. Thou speak’st me fair, but hat’st me sore; Thy flatt’ring shows I’ll trust no more. How oft thy slave hast thou me made When I believ’d what thou hast said, And never had more cause of woe Than when I did what thou bad’st do. I’ll stop mine ears at these thy charms And count them for my deadly harms. Thy sinful pleasures I do hate. Thy riches are to me no bait, Thy honors due, nor will I love, For my ambition lies above. My greatest honor it shall be When I am victor over thee, And triumph shall, with laurel92 head, When thou my Captive shalt be led.93 How do I live, thou need’st not scoff, For I have meat94 thou know’st not of,

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90. Sinful. Not born again. 91. The literal Adam of Genesis, as opposed to the new Adam, Christ, whom Spirit claims as her father. Christians are urged to “put on the new man” (Ephesians 4:24) and to “put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9). Doing so, they become adopted heirs of God (Romans 8:13–17). 92. The crown given the victor. 93. In Ephesians, Paul asserts that Jesus has “led captivity captive” in triumphing over death (Ephesians 4:8). 94. Food.

262 ANNE BRADSTREET The hidden Manna95 I do eat; The word of life,96 it is my meat. My thoughts do yield me more content Than can thy hours in pleasure spent. Nor are they shadows which I catch, Nor fancies vain at which I snatch, But reach at things that are so high Beyond thy dull Capacity. Eternal substance do I see, With which enrichèd I would be. Mine Eye doth pierce the heavens and see What is Invisible to thee. My garments are not silk nor gold, Nor such like trash which Earth doth hold, But Royal Robes97 I shall have on More glorious than the glist’ring Sun. My Crown not Diamonds, Pearls, nor gold, But such as Angels’ heads enfold.98 The City where I hope to dwell There’s none on Earth can parallel. The stately Walls both high and strong Are made of precious Jasper stone,99 The Gates of Pearl, both rich and clear,100 And Angels are the Porters there. The Streets thereof transparent gold,101 Such as no Eye did e’ er behold. A Crystal River there doth run, Which doth proceed from the Lamb’s Throne.102 Of Life there are the waters sure,

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95. Miraculous nourishment originally provided by God for the Israelites after they fled Egypt (Exodus 16); promised to the faithful (Revelations 2:17). 96. Christ is the Word of Life (1 John 1:1) and the Bread of Life (John 6:48), on which Spirit subsists. 97. According to Revelation, the faithful will be clothed in robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, or Christ (Revelation 7:14). 98. A halo. In Revelation, the only good people to wear crowns are the twenty-four elders (Revelation 4:4–10) and the Son of Man, or Christ (Revelation 14:14, 19:12). 99. Revelation 21:18. 100. Revelation 21:21. 101. Revelation 21:21. 102. Revelation 22:1. Christ is the Lamb of God.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 263 Which shall remain forever pure.103 Nor Sun nor Moon they have no need, For glory doth from God proceed. No Candle there, nor yet Torchlight, For there shall be no darksome night.104 100 From sickness and infirmity Forevermore they shall be free, Nor withering age shall e’ er come there,105 But beauty shall be bright and clear. 105 This City pure is not for thee, For things unclean106 there shall not be. If I of Heaven may have my fill, Take thou the world, and all that will.

103. Revelation 22:1. 104. Revelation 22:5. 105. Christian theology promises the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. 106. Morally or spiritually corrupt.

Figure 3.“The Author to Her Book.” From the copy in Hamilton College Library Special Collection. Spec Coll PS711 .A1 1678. Reproduced by permission of the Burke Library of Hamilton College.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 265

Poems following the text of The Tenth Muse

w w w The Author to Her Book Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,  Who after birth didst by my side remain  ’Til snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,  Who thee abroad exposed to public view,  Made thee in rags,107 halting to th’press to trudge,  Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).  At thy return my blushing was not small  My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.  I cast thee by as one unfit for light;  Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight. Yet being mine own, at length affection would  Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:  I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,  And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.  I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,108  Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;  In better dress to trim thee was my mind,  But naught save home-spun cloth109 i’ th’ house I find.  In this array ’mongst Vulgars110 mayst thou roam.  In Critics’ hands, beware thou dost not come,  And take thy way where yet thou art not known. If for thy Father asked, say, thou hadst none, And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,  Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

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107. Paper at this time was made from rags.

108. A metrical unit, such as a single iamb (  ˘ ′  ), is called a “foot.” 109. A rough cloth made at home, rather than finer material made by professional weavers. 110. The uneducated.

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Several other Poems made by the Author upon Divers Occasions were found among her Papers after her Death, which she never meant should come to public view; amongst which, these following (at the desire of some friends that knew her well) are here inserted. Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632, Aetatis Suae111 19

Twice ten years old, not fully told since nature gave me breath, My race is run, my thread is spun.112 Lo, here is fatal Death. All men must die, and so must I. This cannot be revoked. For Adam’s sake this word God spake when he was so provoked.113 Yet live I shall, this life’s but small, in place of highest bliss, Where I shall have all I can crave. No life is like to this. For what’s this life, but care and strife since first we came from womb? Our strength doth waste; our time doth haste, and then we go to th’ Tomb. O Bubble blast, how long can’st last that always art a-breaking? No sooner blown, but dead and gone, ev’n as a word that’s speaking. O whilst I live this grace me give, I doing good may be. Then death’s arrest I shall count best, because it’s thy decree. Bestow much cost, there’s nothing lost to make Salvation sure. O great’s the gain, though got with pain, comes by profession114 pure.

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111. Latin for “her age.” 112. In Greek mythology, the three Fates spin, measure, and snip each human life. 113. Genesis 2:17, 3:19. 114. Religious commitment.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 267 The race is run;115 the field is won; the victory’s mine I see. Forever know, thou envious foe, the foil belongs to thee.

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115. 1 Corinthians 9:24.

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Upon Some Distemper of the Body In anguish of my heart replete with woes And wasting pains, which best my body knows, In tossing slumbers on my wakeful bed, Bedrenched with tears that flowed from mournful head ’Til nature had exhausted all her store, Then eyes lay dry, disabled to weep more, And looking up unto his Throne on high Who sendeth help to those in misery, He chased away those clouds and let me see My anchor cast i’ th’ vale with safety. He eased my Soul of woe, my flesh of pain, And brought me to the shore from troubled Main.116

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116. The open sea.

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Before the Birth of One of Her Children All things within this fading world hath end. Adversity doth still our joys attend. No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet, But with death’s parting blow are sure to meet. The sentence past is most irrevocable, A common thing, yet oh, inevitable. How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend, How soon’t may be thy Lot to lose thy friend, We both are ignorant, yet love bids me These farewell lines to recommend to thee, That when the knot’s untied that made us one, I may seem thine, who in effect am none. And if I see not half my days that’s due, What nature would, God grant to yours and you. The many faults that well you know I have Let be interred in my oblivious grave; If any worth or virtue were in me, Let that live freshly in thy memory, And when thou feel’st no grief, as I no harms, Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms, And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains, Look to my little babes, my dear remains. And if thou love thyself, or loved’st me, These O protect from step Dame’s injury. And if chance to thine eyes shall bring this verse, With some sad sighs honor my absent Hearse, And kiss this paper for thy dear love’s sake, Who with salt tears this last Farewell did take. A. B.

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270 ANNE BRADSTREET

To My Dear and Loving Husband If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee. If ever wife were happy with a man Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, Nor aught but love from thee give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay; The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let’s so persever, That when we live no more, we may live ever.

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A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment My head, my heart, mine Eyes, my life, nay more, My joy, my Magazine117 of earthly store, If two be one, as surely thou and I, How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie? So many steps, head from the heart to sever: 5 If but a neck,118 soon should we be together. I, like the Earth this season, mourn in black, My Sun is gone so far in’s Zodiac,119 Whom whilst I ’joyed nor storms nor frost I felt; His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt. 10 My chillèd limbs now numbèd lie forlorn. Return, return sweet Sol120 from Capricorn.121 In this dead time, alas, what can I more Than view those fruits which through thy heat I bore, Which sweet contentment yield me for a space, 15 True living Pictures of their Father’s face? O strange effect! now thou art Southward gone I weary grow, the tedious day so long, But when thou Northward to me shalt return, I wish my Sun may never set, but burn 20 Within the Cancer122 of my glowing breast, The welcome house of him my dearest guest. Where ever, ever stay, and go not thence ’Til nature’s sad decree shall call thee hence. Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone,123 25 I here, thou there, yet both but one.

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117. A warehouse. 118. A narrow channel or inlet. 119. Bradstreet imagines herself as the earth, her husband Simon as the sun. The course the sun appears to travel through the constellations is called the Zodiac. 120. Another word for the sun. 121. The constellation the sun travels through in December. 122. The sun travels through Cancer during June. 123. What Adam says upon the creation of Eve (Genesis 2:23).

272 ANNE BRADSTREET

Another Phoebus124 make haste. The day’s too long; be gone. The silent night’s the fittest time for moan. But stay this one; unto my suit give ear, And tell my griefs in either Hemisphere,125 And if the whirling of thy wheels126 don’t drowned The woeful accents of my doleful sound, If in thy swift Career thou canst make stay, I crave this boon,127 this Errand by the way: Commend me to the man more loved than life; Show him the sorrows of his widowed wife, My dumpish thoughts, my groans, my brackish tears, My sobs, my longing hopes, my doubting fears, And if he love, how can he there abide? My Interest’s more than all the world beside. He128 that can tell the stars or Ocean sand Or all the grass that in the Meads do stand, The leaves in th’ woods, the hail or drops of rain, Or in a cornfield number every grain, Or every mote that in the sunshine hops, May count my sighs and number all my drops. Tell him129 the countless steps that thou dost trace, That once a day thy Spouse thou mayst embrace,130 And when thou canst not treat by loving mouth, Thy rays afar salute her from the south. But for one month I see no day (poor soul) Like those far situate under the pole, Which day by day long wait for thy arise: O how they joy when thou dost light the skies. O Phoebus, hast thou but thus long from thine Restrained the beams of thy belovèd shrine, At thy return, if so thou could’st or durst, Behold a Chaos blacker than the first.

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124. God of the sun. 125. New England or England. 126. Phoebus drives a chariot across the sky. 127. Gift or favor. 128. God, who can do these things. 129. Bradstreet’s husband Simon. 130. The god Phoebus Apollo had numerous romantic interests but no specific wife.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 273 Tell him here’s worse than a confusèd matter; His little world’s a fathom under water. Naught but the fervor of his ardent beams Hath power to dry the torrent of these streams. Tell him I would say more, but cannot well. Oppressèd minds abruptest tales do tell. Now post with double speed. Mark what I say. By all our loves conjure him not to stay.

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274 ANNE BRADSTREET

Another As loving Hind that (Hartless) wants her Deer,131 Scuds through the woods and Fern with hark’ning ear, Perplexed, in every bush and nook doth pry, Her dearest Deer might answer ear or eye, So doth my anxious soul, which now doth miss A dearer Dear (far dearer Heart) than this, Still wait with doubts and hopes and failing eye His voice to hear or person to descry. Or as the pensive Dove132 doth all alone (On withered bough) most uncouthly bemoan The absence of her Love and loving Mate, Whose loss hath made her so unfortunate, Ev’n thus do I, with many a deep sad groan, Bewail my turtle true, who now is gone; His presence and his safe return still woos With thousand doleful sighs and mournful coos. Or as the loving Mullet, that true Fish, Her fellow lost, nor joy nor133 life do wish, But launches on that shore, there for to die Where she her captive husband doth espy, I have a loving fere,134 yet seem no wife, But worst of all, to him can’t steer my course: I here, he there, alas, both kept by force. Return my Dear, my joy, my only Love, Unto thy Hind, thy Mullet, and thy Dove, Who neither joys in pasture, house, nor streams; The substance gone, O me, these are but dreams. Together at one Tree, oh let us browse, And like two Turtles roost within one house, And like the Mullets in one River glide. Let’s still remain but one, ’til death divide.

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131. A female deer is a hind; a male deer, a hart. The biblical Song of Solomon, a love poem interpreted as an allegory of the love of the soul for Christ, presents the beloved as a hart (Song 2:9, 17). 132. Turtle doves were believed to mate for life. 133. Neither … nor. 134. Companion or partner. In the original “phere.” Bradstreet inherits this idea of the mullet’s fidelity from Du Bartas, who writes, that “for her love, the mullet hath no peer, / For if the Fisher have surpris’d her Phere, / As mad with woe, to shoare she followeth, / Prest to consort him, both in life and death.” Divine Weeks and Works, trans. Josuah Sylvester (London, 1605): Fifth Week, lines 195–98.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 275 Thy loving Love and Dearest Dear, At home, abroad, and everywhere.

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276 ANNE BRADSTREET

To Her Father with Some Verses Most truly honored, and as truly dear, If worth in me or aught I do appear, Who can of right better demand the same Than may your worthy self from whom it came? The principal135 might yield a greater sum, Yet handled ill amounts but to this crumb. My stock’s136 so small, I know not how to pay. My bond137 remain’s in force unto this day, Yet for part payment take this simple mite.138 Where nothing’s to be had, Kings lose their right. Such is my debt, I may not say forgive. But as I can I’ll pay it while I live. Such is my bond, none can discharge but I, Yet paying is not paid until I die.

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135. Original amount of money. 136. Personal wealth. 137. An obligation; also a document specifying what is owed and terms of repayment. 138. A tiny amount. In Mark 12:42–44, Jesus comments that a poor widow who contributes two mites, or small coins, as a temple offering has given a greater gift than the wealthy donors, because she had given everything she had.

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In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659 I had eight birds hatched in one nest, Four Cocks there were, and Hens the rest.139 I nursed them up with pain and care, Nor cost nor labor did I spare, ’Til at the last they felt their wing, 5 Mounted the Trees, and learned to sing. Chief of the Brood then took his flight To Regions far and left me quite.140 My mournful chirps I after send ’Til he return, or I do end: 10 “Leave not thy nest, thy Dam and Sire. Fly back and sing amidst this Choir.” My second bird did take her flight And with her mate flew out of sight.141 Southward they both their course did bend, 15 And Seasons twain they there did spend, ’Til after blown by Southern gales They Northward steered with fillèd sails. A prettier bird was nowhere seen Along the Beach among the treen. 20 I have a third of color white On whom I placed no small delight, Coupled with mate, loving and true, Hath also bid her Dam adieu, And where Aurora142 first appears 25 She now hath perched to spend her years.143 One to the Academy flew To chat among that learnèd crew. 139. Bradstreet’s children, born between 1633 and 1652, were Samuel, Dorothy, Sarah, Simon, Hannah, Mercy, Dudley, and John. 140. Samuel, who became a physician, attended Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1653. He had left for England in November 1657 to study medicine. 141. In June 1654, Dorothy, born in 1635, married Seaborn Cotton, son of John Cotton, the minister who emigrated from Lincolnshire with the Dudley/Bradstreet family. In 1655, Seaborn accepted a call to a church in a Connecticut colony, possibly Wethersfield, possibly Windsor. The family later moved to Hampton, in what is now New Hampshire, where he was ordained in 1658. 142. The dawn. 143. Sarah, born between 1636 and 1638, had married Richard Hubbard in 1656. The couple appears to have settled in Ipswich, which is east of Andover.

278 ANNE BRADSTREET Ambition moves still in his breast That he might chant above the rest, Striving for more than to do well, That nightingales he might excel.144 My fifth, whose down is yet scarce gone Is ’mongst the shrubs and bushes flown, And as his wings increase in strength On higher boughs he’ll perch at length.145 My other three146 still with me nest Until they’re grown, then as the rest Or here or there they’ll take their flight; As is ordained, so shall they light. If birds could weep, then would my tears Let others know what are my fears Lest this my brood some harm should catch And be surprised for want of watch Whilst pecking corn and void of care They fall un’wares in Fowler’s snare;147 Or whilst on trees they sit and sing, Some untoward148 boy at them do fling; Or whilst allured with bell and glass,149 The net be spread and caught, alas; Or lest by Lime twigs150 they be foiled Or by some greedy hawks despoiled. O would, my young, ye saw my breast And knew what thoughts there sadly rest. Great was my pain when I you bred; Great was my care, when I you fed. Long did I keep you soft and warm And with my wings kept off all harm. My cares are more and fears than ever; My throbs such now as ’fore were never.

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144. Simon Bradstreet, born in 1640, was attending Harvard College. He became a clergyman. 145. Elizabeth Wade White suggests that Dudley Bradstreet, born in 1648, was attending school in Ipswich. See Anne Bradstreet: The Tenth Muse (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), 309. 146. Hannah, born in 1642, who had married earlier this month; Mercy, born in 1646 or 1647, and John, born in 1652. 147. Fowlers (or bird catchers) set snares of string to catch birds. 148. Unruly or badly behaved. 149. Bird catchers used bells, lights, and shiny objects to lure birds into nets. 150. Twigs painted with a sticky substance made from holly bark.

Poems Added to Several Poems (1678) 279 Alas my birds, you wisdom want. Of perils you are ignorant. Ofttimes in grass, on trees, in flight Sore accidents on you may light. O, to your safety have an eye, So happy may you live and die. Meanwhile my days in tune I’ll spend ’Til my weak lays151 with me shall end. In shady woods I’ll sit and sing And things that passed to mind I’ll bring. Once young and pleasant, as are you, But former toys (no, joys) adieu. My age I will not once lament But sing my time is so near spent And from the top bough take my flight Into a country beyond sight Where old ones instantly grow young And there with Seraphim152 set song. No seasons cold, nor storms they see, But spring lasts to eternity. When each of you shall in your nest Among your young ones take your rest, In chirping language oft them tell You had a Dam that loved you well, That did what could be done for young And nursed you up ’til you were strong, And ’fore she once would let you fly, She showed you joy and misery, Taught what was good, and what was ill, What would save life, and what would kill. Thus gone, amongst you I may live And, dead, yet speak and counsel give. Farewell my birds; farewell. Adieu. I happy am if well with you. A. B.

• 151. Songs or verses. 152. Angels who sing around God’s throne. See Isaiah 6:2–3.

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280 ANNE BRADSTREET

In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet,153 who deceased August 1665, being a year and half old Farewell dear babe, my heart’s too much content. Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye. Farewell fair flower that for a space was lent, Then ta’en away unto Eternity. Blest babe, why should I once bewail thy fate Or sigh the days so soon were terminate, Since thou are settled in an Everlasting state? 2 By nature Trees do rot when they are grown, And Plums and Apples th’roughly ripe do fall, And Corn and grass are in their seasons mown, And time brings down what is both strong and tall, But plants new set to be eradicate And buds new blown to have so short a date Is by his hand alone that guides nature and fate.

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153. Daughter of Bradstreet’s son Samuel and his wife, Mercy Tyng.

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In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet,154 Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three years and seven months old With troubled heart and trembling hand I write. The Heavens have changed to sorrow my delight. How oft with disappointment have I met When I on fading things my hopes have set? Experience might ’fore this have made me wise, To value things according to their price. Was ever stable joy yet found below, Or perfect bliss without mixture of woe? I knew she was but as a withering flower155 That’s here today, perhaps gone in an hour. Like as a bubble or the brittle glass Or like a shadow turning as it was. More fool then I to look on what was lent As if mine own, when thus impermanent. Farewell, dear child, thou ne’ er shall come to me, But yet awhile, and I shall go to thee. Meantime my throbbing heart’s cheered up with this: Thou with thy Savior art in endless bliss.

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154. Daughter of Bradstreet’s son Samuel and his wife, Mercy Tyng. 155. A flower is a common image of transience, but with biblical overtones. See Isaiah 40:8 and 1 Peter 1:24.

282 ANNE BRADSTREET

On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet,156 Who Died on 16 November 1669, being but a month and one day old No sooner come but gone and fall’n asleep. Acquaintance short, yet parting caused us weep. Three flowers, two scarcely blown, the last i’ th’ bud, Cropped by th’Almighty’s hand,157 yet is he good. With dreadful awe before him let’s be mute. Such was his will, but why, let’s not dispute. With humble hearts and mouths put in the dust,158 Let’s say he’s merciful as well as just. He will return and make up all our losses And smile again after our bitter crosses. Go, pretty babe, go rest with Sisters twain; Among the blessed in endless joys remain.

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156. Son of Bradstreet’s son Samuel and his wife, Mercy Tyng. 157. As Bradstreet believes that God controls all events, she interprets the deaths of infants as part of the divine plan. Richard J. DuRocher explains the theological significance of “cropped” in “’Cropt by th’Almighties hand’: Allegory as Theodicy in Anne Bradstreet’s Poems on Her Grandchildren,” in Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Milton’s England, ed. Ken Hiltner (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2008), 217–28. 158. Lamentations 3:29.

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To the Memory of My Dear Daughter-in-law, Mistress Mercy Bradstreet,159 who deceased September 6, 1670,160 in the 28 Year of Her Age And live I still to see relations gone And yet survive to sound this wailing tone. Ah, woe is me, to write thy Funeral Song Who might in reason yet have livèd long. I saw the branches lopped, the Tree now fall. I stood so nigh, it crushed me down withal. My bruisèd heart lies sobbing at the Root That thou dear Son hath lost both Tree and fruit. Thou then on Seas, sailing to foreign Coast Was ignorant what riches thou hadst lost. But, ah, too soon those heavy tidings fly To strike thee with amazing misery. Oh, how I sympathize with thy sad heart And in thy griefs still bear a second part. I lost a daughter dear, but thou a wife Who loved thee more (it seemed) than her own life. Thou being gone, she longer could not be Because her Soul she’d sent along with thee. One week she only passed in pain and woe, And then her sorrows all at once did go. A Babe she left before she soared above, The fifth and last pledge161 of her dying love. E’ er nature would, it hither did arrive. No wonder it no longer did survive.162 So, with her Children four,163 she’s now at rest, All freed from grief (I trust) among the blessed. She one hath left,164 a joy to thee and me. The Heavens vouchsafe she may so ever be.

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159. Wife of Bradstreet’s eldest son, Samuel. 160. Several Poems mistakenly has “1669.” A diary entry by Simon Bradstreet, Jr., confirms that his sister-in-law died in September 1670, not the year before. See White, Anne Bradstreet, 356–57. 161. A child, evidence of mutual love and duty. 162. Mercy Bradstreet died in childbed following the premature birth of a daughter, named Anne after the earlier baby who died, who also did not survive. 163. Elizabeth, Anne, Simon, and the infant Anne, who died with her mother. 164. Samuel and Mercy’s daughter Mercy, born in 1667, survived to marry and reproduce. She died in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, in 1710.

284 ANNE BRADSTREET Cheer up (dear Son) thy fainting bleeding heart. In him alone that causèd all this smart. What though thy strokes full sad and grievous be, He knows it is the best for thee and me.

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PART 3: POEMS AND MEDITATIONS FROM THE ANDOVER MANUSCRIPT

Figure 4. Opening page, “Meditations Divine and Morall.” MS Am 1007.1, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Anne Bradstreet’s handwriting. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Stevens Memorial Library, North Andover, MA.

For My Dear Son Simon Bradstreet Parents perpetuate their lives in their posterity, and their manners in their imitation. Children do naturally rather follow the failings than the virtues of their predecessors; but I am persuaded better things of you. You once desired me to leave something for you in writing that you might look upon when you should see me no more. I could think of nothing more fit for you, nor of more ease to myself, than these short meditations following. Such as they are I bequeath to you: small legacies are accepted by true friends, much more by dutiful children. I have avoided encroaching upon others’ conceptions, because I would leave you nothing but mine own. Though in value they fall short of all in this kind, yet I presume they will be better prized by you for the author’s sake. The Lord bless you with grace here, and crown you with glory hereafter, that I may meet you with rejoicing at that great day of appearing, which is the continual prayer of Your affectionate March 20, mother, A.B. 1664

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. 2 Many can speak well, but few can do well. We are better scholars in the theory than the practical part; but he is a true Christian that is a proficient in both. 3 Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending. A negligent youth is usually attended by an ignorant middle age, and both by an empty old age. He that hath nothing to feed on but vanity and lies must needs lie down in the bed of sorrow.

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288 ANNE BRADSTREET 4 A ship that bears much sail and little or no ballast is easily overset, and that man whose head hath great abilities, and his heart little or no grace, is in danger of foundering. 5 It is reported of the peacock that priding himself in his gay feathers he ruffles them up, but spying his black feet he soon lets fall his plumes. So he that glories in his gifts and adornings should look upon his corruptions, and it will damp his high thoughts. 6 The finest bread hath the least bran, the purest honey the least wax, and the sincerest Christian the least self-love. 7 The hireling that labors all the day comforts himself that when night comes he shall both take his rest and receive his reward. The painful1 Christian that hath wrought hard in God’s vineyard,2 and hath borne the heat and drought of the day, when he perceives his sun apace to decline, and the shadows of his evening to be stretched out, lifts up his head with joy, knowing his refreshing is at hand. 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. 9 Sweet words are like honey: a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach. 10 Diverse children have their different natures: some are like flesh which nothing but salt will keep from putrefaction; some again like tender fruits that are best preserved with sugar. Those parents are wise that can fit their nurture according to their nature. 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 soiled by one lust within. 1. Painstaking, diligent. 2. Bradstreet uses the parable of the vineyard, Matthew 20:1–16, to present believers as diligent laborers for God.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 289 12 Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge—fitter to bruise than polish. 13 The reason why Christians are so loth to exchange this world for a better is because they have more sense than faith: they see what they enjoy, they do but hope for that which is to come. 3

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. 15 A low man can go upright under that door where a taller is glad to stoop. So a man of weak faith and mean abilities may undergo a cross more patiently than he that excels him both in gifts and graces. 16 That house which is not often swept makes the cleanly inhabitant soon loathe it, and that heart which is not continually purifying itself is no fit temple for the spirit of God to dwell in.4 17 Few men are so humble as not to be proud of their abilities; and nothing will abase them more than this: What hast thou but what thou hast received? Come, give an account of thy stewardship.5 18 He that will undertake to climb up a steep mountain with a great burden on his back will find it a wearisome if not an impossible task. So he that thinks to mount to heaven clogged with the cares and riches of this life, ’tis no wonder if he faint by the way.

3. Reluctant. 4. The idea that the individual is a temple in which the spirit of God dwells comes from 1 Corinthians 3:16. 5. For the idea that Christians are servants who will need to present their accounts to God, see the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14–29.

290 ANNE BRADSTREET 19 Corn6 ’til it has passed 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 ’til they turn to dust, and then are they fit manchet7 for his mansion. 20 God hath suitable comforts and supports for his children according to their several conditions.8 If he will make his face to shine upon them,9 he then makes them lie down in green pastures, and leads them beside the still waters.10 If they stick in deep mire and clay, and all his waves and billows go over their heads,11 he then leads them to the Rock which is higher than they. 21 He that walks among briers and thorns will be very careful where he sets his foot, and he that passes through the wilderness of this world had need ponder all his steps. 22 Want of prudence as well as piety hath brought men into great inconveniences, but he that is well stored with both seldom is so ensnared. 23 The skillful fisher hath his several baits for several fish, but there is a hook under all. Satan, that great angler, hath his sundry baits for sundry tempers of men, which they all catch greedily at, but few perceive the hook ’til it be too late. 24 There is no new thing under the sun; there is nothing that can be said or done but either that or something like it hath been both done and said before.12 25 An aching head requires a soft pillow, and a drooping heart a strong support.

6. The generic term for grain. 7. Very fine bread. 8. Nature or temperament. 9. This biblical expression for God’s favor appears first in Numbers 6:25. 10. These clauses paraphrase Psalm 23:2. 11. These expressions of distress come from Psalm 69:2 and Psalm 42:7. 12. A loose paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 291 26 A sore finger may disquiet the whole body, but an ulcer within destroys it. So an enemy without may disturb a commonwealth, but dissensions within overthrow it. 27 It is a pleasant thing to behold the light, but sore eyes are not able to look upon it. The pure in heart shall see God,13 but the defiled in conscience shall rather choose to be buried under rocks and mountains than to behold the presence of the Lamb.14 28 Wisdom with an inheritance is good, but wisdom without an inheritance is better than an inheritance without wisdom. 29 Lightning doth usually precede thunder, and storms rain, and strokes do not often fall ’til after threatening. 30 Yellow leaves argue the want of sap, and gray hairs the want of moisture. So dry and sapless performances are symptoms of little spiritual vigor. 31 Iron ’til it be thoroughly heated is incapable 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. 32 Ambitious men are like hops,15 that never rest climbing so long as they have anything to stay upon, but take away their props and they are of all the most dejected. 33 Much labor wearies the body, and many thoughts oppress the mind. Man aims at profit by the one and content in the other, but often misses of both and finds nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit.16 13. Jesus makes this promise in Matthew 5:8. 14. Revelation 6:16. The Lamb is a metaphor for Christ, whom Christians believe they will see in heaven at the end of the world. 15. A vine, the flowers of which are used in preserving beer. 16. “Vanity and vexation of spirit” appear as a refrain in Ecclesiastes, beginning with Ecclesiastes 1:14.

292 ANNE BRADSTREET 34 Dim eyes are the concomitants of old age, and short-sightedness in those that are eyes of a republic foretells a declining state. 35 We read in Scripture of three sorts of arrows—the arrow of an enemy, the arrow of pestilence, and the arrow of a slanderous tongue.17 The first two kill the body, the last the good name; the former two leave a man when he is once dead, but the last mangles him in his grave. 36 Sore laborers have hard hands, and old sinners have brawny18 consciences. 37 Wickedness comes to its height by degrees. He that dares say of a less sin, “Is it not a little one?” will ’ere long say of a greater, “Tush, God regards it not!” 38 Some children are hardly weaned. Although the teat be rubbed with wormwood or mustard,20 they will either wipe it off, or else suck down sweet and bitter together. So is it with some Christians: let God embitter all the sweets of this life, that so they might feed upon more substantial food, yet they are so childishly sottish21 that they are still hugging and sucking these empty breasts, that God is forced to hedge up their way with thorns, or lay affliction on their loins, that so they might shake hands with the world before it bid them farewell. 19

39 A prudent mother will not clothe her little child with a long and cumbersome garment. She easily foresees what events it is like to produce—at the best but falls and bruises, or perhaps somewhat worse. Much more will the All-wise God proportion his dispensations according to the stature and strength of the person he bestows them on. Large endowments of honor, wealth, or a healthful body would quite overthrow some weak Christian. Therefore God cuts their garments short, to keep them in such a trim that they might run the ways of his commandment.22 17. Jeremiah 9:8 associates a deceitful tongue with an arrow. 18. Hardened or calloused. 19. With difficulty. 20. A practice to discourage a child from nursing. Wormwood is a bitter herb used for medicinal purposes. Mustard, ground from a seed, is spicy. 21. Foolish or obsessed. 22. In Psalm 119:32, the speaker promises, “I will run the way of thy commandments.”

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 293 40 The spring is a lively emblem of the Resurrection. After a long winter we see the leafless trees and dry stalks at the approach of the sun to resume their former vigor and beauty in a more ample manner than what they lost in the autumn. So shall it be at that great day, after a long vacation, when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear: those dry bones23 shall arise in far more glory than that which they lost at their creation,24 and in this transcend the spring, that their leaf shall never fail, nor their sap decline. 41 A wise father will not lay a burden on a child of seven years old which he knows is enough for one of twice his strength; much less will our heavenly Father, who knows our mold, lay such afflictions upon his weak children as would crush them to the dust, but according to the strength he will proportion the load. As God hath his little children, so he hath his strong men, such as are come to a full stature in Christ, and many times he imposes weighty burdens on their shoulders, and yet they go upright under them. But it matters not whether the load be more or less if God afford his help. 42 “I have seen an end of all perfection,”25 said the royal prophet; but he never said, “I have seen an end of all sinning.” What he did say may be easily said by many, but what he did not say cannot truly be uttered by any. 43 Fire hath its force abated by water, not by wind, and anger must be allayed by cold words, and not by blustering threats. 44 A sharp appetite and a thorough concoction26 are a sign of a healthful body, so a quick reception and a deliberate cogitation argue a sound mind. 45 We often see stones hang with drops, not from any innate moisture, but from a thick air about them. So may we sometimes see marble-hearted sinners seem full of contrition, but it is not from any dew of grace within, but from some black clouds that impend them, which produce these sweating effects. 23. The dry bones that God can make back into living humans appear in Ezekiel 37:3–6. 24. In 1 Corinthians 15:52–53, Paul promises the bodily resurrection of the dead. 25. Psalm 119:96. 26. Digestion.

294 ANNE BRADSTREET 46 The words of the wise, saith Solomon, are as nails and as goads,27 both used for contrary ends: the one holds fast, the other puts forward. Such should be the precepts of the wise masters of assemblies to their hearers, not only to bid them hold fast28 the form of sound doctrine, but also so to run that they might obtain.29 47 A shadow in the parching sun and a shelter in a blustering storm are of all seasons the most welcome. So a faithful friend in time of adversity is of all other most comfortable. 48 There is nothing admits of more admiration than God’s various dispensation of his gifts among the sons of men, betwixt whom he hath put so vast a disproportion that they scarcely seem made of the same lump or sprung out of the loins of one Adam: some set in the highest dignity that mortality is capable of, and some again so base that they are viler than the earth; some so wise and learned that they seem like angels among men, and some again so ignorant and sottish that they are more like beasts than men; some pious saints, some incarnate devils; some exceeding beautiful, and some extremely deformed; some so strong and healthful that their bones are full of marrow and their breasts of milk, and some again so weak and feeble that, while they live, they are accounted among the dead. And no other reason can be given of all this but so it pleased Him whose will is the perfect rule of righteousness. 49 The treasures of this world may well be compared to husks, for they have no kernel in them, and they that feed upon them may soon stuff their throats but cannot fill their bellies. They may be choked by them, but cannot be satisfied with them. 50 Sometimes the sun is only shadowed by a cloud that we cannot see his luster, although we may walk by his light, but when he is set we are in darkness ’til he arise again. So God doth sometimes veil his face but for a moment that we cannot behold the light of his countenance as at some other time. Yet he affords so much light as may direct our way, that we may go forward to the city of habitation.30 But 27. Ecclesiastes 12:11. 28. Paul encourages believers to hold fast to their faith in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Hebrews 4:14, and Hebrews 10:23. 29. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul exhorts believers to run that they may obtain the prize (of heaven). 30. Psalm 107:7.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 295 when he seems to set and be quite gone out of sight, then must we needs walk in darkness and see no light.31 Yet then must we trust in the Lord, and stay upon our God, and when the morning, which is the appointed time, is come the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.32 51 The eyes and the ears are the inlets or doors of the soul, through which innumerable objects enter. Yet is not that spacious room filled, neither doth it ever say, “It is enough,” but like the daughters of the horse leech33 cries, “Give! Give!”34 And, which is most strange, the more it receives, the more empty it finds itself, and sees an impossibility ever to be filled but by Him in whom all fullness dwells. 52 Had not the wisest of men35 taught us this lesson, that all is vanity and vexation of spirit, yet our own experience would soon have spelled it out, for what do we obtain of all these things but it is with labor and vexation? When we enjoy them it is with vanity and vexation, and if we lose them then they are less than vanity and more than vexation. So that we have good cause often to repeat that sentence, “Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”36 53 He that is to sail into a far country, although the ship, cabin, and provision be all convenient and comfortable for him, yet he hath no desire to make that his place of residence, but longs to put in at that port where his business lies. A Christian is sailing through this world unto his heavenly country, and here he hath many conveniences and comforts, but he must beware of desiring to make this the place of his abode, lest he meet with such tossings that may cause him to long for shore before he sees land. We must, therefore, be here as strangers and pilgrims,37 that we may plainly declare that we seek a city above, and wait all the days of our appointed time ’til our change shall come.38

31. Isaiah 59:9. 32. Malachi 4:2. 33. Veterinarian. 34. Proverbs 30:15. 35. Solomon. 36. Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12:8. Bradstreet presents these ideas in poetic form in “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures.” 37. This formulation for the state of individuals on a religious journey comes from Hebrews 11:13. 38. In Job 14:14, the speaker promises to wait patiently for change (death); in 1 Corinthians 15:52, Paul promises believers that they shall all be changed (made immortal) at Judgment Day.

296 ANNE BRADSTREET 54 He that never felt what it was to be sick or wounded doth not much care for the company of the physician or surgeon, but if he perceive a malady that threatens him with death he will gladly entertain him whom he slighted before. So he that never felt the sickness of sin nor the wounds of a guilty conscience cares not how far he keeps from him39 that hath skill to cure it, but when he finds his diseases to distress him, and that he must needs perish if he have no remedy, will unfeignedly bid him welcome that brings a plaster40 for his sore or a cordial41 for his fainting. 55 We read of ten lepers that were cleansed, but of one that returned thanks.42 We are more ready to receive mercies than we are to acknowledge them. Men can use great importunity when they are in distresses and show great ingratitude after their successes, but he that ordereth his conversation43 aright will glorify him that heard him in the day of his trouble. 56 The remembrance of former deliverances is a great support in present distresses. “He that delivered me,” saith David, “from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine,”44 and “He that hath delivered me,” saith Paul, “will deliver me.”45 God is the same yesterday, today, and for ever; we are the same that stand in need of him, today as well as yesterday, and so shall for ever. 57 Great receipts call for great returns: the more that any man is entrusted withal, the larger his accounts stand upon God’s score. It therefore behooves every man so to

39. A clergyman. 40. A bandage with medicinal properties. 41. A medicinal drink. 42. The story of this ingratitude comes from Luke 17:12–19. 43. Interactions with others. 44. 1 Samuel 17:37. The Philistines were another tribe occupying Canaan. The epithet “uncircumcised” is a term of derision. The Jews circumcised their sons as a sign of commitment to Yahweh, thus distinguishing themselves from other groups. 45. A paraphrase of Paul’s point in 2 Timothy 4:17–18. When Paul asserts, “I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion,” at this point a metaphorical claim, he is alluding to this passage from 1 Samuel and authorizing the pairing of New Testament moments with passages from Hebrew Scripture that were popular with all Christians at this time.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 297 improve his talents that when his great Master shall call him to reckoning he may receive his own with advantage.46 58 Sin and shame ever go together; he that would be freed from the last must be sure to shun the company of the first. 59 God doth many times both reward and punish for one and the same action. As we see in Jehu,47 he is rewarded with a kingdom to the fourth generation for taking vengeance on the house of Ahab, and yet “A little while,” saith God, “and I will avenge the blood of Jezereel48 upon the house of Jehu.”49 He was rewarded for the matter, and yet punished for the manner, which should warn him that doth any special service for God to fix his eye on the command, and not on his own ends, lest he meet with Jehu’s reward, which will end in punishment. 60 He that would be content with a mean50 condition must not cast his eye upon one that is in a far better estate51 than himself, but let him look upon him that is lower than he is, and, if he see that such a one bears poverty comfortably, it will help to quiet him. But if that will not do, let him look on his own unworthiness, and that will make him say with Jacob, “I am less than the least of thy mercies.”52 61 Corn is produced with much labor, as the husbandman well knows, and some land asks much more pains than some other doth to be brought into tilth,53 yet all must be plowed and harrowed.54 Some children, like sour land, are of so tough 46. In the parable of the talents, the master rewards servants who invested the money with which they were entrusted by letting them keep the profits. Matthew 25:14–30. 47. Jehu, King of northern Israel, exterminated the house of Ahab, King of Israel, at the command of a prophet because Ahab, at the instigation of his wife, Jezebel, allowed the worship of Baal and persecuted the followers of Yahweh (2 Kings 9). Although Jehu acted on God’s direction and his heirs ruled Israel for one hundred years, God eventually exacted vengeance on his house (Hosea 1:4). 48. The ancient Israelite city where Jezebel died. 49. God makes this prophecy in Hosea 1:4. 50. Insignificant or lowly. 51. Situation. 52. Genesis 32:10. Even Jacob, the father of Israel, as the twelve tribes were each named for one of his sons, recognizes his own worthlessness in God’s eyes. 53. Cultivated land. 54. A farmer uses a plow to open the soil and then a harrow to further break down the clods of dirt.

298 ANNE BRADSTREET and morose a disposition that the plow of correction must make long furrows on their back, and the harrow of discipline go often over them, before they be fit soil to sow the seed of morality, much less of grace, in them. But when by prudent nurture they are brought into a fit capacity, let the seed of good instruction and exhortation be sown in the spring of their youth, and a plentiful crop may be expected in the harvest of their years. 62 As man is called the little world, so his heart may be called the little commonwealth: his more fixed and resolved thoughts are like to inhabitants, his slight and flitting thoughts are like passengers that travel to and fro continually. Here is also the great court of justice erected, which is always kept by conscience, who is both accuser, excuser, witness, and judge, whom no bribes can pervert nor flattery cause to favor, but as he finds the evidence so he absolves or condemns. Yea, so absolute is this court of judicature that there is no appeal from it, no, not to the court of Heaven itself. For if our conscience condemn us, he also who is greater than our conscience will do it much more. But he that would have boldness to go to the throne of grace to be accepted there must be sure to carry a certificate from the court of conscience that he stands right there. 63 He that would keep a pure heart and lead a blameless life must set himself always in the awful55 presence of God. The consideration of his all-seeing eye will be a bridle to restrain from evil and a spur to quicken on to good duties. We certainly dream of some remoteness betwixt God and us, or else we should not so often fail in our whole course of life as we do, but he that with David sets the Lord alway in his sight56 will not sin against him. 64 We see in orchards some trees so fruitful that the weight of their burden is the breaking of their limbs; some again are but meanly laden, and some have nothing to show but leaves only, and some among them are dry stalks. So is it in the church, which is God’s orchard: there are some eminent Christians that are so frequent in good duties that many times the weight thereof impairs both their bodies and estates; and there are some (and they sincere ones, too) who have not attained to that fruitfulness, although they aim at perfection; and again there are others that have nothing to commend them but only a gay57 profession,58 and 55. In the sense of inspiring awe. 56. Psalm 119:112. 57. Showy. 58. Assertion of religious beliefs.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 299 these are but leafy Christians which are in as much danger of being cut down as the dry stalks, for both cumber the ground. 65 We see in the firmament there is but one sun among a multitude of stars, and those stars also to differ much one from the other in regard of bigness and brightness, yet all receive their light from that one sun. So is it in the church both militant and triumphant: there is but one Christ, who is the Sun of Righteousness, in the midst of an innumerable company of saints and angels.59 Those saints60 have their degrees even in this life: some are stars of the first magnitude, and some of a less degree, and others (and they indeed the most in number) but small and obscure, yet all receive their luster (be it more or less) from that glorious Sun that enlightens all in all. And if some of them shine so bright while they move on earth, how transcendently splendid shall they be when they are fixed in their heavenly spheres! 66 Men that have walked61 very extravagantly,62 and at last bethink themselves of turning to God, the first thing which they eye is how to reform their ways rather than to beg forgiveness for their sins. Nature looks more at a compensation than at a pardon. But he that will not come for mercy without money and without price, but brings his filthy rags63 to barter for it, shall meet with miserable disappointment, going away empty, bearing the reproach of his pride and folly. 67 All the works and doings of God are wonderful, but none more awful than his great work of election and reprobation.64 When we consider how many good parents have had bad children, and again how many bad parents have had pious children, it should make us adore the sovereignty65 of God, who will not be tied to time nor place, nor yet to persons, but takes and chooses when and where and whom he pleases. It should also teach the children of godly parents to walk with

59. Paul offers this vision of Christ surrounded by angels in Hebrews 12:22. 60. Any believing Christian. 61. A trope for following Christ’s teachings. 62. Literally, to wander out of bounds. 63. The idea that human claims to righteousness are “dirty rags” comes from Isaiah 64:6. 64. The elect are those chosen by God; the reprobates are those rejected or condemned. According to Calvinist theology, these conditions are not determined by individual merit but by God’s arbitrary choice as he exercises his sovereignty. 65. Supremacy.

300 ANNE BRADSTREET fear and trembling,66 lest they, through unbelief, fall short of a promise. It may also be a support to such as have or had wicked parents, that if they abide not in unbelief God is able to graft67 them in. The upshot of all should make us, with the Apostle,68 to admire the justice and mercy of God, and say, “How unsearchable are his ways, and his footsteps past finding out.”69 68 The gifts that God bestows on the sons of men are not only abused, but most commonly employed for a clean contrary end than that which they were given for, as health, wealth, and honor, which might be so many steps to draw men to God in consideration of his bounty towards them, but have driven them the further from him, that they are ready to say, “we are lords; we will come no more at thee.” If outward blessings be not as wings to help us mount upwards they will certainly prove clogs and weights that will pull us lower downward. 69 All the comforts of this life may be compared to the gourd of Jonah,70 that notwithstanding we take great delight for a season in them and find their shadow very comfortable, yet there is some worm or other of discontent, of fear, or grief that lies at the root, which in great part withers the pleasure which else we should take in them. And well it is that we perceive a decay in their greenness, for were earthly comforts permanent, who would look for heavenly? 70 All men are truly said to be tenants at will,71 and it may as truly be said that all have a lease of their lives, some longer, some shorter, as it pleases our great Landlord to let. All have their bounds set, over which they cannot pass, and ’til the expiration of that time no dangers, no sickness, no pains, or troubles shall put a period to our days. The certainty that that time will come, together with the uncertainty how, where, and when, should make us so to number our days as to apply our hearts to

66. In Philippians 2:12, Paul urges believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. 67. The process of inserting the shoot of one tree into a notch in another, where it will grow as if it were part of the new tree. 68. Paul. An apostle is one sent with a message. In the Christian context, there are twelve apostles authorized by Jesus to spread his teaching. Paul, who never met Jesus in life, reports that he received his commission on the road to Damascus, Acts 9. 69. Romans 11:33. 70. For the story of the gourd, see Jonah 4:6–9. 71. A person who can be evicted at any time for no reason.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 301 wisdom, that when we are put out of these houses of clay72 we may be sure of an everlasting habitation73 that fades not away. 71 All weak and diseased bodies have hourly mementos of their mortality. But the soundest of men have likewise their nightly monitor by the emblem of death, which is their sleep (for so is death often called). And not only their death, but their grave is lively represented before their eyes by beholding their bed. The morning may mind them of the Resurrection, and the sun approaching of the appearing of the Sun of Righteousness,74 at whose coming they shall all rise out of their beds, the long night shall flee away, and the day of eternity shall never end. Seeing these things must be, what manner of persons ought we to be in all good conversation? 72 As the brands of a fire, if once severed, will of themselves go out, although you use no other means to extinguish them, so distance of place, together with length of time (if there be no intercourse75) will cool the affections of intimate friends, though there should be no displeasance76 between them. 73 A good name is as a precious ointment,77 and it is a great favor to have a good repute among good men. Yet it is not that which commends us to God, for by his balance we must be weighed,78 and by his judgment we must be tried; and as he passes the sentence, so shall we stand. 74 Well doth the Apostle call riches deceitful riches,79 and they may truly be compared to deceitful friends who speak fair and promise much, but perform nothing, and so leave those in the lurch that most relied on them. So is it with the wealth, honors, and pleasures of this world, which miserably delude men and make them put great confidence in them, but when death threatens and distress lays hold upon them, they prove like the reeds of Egypt that pierce instead of supporting, 72. A metaphor for the human body, Job 4:19. 73. A metaphor for heaven from Luke 16:9. 74. The risen Christ. 75. Communication. 76. Displeasure or dissatisfaction. 77. A close paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 7:1. 78. An instrument for determining weight. Job 31:6. 79. Mark 4:19. It is not an apostle but Jesus who says this.

302 ANNE BRADSTREET like empty wells in the time of drought, that those that go to find water in them return with their empty pitchers ashamed. 75 It is admirable to consider the power of faith, by which all things are (almost) possible to be done. It can remove mountains,80 if need were; it hath stayed the course of the sun,81 raised the dead, cast out devils,82 reversed the order of nature, quenched the violence of the fire,83 made the water become firm footing for Peter to walk on.84 Nay, more than all these, it hath overcome the Omnipotent himself, as, when Moses interceded for the people, God said to him, “Let me alone that I may destroy them!”85—as if Moses had been able, by the hand of faith, to hold the everlasting arms of the mighty God of Jacob. Yea, Jacob himself, when he wrestled with God face to face in Peniel: “Let me go,” saith that angel. “I will not let thee go,” replies Jacob, “’til thou bless me!”86 Faith is not only thus potent, but it is so necessary that without faith there is no salvation; therefore, with all our seekings and gettings, let us above all seek to obtain this pearl of price.87 76 Some Christians do by their lusts and corruptions as the Israelites did by the Canaanites, not destroy them, but put them under tribute;88 for that they could do (as they thought) with less hazard and more profit. But what was the issue? They became a snare unto them, pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides,89 and at last overcame them, and kept them under slavery. So it is most certain that those that are disobedient to the command of God, and endeavor not to the utmost to drive out all their accursed inmates, but make a league with them, they shall at last fall into perpetual bondage under them unless the great deliverer Christ Jesus come to their rescue.

80. This example of the power of faith comes from 1 Corinthians 13:2. 81. Joshua 10:13 reports that the sun stood still so that the Israelites could defeat the Amorites. 82. In Matthew 10:8, the disciples are charged to perform these miracles. 83. Paul reminds his audience of faith’s ability to do these things, Hebrews 11:34. 84. This event is reported in Matthew 14:29. 85. Deuteronomy 9:14. 86. Genesis 32:26. 87. In Matthew 13:46, Jesus presents as a model a merchant who sells all his other goods to buy the pearl of great price. 88. A tax imposed on conquered peoples. 89. In Numbers 33:55, God predicts that this will happen if the Israelites do not destroy the other inhabitants of Canaan.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 303 77 God hath by his providence so ordered that no one country hath all commodities within itself, but what it wants another shall supply, that so there may be a mutual commerce through the world. As it is with countries so it is with men: there was never yet any one man that had all excellences. Let his parts,90 natural and acquired, spiritual and moral, be never so large, yet he stands in need of something which another man hath, perhaps meaner91 than himself, which shows us perfection is not below, as also that God will have us beholden one to another.

[My honored and dear mother intended to have filled up this book with the like observations, but was prevented by death]92

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90. Abilities. 91. Less accomplished or significant. 92. Editorial direction added by Simon Bradstreet, Jr.

304 ANNE BRADSTREET [A true copy of a book left by my honored and dear mother to her children, and found among some papers after her death.]93

To My Dear Children This book, by any yet unread, I leave for you when I am dead. That, being gone, here you may find What was your living mother’s mind. Make use of what I leave in love, And God shall bless you from above. A. B.

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93. Simon copied the material following from a booklet now lost.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 305

My Dear Children: I, knowing by experience that the exhortations of parents take most effect when the speakers leave to speak, and those especially sink deepest which are spoke latest, and being ignorant whether on my deathbed I shall have opportunity to speak to any of you, much less to all, thought it the best, whilst I was able, to compose some short matters (for what else to call them I know not) and bequeath to you, that when I am no more with you yet I may be daily in your remembrance (although that is the least in my aim in what I now do), but that you may gain some spiritual advantage by my experience. I have not studied in this you read to show my skill, but to declare the truth, not to set forth myself, but the glory of God. If I had minded the former, it had been perhaps better pleasing to you, but seeing the last is the best, let it be best pleasing to you. The method I will observe shall be this: I will begin with God’s dealing with me from my childhood to this day. In my young years, about six or seven as I take it, I began to make conscience of my ways, and what I knew was sinful, as lying, disobedience to parents, etc., I avoided it. If at any time I was overtaken with the like evils, it was a great trouble. I could not be at rest ’til by prayer I had confessed it unto God. I was also troubled at the neglect of private duties,94 though too often tardy that way. I also found much comfort in reading the Scriptures, especially those places I thought most concerned my Condition;95 and as I grew to have more understanding, so the more solace I took in them. In a long fit of sickness which I had on my bed I often communed with my heart and made my supplication to the Most High, who set me free from that affliction. But as I grew up to be about fourteen or fifteen I found my heart more carnal96 and, sitting loose97 from God, vanity and the follies of youth take hold of me. About sixteen the Lord laid his hand sore upon me and smote me with the smallpox. When I was in my affliction, I besought the Lord, and confessed my pride and vanity, and he was entreated of me, and again restored me. But I rendered not to him according to the benefit received. 94. Prayer and self-criticism done independently. 95. Her spiritual state. 96. Focused on worldly matters. 97. Remaining distant or independent.

306 ANNE BRADSTREET After a short time I changed my condition and was married and came into this country,98 where I found a new world and new manners, at which my heart rose. But after I was convinced it was the way of God, I submitted to it and joined to the church at Boston. After some time I fell into a lingering sickness like a consumption,99 together with a lameness, which correction I saw the Lord sent to humble and try me and do me good, and it was not altogether ineffectual. It pleased God to keep me a long time without a child, which was a great grief to me, and cost me many prayers and tears before I obtained one; and after him100 gave me many more, of whom I now take the care, that as I have brought you into the world, and with great pains, weakness, cares, and fears brought you to this, I now travail101 in birth again of you ’til Christ be formed in you.102 Among all my experiences of God’s gracious dealings103 with me I have constantly observed this, that he hath never suffered me long to sit loose from him, but by one affliction or other hath made me look home and search what was amiss. So usually thus it hath been with me that I have no sooner felt my heart out of order but I have expected correction for it, which most commonly hath been upon my own person in sickness, weakness, pains, sometimes on my soul in doubts and fears of God’s displeasure and my sincerity towards him. Sometimes he hath smote a child with sickness, sometimes chastened by losses in estate,104 and these times, through his great mercy, have been the times of my greatest getting and advantage. Yea, I have found them the times when the Lord hath manifested the most love to me. Then have I gone to searching, and have said with David, “Lord, search me and try me, see what ways of wickedness are in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”105 And seldom or never but I have found either some sin I lay under which God would have reformed, or some duty neglected which he would have performed. And by his help I have laid vows and bonds upon my soul to perform his righteous commands.

98. Massachusetts Bay Colony. 99. An inflammation of the lungs. 100. Her oldest child, Samuel, who was born in the fourth year of her marriage. 101. Labor or struggle. 102. Galatians 4:19. Following Paul, clergymen represented themselves as laboring to give birth to the souls of their congregants. 103. The Wisdom of Solomon 16:2. 104. Physical property. 105. Psalm 139:23–24.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 307 If at any time you are chastened of God, take it as thankfully and joyfully as in greatest mercies, for if ye be his ye shall reap the greatest benefit by it. It hath been no small support to me in times of darkness when the Almighty hath hid his face106 from me that yet I have had abundance of sweetness and refreshment after affliction and more circumspection107 in my walking108 after I have been afflicted. I have been with God like an untoward109 child, that no longer than the rod has been on my back (or at least in sight) but I have been apt to forget him and myself too. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy statutes.110 I have had great experience of God’s hearing my prayers and returning comfortable answers to me, either in granting the thing I prayed for or else in satisfying my mind without it, and I have been confident it hath been from him, because I have found my heart through his goodness enlarged in thankfulness to him. I have often been perplexed that I have not found that constant joy in my pilgrimage111 and refreshing which I supposed most of the servants of God have, although he hath not left me altogether without the witness of his Holy Spirit, who hath oft given me his word and set to his seal112 that it shall be well with me. I have sometimes tasted of that hidden manna113 that the world knows not, and have set up my Ebenezer,114 and have resolved with myself that against such a promise, such tastes of sweetness, the gates of hell shall never prevail.115 Yet have I many times sinkings and droopings, and not enjoyed that felicity that sometimes I have done. But when I have been in darkness and seen no light, yet have I desired to stay myself upon the Lord.116 And when I have been in sickness and pain I have thought if the Lord would but lift up the light of his countenance upon me,117 although he ground me to powder it would be but light to me. Yea, oft have I thought, were I in hell itself, and could there find the love of God toward me, it would be a heaven. And could I have been in heaven without the love of God, it 106. An expression signaling God’s displeasure. Psalm 22:24; Isaiah 59:2. 107. Vigilance. 108. A trope for following Christ’s teachings. 109. Perverse or difficult. 110. For the idea that affliction leads to commitment, see Psalm 119:71. 111. Journey through this life. 112. John 3:33. 113. Miraculous nourishment originally provided by God for the Israelites after they fled Egypt (Exodus 16); promised to the faithful (Revelations 2:17). 114. A stone that a person erects to acknowledge God’s help. 1 Samuel 7:12. 115. This promise of steadfastness comes from Matthew 16:18. 116. This expression for depending on God comes from Isaiah 50:10. 117. Psalm 4:6.

308 ANNE BRADSTREET would have been a hell to me, for in truth, it is the absence and presence of God that makes heaven or hell. Many times hath Satan troubled me concerning the verity118 of the Scriptures, many times by atheism how I could know whether there was a God. I never saw any miracles to confirm me, and those which I read of how did I know but they were feigned? That there is a God my reason would soon tell me by the wondrous works that I see—the vast frame of the heaven and the earth, the order of all things, night and day, summer and winter, spring and autumn, the daily providing for this great household upon the earth, the preserving and directing of all to its proper end. The consideration of these things would with amazement certainly resolve me that there is an Eternal Being. But how should I know he is such a God as I worship in Trinity,119 and such a Savior as I rely upon? Though this hath thousands of times been suggested to me, yet God hath helped me over. I have argued thus with myself: that there is a God I see. If ever this God hath revealed himself, it must be in his Word, and this must be it or none. Have I not found that operation by it that no human invention can work upon the soul? Have not judgments befallen divers who have scorned and contemned it? Hath it not been preserved through all ages maugre120 all the heathen tyrants and all of the enemies who have opposed it? Is there any story but that which shows the beginnings of time, and how the world came to be as we see? Do we not know the prophecies in it fulfilled which could not have been so long foretold by any but God himself? When I have got over this block then have I another put in my way, that, admit this be the true God whom we worship, and that be his Word, yet why may not the popish121 religion be the right? They have the same God, the same Christ, the same Word. They only interpret it one way, we another. This hath sometimes stuck with me, and more it would, but the vain fooleries that are in their religion, together with their lying miracles and cruel persecutions of the Saints,122 which admit were they as they term them, yet not so to be dealt withal. The consideration of these things and many the like would soon turn me to my own religion again.

118. Truthfulness. 119. The Christian god has three “persons”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 120. Despite. 121. A derogatory term for Catholic. 122. Believers of the Protestant interpretation of Christian Scripture.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 309 But some new troubles I have had since the world has been filled with blasphemy and sectaries,123 and some who have been accounted sincere Christians have been carried away with them, that sometimes I have said, “Is there faith upon the earth?” and I have not known what to think. But then I have remembered the words of Christ that so it must be, and that, if it were possible, the very elect should be deceived.124 “Behold,” saith our Savior, “I have told you before.”125 That hath stayed my heart, and I can now say, “Return, O my soul, to thy rest.126 Upon this rock Christ Jesus will I build my faith,127 and if I perish, I perish.”128 But I know all the powers of hell shall never prevail against it.129 I know whom I have trusted, and whom I have believed,130 and that he is able to keep that I have committed to his charge. Now to the King immortal, eternal, and invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever! Amen.131 This was written in much sickness and weakness, and is very weakly and imperfectly done, but if you can pick any benefit out of it, it is the mark which I aimed at.

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123. Individuals following schismatic religious groups, such as Baptists or Quakers. 124. Matthew 24:24. 125. Matthew 24:25. 126. Psalm 116:7. 127. A reworking of Matthew 16:18, in which Jesus says of Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church.” The name Peter or Petros derives from the Greek word for rock. 128. Esther 4:16. The book of Esther tells the story of a woman chosen to be queen by Ahasuerus, who did not know she was Jewish. When her people were threatened with destruction, Esther defied protocol and her own self-interest by approaching the king unsummoned. These are her final words before taking this risk. 129. A paraphrase of the rest of Matthew 16:18. 130. Ephesians 1:13. 131. Bradstreet’s closing sentence quotes 1 Timothy 1:17.

310 ANNE BRADSTREET

[Here follow several occasional meditations]132 1 By night, when others soundly slept And hath at once both ease and rest, My waking eyes were open kept, And so to lie I found it best. 2 I sought him whom my soul did love. With tears I sought him earnestly. He bowed his ear down from above. In vain I did not seek or cry. 3 My hungry soul he filled with good. He in his bottle put my tears. My smarting wounds washed in his blood133 And banished thence my doubts and fears. 4 What to my Savior shall I give Who freely hath done this for me? I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live And love him to eternity.

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132. Simon’s editorial direction. 133. A metaphor for forgiveness of sins. Revelation 7:14.

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Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 311

For deliverance from a fever When sorrows had begirt me round And pains within and out. When in my flesh no part was found Then didst thou rid me out. My burning flesh in sweat did boil. My aching head did break. From side to side for ease I toil, So faint I could not speak. Beclouded was my soul with fear Of thy displeasure sore, Nor could I read my evidence134 Which oft I read before. “Hide not thy face from me,” I cried, “From burnings keep my soul. “Thou knowest my heart, and hast me tried. “I on thy mercies roll.135 “Oh, heal my soul,” thou knowest I said, “Though flesh consume to naught. “What though in dust it shall be laid? “To glory it shall be brought.” Thou heardest, thy rod thou didst remove And spared my body frail. Thou showedst to me thy tender love. My heart no more might quail. Oh, praises to my mighty God! Praise to my Lord, I say, Who hath redeemed my soul from pit. Praises to him for aye.136

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134. Information from experience that would show she is one of the elect. 135. Others have transcribed this line as “I’m on thy mercy’s roll,” but there is no “’m” in the manuscript, and the later poem beginning “In my solitary hours” clearly states, “I’ll on thy mercies roll.” 136. Ever.

312 ANNE BRADSTREET

From another sore fit In my distress I sought the Lord, When naught on earth could comfort give, And when my soul those things abhorred Then, Lord, thou saidst unto me, “Live.” Thou knowest the sorrows that I felt. My plaints and groans were heard of thee. And how in sweat I seemed to melt. Thou helpedst and thou regardedst me. My wasted flesh thou didst restore. My feeble loins didst gird with strength.137 Yea, when I was most low and poor I said, “I shall praise thee at length.” What shall I render to my God For all his bounty showed to me— E’en for his mercies in his rod, Where pity most of all I see? My heart I wholly give to thee. Oh, make it fruitful, faithful Lord! My life shall dedicated be To praise in thought, in deed, in word.138

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Thou knowest no life I did require Longer than still thy name to praise, Nor aught on earth worthy desire In drawing out these wretched days. Thy name and praise to celebrate, O Lord, for aye139 is my request.

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137. Literally, to tie up one’s garments with a girdle. Figuratively, to prepare for action. Individuals in the Bible are frequently described as girding their loins and also as figuratively being girded by God with strength. See, for example, Psalm 18:32. 138. Colossians 3:17. Aquinas in the Summa Theologica added “thoughts” to “words and deeds.” That language then entered English idiom through the general confession in the Sarum Rite (1526) and then in the Book of Common Prayer (1549). 139. For always.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 313 Oh, grant I do it in this state And then with thee, which is the best.

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314 ANNE BRADSTREET

Deliverance from a fit of fainting Worthy art thou, O Lord of praise, But, ah! it’s not in me. My sinking heart I pray thee raise So shall I give it thee. “My life as spider’s web’s cut off,”140 5 Thus, fainting, have I said, “And living man no more shall see, But be in silence laid.” My feeble spirit thou didst revive, My doubting thou didst chide, And though as dead, mad’st me alive, I here a while might bide. Why should I live but to thy praise? My life is hid with thee. O Lord, no longer be my days Than I may fruitful be.

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140. Job 8:14.

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Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 315

Meditations when my soul hath been refreshed with the consolations which the world knows not Lord, why should I doubt any more when thou hast given me such assured pledges141 of thy love? First, thou art my Creator, I thy creature; thou my Master, I thy servant. But hence arises not my comfort. Thou art my Father, I thy child: “Ye shall [be] my sons and daughters,” saith the Lord Almighty.142 Christ is my brother: “I ascend unto my father and your father, unto my God and your God.”143 But lest this should not be enough, “Thy maker is thy husband.”144 Nay, more, “I am a member of his body; he, my head.”145 Such privileges, had not the word of truth made them known, who or where is the man that durst in his heart have presumed to have thought it? So wonderful are these thoughts that my spirit fails in me at the consideration thereof, and I am confounded to think that God, who hath done so much for me, should have so little from me. But this is my comfort: when I come into Heaven, I shall understand perfectly146 what he hath done for me, and then shall I be able to praise him as I ought. Lord, having this hope, let me purify myself as thou art pure, and let me be no more afraid of death, but even desire to be dissolved and be with thee, which is best of all.

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141. Promises. 142. 2 Corinthians 6:18. 143. John 20:17. 144. Isaiah 54:5. 145. Ephesians 5:30 asserts that believers are members of Christ’s body. Ephesians 5:23 posits Christ as the head of that collective body, which is the Church. 146. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul promises this enlightenment.

316 ANNE BRADSTREET

July 8, 1656 I had a sore fit of fainting which lasted two or three days, but not in that extremity which at first it took me, and so much the sorer it was to me because my dear husband was from home (who is my chiefest comforter on earth), but my God, who never failed me, was not absent, but helped me, and graciously manifested his love to me, which I dare not pass by without remembrance, that it may be a support to me when I shall have occasion to read this hereafter, and to others that shall read it when I shall possess that I now hope for, that so they may be encouraged to trust in him who is the only portion147 of his servants. O Lord, let me never forget thy goodness, nor question thy faithfulness to me, for thou art my God. Thou hast said, and shall not I believe it? Thou hast given me a pledge148 of that inheritance thou hast promised to bestow upon me. Oh, never let Satan prevail against me, but strengthen my faith in thee ’til I shall attain the end of my hopes, even the salvation of my soul. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.149

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147. Dowry or inheritance. 148. Commitment or promise. 149. A plea from Revelation 22:20.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 317

What God is like to him I serve? What Savior like to mine? Oh, never let me from thee swerve For truly I am thine. My thankful mouth shall speak thy praise. My tongue shall talk of thee. On high my heart, oh, do thou raise For what thou’st done for me. Go, worldlings, to your vanities And heathen to your gods. Let them help in adversities, And sanctify150 their rods. My God he is not like to yours. Yourselves shall judges be. I find his love; I know his power, A succorer of me. He is not man that he should lie Nor son of man t’unsay. His word he plighted hath on high, And I shall live for aye. And for his sake151 that faithful is, That died but now doth live, The first and last, that lives for aye, Me lasting life shall give.

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150. To make holy. 151. Jesus, whose sacrifice on the Cross allows salvation.

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318 ANNE BRADSTREET

My soul, rejoice thou in thy God. Boast of him all the day. Walk in his law, and kiss his rod. Cleave close to him alway. What though thy outward man decay? Thy inward shall wax strong. Thy body vile it shall be changed And glorious made ere long.152 With angel’s wings thy soul shall mount To bliss unseen by eye. And drink at unexhausted fount Of joy unto eternity.153 Thy tears shall all be drièd up.154 Thy sorrows all shall fly. Thy sins shall ne’er be summoned up Nor come in memory. Then shall I know what thou hast done For me, unworthy me, And praise thee shall e’en as I ought For wonders that I see.

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Base world, I trample on thy face. Thy glory I despise. No gain I find in aught below, For God hath made me wise. Come, Jesus, quickly,155 blessèd Lord. Thy face when shall I see? Oh, let me count each hour a day ’Til I dissolvèd be.

• 152. Philippians 3:21 promises this transformation. 153. Revelation 21:6. 154. Revelation 7:17. 155. A plea from Revelation 22:20.

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Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 319

August 28, 1656 After much weakness and sickness, when my spirits were worn out, and many times my faith weak likewise, the Lord was pleased to uphold my drooping heart and to manifest his love to me. And this is that which stays my soul that this condition that I am in is the best for me, for God doth not afflict willingly nor take delight in grieving the children of men. He hath no benefit by my adversity, nor is he the better for my prosperity, but he doth it for my advantage, and that I may be a gainer by it. And if he knows that weakness and a frail body is the best to make me a vessel fit156 for his use, why should I not bear it, not only willingly but joyfully? The Lord knows I dare not desire that health that sometimes I have had, lest my heart should be drawn from him and set upon the world. Now I can wait, looking every day when my Savior shall call for me. Lord, grant that while I live I may do that service I am able in this frail body, and be in continual expectation of my change. And let me never forget thy great love to my soul so lately expressed, when I could lie down and bequeath my soul to thee, and death seemed no terrible thing. Oh, let me ever see thee that art invisible, and I shall not be unwilling to come, though by so rough a messenger.

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156. Appropriate.

320 ANNE BRADSTREET

May 11, 1657 I had a sore sickness, and weakness took hold of me, which hath by fits lasted all this spring ’til this 11th May. Yet hath my God given me many a respite and some ability to perform the duties I owe to him and the work of my family. Many a refreshment have I found in this my weary pilgrimage,157 and in this valley of Baca many pools of water.158 That which now I chiefly labor for is a contented, thankful heart under my affliction and weakness, seeing it is the will of God it should be thus. Who am I that I should repine159 at his pleasure, especially seeing it is for my spiritual advantage? For I hope my soul shall flourish while my body decays, and the weakness of this outward man shall be a means to strengthen my inner man. “Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”160

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157. Journey through this life. 158. Psalm 84:6. The “valley of Baca” is a metaphor for spiritual suffering. 159. Complain or resent. 160. Hebrews 10:37.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 321

May 13, 1657 As spring the winter doth succeed And leaves the naked trees do dress, The earth all black is clothed in green. At sunshine each their joy express, My sun’s returned with healing wings.161 My soul and body do rejoice. My heart exults and praises sings To him that heard my wailing voice. My winter’s past, my storms are gone, And former clouds seem now all fled, But if they must eclipse again I’ll run where I was succorèd. I have a shelter from the storm, A shadow from the fainting heat. I have access unto his throne Who is a God so wondrous great. Oh, thou hast made my pilgrimage162 Thus pleasant, fair, and good, Blessed me in youth and elder age, My Baca163 made a springing flood.

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I studious am what I shall do To show my duty with delight; All I can give is but thine own. And at the most a simple mite.164

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161. Malachi 4:2. 162. Journey through this life. 163. See note 158. 164. Tiny amount. In Mark 12:42, Jesus praises a poor widow who contributed only two mites to the synagogue, because she gave all that she had.

322 ANNE BRADSTREET

September 30, 1657 It pleased God to visit me with my old distemper of weakness and fainting, but not in that sore manner sometimes he hath. I desire not only willingly, but thankfully, to submit to him, for I trust it is out of his abundant love to my straying soul which in prosperity is too much in love with the world. I have found by experience I can no more live without correction than without food. Lord, with thy correction give instruction and amendment, and then thy strokes shall be welcome. I have not been refined in the furnace of affliction165 as some have been, but have rather been preserved with sugar than brine. Yet will he preserve me to his heavenly kingdom. Thus (dear children) have ye seen the many sicknesses and weaknesses that I have passed through to the end that, if you meet with the like, you may have recourse to the same God who hath heard and delivered me, and will do the like for you if you trust in him. And when he shall deliver you out of distress, forget not to give him thanks, but walk more closely with him than before. This is the desire of your loving mother. A. B.

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165. In Isaiah 48:10, God claims to have refined Israel through affliction.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 323 [In the same book were upon special occasions the poems, etcetera, which follow added.]166

Upon My Son Samuel, His Going for England, November 6, 1657 Thou mighty God of sea and land, I here resign into thy hand The son of prayers, of vows, of tears, The child I stayed167 for many years. Thou heard’st me then, and gav’st him me. Hear me again: I give him thee. He’s mine, but more, O Lord, thine own, For sure thy grace on him is shown. No friend I have like thee to trust, For mortal helps are brittle dust. Preserve, O Lord, from storms and wrack. Protect him there, and bring him back, And if thou shalt spare me a space That I again may see his face, Then shall I celebrate thy praise And bless thee for it even all my days. If otherwise I go to rest, Thy will be done, for that is best. Persuade my heart I shall him see For ever happified with thee.

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166. Simon’s explanatory note. 167. Waited. Bradstreet was married for four years before her first child was born.

324 ANNE BRADSTREET

May 11, 1661 It hath pleased God to give me a long time of respite for these four years that I have had no great fit of sickness. But this year from the middle of January ’til May, I have been by fits very ill and weak. The first of this month I had a fever seized upon me which indeed was the longest and sorest that ever I had, lasting four days, and the weather being very hot made it the more tedious. But it pleased the Lord to support my heart in his goodness, and to hear my prayers, and to deliver me out of adversity. But, alas! I cannot render unto the Lord according to all his lovingkindness, nor take the cup of salvation with thanksgiving as I ought to do. Lord, thou that knowest all things knowest that I desire to testify my thankfulness not only in word but in deed,168 that my conversation169 may speak that thy vows are upon me.

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168. Colossians 3:17. 169. General interaction or behavior, not simply speech.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 325

My thankful heart with glorying tongue Shall celebrate thy name Who hath restored, redeemed, recured From sickness, death, and pain. I cried, “Thou seem’st to make some stay!” I sought more earnestly, And in due time thou succor’st me And sent’st me help from high. Lord, whilst my fleeting time shall last Thy goodness let me tell, And new experience I have gained My future doubts repel. An humble, faithful life, O Lord, For ever let me walk. Let my obedience testify My praise lies not in talk. Accept, O Lord, my simple mite,170 For more I cannot give. What thou bestowest I shall restore, For of thine alms171 I live.

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170. Tiny amount. See note 164. 171. Charity, material support given to the poor.

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326 ANNE BRADSTREET

For the Restoration of my Dear Husband from a Burning Ague, June 1st, 1661172 When fears and sorrows me beset Then didst thou rid me out. When heart did faint and spirits quail Thou comfort’st me about. Thou rais’st him up I feared to lose, Regav’st me him again. Distempers thou didst chase away. With strength173 didst him sustain. My thankful heart with pen record The goodness of thy God. Let thy obedience testify He taught thee by his rod, And with his staff did thee support, That thou by both mayst learn,174 And ’twixt the good and evil way At last thou might’st discern.175 Praises to him who hath not left My soul as destitute, Nor turned his ear away from me But granted hath my suit.

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172. The specific day in June is illegible in the Andover manuscript. The “Sarah Bradstreet” copy of the booklet presents the date as June 1st. 173. In the manuscript, the line begins “With strought,” which is not a word. Simon must have miscopied without noticing. The “Sarah Bradstreet” transcription corrects to “strength.” 174. Psalm 23:4. 175. 1 Kings 3:9.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 327

Upon My Daughter Hannah Wiggin,176 Her Recovery from a Dangerous Fever Blest be thy name, who didst restore To health my daughter dear, When death did seem e’en to approach And life was ended near. Grant she remember what thou’st done And celebrate thy praise, And let her conversation177 say She loves thee all thy days.

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176. Hannah, Bradstreet’s third daughter, born 1642, had married Andrew Wiggin on June 3, 1659. 177. General interaction or behavior, not simply speech.

328 ANNE BRADSTREET

On My Son’s178 Return Out of England, July 17, 1661 All praise to him who hath now turned My fears to joys, my sighs to song. My tears to smiles, my sad to glad. He’s come for whom I waited long. Thou didst preserve him as he went, In raging storms didst safely keep, Didst that ship bring to quiet port. The other sank low in the deep. From dangers great thou didst him free Of pirates who were near at hand And order’st so the adverse wind That he before them got to land. In country strange thou didst provide And friends raised him in every place And courtesies of sundry sorts From such as ’fore ne’er saw his face. In sickness when he lay full sore, His help and his physician wert. When royal ones that time did die179 Thou healedst his flesh and cheered his heart.

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From troubles and encumbers thou Without (all fraud) didst set him free, That without scandal he might come To th’ land of his nativity. On eagle’s wings180 him hither brought Through want and dangers manifold, And thus hath granted my request That I thy mercies might behold.

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178. Samuel, Bradstreet’s eldest son, who had gone to England in November 1657. 179. Samuel, like his mother, survived smallpox. Two of Charles Stuart’s siblings, Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, and Mary Stuart, Princess of Orange, died of the disease in 1660. Henry had just turned 20; Mary was 29. 180. Exodus 19:4.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 329 Oh, help me pay my vows, O Lord! That ever I may thankful be And may put him in mind of what Thou’st done for him, and so for me. In both our hearts erect a frame Of duty and of thankfulness That all thy favors great received Our upright walking181 may express.

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O Lord, grant that I may never forget thy lovingkindness in this particular, and how graciously thou hast answered my desires.

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181. Following of God’s ways.

330 ANNE BRADSTREET

Upon My Dear and Loving Husband, His Going into England,182 January 16, 1661183 O thou Most High, who rulest all And hear’st the prayers of thine, Oh, hearken, Lord, unto my suit, And my petition sign. Into thy everlasting arms Of mercy I commend Thy servant,184 Lord. Keep and preserve My husband, my dear friend. At thy command, O Lord, he went, Nor naught could keep him back. Then let thy promise joy his heart. Oh, help, and be not slack. Uphold my heart in thee, O God. Thou art my strength and stay. Thou seest how weak and frail I am. Hide not thy face away. I, in obedience to thy will, Thou knowest, did submit. It was my duty so to do; O Lord, accept of it.

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Unthankfulness for mercies past Impute thou not to me. O Lord, thou know’st my weak desire Was to sing praise to thee. Lord, be thou pilot to the ship And send them prosperous gales. In storms and sickness, Lord, preserve Thy goodness never fails.

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182. Because the government of England had changed with the restoration of the monarchy, Simon Bradstreet went to England to renew the charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 183. January 1662. Bradstreet uses the Julian calendar, which starts the new year in March. See the note on the text. 184. Jesus’s final words, from Luke 23:46.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 331 Unto thy work he hath in hand, Lord, grant thou good success And favor in their eyes to whom He shall make his address. Remember, Lord, thy folk185 whom thou To wilderness hast brought. Let not thine own inheritance Be sold away for naught. But tokens of thy favor give, With joy send back my dear, That I and all thy servants may Rejoice with heavenly cheer.

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Lord, let my eyes see once again Him whom thou gavest me That we together may sing praise For ever unto thee, And the remainder of our days Shall consecrated be With an engagèd heart to sing All praises unto thee.

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185. The Puritans who left England to create a model Christian state in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

332 ANNE BRADSTREET

In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband’s Absence O Lord, thou hear’st my daily moan And see’st my dropping tears. My troubles all are thee before, My longings and my fears. Thou hitherto hast been my God, Thy help my soul hath found. Though loss and sickness me assailed, Through thee I’ve kept my ground. And thy abode thou’st made with me. With thee my soul can talk. In secret places thee I find Where I do kneel or walk. Though husband dear be from me gone, Whom I do love so well, I have a more beloved one Whose comforts far excel. Oh, stay my heart on thee, my God. Uphold my fainting soul. And when I know not what to do I’ll on thy mercies roll.

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My weakness thou dost know full well186 Of body and of mind. I in this world no comfort have But what from thee I find. Though children thou hast given me. And friends I have also, Yet if I see thee not through them, They are no joy, but woe. Oh, shine upon me, blessed Lord, E’en for my Savior’s sake. In thee alone is more than all, And there content I’ll take.

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186. At this point Simon stopped leaving spaces between stanzas. I have restored the breaks.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 333 Oh, hear me, Lord, in this request, As thou before hast done. Bring back my husband, I beseech, As thou didst once my son. So shall I celebrate thy praise E’en while my days shall last And talk to my beloved one Of all thy goodness past.

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So both of us thy kindness, Lord, With praises shall recount. And serve thee better than before Whose blessings thus surmount. But give me, Lord, a better heart, Then better shall I be To pay the vows which I do owe For ever unto thee. Unless thou help, what can I do But still my frailty show? If thou assist me, Lord, I shall Return thee what I owe.

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334 ANNE BRADSTREET

In Thankful Acknowledgement for the Letters I Received from My Husband Out of England O thou that hearest the prayers of thine. And ’mongst them hast regarded mine, Hast heard my cries and seen my tears, Hast known my doubts and all my fears, Thou hast relieved my fainting heart Nor paid me after my desert. Thou hast to shore him safely brought For whom I thee so oft besought. Thou wast the pilot to the ship And raised him up when he was sick, And hope thou’st given of good success In this his business and address. And that thou wilt return him back Whose presence I so much do lack. For all these mercies I thee praise And so desire e’en all my days.

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Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 335

In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husband’s Safe Arrival, September 3, 1662 What shall I render to thy name, Or how thy praises speak? My thanks how shall I testify? O Lord, thou know’st I’m weak. I owe so much, so little can Return unto thy name. Confusion seizes on my soul, And I am filled with shame. Oh, thou that hearest prayers, Lord, To thee shall come all flesh. Thou hast me heard and answerèd. My plaints have had access. What did I ask for but thou gav’st, What could I more desire, But thankfulness e’en all my days? I humbly this require. Thy mercies, Lord, have been so great, In number numberless, Impossible for to recount Or any way express. Oh, help thy saints that sought thy face T’ return unto thee praise And walk before thee as they ought In strict and upright ways.

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[This was the last thing written in that book by my dear and honored mother.]187

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187. Simon’s editorial note.

336 ANNE BRADSTREET

[Here follow some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666. Copied out of a loose paper.]188 In silent night, when rest I took For sorrow near I did not look. I wakened was with thundering noise And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice. That fearful sound of “Fire!” and “Fire!” Let no man know, is my desire. I, starting 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 apace The flame consume my dwelling-place. And when I could no longer look I blest his name that 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 that I should repine.189 He might of all justly bereft But yet sufficient for us left. When by the ruins oft I passed 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 e’er be told, Nor things recounted done of old; No candle e’er shall shine in thee, Nor bridegroom’s voice e’er heard shall be. In silence ever shalt thou lie. 188. Simon’s editorial direction. 189. Complain or murmur.

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Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 337 “Adieu, adieu; all’s vanity.”190 Then straight I ’gan my heart to chide: And did thy wealth on earth abide? Didst fix thy hope on moldering dust. The arm of flesh didst make thy trust? Raise up thy thoughts above the sky That dunghill mists away may fly. Thou hast an house on high erect191 Framed by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnishèd, Stands permanent though this be fled. It’s purchasèd, and paid for, too, By Him192 who hath enough to do, A price 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 and treasure lie above.193

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190. Ecclesiastes 1:2. 191. 2 Corinthians 5:1. 192. Jesus, by whose sacrificial death Christians get to heaven. 193. After this poem, which concludes on the recto, is a blank page. A great-grandson—another Simon Bradstreet—then attempted a Latin translation of the dedication to her children and the first four Meditations Divine and Moral, beginning on the next recto. There follows twenty-five blank pages (or twelve sheets).

338 ANNE BRADSTREET

As weary pilgrim, now at rest,194 Hugs with delight his silent nest. His wasted limbs now lie full soft That miry195 steps have trodden oft, Blesses himself to think upon His dangers past and travails done— The burning sun no more shall heat Nor stormy rains on him shall beat; The briars and thorns no more shall scratch, Nor hungry wolves at him shall catch; He erring paths no more shall tread, Nor wild fruits eat, instead of bread; For waters cold he doth not long, For thirst no more shall parch his tongue; No rugged stones his feet shall gall, Nor stumps nor rocks cause him to fall. All cares and fears he bids farewell And means in safety now to dwell— A pilgrim I on earth, perplexed With sins, with cares and sorrows vexed, By age and pains brought to decay, And my clay house moldering away. Oh, how I long to be at rest And soar on high among the blest! This body shall in silence sleep. Mine eyes no more shall ever weep. No fainting fits shall me assail, Nor grinding pains my body frail. With cares and fears ne’er cumbered be, Nor losses know, nor sorrows see. What though my flesh shall there consume? It is the bed Christ did perfume. And when a few years shall be gone This mortal shall be clothed upon.196 A corrupt carcass down it lies,

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194. This poem appears on the last two pages in the Andover manuscript, the first part on the recto of the final leaf. Ink bleeds through, making the handwriting difficult to read. There is no information about the poem’s provenance, but the hand appears to be Anne Bradstreet’s. 195. Muddy. 196. 2 Corinthians 5:2–4.

Poems and Meditations from the Andover Manuscript 339 A glorious body it shall rise.197 In weakness and dishonor sown, In power ’tis raised by Christ alone. Then soul and body shall unite And of their maker have the sight, Such lasting joys shall there behold As ear ne’er heard nor tongue e’er told. Lord, make me ready for that day! Then come, dear bridegroom,198 come away. August 31, 1669

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197. Philippians 3:21. 198. Christ.

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Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse Kind Reader: Had I opportunity but to borrow some of the Author’s wit, ’tis possible I might so trim this curious Work with such quaint expressions, as that the Preface might bespeak thy further perusal; but I fear ’twill be a shame for a man that can speak so little, to be seen in the title page of this Woman’s Book, lest by comparing the one with the other, the Reader should pass his sentence, that it is the gift of women not only to speak most, but to speak best. I shall leave therefore to commend that which with any ingenious Reader will too much commend the Author, unless men turn more peevish than women, to envy the excellency of the inferior Sex. I doubt not but the Reader will quickly find more than I can say, and the worst effect of his reading will be unbelief, which will make him question whether it be a woman’s Work, and ask, “Is it possible?” If any do, take this as an answer from him that dares avow it: it is the Work of a Woman, honored and esteemed where she lives for her gracious demeanor, her eminent parts, her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in her place, and discreet managing of her family occasions; and more than so, these Poems are the fruit but of some few hours, curtailed from her sleep and other refreshments. I dare add little, lest I keep thee too long. If thou wilt not believe the worth of these things (in their kind) when a man says it, yet believe it from a woman when thou seest it. This only I shall annex: I fear the displeasure of no person in the publishing of these Poems but the Author’s, without whose knowledge, and contrary to her expectation, I have presumed to bring to public view what she resolved should never in such a manner see the Sun; but I found that divers had gotten some scattered papers, affected them well, were likely to have sent forth broken pieces to the Author’s prejudice, which I thought to prevent, as well as to pleasure those that earnestly desired the view of the whole.1

1. The author of this epistle was John Woodbridge (1613–1696), who married Bradstreet’s sister Mercy in 1639. When he and his family returned to England in 1647, he brought the manuscript that became The Tenth Muse with him; as he attests in the epistle and in the later dedicatory poem, he is the person who decided to publish her poems and oversaw the process.

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342 Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse

Mercury2 showed Apollo3 Bartas’4 Book, Minerva5 this, and wished him well to look, And tell uprightly, which did which excel. He viewed and viewed and vowed he could not tell. They bid him Hemisphere his moldy nose, With’s cracked leering-glasses,6 for it would pose The best brains he had in’s old pudding-pan,7 Sex weighed, which best, the Woman or the Man? He peered, and pored, and glared, and said “for wore, I’m even as wise now, as I was before.” They both ’gan laugh, and said, “it was no mar’l8 The Auth’ress was a right Du Bartas Girl.” “Good sooth,” quoth the old Don, “tell, ye me so. I muse9 whither at length these Girls will go. It half revives my chill frost-bitten blood, To see a woman once do ought that’s good; And chode10 by Chaucer’s11 Boots, and Homer’s12 Furs, Let men look to’t, least women wear the Spurs.” N. Ward13

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2. A Roman god associated with poetry. 3. The Roman god of poetry. 4. Guillaume Du Bartas, Frenchman, author of La Semaine, ou Création du Monde (1578), published in an English verse translation by Josuah Sylvester as The Divine Weeks and Works (1605). 5. The Roman goddess of wisdom. 6. Put on his reading glasses, which would look like two hemispheres of glass. 7. Slang for brain. 8. Contraction of “marvel.” 9. Wonder. 10. This word is not in the Oxford English Dictionary. Other dictionaries suggest it may be an archaic past form of “to chide.” Given the reference to boots and spurs, it may be an odd spelling of “shod.” 11. Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet (ca. 1343–1400), author of the Canterbury Tales. 12. Reputed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. 13. Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652) was a Puritan clergyman who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Ward was the minister of the church in Ipswich for only two years (1634–1636) but remained there until his return to England in 1647. The Bradstreets lived in Ipswich from 1635 to 1645.

Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse 343

To my dear Sister, the Author of these Poems Though most that know me dare (I think) affirm I ne’ er was born to do a Poet harm, Yet when I read your pleasant witty strains, It wrought so strongly on my addlebrains14 That though my verse be not so finely spun, And so (like yours) cannot so neatly run, Yet am I willing, with upright intent, To show my love without a compliment. There needs no painting15 to that comely16 face That in its native beauty hath such grace. What I (poor silly I) prefix therefore Can but do this, make yours admired the more, And if but only this I do attain, Content that my disgrace may be your gain. If women, I with women, may compare, Your Works are solid, others weak as air.17 Some books of Women I have heard of late, Perusèd some, so witless, intricate, So void of sense and truth, as if to err Were only wished (acting above their sphere) And all to get, what (silly souls) they lack, Esteem to be the wisest of the pack.18 Though (for your sake) to some this be permitted To print, yet wish I many better witted. Their vanity makes this to be inquired, If women are with wit and sense inspired. Yet when your Works shall come to public view, ’Twill be affirmed, ’twill be confirmed by you.

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14. Confused minds. 15. Makeup. 16. Attractive. 17. A common way to praise a woman writer. See Abraham Cowley, “Upon Mrs. K. P. Her Poems,” “’Tis solid and ’tis manly all” (line 50), in Poems by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. (London: Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriott, 1664). 18. It is difficult to determine the writers to whom Woodbridge refers. Of the thirty-one printed texts in England during the 1640s that the Women Writers Project identifies as written by women, twenty were by Lady Eleanor Davies (1590–1652), a prophet generally dismissed at that time as mad. The others are a late entry in the querelle des femmes, religious materials—catechisms, petitions, translations, one vision not by Davies—and reprintings of two speeches by Queen Elizabeth. None of these writers is, like Bradstreet, a poet focused on her craft.

344 Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse And I, when seriously I had revolved What you had done, I presently resolved, 30 Theirs was the Person’s, not the Sex’s failing, And therefore did bespeak a modest vailing.19 You have acutely in Eliza’s20 ditty Acquitted women, else I might with pity Have wished them all to women’s Works to look 35 And never more to meddle with their book. What you have done, the Sun shall witness bear, That for a woman’s Work ’tis very rare, And if the Nine21 vouchsafe the Tenth a place, I think they rightly may yield you that grace. 40 But lest I should exceed, and too much love Should too too much endeared affection move, To superadd in praises I shall cease, Lest while I please myself I should displease The longing Reader, who may chance complain 45 And so requite my love with deep disdain, That I your silly22 Servant, stand i’ th’ porch,23 Lighting your Sunlight with my blinking torch, Hind’ring his mind’s content, his sweet repose, Which your delightful Poems do disclose 50 When once the Casket’s24 opened. Yet to you Let this be added, then I’ll bid adieu: If you shall think it will be to your shame To be in print, then I must bear the blame. If’t be a fault, ’tis mine; ’tis shame that might 55 Deny so fair an infant25 of its right To look abroad. I know your modest mind, How you will blush, complain, ’tis too unkind To force a woman’s birth, provoke her pain, Expose her Labors to the world’s disdain.26 60 19. Descent. 20. Bradstreet’s poem on Queen Elizabeth. 21. The nine Muses of Greek mythology. 22. Foolish or incompetent. 23. Woodbridge figures the book as a building, with the prefatory material the porch or entrance. 24. A small box for valuable items. 25. Here Woodbridge figures the book as an infant. 26. This section develops the idea, common in poetry by men, that producing poetry is like giving birth. See Sidney, Astrophil and Stella, #1.

Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse 345 I know you’ll say, you do defy that mint27 That stamped you thus, to be a fool in print. ’Tis true, it doth not now so neatly stand As if’t ’twere polished with your own sweet hand; ’Tis not so richly decked, so trimly tired,28 65 Yet it is such as justly is admired. If it be folly, ’tis of both or neither, Both you and I, we’ll both be fools together; And he that says, ’tis foolish (if my word May sway) by my consent shall make the third. 70 I dare outface the world’s disdain for both, If you alone profess you are not wroth.29 Yet if you are, a woman’s wrath is little When thousands else admire you in each tittle.30 J. W.31

Upon the Author, by a Known Friend Now I believe Tradition, which doth call The Muses,32 Virtues,33 Graces,34 Females all, Only they are not nine, eleven, nor three, Our Auth’ress proves them but one unity. Mankind take up some blushes on the score; 5 Menopolize35 perfectìon no more. In your own Arts, confess yourselves outdone; The Moon hath totally eclipsed the Sun, Not with her sable mantle muffling him, 27. A stamp that creates the image on a coin. 28. Attired. 29. Angry. 30. A very tiny portion of something, originally a small stroke or dot made by a pen. 31. John Woodbridge. 32. The nine Greek goddesses of the arts. 33. Possibly a reference to the Christian virtues, of which there are seven. 34. Three Greek goddesses epitomizing gracefulness and charm. 35. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola argues that this spelling is not a compositor’s error (“ ‘The Excellency of the Inferior Sex’: The Commendatory Writings on Anne Bradstreet,” in Studies in Puritan American Spirituality 1 [December 1990]: 140). Either way, Several Poems “corrects” this spelling to eliminate what may have been an unseemly pun.

346 Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse But her bright silver makes his gold look dim,36 10 Just as his beams force our pale Lamps to wink, And earthly Fires within their ashes shrink.

I cannot wonder at Apollo now, That he with Female Laurel37 crowned his brow. That made him witty; had I leave to choose, My Verse should be a Page38 unto your Muse. C. B.

Arm, arm, Soldados,39 arm. Horse, Horse, speed to your Horses. Gentlewomen make head; they vent their plots in Verses. They write of Monarchies, a most seditious word. It signifies Oppression, Tyranny, and Sword. March amain40 to London. They’ll rise, for there they flock. 5 But stay a while, they seldom rise ’til ten o’clock. R. Q.

In Praise of the Author, Mistress Anne Bradstreet, Virtue’s true and lively Pattern, Wife of the Worshipful Simon Bradstreet, Esquire, At Present Residing in the Occidental Parts of the World, in  America, alias Nov-Anglia What Golden ’splendent Star is this, so bright, One thousand miles thrice told, both day and night, (From th’Orient first sprung) now from the West That shines, swift-wingèd Phoebus41 and the rest Of all Jove’s fiery flames surmounting far, 5 As doth each Planet every falling Star; 36. In the physical world, the moon can eclipse the sun only by coming between it and the earth. 37. According to Greek mythology, the nymph Daphne transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo’s unwanted advances. Apollo then used laurel leaves to create a crown, which was awarded to winners, either in athletic or poetic competitions. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1:525–52. 38. A young male servant to a knight or lady. Also, a pun on a leaf of paper (See Derounian-Stodola, “ ‘The Excellency of the Inferior Sex,’ ” 140). 39. Spanish for soldier. This poem is omitted from Several Poems. 40. In force and without delay. 41. God of the sun.

Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse 347 By whose divine and lucid light most clear, Nature’ s dark secret Mysteries appear. Heaven’ s, Earth’ s admired wonders, noble acts Of Kings, and Princes most heroic facts, 10 And what e’ er else in darkness seemed to die, Revives all things so obvious now to th’ eye That he who these, its glittering Rays, views o’ er Shall see what’s done in all the world before. N. H.

Upon the Author ’Twere extreme folly should I dare attempt, To praise this Author’s worth with compliment. None but herself must dare commend her parts, Whose sublime brain’s the Synopsis of Arts.42 Nature and Skill here both in one agree To frame this Masterpiece of Poetry. False Fame, belie their Sex no more. It can Surpass or parallel the best of man. C. B.

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Another to Mistress43 Anne Bradstreet, Author of this Poem I’ve read your Poem (Lady) and admire Your Sex to such a pitch should e’ er aspire. Go on to write, continue to relate New Histories of Monarchy and State, And what the Romans to their Poets gave, Be sure such honor and esteem you’ll have. H. S.

42. The academic curriculum: philosophy, literature, mathematics. 43. In the original, “Mris.”

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348 Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to The Tenth Muse

An Anagram44 Anna Bradestreate. Deer45 Neat An Bartas. So Bartas like thy fine spun Poems been, That Bartas’ name will prove an Epicene.46

Another Anne Bradstreate. Artes bred neat An.

44. The practice of creating new words by rearranging the letters in the original. 45. The author here and in the next anagram must take liberties with the spelling of Bradstreet’s name—and of words such as “dear”—to make his anagram work. 46. A person of indeterminate sex.

Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems Upon Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, Her Poems, etc.47 Madam, twice through the Muses’ grove I walked. Under your blissful bowers, I shrouding there, It seemed with Nymphs of Helicon48 I talked, For there those sweet-lipped Sisters sporting were. Apollo49 with his sacred Lute sat by. On high they made their heavenly Sonnets fly. Posies around they strowed, of sweetest Poesie. Twice have I drunk the Nectar of your lines, Which high sublimed my mean-born fantasy. Flushed with these streams your Maronean50 wines Above my self rapt to an ecstasy, Methought I was upon mount Hiblas’51 top, There where I might those fragrant flowers lop, Whence did sweet odors flow, and honey spangles drop. To Venus’52 shrine no Altars raisèd are, Nor venomed shafts from painted quiver fly,53 Nor wanton Doves of Aphrodite’s Car,54 Or fluttering there, nor here forlornly lie ’Lorn55 Paramours, nor56 chatting birds tell news

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47. This poem was included after the original dedicatory poems to the Tenth Muse. 48. Mount Helicon in Greece is the locus of poetic inspiration. The nymphs there may be the Muses themselves. 49. The Greek god of poetry. 50. Intoxicating. From the wine Maron gives to Odysseus to incapacitate the Cyclops. 51. A mountain in Greece associated with honey. 52. The Roman goddess of sexual love. 53. Venus’s son Cupid creates romantic havoc by shooting individuals with arrows that cause them to love someone. 54. Chariot. Aphrodite is the Greek equivalent of Venus. The goddess’s chariot is pulled by doves, not horses. 55. A contraction of “love-lorn.” 56. In the original “not.”

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350 Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems How sage Apollo Daphne hot pursues57 20 Or stately Jove himself is wont to haunt the stews.58 Nor barking Satyrs59 breathe, nor dreary clouds Exhaled from Styx60 their dismal drops distil Within these Fairy, flowery fields, nor shrouds The screeching night Raven, with his shady quill, But Lyric strings here Orpheus61 nimbly hits; Arion62 on his saddled Dolphin sits, Chanting as every humor, age, and season fits. Here silver swans with Nightingales set spells, Which sweetly charm the Traveler and raise Earth’s earthèd Monarchs from their hidden Cells And to appearance summons lapsèd days. There heav’nly air becalms the swelling frays And fury fell of Elements allays By paying every one due tribute to his praise. This seemed the site of all those verdant vales And purled springs, whereat the Nymphs do play, With lofty hills, where Poets rear their tales, To heavenly vaults, which heavenly sound replay By echo’s sweet rebound. Here Ladies kiss, Circling nor songs, nor dances circle miss, But while those Sirens63 sung, I sunk in sea of bliss.

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Thus welt’ring in delight, my virgin mind Admits a rape:64 truth still lies undescried. 57. When a lustful Apollo tried to capture the nymph Daphne, she cried out to her father, a river god, to save her. He turned her into a laurel tree. The besotted Apollo took the laurel leaf as his symbol. 58. Jove, a generic name for the king of the gods (Zeus in Greek mythology; Jupiter in Roman), had a penchant for attractive women. A stew is a brothel. Rogers may allude to contemporary poetic treatments of classical material; in classical mythology, Jove consorts only with beautiful virgins. 59. In classical mythology, woodland gods, whose hyper-sexuality was figured by being part beast, either horse or goat. 60. A river in the Greek underworld. 61. A mythical Greek poet and musician of amazing artistic abilities. 62. A Greek poet and musician. According to Herodotus, he was rescued from drowning by dolphins, who were charmed by his singing. In the original, Orion. See Herodotus, The Persian Wars, 1.23–24. 63. Mythological female creatures who cause shipwrecks by luring unwitting sailors onto the rocks. 64. Rogers uses “rape” in its nonsexual context, meaning “to have been swept up.”

Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems 351 It’s singular, that plural seemed, I find. ’Twas Fancy’s glass alone that multiplied. Nature with Art so closely did combine, I thought I saw the Muses treble trine,65 Which proved your lonely Muse superior to the nine.

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Your only hand those Poesies did compose, Your head the source whence all those springs did flow, Your voice, whence changes sweetest notes arose, Your feet that kept the dance alone, I trow. Then vail66 your bonnets, Poetasters67 all. Strike, lower amain,68 and at these humbly fall, And deem yourselves advanced to be her Pedestal.

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Should all with lowly Congees69 Laurels bring, Waste Flora’s Magazine70 to find a wreath, Or Peneus’ Banks,71 ’twere too mean offering. Your Muse a fairer Garland doth bequeath To guard your fairer front. Here ’tis your name Shall stand immarbled;72 this your little frame Shall great Colossus73 be, to your eternal fame.

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I’ll please myself, ’though I my self disgrace. What errors here be found are in Errataes place.74 J. Rogers75

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65. A triad. Three triads would make nine Muses. 66. Lower as a sign of respect. 67. Versifiers, as opposed to genuine poets. 68. Without delay. 69. Bows. 70. Flora is the goddess of flowers. A magazine is a storehouse. 71. The shores of the river where Daphne turned into a laurel tree. Peneus is her father, the river god. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.525–52. 72. Transformed into marble; immortalized. 73. A statue that is bigger than life. After the giant statue of the god Helios at Rhodes. 74. Errata is a printer’s term for a typographical error. Hensley interprets this line to mean that this man edited the edition of Several Poems. (See footnote, “Introduction” to Works, xxix). 75. John Rogers (1630–1684) arrived in Massachusetts Bay in 1636. He graduated from Harvard College in 1649, received his MA in 1652, and married Elizabeth Dennison, daughter of Anne Bradstreet’s sister Patience, in 1660. He was president of Harvard College from 1682 until his death.

352 Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems

A Funeral Elegy Upon that Pattern and Patron of Virtue, the truly pious, peerless, and matchless Gentlewoman Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, right Panarets,76 Mirror of Her Age, Glory of her Sex, whose Heavenborn-Soul leaving its earthly Shrine, chose its native home, and was taken to its Rest, upon 16th September 167277 Ask not why hearts turn Magazines78 of passions And why that grief is clad in sev’ral fashions, Why She on progress79 goes and doth not borrow The smallest respite from th’extremes of sorrow. Her misery is got to such an height As makes the earth groan to support its weight. Such storms of woe so strongly have beset her She hath no place for worse, nor hope for better. Her comfort is, if any for her be, That none can show more cause of grief than she. Ask not why some in mournful black are clad. The Sun is set; there needs must be a shade. Ask not why every face a sadness shrouds; The setting Sun o’ ercast us hath with Clouds. Ask not why the great glory of the Sky That gilds the stars with heavenly Alchemy,80 Which all the world doth lighten with his rays, The Persian God the Monarch of the days.81 Ask not the reason of his ecstasy, Paleness of late, in mid-noon Majesty, Why that the pale facèd Empress of the night Disrobed her brother of his glorious light.82 Did not the language of the stars foretell A mournful Scene when they with tears did swell? Did not the glorious people of the Sky Seem sensible of future misery? Did not the lowering heavens seem to express

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76. A wholly virtuous being. 77. This elegy appears at the conclusion of Several Poems. 78. Storehouses. 79. A royal journey. 80. The practice of transforming substances, ideally into gold. A precursor of chemistry. 81. The Persian god of the sun is Mithra. 82. This passage describes an eclipse of the sun by the moon, the Empress of the night.

Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems 353 The world’s great loss and their unhappiness? Behold how tears flow from the learnèd hill, How the bereavèd Nine83 do daily fill 30 The bosom of the fleeting air with groans And woeful Accents, which witness their moans. How do the Goddesses of verse, the learnèd choir, Lament their rival Quill, which all admire? Could Maro’s Muse84 but hear her lively strain 35 He would condemn his works to fire again. Methinks I hear the Patron of the Spring, The unshorn Deity85 abruptly sing. Some do for anguish weep, for anger I That Ignorance should live, and Art should die. 40 Black, fatal, dismal, inauspicious day, Unblessed forever by Sol’s precious Ray, Be it the first of Miseries to all Or last of Life, defamed for Funeral. When this day yearly comes, let everyone 45 86 Cast in their urn the black and dismal stone. Succeeding years as they their circuit go Leap o’ er this day, as a sad time of woe. Farewell my Muse, since thou hast left thy shrine I am unblessed in one, but blessed in nine. 50 87 Fair Thespian Ladies, light your torches all. Attend your glory to its Funeral To court her ashes with a learnèd tear, A briny sacrifice. Let not a smile appear. Grave Matron, whoso seeks to blazon88 thee 55 Needs not make use of wit’s false Heraldry.89 Whoso should give thee all thy worth would swell So high, as ’twould turn the world infidel.90 83. The Muses. 84. The poet Virgil (70–19 BCE). His full name was Publius Vergilius Maro. 85. Apollo, commonly referred to as unshorn, possibly because of an analogy between the rays of the sun and long, floating hair. See Homer, Iliad 2.369, as well as numerous Latin poets. 86. A sign of remembrance. 87. Muses connected to tragedy. Thespis is the father of Greek tragedy. 88. To describe in heraldic language, to celebrate. 89. A herald announced the arrival of important personages. Heraldry in this sense would be the science of praising. 90. A person praising Bradstreet adequately would run the risk of encouraging people to worship her.

354 Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems Had he great Maro’s Muse or Tully’s tongue91 Or raping92 numbers like the Thracian Song, 60 In crowning of her merits he would be Sumptuously poor, low in Hyperbole. To write is easy, but to write on thee Truth would be thought to forfeit modesty. He’ll seem a Poet that shall speak but true. 65 Hyperboles in others are thy due. Like a most servile flatterer he will show93 Though he write truth and make the Subject You. Virtue ne’ er dies. Time will a Poet raise, Born under better Stars, shall sing thy praise. 70 Praise her who list, yet he shall be a debtor For Art ne’ er feigned nor Nature framed a better. Her virtues were so great that they do raise A work to trouble fame, astonish praise. When as her Name doth but salute the ear, 75 Men think that they perfection’s abstract94 hear. Her breast was a brave Palace, a Broad-street, Where all heroic ample thoughts did meet, Where nature such a Tenement had ta’en That other souls to hers95 dwelled in a lane. 80 Beneath her feet pale envy bites her chain And poison Malice whets her sting in vain. Let every Laurel, every Myrtle96 bough Be stripped for leaves t’adorn and load her brow, Victorious wreaths, which ’cause they never fade 85 Wise elder times for Kings and Poets made Let not her happy memory e’ er lack Its worth in Fame’s eternal Almanac,97 Which none shall read but straight their loss deplore And blame the Fates they were not born before. 90 Do not old men rejoice their Fates did last, And infants too that theirs did make such haste 91. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), Roman orator. 92. Inducing rapture. The mythical Thracian poet Orpheus could make even stones dance. 93. Seem. 94. Embodiment. 95. Compared to hers. 96. Like laurel, myrtle is an evergreen shrub. 97. An annual booklet recording important events.

Appendix 2: New Commendatory Poems in Several Poems 355 In such a welcome time to bring them forth That they might be a witness to her worth. Who undertakes this subject to commend Shall nothing find so hard as how to end.

Finis and non

95

John Norton98

Omnia Romanae sileant Miracula Gentis99

98. Nephew of the clergyman John Norton, who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was ordained as teacher to the church at Ipswich in 1638, and, in 1662, accompanied Simon Bradstreet to England to petition King Charles II to confirm the colony’s charter. This younger John Norton was born in 1650. 99. “Let all the marvels of the Roman nation be silent.” In other words, Bradstreet’s accomplishments outshine all the work that came before hers.

Bibliography Works by Anne Bradstreet Bradstreet, Anne. Meditations Divine and Moral (the Andover manuscript). On deposit at the Houghton Library of Harvard University. MS Am 1007.1. Accessible online at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:4465803. ———. Meditations Divine and Moral (manuscript transcription). MS Am 1007. Accessible online at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.HOUGH:29627383. ———. The Tenth Muse (London: Stephen Bowtell, 1650). ———. Several Poems (Boston: 1678). ———. Several Poems (Boston: 1758). Ellis, John Harvard, ed. The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse. Charlestown: Abram E. Cutter, 1867. Hensley, Jeannine, ed. The Works of Anne Bradstreet. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1967. McElrath, Joseph R., Jr., and Allan P. Robb, eds. The Complete Works of Anne Bradstreet. Boston: Twayne, 1981.

Other Primary Sources Bacon, Francis. The Two Books of Francis Bacon: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Humane. London: Printed by Purfoot and Creed for Tomes, 1605. Blakman, John. Henry the Sixth: A Reprint of John Blacman’s Memoir with Translation and Notes. Edited by M. R. James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919. Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647. Edited by Francis Murphy. New York: Random House, 1981. Camden, William. Annals: The True and Royal History of the Famous Empress Elizabeth. London: Printed by Purslowe and others for Fisher, 1625. ———. Britain: A Chorographical Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdoms. London: Printed at Eliot Court Press for Bishop and Norton, 1610. ———. Remains of a Greater Work, Concerning Britain. London: Printed by G. E. for Waterson, 1605. Church of England. Articles, whereupon it was agreed by the archbishops of both the provinces, and the whole clergy. London: Printed by Richard Jugge and John Cawood, 1563. Commager, Henry Steele, ed. Documents of American History. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1958. 357

358 Bibliography Cowley, Abraham. “Mrs. K. P. Upon Her Poems.” In Poems by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. London: Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriott, 1664. Crooke, Helkiah. Mikrokosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man. London: Printed by Iaggard, 1615. Diodorus, Siculus. Library of History. Vol. 1. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933. Dod, John, and Richard Cleaver. A Godly Form of Household Government. London: Printed for Thomas Man, 1612. Du Bartas, Guillaume de Saluste. La Semaine, ou Création du Monde (1578), translated into English by Josuah Sylvester as The Divine Weeks and Works. London: Printed by Lownes, 1605. Dudley, Thomas. “To the Right Honorable, My Very Good Lady, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln.” Massachusetts; or, The First Planters of New-England. Boston, MA: Printed by Green and Allen, 1696: 9–27. Foxe, John. Acts and Monuments. London: Printed by Day, 1563. Gouge, William. Of Domestical Duties. London: Printed by Haviland for William Bladen, 1622. Herodotus. The Persian Wars. Vol. 1. Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920. Homer.  Iliad. Vol. 2.  Translated by  A. T. Murray.  Revised by  William F. Wyatt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925. Hooke, William. New England’s Tears, for Old England’s Fears. London: Printed by T. P. for John Rothwell and Henry Overton, 1641. Hutchinson, Lucy. Order and Disorder. Edited by David Norbrook. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. Johnson, Edward. A History of New England from the English planting in the year 1628 until the year 1652. London: Printed for Nathaniel Brooke, 1653.Also known as The Wonder-Working Providence of Sion’s Saviour in New England. Josephus, Flavius. The Famous and Memorable Works of Josephus. Translated by Thomas Lodge. London: Printed at the charges of G. Bishop, S. Waterson, P. Short, and Tho. Adams, 1602. Knolles, Richard. The General History of the Turks. London: Printed by Islip, 1603. Makin, Bathsua. An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen. London: Printed by J. D. for Parkhurst, 1673. Mather, Cotton. Magnalia Christi Americana; or, the Ecclesiastical History of New England. London, 1702. Edited by Kenneth Murdoch. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977. Ovid. Metamorphoses. Vol. 1. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916. Pemble, William. The Period of the Persian Monarchy, wherein sundry places of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel are cleared. London: Printed by Young for Bartlet, 1631.

Bibliography 359 Pliny. Natural History. Vol. 3. Translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940. Plutarch. Lives. 11 vols. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914–1926. ———. Moralia. Vol. 6. Translated by W. C. Helmbold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1939. A Proposition of Provisions Needful for Such as Intend to Plant Themselves in New England. London: Fulk and Clifton, 1630. Pope, Alexander. An Essay on Criticism. London: Printed for W. Lewis, 1711. Ralegh, Walter. History of the World. London: Printed by Stansby for Burre, 1614. Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. Edited by G. Blakemore Evans et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973. Sidney, Philip. The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. London: Printed by Field for Ponsonbie, 1598. ———. His Astrophel and Stella. London: Printed for Newman, 1591. Speed, John. History of Great Britain. London: Printed by Hall and Beale for Sudbury and Humble, 1611. Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. London: Printed by Wolfe for Ponsonbie, 1590. Suetonius. Lives of the Caesars. Vol. 1. Translated by J. C. Rolfe. Introduction by K. R. Bradley. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914. Ward, Nathaniel. The Simple Cobbler of Agawam. London: Printed by Dever and Ibbitson for Stephen Bowtell, 1647. The Whole Book of Psalms. Cambridge, MA: 1640. Winthrop, John. The Journal of John Winthrop: 1630–1649 (abridged). Edited by Richard S. Dunn, James Savage, and Laetitia Yeandle. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1996. ———. Winthrop Papers. Edited by Allyn B. Forbes. Massachusetts Historical Society, 1947. ———. Winthrop’s Journal: History of New England, 1630–1649. Edited by James Kendall Hosmer. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908.

Secondary Sources Algonquin Bible Project. http://www.americanantiquarian.org/EnglishtoAlgonquian/home. Baym, Nina, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Seventh edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007. Bragdon, Kathleen J. Native People of Southern New England, 1500–1650. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. Bremer, Francis J. First Founders: American Puritans and Puritanism in an Atlantic World. Durham: University of New Hampshire Press, 2012.

360 Bibliography ———. “John Cotton (1585–1652).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. ———. “John Wilson (c. 1591–Aug. 1667).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ———. “John Winthrop (1588–1649).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. ———. John Winthrop: America’s Forgotten Founding Father. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ———. The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards. New York: St. Martin’s, 1976. ———. “Roger Williams (c. 1606–1683).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ———. “Thomas Dudley (1576–31 July 1633).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Caldwell, Luther. An Account of Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan Poetess, and Kindred Topics. Boston: Damrell and Upham, 1898. Census Bureau, United States. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1975/ compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1970.html. Chu, Jonathan M. “Samuel Sewall (29 Mar. 1652–1 Jan. 1730).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Cohen, Charles. “John Winthrop (12 Jan. 1588–26 Mar. 1649).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Conforti, Joseph. Saints and Strangers: New England in British North America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Cowell, Pattie, and Ann Stanford, eds. Critical Essays on Anne Bradstreet. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1983. Cressy, David. Charles I and the People of England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. ———. Coming Over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983. Cross, Claire. The Puritan Earl: The Life of Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntingdon (1536–1595). London: Macmillan, 1966. Crowder, Richard. “‘Phoenix Spencer’: A Note on Anne Bradstreet.” New England Quarterly 17, no. 2 (June 1944): 310.

Bibliography 361 Cust, Richard. “Charles I, the Privy Council, and the Forced Loan.” Journal of British Studies 24, no. 2, Politics and Religion in the Early Seventeenth Century: New Voices (April 1985): 208–35. Delacroix, Julia Penn. “Sparing Fame: Anne Bradstreet’s Elegiac Consolations.” Legacy 32, no. 1 (2015): 1–30. Derounian-Stodola, Kathryn Zabelle. “‘The Excellency of the Inferior Sex’: The Commendatory Writings on Anne Bradstreet.” Studies in Puritan American Spirituality 1 (December 1990): 129–47. Disraeli, Isaac. Curiosities of Literature: Consisting of Anecdotes, Characters, and Observations, Literary, Critical, and Historical. London: Printed for J. Murray, 1791. DuRocher, Richard J. “’Cropt by th’Almighties hand’: Allegory as Theodicy in Anne Bradstreet’s Poems on Her Grandchildren.” In Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Milton’s England, edited by Ken Hiltner, 217–28. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 2008. Ezell, Margaret J. M. Introduction. “My Rare Wit Killing Sin”: Poems of a Restoration Courtier. Edited by Margaret Ezell. Toronto: Iter Inc. & Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2013. ———. Social Authorship and the Advent of Print. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Gibson, Katherine. “William Dobson (bap. 1611, d. 1646).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar, eds. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. Third edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007. Gottesman, Ronald, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1979. Gray, Catherine. Women Writers and Public Debate in Seventeenth-Century Britain. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Hall, David D., ed. The Antinomian Controversy, 1636–1638: A Documentary History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990. Hammond, Jeffrey A. “Edward Taylor (1624–24 June 1729).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Hannay, Margaret. “The Countess of Pembroke’s Agency in Print and Scribal Culture.” In Women’s Writing and the Circulation of Ideas: Manuscript Publication in England, 1550–1800, edited by George Justice and Nathan Tinker, 17–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Huber, Elaine C. “Anne Hutchinson (1591?–1643).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

362 Bibliography Kasten, David Scott. “Humphrey Moseley and the Invention of English Literature.” In Agents of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron and Eric N. Lindquist, 105–24. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. LaFantasie, Glenn W. “Roger Williams (1603?–1683).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. Lowance, Mason I, Jr. “Edward Johnson (Sept. 1599–23 Apr. 1672).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. May, Caroline, ed. American Female Poets: with biographical and critical notice. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1853. McCall, Mary Rhinelander. “Nathaniel Ward (c. 1578–1652).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. McGiffert, Michael. “William Bradford (1590–9 May 1657).” In American National Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Moore, Susan Hardman. Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the Call of Home. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Morgan, Edmund S. Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea. Paperback reprint. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965. Pender, Patricia. Early Modern Women’s Writing and the Rhetoric of Modesty. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Piercy, Josephine. Anne Bradstreet. New York: Twayne, 1965. Ross, Sarah C. E., and Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, eds. Women Poets of the English Civil War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018. Rowton, Frederic, ed. The Female Poets of Great Britain: Chronologically Arranged, with copious selections and critical remarks. Philadelphia: Henry C. Baird, 1854. Rudrum, Alan, Joseph Black, and Holly Faith Nelson, eds. The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Verse and Prose. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2000. Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500–1643. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Sauer, Elizabeth, and Julia M. Wright, eds. Reading the Nation in English Literature: A Critical Reader. New York: Routledge, 2010. Schweitzer, Ivy. The Work of Self-Representation: Lyric Poetry in Colonial New England. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University. Cambridge, MA: Charles William Sever, 1873.

Bibliography 363 Smith, David L. “William Fiennes, first viscount Saye and Sele (1582–1662).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. Snyder, Susan, ed. The Divine Weeks and Works of Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur du Bartas. Translated by Josuah Sylvester. Oxford: Clarendon, 1979. Stanford, Ann. Anne Bradstreet: Worldly Puritan; An Introduction to Her Poetry. New York: Burt Franklin, 1974. Suffolk Deeds. Vol. 1. Edited by William Blake Trask. Boston, MA: Rockwell and Churchill Printers, 1880. Thompson, Roger. “Isaac Johnson, bap. 1601, d. 1630).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. Travitsky, Betty. “Clinton, Elizabeth, [née Knevet] countess of Lincoln (1574?– 1630?).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650–1750. Reprint. New York: Vintage, 1991. White, Elizabeth Wade. Anne Bradstreet: The Tenth Muse. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. Wilcher, Robert. “Humphrey Moseley (b. in or before 1603, d. 1661).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. British Academy, 2004. Wright, Gillian. Producing Women’s Poetry, 1600–1730: Text and Paratext, Manuscript and Print. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces Titles are presented in italics to distinguish them from first lines. If the poem or prose piece has no title, its first line is presented as a title in quotation marks. If the title is uninformative—such as a date or “Another”—or is one of several poems with the same title, orienting information appears in parentheses following it. Simon Bradstreet’s editorial directions, sometimes misunderstood as titles, appear below in square brackets. First lines of individual entries in Meditations Divine and Moral are listed in alphabetical order under that heading. A worthy Matron of unspotted life After much weakness and sickness Alas, dear Mother, fairest Queen and best Alas, slain is the head of Israel All praise to him who hath now turned All things within this fading world hath end Although great Queen, thou now in silence lie Amongst the happy wits this Age hath shown And live I still to see relations gone Another (“As loving Hind”) Another (Epitaph, Queen Elizabeth) Another (“Phoebus make haste”) Another Four I’ve yet for to bring on Apology, An As he said “vanity,” so vain say I As loving Hind that (Hartless) wants her Deer As spring the winter doth succeed “As weary pilgrim, now at rest” August 28, 1656 (“After much weakness”) Author to Her Book, The

250 319 207 235 328 269 229 225 283 274 233 272 97 246 237 274 321 338 319 265

Before the Birth of One of Her Children Blest be thy name, who didst restore By duty bound and not by custom led “By night, when others soundly slept” Contemplations

269 327 247 310

365

251

366 Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan Dear Sir, of late delighted with the sight Deliverance from a fit of fainting Dialogue between Old England and New, A Elegy upon that Honorable and renowned Knight, Sir Philip Sidney, An (1650 version) Elegy upon that Honorable and renowned Knight Sir Philip Sidney, An (1678 version) Epitaph on my Dear and Ever Honored Mother, An Farewell dear babe, my heart’s too much content Fire, Air, Earth, and Water did all contest Flesh and the Spirit, The For deliverance from a fever For My Dear Son Simon Bradstreet For the Restoration of my Dear Husband from a Burning Ague, June 1st, 1661 Four Ages of Man, The Four Elements, The Four Monarchies, The Four Seasons of the Year, The From another sore fit

235 42 314 207 219 242 250 280 46 260 311 287 326 82 46 106 97 312

Her Epitaph (Queen Elizabeth) 233 [Here follow several occasional meditations] 310 [Here follow some verses upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666] 336 Here lies entombed in fame, under this stone 224 Here lies in fame under this stone 245 Here lies the pearl of France, Parnassus’ glory 227 Here lies the pride of Queens, pattern of Kings 233 Here sleeps THE Queen. This is the royal bed 233 His Epitaph (Du Bartas) 227 His Epitaph (Sidney) (1650 version) 224 His Epitaph (Sidney) (1678 version) 245 His Epitaph (Thomas Dudley) 249 I had a sore fit of fainting I had a sore sickness I had eight birds hatched in one nest I, knowing by experience If ever two were one, then surely we In anguish of my heart replete with woes

316 320 277 305 270 268

Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces 367 In honor of Du Bartas, 1641 In honor of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet In my distress I sought the Lord In My Solitary Hours in My Dear Husband’s Absence In Reference to Her Children, 23 June 1659 In secret place where once I stood “In silent night, when rest I took” In Thankful Acknowledgement for the Letters I Received from My Husband In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husband’s Safe Arrival, September 3, 1662 It hath pleased God to give me a long time of respite It pleased God to visit me with my old distemper July 8, 1656 (“I had a sore fit”) Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment, A Lo now! four other acts upon the stage Lord, why should I doubt any more

225 229 281 280 312 332 277 260 336 334

May 11, 1657 (“I had a sore sickness”) May 11, 1661 (“It hath pleased God to give me a long time of respite”) May 13, 1657 (“As spring the winter doth succeed”) Meditations Divine and Moral

320 324 321 287



A good name is as a precious ointment All men are truly said to be tenants at will All the comforts of this life All the works and doings of God All weak and diseased bodies A low man can go upright Ambitious men are like hops An aching head requires a soft pillow A prudent mother will not clothe her little child A shadow in the parching sun A sharp appetite A ship that bears much sail As man is called the little world A sore finger may disquiet the whole body As the brands of a fire A wise father will not lay a burden Authority without wisdom

335 324 322 316 271 82 315

301 300 300 299 301 289 291 290 292 294 293 288 298 291 301 293 289

368 Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces Corn is produced with much labor Corn ’til it has passed through the mill

297 290

Dim eyes are the concomitants of old age Diverse children have their different natures Downy beds make drowsy persons

292 288 288

Few men are so humble Fire hath its force abated by water

289 293



God doth many times both reward and punish God hath by his providence so ordered God hath suitable comforts and supports Great receipts call for great returns

297 302 290 296



Had not the wisest of men taught us He that is to sail into a far country He that never felt what it was to be sick He that walks among briers He that will undertake to climb He that would be content He that would keep a pure heart

295 295 296 290 289 297 298



If we had no winter “I have seen an end of all perfection” Iron ’til it be thoroughly heated It is admirable to consider the power of faith It is a pleasant thing to behold It is reported of the peacock

289 293 291 302 291 288

Lightning doth usually precede thunder

291

Many can speak well Much labor wearies the body Men that have walked very extravagantly

287 291 299



Sin and shame ever go together Some children are hardly weaned Some Christians do by their lusts Sometimes the sun is only shadowed Sore laborers have hard hands Sweet words are like honey

297 292 302 294 292 288

That house which is not often swept That town which thousands of enemies

289 288

Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces 369

The eyes and the ears are the inlets The finest bread hath the least bran The gifts that God bestows The hireling that labors The reason why Christians are so loth There is no new thing under the sun There is no object that we see There is nothing admits of more admiration The remembrance of former deliverances The spring is a lively emblem The skillful fisher The treasures of this world The words of the wise, saith Solomon

295 288 300 288 289 290 287 294 296 293 290 294 294



Want of prudence as well as piety We often see stones hang with drops Well doth the Apostle call riches deceitful We read in Scripture of three sorts of arrows We read of ten lepers that were cleansed We see in orchards some trees We see in the firmament there is but one sun Wickedness comes to its height by degrees Wisdom with an inheritance is good

290 293 301 292 296 298 299 292 291

Yellow leaves argue the want of sap Youth is the time of getting

291 287

Meditations when my soul hath been refreshed Most truly honored, and as truly dear My Dear Children My head, my heart, mine Eyes, my life, nay more “My soul, rejoice thou in thy God” “My thankful heart with glorying tongue”

315 276 305 271 318 325

No Phoenix Pen, nor Spenser’s Poetry No sooner come but gone and fall’n asleep

230 282

O Lord, thou hear’st my daily moan O thou Most High, who rulest all O thou that hearest the prayers of thine Of the Four Humors in Man’s Constitution Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet

332 330 334 63 237 282

370 Index of Titles and First Lines of Bradstreet’s Poems and Prose Pieces On My Son’s Return Out of England, July 17, 1661

328

Parents perpetuate their lives in their posterity Phoebus make haste. The day’s too long; be gone Poem, The (Elegy for Queen Elizabeth) Proem, The (Elegy for Queen Elizabeth) Prologue, The

287 272 230 229 44

September 30, 1657 (“It pleased God to visit me with my old distemper”) Sometime now past in the Autumnal Tide

322 251

The former four, now ending their Discourse This book, by any yet unread Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain Thou mighty God of sea and land To finish what’s begun was my intent To Her Father with Some Verses To Her Most Honored Father Thomas Dudley, Esquire To My Dear and Loving Husband To My Dear Children To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings To the Memory of My Dear and Ever Honored Father, Thomas Dudley To the Memory of My Dear Daughter-in-law, Mistress Mercy Bradstreet Twice ten years old, not fully told

63 304 265 323 246 276 42 270 304 44 247 283 266

Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632, Aetatis Suae 19 Upon My Daughter Hannah Wiggin, Her Recovery from a Dangerous Fever Upon My Dear and Loving Husband, His Going into England, January 16, 1661 Upon My Son Samuel, His Going for England, November 6, 1657 Upon Some Distemper of the Body

266

“What God is like to him I serve” What shall I render to thy name When England did enjoy her Halcyon days (1650 version) When England did enjoy her Halcyon days (1678 version) When fears and sorrows me beset When sorrows had begirt me round When Time was young, and World in infancy With troubled heart and trembling hand I write Within this Tomb a Patriot lies Worthy art thou, O Lord of praise

317 335 219 242 326 311 106 281 249 314

327 330 323 268

General Index

Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations. The initials AB in parentheses indicate Anne Bradstreet. Antiochus Theos, 198 Antipater, Macedonian governor, 154, 164, 170, 177–78, 182–87 Antiphilus, Athenian general, 182–83 Antony, Mark, 200, 221n956 “An Apology,” 2–3, 25, 246 Arabians, 112, 123 Arbaces, 112–14 Aridaeus, 180–91, 195 Aristotle, 57, 178 Armenia, 51, 108, 199 Arsames, 151 Artabanus, 134, 137 Artabasus, 180 Artaxerxes Longimanus, 141–43 Artaxerxes Mnemon, 144–50 Assyrian monarchy, 106–24, 200–201 astrology, 30, 97–105, 271. See also zodiac atheism, 308 Attossa, Persian queen, 134 Augustus, Roman emperor, 102, 179, 200, 221 Aurelian, Roman emperor, 232n1033 “The Author to Her Book,” 2–3, 27, 33, 264, 265 autumn, 102–4

Achilles, 160, 179, 221, 243 Actium, battle of, 200 Adam and Eve, 84n268, 85n277, 253–55, 261n91 Ahab, king of Israel, 196, 297 air (element), 59–63, 82 Albert VII, Austrian archduke, 93n325 alchemy, 30 Alexander II of Macedon, 139n581 Alexander III, the Great, 30–33, 127, 153–80, 245; Darius Codomanus and, 152, 154, 156–58, 160, 162–67; death of, 178–80, 195; funeral of, 32–33, 181, 184; Indian campaign of, 161, 171–73; Plutarch on, 174, 222n970; successor to, 180; wife of, 180–81, 182n741, 193 Algonquin people, 12n33 Allerton, Isaac, 18 Amazons, 168, 232 Amestris, Persian queen, 140 Amyntas III of Macedon, 139n581 anagrams, 348 Ancus Martius, 205 Anglican church, 11, 19; Book of Common Prayer of, 5, 312n138; Thirty-Nine Articles of, 4–5 Antigonus, 181, 183–87, 191–95, 197, 198 antimony, as medicine, 54n97 Antinomian controversy, 11 Antiochus Epiphanes, 199n807 Antiochus Eupator, 199 Antiochus (Seleucus’ son), 196 Antiochus Soter, 198

Babel, 106n419, 110n448, 232n1027 Babylon, 112, 120–23; Alexander the Great and, 163–64, 177; construction of, 109–10; Seleucid, 181, 192, 197; Semiramis and, 232n1027 Bacon, Francis, 31 Bajazet (Bayezid I), 31, 101n375 371

372 General Index Bay Psalm Book, 12, 28–29 “Before the Birth of One of her Children,” 21, 269 Belosus (Belochus), 112–15, 118 Belshazzar, 123–24, 126 Ben Merodach, 118 Berenic II, Egyptian queen, 48n46 Bethune, George, 35 Bible: Algonquian translation of, 12n33; English translations of, 5, 31–32, 38, 235n1039 blood, 60n137, 63, 65n171, 68–73; air and, 82; choler and, 69, 71–73; fire and, 69, 71; melancholy and, 76; spring and, 100 Book of Common Prayer, 5, 312n138 Bowtell, Stephen, 2 Bradford, William, 19 Bradstreet, Anne, 14–27; appearance of, 4; biographies of, 35–36; children of, 16, 20–22, 24, 25, 28, 277–79, 306; early years of, 15; editorial considerations with, 37–38; historical context of, 4–7; house fire of, 246n39, 336–37; Norton’s elegy on, 352–55; praise for, 33–35; scholarship on, 35–37; spiritual autobiography of, 14, 16, 20, 25, 32n91, 36 Bradstreet, Anne (AB’s granddaughter), 281, 283n160 Bradstreet, Dorothy (AB’s daughter), 20, 24, 277n141 Bradstreet, Dudley (AB’s son), 13, 25, 278n145 Bradstreet, Elizabeth (AB’s granddaughter), 280 Bradstreet, Hannah (AB’s daughter), 21, 24–25, 278n146, 327 Bradstreet, John (AB’s son), 13, 24, 278n146

Bradstreet, Mercy (AB’s daughter), 21, 22, 25, 26n82, 278n146 Bradstreet, Mercy (AB’s granddaughter), 283n164 Bradstreet, Mercy (AB’s sister), 341n1 Bradstreet, Mercy Tyng (AB’s daughterin-law), 25, 26, 280-81nn153-54, 282n156, 283–84 Bradstreet, Samuel (AB’s son), 13, 23, 277n140, 280–82nn153–56, 283–84, 306n100; English voyage of, 323, 328–29 Bradstreet, Sarah (AB’s daughter), 20, 24, 277n143 Bradstreet, Simon (AB’s grandson), 282 Bradstreet, Simon (AB’s husband), 4, 17, 23–24, 270–75; education of, 7n14; government career of, 10, 24; illness of, 326; voyage to England of, 25 Bradstreet, Simon (AB’s son), 14, 24–26, 278n144, 286, 287 brain, 66n176, 78–80 Brutus, Junius, 206 bubonic plague, 61n1456 Buckingham, Duke of, 94nn330–31, 94n334 Cabot, John, 8 Cadiz, Spain, 93n323, 94, 231 Cain and Abel, 253–55 Caldwell, Luther, 24, 35–36 calendars, 25, 38, 97n347, 102n392, 104n402 Caligula, Roman emperor, 50 Callisthenes, 176–77 Cambridge Agreement (1629), 8–10 Cambridge University, 7n14, 17 Cambyses, Persian monarch, 127–30, 132 Camden, William, 31, 230n1009 Carew, Thomas, 2

General Index 373 Carthage, 50, 232; Punic Wars of, 74, 221n964, 244n26 Cassander, 178, 186–97 Certia, Phrygian queen, 186 Chaldeans, 107n427, 112, 120, 126 Charlemagne, 226 Charles I of England, 6–7, 213–17; death of, 13, 23, 94n337 Charles II of England, 13, 330n182 Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, 61nn148–49 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 34 Cheevers, Ezekiell, 24 childhood, 16, 82–86, 97, 292. See also youth China, 117 choler, 49n53, 63–68; blood and, 69, 71–73; brain and, 80; melancholy and, 73–74, 76; middle age and, 82, 83; summer and, 100 Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 354n91 Cleopatra, 182, 194, 200, 232 Clinton, Elizabeth, 16, 199n813 Clinton, Lady Arbella, 17, 20 Clinton, Susan, 7, 22 Clinton, Theophilus, 6–7, 15–16 Compton, William, 15 Connecticut, 24 “Contemplations,” 3, 15, 27, 28, 30, 251–59 Cotton, Dorothy (AB’s daughter), 20, 24, 277n141 Cotton, Dorothy (AB’s granddaughter), 25 Cotton, John (Nonconformist minister), 7n14, 11, 16 Cotton, Seaborn (AB’s son-in-law), 24, 277n141 Cowley, Abraham, 34 Craterus, 182–83, 185 Croesus, Lydian king, 123, 125–26 Cromwell, Oliver, 13

Crooke, Helkiah, 78n237, 79nn241–42, 80 Curius Rufus, Quintus, 157n664, 163 Cyna (Alexander’s sister), 186 Cyprus, 128 Cyrus the Great of Persia, 123n517, 124–27, 130 Damascus, 115, 116 Daniel, book of, 32n92, 119–20, 122, 124, 127; Alexander the Great and, 161, 179–80; Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in, 201n823 Darius Condomanus, 151–52, 154, 156–58, 160, 162–67 Darius Hyslapses, 125, 131–34 Darius Nothus, 143–44 Darius Ochus, 151 David, Hebrew king, 68–69, 298 “David’s Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan,” 23, 26–27, 235–36 Davies, Lady Eleanor, 343n18 Deborah, Hebrew prophet, 216 Delacroix, Julia Penn, 219n932 Demosthenes, 30, 44n15, 183 Dennison, Daniel, 20 Dennison, Elizabeth, 351n75 Derounian-Stodola, Kathryn Zabelle, 345n35 Devereux, Penelope, 222n968 Devereux, Robert, 207n847, 216n916, 231 “A Dialogue between Old England and New,” 13, 23, 31, 207–18 Dido, Carthaginian queen, 232 Diodorus Siculus, 31, 108, 112n462, 232n1027 Dobson, William, 4 Donne, John, 2 Dorchester Company, 7 Drake, Sir Francis, 231n1023 dropsy, 66

374 General Index Du Bartas, Guillaume de Saluste, 2, 44, 222, 244; anagram of, 348; Bradstreet’s elegy to, 23, 225–28; Divine Weeks and Works, 29–30, 43n11; Epigrams, 30; on mullet, 274n134; The Second Week, or Childhood of the World, 30; Ward on, 34, 342 Dudley, Dorothy Yorke (AB’s mother), 15, 22, 250 Dudley, Lady Mary (Philip Sidney’s mother), 219n933 Dudley, Lucy (AB’s sister), 13 Dudley, Mary Winthrop (AB’s sister-inlaw), 20, 22 Dudley, Patience (AB’s sister), 351n75 Dudley, Roger (AB’s grandfather), 220n951 Dudley, Samuel (AB’s brother), 20, 24 Dudley, Sarah (AB’s sister), 2n5, 23 Dudley, Thomas (AB’s father), 18, 19, 20; Anne’s poems to, 42–43, 247– 49, 276; Simon Bradstreet and, 17; death of, 24; as deputy governor, 8; early years of, 15; as governor, 10; Anne Hutchinson and, 12; poetry of, 42n1; as resister, 6–7 DuRocher, Richard J., 282n157 earth (element), 51–54, 63, 82 East India Company, 8 Ecclesiastes, 32, 237n1047, 237n1049, 290n12, 291n16, 294n27, 295 Eden, Garden of, 30, 103, 253–54 Edward II of England, 208n857 Edward III of England, 209n867, 210 Edward IV of England, 211n880 Edward VI of England, 211n881, 219n933 Egypt, 128128, 141, 161, 263; Ptolemaic, 181, 184–85, 197, 200

Elizabeth I of England, 4, 23, 31, 219, 229–34 Ellis, John Harvard, 35 Emanuel College (Cambridge University), 7n14, 17 Emillius, Roman general, 198 English Civil Wars, 13, 31, 94n337, 213–17; Irish rebellion during, 213n894 Ephesians, 24n78, 261n91, 261n93, 315n145 Ephesus, 155 Essarhadon, Assyrian monarch, 118 Essex, Earl of, 207n847, 216n916, 231 Esther (Hester), 142, 143, 164, 309n128 Eumenes, Greek general, 184, 185, 187, 191, 192 Eurydice, Macedonian queen, 185–86, 187n762, 188–89 Eusebius of Caesarea, 111n459 Evelthon, Cypriot king, 128 Evilmerodach, Assyrian monarch, 123 eyes, 79, 292, 295, 302 Ezekiel, 120 Ezell, Margaret, 1 Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, Quintus, 74n213 Fiennes, Bridget, 16 Fiennes, William, 6, 16 Fiennes-Clinton, Theophilus, 6–7, 15–16 Finland, 104n404 fire (element), 46–50, 63, 82, 293; blood and, 69, 71 “The Flesh and the Spirit,” 3, 27, 28, 260–63 “The Four Ages of Man,” 22, 23, 30, 31, 82–96 “The Four Elements,” 23, 29, 30, 46–62 “The Four Humors in Man’s Constitution,” 23, 30, 63–81

General Index 375 “The Four Monarchies,” 23, 25, 30–33, 109–206, 117n482 “The Four Seasons of the Year,” 15, 30, 31, 97–105 Frederick V, Elector of Palatine, 94 Fuller, Samuel, 19 Galen, 31, 52n83, 79 gall bladder, 74–75, 77 Gaza, 159–61, 193 gender issues, 344; with humoral theory, 68n192; with marriage, 21, 24, 270; with monarchs, 180, 230, 233 Geneva Bible (1560), 5, 31–32, 38 Gideon (Hebrew general), 215n908 Gloucester, Duke of, 328n179 Gobrias, 133 Golden Age, 106 Gordian knot, 155 Gosnold, Bartholomew, 8 gout, 66 Greece: monarchs of, 153–202; Persian wars with, 134–50 Greenland, 104nn403–4 Grey, Lady Jane, 211n881 Gunpowder Plot (1605), 93n329 Halicarna, 135–36 Harvard, John, 7n14, 12 heart, 66n176, 298 Hector, 160, 221, 244 Helicon, Mount, 349n48 Hengist (Saxon warrior), 208 Henry I of England, 208n856 Henry IV of France, 226n995, 231n1016 Henry V of England, 210 Henry VI of England, 67 Henry VII of England, 8, 208n861, 233n1038 Henry VIII of England, 4

Hensley, Jeannine, 36, 351n74 Hephestion, 159, 171, 174, 176, 177, 181 Herbert, George, 2 Hercules (Heracles), 48n39, 158–59, 193, 222, 237n1025 Herodotus, 31, 125n527, 350n62 Hesiod, 30 Hezekiah, 118 Hiblas, Mount, 349 Hippocrates, 31, 79 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 26n82 Homer, 30, 34, 179, 180, 243 Hooke, William, 210n872 Hooker, Thomas, 7n14, 20 Hubbard, Richard, 24, 277n143 Hubbard, Sarah, 20, 24, 277n143 humoral medicine, 23, 30, 63–81 Humphreys, John, 7, 16, 22 Hutchinson, Anne, 11–12 Hutchinson, Lucy, 30 ignis fatuus, 50 “In Reference to Her Children,” 25, 28, 277–79 indentured servants, 18 India, 110, 117; Alexander the Great in, 161, 171–73 infancy, 84. See also youth Irish rebellions, 213n894, 231n1019 Isle of Man, 94n330 James I of England, 6; Bible of, 5, 31–32, 38, 235n1039 jaundice, 76. See also liver Jehu, king of Israel, 196, 297 Jezebel, 297nn47–48 John of England, 208n857, 209n866 Johnson, Edward, 9, 10 Johnson, Isaac, 16, 17, 19–21 Jonah, book of, 114, 300 Josephus, Titus Flavius, 31, 111n459

376 General Index Joshua, Hebrew general, 98n355 Julius Caesar, 101, 200, 222n970 Keayne, Benjamin, 23 Killigrew, Anne, 1 Knolles, Richard, 31, 101n375 Knollys, Hansard, 22 La Rochelle, siege of, 212n893 Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, 6, 207n847, 214n898 Leicester, Earl of, 219n933, 220n951 Leonatus, 182, 183 Leonidas, 137 Lincoln, Countess of, 16, 199n813 Lincoln, Earl of, 6–7, 15–16 literacy laws, 12 liver, 66, 70, 71, 73, 75; jaundice of, 76 Lodge, Thomas, 199n813 Louis IX of France, 226n994 Lucretia, 206 Lucullus, Lucius Licinius, 199 lungs, 66n178, 67, 72 Lydia, 126, 136 Lysimachus, 191–92, 194, 197 Magna Carta, 208n857 Maine, 24 Makin, Bathsua, 34 Manasseh, Hebrew king, 118 Marathon, battle of, 134 Marcellus, Marcus Claudius, 74n213 March, Earl of, 209–10 Mardonius, 134–35, 139–40 marriage, 21, 24, 270 Mary I of England, 93n324, 211n881 Massachusetts Bay Colony, 7–14, 207n852, 331n185; Cambridge Agreement of, 8–10; charter of, 330n182; schools in, 12–13; taxation in, 10 Massasoit (Wampanoag sachem), 11

Mather, Cotton, 33–37 May, Caroline, 35 McElrath, Joseph, 36 Media kingdom, 112–14, 123, 165, 177 “Meditations Divine and Moral,” 26, 27, 286, 287–303; dedication of, 286, 287 melancholy, 53n92, 63, 65n174, 66–67, 73–77, 82; blood and, 72; phlegm and, 76, 80 Meleager, 181 Menon, Assyrian monarch, 109 mercury, as medicine, 54n98 Merodach Baladan, 118 Methuselah, 253 metrics, 27, 28, 38, 265n108 middle age, 82, 89–92, 103, 287 Milborne, Peter, 17 Miletus, 155 Miltiades, 133 Milton, John, 1 Mithraism, 352n81 Mohegan people, 11 Montague, Richard, 6 Mortimer, Edmund de, 209–10 Moseley, Humphrey, 2 Moses, 54n95, 302 mullet, 274 murrain (livestock disease), 61 “My Dear Children,” 16, 305–9 Nabonasser (Salmanasser), 116–17 Native Americans: clergy of, 12n33; of New England, 9–11, 20 Nebuchadnezzar, 119 Nebulassar, 119 Nehemiah, 150n626 New Amsterdam, 24 Nicholls, Augustin, 15 Nimrod, 106 Nineveh, 50n59, 106, 107, 113–15, 119 Ninus, 107–9, 114

General Index 377 Ninyas, 110–12 Noah, 59n135 Nonconformists, 13, 16, 93n328 Northampton, Earl of, 15 Norton, John (nephew), 352–55 Norton, John (uncle), 34 Numa Pompilius, 204 “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Creatures,” 23, 237–38 “Of the Vanity of All Worldly Things,” 27 old age, 82, 83, 92–96, 103, 287 Olympias (Alexander’s mother), 153, 177–78, 187–93, 195, 198n786 original sin, 84n268, 85n277, 254 Ovid, 30, 119, 346n37, 351n71 Palatinate, 94n332 palsy, 66 Paracelsus, 47n30 Parmenio, 175–78 Pasargadae, 127n537 Pemble, William, 31, 142n588, 151 Pender, Patricia, 44n13 Pepin III of France, 226n993 Pequot War (1637), 11 Perdiccas, 180–86, 193 Persepolis, 164 Persian monarchy, 112, 124–52, 201, 352 Philadelphus (Ptolemy’s son), 197, 199 Philip II of Macedon, 153, 182, 186, 195, 222n969, 245 Philip II of Spain, 93, 231n1015 Philips, Katherine, 34 Philotas, 174–75 phlegm, 63, 65, 77–81; blood and, 72; childhood and, 82; lungs and, 66n178; melancholy and, 76, 80 Phoenicia, 158, 161 Piercy, Josephine, 36

Pleiades, 97 pleurisy, 77, 88 Pliny the Elder, 30, 49n57 Plutarch, 31, 126n530, 203n830; on Alexander the Great, 174, 222n970 Plymouth Plantation, 19 Polysperchon, 187–89, 193–94 Pope, Alexander, 27–28 predestination, 4–6, 299n64, 311n134 Pring, Matthew, 8 Providence Plantations, 11 Ptolemy Ceraunus, 197 Ptolemy (Greek general), 181, 184–85, 187; Cleopatra and, 194; death of, 197; Seleucus and, 191–92 Puritans, 331n185; fasting days of, 210n872; membership requirements for, 10 Pyrrhus, Molossian king, 198 Python, Greek captain, 184–86 Quakers, 12, 309n123 Quarles, Francis, 30 Ralegh, Walter, 31, 38, 106n416, 142n588, 151–52 rape, 350n64, 354 Rhode Island, 11 Rich, Frances Wray, 17 Rich, Penelope, 22n966, 223n972, 244n29 Richard II of England, 208n859 Richard III of England, 209n862, 209n867, 211n880 Robb, Allan, 36 Rogers, John, 7n14, 34, 349–51 Roman monarchy, 201, 203–6 Romulus, 203–4 Rowton, Frederic, 35 Roxana (Alexander’s wife), 180–81, 182n741, 193

378 General Index Sabines, 203–4 Salem witch trials, 13 Salic law, 230 Salmanasser (Nabonasser), 116–17 Sardanapalus, 88n293, 112–14, 125 Sardis, 136, 155 Saye and Sele, Lord, 6, 16 Schweitzer, Ivy, 2n5 Scipio Africanus the Elder, 221, 244 scurvy, 19 Scythians, 127, 133, 135, 161, 170 Second Coming of Christ, 103n400 Seleucus Callinicus, 198n803 Seleucus Ceraunus, 198n804 Seleucus Nicator, 181n740, 191–92, 195–98 Seleucus Philopater, 199n806 Semiramis, Assyrian monarch, 108–10, 232 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, 177 Sennacherib, Assyrian monarch, 117–18 Separatists, 5, 8, 11 seraphim, 279 Servius Tullius, 205–6 Several Poems (Bradstreet), 2–3, 26, 34– 35, 239–84; “New Commendatory Poems” in, 349–55; title page of, 240 Sewall, Samuel, 13–14 Shakespeare, William, 89n302 Shepard, Thomas, 7n14 Sidney, Sir Philip, 3, 23, 27, 219–24, 242–45; Arcadia, 30, 100n372, 220, 242; Astrophil and Stella, 222n968, 244 smallpox, 9, 17, 61n145, 88n299, 305, 328n179 Socrates, 237n1050 Sodom, 50, 111 Solon, 126

Spanish Armada, 209n863, 230n1011, 231; “second,” 210n870 Spargapises, 127n535 Speed, John, 31, 230n1009 Spenser, Edmund, 244n28; Faerie Queene, 230n1007; Shepherds’ Calendar, 30 spinal cord, 79–80 spleen, 66–67, 72, 74, 75 spring, 97–99, 289, 293 Stanford, Ann, 36 Staurobates, Indian king, 110 Stoics, 237–38 stomach, 68, 75 Strafford, Earl of, 94n335, 213n897 Streatfeild, Richard, 4 Suetonius, 31, 50n65 summer, 100–102 Sylvester, Josuah, 29, 223n973, 244n30 syphilis, 54n98 Tarquinius Priscus, 205 Tarquinius Superbus, 206 Taylor, Edward, 13–14 The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (Bradstreet), 1–2, 32, 39–41, 40; aesthetic principles of, 27, 28; prefatory material to, 20–21, 33–34, 341–48 Thalestris, Amazon queen, 168 Themistocles, 142–43 theodicy, 282n157 Thermopylae, 137 Thirty Years’ War, 94n332, 209n864 Thucydides, 30, 119 Tiglath Palasser, Assyrian monarch, 115–16 Tissaphernes, 148, 149 Tomyris, Scythian queen, 127nn535– 36, 232 tree of life, 238

General Index 379 Troy, 50, 78, 221, 244 Tullus Hostilius, 204–5 Tygranes, Armenian king, 199 Tyng, Mercy, 25, 26, 280-81nn153-54, 282n156, 283–84 Tyre, 158 Tyrone, Earl, 231n1019 Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, 21 “Upon a Fit of Sickness,” 15, 28, 266–67 Villiers, George, 94nn330–31, 94n334 Virgil, 30, 44n12, 353n84 Virginia Company, 8 Ward, Nathaniel, 2n4, 7n14, 34, 342 Wars of the Roses, 31, 208n860, 209–10 Warwick, Countess of, 17 water (element), 55–59, 63, 82, 293 Weymouth, George, 8 White, Elizabeth Wade, 36 The Whole Book of Psalms, 12, 28–29 Williams, Roger, 11 Wilson, John, 7n14, 19 Wimbledon, Viscount of, 94n331 Winslow, Edmund, 19 winter, 104–5, 289, 293 Winthrop, John, 7; diary of, 17–18, 20; governorship of, 8; “A Model of Christian Charity,” 10, 18 Winthrop, Stephen, 23 witches, 13 Woodbridge, John, 1, 13, 21, 341n1; on Anne Bradstreet’s appearance, 4; Bowtell and, 2; Tenth Muse preface by, 20–21, 33–34, 341–45 Woodbridge, Lucy, 26 Wright, Gillian, 16n45, 32n92 Xenophon, 127, 148 Xerxes, 110, 134–42

York, Duke of, 209–10 Yorke, Dorothy, 15, 22, 250 youth, 82–89, 287, 305; childhood and, 16, 82–86, 97, 292; infancy and, 84; summer and, 100 Zenobia, Regent of Syria, 232n1033 zodiac, 48–49, 97n105, 271. See also astrology Zutphen, siege of, 219, 221, 242, 243