American Romanticism UHCL lecture notes

LITR 5431 Seminar in American Literature: Romanticism

lecture notes

Question(s) for Bradstreet poem:

1. How do the poem's themes or narratives appear to anticipate Romanticism? What continuities between American Puritanism and American Romanticism? (Instructor: persistence of nuclear family as sacred or value-laden domestic form.)

2. Bradstreet's poetic form (rhymed couplets) is conventional but seems Romantic anyway. What about its genre, language, and aesthetics appeal to Romantic sensibilities?

Early American literature anticipating Romanticism

Romanticization of American Indian as noble savage

4. Smith's and Rowlandson's texts are genre-identified as captivity narratives, one of America's unique contributions to world literature. How does the captivity narrative conform to the romance narrative? (Or not?)

Smith 10 6-7 weeks a prisoner [captivity narrative]

14 [Pocahontas's rescue]

15-16 Powhatan's deal: go to Jamestown

4a. How does the captivity narrative experience differ for a man (Smith) and a woman (Rowlandson)?

both engage in trade or exchange

5. Re Pocahontas in Smith's History of Virginia, how has this legend been increasingly romanticized ever since, up to the Disney animovie? What elements in Smith's story encourage or resist romanticizing? In what cases is Romanticization a direct violation of factual truth? Or is Romanticism another kind of truth or reality akin to myth?

Correspondence / Romanticism as imposition of worldview on world around one.

Smith: Providence enables conquest, disposes savages

2 God changed hearts of savages

19-20 Pocahontas food and love

Rowlandson: scriptural destiny of community

3.2h wonderful mercy of God to me in those afflictions, in sending me a Bible. One of the Indians that came from Medfield fight, had brought some plunder, came to me, and asked me, if I would have a Bible, he had got one in his basket. I was glad of it, and asked him, whether he thought the Indians would let me read? He answered, yes.

5.1 chose some of their stoutest men, and sent them back to hold the English army in play whilst the rest escaped. And then, like Jehu [2 Kings 9.24], they marched on furiously, with their old and with their young: some carried their old decrepit mothers, some carried one, and some another. [terrorists / refugees]

[5.2b] strange providence of God in preserving the heathen.*

Smith presentation

open to questions or comments

natural setting as Romantic abundance: 7 (swans, geese)

heroic individualism 9 (buckler)

gothic 13 grim courtiers, monster 15 devil, man, black as himself

John Smith notes

1 extreme weakness and sickness

2 buried 50

God, the patron of all good endeavors, in that desperate extremity so changed the hearts of the savages, that they brought such plenty of their fruits and provisions that no man wanted. [cf. Rowlandson in terms of subsuming others to narrative]

4 himself always bearing the greatest task for his own share

5 infinite impediments, yet no discouragement. [<realistic limits but Romantic resolve]

6 Sixty or seventy of them, some black, some red, some white, some parti-colored came in a square order, singing and dancing out of the woods, with their Okee (which was an idol made of skins, stuffed with moss, all painted and hung with chains and copper) borne before them

7 rivers became so covered with swans, geese, ducks, and cranes, that we daily feasted with good bread, Virginia peas, pumpkins, and putchamins [persimmons], fish, fowl, and divers sorts of wild beasts as fat as we could eat them

9 beset with 200 savages, two of them he slew, still defending himself with the aid of a savage his guide, whom he bound to his arm with his garters, and used him as a buckler [shield],

10 6-7 weeks a prisoner [captivity narrative]

12 gave a round ivory double compass dial. Much they marveled at the playing of the fly and needle, which they could see so plainly and yet not touch it because of the glass

roundness of the earth and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon, and stars, and how the sun did chase the night round about the world continually [Smith knows the earth is round but thinks the sun goes around it]; the greatness of the land and sea, the diversity of nations, variety of complexions

13 more than two hundred of those grim courtiers stood wondering at him, as he had been a monster

realistic details

14 being ready with their clubs to beat out his brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save his from death

15 Powhatan, more like a devil than a man, with some two hundred more as black as himself, came unto him and told him now they were friends, and presently he should go to Jamestown, to send him two great guns, and a grindstone, for which he would give him the county of Capahowosick, and for ever esteem him as his son Nantaquoud

16 two demiculverins [small cannons] and a millstone [for grinding corn] to carry Powhatan

19-20 Pocahontas food and love

22 works of gods

23 gods rather than men

all the space of their sickness, there was no man of ours knowne to die, or much sick

23 in the ayre, yet invisible and without bodies: and that they by our entreaties, for love of us, did make the people die as they did, by shooting invisible bullets into them.

Rowlandson presentation:

open floor to questions, comments

removes as trials in romance narrative

gothic wilderness + theology

Rowlandson

Heavily annotated for undergrad Early American Literature

Can’t cover everything in lecture / discussion—opportunity while reading

Link to gothic

Bold: [1x.2a] Now is the dreadful hour come

13.3 add “early removes”

14.1 reeking OED

19.2 add wampum photo

19.2b Weetamoo realism, motives

http://www.maryrowlandson.com/index.html

(MR homepage)

gothic (light-dark color code)

[1.1a] This was the dolefulest [most dreadful] night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell. [Indians are fitted to the Christian worldview incl. darkness > gothic]

[1.1b] And as miserable was the waste that was there made

2.1 the vast and desolate wilderness

6.2 vast and howling wilderness; cf. Lot's wife

7.1 The swamp by which we lay was, as it were, a deep dungeon

[8.1d] all this while in a maze

19.3a So unstable and like madmen they were. [compare to images of terrorists] . . .

19.3h the Powaw [priest] that kneeled upon the deer-skin came home (I may say, without abuse) as black as the devil. . . . [<gothic color & moral code]

They mourned (with their black faces [Indians smeared ash on their faces in mourning]) for their own losses, yet triumphed and rejoiced in their inhumane, and many times devilish cruelty to the English

pit, in their own imaginations, as deep as hell for the Christians that summer, yet the Lord hurled themselves into it. [the “pit” of hell later reappears secularized as a gothic set-piece in Edgar Huntly and Poe] . [compare also Edwards]

(gothic variations)

Removes as trials

my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life (lamb as innocence but also sacrifice)

[3.2a] transformational experience of romance

3.2e Rowlandson misses reality, attributes goodness to God

Cf 12.2c

[4.2] Heart-aching thoughts here I had about my poor children, who were scattered up and down among the wild beasts of the forest.

5.1 terrorists > refugees

5.1c wet feet

5.2 changes—food

[5.2b] And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen. [Implicit question: if the Indians are enemies of God’s people, why doesn’t God simply arrange their swift extermination?]

[6.1a] I went along that day mourning and lamenting, leaving farther my own country, and traveling into a vast and howling wilderness [<a widely quoted line, illustrating how seventeenth-century settlers, unlike the later Romantics, did not “love nature” but saw it as a threat], and I understood something of Lot's wife's temptation, when she looked back. [<strikingly affecting identification with Scripture] . . .

[7.1] After a restless and hungry night there, we had a wearisome time of it the next day. The swamp by which we lay was, as it were, a deep dungeon [<anticipates “wilderness gothic”; compare “pit” elsewhere incl. 20.6a],

[7.1b] That day, a little after noon, we came to Squakeag, where the Indians quickly spread themselves over the deserted English fields, gleaning what they could find. Some picked up ears of wheat that were crickled [?]

OED

[8.1d] Then my heart began to fail: and I fell aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance, that I wept before them. Although I had met with so much affliction, and my heart was many times ready to break, yet could I not shed one tear in their sight; but rather had been all this while in a maze [anticipates the gothic maze or labyrinth, mirrored in the mind], and like one astonished.

reading 2 trials w/ daughter, meetings with son

5. As a woman writer, how do Rowlandson's concerns and style compare to Anne Bradstreet? What are the opportunities for women's writing in early and later New England?

2.1b we both fell over the horse's head, at which they [the Indians], like inhumane creatures, laughed cf. 13.3

3.2 About two hours in the night, my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675. It being about six years, and five months old. . . . . [after 9 days]

3.2b they told me they had buried it. There I left that child in the wilderness

3.2c I went to see my daughter Mary, who was at this same Indian town, at a wigwam not very far off, though we had little liberty or opportunity to see one another. She was about ten years old, and taken from the door at first by a Praying Ind[ian] and afterward sold for a gun

3.2e my son came to me, and asked me how I did. I had not seen him before, since the destruction of the town

4.2 my poor children, who were scattered up and down among the wild beasts of the forest

[13.3] That night they bade me go out of the wigwam again. My mistress's papoose was sick, and it died that night, and there was one benefit in it—that there was more room. [Compare Rowlandson’s insensitivity to the Indians’ insensitivity to her daughter’s suffering in 2.1b above]

Other passages?

literacy

[19.2] My master had three squaws [Indian wives], living sometimes with one, and sometimes with another one, . . . Another was Wattimore [Weetamoo] with whom I had lived and served all this while. A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampum and beads.

19.3] Then came Tom and Peter [Praying Indians], with the second letter from the council, about the captives.

19.3d] It was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter for them.

20.2e an Indian called James the Printer*

anthropology / knowledge / pleasure of learning

define anthropology

[8.2b] I boiled my peas and bear together, and invited my master and mistress to dinner; but the proud gossip [wife], because I served them both in one dish, would eat nothing, except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife. [Mary may violate a serving protocol, which Quinnapin circumvents to keep peace among the women of his extended household. Compare 14.1]

[14.1] . . . took the blood of the deer, and put it into the paunch, and so boiled it. I could eat nothing of that, though they ate it sweetly. And yet they were so nice in other things, that when I had fetched water, and had put the dish I dipped the water with into the kettle of water which I brought, they would say they would knock me down; for they said, it was a sluttish trick. [As in 8.2b, Rowlandson has violated an Indian protocol or etiquette; her attention to such details provides valuable anthropological information]

19.3e] Before they went to that fight they got a company together to pow-wow.

[19.3e-g provide an invaluable record of an Indian war ceremony.]

4. How do Rowlandson's stylings of Indians correspond to our stylings of terrorists?

5.2a Sabbath meaningless to Indians

19.3a So unstable and like madmen they were. [compare to images of terrorists] . . .

Smith

15 Powhatan, more like a devil than a man, with some two hundred more as black as himself,

[preview Mohicans; displacement of cultural / racial other as gothic]

no sexual abuse: 9.1c, 20.5

9.1c met with all sorts of Indians, and those I had no knowledge of, and there being no Christian soul near me; yet not one of them offered the least imaginable miscarriage [misconduct] to me*. [*compare 20.5a below; New England Indians did not customarily abuse female captives sexually.]

20.5a not one of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity to me, in word or action. Though some are ready to say I speak it for my own credit; but I speak it in the presence of God, and to His Glory

Edwards presentation

open to either text

How is either proto-Romantic? how resemble or anticipate Emerson? Poe?

Sinners as gothic and sublime

Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (N 331-343)

2 Israelites, God’s visible people

2 chosen for my text, “Their foot shall slide in due time”

4 Always exposed to destruction

6 God’s appointed time

6 On the edge of a pit [cf. Poe, Pit & Pendulum] gothic

7 Mere pleasure of God, arbitrary will

8 Cast wicked men into hell

10 Already under a sentence of condemnation to hell

10 Every unconverted man . . . > hell

11 Anger and wrath of God

11 Now in this congregation

11 God is not altogether such a one as themselves

11 Wrath burns against them

11 Pit is prepared, fire made ready

11 Furnace now hot, flames rage and glow

12 Devil stands ready to fall on them

12 devils like greedy hungry lions

12 Old serpent gaping for them

13 Very nature of carnal men a foundation for torments of hell [original sin]

Sin the ruin and misery of the soul

13 Corruption of heart of men immoderate and boundless [extreme; sublime; romantic rhetoric]

13 fire and brimstone

14 No security

14 Next step into another world

14 Arrows of death fly unseen at noonday [cf. Smith Invisible bullets]

15 men’s own wisdom no security from death

16 Flatters himself

17 Foolish children of men delude themselves

17 Confidence in their own strength and wisdom

18 Covenant of grace

18 No interest if not children of covenant

20 natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked

20 uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance

Application

21 Use of this awful [sublime] subject > awakening unconverted in congregation

23 Wickedness makes you heavy as lead

23 Spider’s web x fallen rock [imagination] [cf. creative writing]

23 Sovereign pleasure of God

23 black clouds of God’s wrath hanging directly over your heads

24 Wrath of God like great waters dammed for the present [sublime]

24 Increase more and more [Romantic rhetoric]

24 Your guilt constantly increasing

24 Strength 10,000 times greater [Romantic rhetoric]

25 Bow of God’s wrath is bent [Romantic rhetoric; imaginative, creative writing; metaphor]

25 Drunk with your blood

26 God holds you over pit of hell, cf. spider, insect

26 10,000 times more abominable

27 O sinner!

26 Wrath of the infinite God

28 Despicable worms of dust x great and almighty King and Creator of heaven and earth [extremes]

29 who can utter or conceive

29 To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth

[cf. Poe, Romantic rhetoric]

30 Ineffable extremity of your case

30 Infinite gloom, no compassion

33 no end to this exquisite horrible misery

33 Millions and millions of ages

34 Every soul in this congregation who has not been born again

35 Here you are . . . opportunity to obtain salvation

35 Extraordinary opportunity

35 Christ hath flung the door of mercy wide open [rescue]

35 a happy state, hearts filled with love

36 Born again?

36 Aliens from commonwealth of Israel? [typology; commonwealth of MS]

36 And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell

37 God hastily gathering in his elect

37 as in days of John the Baptist [typology]

38 Fly out of Sodom

Edwards, Personal Narrative (1740)

1 seasons of awakening

1 a time of remarkable awakening in my father’s congregation.

1 Pray five times a day in secret, and to spend much time in religious talk with other boys and used to meet with them to pray together

1 With some of my schoolmates, joined together and built a booth in a swamp, in a very secret and retired place, for a place of prayer [contrast with city on a hill]

1 A particular secret places of my own in the woods, where I used to retire by myself, and used to be from time to time much affected.. My affections seemed to be lively and easily moved

2 Brought me night to the grave, and shook me over the pit of hell

2 I made seeking my salvation the main business of my life

2 I felt a spirit to part with all things in the world for an interest in Christ

3 Objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty

3 a delightful conviction. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty has very often appeared an exceeding pleasant bright and sweet doctrine to me

4 There came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being, a new sense

5 Be rapt up to God in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in Him

5 An inward sweet sense of these things,, that at times came into my heart, and my soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations of them.

5 An inward, sweet sense of these things.

5 Canticles 2.1 . . . “I am the Rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.” The words seemed to me, sweetly to represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ.

6 an account to my father . . . I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together

6 I walked abroad alone

6 A sweet sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God that I know not how to express. I seemed to see them both in a sweet communion, majesty and meekness joined together . . . a majestic meekness, an awful sweetness . . .

7 My sense of divine things gradually increased

7 His wisdom, His purity and love, seemed to appear in everything: in the sun, moon and stars, in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees,; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the moon for a long time . . . singing forth with a low voice my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer

7 I felt God at the first appearance of a thunderstorm . . . the majestic and awful voice of God’s thunder, which often times was exceeding entertaining [sublime]

8 vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break

8 A mourning and lamenting in my heart that I had not turned to God sooner

8 used to spend abundance of my time in walking alone in the woods and solitary places for meditation, soliloquy and prayer, and converse with God

8 A more inward, pure, soul-animating and refreshing nature

9 My sense of divine things seemed gradually to increase, ‘til I went to preach at New York . . .

9 A burning desire to be in everything a complete Christian, and conformed to the blessed image of Christ

9 Too great a dependence on my own strength, which afterwards proved a great damage to me

9 bottomless depths of secret corruption and deceit

11 holiness . . . ravishingly lovely . . . the highest beauty and amiableness, above all other beauties, that it was a divine beauty, far purer than anything here upon earth

12 Peacefulness and ravishment to the soul, and that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant flowers. . . . The soul of a true Christian, as I then wrote in my meditations, appeared like such a little white flower as we see int eh spring of the year, low and humble, on the ground . . .

12 a calm rapture

12 humility, brokenness of heart, and poverty of spirit

15 I had then abundance of sweet religious conversation in the family where I lived, with Mr. John Smith, and his pious mother. My heart was knit in affection to those in whom were appearances of true piety [cf. Winthrop]

15 I used to be earnest to read public newsletters, mainly for that end, to see if I could not find some news favorable to the interest of religion in the world

15 & 16 The advancement of Christ’s kingdom in the world, and the glorious things that God would accomplish for His church in the latter days

17 From New York to Weathersfield by water

18 These persons that appear so lovely in this world will really be inexpressibly more lovely, and full of love to us. And how sweetly will the mutual lovers join together to sing the praises of God and the Lamb!

22 I have loved the doctrines of the gospel; they have been to my soul like green pastures.

23 I love to think of coming to Christ, to receive salvation of Him, poor in spirit, and quite empty of self; humbly exalting Him alone, cut entirely off from my own root, and to grow into and out of Christ, to have God in Christ to be all in all; and to live by faith on the Son of God, a life of humble, unfeigned confidence in Him.

26 To be emptied of myself and swallowed up in Christ.

27 having lit from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer.

27 An excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour, which kept me, the bigger part of the time, in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt withal an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, than to be emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him . . .

28 A sense of the glory of the third person in the Trinity in His office of sanctifier

28 An infinite fountain of divine glory and sweetness [extreme Rom. Rhetoric]

30 my wickedness . . . infinitely swallowing up all thought and imagination, like an infinite deluge or infinite mountains over my head. . . . heaping infinite upon infinite [cf. Poe 1377-8)

30 x-moderation

30 multiplying infinite by infinite [sublime]

30 An abyss infinitely deeper than hell [sublime]

30 My sins infinitely below hell itself, far beyond sight of everything

33 On one Saturday night in particular, had a particular discovery of the excellency of the gospel of Christ, above all other doctrines

310 [Sarah Pierrepont] [1723]

There she is to dwell with Him, and to be ravished with His love, and delight forever

She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections

She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible always conversing with her.

Paine, Age of Reason

1 always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine.

[2] The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason

3 publish my thoughts upon religion. I am well aware of the difficulties that attend the subject

4 France . . . total abolition of the whole national order of priesthood

5 my fellow-citizens of France

[6] I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

[7] I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

[8] But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

9 My own mind is my own church.

[10] All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish [Muslim], appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

11 Infidelity [lack of faith] does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

13 a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion. The adulterous connection of church and state

man would return to the pure, unmixed and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more.

[14] Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals.

15 certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God.

Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.

16 Revelation, when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man.

17 When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it.

18 Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication — after this, it is only an account of something which that person says

19 The commandments carry no internal evidence of divinity with them; they contain some good moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver, or a legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse to supernatural intervention.

20 Yes; there is a word of God; there is a revelation.

[21] THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD and it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man. . . .

22 it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.

[23] . . . That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.

[24] As to the theology that is now studied in its place, it is the study of human opinions and of human fancies concerning God. It is not the study of God himself in the works that he has made, but in the works or writings that man has made . . . .

25 a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human invention

28 those things called miracles can be placed and considered, the reality of them is improbable and their existence unnecessary

29 prophecy took charge of the future and rounded the tenses of faith. It was not sufficient to know what had been done, but what would be done. The supposed prophet was the supposed historian of times to come; and if he [a prophet] happened, in shooting with a long bow of a thousand years, to strike within a thousand miles of a mark, the ingenuity of posterity could make it point-blank;

Rowlandson, complete notes

0.1a murderous wretches went on, burning, and destroying

0.2 bullets seemed to fly like hail

0.2a] Now is the dreadful hour come

0.2b bullets rattled against the house, as if one had taken an handful of stones and threw them

0.2c out we must go, the fire increasing

0.2c the bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same (as would seem) through the bowels [belly] and hand of my dear child [her youngest daughter being carried] in my arms

0.2d] Thus were we butchered by those merciless heathen

0.2e they would kill me: they answered, if I were willing to go along with them, they would not hurt me.

[0.3] Oh the doleful sight that now was to behold at this house! "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations

0.3 When we are in prosperity, Oh the little that we think of such dreadful sights

0.3a a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting, and insulting

[0.4] I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit, that I chose rather to go along

[1.1a] This was the dolefulest [most dreadful] night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell.

1.1b] . . . the waste

1.1c my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.

1.1d There remained nothing to me but one poor wounded babe

[1.1e] Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy,

1.2 mangled in a barbarous manner, by one-eyed John [an Indian leader], and Marlborough's Praying Indians

2.1 the vast and desolate wilderness

2.1b we both fell over the horse's head, at which they [the Indians], like inhumane creatures, laughed cf. 13.3

3.1a Indian town . . . number of pagans

3.2 About two hours in the night, my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675. It being about six years, and five months old. . . . . [after 9 days]

3.2b Quinnapin, who was a Sagamore [chieftain], and married King Philip's wife's sister . . . ).

3.2b they told me they had buried it. There I left that child in the wilderness

3.2e my son came to me, and asked me how I did. I had not seen him before, since the destruction of the town

3.2g Oh! the outrageous roaring and hooping

Oh, the hideous insulting and triumphing that there was over some Englishmen's scalps

4.1 parted from Mary > returned from captivity [not fiction]

4.2 my poor children, who were scattered up and down among the wild beasts of the forest

4.2 I cannot express to man the affliction that lay upon my spirit, but the Lord helped me at that time to express it to Himself. I opened my Bible to read, and the Lord brought that precious Scripture to me

5.1b knitting work

5.1c did not wet foot [realism x romance]

5.1d boiled old horse's leg

5.2 how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste

5.2a knitting for master's wife

5.2a Sabbath meaningless to Indians

[5.2b] strange providence of God in preserving the heathen.*

6.1 through the good providence of God, I did not wet my foot.

6.2 vast and howling wilderness; cf. Lot's wife

7.1 The swamp by which we lay was, as it were, a deep dungeon

7.1a a place where English cattle had been

7.1b deserted English fields

8.1a my son Joseph unexpectedly came to me

8.1b [scene of reading]

8.1c pagans, they asked one another questions, and laughed, and rejoiced over their gains and victories.

[8.1d] Then my heart began to fail: and I fell aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance, that I wept before them

all this while in a maze

as Psalm 137.1, "By the Rivers of Babylon, there we sate down: yea, we wept when we remembered Zion."

[8.1e] There one of them asked me why I wept. I could hardly tell what to say: Yet I answered, they would kill me. "No," said he, "none will hurt you." Then came one of them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me, and another gave me half a pint of peas; which was more worth than many bushels at another time.

8.1f King Philip. He bade me come in and sit down, and asked me whether I would smoke

8.2a Philip spake to me to make a shirt for his boy, which I did, for which he gave me a shilling.

a squaw who spake to me to make a shirt for her sannup [husband], for which she gave me a piece of bear. Another asked me to knit a pair of stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas.

[8.2b] I boiled my peas and bear together, and invited my master and mistress to dinner; but the proud gossip [wife], because I served them both in one dish, would eat nothing, except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife. [Mary may violate a serving protocol, which Quinnapin circumvents to keep peace among the women of his extended household. Compare 14.1]

8.2c Son . . . not asleep, but at prayer; and lay so, that they might not observe what he was doing.

[9.1a] I carried the knife in, and my master asked me to give it him, and I was not a little glad that I had anything that they would accept of, and be pleased with.

9.1d met with my master. He showed me the way to my son.

my spirit was ready to sink with the thoughts of my poor children

12.1 asked my master whether he would sell me to my husband. He answered me "Nux," [= yes]

My mistress, before we went, was gone to the burial of a papoose [child], and returning, she found me sitting and reading in my Bible; she snatched it hastily out of my hand, and threw it out of doors.

12.2a my master being gone, who seemed to me the best friend that I had of an Indian,

[12.2c] Then one of the company drew his sword, and told me he would run me through if I did not go presently

at last an old Indian bade me to come to him, and his squaw gave me some ground nuts; she gave me also something to lay under my head, and a good fire we had; and through the good providence of God, I had a comfortable lodging that night. [Rowlandson attributes her comfort to God rather than the old Indian’s hospitality] . . . .

[13.1a] I desired also to go and see him; and when I came, he was crying bitterly, supposing they would quickly kill him. Whereupon I asked one of them, whether they intended to kill him; he answered me, they would not.

13.1b I asked him about the welfare of my husband.

So like were these barbarous creatures to him who was a liar from the beginning. [<Satan] . . .

13.2 I went along with him to his new master who told me he loved him, and he should not want.

16.1b an Indian, who informed them that I must go to Wachusett to my master, for there was a letter come from the council to the Sagamores [Indian chieftains], about redeeming [ransoming] the captives

18.1 came to another Indian town, where we stayed all night. In this town there were four English children, captives; and one of them my own sister's.

[18.1a] the child could not bite it, it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste.

18.1c they told me I disgraced my master with begging

19.1a Philip*, who was in the company, came up and took me by the hand, and said, two weeks more and you shall be mistress [restored to her husband] again. I asked him, if he spake true? He answered, "Yes, and quickly [sooner] you shall come to your master [Quinnapin] again;

19.1b he asked me, when I washed me? I told him not this month. Then he fetched me some water himself, and bid me wash, and gave me the glass [mirror] to see how I looked; and bid his squaw give me something to eat.

19.2a The squaw laid a mat under me, and a good rug over me; the first time I had any such kindness showed me.

[19.2b] I understood that Weetamoo thought that if she should let me go and serve with the old squaw, she would be in danger to lose not only my service, but the redemption pay also. . . .

19.3] Then came Tom and Peter [Praying Indians], with the second letter from the council, about the captives.

19.3a So unstable and like madmen they were. [compare to images of terrorists] . . .

[19.3b] When the letter was come, the Sagamores met to consult about the captives, and called me to them to inquire how much my husband would give to redeem me. When I came I sat down among them, as I was wont to do, as their manner is. Then they bade me stand up, and said they were the General Court. [Rowlandson imitates Indian manners, but the Indians imitate English manners]

19.3d] It was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter for them.

[19.3e] Before they went to that fight they got a company together to pow-wow.

[19.3e-g provide an invaluable record of an Indian war ceremony.]

19.3h the Powaw [priest] that kneeled upon the deer-skin came home (I may say, without abuse) as black as the devil. . . . [<gothic color & moral code]

20.1 built a great wigwam, big enough to hold an hundred Indians, which they did in preparation to a great day of dancing.

20.2c they ate very little, they being so busy in dressing themselves, and getting ready for their dance, which was carried on by eight of them, four men and four squaws. My master and mistress being two

20.2e an Indian called James the Printer*

20.2f He was the first Indian I saw drunk all the while that I was amongst them. At last his squaw ran out, and he after her, round the wigwam, with his money jingling at his knees. But she escaped him. But having an old squaw he ran to her

20.4 how the Indians derided the slowness, and dullness of the English army, in its setting out.

I can but admire [marvel] to see the wonderful providence of God in preserving the heathen for further affliction to our poor country.

how to admiration did the Lord preserve them for His holy ends,

20.5b came to Lancaster [hometown], and a solemn sight it was to me. There had I lived many comfortable years amongst my relations and neighbors, and now not one Christian to be seen, nor one house left standing.

20.5d such a lovely sight, so many Christians together, and some of them my neighbors.

if I knew where his wife was? Poor heart! he had helped to bury her, and knew it not. She being shot down by the house was partly burnt,

20.5e we went to Boston that day, where I met with my dear husband, but the thoughts of our dear children, one being dead, and the other we could not tell where, abated our comfort each to other

20.5g That which was dead [her young daughter Sarah] lay heavier upon my spirit, than those which were alive and amongst the heathen

20.5h our son Joseph was come in to Major Waldron's, and another with him, which was my sister's son.

20.5j one came and told him that his daughter was come in at Providence

[20.6a] Thus hath the Lord brought me and mine out of that horrible pit [<here a Christian symbol for a Satanic trap, later a gothic formula; compare “dungeon” at 7.1]

20.7 in a little time we might look, and see the house furnished with love. [<in later women’s romance fiction this plot resolution is known as the reformation of the family circle] . .

20.10 Before I knew what affliction meant, I was ready sometimes to wish for it.