JOHN WINTHROP

(17) A PURITAN TO HIS WIFE. The text is from the Appendix to Vol. I of Winthrop's History of New England, the 1825 edition, printed from the original manuscript. Charleton Charlestown.

(19) THE HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. The text is from the 1825 edition. 12 mo. 3: twelfth month, third day.

(20) lectures: mid-week sermons. ¶ general court: the legislature. ¶ convented = called before a court. Ta schoolmaster: Eaton was really the head of Harvard College, then no more than a school. ¶ gate=got.

(22) marks: an English mark was 13 shillings, 4 pence.

(23) truss bundle. ¶ curiously = carefully.

(24) Gorton: Samuel Gorton. Winthrop adds later: "The court finding that Gorton and his company did harm in the towns where they were confined, and not knowing what to do with them, at length agreed to set them at liberty [in 1644]. and gave them 14 days to depart out of our jurisdiction in all parts, and no more to come into it upon pain of death. This censure was thought too light and favourable."

(25) parts abilities.

(28) grains = prongs. ¶ conversation=way of life. the last day: i.e., of the week; the Puritan Sunday began on Saturday, at sunset.

THOMAS SHEPARD

(29) THE SINCERE CONVERT. From chapter 5. The text is from the 1655 edition.

(32) a proof: a passage of Scripture proving the doctrine of the sermon. (33) Precisians: too precise persons, especially in religion and morals; a term often used of the Puritans.

ROGER WILLIAMS

(33) THE BLOUDY TENENT OF PERSECUTION FOR CAUSE OF CONSCIENCE. The text is from the first edition, 1644.

The

(34) blood of the Soules crying for vengeance under the Altar: cf. Rev. 6: 9, 10. ¶John Cotton: the leading Congregationalist clergyman of Massachusetts. Aforesaid Arguments: arguments in a letter by Williams to Cotton.

(36) Righteousnes and Peace shall kisse each other: cf. Ps. 85:10.
(37) not pro Domina

Mistress Truth."

Veritate: "not for Mistress Queen but for

(38) Absaloms: see II Sam. 16:22.

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(41) admired wondered at. ¶ Gardiners, Boners: Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner, English bishops, took a prominent part in the persecution of Protestants under Queen Mary (1553-58). ¶John Hus: a Bohemian religious reformer, who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415.

NATHANIEL WARD

(42) THE SIMPLE Cobler of AGGAWAM. The text is from the first edition, 1647.

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(43) Beelzebub can fly-blow: "Beelzebub" means "the god of flies." ¶prevaricate turn aside from the path. ¶laborare varicibus: "be troubled with varicose veins." Paracelsian: Paracelsus (1493-1541) has been called "the father of chemistry"; cf. the end of the sentence. ¶ well complexioned for honesty: having an honest look. ¶ pudder = stir about. ¶ ponderous = given to pondering, thoughtful. ¶recollect=compose. ¶ Colluvies: "impure conflux," "vile medley." (44) sedulity=sedulousness. ¶ Familists: a sect calling itself the Family of Love. Antinomians: those who held that Christians were released from the moral law. Anabaptists: Baptists. Professors: professors of religion. ¶distate= remove from its state or position.

(45) Alchymized coines: counterfeits made of baser metals. ¶Ignis probationis: "fire of proof," i.e., fire used as a means of testing. ¶ congregare. heterogenia: "bring together the like, and separate the unlike." ¶ Leopard-like: spotted, not uniform. ¶ traverse cross, thwart. Sconce fort. Jannes and Jambres: Egyptian magicians who withstood Moses; see II Tim. 3:8. ¶ Auguslines: Augustine (354-430) was the greatest of the Latin Church Fathers.

(46) Nullum. . . errandi: "There is no greater evil than liberty to err." ¶ quick-alive. ¶ Conversation=way of life. ¶ Redendem prohibit: "Laughingly to tell the truth, what forbids ?" "Redendem" should be "ridentem"; "prohibit" should be "prohibet." ¶ bravery=fine dress. ¶ bully_mong-bullimong, a mixture of various kinds of grain; used figuratively here. drossock= drassock, a drab, an untidy woman.

(47) nugiperous = trifles-bearing.

¶ nudiustertian-made three days ago.

¶ kin ken. ¶transclouts: transforms by the cloths they wear. ¶ gant=gannet, gander. ¶ bar-geese: a kind of wild geese. ¶shotten: a term used of fish that have emitted their spawn. ¶ drailes = trailing head-dress. Kits: small fiddles ¶ pegma's: movable machines used in old pageants. ¶gut-foundred: a reference to the fact that silk comes from the entrails of caterpillars.

(48) tripe-wifted: an allusion to the same thing explained in the preceding note, "tripe" being formerly used for "entrails"; "wifted" is a mistake for "wifed," the reading of a later edition. ¶sadly seriously. ¶ convenient=fitting. ¶ Marmosets: small monkeys. ¶futilous = futile, trifling. ¶ pettitoes: pigs' toes. ¶ perquisquilian = trifling, worthless. ¶ mistery = trade. ¶ The joyning of the Red-Rose with the White: an allusion to the Wars of the Roses, in the fifteenth century, when the houses of York and Lancaster contended with each other for the throne of England. ¶ Damask: the word means a rose color, and the reference here is to the blood shed in the war. ¶ Flore de lices: fleurs-de-lis. ¶ overturcas'd = covered over with turquoises. ¶preferre=present. ¶ Essex Ladies: "All the Counties and shires of England have had wars in them since the Conquest, but Essex, which is onely free, and should be thankfull."-Marginal note in the original edition. ¶ Chore = choir. Le Roy le veult: "The king wills it." Les Seigneurs ont Assentus: "The lords have assented."

(49) renite resist.

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¶ president = protector. ¶ surguedryes: for "surquedryes" arrogances. ¶ provoking: "calling forth" punishment. ¶ prodromies = forerunners. ¶ judgement = doom, condemnation. ¶ pannage: the food of swine in the woods, as acorns. ¶the present dolefull estate of the Realme: the war between the king's party and the Puritans was then raging.

JOHN MASON

(50) A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR. The text is from the 1736 edition, the first complete one. The Pequot Indians, the most warlike in southern New England, became so great a danger to the colonists in Connecticut that a concerted effort was made to subdue them. Captain John Mason, who had been a soldier in the Netherlands, at the head of ninety men and aided by Captain John Underhill, of Boston, attacked the Pequot forts on the Mystic River in 1637 and slew some six hundred of the savages; the blow crippled their power, and they kept the peace for forty years. ¶ with about five hundred Indians: Narragansetts and Mohegans, timid foes of the Pequots. ¶ Alta = halt. ¶Onkos: chief of the Mohegans, who had seceded from the Pequots; the name is more common in the form "Uncas."

(51) Sassacous: Sassacus, the head chief of the Pequots. ¶ seeing our Pinnaces sail by: the expedition had started by boat from Saybrook the week before; instead of putting into the mouth of the Pequot, or Thames, as the Indians had expected, it sailed to Narragansett Bay, landed, and marched back to the Pequot country, by this ruse taking the Indians unawares.

(52) Champion champaign; flat and open.

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(54) making them as a fiery Oven: Ps. 21:9. Thus were the Stout Hearted spoiled, etc.: cf. Ps. 76:5, "The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands." ¶ Thus did the Lord judge, etc.: cf. Ps. 110:6, "He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies."

MARY ROWLANDSON

(54) A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY. The text is from a photographic facsimile of the second American edition, 1682. Mrs. Rowlandson was the wife of the minister in Lancaster, Massachusetts; the attack upon the town was a part of the concerted rising of the Indians of New England which is called King Philip's War, from the leader, King Philip, the shrewd and powerful chief of the Wampanoags.

(56) Come, behold the works of the Lord, etc.: Ps. 46: 8.
(57) whither whether.

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¶ Praying Indians: the common name then for Indians who had professed Christianity.

(58) my master: the Indian to whose keeping she had been especially committed. Nux: Indian for "yes."

(59) Redemption: her ransom. ¶ Sannup: Indian for "husband." ¶ presently at once.

(60) Philip: King Philip. ¶ you shal be Mistress: i.e., reunited with her husband.

(62) the Wine of astonishment: Ps. 60:3. ¶ Vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit:

It is good for me, etc.: Ps. 119:71.

Eccles. 1:1, 14.

INCREASE MATHER

(63) AN ESSAY FOR THE RECORDING OF ILLUSTRIOUS PROVIDENCES. From chapters 5 and 8. The text is from the 1684 edition.

(64) Saveall: a small pan fitted to the socket of a candle-stick, by means of which the candle may be burnt to the end.

(65) Peel: a spade-like implement for taking loaves from an oven, etc. ¶ Beesom broom.

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(66) Piggin: a small wooden pail.

(67) Proba: "proof." ¶ Responsum .

indicium: "Reply to the high

council of Holland, that floating on the surface is no sign of witches."

(68) Gadarens Hoggs: see Mark 5.

(70) Nihil . . . intuentium: "Nothing which is done by magic can in the water deceive the sight of spectators."

COTTON MATHER

(71) THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD. The text is from the 1693 edition. ¶Oyer and Terminer: "To hear and determine."

(74) years: apparently an error for "months."

(75) presently=immediately.

(76) Poppets: it was believed that witches by sticking pins into such figures, tormented the persons whom the puppets represented. ¶ Entertained=occupied, busied.

(77) MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA. The title means "The Great Things of Christ in America." The subtitle is The Ecclesiastical History of New England. From Books II, III, and VI. The text is from the 1702 edition. ¶ Captain Phips: Sir William Phipps was a native of Maine; he served as governor of Massachusetts from 1692 to 1694. His second search for the treasure was made in 1687, and resulted in the recovery of about $1,500,000. Incertum quo Fata ferant: "Uncertain whither the Fates may bear." ¶White-Hall: a royal palace in London. Experiment testing by experience.

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(78) Port de la Plata: the mouth of La Plata River, South America. ¶ Busking -cruising. ¶ as fair a Triumph as Caligula's: the Roman emperor Caligula, on his return from Gaul with much plunder, in 39 A.D., received an ovation, or minor triumph.

(80) Thomas Hooker: he was a graduate and fellow of Cambridge University, and a clergyman in the English Church; in 1630 he was summoned before the Court of High Commission because of his Puritanism, and fled to Holland; he returned to England in 1633 on the way to America. ¶Athanasius: one of the Church Fathers, living in the fourth century. ¶Luther and Melancthon: these leaders of the Reformation were of different types, the former being a man of great natural robustness, the latter a scholar of keen intellectuality. ¶New-Town: Cambridge. ¶ Sitna Esek Reho-both: the words mean, respectively, "Contention," "Hatred," and "Room"; see Gen. 26:19-22.

(81) another Colony: Hartford.

(82) Three United Colonies: Boston, Plymouth, Salem. ¶willing=wishing. (83) Dog. R: "R" was called the "Dog's Letter" because it was supposed to be the chief sound in a dog's growl. ¶ Sesquipedalia Verba: "words a foot and a half long." ¶ pregnant = full of ability. Twitty=intelligent. ¶ towardly =not froward, docile. ¶Ingenuity=ingenuousness, frankness.

(84) Sadducism: skepticism, especially disbelief in spirits; cf. Acts 23:8, "For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit."

(85) Ann Cole: at the Salem witch trials she testified to being tormented by the witches, particularly when she sought refuge in the Rock, i.e., Christ. (87) Conversation =way of life. ¶ convenient=fitting. ¶ entertain=engage

the attention of.

(88) Mischief=injury.

SAMUEL SEWALL

(89) THE DIARY. The text is that published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, from the original manuscript.

(90) Mane: "morning." ¶ Lecture-Day: the day of the mid-week sermon. ¶ Cross to be put into the Colours: on account of Puritan scruples the cross of the British flag had been left out of the flags of the colony's military companies, as savoring of Popery; see Hawthorne's "Endicott and the Red Cross" in TwiceTold Tales.

(92) were executed at Salem: the crime alleged was witchcraft. ¶press'd to death for standing mute: Giles Corey, eighty-one years old, was indicted at Salem for witchcraft; he refused to plead either guilty or not guilty, believing that if he did so and were convicted his will would be invalidated; for the benefit of his heirs he therefore incurred the horrible penalty of the English law for "standing mute" in the face of an indictment. Joseph: this sinful son was then four years old.¶Adam's carriage: Gen. 3:10, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, and I hid myself." ¶ Cousin-Germans: first cousins.

(93) the little posthumous: a still-born child. ¶ the President: Increase Mather, President of Harvard College. ¶ Copy of the Bill I put up on the Fast day: the reaction in the colony from the state of mind that led to the execution of supposed witches at Salem, in 1692, was quick and widespread, and in 1697 a day of prayer and fasting (January 14) was appointed as an expression of repentance for any wrong that had been done "in the late tragedy." Sewall had been one of the judges at the trials. ¶Oyer and Terminer: "To hear and determine."

(94) Ten Companies, 8, Muddy River and Sconce: eight companies belonged to Boston, one to Muddy River, and one to the sconce, or fort, near Boston.

(95) pleaded much for Negros: Sewall was one of the earliest opponents of slavery at a time when slaves were not uncommon in New England. ¶Psal. 27.10: "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” Feria Sexta: "Sixth Day." ¶ told counted. ¶ Capt. Quelch and six others: they were pirates.

(96) Feria septima: "seventh Day."