Note 494 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN. (continued 3)

Morton implies above that the “Poem” which follows was written shortly after the events to which it relates occurred, and before his return to New England in 1629. It was then, it seems, “in use” in London. The name of Ben Jonson appears in the margin of the original edition, as of this reprint, and opposite the first two lines, as above. Exactly what this signifies it is impossible now to say. Some critics that I have consulted are inclined to think that Jonson, who was then about fifty-five years old and at the height of his fame, may have written all the verses. Others suggest that Morton, by putting the name in the margin, meant to imply that Jonson wrote them all, and that this was another of the unscrupulous tricks of the author of the New Canaan. Neither explanation commends itself to my judgment. The first five verified lines are a paraphrase of five lines at the beginning of one of Jonson’s productions, for a poem it is not. In his published works (Gifford’s ed. [1816], vol. viii. p. 241) they appear as follows:—

With the last of the foregoing lines the paraphrase stops, and the rest of the verses in the New Canaan are, it must in justice be said, not only more cleanly, but in other respects superior to those to be found in Jonson’s works. Indeed, where the latter are not unintelligible, they are almost unequalled for the nastiness in which the writer seems to revel. Gifford not too strongly remarks of them, “I dislike the subject.” Morton, it appears to me, abandoning, at the sixth line, the paraphrase with which he began, went on with a production of his own, but very properly put Jonson’s name opposite the lines he borrowed from him. The remainder is in his own style, and not inferior to the mass of the contemporary verse. He himself explains it. The “nine worthy wights” are Standish and his party, who were sent to arrest him. The “prodigeous birth,” was the establishment of the Mount Wollaston plantation. The “seven heads” were the seven persons composing the company at Mount Wollaston at the time of the arrest. The “forked tail” was the Maypole, with its antlered top. The fear that the Hydra of Ma-re Mount would devour “all their best flocks” refers to the apprehended competition in the fur trade. The “Soll in Cancer” indicates the season; the “thundering Jove” the storm, in which Morton made his escape from his captors at Wessagusset. The arrest at Mount Wollaston is passed over very lightly. Then follows the discussion among the magistrates at Plymouth, as to the disposition to be made of the prisoner. Standish would seem to be designated under the name of Minos. He recommends death. Eacus is more difficult to identify. In the preceding chapter (Supra, 288), Morton speaks of him as being the one whose “voice was more allowed of then both the others.” My supposition is that, by Eacus, Morton meant Dr. Samuel Fuller, who then apparently (Bradford, pp. 264, note, 306, note) stood, next to Standish, at the head of the assistants. Morton says that he “confounded all the arguments that Eacus could make;” and he afterwards, in the New Canaan, refers to Fuller with peculiar bitterness. (Infra, 298.) “Sterne Radamant” is clearly Bradford, “the cheif Elder.” The remainder of the poem calls for no explanation; and the whole of it is much less unintelligible than is usual with Morton.