A book of New England legends and folk lore : in prose and poetry

Front matter

DRAKE i;;5ir?iP-s;!3 ii

HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PROVO, UTAH

A BOOK

Introduction

TO THE EIKST EDITION.

The recovery of many scattered legendary waifs that not only have a really important bearing upon the early history of our country, but that also shed much light upon the spirit of its ancient laws and upon tlie domestic lives of its people, has seemed to me a laudable undertaking. Tliis purpose has now taken form in the following collection of New-England Legends.

As in a majority of instances these tales go far beyond the time when the interior was settled, they naturally cluster about the seaboard ; and it would scarcely be overstepping the limit separating exaggeration from truth to say that every league of the New-England coast has its story or its legend.

Disowned in an age of scepticism, there was once — and the time is not so far remote — no part of the body politic over which what we now vaguely term the legendary did not exercise the strongest influence ; so that, far from being merely a record of amusing fables, these tales, whicli are largely founded on fact, disclose the secret springs by wliich society was moved and history made. One looks beneath every mechanical contrivance for the true origin of power. That is to assume that the beliefs of a people are the key to its social and political movements, and that history, taken in its broadest sense, cannot be truly written without having regard to such beliefs. Had the conviction that witches existed not been universal, jmblic

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PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION sentiment wonkl never have countenanced the executions that took place in New England.

It may be said, then, that while History has its truth, the Legend has its own ; both taking for their end the portrayal of Man as he has existed in every age, — a creature in whom the imagination is supreme, and who performs deeds terrible or heroic according as it may be aroused into action.

No apology need be made for the prevalence of superstition among our ancestors. Our century is not the judge of its predecessors. It was a superstitious age. King Charles I. inherited all the popular beliefs. He kept, as an attache of his court, an astrologer, whom he was accustomed to consult before entering upon any important or hazardous undertaking. Laud, the highest prelate in England, the implacable persecutor of our Puritan ancestors, was a man haunted by the fear of omens. Indeed, the most exalted personages in Church and State yielded full credence to all those marvels, the bare mention of which now calls up a smile of incredulity or of pity. New England was the child of a superstitious mother.

PEEFACE TO EEVISED EDITION.

rriHE term “legend” is so loosely and so indiscriminately applied as to suggest a few wordp of explanation. To some it is the offspring of pure fancy, to others the result of mere hallucination, while a few, jierhaps better informed, regard the legend as essentially a vital part and parcel of the history of its time, and therefore indispensable to a full and impartial view of the whole field.

There are several kinds of New-England legends. Those there are which, like Mr. Hawthorne’s “ Legends of the Province House,” have no other foundation than in the fertile brains

Preface To Revised Edition

Vll of their authors, yet nevertheless acquire a certain air of probability through the introduction of real personages, who talk or move about at the word of command. Doubtless this is what Sir Walter Scott meant by saying that nothing is easier than to create a legend. I am of the opinion, however, that history and fiction, like oil and water, do not readily mix, or, in other words, that fiction and fable have no place in history. In that conviction, I have omitted purely fictitious tales from this collection of, for the most part, historical legends.

Moreover, I have always noticed that writers of fiction. Sir Walter always excepted, as a class profess great indifference to history, some indeed comparing it to a gazette, others to an almanac, while some others even go so far as to call history a mere record of crime. Be it so. No fault can be found with an honest opinion consistently adhered to. But when holding such views, the taking of historical characters or events for the ground-work, in order to give body and substance to their tales, is the unconscious tribute pure invention pays to solid truth.

Another form of the New-England legend, the one, perhaps, with which we are most familiar, is really founded on hict, yet is so manipulated to give the freest scope to the writer’s flights of fancy, or to serve the purposes of his art, as to make it difficult to tell what is fact and what fiction. In this class may be included much, if not all, of our legendary poetry. The great use made of these versified tales in the public schools has caused them to be widely accepted as true versions, regardless of the fact that poetic license is so often only another name for poetic invention. It would, however, be an unpardonable indiscretion so much as even to hint that poets, as a rule, do not make reliable historians.

Yet is truth still stranger than fiction. There is still another description of New-England legend, simple and true, bitter as truth sometimes is, yet bone of the bone, and flesh of the flesh of the generation which gave it birth. This is the homely prose legend as it fell from the lips, or was recorded by the pens, of viii PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION

eye or ear witnesses to wliat tliey liave related. This is authentic, and it tells us just what we most wish to know. With entire ingenuousness it admits us to those singular beliefs which so moulded the opinions, swayed the consciences, and unbalanced the judgments of living men and women, who, indeed, had both human and divine law for their support and guide in giving the fullest faith to those beliefs.

It was these considerations which first gave me the idea of bringing the versified and the prose New-England legends together, side by side, in order that those interested in the subject, more especially teachers, might have as ready access to the truth, as hitherto they have had to the romance of history.

To make the collection as complete as possible, several tales have been added which do not appear in the earlier editions of New-England Legends. It will also be noticed that the opportunity has been availed of to add to the number, as well as to greatly improve the quality of the illustrations, actual subjects being substituted, in most cases, for the ideal, so that with these new features New-England Legends is, to all intents, what it purports to be, a new and revised work, a more vigorous growth from the parent stock.

S. A. D.

Boston, 1901.

BOSTON LEGENDS.

Page

The Solitary of Shawmut. — ./. L. Moflei/ 3

Boston Common. — 0. W. Holmes 10

The Death of Rainsborougli 22

The Case of Mistress Ann Ilibhins 28

The Quaker Prophetess .56

In tlie Old South Church. — J. G. Whittier 59

More Wonders of tlie Invisible World 60

Calef in Boston. — J .G. Whittier 65

Nix’s Mate 66

Due d’Anville’s Descent 71

A Ballad of the French Fleet. — TL W. Longfellow ...... 75

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