The Bay Psalm-Book.
It seems most proper that the first book printed in New England should be
now its rarest one, and such is the case. It was also meet that the first
book published by the Puritan theocracy should be a psalm-book. This New
England psalm-book, being printed by the colony at Massachusetts Bay, is
familiarly known as "The Bay Psalm-Book," and was published two hundred
and fifty years ago with this wording on the titlepage: "The Whole Book of
Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. Whereunto is prefixed a
discourse declaring not only the lawfullnes, but also the necessity of the
Heavenly Ordinance of Singing Psalmes in the Churches of God.
"Coll. III. Let the word of God dwell plenteously in you in all wisdome,
teaching, and exhorting one another in Psalmes, Himnes, and spirituall
Songs, singing to the Lord with grace in your hearts.
"James V. If any be afflicted, let him pray; and if any be merry let him
sing psalmes. Imprinted 1640."
The words "For the Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints in Publick
and Private especially in New England," though given in Thomas's "History
of Printing," Lowndes's "Bibliographers Manual," Hood's "History of Music
in New England," and many reliable books of reference, as part of the
correct title, were in fact not printed upon the titlepage of this first
edition, but appeared on subsequent ones. Mr. Thomas, at the time he wrote
his history, knew of but one copy of the first edition; "an entire copy
except the title-page is now in the possession of rev. mr. Bentley of
Salem." The titlepage being missing, he probably fell into the error of
copying the title of a later edition, and other cataloguers and manualists
have blindly followed him.
There were in 1638 thirty ministers in New England, all men of intelligence
and education; and to three of them, Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, and John
Eliot was entrusted the literary part of the pious work. They managed to
produce one of the greatest literary curiosities in existence. The book
was printed in the house of President Dunster of Harvard College upon a
"printery," or printing-press, which had cost £50, and was the gift of
friends in Holland to the new community in 1638, the name-year of Harvard
College. Governor Winthrop in his journal tells us that the first sheet
printed on this press was the Freeman's Oath, certainly a characteristic
production; the second an almanac for New England, and the third, "The Bay
Psalm-Book." Some, who deem an almanac a book, call this psalm-book the
second book printed in British America.
A printer named Steeven Daye was brought over from England to do the
printing on this new press. Now Steeven must have been given entire charge
of the matter, and could not have been a very literate fellow (as we
know positively he was a most reprehensible one), or the three reverend
versifiers must have been most uncommonly careless proof-readers, for
certainly a worse piece of printer's work than "The Bay Psalm Book" could
hardly have been struck off. Diversity and grotesqueness of spelling were
of course to be expected, and paper might have been coarse without reproof,
in that new and poor country; but the type was good and clear, the paper
strong and firm, and with ordinary care a very presentable book might have
been issued. The punctuation was horrible. A few commas and periods and
a larger number of colons were "pepered and salted" _à la_ Timothy
Dexter, apparently quite by chance, among the words. Periods were placed
in the middle of sentences; words of one syllable were divided by hyphens;
capitals and italics were used after the fashion of the time, apparently
quite at random; and inverted letters were common enough. The pages were
unnumbered, and on every left-hand page the word "Psalm" in the title was
spelled correctly, while on the right-hand page it is uniformly spelled
"Psalme." But after all, these typographical blemishes might be forgiven if
the substance, the psalms themselves, were worthy; but the versification
was certainly the most villainous of all the many defects, though the
sense was so confused that many portions were unintelligible save with
the friendly aid of the prose version of the Bible; and the grammatical
construction, especially in the use of pronouns, was also far from correct.
Such amazing verses as these may be found:--
"And sayd He would not them waste: had not
Moses stood (whom He chose)
'fore him i' th' breach; to turne his wrath
lest that he should waste those."
Cotton Mather, in his "Magnalia," gives thus the full story of the
production of "The Bay Psalm-book":--
"About the year 1639, the New-English reformers, considering that their
churches enjoyed the other ordinances of Heaven in their scriptural
purity were willing that the 'The singing of Psalms' should be restored
among them unto a share of that _purity_. Though they blessed God
for the religious endeavours of them who translated the Psalms into the
_meetre _usually annexed at the end of the Bible, yet they beheld
in the translation so many _detractions _from, _additions
_to, and _variations _of, not only the text, but the very
_sense _of the psalmist, that it was an offense unto them.
Resolving then upon a new translation, the chief divines in the country
took each of them a portion to be translated; among whom were Mr. Welds
and Mr. Eliot of Eoxbury, and Mr. Mather of Dorchester. These like the
rest were so very different a _genius_ for their poetry that Mr.
Shephard, of Cambridge, on the occasion addressed them to this purpose:
You Roxb'ry poets keep clear of the crime
Of missing to give us very good rhime.
And you of Dorchester, your verses lengthen
And with the text's own words, you will them strengthen.
The Psalms thus turned into _meetre_ were printed at Cambridge, in
the year 1640. But afterwards it was thought that a little more of art
was to be employed upon them; and for that cause they were committed
unto Mr. Dunster, who revised and refined this translation; and (with
some assistance from Mr. Richard Lyon who being sent over by Sir Henry
Mildmay as an attendant unto his, son, then a student at Harvard
College, now resided in Mr. Dunster's house:) he brought it
the condition wherein our churches have since used it. Now though
I heartily join with those gentlemen who wish that the _poetry_
thereof were mended, yet I must confess, that the Psalms have never
yet seen a _translation_ that I know of nearer to the Hebrew
original; and I am willing to receive the excuse which our translators
themselves do offer us when they say: 'If the verses are not always so
elegant as some desire or expect, let them consider that God's
altar needs not our pollishings; we have respected rather a plain
translation, than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any
paraphrase. We have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity
rather than ingenuity, that so we may sing in Zion the Lord's songs of
praise, according unto his own will, until he bid us enter into our
Master's joy to sing eternal hallelujahs.'"
I have never liked Cotton Mather so well as after reading this calm
and kindly account of the production of "The Bay-Psalm-Book." He was a
scholarly man, and doubtless felt keenly and groaned inwardly at the
inelegance, the appalling and unscholarly errors in the New England
version; and yet all he mildly said was that "it was thought that a little
more of art was to be employed upon them," and that he "wishes the poetry
hereof was mended." Such justice, such self-repression, such fairness
make me almost forgive him for riding around the scaffold on which his
fellow-clergyman was being executed for witchcraft, and urging the crowd
not to listen to the poor martyr's dying words. I can even almost overlook
the mysterious fables, the outrageous yarns which he imposed upon us under
the guise of history.
The three reverend versifiers who turned out such questionable poetry are
known to have been writers of clear, scholarly, and vigorous prose. They
were all graduated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, the nursery of Puritans.
Mr. Welde soon returned to England and published there two intelligent
tracts vindicating the purity of the New England worship. Richard Mather
was the general prose-scribe for the community; he drafted the "Cambridge
Platform" and other important papers, and was clear and scholarly enough
in all his work _except_ the "Bay Psalm-Book." From his pen came the
tedious, prolix preface to the work; and the first draft of it in his own
handwriting is preserved in the Prince Library. The other co-worker was
John Eliot, that glory of New England Puritanism, the apostle to the
Indians. His name heads my list of the saints of the Puritan calendar; but
I confess that when I consider his work in "The Bay Psalm-Book," I have
sad misgivings lest the hymns which he wrote and published in the Indian
language may not have proved to the poor Massachusetts Indians all that our
loving and venerating fancy has painted them. It is said also that Francis
Quarles, the Puritan author of "Divine Emblems," sent across the Atlantic
some of his metrical versions of the psalms as a pious contribution to the
new version of the new church in the new land.
The "little more of art" which was bestowed by the improving President
Dunster left the psalms still improvable, as may be seen by opening at
random at any page of the revised editions. Mr. Lyon conferred also upon
the New England church the inestimable boon of a number of hymns or
"Scripture-Songs placed in order as in the Bible." They were printed in
that order from the third until at least the sixteenth edition, but in
subsequent editions the hymns were all placed at the end of the book after
the psalms. I doubt not that the Puritan youth, debarred of merry catches
and roundelays, found keen delight in these rather astonishing renditions
of the songs of Solomon, portions of Isaiah, etc. Those Scripture-Songs
should be read quite through to be fully appreciated, as no modern
Christian could be full enough of grace to sing them. Here is a portion of
the song of Deborah and Barak:--
24. Jael the Kenite Hebers wife
'bove women blest shall be:
Above the women in the tent
a blessed one is she.
25. He water ask'd: she gave him milk
him butter forth she fetch'd
26. In lordly dish: then to the nail
she forth her left hand stretched.
Her right the workman's hammer held
and Sisera struck dead:
She pierced and struck his temple through
and then smote off his head.
27. He at her feet bow'd, fell, lay down
he at her feet bow'd, where
He fell: ev'n where he bowed down
he fell destroyed there.
28. Out of a window Sisera
his mother looked and said
The lattess through in coming why
so long his chariot staid?
His chariot wheels why tarry they?
29. her wise dames, answered
Yea she turned answer to herself
30. and what have they not sped?
31. The prey by poll; a maid or twain
what parted have not they?
Have they not parted, Sisera,
a party-colour'd prey
A party-colour'd neildwork prey
of neildwork on each side
That's party-colour'd meet for necks
of them that spoils divide?
Our Pilgrim Fathers accepted these absurd, tautological verses gladly, and
sang them gratefully; but we know the spirit of poesy could never have
existed in them, else they would have fought hard against abandoning such
majestic psalms as Sternhold's--
"The Lord descended from above
and bow'd the heavens hye
And underneath his feete he cast
the darkness of the skye.
"On cherubs and on cherubines
full royally he road
And on the winges of all the windes
came flying all abroad."
They gave up these lines of simple grandeur, to which they were accustomed,
for such wretched verses as these of the New England version:--
9. Likewise the heavens he downe-bow'd and he descended, & there was
under his feet a gloomy cloud
10. And he on cherub rode and flew; yea, he flew on the wings of winde.
11. His secret place hee darkness made his covert that him round confide.
I cannot understand why they did not sing the psalms of David just as
they were printed in the English Bible; it would certainly be quite as
practicable as to sing this latter selection.