Sternhold and Hopkins' Version of the Psalms.
The metrical translation of the Psalms known as Sternhold and Hopkins'
Version was doubtless used in the public worship of God in many of the
early New England settlements, especially those of the Connecticut River
Valley, though the old register of the town of Ipswich is the only local
record that gives positive proof of its use in the Puritan church. In
1693 an edition of Sternhold and Hopkins was printed in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. It was not a day nor a land where a whole edition of such a
book would be printed for reference or comparison only; and to thus publish
the work of the English psalmists in the very teeth of the popularity of
"The Bay Psalm Book" is to me a proof that Sternhold and Hopkins' Version
was employed far more extensively in the colonial churches and homes than
we now have records of, and than many of our church historians now fancy.
Certainly the familiar English psalm-books must have been brought across
the ocean and used temporarily until the newly landed colonists could
acquire the version of Ainsworth or of the New England divines.
An everlasting interest attaches to this metrical arrangement of the
Psalms, to Americans as well as to Englishmen, because it was the earliest
to be adopted in public worship in England. According to Strype, in his
Memorial, the singing of psalms was allowed in England as early as 1548,
but it was not until 1562 that the versified psalms of Sternhold and
Hopkins were appended to the Book of Common Prayer. Sternhold and Hopkins'
Version was also the first to give all the psalms of David in English verse
to the English public.
Very little is known of the authors of this version. Sternhold was educated
at Oxford; was Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII. and Edward VI., was a
"bold and busy Calvinist," and died in 1549. The little of interest told
of John Hopkins is that he was a minister and schoolmaster, and that he
assisted the work of Sternhold.
The full reason for Sternhold's pious work is thus given by an old English
author, Wood: "Being a most zealous reformer and a very strict liver he
became so scandalyzed at the loose amorous songs used in the court that he
forsooth turned into English metre fifty-one of Davids Psalms, and caused
musical notes to be set to them, thinking thereby that the courtiers
would sing them instead of their sonnets; but they did not, only some few
excepted." The preface printed in the book stated Sternhold's wish and
intention that the verses should be sung by Englishmen, not only in church,
but "moreover in private houses for their godly solace and comfort; laying
apart all ungodly Songs & Ballads which tend only to the nourishment of
vice & corrupting of youth."
The first edition contained nineteen psalms only, which were all versified
by Sternhold. It was published in 1548 or 1549, under this title, "Certayn
Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of Daid and drawen into English Metre by
Thomas Sternhold Groom of ye Kynges Maiesties Roobes." I believe no copy of
this edition is now known to exist.
The praise which Sternhold received for his pious rhymes had the same
effect upon him as did similar encomiums upon his predecessor, the French
psalm-writer Marot,--it encouraged him to write more psalm-verses.
The second edition was printed in 1549, and contained thirty-seven psalms
by Sternhold and seven by Hopkins. It bore this title, "Al such Psalmes of
David as Thomas Sternehold late grome of his maiesties robes did in his
lyfe tyme drawe into English metre." It was a well-printed book and copies
are still preserved in the British Museum and the Public Library of
Cambridge, England. This second and enlarged edition was dedicated, in a
four-page preface, to King Edward VI., and a pretty story is told of the
young king's interest in the verses. The delicate and gentle boy of twelve
heard Sternhold when "singing them to his organ" as Strype says, and
wandered in to hear the music and listen to the words. So great was his
awakened interest in the sacred songs that Sternhold resolved to write in
verse for him still further of the psalms. The dedication reads: "Seeing
that your tender and godly zeale dooth more delight in the holye songs of
veritie than in any fayncd rymes of vanytie, I am encouraged to travayle
further in the said booke of Psalmes." This young king restored to the
English people the free reading of the Bible, which his wicked father,
Henry VIII., had forbidden them, and he was of a sincerely religious
nature. He also was a music-lover, and encouraged the art as much as his
short life and troubled reign permitted.
Hopkins also wrote a preface for his share of the work, in which he spoke
with much modesty of himself and much praise of Sternhold. He said his own
verses were not "in any parte to bee compared with his [Sternhold's] most
exquisite dooynges." He thinks, however, that his owne are "fruitfull
though they bee not fyne."
The third edition, in 1556, contained fifty-one psalms; the fourth, in
1560, had sixty-seven psalms; the fifth, in 1561, increased the number to
eighty-seven; and in 1562 or 1563 the whole book of psalms appeared. Other
authors had some share in this work: Norton, Whyttyngham (a Puritan divine
who married Calvin's sister), Kethe, who wrote the 100th Psalm, "All people
that on earth do dwell," which is still seen in some of our hymn-books. Of
all these men, sly old Thomas Fuller truthfully and quaintly said, "They
were men whose piety was better than their poetry, and they had drunk more
of Jordan than of Helicon."
For over one hundred years from the first publication there was a steady
outpour of editions of these Psalms. Before the year 1600 there were
seventy-four editions,--a most astonishing number for the times; and from
1600 to 1700 two hundred and thirty-five editions. In 1868 six hundred and
one editions were known, including twenty-one in this nineteenth century
and doubtless there were still others uncatalogued and forgotten. Among
other editions this version had in the time of Charles II. two in
shorthand, one printed by "Thos. Cockerill at the Three Legs and Bible in
the Poultry." Two copies of these editions are in the British Museum. They
are tiny little 64mos, of which half a dozen could be laid side by side on
the palm of the hand. Sternhold and Hopkins' Version had also in 1694 the
honor of having arranged for it a Concordance.
Upon no production of the religious Muse in the English tongue has greater
diversity of criticism been displayed or more extraordinary or varied
judgment been rendered than upon Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalms. A world of
testimony could be adduced to fortify any view which one chose to take
of them. At the time of their early publication they induced a swarm of
stinging lampoons and sneering comments, that often evince most plainly
that a difference in religious belief or scorn for an opposing sect brought
them forth. The poetry of that and the succeeding century abounds in
allusions to them. Phillips wrote:--
"Singing with woful noise
Like a crack'd saints bell jarring in the steeple,
Tom Sternhold's wretched prick-song for the people."