their pleasures sadly--after their fashion." "'Twas no time for New
England to dance," said Judge Sewall, sternly; and indeed it was not.
The struggle of planting colonies in the new, bleak land left little
time for dancing.
The sole mid-week gathering, the only regular diversion of early
colonial life, took naturally a religious and sombre cast, and was found
in the "great and Thursday lecture." "Truly the times were dull when
these things happened," for so eager were the colonists for this sober
diversion that it soon became a pious dissipation. Cotton said, in his
"Way of the Churches," in 1639, that so many lectures did damage to the
people; and the largeness of the assemblies alarmed the magistrates, who
saw persons who could ill afford the time from their work, gadding to
mid-day lectures in three or four different towns the same week. Young
people, not having acquired that safety-valve, the New England
singing-school, gladly seized these religious meetings as a pretext and
a means for enjoyable communion, and attended in such numbers that the
hospitality shown in providing food for the visiting lecture-lovers
seemed to be in danger of becoming a burdensome expense. In 1633 the
magistrates set the lecture hour at one o'clock, that lecture-goers
might eat their dinner at noon at home; and they attempted to have each
minister give but one lecture in two weeks, and planned that contiguous
towns should offer but two temptations a week. But the law-makers
overstepped the mark, and the lecture and the ministers resumed weekly
sway, which they held for a century.
Hawthorne thus described the opening hours of the colonial Lecture-day:
"The breakfast hour being passed, the inhabitants do not as usual
go to their fields or work-shops, but remain within doors or
perhaps walk the street with a grave sobriety yet a disengaged and
unburdened aspect that belongs neither to a holiday nor the
Sabbath. And indeed the passing day is neither, nor is it a common
week day, although partaking of all three. It is the Thursday
Lecture; an institution which New England has long ago
relinquished, and almost forgotten, yet which it would have been
better to retain, as bearing relations both to the spiritual and
ordinary life. The tokens of its observance, however, which here
meet our eyes are of a rather questionable cast. It is in one sense
a day of public shame; the day on which transgressors who have made
themselves liable to the minor severities of the Puritan law
receive their reward of ignominy. At this very moment the constable
has bound an idle fellow to the whipping-post and is giving him his
deserts with a cat-o-nine-tails. Ever since sunrise Daniel
Fairfield has been standing on the steps of the meeting-house, with
a halter about his neck, which he is condemned to wear visibly
throughout his lifetime; Dorothy Talby is chained to a post at the
corner of Prison Lane with the hot sun blazing on her matronly
face, and all for no other offence than lifting her hand against
her husband; while through the bars of that great wooden cage, in
the centre of the scene, we discern either a human being or a wild
beast, or both in one. Such are the profitable sights that serve
the good people to while away the earlier part of the day."
Not only were criminals punished at this weekly gathering, but seditious
books were burned just after the lecture, intentions of marriage were
published, notices were posted, and at one time elections were held, on
Lecture-day. The religious exercises of the day resembled those of the
Sabbath and were sometimes five hours in length.
In primitive amusements, the sports of the woods and waters, even a
Puritan could find occasional and proper diversion without entering into
frivolous and sinful amusement. The wolf, most hated and most
destructive of all the beasts of the woods, a "ravening runnagadore,"
was a proper prey. Wolves were caught in pits, in log pens, in traps;
they were also hooked on mackerel hooks bound in an ugly bunch and
dipped in tallow, to which they were toled by dead carcasses. The swamps
were "beat up" in a wolf-drive or wolf-rout, similar to the English
"drift of the forest." A ring of men surrounded a wooded tract and drew
inward toward the centre, driving the wolves before them. The excitement
of such a wolf-rout, constantly increasing to the end, can well be
imagined. The wolves were not always killed outright. Josselyn tells
that the inhuman sport of wolf-baiting was popular in New England, and
he describes it thus: "A great mastiff held the Wolf.... Tying him to a
stake we bated him with smaller doggs and had excellent sport, but his
hinder legg being broken we soon knocked his brains out." Wolves also
were dragged alive at a horse's tail, a sport equally cruel to both
animals. These fierce and barbarous traits had been nourished in England
by the many bear and bull baitings, and even horse-baitings, and the
colonists but carried out here their English training. Wood wrote in his
"New England's Prospects:" "No ducking ponds can afford more sport than
a lame cormorant and two or three lusty doggs." Though we do not hear of
cock-fights, I doubt not the wealthy and sportsmanlike Narragansett
planters, who resembled in habits and occupations the Virginian
planters, had many a cock-fight, as they had horse-races.
Bears were "hunted with doggs; they take to a tree where they shoot
them." Nothing was "more sportfull than bearbayting." Killing foxes was
also the "best sport in depth of winter." On a moonlight night the
hunters placed a sledge-load of codfish heads on the bright side of a
fence or wall, and hiding in the shadow "as long as the moon shineth"
could sometimes kill ten of the wary creatures in a night. Squirrel
hunts were also prime sport.
Shooting at a mark or at prizes became a popular form of amusement. We
read in the _Boston Evening Post_ of January 11, 1773: "This is to give
Notice That there will be a Bear and a Number of Turkeys set up as a
Mark next Thursday Beforenoon at the Punch Bowl Tavern in Brookline."
The "Sports of the Inn yards" found few participants in New England. In
1692 the Andover innkeeper was ordered not to allow the playing of
"Dice, Cards, Tables, Quoits, Loggits, Bowles, Ninepins or any other
Unlawful Game in his house yard Garden or Backside after Saturday P.M."
Henry Cabot Lodge says the shovelboard of Shakespeare's time was almost
the only game not expressly prohibited. A Puritan minister, Rev. Peter
Thatcher, of Milton, bought in 1679 a "pack of ninepins and bowle," for
which he paid five shillings and sixpence, and enjoyed playing with them
too; but I fancy few ministers played either that or like games. On the
second Christmas, at Plymouth, we find some of the Pilgrims playing
pitch-the-bar and stool-ball. Pitch-the-bar was a trial of strength
rather than of skill, and was popular with sturdy Nantucket whalers
till into this century, though deemed hopelessly plebeian in old
England.
We hear of foot-ball being played by Boston boys in Boston streets and
lanes; of the Rowley Indians playing it in 1686 on the broad sandy
shore, where it was "more easie," since they played barefooted. Dunton
adds of their sport: "Neither were they so apt to trip up one anothers
feet and quarrel as I have often seen 'em in England"--and I may add, as
I have often seen 'em in New England.
Playing-cards--the devil's picture-books--were hated by the Puritans
like the very devil; and, as ever with forbidden pleasures, were a
constant temptation to Puritan youth. Their importation, use, and sale
were forbidden. As late as 1784 a fine of $7 was ordered to be paid for
every pack of cards sold; and yet in 1740 we find Peter Fanueil ordering
six gross of best King Henry's cards from England. Jolley Allen had
cards constantly for sale--"Best Merry Andrew, King Harry and Highland
Cards a Dollar per Doz." and also "Blanchards Great Mogul Playing
Cards." The fine for selling these cards must have been a dead letter,
for we find in the newspapers proof of the prevalence of card-playing.
One use for playing-cards other than their intended one was found in
their employment to inscribe invitations upon. Ball invitations were
frequently written upon the backs of playing-cards, and dinner
invitations also.
In the _Salem Gazette_, in 1784, appeared "New In Laid Cribbage Boxes,
Leather Gammon Tables, and Quadrille Pools." In the _Evening Post_, in
1772, may be seen "Quadrille Boxes and Pearl Fishes;" and I do not doubt
that many a gay Boston belle or beau (as well as Mrs. Knox) gambled all
night at quadrille and ombre, as did their cousins in London. Captain
Goelet had many a game of cards in his travels through New England, in
1750.
On April 30, 1722, the _New England Courant_ advertised that any
gentleman that "had a Mind to Recreate themselves with a Game of
Billiards" could do so at a public house in Charlestown.
It is curious to find how eagerly the staid colonists turned to dancing.
Mr. Eggleston says:
"The savages themselves were not more fond of dancing than were the
colonists who came after them. Dancing schools were forbidden in
New England by the authorities but dancing could not be repressed
in an age in which the range of conversation was necessarily narrow
and the appetite for physical activity and excitement almost
insatiable."
Dancing was forbidden in Massachusetts taverns and at weddings, but it
was encouraged at Connecticut ordinations. In a letter written by John
Cotton, that good man specifies that his condemnation is not of dancing
"even mixt" as a whole, but of "lascivious dancing to wanton ditties
with amorous gestures and wanton dalliances;" an objection in which I
hope he is not singular, an we be not Puritan ministers; and an
objection which makes us suspect, an he were a Puritan minister, that he
had been in some very singular company.
In 1713 a ball was given by the governor in Boston, at which
light-heeled and light-minded Bostonians of the governor's set danced
till three in the morning. As balls and routs began at six in the
afternoon, this gave long dancing-hours. On the other hand, we find
sober folk reading "An Arrow against Profane and Promiscuous Dancing
Drawn out of the Quiver of the Scriptures By the Ministers of Christ at
Boston." And though one dancing-master was forbidden room to set up his
school, we find that "Abigaill Hutchinson was entered to lern to dance"
somewhere in Boston in 1717, probably at the school of Mr. George
Brownell. By Revolutionary times old and young danced with zest at
balls, at "turtle-frolicks," at weddings. President Washington and Mrs.
General Greene "danced upwards of three hours without once sitting
down," and General Greene called this diversion of the august Father of
his Country "a pretty little frisk." By 1791 we find Rev. John Bennett,
in his "Letters to a Young Lady," recommending dancing as a proper and
healthful exercise. Queer names did early contra-dances bear: Old Father
George, Cape Breton, High Betty Martin, Rolling Hornpipe, Constancy,
Orange Tree, Springfield, Assembly, The President, Miss Foster's
Delight, Pettycoatee, Priest's House, The Lady's Choice, and Leather the
Strap. By Federal times came Federal dances.
Such care was paid by New Englanders to the raising and improving of
horses that I presume horse-races did not seem so wicked as card-playing
or dancing, for I find hint of a horse-race in the _Boston News Letter_
of August 29, 1715, for Jonathan Turner therein challenged the whole
country to match his black gelding in a race for a hundred pounds, to
take place on Metonomy Common or Chelsea Beach. Many pace-races took
place in Narragansett on Little Neck Beach, at which the prizes were
silver tankards. And if we can believe Dr. MacSparran, or, rather, since
we would not appear to doubt the word of a clergyman, especially upon
the speed of a horse, if he took the time of "a little over two minutes"
with any care and had a good watch, there must have been some very good
sport on Little Neck Beach.
Though the Puritan magistrates denounced shows as a great "mispense of
time," yet after a century's existence in the New World, the people was
so amusement hungry that all turned avidly to any kind of exhibition,
and but little was necessary to make an exhibition. A "Lyon of Barbary"
was in Boston in 1716; and I believe the "lyons hair," which was "cut by
the keeper" and sent by Wait Winthrop to be placed as a strengthening
tonic under the armpits of his sickly little grandchild, was abstracted
from this very lion. In 1728 another lonely king of the beasts made the
round of all the provinces on a cart drawn by four oxen, with as much
eclat as if he had been a whole menagerie. He lodged in New London in
Madam Winthrop's barn, and "put up" elsewhere at the very best taverns,
as became a royal visitor, yet seems a semi-pathetic figure--a tropical
king in slavery and alone in a strange, cold land.
In December, 1733, and in 1734, rivals appeared at a Boston tavern, and
were advertised in the _Weekly Rehearsal_.
"A Fine Large White Bear brought from Greenland, the like never
been seen before in these Paris of the World. A Sight far
preferable to the Lion in the Judgment of all Persons who have seen
them both. N.B. He is certainly going to London in about 3 Weeks &
his Farewel Speech will be publish'd in a day or two."
* * * * *
"To be seen at the Shop of Mr. Benjamin Runker Tinman near the
Market House on Dock Square a very Strange & Wonderful Creature
called a Sea Lion lately taken at Monument Pond near Plimouth The
like of which never seen in these Paris before. He is Nine Feet
long from His Rump to his Head & near 4 feet wide over his back
with Four Large Feet & Five Strong Claws on Each. Also Two Large
Strong Teeth as white as Ivory sticking out of his mouth five or
six Inches long with many other Curiosities too Tedious to mention
here. Price Sixpence for a Man or Woman & 2 Pence for a child."
The _Boston Gazette_ of April 20, 1741, thus advertised:
"To be seen at the Greyhound Tavern in Roxbury a wild creature
which was caught in the woods about 80 miles to the Westward of
this place called a Cattamount. It has a tail like a Lyon, its legs
are like Bears, its Claws like an Eagle, its Eyes like a Tyger. He
is exceedingly ravenous and devours all sorts of Creatures that he
can come near. Its agility is surprising. It will leap 30 feet at
one jump notwithstanding it is but 3 months old. Whoever wishes to
see this creature may come to the place aforesaid paying one
shilling each shall be welcome for their money."
Salem had the pleasure of viewing a "Sapient Dog" who could light lamps,
spell, read print or writing, tell the time of day, or day of the month.
He could distinguish colors, was a good arithmetician, could discharge a
loaded cannon, tell a hidden card in a pack, and jump through a hoop,
all for twenty-five cents. About the same time Mr. Pinchbeck exhibited
in the same town a "Pig of Knowledge" who had precisely the same
accomplishments.
In 1789 a pair of camels went the rounds--"19 hands high, with 4 joints
in their hind legs." A mermaid also was exhibited--defunct, I
presume--and a living cassowary five feet high, that swallowed stones as
large as an egg. A white sea bear appeared in the port of Pollard's
Tavern and could be seen for half a pistareen. A forlorn moose was held
in bondage at Major King's tavern and shown for nine pence, while to
view the "leapord strongly chayned" cost a quarter. The big hog, being a
home production, could be seen cheaply--for four pence. It is indeed
curious to find a rabbit among "curious wild beasts." The Winthrops had
tried to breed rabbits in 1633 and again in 1683, and if they had not
succeeded were the only souls known to fail in that facile endeavor. To
their shame be it told, Salem folk announced in 1809 a bull-fight at the
Half-Way House on the new turnpike, and after the bull-fight a
fox-chase. In 1735 John Burlesson had some strange animals to show, and
was not always allowed to exhibit them either: "the Lyon, the Black and
Whight bare and the Lanechtskipt were shown by me that had their limbs
as long as they pleased."
There were also exhibitions of legerdemain--a "Posture Master Boy who
performed most surprizing Postures, Transforming Himself into Various
Shapes;" performers on the "tort rope;" solar microscopes; "Italian
Matcheans or Moving Pictures wherein are to be seen Windmills and
Watermills moving around Ships sayling in the Seas, and various curious
figures;" electrical machines; "prospects of London" or of "Royall
Pallaces;" but, to their credit and good taste be it recorded, I find no
notices of monstrosities either in shape of man or beast. Exhibitions of
wax figures were given and museums were formed. Gentlemen sailing for
foreign ports were begged to collect for museums and collections of
curiosities, and did so in a thoroughly public-spirited manner.
Shortly after the invention of balloons came their advent as popular
shows into New England towns. In Hartford they appeared under the
pompous title of "Archimedial Phaetons, Vertical Aerial Coaches, or
Patent F[oe]deral Balloons," and the public was notified that "persons
of timid nature might enter with full assurance of safety." These
f[oe]deral balloons not only served to amuse New Englanders, but were
strongly recommended to "Invaletudinarians" as hygienic and medicinal
factors, in that through their employment as carriers they caused
"sudden revulsion of the blood and humours" to the benefit of the
aeronautic travellers.
The first stepping-in of theatrical performances was to the lively-tunes
of jigs and corams on a stage. In 1713 permission was asked to act a
play in the Council House in Boston. Judge Sewall's grief and amazement
at this suggestion of "Dances and Scenical Divertessiments" within those
solemn walls can well be imagined. Ere long little plays called drolls
were exhibited; puppet shows such as "Pickle Herring," or the "Taylor
ryding to Brentford," or "Harlequinn and Scaramouch." About 1750 two
young English strollers produced Otway's "Orphans" in a Boston
coffee-house. Prompt and strict measures by Boston magistrates nipped in
the bud this feeble dramatic plant, and Boston had no more plays for
many years.
Many ingenious ruses were invented to avoid the legal obstructions
placed in the way of play-acting. "Histrionic academies" tried to sneak
in on the stage; and in 1762 a clever manager gave an entertainment
whose playbill I present as the most amusing example of specious and
sanctimonious truckling extant.
KINGS ARMS TAVERN--NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND.
On Monday, June 10th, at the Public Room of the above Inn will be
delivered a series of
MORAL DIALOGUES
_in Five Parts_
Depicting the evil effects of jealousy and other bad passions and
Proving that happiness can only spring from the pursuit of Virtue.
_Mr Douglass_--Will represent a noble and magnanimous Moor called
Othello, who loves a young lady named Desdemona, and after he
marries her, harbours (as in too many cases) the dreadful passion
of jealousy.
_Of jealousy, our beings bane,
Mark the small cause, and the most dreadful pain._
_Mr Allyn_--Will depict the character of a specious villain, in the
regiment of Othello, who is so base as to hate his commander on
mere suspicion, and to impose on his best friend. Of such
characters, it is to be feared, there are thousands in the world,
and the one in question may present to us a salutary warning.
_The man that wrongs his master and his friend,
What can he come to but a shameful end?_
_Mr Hallam_--Will delineate a young and thoughtless officer who is
traduced by Mr. Allyn, and, getting drunk, loses his situation and
his generals esteem. All young men whatsoever, take example from
Cassio.
_The ill effects of drinking would you see
Be warned and fly from evil company._
_Mr Morris_--Will represent an old gentleman, the father of
Desdemona, who is not cruel or covetous, but is foolish enough to
dislike the noble Moor, his son-in-law, because his face is not
white, forgetting that we all spring from one root. Such prejudices
are very numerous and very wrong.
_Fathers, beware what sense and love ye lack,
'Tis crime, not colour, makes the being black._
_Mr Quelch_--Will depict a fool who wishes to become a knave, and
trusting to one, gets killed by one. Such is the friendship of
rogues. Take heed!
_Where fools would knaves become, how often you'll
Perceive the knave not wiser than the fool._
_Mrs Morris_--Will represent a young and virtuous wife, who, being
wrongfully suspected, gets smothered (in an Adjoining room) by her
husband.
_Reader, attend, and ere thou goest hence,
Let fall a tear to hapless innocence._
_Mrs Douglass_--Will be her faithful attendant, who will hold out a
good example to all servants, male and female, and to all people in
subjection.
_Obedience and gratitude,
Are things as rare as they are good._
Various other Dialogues, too numerous to mention here, will be
delivered at night, all adapted to the improvement of the mind and
manners. The whole will be repeated on Wednesday and on Saturday.
Tickets, six shillings each; to be had within. Commencement at 7.
Conclusion at half past 10; in order that every spectator may go
home at a sober hour, and reflect upon what he has seen, before he
retires to rest.
God save the King,
And long may he sway,
East, north and south
And fair America.
The Continental Congress of 1774 sought to pledge the colonists to
discountenance "all exhibitions of shews, plays, and other expensive
diversions and entertainments," and such exhibitions languished
naturally in war times; but with peace came new life to shows and
theatres.
We catch a glimpse at Hartford of the "New Theatre" in 1795. The play
began at half after six. Following the English fashion, servants were
sent in advance to keep seats for their masters and mistresses. They
were instructed to be there "by Five at the Farthest." If ladies "chused
to sit in the Pit" a place was partitioned off for them. The admission
price was a dollar. There was variety in the entertainment furnished.
One actor gave a character recitation entitled "The New Bow Wow." In
this he played the "Sly Dog, the Sulky Dog, the Hearty Dog, and many
other dogs in his character of Odd Dog."
In 1788 the "Junior Sophister Class" of Yale College gave a theatrical
performance, during Election week, of "Tancred and Sigismunda," and
followed it with a farce of the students' own composing, relating to
events in the Revolutionary War. A letter of Rev. Andrew Eliot is still
in existence referring to this presentation, and severely did he
reprehend it. Of the farce he wrote, "To keep up the character of these
Generals, especially Prescot, they were obliged (I believe not to their
sorrow) to indulge in very indecent and profane language." He states
that many in the audience were much offended thereat, and says: "What
adds to the illegality is that the actors not only were dressed
agreeable to the characters they assumed as Men, but female apparell and
ornaments were put on some contrary to an express statute. Besides it
cost the lads £60." What this reverend complainer would have thought of
the multitudinous exhibitions of masculine collegiate skirt-dancing of
the present day is impossible to fathom.
There were circuses also in Connecticut. "Mr. Pool The first American
Equestrian has erected a Menage at considerable Expence with seats
Convenient. Mr. Pool beseeches the Ladies and Gentlemen who honour him
with their Presence to bring no Dogs with them." As late as 1828 a bill
prohibiting circus exhibitions passed both houses of the Connecticut
Legislature, but was all in vain, for that State became the home of
circuses and circus-makers.