Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

· INTELLECT UAL LIFE IN THE COLON IAL SOUTH '
In his reply Split-Text denigrates his fellow clergy:
For we resemble those at Home no more,
(Than holy Pope at Rome does Scarlet whore! )
Than Saints of Modern Days do Saints of yore.
The second eclogue concerns the love of a black slave, Pompey, for a
fellow slave, Daphne, really an attack on the miscegenation practiced by
the planter-owner who has had Daphne as "Partner of his Bed," and the
allegation that white mistresses often invite male slaves to their beds.
There is a great deal of American coloring here, of "Samba" and his banjo,
of pigs thriving on acorns, of beautiful Maryland rivers, of lovely fawns
found in the woods, of Negro garden plots. Eclogue 3 concerns a singing
contest between two convicts (indentured servants ) who steal pigs, kill
trees, see their fellow criminals hanged, and engage in commerce with
sluts, including the overseer's wife. Eclogue 4 is on the clergy as men who,
often failing to make a living at anything else, fly to the church and take
holy orders. This one begins with an address to Maryland river deities,
"Ye Severn Nymphs attempt a nobler song," an all-out attack. It contains
a genuine tribute to Maryland poet Richard lewis as mentioned just
above, though at the same time in a note lewis is accused with other fine
gentlemen of laughing at religion.
Eclogue 5 considers the evils of alcohol and drunkenness among the
provincials, with a dialogue between love-Rum and Ever-Drunk, with
some detail spent on poor old Toss-Pot and his death. The sixth eclogue
is concerned with the prgress or spread of infidelity in the colony, an
interesting commentary on the development of deism in the region. The
seventh eclogue, a note at the end tells us, is omitted, perhaps because
"our poet" died before he completed his design. But the eighth is here,
the story of Jemima, forsaken by her love, who goes to an old midwifewitch
in hope of getting charms to bring him back. The ninth eclogue
brings up the problem of the Indians and their lands, when two red men
meet and bewail their loss. It is a sympathetic portrayal, and a strong
satirical attack on white greed. Incidentally it gives much detail of social
life in the colony, especially along its western extremity. Cradock, who
had observed the treaty-robberies firsthand, knew what he was talking
about. The tenth eclogue is admittedly the story of a friend of the poet, a
young man Worthy, whose betrothed married another while he was on
a voyage to England. Included are some pastoral lines such as "Begin his
gen'rous Passion let us sing, / While warbling Mock-Birds usher in the
Spring" and further attacks on stupid or unscrupulous persons such as alcoholic
Saygrace, and a mock lament by the voyager that he had ever fallen
in love-he should have found a "Convict-Girl" or "Black Bess" to serve
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