Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

More documents

Recommendations

Info

· INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE COLONIAL SOUTH · and archaic words, and the poem just mentioned he may have written then. But its subject and substance-the American Indian-derived words, the Americanized rustic slang and dialect, even the very situation of the simple planters described-would argue that at least in first draft the poem was composed while he was still in Maryland. Resurrected and printed in Joseph Stevenson, ed., Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words (1833), it is a significant contribution to early American dialect and is especially interesting as satire on the colonial southern rustic. The poem appears with dialect words italicized and Boucher's notes explaining their meaning. For example, Strolling, last fall, by yon pacosen side, Coil'd in a heap, a rattle-snake I spied: Was it for me a rompus then to make? The bumpkin BiUsey proceeds to lament the absence of his beloved MoUsey. In one passage enumerating American dishes he somewhat anticipates Barlow's Hasty-Pudding: For breakfast, mush and th' top 0 ' milk's a treat Or bonny clabber with molasses sweet: At dinner, let me that best buck-skin dish, Broth made of bacon, cream, and eke cat-fish With toss'em boys, and belly bacon see Cushie, and dough-boys, and small homony: And he concludes with a reminder that this is a comic pastoral, with the unletter'd shepherd introducing the reader to the American language.96 Mid-century South Carolina continued to produce verse imitative of the British in form, including all the variations of the satiric. Epigrams after Latin models, with references to Charleston ladies and the headdresses and costumes of the period, are in spirit one of the lightest of these forms. Along with them went the penchant for pastoral trappings such as has just been shown in Maryland verses. The mock-heroic, sometimes inspired by local gossip, continued. In the Stamp Act period Philo-Patrire, political satirist, composed "On liberty-Tree." Actually better poetry is to be found in the mock-heroic verses "The Paper Mill," by a Joseph Dumbleton (fl. 1740- 1750), who published in both Virginia and South Carolina and was prob ably a native of Gloucestershire. "Inscribed to Mr. Parks," the lines ap peared first in the Virginia Gazette of July 1744. Celebrating the printer's establishment of his own paper manufactory, the poem is replete with double entendres and exalted phrases and puns. Partially it is a plea for linen rags.
Courtesy of The Virginia Historical Soc iety William Fitzhugh (I6 5I-1701 ), lawyer and planter, of Bedford, Virginia
Page 1 and 2:
CHAPTER NINE ••• Literature,
Page 3 and 4:
.... ,-... .I ,-... .I ,-... .I Sat
Page 5 and 6:
· Literature, Principally Belletri
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
William Byrd II, by Sir Godfrey Kne
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
• Literature, Principally Belletr
Page 41 and 42: · Literature, Principally Belletri
Page 61 and 62: · Literatttre, Principally Belletr
Page 87 and 88: · Literature, Principally Belietri
Page 91: · Literature, Principally Belletri
Page 97 and 98: . Literature, Principally Belletris
Page 101 and 102: · LiteratMe, Principally Belletris
Page 117 and 118: · uterature, Principally Belletris
Page 127 and 128: t:.); • rt , If..... ... i " ...
Page 137 and 138: · LiteratureJ Principally Belletri
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
· Literature, Principally BeUetris
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
· Literature} Principally Belletri
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
· Literature} Principally Belletri
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
· Literature, Principally BeUetris
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
show all

Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?