The Courtship of Miles Standish: / With Suggestions for Study and Notes

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY.

HISTORY.

The poem takes immediate hold of the events given in the early chronicles. The time when the story begins is stated only in a general way; but as the Mayflower began her return voyage April 5, 1621, the phrase, “In the Old Colony days,” stands for April 4th of the same year. The names of the three principal characters are mentioned in Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation as names of immigrants on the Mayflower. In regard to the instance of the rattlesnake-skin challenge sent by Canonicus, the time of its occurrence has been shifted in the poem from January, 1622, when it really took place, to the date when the poem opens. The incident is historical, and has been brought in almost in the exact form in which it is recorded. The real occasion for the Captain’s expedition (488) was to rescue the neighboring settlement of Weymouth, which was threatened by the Indians in March, 1623. The chronicles mention the details of the encounter very much as given (745-815); also the trophy brought back by the Captain (818, 819). May 12th is mentioned as the date when the first marriage in the colony took place. The poet’s description of the ceremony (936-939) is based upon Bradford’s History:

“May 12th was the first mariage in this place, which, according to ye laudable custome of ye Low Countries, in which they had lived, was thought most requisite to be performed by the magistrate, as being a civill thing, upon which many questions aboute inheritances doe depende, with other things most proper to their cognizans, and most consonant to ye Scriptures, Ruth 4, and no wher found in ye Gospell to be layed on ye ministers as part of their office.”

These are the main incidents that form the groundwork; but in addition to these there are numerous minor touches, names and facts from the old records, all which go to build up the narrative into a faithful historic picture.

Such is the portrayal of Standish and his previous service in Holland. He had fought in Flanders (25) against the Spaniards (28); he had charge of the military organization in the Colony (46-93). The Indian names mentioned in 53 are found in the chronicles. The death of Rose Standish (136) is also mentioned. Other names and facts that in one way or another are matters of historic record are the “Psalm-book of Ainsworth,” printed in Amsterdam (231, 232); the seven houses of Plymouth (392); Wat Tyler (415); the Elder and his Words (442, 443 and 457); Stephen, Richard, and Gilbert (547); the Field of the First Encounter (606). “In autumn the ships of the merchants” (825)—this refers to the Anne and the Little James, which arrived in Plymouth in the autumn of 1623. “Still may be seen” (846): the descendants of Alden still own the lands where his house stood, in Duxbury.

I.

State what you can about the locality where the Pilgrims landed and settled. Give a description of it as you think it appeared to the immigrants in December, 1620. Could it have been an inviting place? How does this locality look in the spring, say early in April?

II.

State in what way the value of the poem as such would be changed if it were not connected with a historic event as momentous as that of the founding of the Plymouth Colony. What, then, besides the story of the three principal characters is there in the poem? State, with reasons for your views, which you regard the more significant,—the story as such, or the historic picture it presents.