This then will be thy course, to render first Is righteous, and to Him we leave the event." Thus having ended, to the board he led His guest: too full of care were they For appetite or easy talk that day. "This caution let me give thee," Leverett said, "That Willoby is a high old Cavalier!" "Fear not lest I should jar upon his ear With ill-attuned discourse," the Youth replied. "He bore a part, a brave one too, I hear, In those unhappy times, and may look back Upon the strife with passion and with pride: My soul abhors the ill deeds on either side, Even if it had not cost me all too dear. Likelier it is that in my Father's sight I may appear degenerate, and excite Sorrow or sterner notions in a heart, The which, albeit with piety imbued, Is to a Christian temper unsubdued: But this too I can bear. Oh what a strength For sufferance to the patient soul is given When, wholly humbled, it hath placed at length Its only hope in Heaven." "Nay," answer'd Leverett, "Earth, I trust, hath yet Good hope for thee in store, One day with fair performance to be crown'd: His lifted hand towards the town and bay, He cried, "where nought is wanting that may bless To sloth the dissolute mind; Nor doth the rigorous year In long inaction bind His ice-lock'd arm and torpid faculties. And varying seasons, in their due career, Bring forth his powers; and in the vigorous frame The human spirit thrives and ripens here! Where might the sober mind, Which Heaven with temperate desires hath blest, A land of happier promise find? Where might a good man fitlier fix his rest? "But wherefore should I talk of weariness Thus early in the day, And when the morning calls me on my way? In brightness and in beauty hath it risen, As if the eternal skies Approved and smiled upon our enterprise ! Now then farewell! That we shall meet again, True friend! we know; but whether among men Or Angels who can tell? It is not ours To choose, or to foresee; Such choice or foresight would but ill agree With man's imperfect powers, Enough for him, that what is best will be." IX. JOURNEY THROUGH THE FOREST. THEY are on their way, and they have enter'd now Had with their venom stain'd her harmless youth. Might seem, in form, and strength, and manly grace, Of high desert; and with true love Such Oliver might seem, and such the Maid. Gave law through all the realms of old Romance; For in that pensive maiden's mien The inmate of her heart. For wishes, from herself till now conceal'd Conceal'd, if not represt. And thoughts, to which the will had not consented, And hopes, that had arisen she scarce knew how, Were first acknowledged when they fail'd her now. Think not that Oliver was free The while from painful sympathy: What more had he required his lot to bless Than in the depth of those clear eyes was seen — The modest, meek, confiding gentleness That soften'd while it sanctified her mien; Those looks, devoid of art, Whose mild intelligence he loved to meet; The voice, that, varying still, but alway sweet, Still found a chord responsive in his heart? If ever at his fate he half repined, If ever o'er his calm and constant mind The doubt, the trouble, and the cloud, were brought, 'Twas at the thought, That cruel circumstance two souls must sever, Whom God, he surely felt, would else have join'd for ever. Uneasy now became perforce And yet, while thus estranged, I deem, A sense of proper maiden pride A kindred heart to bless; Had they from such disturbant thoughts been free, A gladsome sight to see The Indian children, with what glee They breathed their native air of liberty. Food to the weary man with toil forespent Not more refreshment brings, Than did the forest breeze upon its wings To these true younglings of the wilderness: A happy sight, a sight of hearts content! For blithe were they As swallows, wheeling in the summer sky At close of day; As insects, when on high Their mazy dance they thread In myriads overhead, Where sunbeams through the thinner foliage gleam, Upon the surface of the unrippled stream: Nor less contentment had it brought For vengeance in her inmost soul, Had won from her a love like veneration; Proved in some earlier, inexpert creation, Pamya was troubled now, for she had seen Some change there was, she knew not what, nor why, Which yet she might descry Rose not from wrath nor alienated will; The tones were such as meet The ear of love, and still The smiles they interchanged, though sad, were sweet: The deep indwelling yearnings of the heart. Four days they travell'd through the endless wood, In their plain kindness found a joy in giving. The fifth morn rose, and with the morn rose they, That they might reach that day Their journey's end; and through the forest wide Did they their weary way Hold on from early dawn till eventide ; But ere the light of eve The slightest trace of man, a smoke espied, Staining a little space of open sky: "Yon is the place we seek!" he said; nor knew What a cold feeling, at the words, ran through The veins of Annabel, and Newman too. X. Он, what a happy meeting had been here, Willoby thought, in anguish, when he prest His daughter to his widow'd breast ; If that dear hope which served so long to cheer His patient labours in the wilderness Had wholly been fulfill'd, as now in part; After so many storms and troubles past, Here had the faithful partner of his heart Rejoiced to reach the quiet port at last. APPENDIX TO OLIVER NEWMAN. THE following sketch of the story intended to be worked out in this poem is, with the exception of those passages otherwise appropriated by references, drawn from very brief and sometimes contradictory notes in Mr. Southey's handwriting. In the published letters from Mr. Southey to Mr.W.Taylor of Norwich, there is a passage, written in Jan. 1811, which "In records the earliest germ of this poem in his mind. reviewing Holmes's American Annals, I pointed out Philip's war as the proper subject for an Anglo-American Iliad. I have now fallen in love with it myself, and am brooding over it with the full intention of falling to work as soon as Pelayo is completed. The main interest will fix upon Goffe the regicide, for whom I invent a Quaker son, a new character you will allow for heroic poetry. This Oliver Goffe, however, is to be the hero." The poem itself is in the first draught called Oliver Goffe. The facts relating to those regicides whose fate is alluded to in the poem are as follow: "When the restoration appeared inevitable, Colonel Goffe, with his father-in-law, Colonel Whalley, seeing that their life was in danger, left the kingdom, and arrived in America on the 27th of July, 1660. For some time they resided at Cambridge, four miles from Boston, attending public service, and being received with respect and hospitality by the inhabitants. But when the Act of Indemnity, out of which they were expressly excepted, arrived at Boston, in November, the magistrates withdrew their protection, and Whalley and Goffe retired to Newhaven. Here they were forced to conceal themselves, and eventually to fly to a retirement, called Hatchet's Harbour, in the woods, where they remained two nights, till a cave in the side of a hill was prepared to conceal them. To this hill they gave the name of Providence, and remained some weeks in their hiding-place, sleeping, when the weather was tempestuous, in a house near it. They behaved with great honour to their friends: and when Mr. Davenport, the minister of Newhaven, was suspected by the magistrates of concealing them, they went publicly to the deputy-governor of Newhaven to offer themselves up; but he refused to take any notice of them, suffering them to return again to the woods. The pursuit of them afterwards relaxing, they remained two years in a house near Milford, where they frequently prayed and preached at private meetings in their chamber; till the king's commissioners coming to Boston, they were again driven to their cave in the woods. Here some Indians discovered their beds, which obliged them to seek a fresh refuge; and they went to Hadley, 100 miles distant, where they were received by Mr. Russell, the minister, and remained as long as they lived, very few persons knowing who they were. Whalley's death took place about 1679. They confessed that their lives were " miserable, and constant burdens to them;" especially when their fanatical hopes of some divine vengeance on Charles II. and his advisers were perpetually disappointed. The fidelity and affection of Goffe's wife to her husband were remarkably displayed in her letters." While they were at Hadley the Indian war broke out, which was particularly disastrous in that part of the colony.t "The following story has been traditionally conveyed down among the inhabitants of Hadley. In the course of Philip's war, which involved almost all the Indian tribes in New England, and amongst them those in the neighbourhood of this town, the inhabitants thought it proper to observe the 1st of September, 1675, as a day of fasting and prayer. While they were in the church, and employed in their worship, they were surprised by a band of savages. The people instantly betook themselves to their arms, which, according to the custom of the times, they had carried with them to the church, and, rushing out of the house, attacked their invaders. The panic under which they began the conflict was, however, so great, and their number was so disproportioned to that of their enemies, that they fought doubtfully at first, and in a short time began evidently to give way. At this time an ancient man, with hoary locks, of a most venerable and dignified aspect, and in a dress widely differing from that of the inhabitants, appeared suddenly at their head, See "Trial of Charles I. and the Regicides," in Murray's Family Library. Dwight's Travels in New England, vol. i. p. 317. London. 1823. and with a firm voice, and an example of undaunted resolution, reanimated their spirits led them again to the conflict and totally routed the savages. When the battle was ended, the stranger suddenly disappeared; and no person knew whence he had come, or whither he had gone. The relief was so timely, so sudden, so unexpected, and so providential; the appearance and the retreat of him who furnished it were so unaccountable, his person was so dignified and commanding, his resolution so superior, and his interference so decisive, that the inhabitants, without any uncommon exertion of credulity, readily believed him to be an angel sent by Heaven for their preservation. Nor was this opinion seriously controverted until it was discovered, several years afterwards, that Goffe and Whalley had been lodged in the house of Mr. Russell. Then it was known that their deliverer was Goffe, Whalley having become superannuated some time before the event took place." The latter part of Goffe's life seems not to be known with certainty. Dwight says, immediately before the passage above quoted, "After Whalley's death, Goffe quitted Hadley, went into Connecticut, and afterwards, according to tradition, to the neighbourhood of New York. Here he is said to have lived some time, and, the better to disguise himself, to have carried vegetables at times to market. It is said that having been discovered here, he retired secretly to the colony of Rhode Island, and there lived with a son of Whalley during the remainder of his life." Goffe's was a divided family. -one of his brothers being a clergyman of the Church of England, while another was become a Roman Catholic priest. To this division allusion is made in Leverett's conversation with Oliver. Of the other persons introduced, the following are historical: Leverett the governor, who succeeded Bellingham, in 1673; he had been a Cromwellian, and is sobered into a rational Conformist; he knew where the regicides were, and connived at their concealment, as he is represented doing in the poem and Randolph, of whom the people of New England said "that he went up and down to devour them." Also the names of the Indian chieftains, and the general account of the war, are matter of history. The hero, Oliver, himself is therefore a purely imaginary character: he was originally intended to be a Quaker; but it would appear that the author afterwards considered that the noble points of character and of principle intended to be exhibited viz. zeal for the Christian faith, inflexible truth, peacefulness and endurance were not exclusively belonging to that sect whose operations and whose sufferings in New England he had been contemplating; and at the same time, that some features of their character were both unmanageable in poetry, and distasteful to his own mind. There was also another reason for the alteration, namely, that he found it necessary for his plot, that, at least in one instance, Oliver's usual mode of conduct should bend to circumstances; and such a compliance would be morally, and therefore poetically, probable in a person swayed only by a reasonable principle, but not so in one governed by an absolute rule of life. The following notes will explain the intended bearing of this character upon the story. 1811. "A son of Goffe, a Quaker, gone after his mother's death to seek his father. He, by converting one of the principal Sachems, weakens Metacom's party so materially as to decide the contest; and with that Sachem he retires into the interior. He and his father are discovered, and he will not lift his hand in defence. A party of Indians take them all, he still passive; hence his influence begins with their astonishment." "The points on which Oliver's Quakerism is put to the test are, in not denying his father's name, and in not lifting a hand to defend him." 1814.Oliver must be so far instrumental in terminating the war as to obtain security for his father; and this instrumentality must be effected wholly by means conformable to his peculiar opinions. But those opinions must yield where they are wrong." Imperfectly as the latter part of the story can be ascertained, it has been thought better to sketch it out, however rudely, from the author's hints, than to leave an entire blank. X. Oliver at Willoby's House. They remain awhile at Willoby's, that Pamya may be their protection. When some Indians appear, she goes out, and finds among a party of Indians one of her own tribe. After her story, the calumet is smoked, and the door of WilJoby's house painted with marks indicating that it was under their protection. Then they venture to depart. A sort of half-confidence has first been made to Willoby in consequence of his wife's letter, and a sort of half-engagement formed. Willoby had known one of the Goffes. His moral reasons for leaving England, on account of his sons, seeing the character of the times, and that all that we pray in the Litany to be delivered from, was come upon the country-blindness of heart, pride, vain-glory and hypocrisy, envy, hatred, and malice, false doctrine, heresy and schism, sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion, &c. XI. The Wounded Indian. Oliver journeying with Pamya and her children through the forest, finds a wounded Indian, by whom they stay till a party of his countrymen see them. This is the Mohawk, whom Philip had meant to kill, and not scalped, to create a belief that he had been killed by the English. (An historical fact, and represented as not of unfrequent occurrence.) Many hints for forest scenery, which are noted down, would probably belong to this canto. At night Oliver is seen reading by firelight in the wood. XII. Whalley's Body. The Indians conduct the party to their Sachem: on the way they meet with Whalley's body being conveyed somewhere for interment. Oliver knows it by a mutilated hand. Likeness of Whalley to his daughter [Oliver's mother] ; that family character of face, which the infant brings into the world, and into which the countenance settles in old age, when the character which individual pursuits and passions have induced fades away, and the natural lineaments recover their primary cast. The death of Whalley sets Goffe at liberty. They reach the encampment of Indians, and Pamya is restored to her own friends, the Narhagansets. XIII. The Affair of Hadley. A renegade (in one place named Joshua Tift, the English savage and traitor,) being among the Indians, calls Oliver a spy, insults and strikes him. This Oliver endures patiently, making no retaliation. This fellow relates the affair of Hadley, "the most disastrous day that ever befell New England," and especially the marvellous apparition of one during the conflict, who was really Goffe, Oliver's father. XIV. Reasoning with the Sachems. The interest of this scene is to turn chiefly upon two points: the effect for good which Oliver's words have upon an old Indian chief, who has formerly been impressed by Eliot or R. Williams, and who now puts himself under Oliver's guidance. This man belongs to the tribe of Sakonets, who are probably connected with the Narhaganset stock. It would have been contrary to history to make the Narhaganset chieftain himself influenced at this time by Oliver. The other point is, the peculiar character of Philip, composed of hatred and vindictiveness against the English, united with gloomy forebodings about the issue of the war. These may be some of his words, or rather the more hopeful Canonchet's : The forest and the swamp are our allies; He to whom Heaven in mercy hath assign'd Beauties of Nature, the passion of my youth, Feeling at Westminster, when summer evening sent a sadness to my heart, and I sate pining for green fields, and banks of flowers, and running streams, — or dreaming of Avon and her rocks and woods. They who look for me in our Father's kingdom The Grave the house of Hope : Come, then, Pain and Infirmity-appointed guests, My soul Needed perhaps a longer discipline, A respite something like repose is gain'd They are not, though, No more great attempts, only a few autumnal And mingling with primeval verities flowers, like second primroses, &c. 1 Letter to Mr. W. Taylor, March, 1817. "I have begun a desultory poem in blank verse, pitched in a higher key than Cowper's, and in a wiser strain of philosophy than Their own devices vain. For what to us Young's; but as yet I have not recovered heart enough to proceed with it; nor is it likely that it will be published during my life." |