BAY PSALM BOOK

1640

  • written & printed by the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • full title = The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre
  • *1st book printed in English Colonies
  • religion = 1st
  • that’s why this was 1st book published
  • in Cambridge, Mass.
  • by Stephen Daye =
  • 1st printer of the MBC
  • Rev. Jesse Glover imported the first printing press to the MBC in 1638; died enroute
  • SD had come along (locksmith, JG’s bondservant)
  • & set up shop
  • “PURITAN”
  • = faithful translation of God’s Word
  • no mere paraphrasing of Scripture
  • to be sung at church or home
  • by anyone
  • democratization of religion
  • ideology through music
  • REVISION:
  • they were dissatisfied w/the other translations that exited
  • wanted something closer to the original Hebrew
  • KJV:
  • official text of state religion that they “separated” from, wanted to “purify”
  • psalms = written not to be sung/performed
  • Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins's Whole Book of Psalms (1562) – used by Pilgrims
  • 1st English vernacular
  • amended to Book of Common Prayer
  • not poetic
  • differed from Hebrew original in important ways
  • too literal a translation
  • Henry Ainsworth's more accurate Book of Psalms (1612)
  • broke w/Ch. of England
  • though more accurate
  • hired 30 writers (“pious” - minsters)
  • Richard Mather*, Thomas Welde, John Eliot > psalms
  • John Cotton > preface
  • 1651 = major revisions
  • more artistic
  • Henry Dunster (president of Harvard College) Richard Lyon
  • changed title
  • basis for future editions
  • 27 editions
  • Music:
  • accompanying melodies = common, familiar tunes
  • simple – as words
  • PSALM:
  • biblical song (psalter = collection of psalms)
  • 150 psalms in Bible
  • set to music, to be sung by congregations (Protestant Churches)
  • translated into many vernacular languages
  • PURPOSE of PSALMS (for Puritans)
  • to praise God
  • to comfort the sick
  • to admonish the wicked
  • to urge sinners to Christ
  • to reflect their belief in imminent 2nd Coming
  • TOPICS:
  • death, sin
  • governmental punishment
  • STYLE:
  • Puritan Plain Style
  • frank, direct, simple, everyday words
  • vernacular
  • English, not Latin (for everyone)
  • originality over literary polish or imitative technical perfection
  • like Emerson & Whitman, later
  • (-) forced rhymes, sing-songy rhythm (but, to aid in memorization)
  • C/C:
  • compare BPB vs. KJV of Psalms
  • choices = reflect ideology
  • THEMES:
  • making religioncontemporary
  • relevant to their situation: pilgrims in a new land
  • faith = daily concern
  • faith = individual concern & responsibility (Reformation)
  • NEP:
  • dealing w/temptation
  • dealing w/(dangerous) life in the wilderness
  • difficult remaining faithful, obedient
  • passing religious & cultural values on to next generation, despite death & government
  • John Cotton's preface
  • is a fascinating document about translation
  • advocating use of the vernacular(English should be acceptable for singing, in good conscience)
  • and defending "modern" poetry
  • psalms = "contested" versions, retranslated to mark a cultural and religious difference
  • from those versions widely used in Europe and England
  • as well as to distinguish the Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans from the Plymouth Pilgrims
  • who used the Sternhold-Hopkins Psalter of 1562.
  • D

PURITAN LITERATURE:

  • Bradford, Winthrop, The Mathers
  • Bay Book of Psalms, New England Primer
  • not as “functional transmissions of doctrine and discipline, representing a narrow and dogmatic religious culture of merely antiquarian interest”
  • but as “an emergent culture's effort to formulate values that can be taught and maintained”
  • see also Native American Creation Myths
  • literature as Cultural Product
  • reflections of that culture, cultural by-products
  • embodiments of that culture’s values
  • reflect & create culture
  • “the propagation of cultural values through books”

NEW ENGLAND PRIMER

1683

  • Puritans of MBC
  • NEP = the chief educational text of the New England colonies for over a hundred years (1683+)
  • cultural concerns & fears
  • F
  • STYLE:
  • Puritan Plain Style
  • frank, direct, simple, everyday words
  • vernacular
  • THEMES:
  • dealing w/temptation
  • dealing w/(dangerous) life in the wilderness
  • difficult remaining faithful, obedient
  • passing religious & cultural values on to next generation, despite death & government
  • d

BPB online:

preface to BPB: