Midcoast Senior College, Sea-Change: Class #6 April 23, 2021
In-class readings
There are three speakers: The Puritan ministers William Crashaw and William Whitaker, and Shakespeare’s Caliban.
Crashaw was a prominent preacher in London and elsewhere with ties to the Virginia Company, enthusiasm for the New World project, and great respect and appreciation for John Smith. He was the impresario who facilitated publication of the 1612 history of the Virginia colony to date, which heavily featured Smith’s role.
Whitaker was a younger friend of his, whom Crashaw had helped raise and educate after the death of Whitaker’s equally or more prominent Puritan father. He was one of the first three ministers in the Jamestown colony, and the one who baptized Pocahontas.
The pieces here were both published by Crashaw in 1613, Whitaker’s as a stand-alone called “Good News from Virginia,” and his own as an introduction he wrote for a re-issue of Silvester Jourdain’s 1610 book about the Sea Venture wreck and experiences on Bermuda, one of Shakespeare’s Tempest sources.
Trinculo needs no further explanation!
Whitaker’s and Crashaw’s sections are divided up among several readers.
The Winter’s Tale: “Shepherd” is an old man, “Clown” is his son, also a shepherd. Near the end of the play, they have been given gentleman status by the king, whose daughter, long thought lost, they had saved. Autolycus is a comic rogue, cutpurse, and flim-flam artist.
This section checks off several of the values and mores of gentle behavior: don’t fight with your inferiors; no need to swear (because a gentleman cannot tell a lie: his word is as good as his bond); to “give the lie” means to accuse a gentleman of lying, which is slander; to be given the lie requires satisfaction (e.g., a duel, or an apology).
Cymbeline: Cloten, son to the wicked queen, is almost a caricature of a gentleman or nobleman in his sense of amour-propre, which will bear no insult, always requiring deference. Guiderius is a rustic youth, brought up in the mountains of Wales, honest, plain-spoken, and bold, though ignorant of the fact that he is really the king’s son, seized in infancy and brought up by a noble soldier who was unjustly banished by the king.
Note:
Do not read text in [square brackets]. Those are explanatory, not part of the original writing.
Michele Nan Scott Steven Susan Crashaw #1
Crashaw #2
Crashaw #3
Whitaker #1
Whitaker #2
Whitaker #3
Trinculo Winter’s Tale - Shepherd Winter’s Tale – Clown Winter’s Tale - Autolycus Cymbeline - Cloten Cymbeline - Guiderius William Crashaw From: introduction to Silvester Jourdain’s Plain Description of the Barmudas (1613 reissue)
Reading #1
Man’s works are for the most part (as Christ saith of the wine that is served in at feasts) best at first, and afterwards worse; but with God it is contrary – for as in the Creation, though every day’s work was good, yet each day’s was better than the former, and the last best of all. So in his dispensation and government of the world, all knowledge was not revealed, nor all good things made known at the first, but day unto day uttereth, and night to night (and why not also, age unto age) teacheth knowledge.
And hence is it that as great secrets in nature, and as admirable perfections in art, and as rare inventions, and profitable experiments (every way) are daily discovered in these latter ages, as were in the former. There be not yet two hundred years past since the admirable art of Printing was found out, an invention so excellent and so useful, so much tending to the honour of God, the manifestation of the truth, propagation of the Gospel, restoration of learning, diffusion of knowledge….
Reading #2
Nor is it yet four hundred years ago, since the superadmirable use of the Lodestone was found out. The attraction of iron unto it was seen by Aristotle, and the Ancients, and it amazed them. But the correspondencie it hath with the Pole-star, and consequently the excellent use of it for Navigation (being one of the greatest wonders of the world) was not known to them. Nay (which is more strange) not to the Apostles themselves – for had it been, surely Saint Paul and his company had not been almost half a year in his voyage betwixt Judaea and Italy, and that through so many difficulties, and at last shipwrack….
For when neither Sun nor Star appears, yet by the help of this poor dead Creature, the Pilot can tell where he is, and knows his course, more certainly now in the wide and unmeasurable Ocean, than they could in the narrow Mediterranean Sea. And more easily now will an ordinary seaman go to the West Indies, than St. Paul with all the knowledge God had then revealed, from Jerusalem to Rome….
William Crashaw (cont’d.)
Reading #3
It is but yet a hundred years ago, that (after the world had scarce dreamed of any other habitable place of the earth, more than Asia, Africa, and Europe), God discovered to vulgar knowledge another, and as it were, the new world of America – which, if it had been foretold in the elder ages, millions of men would never have believed it. And that we in this present and perverse age may also know that Times and Seasons are in God’s hand, He hath vouchsafed amongst the many excellent inventions and wonderful discoveries of these times, to make known to us of the poor Virginian plantation; and by us to the world, the hidden and long concealed truth, touching the state of the Barmuda Islands.
Alexander Whitaker From: Good News from Virginia (published by Crashaw, 1613)
Reading #1
[T]he eyes of liberality [generosity, charity, brotherly love] do not look after the reward of the work, but they search how to do the work, how to give the alms, so as that they may be pleasing to God, and of him accepted, and by him, if he see it good, rewarded. Let then your liberal minds, you honorable and charitable adventurers [investors] of Virginia, be stirred up to cast your alms on the waters of Virginia, without hope of present [immediate] profit. The base affections of the usurer will not look for the overplus of increase until the covenanted time of his loan be expired. The husbandman casting his seed into the earth waiteth upon god until harvest for a fruitful crop. Verily, he that believeth doth not make haste. Be not overhasty with God.
Alexander Whitaker (cont’d.)
Reading #2
We may take just occasion to blame the uncharitable disposition of hardhearted rich men and wealthy parishes, which suffer multitudes of poor men and women to perish in their quarters for want of relief. The commandment of God is that there should be no beggars in Israel. But look into the streets of our cities, and pass from them into all the quarters of England, and you shall find neither court nor country, city or village, without the importunate cravings of those that cry GIVE, GIVE!
From hence it is that so many base thieves and petty robbers lurk in every corner until the common trees of execution hang them up. From hence it is that so many poor men's children, wanting the charity of others to see them brought up in learning and some honest vocation, were better if they had never been born than to live in such misorder as most of them do. Repent therefore betimes, you able misers, lest the woe of Saint James fall upon you – lest God hear the cries and curses of the poor – and heap miseries without measure upon such miserable men.
Reading #3
Some make no scruple at it to spend yearly an hundred pounds, two, three, five hundred and much more about dogs, hawks, and hounds, and such sports, which will not give five hundred pence to the relief of God’s poor members. Others will not care to lose two or three thousand pound in a night at cards and dice, and yet suffer poor Lazarus to perish in their streets for want of their charitable alms.
Trinculo From: The Tempest, 2.2.27-32
A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man; any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.
Winter’s Tale 5.2.135-179
Shepherd: Come, boy, I am past moe children; but thy sons and daughters will be all gentlemen born.
Clown: [to Autolycus] You are well met, sir. You denied to fight with me this other day, because I was no gentleman born. See you these clothes? Say you seen them not and think me still no gentleman born; you were best say these robes are not gentlemen born. Give me the lie, do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born.
Autolycus: I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born.
Clown: Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.
Shepherd: And do have I, boy.
[…]
Autolycus I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report to the Prince, my master.
Shepherd: Prithee, son, do: for we must be gentle, now we are gentlemen.
Clown: Thou wilt amend thy life?
Autolycus: Ay, an it like your good worship.
Clown: Give me thy hand. I will swear to the Prince thou art as honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia.
Shepherd: You may say it, but not swear it.
Clown: Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I’ll swear it.
Shepherd: How if it be false, son?
Clown: It if be ne’er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in the behalf of his friend; and I’ll swear to the Prince thou art a tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands, and that thou wilt be drunk; but Ill swear it, and I would thou woudst be a tall fellow of thy hands.
Cymbeline 4.2.70-96
Cloten Soft, what are you That fly me thus? Some villain mountaineers? I have heard of such. What slave art thou?
Guiderius A thing More slavish did I ne’er than answering A slave without a knock.
Clo. Thou are a robber. A law-breaker, a villain: yield thee, thief.
Gui. To who? To thee? What art thou? Have not I An arm as big as thine? a heart as big? Thy words I grant are bigger: for I wear not My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art: Why I should yield to thee.
Clo. Thou villain base, Know’st me not by my clothes?
Gui. No, nor thy tailor, rascal, Who is thy grandfather: he made those clothes, Which (as it seems) make thee.
Clo. Thou precious varlet, My tailor made them not.
Gui. Hence then, and thank The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool, I am loath to beat thee.
Clo. Thou injurious thief, Hear but my name and tremble.
Gui. What’s thy name?
Clo. Cloten, thou villain.
Gui. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name, I cannot tremble at it; were it Toad, or Adder, Spider, ’Twould move me sooner.
Clo. To thy further fear, Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know I am son to th’ queen.
Gui. I am sorry for’t: not seeming So worthy as they birth.
Clo. Art not afeard?
Gui. Those that I reverence those I fear: the wise: At fools I laugh: not fear them.