The EnglishSocietyEnglish Society of Japan H 2kenSt\ftag i5 @MAesgee:.St RE-NARRATIVIZATION OF THE MAYPOLE INCIDENT: HAWTHORNE AND HIS NEW ENGLAND ANNALISTS ETsuKo TAKETANI `CThe Hawthorne's May-Pole of Merry rvIount" Nathaniel (i836) " " is a tale based on a maypole incident that took place in early Amer- ican history, The historical incident, as far as it is recoverable at pre- sent, happened in i6z7 when Thomas Morton, who settled in i62s in the XJerollaston community (a part of present-day Braintree, Massachu- setts, a few miles south of Boston), observed the first ofllcial May Day, an Anglican custom, in New England by setting up a maypole at Merry Mount. Morton was arrested by the Plymouth Colony in June i628 on the charge of providing Indians with firearms, and in September, the Puritan John Endicott went to refbrm the leaderless Merry Mount after Morton had been sent back to England. was a confrontation scene between Anglicans The maypole incident and Puritzns. Hawthorne's tale drastically re-textualizes the original incident in two ways. First, it is not Morton, but an Anglican priest, Blackstone, who presides over the May festival. Morton does not appear in Hawthorne's story at all. Secondly, Hawthorne's May festival centers on the fictional marriage of Edgar and Edith, the Lord and Lady of the May at the maypole, which Endicott cuts down. the note to this tale, explains briefly the In prefatory Hawthorne relationship between the historical maypole incident and his literary "philosophic "the fiction: i) this romance" is based on curious "; history of the early settlement of Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount " z) the history was originally recorded on the gtave pages of our New the Micro- In preparing this papet, I am especially indebted to the Rare Book Division and fbrm Division of the Libtaty of Congress in the United States. [239] NII-Electronic Library Service The EnglishSocietyEnglish Society of Japan 240 Etsuko Taketani "; "facts " England annalists and 3) the recorded by these annalists " " are to be transfbrmed into an allegory in this tale.i " " Hawthorne makes a Twice-Told Tale," or correctly, mote Se- veral-Tjmes-Told Tale," out of the histories of the maypole incident "The written by New England annalists. The litefaty context of " May-Pole of Merry Mount is not, as Hawthorne himself out, "actual" points the incident at Merry Mount in i627 but a series of New England historians' texts. With these narratives as his point of depar- ture, Hawthorne re--textualizes the history as an allegory. V7hat I wish to discuss here is the relation between Hawthorne's story and American historiography, and I would like to proceed by answering three questions : firstly, what kind of narratives did American historiography resort to when interpteting the showdown between Anglicans and Puritans; secondly, what ideological conditions caused Hawthorne to re-textualize the history of the maypole incident in i8s6; and, finally, how does Hawthorne's narrative function in relation to history ? " " First of all we need to identify the New England annalists and " their works which Hawthotne says he has re-textualized in The IMay- Pole of Merry Mount." The original insctiptions of the incident were made by the ringleader who was responsible for setting up the maypole, Thomas Morton, a selfiproclaimed Royalist and supporter of the Church of England, and by William Bradfbrd, a Separatist Puritan and Governor of the Plymouth Plantation, who later sent Captain Myles Standish to atrest Morton. Thomas Motton's Nkeav EiagIXslJ (anaan was published in Amsterdam in i637, but in America it did not appear publicly until it came out as part of Peter Force's Tleacts in i8s8, two " years after the publication of The May-Pole of Merry Mount." As J. Gary Williams says, there must have existed not fewer than two copies of Morton's book in America before i838 and Hawthorne him- self could have read N17av Ei(glish dauaan.2 However, my focus here is not on whether Hawthotne actually read it, but on the fact that Mor- ton's Anglican version of the maypole incident was not yet adopted by i `C Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thc May-Pole of Mcrry Mount," Twice-Teid Tales (Columbus: Ohio State UP, ig74), Subsequent p. s4. par¢ nthetical page references to this work will cotrespond to this edition. 2 " Gary ])Uilliams, History ` " J. in Hawthorne's The Maypole of Metry Mount,' Essesc I}zstitute HZsterical Cbdeefiens io8 (ig72), i78Lg･ NII-Electronic Library Service The EnglishSocietyEnglish Society of Japan Re-Narrativization of the Maypole Incident 24r American historiography at the point of Hawthome's writing. In fact, we have to wait until i883 when Charles Francis Adams' INkepm Eaginh Ckenaan of [Ilboneas Morten was published for Morton's version to appear. Until this time, William Bradfbrd's oj Pdyneoath Plantalion (i63o-i6s7) served as the ur-text of American historiography's treat- ment of the maypole incident. Since it existed only in manuscript until i8s6,i many historians after Bradfbrd's time relied on Nathaniel Morton, Bradford's nephew. Morton almost literally repeated Brad- ford's journal in his Nbew England's Meneorial (i66g), the fifth edition (Boston, i826) of which Hawthorne checked out of the Salem Athe- naeum on April 26, i828.2 According to Williams' list of history books dealing with the maypole incident Hawthorne had access to, six histories besides Bradfbtd's and!or Nathaniel Morton's can be "New identified as the works of Hawthorne's England annalists": Jeremy Belknap's Aneerionne Biagrapby, Joseph B. Felt's Annats of Sdenv, William Hubbatd's A General Mstecy of Nlew Englan4 Thomas Hut- chinson's T;ee Hlisto)zy of cbe Cbleizy of Massathersel's B`ay, Daniel Neal's T;ee Elisteew of Nlepm-Englan4 and James Tliacher's Llistecy of the Tbwn of Pijmoath.3 In maypole was narrated order to see how the incident first in the ur-text of Bradfbrd and then re-textualized befbre Hawthorne wrote " " The May-Pole of Merry Mount," let us put the New England an- " nalists in chronological ordet. Tlie original inscription, from Brad- fotd's CifPbneoath Planintion (i63o-s7), reads as fo11ows: They also set up a maypole, drinking and dancing abeut it many days together, inviting the Indian women for theit consorts, dancing and frisk- ing together like so many fairies, or furies, rather; and worse practices. As if they had anew revived and celebrated the feasts of the Rdman goddess Flora, or the beastly practices of the rnad Bacchanalians. Morton like- wise, to show his poetry composed sundry rhymes and verses, some tend- i According to Williams (p. i7s), Hawthorne read the first part of a copy Nathaniel Mor- ton made of Bradfbrd's eriginal manuscript in Ebeneezer Hazard's Mstorical CoOlectious (Phil- adelphia, i7g2-g4). Moreover, he checked out Govemeour Bratijbrd's Letxer Book in Cbllecidons oflhe Afassachasetts HZfferical Soeiety, ist set., vol. 3 (Boston, i7g4) from the Salem Athenaeum on November 8, T827. See Marion L. Kesselring, H17wthome's Readug i828-r8io (ig4g; New York: New York Public Library, ig7s), p` s6. 2 Kesselting, P･ 57. 3 Willi2ms, p- i74} NII-Electronic Library Service The EnglishSocietyEnglish Society of Japan 242 Etsuko Taketani ing to lasciviousness, and others to the detraction and scandal of some persons, which he aflixed to this idle or idol maypole. They changed also the name of their place, and instead of calling it Mount Wollaston they call it Merry-mount, as if this jollity would have lasted ever. But.this continued not long, for after Morton was sent for England (as fo11ows to be declared) shortly after came over that worthy gentleman Mr. John Endecott, who brought over a patent under the broad seal fbr the govern- ment of the Massachusetts. Who, visiting those patts, caused that may- pole to be cut down and rebuked them fbr their' profaneness and admon- ished them to look there should be bettet walking. So they or others now changed the name of their place again and called it Mount Dagon.i Nathaniel Morton's New England's Meneorial (i66g) repeated almost word for word what Bradfbrd said, but Morton deliberately made one significant, erroneous change, which was to be repeated by later his- torians, until J. B. Felt set the recotd straight in Annats of Salerzg (i827). "after By omitting the sentence, Morton was sent fbr England," Nathaniel Morton ignored the time sequence, allowing Endicott to confront Thomas Morton at the scene of the maypole incident and to cut the maypole down on the spot.2 In fact, Morton was arrested in June i628, and Endicott did not arrive at New England until Septem- ber. Why did Nathaniel Morton make this deliberate change in his history? The key to understanding this Iies in the Puritans' rela- perhaps "maypole " tionship with the Anglicans, in a conflict which took a as its focal symbol. The North Anverican Review in i83i briefly de- scribed the history of their strife ovet the maypole in England: The Puritans denounced this celebration, not fnerely because they con- sidered it a relic of idolatry, but because it was tolerated on the Sabbath day...the luckless May-pole alternateiy sunk and rose like the banner of Lord Marmion at Flodden. King James I. and his successor, probably in defiance of the Puritans, ordained that the people should be at liberty to set them up and dance round them on the Sabbath, as well as to pursue all other tecreations, not expressly prohibited by law; but the Long Parlia- ` ment Ievelled a serious blow at alle and singular May-poles,' by infiicting i i)e'illiam Bradford, oj Plymoulh Plimtation (New York: A]fred A.