[In the following essay from a work first published in 1856, the critics present an overview of Morton's experiences in New England, using details presented in New English Canaan, a work they find to be humorous if not entirely factual.]

The readers of Nathaniel Hawthorne cannot fail to remember “the May-pole of Merry Mount.” The sketch, in its leading features, is a faithful presentation of a curious episode in the early history of New England. It has been narrated by the chief actor in the scene, “Mine Host of Ma-re Mount” himself, and his first telling of the “twice told tale” is well worth the hearing.

Thomas Morton, “of Clifford's Inn, gent.,” came to Plymouth in 1622, with Weston's party. Many of these returned the following year, and the remainder were scattered about the settlements. Our barrister says that they were very popular with the original settlers as long as their liquors lasted, and were turned adrift afterwards. Be that as it may, he remained in the country, and we hear of him a few years afterwards as one of the company of Captain Wollaston who came to America in 1625. Wollaston appears to have had a set of fellows similar to those of Weston. He carried a portion of them off to Virginia, leaving the remainder in charge of one Filcher, to await the summons to Virginia also. Morton was one of these, and persuaded his companions to drive away Flicher, place themselves under his leadership, and found a settlement at Mount Wollaston. This he effected, and he henceforward speaks of himself as “mine host of Ma-re Mount.” Here he set up a May-pole—but we shall allow him to be his own narrator.

The inhabitants of Pasonagessit (having translated the name of their habitation from that ancient savage name to Ma-re Mount; and being resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memorial to after ages), did devise amongst themselves to have it performed in a solemn manner with Revels and merriment after the old English custom, prepared to set up a May-pole upon the festival day of Philip and Jacob; and therefore brewed a barrel of excellent beer, and provided a case of bottles to be spent, with other good cheer, for all comers of that day. And because they would have it in a complete form, they had prepared a song fitting to the time and present occasion. And upon May-day they brought the May-pole to the place appointed, with drums, guns, pistols, and other fitting instruments, for that purpose; and there erected it with the help of salvages, that came thither of purpose to see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of 80 feet long, was reared up, with a pair of buck-horns nailed on, somewhat near unto the top of it; where it stood as a fair sea mark for directions; how to find out the way to mine Host of Ma-re Mount.

There was likewise a merry song made, which (to make their Revels more fashionable) was sung with a corus, every man bearing his part; which they performed in a dance, hand in hand about the May-pole, whiles one of the company sung, and filled out the good liquor like gammedes and Jupiter.

“THE SONG”

Drink and be merry, merry, merry boys,
Let all your delight be in Hymen's joys,
Io to Hymen now the day is come,
About the merry May-pole take a roome.
          Make green garlons, bring bottles out;
          And fill sweet Nectar freely about,
          Uncover thy head, and fear no harm,
          For here's good liquor to keep it warm.
Then drink and be merry, & c.
Io to Hymen, & c.
          Nectar is a thing assign'd,
          By the Deities own mind,
          To cure the heart opprest with grief,
          And of good liquors is the chief.
Then drink, & c.
Io to Hymen, & c.
          Give to the Melancholy man,
          A cup or two of 't now and than,
          This physic will soon revive his blood,
          And make him be of a merrier mood.
Then drink, & c.
Io to Hymen, & c.
          Give to the nymph that's free from scorn,
          No Irish stuff, nor Scotch over worn;
          Lasses in beaver coats come away,
          Ye shall be welcome to us night and day.
To drink and be merry, & c.
Io to Hymen, & c.

This harmless mirth made by young men (that lived in hope to have wives brought over to them, that would save them a labour to make a voyage to fetch any over) was much distasted of the precise Separatists; that keep much ado, about the tithe of mint and cummin, troubling their brains more than reason would require about things that are indifferent; and from that time sought occasion against my honest Host of Ma-re Mount to overthrow his undertakings, and to destroy his plantation quite and clear.

Such proceedings of course caused great scandal to the Plymouth colonist. Nathaniel Morton, the first chronicler of the colony, thus describes the affair.

After this (the expulsion of Filcher) they fell to great licentiousness of life, in all profaneness, and the said Morton became lord of misrule, and maintained as it were, a school of Atheism, and after they had got some goods into their hands, and got much by trading with the Indians, they spent it as vainly in quaffing and drinking both wine and strong liquors in great excess, as some have reported ten pounds worth in a morning, setting up a May-pole, drinking, and dancing about it, and frisking about it like so many faries, or furies rather, yea and worse practices, as if they had anew revived and celebrated the feast of the Roman goddess Flora, or the beastly practices of the mad Bacchanalians.

Morton was also charged, and it appears justly, with employing the Indians to hunt for him, furnishing them with, and instructing them in the use of, firearms for that purpose. The colonists, “fearing that they should get a blow thereby; also, taking notice that if he were let alone in his way, they should keep no servants for him, because he would entertain any, how vile soever,”¹ met together, and after remonstrating with him to no effect, obtained from the governor of Plymouth the aid of Captain Miles Standish to arrest him. Morton was taken prisoner, but, according to his own story, which he makes an amusing one, effected his escape:

Much rejoicing was made that they had gotten their capital enemy (as they concluded him), whom they purposed to hamper in such sort that he should not be able to uphold his plantation at Ma-re Mount.

The conspirators sported themselves at my honest host, that meant them no hurt; and were so jocund that they feasted their bodies and fell to tippeling, as if they had obtained a great prize; like the Trojans when they had the custody of Hippeus' pine tree horse.

Mine host feigned grief, and could not be persuaded either to eat or drink, because he knew emptiness would be a means to make him as watchful as the geese kept in the Roman capitol; whereon the contrary part, the conspirators would be so drowsy, that he might have an opportunity to give them a slip instead of tester. Six persons of the conspiracy were set to watch him at Wessaguscus, but he kept waking, and in the dead of night (one lying on the bed for further surety) up gets mine host and got to the second door that he was to pass, which (notwithstanding the lock) he got open; and shut it after him with such violence that it affrighted some of the conspirators.

The word which was given with an alarm was, O, he's gone, he's gone, what shall we do, he's gone! The rest, half asleep, start up in a maze, and, like rams, run their heads one at another, full butt, in the dark.

Their grand leader, Captain Shrimp, took on most furiously, and tore his clothes for anger, to see the empty nest and their bird gone.

The rest were eager to have torn their hair from their heads, but it was so short that it would give them no hold.

He returned to Ma-re Mount, where he soon afterwards surrendered, and was sent to England, coming back the next year to his old quarters, which during his absence had been visited by Endicott, who caused the may-pole to be cut down, “and the name of the place was again changed and called Dagon.”² The year following his return his house was searched on the charge of his having corn belonging to other persons in it.

After they had feasted their bodies with that they found there, carried all his corn away, with some other of his goods, contrary to the laws of hospitality, a small parcel of refuse corn only excepted, which they left mine host to keep Christmas with. But when they were gone, mine host fell to make use of his gun (as one that had a good faculty in the use of that instrument) and feasted his body nevertheless with fowl and venison, which he purchased with the help of that instrument; the plenty of the country and the commodiousness of the place affording means, by the blessing of God; and he did but deride Captain Littleworth, that made his servants snap short in a country so much abounding with plenty of food for an industrious man, with great variety.

Soon after Governor Winthrop's arrival, in 1630, he was again arrested, convicted, and sent to England, where he arrived, he says, “so metamorphosed with a long voyage, that he looked like Lazarus in the painted cloth.”³

His book,⁴ from which our extracts are taken, bears date, Amsterdam, 1637. It was probably printed in London, this device being often resorted to at the time, with works of a libellous or objectionable character. With perseverance worthy of a better cause, he returned to New England, in 1643, and was arrested and imprisoned in Boston a year, on account of his book. His advanced age only, it is said, saved him from the whipping-post. He died in poverty, in 1646, at Agamenticus. His book shows facility in composition, and not a little humor. Butler appears to have derived one of the stories in Hudibras from it.

Our brethren of New England use
Choice malefactors to excuse.
And hang the guiltless in their stead;
Of whom the churches have less need,
As lately 't happened: in a town
There liv'd a cobbler, and but one,
That out of doctrine could cut use,
And mend men's lives as well as shoes.
This precious brother having slain,
In time of peace, an Indian,
Not out of malice, but mere zeal,
Because he was an infidel,
The mighty Tottipottimoy
Sent to our elders an envoy,
Complaining sorely of the breach
Of league, held forth by brother Patch,
Against the articles in force
Between both churches, his and ours;
For which he crav'd the saints to render
Into his hands or hang the offender:
But they maturely having weigh'd
They had no more but him o' the trade,
A man that serv'd them in a double
Capacity, to teach and cobble,
Resolv'd to spare him; yet to do
The Indian Hogan Moghan too
Impartial justice, in his stead did
Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid:(5)

A young man, as Morton's story goes, was arrested for stealing corn from an Indian, and the following mode of dealing with the case was proposed by one of the general assembly of the community called to adjudge punishment. Says he: “You all agree that one must die, and one shall die. This young man's clothes we will take off, and put upon one that is old and impotent; a sickly person that cannot escape death; such is the disease on him confirmed, that die he must. Put the young man's clothes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other's stead. Amen, says one, and so says many more.”

A large portion of the volume is devoted to the aborigines and the natural features of the country. He thus expatiates on his first impressions:

And whiles our houses were building, I did endeavor to take a survey of the country; the more I looked, the more I liked it. When I had more seriously considered of the beauty of the place, with all her fair endowments, I did not think that, in all the known world, it could be paralleled. For so many goodly groves of trees; dainty, fine, round, rising hillocks; delicate, fair, large plains; sweet crystal fountains, and clear running streams, that twine in fine meanders through the meads, making so sweet a murmuring noise to hear, as would even lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly do they glide upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they do meet, and hand in hand run down to Neptune's court, to pay the yearly tribute which they owe to him as sovereign lord of all the springs. Contained within the volume of the land, fowls in abundance; fish in multitude; and discovered besides, millions of turtle doves on the green boughs, which sate pecking of the full, ripe, pleasant grapes, that were supported by the lusty trees, whose fruitful load did cause the arms to bend, while here and there despersed, you might see lillies, and of the Daphnean tree, which made the land to me seem paradise, for in mine eye it was Nature's masterpiece, her chiefest magazine of all, where lives her store. If this land be not rich, then is the whole world poor.

He is amusingly at fault in his natural history. The beaver, he says, sits “in his house built on the water, with his tayle hanging in the water, which else would over-heate and rot off.” Another marvel is, “a curious bird to see to, called a humming-bird, no bigger than a great beetle; that out of question lives upon the bee, which he catcheth and eateth amongst Flowers; for it is his custom to frequent those places. Flowers he cannot feed upon by reason of his sharp bill, which is like the point of a Spannish needle but short.”

Notes

1. New England's Memorial.

2. Ibid.

3. A common colloquial phrase of the period. It is used by Falstaff (a character somewhat akin to mine host) in the first part of Henry IV. “Ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth.” The painted cloth was used, like tapestry, for covering and decorating the walls of apartments.

4. New English Canaan, or New Canaan, containing an abstract of New England, composed in three Bookes. The first Booke, setting forth the originall of the Natives, their Manners and Customs, together with their tractable Nature and Love towards the English. The second Booke, setting forth the naturall Indowments of the Country, and what staple Commodities it yealdeth. The third Booke, setting forth what people are planted there, their prosperity, what remarkable accidents have happened since the first planting of it, together with their Tenents and practise of their Church. Written by Thomas Morton, of Clifford's Inne, gent., upon tenne yeares' knowledge and experiment of the Country.

   Printed at Amsterdam, By Jacob Frederick Stam, in the yeare 1637.

   The original edition of his New England's Canaan is extremely scarce. We are indebted for the use of a copy to the valuable American collection of the Rev. Dr. Hawks. It is reprinted in Col. Force's Historical Tracts.

5. Hudibras, Part II., Canto II. 409-436.