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THE

COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH

THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH

I

MILES STANDISH

In the Old Colony days, in Plymouth the land of the Pilgrims,

To and fro in a room of his simple and primitive dwelling,

1 Old Colony: this name was applied to Plymouth after the settlements were made about Massachusetts Bay in 1628, 1630. Pilgrims: look up Hebrews xi. 13. See also the sketch in the preface.

2 The Pilgrims built seven dwelling-houses that first winter besides three or four houses for the use of the plantation and a platform on a small bluff, on which they mounted five guns. The houses were arranged along a short thoroughfare near the water, called Leyden St., from the city in Holland where they had lived. They were really log-cabins made of tree-trunks rough-hewn from the forest, with the cracks filled in with mud or mortar. The roofs were of thatch. Thatch roofs are common in England, where they are made of wheat or rye straw. But the Pilgrims, having no such thing, were obliged to use dry grass or rushes.

It was impossible to bring very much household furniture with them in the ship. Much was fashioned more or less skilfully after their landing. The Plymouth Museum contains an interesting collection of their cooking-utensils, a few chairs, desk, cradle, etc.

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Clad in doublet and hose, and boots of Cordovan leather,

Strode, with a martial air, Miles Standish the Puritan

Captain.

Buried in thought he seemed, with his hands behind

him, and pausing

5

Ever and anon to behold his glittering weapons of

warfare,

Hanging in shining array along the walls of the chamber,

Cutlass and corselet of steel, and his trusty sword of Damascus,

Curved at the point and inscribed with its mystical Arabic sentence,

3 Cordovan locate Cordova. Cordovan leather was a famous preparation of goat skin.

4 Miles Standish: see the sketch of the poem in the preface.

8 Damascus: locate it. The Saracens were skilful workers of the metals, and the blades manufactured at Damascus were particularly fine. The steel was often given a watered appearance and swords were engraved with some sacred word or phrase, like the word "Kismet," meaning fate. To show the finely tempered edge of these Arabic weapons, the story is told in Scott's "Talisman" of the Saladin having a trial of skill with Richard Cœur de Lion of England. The Saladin tossed a down cushion into the air, and as it fell, neatly sliced it in two with his curved blade.

Both the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth claim to have the sword of Miles Standish. It is quite possible that he had more than one.

While underneath, in a corner, were fowling-piece, musket, and matchlock.

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Short of stature he was, but strongly built and athletic,

Broad in the shoulders, deep-chested, with muscles and sinews of iron;

Brown as a nut was his face, but his russet beard was
already

Flaked with patches of snow, as hedges sometimes in
November.

Near him was seated John Alden, his friend and house-_____ hold companion,

15

Writing with diligent speed at a table of pine by the

window;

Fair-haired, azure-eyed, with delicate Saxon com

plexion,

Having the dew of his youth, and the beauty thereof, as the captives

Whom Saint Gregory saw, and exclaimed, "Not Angles but Angels."

15 John Alden: see the sketch of the poem in the preface.

18 Dew of his youth: give the meaning of this expression in your own language.

19 Saint Gregory: a Roman monk of the Benedictine order who afterwards became one of the greatest of the Popes. It was while a monk that he saw in the slave market at Rome some English captives. A Teutonic tribe called Angles had overrun Britain and

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