propriated the incident of the wreck as a basis for his romantic comedy of life in an enchanted island. This cannot of course be proved, but it is at any rate a matter of interesting speculation. As critics have pointed out, certain passages in A True Repertory suggest passages in the Tempest; the graphic picture of the storm at its height is not unlike that in the first scenes of the play. Strachey was a man of some literary culture, and his account of the terrible hardships of himself and his companions is one of the liveliest pieces of prose in our early literature. Poetry: Translation of Ovid; Bacon's Epitaph.-The earliest poetry written in Virginia was a translation of ten books of Ovid's Metamorphoses by GEORGE SANDYS, treasurer of the colony from 1621 to 1625. Sandys was a man of learning and social prominence with excellent poetic gifts. After the exacting duties of each day, he found time to continue his labor of love in turning the lines of his favorite Roman poet into English verse. Before leaving England he had translated five books of Ovid, and at Jamestown he completed the work, as his friend Michael Drayton, the poet, had exhorted him to do: Let see what lines Virginia will produce. Go on with Ovid Entice the muses thither to repair; Entreat them gently; train them to that air: It is a good piece of work and belongs with other classic translations of the Elizabethans; later on, it was read and admired by Dryden and Pope, and for many generations it was the standard English version of Ovid. More important still, it is, in the words of Professor Tyler, "the first utterance of the conscious literary spirit articulated in America." That is an impressive picture which the imagination conjures upGeorge Sandys, the accomplished Englishman, working night after night, by the uncertain light of a blazing pine-knot in his log cabin at Jamestown, on the elegant fables of the fastidious Latin poet. Here, indeed, was a contrast which the translator himself was not slow to realize, for he speaks of his version as "bred in the new world, whereof it cannot but participate, especially having wars and tumults to bring it to light." There is one original poem of this early period by an unknown author which has considerable merit. It is an elegy on Nathaniel Bacon, the hero of Bacon's Rebellion, and is found at the end of the Burwell Papers, an anonymous manuscript on that patriotic uprising against Governor Berkeley and long in possession of the Burwell family of Virginia. The poem is headed "Bacon's Epitaph, made by his Man." A few lines will serve to show the stately eloquence of this first original poem in our literature: Death, why so cruel? What! no other way Our hopes of safety; liberty, our all Which, through thy tyranny, with him must fall Virginia's foes To whom for secret crimes just vengeance owes Him to destroy; whose well-tried courage such Their heartless hearts, nor arms nor strength could touch. Who now must heal those wounds or stop that blood The heathen made, and drew into a flood? Who is't must plead our cause? nor trump nor drum Nor deputations; these, alas, are dumb And cannot speak. Our arms, though ne'er so strong, Which conquered more than Caesar. Beverley's History of Virginia.-The first native historian of the Virginia colony was Robert Beverley, clerk of the Council under Governor Andros. After being educated in England, he returned to Virginia to serve the government. In this service he had access to such records as would furnish accurate in formation for a history of his native region, which he undertook partly for the purpose of correcting many glaring misstatements in an account of the colonies by an Englishman of the day. Beverley's book, The History and Present State of Virginia, was published in London in 1705, a second edition in 1722. The work contains, besides political history, much miscellaneous information on economic and social conditions, and is a readable and trustworthy record of the first century of the colony. The most interesting parts of the book to the modern reader are those which tell of the social customs and pastimes of colonial Virginia. Beverley writes in a clear, sprightly style, which gives a literary flavor to his descriptions. WILLIAM BYRD (1674-1744) WILLIAM BYRD His Varied Activities.The most versatile and accomplished man of colonial Virginia, according to all reports, was Colonel William Byrd of Westover. He was born in Virginia, educated in England and on the continent, studied law in London, traveled extensively, and later became a member of the Royal Society of Great Britain. He returned to the family estate of Westover on the James River, and there, except for some years as agent of the col ony in England, he spent the rest of his life. For more than a generation he was a member of the King's Council in Virginia and for a time its president; he added to his ancestral estate, entertained in lavish style, took a prominent part in public matters, was a leader in the social and intellectual life of the colony, and collected a library of about four thousand volumes. Among the many solid achievements of this versatile man may be mentioned his work as member of the commission to determine the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina, his practical interest in certain iron mines, his promotion of immigration to the colonies, and his founding of the city of Richmond. Colonel Byrd belonged to the colonial aristocracy, of which, both by his mental accomplishments and his social charm, he was an ornament; he seems, indeed, to have impressed his contemporaries as a typical Virginia gentleman, admired for his shrewd common sense, his humor, his public spirit, and his pleasing manners. His Writings. It is evident from this enumeration of Colonel Byrd's varied activities that he was only incidentally a writer; perhaps no one would be more surprised than he, could he return and look into a history of American literature, to find his name high among the authors of the colonial period. He was a busy man of affairs who wrote for his own amusement and as a matter of record for his friends and country; he would hardly have thought it befitting a "gentleman" to write books for either money or fame. And yet he took pains to have his manuscripts carefully copied and bound into a volume to be preserved in his family. This manuscript volume was not published until 1841, ninety-seven years after his death. The three short works which entitle Byrd to be classed among the beginners of American literature are A History of the Dividing Line Run in the Year 1728, A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733, and A Progress to the Mines. The most important of these is the first, which gives an exceedingly graphic account of the early North Carolinians, who afforded the writer endless occasion for humorous comment. The "dividing line" was of course the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina; it ran through the Dismal Swamp, a vivid description of which occurs in the book. This extract shows Byrd's style at its best: Since the surveyors had enter'd the Dismal they had laid eyes on no living creature; neither bird nor beast, insect nor reptile came into view. Doubtless the eternal shade that broods over this mighty bog, and hinders the sunbeams from blessing the ground, makes it an uncomfortable habitation for anything that has life. Not so much as a Zealand frog could endure so aguish a situation. It had one beauty, however, that delight'd the eye, though at the expense of the other senses: the moisture of the soil preserves a continual verdure, and makes every plant an evergreen, but at the same time the foul damps ascend without ceasing, corrupt the air and render it unfit for respiration. Not even a turkey buzzard will venture to fly over it, no more than the Italian vultures will over the filthy lake Avernus or the birds in the Holy Land over the salt sea where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood. In these sad circumstances the kindest thing we cou'd do for our suffering friends was to give them a place in the Litany. Our chaplain |