Lyr/Tune Req: Summons to New England

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Summons to New England
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Apr 08 - 01:49 PM

One problem remains to be sorted out: The song I have posted above hardly seems meant to "incite people to emigrate," as Julia claimed in her original request. It seems the exact opposite—an ironic satire ridiculing people's naïve expectations about New England. So, is my song a parody of an earlier song that was sung in earnest? If so, I have no idea how to find the original.

Subject: Lyr Add: SUMMONS TO NEW ENGLAND / N. E. DESCRIBED
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Apr 08 - 07:54 AM

Finally! (I hope) from Choyce Drollery: Songs & Sonnets, edited by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, 1876, where this poem is reprinted from "Merry Drollery," 1661:

New England described.

Among the purifidian Sect,
I mean the counterfeit Elect:
Zealous bankrupts, Punks devout,
Preachers suspended, rabble rout,
Let them sell all, and out of hand
Prepare to go to New England,
    To build new Babel strong and sure,
    Now call'd a Church unspotted pure.

There Milk from Springs, like Rivers, flows,
And Honey upon hawthorn grows;
Hemp, Wool, and Flax, there grows on trees,
The mould is fat, it cuts like cheese;
All fruits and herbs spring in the fields,
Tobacco it good plenty yields;
    And there shall be a Church most pure,
    Where you may find salvation sure.

There's Venison of all sorts great store,
Both Stag, and buck, wild Goat, and Boar,
And all so tame, that you with ease
May take your fill, eat what you please;
There's Beavers plenty, yea, so many,
That you may buy two skins a penny,
    Above all this, a Church most pure,
    Where to be saved you may be sure.

There's flight of Fowl do cloud the skie,
Great Turkies of threescore pound weight,
As big as Estriges, there Geese,
With thanks, are sold for pence a piece;
Of Duck and Mallard, Widgeon, Teale,
Twenty for two-pence make a meale;
    Yea, and a Church unspotted pure,
    Within whose bosome all are sure.

Loe, there in shoals all sorts of fish,
Of the salt seas, and water fresh:
Ling, Cod, Poor-John, and Haberdine,
Are taken with the Rod and Line;
A painful fisher on the shore
May take at least twenty an houre;
    Besides all this a Church most pure,
    Where you may live and dye secure.

There twice a year all sorts of Grain
Doth down from heaven, like hailstones, rain;
You ne'r shall need to sow nor plough,
There's plenty of all things enough:
Wine sweet and wholsome drops from trees,
As clear as chrystal, without lees;
    Yea, and a Church unspotted, pure,
    From dregs of Papistry secure.

No Feasts nor festival set daies
Are here observed, the Lord be prais'd,
Though not in Churches rich and strong,
Yet where no Mass was ever Sung,
The Bulls of Bashan ne'r met there;
Surplice and Cope durst not appear;
    Old Orders all they will abjure,
    This Church hath all things new and pure.

No discipline shall there be used,
The Law of Nature they have chused;
All that the spirit seems to move
Each man may choose and so approve,
There's Government without command,
There's unity without a band;
    A Synagogue unspotted pure,
    Where lust and pleasure dwells secure.

Loe in this Church all shall be free
To Enjoy their Christian liberty;
All things made common, void of strife,
Each man may take anothers wife,
And keep a hundred maids, if need,
To multiply, increase, and breed,
    Then is not this Foundation sure,
    To build a Church unspotted, pure?

The native People, though yet wild,
Are altogether kind and mild,
And apt already, by report,
To live in this religious sort;
Soon to conversion they'l be brought
When Warrens Mariery have wrought,
    Who being sanctified and pure,
    May by the Spirit them alure.

Let Amsterdam send forth her Brats,
Her Fugitives and Runnagates:
Let Bedlam, Newgate, and the Clink
Disgorge themselves into this sink;
Let Bridewell and the stews be kept,
And all sent thither to be swept;
    So may our Church be cleans'd and pure,
    Keep both it self and state secure.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Summons to New England
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 10:20 PM

Another quote, from An Empire Nowhere: England, America, and Literature from Utopia to The Tempest. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1992:

As the anonymous "Verses on the Puritan Settlement in America" (c. 1631) puts it,

Let all the parisidean [paradisean] sect
I mean the Counterfeit elect
All Zealous bankrupts punks devouts
Suspendent preachers Rabble Rout
Let them sell all out of hand
Prepare to go for new England
To build new babel strong and sure
Now called a Church unspotted pure.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Summons to New England
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 10:12 PM

From Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, 1860:

1634? 16. "A proper Ballad, called the Summons to New England, to
the tune of the Townsman's Cap," eleven stanzas of eight lines,
commencing thus:—

"Let all the Purisidian sect,
I mean the counterfeit Elect."

The last stanza but one is as follows—

"The Native people, though yet wyld,
Are all by nature kinde and mylde,
And apt allready, (by reporte,)
To live in this religious sorte,
Soone to conversion they'l be brought
When Warham's miracles are wrought,
Who being sanctified and pure
May by the Spiritt them allure."

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Summons to New England
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 04:07 PM

I found this in an online book on goggle. Sexual Revolution in Early America" by Richard Godbeer        

"New England Puritans were not exempt from such attacks.   A seventeenth-Ccentury English broadside entitled "The Summons to New England" claimed that the supposedly "unspotted" and "pure church" established there had used the notion of religious freedom to justify sexual libertinism."

Loe, in this Church all shall be free

To enjoy their Christian liberty.

All things made common and t[a]'void all strife

Each man may take another wife,

And keep a hand maid too if need

To multiply, increase and breed.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Summons to New England
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 01:04 PM

refresh - any new ideas?

Subject: RE: Lyric & tune?Summons to New England
From:
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 10:58 PM

Bruce Olson's website of Broadsides shows nothing with that name. It does show this entry which is the only one with New England in the title:

You talk of New England/ ZN3254| Ould England grown new/ [no broadside extant. Entd. June 19, 1640. ZB2004|. Copy in 'Merry Drollery', 'Pills', III, p. 120, 1719. Cf. N2737|]

Also, in the index of American Secular Music and sources, they show nothing starting with SUMMONS

Not sure where else we can look.

Where did this information come from, Julia?

Subject: RE: Lyric & tune?Summons to New England
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 09:29 PM

It was evidently very popular all over Ireland and the English midlands in the 1630's exhorting people to emigrate. People had emigration fever, and were giddy with the idea. A fellow named Winthrop reported this in his diary saying that people were leaving in droves as a result of the song.
I'm afraid that's all I have just now..
Thanks in advance
Julia

Subject: RE: Lyric & tune?Summons to New England
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:43 PM

It isn't in my usual sources, Julia. Can you tell us anything else about the song. Sometimes, the strangest hints lead us to the song.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyric & tune?Summons to New England
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 05:09 PM

Just had a local historian ask me about the song "Summons to New England" that was apparently popular in the 1630's in England and Ireland, inciting people to emigrate.
Anyone?