Edward Taylor's Metrical Paraphrases of the Psalms

Abstract

AA, MONG THE RECENTLY DISCOVERED Edward Taylor manuscripts' are two fragmentary versions of metrical paraphrases of the Hebrew Psalms. The first group, in the handwriting of I674-75, consists of only Psalms I-9 and Psalm I8.2 The second, transcribed in the early to middle i68o's, contains the last two verses of Psalm ii, Psalms I2-38, the first verse of Psalm 39, the last ten verses of Psalm 48, and all of Psalm 49. The page size of both versions is 3%/16 X 5%1/; apparently both versions were originally assembled in separate octavo booklets. When Taylor bound the fourteen sermons of the Christographia, he removed the stitching from the Psalm booklets and stuffed them into the leather binding to make up the Christographia boards.3 Although these copies are partially illegible-the edges particularly have been worn (or trimmed) away, and the glue used in assembling the boards has caused severe fading-they are among the most carefully prepared of Taylor's extant manuscripts. The first group especially illustrates the care which he took in assembling these booklets. Each page is neatly divided into double columns, and the Psalms are set off from each other by a double line. The heading of each Psalm is indented and set off from the text; stanzaic divisions are carefully indicated; and the verse numbers are entered in a formal hand in the margins. The text is in a precise, almost miniscule hand. The paraphrases contain very few scribal errors; punctuation is exact, down to the periods after the verse numbers.