Longfellow and the Library of Myles Standish

Abstract

LIBRARY inventories can capture the imagination like few other historical documents. In 1851 Justin Winsor published an article containing a list of books in Myles Standish’s library.1 When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came across the article, he recognized the list’s imaginative potential and incorporated details from it in his popular narrative poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858). Lonely from the death of his wife Rose in 1621, according to the poem, Standish looks to his library for solace. In his home, he has ‘a shelf of books’ attached to the wall. Three adjacent volumes ‘distinguished alike for bulk and for binding’ catch his attention: ‘Bariffe’s Artillery Guide, and the Commentaries of Caesar / Out of the Latin translated by Arthur Goldinge of London, / And, as if guarded by these, between them was standing the Bible’. Staring at the shelf, Standish pauses for a moment, wondering which work to ‘choose for his consolation and comfort’. He ultimately selects Caesar’s Commentaries and seats himself by a window to read. As Standish reads, John Alden, who is seated across the room, writes a letter expressing his love for Priscilla Mullins. After reading ‘the marvellous words and achievements of Julius Caesar’, Standish says to Alden, ‘A wonderful man was this Caesar! / You are a writer, and I am a fighter, but here is a fellow / Who could both write and fight, and in both was equally skilful!’2