Early Maryland Poetry Classic Reprint

Author : Bernard Christian Steiner
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330168295
Total Pages : 112 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (682 download)

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Download or read book Early Maryland Poetry written by Bernard Christian Steiner and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-25 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Early Maryland Poetry In 1708, Ebenezer Cook, Gent., of whom we know nothing certainly save what can be gathered from his works, published in London a short satirical poem called the "Sot-Weed Factor." It may be useful to explain this title. In the Provincial days of Maryland, a factor was an agent of an English merchant, and sot-weed, i. e., the weed which makes men besotted, was a slang name for tobacco, the staple of the Province. The poem contained twenty-one pages and purported to be a narrative of the experiences of the author in Maryland, whither he had come from England to "open store." Disgusted with the Province, he returned to England and drew a most unflattering picture of the new country, being a predecessor of Mrs. Trollope, Dickens, and the long line of Englishmen who brought back unfavorable impressions of America. Moses Coit Tyler in his fascinating History of American Literature (Vol. II, p. 255) characterizes the work as an "obvious extravaganza," in which a "vein of genuine and powerful satire is struck." In this verdict, every reader must join, though his further statement that the "autobiographic narrative" is "probably only a part of its robust and jocular mirth," will be questioned by many of us, who feel that there is convincing evidence in the story of the reality of some of the adventures described. The work was reprinted in 1865 under the editorship of Col. Brantz Mayer, as number two of Shea's Reprints of Southern Tracts. Ten copies were issued on large, and one hundred and twenty-five on small paper. Mr. Mayer states that the poem had been reprinted, with a poem on Bacon's Rebellion, by Mr. Green, at Annapolis, in 1731. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.