A Very Different English Language: Transcribing Rev. Francis Dane’s 17th Century Prose
Francis Dane: 1615-1697
My tenth great-grandfather, Rev. Francis Dane, was a
significant figure in colonial Massachusetts. In addition to serving as one of
the first ministers in Andover, he was a vocal opponent of the Salem Witch
Trials which led to his family’s persecution by the witch hunters. He was a
learned man in a time when few men were, so in addition to his work as a
minister, he taught his own children, grandchildren and the children of
extended family and friends. During a nearly forty year period, he kept a
“commonplace book”, which many educated men of his era used as a place to
record quotes they ran across while reading, to draft documents, or in the case
of ministers, to draft sermons, and also to record whatever they considered
significant. Rev. Dane’s commonplace book, along with one kept by his brother
John Dane, are two of the earliest examples of commonplace books in colonial
America.
The original copy of Francis Dane’s commonplace book is held
by NEHGS, the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. The society has
digitized the entire book and made the digital file available free of charge on
the internet. I was fascinated by the book. How often do you get to see an
object owned by your tenth-great-grandparent, much less actually see his
writing and get a glimpse into his mind?
I downloaded all the pages that were intact enough to actually
read, and then uploaded the files to Shutterfly so I could create my own hard
copy of the book. I now have it, and enjoy trying to puzzle out Rev. Dane’s entries.
Handwriting conventions and styles have changed considerably since the 17th
century, as did the English language. I thought I would have no trouble
understanding what Francis wrote as long as I could make out his penmanship,
but I soon realized my task was far more complex. Seventeenth century English
is nearly a foreign language to a 21st century mind. In addition,
Rev. Dane tends to sprinkle Latin phrases amongst the English ones, making
accurate transcriptions even more difficult.
Here is part of my transcription of Image 163 from Rev. Dane’s
Commonplace book, along with a close-up of the original text.
“How prodigal the world (or worth) of precious times.
How vainly given to pleasures earthly toyes
And letting slide of youth, do years of prime,
Wherein they should seek after heavenly joys
Time’s present moment thus men feast away
As if it would forever on them stay.”
At the very top of the page, you can see a Latin phrase
which I have been unable to figure out. The Latin words “momenti” and “minimum” are pretty clear. I think he is
writing something like “momento temporis, minimum momenti magni”, which loosely
translates as “a moment of time is of minimal importance” or something like
that.
If you examine the next line, you see that my transcription
of “how prodigal the” doesn’t really match with the handwriting. He tends to
use what looks like “ye” as a shorthand version of “the”. It took quite a bit
of puzzling before I figured that out.
The fourth line also exhibits another 17th
century convention: he spells the word “seek” as “seeke”. He adds the letter “e”
to many words, often inconsistently. I believe those final e’s were usually
silent, but perhaps they were a signal that the word should be pronounced with
an extra syllable.
This sample also shows how the use of quill pens creates
difficulties for modern readers. He often struck out words or phrases and
scribbled corrections in cramped handwriting. Vowels are particularly difficult
to tell apart—the ink spreads and obscures the loops of the e’s, o’s and a’s.
While I feel fairly confident that I correctly interpreted the
individual words, when the lines are read as complete thoughts, it is hard to
understand exactly what he is trying to say. Have I mis-transcribed, or did he
simply express things differently than we do now? It is hard to know for
certain.
This brief excerpt shows how 17th century English
can almost seem to be a foreign language to a modern reader. I hope that as I
become more familiar with his handwriting that I will do a better job at
interpreting Rev. Dane’s thoughts.
