Transcribing Francis Dane’s Commonplace Book: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Different Language”

 

A Very Different English Language: Transcribing Rev. Francis Dane’s 17^th 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 17^th 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 21^st 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 17^th 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 17^th 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.