Act iv. sc. 1.

This comedy appeared twenty years after "The Alchemist," and yet the song was still popular. Many a lad with a Puritan name must have had these rhymes flung into his teeth. _Tribulation_, by the way, is one of the names given in Camden's list, written four years later than Ben Jonson's play. This name, which has been the object of an antiquary's, a playwright's, a ballad-monger's and an historian's ridicule (for Macaulay had his fling at it), curiously enough I have not found in the registers. But its equivalent, _Lamentation_, occurs, as we have seen, in the "Chancery Suits" (1590-1600), in the case of _Lamentation Chapman_. _Restraint_ is met by _Abstinence_ Pougher, and _Persecution_ by _Trial_ Travis (C. S. P. 1619, June 7).

Still more severe, again, is this same dramatist in "Bartholomew Fair," which was performed in London, October, 1614, by the retinue of Lady Elizabeth, James's daughter. Pouring ridicule upon the butt of the day, whose name of "Puritan" was by-and-by to be anagrammatized into "a turnip," from the cropped roundness of his head, this drama became the play-goers' favourite. It was suppressed during the Commonwealth, and one of the first to be revived at the Restoration.[58] The king is said to have given special orders for its performance. Whether his grandfather liked it as much may be doubted, for it once or twice touches on doctrinal points, and James thought he had a special gift for theology.

Zeal-of-the-land Busy is a Banbury man, which town was then even more celebrated for Puritans than cakes. _Caster_, in "The Ordinary," says--

"I'll send some forty thousand unto Paul's: Build a cathedral next in Banbury: Give organs to each parish in the kingdom."

Zeal-of-the-land is thus inquired of by Winwife:

"What call you the reverend elder you told me of, your Banbury man?

_Littlewit._ Rabbi Busy, sir: he is more than an elder, he is a prophet, sir.

_Quarlous._ O, I know him! a baker, is he not?

_Littlewit._ He was a baker, sir, but he does dream now, and see visions: he has given over his trade.

_Quarlous._ I remember that, too: out of a scruple that he took, in spiced conscience, those cakes he made were served to bridales, maypoles, morrices, and such profane feasts and meetings. His christian name is Zeal-of-the-land?

_Littlewit._ Yes, sir; Zeal-of-the-land Busy.

_Winwife._ How! what a name's there!

_Littlewit._ O, they all have such names, sir: he was witness for Win here--they will not be called godfathers--and named her Win-the-fight: you thought her name had been Winnifred, did you not?

_Winwife._ I did indeed.

_Littlewit._ He would have thought himself a stark reprobate if it had."

All this would be caviare to the Cavalier, and it is doubtful whether he did not enjoy it more than his grandparents, who could but laugh at it as a hit religious, rather than political. The allusion to _witnesses_ reminds us of Corporal Oath, who in "The Puritan," published in 1607 (Act ii. sc. 3), rails at the zealots for the mild character of their ejaculations. The expression "Oh!" was the most terrible expletive they permitted themselves to indulge in, and some even shook their heads at a brother who had thus far committed himself:

"Why! has the devil possessed you, that you swear no better, You half-christened c----s, you un-godmothered varlets?"

The terms godfather and godmother were rejected by the disaffected clergy, and they would have the answer made in the name of the sponsors, not the child. Hence they styled them witnesses.

In "Women Pleased," a tragi-comedy, written, as is generally concluded, by Fletcher alone about the year 1616, we find the customary foe of maypoles addressing the hobby:

"I renounce it, And put the beast off thus, the beast polluted. And now no more shall _Hope-on-high_ Bomby Follow the painted pipes of worldly pleasures, And with the wicked dance the Devil's measures: Away, thou pampered jade of vanity!"

Here, again, is no exaggeration of name, for we have Help-on-high Foxe to face Hope-on-high Bomby. The Rector of Lydney would be about twenty-five when this play was written, and may have suggested himself the sobriquet. The names are all but identical.

From "Women Pleased" and Fletcher to "Cutter of Coleman Street" and Cowley is a wide jump, but we must make it to complete our quotations from the playwrights. Although brought out after the Restoration, the fun about names was not yet played out. The scene is laid in London in 1658. This comedy was sorely resented by the zealots, and led the author to defend himself in his preface. He says that he has been accused of "prophaneness:"

"There is some imitation of Scripture phrases: God forbid! There is no representation of the true face of Scripture, but only of that vizard which these hypocrites draw upon it."

This must have been more trying to bear even than Cutter himself. Under a thin disguise, Colonel _Fear-the-Lord_ Barebottle is none other than Praise-God Barebone, of then most recent notoriety. Cowley's allusion to him through the medium of Jolly is not pleasant:

"_Jolly._ My good neighbour, I thank him, Colonel Fear-the-Lord Barebottle, a Saint and a Soap-boiler, brought it. But he's dead, and boiling now himself, that's the best of 't; there's a Cavalier's comfort."

Cutter turns zealot, and wears a most puritanical habit. To the colonel's widow, Mistress Tabitha Barebottle, he says--

"Sister Barebottle, I must not be called Cutter any more: that is a name of Cavalier's darkness; the Devil was a Cutter from the beginning: my name is now _Abednego_. I had a vision which whispered to me through a keyhole, 'Go, call thyself _Abednego_.'"[59]

But Cutter--we beg his pardon, Abednego--was but a sorry convert. Having lapsed into a worldly mind again, he thus addresses Tabitha:

"Shall I, who am to ride the purple dromedary, go dressed like _Revelation_ Fats, the basket-maker?--Give me the peruke, boy!"

I fancy the reader will agree with me that Cowley needed all the arguments he could urge in his preface to meet the charge of irreverence.

(_b._) _The Sussex Jury._

One of the strongest indictments to be found against this phase of Puritanic eccentricity is to be found in Hume's well-known quotation from Brome's "Travels into England"--a quotation which has caused much angry contention. The book quoted by the historian is entitled "Travels over England, Scotland, and Wales, by James Brome, M.A., Rector of Cheriton, in Kent." Writing soon after the Restoration, Mr. Brome says (p. 279)--

"Before I leave this county (Sussex), I shall subjoin a copy of a Jury returned here in the late rebellious troublesome times, given me by the same worthy hand which the Huntingdon Jury was: and by the christian names then in fashion we may still discover the superstitious vanity of the Puritanical Precisians of that age."

A second list in the British Museum Mr. Lower considers to be of a somewhat earlier date. We will set them side by side:

Accepted Trevor, of Norsham. | Approved Frewen, of Northiam. Redeemed Compton, of Battle. | Be-thankful Maynard, of Brightling. Faint-not Hewit, of Heathfield. | Be-courteous Cole, of Pevensey. Make-peace Heaton, of Hare. | Safety-on-high Snat, of Uckfield. God-reward Smart, of Fivehurst. | Search-the-Scriptures Moreton, Stand-fast-on-high Stringer, of | of Salehurst. Crowhurst. | More-fruit Fowler, of East Hothley. Earth Adams, of Warbleton. | Free-gift Mabbs, of Chiddingly. Called Lower, of the same. | Increase Weeks, of Cuckfield. Kill-sin Pimple, of Witham. | Restore Weeks, of the same. Return Spelman, of Watling. | Kill-sin Pemble, of Westham. Be faithful Joiner, of Britling. | Elected Mitchell, of Heathfield. Fly-debate Roberts, of the same. | Faint-not Hurst, of the same. Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith | Renewed Wisberry, of Hailsham. White, of Emer. | Return Milward, of Hellingly. More-fruit Fowler, of East Hodley. | Fly-debate Smart, of Waldron. Hope-for Bending, of the same. | Fly-fornication Richardson, of Graceful Harding, of Lewes. | the same. Weep-not Billing, of the same. | Seek-wisdom Wood, of the same. Meek Brewer, of Okeham. | Much-mercy Cryer, of the same. | Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith | White, of Ewhurst. | Small-hope Biggs, of Rye. | Earth Adams, of Warbleton. | Repentance Avis, of Shoreham. | The-peace-of-God Knight, of | Burwash.

I dare say ninety-five per cent. of readers of Hume's "History of England" have thought this list of Sussex jurors a silly and extravagant hoax. They are "either a forgery or a joke," says an indignant writer in _Notes and Queries_. Hume himself speaks of them as names adopted by converts, evidently unaware that these sobriquets were all but invariably affixed at the font. The truth of the matter is this. The names are real enough; the panel is not necessarily so. They are a collection of names existing in several Sussex villages at one and the same time. Everything vouches for their authenticity. The list was printed by Brome while the majority must be supposed still to be living; the villages in which they resided are given, the very villages whose registers we now turn to for Puritanic examples, with the certainty of unearthing them; above all, some of the names can be "run down" even now. _Accepted_ or Approved Frewen, of _Northiam_, we have already referred to. _Free-gift_ Mabbs, of _Chiddingly_, is met by the following entry from Chiddingly Church:

"1616, ----. Buried Mary, wife of Free-gift Mabbs."

The will of _Redeemed_ Compton, of Battle, was proved in London in 1641. _Restore_ Weeks, of Cuckfield, is, no doubt, the individual who got married not far away, in Chiddingly Church:

"1618, ----. Restore Weeks espoused Constant Semer."

"Increase Weeks, of Cuckfield," may therefore be accepted as proven, especially as I have shown _Increase_ to be a favourite Puritan name. These two would be brothers, or perchance father and son. As for the other names, the majority have already figured in this chapter. Fly-fornication is still found in Waldron register, though the surname is a different one. Return, Faint-not, Much-mercy, Be-thankful, Repentance, Safe-on-high, Renewed, and More-fruit, all have had their duplicates in the pages preceding. "_Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith_ White, of Emer," is the only unlikely sobriquet left to be dealt with. Thomas Adams, in his "Meditations upon the Creed," in a passage already quoted, testified to its existence in 1629. The conclusion is irresistible: the names are authentic, and the panel may have been.

(_c._) _Royalists with Puritan Names._

It may be asked whether or not the world went beyond scoffing. Was the stigma of a Puritan name a hindrance to the worldly advancement of the bearer? It is pleasant, in contradiction of any such theory, to quote the following:--

"1663, Aug. Petition of _Arise_ Evans to the King for an order that he may receive £20 in completion of the £70 given him by the King."--C. S. P.

In a second appeal made March, 1664 (C. S. P.), _Arise_ reminds Charles of many "noble acts" done for him as a personal attendant during his exile.

"1660, June. Petition of Handmaid, wife of Aaron Johnson, cabinet-maker, for the place for her husband of Warden in the Tower, he being eminently loyal.

"1660, June. Petition of Increased Collins, His Majesty's servant, for _restoration_ to the keepership of Mote's Bulwark, near Dover, appointed January, 1629, and dismissed in 1642, as not trustworthy, imprisoned and sequestered, and in 1645 tried for his life.

"1660, Oct. Petition of Noah Bridges, and his son Japhet Bridges, for office of clerk to the House of Commons."--C. S. P.

Thus it will be seen that, in the general rush for places of preferment at the Restoration, there were men and women bearing names of the most marked Puritanism, who did not hesitate to forward their appeals with the Williams and Richards of the world at large. They manifestly did not suppose their sobriquets would be any bar to preferment. One of them, too, had been body-man to Charles in his exile, and another had suffered in person and estate as a devoted adherent of royalty. We may hope and trust, therefore, that all this scoffing was of a good-humoured character.

It was, doubtless, the prejudice against Puritan eccentricity that introduced civil titles as font names into England--a class specially condemned by Cartwright and his friends. At any rate, they are contemporary with the excesses of fanatic nomenclature, and are found just in the districts where the latter predominated. _Squire_ must have arisen before Elizabeth died:

"1626, March 21. Petition of Squire Bence."--C. S. P.

"1662, Oct. 30. Baptized Jane, d. of Squire Brockhall."--Hornby, York.

"1722, July 28. Baptized Squire, son of John Pysing and Bennet, his wife."--Cant. Cath.

_Duke_ was the christian name of Captain Wyvill, a fervent loyalist, and grandson of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, Bart., of Constable Burton, Yorkshire:

"1681, Feb. 12. Baptized Duke, son of Robert Fance, K{nt}."--Cant. Cath.

_Squire_ passed over the Atlantic, and is frequently to be seen in the States; so that if men may not squire themselves at the end of their names in the great republic, they may at the beginning.

Yorkshire and Lancashire are the great centres for this class of names on English soil. _Squire_ is found on every page of the West Riding Directory, such entries as Squire Jagger, Squire Whitley, Squire Hind, Squire Hardy, or Squire Chapman being of the commonest occurrence. _Duke_ is also a favourite, Duke Redmayne and Duke Oldroyd meeting my eye after turning but half a dozen pages. But the great rival of _Squire_ is _Major_. There is a kind of martial, if not braggadocio, air about the very sound, which has taken the ear of the Yorkshire folk. Close together I light upon Major Pullen, farmer; Major Wold, farmer; Major Smith, sexton; Major Marshall, ironmonger. Other illustrations are _Prince_ Jewitt, _Earl_ Moore, _Marshall_ Stewart, and _Admiral_ Fletcher. This custom has led to awkwardnesses. There was living at Burley, near Leeds, a short time ago, a "_Sir Robert_ Peel." In the same way "Earl Grey" is found. Sir Isaac Newton was living not long ago in the parish of Soho, London. Robinson Cruso still survives, hale and hearty, at King's Lynn, and Dean Swift is far from dead, as the West Riding Directory proves.

It was an odd idea that suggested "Shorter." I have five instances of it, two from the Westminster Abbey registers:

"1689, March 3. Buried Shorter Norris."

"1690, July 9. Baptized Shorter, son of Robert and Ann Tanner."

_Junior_ is found so early as 1657:

"1657, ----. Christened Junior, sonne of Robert Naze."--Cant. Cath.

Little is similarly used. Little Midgley in the West Riding Directory is scarcely a happy conjunction. In the same town are to be seen John Berry, side by side with "Young John Berry," and Allen Mawson, with Young Allen Mawson.

VI. BUNYAN'S DEBT TO THE PURITANS.

But if the Sussex jury was not visionary, except for the panel, neither was that at Mansoul! What a text is this for the next biographer of Bunyan, if he have the courage to enter upon it! To suggest that the great dreamer was not a reprobate in his youth, and thus spoil the contrast between his converted and unconverted life, was a perilous act on Lord Macaulay's part. To insinuate that he had a not altogether unpleasant time of it in the Bedford gaol, that he could have his friends to visit him, and, on the face of it, ink, paper, and quills to set down his meditations, even this is enough to set a section of political and religious society about our ears. But to hint that his character names were not wholly the offspring of his imagination, not thought out in the isolation of his dreary captivity, and not pictured in his brain, while his brain-pan was lying upon a hard and comfortless pallet--this, I know, not very long ago would have brought a mob about me! In the present day, I shall only be smiled upon with contempt, and condemned to a righteous ignominy by the superior judgment of the worshippers of John Bunyan!

Nevertheless I ask, were the great mass of Bunyan's character names the creation of his own brain, or were they suggested by the nomenclature of his friends or neighbours in the days of his youth? It is the peculiarity of the names in the "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Siege of Mansoul," that they suggest the incidents of which the bearers are the heroes. But, in a large proportion of cases, these names already existed. Born in 1628, Bunyan saw Puritan character names at their climax. Living at Elstow, he was within the limits of the district most addicted to the practice. He had seen Christian and Hopeful, Christiana and Mercy, of necessity long before he was "haled to prison" at Bedford. The four fair damsels, Discretion, Piety, Charity, and Prudence, may and must have in part been his companions in his boyish rambles years before he met them in the Valley of Humiliation; and if afterwards, in the Siege of Mansoul, he turned Charity into a man, he was only doing what godfathers and godmothers had been doing for thirty years previously. The name and sweet character of _Faithful_ might be a personal reminiscence, good Father _Honest_ a quondam host on one of his preaching expeditions, and _Standfast_, "that right good pilgrim," an old Pædo-Baptist of his acquaintance. The shepherds _Watchful_, _Sincere_, and _Experience_, if not _Knowledge_, were known of all men, in less pastoral avocations. And as for the men that were panelled in the trial of the Diabolonians, we might set them side by side with the Sussex jury, and certainly the contrast for oddity would be in favour of the cricketing county. Messrs. Belief, True-heart, Upright, Hate-bad, Love-God, See-truth, Heavenly-mind, Thankful, Good-work, Zeal-for-God, and Humble have all, or well-nigh all, been quoted in this chapter, as registered by the church clerk a generation before Do-right, the town-clerk of Mansoul, called them over in court. "Do-right" himself is met by "Do-good," and the witness "Search-truth" by "Search-the-Scriptures." Even "Giant Despair" may have suffered convulsions in teething in the world of fact, before his fits took him in the world of dreams; and his wife "Diffidence" will be found, I doubt not, to have been at large before Bunyan "laid him down in a den." Where names of evil repute come--and they are many--we do not expect to see their duplicates in the flesh. _Graceless_, _Love-lust_, _Live-loose_, _Hold-the-world_, and _Talkative_ were not names for the Puritan, but their contraries were. _Grace_ meets the case of _Grace-less_, _Love-lust_ may be set by "Fly-fornication," and _Live-loose_ by "Live-well" or "Continent." _Hold-the-world_ is directly suggested by the favourite "Safe-on-high;" _Talkative_, by "Silence."

That John Bunyan is under debt to the Puritans for many of his characters must be unquestionable; and were he living now, or could we interview him where he is, I do not doubt we could extract from him, good honest man, the ready admission that in the names of the personages that flit before us in his unapproachable allegory, and which have charmed the fancy of old and young for so many generations, he was merely stereotyping the recollections of childhood, and commemorating, so far as sobriquets were concerned, the companionships of earlier years.

VII. THE INFLUENCE OF PURITANISM ON AMERICAN NOMENCLATURE.

Baptismal nomenclature to-day in the United States, especially in the old settlements, bears stronger impressions of the Puritan epoch than the English. Their ancestors were Puritans, who had fled England for conscience' sake. Their life, too, in the West was for generations primitive, almost patriarchal, in its simplicity. There was no bantering scorn of a wicked world to face; there was no deliberate effort made by any part of the community to restore the old names. To this day the impress remains. Take up a story of backwood life, such as American female writers affect so much, and it will be inscribed "Faith Gartney's Girlhood," or "Prudence Palfrey." All the children that figure in these tales are "Truth," or "Patience," or "Charity," or "Hope." The true descendants of the early settlers are, to a man, woman, and child, even now bearers of names either from the abstract Christian graces or the narratives of Holy Scripture. Of course, the constant tide of immigration that has set in has been gradually telling against Puritan traditions. The grotesque in name selection, too, has gone further in some of the more retired and inaccessible districts of the States than the eastern border, or in England generally, where social restraints and the demands of custom are still respected. If we are to believe American authorities, there are localities where humour has certainly become grim, and the solemn rite of baptism somewhat burlesqued by a selection of names which throw into the shade even Puritan eccentricity.

Look at the names of some of the earliest settlers of whom we have any authentic knowledge. We may mention the _Mayflower_ first. In 1620 the emigrants by this vessel founded New Plymouth. This led to the planting of other colonies. Among the passengers were a girl named _Desire_ Minter, a direct translation of Desiderata, which had just become popular in England; William Brewster, the ruling elder; his son _Love_ Brewster, who married, settled, and died there in 1650, leaving four children; and a younger son, _Wrestling_ Brewster. The daughters had evidently been left in England till a comfortable home could be found for them, for next year there arrived at New Plymouth, in the _Ann_ and _Little James_, _Fear_ Brewster and _Patience_ Brewster. Patience very soon married Thomas Prince, one of the first governors. On this same memorable journey of the _Mayflower_ came also _Remember_, daughter of Isaac Allerton, first assistant to the new governor; _Resolved_ White, who married and left five children in the colony; and _Humility_ Cooper, who by-and-by returned to England.

A little later on, in the _Ann_ and _Little James_, again came Manasseh Faunce and _Experience_ Mitchell. In a "List of Living" in Virginia, made February 16, 1623, is _Peaceable_ Sherwood. In a "muster" taken January 30, 1624, occur _Revolt_ Morcock and _Amity_ Waine.

There is a conversation in "The Ordinary"--a drama written in 1634 or 1635, by Cartwright, the man whose "body was as handsome as his soul," as Langbaine has it--which may be quoted here. _Hearsay_ says--

"London air, Methinks, begins to be too hot for us. _Slicer._ There is no longer tarrying here: let's swear Fidelity to one another, and So resolve for New England. _Hearsay._ 'Tis but getting A little pigeon-hole reformed ruff---- _Slicer._ Forcing our beards into th' orthodox bent---- _Shape._ Nosing a little treason 'gainst the king, Bark something at the bishops, and we shall Be easily received."